I hate it when I get stumped

A friend of mine has a Acer TravelMate 506T laptop that I was installing a wireless card in. She can't find her original Win98SE install CD. And I can't find the one I have either. I have a Win98 CD new install CD and a Win98SE upgrade CD but no Win98SE new install CD. I have the CD case and the product key but the disk is missing. So I had to go to the web to get all the files to install the wireless card. At the end of the install the computer locked up. I turned off the computer and restarted. Now Win98 won't start in normal mode. Damn! At this point I need to backup her laptop before I go looking for a bad file. I was going to remove the harddrive and install it as a second drive in my computer to backup the files and to do a virus scan on the drive. But I can't get to the harddrive. This laptop requires the case to be split to accesses the harddrive. I've removed all the screws from the bottom and I can get half of the case to open but there is still something keeping the case from coming apart. On some laptops there are snap latches that will release when pressure is applied. Don't seem to work for this laptop. Any more pressure or prying will probably break something. Damn, damn, damn! I hate it when I get stumped!!

Get off the Grid

I my part of the country there are three electric generating "plants" being opposed by the "not in my backyard" (NIMB) groups.

Apparently one of the plants the electric company did not have the correct county permits and the courts, as a result of a suit filed by neighboring home owners, have told the power company to tear down the plant. This plant has be in operation for several years. NIMB in action.

Another is a new coal fired plant being proposed in another area. These neighbors are trying to keep this plant from being built. Again NIMB and lets build this needed plant in your backyard.

The third is a wind farm. The neighbors and people that drive by the site on the tollway are against this eye-sore in a cattle grazing area. BTW, many of these people are the same ones who are saying we should make more use of renewable energy sources.

To these people I say, "Get off the Grid." By this I mean to disconnect from the electric companies and make all of your own electricity. Yes it can be done but it cost a lot of money to set up your own environmentally friendly system.

Of course I believe in conservation, however many of the things that allow you to conserve cost up front money and it takes several years to get your money back in power savings. But the good thing is that many of the things you can do to conserve makes your house more comfortable to live in. I put adding insulation, weatherstripping and caulking in this category.

Muslim threat to free speech

A quote from this blog

"It is suddenly coming to our attention that Islam is not, cannot, and will not be integrated or assimilated to the values of freedom and democracy. Islam is not only a religion; it is a totalitarian and expansionistic political ideology."

W's lack of understanding of this will continue to cause the USA many problems in the years to come. Already this has caused a large loss of life and expenditure of our economic future to wage an unwinnable war. In the end, if we continue the way we are going, we will only defeated ourselves.

Of course, if the real reason to attack Iraq was to get rid of its leader then in the immortal words of W, "Mission accomplished."

Also go to this site if you want to see the cartoons that started the violent protests.

Happy Blog Anniversary to me

I started blogging a year ago to tell my stories. Well I have told a bunch of them and now I find I blog about other things. Much of the angst is now gone and I have settled for where I am in life. There is no longer the fire in my belly. I am content to just live day to day. I have stuffed all of my ambitions into a hole and covered them up. I'm not altogether happy about this but it seems to be the practical thing to do. All my goals are short term - - one to two years. The only thing that seems to get my blood boiling is the unthinking radical religious groups and lying self serving politicians.

So, how has your blogging changed over the past year?

Bumper Sticker

I saw this bumper sticker this morning, "He that dies with the most toys wins."

I thought the next verse should be, "And he that inherits the toys wins even bigger."