You know the drill. The night before you shut down the computer everything is hunky dory, and the next morning you hit the on button and go sit down to read the paper and have a cup o’ Joe, only to come back a bit later to — the logo screen and the first line of the bios boot routine. Uh Oh! Let’s try that again . . . yipes, logo screen and freeze! Once again, this time to listen for any beeps for a clue as to what is not successfully passing the boot analysis. Nada on the beeps — just that confounded logo screen.

OK, crack the case. You see, this is a self-built system, so I don’t have the luxury of calling tech support and spending the better part of the day talking with someone from India or Indonesia and still not solving the problem. First, pull the video card and connect with the on-motherboard video outlet. Logo screen. Doah, Okie — you had a screen, so it wasn’t video related. Alright, pull the memory cards and re-seat. Logo screen. Try them in pairs for all possible combinations of the four — logo screen. Arrrrrrrgh! Wait a sec. The motherboard battery for the bios. Pull that, clean and replace. Logo screen. Shoot, why not go for a cheap diagnostic step — off to Radio Shack for a new one. Slap that sucker in and . . .

Logo screen!

You see, way before this I would have just gone online and looked around for answers to this problem, but that was problematic as the $#%&** wouldn’t boot. Wait a sec. The six & 1/2 year old tower that this puppy replaced has Kubuntu Linux on it. Linux is great on older hardware as it’s more efficient than Windows. If I could run my software on it, I would probably do so. Anyhow, boot up the old gal and fire up Fire Fox and sure enough, after a half-dozen forum reads a clue.

“Remove all USB connections.”

So, I dig up an old PS2 mouse and keyboard and pull the USB hub — I get past the logo screen and end up with some failure notices about corrupt bios calls. Reboot and go into the bios setup and save and then on to a clean boot. Now, it’s time to go out and do the week’s marketing. Arrrrgh! All I really want is to figure this out and see what’s not working. Guess that will be later.

Later, hook up the wireless mouse and keyboard — clean boot. Then the USB hub with no devices — clean boot. Then add the devices one by one until on the last one — logo screen. I moved it to a USB outlet on the front of the case and — clean boot with everything attached.

You see, I had worked myself up into a pretty wild state — Okie was cranky yesterday. For quite a while I thought that the motherboard had died, and that I’d either have to go out and get a new barebones chassis and rebuilt with what components I had or order another computer. It’s not like I don’t like new computers — they’re quite cool — but this isn’t the time for the expense and the 2-3 day loading of software is daunting on the spur of the moment. “Why me? Why Now? What have I done to deserve this?” Me thinks Okie was feeling a bit sorry for himself. Silly Okie.

It was Boxing Day. Worse things can happen — really worse, terrible things. Like on Dec. 26, 2004:

What is being reported as an 8.9 magnitude earthquake just off Sumatra, Indonesia spawned tidal waves that have killed over 10,000 and counting in Indonesia, India, Thailand, and as far west as Africa.

Vacationers snorkeling and just sunbathing on the beaches were swept out to sea, and their bodies brought back and thrown up on shore. The devastation is going to be enormous

The largest quake in 40 years, this is the 2nd over 8.0 quake in a week. It’s reported that the earth’s rotation has even been affected.

The toll of death and destruction reached proportions of magnitude nearly unimaginable. The coastal city of Banda Aceh was virtually scrubbed from the face of the Earth. Yesterday the survivors and families of the victims prayed and remembered.

Anytime that WE think that WE are in control — WE need to take a step back and consider the history of mankind, of our planet. Although we think, and feel, and love — we are as flecks of dust caught up in the maelstrom of events beyond our imaginings, let alone our own control.

However, all is not hopelessness. All is not insignificant. At least, not if you believe that we were created by a Creator for a purpose, that our insignificant, far-too-short lives have true meaning beyond our own wants, needs and desires.

Christmas day celebrated the beginnings of our pathway to achieving a state of grace. Best to keep that in mind, Okie — especially on Boxing Day.

Anothers’ thoughts on Christmas and the meaning/importance thereof: The Anchoress finds that the Christmas story is but the prologue to a larger narrative, one that may be meaningful even to non-believers in Christmas, Doubt and Downturns.

Problem: ASUS T3-M2NC51PV boot failure — Boots to logo screen only.

Solution: Remove all USB devices and hubs. Replace singly until problem device or configuration is found. Add self-powered USB hub to take power load off motherboard.

Hope that someone finds this info useful — not just the computer related stuff, either . . .

Technorati Tags: Banda Aceh, Boxing Day, ASUS T3-M2NC51PV, boot failure

[Update: I was under the impression that the Obama campaign had pulled the reprehensible ad that makes fun of John McCain not being able to use a computer or send email -- but NOPE! The ad is still up on the official Obama campaign website with the disclaimer, "I'm Barack Obama and I approve this message." Disgusting!]

Hurricane Ike has slammed into Texas, flooding Galveston Island and leaving most of Houston without power. Our prayers go out to those who, however foolishly, rode out the storm, and to those now out there trying to help put the Texas coast back together. Michelle Malkin has tons of links.

Out here in the West, we’ve had the biggest rail disaster in LA history, with the head-on collision of a Metrolink train and a freight train. The death toll is now at 18, with 135 seriously injured. From the picture you can see here, one would imagine those numbers to be much worse — the search for victims is ongoing. It’s hard to tell from that image, but the engine for the Metrolink train was driven backwards into the first passenger car, collapsing that one over half its length like so much tin foil. We will be praying for the victims and their families and will hope that our officials will quickly find out why these two trains were on the same track but going in different directions.

On to some campaign items. The Obama brain trusts came up with a great new ad yesterday, slamming John McCain for not using email — you know, trying to make it look like he’s computer illiterate and such. As one commenter I read somewhere put it, “Obama can email, but he can’t Google!” You see, the reason McCain doesn’t actively use the computer all the time is because he physically CAN’T because of his war injuries, inflicted on him by his captors in his Hanoi Hilton imprisonment. Michelle Malkin puts it this way:

What a week for the Gaffe Twins.

First, Joe Biden bone-headedly urges a disabled veteran in a wheelchair to “Stand up” during a campaign rally.

Next, Barack Obama mocks John McCain for not using a computer to send e-mail — despite mainstream media articles dating back to 2000 that report he can’t type because of the war injuries inflicted by his Vietnamese torturers.

Who will their next victims be?

Keep these bunglers away from Walter Reed.

No kidding! On top of that gaffe, Obama tried out a new stump speech idea, questioning the patriotism of John McCain. Gee, does the Obamessiah think that’s really such a good idea? I guess that desperate times calls for acts of desperation — poker just isn’t Barry’s game.

Looks like The Anchoress has been up all night with lots of tasty linkage on Palin/Gibson/Obama/McCain. (Thanks Elizabeth for the quote and great link yesterday!)

Last note for now. The new Watcher of Weasels posts a remembrance of former Watcher’s Council member Maj. Andrew Olmsted, who was killed in Iraq last January 2nd. The good Major gets the last word . . .

Technorati Tags: John McCain, Obama, Palin

. . . and does a right proud job of it, too!

Yet there is another way of looking at things; a way that says every problem has a root cause. By searching and examination, all may be known–in justice and morality, as well as in science, for there is no distance between the two. That is the vision of the secular world, and it is a profoundly hubristic one. We may discern every human fault, and prevent it. Such is the myth that inspires awful movements like the Eugenicists and their racist nightmare vision of breeding the evil out of the human race.

This is also the lie that motivates the totalitarian impulses behind Islamic fundamentalism–that by more complete control we may extirpate sin and heresy. There is no role for freedom in such a vision; what role does freedom play when all has been revealed? You may choose correctly, or you may choose evil, the mullahs surmise, so let us remove the choice altogether.

