I apologize for the lapse, but there are many things going on in my life lately that I really just don't feel like blogging about. Not that there's anything wrong, but it's just certain things I don't feel is necessary to share with the world. This is nothing new: there's lots that I just classify as "family business" and don't write about. But lately there's been a flood of this and it's been at the forefront of my thoughts and interactions at home. And it has been making it very hard to blog.
At any rate, there are some highlights from the past week or so that are pretty noteworthy. For starters, I finally got the Dell that we ordered through D's discount program at her work. It's a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig drive, running 64bit Vista. It freaking flies. I turned the settings on Final Fantasy XI ALL THE WAY UP and went to Dynamis - Windurst with 40+ people. I was pulling 3000+ on the receive bar and there was absolutely no lag. At all. All characters and monsters moved completely fluid. It was a beautiful thing.
But I told you that to tell you this. When we ordered this computer, we decided to buy the upgrade for a wireless PC card to be preinstalled. One less thing to pick up at WalMart, right? -.- When I finally get the machine up and running, the network connection is dog slow when it's working and constantly drops connection. I check the drivers provided on the Dell website and note that there are only 32bit drivers for this card that was installed into a 64bit machine.
Hmm... Some system engineer needs to be slapped. I did all the hardware troubleshooting that could be done without replacement parts. It was either that the driver was bad (duh) or that the NIC was bad, or both. It was definitely possible that the NIC was bad, too, but I had a hard time believing that the only drivers available for an ASUS card were 32bit.
After a very long wait to get to Dell Tech Support, I got some poor girl who had no idea I do this kind of work for a living. I started rattling off the troubleshooting steps I had already taken and how I came to my conclusions, only to have her as me if I had taken a step that I had just explained. Complete script monkey - I would hate that job. And it's not like it was her fault; she probably had to follow that protocol before she could escalate my call. After being put on hold a few times, she was able to escalate the call to components. A new card is in the mail. If that doesn't work, then I know that my initial reaction was most accurate: their drivers suck. I'm kinda hoping I'm wrong... Until then, I have the Courier Carrie laptop sharing it's wireless connection on a wired switch that is linking the laptop and the new PC. It's ghetto, but it works for now.
Game life has kinda taken a backseat the past few weeks. The very few times we have been online have been for our assault/Nyzul static, leveling BST, leading a Promyvion run for DBH and the Dynamis this past weekend. The main issue had been my laptop, which had started to take a turn for the worst and overheat every 3mins. That pretty much makes it impossible to game or really do much of anything. The Courier Carrie laptop can play FFXI, but the graphics don't go any higher than lowest due to a severe lack of system resources.
Beside FFXI, we've been getting back into DDR now that the 360 is back from the shop. D and I are really determined to loose some weight this year and slim up a bit, and the WiiFit is a nice tool to use in conjunction with our other aerobic exercises.
All sorts of goals and goings-on in the new year. ^^
At any rate, there are some highlights from the past week or so that are pretty noteworthy. For starters, I finally got the Dell that we ordered through D's discount program at her work. It's a Core 2 Quad 2.4GHz with 4 gigs of ram and a 500 gig drive, running 64bit Vista. It freaking flies. I turned the settings on Final Fantasy XI ALL THE WAY UP and went to Dynamis - Windurst with 40+ people. I was pulling 3000+ on the receive bar and there was absolutely no lag. At all. All characters and monsters moved completely fluid. It was a beautiful thing.
But I told you that to tell you this. When we ordered this computer, we decided to buy the upgrade for a wireless PC card to be preinstalled. One less thing to pick up at WalMart, right? -.- When I finally get the machine up and running, the network connection is dog slow when it's working and constantly drops connection. I check the drivers provided on the Dell website and note that there are only 32bit drivers for this card that was installed into a 64bit machine.
Hmm... Some system engineer needs to be slapped. I did all the hardware troubleshooting that could be done without replacement parts. It was either that the driver was bad (duh) or that the NIC was bad, or both. It was definitely possible that the NIC was bad, too, but I had a hard time believing that the only drivers available for an ASUS card were 32bit.
After a very long wait to get to Dell Tech Support, I got some poor girl who had no idea I do this kind of work for a living. I started rattling off the troubleshooting steps I had already taken and how I came to my conclusions, only to have her as me if I had taken a step that I had just explained. Complete script monkey - I would hate that job. And it's not like it was her fault; she probably had to follow that protocol before she could escalate my call. After being put on hold a few times, she was able to escalate the call to components. A new card is in the mail. If that doesn't work, then I know that my initial reaction was most accurate: their drivers suck. I'm kinda hoping I'm wrong... Until then, I have the Courier Carrie laptop sharing it's wireless connection on a wired switch that is linking the laptop and the new PC. It's ghetto, but it works for now.
Game life has kinda taken a backseat the past few weeks. The very few times we have been online have been for our assault/Nyzul static, leveling BST, leading a Promyvion run for DBH and the Dynamis this past weekend. The main issue had been my laptop, which had started to take a turn for the worst and overheat every 3mins. That pretty much makes it impossible to game or really do much of anything. The Courier Carrie laptop can play FFXI, but the graphics don't go any higher than lowest due to a severe lack of system resources.
Beside FFXI, we've been getting back into DDR now that the 360 is back from the shop. D and I are really determined to loose some weight this year and slim up a bit, and the WiiFit is a nice tool to use in conjunction with our other aerobic exercises.
All sorts of goals and goings-on in the new year. ^^
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