As seen on http://vote-the-bums-out.blogspot.com/

This is a strong warning to everyone in Congress and the Senate.

If you pass the infamous “health care reform” bill you’ve spent most of late 2009 “working on,” I can guarantee you that you will be thrown out of office in 2010. You WILL be voted out. There is no compromise on this one. You screw up America’s health care system with this monster, and you’re gone. You’ll never do politics again.

Americans don’t want this bill. We don’t like how you’ve handled it, even if we ignore every other stupid thing you’ve done so far. You didn’t help your credibility when you passed that ridiculous “stimulus package bill” in such a short time that it was not humanly possible to read the hundreds upon hundreds of pages inside. You passed a set of laws, documents that will bind us to whatever is written inside them, without even finding out what you were binding us to in the first place. And here it is again, another bill that is nearly 2,000 pages of small type long, and you’re just flat-out rushing to get the thing passed before anyone can read it and tear it apart, before it gets on the Internet and we see how you’re about to sell us down the river.

The people of this country won’t stand for it. We’re not stupid, we’re just quiet. If you screw us over, we won’t be quiet anymore.

Regardless of if this bill passes or fails, the final votes will be documented very thoroughly so that we can kick you straight out of office in 2010.

Don’t vote wrong, or we’ll vote your butt out before you even know what hit you.

Sincerely,
The American People

P.S. Here’s a short list of links to prove that the only universal thing here is universal disgust for this health care bill. Every one of these sites contains text indicating that you will be voted out of office if you vote “yes” on the health care reform bill in 2009. Particularly, the AOL Finance link has an Internet poll indicating 71% opposed to this bill as of this writing.

http://newmexicoindependent.com/33110/congressman-lujan-on-health-care-reform-we-cant-afford-status-quo
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/CBO-Prepublican-health-plan-would-reduce-premiums–69270747.html
http://michellemalkin.com/2009/11/07/the-new-imperial-congress-votes-on-pelosicare/
http://tpmlivewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/10/cbo-releases-numbers-on-house-health-care-bill.php
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25661.html
http://www.lvrj.com/news/breaking_news/Reid-Final-health-bill-will-have-a-public-option-63155937.html
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/02/gop-congresswoman-says-health-care-bill-scarier-than-terrorism/
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2009/11/04/house-democrats-prepare-health-care-bill-for-floor-debate/
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/16/senate-health-care-bill-w_n_323481.html
http://www.cnsnews.com/news/article/55398
http://blog.heritage.org/2009/11/05/boxer%E2%80%99s-procedural-gambit-pushed-bill-out-of-committee/
http://www.cbsnews.com/blogs/2009/10/28/politics/politicalhotsheet/entry5438528.shtml
http://buzz.yahoo.com/article/1:y_news:56fa7cbfa432a2b745fa30366d3d17c8/House-takes-another-step-on-healthcare-reform-Reuters
http://thehill.com/blogs/congress-blog/healthcare/65837-a-glimpse-at-the-pelosi-healthcare-bill-rep-john-campbell
http://thehill.com/homenews/news/66091-current-house-healthcare-bill-whip-count
http://www.freedomworks.org/blog/max/829-billion-for-new-senate-health-care-billmaybe
http://www.the912project.com/2009/10/29/1029-health-care-bill-link/
http://www.gjsentinel.com/news/content/news/stories/2009/10/29/103009_3a_Health_care.html
http://www.thehealthcareblog.com/the_health_care_blog/2009/10/will-we-get-a-health-care-bill-in-2009-the-convergence-of-three-powerful-forces.html
http://www2.timesdispatch.com/rtd/news/national/article/pelosi_presents_new_u.s._health_care_bill/302351/
http://voices.washingtonpost.com/capitol-briefing/2009/11/aarp_endorses_house_health-car.html
http://prorev.com/2009/10/health-care-bill-contains-penalties-for.html
http://seekingalpha.com/article/149602-health-care-bill-prescription-for-disaster
http://www.christianpost.com/article/20091006/report-18-percent-of-white-evangelicals-support-health-care-bills/index.html
http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=155230603434
http://money.aol.com/article/pelosi-new-health-care-bill-is-historic/742849
http://latimesblogs.latimes.com/washington/2009/11/tea-party-activists-swarm-capitol-hill-can-they-kill-health-care-bill.html
http://www.newser.com/story/73195/dems-threaten-to-kill-health-care-bill-over-abortion.html
http://www.truthout.org/1105097
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/bio/userletter/?letter_id=4169099391
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2373827/posts
http://www.topix.com/forum/us/democrat/T5R09LCV2MM6GIBMI
http://pubrecord.org/commentary/2928/wanted-joint-public-option/
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2009/09/burris_will_oppose_health_care.html
http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Congressional-leaders-fight-against-posting-bills-online-8340658-63557217.html

