The OS is Windows XP Pro with service pack 2. I know SP3 has been available for a few days, I should apply it. Anyway, I’ve decided to run a Day of Defeat, Source server and I ran into a little problem. I did what everyone would have done. On my server machine, I went to http://www.steampowered.com and downloaded Steam (Valve’s way of getting in control of your games). After the download, I double clicked on the .MSI install file and instantly received an error:

“Steam install error 1327, invalid drive N:\”

I couldn’t find a quick fix on Steam’s support site to the problem. I’m not ragging on their service, I did a search on their site for the error and found nothing (only took 20 seconds). Then I went to Google for a better search and found a quick answer. A lot of other people having been running into similar problems. I didn’t locate anyone with the exact problem as mine, but others claimed the error issue after install (unable to launch Steam).  The fix:

I located and downloaded an old version of Steam. It is an .EXE file. After I ran that, it installed perfectly without problems. Then I ran Steam and logged in with my existing user account. Steam automatically updated itself to the latest version before fully powering up.

Wonderful. Now my server has 2.5 gig’s to download, in order to run a dedicated Source server.  So if anyone is having any problems out there on installing steam or getting steam to run after you have installed it. Remove and delete the .MSI file and install from the .MSI file. Then download the .EXE Steam install file from the ryanjb.com HalfLife GAME Site and install that.

Please visit http://developed.ryanjb.com/gamedev/valve/index.html

The link will be SteamInstall.exe

After I get that site up and running within the next 24 hours (of course) :-). Don’t forget to check the Ryan JB Build Log BLOG for site updates.

I’m quoting the WINXP/Steam error, hmmm… yes, my server gave me permission to quote it. 

I have to say, the Giant, known as Google (http://www.google.com), has great tools for us, users. You can have an email account with a good filtering solution. Access to a great search engine and portable office utilities. They do offer a good amount of storage space (a few gigs should do it) and even if you don’t like using their email program, you can forward your mail somewhere else. I love the idea of using web mail and dislike downloading it to a program. When I did perform such monstrosity, my mail was scattered through various pc’s. Not good at all when you need to look at something saved. My Gmail is forwarded to my personal web mail server for my site, www.RyanJB.com. I still log into Gmail for a minute to see if anything got caught in it’s spam filters. Believe me, not a lot of junk is in my mail box on my personal mail server. Google Doc’s is a great idea. It’s a good, basic editor for your on the good documents. You do have to spend some extra time on formating to get your stuff to look the way you want it to. The only thing I dislike is when it comes down to transferring your documents to MS Office or Open Office. Sometimes, the formatting is a little screwy.

I know all of these little problems will be resolved in the future and for now, Google has a lot of great things to offer. You have to hand it to the company for deliberately trying to and succeeding in, getting into your machine. Visit Google.com and look at their basic Nav-bar at the top of the page. You can do a lot through them and it’s offered to you for free. I started out using a lot of what Google has to offer before I got my own servers and I still continue to use their services.

Good evening, PIA stands for Pain in the Ace! As the title states, I mean it. It’s my understanding that apple can be a ‘pain in the ace.’ A colleague of mine is having some problems upgrading his G5’s RAM. He told me it’s not being recognized and he has to use his 4-512 megs sticks. To get a feel for what I’m working with, I asked him for the specs of the ram (2-2gig chips, pc4200 533mhz) and his G5’s model or serial number. He couldn’t provide either and after spending 15 minutes on apple.com, I showed him how to find the serial number. The process of using the apple support web site is a little inefficient. You really have to spend some time before you can locate the little search box relating to “serial” or “model” number.

The apple support site couldn’t pull up anything based on his model or serial number. It was able to pull up (based on a search) a reference manual on how to locate his serial number. I used the general spec’s area to give him advice of what to do about his problem. It appears his G5 was built in either late or early 2005. He claims it’s late 2005 because of the RAM currently installed (he has 4-512 sticks of PC4200). The late 2005 model supports pc4200 with 8 banks, for a total of 16 gigs. After he installed the new 2 gig chips (for a total of 4 gigs), the machine wouldn’t boot and I believe he did it wrong. The sticks have to be a “matched pair” and installed in the correct banks. I told him to try:

either of these

I assume his original with the 4-512 sticks were occupying bank 1 and 2 of each set. If nothing happens, then I said he probably has the G5 that was built in early 2005. This model only supports 1 gig chips for a total of 8gig of ram. To bad I can’t have a look at the machine. If I were able to then I would be 100% sure of what hardware he could purchase. I can only assume after asking a non-tech savvy individual about what he has.

He does claim it’s a G5 built in late 2005 that supports 2 gig chips, for a total of 16 gigs. I guess I’ll find out tomorrow…. ahem, I mean today (a few more hours ahead).

I’m quoting myself and apple. I need some sleep. Good night.

