The Mac Gods are punishing me for going PC, aren�t they?

Music: �Wednesday�, Molly Jenson
Mood: aggravated

The computer Gods are angry.

To start with, I�ve finally figured out why the fuck I couldn�t speed up my start-up by running MSCONFIG and then unchecking the programs that don�t need to be run at start-up (i.e. Adobe, iTunes, Java, random updaters, some language support for Office that I�ll never � in a million years � will use, etc.). I�ve done this before. Should be an easy-peasy thing to do � run MSCONFIG, check processes online to make sure I�m not just unchecking things all willy nilly.

Fucking McAfee Total Protection (even though I had just installed the Virus and Firewall components). I should have just paid for the programs I needed separately. So I uninstall McAfee. Fix my start-up (using several online sites to identify the programs that I�m unchecking). Reinstall McAfee.

It works. I�m happy that I�ve finally solved the
�You�re not the administrator!�
�Yes, I am!�
�No, you�re NOT!�
�Bitch, I�m the only person using this fucking machine! Of course I�m the administrator!�
�No!�
�That�s it! Am I gonna have to choke a bitch?�
back and forth that�s been going on for the last couple of months.

So, now onto the current computer dilemma:

I�ve been trying to trans-/re-code some .avi files into the format that would allow me to play them on any ol� DVD player � something I�ve been doing successfully for a week and have done successfully before � and something�s up.

I had to download the new update to Nero because I wanted to trans-/re-code some XVID files and the version of Nero I was using didn�t support that file format. Okay. Done. Successfully burn a whole whack of DVDs with no problem. I have everything set so that the program�s idiot-friendly � the quality of the DVD is set to automatic (fit to disc) so that all I have to do is push a couple of buttons, fiddle around with the look of the menu, hit the burn button and get a working DVD (in about an hour).

Then I start getting this message: �there is not enough space to burn this compilation on this disc� and it tells me to insert a disc that has enough space.

But the disc I�ve inserted is absolutely empty.

O_o

I switch discs and keep getting the message. I abandon that burning session and try again. (Restarting the computer a couple of times in the process.)

So I fiddle around with it (sometimes burning one show (around 42 minutes) onto a disc successfully, sometimes two. (I never try to burn more than 2 hours of material onto any one DVD disc at one time.) Between that and restarting the computer I get a couple of discs churned out (though it�s taking way longer than it actually should).

So, no problems, right? Only it (eventually) stops working altogether.

FUCK.

Repairing Nero�s installation does nothing. I uninstall and reinstall the program. Still nothing.

FUCK.

So I Google the problem. No real help there. One poster suggests that it�s asking for more space on my hard drive and (even though I have well over 20 gig free) so I move a whole bunch of stuff over to my external hard drive. Still nothing.

Okay. I�m grasping at straws here so I think that I may have picked up a virus/spyware that�s interfering. (I have NO fucking idea where this idea came from but since I had to do my regular maintenance scans anyway I thought, �Hey, you never know.�) I update all of my maintenance programs and run McAfee. Two pieces of malware. I repair. Run Ad-Aware. A couple of other pieces pop up. So then I go try to run the Trend Micro on-line scan. Only to have the scan shut down Internet Explorer about a dozen times.

FUCK.

Not to mention that I�ve started getting random-ass pop-ups. So I rerun Ad-Aware, McAffee, and throw in a side of Windows Defender. Generally speaking I don�t give two flying fucks if I have cookies on my machine but I even delete those and NOTHING.

Because there�s obviously something wrong, I Google the Trend Micro problem and it appears that it�s a quasi-common thing for the new version of IE. So I download FireFox and am currently running the Trend Micro scan through that.

ETA: FireFox shut down as well. There has to be something on my hard drive that�s doing this. I�m going to go search for another on-line scan.

FUCK!