Don’t vote for this bill or YOU ARE GONE.

One of my clients has an nVidia GeForce 9600 GT card (based on an nVidia G94 core) and it doesn’t like doing its job anymore.  Lo and behold, there’s a lot more to it than that: nVidia’s had a very bad track record for in-field failures recently, and we’re investigating the possibility that her card failure is related to this trend.  Boy, did we dig up a mess…

It turns out that nVidia’s entire G8x series of cores has problems, but what is more shocking is that vendors are issuing “fixes” that are only intended to delay chip failure until the end of the chip’s warranty period.  It amazes me that any OEM or vendor would actively work to prolong the life of a product until the warranty period was over, THEN let it fail!  How outrageous is that?!  I’m not particularly happy about the reputation that nVidia is bringing about, either: they’re cranking out the little white lies left and right, and it’s catching up with them.

If you install Windows Vista on a computer and you happen to run into this absolutely ridiculous error message:

“Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume”

The fix is extremely simple.  We’ve run into it a few times when we needed to load a RAID or SATA driver from a USB flash drive.  Let me explain what’s going on, and how to fix it, but not in that order.

The fix: unplug all the USB flash drives on your computer before you boot or reboot the computer. Even if Vista reboots the computer for you, UNPLUG ALL THE USB FLASH DRIVES.

What’s happening when you get the error is fairly simple to understand with a little information about how a PC’s BIOS works, and how Windows interacts with it.  The BIOS attempts to boot from devices in a certain sequence, and on some computers this sequence puts USB storage devices before the actual hard drive or RAID array in the computer.  The key aspect of all of this mess is the device that gets assigned as the first bootable hard drive in the system (known to people familiar with nasty BIOS programming stuff as “drive 0×80″) and Windows uses this assignment by the BIOS to figure out which hard drive in the system will be booted before all the others.

The whole idea here is to use the drive the BIOS says is the first hard drive to install the Vista boot files on.  The problem is that almost all USB flash drives are considered to be hard drives by a modern BIOS, which totally trashes the detected boot order if USB flash drives are set to boot before internal hard drives.  Windows Vista sees that a flash drive is the first bootable hard drive, but it knows that what it’s looking at isn’t actually a real hard drive (and if you’re plugging it in to get RAID drivers off of it like we do so often, the first phase of setup wouldn’t have had this problem while the second phase does).

Thus, “Windows could not determine if this computer contains a valid system volume.”  The “system volume” is basically the first bootable hard drive, and that device is clearly not something Vista can (normally) boot from, so it spews this cryptic error message.

An alternative workaround is to change the BIOS boot order so that your USB stuff boots last, but you never know when you’ll need to boot a Linux rescue system from a USB flash drive to fix Windows, eh? 

I ran into a persistent STOP error message that would always be in RTL8185.SYS on a client’s computer today.  He had a TrendNet TEW-421PC (the PCMCIA variant of the TEW-423PI PCI card) based on a Realtek RTL8185 chip.  He uses an older Dell Inspiron 2600 laptop, and you couldn’t remove the card or browse for too long without a crash.  Even updating the drivers with the card inserted would crash the system.

