Last week we sat down to watch Casino, which I’d ordered from Amazon (Canada). About halfway through the movie stopped and the player told me that the disc was damaged or needed cleaning. No amount of fiddling with it would get it to work past that point. I tried playing it on my PC and it failed there too.

So, I called up Amazon customer service. While they don’t publish their phone number, I did a search of my previous entries here in my journal and came up with the information right away – I’d remembered this epic quest to find their number from before, and that I’d written about it. I love it when I find information I need because I’ve written “to myself” about it in the past.

They answered right away, and immediately shipped me a replacement disc. They’re also sending me a postage paid label to put on an envelope so that I can send them back the damaged disc. While I’d prefer that they actually send me an envelope, I suppose that having to spend a couple of dollars on one isn’t really so bad.

But, overall, I was again more than impressed with the friendly and efficient response of Amazon customer service. I can only think that they answered so quickly because nobody calls them – because nobody knows their number. Except me.

Michelle and I had a very enjoyable day on Saturday. We started by going to pay off our new appliances – but the HSBC Finance office was closed, so she’ll have to drop off a cheque on Monday. On the way home, we stopped at the Farmers’ Market, where we picked up some pre-cooked quesadillas from a store in town that we hadn’t known about before – Sabores Latinos.

After that, we met up with Walt and Janice and headed to Oakville where they took us to Whole Foods. We hadn’t been there before because, when we go to Oakville, it’s always along Lakeshore, and this place is farther North. But we were quite impressed and spent a lot of money – it’s very easy to do. Costco has nothing on Whole Foods when it comes to free samples. We also picked up some more coffee from there rather than making the trip to Birds & Beans in Mimico.

We left, then headed to Black Angus Freezer Beef Limited, just East of Cawthra on Lakeshore, for some more ostrich, and peameal bacon (unsalted), and this time picked up some elk. Walt and Janice hadn’t been there before, and they also got some ostrich. (We’d had them over for a barbeque of ostrich steaks some weeks ago, which they’d liked.) Of course, we stopped at the MGM Bakery just across the street and stocked up on some bread (most of which we’ve now frozen) and danish.

On the way back, we stopped at Sharkey’s Dockside Cafe, in Oakville, a place with a lovely view overlooking the harbour / docks, and which is, to our dismay, due to be torn down shortly to make way for condominiums. It’s one of our more pleasant spots to be. They hadn’t been there before, either, so we were glad we got a chance to show them before it’s gone.

After getting home, we went to The Empire Room for a quick wine – then Michelle remembered where I’d seen a wine list recently and commented that Janice would really like it: Sonzi’s rooftop patio. We overlook this from our condo units, and, from behind and up above, it doesn’t look very nice. But once you’re there it’s actually the opposite – a very quaint and “Summer” place to be. (Quite unlike the atmosphere inside the restaurant itself which, while nice, is too “formal” for our taste – unless you’re at the bar.)

Anyway, Janice found some wine there that she liked, including a white Shiraz, that we’d never heard of before (actually a rose; I’ve never liked white wine, or rose, but I quite enjoyed this), and, after asking, another dry rose (0) that’s one of her favourites. It’s not on the wine list, but they had it downstairs and have put a bottle away for us for next Friday (I’m looking forward to this one too). The Sonzi rooftop patio was new to Walt and Janice, who hadn’t thought that much of it from our overlooking view, but they were really quite impressed after having actually seen it in person. It’s going to be our “new spot” while the weather lasts, instead of Pepperwood Bistro which, while a favourite social spot of ours, has always been too pricey for the quality / quantity of food.

Of course, after leaving Sonzi, we did head over to Pepperwood for some more drinks on the way home. When we finally got home, Janice gave us a bottle of scotch which they weren’t drinking (I’d had a glass at Pepperwood, so she found out I liked it). The only thing that happened after that, I’m sure, was the sound of all of us sleeping.

I figure that we spent a lot of money between all of us, but I think we also had one of the most enjoyable days of the Summer.

I’ve started to grow a beard. I’ve done this before (for a week) but Michelle never saw me with it. I’ll leave it for several weeks before (almost certainly) shaving it off again.

I may shave it off in stages (goatee, mustache, and so on) so she can see how I look with different types of facial hair. She’ll have to take pictures too, so she’ll have something to remember it by.

For the past couple of months, we’ve been getting this almost sulphureous odour coming out of our shower.

At first, it went away after we took off the drain cover and removed some big hunks of hair. But it came back again. Then, it went away for a while after we used some Liquid Plumber. But, again, it came back.

