Princess Fix IT

A 24-hour Work Shift, 350+ PCs and One Nasty Little Worm Later

I don't know about your Friday, but I do know this:

Virus protection is a necessary evil. Period. Ya got that?

Save your speeches for when I come back and really get on my high and mighty IT horsey.

But for now...

A nice, relaxing "I've been married a whole year!" vacation...

Link of The Day

Since I've been a part of WWGrapevine, I have come across a lot of great links. I will try to update my blog with interesting links from time to time, so here goes...

Fabulous Case Mod and Lonely Man Wrapped Into One

Aw yeah, come to Mama...

Groby has turned me onto an incredible tool I will be using on my new Linux box. It's called MythTv and the more I learn about it, the more I like it.

I have found a tremendous amount of tech spec info on ArsTechnica (I love this site) to help me along this new journey.

I hope I don't wind up spending too many duckets on this bad boy...

Geekin'

So, I bought a new Linux book the other day and I'm pretty bummed I haven't had a chance to play around with it at work. It's been pretty busy and I haven't had the opportunity to build my Linux box at home yet. We still have to backup Kevin's old box and complete the cross-over to his new one, so until then, I am limited to at work-play time. I've still been reading, but it's just not the same as getting your hands into the mix of things.
On another geekin' note, I've decided to document every Metrowerks CodeWarrior crap-ass problem I have run across. I've been working for Programmer Boys and Pretty Boy Artists for two years and some change and CW problems never seem to disappear. I document quite a bit for the boys in the department, but it's pretty scattered and informal. I figure if I place a nice READ ME in various places throughout the office, someone will, in fact, read them. OK Maybe not, but one can hope.
Final geek note for the evening...I'm making another addition to the home network and I'm not sure what to do with it. Is there such a thing as too many computers in one household? I've got my laptop, Kevin's desktop, the not yet ready for primetime Linux box and an Apple laptop. Do I really need another? Fuck yeah I do! I just don't know what to do with it. The Linux box is for a top secret project and we don't really need a game server. With our XBOX, there really is no need since we play most our games on that. It will only be a 2.0 proc (I got it free), maxed to a couple Gigs of RAM, GeForce4 Ti4600, 200GB hard drive, etc. I haven't finished purchasing the parts yet either. Any suggestions for my, uh, um box?

Side Note: For those of you that watched the rerun of the Monster Garage Chicks episode tonight and are unfamiliar with the show, I have one thing to say...the boys fight just as much.

Several Short & Sweet Musings

Few things, dear reader...
One of The White Guy's, latest entries introduced me to the following site: WWGrapevine
Sorry for stealing yet another blog entry, Paul, but it's too good to pass up. It took me a second or two to get used to, but I have to say, it's yet another reason for me to sit here with my laptop and surf away. Yeah! Try it on for size, it's pretty interesting. Not only to see what other people out there are surfing, which gets mighty odd at times, but I like to think of it as my own personal news ticker.
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I have to say this, but seriously, what is so fucking offensive about the 10 Commandments? Yes, I understand the separation of Church & State just fine, thank you very much, but to suggest "Thou shall not kill," is that really so bad of a thing? To those of you just dying to comment on this and put me in my place, don't bother. I know what ya'll have to say and I understand & respect why you want to say it, but spare me. It's just a simple observation not meant to stir up political conversation.
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Yeah, I'm all torn up about this one: May he rot
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Finally, Bobby Bonds died. That sucks.

Fix IT Slump

This past week at work has brought about zero free time for the Princess. With a multitude of virus attacks (no we weren't affected directly, we just had to calm the users), my own PC's sudden death and our standard daily work load, it was tough. All that being said, none of it was as frustrating as dealing with CodeWarrior.
CodeWarrior is such an unusual piece of software. One of the boys on vince's team had quite the odd experience when he would try to compile, the app would just disappear! Nice. Just when I thought I had troubleshooting this software down, it brings about a whole new set of problems. It's been a year and some change since I've had to go into the registry and rip out all of 1,000 entries, and that's after the uninstall has taken place, so I was in no mood to have to relive the past. After a nice uninstall, upgrade and reinstall of the version we actually wanted, tossing the old data directories, the creation of fresh install locations and too much of my time, this bug has been squashed. Metrowerks tech support was helpful, but did not offer a valid solution. That's a shame. It did, however, cure me of my recent Fix IT Slump. The new 3.6 PS2 version has some interesting uninstall features. You may pick and choose what you want to toss, including prefs. Also, there is no longer an installation of an empty Metrowerks directory in the Windows system folder. I do have hope though, that one day Metrowerks will get this application under control. Until that day, I will have a lovely dose of job security.

Caption This...

