The Boredom of Ramfree17

For anybody who has done support work (paid or gratis) the scenario below is very familiar:

My non-techie neighbor, who is also on the same morning shuttle service that my wife and I are taking, just purchased a new computer for her kids. I just provided some inputs on the parts but all-in-all she went with the recommendation of their office IT guy.

After a few days my neighbor asked if I could drop by to see why the new computer won’t connect to the dial-up service. She said that their IT guy has already done some initial test on it and they could connect just fine. Since I am on good terms with my neighbor I said I will drop by when I have free time.

Due to conflict of schedules I was only able to take a look at the computer last Sunday after my wife and I arrived from our trip to Nueva Ecija. Expecting that the problem will be with the internal modem I dug up my old diamond supra external modem and proceeded to my neighbor’s house. The workstation runs Window XP. I made a half-hearted effort to pitch Linux but ,knowing the users, I cannot commit to providing 24×7 support line and besides my neighbor is adamant on having ‘Print Artist’ on the computer because it is the primary reason why she bought the machine. I didn’t understand the reasoning but it sways on the issue of it being a crucial part of school work. (NOTE: Don’t ask me about Print Artist because the last time I saw a version was circa ’97. If you want to talk about graphics software then talk to my wife. I am happy being artistically-challenged. Thank you.)

Back to the topic. The computer was configured to auto-login to the administrator account (yippee! instant-admin+XP! what else can you wish for?). I checked the Device Manager and the internal modem seems to be detected without any problems. I tried to dial-up and the pop-up dialog just hangs there and throws out an indecipherable error after a minute or two. I plugged in my external modem and transferred the phone cables. The modem was detected correctly. I disabled the internal modem to ensure that all dial-up activities will be routed to the external modem. When I tried to connect I was greeted with a “No dial tone.” message.

Ah, we are getting somewhere. I then checked to see if there is really a faulty connection. I picked up the receiver of the phone to see if there is indeed no dial tone since it is connected via the modem. Egad! There is a dial tone!!!!

Scratching my head, I assume that this is a Windows problem. I went back home to get my Knoppix LiveCD to verify my assumption. When I got back the company technician who assembled the unit arrived. As I explained my assumptions to him he watched as I booted the system in Knoppix and answered questions about running Linux on the desktop. When KDE is up I opened a terminal and did a quick check on the modem using this command:

echo > /dev/ttyS0

The lights on the modem gave a few blinks so it was definitely working. I created a new dial-up account using the information on the prepaid card. When I started the dial-up connection I was greeted by the very warm message “no dial tone”.

Scratching my head, I took out my liveCD and rebooted the machine to Windows. I gave the machine to the tech so he could do his thing. Being the tech he is, he wanted to see everything for himself so he opened the dial-up window and fired the connection. After 5 seconds THE UNIT HAPPILY AUTHENTICATED WITH THE DIALUP SERVER!

My jaw dropped. Wha– How– whe—? I can only shake my head in disbelief. Another gremlin incident has wasted 30 minutes of my time and what is worse the tech didn’t do anything special! This was really a role reversal since I was usually at the other end when officemates asks me to troubleshoot their computer issues. 🙂

Oh well, I just gave the tech my Knoppix livecd. At least something good came out of the experience since I have introduced another IT professional to the world of Linux. There is no guarantee that he will use it but at least he now has the knowledge that Windows is not the only OS out there.

ciao!

Only in the Philippines (I think)…

I just cant understand what drives pedestrian to make a sudden dash to cross the road but stop at about 3/4ths of the road. I know that normal people by instinct have a tendency to fear being hit by an oncoming vehicle so I cant for the life of me fathom why crossing pedestrians always stop at that specific point of crossing. Three-fourths of the road means that you an approaching vehicle will not just clip you but hit you head-on. The safe zones (if there are any) is halfway, where the vehicles of both lanes can afford to leave unused, and at the other side of the road. Stopping anywhere else is a death wish.

I initially thought that it was because people are slowing down from their mad dash to cross the road but I dont see the point of slowing down so your body is at the dead center of the approaching vehicle. It would be safer to slowdown after you have reached the other side of the road unless there is not enough sidewalk to perform the slowdown. Seeing this behavior frequently shows that this is not an isolated case to a specific location. I have seen it in the cities as well as in the not-so-developed parts of the country. I have seen this behavior in people of varying age, gender and sexual preferences. There is some logic in all this craziness but I am at wits end trying to figure it out. Anybody notices this behavior and want to help me puzzle this out?

ciao!

