The problems with my desktop seem to be resolved. After trying to single out any particular problem that was either reasonable or suggested, I gave up. Days later I noticed a strange phenomenon. The “link” light on my USB wireless networking adapter was lit even though the computer had been shut down for days. I removed it from the system and everything seemed hunky dory. So I plugged it back in and things went batty again.
I blame the NSA who obviously replaced my old adapter with a new one.
In Virginia but from Maryland comes PEB4UGO.
After momentarily wondering who Peb was and why he/she/it loved Ugos, I figured it out.
I don’t know what I did differently today. But I do know that when I took my shoes of a little while ago my feet stank.
Let me thank the Virginia DMV for living up to the DMV stereotype. My experiences weren’t as bad as they apparently could have been, but they were still annoying.
On my first trip I went to get my new Virginia license. I primarily learned that customer service at the DMV takes a backseat to employing overpaid government twits. However, my first trip was successful and after an hour I was able to leave with a new license with a horrible picture. (I didn’t realize how annoying the DMV could be because my experiences in Ohio were nearly painless).
Yesterday I returned to register my car. Hoping to reduce my waiting time, I came prepared. I had spent a lot of time reading the DMV website and I had with me all the forms I needed already printed out. Or so I thought. It turns out that if you read the VDMV website once you are bound to be left confused. The same can be said if you read it twice. Or three times. Or 22 times as I must have done. No matter how much you read it, you will find out at the DMV that your understanding of the system is wrong.
I got to the place at least 5 minutes before it opened. There I found a line wrapping around the building. It seems that everyone fully expects the DMV to suck. Thus they show up early and form a line in order to avoid a long wait. On this issue, the customers and the DMV both engage in self-defeating acts. Sadly, the DMV meets long lines of people with a dearth of available workers.
Anyway, I waited until called. I went to proper teller/helper person. But before I got there, some other guy jumped up for help. He had already been helped but was having some type of issues. From what I gathered, he couldn’t get his paperwork straightened because his license was suspended due to unpaid tickets.
Eventually I got to hand over the title/registration form and the old title. After a moment, I was asked who would have sold me a car for zero dollars. The lady helping apparently wasn’t able to judge from my mother’s last name, which is the same as mine and therefore equally as a rare, that we were related. When she realized it was a gift form, she said I needed to fill out a “giff form.” The website had clued me into this, so I had prepared copies of the SUT1 and SUT3. I handed them to her and asked whether either was the proper form. She handed them back without bothering to look at them, instead pointing me to the entrance of the place and telling me to get the “giff form” and come back when it was filled out.
Eventually, I got someone’s attention and got the “giff form,” although it took a while and there was some confusion as to what it actually was. The “giff form” looked familiar, and for a good reason. It was the SUT3. However it was the SUT3 (8/84). 8/84 as in it was the August 1984 revision. Silly me! I was using the web-available 7/2005 revision.
Even worse, the goddamn SUT3 takes approximately 15 seconds to fill out. It required little more information than vehicle type, VIN, and name. For the time it took me to wait for the stupid form and fill it out, my little helper could have gotten the “giff form” herself and had me fill it out.
The guy next to me, was having even bigger issues. He was moving his new car from New York and he hadn’t gotten an emissions inspection from Virginia. First, it is 99.9999% ridiculous to expect new cars to pass an emissions test anyway. This is precisely why Ohio abandoned the practice a few years ago. Second, it had been tested already in New York. But for some reason the NY test was unacceptable in VA.
Oh well. I don’t have to go back for a long time.
The computer gods have frowned up on me. My hand-me-down desktop is on the fritz and the underlying problem(s) and solutions(s) are non-obvious.
Earlier in the week, the computer was booting and starting to boot Windows before suddenly restarting.
So I repaired the WindowsXP installation using the install disk. Afterwards, things started fine, but for some reason Windows updates couldn’t install.
Last night the computer either turned itself off at some point, or turned off because of a power outage. Either way, as of this morning the initial problem had returned in a worse form. About 10 seconds into booting the whole system restarts itself. It doesn’t even boot far enough to allow a boot-from-cd option.
I’m guessing bad RAM and/or motherboard. Your thoughts?
TigerHawk today posted, “Candidates and air time: Fair, and not fair.”
Give it a look.
