why am i excited about the ps/2 working?

i'm going to guess i got it back on the flash, indicating there was some value in doing it, that there was something stuck in the bios.

gamers may have specific reasons for ps/2, but i'm not a gamer. for me, it just gives me back an extra usb port, that i can plug into another piece of hardware. there's four on the back and two on the front, which was a lot for the time. if my ps/2 isn't working, i have to use two for input devices; i get those usb ports back if i can use ps/2 slots, instead. 

this could also, in theory, make the usb more stable, but i think that's obscure.

was that the problem? well, it hasn't crashed since i swapped it.

rush, particularly, deserved every ounce of shit they got, and then some. just awful, awful lyrics.

elp and yes were broadly legitimately boring and led zeppelin was probably the most pompous band of them all - and doesn't get the shit they really deserve for it.

but, you have to move to the furthest left reaches of punk rock - dead kennedys. skinny puppy. - before you're able to find a lyricist as left-wing as roger waters.

i've said this before - animals was just about the most punk rock thing that came out of the 70s. john lydon should have eaten his hat over it. he should have been thoroughly embarrassed for running his mouth off like that.

likewise, early genesis was frequently critical of ruling elites, and often written from a working class perspective. the lamb lies down on broadway is a post-modern masterpiece that puts much of the punk movement to shame.

so, i'm standing from a punk rock perspective, thoroughly, but i'm also old enough to have a little perspective about it and realize who was really full of shit and who wasn't.

there is no question in my mind that genesis, specifically, was a massive and often underlooked influence on the likes of joy division, early puppy, psychic tv, etc. i don't see how skinny puppy could have existed without genesis.

but, punk happened for a very good reason, and i'm staunchly ideologically aligned with it's critique of prog, and i come solely from the punk moment, in reaction to progressive music.

while i like to make my tunes dynamic and sonically interesting, you'll never see me collapse into a stupid guitar or keyboard solo and you'll never see me push bloated, pretentious or overdone ideas rooted in fairy tales or classical motifs.

my music is thematically working class; it is not intended for rich arts students, or other members of the elite.

my dad listened to that kind of music, so i grew up around it, and i am enamoured with a small amount of it, but i rejected 95% of it as trash and i fully realize that it hasn't existed as a relevant artistic force since before i was even born.

i have absolutely no patience whatsoever for anybody using the term "progressive music" in the year 2021. i will not listen to your record. i don't want to be your friend.

to be clear: i am not a fan of what you'd call "progressive rock", at all. i like jazz, i like psychedelic music and i primarily listen to industrial and punk. my tastes are wide, so it overlaps somewhat, but the music i create has very little sonic or thematic overlap with prog or prog culture, i distinctly dislike most of what calls itself "progressive" and i certainly wouldn't want to spend time with people that listen to progressive rock music.

on top of that, the specific strain of progressive rock that i have time for has not existed in 45 years. i have never listened to anything labeled "progressive metal" - i hate dream theatre, i hate rush and i hate yes. i don't like any of this hippie bullshit labeled "prog", either.

i liked pink floyd, which was a psychedelic rock band led by an open trostkyist. i liked very limited amounts of king crimson, which was a kind of jazz band. and, i liked early genesis, which was a kind of baroque pop. these ideas have mostly ended up in latter day punk and industrial - i'd argue that coil or joy division or skinny puppy were the proper successors of that style, and what i listen to essentially exclusively goes through that bottleneck.

so, don't waste your time - i won't like you. i'll insult you.

ok.

this is better than i've seen for a while, so let's hope it's enough to get the filing done, first and foremost.

if i could figure this out, i'm sure i could fix it.

but, i can't figure out what's wrong...

...and it just consistently seems like somebody's trying to bust in.

i may have to turn the usb completely off, and i may have to keep it completely off.

the other thing is that, once this filing is done, i should be able to transfer some of the data to the 98 machine. and, i'm actually intending on working in that environment for some of this, regardless.

if the 16-bit machine is stable and the 32-bit machine isn't, that's fine, for right now.

but, i have to get this data ordered before i can do anything else.

for example, i have an old nvidia card in there...

this is a recording machine - i don't care about the graphics. i don't play video games, and i never did. but, i need a video card....

could the machine be halting due to the video card drivers? it's not impossible. it would be obscure, and it never happened before, but if it's stable until i install the drivers and then crashes when i install them...

i'm sure i can find a bottom of the line graphics card for $30 somewhere.

i can't break the thing when i'm testing it. it only breaks after i've fixed it. so, let's get what i need done in testing mode, then.

like, if i have to log in via safe mode (i haven't done that this time. next time) or boot from dvd to get this done then whatever.

ok.

so, i'm really, really sick of not being able to get anything done until i get through the filing and i'm tired of this boring hacking fight with an entity i don't understand, and have no interest whatsoever in competing with.

so, i've ripped the thing down to the barest combination possible - hard drives, video card & dvd. everything is disabled in the bios, including multiprocessing and usb. i've got a ps/2 mouse running, which i'm actually happy about because i thought it was broken.

and, i'm not installing anything at all to start, not even the chipset drivers.

i want to finish the filing, to start. and, i'll have to slowly bring in drivers and hardware until i'm comfortable.

i have actually done this before, and the only conclusion i came to was that everything was working correctly. but, at this point, if the thing crashes again, there's only two options left - either the processor is malfunctioning or i'm getting hacked via microwave for reasons that i don't understand.

process explorer is an xp tool created by some nerds that later got hired by microsoft to create some vista accessories. i learned how to use it when i was doing vista support. and, it's literally logging multiple remote access requests.

somebody is repeatedly trying to log into this machine remotely and consistently running into errors due to the intentionally broken subsystem. 

the problem is that the machine has no network card in it. how are they doing that?

i'm going to disconnect my modem and router...they might be logged into the network and hacking me from my own (disabled) wireless network.

as i've pointed out a few times - this isn't an amateur. but, i am an amateur. i have degrees in pure mathematics, constitutional law and object-oriented programming. i've never taken a formal course in networking, and really don't have a lot of interest in it.

the asimov text is mostly done and mostly not very good but i have to try to get a handle on what's going on. again - i don't care, in an ideological sense. but, if the result of repeated failed login attempts is that i can't use the machine, i have to stop them.

i don't know if the machine is rebooting because they're trying to install software or because they can't even login. i haven't noticed any funny files, and the log i'm pulling out is full of error messages.