nookkin

A few weeks ago I had my 2000 Ford Taurus serviced in response to a P0171 code (System Too Lean). They replaced the MAF sensor and PCV valve which fixed the problem.

The check engine light came back after a week, so I took the car back in. They read it but claimed it was a P0460, told me it was a $900 part (not counting labor) to fix, but recommended that I not repair it because of the car's age/worth.

The same P0171 code came back yet again a few days later. Now I don't know whether or not I can trust my code readers. Is it reasonable to assume that both of my (cheap) readers are getting the wrong code?

I'm studying how technology has influenced human communication for a class project, and I'd like some data as to how actual people feel about it. I devised a quick 4-question survey for gathering this information.

Just pick one answer for each question. If you're stuck between 2 of them, pick at random. You can just post the letter of each answer for simplicity.

1) How do you usually communicate with your friends?

A. Talking in person.

B. Texting or instant messaging.

C. Phone call.

D. Video chat.

E. Facebook / social networking.

2) If you permanently lost access to computers or the internet, how would you react?

A. I would barely notice.

B. I would be annoyed but I'd move on.

C. It would seriously hinder me.

D. My life would have no purpose.

3) What is your favorite thing about communication technology?

A. Talking to people many miles away.

B. Talking only when I feel like it.

C. Hiding my true emotions.

D. Sharing many details of my life.

E. Tinkering with the technology itself.

4) Describe your technical skill level.

A. I can barely turn on a computer.

B. I can use it but can't fix it.

C. I can fix most tech problems myself.

D. I program or build computers.

Thanks!

My learner's permit card arrived in the mail today, but they had accidentally misspelled my first name -- what should have been an "x" is now an "s". I dialed the number provided on the envelope but the DMV is closed until Monday.

How big of a problem is this, and what will I need to go through to get it corrected? Is it just a typo on the card, or does this likely involve my name being registered incorrectly in their database(s)?

This is entirely their fault, since my receipt has my name written properly on it, as do all of the documents I presented initially as identification. It seems like they either made a typo (X is almost immediately below S), or someone mis-heard "X" as "S" over the phone internally.

Has anything like this ever happened to anyone?

I currently have a Net10 (same company as Tracfone) prepaid phone and am looking at T-Mobile's Even More Plus plan.

The problem is, the number port eligibility checker says my number already is a T-Mobile number. That makes sense because Net10 uses either T-Mobile or AT&T numbers in my area. A sales rep confirmed that this was the case, though in my experience sales reps don't know much.

Can I buy a $20 prepaid phone from AT&T, port my current number to it, then port my then-AT&T number back to T-Mobile with a real plan? Has anyone ever done this?

Thanks.

I have a single-instance application in VB 2008. I want it to open a new window each time the executable is run, instead of simply bringing the currently running window to the foreground (the way Microsoft Word operates).

Currently, my program works as expected, with one big issue -- the first opened window is brought to the foreground, instead of the newly created secondary (or tertiary, etc) window.

How can I prevent the first window from automatically getting focus?

I replaced the power supply in my computer and added an ATI Radeon x1600 card (formerly used onboard).

Windows (Vista Ultimate) booted up without issue and I allowed Windows to install its drivers for the ATI card. I rebooted without issue, and then installed ATI Catalyst (from ATI's website, just downloaded today).

After this, Windows would sit at the boot screen indefinitely (I left it on for over half an hour... came back and it was still stuck on the Windows loading screen). An attempt to boot into safe mode would cause the system to hang at crcdisk.sys.

I tried going into Windows 7, which is installed on a second partition of the drive on which Vista is installed, and it failed to boot as well, despite the fact that I never installed any ATI drivers onto 7. Attempting to boot 7 in safe mode caused it to hang on another driver (but not crcdisk.sys... forgot the exact name).

I booted into XP, which is on a physically separate drive, and it worked fine. I could access my Vista and 7 partitions just fine. I ran chkdisk on both without errors (though it took a good 5 hours to complete).

I went into the BIOS and did a SMART short self-test. The drive made a soft but audible click and the test failed with the following message: "7 (Completed with the read element of the test failed)".

Seeing that Windows booted up without issue with the new power supply and graphics card, and the problem only started happening after I attempted to install Catalyst, it seems that Catalyst is at fault.

What should I do to fix this?

I'm almost 17 and I want to get a job this summer. I'm good with computers -- building and fixing them, setting up/managing networks, programming, web design, installing/deploying software, typing (80 wpm), and troubleshooting problems. I have been programming and messing around with computers since I was 13.

