New monitor

I'm finally taking the plunge (years after the technology curve) by getting myself a flat-panel, LCD monitor, and retiring my old 19" CRT monitor, the Samsung SyncMaster 955SL.

For years, I've held off on getting myself an LCD screen for two very basic reasons:

1. Lower screen resolution.
2. High price.
   

The impetus behind my decision? I've noticed my current monitor is starting to show signs of degradation. It's been gradually shifting its display colors between normal, to a hint of blue, and back again. I checked the cable, and it is very firmly attached.

This can only mean one thing: Sometime in the near foreseeable future, this monitor will go into a state of permanently displaying things in a tinted hue.

This is definitely not something I want to live through again.


So, after checking the current prices of LCD monitors, it seems they have finally come down to a range which I find acceptable, and while the resolution is still not as high as I can hope for (a max size of 1280x1024), it's a compromise I'm willing to live with. Afterall, it wasn't that long ago that I switched my screen resolution to 1600x1200.


The new screen I ordered is the AG Neovo F-419; as an 19" LCD, it means the viewable screen size should be significantly larger than what I currently have. It was the only 19" LCD in the ~$300 price range that has 170° viewing angle, and a high contrast ratio (700:1). So I figured since I have a $25 rebate from Amazon.com, I might as well use it towards this.

Anime Expo

The Anime Expo traditionally have been held on 4th of July weekend, and this year was no exception. As in recent years, it was held at the Anaheim Convention Center, with some videos, gaming, etc. in the adjacent Marriott Hotel.

I basically use this opportunity to find out about what anime series/movies have recently been licensed/released for the US, as I've been too busy to keep up with the newsgroups. But of course there are always plenty of anime fans who dress up as their favorite characters (known as cosplay), so I brought along my digital camera to snap pics of the more interesting ones.

I originally thought this girl might be dressed as Karin from DNA², but while the costume looks similar enough, and she has the right hair color, the bike she's on seems completely different, and there are some other details that are different, so considering the amount of effort she must have put in to get her bike to look like this, it seems unlikely that she'd miss these details. Now I'll just have to figure out what series she's actually from.


I just found out that this girl was dressed as Jo from the series Burst Angel. One of the best costumes I've seen this year.


And here are the rest... Some of them I recognize as from Cowboy Bebop, Naruto, Bleach, various Final Fantasy series, and Trigun.

Oh crap, no water!

I had briefly noticed a sign posted on the window of the laundry room about there not being water for a temporary amount of time, as I was leaving to go to Johnny's place, and didn't pay too much attention to it--I thought maybe it referred only to the laundry room.

When I got back, it was nearly midnight, and as I tried to wash my hands, I realized--no water! So I guess no shower for me tonight. I'll have to get up earlier tomorrow for one in the morning. In the meantime, I guess it's a good thing I kept a few extra gallons of water around.

Bring in da Phunk

Heard "Don't Phunk With My Heart" on Star this morning... didn't think much of it, until when the song was nearly over, I realized: 'Don't they usually play the censored version called, 'Don't Mess With My Heart'?"

Right after the song was over, the DJ announced the name of the song again, and sure enough, it wasn't the edited version. Guess they realized it was silly to censor every word that can remotely sound similar to a profanity. I'm sure if whoever was in charge of getting the Black Eyed Peas to change "phunk" to "mess" would also be happy to replace "Focker" from "Meet the Parents" to something else.

After the DJ's announcement, they went into ads, so I switched stations to KIIS, and the same song played--except it was still the censored version of "Don't Mess With My Heart." So I guess it's now a station-by-station thing, even though both were owned by Clear Channel.

PSP Firmware Update

Just downloaded and installed PSP v1.52 firmware update. This one was apparently released in Japan on June 9th. I wonder when the US version was released.

New Spybot - Search & Destroy = Teh Suck

I was installing the driver for the network printer on J.J.'s computer when I noticed that his Norton Antivirus subscription had expired, and along with that, the anti-spyware programs (namely, Spybot and Ad-Aware) were both older versions--from the last time I installed and ran them a long time ago. So I decided that I would new versions of the anti-spyware programs, as well as AntiVir, which is supposed to work better than NAV, anyway.

