SmashTech

My installation of Vista just decided to deactivate itself.  One moment, I was happily managing the arcade machine over VNC, and the next, I get a popup message in the corner.  “There has been a signficant hardware change and Windows must be reactivated.”, or something to that effect.  When I clicked on the bubble, the activation screen said I needed to activate today or enter ‘reduced functionality mode’.  My copy of Vista is legit and not OEM, and I hadn’t made any huge hardware changes recently.  So I tried to reactivate and was told my key is already in use.

 After a call to Product Activation Support (aka Microsoft India), I was back up and running, but was left with the question “Why did this happen all of a sudden?”  A couple ideas crossed my mind.  I replaced all 3 hard drives about 3 weeks ago.  However, because of the RAID setup, Windows would have only seen the addition of a single drive, not a replacement.  I also added a Bluetooth keyboard and mouse.  For a while, Windows did see the Bluetooth adapter as a network connection.  But why would it take 3 weeks to deactivate?  I also updated my video card drivers this past weekend.  But driver updates are so routine that it doesn’t seem that would count as a hardware change.

I decided to dig into Event Viewer.  The problem is quickly apparent.  My Application Log is filled with “Hardware changed” errors from the “Security-Licensing-SLC” source.  It reported 4 hardware changes in the 14 seconds leading up to the validation error in Event Viewer.   In fact, it has reported 23 hardware changes today alone.  Which is pretty slick considering I’ve been at work all day.

Why has it started doing this, and does it go back to days or weeks prior?  I’ll have to do a bit more digging to find out.  But if this keeps up, I’m going to be on a first-name basis with the guys from India by the end of the week.

A couple in Oakfield Township are devastated over the fact that someone has stolen their statue of Jesus from their front yard.

The family regularly walks their dachshunds, and in the past, has not cleaned up after they’ve done number 2.  After receiving complaints from neighbors, they have started picking up afterwards.  But the person who stole Jesus says they are still leaving landmines in the yards of their neighbors, according to a ransom note left in their mailbox:

“We are holding Jesus ransom until you clean up the poopie from your wieners and trust us we see you take your wieners for long walks w/out picking up their poopie in our yards. This has upset us dearly so please clean up all the weiner poopie, if you want to see Jesus unharmed. Sincerely, Lindy Lane Residents.”

For the full story and video of the note (which is written in very childish handwriting) see WZZM.

Michigan had their primary election this past Tuesday.  When I voted at lunch, I was number 123 on the machine.  Fairly low turnout.  Part of the reason is the fact that both the Republican and Democratic National Committees decided to screw over Michigan voters just because Michigan moved up its primary election date.  That caused Iowa and New Hampshire to throw a fit and complain.

 As a result, the RNC stripped Michigan of half of its delegates, allowing only 30 instead of the normal 60.  If you voted Democratic, it was even worse.  Almost all candidates removed themselves from the ballot because the DNC is outright refusing to acknowledge Michigan’s primary.  Democrats had a choice between Clinton, and a few other trailing candidates.  Write-in votes for other candidates were not accepted, and voters were urged to vote ‘Uncommitted’ if they wished to vote for an unlisted candidate.

This is all a result of the few states who have ‘always been first’ in the nation to hold primaries or caucuses throwing a temper tantrum when some other states decided they wanted to be first for a change.  The end result is that thanks to the primarily two-party system we have here, a small group of people (the DNC and RNC) can decide whether or not your vote even counts in a primary election, based entirely on the actions of your state. 

When the primary is held shouldn’t matter whatsoever.  The national committees need to stop gaming the system for the most media exposure, and let the people decide which candidate is best qualified for the job, instead of hyping only a couple frontrunners and pretending like the others don’t exist.

Having issues sending email to comcast.net addresses?  Comcast provides a handy web form for requesting automated removal from their blacklist.  There’s just 1 small problem.  It doesn’t do a damn thing.  And that’s the only method they provide for removal.

However, if you do some digging, you’ll come across Comcast Security.  They don’t say much about email on their website, and advertise it mostly as a law enforcement and DMCA response line.  You can call Comcast Security at 1-888-565-4329.  Option 2, then 1 and 1 again will get you to their email blacklist department.  Expect hold times of 30-45 minutes before you get someone, or leave a voicemail.  This is the only way I’ve found to get off their blacklist.

(copied from the original post) 

When:  1st weekend in January (for the calendar impaired, thats Jan 5th)
$10 dollars a head will get you dinner and  ‘Premium Hosted Fragfest Fun’, as well as full download access from the private archives.  Bring your own beverages, though some will be provided. The $10 is mandatory please, no moochers (you know who you are <ominous growl>)

Fot anyone who has not done this in a while: I provide tables and chairs, you bring the longest Cat5 cable you can, a power strip, and your PC.  No 21″ CRT’s please, bring an LCD if you have it.  Saves my tables that way =) Bring your rig ready to game with drivers and updates complete, and if you bring a virus there is a $25 dollar penalty. If we have to hose you off, there will be a $50 dollar penalty.

This LAN will be celebrating my 3rd (and final) child on the way as well, yahoo!