Well, I fully intended to post episode 53 today. I took a break this afternoon, and thought, what the hey, I’d install my new LCD monitor that my husband got me for Christmas. Shouldn’t be too hard, eh? Well, it did involve removing my old CRT monitor (the big, hulking thing) and putting it on the kids’ computer desk where their old monitor used to be (we recycled it a couple of days ago in prep for this very event).

It did involve a *lot* of vacuuming. I didn’t realize just how many dust bunnies were living on my and my kids’ desks. It did involve trying to figure out why I still have Windows 98 on my kids’ PC, and why I haven’t moved them to a Mac yet (well, I know the answer to that…more on that in a future post). I *hate* Windows 98. I mean, what other OS would ask you for a driver when you put in a usb stick?

But the worst was that it involved discovering that the LCD monitor, a V7 R19PS, sucks big time! My G5 comes up, with lousy imaging, and I ask OSX to autodetect the monitor. It attempts to do so. Screen goes black. Screen remains black, but now an ugly green text box shows up with the words “mode not supported”. Nothing I do has fixed this problem. Rebooting doesn’t fix this problem. The text box won’t go away.

After spending almost an hour on this, I wanted to see if this was an LCD to Mac issue, or an LCD to computer problem. So, I attached the monitor to my Windows box. Windows couldn’t detect the new hardware. Sigh.

By this time, we were ready to leave the house and get dinner, and I’m just too tired of dealing with this issue to deal with switching monitors again, then record the remainder of the podcast. Sorry…a quick one hour thing turned into a five hour nightmare. So, I’ll get the monitors switched tomorrow, then post the podcast tomorrow.

If anyone knows anything about V7 LCD monitor compatibility with the Mac, or with ATI cards (I have an ATI 9800 inside my G5), I would be most appreciative of some input. Thanks.

I’ve posted what I realized is the 52nd show of iGame Radio. Great interview with Hal Halpin of the ECA (part 1) and a review of the newly released Avernum 5 by Spiderweb Software. Plus, I rant about the whole Jeff Gerstmann thing (as though you haven’t heard enough about it already).

MacRadio is listed on Blogger & Podcaster Guide, and has been participating in their online The USA TODAY special which I highly recommend. Basically, if someone does a search for a podcast through the Blogger & Podcaster Guide search tool at the bottom of USA TODAY, they can find you.

You can get involved in it as well right now, including a free month in The USA TODAY through Blogger & Podcaster Guide.

There’s no catch other than after the first month there will be a charge if you want to continue promoting to the USA TODAY’s audience. However, they’ve also arranged a 20% discount for you if you find value in the program and choose to continue on.

To get started, here’s all you need to do:

1. Go to http://www.bloggerandpodcaster.com/usatoday
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3. In Step 2 be sure to select Option #4 and enter `BP’ in Coupon Code box.

They’ll notify you well in advance of the date you’ll be billed, so you don’t need to be worried about unexpected charges.

I will be posting the first episode of the new season of podcasts on Monday, December 17th. It will feature an interview with ECA president Hal Halpin, among other things. I finally have the MacRadio relaunch under control (man, that ended up being…interesting), so I should be able to post 3 to 4 episodes a month. We’ll see if I can hold to that. ;-)