Hijinks Inc.

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  • Windows XP Won’t Recognize CD Drive

    Recently someone approached me with a question about their CD drive, basically Windows XP wasn’t recognizing it, it would only show up in the device manager with the following error message…

    The device is not working properly because Windows cannot load the drivers required for this device (Code 31).

    Uninstalling and reinstalling the drive yields the same result. I finally managed to track it down to a leftover registry value from when they’d removed some disc burning software.

    You might give the following steps a try if you’re having similar difficulties.

    Step 1:
    Click Start, click Run, type regedit, and then click OK.

    Step 2:
    In the Registry Editor, expand My Computer, and then expand HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE.
    Expand SYSTEM, then expand CurrentControlSet.
    Expand Control, then expand Class.
    Under Class, click {4D36E965-E325-11CE-BFC1-08002BE10318}.
    In the right hand pane, select UpperFilters.
    With the UpperFilters entry selected, press the delete button on your keyboard
    It will ask you “Are you sure you want to delete this value?”, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the registry entry.

    Step 3:
    In the right hand pane, select LowerFilters.
    With the LowerFilters entry selected, press the delete button on your keyboard
    It will ask you “Are you sure you want to delete this value?”, click Yes to confirm the deletion of the registry entry.

    Exit the Registry Editor and reboot.

    Following these steps may result in your current burning software no longer working, to fix this just reinstall it. If you use the built in Windows burning utility, just uninstall and reinstall the CD drive from the device manager.

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  • Passive Income – March 2008

    Here’s the break down for my passive income for March.

    • Interest: $84.54
    • Dividends: $22.56
    • Credit Card Rewards: $32.72
    • AdSense: $7.64
    • Text Ads: $25.00
    • Misc website income: $15
    • Surveys: $6.00

    That’s a total of $185.82, meaning that March was my highest grossing month since the start of this project.

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  • Spybot Pwns Your Windows Firewall

    Yes, I did just use the word “pwns” in the title of my post… blame it on the fact I’m typing this on my iPhone since Apple has my computer for the next week.

    So apparently Spybot has a nasty habit of taking away your ability to disable your Windows Firewall, go figure, so now when you go to disable it, the disable option is grayed out and cannot be selected.

    Here’s how to disable it manually:

    Click Start

    Hit Run

    Type services.msc

    Once it opens, find the entry marked “Windows Firewall/Internet Connection Sharing [ICS]” and right-click on it and hit Stop.

    Now right-click on it again, and select Properties.

    On the General tab change the Startup Type to Disabled. Click Ok.

    And there you have it, no more Windows Firewall. Of course I would recommend installing another firewall solution after disabling the Windows Firewall, but that’s your call.

  • Apple customer service sets the bar, Kahuna burger raises it.

    Yesterday Aaron and I made hour drive up to our nearest Apple store. I had heard about these so-called Apple “geniuses”, but my experience with them was limited to that chick in the Mac vs. PC commercials. Come to find out, there’s only two requirements for working at the Apple store.

    1. A stocking cap and/or yuppie haircut.
    2. An iPod to hang around your neck.

    One can only wonder how many young and aspiring geniuses they’ve turned away for not wearing the correct headgear.

    But I digress. As previously mentioned, my iPod Nano was exhibiting some rather…strange tendencies where the click wheel was concerned. I thought it might have something to do with the cold weather and leaving it out in my car in said weather, but once it warmed up the problem persisted, albeit completely randomly. Because of the unpredictability of my problem I walked into the Apple store I knowing that I probably couldn’t reproduce my problem in front of them. From my experience with any form of customer service, this means that they can’t help you. But what the heck, might as well try. And try I did.

    After all was said and done, I walked out of the store with a brand new 8g iPod Nano, completely free of charge. He couldn’t reproduce my problem, but he said he’d give it to me on good faith. I didn’t know there was such a thing as good faith in the customer service business. Apparently there is at Apple though, and that is pretty much awesome. Kudos indeed.

    We walked out of the Apple store happy, but unfulfilled. The inner man needed sustenance. We continued walking down the broad avanue of stores, most of which were advertizing the latest spring fashions (did you know that flirty was the word for spring dresses? I had no idea). At the end of this street we saw two restaurants. Johnny’s Italian Steakhouse, and Kona Grill. Out of the two, we figured we’d stand a better chance of paying less then 20 bucks for a meal at Kona Grill. We sat down, looked at the menu, and mutually decided the best course of action was the Kahuna Burger. 12 oz of meat topped with three thick slices of chedder cheese on a woefully undersized bun. It was heavenly. Altogether, it was a great trip.

  • Exodus to the Apple Store

    In a few short hours my fellow blogger Fred and myself will be heading to Omaha to visit the Apple Store there for some “sweet” repair action.

    The LCD on my laptop has a few janky spots and the power button needs to be reset back into position, and his iPod Nano has a “special” click-wheel which randomly freezes up.

    Anyhow, we’ll see how Apple’s “legendary” customer service actually ranks.