3 posts tagged “computers”
Been pretty busy lately, sadly with some unnecessary computer issues. I think I've solved the issue now. In a nutshell, I noticed that my CPU usage was running at 100% whenever I was online, so I was freaked out that maybe I had some virus or trojan horse. Decided to go the safe route, wipe the hard drive clean and reinstall XP. Much to my dismay, the problem was still there even after this drastic measure. So, I began to suspect the new WiFi adapter I got for the machine, and indeed when I used a cable to connect to the Internet, I had no probs with CPU usage. Turns out, the problem is with the software that the adapter installs to manage WiFi connections -- it's totally unnecessary since XP has the same abilities built in. Once I killed the software, my CPU usage looks fine. What a bloody waste of time!!!
Still with me? Good. On to more interesting topics. Discovered something disturbing yesterday regarding my class work. Basically, one of my classmates in my reference class has blatantly and extensively plagiarized my work. This is dealing with the project I have mentioned in an earlier post where my partner for the group was AWOL until just before the project was due, so I submitted it as a solo project with the instructor's permission. We were all to post the assignments to Blackboard, so that everyone could learn from each other, too. Well, while I posted on time, several people/groups posted after the already extended due date. I was curious what the guy I was to have worked with would come up with. He posted 10 days after it was due, and when I started looking through what he submitted I was aghast. It was my paper!! We're not talking borrowing a few ideas here or there; it's 90-95% my work, mostly not even paraphrased, but copied verbatim. Even more confusingly, at the end of "his" paper and within the same document comes my paper, including my title page indicating date of submission, etc. I don't get it.
Now I'm not quite sure how to handle the situation. I don't know what sort of agreement, if any, he came to with the instructor. My first inclination is to blow him out of the water and have him slammed for violation of academic integrity. On the other hand, I could be generous and send him an email saying I noticed that his paper was basically just a copy of mine, and I wondered what was going on (i.e. give him a chance to explain himself). It's all too weird. In any case, one thing I'm discovering through this coursework is that there are definitely some librarians-in-training who really don't cut the mustard.
Hope to post some pix tomorrow and anecdotes about Halloween. Watch this space!!
Missed the Neil Young concert this evening. I really wanted to go, as the reports from the tour and setlists I've seen sound fantastic. But I just couldn't see paying $60 for a nosebleed seat. It's just not right. Oh well, I've got the new album and there'll be other shows.
Been spending the last couple of hours trying to find a house or cabin we could rent over the Xmas-New Year time frame together with Dr. B and his crew. We could probably rent a place in Big Bear from a family we met during our numerous recent trips up there, but, indeed, we've been there 3x within the last 12 months. Moreover, it's a lot further drive for Dr. B. So, then i started looking at Sequoia, which appears to be about midway. There are a couple of places in Sequoia National Monument (not the National Park) that look doable. Main thing is, get away from the city and get in some snow activities, maybe even x-country skiing. Anybody have any tips?
Forgot to mention my new "toy". Got a 500 GB network-attached drive, which means you hook up the external hard drive to your router and you can access it from multiple computers. You can also configure it to be accessible via the Internet, but I haven't gotten that far yet. I'm looking to use it as backup storage for our laptop and desktop as well as a place to archive all our pictures, video and my CD collection (gonna put them in mp3 and FLAC formats, which retains the same quality as the CD, unlike mp3s. In the long run, I could then stream music from HD to the stereo. yes, I'm a geek). Also, your supposed to be able to attach a printer to it, so that it would also be networked.
It's raining! That's big news 'round these parts. Actually sounds kinda of cool. I just hope we don't have any leaks like we did during the last time it rained, back around March or thereabouts.
Looking forward to a couple of new albums in October: Neil's Chrome Dreams II and Queen's "Queen Rock Montreal" (yet another dbl. live album). Debating whether to see VH in December and/or Richard Thompson next Fri.
Mitzchelle Galang from Manila is my new hero. He works for Microsoft tech support. Last night, in a two hour phone call, he remotely took over my computer via the Internet and succeeded in fixing the annoying problem I was having with the Windows automatic update feature. Everytime I wanted to shut down, the computer would try (unsucessfully) to install some update, but it would take hours and hours, during which time you could not use the computer. The thing would run all night! Anyway, Mitzchelle figured out the problem and solved it. Yay! I know they record these kind of calls, so I told him, "hey, Mitzchelle, if it were up to me you'd get a raise." Hopefully he does. Bill Gates can afford it.
