Hypothesis...

A while back, when my copy of WinPatrol informed me that the software controlling the TRENDnet network printer controller wanted to install itself each time my machine booted and asked if I was okay with that, I declined, figuring I would start the software only when I needed to use the printer, which is not all that often.

Then somewhere along the way, I reconfigured the software so that it did, indeed, load during the startup process, because forgetting to run the program before sending a file to the networked printer (or sending the file after the software had run but before a connection was established with the printer) caused all sorts of problems.

The software has never been "quite right in the head." When I try to print files, it will tell me the printer is paused, except that the printer is actually printing. Sometimes, it shows the printer to be printing (except that it isn't), which is typically followed by an error notification.

Disabling a bunch of startup programs led to my discovering yesterday that I could no longer print using the on-screen TRENDnet interactive software. That's why I moved the printer back to my office and linked to it directly. Rebooting the machine, however, resulted in the system reloading that interactive software during startup.

Exiting that TRENDnet software lets me send files directly to the USB-connected printer, but failing to exit the software when the printer is connected directly creates one of those print jobs you can't get rid of (the job ends up waiting for a printer that never becomes available). Earlier this afternoon, rather than use the batch file I cooked up some time back to clear the job from the print queue, I rebooted the machine, figuring the job would be deleted in the process.

Not quite.

During startup, before TRENDnet was loaded, the file was sent to the connected printer. Once TRENDnet finished loading, my machine began to exhibit the behavior that had been driving me nuts (i.e., double-clicking an application has no effect). Attempting to exit TRENDnet (which would pop up from the system tray) caused my machine to freeze.

Hypothesis: The problems I've been having were caused by the TRENDnet software.

Experimental procedure: Continue to use the machine with the TRENDnet software disabled and not running. If a sufficient amount of time passes without the problem manifesting itself, this will suggest that TRENDnet was the source of my problem.

Cheers...

Moscow notes...

Before my unscheduled visit to the Botkin Hospital in August, my sister-in-law and I visited the open air flea market out by the Partizanskaya Metro station. In looking over the photos I took, the following items in photos taken at a tee-shirt stand caught my eye.

The first was a curious graphic of a hand wrapped around a hand grenade:


The tattoo ("За ВДВ") is the Russian equivalent of "Airborne!" (literally, it translates as: "For the air-assault troops"), although it was explained to me in Baikonur (where a ВДВ banner sits on the wall of the bar in the Polyot hotel next to, among other insignia, the flag of the Marine Corps), that the initials may also stand for "Uncle Vasya's Troops," where "Vasya" refers to the founder of the ВДВ, Army General Vasiliy Margelov. As is the case with most such expressions, if you're an outsider, saying it to the wrong person at the wrong time or in the wrong tone of voice may earn you a mouthful of knuckles, or worse.

The words on the shirt read: «Сбит с ног - сражайся на коленях, идти не можешь - лежа наступай» ("If they knock you down, fight on your knees. If you can't get up, attack while you're down."). I would expect nothing less of airborne troops, whose ultimate goal in combat is to jump out of a perfectly serviceable airplane onto a piece of real estate surrounded by enemy forces.

* * *The next image needs no translation. I just wonder: How popular might the sentiment be in the at-large population?



Cheers...