Hello everyone. I'm afraid I've been a little busy lately, and more than a little distracted, but I have returned to share thoughts and insights but probably just to rant and vent.
In fact I have been so upset and angered by this countries lack of discipline, integrity, and sensibility while being driven by an overwhelming self-centered selfishness and an overpowering level of stupidity that my emotions got caught up in it all and I couldn't quite bring myself to compose from a reasonable centered me so I gave it up for awhile.
Anyone that has been watching the news for awhile will have noticed the insanity that has laid claim to the world around us and often makes it tempting to retreat into hibernation or at the very least begin practicing the life of a hermit.
But alas I am too far entrenched in day to day living to commit that form of social suicide. And neither should you if you are experiencing the same level of frustration of that external world that tries so hard to dominate our lives. It is at this point that we must stand and say "nuts to you" and move on with what we do, and that is to live the good life and fight the good fight. To accept anything less is to deny our true inheritance.
So what was the trigger that brings me back around. A little news article on the radio this morning that reported President Obama praising someone other than himself, a republican no less that goes by the name of Mitch McConnell. You have got to know that you are way off base when no less than Obama and Harry Reid are calling your ideas a 'serious proposal'.
So what is this 'serious proposal'? How about letting the President raise the national debt ceiling without GOP support. That's right, the Senate minority leader is suggesting that Congress forgo its duties and responsibilities and hand the President the last keys to national destruction. I don't know why they would bother since all three branches seem to be working in a concerted effort to accomplish the same willful degradation of the remnants of a once upon a time fine upstanding and well respected country.
If you understand the debt crisis at all, or even just a little you are shaking in your boots right now along with the rest of us, but it is not the core of the problem. It is not even center stage of our drama or worse yet in the eyes of the people that matter most, the citizens of this nation. It is also just one symptom of a long list of symptoms plaguing our country right now and its future is hanging in the balance.
Someone from the White House said "never let a good crisis go to waste" but the scary truth that walks hand in hand with that is 'if you don't have a crisis now, make one'. I don't know how much of what is happening is fabrication and deliberate manipulation but I have seen enough to make me think that there is a definite plan being played out and there are some who think they will gain power by allowing events to unfold the way they have. Over the past several years (and decades and beyond) these types of events have led those in power to excuse themselves in taking action that has undermined our freedoms and our liberties. And for all intense and purposes it is happening again. Just as we now joke at the cliche of 'do it for the children' (although I still hear that one used time and again) we are not laughing at the effects it has had on our lives. Last time we were all too willing to do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our homeland security. This time we will do 'whatever it takes' to maintain our economic security. And all the while we have willingly done 'whatever it takes', we have done so without really realizing what was taken. The physical and economic security that was once in our hands as been placed in the hands of another, and now we have neither.
Where is that country that was so highly praised for freedom and liberty and was hailed as a land of opportunity and righteousness? Where is that people that stood proudly for one nation under God and valued it so highly that many would willingly give their lives in defending it? Where are the voices of reason in the tumultuous din of stupidity?
It is not all gone...yet. It is not all forgotten...yet. Fear not to add your voice to reason. If it sounds like stupid and feels like stupid, please don't be afraid to say so. When stupid looks itself in the mirror, truth is revealed and reason can stand. It is time to let laughter and ridicule drive stupidity back into the long forgotten shadows from whence it came.
History is replete with examples where stupidity runs rampant, but it only last for awhile. For those of us looking for the better way, having lived it and knowing what it is, there is still a light of hope that all is not lost. There is still a chance for the return of sanity. And although I am predicting that there is the potential for some serious hard times ahead, both economically, politically and socially, there is still an opportunity for much good to come from all this. That is what I continue to look for, hope for and pray for. I hope that you will be doing the same.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
13 July 2011
25 February 2011
Tales of the HP, Part Three.
