too many arghhhs

By basd on Sep 11, 2010 | In -arghhh!!

It occurs to me with the time I have spent at my night job of personal IT manager to me I could have written everything I have ever used the computer for with a chisel on stone tablets in triplicate.

...

Perfection is just too elusive. Right now I am installing the xfce4 desktop. Why? Because I just realized that LXDE has apparently not implemented configuration files (or something) in utilizing the xfce power manager. Why is that an issue? I discovered that no matter how many times I changed the configuration to what I want, it didn't save. And, in specific, I can kill the repeated and unwanted notification popups that Really Get in the Way. After some research, I could not find the configuration files to edit them manually.

So, I thought, maybe if I install the actual xfce desktop and go into IT, then I can configure the power management and then it will have configuration files and then it will work in LXDE. Or something. Or maybe I will discover I like xfce and launch myself into an entirely new learning curve hell.

I am in a bad "Bill Gates Again" mood. I was up till 3 am downloading another 112 windowsXP updates. Why, you ask?

Well, I wanted to run Netflix on my hp zd7000. Now, my zd7000 actually died about 3-4 years ago. Random power off crashes, wouldn't boot.

In windows.

The WindowXP Professional that I paid xtra $$$$ for along with the extra $$$$ I paid for a hyperthreading 3 ghz cpu. I got extravagant. This was my "power machine."

It was also when I still "liked" WindowsXP -- or at least, didn't hate everything with Microsoft logo on it.

I didn't use the zd7000 for a long while. Then I put OpenSuse 11 on it and discovered it worked more or less "just fine." But, I didn't have much of a use for it.

Then as a result of various life ironies, I needed another computer at a second location. Also, I had installed Virtualbox -- and after a long argument with Microsoft customer-harassment headquarters somewhere in India, I reinstalled my WindowsXP Professional -- legally purchased and licensed to one and one only computer in the whole world -- onto the zd7000 via Virtualbox.

But, I have moved so far away from WindowsXP, I didn't actually use it. In fact, as the result of various OpenSuse reinstalls, it was in a different user account than the one I regularly use.

But, watching Netflix on the nice 17" display seemed like it would be a Good Thing. So, last night I decided to move the Vbox to my current regular user account. And setup Netflix. Which worked.

However, you know the drill. Haven't used WindowsXP for awhile? Oh, guess what ... 112 updates will now download and strangle what's left of the functionality of WindowsXP. (After all, you should by now have upgraded to Vista and then to Windows7. And ... oh, scrap that old boat anchor computer because it's not powerful enough.)

After all, they DID specifically try to kill it off. Years of research later, I discovered that the problem is only partly a hardware problem -- the computer doesn't boot in WindowsXP because of driver updates that simply crippled startup.

I tell you, it was weird putting Virtualbox in full screen mode and seeing fully functional WindowsXP on the old zd7000 again.

Which segues to my next diversion: maybe this software appliance thing is something I need to look into. Maybe I need to set up a XEN computer. Maybe ...

I should get a chisel and some blank stone tablets.