Why Are Computers So Frail?

Apologies but no post today… had left my laptop at the office and didn’t have a write up this morning and here I sit at nearly 3 in the afternoon and have a brief chance to say something… And that something is “Why are Computers So Frail?”

Last night we had an electrical storm.  The PC out of precaution was shut down, but every thing else was left as is.  The storm came, not a particularly big one, and some time later I went to restart said PC.

It fails to boot up… looping error messages telling me to “Load from the last known good configuration” yet it fails to load…

I rang my friendly local PC shop and he asked did I unplug it from the wall.  No I reply.  “Ahhh that’s the problem, the storm affected the PC.  Bring it in and we can fix it”.

Why does a powered down PC still fry and yet my TV, DVD and every other electrical device running still work?  And does anyone know how to fix the PC so I don’t have to take it into the shop??

 

David Hicks - Enough is enough

The fact that David Hicks is either guilty or innocent is no longer the issue.  The issue is he has been held without trial for 5 years.  His crime, for siding against the US Military as a mercenary.  He is not a terrorist, he is a gun nut seeking to be a soldier for money.

On our side of the fence we call them “security contractors”, for the other side they’re terrorists.

The fact that John Howard has stated that he could get Hicks out anytime but won’t is appalling.  He is condoning the containment of an Australian citizen with no trial for an indefinite period – shameful behaviour and against our own laws of Australia.  Should he not tow the country line and say as an Australian, he should be tried as an Australian given that we are technically a part of this so called Coalition of the Willing?  (How are the Polish troops faring by the way??).  He should be repatriated, charged – I don’t think they can work out what – and get it over and done with.

Howard, you are simply bending over so as to not stand up to the USA.  How about standing up for your own people.

Metrosexuals - WTF

Niki and I have noticed a worrying trend… men who are more into fashion and hogging the mirror than the traditional woman…  yes, we’ve all heard about David Beckham and his line of perfume (yes, perfume not cologne) and his clothes horse antics and yes, we’ve heard about Ian Thorpe’s pearl necklaces (and he doesn’t count as a metrosexual if you know what I mean) but what is worrying is that guys who used to go out on the town in jeans and a checked shirt now dress in ‘slacks’; have a gazillion litres of “product” in their hair and have now taken to painting nails etc – a worrying trend I credit to Wil Anderson for starting.

At the cricket last Friday, the guys in front of us were wearing stylish caps and had manicured hair under them, one guy produced a white faux alligator skin wallet and the guys (and I use this term loosely) went ga-ga over its “texture”.  The guys a few rows down kept standing up and preening themselves with no shirts on whilst wearing pristine brand named baseball caps – you know how you can wear a cap for fashion stakes vs wearing it to stop your face peeling… and for the piece d’resistance, the 15 yr old boy behind us was wearing a t-shirt “Waiting For Mr Right”.  Out of the closet in your mid teens!

Then on Saturday at the swimming pool while Kate did her laps, a married guy with kids was parading around in his budgie smugglers wearing painted toe nails!

Niki is up in arms about this and keeps going on about it, particularly when some pooncy guy (Andrew G for example) gets on tele.  And I agree with her… fathers of Australia’s sons, get your boys a blue checked “drinking shirt”, tell them that its ok to walk around in shorts and t-shirt without doing your hair and ban mirrors from their bedrooms.

The Australian Cricket Team

Picked this up last night on cricinfo.com after Australia’s big run chase victory…

"Australia isn't just a mere cricket team; it is an ever-evolving, totipotent genetically-engineered cyborg, slowly devouring all who dare to stand up to it, in an orgy of willow-encrusted destruction."

I like that… but I have no idea what “totipotent” means!

Late Post - Weekend Wrap

Have been at meetings this morning away from the office and only now have an opportunity to pen a posting…

Unfortunately it’s a bit haphazard, but here it goes:

Friday:  Went to the One Day cricket and saw Australia lose badly in their only loss of the summer.  No consolation that we turned it around on Sunday night with a nailbiting record run chase, but Friday was a day of misery for the Aussie team.  Personally, the day was great, the weather was fine and the beer was…. well, lite.  We had a bad lunch at the Bat & Ball Hotel first – the bistro was a disaster and I had to extort our meals from the kitchen… and some people were demanding their money back, but other than that the day was great.

Saturday:  Busy day!  Enrolled Kate into Netball… she is playing U8’s and the season starts in April.  She’s very keen and some of her classmates are in her team, so that’s all good.  Then it was to the pool where she had swimming lessons and stepped up into the “Dolphin” class.  She did it a bit tough, but there are 8 more weeks to go, and she’ll get better.  Then I went off to cricket were we had a great day.  Won the toss, we batted, and I opened up.  Batted from 1:30 to about 4:00pm and scored my second half century of the season with 68.  Along with Robbie who opened with me and got 33 and Crazy Dave at #3 got 60 as well, we piled on the runs and declared at 7/249.  We then had 30 minutes at the opposition and at stumps they’re 3/14 with Young Simon getting all 3 wickets.  We will be pushing on for outright next week!

Sunday:  Much more relaxing… but the kid’s blow up pool has a pin prick hole in it and patched that up.  Then Niki’s friend Julie and the kids came over for afternoon tea and I spent the major part of the day watching the cricket and painting blood bowl miniatures.  Got a lot of them done and my team is nearly ready for the new comp that has started today (must play my first game this coming fortnight).

All in all a good long weekend… today is my first 5 day week of the year!  Ouch!!

Fun With Donkey's

I think this donkey has been through this before.... Thanks to Andrew at work for the video...

Brooke's At School!

Yesterday was Brooke’s first day… all went very well and she got into the class with the teacher we preferred (same one Kate had) and she is also in a class with most if not all of her friends from pre-school including her best friend Madi.

Not too many tears from Mum, it was a very happy day and we celebrated with lunch at a local café and then dinner last night was pizza with the kids.  Both Kate and Brooke were pretty tired last night as they were busy after school yesterday helping clean out the guinea pig / rabbit cage and playing on the swings and trampoline.  So by the end of tea, they were a bit cranky!  Haha…. School’s back!

In other stuff, started painting my Blood Bowl miniatures again and am in a league that starts next week… plus watched the new show “Heroes” last night.  Was really good IMHO and I think this one will be on my regular watch list along with Lost which starts back again on Feb 15…. I think I will know what I’ll be doing at 8:30 Wednesday and Thursday nights from now on!