I'm more or less clueless when it comes to getting a job. It's especially difficult due to the state of the economy. Any recommendations as to how and where I could get one?

I recently started my website, http://nookkin.com/

I coded the whole thing by hand, from scratch, as well as designing the graphics. The code is valid XHTML 1.0 Strict and CSS level 2.

What do you think of the design? How can I improve it?

Also, what do you think of the functionality of the site (e.g. the navigation, blog, comments, etc.) Does it work as you expect it to?

Thanks for your input.

I have been using Windows XP Media Center Edition for the past 2 years and have configured several scripts to run automatically at logoff and shutdown. In XP, I could set these up through gpedit.msc.

Now, I've switched to Vista Home Premium. Home Premium does not have features like Group Policy (yes, I understand that I need Business or Ultimate... but I got this copy of Vista for free through HP's Express Upgrade program, and just recently got around to using it).

I'm trying to set up a script to automatically run at logoff or shutdown. Since I don't have gpedit, how can I do this? (I don't want to make some sort of shortcut on the desktop/quick launch/wherever -- I want this script to run on a normal shutdown).

There's gotta be a way... a Google search yields virtually no results.

I want to add an existing plugin (in this case, a visualization) to Windows Media Player 11. In Windows Media Player 10 on XP, I could do this by going to Options > Plugins > Add and browsing for the file. However, WMP 11 does not have an Add button, only a link to download off of Microsoft's website.

How can I manually add a plugin to WMP 11 if the Add button is not there?

I made a simple encryption program. It works like this: the ascii value of every character in string A is added to the ascii value of the corresponding character in string B. If the value is greater than 255 or less than 0, it is wrapped around; if string B is shorter than string A, it is repeated.

For example, using this algorithm on the following strings:

"The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog" (string A)

and "Jackdaws love my big sphinx of quartz" (string B)

will output:

"žÉÈ‹ÕÖàÖ‹ŒÑèÔ—Û™†ÑᇊèÝØÜŽç–ÔØ@åÝÆ’àÛÄÚƒÏÓÈ"

Decryption works in reverse - the ascii value of each character in string B is subtracted from the ascii value of each character in the encrypted string.

How easy/hard would it be to decrypt the output string if string B is unknown? Also, how secure (and practical) is the algorithm in general?

I have an HP Pavilion a1620e computer. I recently went on a trip for a few weeks, so I unplugged the computer and disconnected all peripherals.

Now, after I set everything up correctly, it does not POST successfully. The display stays blank (no signal on the monitor), the fan runs at full speed (much louder than normal), and the PC speaker beeps "beep-beep-beep-beep" (the beeps are fairly fast; the beep sequence repeats after a pause of several seconds). I have to hold in the power button for about 10 seconds to get it to shut off. (The computer worked perfectly before).

Computer specs:

Model - HP Pavilion a1620e

Motherboard - Asus A8M2N-LA (also known as NodusM3)

BIOS - Phoenix-Award BIOS 6.00PG, version 3.07

Processor - AMD Athlon 64 3200

RAM - 1GB PC4200 DDR2, 533MHz (2x512MB) dual-channel

Video card - Integrated GeForce 6150LE

Hard Drive - 500GB SATA 160GB SATA drives

OS - Windows XP MCE, XP Pro, Vista Home Premium, Kubuntu Linux 6.06LTS

If you need more information, ask.

I know a lot about computers, so feel free to use technical language. I'm typing this question on another computer in the house, in case you're wondering.

Please help if you can – I really need my computer.

I have an Nvidia geforce 6150le video card. When I run Windows XP, I can select a maximum resolution of 2048x1536 (I even got it higher through custom timing). However, in Vista (I have a multi-boot configuration), I cannot select a resolution higher than 1280x1024. I have unchecked "Hide modes that this monitor cannot display" option but that does not change anything. I cannot set the resolution any higher through the Nvidia Control Panel, either. I also tried "List all modes" and the highest resolution listed is still 1280x1024.

Why is this happening? Is it a buggy driver, or is it because Vista's Aero interface is consuming so much video memory as to limit the maximum resolution I can set?

Oh, and another thing, Windows Display Properties reports that I have two monitors, even though my video card only has VGA out.

I am trying to make a program similar to Microsoft Paint in Visual Basic 2005. However, I am having problems drawing lines thicker than one pixel. This is what happens: http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj206/nookkin/m...

The paint area is a picture box named "pic".

