Oh, JOY.

So, after all the fun of trying to get my new machine to work, I take it back in. First, they're all "Are you sure it's not a problem with your monitor?" Of course not, I USE THAT MONITOR already. Note that they tested my motherboard for faults two weeks ago, and it was "fine". I paid $50 for that diagnosis.

So, in testing the motherboard and graphics card today, same problem as I have. Nothing. So the guy removes the RAM. Nothing, not even the beeps. "It must be a faulty motherboard."

Wait, what? This is the EXACT SAME PERSON who tested it two weeks ago, and told me it was fine. Of course, they only give a week within which to replace parts; so all they're doing now is passing me off onto the makers of the motherboard.

Who, surprisingly, do not answer their 1300 number at all; looking online to confirm this is the number I need - "Technical support line for ASUS Notebook and Handheld device only:" Yes, that's right. They will no doubt tell me they can't help me with motherboard problems, assuming they ever deign to actually answer their phone.

So it looks like I'm out about $250 all together, and have nothing more to show for it than a piece of elaborate metal and plastic artwork.

So, in summary, if you're in Perth, I personally do not recommend Austin Computers in the slightest, as they will take your money, offer you little to no service and/or satisfaction, and simply pass the problem onto someone else.

Seriously, fuck Austin computers. Took them half an hour to do a one minute job for me. I wanted to get my mobo checked, to determine if it's the problem. 30 minutes of waiting after telling them this, to get them to hand me a receipt. Meanwhile, about another 10 customers were waiting for stuff - one guy dropped his machine off for repairs a while back. Paid. Got it back, nothing fixed. Brought it back. A week ago, they said it would be ready to pick up. Now they can't find it, and they want the guy to pay for further repairs.

Goddamnit. Sometime this morning my system rebooted, from a thunderstorm. Fine. But after that? Malware. Just continual popups, and a false version of the Microsoft-made "yellow triangle" alert that opens more popups.

And of course, the software to remove the shit - requires you to pay to do more than list what's wrong. I'm not even sure it was the same particular malware, since aspects didn't match the writeups I found.

Ugh. If ever there was a catalyst for me to try to speed up Operation Linuxbox, this was it. I lost several hours I could have been working on assignments.

Nnnnngh. Anyone here experienced with Javascript?

I'm working on a basic little Javascript evaluation - simple multi-choice for now, but it seems when I try to run it, it glitches up, and simply refreshes the page.

Anyone interested in taking a look, please reply, and I'll email you a copy if you hit me up (finback at iprimus dot com dot au) with your addy.

It's probably a really simple thing, but I know ess eff ay about Javascript stuff.

I could SERIOUSLY go for a drink right now. Just a single, room temperature rum and coke.. which reminds me to begin planning for OPERATION: LIBERTALIA.

Rrrr. So I hooked up the new IDEs to the Linux box.. worked fine. Then I.. did something. I don't know specifically what - no, that's right. The DVD-burner wouldn't open, as if it was getting no power to it. So I redid the cables to it.

Now nothing works. And when you switch on power at the mains, it semistarts. It bips, then just whirs, whilst not actually doing anything - there's certainly no monitor response, giving just the "Check system cable" message..

AND I'm still waiting for Peter Gabriel to appear on the Winter Olympics.

Christ.

So, Firefox has been slowly dying on me. It started when it stopped letting me open windows that used Java script - weird, since those were sites allowed to have popups, etc. Then it started hanging on me more often.

So I decided to reinstall.

I uninstall, and reinstall off a downloaded copy of 1.0.4

But when it starts, it runs exactly the same as before, with the same extensions, etc, same websites in the cache.

SO I uninstall, reboot.

Same thing again.

I uninstall, delete the Program Files/Mozilla Firefox directory. Reboot.

Reinstall.

SAME THING AGAIN.

And when I click Options under Tools, it locks the entire thing so that you can't even click on it, and you have to Ctrl-Alt-Del your way to freedom.

It sucks a LOT because I was really pleased with Firefox for the longest time. Now it's an abusive spouse.

*sigh*

I decided to hook up the sound system to the PC. I'm using the same cables as I did back with my old sound system...

.. and I can't get the PC to actually work in 5.1. The first time I even tried running a DVD on it, itttttt aaaaaaalllllll sssssllllllloooooowwwweeeeeedddddd dddoooooowwwwnnnnnnn lliiiiiiiikkkkkkkeeee ttttttthhhhhhiiiiiisssssssss, and then the second time, it at least made normal sound.

But I can't get it to actually do 5.1 like it used to. So, all that couch lifting and reorganising cables for..... zip.

(Do the more modern monitors with TV capabilities have the same sort of yellow-cable inputs to run, say, a DVD player on them? If so, then I'd happily drag my proper DVD playet up, and use that.

Also, still trying to get to *any* grips with Mandrake 9.2 (a Linux system) on the laptop.. I'm still having trouble networking XP to XP :/