Microsoft can’t be buying Yahoo!

Microsoft put in a bid to purchase yahoo, this was all over the news and the internet but not everyone has heard this yet. What does this say for the current state of yahoo stock ? Did this do anything to Apple stock? There was a crash in Apple stock right at the same time as the offer purchase. Did the Microsoft stock rise? Did everyone bail out on yahoo?

Is google really on top of the game like everyone seems to be saying?.. I think not. I do not think they have the banks behind them financing them as Msn or the big Y!  have behind them.

I do not believe that Google is beating Yahoo or Microsoft at anything. I work on mess loads upon mess loads of computers every year. What I see when I boot up these computers and open the browser is always the same thing. Yahoo for the home page and Yahoo toolbar.

I would even go so far as to say that one in every 20 computers I work on in a year, have something else other than just plain old Internet Explorer. I mean, if more computers used Firefox (which everyone is saying is the fastest growing browser) than what I see, I would assume that more people are using the default Firefox start/home page, but they just aren’t. We all know that all start pages have search boxes.

Do I believe Google has a superior search? Well, no. Not really. It’s not like it finds stuff that the other search engines do not find.

Microsoft used to have chat rooms. These chat rooms where mostly split by the city you live in. Each populated city had a capacity of 50 people per chat room. If the chat room exceeded 50 people, an overflow room would be created. Some days there where up to 15 overflow rooms. In each room there where three advertisements with “rotating banners,” Microsoft created this line of code. The rotating banner means that the ads displayed in the ad-space would change to a new advertisement every 3-5 minutes. Most “chatters” would stay in the chat rooms for hours or days, just leaving their computer on and never exiting from the chat room. This must have been huge revenue for Microsoft, but they shut the doors on the free chat rooms and decided to put a fee on them. People where there for the free place to congregate, not because they where addicted. MSN closed the doors on the whole chat room idea simply because they have the money to toss around like that. The whole idea of being free and meeting local people in a moderated area was dead.

Yahoo, on the other hand, still has chat rooms divided by location, but not in such detail that MSN had. Yahoo divides by state. Yahoo also mandates you use their messenger because the ads are integrated in the messenger. My opinion, this is a bad idea. You can no longer just join the chat room from a link you find on the internet and install a small flash program then be on your way. You now have to download a massive install program with tons of hidden crap that you can opt out of during the install, if you read closely. This, of course, is another nail in the coffin for yahoo chat. People want their chats simple.

If Google made a city chat that was moderated by humans on an I.R.C. service like Wylderide, there would stand a great chance of zero tolerance of porn bots, additionally age verification could be worked out. Google has nothing that keeps people staring at their stuff, just glances. If Google would acquire Chatcity or revive Excite chat, hell even create something new and better, I would have no doubt in Google being on top.

Next time you are in a computer repair shop, ask the guy behind the counter “What is the most common start page and toolbar on computers you fix?” you will have your answer. Oddly enough, I find myself saying what everyone else says “Google” but truthfully it is not the most common. Not by far.

If they change their home page at all from Msn, it’s Yahoo…………………..

The Parents’ Computer!

Maybe my parents are weird, maybe this normal.

They have a dell, a 900mhz Dell CD ROM and 15 inch CRT and Windows 98SE ME bundle.

Well they keep getting pop ups and spyware. I keep trying to fix it. that was some frustrating stuff. I mean it is said all over the net that the hosts file is located in the windows directory. Well on their machine, it was not. It was no where. S I download mvp’s hosts from his site. their computer had nothing to uncompress zip files. No wonder they think computers are useless. I mean they can’t even get a bundle of Christmas pictures because no one can send them a compressed file.

Ok 7zip came to the rescue. See you can not tell them you are installing stuff you just have to do it. If you tell them you are putting stuff on there ” that ain’t gonna slow it down is it?. does it take up much space? is it a virus thingy?” so just wait till they go to the bathroom and BANG!

Well the hosts file does go in the Windows directory, even if there isn’t one already.

Well now mom opens here browser and sees in the little boxes where the ads used to be “page can not be displayed” and gets mad because I made it ugly.

WTF!

so I tell her I didn’t do it and something must have broke.

I tell her I will look and see if something is broke inside the computer, because “I thought I smelled something burning earlier.”

I open the computer and pull out all of the dust and hairballs and fuzzy stuff. and clean from motherboard to hard drive, yank out the PCI slot modem because I know they have cable. I throw away teh pci slot modem and close the computer and boot up and surf the net a bit, defragment the hard drive run spyware and online virus scanners , when all is done I shut it down and leave.

for the next week I will not be answering their phone calls.