“We may discern every human fault, and prevent it.” SeeDubya understands that mankind will never prevent all human faults. Being human means being imperfect. It is our quest to strive to be like Christ, or to strive to be as a god, but madness waits for all who never understand that they aren’t gonna make it! (db)

To family, friends and community the unexpected death of a single individual is a tragedy — the unexpected death of ten, an unimaginable horror that cries out for justice, or maybe vengeance! At least this was the case yesterday in a Santa Monica courtroom where 89 year-old George Russell Weller was found guilty of 10 counts of felony vehicular manslaughter with gross negligence in the conclusion of his trial for the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market tragedy that happened on July 16, 2003. Weller’s car ran through the public-street market at high speeds, killing 10 and injuring 63. I stood on my balcony and watched about a dozen helicopters hover around and over the scene, and the ambulances drove past our block continuously for about an hour. It was indeed an horrific event — one that this community has decided must be paid for — evidently with an 89 year-old man’s liberty, meaning most likely with his life.

I say that because the prison sentence being thrown around in media reports is likely to be 18 years — which would make him 108 upon his release, if he had to, or was able to, serve the entire sentence. I actually don’t think that the judge will put him into the CA prison population, but out here, who knows?

At this point you might be asking, “Okie — you’re sounding apologetic for this mass-murderer — what’s up?” Well, I know that a jury has spoken, and I wasn’t in the court room to hear the testimony — but I do know a lot about automobiles, and I have read the articles covering the story, and I have seen the reports of the expert witnesses at the trial — and I am not one of these West-side LA Liberals that must affix blame to every action of life. Let’s go over a couple of these.

In the ’80s, a little German car company called Audi was nearly destroyed by a 60-Minutes expose that accused the company of selling cars that would accelerate uncontrollably, all on their own. Indeed, the anecdotal evidence shown on-air showcased previously terrified drivers relating their stories of frantically pushing on the brake, with their Audi 5000s continuing to accelerate — into walls, into garage doors, into other cars. 60-Minutes — yeah, that same ol’ reliable outfit that brought us the “fake-but-accurate” National Guard memos” about this time in 2004 — did follow-up stories on this Audi disaster, making the Audi execs out to be automotive anti-Christs. The piling on spilled over to Cadillac, among others, with their own “unintended acceleration” problems reported. As you might imagine, it was trial lawyer bonanza time! Wikipedia has this wrap-up:

Unintended acceleration

On November 23rd, 1986, 60 minutes aired a segment greenlit by Don Hewitt, concerning the Audi 5000 automobile, a popular German luxury car. The story concerned a number of incidents where the car purportedly accelerated without warning while parked, injuring or killing people. 60 Minutes was unable to duplicate this behavior, and so hired an outside consultant to modify the transmission to behave in this manner, and aired a story about it.

The incident devastated Audi sales in the United States, which did not reach the same level for another fifteen years. The initial incidents which prompted the report were found by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration and Transport Canada to have been attributable to operator error, where car owners had depressed the accelerator pedal instead of the brake pedal. CBS issued a partial retraction, without acknowledging the test results of involved government agencies[4].

Regardless of the bleatings and caterwalling of the MSM at the time, not to mention the outright fabrications of incidents and evidence, the NHTS and TC performed their due diligence and found out the real problem — “operator error” — pressing on the gas pedal instead of the brake, all the while thinking that they were on the brake. Put yourself in that position and try to imagine what kind of panic you would be experiencing. The harder you would brake, the faster your car would go! Now, imagine your 86 year-old grandpa having this happen to him.

The LA Times writes that according to the expert witnesses at Weller’s trial, this accident was caused by pedal error.

Defense lawyers Overland and Mark Borenstein presented several expert witnesses, including former top California Highway Patrol officials and a UCLA professor, who asserted that Weller experienced the confusion of pedal error. State and federal investigators concluded the same.

So, even though “California Highway Patrol officials and a UCLA professor” testified under oath that George Weller mistakenly thought in his mind that he was trying to brake his car to a stop, a so-called jury-of-his-peers has convicted this old man of “intentional” vehicular manslaughter. An accident deemed intentional assault. How could this be? That, my dear readers, is the real point of this post. In today’s modern Liberal Progressive world, there are no accidents in life. There are no unintentional events, no actions without blame or recourse. You see, everyone and everything must be held accountable, not on a moral sense, but on a monetary sense. Torts rule over all in the Liberal mind. Hey, it’s how they get things done! But, I’m getting a bit off track. In this case, what to my mind was a most awful-tragic accident was not thought of that way by the prosecutor and the jury. They saw a crime.