TrendNet’s “latest drivers” are old as dirt for this chip, and it turned out the solution was only a little bit further away: hit up realtek.com and search for RTL8185!  Downloading the latest drivers straight from Realtek and installing them solves the problem quite nicely.

But how do we update drivers when the card isn’t inserted to avoid the imminent crash?  There are a few ways to do it.  The least complicated way is to delete the file RTL8185.SYS from the “drivers” folder under the “system32″ folder (the majority of systems store this at “C:\WINDOWS\System32\drivers” and insert the card.  The driver doesn’t load until the card is inserted, so deleting it before inserting the card will allow you to change out the driver without the crash.

For more advanced users, adding DEVMGR_SHOW_NONPRESENT_DEVICES = 1 to the system-wide environment variables under the System control panel, then starting Device Manager and going to View -> Show Hidden Devices will let you manipulate hardware that’s not plugged in, but the deletion is easier for most people.

If you need help with this process, leave a comment and I’ll get back to you.

We drop Avast on ALL computers that come in, while simultaneously telling every single customer that it will do nothing to prevent them from brand new threats…and neither will anything else on the market today!  Quoting myself, “viruses are a cat-and-mouse game, and antivirus vendors are always the cat doing the chasing.”  Software firewalls are also junk, because any virus that does take root can easily bypass such a program.  In reality, the only two things that are needed to keep a secure network are (A) a hardware firewall between you and the Internet and (B) well-educated, cautious, skeptical users.  Education seems to fly out the window when an erection or free music is involved, which is why 90% of what we see is porn seekers downloading whatever they think will be porn (and obviously wasn’t) and teens who grab LimeWire and proceed to download every virus known to man in the process.  Computers and their software stopped being the weakest link over a decade ago.  The most commonly exploited security hole on a computer is the device which sits between the keyboard and the chair, not the IP stack or WMF rendering libraries.

I’ve been looking for info on building KDrive (a tiny X server implementation) from the X.org sources for a while, and  I finally found some information that makes it nice and quick and doesn’t mess around at all.

KDrive – Making Embedded Debian

Everything else online dates back to 2005 or older, so this is pretty good info to have for new embedded developers who don’t have a clue how to do it yet.  Like me.

That’s right, I am officially crazy enough to try to use Gimp on a netbook.  While they may be small and underpowered, the ability to use an advanced image editor can come in handy at the most unexpected times (and often does!)  There are a few tricks needed to make Gimp’s tools fit on the screen of a netbook, though, particularly a 7″ netbook like my Sylvania G, and I shall reveal them now.

The biggest problem is the sheer quantity of space the two default toolkits take up.  Fortunately, these are highly customizable, and we can take advantage of a simple drag-and-drop to fix the issue.  Under the toolbox on the left pane, you’ll see a series of tabs.  Simply take all the tabs on the right pane and drag them down to this tab bar, and right-click and “close” any tabs you’ll never use (the brushes tab, for example, is not necessary unless you work with lots and lots of custom brushes!)  Pulling all the right-hand tools into the left-hand tools lets you remove the right pane entirely, freeing up oodles of space.  This is the most important goal: to dump a pane and reclaim what little viewing space we have in the first place.

Another big key to shrinking the toolbox is changing the theme from the Default to Small.  To do this, simply open the Gimp Preferences (look under the File menu) and click Theme in the left side of the window, then change it in the right side to the Small theme, and click OK.  Your toolbox tool icons should shrink significantly and more of your toolbox will become visible.  If you haven’t shrunk it vertically yet, now is a good time to do so.  You’ll need to toy with the vertical and horizontal size of the toolbox until it all (or most of it, anyway) fits on the screen well.

But wait!  In Gimp 2.6, they added some pesky eyes to everything!  That’s “Wilber,” the Gimp mascot, and while it might be cute and acceptable on a 17″ widescreen, I have 800×480 dots to work with and Wilber’s eyes will actually force the bottom of the left pane off-screen, even if I shrink it to its lowest vertical height.  What to do?

