Category: Uncategorized

This post is in relation to an item I am adding to my “What Do You Want” list on the sidebar.

I do not currently have a DVD Player. I do have an XBox. When I bought the XBox, it was a combination replacement for my that-day-dead DVD Player and fulfilment of my desire to play a few XBox games. So, when I bought it ($300), I also bought the DVD Player kit ($40) (and an extended warranty, which with tax brought my XBox to just over $400; you can go buy one now for $179 with the DVD kit and two games included). For a time, it played DVDs adequately, but now … now… Sigh.

I like to pop a DVD into the XBox and let it run on the TV behind me while I work on the computer. While my computer can play DVDs (more on that in just a sec), running it on the TV is a bigger picture, and doesn’t take up any screen “real-estate” on my computer, and doesn’t take up any CPU resources, which is often more important to me (not that my computer is particularly underpowered, but that all but the top five supercomputers on Earth are seriously underpowered for me). But there’s a problem. My XBox, since I got it back this year from my family, has a problem playing movies. If there is the slightest fingerprint anywhere on the disc, it will skip and freeze and sometimes lock up completely. If there is the tiniest scratch, it will never make it through the disc. But worse, even with a perfectly clean, unscratched DVD, the XBox … when it gets about an hour into any disc, begins to skip and jump and lock up. In the last couple of months, I’m not sure I’ve had a single disc get past 1:15 before the whole XBox was frozen and needed to be shut down. Sometimes restarting the XBox helps, but usually not.

So then I move the disc to my iMac, and no matter whether it was the time or a scratch (or a lot of scratches) or fingerprints or whatever, the Apple DVD Player plays it fine. I have never seen the sort of trouble my XBox gives me on my iMac. It plays it fine, 1/4 size (what I usually do if I’m doing other things on the computer), 1/2 size (when I’m waiting for a page to load or a file to upload or such, but want a better look at the movie), or full screen. The only time I ever see any disturbance is sometimes when I’m running a dozen other applications at once and using a ridiculous amount of bandwidth, it drops a few frames. So, it works, and while frustrating, I get to see the end of the movies.

Which gets me finally to my point. I do not have an effective DVD player. I would like one. When I can afford one, I will buy one. If you happen to come across an extra DVD player, hey, keep me in mind.

(I love the idea of an “extra” DVD player.)

Okay, 12:30PM will be my official start time.

I will be doing it on paper and scanning it in, so … hopefully I will have 100 panels drawn and ready to put in the computer in … two or three hours. I may have to break for supper, but … hey, Iain pauses for whole days sometimes.

So, here I go.

It’s just after midnight, so I guess I’m supposed to do a Four-Hour Comic “today”. I have it pencilled in for starting … right after breakfast, whenever that turns out to be, so that I have plenty of “cushion” time after my four hours are up and before supper. Because supper is an interruption I cannot resist.

But for now, I will try to sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep this early without medication in a while, but I’m going to give it a shot.

And I’m going to wake up refreshed and I’m going to make a great comic! Whee!

Okay, after less than 24 hours and only two personal phone calls from one of the head guys behind BitPass (who had my number from August, when BitPass didn’t work on Easyspace) and two versions of a customized piece of software later, BitPass works again at Modern Evil, thus: I have updated my first Four-Hour Comic for the day. You can keep reading it slow like this, or just buy the whole thing for a quarter!

That should REALLY be everything. Again, keep me informed if you run into problems. Thanks!

Everyone should have received an email with instructions on how to log into the new server. If you didn’t, email me, and we’ll get you in ASAP.

If you emailed me this weekend, or anyone @modernevil.com, they might not ever receive the email. Please re-send it.
If you have an @modernevil.com email address, you need to contact me. Heath, Zuri, Iain, I’ve got you covered, your email should be forwarding … soon? (And if you want POP access, let me know, I’ll set you up.) I can’t remember anyone else with one who I haven’t already contacted, but … hey. If you exist, you won’t be able to receive mail with your old setup anymore. Contact me for the new setup. OOH! It includes webmail, which I will explain how to use to any of you.

Actually anyone with a login here at Modern Evil can have their very own @modernevil.com email address if they like, just ask. Moo.

Movable Type appears to be working right, all the links look like they’re right … if you have any trouble or questions, let me know. Seriously. An image doesn’t load, an error message comes up, anything, please, please, please, let me know.

Oh, and in case I haven’t mentioned it enough times, all the permanent links to all the entries ever made anywhere on Modern Evil are now changed. Google … probably has no idea. Might not for weeks. Hard to say. If you’ve given people direct links to specific posts, they’re now wrong. Nothing I can do about that, unfortunately.

Oh, one more thing. Let me know (I can’t really tell, here on dial-up) if things seem faster or slower or the same speed as they were before. This is important. Especially the speed of posting, which I guess was the slowest part before. Your feedback will help me decide whether to stay with 1&1, or go back to Easyspace until my contract is up there. If I do end up going back to Easyspace, I’ll likely move to Dreamhost next summer. But if 1&1 works out, it’s free for me for three full years. If it works out, I’ll tell you how YOU can get free hosting with them for three full years.

That’s it for now, I think. I hope there aren’t any catastrophic problems.