*blows the dust off this journal*
*waves away the airborne particles*
*coughs*
Excuse me.

Well, what has happened since my last update? How long ago was that? It seems like ages. LJ has been one of the things I've neglected lately.
June 11... Hmm...
I went to North Carolina for the UMVIM Connect rally, where I ran the slide decks for the plenary sessions and presented a workshop during one of the breakout times (the topic was: proper slide deck design). That went well, and it was very nice weather up there.
The next week, I went to Destin for a couple of days with my mom.
Since then, I guess I've been working mostly on driving around to visit the more than 50 churches in my town. So far, I think I've made contact at about 15 of them. But I've made a call list and prepared a call log so that I can call the rest.
Oh, and I've been working on that couch I've mentioned to some of you. Here's a picture:
( Cut because it moves )
So, I've been doing some software development lately. I had two programs that I needed that I couldn't find anywhere, so I ended up having to write my own applications. I don't want to get into Web development, but I wrote them both as CGI programs. I like CGI. I can write the programs like console programs, yet have a GUI interface through the HTML. I have a hard time wrapping my head around GUI programming, because it's all based on events, and I like to set things up in hierarchical menu structures, like the programs we used to use before we knew of such things as windows, icons, menus, and pointers. One of my favorite games in the BBS era was TradeWars2002. It had that kind of text-menu interface: Sector #486 (#) warp to sector, (p)ort (?) Help [20 turns remaining]: or something like that.
Life was simpler in computer programs back then. :)
Anyway, the status of my goals:
WIFE: I haven't found any likely prospects. I'm trying to get out more among people and make some new friends, to expand the number of people who know me and might possibly know someone who could be her.
CAREER: No bites yet. Just nibbles. I've posted a total of two church Web sites, along with my own business page, and one of those two wants to hire me to update the page. The information won't likely change often, so that won't bring a lot of money in, but it'd be something. I'm going to talk to the pastor this week about the page and see whether she hires me or not. I figure most churches I've given my card to will have to have a board/council meeting before they invite me to talk to them about possibly doing their sites, if they want Web work done, so I'm trying to be patient. I need to find more ways to get my name out there.
NOVEL: Still waiting for someone to return a proofread copy so I can post it on LuLu or Wowio.
DEGREE: Completed. Expensive piece of paper.

I'm feeling pretty good. I need to sleep more than I am.
My lips are clear.

Here's a secret: FVYLGFHDSNDROABEVDHEFGRDQPMH.
(Not really a secret)

Microsoft has announced that Windows XP(tm) will no longer be available for most platforms and users after June 30th. This move makes sense for them, but it's not necessarily beneficial to their customers.
Luckily, there are options. ( Read more... )

I've been working on stuff today for my church's Web site. And I've been having a problem. In my little toolbar, I have a few frequently used programs, including my IM client. In fact, that program's icon is the closest to the "open programs" area of the taskbar, which leads to my often clicking on it by accident. When the IM client loads, it doesn't check for another instance of itself (because it allows you to have two different accounts loaded on the same machine, as I recall), and when it tries to login, it kicks my existing connections off. This is not my preferred behavior.
So I finally (after hitting it four or five times today) decided to fix it. To do this, I thought I'd write a little shell script to check a lockfile and decide whether or not to load the program. However, lockfiles are a pain, as I discovered in researching them. But eventually, I hit upon an idea that is foolproof and doesn't involve extra files. I merely check to see if the program name is in the process list. If it is, I pop up a message box giving me its process ID. If it's not, I load the IM client. No more errors!
Here's the code:

#! /bin/bash
y=`eval  ps x | grep gaim | grep -v grep | awk '{print $1}'`
if [ -z "$y" ]; then
  /bin/sh -c "/usr/bin/gaim" &
else
  echo "Already running!" $y "is the PID." >&2
  xmessage -center -timeout 3 "Already running!" $y "is the PID."
  exit 1
fi

I have no love for SAAS, but I have to admit that this op/ed makes a lot of sense.
If you work at a business, run a business, or own a business that uses computers to do stuff, you need to read this:
http://www.desktoplinux.com/news/NS2414535067.html

