Speed Bloke: The Week That Was
Sorry Blokesters but I’ve been having some computer troubles and not able to publish for a few days. Anyhow that’s my excuse and I’m sticking to it.
Windows XP decided to have a hissy fit and stopped working (again) for no apparent reason. No cryptic error messages to decipher, and I hadn’t installed anything recently that I could blame (software, hardware or otherwise).
So as usual I was left scratchin’ me pointy head wondering what to do next.
I tried running Chkdsk but each time it would choke half-way through. So I took out my trusty Windows CD and tried to boot into it and run repair like I’ve done so often before. But this time something different happened.
My first attempts were unsuccessful. It wouldn’t even boot. After fiddling with the BIOS settings I finally got it to boot, but instead of deleting the old Windows files and copying them over fresh from the CD, a blank blue screen came up and did nothing for what seemed an eternity (probably only a minute or so but when you are stressed out in computer terms that can seem forever).
Then a message came up and said it had repaired the hard drive and needed to reboot. So instead of booting back into the CD again I just let it boot the hard drive like normal. And low and behold – it worked!
I’ve never seen that happen before. Obviously there was an integrity problem with the hard drive and Windows. I’m happy to report that everything is now working fine (knock on wood — ouch).
Of course the big news this week is that Google’s Blogger still continues to have its woes. First off, reader Paul Krenz brought to my attention that Blogger was still giving random Google server messages.
Then Kathy Frederick told me that her redirect from blogspot was no longer working. So I checked out my old blog and the same thing was happening:
http://instabloke.blogspot.com/2007/12/things-do-go-better-with-coke-wordpress.html
Hmm, thanks Blogger.
Then I noted that one of her readers Andrew had reported the same thing but it suddenly started working again. So I’m assuming this is a more widespread issue and not just subterfuge on the part of Google against us Blogger deserters (I hope).
Have you noticed anything similar? All the more reason why I’m so glad to be rid of Blogger.
So that was the week that was for this blogging bloke. How was yours? Better I hope.
with your friends if this article has helped your blogging experience
Don't Miss Another Blog Tip and Subscribe to the Newsfeed Today! 
Now tell me what you think. Please leave a Comment and join the conversation ... no charge
What's a Newsfeed?
Moving Blogger Over to Wordpress: The Good, Bad and the Ugly
Be COOL! Grab a Button
.gif){kind=small}
1.jpg "The guy behind Blog Bloke")
Bloke — So sorry you had computing ills this week. And I believe it’s been proven in a lab that one minute of computer frustration time equals three hours of normal time. Glad you’re back in business.
I won’t go into a Google rant here because I’m trying to calm myself before another work week starts, but boy oh boy, they make me nuts.
Kathy’s last blog post..Feed Me
[Reply to this]
Wow, that’s worse than what happened to my brother’s laptop a few weeks back. Windows kept rebooting for eternity.
After that ordeal I installed Kubuntu to DualBoot with XP if anything goes wrong with windows again.
Jaffer’s last blog post..Checkmate !
[Reply to this]
Ditto Kathy. BLOGGER SUCKS!
… so does Microsoft. It’s really too bad that apples are more expensive than rotten oranges.
[Reply to this]
Hey Jaffer. Nice to have you back.
I thought of installing Kubuntu but never got around to it. I usually have a second hard drive with Windows installed as backup. But I never got around to doing that either. I’ve been too busy dealing with blogger and windows issues.
[Reply to this]
Blogger seems to be prone to a few issues lately.
Blogger Redirects have been a problem since March 5 for my blog yet, according to my stats some visitors found my new blog through the Redirect last week as well. Maybe, Pork Rations are switching on and off again?
Apples may be more expensive than rotten oranges but, it seems to me apples are less expensive in the long run when you calculate the cost of your time to restore them (plus the cost of Virus software and their annual update costs, backup hard drives, etc.)!
I have been very fortunate(? not to brag) to have a 8 year old Power Mac and a 2 year old Intel iMac with no problems compared with the MS XP computer I use for work.
Yes, Boot camp could be used but why would anyone add rotten oranges to apples?
Debbie Dolphin’s last blog post..Bodie Island Lighthouse Restoration Funding is Slashed Again
[Reply to this]
My “rotten oranges” comment was tongue-in-cheek because I was referring back to the days probably before your time when there were “Orange” brand clones of Apples. Around that time I also built my own Apple 11 plus clone so I started my desktop computing career with Apple. After that they went to the Macintosh brand and were double the price of PCs. There was also much more software available for IBM machines so I went with it.
