| Friday,
June 14, 2002
FLAG DAY
[Stuff below and for Saturday was largely an account of problems. Most
of those got fixed. Rather than go through and change what I had written,
I have added comments here and there and put them in brackets. These are
done Sunday 16 June PM.]
Coming up for air. Big opera party last night, at the home of an
orthopedist who had a neon sign saying that he was experiencing a
sentence. First time I ever saw Wittgenstein up in neon lights. He also
had first editions of all of Wittgenstein's works, and an 16th Century
edition of Chaucer, and a remarkable collection of pre-Columbian pottery
(copies, of course, but very accurate).
Now it's time to clean up Chaos Manor again. It's a mess. And get back
to work on Burning Tower.
New ATI RADEON Drivers
available.
[The problem with msn.com had a good cause, and thanks to Roland
Dobbins has been fixed. It will be in the column. What's below is pure
daybook log stuff...]
Does anyone know why the Microsoft Home Page MSN.COM is displaying 425
errors? And why Windows Update for XP puts you in an endless loop? This
latter has been the case for a week or more. The MSN page isn't avalable
on any of my machines. Is Microsoft under attack?
Later: OK I can reach Microsoft from all my machines EXCEPT one running
Windows XP Home. That one will connect to my own site, or Google, or
anyplace else, but never to www.msn.com.
Perhaps there is some goofy cache that I don't know how to clear. I have
deleted all the cookies and the history. I still get a page cannot be
displayed error at www.msn.com and
nowhere else. I am also unable to update XP Home. I think I will convert
to XP Pro and be done with it. This is nutso.
Windows UPDATE gives me an infinite loop: I need to download the update
software, but I need the updated software before I can download it.
Thanks, Microsoft. I love wasting time with this. I really like being in
an infinite loop. this has gone on for weeks now, with several different
machines. I have the feeling that the inability to connect to www.msn.com
and to be able to update the software are related.
I am more and more coming to the conclusion that using Windows XP Home
is insane. It was deliberately crippled and in the crippling they may not
have known what they were doing. As updates come out it is less and less
likely to work properly because they have deliberately injured it.
I think I will switch that machine to Windows 2000. I know that works.
Regarding XP Home, there is no way to update including critical
security updates: every attempt gets a page cannot be displayed error. So,
thought I, I will try to turn on the automatic updates. Heh.
That tells me to go to Control Panel, click Performance and
Maintenance, then click SYSTEM. Of course there is no Performance and
Maintenance button in Control Panel. Go to SYSTEM and you can find an
Automatic Updates tab. We will see how well that works. I have turned it
on, anyway. But if this is .NET in action, I predict a pretty dismal
future for it. I am also invited to go back to the Windows UPDATE page
where once again I can be in an infinite loop, being told I have to update
my update software before I can update my update software. I suspect
this may be a good time to go buy an Apple, or look into Linux. Microsoft
seems to be losing its grip.
And Dan says he has now seen everything:
The confidential Sun Microsystems COMIC BOOK:
http://www.sun-vbots.com/cd-html1/comic1/index.htm
-Dan S.
Maybe the problem is the stupid satellite, and maybe not. On my Windows
XP Professional systems I can get http://www.msn.com,
although the Windows Update page put me in an infinite loop just as it did
with Windows XP Home. On the Windows XP Home machine, though, I can't
reach msn.com under any circumstances although I can get to this page, and
BYTE, and others.
[Turns out there was a reason, cows were out of season... oops. Anyway,
there was a reason for all this, and it will be in the column.]
Now I am trying with yet another machine to get the newest ATI drivers,
and of course nothing works. The Internet is an experiment designed to see
how many people can be induced to stare at screens on which nothing
interesting is happening. Or perhaps the DirectPC satellite system is. The
only thing worse than this stupid satellite is a long download without it.
Part of the problem is the ATI website which calls just tons and tons of
little files to build it up to visibility: each of those gets the full
latency of the satellite page request. So it goes.