I wasn't around yesterday because I spent the day setting up my mom's computer and doing homework.
Then I went out to watch a movie with the singles group.
I just got tired of myself. I've been making her wait a long time to check her e-mail and stuff easily because her laptop, which I had set up to do this, is having hardware woes.
So I set her up with a dual boot so she can play games in Windoze and do real work in Linux. :)
Well, so far, I've installed Windows(tm), installed Linux, and done (I think) most of the configuration for the Linux side. Once that is done, I'll do the lilo config so she can boot into Windows or Linux any time she wants.
I started by installing both KDE and IceWM on it, but since it's a rather old Dell(tm) (Entry regarding its arrival 12-20-2003m) with minimal RAM, KDE runs painfully slowly on it. So, I think she'll be using IceWM, which is the same window manager I use. This will make it easy for me to make modifications to her configuration, because I'm familiar with it.
I have set up her Web browsers, e-mail client, sound, IM, and games. I need to configure GAIM to use the sound system and sort out the desktop icons.

I am happy with the progress I've made in the past couple of years. I can now do a full Linux install, including configuration and loading software, in less than 3 hours. I can usually start using it in less than 2 hours from the time I insert the install disc.

This is a little faster than I can install a base Windows(tm) system and securing the most obvious security holes thereon, but not including the time to install all the software I'll need to do real work with it. To sit down and start using it is at least 3 hours from the time I insert the install disc, from what I remember of my experiences with it.

When I think about the number of things I'm likely to have to go back and fix again, and how often that is likely to happen in the course of six months, that difference becomes larger for me. I know when I set something in Linux, it's going to stay set unless I change it. With Windows(tm), my experience is that I often have to go back and set something I've set before because it has mysteriously become unset.

The only thing you need Windows(tm) for nowadays is some games. And that realm is shrinking. More and more games are being ported to MacOS(tm)/Linux/Un*x (think Unreal Tournament), or are becoming usable under Wine (think World of Warcraft). And there is a wealth of games available for Linux that are so cool, they've even been made usable *gasp* in Windows(tm) (think anything that mentions Cygwin in its install documents).
For anything other than games... anyone can improve their experience with computers by switching to either a Mac or a Linux install. If it isn't available for Linux or MacOS(tm), it probably isn't available for Windows(tm)... except for viruses; oops, my mistake...
And if you still want to keep Windows(tm) for some reason, there's always dual-booting, like what I've set up for my mom. If you have any questions, ask me. I'll be glad to help.

By the way, if you're wondering how many games you can play on Linux, here are some lists:
Natively (Some free, some commercial)
Natively (Debian repository (free))
Under Cedega
Under WINE

So, my mom decided to start using her laptop. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I'd set it up that I had forgotten the root password. So, I couldn't update anything significant. I pulled out the install disk and used it to rescue mode in and change the root password. But something went wrong somewhere along the line, and X was complaining that it couldn't access /tmp. So, I decided to just reinstall the system. I decided not to have the root password problem this time. I set it up so there's no root account. Administration will be done with sudo. This is okay, because she doesn't need a complicated system with frequent root use the way I do.
( Read more... )
If anyone has any questions, I'll try to answer them. If I don't know the answer, I can make something up.

1. Botnets surpass DoS as top security issue, survey says
2. When Macs Attack (Actually, the exploit was for PHP, not MacOS or Linux)
3. Attack of the PC Zombies!
4. Are you in a botnet?
5. 1/4 of all computers are zombies (part of a botnet)
6. Is Your Computer Part Of A Botnet?
7. Note to new Linux users: No antivirus needed - Personally, I use ClamAV, but the author is right. I don't really need it.
8. Five Flaws
9. Bugs/1000 lines of code
10. Zombies at Wikipedia

I found all of these because I was reading the first article. And I immediately thought of the fact that most botnets use Windows(tm) exploits to embed themselves on systems, and that most of the malware is written for Windows(tm) (because of its market penetration), and that most Windows(tm) users don't take the time to properly secure their machines (and many don't even know how). And I thought I ought to look around for some information. So I looked up zombie on my favorite search engine (AltaVista) combined with Mac/Macintosh(tm), PC/Windows(tm), and Linux. Interestingly, for Macintosh, most of the results had to do with a game called Stubbs the Zombie. For Linux, most of the links were informational about zombies and botnets in general. For Windows(tm), most of the links were about computers infected by malware.
Botnets are responsible for a lot of the spam you get in your inbox. It could be your best friend's computer that sent it, and neither of you might know.
I think people should switch from Windows(tm) to Macs or Linux-based PCs, as they tend to be more secure out of the box. And if you're running a secure machine, you're not sending spam.
People need to take more responsibility for securing their computers. If you don't secure your computer, you might unknowingly be violating your ISP's terms of service by sending spam... not to mention garnering for yourself the curses of those who receive the spam your computer is sending out... that might be why it runs so slowly.