REvived my Video card

[tags]512mb, 7600, benchmark, bfg, computer, gamer, gaming, gs, gt, make computer faster, nvidia, overclock, pcpitsop, performance, pny, results, speed up computer, test[/tags]

If you read my earlier post about my cat killing my video card.

You would pretty much assume that the card could not be saved. The card was so bad off it was like the “degause” button was stuck and well you pretty much assume the card was french fried. After 4 hours of wiping with a cotton swab and water then going back with window cleaner the very next day and doing this for about four hours only to give up and say “screw it” and start spraying the video card soaking it in glass cleaner even in the dvi socket and vga socket and s video socket, then going back with a paper towel and dabbing up the glass cleaner after it soaked for a minute then sprayed again and dabbed again. Final spray was a soaker of the entire card to rinse off remaining coffee residue. I dabbed after a two minute soak and drain , then went back and wiped with a paper towel and a hand full of cotton swabs until the card looked brand new. I mean under a microscope you would not find any dust, not one drop. I let the card sit for one more night, and a whole day of work.

Of course I tilted the card so that what ever fluid/liquid that was still in the card in any of the sockets would drain downward back the way it entered.

I dug out my BFG nvidia drivers, I put on fresh heatsink paste (the only heatsink paste I found was the cheap tube I had in my parts box) reinstalled my heatsink 01-30-08_1751.jpg

Snapped card back in, connected fans and power to card and booted up and installed the bfg nvidia drivers.

Went to pc pitstop and did my usual bencmark

here is a past work

here is after the clean up and reinstall

To see quick results, go to “compare” at the bottom.

here is the temporary card .

Cat killed my video card

Well, so much for fun.

My cat slapped my coffee onto my computer and the fan splattered coffee all over my video card.

512 mb ram 7600 gt wasted.

Now I am running on a $40 6200 I had laying around since the last upgrade in the family.

Oh yeah my head was in the way because I was plugging in a usb chord at the time  now I smell like coffee.

Must go shower

My son’s computer specs

We are building him a computer right now.

Well he is , I am just telling him how to do it easier. He spent his Christmas and birthday money  on this build.

We had to go to fry’s and to wal~mart . Wal~mart for the monitor because he had like $200 in Wal~mart gift cards.

He got dual 2.2 x2 Pentium processor , two gigs of of kingston pc2-5300 memory , nvidia 8500 gt pci-e with 512 memory.

He is right now in the middle of snapping the motherbaord in and cussing up a storm .. lol  that’s my midget!!!!

Should go good with the tower I bought him for Christmas  with the 500wt power supply and 3 ( I think it was 3) case fans. with the dvd/cdrw combo .

Right now the only thing on this machine that is old, is the 80 Maxtor hard drive.

Not bad for a 14 year old kid, but guess who his daddy is? :-P

Working on website

Well everyone, I am not going to take all day explaining because I really have a bunch to do.

I revamped my website and went with css.  well the index is css only. The rest of the site is still html, until I get around to that section. I do have a few pages mostly converted but they are stored in a folder on my desktop labeled “wired”. The issue is I have less link for my site than what I really want.

I like the bubbly look of it right now. Won’t be but four or five months and I will make another change. I really do have an awesome plan in mind (I mean come on listen to the web address) but i also have a job and am not ready for the commitment of  all the services just yet.

Online Flash Video Games

I created a page to fill up with games . The idea was so I could have something else going to keep my brain from from slouching while I am at work waiting on the server to get fixed,or blue print to print or just stuff to do on days when I bring my lunch.

Games

http://iworkwithpeople.com/games

Well one of the ladies at my job walked up while the game was open (but I wasn’t playing at that exact time). She asked me what it was and I explained that it was one of like 5 games I uploaded to a hidden section on my own website. After like 3 days, another one of the ladies from my job walks up and says “hey is that all the games you have on your site?”.. I didn’t know how to answer. I mean if I said “nah I plan to upload a buttload and waste my time on the clock playing stupid games all day. So I paused for a second and said ” well I was thinking of putting up new stuff every now and again, but not a whole bunch of stuff” she said to me ” can you get like a bingo or a tic-tac-toe game?” I busted out laughing. I mean it, really. Doctor Pepper shot out of my nose. Well I started uploading a game here and there and different people came up telling me what was lame and what they want. I was like “dude get your own frickin’ server” but then I realized that I now have a hobby when I am home… making this stuff work.

After a bunch of complaints I removed a lot of the games and just kept the ones everyone liked.

