Oh how wonderful blogs and forum posts that solve your problems/issues

Here is a post dedicated to all the wonderful blogs and forum posts that solve your problems/issues. That feeling you get solving the issue after the frustration of the problem is quite invigorating.
... Until the next problem appears.

Today it was a quick google search and I found the solution and solved my simple problem of a cached sources list getting corrupted. That Skype one plagued me for months (also mostly because I worked around the problem and my initial search didn't yield the solution)!

News post #11?

http://www.technologyreview.com/news/506466/given-tablets-but-no-teachers-ethiopian-children-teach-themselves/
Woot, u go, hacker children!!
Personally, I think humans are naturally hackers and makers, curious about things, tinkering with them, and wanting to make/create things. This bit of news kind of supports my thought =P
Also, good to see OLPC is doing stuff, their $100 XO-1 is pretty neat too, I've seen it in action before at ASSC, one of the guys from Lunar Numbat brought it along =)
Speaking of which, haven't heard much news from LN and White Label Space, but Canberra UAV had a pretty good year, and they presented at CLUG too! =D

Yep, lots of group dropping there =P Don't forget the hackerspaces I follow: MHV and HackJamHK@Dimsumlabs(-their FB page is pretty well updated) =D
Being a Melbourne boy, it's kinda sad I dont' follow these guys (CCHS) nearly as much (due to me not being around Melbourne -my fav city- as much as the other two places these days! ><") though some of them are LN and they've had some pretty cool projects. Their computer-in-car is especially cool =P and is part of the inspiration for Project Sheila (now much easier with mobile computing and Li batteries =D) which first requires a car and license (lol) xD Anyone get the project name reference? (Hint, my AI will be called Sheila).

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In other cool news:
http://news.stanford.edu/news/2012/october/carbon-solar-cell-103112.html
First whole carbon solar cell including electrodes (apparently some researchers as engadget points out, has made the energy transducer part before)
Pretty cool.

Troubleshooting on Windows >='(

I found this to be actually a lot more annoying than on Linux.
I usually haven't had to do much of this, but when I have had to really troubleshoot Windows, I always pull out my hair. Whereas Linux could range from: 10 minutes later done =D to, lol nope can't do it with my knowledge and resources online.

Situation/Problem
So I couldn't install a Libre Office package for a couple of days ... [lol, sounds Linuxy] I mean application package in the form of .msi
I kept getting this error: "Error 1935 ... missing dynamic link library ... policy.9.0.Microsoft.VC90.CRT ...".
I started using Libre Office exclusively about 3 months back when I reinstalled/upgraded Windows to 64-bit (the same Windows 7 license gives you access to both 32-bit and 64-bit versions!) And recently had to reinstall Windows just to get Steam service to run, so the client actually ran. It was after this most recent Windows reinstall (I usually don't reinstall Windows if I don't have to, went for like 2 years on the original install my laptop -a Samsung R580-JS02AU named Chopper- came with).

Research + Rant
I found the online resources in the form of forums answering questions lacking, and Windows documentation has always been horrible. Also, the Windows admin/system tools and settings is horrible to get to, I mean, who would know you had to right click My Computer to Manage it or msconfig.exe or services.msc or cmd.exe and THEN run some obscure command? Not to mention horrible network settings and internet options >_>
At least most Linux DEs provide pretty much all you usually require in usually two menus, System/Admin Tools and System Settings. And the only hardcore thing you'd have to do is custom scripts/configs in your home folder or elsewhere as advised from heaps of online resources. 

So after looking at http://forum.openoffice.org/en/forum/viewtopic.php?f=15&t=10913 and http://answers.microsoft.com/en-us/windows/forum/windows_vista-hardware/error-1935-when-trying-to-install-anything/bf5c834a-6f79-4bd3-b1b4-d4fdd3fe4a28 and running sfc /scannow with no problems, as well as Windows' famous "NEVER WORKING DIAGNOSTICS/SOLUTIONS" (I mean, if a program needs to be ended/force closed/killed, just do it, don't be misleading and pretend to "FIND A SOLUTION" in your fictitious dreams.)
 


Final Solution
I finally landed on http://support.microsoft.com/kb/2438651#reso1
"Method 2: Make sure that the Windows Installer service is not set to Disabled"










And realised, while I did follow the openoffice forum advice of making sure my 'Windows Modules Installer' service was up and running, my 'Windows Installer' service wasn't, and I promptly set it to start on startup automatically, ran it, and my Libre Office msi worked like a charm.






The fix was so simple, I can't believe it took me that long to find the solution. If only the windows support(lol) website was easier to navigate.