It isn’t over yet, there is still much to be done. IE 8 is o.k. but I still like Firefox better so I need to get a copy and get it loaded. I did save all my links in the backup process; at least I hope I did. Speaking of backups, I will need to figure out a good way to transfer my old files back onto this box, and set up a good back up program. I should be able to use the one that came with the portable unit I got at Costco and since that is where I stuck my files anyway it may be a good way to transfer back the files. At least that was the thought when I picked it up in the first place. One back up drive should be able to support two different computers, right.
Optimist.
As I think back over the last few months and having to try and come up with solutions to the problems I faced, one thought ran over and over again in my mind; if I can’t get this working again then I will just have to get another computer, but if I had to get a new computer what would I do now? If I had it to do over again would I go this same route or would I try something different? Because of the problems I have had the last thing I want is something that will give me more problems, and I don’t want to spend any more money on this than I have to.
On my last three computer buys I have spent the extra money up front thinking that I was getting better quality, performance, and time before obsolescence only to find that I only got a small increment if any and that the problem quotient was still there. I readily admit that I will think long and hard before even considering an HP again. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for their products, and I do mean that with a plural. Maybe it is the platform and I should switch from PC to Apple.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about that one also, but like the PC, Apples are not perfect. They are far from being cheap let alone inexpensive. If they were half the current price on any and all models the whole story of personal computing would have to be rewritten.
They are also every bit as proprietary as anything out there. This is both good and bad. Good in that they should be in an excellent position to tackle compatibility issues but bad in that there is definitely a monopolistic feel within the platform. But with all this control they should also have a handle on quality issues, especially for the money they charge. That expectation is not born out based on some things I have read. My brother put it best when he told me to go to the local Apple store and take a look at the line at the service counter.
For now I will give the old HP one more shot. I kind of have to with all the time, effort, and money I have invested in this thing. It is too bad that the world is moving so fast and technologies are changing so quickly because some days I would like to go back to an older box that ran simpler software and still seemed to do what I needed it too without too much fanfare. Actually it seemed to do the basics at least as fast as the current boxes do. Bulky is bulky no matter what your time-frame of reference is. It is hard to say which technology is pushing which. Does new software require new hardware or does new hardware dictate new software? All I know is you can never have enough of either when it comes to gaming. And lately it all kinda seems like a game. And one that is getting harder to win.
Either way I will press on and let you know what happens. A lot has been happening in the world lately and without a blog to share my comments with the office has been taking the brunt of my soap boxing escapades. They will probably be glad for the reprieve.
As always, I am Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here for Part One of the HP adventure or
click here for Part Two of the HP adventure.
Optimist.
As I think back over the last few months and having to try and come up with solutions to the problems I faced, one thought ran over and over again in my mind; if I can’t get this working again then I will just have to get another computer, but if I had to get a new computer what would I do now? If I had it to do over again would I go this same route or would I try something different? Because of the problems I have had the last thing I want is something that will give me more problems, and I don’t want to spend any more money on this than I have to.
On my last three computer buys I have spent the extra money up front thinking that I was getting better quality, performance, and time before obsolescence only to find that I only got a small increment if any and that the problem quotient was still there. I readily admit that I will think long and hard before even considering an HP again. This has left a bad taste in my mouth for their products, and I do mean that with a plural. Maybe it is the platform and I should switch from PC to Apple.
I have spent a lot of time thinking about that one also, but like the PC, Apples are not perfect. They are far from being cheap let alone inexpensive. If they were half the current price on any and all models the whole story of personal computing would have to be rewritten.
They are also every bit as proprietary as anything out there. This is both good and bad. Good in that they should be in an excellent position to tackle compatibility issues but bad in that there is definitely a monopolistic feel within the platform. But with all this control they should also have a handle on quality issues, especially for the money they charge. That expectation is not born out based on some things I have read. My brother put it best when he told me to go to the local Apple store and take a look at the line at the service counter.
For now I will give the old HP one more shot. I kind of have to with all the time, effort, and money I have invested in this thing. It is too bad that the world is moving so fast and technologies are changing so quickly because some days I would like to go back to an older box that ran simpler software and still seemed to do what I needed it too without too much fanfare. Actually it seemed to do the basics at least as fast as the current boxes do. Bulky is bulky no matter what your time-frame of reference is. It is hard to say which technology is pushing which. Does new software require new hardware or does new hardware dictate new software? All I know is you can never have enough of either when it comes to gaming. And lately it all kinda seems like a game. And one that is getting harder to win.
