I must think about

something other than the Pats...

so to change the subject I am having two computer issues and one other random issue:

First: I have a computer with XP - it's about a year and half old or something. It's always worked fine - no issues. I have an Epson Stylus CX5000 printer/scanner combo plugged into it. It's worked beautifully since I got it. I also have the JBL "creature" speakers plugged into the computer - they have worked great too.

So last weekend, or the weekend before I got a new USB 2.0 hub, and upgraded my itunes (it prompted me when I opened it so I accepted the upgrade). Right after I did these two things my computer got screwed up.

My computer makes no sound now - EXCEPT itunes - itunes plays just fine - speakers sound excellent. BUT no other app has sound coming out of the speakers - and if I go to the control panel and to sound it says "there are no speakers plugged into this computer" UM YES THERE ARE, and I am hearing a song out of itunes on them. So I know they are plugged in and working. Why are they only being recognize by itunes and not the OS / other apps????

The second thing wrong with my computer is that I can no longer scan photos. My printer will still print - I can send anything to it - prints just fine. However, if I try to run Epson Scan, or try to call the scanner from within Photoshop - it says this device is not properly installed (code 39) it may be corrupted. But the printer from the same device works!! If it was busted wouldn't the printer not work? how can the printer work and not the scanner that is part of each other.

So I tried to allow windows to fix the printer/scanner automatically. didn't work. tried to get the latest driver - already had it. disabled/enabled - nothing. uninstalled/reinstalled - still nothing. tried to roll back to the previously installed one - there wasn't one. So I totally uninstalled the printer and downloaded the latest scanner software from Epson. Went into the registry - deleted the printer driver entries. Shut off the printer, rebooted the machine. Turned everything back on and reinstalled the printer. Printer still works fine - scanner is still hosed. WTF!!!!!!!!! I don't know what else to do and it's driving me crazy - this thing used to work.

I thought it was the hub, so I unplugged it and rebooted the computer. No change. Plugged it back in still nothing.

I really hope some random technical person reads this and can give me some advice how to fix this.

Now for the random issue: Didn't Digg used to update dynamically? I SWEAR I remember the newest post being added to the top - like fading in, and pushing down the previous posts - with a really nice transition using what I assumed was AJAX. But now it's not updating. It just sits there status until I manually hit F5. Maybe it was DZone? But that site is also not updating dynamically. The only site I use that is updating their news feed dynamically is Newsvine, but I know there was another site that did this. I liked the technique and I wanted to show it to my developers, but now I can't find an example. Crap!