Category: Weird Shit

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Huh, First time I’ve seen that in a while.

About three months ago, I replaced the hard drive in the other half’s computer. I fought with the system to get a functional operating system on the drive but was finally successful and the other half’s computer was suddenly faster and stable.

I thought, “Cool,” and assumed that I wouldn’t have to deal with computer issues for a while. 

Think again! 

This morning, the other half was sitting there in front of the computer with a very puzzled expression. Innocently, I asked, “what’s wrong?”  There are times when you shouldn’t ask questions!

The other half said they’d tried to use the computer just now and were presented with a white screen and that the computer seemed very warm to the touch. I figured it was nothing, a simple hard reset would bring everything back up and then I could go back to beating my head against the wall in the heinous job search.

This was not to be, no amount of cajoling (a.k.a. swearing), incantations, or holding keys down during the boot up process gives me anything but the white screen. I can’t even get to the built-in diagnostics of the system and those are supposed to be in ROM and therefore independent of the hard disk. In other words, I’m wondering if the computer itself is dead because I should be able to get to something that would aid me in the diagnosis of the problem.

Generic SSDAn hour later I’m holding the nifty new SSD drive in my hand, wondering why it “sings” when I try to mount it on my computer. This is a solid state device… There are no moving parts and yet when I plug it in to my system the device very clearly makes a high pitched sound.

At the same time, the device refuses to identify itself to my computer at all. Placing the old hard drive in the other half’s  computer confirms that there is nothing wrong with the computer itself and in fact the machine boots happily.

I contact the manufacturer of the SSD and after a brief discussion am directed to please box up the drive for replacement.  The person I was speaking with (an American) recognized a kindred spirit and was pretty forthcoming. Instead of leading me through all sorts of useless diagnostics (which I’d already done) they responded to my question, “Did I miss anything,” with a laugh and said not that they could tell. 

It was refreshing to not have endless apologies and kow-towing. This was two professionals having a technical discussion about a piece of hardware that had died during what we used to call the infant mortality period. They weren’t defensive and I wasn’t angry sometimes shit like this just happens. It’s inconvenient on both sides but it’s reality and nothing is going to change that reality.

A new drive should arrive on Monday. 

Aside from a slightly long wait on hold dealing with the company was a real pleasure. The long hold time was due to lots of people upgrading their computers who probably shouldn’t have been inside their machines in the first place.  Apparently, a lot of “average” people failed kindergarten blocks and are unable to correctly put oddly shaped plugs into equally oddly shaped sockets. The tech & I had a bit of a laugh over that.

Now, the only problem is getting the OS back on the new drive… 

I’ll burn that bridge when I come to it!

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Good things about the Coronavirus Pandemic

Aside from the news media screaming, “Death and despair” 24/7, there may be some good to come out of all this.

It’s probably too soon… But hey, I could drop dead tomorrow!

1. Corporate America has been forced to admit that working from home is viable. Going forward perhaps they’ll go “Green” and keep workers, working from home.

2. People have realized that health care is important and perhaps they’ll force politicians to follow through with a better version of health care that is affordable for everyone that also doesn’t allow pricing to continue to spiral out of control. Why does the same drug cost $10 a pill here and .01 in a third world country? What’s the real damn cost? Big pharmaceutical giants I’m looking at you!

3. Everyone is seeing just how easily despotic rulers can rise and how difficult it is to regain rights once those rights are taken away. Governor Whitmer I’m looking at you! BTW thank you for showing in just a few short weeks, the arc of a despotic cycle. Now hopefully America will use your rise and fall as a lens through which all politicians will be viewed.

4. Traffic is, for the time being a thing of the past. Speeding tickets in LA are increasingly written for speeds in excess of 100 mph. Funny how that works isn’t it?

5. The air is cleaner. So obviously if there weren’t as many people forced to drive to and from work, air pollution wouldn’t be as much of a problem… Duh!

6. The oil companies have seen their future. Yep there will still be a demand for oil but not at obscene prices, and if we continue to work from home you might want to sell off your oil stocks.

7. Antisocial behavior is suddenly fashionable. Who could’ve seen that coming?

8. People have more time to actually learn about little things, like their kids, and their community, instead of running all the time like bats out of hell.

9. For once, the Government is actually giving tax dollars back. At the same time it’s learning that the American People aren’t pleased with their government and haven’t been for a long time.

10. The Government is learning that they can still be functional with a lot less people actively working. I guess Trump laying off and consolidating various departments wasn’t such a bad idea after all.

11. People are re-learning that common sense might actually be beneficial. Planning for disaster, washing your hands, staying away from others if you’re sick, not depending on the government to be your savior, etc.

12. We’ve seen our vulnerabilities laid bare. We can’t have the convenience of super cheap disposable products without being vulnerable to losing access to those products at a moment’s notice. It’s time to start bringing jobs and industry back to our shores and this time, let’s do it with thought. We don’t have to trash the country just because we have manufacturing here. We have the opportunity to build better factories and better manufacturing processes that are less (or not) damaging to the local environment.

13. Everyone may be realizing that unlimited immigration legal or otherwise might not be such a great idea. I’m going to be interested to see how that plays out going forward.

14. Censorship is most definitely alive and well in America. Folks are hopefully realizing that Facebook & Twitter are not the best places to get information. If humanity is really lucky both of those corporations will come to a crashing end. I’m even hopeful that all of the news media will get a rework and re-establish some journalistic integrity. Then they’ll be using their first amendment rights properly, by just reporting what happened instead of every piece being an Op/Ed.

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One of those dreams that you wake up from with chills

Iearth.jpgn the dream I’m sitting at my computer wandering down an unfamiliar data pathway on the ‘net.

My screen freezes then starts showing random characters.

The characters resolve into a message:

After careful observation and consideration. It’s been determined this civilization will not achieve Kardashev Type 1 status.

Therefore the warning message transmitted from Buoys in the Oort cloud has been modified and will broadcast for another thousand cycles.

New Message Reads, “Warning – Do not approach the third planet. Primitive species, extremely dangerous and warlike. Minimal spacial abilities with crude atomic weapons. End Message”

Message is being transmitted on all frequencies and in all known languages. Additionally system wide cradle defense batteries have been deactivated. This world is of no further interest to our people, and no longer under our protection.

Humans will have to fend for themselves. We will no longer provide protection from Slaver or Raiding species. Nor will we provide any protection from asteroid impact.

Orders are as follow: Evacuate. Collect any genetic material of interest, finalize reports, back up all cultural databases for subsequent study on Phoenixie Prime. destroy all bases and fall back to our ships. As we exit the system we will destroy all of our technology except warning buoys to prevent potential misuse.

Ten thousand years has been more than enough time for a civilization to evolve. Most do it in four thousand years. We’ve been too lenient and allowed our love of this species to stay our hand.

Report to your assigned ships for evacuation no later than 90 days from today.

Signed,

Commander Sol 3 Joint Annunaki / Phonexie Research Expedition.

Then the screen scrambled again and my computer rebooted.

I woke up in one of those Who, What, Where, things you have when you wake up from a nightmare.

As I collected my wits, I realized that a message like this appearing on every display device across our planet would at once confirm the existence of extraterrestrials, and just how disappointed they were with us as a species.

The ensuing chaos would be epic and imagine the wonder and sadness the world would feel as space craft suddenly appeared and left in very unsubtle ways. 

Then it occurred to me. I don’t think there’s been a significant meteor impact (meaning really damaging) for about 8 to 10 thousand years.

Now you have some insight into the weirdness of my mind.