Either way I will press on and let you know what happens. A lot has been happening in the world lately and without a blog to share my comments with the office has been taking the brunt of my soap boxing escapades. They will probably be glad for the reprieve.
As always, I am Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West.
Click here for Part One of the HP adventure or
click here for Part Two of the HP adventure.
Tales of the HP, Part Two.
I found one (a portable backup hard drive), looks about right, on sale, says it’s easy to use, preloaded with backup software…let’s try it.
After much rebooting I was able to get the computer up and running longer than 3 minutes, plugged the backup drive in and started to copy files over. The best I was able to do was move 1.9 Gb before it crashed. This is not good.
I was not going to trust my data to someone I could not talk to first that should be able to save the data before rebuilding the computer. I chickened out and took it to a different local PC shop, one that advertised free virus scans and one I had been in once before when I went shopping for a particular piece of computing hardware with a friend. I was hopeful.
Too hopeful it turns out. You can’t run a virus scan if you can’t get the computer to run at all. Minimum diagnostics charge was $69, thank you very much, but they go through it totally and test each part then let you know what it will cost to repair before fixing…yada, yada, yada. I got the call the next day saying come pick it up it is ready to go. I go there and the lad tells me that they ran a hard drive check disk, found some bad sectors, repaired them and it ran fine. I asked if they ran the free virus scan and he plugged it in to their monitor to show me. It crashed three times before he sheepishly turned to me and said “You probably want to leave this with us a little longer.”
Several days go by and still no word so I stop in after work to see what the verdict is. He thinks it might be the memory but he also is not getting consistent readings. He has been pulling components out of my box and putting it into one of theirs then running the test piece by piece so at least this time they are using good method. The techie tells me that the hard drive is working fine. This is good news to me since that is where my data is. So I ask “Can you save the data?” to which he replies “yes, we usually charge $79 to transfer data.”, and I reply “WHAT, you have got to be kidding me?” but he wasn’t.
I then decided that I could do that part of the job myself if I only had the right tool. I found it in their shop, a box which will act like a portable hard drive when you insert your internal hard drive into it and then power it up and plug it into the USB port of another computer. I talked him into giving me a break on the price, he gave me $5 bucks off, and off I went $100 poorer but at least on my way to saving the photos.
Having a little mechanical savvy I was able to open up the box, pull the internal hard drive, build the portable unit, plug into my wife’s laptop that she is using for school, transfer the files, return the internal hard drive to its original position inside the HP desktop box, put the case back together and start feeling hopeful again.
I then immediately hooked up the new recently bought portable backup drive from Costco to the wife’s laptop and did a proper backup of all the files on her computer including the newly transferred files from the HP. This was another ‘whew’ moment.
Off to the UPS store and the computer was now on its way to PC repair store number two, the original one intended to do the repair work under the extended warranty. The repair tech contacts me a few days later saying he couldn’t find the power cord that I know I took with the box to UPS to be shipped, but he said it was o.k. he had one available. He then asked me several times making sure that I had backed up my data. I assured him I had made every effort to do so and that is why it took so long to get it to him from the day I first submitted the claim. This to me was confirmation that I had done the right thing in making sure I had my files off the computer before sending it in, a system rebuild was in the works and I could feel it.
A week went by but being busy with work I hadn’t had time to notice or do much with home computers anyway so I just let it be. About the time I did start to wish I had it here though it showed up from UPS, on a holiday no less. I unpacked the box trying not to get the packing peanuts everywhere. There was a note inside stating that they had replaced the System Board (Mother Board for us old timers) and power supply (evidently the power cord got lost along the way), and had run a “burn-in for more than 19 hours and everything is working fine”. They also installed fresh OS with all driver and window updates. Does this mean I am truly back in business and that I can run my computer without fear for the first time in its life? Honestly, I don’t know.
