• Show Extended Boot Information when Windows Vista Boots

    Note: This article applies to Windows 2000, Windows XP, and Windows Vista.

    I stumbled across an interesting Windows feature that you can enable with N-Lite that will show extra boot messages when you login to Windows. I didn’t want to format my computer and do a fresh Windows install just to be able to see a message that says "Playing Logon Sound," so I searched around on Google and found that enabling this feature is an extremely easy registry hack. Do the following:

    1. Go to the Start Menu and click Run…
    2. Type regedit in the box and press Enter. This will open the Registry Editor.
    3. Click on the folder structures on the left (which are known as hives and keys) in the following sequence.

      HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SOFTWARE\Microsoft\Windows\CurrentVersion\policies\system

    4. In the right hand side of the window, look for a value called named VerboseStatus.
    5. If it exists, double-click on it, type a 1 in the box, and click ok. Once you reboot, you will see extra boot messages.
    6. If it does not exist, right click on white space in the right-hand pane, choose New, then choose DWORD Value. You’ll see a key that says New Value #1. Type VerboseStatus and press Enter.
    7. Double-click on your new VerboseStatus value, type a 1 in the box, and click OK.
    8. Reboot, and you should see new boot status messages.

    For some reason, I get a great deal of satisfaction out of seeing Playing Logon Sound before it happens. On a more practical note, these messages can allow you to see at what point your Windows logon becomes slow (if it ever becomes a problem).

  • Just Plain Wierd

    The other night, I dreamed that I was sitting in a college psychology class. The setting was much like that of my Intro to Psych class: A small auditorium with stadium style seating. The professor was standing up front wearing a corduroy blazer with patches on the elbows holding a cup of coffee.  He takes a big gulp of coffee, looks at the class, and poses the question, "Did you ever consider that when a Carebear farts, it probably smells like cupcakes?"

    I was perplexed…Very perplexed. When I woke up, I was still perplexed, but a bit curious. The only thing I could think was, "What flavor of cupcakes would they smell like." Who needs carpe diem when you dream like that…

  • What to do if XAMPP for Windows won’t load anything under localhost

    I’ve used XAMPP for Windows on my laptop as a testing server for over a year with no problems. Today, though, I started the Apache and MySQL services as I have many times in the past only to find that both localhost and 127.0.0.1 did not work in my browser. Here’s some of the things I tried that did no good and some notable facts:

    1. I tried localhost:80 and 127.0.0.1:80 with no effect
    2. I disabled the Windows firewall. No dice.
    3. I uninstalled the Apache service. No change.
    4. I uninstalled/reinstalled XAMPP multiple times with multiple versions. No change.
    5. When I would put localhost in the browser, I did not receive a "Page cannot be found" error. Instead, the status bar would indicate "Waiting for localhost." I waited more than ten minutes to see if anything would happen at one point. Nothing did: The screen remained white.
    6. It didn’t matter what browser I used. IE, Firefox, and Opera all sat there and waited while nothing happened.
    7. I have made no system changes since the last time I ran XAMPP except for the regular barrage of Windows Updates.

    While I don’t know exactly what broke my XAMPP installation, I can almost guarantee that a Windows Update killed it. I know Microsoft can’t keep every program under the sun from breaking with its updates, it could do a better job of telling you exactly what each update does without having to dig through 500 lines of the KB articles. Anyway…

    I managed to fix the problem, as per this article posted in the Apache Friends forums. In the C:\program files\xampp\apache\bin\httpd.conf file, I added the following line:

    Win32DisableAcceptEx

    From the best I can tell, this has something to do with Apache’s interaction with Windows’ WinSock 2 API. I’d say some security update managed to fix a problem in WinSock but break Apache. It makes me feel really stupid that I don’t know exactly what caused the problem or exactly how the solution actually fixed it. I’m just glad everything is working now. I can actually get to work on the project I needed the server for in the first place.

  • The Best Desktop Wallpapers on the Internet

    One of my favorite places on the Internet is Digital Blasphemy.com. This site is by far the place to get desktop wallpaper. I’ve been a fan for about 4 years and with each update, I am more and more impressed with Ryan Bliss’ work. He is an amazing digital artist.

    One of the coolest things to do is go look at the 2001 work and compare it to the current offerings. With every new version of software (Truespace 3D, Lightwave, etc), Ryan manages to push the envelope and get the most out of new features. This goes to show you that a true artist can get the most out of his tools.

    Digital Blasphemy has free section, but I would recommend that anyone pay $20 and sign up for a 1 year subscription. The paid wallpapers are well worth it, especially if you spend as much time on the computer as I do.

  • Superman Ice Cream is so hard

    One of the simple pleasures in life goes all the way back to my youth: Superman Ice Cream. We bought a gallon a little over a month ago at Save-a-Lot and I’ve been slowly chipping away at it. This evening, I decided I needed a bowl but I was having a horrible time trying to scoop it out. Thanks, Becca, for lending a hand. If the world was about to end, as long as I had you to scoop my Superman Ice Cream, everything will be ok. I love you babe.

Categories

Archives

Scroll to Top