A few Sunday mornings back, I was woken up by the dog, who was in a quite agitated state. The media center had been trying to come out of hibernation to check TV schedules and do the other miscellaneous stuff that brings it out of sleep. However, it kept rebooting instantly out of the BIOS. Every time the memory check passed, it would beep, annoying the dog, who passed the annoyance onto me.
Unplugging the Cisco Valet Connector allowed the media center to boot properly. Cool, well not really, as a WiFi adapter should not keep a computer from booting. The fact that the Valet Connector shows up as a USB flash drive before becoming a WiFi adapter seemed odd to be before. And, I’m placing part of the blame on that behavior for this constant rebooting. To resolve the issue, I removed USB flash drives from the boot list in the motherboard’s BIOS.
When the media center finally booted, I noticed another issue. The Valet forgot that it was supposed to be in WiFi adapter mode. This one was my fault. If you do not complete the device setup using the included easy setup software, the device may not remember its state after reboot. Awesome, right? After completing the setup within the included easy setup software I have not had either issue reappear for a week now.
-John Havlik
[end of transmission, stay tuned]
This past spring, I took an interesting class as part of my master’s degree program titled ‘Circuits, Computation and Biology’. One of the many topics in the course was conditional permutations.
After having a slight scare with the “h” key on my trusty Vostro 1400 (the key mechanism was binding slightly so that it had to be firmly pressed from the top to register), I began casually perusing the laptop market to see what was available.
Since I’ve had this laptop for over 3 years now, it is nearing the end of its normal service life. Lithium Ion batteries are only good for 3 to 5 years. Based on previous experience, I probably have about a year left before the battery stops holding a charge. Even though I could just buy a replacement battery, getting something new may be a better alternate (already have a fatigue crack near the ExpressCard slot).
The last official project of the summer was a quick mod to my Lian Li PC-A05NB case. For those not familiar with the case, the PSU sits in the bottom front of the case. The case is designed with airflow from in the back to exiting from the front (reverse of all other cases). Before I upgraded to a Core i7, my Core 2 Duo system was experiencing some heat related issues due to exhaust issues through the front.
When performing a mathematical calculation by hand, what symbol do you use to signify division? Do you use a slash (/), a horizontal line with the numerator and divisor above and below, or the divide (÷) symbol? Personally, I use one of the first two, depending on the context. And, I can’t remember the last time I used ÷. However, a good estimate would be back in grade school.