Super Awesome Crow Paintings

Physician, heal thyself

On a fairly regular basis I deal with a computer that has decided to take advantage of their 401k and head off to Florida. Sometimes the motherboard dies. Dell SX270s have a known issue with a bad capacitor. The brown goo you see below is not good. Dell even extended the warranty for a year. That time has come and gone.

Other times the hard drive dies. If it’s just a corrupt Windows system file, it can be repaired. If not, I can “slave” the drive to a working computer and get to the files that way. When it’s a hardware failure and the drive won’t spin, you’re usually out of luck. It is very expensive to send the drive to a data recovery company.

So I rant and rave for people to back up their data, if not a bit by bit image of the drive.

Yeah, you can see it coming already.

The weekend of January 31st my Vista laptop starts behaving badly. Freezing. Nothing I can do, I do a hard shutdown, killing power. When I boot it back up, errors abound. Despite my best efforts, it gets to the point where it passes POST, but nothing more, not ever getting to the Windows boot screen. Blinking cursor in the upper left hand corner. Master Boot Record error that could not be repaired from the OS disk. It saw the Dell recovery partition, but not the C:\ drive. When I tried to use the recovery partition, that failed too. If I had my tools from work, I could have slaved it to another system, but I was lazy and did not want to go into the office.

This is the weekend I had to take my final Business Law test for my online class. And my online Visual Basic class was due to start on Monday. Sure, Mr. Container has his computer so I could work off that if I needed. This is a fairly new Dell Studio laptop. It shouldn’t have this kind of problem.

Guess who hadn’t backed up her data in over 2 weeks?

After a few hours, I gave up. I was getting tired and a little cranky. I slept for about 4 hours, than got up at 3:30am to tackle the problem again.

I reinstalled Vista from the CD provided by Dell. But I can’t find the CD with the drivers and Vista does not recognize either the wireless or the wired NIC. Major problem! Mr. Container also has a Dell and I know where his CD is! Pow! I install the drivers from that one and it’s close enough. I can now get a wireless connection and download the drivers from Dell’s site.

From there I install the other utilities and AV. Ah, it’s nice to be back where I wanted to be. A few issues to resolve here and there, but all good. It took several days before I could get the fingerprint reader to work, but it is happy now too.

Immediately I ordered Norton Ghost 14.0. Now I have a bit by bit backup of my drive. Never again.

I just have to remember to take an image regularly.

So many memes, so little time - 25 things

This is a FB meme. Cross posting for fun.

1. I was named for my paternal Grandmother "Serena Ellen (Wise) LaRue". My middle name is from a friend of my mother "Leah Marie".

2. In 8th grade, I graduated Jr. High with honors in Mathematics and Sewing. I had even sewn my graduation dress. In high school, I was awarded the “Cupertino High School Gold Award” in Computers for Business.

3. When I married, I kept my maiden name as part of my middle name. Serena Marie LaRue Araujo. Even though it started as a joke, I actually considered changing my last name to “Larujo”. For a few minutes, at least.

4. I am working on my Associates degree in Computer and Information Science. I want to get a Bachelor's from San Diego State University. Eventually I'd love to get a Master's degree in Library Science from San Jose State or U-Dub. I just finished a Business Law class with an A. Yay! Now I’m working on Visual Basic.

5. Mr. Container and I found the local roost for the crows. Around 5:20pm hundreds of crows gather in the Sears parking lot on Via Rancho in Escondido. They then go into Kit Carson Park for the night. At 6:15am they wake up and crow-mute to areas of San Diego, Escondido and San Marcos. It's amazing.

6. My first "real" job was working as a clerical assistant for the ROP office in Cupertino, CA, after school during high school. Other jobs included working in the Cupertino High School cafeteria while I was a student there, JoAnne Fabrics, Stacey's Books, Hollywood Video, a technical/mathematical book publisher in Sunnyvale, a company in Santa Clara that did ion implantation for chip manufacturers around the world, Global Village - makers of Macintosh modems (at&f1w2s95=44), Onsale.com/Egghead.com, Yahoo!, SimpleNet.com, and now a pharmacy benefits processing company in San Diego.

7. I have three tattoos, four if you include one that's been covered up by a bigger and better one. I’m thinking of getting another, but have to find the perfect design. That’s the hardest part.

