I had this problem with a heatsink fan a while back.

Though I ultimately had to replace said fan, I found a solution that worked at least for a while. I disassembled the fan and took a green kitchen scrubber pad to the shaft of the fan, to remove stuff that had essentially cooked onto it - dust particles, hair and whatever else got into the case. You'll be able to feel that stuff on there even if you cannot see it. Steel wool is not good as it can scratch the shaft which will make the problem worse. Once I had it smooth and clean, I took just a small amount of axle grease and applied it to the shaft with a toothpick. I was careful to make sure I wasn't heavy-handed with the stuff but I made sure there was enough to coat the shaft and that it still turned easily. Then I reassembled the fan and all was well for a while.

This did not fix the problem permanently. Eventually the fan got loud again and I redid the procedure several times until I replaced it outright, but it did solve the immediate issue.

Hope that helps.

WE don't demonstrate a lack of common sense, bureaucrats do

I agree, but only to a point. By we I mean more than just governmental types. We've got zero-tolerance policies that are rigidly enforced and opportunistic people that go looking for the smallest of reasons to stir the pot (and look for the support of bureaucracy to justify their motives which many times are based only on feelings rather than a sense of doing the right things - the story that prompted the original JE being a case in point). We have lawsuits for every conceivable situation where often it's a case of people being stupid and are just unwilling to take responsibility (sorry, you should not get a dime from me or my insurance company because you got drunk and did a faceplant on the sidewalk in front of my house while walking home). We have a society where the entertainers are the most revered (I hope I never hear "news" about Paris Hilton ever again) and the real important people are often either ignored or villainized. The list goes on.

Your point is well-made, though. Bureaucracies are a wonderful breeding ground for the mindless. My homeowner's association is a fine example of this. I suspect it drives the market for red tape in our county.

...we demonstrate a complete lack of common sense in this country. *sigh*

You could not have put this any better.

Where did the MS Ribbon Control come from? Same thing - someone decided that a simple row of buttons and a menu system is not sufficient anymore. Now the sheep follow - it doesn't "look modern" if it still has small tool buttons and no ribbon." But it really does not buy anything substantial, except a learning curve.

I agree, not all change is bad. Sometimes a small aesthetic change is good, such as flat button bars versus raised. You have not changed functionality or the way things work.

Sadly, you are very right - we're on a roller coaster. Just wait until Windows 8 gets here - it looks like it was based on MS Zune software.

And not ONE topical JE from the remnants of circledom?

I quit journaling here a little while ago, partly from lack of time and partly from frustration. That said, I still come here to read, and occasionally I'll get myself motivated enough to comment.

I still read your stuff. But you're right, there is little incentive to post anymore, and more and more people are getting fed up with the site, the editors, the silly rules and everything else here that slowly put a strangle hold on this site.

I was never a major player in the community. The posts that seemed to say little garnered the most response, where I tried to post meaningful things and often found myself wondering if I was being read at all. It was still fun, though - until the site changed so much that the exodus occurred and the majority left in frustration. What incentive is there to post when those that may have responded have left?

Sadly, I do not think Taco and his minions even care. I quit caring some time ago - I am mainly here for the front page and the occasional JE like this one that catches my attention, but I don't bother posting anymore.

...technolust is coming to Portland tomorrow, finally going to meet him in person with peacefinder...

Never connected with peacefinder and had only brief (and sporadic) contact with TL. Glad the group is not entirely dead, either way. Hope a good time is had by all in Portland tomorrow! (And, the next time I am in WA for more than 2 days I will reach out and hopefully we can do something again.)

There was a time when slashdot was a destination. Now it's just a service station bathroom break on the way to a different destination - on a good day.

Between the updates that render the site unusable, the site moderators fancying themselves as overlords that show favor and disfavor to the users, the availability of better social networking sites and the [resulting] lack of posts here that used to be so plentiful this place is more or less a ghost town anymore. I stay here only for the front page and the occasional JE that grabs my attention, but I find myself less and less interested in staying.

I do fiddle on FB, I prefer G+ (though I am not well connected there yet), but I spend less time here now. There's not much to keep me here anymore.

In addition to the first two, I have the router set up to assign DHCP addresses within a certain range and no more. So, with 5 MAC addresses in the DHCP table, there's no need to even leave the possibility of assigning more than 5 IP addresses. Every MAC in the table gets the same IP address every time and no other machine can ever get an IP address even if I turn off MAC filtering. It means if I want to add another system to the network I have to fiddle with the router a bit more, and in my case it's paranoia but for some it's another layer of lockdown.

And still reading. Good to see you here again.

And congrats on the new job. The commute may be long but, like you said, it can be a good time to unwind when you need it