Only one way to find out, plug it in and try it out. So that is what I am in the process of doing. I took care to plug all the various wires and cords back into the same places they came out of (more or less). With fingers crossed I hit the power button and waited for the lights to dance. Of course the first attempt ended in a mouse that wouldn’t operate and a keyboard that quit after a few taps of trying to operate a computer without a mouse. I quickly called back the PC store who suggested I buy a new mouse since they sometimes go bad or try plugging it into a different slot and see if that works. The mouse and keyboard worked fine before I started all this so there was no reason for them not to work now and besides, I have a serial mouse, not a USB mouse so there is only one place to plug it and the keyboard into, and they are color coded from HP and no I didn’t get them mixed up thank you very much. It turns out Microsoft is still not as plug and play as they want you to believe so the computer had to decide what drivers to use and then needed a reboot. One reboot later the computer recognized the keyboard and mouse and I could try again.
Next thing I noticed is that I have in essence a new box and that there is nothing loaded on it but the newly loaded operating system. All the rest is gone. I still have the software disc for MS Office and such so not a big deal although it does require reloading everything with subsequent re-registering and reconfiguring and rearranging and just redoing everything that you had done once before. (These really are remarkable time saving devices aren’t they.) So I have Office on here now and IE8, both running on the newly updated 64 bit Vista with Service Pack 2. I also have my Anti-Virus software package running; it was the first thing to get loaded and updated.
Of course I have already done several system updates as suggested by Microsoft’s Windows update and currently have another 18 waiting for me since I just loaded MS Office. I have also had to reload a version of Adobe Acrobat reader which is required to read all the manuals and read-me docs that seem to be everywhere these days. I also tried to load Adobe Flash Player but that one got hung on me. In fact I already have 4 system problems that need checking for solutions, 2 for the HP and 2 for Windows. Actually when I pressed check for solutions it went looking for 18 of them. I hope this is not a sign of things to be with this system.
I will try to follow the software manufacturer’s suggestions, keep everything current and updated, treat this computer with the kid gloves I always have and hope that things are going to be different this time around, thinking that maybe I did just get a quasi-lemon last time and that I am fully repaired and now I can surf the web and compute without fear, and my productivity will go through the roof as my creativity soars by with the broken barriers of hardware limitations.
Optimist.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. If you are ready to see the conclusion Click here for Part Three of the HP adventures. If you missed the beginning Click here for Part One.
After much rebooting I was able to get the computer up and running longer than 3 minutes, plugged the backup drive in and started to copy files over. The best I was able to do was move 1.9 Gb before it crashed. This is not good.
I was not going to trust my data to someone I could not talk to first that should be able to save the data before rebuilding the computer. I chickened out and took it to a different local PC shop, one that advertised free virus scans and one I had been in once before when I went shopping for a particular piece of computing hardware with a friend. I was hopeful.
Too hopeful it turns out. You can’t run a virus scan if you can’t get the computer to run at all. Minimum diagnostics charge was $69, thank you very much, but they go through it totally and test each part then let you know what it will cost to repair before fixing…yada, yada, yada. I got the call the next day saying come pick it up it is ready to go. I go there and the lad tells me that they ran a hard drive check disk, found some bad sectors, repaired them and it ran fine. I asked if they ran the free virus scan and he plugged it in to their monitor to show me. It crashed three times before he sheepishly turned to me and said “You probably want to leave this with us a little longer.”
Several days go by and still no word so I stop in after work to see what the verdict is. He thinks it might be the memory but he also is not getting consistent readings. He has been pulling components out of my box and putting it into one of theirs then running the test piece by piece so at least this time they are using good method. The techie tells me that the hard drive is working fine. This is good news to me since that is where my data is. So I ask “Can you save the data?” to which he replies “yes, we usually charge $79 to transfer data.”, and I reply “WHAT, you have got to be kidding me?” but he wasn’t.
I then decided that I could do that part of the job myself if I only had the right tool. I found it in their shop, a box which will act like a portable hard drive when you insert your internal hard drive into it and then power it up and plug it into the USB port of another computer. I talked him into giving me a break on the price, he gave me $5 bucks off, and off I went $100 poorer but at least on my way to saving the photos.