8. I will no longer use any illegal or unlicensed software or music. As overpriced as I think many applications are, it's still stealing. I do enjoy many freeware apps, like OpenOffice, Thunderbird, FireFox, etc.

9. When I was in 7th grade, my little brother Ben and I were playing around and he gave me a hairline fracture in my thumb. It’s the only broken bone I have ever had.

10. When I was a little kid (4 or 5?), my big brother Nathan hit me in the head with a 4x4 he was swinging like a bat. I had to get stitches on the bridge of my nose by my left eye. I still have a scar.

11. When I was about 8, we were playing baseball. I was pitching. Nathan it the ball and it smacked me in the head. I think. Maybe it was Ben. Maybe I was 10 or 12 years old. Or maybe it never actually happened. I don’t remember too much about it. J

12. My first car was a 1986 VW Jetta (Burgundy). Nathan and I bought it together when I was 16, he was 18. Nathan crashed it before I learned to drive a stick shift. My next car was a 1976 VW Bug (Orange) that Ben and I bought together. Ben crashed it on a rainy morning while we were driving him to school. After that, my parents helped me get my 1998 Ford Escort (Blue-Green). It lasted +100,000 miles without being smashed.

13. I want to have a baby this year. Mr. Container is enthusiastic about it too. We’ll see what happens.

14. Did I mention I like crows? When we lived in the Rancho Bernardo apartment, I would put Cheez-Its out on the “patio” ledge. They would fly down and eat them. Very amusing. They also like baked Parmesan cheese rounds. They’re cheese slices baked into cracker like rounds.

15. I have passed IT industry recognized certification tests for CompTIA A+ (IT Technician), Network+ and Security+. Next I’d like to work on the Microsoft certification tests.

16. Mr. Container and I took 4 motorcycle riding training courses and both passed our DMV exams for a motorcycle license. We own a 2007 Honda Shadow. It’s very fun to ride. The goal is to get comfortable enough on it to ride it to work. I’m still working on that. It’s a slow journey.

17. I had my first cavity when I was in my early 20’s. The only major dental work I had before that was when I had my wisdom teeth removed at age 16. Dr. Pack, my dentist during childhood, let me keep my two wisdom teeth. They’re in a box in the garage.

18. I have only been outside the US once. I went to Puerto Vallarta in 2005. I have never been to Tijuana.

19. For 6th grade, I attended classes with 7th grade students at Hyde Jr. High instead of staying with my 6th grade classmates at Fremont Older Elementary. There were only 12 of us in that “Super Sixth” program.

20. During my Junior year of high school, I doubled up on English and history classes and attended classes at DeAnza College at night. I was able to finish high school in 3 years instead of the normal 4. Most of my friend in the class of ’95 had no idea I was graduating as class of ’94.

21. I really like the TV show “Sports Night”. I like to watch other shows Aaron Sorkin has written and spot characters, story lines, actors/actresses and phrases that were taken from “Sports Night”. For example, “West Wing” has many, including story lines about one character feeling responsible for the death of another sibling (Josh in West Wing, Dan in Sports Night). “American President” was the movie version of “West Wing”. I think “Studio 60” was an attempt to bring back “Sports Night” under the guise of a comedy show instead of a sports show. The potential love interest between Dana and Casey in Sports Night is seen in the relationship between Donna and Josh in West Wing, fortunately toned down. The close nearly mind-reading work relationship between Dana and Natalie can be seen in the West Wing work relationships of Donna and Josh or Leo and Margaret. And of course, Joshua Molina has been in nearly every TV series or movie that Aaron Sorkin wrote. I’ll need to watch Studio 60 again to be able to give examples with that show. Although I remember them making a big deal out of the Studio 60 building, as they did in West Wing for the White House, reciting the history and significance of the location and rooms. Studio 60 also did a story line about a kidnap and ransom scenario, as did West Wing when the President’s daughter was kidnapped.

22. Did I mention I like crows? It all started when Mr. Container and I noticed the crows scavenging around the drive-through coffee joint we frequented. The enjoyed the Carl’s Jr. food that was left in the parking lot or that they “stole” from the garbage can. They really like ranch dressing packets.