We just had the plumber in here to look at it. According to him, there’s nothing wrong with the plumbing. (Although I should have asked him how he’s certain that there’s nothing wrong with the trap itself – which prevents sewer odour from coming up.) So, it can only be the shower itself or the water.

If it’s the shower, it means somewhere around $3,000 to get it replaced. We’d had part of it re-tiled a few years ago, but the caulking (I don’t believe that part of it was done very well – unfortunately, we only know that now) is starting to blacken and, generally, decay. However, it’s still not structurally unsound, as far as we can tell. (We’d originally got it re-tiled because it was leaking into the common room beneath us.)

Which leaves the water. We’ve been using a water purification filter in the shower for about a year now, without any problem. However, I’ve now taken that off. We’ll see if the odour persists or not. (Some preliminary tests indicate that it’s no longer smelling – but I can’t be sure of that until we actually use it.)

Okay, so, several days later, my computer is still freezing randomly. The only thing I’ve noticed is that it seems to happen consistently when I leave eDonkey2000 running. It’s almost guaranteed that if I do this before I go to bed that it will have frozen up on me by the time I wake up in the morning.

(I should interject here that I’ve been on my own this past week. Michelle has gone to Florida to visit her brother. The house feels empty and time is, oddly, moving very slowly for me. It feels like it’s been about a month since she left. They say that as you get older time seems to speed up. The reasoning is that there are fewer “new” things happening to you. Well, if my routine is having Michelle around (and I don’t want to ever lose that routine) then her absence has thrown me into a mode of living where things, while not necessarily “new”, are no longer “routine”. My “habits” are gone and I feel slightly unsettled by it all – almost as if I’m in some kind of strange dream. So, sure, you want to make your time on this Earth last as long as you can, in a subjective sense anyway, but if the way of doing that involves the absence of somebody you love so that things seem to last longer, I don’t think I can justify that. I’d rather not feel the emptiness. <smile>)

Last night I went out with Glen. As fate would have it, he tells me that he also is experiencing freezes on his computer, and that it also only started happening to him a couple of weeks ago – around the time that he downloaded a new set of Microsoft updates. I can’t believe that this is a coincidence. There has to be something in common to our two systems that’s affecting both of us. Everything points to these Microsoft updates – even though I’ve already removed all of them and the problem persists.

I’ve run “sfc /scannow” to restore all DLLs, etc., to their correct versions. I’ve also considered the Windows “repair” option, and, if that doesn’t work, a complete reinstall. But I decided to query Google another time. If it’s happened to the both of us, surely we can’t be the only people to have been so affected…

Would you believe it? I came across this newsgroup post. Here are some excerpts:

“After installing the latest 9 windows updates on August 9, 2005 my system locks up or freezes after it has set for a period of time 1-5 hours. It has always been rock solid up until this problem.”

Okay, so it’s not just me…

“I see others in this group are having similar problems. Has anyone figured out which update causes this problem.”

Yes, exactly. What’s the culprit here? I’ve already uninstalled everything and it’s still happening. Still, after having worked at Microsoft, I know that some updates make changes that are never reverted when you uninstall them. So, more importantly, I’d like to know the culprit and the solution here. (There’s something comforting in knowing that you’re not the only one experiencing the same discomfort.)

“Forgot to add that the only thing I can do after it locks up is turn the power off.”

You’ve got that right!

“I have also experienced the same”

Somebody else too! At least I (or Glen and I) won’t be suffering alone here…

“I have uninstalled the latest updates but the system still freezes after 4 hours of error-free operation.”

Exactly. Or, more or less anyway. I’ve never actually timed how long it takes for a freeze. But I have removed the updates and the problem has persisted.

“Have you got a Marvell Yukon Ethernet Adapter integrated to your ASUS Mother?”

Whoa! I have an integrated Marvell Yukon ethernet adapter, and it is integrated to an ASUS motherboard…

“Try uninstalling the latest driver which must have been downloaded together with the latest Windoews Update patches…Together with the Windows update came this Ethernet adapter update”

That’s right! I suddenly remember that, at the time that I got the latest Windows updates, I also updated my ethernet adapter (from the driver supplied by ASUS) with the latest driver supplied by Microsoft. I’d actually forgotten that I’d done that, and had, instead, only remembered the Microsoft OS updates.

“The first thing I did was to uninstall the windows updates but the problem (freezzing after some time) was still there. Then I re-install the windows updates and uninstalled the Ethernet adapter update and the computer has been runing again without problems! No explanation but it worked!”

No way! So, it sounds as if it wasn’t the Microsoft updates at all – or, at least, not on their own. I immediately rolled back the driver for my ethernet adapter.

