Because I'm about ready to be Very Displeased Indeed, so instead, I'm going to withdraw from everything until tomorrow.  It's better that way.  I mean, right now, I'm that guy at the party...

...and after I leave, nobody will remember I attended.  So I'm just going to go away and pretend today, and indeed most of this week, didn't actually occur.  Because otherwise I'll be very unhappy indeed.  Unhappier.  Whatever. 

Thank you for your continued patronage of this once thriving, vibrant blog.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 05:44 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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I don't blame you.  I would, too.  If it wasn't for the unfortunate fact that since it's me involved, I'm sorta stuck.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:48 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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This week sucked.  It's over now.  It is 830pm on Friday night, and I'm going to take a nap. 

I don't feel bad about that at all.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 07:30 PM | Comments (1) | Add Comment
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Did you know that the interwebs come equipped with things called "search engines?"  True story!  You put a request or question into the search engine, and it checks to see if there's something out in the great world of the webz that matches.  I know, right?  I couldn't believe it either!  So I put "new graphics card black screen" into one of these search engines (called "Google") and OMG, hundreds of people have had a similar problem to mine!  So the blown away!  I post the best response I found here, just so I won't lose it:

1. Turn off the computer and unplug
2. Remove Graphic card
3. Plug the monitor to your video output
4. Turn on the computer
5. Click on start and type msconfig
6. Select the Boot tab and click on the box that says Safe boot with minimal selected.
7. Apply then click ok.
8. DO NOT RESTART.
9. Shut Down computer and unplug
10. Install Graphic card
11. Turn on the computer (should boot into safe mode)
12. Go into Device Manager
13. Expand Display Adapter
14. Disable the Intel(R) HD Graphics 4000 driver. (DO NOT UNINSTALL)
15. Click the start button and type msconfig
16. Unclick Safe boot
17. Restart
The computer will restart normally and will no longer get the black screen.

Another answer which sounds promising is:

1. Go to bios settings - set primary display device to PEG OR PCI E

What do you, my various and sundry tech wonks, think?  And this is going to sound like a stupid and dangerous question, but where in W8.1 does one get into BIOS?  I figgered out how to get into msconfig without a start button easily enough (right-click on the windows icon on the left of the toolbar... it's beautiful!), but BIOS is hiding somewhere.

You guys are the ginchiest!

Posted by: Wonderduck at 08:34 PM | Comments (8) | Add Comment
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While the Chicago Cubs whupped the collective tucuses of the Cincinnati Reds at Wrigley Field this afternoon, I finally took it upon myself to install my "new" graphics card. 

Yep, one of these beasts... the ASUS GeForce GTX650 2GB.  Not only is it a low-power card, drawing all the energy it needs from the mobo, more importantly it's a single-slot card.  Anything much larger than this wouldn't fit in the case without major surgery and removing the cooling solution from the Intel i5 processor.  I don't think I would have bothered even when I was young and stupid, let alone my current old and tired and stupid state.  Of course, the advantage of such a card is that, in theory, all you need to do is plug it into the correct slot and voila, you're ready to roll.

As you can guess from the title of this post, that didn't happen.  After struggling to get the card in position (the external mounting bracket of the tool-less case is a right bastard to use), I finally managed the trick, buttoned everything back up, plugged all the cords back in, hit the power button, and... nothing.  Oh, the computer was functioning, the hard-drive light was doing its usual flickering routine, everything was spooling up, and I thought I could even hear the fan on the card spinning... but the monitor stayed dark.  Indeed, it even displayed a "monitor going to sleep" message! 

So I tried again.  Removed the card, reseated it, plugged everything in, did NOT put the case back together, hit the power button, saw the card's fan spin up... but still nothing on the screen.  Perturbed and annoyed, I removed the card, delicately put it back in its box, and tried the onboard graphics again. 

No problems. 

So what the hell?  I bought this card because it was a low-power draw: it's rated at pulling somewhere between 60 - 64w, with a PSU of 400w listed... and I've seen comments saying that it works fine with a 300w.  My PSU is shown as 460w, so that shouldn't be the problem.  That the fan spun up pretty much guarantees its getting power... so what gives?  Last time, even when the card wasn't working right it still turned on the monitor.

I don't want to yank the (new, upgraded) PSU out of my old computer to install it in this one... I just want everything to work!  Is that too much to ask?

Posted by: Wonderduck at 10:29 PM | Comments (5) | Add Comment
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I had a lovely dinner with Official First Friend of The Pond Vaucaunson's Duck and his wife Geese on Monday night... three hours of sushi, karaage, more sushi, teriyaki chicken, bbq beef rolls (it's like sushi without the fish and with cows), conversation and red bean mochi.

For the record, the karaage was disappointing, nothing even vaguely resembling what they describe in Shokugeki no Soma.  The dipping sauce was memorable, but not in the way you want to be remembered.  In my defense, it was just about the same color as ginger, or exactly the same color as the dressing they use on their salads.  How was I to know it was actually made out of Greek Fire, napalm, AMFO, and just a dash of (RS)-Propan-2-yl methylphosphonofluoridate for spice?  Anyway, after bidding the San Francisco Duo adieu and heading back to Pond Central, I rapidly pumpkined and called it a night.  The next morning, however, things were... different.  Getting ready for work, I put on my socks and realized that doing so made the top of my left foot hurt, a light burning pain.  Huh, weird.  Finished getting dressed, headed off to work, yadda yadda, came home, took that sock off and... my foot was a little swollen.  Sigh.  One of the perils of a job where you sit in less-than-stellar computer chairs for eight hours a day is that occasionally you get swollen feet, no matter how much you get up and walk around.  Well, so much for that.  And then came Wednesday.

Somewhere around six in the morning I woke up in quite a bit of pain from my foot.  What I couldn't figure out was exactly why it hurt so badly... then I realized: it was because the bedsheet was touching it.  Oh crap.  Once I got out of bed and into a room with some light, I knew it was going to be a long day... the area just behind the toes was a deep, angry red.  That was bad enough, but it looked like my toes had gotten shorter, too.  In fact, they hadn't: they had gotten wider.  I went back to bed carefully... and work that day was a nightmare.  All day long, it felt like someone was holding a lighted match to the top of my foot.  The instant I got home, I took off my shoes and socks, put on my sandals... and nearly screamed from the pain of the leather touching the swollen areas.

When I finally managed to sleep that night, it was fitful... constantly waking up because the sheet touched a toe or something like that.  By Thursday night, however, the worst had past.  Today after work, I hied myself over to an Immediate-Care place where my doctor was... interesting.  She looked like Tyrion Lannister would look if he had Five o'clock shadow and Margaret Thatcher's hair.  Anyway, after examining my foot and hearing my story, she leveled her best diagnosis: gout.  She couldn't be sure, of course, without it really being in full fury and god help me, she looked like she was interested in seeing my gouty foot.  I suppose it's not exactly a disease that's all that common, after all... I, personally, have no interest in that.  Kids, drink lots of water.  You do NOT want Gout.  It hurts.  A LOT.

Posted by: Wonderduck at 09:42 PM | Comments (9) | Add Comment
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