Ode To The Hard Working Programmer Boy

Oh vince, oh vince, you?ve had quite the tough day,
You grumble and grimace, through code your mind strays
Just take a deep breath and soon you will surely see,
Relaxing times await you, so filled with programmer glee
Blitz will soon submit and your task list will be all clear,
So brighten up buddy boy and go grab a cold beer!
For The Deanie Beanies await your triumphant return,
Liberal musings and such, how else will they learn
Of the Conservative "Lies" that often get you jumpy,
So get out of the office and stop being so fucking grumpy!

"How do you pack grease?"

I'm now onto "American Chopper" in this evening's television schedule and I gotta say this...poor Mikey. All he wants to do is learn the business and he seems to have such a hard time fitting in with his family. I've decided I don't care for Jr., he's an unforgiving dick, Paul Sr. is the Daddy of all Daddies and Mikey is definitely the odd man out. I'm not sure what the background on this family situation is, but I aim to find out.

I went to Borders after work today to pick up my next installment of Harry Potter and a tasty Linux book to help me along my journey. While I was there I also picked up the new Superjoint Ritual CD. Aside from the fact that every song but one started with the obligatory 1-2-3-4 let's-start-the-song-already, it's not so bad. Only one song jumped into my head for the remainder of the evening, but I suspect the rest will grow on me. Hank III is pretty damn talented and between his country, punk and death metal endeavors, he's coming along quite nicely.

Last thing tonight dear reader, is you will notice the comments box is now resizable. Ha! Easiest damn thing I did all day. Thanks to vince for not straight out sharing this 'programming secret' and letting me find it out on my own. In the immortal words of my father, "Look it up."

Hot Stuff For The Hellbound Hard Drives

As I sit here watching quite the delectably doughnut filled episode of "Monster Garage", I ponder the day's events. It was a long one, dear reader.

My stud of a work PC died. May I have a moment of silence please? I came back this morning from some time out of the office, to a nasty "I'm not booting, bitch," error message. Ugh. A nice restart got me into my OS, but I knew the end was near. I backup quite often, to our network and to disc, but I wanted fresh data, so I started a new burn. In the middle of said burn, death became him. I rip the sucker open and it is white hot! My two serial 120GB drives are toasty and I know their time here on this Earth has come to an end. Three of the five fans are dead plus the processor heat sink fan is intermittent at best. What the fuck? After much troubleshooting, I replace the board, the power supply and tomorrow morning come two spanking new hard drives. Nasty mess, indeed. What I figure is because the MB and power supply went all freaky-deaky, the fans died and the overheating trashed the drives. Oh yeah, it was frustrating, but I finally got those damn front-end USB jumpers down! I hate those jumpers.

Jesse James Deputy Princess

Alright, today I either became a member of the establishment by becoming a narc or I performed a community service and won one for the Biker Boys.

My last two afternoons have been spent at Wrigley Field. Yes, unfortunately it was to watch my boys, the Astros, lose to Kevin's home team Cubs, but I'm OK with it...no, no, really I am. ::sniff sniff:: On our way to the game yesterday, I noticed one of the outside the park vendor kiosk type things had West Coast Chopper t-shirts. Hmmm, this got my lil Princess mind a' wonderin. Why would they be selling West Coast Chopper shirts outside of Wrigley on the street? I know West Coast Choppers sells them on their website, so that's odd. Plus, these shirts don't look like the ones sold online. Well, that's just fucked up, dear reader. Being the sucker that I am for Jesse James, I decided this was unacceptable. Unacceptable I tell you! So I did what any narc of a fan would do and I emailed WCC and let them know about this particular atrocity. What do ya know, I got a nice email from some investigator and blah blah blah. I'm happy to say, this independent business man selling knock off shirts will be out on his ass soon when Jesse and his hired guns come to town.
In case you were wondering, I did all this, not because I want to try to get a deal on these sweet ass rims for my truck, but because I'm a fan and I think Jesse deserves every buck he has comin to him. I'm happy because I scored one for the team, but at the same time, I feel a bit of guilt about this deed. This is just some small time guy tryin to make a buck, but then again...he's tryin to make a buck off a guy who worked his fingers to the bone (literally!) to get what piece of the American pie he now owns. You can't steal pie from people! That's just cruel.

Speaking of cruel, my boys sure did let me down this week. Yesterday they left 9 men on base and today the total was a staggering 13! What's up with that? Not only did they lose 3 out of 4 in the Windy City, but they tied up the Division lead with St. Louis, gave the Cubs the season series lead and lost me 20 hard earned Princess dollars(for you Programmers out there, take your Programmer dollar and divide it by 3...THAT, my friend is a Princess dollar)! My heart is aching. It was so tough to watch Berkman continue to struggle, Biggio commit his first error of the year and see 3 Cubbies reach base on beans comin from the mound. But ya know what dear reader, none of this really matters because I'll be right back to cheer my boys on tomorrow when they hook up with the Reds and hopefully regain a comfy lead. Hopefully...

