The Regentristry

Math

2007-06-06T11:53:00.000-07:00

Q -- When does 2 + 2 not equal 4?

A -- When one or both of the twos are imaginary numbers. Then you can make up an answer.

Men and Machines

2007-04-12T15:06:00.000-07:00

The difference between men and machines:
some machines can do what their told, and some don't work at all;
some men do what their told by women , and some don't want to work.

Human Computer

2007-04-10T15:15:00.000-07:00

If I were a computer, I'd probably have a CPU that was a lot like a brain so that I would function pretty much the same way I do now.

Thinking Deeply

2007-04-09T19:42:00.000-07:00

If a file is deleted when no one is watching, did the file really ever exist at all?

Visionary Japanese Anime

2007-03-29T13:23:00.000-07:00

The cartoon that put anime on the map, in my opinion, is Robotech. My mom brought me over a box of some of my old stuff. In it were some toys. My favorite of the bunch were the Robotech toys. All had at least one thing broken on them, but still, my son had fun playing with them. I brought one to work with me to fiddle with, give my hands something to do, whiel I'm waiting for a computer to reboot or something.

I wonder if I'm entering my second childhood -- that is, if my first one ever ended.

Bill Gates vs General Motors

2007-03-05T12:36:00.000-08:00

At a recent computer expo (COMDEX), Bill Gates reportedly compared the
computer industry with the auto industry and stated, "If GM had kept up with
technology like the computer industry has, we would all be driving $25.00
cars that got 1,000 miles to the gallon."

In response to Bill's comments, General Motors issued a press release
stating: If GM had developed technology like Microsoft, we would all be
driving cars with the following characteristics (and I just love this part):

1. For no reason whatsoever, your car would crash........ twice a day.
2. Every time they repainted the lines in the road, you would have to buy a
new car.
3. Occasionally your car would die on the freeway for no reason. You would
have to pull to the side of the road, close all of the windows, shut off the
car, restart it, and reopen the windows before you could continue. For some
reason you would simply accept this.
4. Occasionally, executing a maneuver such as a left turn would cause your
car to shut down and refuse to restart, in which case you would have to
reinstall the engine.
5. Macintosh would make a car that was powered by the sun, was reliable,
five times as fast and twice as easy to drive - but would run on only five
percent of the roads
6. The oil, water temperature, and alternator warning lights would all be
replaced by a single "This Car Has Performed An Illegal Operation" warning
light.
7. The airbag system would ask "Are you sure?" before deploying.
8. Occasionally, for no reason whatsoever, your car would lock you out and
refuse to let you in until you simultaneously lifted the door handle, turned
the key and grabbed hold of the radio antenna.
9. Every time a new car was introduced car buyers would have to learn how to
drive all over again because none of the controls would operate in the same
manner as the old car.
10. You'd have to press the "Start" button to turn the engine off.

Computer mishap

2007-03-02T09:38:00.000-08:00

Windows system restore will NOT fix most things. I spoke with someone calling into our support line, and they had to find out the hard way. For those of you who know about computers, enough said. For those of you less computer savvy, NEVER use System restore.

Moron

2007-03-01T15:13:00.000-08:00

A person that thinks they know every thing about computers, but who, in reality, does not. When they start talking about computers all you hear is blah, blah , blah.

Ode to My Computer

2007-02-27T11:58:00.000-08:00

O My Computer
O My Computer
I can access any file from My Computer
Except, of course, files that aren't accessible
O My Computer
O My Computer
If I delete my HKLM|Software key, you are blank
**&&*!!!###$$$**
O My Computer
O My Computer
Only Windows would have such an awesome window
I could never want for anything more than a My Computer window

Tribute to Bill Gates

2007-01-07T20:19:00.001-08:00

This video clip summarizes everything Microsoft has done for us.

Due to the limitations of blogger.com, I am unable to embed the video clip using javascript, as originally planned.

But you can download the file from here: Letterman[1].Gates.wmv (2.6 MB)

The inevitable

2006-10-27T07:44:00.000-07:00

If you try to use a computer without knowing what your doing, chances are, one day you'll talk to me (well, only if you work in a dental office or work with dental offices).

That's just the way it is -- take it or leave it.

Hard drive experiment

2006-10-24T14:03:00.000-07:00

FYI -- different hard drive manufacturers don't always have interchangeable parts.