So, take some time to inform yourself. Then either take the time and effort to secure your Windows(tm) machine (a starting point) or make the switch... You can get a Mac here. You can get Linux here (I recommend Ubuntu for the non-technical and Debian for the power users).

http://articles.tlug.jp/Windows_Is_Free - What can I say? WOW. This is an amazing article. The author makes an incredible number of excellent points. Even if you don't normally follow the links I post, you ought to view this one. It is quite interesting and informative. It's not very technical, so even if you're not technically inclined, you can get something out of it. You might even be able to impress your geek friends by talking about the points raised.

  So, I finally got my mom to finish sorting through the files on her legacy laptop so I could archive the things she wanted to keep and blow away the partitions. See, her laptop has had a problem for a few years now. Its Windows(tm) install one day said, "I don't have a network connection." To which I replied, "Yes, you do. I checked that PCMCIA card, and there's nothing wrong with it. Connect to the network." But the laptop said, "Network? I see no network." So, I said, "Try dial-up." And the laptop said, "Dial-up? What is this dial-up you speak of? And what is a network?" So, in spite of having perfectly good hardware, it refused to acknowledge there was such a thing as a network stack. I tried reinstalling the networking software, but to no avail. It refused to connect to any sort of network.
  Needless to say, this makes archiving files a pain. We had to connect the floppy drive and sneakerNet the files over to my mom's desktop machine. With multiple megabytes of information, this is a major pain. So, we've been putting it off. But I finally got her to go through her files.
  Three hours of install later (the installer went into low memory mode because of the pitiful amount of memory the school board ordered with their laptops for teachers thing), Ilsa (I decided not to try to continue a themed name set) is purring nicely and doing what I tell it. I installed Debian Etch, made many of the modifications mentioned in earlier installs, installed Tea (highlighting text editor), and decided on a window manager.
  Because of the extremely low memory level on the laptop, I've decided to put fluxbox on it. I've never been fond of the plain vanilla install of fluxbox, so I haven't given it the amount of time and effort I've put into learning the quirks and features of IceWM, which is what I generally use. Having FB on mom's laptop will give me a reason to study it further. Who knows? I may eventually switch to FB, myself.
  Getting X11 to work on the laptop proved interesting. Actually not so much. I had to install the xfonts package with fixed-width fonts, which somehow didn't get installed with X.org. So far, I'm not impressed with Fluxbox, so far. It isn't doing things I expect it to do. I may have to go with IceWM on her machine. It's not running too slowly.
  So, I installed IceWM. I'll configure it later.

I hope everyone is having a great day.

Getting Windows(tm) to play nice with Linux is usually a pain in the neck for me, but getting it to talk to a CUPS print queue was a real bear. As usual, it was a fairly simple thing once I stumbled upon the right information... except that that information happened to be in three different places, or maybe I didn't read all of the page on some of them; I was in a hurry, and that is the source of many problems for me.
Most of the references I found said much of the same things. You have to setup the printer in CUPS (Common Unix Printing System), and you have to do the following things to CUPS configuration:
1. Make sure network machines can reach CUPS by properly configuring the allow and deny statements in the location sections.
2. Configure Samba for the printer (Here's a good page about that, because this was easy to find: http://tr.samba.org/samba/docs/man/Samba-HOWTO-Collection/CUPS-printing.html ). Actually, most of this was easy to find, except for the last key step that made everything work for me.
3. Set Windows(tm) to use your printer. Most of the HOWTOs I found were saying things at this point like "Just set it up normally" without any real indications or examples on how to make it work when it just wasn't. So, I finally found one resource that answered that question AND the question of where to point the silly Windows(tm) printer dialog, because it wasn't finding my printer, even when it was finding it.
I just bought an HP Deskjet 5940, specifically because linuxprinting.org said it works perfectly with CUPS. It does.
But getting it to play nice through Windows(tm) was another story. Here's what I had to do:
I had to install the printer on the Wintel by connecting it directly to the USB port.
I then tried to route it through CUPS. No dice. The install disk wouldn't find the printer because it wanted to directly talk to the printer, not to a spool location.
I tried browsing the network, which would let me find the printer, but the driver tried to run its own diagnostics and again failed. I tried a number of tedious steps and finally landed on this one, which was that, having the printer installed as a local, it was now in the driver list.
I had to set up a class in CUPS. This gave me that magical requirement: the location to point the printer to. Then, I had to add a printer using the location http://CupsAndSambaHost:portnumber(default 631)/classes/ClassNameIChose to make Windows(tm) treat the printer as an IPP connection. By the way, before this would work, I had to add the IP/hostname pair to my hosts file (but that was on most of the HOWTOs I found).
All of which was much more complicated than setting up my laptop to use the printer, which consisted of waiting five minutes after configuring the printer on the CUPS server, loading my laptop's CUPS administration page, and saying, "Oh, look! There's the printer. Yes, I want to add it. Gee, this test page is much prettier than the ones Wintels print."

Hope you're all having a wonderful week. :)

This is good for a laugh: http://www.slate.com/id/2085668/
i especially like his reply to comments, when he says, "My blog alternates between being the number 1 and number 2 result when you search on the word 'steven.' So Google is guessing on average that more people searching for Steven are looking for me than for Spielberg, Seagal, Soderbergh, etc. I'd like to flatter myself and think this is true, but alas I think it's pretty unlikely."
He makes some great points about the holes in Google's ranking philosophy.


In other news, I got two HO model locomotives out of layaway today and went to a train show. I found some numeral decals I think will work well for my rolling stock. Now, if I can just get the power system sorted out (I'm planning to run custom controls on DC, so it'll be a little bit of work to get everything just so), I'll be good to go. I got some tips today. It's mostly a matter of finding time to build the benches and getting the electronic bits together, but I'm happy to have these new additions to my collection. :)

Essay: On Unix Command Lines and Pianos.
I was inspired in an idea for a comic by this essay. Here's the idea:
A man is talking to a computer user, who is complaining that he can't figure out how to use the command line. The user's problem is largely that he doesn't spell things correctly and hasn't taken the time to study the manual for the programs he's trying to run.
The other man thinks back to when he was young and had a piano teacher. He banged on the keys and complained that he did not make good music. The teacher responds that he has not practiced and read the sheet music.
He tells the user something similar or identical... that he needs to study what he's trying to do and practice hitting the right keys.

Really, when you come right down to it, the type of interface is not important. What's important is the individual program. I've seen (and for years used) many, many command line programs that have had good interfaces and been easy to use. And I've seen countless GUI programs that have had confusing and poorly-designed interfaces. The graphical interface is not inherently more usable, and I think that's something a lot of people forget.

But on top of that, the analogy of a piano (or I might suggest a violin) is a good one for the command line interface. While the interfaces could be made easier to use, doing so to the point that a total novice could sit down and immediately begin doing complicated things would necessarily degrade the flexibility and power of the original model. I truly wouldn't want to be able to sit down at a piano and with the press of one key, play Chopin. It would take away from the meaning of the music if I could. In the same way, doing away with the CLI (as some suggest) would degrade the flexibility and power of the systems I've learned how to use.
I think the author of the linked essay has made some very good points about the trade-offs in trying to make all user interfaces usable to novices.

I think there are some things that users should have to simply swallow their pride and study before using.

I was so excited last week when I ran "apt-get upgrade" and saw hundreds of new packages. I knew right away that the newest version of Debian, codenamed "Etch", had been released.

Unfortunately, I didn't have the time to migrate at that point, and I wasn't finished with my coursework. Since this is my primary machine, I put off migrating to the new version until yesterday, when I finally decided to finish up my coursework and archive all my important things.