BUT THAT at least works after a bit. And the satellite does make the
downloads go fast. But Microsoft continues to evade upgrading Windows XP
home. Only it is NOT downloading at any speed: I am given the
estimate of 2 hours to download 10 MB. This is undoubtedly due to
overloading of the ATI web site. And in fact it now thinks it is
"finished" with about 40 K download. I'll try again late at
night.
And while I am venting, is there any way short of using Nigeria as a
nuclear testing ground to stop the flood of spam from purported friends,
relatives, dogs, pets, and acquaintances of their seemingly infinite
supply of dictators, former dictators, corrupt officials, and pathetic
losers? Surely there is a way simply to cut Nigeria off from the rest of
the Internet and leave it to float on its own?
This has not been my day... [but it beat heck out of some people's
days. Count your blessings. The Nigerian annoyance hasn't been fixed, and
short of nuclear weapons may not be fixable...]
And then there are absurdities
aplenty.
I have yet to be able to download the new ATI drivers. I get a few
hundred KB and it thinks it is done. It's discouraging.
[Problem fixed: use Getright. It resumes downloads from busy sites.]
Is anyone else in all this world having problems with updating Windows
XP and getting to http://www.msn.com?
Am I the only one in the world Microsoft has it in for? What is
happening? Is it this miserable satellite, or is Microsoft having
problems, or am I just in deep yogurt at the bottom of an information
well? I can open the page sometimes with XP Pro and Windows 2000. It
is simply NEVER going to open with Windows XP home and IE 6. Why? Who
knows.
A minute ago on Windows XP Home I saw a tiny icon that said it was
downloading some updates and was 8% done. That icon has vanished. If it
downloaded anything I can't find it. If it did anything I don't know it.
There is no information conveyed. Do I need to reset the machine? Should I
put my left elbow in my right ear?
This is a seriously frustrating situation. I don't really need MSN.COM
except that it ought to work. I keep wondering if I have done something
wrong. Microsoft does that to you, doesn't it?
Well I have been unable to download the ATI drivers. IE attempts to do
it, but then flakes out, pronouncing the 10.5 MB job done after at most 2
MB and once after 57KB. I have now got GETRIGHT with the hopes that
will do the job. We will see. But clearly the ATI web site is flooded.
But then so apparently is www.msn.com
completely swamped. Interesting. How much of this is the fault of the
execrable satellite and how much something else is another story, and I
don't have any real way to find that out.
Getright has managed more than any other attempt I made. It claims I
have 11 minutes left. Why I ever stopped using Getright I don't know:
relying on Internet Explorer for downloads unless you have DSL or
something similar is insanity.
A sudden burst, then nothing again. The ATI site is trying to share
stuff off with everyone, doling out a little stuff here and there. For a
glorious moment I was down to 4 minutes, but now I am back up to 7, and
now, nothing at all is coming in. Now it is 9 minutes and again
nothing. But I am halfway done. Joy. I suppose. I am getting an effective
rate of 12.5K/bits per second. That has got to be the ATI server. It does
look as if I will get it all tonight though.
And in fact GETRIGHT did it. If you don't have Getright, get it
immediately.
Fair warning though: Getright will try to intercept and save
everything, so if you are trying merely to list to audio, you'll have to
turn it off first; otherwise it will save the file and you'll have to go
to that to play it. Getright drives Internext Eplorer nuts sometimes . But
it's wonderful. Get it.
Ok. Lots of people report no problems with www.msn.com.
I am not one of them. On just about every machine I have, I get 525 http
errors. Once in a while I'll get through. Since the same machines connect
quickly to Yahoo, and Google, and BYTE.COM and this site, there is no real
reason to worry about inability to connect to the Microsoft site.
If there is an Internet explorer setting for timeout the index doesn't
show it. I wonder if that is the problem? If so I don't know how to fix
it. Anyway I have to pay my bills.
Microsoft is being a real pain today.
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