New beginnings!

May 8th, 2009 § 2

All Most of my old entries are now private.   They’re irrelevant and  insipid, so no one is really missing out on anything.  :)

So since I’ve been on hiatus for a few months, I suppose I should update, especially on my newly acquired perspectives on the bigger picture…
- I reached my goal of graduating with honors in neuroscience.  I ‘m glad that I’m finished, but I don’t feel as excited as I originally thought I would.
- I decided that I do want to attend medical school (instead of graduate school for a Ph.D program in neuroscience), despite my great disdain for most medical school applicants. While working on my thesis, I realized that I really do like research. However, I think it’d be far more rewarding to improve the quality of life for human beings instead killing rodents for the rest of my life.
- In order to attain the above decision, I would have to perform really well on the MCAT. While I am a competitive applicant at this stage with my GPA and honors degree, I still won’t stand a chance at being accepted to a top medical school unless I perform well on the MCAT. By “well,” I mean I would need to score 35+. I spent some time with a friend who organizes the application material for a master’s program in a science department at my university today. The applicants for this program are mostly medical school rejects, and they’re trying to improve their chances by completing a graduate degree program. She showed me the stats for some of the applicants, and they were mostly competitive. This information sort of makes worry about my chances of being accepted at a competitive medical school.
- I hope some intense test prep will make a difference. I signed up for the Kaplan MCAT test prep course, so I hope that will help me organize my time for the next 2 months. I originally planned to take the MCAT last summer, but I still had too many doubting thoughts floating around in my brain. So the preparation didn’t happen. My mentality on the subject is very different this summer. I will do it, and I will try my best to do it well.
- In addition to my obsession with medical school, I am determined to make some lifestyle changes. I’ve neglected the gym for school for the past two months, and it’s very terrible. I realized that if I am going to deal with the rigors of medical school and years of intense studying, I need to be at my physical best. I need to eat healthier foods and exercise more.

So, yeah. This update wasn’t very exciting. Maybe it’ll be better later.

I hate Apple, and why their computers suck

January 20th, 2009 § 1

A few days ago I blogged about the “image persistence” issue with my 6-month-old 24″ iMac and how I was completely irritated with Apple’s focus on aesthetics at the expense of functionality.   I eventually got over the display problem (since the damage wasn’t permanent), and I began loving my Mac again.   However, our reconciliation was short because I am now having grounding problems with the Mac (noticed how I no longer claim it).

It all started this morning.  I was running extremely late for my 8 a.m. class (curse you, Biochemistry Professor!), and I needed to print the syllabus for another course.  When I logged into the Mac, I realized something was wrong.   Whenever I touched the Apple Mighty Mouse, Exposé would pop up.  I couldn’t click anything without being interrupted by Exposé.  After 3 minutes of frustration and failed attempts to get on Blackboard to retrieve the syllabus, I gave up and turned the computer off.  When I got home in the afternoon, I hoped the problem miraculously went away.  Of course it didn’t.  I managed to disable Exposé from popping up by removing the set functions from the side buttons of the mouse.  Even though Exposé no longer interrupts my every mouse move, something was still not right.  The mouse clicks every time I place my hand on it, and it’s rather annoying (it’s basically like the iPod click wheel sound but continuous).   The click only stops if I place my left hand on the aluminum side of my iMac while I use my mouse with my right hand.   I Googled the problem*, and apparently, this issue is also common**.   Many people noted that replacing their Apple Mighty Mouse did not solve the problem.  I can confirm that the issue is not with the Mighty Mouse itself because I plugged the mouse into my Sony Vaio, and there is no clicking sound.  Therefore, the grounding issue has to be with the iMac.  I called Applecare, and since I didn’t buy the additional warranty, I have to bring my 24″ computer into the nearest Apple Store.  My nearest Apple Store is in the center of a crowded mall.  I am definitely not looking forward to that hot mess of an experience.  Right now, I unplugged the iMac and all the peripherals.  I am leaving it unplugged for 30 minutes or so.  I am hoping the problem will be solved.

I am very disappointed with my Apple experience.  The iMac is probably the most expensive computer I bought in all these years, and it is also the one that gave me the most problems within the first months of using it.  I think OS X is fabulous.  It’s fast and efficient (but so is FreeBSD).  However, Apple’s hardware is another story.   Apple compromises its quality for its beauty.  I actually use my computers, so it has to work.  Apple has failed on that account.  This Mac is probably the last Mac I will own.  I hate you, Apple.  I hope another company comes out with more fashionable computers and user-friendly operating systems and steals all your sales.