23. I enjoy crafts, including sewing, quilting, scrapbooking, cross-stitching, dried flower arranging and candy making. Last year I made candies using a mold from RSA VPN tokens. RSA tokens are little electronic devices about the size of a car key that display a six digit number that changes every 60 seconds on a little LCD screen. You use the number as a password with your computer to allow you to connect to your company’s network, to access resources like files or email at work from home. The candy version did not have numbers that changed, of course. http://www.rsa.com/node.aspx?id=1156

An example of an older RSA token:

Newer RSA tokens look like this:

24. I love socks. I love warm socks, frilly socks, knee high socks, all kinds of socks. Some of my favorites include my newest pair – a hand knitted pair of original, one of a kind, Katy Araujo socks. I also love my knee high pink socks. Related to socks, I also enjoy wearing leg warmers. I was a child in the 80’s, after all.

25. I think “pants” is one of the funniest words in the English language. “So’s your face” is a funny phrase that can be used nearly any time. “Monkeys” are funny. (So’s your face.)

And a bonus, for those of you who stuck around to the end of this:

26. Mr. Container and I have two stuffed animals/plush toys on our mantel. The first is a raven we have named “Chile”. The other is an American Crow we have named “Wellington, New Zealand”. When you squeeze them, they make raven or crow calls (respectively).

And one more bonus, because I’m on a roll:

27. This weekend I learned that “livery” is not related to fish processing and canning. It actually has a number of meanings, including distinctive dress/uniform/colors worn by members of a particular group. For some reason, I had related it to the cannery in Monterrey Bay. Go figure.

One of the many things I love about my family is their grasp of language. Many of them speak at least two languages. Conversation is fast paced and interesting. I love how they express themselves.

Then I go in to work.

Here is an email exchange I had today with a Customer Service Representative (CSR), edited for read-ability:

Me: I have a request to replace your monitor. Please let me know when you are available for about 5 minutes to have this done. I can do it while you are on a break, if that is more convenient.

CSR: Yes I'll be here. My break is until 2:45

(Now I know that they don't get 90 minute breaks/lunches)

Me: So you're available now? Or are you available at 2:45?

CSR: Yes!

Uggh. I want Thumbs!

Thank you all for being awesome writers. You're an oasis in this world.

Computer Buying Guide, or I'd like to teach the world to type in perfect harmony.

I sent this off to my SIL, but thought I'd post it here for posterity....

Buying a computer is like buying a car. Everyone has their favorites. I might love Toyotas, but someone else will swear they are the worst car on the planet. It all depends on your last experience with them. I might have gotten the best support and assistance from the dealer. Someone else bought a lemon and talked to a jerk at the shop. The moment you buy it, the next model year is out and your brand new baby is old news. At the same time, there are a few things that everyone will agree on. You need tires and a steering wheel. Gas/Electric/Hybrid; 2 or 4 doors; compact/midsize/SUV/truck.... Those just depend on what you plan to do with it.

With that in mind-

Quick answer:

Windows Laptop
Processor: 2.0GHz (2.2-2.6GHz is better)
RAM: 2GB (3GB is better)
Hard Drive: Minimum 80GB 5400RPM
Screen: 15" (aka 15.4")
Battery: 6 cell/standard
Wireless Network Interface Card (NIC): IEEE 802.11b/g


Long answer:

1. I don't know much about Macs. I haven't used a Mac since the late 90's when I was supporting 33.6-56K modems and the iMac was still new. I'm not sure any of that still applies today. Some say the MacBook is the only way to go. I do know they're cute as a button! All the advice I give is for a Windows PC, Vista or XP (if you can find anyone who will still sell you XP).

2. Laptops are very convenient, but for their portability, you sacrifice a bit of performance. For hardcore gaming and graphics/video manipulation, a desktop might be better. For mainstream users, this is not a problem and you'll never notice a difference. Based on our conversations, I'll assume you're going with a laptop.

3. Steering Wheel and Tires: In my opinion, you need at least 2GB Ram (3 is better) and at least 2.0GHz processor.

With a Windows PC, you don't need more than 3GB since the OS won't recognize it anyway (exception is Vista 64bit - but I do NOT recommend 64bit - it's not ready for the public and you'll have problems finding compatible software). It's just a waste of $, and if they improve Vista to see 4GB, you can upgrade later.

2.0GHz processor is pretty much standard. Get the most you can afford (2.2-2.6 if possible), but disregard the fastest/most expensive. It'll be significantly more expensive than the others, for the smallest amount of improvement. Almost all are dual-core, which is good. Some people have strong preferences on brand (Intel Pentium, AMD Turion, etc), but that's just Toyota/Volkswagen/Chevy. Processors are very difficult to upgrade, especially on a laptop. You're more likely to buy a new computer instead.

