If you’re anxiously waiting for that salad, here’s to a little pick-me-up, courtesy of High Camp Flasks.
Available in a variety of finishes, and with engraving if you so choose.
Category Archives: Hardware/Software
Conexant HD Audio cuts out in Windows 10
Update June 6 2019: Win 10’s 1903 update borked the Chromecast sound again when it installed Conexant audio drivers. I deleted the Conexant audio drivers as below and all is good until the next time.
Well here we go again. Those stupid sons of bitches at Microsoft have seen fit to keep updating my drivers to Conexant, even though I don’t want Conexant’s useless garbage. Last night I perferformed a removal as below, then went through my registry to delete all of the Conexant entries. We’ll see how it goes on June 7.
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I’ve been having a problem with my Windows 10 Conexant HD Audio driver cutting out every 18 minutes while using my Chromecast (any version) to transmit to my television. It started a while ago, and it’s obviously a driver problem.
I would send a movie. It would have sound for 18 minutes before going silent. I had to turn off casting and turn it back on, and thus I had sound for another 18 minutes.
Win-X, select Device Manager, double-click on Sound, video and game controllers.
Select Conexant HD Audio driver. Double-click. Select Uninstall. Re-boot to have the uninstall take effect.
When your screen comes back up, you’ll have a red x on your speaker icon on the taskbar. Right-click and select Troubleshoot sound problems. It should find drivers for you. They probably won’t be Conexant drivers, but that’s okay. Conexant drivers don’t work properly with Windows 10 anyway.
Here’s another possible solution, although in my case, I didn’t try it, so I don’t know if it works. If the Conexant HD Audio cutting out returns, I’ll give it a try. I doubt that will happen, though. I no longer have the Conexant HD Audio drivers on my Windows 10 system. Nope. Doesn’t work.
A problem with Conexant audio means that you may hear no sound in Windows 10 even though everything appears to be working correctly. While this is being investigated, Microsoft suggests running msconfig.exe and heading to the Boot tab. Click the Advanced options button, check the Maximum memory box and set the value to 3072. Apparently, 4096 worked, too, but like I said, I didn’t try either setting.
DIY Thesis theme sucks problems
Update February 7, 2019: Jesus Christ, but the man has the nerve to re-sell his theme to people who have already bought it (who have already paid and paid and paid in more ways than one) AGAIN? Oh, wait, it’s an all-new, goody-goody, best evar, search engine dream! Loads faster. Looks better. Links easier. Does more. Grows hair back. Gets better mileage. Works harder. Lasts longer (until the next feature is added and you pay more).
Oh, and by the way: It’s going to be a hun a year. Most likely a “sale price” until the next year, when it will go up with a super-duper price increase because that’s how he works. Pay and pay and pay and still the fucking theme is a loser. Sad.
W.T.F. is with that?
Update June 19, 2018: O.M.G. Social media profile boxes now available. How many years has it been, exactly?
Update May 9, 2018: Bwaaaaahahahaha. It has occurred to me that one of my commenters may be a shill for the theme that has no name. Nice try though, losers. My own page STILL gets pretty good results, and that pleases me bigly. What really pleases me even more bigly is that the fake domain was re-registered in January of this year. Go fish.
Update April 13, 2016: DIY Thesis is out with yet another announcement of a skin for the Thesis 2.0 theme. Jesus Christ, but it’s been how many years since Thesis 2.0 had been out and they’re only announcing really purty, priddy fine, high impact theme design? Good lord, people, BUY ANOTHER THEME, please.
If you can’t afford one, there are P L E N T Y of themes for free that will do everything you need, many times over, in a clear and concise way. You won’t have to wrestle with NO REFUNDS, EVAR, or the sad spectacle of having a theme that you need to pay a developer to use. BUY ANOTHER THEME.
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Update June 1, 2015: In other words, another DIYtheme clusterfuck. Nothing new to see here, folks. Move along now, and BUY ANOTHER THEME.
Effectus Skin webinar didn’t go as smoothly as we had hoped. Hundreds of people were denied access, and on top of that, our recording failed, too.
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UPDATE May 28, 2015: According to the great Chris Pearson of Thesis DIY themes fame, “Google has been using site performance as a rankings signal since February of 2010”.
If that’s the case, why has he now, only five years later, come up with a Thesis DIYthemes skin, to take advantage of Google site performance rankings? What, exactly, has he been doing with DIYthemes for the past five years? Why is he only now recognizing that performance rankings are a huge part of Google search results if, five years ago, Google was using performance rankings?
According to Chris Pearson of DIYthemes, “we’ve created the new [ skin ], which brings you a customizable responsive design”. Really? What took you so long? Oh, right, nothing to see here. Move along, everyone. It always takes him years and years to do shit. (See below if you don’t believe that.)
AND ALWAYS REMEMBER THIS, PEOPLE:
If you’re thinking about purchasing the Thesis DIY theme, think again. Need I say more in reference to the Twitter Twatting Chris Pearson and his DIY Thesis Theme:
“we do not … offer refunds after a purchase has been made.”
In other words, if you’re looking for a refund after handing over your hard-earned cash, you more than likely won’t get one.
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UPDATE April 30, 2015: Here ya go. But before you upgrade, don’t bother. Thesis 1 theme is not responsive. Don’t waste your money on this dog, because search engines will ignore your site for the most part and your ratings will completely tumble.
The latest greatest update to Thesis 1 is out, and the great master, Chris Pearson himself, has this to say in the comments:
Upgrading a Thesis 1 site to Thesis 2 generally requires a professional
WTF is with that?
Don’t buy this time suck, people. It’s a real drag on your output and your bank account before you get anything that’s useable. And like I said, if it’s Thesis 1, your search rankings will tumble because the theme is not responsive.
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If you’re thinking about purchasing the Thesis DIY theme, think again. Need I say more in reference to the Twitter Twatting Chris Pearson and his DIY Thesis Theme:
“we do not … offer refunds after a purchase has been made.”
In other words, if you’re looking for a refund after handing over your hard-earned cash, you more than likely won’t get one.
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How to ESCAPE ANY THESIS DIY THEME and its Twitter Twatting owner:
- Install a free WordPress theme of your choosing, or use one already in your Appearance tab. If you’d like to try a FREE, AMAZINGLY CUSTOMIZABLE theme from menus, try Acquoid Themes and its free Suffusion theme. It’s had over a million downloads for a reason.
- In your new theme, install a plugin called All in One SEO. This will optimize your blog for search engine optimization once you escape the Thesis Theme and its completely useless and irrelevant time-sucking learning curve.
- In your new theme, install the All in One SEO Pack Importer plugin.
- Activate the All in One SEO Pack Importer plugin under Settings/AIOSEOP in the sidebar and put it to work. Once done, you can deactivate the SEO Importer plugin.
- Enjoy the benefits of your escape from the Twitter Twat.
- Don’t forget to activate the All in One SEO plugin. Once you do, you’re good to go with all the search engine capabilities of your former Thesis theme stupidity. Furthermore, you shouldn’t lose any search engine visibility.
Once Thesis is gone and you’ve freed yourself from its infinite stupidity, consider taking a look at Aquoid Themes. Their Suffusion theme is free, infinitely customizable from menus, and does all that DIY Thesis and its Twitter Twat author promises – All for free!
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Update November 16, 2013: Well now. It would seem that the DIY Thesis Theme refund policy has been changed to the following:
According to the refund policy, I can’t get one.
<snip>
the Thesis Theme refund policy states that “only if you have worked with our support staff to try and resolve the problem first.“
Very interesting. It would appear that they’ve been getting a lot of requests for refunds and that’s one way to keep new customers paying through the nose.
Stay away from this theme, people. It’s nothing but a headache, in my opinion.
I have now successfully completed the move of five of my six sites over to free WordPress themes with no loss of SEO, data, or comments. Thank goodness for WordPress plugins that allowed me to do that.
[Edited to add that ALL of my themes have now been freed from the captivity of Thesis DIY and Chris Pearson.]
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Update August 10, 2013: I no longer recommend Chris Pearson’s time-sucking DIY Thesis or DIY Thesis 2 theme in any way, shape, or form. Avoid it at all costs. I have returned three four five all six of my sites to the WordPress default themes, with the same functionality, and I’m not looking back.
No matter what bullshit Chris Pearson attempts to sell you on DIY Thesis themes, don’t buy it. It sucks. And further to that, it won’t convert from Thesis 1 to Thesis 2. DON’T BUY INTO THE BULLSHIT. You’ll be sorry if you do.
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Update July 1, 2013: It’s now been nine, count’em, nine months. If this asshole was pregnant, he’d have a baby by now, and a manual by Dr. Spock on how to set everything up. What’s the dealio here with Thesis and DIY? Who the hell knows? Rumor has it that the latest beta release of his theme isn’t compatible with thesis 2.0. You have to DO IT OVER AGAIN! Apparently, it’s another new concept brought to the people that have financed his millionaire lifestyle. Go figure.
Update June 11, 2013: I’ve lost count of how many months it’s been since the promises were made. Hold your nose, because they’re all worthless and stink like shit. Nothing new here. Move on to BUY ANOTHER THEME! Unless, of course, you’re independently wealthy, don’t serve your customers needs, and continue to fuck the shit out of them by not providing goods for money spent on this completely incomprehensible DIY Thesis theme. Customer service? What’s that?
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This dumbass dipshit brags about having sold over 53,000 theme packages. That’s around four million bucks+. No wonder the son of a bitch spends all his time being a Twitter twat rather than serving his paying customers. What a dipshit.
From the Thesis blog, December 7, 2012: Christmas is right around the corner, and here at DIYthemes, we’re busy filling our sleigh with Boxes, Skins, and everything else you need to run a killer website.
Fucking A! It’s now May 13, 2013. Just where are all of those “Boxes, Skins, and everything else you need to run a killer website”. Losers.
Update May 8, 2013: No promised skins. No official manuals. Seven months later? It sucks to be a Thesis user.
R.I.P. Thesis themes. Long live a wiser, more functional choice backed up by its authors with manuals, skins and a user forum that speaks English anyone can understand. Business schools should take and teach a lesson from this outfit on how not to do customer relations. As of January 9 there are still no Thesis 2 manuals provided by the theme author. There are still no skins as promised on the sales page. Ho-hum. Just another Thesis failing.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update March 1, 2013: FIVE MONTHS AND STILL NO SKINS OR OFFICIAL MANUAL. The bilious stench of a dead theme is everywhere.
And that’s not just my opinion.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update February 1, 2013: Four months and still no skins, nada, rien, nothing. The bad joke is on people who spent good money – such as myself – on a worthless piece of shit.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update January 7, 2013: I’m thinking that the Great One™ hasn’t yet figured out that independent theme designers aren’t flocking to his Thesis 2 theme to build skins for sale. He must have really pissed off a lot of people in the WP industry.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update January 1, 2013: Three months, and still no manual, still no skins. Give the Thesis theme a wide berth, people.
The latest Twitter Twat reveals that the reason the skins weren’t released was because Chris Pearson, Twitter Twit extraordinaire, didn’t want to piggyback onto the Newtown shootings. Really? WTF is with that? And then came Christmas, and New Year’s, and next it will be Valentine’s Day. Oh, wait. Now it’s because he’s consulting with lawyers. Puh-leeze. Give us all a break.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
December 21, 2012: Still no manual, still no skins.
Some poor guy has been in the Thesis 2 forum trying to find out how to put an image rotator in the header since December 13. He hasn’t had an answer that makes any sense since then. I’m trying to do the same thing, and I come up with a blank too. When I posted my displeasure by saying that the answers to his questions didn’t make any sense, my post was deleted. Another has been trying since December 1, with no success from the people who have all the answers – whoever they are.
What a bunch of fucking morons.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
December 5, 2012 – still no manual or any other promised goods. But, according to the corporate flim-flammer, Thesis 2 is completely compatible with WP3.5. Go figure. Vaporware was never this bad.
- Customer service: Zero.
- Customer feedback: Zero.
- Contact with company representatives: Zero.
- Public relations: Zero.
- Getting what the customer pays for and is promised: Zero.
- The chance that I would I recommend this company, its products, its management team or its owner: ZERO.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update December 1, 2012: No manual, no skins. It’s been two, count ’em, two months. Where’s the beef? What a fucking loser this theme company is.
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
The saddest thing by far is that this dumbass clown and his Thesis 2 theme has a public relations disaster nightmare on his hands and he’s too smart by far to recognize it. If he was just a tad more of a dumbass, he’d be trying to do damage control. He can’t, though, because he spends too much time being a Twitter Twat™.
Forum user counts have been disabled, but queries are way down compared to just a few days ago. I guess everyone is finally learning how to use Thesis 2 all by themselves.
* cue sound of uncontrollable laughter *
BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update November 15, 2012: I’ve spent innumerable hours trying to do the simplest things with this theme, such as have teasers with thumbnails, captions under images, and a whole lot more. THIS THEME IS UNUSABLE IN ITS PRESENT STATE. Which means, it’s unusable if you want to do basic WP functions that are embedded in WP. BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Furthermore, who gives a flying fuck about Golden Width Typography or whatever the fuck he calls it when you can’t even design a fucking homepage with this fucking useless monstrosity that he’s been paid millions of dollars for?
Update November 5, 2012: Apparently a Thesis DIY Themes employee has a paid theme available for sale. Why is it that an employee has time to develop a skin for sale, yet the clusterfuck known as Pearson&Cie can’t smell their own shit well enough to produce a skin? Is that a method of rewarding employees, rather than loyal theme subscribers? WTF is with that?
Clown & Company can’t even get a favicon image to display. Christ on mighty. Oops. I mean, they’ll be a-gettin’ to that Real.Soon.Now.
Rotating header images? Nope. Sorry about that. Want to search the forum only for T2 rotating header image info? Can’t do that either. All the shit and detritus for T1 comes up, and there’s no way to tell until you actually read the forum post whether it applies to T1 or T2. BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update November 1, 2012: It’s been a month since Thesis 2 was unceremoniously dropped on its paying customers, and still no manual. Still no skins. But they’re coming Real.Soon.Now. Funny thing about that, though. Real Soon Now was the cri de couer of software in the ’90s. Usually it meant that nothing was ever forthcoming.
WTF is with that? Vaporware or what? I’m beginning to think the Thesis theme is done.
My recommendation: BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update October 24, 2012: The Thesis 2.01 update will not have official documentation. Nothing new there. The Thesis 2.0 release still has no documentation provided by Pearson. If it smells like shit, it is shit.
Try to imagine a business that promotes itself exclusively by tweeting on twitter, and you have the essence of diythemes and its product. Meanwhile, the Thesis theme forum goes unused in an effort to have it and its moderators feebly attempt to hold the hands of the owners of a product for which no official documentation exists. If it smells like shit, it is shit.
Oh, wait. I said that already. BUY ANOTHER THEME!
Update October 15, 2012: Thesis 2 was dropped unceremoniously onto Thesis aficionados minus a manual, minus how-tos, minus just about everything a good piece of software should have. The fanboys all love it and extoll the virtues, but it’s no miracle cure for anything. And it won’t be.
- Drag and drop? Not likely.
- Blockquotes, a staple of WP since forever? Not recognized.
- No coding required? Sure, I guess. Somewhere.
- A thumbnail image standard in WP? Not recognized.
- Teasers? Go code.
- Rounded corners? Where?
- wp_debug codes? Ad infinitum.
- Skins? Not available. But they’ll be there real soon now–just like the documentation.
- It makes extensive modifications to the database. Ouch.
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I can no longer recommend Chris Pearson’s Thesis or Thesis 2 theme in any way, shape, or form. It is my considered opinion that the Thesis theme should be avoided it at all costs. Please consider Genesis or some other paid theme platform for WordPress.
My advice: Try something else if you’re looking for a paid theme.
Hack your cheap Brother printer to turn out the orange toner light
Brother is notorious for indicating a toner cartridge is empty when it still contains hundreds of pages. The orange toner light on my positively ancient HL-2140 came on and wouldn’t let me print anything. Being the cheapskate I am, I discovered this procedure to make it happen:
- Turn the Brother printer off.
- Open the front cover. This will reveal the cheapass white spring-loaded ON button that was formerly beneath the blue power-on indicator until you opened the front cover.
- Press and hold ON and turn the power on. Do not release the ON button. Remember, what I’m calling ON is the cheapass white spring-loaded ON button you’ll see when the front cover is opened.
- When all 3 lights light up, take your damned finger off the ON button.
- Press the ON button twice (You will see the Ready light blink every time you press the ON button).
- All the lights will light up.
- With all of the lights on, press and release the ON button 5 times (You will see the Ready light blink every time you press the ON button).
- The Error light will start blinking, perfectly normal.
- Close the front cover and wait. The printer will cycle through and make the sound it makes when you initially turn it on. After that sound stops, your blue Ready light will be on and solid.
- You are ready to print.
Don’t forget, what I’m calling the ON button is the plastic switch inside the front cover, which was once under the blue power-on button when the cover was closed and powered on.
Not relevant, but I also taped over the two clear plastic windows on either side of the cartridge (TN-330/TN360) for my Model HL-2140 printer.
Fitbit Charge 3 max Heart Rate readout is dangerously low
Latest firmware v1.31.93 – October 20, 2018
I’ve been using this for a week now. Something wasn’t feeling quite right about the HR readout, so I decided to check it for accuracy with my Polar FT2. I discovered that the Charge 3 maxHR display output is off BY ANYWHERE FROM 20 TO 30 BEATS too low! Yes, the difference is variable, and THAT MUCH.
I’ve done a hard reset. I’ve worn it tight, loose, snug, just right – still with the same results: maxHR display output is off from 20 to 30 beats too low.
I won’t do any medical diagnosis on the dangers/hazards, but my Charge 3 is going back to the store where I bought it. Goodbye Fitbit.
CBC Radio One and Two new internet stream URLs
Update December 29, 2020: I’m not certain the CBC streams I link to in this post are still relevant. In fact, the link is dead. Also, there’s this for those of you with Grace Digital legacy radios, of which I am one:
Grace Digital Internet Radios manufactured between 2007 and 2017 will stop working
Recently, my CBC stream link stopped working in my Grace Digital radio. I went to the search function in the radio, typed in CBC plus my local station name, and it popped up. I sent it into memory and it works just fine.
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The CBC in its infinite wisdom has seen to changing their stream URL addresses as of August 25, 2016. Since I listen using a Logitech Squeezebox and a Grace Digital Primo, I was fortunate to find this page, where anyone who cares can add a CBC Radio stream from the interwebs:
[ dead link, never to return ]
With the Primo, log in and go to the My Streams page. Add the stream(s) of your choice. Unplug the radio for a reset, plug it back in, and your stream will be located in My Stuff / My Streams.
I’m currently in discussions with Grace Digital/ECOXGEAR about adding the streams. It appears they may be geographically restricted, as in, if you don’t have a Canadian IP, you’re out of luck.
If that’s the case, you might try Windscribe, a Canadian VPN with a free plan. Look for a discount code online. I picked one up for Windscribe’s lifetime subscription for U$49.00. I’m so happy with Windscribe that I can heartily recommend it.
The Logitech Squeezebox appears to have already installed the new streams.
Dear 360 Safe Global
360 Safe Global, your software is trash.
Where’s your user forum? Where’s your user support? Where do I go find out why I’m unable to run a program after I’ve installed your software? Why won’t my software run on my laptop after installing your trash?
Why must I send an email to beg for support?
360 Safe Global, this is for you: Your software is trash.
In other words, go back to the drawing board. Take your time. I’m not the only one that is having problems with your simply mah-velous shit.
Bye-bye.