An interesting free disk defragmenting program, SmartDefrag from IOBit, contains this free browser tool bar offer.  It also helpfully offers to change my search engine.

IOBit - SmartDefrag

Tags: web browser

Internet Explorer 7 has been a good browser for me.  It rarely crashes on me.  Yet yesterday IE7 had this weird crash.

IE7 Crash

Tags: IE, web browser

One of my first character Chandeth’s favorite weapons was Retribution.  He used it so much for the first couple of years that it was eventually “broken beyond repair.”  Retribution was a great weapon for a paladin.  It did at least some damage against nearly every monster in the game.

Tags: DDO

WebRoot has changed their installation dialog a bit.  The “we’re going to install the toolbar unless you say ‘no’” message now appears on the very first screen of the installation dialog.  At least I don’t have to go looking for it; that is an improvement.  Better still would be to assume that I don’t want it installed.

WebRoot SpySweeper

Tags: web browser

For some strange reason Apple iTunes refuses to update correctly.  It always helpfully offers to download and update iTunes (and usually QuickTime as well).  But it always fails for some reason.

The iTunes updater has a “download only” option.  When I tried that today and then tried to run the update separately I received this error message:

Failed iTunes Update

Google searches for the “A later version of Apple Mobile Device Support is already installed” weren’t very helpful.  None of the results addressed the problem (or even said what it really was) or provided any viable solutions.

I ended up having download the whole iTunes install package from Apple.

Tags: apple

Dave Arneson, role-playing pioneer and partner of the late Gary Gygax, has passed away.  Read more here:  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/entertainment/7994444.stm.

Tags: dnd

Fox News - Bad Redirect

I’d barely been there long enough to see something about Saddam Hussein’s pearl-handled AK-47 being returned to Iraq.

The funny part of this as it relates to Fox News, in keeping with the theme of this series of posts, is that one of the ads their systems were serving up was compromised with some sort of malware.  One would think that a giant corporation like Fox News would do a better job of screening the material that they embed (aka: advertisements) in their pages.

Tags: news

I managed to crash Finder while copying files from one network drive to another.  Finder displayed an error message … which I forgot to capture.  Finder then stayed stuck on this screen until I killed it.

Finder Crash

At least when Windows craps out during a file copy, the copy dialog goes away without having to kill the Explorer process.

The really crappy thing was that it happened at the end of an hours-long file copy operation.  

If it happens again, I’ll be sure to get the error dialog.

Tags: apple

Guns N’ Roses Chinese Democracy has been out for some time now.  I’ve heard the single on HardRadio a number or times now and the song just doesn’t do it for me.  I don’t know exactly why that it is.  Maybe it’s the pontificating by Axl about how China runs with respect to political rights.  That in itself is somewhat strange for me as my bachelor’s degree is in Political Science.  I very much in enjoy discussing studying and discussing politics.  But somehow that just doesn’t seem right when coming from a hard rock / heavy metal band like GNR.  It’s probably the same reason I was never a fan of Rage Against the Machine.

But even when I separate my personal preference of not liking politics mixed with my metal, the music just isn’t as good as Appetite for Destruction.  One hopes that 21 years between albums would result in some improvement, but it just isn’t there.  At least, not for me.

Tags: Heavy Metal