I did some more computer maintenance for Betty Z last weekend, and as part of that, I told her I would get one of her computers running again. I brought it home with me with that in mind.
I hooked it up and first thing was to open it and clean it out. Compressed air works great for that. This computer has 5 fans, 5 hard drives, two ROM drives and a dual processor motherboard with 3 fans on it, so it took a while to clean all the fans. After cleaning, I checked the cables. Everything seemed to be fine, so I turned it on.
The machine just sat there. I checked the keyboard, and it acted like it wasn’t connected. I checked the mouse, and the optics were turned off. As I was sitting there scratching my head, the keyboard flashed on, the mouse optics turned on, the display started up and the computer booted up. Nothing wrong that a good cleaning didn’t fix.
I guess the moral to this is: give your hardware plenty of time to make up its mind whether or not it wants to work. I’ll be taking the machine back this coming weekend.
I have ordered a new brake master cylinder and windshield wipers for the ‘52 Plymouth. Thank you, Internet, for providing great places to order parts I could never purchase locally.
I have managed to pick up six of the missing Shadow stories from 1944 to 1946. that leaves only one story I was unable to find, out of 321.I have added those to the web site. That leaves just six more stories to convert and I’ll be done.
Silly sign of the day:
Free/Open Source Software
- The lazy user’s guide to OpenOffice.org Writer
- Dell Invites Customers to Pick Favorite Linux Flavors
- Pre-installing Linux
- Linux Starts to Find Home on Desktops
- Your Distro’s Slow March Into Irrelevance
- Software development benefits from open source
RIAA/MPAA/IFPI/BSA/FCC
- DVB broadcast flag will require government support, but may not get it
- Where did the music industry go so wrong?
- Democrats Question FCC’s ‘Credibility’
- BSA begins international auction crackdown
- RIAA: The music mafia
- 12 Ways to Boycott the RIAA
Stupid Patent Tricks, DRM and Other IP Nonsense
- Viacom, YouTube, and Privacy
- Viacom’s Fluffy Lawsuit Against YouTube
- Viacom v. YouTube
- Motion-based analysis can filter copyrighted video clips
- Copyright quagmire for Google and YouTube
- Google confident digital liability law protects it
Other News
- Republican senator wants attorney general replaced
- Al-Qaida No. 3 says he planned 9/11
- If Crack Dealers Took Lessons From Walgreens, They Really Would Be Rich – Talk about greed: a 975% markup on generic drugs.
Security/Our Rights
- Google Does a Good Thing
- ISPs Sell Clickstreams For $5 A Month
- CD with medical data of 75,000 is found
- Microsoft probes possible IE 7 phishing hole
- Senate Approves Security Bill
- Apple Patch Fixes 45 Security Holes
- Online game exploits threaten IT security
Big Brother
- New York City bans aluminum baseball bats
- U.K: People get protected from Big Brother database threats
- Gun control ruling and the Bill of Rights
- Free Speech on Trial at San Francisco State University