(Or, to paraphrase, “Roll back the driver, motherfuck!” I should mention that the title I chose for this journal entry is a quote from one of my most enjoyable movies, The Big Hit. It’s not a prime example of artistic film making by any stretch of the imagination, but it made me laugh, and it’s one of those movies that sticks in my mind. It’s part of my DVD collection. I won’t say anything else, other than if you’ve seen the movie, you’ll know exactly what I’m talking about. I still laugh to myself whenever I think of this scene.)

At this point, I’m pretty sure that I’ve figured out the problem. I know that the freezing started on August 9th, immediately after I downloaded a couple of Microsoft updates. I also know that uninstalling those updates didn’t fix the problem and, looking at the description of those updates, they would seem to have no correlation to the problem I was seeing. I’d forgotten that I’d also installed the ethernet driver update at the same time.

To “clinch the deal”, I called up Glen with this information. I started off by telling him that it probably didn’t apply to him, since it was in relation to a Marvell Yukon network adapter. Imagine my surprise when he told me that he also had the very same adapter, it was also integrated into his ASUS motherboard, and that he, also, had downloaded the updated Microsoft driver for this device around the time that he downloaded the other Microsoft updates – and his own freezing problems started to occur!

It’s far too much of a coincidence to not be the source of the problem. Also, remember that I can “sort of” replicate the problem (cause the freezing) by leaving eDonkey2000 running over night. Since this application makes use of my ethernet adapter for its Internet traffic, that only further supports the theory that these freezes are all network driver related.

So. Tonight I’ll be firing up eDonkey2000 and continuing with a download. I’ll wake up tomorrow and check things. If my computer hasn’t frozen I’ll be feeling pretty good about the situation.

Normally, I wouldn’t post something like this at this point in time for fear of jinxing the situation. (Yes, there is some sort of cosmic principle that works against me. If I have to choose between X number of things to pick the right one, it will always be the last thing I select that’s right. Glen understands this too, because he’s equally cursed in the same way.) But, in this case, I think that, perhaps, I might just have a good chance of having figured this out. We’ll see.

My XP workstation has been locking up randomly (about once every day or two) for the past week or so. It seems to have started happening only coincidentally after applying some Microsoft updates, because I’ve since backed those out but the freezes continue to occur.

This is extremely annoying, to say the least. I’m always very aware of what I do to my computer, so the fact that I can’t identify the culprit here is frustrating.

I left it running Memtest as I came into work this morning. We’ll see if that finds anything. I’m really hoping it’s not some memory that’s gone bad. Another possible hardware fault would be the power supply. But I don’t know if I can buy a new one just to test this theory – I suppose if I can’t identify anything else. I’m almost positive it’s not CPU or motherboard overheating – nothing like that has happened since I installed the new CPU and cooler, and spot checks of temperature recently haven’t turned up anything strange.

Next step, after the memory test, will be some virus scans (even though I have Avast! running all the time and it hasn’t let me down yet), and then removing all but the most essential services.

If only it weren’t random, and I could make it happen at will, I’d be a much happier camper. Supporting people with problems like this is the worst because you have no real way of knowing if things are fixed – at best, you can only wait a while and see if, during an arbitary period of time, things continue to work…

When PHP 5.0 was released some time ago, I upgraded to it and my Web based email application, Horde (Imp), stopped working properly. I would read message #1, with it’s text message. Then, on deleting it, would receive message #2. But, when I looked at it, I’d see the text of message #1 again! Only by logging out and then back in again was I able to see the real text from message #2. Or, if I never deleted any message, I could see everything uniquely. Needless to say, I downgraded back to PHP 4, which fixed things.

Well. About a week ago, I upgraded to PHP 4.4.0. At that point, I started getting several warning messages – so I upgraded Horde to the most recent beta version. Things worked just fine for about 24 hours. Then, inexplicably, Horde would stop working whenever messages of a certain type were received. I think anything with a MIME embedded attachment did it, but I’m still not sure if that was entirely it or not. Horde “died” by showing a blank Inbox screen. Downgrading Horde back to the previously released version brought back the Inbox screen – but it showed that there were no new messages, when there clearly were. (Pegasus had no problem downloading them.) So, fine, I thought to myself, I’ll just go back to PHP 4.3.11. Well, that didn’t work either. In fact, several days later, no matter what I did, Horde simply refused to function.

I finally gave up on Horde and looked around for other Web based email products. I found phpGroupWare, a nice little program that was easier to configure than Horde. It didn’t have Horde’s problem. However, I did discover that with it when clicking on an email that contained a file attachement, nothing would happen. Clicking on messages without attachments, the application would proceed to let you view them as you’d expect. But nothing at all would happen with messages containing attachments.

