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Showing posts from August, 2022

Windows Computing In The Late 90's (Windows ME, Windows Media Player 7, And Random Y2K Crap )

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I never had catastrophic issues with Windows ME. Now I did have my share of blue screens and those annoying memory/CPU errors. However, I had those on Windows 95 and 98 as well, so those aren't anything out of the ordinary. Windows ME can actually run very well when it's given the appropriate hardware. This though is in itself a problem. Windows 95/98 were much more forgiving about the hardware that it ran on compared to ME. As such, the nature of the problems that affected ME were very different compared to those on previous Windows. For example, on VMware Player, ME would completely lock up after 10 minutes when left in idle. I didn't know what the issue was. However, the problem went away when I deleted everything in the Windows Temp folder. I never had this issue on 95 or 98, only ME.  While weird crap happening on ME certainly didn't do it any favors, I think one of the reasons for the strong disdain for ME was simply that there was no reason for it to exist in the

Epic Fail And Imaginary Demons

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Anyone who is a regular on my blog  knows that I'm not a fan of Greg Abbott. For anyone who doesn't live in this state, its tempting to form a skewed image of him. While governors of other states will be occasionally mentioned on this blog in passing, I don't go into full detail about what happens in New York, California, or Florida because I don't live in those states. I don't feel the effects the policies and the effects that they have in those states. Also, what the governors of those states do don't affect me here in Texas.  If I was in a state that's largely run by Democrats, I would probably despise the Democrat party because of there hypocrisy. The Democrat Party is not immune from criticism though. At the same time, every complaint made against the Democrats can be equally applied to the Republican Party as well. Topics such as big money, control of lobbyist, insider politics, etc; affects both parties in the same capacity.  Things don't change b

Windows Computing In The Late 90's (The Emulation Aspect)

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Anyone who's a regular visitor on this blog or my YouTube Channel knows that I'm an enthusiast when it comes to PC emulation. It allows me to relive the machines that I've used in the past along with computers that I never used before.  When it comes to PC emulation, I have standardized on as few emulators as possible to keep my configurations streamlined. For most PC's starting from the IBM Model 5150 (The OG PC) released in August 1981 up till the PC's of the mid 90's, I like to use PCEM. Created and developed by Sarah Walker and now managed by Michael Manley, PCEM can emulate a vast array of various hardware configurations. This project just amazes me to no ends. The vast majority of the screenshots of the PC articles were taken using PCEM.  As much as I love PCEM, I start to encounter issues when I want to emulate a late 90's PC using this emulator (and every other one for that matter too). Performance issues means that I've reached the capability of

When That Drug Called Polarization Becomes Our Worst Enemy

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Many years ago, I had a conversation around the family table about how the extreme elements of a party can steer the whole course of the ship. This was early in the Obama Administration. One of the patterns that you witnessed was that when the extreme elements of the Republicans pushed for "loaded" legislation, the Democrat Party would try to outdo them, which would lead to even more polarizing legislation. As a result, both parties started to become consumed by extremely vocal elements of there respective parties, a "Political Arms Race" so to say. Moderates that weren't that keen on supporting such legislation now compelled to support it because if they didn't they would have become labeled as "traitors" from the fringe elements of that party, thus pushing the polarization even more. The extremist fringe elements would define the course of party politics. The Texas Republican Convention has turned into the manifestation of that reality. The Repub