looks like im going to be getting a new cd-burner soon to replace my Yamaha 0x/0x/16x unit. i'm buying someone's old unit from them for $90. since ive been having money problems the past 3 years or so, i will be paying in installments.
i never realized how much a cd-burner meant to me until mine broke. my burner sometimes sat a few weeks without me using it, but i always knew it was there if i did want to use it.
until i get my new burner, a friend has lent me his external USB cd-burner.
for anyone trying to connect right this second, my server/bbs is down. after my scsi-based burner died and i was going to buy this one dude's IDE burner, i decided it was time to move some stuff out of my main system and into the server to "air out" my main PC since its been overheating recently. i pulled my 56k modem (my only ISA piece of hardware), my scsi-2 card, my internal zip drive, my USB webcam, and my 6.4 gig hd out of my main PC and put it all in/on the server. this sudden stream of new hardware to my 4-year old server has seemed to cause some problems. its down while i mess with settings, and defrag the hard drive.

after exchanging some e-mails with Yamaha, i called their tech support number to see about getting my cd burner fixed.

their response? no receipt, no help.

i was told that i wouldnt be covered under their warranty unless i had my receipt still. they then gave me two options; one - buy a refurbished cd burner from them for $160, or pay $160 to fix mine. either way, it's not worth it.

I hate this shit. My CD burner just died on me... Its been dying for a few months now, since the beginning of February, but now it's just dead. I have a Yamaha 4416S internal drive, it has worked great since I got it around mid 2000. When I try to burn stuff now, I get "spindle servo failure" and "track following error" with any type of disc and any cd burning program I use. Those errors mean the drive is fucked and needs to be repaired.
I don't know how or where to get the drive fixed though!!! If I bought it from Sears, I know I could get it replaced - with no questions asked, - but I got it from CompUSA or something.
I e-mailed Yamaha about it, but I haven't gotten a reply yet... I have 5 CDs worth of crap on my hard drive I want to burn and then delete.
If anyone can help me in finding a super fucking cheap replacement - or can help me get my drive fixed, please, e-mail me! I hate being without a burner.

Ok, here are the links to my older site layouts...

From Jan 28th, 2000.
From July 1st, 1999.
From October 22nd, 1997.
From November 6th, 1996.

I'm still looking for older ones. I have had my site hosted on so many providers, and it still shocks me to see a site of mine hosted on Tripod 5 years after setting it up. I have long forgotten the password to access the account, so it will remain as is, forever, bad links and everything.
As a side note about the site layouts, don't expect to have shit work in them... ;p

I now have a web/java interface to my BBS, so you can play LoRD or whatever without having to download a Telnet client.

(removed)

The only real difference between using the web version and using a real telnet client is the nasty fonts, but I'm looking into fixing that. ;p

To help let people know whether or not my home "server" is up (which runs my BBS and a web server), I have placed a link to an image on my home server at the bottom of this page. At the very bottom of the menu, if an image displaying the word "UP!" appears, it means my server is up and should be fully functional. If the word "UP!" isn't there, then the web server or the whole server is down, which means no BBS and no LoRD for a lot of people.