Black Mage

Oye, what a shitty day. Seems Flash was the least of my worries, today. I had hoped to spend they day doing many a thing enjoyable. Get caught up on watching Firefly, go shoot some photos at Layton Commons, maybe gain some ground playing Chrono Trigger. That all, however, went down the crapper. It started when I was trying to install what was supposedly a very good, and free, anti-virus software. I decompressed the .rar and proceeded to run the setup file. When it looked like it was bout done, I deactivated my old copy of McAfee...then all hell broke loose! Withing a matter of seconds my screen was filled with a plethora of registry error and deletion warnings, followed by malware alerts from both SpyBot and Windows anti-virus. Soon, my system was so bogged down that it essentially froze. Panicking, I I hit the power button and did a hard reboot in hopes that it would stop whatever was happening, and maybe even reverse some of it. No luck, upon trying to start Windows, my HDD seemed to enter what can only be described as some sort of techno-trance-like rhythm of beeps, grunts, and buzzes. After trying a number of times to reboot, I gave in and decided to use my system roll-back. I was, however, unable to access it because Windows wouldn't even start, and it seems that the roll-back program is not accessible from safe mode. "Okay," I thought to myself, "so I'll just do an OS restore and hope that fixes any registry errors." But, again, no dice. Every time I got to the end of the setup sequence, the system froze solid. At this point it's about 10am and I'm wondering if it's too early to pull out my bottle of Bowmore Legend scotch. The only thought that kept me sane was the new external hard drive my brother got me for Christmas, which I had immediately used to create me complete backup of all my music, photos, movies, and other program files. And luckily I had done another backup just yesterday! So, back to the carnage... Fearing the worst for my music collection (7,280 songs on 30.6GB, loosing this is not an option), I wanted to see if I could possibly do a second manual transfer of the files to my external HDD. I couldn't of course do it in windows, so I tried to start the system in the command prompt and hoped I could remember the proper commands to do anything in DOS, which I haven't used in years. Again, however, no go. So it finally came down to my final resort, a complete destructive restoration of my HDD, something I don't like to do because it takes forever to get my compy back to the way I like it. So I of course just went and did it. Nice though it is to have a squeaky clean system, again, and convenient though it was to have a backup on my external HDD, it still has taken me all day to get the Windows updates, SP2, and SP3 installed, plus having to reinstall all my necessary programs. Even now I am still working on getting updated drivers for my keyboard and still need to get Lightroom 2.2 up and running, and my Twitter apps, and tweak my Firefox skin, and rebuild my photo library, and then reinstall UltimateDefrag to run a thorough HDD reorganizing, then clean the registry and misc files with CCleaner and finally create a system restoration directory, just in case. Oh, and I've gone and installed the full version of AGV Anti-Virus...so no more issues there. I guess this is a good reminder of the possible dangers of using bit torrents. I think I'm ready for that scotch, now.

For some reason, all of a sudden half (if not all) of the flash based elements on any given web page have stopped working and are replaced with the "Get Flash" icon. The thing is, I already have the latest Flash 10.0.12.36, but things like MySpace music players don't show up, half the slide shows I try and view don't show up, sometimes even flickr images don't show up in Firefox. I've tried deactivating adblock plus on the problem pages, but it does nothing to help, just lets the ads show up. This has happened before, but was fixed after I reformatted my HDD when I last cleaned my system to start fresh (I do this every 8 to 12 months). Any thoughts, suggestions, answers?

Been there, done that, kicks f@cking ass. Love my SX10. I am especially fond of the super marco mode, which sports a minimum focusing distance of 0cm.

Dude, NICE! Pentax makes an excellent camera, and the K200D is one of their best. Did you shoot those with the 18-55 kit lens? Wonderfully shallow depth-of-field on those macros, especially if it is the f/3.5-5.6 lens. And yes, GE cameras are pure trash. Similar can be said for Kodak, Sanyo, Samsung, Polaroid, etc.

...so I sez to Mable, I sez...

Wow, I can't believe this thread got buried so deep! Time for some grave digging of a worthy thread... About a month ago I bought a new Canon SX10 IS, one of the best super-zooms out there, and I have been putting it to good use (with the help of my new 21.5" widescreen monitor I got for Christmas, super sexy)... I've been using Adobe Lightroom 2, lately. I like the "photography-centric Photoshop" nature of the program. And yes, I've also been experimenting with Photomatix Pro 3 to do some HDR stuff. I think this is one of my better results. The thing I've noticed about HDR, is that it's hard to nail that exact moment when an image is at its peak, without going overboard with the HDR-ification. No real tweakage on this one...just cookie-y deliciousness!

I gave my dad a bottle of Eagle Rare Bourbon, the two new Stargate movies, $25 iTunes card to augment my brother's gift of an 8GB Nano, among other gifts. Gave my brothers DS and PSP games, golf balls, a crock pot with cookbook, among other things. I got the entire Firefly DVD box set (sweet!), a few shirts (actually Firefly came wrapped in one of those shirts..efficiency FTW), a good and heavy tripod, a Bombay Sapphire gift set, 500 GB external HDD, raisnins (yes...a bag of raisins in my stocking), a coffee/espresso maker, Kohl's gift card, and a Samsung 21.5" widescreen compy monitor, hell yeah!

Joyeux Noël to all, as well. I'm finally in the HD world, as my Dad gave me a 21.5 inch, widescreen monitor. Sa-weet.

I've noticed that since I installed the new Flash 10 (I think it was flash, at least) a few weeks ago, virtually all Flikr-based images just don't show up. Whether image linked on a blog or web page, or even on Flikr itself, they just aren't there. I've checked all my Firefox add-ons (deactivating and reactivating), still no dice. Has anyone else had this problem or heard of it?

Brushfire, check your PM's.

Dang, prices can be all over the place... For example, looking at my few promo cards... verses I suppose it's best to assume the lower price.

I've been cleaning out some stuff from my room today, and came across my old PokéMon cards. I haven't played the game in years and don't expect to. They're just taking up valuable desk real estate. I have therefore decided I should just sell them. This is where I'm kinda stuck, though. I'm wondering what the best route would be and how to maximize my return. I'm far too lazy to take it upon myself to setup shop on eBay, so I've been wondering what I could expect from a local gaming/card/D&D-type shop. I assume that the first step would be to catalogue my small collection and see what, exactly, I have. Then what? Get estimates from various shops? Look-up online pricing guides and sell them online as a single lot? Go card-by-card? Any suggestions would be helpful.

The thing that has my attention about the DSi is the SD slot and online store. I certainly would like to download, say, MegaMan 3 onto an SD card and play on my DS(i). Plus, I wonder if there is the possibility for future ROM-age?

Excellent melding of two themes. I'd agree with DJP that it's a very crunchy mix, and seasonally appropriate, too. This one has earned a direct adding to my Halloween playlist!

I'll check 'em out, thanks!

I've been rummaging about the tubes for a solid and powerful media transcoder. I've seen a lot of them out there, but the options are many, and the decision confusing...especially when you're wanting a wide range of file outputs to choose from. I'm mostly interested in audio and video encoding/transcoding, but DVD ripping would be a nice plus. I've tried MediaCoder, but I can never seem to get it to convert without some sort of problem arising, like glitchy, laggy audio on videos I've converted. I'm looking at FormatFactory as an option, too. It seems to be more of a batch converter, though. Has anyone used it before? Any input would be much appreciated.

I like! Sort of smooth and spacey...in a way? This reminds me a lot of those Animusic DVDs, actually. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4T6KORBH0P0

Game's a classic, and it's free...I'm down.

I loved their first album. Ever time I listen to it I can just imagine MegaMan as an epic rock opera. This new demo is certainly...smoother, more refined in its sound than was their first. I like it, though. I can't wait to hear the rest of it and see how the saga continues. Assuming they're sticking to the story of MegaMan and ProtoMan.

troll -1 [fkntenchar.]

This is what I've been using for a while now. It's small, simple and get's the point across just fine. If someone comes up with something better, though, I'd not object.

Stylistic enhancement. I like it, myself. Gives a sort of electric atmosphere sensation.

I thoroughly like! Gives off something of a Binary Universe vibe.

Here are some sweet creations, via 1up.com

I am actually waiting to buy a new computer until I know a. the system requirements of Spore and b. the system requirements for Starcraft 2.