Well, I guess I should have known better really, I got my nice, shiny new domain dark-thoughts.net and had actually built a reasonable website, an artists community as it happens, was going quite nicely too. And then, about a week ago, my website was gone, moreover, so was my host.

And the database backups were all corrupt...

But that wasn't the worst bit, I'm now told that my former host, decenthost.info are no more and the people they bought their space from, wildwestdomains (apparently a large web space reseller) are now the holders for my domain... Only, they're refusing to reply to emails and return control of my domain to me.

So I guess I'm a bit stuck here, what are my options? Do I have any recourse?

So here I am, zetanews is closed for business due to yellowtab's financial fuckups.

I don't blame Frans for shutting the site. In truth I'd gotten to the point where I couldn't bring myself to care any longer, it was just Amiga all over again.

Fuck. That.

I have copies of most of my better works, and enough good will that I can get reasonable references when needed.

Divorce is in the air, my folks are on the final runs for theirs, and my own is not far behind. She gets the kids, the house and anything else she takes a fancy for, I get the debts, crushed credit rating, and a curious sense of freedom and relief.

Boy does it suck to be me. Oh well, enough of that, time to rebuild. Am looking into reskilling, because I'm going to have to if I want to be able to pay these debts off any time soon.

In other news, my website's web redirect, which is provided by afraid, is under a concerted ddos by some fuckwit or other, not felt much like adding anything to my stories, or doing much by way of drawing. Going to have to change that, soon.

Yeah, hell of a year, my platform of choice, Zeta, made by yellowtab is finally starting to take off, great stuff.

But damn there have been some major tech losses this year, the missus' computer completely shat out, the surround dvd player (which doubled up as the surround sound system) shat out. Oh and I realised that windows 2000 and an Abit KV8 realy REALLY don't mix.

Oh, and linux for the desktop is an unworkable mess that only geeks could really love.

I met some great people this year, not to mention some awful ones. I started major work on my story, and began the work of replacing my battered old website with something worthy.

Oh and next year I'll be facing a reduced income, with ever present debts and a new kid on the way...

I went back to work with ZetaNews after an upgrade to the sql backend of the site - in short my admin controls were inadvertantly reactivated. I ended up putting some stories up simply because no one else seemed to be doing much with the site (the owner and head honcho is busy coding a piece of software, and his missus, my immediate boss, has a child to bring up)... I couldn't bare to watch updates that were weeks behind everything else. So I've been breaking my balls trying to get it up to speed. I must admit though it would be nice if some of the other Editors who still have their admin access would PULL THEIR FUCKING FINGERS OUT AND HELP.

Yes this time, instead of scrimping on the new kit, I went all out, bought myself an Abit KV8, an Athlon 64-3000, 512mb stick of ddr ram, and found that the gfx card still worked (though the nic had died a death).

So whats wrong with it you ask, well simple - the fucking processor is overheating, and no amount of reposissioning the heatsink, or tightening the plastic dohicky that runs around the cpu thats bolted to the motherboard will fix it...

I went into a pc shop, and according to him, seems that the default cooler that comes in the retail pack has faced several variations to the retention clip, for precisely the reasons I'm currently experiencing.

Looks like yet more money for a new Heatsink, probably going for that OTT cooler from coolermaster... Cos it sure as shit can't be worse then what I'm running with atm.

In other news, I also bought a cheepo PC chips flex atx all in one motherboard, with a VIA C3-800Mhz cpu, just in case the worst happens.

And whilst I wait for the inevitable (cos lets face it, computers only last so long) I'll probably use it as part of a custom case.

Right, off to overclockers now. best get this over with :-)

Yes after some weeks of waiting and battling the beast that is my missus's little rig, my friend has omitted posting the mobo/cpu/ram combo... damnit

Guess that leaves plan B: Sell my DT300 and get the replacement parts from the funds made.

On the flip side, Ebuyer are agreeing to replace the parts that were damaged by the psu, which is as much use as a chocolate Teapot as the CPU and ram have both been terminally damaged... What fucking use is a mobo and psu without the rest?

Not to mention that the psu that was supplied was of so low quality it doesn't even matter - I'll not have another one in this house, oh and VIA drivers SUCK GIANT DONKEY BALLS, so another km2m system is out of the question.

But damnit, I was looking forward to getting that VP6!

Yes After loosing several inches of my hairline to the loss of my main rig, I got an email today - it was from my old Boss at Zetanews.com, seems I left him with one hell of an impression, because he has offered me a dual P3 rig, complete with Ram for nothing, he doesn't want a single thing in return!!!

I mean WOW! How FUCKING COOL IS THAT!

Fuck Technology, its friends like these people need!

I spent much of yesterday cleaning and bleeding the water cooler on my computer, I also took the time to remove any of the particulate matter that had built up on the motherboard over the months (even with the fans filtered they still let *some* through). No problem, no spills no thrills, just a simple once over. Fitted the water block after refilling the entire system away from the computer (Saved me having to wait a couple of days for the motherboard to dry off) and away we went...

Or so I thought, everything started up as normal, BeOS and windows 2000 both booted without issue, everything worked, until I went to go online... then then hassles started, everything was set up, the drivers were working (or so I thought, even reinstalled them on both OS's, just to make certain) nothing, couldn't even ping the gateway box... ok I thought, time to reset the BiOS, start again, I remembered the last time this had happened I did this and it sorted itself out. It didn't, indeed the problems were exacerbated 10 fold with niether OS now booting. Great! I thought to myself, go back to BIOS, load fail safe defaults, only the board failed to post and I haven't managed to get it going since. Looks like the board is dead and tbh I'm really fed up with this BS

New mobo + ram, about £100, getting a computer that works as a whole for more then a few months: Priceless...

This week I've reinstalled Windows 2000, had my freeserve set top box fry, countless problems with my internet connection (Telephone line fault... again) and the Toaster burst into flames. Its days like this that I could really do without, its weeks like this one that make me think - WTF is the point of having all this tech if it keeps dying all the time, usually at the same time and nearly always when you're skint!

Ugh, I think I'll go back to bed, cause if anything else blows today or this week, I suspect I may loose control of the urge to purge anything that wasn't found in the 1930's, with the possible exception of medicines...