Having a little mechanical savvy I was able to open up the box, pull the internal hard drive, build the portable unit, plug into my wife’s laptop that she is using for school, transfer the files, return the internal hard drive to its original position inside the HP desktop box, put the case back together and start feeling hopeful again.
I then immediately hooked up the new recently bought portable backup drive from Costco to the wife’s laptop and did a proper backup of all the files on her computer including the newly transferred files from the HP. This was another ‘whew’ moment.
Off to the UPS store and the computer was now on its way to PC repair store number two, the original one intended to do the repair work under the extended warranty. The repair tech contacts me a few days later saying he couldn’t find the power cord that I know I took with the box to UPS to be shipped, but he said it was o.k. he had one available. He then asked me several times making sure that I had backed up my data. I assured him I had made every effort to do so and that is why it took so long to get it to him from the day I first submitted the claim. This to me was confirmation that I had done the right thing in making sure I had my files off the computer before sending it in, a system rebuild was in the works and I could feel it.
A week went by but being busy with work I hadn’t had time to notice or do much with home computers anyway so I just let it be. About the time I did start to wish I had it here though it showed up from UPS, on a holiday no less. I unpacked the box trying not to get the packing peanuts everywhere. There was a note inside stating that they had replaced the System Board (Mother Board for us old timers) and power supply (evidently the power cord got lost along the way), and had run a “burn-in for more than 19 hours and everything is working fine”. They also installed fresh OS with all driver and window updates. Does this mean I am truly back in business and that I can run my computer without fear for the first time in its life? Honestly, I don’t know.
Only one way to find out, plug it in and try it out. So that is what I am in the process of doing. I took care to plug all the various wires and cords back into the same places they came out of (more or less). With fingers crossed I hit the power button and waited for the lights to dance. Of course the first attempt ended in a mouse that wouldn’t operate and a keyboard that quit after a few taps of trying to operate a computer without a mouse. I quickly called back the PC store who suggested I buy a new mouse since they sometimes go bad or try plugging it into a different slot and see if that works. The mouse and keyboard worked fine before I started all this so there was no reason for them not to work now and besides, I have a serial mouse, not a USB mouse so there is only one place to plug it and the keyboard into, and they are color coded from HP and no I didn’t get them mixed up thank you very much. It turns out Microsoft is still not as plug and play as they want you to believe so the computer had to decide what drivers to use and then needed a reboot. One reboot later the computer recognized the keyboard and mouse and I could try again.
Next thing I noticed is that I have in essence a new box and that there is nothing loaded on it but the newly loaded operating system. All the rest is gone. I still have the software disc for MS Office and such so not a big deal although it does require reloading everything with subsequent re-registering and reconfiguring and rearranging and just redoing everything that you had done once before. (These really are remarkable time saving devices aren’t they.) So I have Office on here now and IE8, both running on the newly updated 64 bit Vista with Service Pack 2. I also have my Anti-Virus software package running; it was the first thing to get loaded and updated.
Of course I have already done several system updates as suggested by Microsoft’s Windows update and currently have another 18 waiting for me since I just loaded MS Office. I have also had to reload a version of Adobe Acrobat reader which is required to read all the manuals and read-me docs that seem to be everywhere these days. I also tried to load Adobe Flash Player but that one got hung on me. In fact I already have 4 system problems that need checking for solutions, 2 for the HP and 2 for Windows. Actually when I pressed check for solutions it went looking for 18 of them. I hope this is not a sign of things to be with this system.
I will try to follow the software manufacturer’s suggestions, keep everything current and updated, treat this computer with the kid gloves I always have and hope that things are going to be different this time around, thinking that maybe I did just get a quasi-lemon last time and that I am fully repaired and now I can surf the web and compute without fear, and my productivity will go through the roof as my creativity soars by with the broken barriers of hardware limitations.
Optimist.
This is Ed Nef with a view from the Farr West. If you are ready to see the conclusion Click here for Part Three of the HP adventures. If you missed the beginning Click here for Part One.
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