Well if you have a request or know of a site that I can get more games from, help me out — the natives are getting restless. lol

A Letter To Comcast- You Blocked My Site!

I am the owner of iworkwithpeople.comI have not been able to connect to my website now for nearly a week, I have seen that I can connect while at work on a t3 line, and I can connect on my female friend’s computer that has a dsl line, and a few friends from live.Pirillo.com have helped me and checked the connection from where they are and they all connect.. except the people on comcast . My site’s address is iworkwithpeople.com and the service I have is through 50megs.com. i assume they took it upon themselves to block 50megs.com for what ever reason they saw fit. in the process of blocking 50megs, they blocked me.. This reduces the number of page visits considerably. Considering they monopolized the cable industry, it looks more like a 20’s gangster bull crap “ehh mugsy don’t let no one connect to them until they pay me 50% seeeeeeee” .I am not happy with this .

The letter I wrote is to follow

Comcast Houston blocking my domain.
I own a website, through 50megs.com
I can connect to my file manager on sbc dsl, I can connect through sprint dsl and I have connected at work with a t3 line, but when I get home or to any of my friend’s houses with Comcast I can not connect to 50megs.com . I am near time to re up on my domain name and hosting bills and getting really frustrated that I can not connect from home where i feel safe. I want to connect to my service and it appears you are blocking me. Please look into this and solve this issue.

From work we did a tracert

After doing a tracert and a whois we find these services
1 19 ms <1 ms <1 ms 192.168.1.1
2 1 ms 1 ms 1 ms 74.7.23.193
3 8 ms 9 ms 7 ms 172.22.213.125
4 14 ms 7 ms 9 ms 192.168.39.48
5 13 ms 9 ms 7 ms 192.168.38.34
6 12 ms 8 ms 9 ms ge-1-6.r03.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [128.241.1
.177]
7 13 ms 9 ms 8 ms xe-0-1-0.r20.hstntx01.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250
.2.228]
8 15 ms 16 ms 14 ms as-0.r20.dllstx09.us.bb.gin.ntt.net [129.250.3.1
29]
9 17 ms 17 ms 16 ms ge3-0.cr02.dal01.pccwbtn.net [206.223.118.48]
10 54 ms 50 ms 48 ms unitedonline.ge2-5.br01.lax01.pccwbtn.net [63.21
8.25.14]
11 52 ms 57 ms 57 ms ve113.r1.bu3.lax.untd.com [64.136.1.171]
12 51 ms 48 ms 57 ms pop.communityarchitect.com [64.136.25.170]

Trace complete.

communityarchitect.com
northsky.com
freeservers.com
direct-connect.com

tell me if you can connect through Comcast

these three are the chain I chased at work.

Now from home I do a tracert

Microsoft Windows XP [Version 5.1.2600]
(C) Copyright 1985-2001 Microsoft Corp.

C:Documents and SettingsTruXter>tracert 50megs.com
Unable to resolve target system name 50megs.com.

C:Documents and SettingsTruXter>

It has been confirmed by my Domain Host that Comcast is surely blocking all of 50megs.com domain hosting from being connected by Comcast users !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Message today 1-15-08 from 50megs.com

We have contacted Comcast and have ticket open with them. They are working to clear out the cache and correct the outage issues.

We have resolved the issues on this side.

It should be up and running shortly. Mike

Mysite Customer Service

Original Message Follows: ————————

Form Message

Complaint: Looks like comcast is blocking all connection to 50 megs. I can not connect to my site or the file manager located on 50megs.com
Full Name: Mr. TruXter
Email Address: XXXX@comcast.net
Web Site URL: iworkwithpeople.com
Partner Domain: 50megs.com
service_level: 213
user_agent: Mozilla/5.0 (Windows; U; Windows NT 5.1; en-US; rv:1.8.1.11) Gecko/20071127 Firefox/2.0.0.11
Java Script: YES
Application Name: Netscape
Application Version: 5.0 (Windows; en-US)
Subject: MWS-Complaints: Looks like comcast is blocking all connection to 5

Message from comcast today 1-15-08

Dear Customer,

Thank you for contacting Comcast Cable.

I understand that you are experiencing difficulties with your Comcast
service. Offering our customers the most effective possible support is a
priority at Comcast. We appreciate that you have given us this
opportunity to communicate with you and we want to address your concerns
as quickly as possible. Although most issues can be addressed from
within the email forum, in some cases "Live Interaction" is necessary as
this issue will have to be escalated for resolution. In order to assist
you, we ask that you use the link below to open a "Chat session" with a
representative or call us using the information provided.

 http://www.comcastsupport.com/chat

If you require assistance and prefer to speak to a representative:
Please call us at 1-800-COMCAST (266-2278) - Customer Care and Internet
Support 24/7

If you need further assistance, please feel free to respond directly to
this email. We appreciate you taking the time to contact us.