To see what you have now, on your computer right click on the icon "My Computer". Select Properties. The General tab should describe the RAM and Processor speed.

4. Hard Drive: Range from 60-500GB of space. With the cost of external drives, flash drives, etc, this isn't too important. It depends on what you have, what you plan to store, etc. In general, go with 80GB or bigger. The first 40GB will be taken up with applications and the operating system, maybe. Drives do have a speed. This how fast it can read and write data. Avoid 4200RPM. Too slow. You'll actually notice a difference. 5400RPM is common and works fine. 7200RPM is the fastest, but is more expensive.

Solid State: This is super cool! Normal hard drives are discs that spin. RPM = Revolutions Per Minute. Solid State are like USB Flash Drives (kind of). They're chips. They don't spin. Manufacturers say they're faster, more rugged or damage resistant, and quieter. They're also more expensive because they're new and not yet the standard. But they will be one day. For people who travel a lot, this is a good idea. Up to you on this one. It might depend on the suite of options you select on if you get solid state or traditional spinny.

Hard drives can be upgraded later, but since most computers don't ship with the OS installation CD/DVD, it's a major pain for home users. Fortunately, external storage is getting cheaper. You can move pictures, video, documents to external hard drives or flash drives to back them up and to free up space on your laptop hard drive.

As a Desktop Support person, there is where I insert my rant on backing up important files: Every time a bell rings, another hard drive gets it's wings. It goes to play with other hard drives on a farm in upstate New York. It goes to hard drive heaven or hell, depending. Back up your files. Or else. Rant over.

5. Screen: The screen size will dictate how big the laptop is. Ultra portable laptops will have 9-13" screens. Portable desktop replacements might have 17" or bigger. The extreme small and big have the largest price difference. 14-15" is mainstream. Many are wide aspect displays, like wide-screen movies aspect - very rectangular, not so square.

Check these out in a store to see what you like. If you get something you end up not liking, you can always plug in a normal monitor. It makes the laptop not so portable, but it is a workaround.

6. Keyboard and touchpad: For these you have to play with it in a store. Some feel better to the touch. Some are harder to type. Usually you just have to get accustomed to the feel. Remember that store models might be used and abused, so if it's broken it might not be a sign of the quality of the device. If you don't like the feel once you get it, you can always plug in an external keyboard and mouse. An external mouse is almost a requirement for laptops.

7. Other stuff:

With the invention of USB, the ports on the computer are not as important as they used to be. Some laptops come with SD card slots, FireWire, serial ports, VGA video ports, , PS/2, etc. This is where you need to inventory what you have and what you plan to attach to the laptop. For some you can get Readers, other's you'll need to have internal. Like SD/MiniSD, etc, you can get a reader. FireWire you want built in. Check your printer. Most are now USB, but if you have a serial and you're not planning on getting a new printer, be sure your laptop has a serial port. It might look like a VGA port, but it different. Verify before you buy.

I recommend at least 2 USB ports (4 is better) and a VGA video port. This will let you attach an external mouse, external hard drive (to back up your files **hint, hint**) and monitor at the same time without buying a Docking Station/Port Replicator.

8. Battery (6 cell vs 9 cell): If you travel, this might matter. You don't necessarily need to buy the extended life battery. You can use that $50-150 elsewhere (like the case color). If you do plan to use it where you can't plug in, consider buying a 2nd battery. Remember, if you get an extra battery, you still have to shut down the machine to swap it out. Mainstream users, just bring your A/C adapter with you. Even Southwest has a place to plug in at more and more airports. Some coffee shops let you plug in now. Parks might be more of an issue. Trees are DC not AC.

9. Wireless Internal Network Card: Quick answer- Check your wireless router at home. Most likely it's an IEEE 802.11b/g. Get the internal network card that is IEEE 802.11 b/g (might be abbreviated to 11b/g)

Long answer: N or Draft-N is the next big thing in wireless standards, much faster that 11b/g, so if you think you're going to get a new router soon, get an internal network card that is a/b/g/draft-n compatible. It's hard to upgrade the internal wireless network card in your laptop, but is easy to disable the internal card and attach an external wireless network card with USB if you need it, so if you opt to save a little $ now and just get 11b/g, it's not a problem.