But prosecutor Ann Ambrose, eight months pregnant with her second child, delivered a closing argument opposing the idea that 10 violent deaths could be a simple accident. She said she was satisfied with the verdict.

In a follow-up article examining the jurors in this trial, the Times covers this concept of our not being able to comprehend that accidents happen in life, that there must be blame addressed to all bad that happens to us.

Jurors weighing the fate of 89-year-old George Weller had a mountain of evidence to consider, but only one real question to answer: Was the deadly crash at the Santa Monica Farmers’ Market three years ago an accident, or was it a crime?

They came down firmly on the side of it being a crime, finding Weller guilty of the most serious charges and rejecting defense evidence that Weller, an upstanding citizen whose lawyer said he has been destroyed by the accident, succumbed to “pedal error” — a driving mistake that happens when a person becomes disoriented and mistakes the gas pedal for the brake.

The jury was evidently having a lot of trouble deciding just how much negligence was involved and had to ask the trial judge for guidance.

UCLA law professor Peter Arenella said the jurors’ difficulties suggested that they simply could not accept that “human life can be lost in a tragic accident where no one is at fault.”

“The jury finds it hard to believe there might be a noncriminal explanation for this.”

Three things swayed this jury to convict an old man of homicide for committing the sin of confusing the gas pedal for the brake. It was testified that he made some damning statements just after the accident (think he might have been just a little bit upset and confused?), about how that the people should have gotten out of his way, and that no one saw any brake lights during the event (pedal error sure explains that!), and the jury was shown many graphic-bloody images taken of the victims at the scene.

Garvey, the Cornell law professor, said he was not surprised at the verdict but rather saw it “just as a matter of human psychology.”

“If something bad happens, there has to be somebody who is culpable for it,” he said. People can’t accept that “bad things happen. There has to be reasons for them.”

“People can’t accept that “bad things happen. There has to be reasons for them.”

Like I wrote at the beginning of this post, I wasn’t there in the courtroom. I didn’t see the graphic images, didn’t hear the testimony of the witnesses, didn’t sit in that jury room with 11 others debating the fate of a sick old man. But, I do know that sometimes “bad things happen”, and there is no one, or nothing criminally to blame. No one to sue, no one to send to prison. If I had been on that jury — the county of Los Angeles would be having to determine if they wanted to try George Weller again . . . (db)

Technorati Tags: George Weller, Santa Monica Farmers’ Market Tragedy

And you shall hear of wars and rumors of wars. See that you are not troubled; for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet. For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom. And there will be famines, pestilences, and earthquakes in various places.” — Matthew 24:6

Bird flu, tornadoes, Iraq War, gas chamber, severe weather, mad cow disease in Alabama, and did I mention Bird Flu? When I clicked on Drudge today, the above is the passage that came to mind. Many see hints of the Apocalypse in the events of our age, but I, the ever-depressed-yet-still-eternal-optimist take comfort in the part that says, “but the end is not yet”.

Still, a damn-frightening Drudge Report! (db)

Technorati Tags: Drudge Report, Matthew 24:6

Was President Bush warned about the possibility of the New Orlean’s levies being breached, or was he warned about something else, not nearly as disastrous? That’s the question now being asked and answered after the Lefties went wild over the edited version of a tape shown on ABC. Seems they left out the most important part, the actual wording of the warning that spoke of overrunning, not breaching — just a slightly different type of event — maybe a parish, or two, or five — give or take a thousand lives. Not to mention that the good Governor of Louisiana then gave our Pres the all-clear on the breaching thing the morning of the event. Gotta love here sense of timing — almost as good as NO Mayor Nagin’s ability to drive a bus!

So, in the face of all this, where does our local rag-of-record go to? Oh, maybe lies and deception, just for grins I’m sure. The Los Angeles Times once again takes a big swipe at George Bush, and once again gets caught in its overwhelming Leftist bias. Patterico has the breakdown — here’s a taste:

Far from showing us that Bush lied, today’s story tells us that L.A. Times editors and reporters are willing to lie to their readers.

