Snark/rant

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I think I may try replacing the fuel filter at the very least, since if it's clogged completely, that could look like a failed fuel pump

I was going to suggest that. You say that you were low on gas when it happened, and with a reasonably old car, that is the 1st suspect.
---
Vista is certainly evil (and -to me- non functional) and Norton is very paranoid by default (and a memory hog).

OTOH Knoppix (or Ubuntu that can be loaded from the CD without install) are nice.

Did I forget something?  

[ivor]

I like the USB drive option for Knoppix.  Do most computers these days allow boot from a USB drive?

[Griffin NoName]

I just got One-Care. In the end I couldn't resist the name

Stuff Norton.

But I still need to upgrade to use One-Care. The analysis of programs I use that wont run under XP is a bit daunting. Long days and nights ahead, or a change of habits.

Incidentally, they no longer sell XP in the local shops - only Vista. There are going to be so many distraught people.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

You still buy stuff on brick & mortar shops? I believe dabs sells XP online.

I like the USB drive option for Knoppix.  Do most computers these days allow boot from a USB drive?

Most do but the option has to be enabled on the BIOS. In my case I think it wouldn't work because the biggest USB drive I have is 512M. Great idea though, it should be faster than the CD.

[Griffin NoName]

We used a 512 MB Corsair Flash Voyager dressed in its water-resistant rubberized wet suit

I want a BibleDoll USB Flash Drive in a wet suit. Must have.

I buy virtually everything online but many people I know don't. At least, some buy some things online, a bit, like some do supermarket food/household deliveries. Some do amazon. I'm talking a different sector of society here. When I set up my own website and invited people to register, I got dozens and dozens of emails saying no I can't manage this sort of thing, I'm hopeless, I have to get my son/cat/daughter/grandchild to, and of those that managed to register most couldn't work out how to post anything. Despite very easy to follow instructions. There are still large pockets of society who are IT illiterate and haven't yet discovered the joy of paying £10 postage on an item that costs £1. let alone downloading software.

[ivor]

I see!  You can boot from the Knoppix CD then save and image of your user data to a flash drive.  When you reboot Knoppix sees your flash drive and loads your user data thus preserving your settings.  That's pretty darn cool.

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

You still buy stuff on brick & mortar shops? I believe dabs sells XP online.

This may belong better in a "greener" section of the forum, but it struck me that if one lives close to the store, there's probably less impact associated with going out and getting stuff yourself instead of having it shipped directly... kind of like the transit/car argument, but for merchandise.

[Aggie]

Doesn't account for functional energy use (human, not petrol). That's harder to come by for some of us.

That'd be a tough call in Canada, as one is rarely walking distance for large shops - is a drive across town better than sending a box on a mail route?  The best shop I have in walking distance (that is only shopped in meatspace if you are in a city) is Mountain Equipment Coop.  And they charge for parking, so it's well worth the walk.

[Griffin NoName]

I hate people who subvert ranting and snarking into sensible discussion.

The reason I took to buying online was my CFS - no energy to visit anywhere. I now realise as a low energy creator-user I am politically more correct than most people, and a jolly good thing. No wonder research into causes of CFS is not advancing much: no incentive.

[Sibling Lambicus the Toluous]

By halfway through your post (before you mentioned the magic book) I was suspecting the crankshaft position sensor... (Also the wires from and the connector).
I'd try replacing it...

Finally got to it.  I don't really use my car that often, so my wife and I have been making do with one vehicle.  I had to elicit help from my next-door neighbor to push it into the garage to work on it (cuz my driveway's asphalt, and jack stands would sink into it).

I replaced the crankshaft position sensor and the car started (with a boost... though it's been sitting around for a month anyhow).  Now it'll run (though it misses a little on acceleration, and all the lights on the dashboard flash, and the the speedo doesn't work), but won't restart.  Arrgh.