10. Brand: If you expect to need Technical Support, go with a major player. As of now (might not apply by the time I send this): Acer, Apple, Dell (Alienware), Gateway, HP, Lenovo (IBM), Sony, Toshiba - according to cnet.com and consumerreports.com, but can include others like eMachines, Panasonic, Samsung, Everex, etc.

Today, I'm biased toward Dell and Lenovo (IBM). But I also like Toyota and Volkswagen, and I'm not so hot toward Fords, unless you're talking about trucks.

What did I get? I bought a Dell Studio 15" a few months ago. I went a little crazy and got the Purple. (The color makes it faster :D)

What do we use at work? Oldest laptops are Toshiba M2 (silver). They still work, although they're aging out because of the 1.6-1.8GHz processor, and are no longer under warranty. Our team's on-call laptop is one of these and we have no problems. I don't think the M2 is still in production.

Next we went to the Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad T43 or T60 (no longer being made). Now we use Lenovo/IBM ThinkPad T61 (black) laptops (production ends soon, I'm not sure what the next model will be). They're good. No major problems so far (unlike their M57 desktops that have a bad component on the motherboard). 15" wide screen display. 1GB RAM and 2.6GHz processor. But we only expect users to keep them 2 years before they're outdated, and we have a stash of RAM if we need to upgrade them to 2GB. Corporate support for them is good. I don't know how home user support is.


Glossary (By Mr. Container):GHz - GigaHertz. This is a unit of speed. It applies to the CPU itself--the chip that puts the "compute" in "computer". The more GHz, the faster the CPU. Like Serena says, this is important up to a point. The law of diminishing returns applies, and the fastest speed represents the smallest increase for the cost.GB - Gigabytes. This is a unit of capacity. It applies to the RAM (memory) and hard drive. The more GB, the more information the computer can store. The law of diminishing returns applies to hard drives, but not to RAM.RAM - This is the "workspace" of the computer. The more RAM it has, the more information it can keep handy while it's running. This generally means an increase in performance, especially if you're working with very large files or very complex programs.Hard drive, hard disk, disk, etc - This is the "storeroom" of the computer. The larger it is (in GB), the more you can store on your computer. This applies to programs and to files. Pictures take up more space than text, and movies take up more space than pictures. 802.11 [b/g/n/etc.] - This is an industry standard specification for wireless communications. 802.11 is the basic spec, and the letters refer to subsequent upgrades/extensions of the basic spec. The important thing to keep in mind is that the wireless communication device ("wireless card", "wireless NIC", etc.) supports the same spec as your wireless router. For example, if your router is 802.11b/g, you may have problems using an 802.11n wireless card (on the other hand, the new "n" spec may be backwards-compatible with earlier specs--ask your dealer).

Additional Thoughts (By Mr. Container):Serena presents a brief technical discussion of different kinds of storage devices and considerations. Leaving aside the very wise counsel on external disk drives and backups, the gist of it is this:You are probably already familiar with memory cards, sticks, etc, since they're commonly found in digital cameras and the like. Many computers today--especially laptops--come built-in ports for one or more model of memory card. You should study the cards used by devices you already own, and consider getting a computer with ports for those cards. Another option (if the computer you want doesn't include those ports), is to get an external card-reader. But you are probably already fairly adept at moving files from cameras to computers and whatnot. "USB" is the Universal Serial Bus. It's a very common standard for connecting devices to each other. Whatever computer you get, it will almost certainly have 4 (or more) USB ports built in. Any digital camera, external card reader, hard drive, and cell phone you see today will probably have a USB port and cable. An external USB drive is ideal for backing up important data, and you are probably already using USB cables to move information between cameras and computers.Well, I could go on for days, about this. Mostly, I agree with everything Serena has said. She really is the expert.

Praise God

Psalm 66:16-20 (New Living Translation)

16 Come and listen, all you who fear God,
and I will tell you what he did for me.
17 For I cried out to him for help,
praising him as I spoke.
18 If I had not confessed the sin in my heart,
the Lord would not have listened.
19 But God did listen!
He paid attention to my prayer.
20 Praise God, who did not ignore my prayer
or withdraw his unfailing love from me.

Too cool, but disturbing

Found at the local Albertsons: