Too Much Tech Talk

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Tonight has been a really long one. After the last few days of messing around with my laptop, trying to solve the problem, I invoked a little known trick of registry manipulation. It's kind of a take off of the old Windows 95 trick of replacing the registry file, system.dat, with the version created at install time, system.1st. The files are named a bit different under the NT Kernel (NT 4.0, 2000, XP, Vista, etc.), and they are in a different location (\windows\sytem32\config). However, the same trick has worked for me before under both Windows 2000 and Windows XP. It's supposed to reset the drivers, etc. back to the way they were at install time and allow you to keep your software registry. Tonight, it caused XP to reinstall itself. The "Administrator" directory for my user was still there, but now the "Administrator" account used a directory of "Adminstrator.%MACHINENAME%". (the %MACHINENAME% is the name of the computer) This basically means that I can not login as that user. Thus, I can not use any of that software, and I was now needing to completely reinstall Windows x64 (Windows XP 64 Professional). Doh!!! That was not cool!

So, I backed up as much as I could to another partition on my hard drive, and then I reinstalled Windows x64. It's now about 3 AM, and 5 hours later. My boss will not be happy tomorrow when I have to reinstall all of our work software at work. In the last 5 hours though, I have managed to reinstall almost everything I use otherwise. (I don't have the cds with me for installing the work software) I backed up my email and web browsers, and they are working exactly as I had them setup before. (woohoo!!!) I have restored My Documents, installed Open Office, and I am currently installingCygwin. That's just a part of what I've been doing.

On the plus side of it all though, this machine is running better than it has in months now. :-D I'm very glad about that at least. Maybe I won't have to deal with anything like this again. (***hopes***)

In other news, the two CDs I ordered the other day have arrived, and I have been listening to them this evening. They are Jonah 33 - The Strangest Day and Third Day - Wherever You Are. Both are fantastic! Both are also examples of how listening to music or aquiring music over the internet leads to purchasing said music. I found out about Jonah 33 from Pandora.com, and I really got interested in this particular Third Day CD thanks to seeing videos on You Tube. While neither instance is like the greatness of file-sharing that we had in the Napster of old,
they can be a little effective. (They certainly don't have me interested enough in new music to be going out and buying lots of CDs like I was with Napster, but they come closer for me than anything like "iTunes". All that DRM stuff has got to go (says me).)

Tomorrow, we are planning to buy the remaining components for the "new" transmission (i.e. a new filter, transmission fluid, a new gasket, etc.), and then we will lift it up into the belly of "The Short Bus" (That's my friends' nick name for my suburban). I'm not looking forward to the work at all. But, I will be glad to have my truck back. (Right as gas prices are going back up though. Doh!) Please pray for us that we get it done quickly, and that it is not too cold outside! (It's been nice during the day, but it's still been chilly at night lately)

I'm writing this entry on my laptop, and the Cygwin install is now 97% done. I'll go to bed in a couple of minutes, and maybe it will be done by the time I do. (I need to recompile the version of GAIM that I use because it's been in Beta for a long time, and I accidently deleted the install file I created before...) I also can not install The Gimp until I get Cygwin installed. (I need to install the gtk+ toolkit for both gimp and gaim to work properly, but I need to install Cygwin first) So, I will go get ready for bed now, and hope I can start these by the time I'm ready to go to sleep.

~ Goodnight!

btw, Dan, I think you'll like the Third Day song in the video below. (The video is kind of "homemade" though...looks like something off of Daystar)

Communion

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body
This is the blood

Well I will remember, everything Lord, that you've done for me
I won't take for granted, the sacrifice, that set me free
Well I hunger and thirst for your love
Come fill me today

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body
This is the blood

We hunger and thirst for your love, and your righteousness
We long for your presense here Lord
Be with us again

This is the body
This is the blood
Broken and poured out
For all of us
And in this communion
We share in His love
This is the body yea
This is the blood (x2)

This is the body
This is the blood (x2)

- Third Day - (off of: Wherever You are)

"Lord, Help us to know and understand your will with the Visa..."