Hello, I know it’s been a week or more since I’ve posted but I’m busy. No, really, I have been. The latest has been my recent transition to Ubuntu 64 bit on my laptop. Why would I perform such a project? I’m really pissed off over Vista 32 bit performance on my 64 bit laptop (hardware). Hell, I have 4 gig of ddr2 RAM and Vista score the ram as 5.1 ! WOW, but the down side is, it’s a 32 bit OS and only 3 gigs are registered. Not even 3 gigs. I have a Geforce GO 6150 and the video memory is shared. Only 2.7 gig’s are registered. I did come across certain hacks that allows the Windows Family OS’s (32 bits) to access the RAM beyond the 3 gig marker. But that doesn’t work on most machine’s and I see no point in attempting to use it on 32 bit hardware and software.

I actually love Ubuntu 64 bit. I have 3.7 gigs available after the shared video card memory and the OS runs faster and smoother than Vista (32) overall. Anyway, too much raving for now. Visit http://linux.ryanjb.com and check out the build log.

For the rest of today I’m going to kill the LINUX CONNECTION and create the SOFTWARE CONNECTION. There’s a lot of different software catagories I want to compose on. So, let’s see if I can change that and create images for those sections… more L8TR.

I always thought their products were over priced and wondered how they survived. I guess I was right about their retail and should have foreseen the demise of a decent size company. When I’m out looking for something that I need, may it be memory, game or a USB device, I would compare the prices I found from a variety of retailers. COMPUSA has never seemed to have a good deal. They would have the products I’m looking for; but never at the right price. Throughout the years, I can’t remember buying anything from them. About 10 years ago (around 1997), a personal colleague of mine purchased an AMD based PC from them, for around $2500.00. At the time, it was a top of the line machine and the price was average. We spent a week window shopping before he committed himself to a purchase.

From the history of the company,it’s safe to believe, others share my view on them. They did downside throughout the years and in February of 2007, I remember the announcement of their first major shutdown. COMPUSA went on to destroy most of their stores and now the new owners, “Gordon Brothers investment bank” has claimed they are permanently closing up shop (acquired on December 7th, 2007 and announcement the decision on December 10th, 2007). The smart move was keeping the stores open through xmas. Although, I don’t see any deals coming out of this until a few days before official shutdown. Then we shall experience liquidation and unwarranted products. 

If you happen to acquire anything from COMPUSA within the month and you require a respectable warranty; look for it through the manufacture. Good night for now and good bye COMPUSA.

Looks like I didn’t post anything for yesterday. I was busy. No, really, I was. What did I do (your asking)?

I mounted 5 iso cd’s on my XP-pro-CoLinuX server using the cofs system.

Got the Ryan JB Build Log BLOG going.

Forums… Oh yes, I’m implementing a forum system for everyone to use.

Re designed the index for www.ryanjb.com.

 That’s it for now; I know, it seems like I haven’t gotten a lot done and I’m posting the above in my “public experience” BLOG. Well, throughout the night (tonight of course) I’ll give links to everything above because one of my associates asked how my site was coming along. I think I got a lot done because I only spend minor hours a day on it. There’s a lot more stuff in my everyday life that I do (I know, we all have lot’s of stuff to do). ok check out the comments for links of what I’ve done.

I haven’t ran out of any, I’ve been cramming for an exam I took on Saturday, the 8th. It wasn’t really a test of what you know, but an exam of how fast you can choose the correct answer.

Throughout the past week, I’ve activated an iphone for a co-worker and assisted another with a purchase of a Nokia N800. Of course I like them both, but I would love to have a device equivalent to the size of the iphone, with the features and capabilities of a Nokia N800. Oh well, in my dreams huh?

Well the iphone was easy, download itunes and activate the phone through it. Then download and install the OS update. It was a pain in the ace, but a very easy process. Too bad the iphone didn’t have a sim-card slot. It would’ve been really nice to take the card out of the old phone and slip it in the new. But no, life has to be difficult (via apple) based on the iphones design. I like the device and I’m not a fan of it; personally, you won’t catch me with it.

The Nokia N800. It’s a device I loved. Mainly because it’s based on the Linux open source operating system. I was successful on playing with debian (.deb) packages after modifying them. I like the Maeom GUI interface but I prefer Gnome. I don’t like the idea of the device being available without a keyboard. I guess that’s why the N810 has just been released. Although, as of right now they’re on back order (according to my contact at Nokia) unless if you get it from ebay, amazon or a Nokia store in Chicago or NY, NY. Anyway, I wasn’t able to play with it for long (because it was my coworkers) and he returned it for a refund before I could fully get Gnome running. My coworker is going to wait until he can get his hands on the N810 (a built in keyboard that has usable keys are golden) before he claims to love what Nokia has to offer.

I would love to give the Asus EEE a shot (granted it can fit in one of my pockets) and I’ll see if I can acquire one soon. I would end up installing ubuntu. Good night kids, I’ll post-up later.