Astronomy Toadfish Nerds Unite!

[beagle]

Ah, right.  Haven't had any major Vista problems so far. But I haven't had this quarter's water bill yet.
Am a bit pissed off they didn't put encrypting file system in Home Premium though.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

Works fine for me.

Then you are the only person I know fortunate enough to have MeII, I mean, Vista working properly.

I loathe the thing, when (should I say if?) it works its heavily annoying.

Oh, I almost forget, I installed the MS telescope program and it is very distracting in the good way.

[pieces o nine]

* INSERT GENERIC SWEAR HERE *
Comcast just 'lost' my Internet connection when I clicked "post". Let's try again...

I have steadfastly resisted Vista as it isn't compatible with my Adobe CS package and I can't upgrade that right now, either. So far XP has worked OK, as far as this Mac grrl is concerned.

Then about a month ago RealPlayer displayed a prompt for an upgrade patch. I've never had any problems with those so I OK'd without thinking. Big. Mistake. Now RealPlayer launches itself at random times during a session, whining that it can't find some bizarrely named update file. As if  that was my fault. I even tired deleting it entirely with Add/Remove and reinstalling a fresh one from RP. No use. Worst of all from my perspective, I can no longer burn audio or video clips to data cds. GRRRRRRRR.

Do any XP-techie-savvy geek sibs out there have suggestions on repairing this? Thanks in advance.

(I have free version as I don't need or want all the bells and whistles of a subscription.)

[beagle]

Have you tried Googling for the exact error message?  I tried a general search but it appears riddled with faults going back years. Would have thought by far your best hope is finding someone who has documented the fix already.

If the problem survives a re-install the odds are it is preserving inaccurate state information in registry keys  or files it doesn't clear up on an uninstall.  Hunting down and killing them all is a bit high risk unless you're a serious geek though.

If you are seriously geeky then Spy++ (part of Visual Studio and maybe the SDK) can tell you what process created a given window, and process monitor from

http://technet.microsoft.com/en-gb/sysinternals/default.aspx

with a suitable filter can show you what registry keys or files that process is looking at.  Then you can see if they survive an uninstall, and contemplate manually zapping them. It's high risk because zapping the wrong thing by mistake will leave you with an ex-operating system.

If your eyes have glazed over, or you don't have a beard, or you change your T shirt more than once a month or don't drink real ale but do have a social life then this route probably isn't for you*.


* Was going to add or you can't name all the Doctor Who actors in order, but I'm pretty sure you could.

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

If you are adventurous enough there are 2 basic things you can do:

1. Check your start up programs
2. Check active services

You can check both of those with the System Configuration Utility. To run it, click the Start button, Run, then type 'msconfig' and click 'OK'.

The last 2 tabs are 'Services' and 'Startup'. Look on Startup first and uncheck 'realshed' or any other thing that looks like Real. The go to Services, click the checkbox called 'Hide all microsoft services', and look for anything that looks Real Networks, Real One, Real Player related.

Be careful with your services, some are essential to your system and while most are labeled under 'Microsoft Corporation' (which should be hidden if you click on the check box) some may say 'Unknown' but be important to run certain programs.

Reboot your system and check if it behaves better.

[pieces o nine]

* Was going to add or you can't name all the Doctor Who actors in order, but I'm pretty sure you could.

Yes, I'm sorry to say that I can. Of course, only one is *the* Doctor.

Thanks for the good info. I'll try some of that when I get resettled.


Also, thanks Zono. It occurs to me I have a set of disks with a complete Geek-squad backup & recovery, and there might be something there I can use to replace if I;m still having trouble.

[Opsa]

Astronomy Toadfish Nerds- plan your parties now for the annual Perseids Meteor Shower!

"PERSEIDS
Predicted Maximum: August 12, 11:30 UT [= Aug. 12, 4:30am PDT; = Aug. 12, 7:30 am EDT])
Moon: Waxing Gibbous (moderate interference)
(radiant map from IMO)

WHEN TO WATCH: Tuesday morning, August 12, from about 1:00 am until morning twilight gets too bright.

The Perseids are probably the most-watched annual meteor shower. The shower has a very long duration, from about July 15 through August 25.  The shower is most interesting around its peak on August 12 or 13. This year, the peak comes on August 12 because of the leap year. The radiant is above the horizon the entire night for observers north of latitude 32N, but it is fairly low at the end of evening twilight.  Evening Perseid rates are fairly low, and the bright Moon makes things worse this year. The real meat of the show comes during the predawn hours when the Moon is down and the radiant is high.

Predawn rates for observers with truly dark skies may exceed 100 Perseids per hour (West Coast of North America and/or Eastern Asia may be favored this year), with a nice sprinkling of sporadic and minor shower meteors added to the mix.  Adjacent mornings from August 10 through August 13 are well worth watching, although rates will be significantly lower.

Perseids are fast meteors and tend to be fairly bright on average.  An occasional fireball is seen. "

Info from http://skytour.homestead.com/met2008.html#anchor_9

[Aggie]

ZOMG we will be at a big electronic music festival the weekend of/before...   and still up during the dawn hours listening to chill-out sets I'll wager.  Cooooosmic, duje....

[Opsa]

Indeed!

We're going to a dinner party August 9th at our friends' house which is on a hill out in the country. Their back deck is good for stargazing. Plus, they are Texans and party like Toadfish.

Hope we see some (before we pass out from sheer hospitality)!

[Opsa]

MEMO: Keep your eye out for the Perseids meteors this coming week, especially pre-dawn the 12th and 13th!

[Sibling Zono (anon1mat0)]

I was listening this morning to NPR while taking my son to his violin lesson and we heard a note in NPR about an amateur astronomer volunteer who found a 'space ghost'.

She is a member of an online community called Galaxy Zoo and they are taking volunteers.

(where is the telescope emo? )

[ivor]

Isn't that the remains of Krypton?

[Griffin NoName]

This thread is confusing. Is Vista anywhere near Jupiter?

[beagle]

Only in size.

[Opsa]

Aw heck- anyone can find Space Ghost. I got him right here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j2tXroEp6vA&feature=related