Last Friday I tried to uninstall some beta software and install the final release on my tablet. I wasn’t able to get the software installed, I think because of the beta software. I also noticed that my DVD drive wouldn’t open with the eject button, but I had a paperclip laying around so no big deal. After mucking about for most of the day trying to get stuff installed, I decided to just run Windows Update and get all my updates taken care of.

I rebooted after the last critical update and then entered into a vicious cycle of Starting Windows…Reboot…Starting Windows…Reboot. I got annoyed and just turned the machine off. Stupid machine.

I didn’t have time to mess with it over the weekend, so on Monday I tried again. I tried to use a bunch of recovery mechanisms, from Safe Mode (wouldn’t enter it) to Knoppix (couldn’t find the filesystem) to BartPE (couldn’t run any of the commands) to Recovery Console (couldn’t enter it). I figured my laptop was hosed and found out from Toshiba that if I sent it in they’d wipe the hard drive and/or give me a new one.

Since my notes for my class are on this computer, I decided to give it one last shot to get the data off. I brought it down to Florida on Tuesday to my in-law’s house. My father-in-law has this nifty ATA to PCMCIA adapter, so I plugged my hard drive in and voila! I was able to see all my data. I pulled everything off the drive I could think off, then was free to try more data-intolerant recovery mechanisms. I forgot to bring a paperclip though, so I willed the drive open. It’s been working fine ever since. Weird.

After spending most of Thursday working on the laptop, I decided to just reformat and do a clean install. It went great and before T-giving dinner I had a working tablet again. w00t. Now to just reload all my programs…

This morning Raegan, her mother & I all went out to battle the crowds at 4:30 am. We hit Circuit City, Office Depot, & Office Max and were home before 7 am. Unfortunately, right at the start I dropped my tablet getting out of the car and broke the screen.
I called Toshiba and they’re sending me a box so I can send the screen away to get it fixed. It’s under warranty against this type of thing, but only once per year for accidental breakage. I triumphed over the software, but I can’t do anything about a broken screen.

At least we’ll have GPS/MapPoint for the ride home… maybe we’ll even watch some of the DVD’s we picked up for mere dollars.
(btw - I’m using the tablet to write this, so it’s still very much usable. There’s just a nasty crack in the top of the screen. I’ll post a picture or something.)

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Raegan and I have gotten our fence to a functional point. Last night we let the dog loose in the backyard. He loved it. He ran around, no leash, just darting back and forth, side to side. Then he sniffed the trash can. Then he ran some more. He looked like he was smiling. Crazy pup.

We still have to put up some pickets, but our goal was to have a place to stick the dog while we have my family over for early Thanksgiving at our house this Saturday. We have achieved this goal.

Now all we have to do is finish painting the living room and dining room, and then general cleaning up. Oh ya, we gotta cook a ton of food. Maybe I should fix the deck stairs…

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I just ran across this entry in the Devil’s Dictionary:

Web 2.0

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I frequent a website called Joel On Software and they had a few interns this summer make a piece of software that would be marketed and sold. It was fun to read their blog and commiserate with their foibles and follies. They made a movie out of it and I’m also interested in picking up a copy of it. I’m not thrilled about paying 20 bucks though. *sigh*

If anyone reading this wants to get me a Christmas present, well, this would be a good choice.

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