Both of our desktops are acting up real bad, and I’m beginning to think it is time to replace them.

Nadia’s WinXP computer seems to blue screen randomly when Media Center starts to record. When it tries to boot up again, an error about needing to put in the system disk comes up on a black screen. I have no idea how to begin troubleshooting this problem.

My Vista computer suffers from random IRQ-related blue screens. The only constant when they come up is that I click the left mouse button. The mouse is new, so maybe that’s it? Then again, these blue screens started months ago when I bought my new video card.

Then there is the annoying issue with Live Photo Gallery which will no longer import pictures from my SD card from the Autoplay window. I’m pretty sure this is related to the most recent Windows Update, and these guys seem to think so too.

Oh yeah, the Home Server I mentioned in my last post? It still backs up my PCs, but I can’t get into the console (the main application for the server) anymore. I can’t remote desktop into any of my computers using their names, I have to use their IPs. That’s a new issue, which came up after the most recent Windows Update.

I had to shut off Windows Media Player sharing (so my 360 can see music on my PC) because it crashed frequently and Vista told me about it all the time. COM Surrogate is crash-happy as well; sometimes it is video that causes the problem, but sometimes it seems random. Opera will crash once in a while when I try to close a tab.

I’ve got this neat Vista Sidebar gadget that lets me control my volume with the mouse. It would be better if it didn’t hang so frequently, forcing me to remove it and put it renable it.

That reminds me of the Logitech SetPoint software that came with my MX 5500 Revolution keyboard and mouse combo. Most of my keyboard’s functions are dependent on it, but it can only run well for a few minutes at a time. It then lags; keys and buttons clicked take many seconds to actually do anything.

I could go on, but I think you get the point. While I’m an MS fan, I’m finding it harder to defend them when my computer has become so unreliable. My birthday is coming up, and I toyed with the idea of going over to the Mac side. The high cost is the primary factor keeping me away from doing that.

Over a year ago I asked who would buy Microsoft’s Windows Home Server. I thought I’d buy one of hp’s MediaSmart Server EX470 as soon as it was released, but I ended up waiting a little while before taking the plunge.

Back in May of this year when I saw it on sale at Newegg, I placed my order and have been using it to protect my PCs ever since. Every night the two desktops and the notebook are automatically backed up. Not just a data backup; an image of the hard drives are taken. In the case of a hard drive failure or some other disaster, the included PC restore disc is supposed to make it easy to pull an image off the server and restore the machine to an earlier point. I got to test this out for the first time tonight.

When Nadia was off at a conference, she accidentally installed the invasive malware program AntiSpywareCheck onto the notebook. Do some searches on removing that app - you will find that there are a few files to remove, a DLL to unregister, and a ton of registry entries to remove. I went through them, one-by-one, and couldn’t find any of the things these guides pointed me to. Yet there in the system tray sat the annoying icon telling me to buy and install the full AntiSpywareCheck product.

After wasting my time with those guides and writing the ASC people a mean e-mail, I turned to my Home Server. If I couldn’t remove this thing, then I’d just roll back to a point before it was installed. That PC restore disc I mentioned earlier couldn’t have made it easier. It took about 60 minutes to fully restore the notebook, which is less time than I spent trying to remove the malware.

There are plenty of other things WHS can do, which I’ll go into in later posts.

This is the last of three posts in which I try to deal with my brother’s death. They are Danny, Acceptance and Goodbye.

Perhaps to make up for the previous day’s lateness, we all got to the church 45 minutes early. Family and friends were ushered into the main room while the pallbearers were pulled aside for instructions. My father, brother, uncle, two cousins and I had a tough time listening to the proper way to wheel the coffin out at the end of the ceremony.

Pastor Wayne, from my mom’s church, officiated the ceremony. I was getting nervous; days before Ma asked me to give the eulogy. I really didn’t want to do that, and I tried to get out of it by reminding her of the “best man rotation” we had going. Danny was mine, I was Carlos’, so it seemed to make sense that since Carlos has been robbed of the opportunity of being Danny’s best man, he should give the eulogy. She agreed, but then added, “but you are his brother, so you are going to speak too!”

I knew what was going to happen, which is why I didn’t want to get up there and speak. After Carlos gave his touching eulogy, made up of stories from our childhood and with a touch of anger at Danny’s passing, I was called up. I don’t think I even got three sentences out. I only recall squeezing out “I wish as I was as strong as Carlos,” “I’m sorry” and “I can’t do this” between moments of tear-filled silence.

The slideshow from the night before played (I still couldn’t watch it), and then Pastor Wayne finished the ceremony. I couldn’t bring myself to say the prayer along with him, as it sounded to me like, “We’ve got Danny’s soul. You wanna see him again? Join our church.”

The six of us wheeled him out into the area in front of the church. The Patriot Guard stood outside, as they had the night before.

Given the nature of Danny’s death, I was worried that the Army would abandon him. I can’t tell you how happy I am that they did no such thing.

We all watched the Honor Guard line up and ready their rifles. My mom and I jumped as the 21-Gun Salute went off (I’ve seen it done in movies, but was not prepared for how loud it was). My brother, although in a civilian suit, proudly saluted the coffin the entire time. I saw a perfect stranger cry for us. I even saw a wheelchair-bound member of the Patriot Guard prop himself up with the flag to stand at attention.

The scene was moving, but I kept it all together; that is, until SGT Simmons of the Honor Guard played Taps. I couldn’t stop myself from weeping.

Members of the Honor Guard slowly and precisely folded the flag that draped Danny’s coffin. When done, they handed it to Nadia. In her Class As, she handed it to Nilsa on behalf of the Army. She repeated this for both of my parents (who were very happy that she was the one to present to them).

It was very hot and humid as this was going on, as it typically is in Florida. As soon as the ceremony ended, the clouds above tore open and a heavy downpour started.

This has been a trying time for my family. It is going to take a long time before we fully come to terms with this, but the healing process has already begun. Danny’s death brought the extended Diaz family together for the first time in over a decade.

Thank you for letting me take a break from the normal trivialities I talk about here so that I can get this out, and thank you for reading and for your kind words. This blog’s normal foolishness will resume, starting with the next post.

I love you Danny, you will be missed.