Friday, May 14, 2010

Life's Annoyance #6

Bicyclists! They are rude and inconsiderate road hogs. They ride two by two and sometimes in threes and expect cars to go around them during dangerous curves. They should ride single file, just like cars do.

I cannot stand them!

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

My Favorite Windows XP Tips

Every now and then, I run into a problem. It's not often, but just every now and then. The best example is installing new software that absolutely insists on running at startup, even if I only use it once a month. It's VERY annoying.

That said, I am always having to go back and search for fixes because I often repeat the same ones, but the space of time since its last incident was too long and I have forgotten. For that reason I thought it would be a good idea just to post my favorite tips here so even I can come back and refresh my memory.

Keep in mind that this isn't a tutorial, just reminders. If you do not know what they are already, this probably will not help you. If there is interest in this, I will write tutorials but you'd have to request it in the comments.

Using the Run Command

Start > Run is probably the best thing since sliced bread. It is very valuable in helping me fix things quickly without trying to figure out where it is on this computer. Here are a few commands on how to get to certain things. My frequent commands are:
  • winver: Displays what version of Windows one has.
  • msconfig: Allows the enabling/disabling of startup items.
  • regedit: Runs the registry editor.
A bigger full list is here, but that is really for developers.

Getting Rid of Windows Messenger

I ran into this problem when I updated IE (which I only use for one thing; I'm a Firefox and Chrome kind of girl) at Microsoft. They had the nerve to install it on my computer without my permission. I was livid when I found out!

A search far and wide across the internet told me that there was "no way" to completely get rid of it. How dare Microsoft! They have taken up valuable space on my itty bitty 70 GB pc.

I did finally manage to find this article which at least stopped it from slowing up my start up/boot time and is an official Microsoft tutorial.

It worked, sort of. I had to also follow this advice, which finalized the whole thing.

That's it for now, but as I think of things I'll update this post.

Life's Annoyance #5

Software that, when installed, insists on running at startup. Example: Windows Messenger. That sucker is never EVER used. I was really angry that Windows auto installed it without my permission during my last update.

See also this post for my favorite XP tips.

Monday, May 10, 2010

London Can Take It!

Being an American, I can certainly say this through experience. American's can be annoying as all get out. We are a selfish people and today everything is about me.
It is all about what inconveniences me. It's about what I want to do and not about what others think or feel. It is about me not being offended but definitely not about Christians being offended nor overweight people. The government needs to take care of me and make companies spend tons of money every year to prevent anything and everything that could happen to make me unsafe. It is not my responsibility to take care of myself.
Now consider the following video. Just take a few minutes to watch it.





What would today's Americans do in that situation? I can tell you! We would - today - surrender to Germany to avoid the inconvenience. We would blame the president, or if Obama were still in office the "previous administration" that Obama so very frequently likes to blame.

Disgusting, isn't it? It truly makes me ashamed to be an American and I never EVER thought I'd say that in a million years.

Sunday, May 09, 2010

Life's Annoyance #4

"Money Saving" blogs that tell you to use coupons to cut your food bill. Well duh! I figured that one out on my freaking own.

Life's Annoyance #3

Camera tutorials for point-and-shoot cameras that say, "learn how your camera works and know the macros." Well duh! They must take point-and-shoot users for morons.

Life's Annoyance #2

Already I have another.

Driver's who swing left to make a right hand turn. It is completely unnecessary, unskilled and incredibly stupid. Where did they get their driver's license? Walmart?

The only ones who need to do that are bus and truck (big rig, not pickup) trucks.

Life's Annoyance #1

I'm going to begin a Life's Annoyance [whatever it is] as a vent here. I could use twitter for that, but I'm not. Feel free to add your own in the comments and it just might get used here.

So the very first one is going to be....

Life's Annoyance #1: Videos that autorun. That is a serious violation of my computer and should never, EVER, be allowed. Even Google is guilty of this with youtube.