576
08/14/08




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Recovery From Bad BIOS Update

I was having some bad problems with my new computer I built so I decided to upgrade the BIOS after reading about the errors I was getting. I downloaded the BIOS image and flashed it, but I flashed it incorrectly because I didn't read the documentation first :-). The computer wouldn't POST anymore -- it just beeped at me and showed nothing on the screen. I thought I just bricked my brand new motherboard.

I researched more and found that AMI, the manufacturer of my BIOS, knows that there are people like me who don't read documentation before messing with their computers. (I should note that I have upgraded firmware on our production NAS disk array at work with no problems. I only read documentation when my job depends on it.) Anyway, AMI BIOSes have a built-in recovery mechanism. All I had to do was put a copy of the new BIOS image on a floppy and boot the messed up computer. The BIOS detects that it's corrupt (bad checksum or something) and then looks for a file called AMIBIOS.ROM from the floppy. I reprograms itself and then the computer continues to boot normally. I tried it and it worked perfectly! The hardest part was finding a floppy disk. I was so pumped that it worked.

Comments
  • What's a floppy disk? Just kidding.
       Posted by Scott on 08/14/08

  • Most computers don't have floppies anymore. Do they not have an alternative? (And I don't mean go buy a floppy drive.) :-)

    Anyway, my Dad lost a PC like this once. I step into BIOS updates now with fear and trembling! My recent Mac and ThinkPad BIOS updates went really well recently. They basically handle it for you, a surprise to me. I didn't see anything but windows restarting in the entire process after I approved it.
       Posted by Josiah on 08/14/08

  • Honestly though. Floppy?? At least off the chance to boot from USB.

    I am glad it worked out for you. Keep it real.
       Posted by Nathan Powell on 08/14/08

575
08/08/08




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Don't Talk to the Cops

One of my favorite shows that I watched as a teenager was Homicide: Life on the Street. The best part of the show was the interrogations that would take place in "the box," a small yellow-bricked room where some of the best dialog ever written for television was said. Time after time the detectives on the show would get confession after confession out of their suspects. Even if a full confession wasn't attained, the suspect would usually say just enough to build a good case. The cops always wanted the suspects to talk and confess for two reasons: to avoid a lengthy and expensive trial and to close cases. They cared about little else, which is why one should never waive his or her Miranda rights and never talk to the police about anything without a lawyer even if you are innocent. That one took a while to fully understand. Why wouldn't one want to talk to the police even if he or she is innocent? Strange things happen at trials. Lawyers are tricky and juries believe crazy stuff. Even if you say 9 true statements and one false one in your alibi, you can be painted in a bad light. Also, there are so many laws on the books these days that you can't be certain you haven't violated one of them. You may accidentally implicate yourself in a secondary crime even if the police are talking to you about a different crime altogether. All this may sound a bit paranoid, but there is no reason to talk to the police without a lawyer. The fifth amendment was created for the guilty and the innocent, so use it!

I recently came across a terrific video on YouTube explaining what I just said, though much better (and much faster so listen carefully). The video is in two parts. The first is by Prof. James Duane of the Regent University School of Law and the second part is by an actual police officer.

Feel free to comment :)

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    574
    07/31/08




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    Animated People in Commercials

    I love Hondas and I like Wendy's, but man, their commercials are so annoying. Every late July through September Honda runs this series of year-end clearance commercials featuring Mr. Opportunity, a super-annoying cartoon who tries to be all cool so you'll want to buy a Honda. I swear if he bangs on the inside glass of my television one more time, I'm driving my Honda Civic off a cliff. So. Annoying.

    And then there's Wendy's. They took a not-supposed-to-be-animated drawing of Wendy from their logo and tried to make her all 3-D and lifelike. The result: downright creepy. Her eyes bug out sometimes, she makes awkward movements, and she eats burgers really weirdly. It gives me nightmares.

    I realize that if these two animated characters are my biggest problems right now then I have it pretty good :-)

         

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      573
      07/28/08




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      Computer Upgrade!

      For the first time since 2001, I am building myself a new computer. It's more of an upgrade depending on how you look at it -- new MB, CPU, RAM, and video card. The rest will be from my current computer -- modded case, DVD+-RW, CD-RW, sound card, etc.

      I decided to go with:

      • Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz 6MB L2 Cache LGA 775 95W Quad-Core Processor
      • ECS G31T-M motherboard
      • 2GB DDR2-800 RAM
      • ATI Radeon HD3450 256MB
      • all-in-one card reader
      • new power supply

      I can't wait to put it all together and throw out my current Pentium 4 1.4GHz, 512MB RD-RAM box. Sllllllllllllllow

      Comments
      • Ah, the beauty of speedy new computer. Get one of those sweet, elaborate cooling systems too, just for appearances. And build a coffee pot into it too.
           Posted by Joey on 07/28/08

      • Heh, a coffee pot -- I like that idea. I put it all together the other day and installed Windows and, man, that machine is a screamer. Unbelievable. I went with XP rather than Vista.
           Posted by DonnySpi on 07/30/08

      • It's like you're talking in another language... Screaming is good right?
           Posted by Eric Gervase on 07/31/08

      572
      07/18/08




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      Cats Skinned Alive in Alabama

      This was probably the funniest spam email I ever received. The subject line read "Cats Skinned Alive in Alabama". There was a link to click in the email, so since I'm running Firefox on Ubuntu, I decided to click it. It was an animation of a move loading with text that read "Click here to play movie." Of course that link downloads an EXE file to your computer and gets you 0wn3d -- if you're running Windows hahaha.

      The spammers get credit for a clever way of getting you to download an EXE -- the promise of a movie clip to watch. But they totally missed the boat when crafting their subject line. I can think of 10000 things I'd rather see movies of before I'd watch cats being skinned alive in Alabama. I'm not sure who their target audience is. Would people interested in that even have computers? Try again, spammers. You struck out this time.

      By the way, I didn't make it to the Harrisburg Mile in time, so I didn't run it. Next year.

      Comments
      • My heat was right after the heat you said you were running in. I looked for you and could not pick you out of the crowd, but assumed I just could not recognize you among the turnout.
           Posted by Scott on 07/18/08

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