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16-Mar-08, Sun 12:00
(edited 27-Apr-08, Sun 19:00)
I haven't given up on this site - although I continue to be extremely frustrated. I've been stymied in my attempts to get Drupal to work the way I want it to, and the help forums...well, let's just say I'd prefer it if they used phpBB. I've looked into some other Content Management Systems, such as CMS Made Simple (doesn't work with my webhost since PHP safe mode is enabled), but I get the feeling that whatever CMS I choose I'm going to have numerous problems. I've also considered going back entirely to text-mode editing with no CMS whatsoever, but it was too confusing to manage the site that way. I'm going to try to stick with Drupal.

In all fairness, I think now that part of my problem is jumping in and trying to solve problems as they come up, rather than learning as much about the system as I can. I'll go do my reading now, and hopefully I'll get a firm grasp on how to use this stuff.

4-Sep-07, Tue 19:17
Parts of the site was down for a while due to my forgetting that my web hosting provider was upgrading their FreeBSD version, and that it would break some things. Thanks to M. Wade for emailing me and letting me know the site was down.

In other news, commenting has been disabled, as I'm not getting around to manually approving comments, and spam slips through even with the simple captcha system I have in place. If you need help with a machine, please try forums such as the HP/Compaq forums for Armada support.

1-May-07, Tue 21:55
The Drupal site (what you're looking at) is repaired and back up.* If you didn't notice it was down, great! I upgraded to 5.1 while I was at it. Some colors are a bit screwy, and a few things aren't working yet, such as the Google Adsense advertising. I bet you really miss it, unobtrusive though it was ;) I'll be ironing out the kinks in the next few days.

* - Speaking of backups, mine could have been better. It's the work of a few seconds to right-click in WinSCP and duplicate to another directory.

24-Apr-07, Tue 17:48
I apologize for the lack of updates and monitoring/responding to the comments. I got a job with Fonality back in mid-January, building computer-based PBX phone systems, and I've been rather busy with moving and finding a place to live at the same time. I'm a little more settled now, and my commute is shorter (31 miles in Los Angeles traffic is nothing to laugh at).

Looking at the comments in the moderation queue, there are a disproportionate number of spams - at least 50%. I'm going to do my best to implement a CAPTCHA system for commenting so that comments can be posted immediately without my needing to approve them first - I think people would like that much more. No doubt Drupal supports something like this.

05-Jan-07, Fri 23:39
Ported the Armada 1750 laptop overclocking and CPU upgrade article to the new site, and added in a note about the 1700 not being upgradable.

03-Jan-07, Wed 23:42
Mostly backend updates. I'm sure you'll all be thrilled to know that meta tags are now working ;) Fixed the links to the three Q&A articles below.

02-Jan-07, Tue 14:22
Created Q&A - Upgrading section, added following articles (fixed links):

• Pentium 4 vs. modern Core 2 Duo and other CPUs - a quick comparison. How does my old CPU match up? added 17:48.
• Dial up is not adequate for most massively multiplayer online games added 17:48.
• If my computer runs C&C:Generals ok, can it run No One Lives Forever 2? How about Half Life 2? added.

30-Dec-06, Sat 20:11
I've changed the input format of comments. It is now no longer necessary to preview before posting. I never remembered to click the Post button, and I observed I wasn't the only one. It's one of those little usability issues that one only discovers after a site goes live and people start using it. I apologize to the two or three of you whose comments didn't get submitted.

I also noticed a very few 'page not found' log messages. I initially thought that it might have something to do with translator incompatibility, but that's jumping to conclusions. I can never get Babelfish to work on large pages, but the WorldLingo free online translator works flawlessly with my site.

... You know, I really have to spend less time on editing my posts to make them just right. It's now 21:30. Of course, some of that was poking around in my logs and trying different online translators.