Same song, second verse. Could get better — but, I(db)

Technorati Tags: Patterico, Los Angeles Times, Katrina, levy breach, levy overrun, Blanco, Nagin

The Congressional Black Caucus Foundation, having raised $400,000 for Hurricane Katrina victims, still hasn’t released any of the funds to the victims, all the while criticizing the Bush administration for its slow response to the disaster. An excerpt from Brit Hume’s reporting on this story:

[T]he CBC member Jesse Jackson, Jr., called the government’s lack of response, quote, “shockingly awful,” and Carolyn Kilpatrick said she was, quote, “ashamed of America.”

Say what?

Laer at Cheat Seeking Missiles has the info.

The CBC — what a bunch of disingenuous, two-faces horses arses! (db)

I’ve gotta stop having those incendiary daydreams . . .

Last night while being driven to a Christmas party on the Palos Verdes peninsula, as we drove past one of the big refineries in the Carson area, and while looking at the vista of humongous tanks just off the freeway, I had a most terrible vision — that of terrorists driving past this beast and firing rpg’s or stinger missiles into the refinery from the open door of a commercial van. Needless to say, if we were witnessing that kind of attack, we wouldn’t be getting out of there in one piece. It was a harrowing fantasy without the inherent feelings of dread associated with prescience.

No one so far is saying that this enormous explosion near London is anything but an accident, but it does make you consider the terrible.

A series of large explosions at a fuel depot which injured 43 people has been described as the “largest incident of its kind in peacetime Europe”.

The blasts near Hemel Hempstead were so powerful it rocked houses up to 40 miles away and was heard in Holland.

More than 60 billion gallons of fuel erupted in a ball of flames hundreds of feet in the sky, creating an acrid cloud of smoke which is stretching for miles and moving south-eastwards.

Thank God that no one has been reported killed, but there are injured, some seriously. Not too hard to image that one — with “60 billion gallons of fuel” involved! Will have to keep tuned to see what develops and is given as a cause.

Fuel is an absolute necessity for modern existence. All the nutters and NIMBY activists that have successfully stopped any new refineries being built in the U.S. for over 30 years are probably ecstatic this AM, and just can’t wait to use images from this blast to further their cause. All this really shows us is that we live in a world of risk. Always have! Always will.

The first conscious thought that I had on awakening this morning was of different ways to die. We have close family members nearing the end of their days, and friends with illnesses that have no positive prognosis, so they were on my mind. The way the thoughts floated through was like this — Back in the day, for most of humanity death came suddenly, violently, without overly-long-extended debilitation and suffering. Modern civilization and advanced medicine has changed that.

We trade some discomfort and diminished capacities for time — sometimes a lot more time. Sounds like a deal to me.

The Islamofascists terrorists want to take us back to harsh lives, with deaths strictly on their terms. Sounds like something definitely worth fighting back against!

Now in that vein, I sure hope that we are protecting our refineries. Never liked driving by one of those things before, really don’t now . . . (db)

Greta Perry, the Hooah Wife, gets a first hand interview from her hubby, LTC Perry, who is stationed in Lake Charles, Louisiana and working the Hurricane Katrina cleanup. She called for questions from her readers to go along with a couple of her own.

If you want to get some straight poop on what is going on back there, be sure and check out her post. (db)

Captain Ed focuses on the reality of Katrina’s devastation across income lines, and what seems to be the complete failure of mass media to have gotten anything right!

Without a doubt, the Ninth Ward got hit hard by the levee break, but from the previous media coverage, Americans had the impression that the poor of New Orleans comprised the only demographic of the dead. We heard nothing but how the hurricane had pulled back the sheet on the deep secret of American poverty and how the government doesn’t care about its poor citizenry. Now what are we to believe — that they don’t care about the rich either? Will Shep Smith cry in the Louisiana rain about the unfairness of the high death rate among the wealthy of Lakeview, too? [emph mine]

I, like many bloggers, bought into the madness during the height of Katrina coverage, and passed along too much of the now-found-to-be-bogus information. Thanks Capt. for continuing to bring to our attention what the MSM doesn’t feel deserves to be known. (db)