Dim bmpImg As Bitmap = New Bitmap(pic.ClientRectangle.Width, pic.ClientRectangle.Height)

Dim g As Graphics = Graphics.FromImage(bmpImg)

Dim p As Pen = New Pen(Color.Blue, 100)

Private Sub pic_MouseMove(ByVal sender As Object, ByVal e As System.Windows.Forms.MouseEventArgs) Handles pic.MouseMove

If IsDrawing Then

curX = e.X

curY = e.Y

g.DrawLine(p, curX, curY, prvX, prvY)

pic.Invalidate()

prvX = e.X

prvY = e.Y

End If

End Sub

I have made a fairly powerful graphics program in VB6, and it is not practical to convert it using the wizard (too many advanced API hacks). And I can't even get a simple line drawn in .NET!

I started up my computer from hibernation. Windows displayed the wallpaper briefly and then I got the following message:

Windows - Delayed Write Failed : Windows was unable to save all the data for the file U:\$Mft. The data has been lost. This error may be caused by a failure of your computer hardware or network connection. Please try to save this file elsewhere.

When I clicked OK, everything froze (except the mouse pointer). After about 5 minutes, the computer shut down normally. I rebooted the computer with no errors.

I visually inspected the contents of the drive, and no data seems to be missing. I also ran a disk check and it completed in less than a minute. This is the drive I use for backups, and is a Western Digital 80gb IDE drive inside a USB enclosure. Write caching is DISABLED for this drive in Windows.

What should I do about this? Again, this has only happened ONCE so far, and I don't want to risk losing my data.

I can provide more details if you need them.

Is there a way to prevent Virtual PC from changing the numlock state? It's extremely annoying when I try typing using the numeric keypad inside the virtual machine only to realize that numlock is off.

I was browsing a folder of pictures when I noticed a file with an extremely long filename. However, it's very unusual in the following respects:

a) it has a .jpg extension but does not have the typical JPEG icon like the other files in the folder

b) in the file's context menu, the items normally located below "Send To" (ie rename, delete, properties) are missing.

c) There is room for another row of icons near the bottom of the window, but it is empty

d) Attempting to open the file in any program does nothing (no error messages, nothing).

e) Clicking File > Properties brings up a completely blank Properties dialog (no created/modified/accessed dates, no location, no type of file/opens with information.)

f) The file cannot be copied, renamed, or deleted..

Here is a screenshot: http://i273.photobucket.com/albums/jj206/nookkin/w...

How can I delete the file? Conventional methods (i.e. Del key, right-click > Delete, drag to the recycle bin, Del from command prompt) do not work.

I looked my screen name up on Google and found some of my answers on other sites that I had never heard of before. For example, this right here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvUHH...

http://www.cmforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=84...

If you look at the above two links you will see that they are both the same exact question/answers but one is from Yahoo! Answers and the other one is from a completely different, unrelated site.

I appear to be a member of the second site but I cannot log in. I tried my Yahoo username and password and it does not work, I tried the "forgot your password" feature and when I entered my email address it was not recognized. I even went as far as attempting to contact the forum administrator but my message did not go through no matter what I tried.

Does anybody here know why this happens? And how can I access my account on the second site? Thanks.

I looked my screen name up on Google and found some of my answers on other sites that I had never heard of before. For example, this right here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AvUHH...

http://www.cmforums.net/forums/showthread.php?p=84...

If you look at the above two links you will see that they are both the same exact question/answers but one is from Yahoo! Answers and the other one is from a completely different, unrelated site.

I appear to be a member of the second site but I cannot log in. I tried my Yahoo username and password and it does not work, I tried the "forgot your password" feature and when I entered my email address it was not recognized. I even went as far as attempting to contact the forum administrator but my message did not go through no matter what I tried.

Does anybody here know why this happens? And how can I access my account on the second site? Thanks.

I got a hard drive (Hitachi DeskStar 60gb IDE) from a friend who wanted me to format it and install Windows XP. (Vista was on it before.) He could not boot from it, the computer would show a black screen with a blinking cursor indefinitely.

I put it in my computer and it did not boot either. The hard drive works perfectly from within Windows though (booting XP from my HD). I formatted the drive from within Windows, precopied the XP setup files, removed my working HD, started Windows setup using a boot floppy, and it seemed to work fine, until Setup rebooted the computer. It didnt boot and I could not complete Windows setup.

I tried a S.M.A.R.T check, ChkDisk, etc. to see if the drive was damaged, they all passed. I also tried FixMbr and FixBoot from Recovery Console. I tried various jumper settings and BIOS settings. Nothing helped.

Does anyone have ANY idea what could be wrong with the drive? I've had my experience with computers but I've never come across anything like this.