Ho Dean

So because of my tiny ass contribution to Howard Dean (please keep in mind this was due to a bribe\payoff and not my actual political affiliation), I am now on the Ho Dean mailing list. Fuckin' great. Like I needed this precious addition to my mailbox, right? Thanks, vince.
Sure, Ho Dean calls me his "friend" and basically tells me he can't go far without my eternal support, but that isn't the best part. Included in my little love note are three payment stubs for future donations to his campaign. Well, that's mighty convenient, isn't it dear reader? Best part about these three payment stubs? The potential donor listing. It should state my name and address, but instead lists some other poor schmuck in the Chicago area. Guess my $5 donation didn't go far enough for Ho Dean to get competent volunteers.
Incidentally folks, the whole background on this payoff situation reminds me that the last three attacks on our environment have been due to programmers. That's right, not artists, but nifty red cape wearin programmers! Hmmm guess they aren't as immune as they would have you believe.

Bag o' Princess Thoughts

Few things...

Ran across this lil gem at work and I highly recommend watching it. It's hysterical! "The Blood Gulch" series is so creative and yeah, I may be a bit late on this find, but hey, what else is new? I'm always late. So save your lil "Princess, that is so last Tuesday," or whatever smartass comment you have in mind.
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I consider myself to be a good driver. Sure, I can't park my truck worth a damn, but I can drive those straight lines and take those corners like nobody's business! To be honest, people really piss me off on the road. What are they thinking? This is my latest road adventure. Drivin' along, probably singin' a song and the schmo in front of me just can't be bothered to drive over the manholes. He's all over the road and almost hits a guy on a bike! He doesn't care, just as long as his vehicle doesn't cross over the dreaded manhole. I feel sorry for the guy on the bike cause he's already got it tough. No one ever pays attention to bikers unless they're on The Discovery Channel. Back in the day, we'll call it BK (Before Kevin), if I was on a bike with a guy, I couldn't believe how little other drivers would pay attention to us. I eventually had to give up on dating bikers because I didn't want to wind up as a splattered Princess! That's just not pretty. (OK so that's not the real reason I quit dating biker boys, but let's roll with that, shall we?). But I digress...This isn't the only fool I've noticed in the Chicago area doing this particular suspicious maneuvering. What's up with that? What is so scary about driving over a manhole? I've driven in several major cities and have never seen this phenomenon. Do I just write this off as another Chicago oddity or is there really something to this? School me, people!
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Karl Malone just took his shirt off on "Best Damn Sports Show Period" and wow, who knew he was packin' all that under his Jazzy jersey?

Uhuh yeah that's right, I'm The (Wo) Man

So I kicked ass at work today. No, I didn't solve countless problems and make lots of videogame-maker-boys happy. I did, however, save one programmer's ass.
Visual Studio .NET has been in our environment since the very day we received the disks. Steve and I had much fun figuring out the network install. Ahem. Anyhow, it's typically a very easy program to deal with. It either works or doesn't and if it doesn't, a simple repair\uninstall\reinstall will fix it right up. No problem right? Unfortunately that was not the case today.
The initial issue: Error upon launching the program, "MS Development Environment has not been installed for the current user. Please run setup to install the application." Research indicates the issue is due to a registry key that should be deleted. Great, but guess what? Yup, that key doesn't exist on this user's system. OK then....next? Further research brings forth yet another registry key to delete and yes, it does get rid of the error message, but proceeds to close the program approximately two seconds after initialization. Again, not acceptable. Well, dear reader, you might be asking, "Why didn't ya just yank it and reinstall?" Sure 'yanking it' has it's advantages, but unfortunately, brought about a new error, "Unable to determine a valid ordering for installation." Fuck you!
Let me be clear on something, I thoroughly dig troubleshooting software. It's absolute and in a Windows environment, you can trick it to doing what you need in a million and one ways. It just took a million and two today :)
After much tinkering I was finally able to get a repair to run and upon completion a new error awaited me, "The XBOX Extension for VS .NET is totally fucked and so are you. To run it anyway use the following command: devenv /resetskippkgs " OK what God did I piss off?
You might also be asking at this point, dear reader, "Princess, why didn't you just rename or delete the .NET directory and try to reinstall?" Cause that's HALF-ASS tech support right there folks and I don't want to be right back there a month or so from now troubleshooting a whole new set of issues. Thank you very much.
More tinkering and research (did I mention I owe my career to Google Groups?) and finally, new information. I was able to cleanly yank .NET from the system using the following command:
msiexec /x :drive where CD/DVD is loaded:\vs_setup.msi
A reboot and reinstall later, pure unadulterated functionality.

Uhuh yeah that's right, I'm The (Wo) Man.