Compaq? Ouch. They’re VERY buggy machines. HP does have a support page that supports Compaq.

Unfortunately I live in CA where this stuff is going to be pushed on girls here soon and I have two daughters (I don’t know the Assembly Bill #) and we have Arnold as governor who I’m not sure if he will veto or not.

Does anybody know?

For their part, Republicans sought to create a political dilemma for Democrats, countering with an alternative measure that said “no funds should be cut off or reduced for American troops in the field” that would undermine their safety.

GOP leaders hoped the proposal, advanced by Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire, would prove difficult for Democrats to oppose and complicate any future effort to reduce funds for the war.

Gregg’s amendment passed 82-16.

Should’ve been worded this way:

For their part, Republicans sought to back the troops and put forth a bill that would advance victory, countering with an alternative measure that said “no funds should be cut off or reduced for American troops in the field” that would undermine their safety.

GOP leaders hoped the proposal, advanced by Sen. Judd Gregg (news, bio, voting record) of New Hampshire, would prove attract pro-victory Democrats and prevent non-victory Democrats from reducing funding while troops are on the ground.

Gregg’s amendment passed 82-16.

CNN BARS CANDIDATE FROM DEBATE, CENSORSHIP CHARGED

He spoke at the DNC winter meeting standing next to Howard Dean and was at the Nevada candidate’s forum with Hillary Clinton, Edwards and the others and he’s been invited to ABC’s debates, but CNN has barred former U.S. Senator Mike Gravel from their New Hampshire debate, without giving a reason.

Gravel is to put out this press release tomorrow:

CNN AND LOCAL NEW HAMPSHIRE MEDIA IMPOSE CENSORSHIP AND TRASH FAIRNESS IN THE PRESIDENTIAL DEBATES

March 15, 2007 – Washington, D.C. – CNN, the Manchester Union Leader and the Hearst-owned WMUR-TV have formally decided to exclude Democratic Presidential Candidate Senator Mike Gravel from the debates they will be sponsoring in New Hampshire.

This decision calls into question media censorship and goes against a fundamental American belief in “Fairness” which is especially critical in the political process.

The Senator said, “By denying me the same opportunity afforded to other presidential candidates to discuss in public debate the major issues that confront our nation, the sponsoring media outlets––CNN, The Manchester Union Leader and the Hearst-owned WMUR-TV––are exercising censorship, unbecoming in a free society. They are dictating whose political voice they will permit New Hampshire and American citizens to hear.”

“These media outlets are depriving the people the right to hear a voice they may very well want to hear, and in my case, a voice with some new and different ideas not expressed by other candidates––not ‘politics as usual.’ This amounts to denying the people the right to an informed choice from among all the declared and legitimate candidates, not just those deemed worthy by a few media organizations.”

The Senator continued, “It is not CNN’s, the Manchester Union Leader’s or Hearst’s WMUR-TV’s place to decide whose voice should and should not be heard in a debate between legitimate and qualified presidential candidates for the nomination of their political parties. When my staff inquired as to why I was being barred from participating in the debate, they received the Orwellian response that my candidacy did not meet certain criteria––a criteria that the media organizations refused to divulge when asked.”

Read the rest HERE.

I had a similar situation happen to me a few weeks ago when I was sick and home from work. I woke up around 8 that day, and my throat was very dry and I made a bee line downstairs to get me a cold bottled water out of the fridge. While there, I decided to go ahead and take out the trash. Keep in mind that I had literally been out of bed for just a couple of minutes, had not brushed my hair nor teeth, had not gotten dressed other than to throw on some old sweatpants because it was chilly, and the night before I was so wiped out I didn’t do my usual nightly facial routine so I had dark circles under my eyes from the mascara. I had on this old multi-colored pastel sleepshirt, too. UGH. I grabbed a hooded sweat jacket from my downstairs closet to cover up the fact that I was wearing a sleepshirt just in case a neighbor was outside but not really thinking one would be, got the trash together and went out to my trashcan out back, thinking for sure that most everyone would either be on their way at work or still asleep and that there was almost no chance of me encountering a neighbor in my five second stint to the trash can.

