Apologies. I’ve been a little distracted re-building a PC for a friend. I had everything just right, all working, and secure (he had stability & security issues that couldn’t be sorted out without a re-install of XP). The final update was to bring the BIOS up to date – it had had a few revisions in 14 months. Unfortunately, for the first time ever, I appear to have killed the BIOS whilst flashing it. The board is supposed to have a 2nd BIOS that gets used if the first is fried, but it hasn’t come into play, no amount of keypresses or floppy disks with binary images & flashing programs have helped. As I did the damage, I’m using up the last of my birthday money to replace the motherboard. Except, of course, that particular model isn’t stocked any more, so I’m trying to find a suitable upgrade for him.
On a more positive note, my brother and dad are hopefully coming over to visit us, around New Year time, and Losha, may be coming with us to the UK for Xmas 🙂
Nov 07 2006
Been A Bit Lax At Posting Recently
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Nov 02 2006
New Experience
A friend dropped their PC off today, to sort two issues…
First was easy enough, their portable (USB) hard drive required more juice than his motherboard/PSU could supply. Unfortunately, the drive didn’t come with a separate AC/DC power supply, although it sports a socket for such a transformer. Given the state of finding normal power/audio/video accessories over here, I’ve suggested an easier solution, but less expensive than grabbing a new PSU for the PC. I double checked, and as long as it is of the powered, rather than passive, variety, a new USB hub should solve the problem. Unusual for a USB hub to be the solution to a problem, rather than the cause, but there we go. This way, the USB is only used for data to/from the PC, the power is supplied completely separately by the hub itself.
Next we have a fun issue, where, seemingly at random, the windows GUI flips out and reverts to Windows 98 flat style. No particular software or activity seems to trigger it, so I finally got round to obtaining a Russian Windows XP disc, and will have a go at restoring explorer.exe and ntoskrnl.exe to their original states. If all else goes wrong, he hasn’t reinstalled XP since he got the PC, and some of his friends pride themselves on their l33t hacking & ‘virus’ writing skills, so I’m backing up his entire personal data collection over night (damn D-Link router runs @ 100MBit, not 1GBit, I’m now too lazy to disconnect and patch up direct one to one…) Also running anti virus scans on full depth once xfer is complete.
Had a nice meal and drink with him and his parents (friends with the in-laws), and introduced them to Angel Delight (Andy & KZBlog, you know your days are numbered :P). Already got Igor hooked up to Marmite…
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Oct 30 2006
Went Out Saturday Night
And met up with a couple of fellow bloggers. You can check their sites by clicking on the KZBlog and The Life of 2ME links on the right, under Kazakh blogs. Had a good time, and a little to eat. I appear to have drunk a bit too much, as the moment we stepped outside of the cafe (Shymkent, around City Market and Cinema City area), my memory is a little too hazy to recall the journey home etc. Tom has already posted on our meeting (direct link here), and I don’t have much to add to his portrayal. Next time, I’ll not have an evening meal at home, and eat a little bit more whilst out, to soak up the excess spirit :>
Oct 26 2006
Just Found Another English Blog On Astana
Whilst googling, I discovered TheLifeOf2Me. If you get a moment check it out…
Oct 19 2006
Zanya’s Birthday
It has been a long time since I’ve seen Zanya Etheridge, and I doubt she’ll ever see this post, but just in case… Happy Birthday. Hope your life is going well, and know that you’ve always got a place to crash if you decide to visit Kazakhstan…
Oct 19 2006
Alex Is Back
Helloooooooooooooooooooooo Alex. Really glad to hear from you again. Don’t feel bad about the delay in comms – most UK friends haven’t contacted us in ages, some since we left the UK! Anyway, will mail you when I’ve finished off current batch of work this evening…
Back to stuff other people might find intersting…
I was looking at some random USB gadgets, and found this page, which actually grew from the original, but that page is in Japanese, so check them both out for the fuller picture. A quick summary is that someone decided to crank up the heat generated from their USB coffee cup warmer to the point that it now fries meat!
Next we have some interesting news about a batch of Video iPods that came pre-installed with some delightful code for PC owners. Apple deny any deliberate subterfuge on their part.
Finally, whilst checking out pages to place links on for my clock website, I discovered this little gem. I’ve considered petitioning Irina to get a similar setup in our living room, but gave up quite quickly. I think I’ve been lucky enough to get this nice PC desk…
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Oct 03 2006
Personal Posts Have Been Slowing Down Recently
Due to ChrisD coming over. A slight increase in my alcohol intake may also account for the lowering of posts per week. Chris came over for a week, and I hope we’ll both be writing more about his visit soon.
We just dropped him off at the airport, and despite the authorities restarting the scheme where you have to declare everything with you, on your exit of the country, he eventually got through all the steps required, and is, hopefully, by now on a plane to Istanbul, then on to Heathrow.
Also meant to say, we all met up with a nice man who runs the KZBlog , and his wife, over at the Chelsea ‘pub’ last Saturday. The company was good, the prices were high, but not heart stopping, and good news for John – they sell Guiness !!
Anyway, more info to come soon…
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Sep 30 2006
ChrisD Has Arrived
Well he did last Tuesday morning actually, but then we had a few drinks, and it turned out to be Saturday already.
Enough of me, over to him….
hurumph…. complaining he isn’t awake enough yet, he’ll do it later.
Well, we’ll just have to wait and see…
Sep 24 2006
This Is An Official Invitation
as requested by EmmaF and Ramon
Please consider yourself officially invited to come and visit us here in Kazakhstan anytime.
Winter is cold and snowy and pretty
Summer is hot and ummm hot
Sep 24 2006
Jumping On A Bandwagon
Found this article today on Richard Hammond and Top Gear, obviously inspired by the aformentioned’s crash. Couldn’t stand the guy’s attitude to be honest, but have a read and see what you think.
Also checked, and this site is now back down to #2 on Google, when searching for Chris Merriman. Not sure what went wrong, I’ve not lost any links to this site, I guess I’ll just have to live with the shame somehow ;>
I now have a Kazakh SIM card for my phone, msg me if you need the #. Got GPRS working for both of our phones, and can use them as bluetooth modems for the PC, which should keep me happy, and Irina happy, at least on my behalf…
Couple of days, and ChrisD will be over here; the weather has actually improved a little, but I’ve not told him yet, want to make sure he actually buys a coat (his first in over a decade!) and packs some warm clothes. I thought about not posting the weather info yet, but then remembered that he never reads this bloody thing anyway, so think we’re safe. Also Ira said the forecast is for the weather to get chilly again next week. Just hope the sunshine lasts long enough for him to experience it.
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