Thank you for choosing Comcast.

Sincerely,

Tonya
Comcast Customer Care Specialist
**************************************************
The response contained in this message is intended for the addressee
only and may vary from other responses depending on geography,
promotional campaigns or other factors.  If you are not the intended
recipient of this response, please delete this message. Any unauthorized
use or dissemination of the information contained in this message is
prohibited.
**************************************************

Original Message Follows:
------------------------

Comments:
Comcast houston blocking my domain.
I own a website, through 50megs.com
I can connect to my file manager on sbc dls, I can connect through
sprint dsl and I have connected at work with a t3 line, but when I get
home or to any of my friend''s houses with comcast I can not connect to
50megs.com . I am near time to re up on my domain name and hosting bills
and getting really frustrated that I can not connect from home where i
feel safe. I want to connect to my service and it appears you are
blocking me. Please look into this and solve this issue.
IPAddress:
98.XXX.X.XXX


Kinda looks like they sent me a bunch of nothing from comcast.. feels like I am trying to teach my cat how to pee in the toilet.

************update****************

Someone sent me a link to a proxy thingy for myspace
and it actually worked, just typed in my web site address and bamI whent directly to my site. I did not type in my password or anything though, I really do not know if I trust a third party site like that… ya know? so if you are on comunismcast or any service that can not see my site right now, gie that a try. see for your self that you are actually blocked.

************update***********

50megs.com is down

They host my stuff and for two days now I can not log into my account or even see http://iworkwithpeople.com

which is hosted at 50megs.com .. heck i can’t even go to 50 megs. . this is killing my visit count.

You know, I am starting to think  comcast is blocking my host’s i.p. address.

No one can go there that I know of, who are on comcast.

I mean my buddy in another city on dsl can go there

I can go there from my job just 4 miles up the road, and my job uses a whole nother service.

if you can go to 50megs.com or iworkwithpeople.com   please leave a notice as to what service you use and which of the two sites you can access.

Choosing a Linux distribution

http://www.helium.com/tm/554548/making-choice-distribution-linux

Making your choice of distribution of Linux is not near as big of a deal as it was 3 – 4 years ago, even though for some reason all of the tech guys lead you to think it is.Really i think it is because of pc repair minded political correctness. The ease and interface is not varied by such a greatness that only techy nerdy guys can use one version and regular people can use another. Anything on one distribution can be used on another.
Let’s break this into 3 popular core distros.
1.fedora
2.debian
3.novell

On fedora you get the two main players. Mandrake and redhat. You get excellent support on either one, there is a slight difference in the look but not the feel. The installs have gone smooth for me every time and easily on many different machines, from mother board and wifi and video card variations. even the freshest of Linux users can install and use fedora smoothly and easily.

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on debian you get a few main players. Knoppix, Linspire, Xandros, and the Ubuntu family.
ubuntu I have to say has the best of all splash screen when it boots up, after that it is really not worth the install.ubuntu is heavy bloated and really limited to what types of installs you can use. pretty much limited to .deb files and source. That operating system is slow, but has some high dollar hype or public viral advertisement. Linspire is a transition os made to make the swap from windows to linux easy. it’s alright and makes alot of usage really easy. Knoppix isnt much different but is a bit more pro feeling. Xandros is the ultimate operating system for those who like a fast operating system without bloat-ware,basic file install works easily with .deb and .rpm with no code to type in or lines to edit.

On novell you get suse . and a bunch of add on software. suse is foreground user of .rpm but recently also took in the use of .deb installs. Suse is the mid mark between ubuntu in it’s nice looks and excessive bloated addons, and Xandros with it’s ease of use and fast performance.

The question you need to ask is “Do I need Performance and speed? or do I need appearance?” if you can not make your mind up on which is more what you want, then go the midway and get suse. after you use suse for a while and get a feel , you might want to think about what you do need and don’t need. You could even consider getting the faster operating system and then adding on only the stuff you would like to see on it. to pretty it up.everything on linux is tweakable. 90% of the addons are free. Sourceforge will be your best friend eventually.

The choice is yours and there is nothing to fear about linux and every big distributed version is safe and easy to install and use. They all can be strong tools and beautied up if needed.It really is not a huge ordeal and adaptation comes quick.

Learn more about this author, TruXter