FAIL

Geez, I'm failing at computers this week:

• I finally get a new computer at work. The old one was slow, and the support staff were even slower at getting me one that was up to the task for my new work. I manage to get it and start installing the software I need, and my machine won't take the install... Apparently my box needs to be "re-imaged. FAIL.


• I get around to the weekend, and start working on my media center... having missed the first two episodes of Smallville already. Previously, I suspsected that the box I had built with Windows Vista Media Center didn't start up because my daughter thought it would be cool to turn it on and off repeatedly. A bit of diagnostics and grumbling and attempted installations of MythDora and Mythbuntu reveal... my largest 250 GB drive isn't working. I hadn't really prepared a backup strategy. FAIL.


• I replaced it with a 160 GB drive in my "quad box" that I'm not even using. The machine was suspended not off. FAIL. (You should turn your computer off before removing hardware from the insdide.)


• I decided to give Mythbuntu a go ahead of Mythdora, since it has a LiveCD, and I won't need to do anything with a hard drive. But I test it out on a machine with VIA Unichrome graphics... the boot splash works fine, but when it's time to get down to business, the screens all wavy and I can barely make out the icons and text... Sigh. I put it back in the "real" media center box that has an nVidia 8400 GS in it... but the CD I burned it on is from a "flaky" stack of printable CDs. Boot just keeps choking on the media... FAIL


• So, I get Mythdora installed on the VIA Unichrome box... because I don't know if the DVD drive I had in my "main" media center is broken or not. And I can't seem to get it working. Channel Lineup is all FUBAR. I go back to the "quad box" to figure out what's up, and it turns out I have *no* lineups added to my SchedulesDirect account. The webpage kindly tells me that I probably want at least one, and I can only have 4. I've had the account for a month and didn't know. FAIL.


• I finally get around to trying to do my rebate for T-Mobile, since I got those Shadow phones. I needed to have mailed it in by August 31. FAIL.


• Oh, and Mythdora is based on Fedora 8. 10 is a week from beta, and there's no Live CD, so I go post a blog note while this thing is installing, on a machine that has no video output other than VGA. FAIL. At least I can use the monitors I have laying around as a TV.


• Oh, and I finally get around to cleaning up my file space on FastMail... I'm downloading stuff, zipping it up, and putting it on a flash drive. But, the only important thing... I delete it... "employment" folder... resumes, work history, etc... Sigh. I e-mail support for a backup... $25 for a restore per folder.... 7 days.... I want a file... Can't restore... I'm now a "guest" not enough space. FAIL. New resume and dropbox FTW. Then, the genius move... I formatted the flash drive that had the files that I did manage to download... to install World of Warcraft on my PowerBook. EPIC FAIL.


• Wonder what happened to my flash drive... here's my son. LOLCat style:
  
  [caption id="attachment_146" align="aligncenter" width="300" caption="All your flash drive are belong to me!"][/caption]

RSS FAIL

Ugh... I hate using an RSS reader. The whole reason I use RSS is so that I can passively get content. I don't want to go to a website just to look at your content, or see if there is any.

Fine, I solve that problem by using some kind of RSS to e-mail gateway. Short of running my own, I've used the one on a mail service that doesn't come to mind at the moment. I used what is now SendMeRSS. I've used Google Reader.

I had settled on RSSFWD, but dammit, they've tanked or something. What's worse, I can't unsubscribe anything, because the management interface is borked. I'd *pay* to get a real RSS to e-mail service that isn't all cluttered up with advertisements (other than those in the feeds, obviously... though stripping those out would be cool too...). I'm back on Bloglines, and I'm actually thinking about going back to Google Reader.

So, I've got a filter in my mail that takes my RSS mail from RSSFWD and puts it in a folder. I'd love to delete that folder and rule, but I can't stop the onslaught of messages. I guess I could modify the rule to just delete the messages outright, but I really just want to wait and see what happens. I've been waiting a few weeks though, and the trend isn't encouraging.

E-mail - Switching to TuffMail from FastMail

The ebay spoof e-mails that try to get you to click on links so your password and personal information can be stolen are getting good. They even have the little link that tells you to go to eBay's special page for reporting fake messages.

Fortunately, my e-mail filter just directed that straight to the "Discard" folder. I probably wouldn't have ever seen if if I hadn't looked in there.

This month, I paid for a 1 year subscription to TuffMail, and don't plan on renewing my subscriptioin to FastMail. For those of you who just send me e-mail, nothing should change. I've been running my mail on TuffMail since last month. That's the beauty of owning your own domain name. I can change e-mail service providers whenever I want, and I don't have to send everyone a new address.

I decided it was time to do the same thing with my blog, so now I'll probably actually start advertising it as http://blog.mvpittman.com, rather than the direct LiveJournal or WordPress addresses I was using before... I guess that will require an e-mail to at least the 10 people that matter.

Back to the e-mail thing. The main reason I did the switch was cost redution. FastMail had lots of features, but I didn't need all of them. They were working on features I wanted, but they weren't fast enough in implementing them. No real problems with the service, but for what I need, TuffMail does the job fine and I'll end up spending less money... so maybe I can find that extra money to keep up my World of Warcraft subsription now...

Anyway, this calls for the obligatory comparison of features between services, to somehow justify that I've made the right choice. However, I wrote this blog post a month ago, and still haven't transferred my paper comparison list to any electronic format... maybe I'll make a post a bit later, when I have time. Or, maybe when I decide that e-mail just isn't important enough for me to pay for, and just go with a free service or one that comes with my AT&T Yahoo! DSL account, I'll post that.