So, I decided to try upgrading to PHP 5.0 again, thinking that my previous problem with Horde and PHP 5.0 may have been specific to the two of them together. Apparently it wasn’t. Now I couldn’t see the text of messages at all. A message would open up, but the body would be blank. Plus, I still couldn’t open up messages with email attachments.

I ripped everything out, all references to PHP and anything else related, then installed it all again. No luck.

Now – I’ve installed the new Virgil into a virtual machine using VMware GSX. The point of this was that it was supposed to make testing and maintenance easier. In other words, take a snapshot, perform an upgrade, or something that might cause problems, and, if it does, revert back to the snapshot to undo the harm. That’s good in theory, but I guess I haven’t fully adjusted to the concept yet. Throughout all of this, I hadn’t taken a snapshot – so, like with a physical system, I was stuck without any way of going back. (I did have a backup, but only from a time slightly after all of the problems started – so it wouldn’t have fixed everything.)

SquirrelMail to the rescue. Glen’s been using this for a while. He started an install, but I took over and finished the process. It worked like a charm! None of the problems that have plagued Horde or phpGroupWare at all. So – this is now what is being “officially” used as our Web based email solution. It’s a shame, in a way, because Horde’s been working mostly solidly for me for a long time. (Although it did have a problem whereby messages with attachments would “stay in cache” also – so message #2 with an attachment would show message #1’s attachment. Unless I logged out and back in again. This was annoying, and I’m glad to be rid of it under SquirrelMail, but I receive so few attachments that it wasn’t really a huge headache.)

One minor issue with SquirrelMail is that while the count of messages in the Inbox folder will refresh at a user defined interval, the actual view of the folder, listing all of the individual messages, will not. At least not by default. So you have to click on a link to get the new messages you know are there. I have no idea why such an otherwise excellent application would have this one glaring design flaw. I’ve since modified the code a bit to get the contents of the Inbox to also refresh. It’s not elegant, but it will do the trick well enough until they “fix” things themselves, or I come up with a more appropriate solution on my own.

As Michelle keeps saying these days, “Brown cow rights!” Or, in this case, “Webmail for nuts!”

We’ve been renting Oz from Blockbuster since the first season. Season 5 came out a couple of months ago, and we went to Blockbuster a couple of weeks after that, and picked up the “Hot New release” of Oz. We took it home and soon discovered that it was actually Season 4. (Which we’d rented from them a year ago.) Okay, so it was partially our fault for not actually confirming the season, but to put it in the “new releases” section seemed wrong.

We complained about this. The person went on a bit, defending this shelving practice, looked it up on the computer to see that Season 5 had come out a couple of weeks previously (I don’t think that she’d quite believed me), and said “Oh.”

We waited until last weekend (6 weeks later), then went again. This time I asked the person to source season 5 from the various Blockbusters in Burlington. It turned out that Blockbuster has dropped the series. Apparently, they do this from time to time. It was “recommended” that we check out a certain Rogers video location, which would likely have it. I’m sure that our reaction to this need not require further comment here.

The first time I thought about moving my links from the bottom of the page to the left-hand side, I change my mind because I thought it would be a lot of wasted white space on the left if you scrolled down the right-hand side. However, since the page itself doesn’t scroll, only the columns of text – while other columns remain where they are – I recently realized that I wasn’t thinking things through properly. So, I changed my mind back again.

I may end up tweaking the links at the left a bit more, but things are okay for now. (I played, briefly, with putting in some headings – but it didn’t look right. I’m also not sure if the links section doesn’t detract too much from the journal entries themselves – but I’m not sure how to “fix” that at the moment without negatively impacting the links.) Luckily, with my CSS, server-side includes, and my Linux text search and replace utility, modifying all of my pages, with the exception of a few things I had to pay individual attention to, was a breeze.

I also had to hack things a bit to force IE to not display useless horizontal scroll bars for the links column when the browser window was a certain size. I’d forgotten how to do that. Fortunately, I’d already blogged about this so it was easy to do a search and learn from my past experience.

The first nightly builds of SeaMonkey (Mozilla’s continuation / replacement) can be found here.

Although these are alpha builds of the to-be-released SeaMonkey 1.0, they are (currently) almost exactly the same code as the Mozilla 1.8b3 nightly builds, so they’re more stable than your normal alpha build might be expected to be.

The graphics, logo, etc., are meant just as temporary placeholders for what will eventually be in place, so don’t think that they have any relation to what will be seen in the final product. The only reason it looks like a cow in a boat is because the person who did it, by his own admission, couldn’t draw a monkey! <grin>