Author Archives: illiniguy

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 10:11 pm on July 9, 2006  

I ((heart)) 80’s Music

In an effort to resurrect my blogging efforts, I’m considering dedicating this here blog to 80s music…specifically 80s hair metal! I mean, it was the music of the late 80s, heavy makeup and mall bangs ruled the world and they weren’t just for ladies.Why the sudden interest in blogging about it? Well, like I said this blog has been sitting here in its new location doing nothing for months. Got sick of the non-stop techie chatter coming out of my mouth. Not that I still won’t from time to time (and I will still be re-uploading my old posts here in a bit, so stay tuned for that), but I need some outside focus. I’ve got my wiffleball league and buds, which have helped me see there’s more to do out there than worship Bill Gates (which I didn’t really, just a figure of speech). And hair metal is something that’s come up with a few of us (we almost went to a Cinderella/Firehouse concert this weekend), and I was quite a hair band junkie…

But while perusing the forum over at Enuff Z’nuff site (oh, yeah, I was there, a guilty pleasure, my tastes run across the board, from EZN to Megadeth/Metallica), I also ran across a mini-goldmine of links to some old 80s videos online. There’s one vid per band, and it crosses all genres of 80s music, not just hair bands. But we could care less about that ‘long-lost’ Whitney Houston video, go there to see:

Blue Murder – Jelly Roll
Britny Fox – Girlschool
Cinderella – Gypsy Road
Danger Danger – Naughty Naughty
Dangerous Toys – Scared
Def Leppard – Photograph
Europe – Final Countdown
Extreme – More than Words
Faith No More – We Care Alot
Faster Pussycat – Bathroom Wall
Guns N Roses – Welcome to the Jungle
Killer Dwarfs – We Stand Alone
Lillian Axe – Dream of a Lifetime

and more…

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 3:27 pm on March 23, 2006  

Setting default web browser in VS 2005

After installing the latest Firefox 2.0 alpha, I realized my VS 2005 no longer could start debugging. It complained with a “Could not start program …\firefox…” message as it couldn’t find my browser anymore after I upgraded it. After a quick Googling, found a blog with the answer. Right-click your web project, and select Browse With…. Presto! The menu you were looking for…

Dunno if this works in previous versions; I rarely used alternative browsers back then, or had to dink with this setting.

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 6:26 pm on March 17, 2006  

Updating a Windows Service

Ever need to update a Windows Service? I had a problem today at work, my PC was incorrectly setup by the technical services team, one of my services’ “Path to Executable” was pointing at the wrong .exe. I had seen the sc.exe command-line command before for creating services, but I only wanted to modify an existing service.

Luckily I found a page online that mentioned these settings are in the registry. Browse to the following hive and see all the settings for your service that you can modify, and at least the “Path to Executable” seemed to take effect immediately with no reboot (Windows XP Pro SP2).

DISLAIMER: Do this at your own risk! As always touching the registry is risque business )

\\HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE
\SYSTEM
\CurrentControlSet
\Services
\___YOUR_SERVICE_NAME___

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 12:47 pm on February 25, 2006  

Coming soon…

Site’s on the move again…this week I’ll resume posting…meanwhile, check the new layout (scroll down)…

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 11:30 pm on January 25, 2006  

When will it end?

The tinnitus, that is….crimony! I’ve been back and forth to the doctor twice now. Antibiotics, nasal decongestants and steroids have been no match. Actually the juice (well, ‘roid tablets) was helping, but as the dosage is lessening, I’m almost back to square one.

Hence my lack of interest in posting anything here…lucky for me jury duty is coming in just over a week. Note tongue-in-cheek there, hopefully this forsaken ringing is gone by then. Tomorrow the ENT appointment is being scheduled, referral from my doctor is already in hand.

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 12:28 pm on January 4, 2006  

Those aren’t sleigh bells!

Aaaaggghh! The past few days (ironically everyday since the 1st of the year), I’ve had this ringing in my ears. Nothing where I can’t function, it’s not that loud, just like that noise you hear when a TV’s on in the background. Haven’t done anything noticeable (loud noise, etc.), I do feel kind of ‘sinus-ey’, so perhaps it’s a cold/ear infection.

Hopefully nothing serious; if it persists, I’ll be seeing the doctor, pry get antibiotics and be on my way to see if it works (the classic first prescription). I researched tinnitus, its most common name, and it is usually nothing major, and can be caused by many things. Note the word ‘usually’, though….

On the sports front, I thought I heard Jimmy Johnson of Fox saying that the Bears were screwing up their momentum in last week’s game where they yanked or didn’t play most starers against the Vikes, in a totally meaningless game, as they were essentially getting killed with backups in. Jimmy, I’m sorry, but these guys are professional athletes, and if they can’t sit on the sidelines for one game, enjoy the rest, especially for the sake of having a healthy team in the playoffs, then we’d lose in the playoffs regardless.

And what if they did play and lost that meaningless game anyway? Still a momentum killer? So then make them play the whole game? C’mon, the starting defense played a couple series, did their normal stellar job, and then later we still lost 2 guys to sprained knees in the game; that Dome turf is notorious for gobbling up players (see Rex Grossman, 2004).

I normally love the guy, but apparently the other morons on that show (the 2 to his right) are rubbing off on him after these few years…

Unknown's avatar illiniguy 11:36 pm on January 2, 2006  

I’m officially a Blogger!

Hey, everyone! I decided over the lengthy holiday break I took from posting, that I’d start using a 3rd party service for blogging from now on. WordPress was an awesome piece of software, but I need more time for myself, not having to upgrade software, or maintain my own database, or figure out how to get more exposure.

So here I am! I’ve had a Blogger account for awhile, never had the itch to switch or actually use it, until now. Hopefully it’ll mean more posting and less clutter; you’ll notice a cleaner interface right now. I’ll be further tweaking the look and feel soon.

I’m in the process of uploading my old posts from the old site (a tedious process). Please do NOT bookmark this page. Bookmark or use http://www.illiniguy.com That way you’re assured you won’t get lost in case I move again.

I’ll be back in a few…