Using http://www.us.debian.org/releases/stable/i386/release-notes/ch-upgrading.en.html (Release notes), I went step-by-step and had no problems. Since I was already using a custom kernel, and since it happened to be of a higher version number than was required, I didn't have to mess with a new kernel (which made me happy, because I don't remember how I did that, hehe)... and when I finally did shut down and boot (to make sure Lilo (bootloader) was properly configured, everything came up properly. My X (GUI) configuration stayed in place and booted properly, loading my autoloaded programs correctly.

So, I thought everything was working perfectly. And, mostly, it is.
Only a few things remain to be cleaned up, but as you can see, I have networking and browsing, and as you can't see, my mouse is working properly and all.

Unfortunately, when I tried to open glimmer to write LJ entries, I found that glimmer was no longer available *sniff*. One of its dependencies has been migrated or something, which isn't surprising, since glimmer was last updated in 2002, I think it was. So, I'm now looking for a replacement. I've gotten a few suggestions from the linux community, but I'll welcome any additional suggestions from any of you who read this.

Other things left to be tweaked: IceWM menus, which refer to a lot of programs that were orphaned in the new release, hibernate, which had a new configuration setup that I haven't had time to reconcile, and some other minor config things.

On the whole, I'd say the upgrade from Debian Sarge to Debian Etch was fairly seamless and pain-free, and I had my system doing 95% of what I need it to do and 90% of what I want for convenience right after the migration.

So, I've been using Linux for a long time, now. I love the experience. Yes, I have to dig around in text files now and then, and I load command shells very often (by choice, incidentally. I could run the KDE (K Desktop Environment) and do almost everything in the GUI), but I have so many benefits. I don't have to pay for most of what I use. When I make a configuration change, it stays changed (at LEAST until a new major version of the program is released, and even then, I can opt to keep my old config file). My system looks and feels and acts the way I tell it to. It runs well and doesn't use more resources than it reasonably should. And I have a fair idea of about 25-50% of what my computer is doing and why, as opposed to the 1% I understand about my Windows box. And when I install software, 90% of it can be done with a single command on the command line (a GUI version of APT is available, but I prefer the command line), which installs not only the package I want but everything on which it depends to function.

I don't know about you all, but my total cost of ownership is much, much lower with a Linux system than with a proprietary OS.

So, in case any of you are interested in commenting, let me ask a couple of questions. All are welcome to answer.
What software programs do you rely on, couldn't do without?

Does anyone in Walton, Okaloosa, or Santa Rosa county know of a nearby LUG (Linux User Group) I could join?

[Edit: removed sound from the tweak list because it's working fine.]

I was reading an article online today (http://www.informationweek.com/news/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=199201179), and I was reminded of a question I'd heard some time ago.
You see, one of the things some people say about Linux in the face of points about why it is more efficient, more secure, more powerful, and better behaved than MS-Windows(tm) is that it's not as easy to use.
I think a large part of that is a misunderstanding in how people approach Linux, but the question was this:
You're the coach of a baseball team. You have two players who run the 50-yard dash in the same amount of time. One player has good form, and the other has bad form. Which player do you put on your team?
You put on the player with bad form. Once you've taught him good form, he'll blow the other player away in running.
I think it's the same with Linux.
Right now, Linux has some issues with usability (largely because its software tends to be written by people who needed it, so it's designed to do tasks the way the authors wanted them done. Usability for others is an afterthought with many packages (those developed by individual programmers rather than software teams like Mozilla)) and with hardware support (which is usually an issue of hardware companies not giving out the information needed to interface with their devices, requiring a reverse-engineering effort for the Linux community to cobble together something that works with finicky hardware). And yet, it is approaching Windows in terms of usability and hardware support.
So, what Linux is would more accurately be described as a baseball player with a sprained ankle or broken leg. If the guy with a broken leg is running at nearly the same speed as a healthy player, imagine what could be accomplished once his leg heals.
Programmers who think Linux is not friendly enough should do some development with the interfaces to make the programs more friendly while retaining their power and good behavior (i.e., not changing settings once the user has set them). In this way, everyone would benefit. See, the people who wrote the software you think isn't friendly often didn't write it to be friendly to random users. They wrote it to do a job, do it well, and do it the way they expected it to be done. The UI was secondary for them. If the UI is important to you, you can program a friendly UI that works with (or becomes part of a replacement for) the program that does what it does in a workable way. Different people feel different parts of the software picture are more important.
Hardware support will continue to be a problem as long as companies develop hardware and drivers for Microsoft but don't develop drivers for Linux or release the interface specs needed to write a 100% compatible driver. This is the fault of the hardware manufacturers, and those who continue to treat Linux like an unwanted stepchild will soon find that other companies have started playing nice with the FOSS community, and that they don't sell as many devices as they used to. The movement is growing, and we have long memories.