No, I did not mean myself. Everyonce in a while I get messages like those in my phone but sometimes the anonymous person on the other end is pretty persistent even when told no. I don’t know if they have just received their very first cellphone which explains their incessant need to have friends via the unorthodox channel of text messaging.

I can understand chatting strangers via IRC since those people log-in for that kind of interaction, but in SMS? Sorry but I am not interested nor am I willing to spend Php1.00@SMS to have a broken conversation with a stranger who might very well be a lunatic. Scratch that, I may not mind having conversation with a unknown lunatic but I do mind if I am going to be charged for it. 😛

Last night I decided to have some fun. The person who introduced him/herself asked if I could be his/her friend. I replied with the following

sure.just kol me rolito, 45yrs old and lyk kids,d youngr d beter.btw s not my ril nme bec my lawyer advsd gving my ril nme.blib me dat i am inocent of d 2 rape cases.dey askd 4 it.do u heb nud pix?send it to yedaddy@hotmail.com n ill send u mine.how old r u?

No reply yet and the best 2 pesos i spent yesterday. 🙂

ciao!

Yesterday, Betsy has finally decided that enough is enough. Betsy has finally suffered a neuro-mechanical shock and entered a deep state of comatose. In an effort to give more meaning in her existence, she broke a nerve and never woke up again from the lapse.

Betsy is lovingly survived by Lala and Paquito. Thank you for all the good memories.

Oh yeah, Betsy is my ~7 year old, triple-booted workstation. I was cleaning the computer command center (or nook depending on who is talking 😀 ) yesterday when the power switch on the Simba casing refused to work properly when I returned the chassis in the rack. I already took the casing apart but the switch is a one-piece deal and electricals is one area where I dont dare push my limited tinkering skills. This is the last straw for me so I decided to coax my Chief Financial Officer (CFO, aka Commander Wife-san) to finally approve Betsy’s upgrade. I am currently looking for an affordable barebones package (Chassis+Motherboard+Processor+RAM) since I will be reusing most of Betsy’s reusable components: the 60GB HDD and the DVD/CD Writers. I am currently looking at buyqube.com’s offerings but I am still confirming if they would allow the removal of the HDD and Optical drive on their packages.

For those interested, I am selling the remains of Betsy which is composed of the following:

• AMD Duron 800Mhz
• Redfox motherboard w/ built-in video (32MB shared) and sound
• 386MB SDRAM (256+128)
• 52X CD_ROM Drive
• PCI Lan card
• USB-PCI 1.1 adaptor card (6 ports, i think)
• The darned Simba chassis
• Aged (read:Yellowish) Speakers, keyboard and mouse

All except the chassis switch and ethernet card is working since it has been a long time since I used it on a network. Based on current market price of the components, I am setting the asking price to Php2,000 (which is already a bargain price). I am also willing to add a 2GB Fujitsu HDD but it is missing a jumper but usable as a floppy disk since I sometimes use it with an external HDD enclosure. So if you are interested then do drop me note. 🙂

Btw, Lala and Paquito are the given names of my laptop and Ipaq. Once upgraded, Ol’Betsy is to be named Bettina. /lol

ciao!

The first one I attributed to recklessness, the second on tiredness. However the third time is too much since I verified that I know my arti, areth.. err my math!

I am talking about the spam-deterrent math verification system that Chris has in his blog. Everytime my answer failed I lose whatever I have written but this time I was pretty sure that 10 + 10 is 20 unless it is in binary!

Anyway I tried it on another post wherein I was asked 2 + 3. So it is not binary! I answered 5 and even have a screenshot to prove it (none of the error though).

I notified Chris about this peculiarity and I was writing this he called me up (*mucho dinero!*). He tried it on one of his pages and he got the same error (hehehe, he sucks in math too) but on the other post it went through. I tried posting a test comment again and it was successfully entered.

I blame it on the code gremlins. And no, my math skills may be retarded by I know my rith, arthme, math!

ciao!