I took the platters out of a Western Digital IDE drive, then I took the platters out of an IBM SCSI drive and put them in the WD. After I screwed everything back together, I realized that I probably voided the warranty because the seals were broken (Oh well, the drives were pretty old, so I doubt there was any warranty left). By the way, I didn't do this in a clean room or wear any gloves, either.

Anyway, I put it back together (sort of) and powered it up. Guess what? ...

It didn't work. The drive made a high-pitched beeping noise. The good news is that it didn't explode, causing the plates to fly out and injury my fellow coworkers -- thank goodness.

I'm not sure if if the hard drives worked before I started doing this, but they sure don't work now. Maybe I'll try it again with two other drives that I know work. If there's one thing about working on computers I've learned, it's this: don't give up easily.

Partitions and Me

2006-10-10T12:17:00.000-07:00

Okay... So I have a Windows98 box. I put another hardrive in it and installed XP, so I can switch between booting in Windows 98 and Windows XP. That's all find and dandy you might say? Well, not since during the install of XP and inadvertently deleted the partition on the Windows 98 drive. I did not format it though, good thing.

After searching for hours, I found an open source program from cgsecurity.org that allowed me to recover the partition and all data contained thereon. It was a lifesaver. I highly recommend this product -- mostly because it's free, but also because it did the job. I'm sure that now that I've endorsed this product (of which I can't remember the name right now), hordes of people are going to start downloading it so they can delete partitions and recover the data. AFter all, I have so much influence in the technology industry (That was irony, friends).

The way I look at technology is if you're armed with the aptitude, and/or the proper tools, feel free to break things because you can fix them.

Registry Rights

2006-10-05T13:48:00.000-07:00

Have you ever wondered what would happen if...? (It seems like everytime I have a thought like that, I spend a long time trying to get my computer to work again. I wonder why?)

Anyway, I was wondering what would happen if you took away all your rights to the registry.
Would Windows even let you. Let's say, hypothetically, you right clicked on the HKLM and chose Permissions, could you uncheck Full Control for Administrators and have it work?

If anybody has any thoughts on that, I'd like to hear it; otherwise I just might try it.

Software Key Deletion -- How to recover

2006-10-04T13:03:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to go over every step, so that you don't get tempted to try to delete the Software key. I don't want you to think, "Hey, I can delete it because this guy's going to show me how to recover."

Just so you know, there will probably be a few small things that won't work quite right, but they are very minor things. The recovery is based upon Window's Restore points (I think); so if there are none, I don't know if you could recover the registry (or at least very easily). That being said, I'll continue.

In the System Volume Information folder on the root of the hard drive are snapshots, which I would describe as restore points (but I don't know if they actually are). In order to access those directories, you will have to slave the hard drive in another computer. Then you can copy over the five registry hives to the WINDOWS\System32\Config (after renaming the existing ones, of course) on that slaved drive.

Then put the drive back in it's computer and boot up. There you go. Now don't say I never taught you anything. Of course, maybe I didn't, since these steps come courtesy of someone I work with, Gubi; so I suppose he taught you, albeit indirectly. So, the only thing I've ever taught you was that it is not so bright of an idea to delete the Software key, even after exporting it.

2006-10-02T12:43:00.000-07:00

If you try to delete the Software key in the Windows Registry, here are a few tips:

1- Don't do it.

2- Don't do it.

3- If you ignored tips 1 & 2, then proceed to tip 4.

4- Don't do it.

5- Persistent aren't you? Proceed to step 6.

6- After deleting the Software key, the computer will appear to be functioning, until you try to open My Computer -- it will be blank. Then most programs will cease to function, and the computer will freeze.

7- Don't think that exporting the Software key before deleting it will work. If you try to restore it right after deleting it, you'll get a message about files being in use, and it will fail.

8- The only thing you can do is reboot, possibly even a hard reboot. However, Windows will never fully load and the computer will be caught in a continual reboot loop.

*** Tune in next time for information on how to recover from a corrupt registry.

In the beginning...

2006-10-01T20:56:00.000-07:00

Regentristry was born on the first floor of the DENTRIX Dental Systems, Inc. building. The regentristry symbolizes the harmony between man and computer; yet, only one will survive.