I asked about the term Big Brother. Everyone who commented was able to connect the phrase with the book 1984 by George Orwell. Most of the comments connected the phrase in some way with intrusive watching. The general sense I get in everyday life is that people don't properly understand it, using it instead as simply a byword for government observation. Big Brother goes beyond that to a patronizing authoritarian nature that assumes it knows better than any of its citizens. One of the major things that leads me to believe most people don't understand the term is the widespread idea that America is getting close to living out "1984". We're not. As I see it, we're heading for different places than that; maybe worse, maybe better, but not at all close to Oceania.
Kudos to the one who mentioned other uses, including the mentoring program Big Brothers, Big Sisters.

I haven't seen anyone on LJTalk in the longest time. Is nobody using it?

Do any of you have bookmark lists at del.icio.us? Nobody said anything either way about it.

Do any of you think I don't post often enough?

So, now that I'm home, I decided to start messing about with my desktop (midgel), so I won't have to keep my laptop running all the time (probably won't work out that way), so I can get cedega running on one of my machines (so I can play Windows(tm) games under Linux), and so I won't be wasting the hardware (it may, after all, be my most advanced hardware; I'm not sure if my laptop (zidgel) specs are better... I haven't bothered to look at them side-by-side, and I'm too tired right now to try.
So, I burned a new Debian Testing network install disc (I need testing to run the Intel Graphics chip drivers (they aren't being developed for stable) and opened the box. I tried it with all four drives connected, but I got a kernel panic on first boot. So, I reached in to remove the two PATA (standard IDE) drives, but when I grabbed the big tag connected to the connecter, it broke off. Brand new cable, and it breaks the first time I try to remove it. I'll be taking it back to the store.
Then, I tried with just the SATA hard disc and DVD+RW drive. Success. Unfortunately, I didn't choose expert install, and I did choose to install graphical environment. So, I had to go back and remove "gnome*". Hehe... did that from within X11, so it was fun to watch Gnome disintegrate as apt removed its components. I did some of the same things I did on my laptop. OpenOffice, GAIM, and Firefox were installed as part of the desktop environment, but I did the Root cursor red and 3-finger salute modifications detailed here.
I had some difficulty with IceWM not restarting properly, so I removed it. I'm thinking about trying enlightenment again, or maybe fluxbox, openbox, or even KDE... On the desktop, the extra bloat isn't a big deal. I'll probably end up trying a number of different window managers before settling on something. I need to figure out how to make startx ask me each time which manager to use... though if I install KDE, I can probably just use KDM to choose one.

Microsoft has made a deal with Novell regarding some sort of interoperability stuff between Linux and Microsoft products (http://linux.slashdot.org/linux/06/11/08/0244242.shtml). While it remains to be seen what this will mean in the computing world, the consensus on Slashdot seems to be that Novell can no longer be trusted. Many Suse Linux users have turned off updates and are looking for a replacement distribution.
Speculation is that Microsoft will try to force Open Source users to come under Microsoft's wing by insinuating that Novell's Linux is the only distribution that is legitimate, but educated users are not fooled, as evidenced by the mass egress of Suse users mentioned above.
What Novell hoped to gain from this move is unclear. I do not know what Microsoft hopes to gain from this move, either.

Since two people have recently mentioned needing to reformat their computers, I have decided to offer a tutorial, in case there are others who have not mentioned this in my sphere of awareness.
If you have actual install disks:
(23:51:00) friend: How does one reformat?
(23:51:13) skreyola: *sigh* It's complicated...
(23:51:29) skreyola: 1. Archive all files you care about to floppy or CD-ROM.
(23:52:26) skreyola: 2. using the boot disk, repartition from menu, or escape to a command prompt and type "format /u c:"
(23:52:41) skreyola: 3. reinstall or install alternative operating system. ;)
(23:52:41) friend: And they think a person should do this every six months?
(23:52:47) skreyola: Yes.
(23:52:57) friend: Are they crazy?