Of course I was wrong, and what made it worse was that instead of it being one of my female neighbors it was the same cute single neighbor who saw me several months ago after I had gotten into a battle with militant ants in my house and a thorny rose bush out back. It was like clockwork. As soon as I went to raise the trashcan lid, I saw a movement and it was my neighbor two doors down doing something in his back yard. He cheerfully waved hello and I sickly waved back and muttered “hi” before dashing back into the house. I just thank God that I was wearing that sweat jacket! Now if I only I had had the good sense to put the hood over my head, too. LOL.

And a stupid neighbor story to put you in a good mood. Unfortunately, I was the stupid neighbor.

I have a 14-year-old cocker spaniel. He’s good most days, but occasionally he gets cranky and wakes up in the middle of the night and cries to go out.

Two nights ago, at 3:30am, he woke me up. I was wearing a t-shirt and boxer shorts, and I figured, heck, it’s 3am, no one’s going to be out walking around the apartment complex. And Res’ll be done quick, and I’m back in.

So I take him outside and he starts to sniff around, and ten seconds later, I hear the door to the apartment above me open and close, and the light clop-clop-clopping down the stairs by my (attractive, single, female) neighbor.

Yes, I am living the waking nightmare, and all I need to do have happen now is be late for a class, or get chased by zombies.

I had my back to her, and I was sure she was going to ask me to try to keep my dog quieter, but I just heard her walking around off to my right.

I finally decided Res was done for the night, picked him up, and turned towards my apartment, when I saw my neighbor, squatting down, attending to her own dog that she had just gotten that day. (Of course, she had the full regalia of sweatpants, slippers, and light jacket with a hoodie on.)

I apologized and said I hope my dog didn’t wake her, but she said, no, it was her dog that got her up. I made about five more seconds of smalltalk before I went (ran) back into my apartment and locked the door.

Thankfully, it was too dark out for anyone to see how red I was.

Moral of the story: No matter how late/early it is, or how deserted you think it might be, or how quickly your dog can do his business, always wear pants.

Yeah, the “Geek Squad” is pricey, but sometimes it can take hours to get a PC working again, so I can understand the cost. I’m lucky I can do it myself. It all goes into this “disposable” society we have, it’s cheaper and easier to scrap something than repair it, which drives me absolutely nuts. I have a strong belief that if I can’t fix it, it ain’t broke. I’ve repaired a monitor for a 4 buck part, and a computer power supply for a 79 cent regulator chip. Nothing will annoy me more than a device that can’t be taken apart without breaking it, it’s an admission that it was never intended to be repaired.

I think I’ve pinpointed the problem to when I gave my mom the monitor I had with “Chip, Sr.” because her monitor was on its last leg.

Just to make sure the monitor I gave to her would run ok, I used the CD that came with the monitor thinking I could install the driver from it but nothing like that was on it. It’s not on the Dell website either because the monitor is old (”old” being two years …). In any event, things ran ok for a while but in the last month or so it’s been problematic and I’m just guessing that the ‘new’ old monitor I gave her might be causing it. I dunno. The price to get the “Geek Squad” to come out is outrageous, so that’s not an option.

I think I need to marry a computer genius

BTW, I’ve done the necessary backups in terms of saving all her files and programs she wants to use so that’s done. I’ll be back at her house this weekend to try some of the things suggested in this thread and I’ll let ya’ll know if I have any success. In the end, she’ll probably still want to get another compu, but it’s worth a shot to try with the old one in any event …

I’d recommend running the chkdsk utility, and also defragging the HD, just for grins. I’ve had a similar issue to this, occasionally my Outlook email will lose it’s mind, and give me the same kind of error. Sending the report to MS does nothing to fix the problem, they just want to collect bug reports and details to help them in the future, they don’t respond to any individual problems, they don’t even track where they come from. After a few restarts my Outlook “fixes” itself. It’s not been bad enough to cause me to do anything about it though, it’s happened twice in over a year.

But, if we lived close, I’d fix y’all’s computer for you ST!