I'm going to keep on playing around with it to see if I can get it working.  Hopefully if I poke it enough with multimeter probes, the evil spirits will escape.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

So, during the course of my vacation, we paid a friend of mine to water my yard. I told my parents we ought to have her come over every day (there was only a week she'd be watering) because I had plants that needed coddling, since this was their first year or they were still setting up proper root systems. I was over ruled, and she came every other day.

My Pride of Barbados, Motherwart, Salvia and all my tomatoes and peppers died because of it. Thirty three plants totally irrecoverable. I am LIVID about this. I had hoped at least my PoB would make it, but it looks like it's gone for good. 

[Alpaca]

During my recent trip to San Francisco (ooh, I should write about that at some point), I stayed at the home of a long-time family friend. She's a professor at whatever that big school of dentistry in the bay area is. She's great at that, not so great in the technological arena, but she does her best, so it's all wonderful, and I help her get updated with whatever she needs whenever I come.

So, while I was there, the internets died. Now, I usually like to figure stuff out on my own, but since it was her house, and since her intertubes were connected through Earthlink and she had routers and modems and such from them, she decided that we would call tech support.

It was a uniquely frustrating experience. First, of course, you have the fifteen minutes of abysmal elevator "music" while you're connected to an actual human being. Finally, "Mike" picks up and says that he's looking forward to us working together to solve the problem. (Naturally, "Mike" is outsourced.)

But apart from the hold, that's all well and good. Polite, professional, and all. After verifying credit card numbers, maiden names, and all that good stuff (made all the more fun by the fact that I was pretending to be a dentist's son), and after Mike had offered a number of exciting programs I could take part in for free, like checking email through the phone, we finally got down to business.

Here's where the trouble started. Now, I understand that different people have different levels of experience using a computer. (Supposedly, one of the questions AOL customer support asks is if the computer is plugged in.) Okay. But is it not possible to exercise a little judgement? At the beginning of the conversation, I informed "Mike" that I had logged into the router, and I told him in great detail all of the exciting information I had gleaned from there, using plenty of technical jargon. Nevertheless, the fact that I understood what I was doing apparently played no part in the level of technical assistance I received, as "Mike" kindly informed me on a number of occasions that pressing "enter" in a text box would cause the cursor to move down one line.

Eventually, "Mike" told me that it was actually Apple's fault that Earthlink's internet broke. I asked him if he was telling me that both computers, which had been working perfectly before, hooked up to the same connection, had spontaneously and simultaneously stopped connecting to the internet for a reason that was Apple's fault, at a perfectly ordinary moment when no settings or anything of that nature was being changed anywhere. "Mike" cooly replied, "yes." He said that although he couldn't help me there, he would still do his best to resolve my issue, and offered me a free trial of a new service, then asked me to rate my satisfaction.

I ended up having to fix the problem, which was with the Earthlink-provided DSL modem, myself.

[Opsa]

Kanaloa- that's vegecide! Never trust those peole again. I had a so-called friend who was to stop in and take care of our cat while we were called away to my father-in-law's bedside in Intensive Care. I found out later she hadn't stopped by in several days! grr!

Alpaca- that's so typical! When i was getting my DSL, I had one so-called tech tell me that it couldn't be done with the OS I was using. I called again and the second fellow said it could be done, but kept putting me on hold and finally hung up on me! Bravely, I tried a third time and a very patient and nice fellow walked me through the process in fifteen minutes. I guess it depends on who picks up the phone.

[Griffin NoName]

So called "support" is almost always useless unless you haven't plugged the computer in LOL.

[Scriblerus the Philosophe]

I trust my friend. She's as fond of plants as I am. I was simply overruled by my parents, and that's why so many of my first year plants died. They didn't have the root system to deal with 108*F yet. My mother has agreed to by me a bunch of plants the next time I go to the Botanical gardens sale. (I get really, really great deals because I volunteer there, so it helps).


That sounds like it sucked, Alpaca.