* According to the many forums on the Internet, there is no DIY fix for this issue.   I think the real fix for this problem is just not buying any more crap from Apple.

** Americans are so litigious.  Why isn’t there a class action lawsuit against those Apple jerks?

—-

Edit on 1/21/09:  I unplugged everything for about 12 hours, and the problem with the clicking seemed to have gone away.  My Mac and I might just be friends again.

Edit on 1/21/09 (later in the day):  Oh, it’s still clicking.  The break-up is still very much on.

Edit 1/24/09: Okay, so I thought it was sort of weird how my mouse started acting up when I got the new TV. I thought it was just some sort of a coincidence. However, the more I thought about it, the more I think the two may be related. Today, I moved my computer 1-foot farther from my TV, and the random clicking stopped.

Edit 1/25/09: That only lasted one night. In the morning, it started clicking again.

Edit 1/25/09 (later in the day):  I exchanged my TV, and the clicking seemed to have gone away.  I hope this time’s for good.

Edit 2/12/09: The fix was for good. My mouse is fine now. So I love the Mac and hate the Sony S series TV. I’m so glad I brought that shit back and got a 42″ V series for the same price.

Screech as Charles the V?

September 22nd, 2008 § 0

If a biopic on Charles the V is ever going to be a planned project, then someone should definitely throw Dustin Diamond a bone.

Still on the run

September 2nd, 2008 § 0

Since I am still stuck in this hole and CNN can’t stop broadcasting “news” about Sarah Palin’s pregnant teen, I started to watch Netflix movies to make time pass faster (and less painfully).  Thank God for Netflix because I actually enjoyed 3 movies yesterday:   The Heart is a Lonely Hunter, Blood Diamond, and Arranged.

I won’t bore you with movie reviews, but instead, I leave you with one question: Couldn’t Mick Kelly (Sondra Locke) pass for Chris Crocker’s twin?


Sondra Locke

Chris Crocker

Oh, Microsoft. How I shake my fists angrily at you.

August 22nd, 2008 § 0

So after installing Service Pack 3 (SP3) for my Windows XP computer, I could no longer install critical security updates (particularly Internet Explorer 7 cumulative updates and Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool KB890830). The little yellow shield would pop up every minute, but when I try to install the udpates, Windows Updates will tell me the operation failed. Wow, thank you SP3. You made my Windows experience that much better.

Fortunately, there is an easy fix for this issue. There is a nifty little program called Dial-A-Fix that fixes these types of Windows Updates errors.  The program is freeware and pretty much self-explanatory.

The solution to your problem with your shared printer connected to your Windows Vista computer

August 20th, 2008 § 0

I have a shared printer connected to a Windows Vista computer, and I had a problem with printing from remote computers to this printer for quite a while.  I could print from the Windows Vista computer just fine.  When I tried to print from the remote computers in the past on the other hand, the documents would show up in the printing queue on the Vista computer, and the status would indicate that the documents were printing.  However, nothing could be printed unless I reboot the Vista computer.  The documents don’t seem to be released to the printer until the machine gets a reboot.  This issue was rather annoying because the computer is in the other room, and I would have to get off my ass to reboot that computer for my documents to print.  Tonight I solved the problem.  When I did a Google search for my problem, I saw that there were over 100,000 search results.  So I just want to let you sad souls out there that there is an easy fix, and it involves no additional third-party software.

1.  Go to start, and open MSCONFIG under Run.

2.  Click on the Tools tab, and locate Disable UAC.

3.  Press the Launch button.

4.  Reboot.

The above commands turns off the Windows Vista User Account Control feature.  This UAC feature basically shows you that annoying confirm dialogue every time you try to open a program.   So if you actually know how to use a Windows computer without breaking it, that feature is not exactly useful.   This fix works for the shared printer (I think) because the UAC makes the documents from remote computers show up as being printed from a Guest account.  So the computer won’t print it because it thinks those documents aren’t from a computer with proper permissions.  However, when a reboot takes place, that security feature gets turned off for a few seconds upon start-up, and the documents print.  So eliminating UAC seems to solve the problem.

Keywords:  Windows Vista, shared printer, won’t print until reboot, spooler problems

Favorite clip from Juno

August 16th, 2008 § 0

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