Another howto: http://www.thundercloud.net/infoave/answers/format.htm

If you have restore disks:
1. Archive all files you care about to floppy or CD-ROM. If your computer will not boot, you can usually mount the drive from another system, but that requires some technical knowledge. It's best to archive regularly.
2. Insert restore/recovery disc/diskette and follow the menus. If you have the option of dropping to a command prompt, you can type "format /u c:" where c is the letter of your operating system's partition.
3. Reboot and follow menus to reinstall.

You can also try just installing over your old install without formatting. This will give you a better chance of recovering unarchived data, but if you take this route, you should still reformat/reinstall after you've archived your data, because an install-over is sometimes unstable.
If you know someone who uses an alternative operating system, such as Linux, and you have regular access to this person, you should consider switching. While Open Source Software requires a little more of an administrator attitude, it should be accessible to someone who knows a techie for those times when a question arises. The main difference is that you have to be willing to read documentation, put some things together yourself, and ask for help. It's a little more difficult, but it's a lot more stable and a lot faster.

"If you don't like to read documentation, if you don't like learning new things about computers and operating systems, if having to, maybe, troubleshoot sound on your system doesn't appeal to you, if you are willing to accept someone else's idea of how your OS looks and works then, by all means, stick with Windows. The rest of you, follow me ----->>> www.debian.org" --robsmith on a Win vs. Lin thread

Well, I've gotten a new laptop. I've decided (since setting up a dual-boot failed because of improperly created recovery discs) to go 100% Linux on my laptop.
And, since past excursions into Linux have always involved learning and relearning things, I think it might be a good idea to chronicle all the setup steps (that I can remember) I've done to make my computer look, feel, and act the way I want it to.
( Long Geekery Cut )
That's what I've done so far. I'll try to keep mentioning stuff I do, both for my own benefit and for anyone who might be interested in switching to Linux. There's not a lot that Linux doesn't currently offer that is available for Windows(tm), and probably not a lot that Macs do, either.
So, if you're interested in Linux, let me know, and we'll talk. Usually, a dual-boot system can be set up so you can keep doing things in your old OS while you get used to working in Linux. Even if you don't want to make the switch, I'll be glad to talk to you about my experiences with Linux.

Well, I guess I ought to update this.
I got in touch with the university. Apparently, there was a computer error, and they don't really think I'm a non-resident of the State. So, I shouldn't have to pay the out-of-state tuition. Unfortunately, the dorm has not assigned me a room yet. Please pray a room opens for me in the quiet building, as that is where I most want to be placed.
I had a great time at this year's UMVIM rally. I worked my butt off, but it was a great time! I felt so much at peace up there. I also saw a lot of things that tugged at my heartstrings. Truly, we have not heard the cry of the needy.
One of the songs we sang at the rally was sort of its theme, this year. It is "If We Are the Body". Halfway through the rally, someone discovered that the Casting Crowns CD that contains this song was available at the bookstore on the grounds, so I picked up a copy. And I found, to my great delight, that it also has on it a song I heard while visiting Jacksonville (and had fallen in love with): "The Voice of Truth"! I'm glad I picked up the CD.
I bought a laptop. It's a Toshiba Satellite A85. I'm fairly happy with it. It doesn't have all the features I wanted, but with laptops, as with many things in life, you're not going to find everything exactly as you want it. I'm disgusted by the amount of garbage that came preloaded on it. But I've gotten almost everything as I want it. I replaced MSIE with Firefox, loaded my own firewall, removed the 60 day trial MS Office and installed OpenOffice.org, added a few extras (FTP, Palm software, etc.), and removed extraneous software (JRE, .NET Framework, AOL, etc.).
I've decided to declare a last day at work. I've earned enough to buy the laptop, extra battery, and some other things. I'm starting to feel some pain from all the lifting I do. And I have started more projects than I have time to do. So, I'm ready to have a clear schedule again.
Speaking of buying things, I picked up a new clip for my mobile phone. I had gotten tired of the little pouch I had been using. It was a pretty kludgey solution, and the new clip is made for my phone.
I am still hoping to find scholarship money. Please pray I find it.
God bless you all!