Now back to the present. Today I can’t view my blog in IE! What the ???
Does it ever end?
[Reply to this]
I have a question for you Bloke. Something I’ve not quite understood since checking out Wordpress.
Why is it that if Blogger is Google, and Wordpress isn’t, that you have Google ads on Wordpress?
Is that something that all the free Wordpress pages have… but is taken off if you pay for your blog over there?
Funny that you should have ads on the Free Wordpress, when the Free Blogger doesn’t have ads…
Thoughts?
[Reply to this]
Luckily, I was so new to blogging that I didn’t worry about doing redirects when I switched from Blogger to WordPress. So I don’t have to deal with that.
But I have been dealing with Windows Vista issues, and they are driving me nuts. Two things are happening. The first are random failures of Firefox. With no warning or explanation it just shuts down when it starts loading a page. It has happened on random sites and the content is always different, so I can’t point to anything. What’s distressing is that there’s no error message other than when I start up and I get the “Firefox shut down unexepectedly.” Then it asks if I want to start where I left off.
The other issue is the “Blue Screen of Death” at random times when I resume from sleep mode or hibernation. At least those errors are being tracked in the issues log, but there’s no explanation so far.
[Reply to this]
Hmmm… thought I already posted this question today, but I don’t see it.
In my research on a potential move to Wordpress, I found a weird thing I don’t understand. If Blogger is Google, and Wordpress isn’t, why do Google ads appear on Wordpress free sites? They are not on Blogger blogs…
Thoughts?
[Reply to this]
That’s harsh.. I wish all these services would sort themselves out
I find that it is best just to take all the content you want saved from your hard drive, burn it onto DVDs, then wipe your hardrive for a fresh install.
I do this every 6 months and it helps my computer run super speedy all year long… and I need the speed. I have to render my 3D portfolio and even with a dual core uber proccessor it still takes 4-5 computers all day to render one of my pieces. Which is really nothing when you compare it to PIXAR (one frame (1/30 sec) takes 500 hours to render… yes, 500)
oh, and to the point
I’ve had some very interesting problems with Blogger as well…
for about 1 week the root directory of my blog (http://zandererasmus.blogspot.com/) would not load the Index.html files and would just show up as a 404, much to my dismay
but the strangest part of this, is that it did it only on some computers and only at certain times (i checked several computers)… blogger, please sort out your problems… see a psychiatrist if you have to, i don’t want to go into the business of buying Domains and such ><
Zander Erasmus | Student Advice Blog’s last blog post..Tips for 3D Students: Networking - Work
[Reply to this]
There may be hope for the redirection of Blogspot blogs to custom domains. I’m following this issue closely since it affects me:
http://bloggerstatusforreal.blogspot.com/2008/03/blogs-published-to-custom-domain-are.html
Crossing my fingers and toes that they fix it!
Kathy’s last blog post..Deleted Scenes
[Reply to this]
NOTICE OF BLOG BLOKE’S ABSENCE:
I received a quick note from Blog Bloke today that his last working computer is down and he’s only able to communicate via a public PC at the moment. He wanted me to let everyone know he may be off-line for a while as he gets back up and running.
Kathy’s last blog post..Deleted Scenes
[Reply to this]
Hi BB,
Sorry, misunderstood the encrypted orange code due to the context of PC XP issues.
Thank you for the compliment…my secret use of Apples before Macs is safe here!
Debbie Dolphin’s last blog post..Enoshima Lighthouse Observatory
[Reply to this]
Maureen, you can add Google Adsense to your posts no matter what blog platform you use. The easiest way to implement it on Wordpress is via a plugin called “Adsense Deluxe“. With Blogger you can put them in via Widgets.
[Reply to this]
Lee, when it comes to Microsoft I live by one golden rule. I never EVER install anything that is less than version 2 because I know it will be buggy. Just the other day I heard Vista is coming out with service pack 1. I would install that right away. Better still I would go back to using trusty old XP. It’s pretty solid, knock on wood ;-()
[Reply to this]
Thanks Kathy for notifying everyone of my problems during my absence. I’m happy to report that everything is A-OK now
[Reply to this]