I decided to go ahead and do one last system recovery on this stupid VAIO (no, I have no idea how many that makes) and just replace the DVD-R drive after that, so I wouldn’t have to worry about the hardware configuration preventing the recovery.

So much for that. The recovery went through just fine; runs right, says it’s reconfiguring everything right and all, reboots - and dies. I didn’t change the BIOS (the recovery would’ve balked at that) and I haven’t changed the hardware since the *last* time I reinstalled the opsys. I have no idea what’s wrong this time.

Right. Goodbye Sony. Mom’s old VAIO works much better since I overwrote the whole thing with Debian (well, except the part where I broke it trying to install a printer driver, but reinstallation is easier with Linux - no arbitrary anti-piracy measures). It’s time to shop for new hardware and a cheap copy of Elements (already bought a standalone copy of XP Pro, just in case) and build a whole new machine. How much is a membership at Costco again?

Why oh why do I keep trying to get useful information out of Sony’s tech support? I should know better. I do know better. And this time, I found a link that let me copy the transcript, despite the fact that their Java-based chat disallows copy-paste (a right nuisance, that). Removed his name out of pity. Formatting’s wonky enough that I can’t intersperse comments without making it look really strange, or take forever reformatting it by hand; stupid Java chats. Yeah, ended up with “take forever reformatting.” Bleah. Read the rest of this entry »

One day in Film Directing class, Dr. Stenholm was lecturing as usual when she began, “If something is worth doing…”

With a mental eyeroll and a nod, I finished it in my head: “…it’s worth doing right.”

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Sometimes spam is funny, and sometimes it just makes you wonder. Like this one, which came to the email address I’m using with CJ (the ads I have on my page here - I refuse to make my page unreadable by burying everything in ads, but a few here and there are okay…to be honest, though, I don’t know how long I’ll keep trying those, since they don’t seem to be making me any money) and with one or two other sites. It’s not a widely used email address, so the fact that this email came through it is…odd. I suspected at first that CJ sent it, as they often send messages from new CJ affiliate clients that want me to add their program to my CJ affiliate account, but when CJ does that, they come from CJ’s domain. This didn’t.

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Sometimes the scams that show up in my inbox just make me laugh. This is one of them:

From: Harith Ahmad Date: 1/2/2008 10:45:55 PM To: (someone else’s email address) Subject: For A Real Investment

Dear Friend

Please make a hotel reservation for me and tell me the nearest airport to you and await for my arrival.This is a transaction of $11m (eleven million USD) from a genuine source and duly certified.It is my inheritance with full legal right.

I trust that with you I will be able to invest on the right business to maximize profit and grow my money.I am not resident in your country,pls be my partner,receive me well and 20% of the total fund is for you.Trust me.

Regards

Harith Ahmad
479 Valley Road,
Valley Park # 12-04
Singapore.

Note the email - the only address showing was not mine. Such a personal message! And the “trust me” is really the icing on the cake.