That's when I found out that there's a new version of Spybot - Search & Destroy that came out at the first of this month. Interesting that the program's update function doesn't bother trying to inform me of such an event, but I guess it's just as well.

While the new version of Spybot (1.4) is probably better than the last version (1.3) at finding spyware, I have no way of knowing, since it has found nothing except cookies on the systems I ran it on. I don't particularly find cookies to be a major concern in the area of spyware/adware, since its presence has no effect on my system and my browsing experience, other than taking up a little bit of disk space. Running Firefox along with Adblock has that advantage.

But that's not the main issue. I applaud Spybot's effort to recognize Firefox and attempt to find adware attempts in the Firefox profile. The problems are:

1. Worthless initial scan. When I first ran Spybot 1.4 (after having uninstalled the older versions), it didn't find anything at all in its initial scan. One may naturally assume that there is no problem and continue their merry way in using the computer. The only sign that something was amiss was that the scan finished way too quickly, although one of the improvements of 1.4 is that its scan time was significantly improved. I went back to run a second scan on one of the systems, because I'd forgotten to remove the default "ignore products" list. This second scan took longer than the initial scan, and it was during this second run that it found cookies it deemed were spyware.
2. "Ignore Cookies" doesn't work. I noticed that some of the cookies that were listed as problems included my login information at iwon.com. I use iwon daily, and don't want to have to log in manually every time. So I go to the "Ignore Cookies" section to add these cookies to the ignore list. These very same cookies still show up as problems in subsequent scans, instead of being ignored.

Since I don't care about cookies anyway, in my case, it would be easier to just set it to ignore all cookies and be done with it. Sadly, such an option is not available. Hopefully this will be possible in future versions. Until then, I will not use the updated version of Spybot at home.

Searching high and low

My supply of sugar cubes is starting to run low, so I figured it would be a good time to look for the brown sugar cubes that I used to get from the local Ralph's supermarket before I moved--since the Food 4 Less right next door only seem to carry white sugar cubes. After running to about five different supermarket locations, I was unable to locate one store that had brown sugar cubes. I find this rather peculiar. I even dropped by the Ralph's that I used to go to for 'em on my way back from work today, and was unable to find any.

While on my hunt for brown sugar cubes, I also did a quick check for Armor All's Car Wash Wipes, as I was down to my last box, and couldn't find more at the Target store next to work. Couldn't find any store that carried these, either.


I can't be the only person who likes these things, can I? I'm at a loss as to why no store seems to want to carry any stock of them.

Cingular rebate

Cingular has decided to give out their rebate in the form of a "gif card" that you can use in the form of a credit card. In other words, it's a card that's been preloaded with the rebate amount ($50) that you can use wherever Visa is accepted.

The problem? The card expires in about three months, and it's a hassle trying to get a place to charge the exact amount you have left in the card, as it would be rare to spend exactly $50.00 in a world where things are sold at $x.95 plus tax.

Things would be much easier if they just send out rebate checks like they used to.

PSP network update

I just checked the PSP for updates, and it looks like a (slightly) newer version is now available! I successfully downloaded the update, which required 14 megs free on the memory stick, only to find out that I need to have the AC adapter connected during the reboot process for the thing to install... and now I have to download again.

Oh well, looks like it just finished. So now PSP System Software Version 1.51 should be installed. I wonder if they added anything new, or if it's just a bug fix. It says it's a revision to strengthen the security, so I guess they're not done with the browser and other stuff that supposedly leaked onto a Japanese web page a while ago.

"Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die."

I just watched the trailer for Serenity, the movie continuation of the TV series Firefly, which was cancelled by Fox Network during its first season. I had been waiting to see the trailer (and the movie) for a while now, and only just found out by going to the newsgroup that the trailer is available for download. Looks like fun.

Wash: This landing is going to be interesting.
Mal: Define "interesting."
Wash: "Oh God, oh God, we're all gonna die"?

Messed-up TV schedules

Stations crapping on your schedule make me mad.

Two of the shows I've been following on Thursday nights, but really shouldn't, are Joey and The O.C.

So for the past week, NBC's been showing promos for the episode of Joey with him having to deal with the temptation of Carmen Electra just after he'd decided to be in a committed relationship. Meanwhile, there have been radio spots touting the "exciting" episodes of The O.C. and The Simple Life on Fox.

