Windows XP SP2 and Cisco’s VPN client

I have a computer at home that runs Windows XP (SP2), and I have a need to connect to a VPN for work that requires the Cisco VPN client. These two entities just do not seem to play well together. Periodically the VPN client will begin causing the system to hang up after I’ve connected to the VPN. This is a recoverable hang, it generally just causes some invisible entity to consume all of my resources for 10 to 15 minutes, rendering the computer unresponsive. If I wait I get control of my box back, but it’s really a royal pain in the butt. To remedy the problem, I have to uninstall the VPN client, uninstall SP2, reinstall SP2 and reinstall the VPN client. This is a process that takes FOREVER and I really get tired of it. I wasn’t surprised about this at all, initially, because Windows XP SP2 was so new, I expected there to be problems. But it’s been out so long at this point, I really expected the problems to have been resolved either by Microsoft or by Cisco by now… but NO neither of these entities cares about users that much. Grrr.

And while I’m on the topic of complaining. I have a WinTV PVR 350 card, produced by Hauppauge. I’m also Hard of Hearing. I would really love the card, except the drivers don’t support Closed Captioning, and I kind of need it. When I bought the card I contacted Hauppauge’s technical support to ask about CC, and was told that it wasn’t currently supported, but was planned for an upcoming release. It’s been 3 years… and there have been multiple driver revisions over that time, but still no closed captioning support. It’s customer service like this that just makes me want to scream. They don’t seem to care about their users/customers at all. Closed Captioning is a pretty big deal… especially as it is… oh, I don’t know, required by law for every TV sold in the US to be capable of displaying closed captions… Why can’t the blasted driver engineers fix this problem in their drivers?

*sigh* well, SP2 just finished reinstalling, so I’m going to go deal with that for a bit, and then go to bed.

Published in: on 19 November 2005 at 10:43 pm Comments (0)

Med School applications

*sigh* Harvard and Stanford medical school applications went in today…. I really hate medical school applications. Not only am I $165 poorer now, I’m also about 2.5 hours poorer. It takes so long to fill out these applications. I mean, heavens, as if the friggin’ AMCAS application wasn’t long and detailed enough, they ask us to repeat the same information in new essays on the Secondary Applications… I really think that secondary applications are less about getting to know the applicant further, and more about *cough* money *cough*. Some schools this isn’t the case, but good golly, others you have to write 5-10 new essays for, and they ask you for the same information you’ve already written, and edited, and rewritten, and edited, and screamed about, and edited over and over again on the initial application. PLEASE let me get in this time. If I don’t, I get to repeat the MCAT, and do this all again, and I dont know that I really want to do that. Oh, well, two more done

Published in: on 15 November 2005 at 4:52 pm Comments (0)

The Song

What follows is an exerpt from something I’m working on. I’m working on it very slowly, but I thought I’d post it, as I’ve recently done some work to begin writing. If this work ever fleshes out into a novel, the exerpt below will not be the beginning, but somewhere in the middle.

Simeon stood there, wondering. Was he, a boy of 15 from Angarenne, really to be taught the ways of the Workers? These mysterious people who had such a command over the Song that they could do things no one else could even dream took on new disciples with such care that he had not heard of a new Worker in his life time. Everyone had access to the Song, and almost everyone he knew could command it to some degree. Of course some were better at it than others, could manage more with the same amount of effort. He’d always thought it had to do with a person’s innate talent for “singing� the various melodies of the Song that accomplished different things. How wrong he had been. Simeon had only begun to notice the differences in his friends use of the song over the last few months, and it had surprised him when he first heard the difference.
(more…)

Published in: on at 7:51 am Comments (0)

Odd dream

So, last night I had one of the oddest dreams I’ve had in a very long time. I dreamt that the two major political parties in this country had resorted to hiring hitmen to wipe out the prominent leaders in the other parties. I dreamt that I was one of those hitmen, and that I was really good at not getting caught. You see, their standard procedure was to hire a hitman, and if he got caught he was framed for being a lone-acting assassin. I was really good at not getting caught, so the other party decided to take a contract out on me. They found another really good hitman, and the dream played out as he found me while I was waiting to assassinate one of my targets. We ended up chasing each other all over the house we were in, trying to kill each other with household objects. I realized after I woke up, though it seemed perfectly natural in the dream, that this was because neither of us was carrying a gun.
After a very long time of trying to kill each other by throwing forks and knives and trying to stick them into vital organs, my opponent found a gun, and pulled it on me. I, being the smooth criminal I was, stole it right out of his hand and turned it on him. At this point he pulled another gun on me, stuck it in my gut and said, “I’m just disappointed that all I have to kill you with is this dinky little 9mm. I’ve put armor piercing bullets in it though, so it will get you, even if it has to go through your antiballistic vest.” I was just smiling because I was wearing a new type of body armor that nothing had been invented to pierce yet, when I woke up this morning, calm as a spring morning.

Werid…

Published in: on 13 November 2005 at 4:45 pm Comments (0)

Great! It works!

Now that the fooling around with the trackbacks and pingbacks is done, it’s time to post some real content. In the last couple of days I’ve managed to learn a fair amount about how my webserver software, php, and MySQL all work, along with how WordPress works. I am still loving this software, it’s easier and seems to be much more well organized than my previous software was. Don’t get me wrong, Blosxom was great, and would be even greater if I was really into programming in Perl. While that’s a fun hobby, it isn’t fun enough that I want to do it constantly just to keep my Weblog looking the way I want it to.
Work lately has been… interesting. I’m a manager at the place I work. I’m responsible for ensuring and maintaining facilities and equipment, hiring and firing employees, paying them and raising their wages, and working with other groups who need to use the facilities I manage. I’ve recently discovered how much some of those groups don’t seem to respect the policies I set to take care of the space. I’ve also recently discovered that some of those groups (who happen to answer to the same superiors I answer to) are actively working to try to tie my hands and prevent me from being able to enforce my policies. That is REALLY frustrating. It’s funny to see how two-faced these people can be, as well. They’ll be nice and sweet to my face, and then go write really nasty e-mails about me to our common superiors (I have superiors who trust me, and are willing to share the complaints of others with me so we can improve our situation), and then turn around and be almost sickeningly sweet to me again. Of course, that just adds a whole barrel full of spice to my life. I don’t want to spend too much time complaining about this, I just thought it might be nice to get it out and formally tell the world that sometimes I think people are really stupid. There. I feel better. Yay for occasional rants!

Published in: on 12 November 2005 at 8:42 pm Comments (0)
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