ATI Radeon 7500 and Dell 2405 LCD

Reformatting a Windows installation every 6-12 months should be commonplace among Windows users. From newbies to seasoned professionals, every Windows installation should be re-imaged, re-installed, or re-formatted.

I don't know what it is about Windows - and it's not isolated to any specific version - but, your system slows down the more you use it, the more you install on it. That's why I recommend reinstalling Windows on it every 6-12 months. It gets rid of all the crap you've built up on your machine.

Every piece of software writes something to your hard drive and there is always a chance that something gets left behind if you uninstall it. I kind of miss the days when all the necessary files were in a single directory - no registry, no SYSTEM32 folder. Just a directory in \Program Files and thats it. If you ever find the need to get rid of the program, just delete the directory and voila.

I spoke too soon. I had it working for a while, then uninstalled Powerstrip. Back to square 1. Ignore the following paragraphs.

So upon following my own advice I had wiped out my trusty Dell Inspiron 4150 P4 1.6ghz laptop. Copying important files was easy since I have accustomed myself to storing everything in the "C:\Active Backup" folder technique. Everything of importance goes in there - Outlook .PST file, camera .JPEGs, .WAV and .MP3 files - you name it.

The one thing I completely forgot about were my video card drivers for the integrated ATI Radeon 7500 in the laptop and/or the docking station (I used the trick of flashing the Inspiron BIOS to the Latitude BIOS to get the docking station to work).

You might be saying, "Just visit the Dell support site for the video card drivers". True in most cases that may work, but I have a fantastic Dell 2405FPW LCD 24" monitor. And, I am one of those few individuals who want to preserve their eyesight so I don't set the maxium resolution to 1900x1200. I find the most comfortable to be 1280x768. Very comfortable to view, and the aspect ratio of icons and text seems to be perfect.

But none of the Dell ATI drivers support this resolution. And to top things off, the readily available ATI Catalyst drivers are useless for integrated graphics cards. I managed to find another set of drivers for ATI cards called "Omega Drivers" . But alas, there were dozens of different versions. The most recent causes BSOD gpfs. The oldest caused the screen to display black bars on the top and bottom, or left and right. It was not until I found a specific version - 2.6.53 that did the trick.

So for all of you who have a similar setup to me (very unlikely, but nonetheless) this has made my day.

1. Uninstall your Dell ATI drivers
2. Get the Omega v2.6.53 drivers from : Driver Heaven .Net
3. Install them and reboot

As a special note, PowerStrip may have played a small part in producing this custom resolution but I have yet to figure out for sure.

I am no longer a concert virgin!

Music is a big part of my life. I simply love it. My collection of music varies greatly. If you look on my shelf you'll find Shania Twain next to Ludacris, Gretchen Wilson next to Andrea Bocelli, Sheryl Crow next to Frank Sinatra. I go through moods in music where I will listen to a different genre for months at a time. Some music doesn't get played for 1-2 yrs in some cases.

It comes as a surprise to other people who are fans of music that I have never been to a concert. Rolling Stones last gig in Toronto at Downsview Park? Nope. Frank Sinatra before he passed away? Nope. Duran Duran before punk hit the crapper? Nope.


The topic of concerts came up one day with a good friend of mine a couple of years ago. I thought for a moment and came to the conclusion that if I were to see a concert, there were only 2 groups/performers I would see (which she also agreed) - Gypsy Kings and Sheryl Crow. That says a lot. I don't want to get high at a rocker concert, and some of the classics like Sinatra are best listened to over a glass of red wine. But Sheryl Crow and The Gypsy Kings are different. I could imagine sitting at their concerts and truly enjoying the "live" experience.

So the opportunity came upon me - sort of like a freak accident meant to be. Sheryl Crow announced a concert date at Casino-Rama, Ontario, Canada in July of 2006. At the same time, the same friend I originally had the conversation about concerts with was having a 30th birthday. Lightbulbs went off in my head. What a perfect gift! For her and me! I was about to lose my concert virginity!

To those who have never seen a concert or event at Casino-Rama, let me tell you this ... it is big. I wouldn't say the acoustics there are fabulous, but good enough to make the experience worthwhile. All in all the concert was enjoyable. Sheryl was an act that I truly enjoyed watching and hearing. Although for some reason I expected it to be longer than it was. And I sure wish the light-show wasn't so annoyingly bright so that I could take a picture of Sheryl on stage with my cameraphone that I had sneaked in (it was in my pocket). Besides, the Maytags in front of us were difficult to focus with.

I hope Sheryl had a good time in Toronto.

Head Lube

I'm in Shoppers Drug Mart the other day for something that I just can't remember ... it always seems that I originally intend to purchase 3-4 items but end up leaving with only 1, not realizing until I'm home that I missed the other items.

I'm browsing through the the men's grooming section ... which by the way isn't with the rest of the guys stuff. Why is that? Intentional? I have to browse through the entire store trying to find the item I need. Ever notice how many different brands of women's hygiene products there are? And how many frikken variations of Tylenol are out there? One for the morning, one for night, one for colds, one for flu, etc.

So I'm over at the shaving cream section, and what catches my eye but a bright yellow bottle with the words "HEAD LUBE" on it. My mind starts to wander, "why isn't this in the section with the condoms and KY gelly?". Gee, catchy name. Upon further inspection I find out that it's for guys who shave their heads. Fancy that, a shaving cream for balding men.

Yes, that's right. I said it. I can't see anybody shaving their head for a reason other than the fact that they have little or no hair, and want to hide the receding hairline. I've been a little envious that I can't look like Vin Diesel or Howie Mandel, but I've been blessed with a full head of hair like a mop. Granted, that hair has it's price, I have the head the size of a watermelon.

The next time you're in a Shoppers Drug Mart, just peruse the aisles to find out what kind of products are out there. You'll find some strange items, and perhaps you'll notice the personal massager on the top shelf above the condoms.

The new Toyota Rav4

What the hell was Toyota smoking when they came up with this one? I've always hated the design of the tailgage and spare tire of the Toyota Rav4. They've just carried over the last generation Rav4 design over to the new generation. They insist on wrapping the spare tire in a fibreglass casing and warp the rear hatch at the same time.

Honestly, the new Rav4 has a very interesting new shape to it. The stance is wider, it seems a little less "gimpy" and has a overall appeal to it ... that is, until you see the rear hatch. They've decided to incorporate the spare tire into the body at the same time obstructing the rear view by as much as 1/3 the height of the rear window. Not to mention lowering the bumper to accomodate the tire.

I've never been a fan of externally visible spare tires on street-inspired SUVs. It looks natural on the Jeep Wrangler/TJ/YJ series, and somewhat acceptable on the Jeep Liberty line. On the Suzuki Sidekick it was necessary because there wasn't a whole lot of room elsewhere. And it just suited the old Ford Bronco original line of SUVs (why do I always associate Chuck Norris with a Bronco ?).

I think Toyota would have been much better off placing the spare tire inside the truck buried under the rear cargo space. Well, the typical Rav4 owner would have no clue what to do if it was buried under the truck externally visible like the Jeep Cherokee or Chevrolet trucks.

Maybe then the design team for the Rav4 could have carried over the design cues to the rear of the truck. And maybe if I was lucky, they'd change the hinge location while they're at it.

X-shaped Rubber Bands

I guess these may have been more of a hit back in the days of the floppy diskettes. X-shaped rubber bands can be purchased at :
X-shaped rubber bands

Ah, the good 'ol days of the floppy drive and diskette. 720k, 1.44mb, 2.8mb. And if you were dedicated enough you would have bought one of those little contraptions that positioned the 1-sided diskette upside down so you could drill a hole in the casing and make 1.44mb diskettes for the price of 720kb !

I wonder where that little metal contraption went?

Sony Ericsson W810i

About 1 month ago my Nokia 6310 cellular phone started giving me problems. Perhaps it had enough of being accidentally dropped. One thing I have to admit is that it served me well for about 2.5 years. It wasn't the most technologically advanced, it didn't have all the fancy features, but it was a solid phone. It did indeed have perfect reception.

But after the keys started giving me problems I decided it was time to get a new phone. I was never really a fan of flip-phones like the LG and Samsungs that everybody was sporting, and I wasn't too keen on a tiny phone. But somehow the mp3 features of the Sony Ericsson W810i seemed to scream my name since I was in the market for an mp3 player while rollerblading and biking. The convenience of having a cell phone and mp3 rolled into 1 was a big selling feature.

Granted I've been a Nokia-fan for a long time. Something about their simple menu feature and readability of the LCD screen in daytime light kept me with a Nokia phone through several generations. That's where my first problem comes into play when I started using the Sony. Nothing about the menu structure is simple, especially the added movement of left-right navigation with the "joystick" which complicated things tremendously.

Second were the size of the keys on the keypad. I was able to dial the Nokia phones with ease not looking at the keypad at all. The keys were spaced enough apart and big enough to find with my thumb. The little notch on the 5, and a simple up-down/left approach to finding the remaining keys made it simple and quick to dial. With the Sony the level-variation betweeen the keys while tracking your finger across 2 keys is negligible - not enough of a difference to distinguish when a new key is being pressed.

Third, the tiny little hole where you put your ear. At certain positions the caller is barely heard. You have to play around with the phone to find the optimal position it must sit placed next to your ear. The phone might have benefitted if more holes for listening were placed at the top of the phone.

Fourth, the volume switch on the side of the phone is just too small. Seeing as Sony had the whole side of the phone to work with (they had about 1.5 inches of empty space before you reach the camera button) they could have at least made the buttons for volume-up and volume-down bigger. Now during a call, I have to physically look at the phone and press the volume with the tip of my finger to adjust the levels. With the Nokia I could easily increase the volume without moving the phone from my ear.

There are many, many more minor annoyances I have with this phone such as :

• call list displays all received, missed, dialed calls (instead of the default - missed calls)
• the screen is not easily visible in the daytime
• where is a normal phone ringtone?
• dinky cable connections (prone to possible breaking)

And on the plus side I can say quite a few good things about it :

• attractive black design
• good call quality (that may be my local provider, Rogers)
• easily expandable ... comes with 512mb of memory
• great walkman mp3 feature
• fm transmitter add-on seems very promising

Thank you Oilers for a truly exciting Stanley Cup!

Thank you Edmonton Oilers for a truly exciting Stanley Cup playoff run. I have never had so much jaw-breaking, edge-of-my-seat, on-my-toes excitement in any Stanley cup I watched. Every minute of every game was worth watching, both wins and losses.

Although I don't think you "got your groove" until the 3rd period of game #7, and personally I think MacTavish pulled Jussi Markkanen just a touch too early. I still think that if you were given an extra 45 seconds you quite possibly could have tied up the game.

Special mention should go out to Jussi Markkanen for picking up where Dwayne Roloson had left off during his accident before being forced out with an injury.

But one thing bothers me. Perhaps because Edmonton was my favourite, but I strongly believe that the Edmonton players "wanted" the Stanley Cup more than the Hurricanes.