I believe I've tracked down the problem with video captures freezing when trying to capture video from my DV Camera/Camcorder. The problem appears to be related to Dynamic Disks. You see, when I added my 200GB HD to my computer, I configured it as a dynamic disk, just in case I wanted to try out software RAID configurations. That means that the partition I created is not on a static partition, but a dynamic partition. Apparently other folks who have had the same problem have reported the situation happening with their RAID-0 and RAID-1 configurations. Well, I tried it without dynamic partitions, and the video capture no longer freezes. Which means the digital video capture drivers seem to not like dynamic disks! Now, this is pure hypothesis, but it seems to fix my problem. I'm going to convert my disk back to a static partition table (once I move all the data off it) and that should fix my problem, but so far, it's worked with both the other disks in my system, even the slow 60GB one.

Dual-monitor support for OpenGL applications in Windows XP seems to switch to software rendering for the OpenGL driver. This can affect applications that use the OpenGL libraries on machines with dual monitors installed. Most recently, this affected me when I was trying to use Blender v2.31 on a dual monitor machine. The software seemed extremely sluggish, and was taking forever to paint menus and draw, even rotating views. It was unusable. Once I removed the second monitor (disabled and disconnected it and rebooted), Blender worked like I remember it.

Just wanted to keep this link available - funny review of 1lb breakfast from Swanson's Hungry-Man line: click here.

I've moved my food log to: FitDay - This website tracks my weight and the foods that I've eaten. It allows me the public log, as well as private reports on nutrition and other aspects of my diet and exercise.

Day 2

• One Mozarella Cheese Omelet for breakfast cooked in olive oil
  
• 4 oz of kielbasa (1 of 4 from a 1lb package)
  
• 6 slices of corned-beef with 1 slice of mozarella cheese in the microwave for lunch
  
• Salad - 2+ cups of iceburg lettuce, 3 tbps of a low-carb dressing, and part of the hamsteak diced
  
• A hamsteak - 1/4 -1/2 in thick slice of ham heated in the microwave. Put some on the salad. Shared a little with my son.
  
• For snack - 5 oz of bologna - unsliced
  

I should probably drink more water - I haven't had much today.

This morning I got out the olive oil and cooked me up a 3-egg omelette with a slice of mozorella. Normally I would have used margarine, but that's a no-no. The eggs tasted great, and the pan was still oiled enough to cook a 4-oz kielbasa (yummmm). I gave maybe 1/4th of my omelette to my mother-in-law. It looked huge.

From the diet, I've noticed lots of intestinal gurgling. Also, last night before going to bed, I weighed myself. I weighed 230.4. This mornining when I woke up I weighed 226.8. Both times I weighed myself twice. You can't tell me that I've lose 3.5 lbs in one night, can you?

Atkin's awayyyyyyy - doing good this morning - woke up with slight muscle aches all over, some from the bowling last night. We went out to Disco Bowling for New Years. Also, had LOTS of energy last night. New Years Party usually kills my energy and I'm asleep before I drive home. Not the case this time. Also, woke up with almost exactly 8 hours on the sleep clock - not normal for me. I usually drag my ass out of bed about 9-10 on my days off, reluctantly. Had plenty of energy this morn.

Day 1

• One Ham and Cheese Omelet for breakfast - 1g carbs for the ham?
  
• 3/4 lb. of Jumbo Shrimp for lunch (mmmm) - 0 carbs?
  
• Salad - 3 cups of lettuce, 1/4 cup tomato, 1/4 cup of bacon, and a low-carb dressing.. Total 12-13 carbs w/dressing/tomato
  
• 4 oz of bologna - unsliced.
  
• 7 smaller-sized slices of corned-beef with a slice of mozarrella in the microwave (pre-party snack)
  
• up to 10 pieces of pepperoni as munching snacks at New Years party
  
• 2 finger-sandwiches without the bread (cold cuts/cheese) - about 1 slice total of each
  

Lets call yesterday Day 0 and today Day 1. Of what, you may ask? Of me starting on the Atkins Diet. Yesterday I purged myself of all starches and sugars that I normally make the staple of my diet. No longer will I eat Chicken McNuggets, Sausage McMuffins or pretzels and potato chips. Also, no longer will I drink the gallons of soda pop that I have been known to drink in a week's time. I plan to lose at LEAST 20 pounds (I'm weighing in at very close to 230 these days. While I have a big frame, it's not THAT big). I'd like to get back down to 185/190. I was in very good shape at that weight, but if I can just get to 20x, I'll be happy. I figured I'd use the blog to keep a food log and also to let you know what I'm feeling. So, first the food:

Day 0

• One Ham and Cheese Omelet
  
• 1-2 oz. of salted peanuts (didn't know they were illegal during induction)
  
• 2 slim jims (didn't know they were illegal)
  
• Most of a box of chicken hot wings [0 carbs, I checked]
  
• A salad with 1/4 cup of tomatos, cheese and bacon bits (had the dressing because I didn't know better)
  
• Lots and LOTS of water all day long
  

Day 1 - so far

• One Ham and Cheese Omelet for breakfast
  
• 3/4 lb. of Jumbo Shrimp for lunch (mmmm)
  
• I plan on having the same dinner (with a low carb dressing I found - Helmann's Rockin' Ranch Dipping Sauce) as yesterday, including the wings.
  

Even though I had technically 'cheated' on Day 0, I still found myself waking up with sore muscles (notably biceps and thigh muscles), like you feel after a light workout when you haven't done anything in a long time. I haven't gotten a caffeine-absence headache yet (and Im grateful!). My tongue feels oily and greasy too. I had expected problems with my acidic stomach, but I think the absense of caffeine has really helped with it. No volcanic eruptions yet, and no heartburn. We'll see how it goes, eh?

Merry Christmas! Hope that Santa brought you everything that you asked for. For Christmas, I got a few things, including Hordes of the Underdark. Now I can disappear from the real world for hours at a time, forsaking all others, my homework, etc, etc. Also got a carry bag for my new Digital 8 Sony Video Camera. It stores audio/video in the same format as miniDV, except on 8mm tapes rather than 4mm tapes. I purchased a Firewire adapter, as readers know, and I've FINALLY FIGURED OUT HOW TO MAKE IT NOT FREEZE during video captures!!! On Usenet, I've seen a few posts about computers locking up and freezing during video capture over IEEE 1394. I've had NO problems since I've started capturing to a temp directory off of my system drive. Every time I've tried to capture video using a secondary hard disk, it would freeze up. So, I've moved enough files off of my system partition to have 3GB free, and I capture to this partition instead. Perhaps the second drive's spin up time is too slow for the program to capture to it properly, and that causes the lock ups. I'm going to try a few experiments to see if that's the problem. If you've been having this problem, I'd suggest freeing room on your system drive and trying it again.

From the Random BLING FAQ:
Is this legal?
Absolutely. There is nothing illegal about any of our system. It is not a pyramid scheme or illegal "frontloading" system.
BULLSHIT! A pyramid scheme is defined as: a fraud based on recruiting an increasing number of investors. That means that to make money, more investors have to get involved. Once the suckersinvestors dry up, the money dries up - leaving the majority of the people who've put their faith in the plan holding the (empty) bag. The web site will likely dissapear (or maybe not, if they're not in any danger of being caught) and you'll never see a dime of your investment. Early investors will reap their rewards, because crime, unfortunately, does pay. But it's still illegal, and immoral. Don't participate in these schemes, please.