Category: Web/Tech

Here are a few of the tech problems I experienced on Tuesday…

• A non-blog Web site that I administer for a non-profit organization went dark because the domain had expired. I didn’t get the notices because they had been SPAM filtered.
• I couldn’t send email to the Yahoo group that serves that organization because my ISP was having SMTP server problems. I couldn’t use any other email source because the Yahoo group only accepts email from registered users (e.g., my unusable email address).
• There was a weird mystery at the domain registrar in which the domain may or may not have been renewed two days earlier. Was it? If so, by whom? That took an hour to resolve, after spending half an hour just figuring out who the domain’s registrar is.
• In trying to update the contact info at the registrar, I had to fill out a form and fax it to them. Their fax number wasn’t working.
• I decided to buy a new computer from Dell (more on that later). Their Web site was being weird and wouldn’t let me save items to a cart. As such, I had to go through the choosing and configuring cycle about 15 times. (In fact, it wasn’t until the next day that I got it to work properly.)
• I went shopping and bought all the stuff we need for a wireless network. In setting up the router on M’s computer all went well until the last step, when I got some kind of device timeout — again and again. Nothing in the installation instructions or FAQ said anything about timeouts. I tried calling the router company’s 800-number tech support but the line was busy!
• I wanted to go online to check their support Web site. I didn’t want to undo the router cabling, so I decided to dial up using my computer, in the other room. It wouldn’t connect because, while my Sympatico account is still open, their dialup server was “experiencing problems.”
• In the process of trying this, I noticed that my old computer was having more trouble than usual with shutting down, and as a result, neither would it boot properly. With all that booting rudeness, it broke something in my firewall.
• Back in the other room, in trying to debug the wireless router on M’s computer, her wireless mouse died.
• I replaced the batteries in M’s mouse, and five minutes later they died too.

So. How was your Tuesday?

My computer is getting old and creaky, so it’s time to upgrade. I’m not going to throw the whole thing out, since the CD/DVD reader/burner is fine, the hard drives are good and plentiful, the sound card is adequate, the keyboard is alright, and the box is good. Instead, want to fill ‘er up with new components. Specifically:

• A new MoBo. Nothing too fancy, just a good reliable MoBo that is more or less current
• A new processor to go with the MoBo — something in the 1Gig range
• More RAM
• A new video card (a nice big fat digital one, since I want to couple it with a digital LCD monitor)

I also want to install Windows XP. The problem is that I don’t want to do any of this work myself. I don’t want to lose a day figuring out what goes where, how to do the BIOS update, why the knee bone isn’t connecting to the leg bone, and all that. I’m capable of doing it, I just hate the frustrations involved.

That’s why we have odd little people who sit in cluttered little shops. They do this kind of stuff every day, so it’s a no-brainer for them.

The question: Does anyone know of a good reliable person or shop in Montreal (or the South Shore) who can reliably do that kind of work? I want a real shop — a pro — not just someone’s cousin who’s “good at computers.” If you have a suggestion, please leave a comment!

Blow-hard email

Spammers, while morally corrupt and developmentally sub-human, are at least fairly clever at their own game. Here’s an email I got at work today that appears to be a legitimate message about hurrican Isabel which is currently blowing the bejeesus out of the eastern seaboard of the USA. It’s from “Weather Alert” and the subject is “Hurricane Started: Thu. 18 September 2003.”

This veil of legitimacy is not new — I get spams all the time with subjects like “Here’s that document you requested” and “about your review.” One could understand why people occasionally crack these open for a look. But I’ve never gotten a spam as timely as this one. Someone’s really on the ball in Spamtown, which I hope is very close to Achilles, Virginia, and gets blown by Isabel into the sea.

What’s worse than these clever but spineless spammers are the dimwits who not only open such emails but actually follow the links in them. I read somewhere that if only one in several million spam victims follows a link, it’s worthwhile to the spammer. Hence the sheer number of spams going around — the spammers send them out by the tens of millions and even billions at a time.

That’s why we have two hands. One hand is for slapping the spammers and the other is for slapping the dolts who enable them by following spam links.

I want to buy a new digital camera, but first I have to let go of my old friend here, a gorgeous Nikon FE2. It comes with a top quality 28mm f2.8 Nikor wide angle lens and a super-fast Nikor 50mm f1.4 lens. Everything is in top-knotch condition, except for a small dent in the camera body which in no way affects its performance. The original owner’s manual is included.

As a bonus, if you buy the camera and both lenses for $650 CDN, I will throw in this 28-70 Nikor zoom lens for free. It’s an excellent piece of glass, but due to an accident the zoom barrel is very stiff. It works fine, it’s just difficult to turn the zoom barrel.

I’m also selling a Vivitar 283 flash with a 35-foot extension cable. This was the standard photojournalist pro flash in its day. It too is in excellent condition. Plus there’s my super-accurate Sekonic digital light meter, also in great shape. $40 for the flash and $175 for the meter.

Email me now!