It’s quite simple, actually.  To remove the “eyes” of Wilber from the top of the Gimp toolbox, you need to find the “gimprc” file and add a line to it  The hard part is finding the file, but we can make that process easy.  If you’re using Linux, it’s under ~/.gimp or ~/.gimp-2.6 or something similar; on Windows, it’s under your Application Data folder in your user profile.  Windows users can simplify the process by using the Windows search function to locate “gimprc” instead of fishing around.

When you try to open gimprc on Windows, you will be asked what to open it with.  Normally I’d tell you to use Notepad, but Gimp may use Unix-style newlines which will render the file unreadable to a normal person in Notepad.  WordPad will open the file properly and should save it okay as well, so use Wordpad.  (If you’re a power user, why aren’t you using Notepad++ yet?!)  Go to the end of the file and add the following line to it:

(toolbox-wilber no)

Save the file and run Gimp to check that the eyes are gone.  If they aren’t, make sure you spelled it right, otherwise feel free to enjoy Gimp on your netbook!

In case you’re reading this and wondering, “What the heck is going on here?” I’ll offer a brief overview of what this blog shall be like. I run a computer service business in North Carolina called “Tritech Computer Solutions.” Personally, I think that some of the things I deal with on a daily basis are downright mundane, but just in case there is interest in anything that comes into my frenzied mind, I thought that starting a blog wouldn’t be such a bad idea. Hopefully you’ll enjoy what you read here. If so, E-mail me at jody@nctritech.com and let me know! I’ll be far more motivated to post interesting things if I actually know that they’re interesting. Please note that while this blog is written by a business owner, it is personal in nature, and all content herein is the ownership and responsibility exclusively of the writer, not Tritech Computer Solutions, and does not necessarily reflect the opinions of Tritech and its staff. All content not directly created by the author is generally used under the fair use doctrine of United States copyright law unless otherwise specified.

(This was reposted because I somehow totally busted the original “Welcome!” post…)

If you’re using the Mozilla Firefox browser (or one of its variants like Swiftfox, Iceweasel, etc.) you need to install the Adblock Plus plugin and subscribe to EasyList NOW.

If you’re still using Internet Explorer, Safari, or some other browser, you need to get Firefox.  Trust me, Firefox with Adblock Plus will make a huge difference in your browsing.  I haven’t seen an ad in years.  Firefox with Adblock Plus comes standard on all Tritech Computer Solutions new and used computer systems for a reason.

Additionally, you should get your hands on NoScript.  NoScript blocks JavaScript, which is largely responsible for unwanted popups, things that can block or bypass Adblock Plus, and many other annoying things you don’t want to see on websites.  Unfortunately, JavaScript is also responsible for most of the sites that you love being able to have pop-up menus and other user-friendly capabilities.  NoScript lets you “whitelist” the specific domain names you trust, while blocking those you don’t, which allows you to block ad scripts and things you’re not sure about while turning on just enough JavaScript capability to make sites such as Gmail work properly.

If you’ve got these installed but still want to maximize your Firefox browsing speed and keep your experience clean, FlashBlock is the way to go.  It’s very simple, really: FlashBlock replaces all Flash content with boxes containing a “Play” button instead.  The content won’t load and play until you click on the box, and it can be turned off for sites that you visit regularly as well.

All of these Firefox add-ons can make Internet browsing faster, ad-free, and much more enjoyable.  Plus, because fake security software “vendors” are able to easily purchase top ad placement on Google and other services, you’re also lowering the risk of accidentally clicking on one of these dangerous sites.  NoScript will also protect you from those confusing JavaScripts that try to force virus downloads upon you.

So, if you don’t have these things,GET THEM NOW.  End of story!