Naturally, based on these promos, I assume that both stations will be showing new episodes, forgoing my typical routine of checking the schedule with TV Guide Online to determine if they'll be showing new episodes. So I had the TV on for NBC, and the tape set to record Fox... only to see a rerun of Joey on NBC (the one where Michael's sick, and Joey keeps running into another actor who sabotages Joey's auditions--"Joey and the Nemesis"). So I played games on my PSP, and when Ben came over, I let him watch His and Her Circumstances on DVD, thinking that I'll just watch The O.C. later, as I would have missed the beginning already.


After spending the day with Victoria and taking her to the airport yesterday, I got back at around 8:00pm, and eventually popped in the tape for The O.C. To my surprise, the tape did not have The O.C. on; instead, I was staring right at an episode of Family Guy. Fast-forwarding the tape, it continued on to show The Simpsons... So I thought maybe the record setting got messed up somehow, and started recording an hour early. Which is okay, since I have the timer set to record for two hours, since Fox sometimes show Tru Calling right after The O.C., and I didn't want to reset the timer each time. If the tape had started an hour early, I should be able to see the new episode of The O.C. right after The Simpsons. Yet what I find on the tape instead is some broadcast error message, followed by The Simple Life.

What the *&#@ happened to my shows? Neither NBC nor Fox's local affiliates were showing anything special that would have caused them not to show the new episodes like they were supposed to (unlike when our local WB station delayed an episode of Smallville due to a Lakers game). I was able to find both online for download, but not in their typically available HDTV formats, suggesting that the people who typically get them in HDTV and upload them were also unable to get the broadcast they were supposed to.

Victoria

So Victoria (Kes) is on vacation this week, and came to California from Canada to visit with friends and relatives. She had asked me to take her around, and then eventually to LAX, so I took the day off from work in order to accomodate.

After picking her up from the Wilshire Grand, I forgot to switch freeways, which turned out to be in our favor, as it reminded me to take her to Old Town Pasadena, which Eric had suggested for her to visit. She liked it much more than downtown L.A. I'll have to remember to get off my lazy ass and transfer the pic I took for her off my camera phone and send it to her.

While there were plenty of resturants to choose from in Old Town, I decided to take her to Ajisen Ramen in San Gabriel, deep in the Chinese community. Afterwards, we drove to Rodeo Drive on the suggestion of her WOW friends. I had never been to Rodeo Drive, so it was an interesting experience to finally see what's been mentioned so often along with upscale fashion.

Effing Microsoft

And Symantec, too.

Today, after rebooting the various servers, one of them displayed the once familiar error message after login:

Windows cannot load the user's profile but has logged you on with the default profile for the system.

DETAIL: Insufficient system resources exist to complete the requested service.

WTF? Nothing was changed, added, or removed. After several reboots with no imporvement, I found this Microsoft Knowledgebase article. The problem isn't exactly the same, but similar enough for me to try... so I uninstalled Norton Antivirus Corporate Edition, rebooted, and voila--no more error message.

Now where am I going to find an antivirus program that works well with W2K Advanced Server?

Dropped calls

In the 2 1/2 weeks that I've had my new cell phone, I've experienced four or five dropped calls. At first I was concerned that these was Bluetooth-related, but the phone indicators show the Bluetooth still connected during these dropped calls, while the carrier signal bars drop down to nothing, suggesting that the problem has nothing to do with Bluetooth.

When they occur, what happens is that I can still hear the other side, but they can't hear me. Then in a few more seconds, the call ends.

After describing these symptoms to Johnny, he suggested that the problem had to with with a "battery save" option in the Motorola phone. But after going through the menus thoroughly, I still could not find such an option. Finally, I start searching the web for answers, and apparently this particular function is absent from the V551 phones. Strange. But that still doesn't help me with the dropped calls.


Another search result suggests that I'll have to "reboot" the phone so that it can properly sync with Cingular's network at least once every three days.

I'll have to test it out and see if it works.

Playstation Portable

There was no line at Toys R Us, so I was able to get my own PSP. It works great, although I did notice two "off" pixels on the screen. As has already been reported, it smudges easily... I guess that's why it came with its own wiping cloth.