Odd stop error

OK, so today after mom gets done with Pogo for over 9000 hours this morning, I get a chance to do some shtuff. What I wanted to do right off is make a copy of an audio CD a friend burned for me because one of my CD players can't see the disk and read it. So I proceed to do something that I usually don't expect to work. After the 'puter has been on for a while, the CD burner drive usually doesn't respond - it usually requires shutting down the desktop and turning it back on. I have been of the habit to do exactly that or at least if I'm burning a CD, I'm going to do it within an hour after the desktop boots up.

I push the eject button and it surprises me by responding. Oh. whoah. Didn't expect that. I usually test the system that way. Should have restarted it anyway, but no. I load the burner software, have it read what I want off the disk, and then burn the copy. Whole new, not an exact copy, but read the old one and burn a completely new one. Then it's done in about 2 minutes.

Then I go... and put the CD back in because for some reason, I wanted to play the disk. The desktop goes and recognizes it. And then as I fiddle with some things, suddenly the screen goes black, the tower makes a little click noise, and XP tosses up a blue stop error screen. IQR is not less or equal, yadda yadda.

I'm like OH SH---- ! What the hell? So I check upstairs, the TV up there is still on. Last time there was any unusual behavior of devices was a few months ago. My TV did something, shut off and came back on, but the computer monitor went out and needed turned off and back on and it was OK. Yesterday my TV shut off at some point, I don't know when, but it was off. I had left it on, with the blue screen from the VCR lighting it up. I know the Toshiba has some dust issues. I had to fight with it last night, banging on the side to get it to decide to stay on.

I don't know if the Toshiba had one of those occurences where it affected the 'puter downstairs, or if it had to do with the CD burner being used when I should have shut off and restarted the system. OR WHAT. I don't KNOW. I hate that. We depend on this thing. It's barely 4 years old. I have a backup of the drive and the install.

I don't handle this right, and I don't want this episode to make mom think she gets a chance to buy the laptop she doesn't need.

But at any rate, when that error occurred, I pushed the power button and it shut off, then I restarted it and it came up as you can see by this post. Some sort of Kernel Error registry key popped up, so if there's a problem, some pages suggested probably a RAM error, which for all intents and purposes, could be so. I mean, I've never opened this thing up to clean out the dust - I probably should. I have this tendency to leave things alone when they work, especially when I depend on them. It's an Asperger's trait of mine, likely.

Sometimes emulators are neat

First it started with using ePSXe to run some Cardcaptor Sakura games
that wouldn't work on the actual Playstation because of stupid things on
the game disk and such.

Then I grabbed MAME and tried a few games on it. That's a nice one. ^_^

So recently I checked out the Sega Genesis emulator along with the Devil
Hunter Yohko game released for it. The DHY game isn't that great, but
still to think it exists... I found a site with several hacks of the
original, including one that gives you 30 lives. I haven't been able to
get past the boss on Level 2 yet. Infinite health would be a nice hack
for this game, people!!!

So anywho, the other day I found an 8-bit NES Emulator and the Japanese
game for what was dubbed here as Samurai Pizza Cats. Cute enough to show
my nieces, though I'd LOVE more of a FAQ, walkthrough or some other
guide for this game. It's not completely translated.

A friend of mine has an NES Lupin III game. Would be nice to see how
that turned out.

Anime video games - things you wish they had brought over then they
could have. Magic Knight Rayearth? Tenchi Muyou? Oy... the mind boggles.

Of course that's not to leave out the Atari 2600 emulator or the first
one that started the idea - the Atari 8-bit computer emulator.

Harassing Hang-Up Calls

I hate them.

Mainly because you don't know who is calling. Caller ID is nice, but
that's not always helpful. If the number is from outside your local
area, the phone company isn't guaranteed to know it. And people can
block their ID from coming through, but that's helpful because you can
put a device on your line that can detect it and reject the call for
you.

We had 4 harassing hang-up calls tonight, starting just minutes before 9
pm and seemingly repeating every 15 minutes or so until just before 10
pm tonight.

Bill collectors are not allowed to harass people on the phone and
certainly not after 8 pm local time regardless of where the call
originates.

When they hang up, it creates nervous anxiety because you don't know who
is doing it, why they are doing it, and just how much longer are they
going to interrupt my peace and quiet before they give up and stop. Of
course one good way to get them to stop is to pick up the phone and
record the call while asking them who they are, their address (if they
don't lie about it), and then send them a registered letter telling them
to stop. And if you record the call, you have court evidence that they
lied about it, which is further trouble for them.

It was sneaky for these 4 calls to arrive after 8 pm when we usually
don't expect them, but considering all the other calls we have gotten
during the election, we screen ALL calls from now on. If they hang up,
well, they should stop bothering us about their ability to remember a
string of numbers.

I mean, really, this type of behavior has to stop. I wish they would
leave some sort of message and get on with things.

We also need another verb for using the phone in regard to "calling" a
number. You can't dial very much anymore because most phones are push
button.

Hmph. Been online 20 minutes and no interruption. How about that.

Celebratory notes on the 2008 Election

President Barack Obama has a nice ring to it. I voted for him, though I
feel angry at the rest of the county who stupidly voted for McCain.
Judging from the small sampling of people who showed up to vote, any of
the old people who went to vote (one man who clearly should have voted
absentee) appeared to be people who were voting against Obama simply
because they are racist. Just my opinion, of course, I'm just saying...
I have only my point of view to go from. I could be wrong, but probably
not in this case.

Ralph Nader has successfully killed his own career after calling Obama
an "Uncle Tom" on nationwide FOX TV in front of Shephard Smith.
Hopefully someone will upload the clip to Youtube and include the 1
second of stunned silence after that remark and Shep's comment
afterwards. Nader has become insane and bitter, sorta like Steve Allen
in his later years when he went off on idiotic rants about how there's
nothing "suitable" on television anymore.

Issue 5 PASSED. People in Ohio surprised me on that one. With almost no
publicity in favor of the Yes vote on Issue 5 (Payday lending
referendum), and LOTS of lies for a No vote (like having your personal
info entered into some database every time you take out one of their
loans - which I don't have to remind you but I will ISN'T in the law
they passed in the Ohio legislature and ALSO NOT PART OF THE LAW IN THE
REFERENDUM), I would like to feel that people read this one for once and
voted accordingly. In these rough times, we don't need another loan
shark abusive industry siphoning money out of already-poor people's
pockets. No jobs will be lost and I'm certainly not going to shed tears
should payday lenders in Ohio feel they need to close up shop because
they have to make money legally.

And I'm glad that one idiot will be leaving Washington DC for his
village in Texas, while we're sending another idiot back to her village
in Alaska when she can be symbolically stoned to death for her crimes.
So to speak. I tell you we managed to get this one right for once and
have averted many tragedies that "could have been" but now won't. Less
likely Roe V Wade will be overturned now, which pisses off the religious
minority and I chuckle to myself when I think about that. Heh.
heheheheee!