Ah, yes, the much-speculated Google Operating System.  Rumors about a possible OS from Google have been floating about for years now, and it seems that Google has finally delivered the cornucopia of computing goodness to your door.  Coming soon to a netbook near you:  Google’s new operating system.  The news is practically flooded with articles about why Google’s fancy new OS is so important and interesting.

I’m here to tell you why it sucks, and why it isn’t really that special at all.

First and foremost, Chrome OS is based on Linux, and Linux has already been out for a long time, with Ubuntu being the most well-known and possibly the most available distribution.  What makes Chrome OS different from any other Linux distro?  It’s Linux with yet another face, but under the hood it still shares far too much with Linux to be considered its own “operating system.”  (Watch for my next post to clarify the difference between a true operating system and what is merely labeled an OS but in fact is more of a “software environment.”)  Chrome OS = Linux with another pretty face.  End of story.  If you want Linux, download Ubuntu or Debian or Fedora or ArchLinux.  At least they offer up real applications and a fully featured environment…

Second, Chrome OS suffers from the most serious problem that other “cloud-centric” distributions of Linux are plagued with: the all-too-often wrong assumption that the computer will be connected to the Internet most of the time.  The OS is centered around the Chrome browser and the primary apps are online apps, with support for traditional offline apps likely to be minimal.  Case in point: gOS, which came with my Sylvania G netbook.  The first thing I did was toss out gOS and install something else–anything else– because it was such a nuisance.  gOS comes with icons for OpenOffice.org and Firefox, and that’s really about it.  Every other “application” seemed to be Internet-enabled.  Most of the “applications” were Google, Blogger, Facebook, MySpace, Google Docs, and other garbage that requires a (fast) Internet connection to work.  What good is having an ultraportable laptop if you need an Internet connection to use 90% of its functionality?  That’s one reason I documented some of the things you can do to get more out of the G netbook, because it actually comes with the majority of the standard GNOME environment, which includes a significant number of games, control panels, applications, and other tools…none of which has an icon in the default installation at all!  Chrome OS is doomed to suffer the same fate, because it is nothing more than “gOS reloaded” for all intents and purposes.

FEW PEOPLE WANT TO BE TETHERED TO THE INTERNET WITH THEIR LAPTOPS AT ALL TIMES.  LEARN THIS, GENIUSES: INTERNET APPLICATIONS SUCK.

Which brings us to my third point:  INTERNET APPLICATIONS SUCK. The ones that don’t suck aren’t Internet applications at all.  I don’t know anyone that uses Google Docs, and Google Docs is no replacement for an installation of OpenOffice.org or Microsoft Office.  One might be tempted to counter with a mention of the heavily-used Google SketchUp or Google Earth, but the difference is that those are true applications which just happen to be Internet-enabled or come from a site on the Internet.  Google Earth uses data pulled from the Internet, and Google Earth totally rocks.  Google Docs, though, is sparse on features and not very compatible with other office applications.  It is not a viable replacement for a real office package for most people, and it feels like “Microsoft Works lite” in general.  Looking beyond Google, we see sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Twitter, and other “social networking” sites taking longer and longer to load, being plagued by excessive use of widgets, and other serious issues.  Contrast this with traditional instant messenger applications and even the ever-hated AOL, which may not be the smallest programs in existence, but provide much better performance, a larger feature set, and better integration with other programs.  Internet applications are limited in their implementation and capabilities, as well as by the lack of proper support for industry standards that have been around for a long time now.

What’s very depressing is that I actually see many reputable sites hyping Chrome OS and discussing whether or not it threatens Windows, Linux, Mac OS, or even embedded operating systems.  Chrome OS is nothing more than a Linux distribution with a stupid idea behind it, and Google has spent considerable time and money on dumber things (can you say YouTube?)  This isn’t like Android, which opened up options in the mobile phone market considerably.  This is something targeted at machines that can already do more than Chrome OS can do.

In short, Google Chrome OS is obsolete before it ever rolls out.  Apparently, I’m not exactly alone in my opinions, and this article sums it all up quite nicely.