Grrrrr

I am not in a good mood this morning [when is he ever? - ed.]. I wasted 45 minutes trying to help someone over the phone with a PC problem. It seems my wife's boss got the idea that it was a good thing to delete the Supervisor and User BIOS passwords on their old PCs since they were getting new ones. So the boss went into the BIOS setup and deleted the passwords. Notice she deleted the passwords but did not change the setting that prompts the user for the password before being able to boot. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

Before I went on a wild goose chase trying to find a copy of the manual for the version of AMI BIOS they had, I specifically asked if they could still get into the BIOS setup menu. I asked this because if they couldn't, the problem would be finding which jumper is used to reset the BIOS. SWMBO said yes, they could still get into the BIOS. With that understanding, I went looking on the 'net and found a couple of sources, none of which were AMI. So I print out the relevant sections (Advanced CMOS Setup, Password Check, change from "Always" to either "setup" or blank, if available) and call my wife. I give her the instructions and tell her to call me back.

In a few minutes, she calls and says they can't get into the setup. Sigh. Of course they can't get into setup. I figured they couldn't but she had stated they could. Repeat after me: I love my wife. I love my wife.

Using the version of BIOS they have, when you try to boot a PC where you've deleted the password, but have not changed the setting that asks for one before it will allow a boot, you will not be able to boot nor access the BIOS setup. Let me repeat that last part, you will not be able to boot nor will you be able to access the BIOS setup.

The solution in this case, as far as I can see, is to find the motherboard jumper that resets the BIOS to the default settings. Now, not being in front of the PC I can't tell you if changing the setting from Always to something else would have worked either, but the point is, if you are going to be making changes to the BIOS, especially one that locks you out of your own PC, you better know what you are doing. And if you don't know, don't call me. Grrrr. Mumble. Mumble. Mumble.

UH Wins! UH Wins!

The University of Hawai'i Men's Volleyball team won the US national championship on Saturday. This is the first for the Warriors and the first for any men's sport at UH. They beat Pepperdine 29-31, 31-29, 30-21, and 30-24. The women's volleyball team has won four national championships so I'm sure the men are happy to join the club. Congratulations to the team, especially: Eyal Zimet, Costas Theocharidis, Vernon Podlewski, Kimo Tuyay, Tony Ching, Delano Thomas and coach Mike Wilton.

Emo Phillips: Some mornings, it's just not worth chewing through the leather straps - Aloha!

Russian

This is going to be another one of those days. You know, rushin' here and rushin' there. I have to do some research into an area which I can not disclose at this time. :< So feel free to click on through to some of the other Daynotes sites. Thanks for you patience.

History repeats itself because nobody listens. - Aloha!

Mathethics

What would you do if you were part of your high school Math Club and you had just won the state math championship? What would you do if you'd received all the congratulations and accolades that go with beating 165 slide rule jockeys [do they even teach how to use slide rules any more? -ed.] through eight rounds of competition? What would you do if, after reviewing your answers, you found that you had been in error for one of the questions, but had not been marked down for it?

What three Kaiser High School students did this weekend, with no doubt heavy hearts, was to point out the error to officials, thus falling from first to third place (after a tie-breaker). Sometimes we forget, in this present day world where kids kill kids, that values such as honesty, integrity, character, and fair play are still taught, and more importantly, still lived out. Congratulations to the students (Vallent Lee, Shinyoung Oh, and Claire Tsutsumi), their parents, and their teachers for a job well done.

Life Out of Death

What trials must parents go through in raising their children. One second you have a healthy 7-year-old daughter playing at the beach in Hana, Mau'i, building sand bridges. The next, the bridge collapses burying the girl and suffocating her. She is rushed to the hospital but what heart breaking sorrow her parents must have felt, standing next to her bed in the hospital watching the monitors indicating no brain activity. For a parent, there can be no greater loss than that of losing their child.

But from their unbearable loss, three other children will live. For little Zaney Ann Kalama-Baker's liver went to a California teenager, and her kidneys to two Hawai'i children, ages 5 and 11. Out of such horrible pain, her parents can take comfort in knowing that their daughter lives on.

The need for organ donors is great, but the number of people willing to give the gift of life is small. Think about what it would mean to be of such help to others and then please consider being an organ donor. Do it now, for we know not when our time on this earth will end.

The success of America has never been proven by cities of gold, but by citizens of character. Men and women who work hard, dream big, love their family, serve their neighbor. Values that turn a piece of earth into a neighborhood, a community, a chosen nation. - US President George W. Bush - Aloha!

Packet Dropping

So I was talking to Tim yesterday about XML implementations at the 11th International World Wide Web Conference at the Sheraton Waikiki. Tim who? Berners-Lee. Nah, just kidding. But he, along with about 1,000 other web enabled illuminati are here for the W3C conference (see it here). The papers being presented can be found here.

Another short shrift day, sorry. Much information to try to track down and not a lot of time to do it. By the way, best wishes for a full and speedy recovery to Brian Bilbrey's better half: Marcia. - Aloha!

It's Friday!

Somewhere Over the Rainbow

So SWMBO and I watched the "On the Beach" episode of the TV series "ER" last night. We don't usually watch ER but since the episode was filmed in Hawai'i, we decided to give it a shot [Get it? Medical show. Shot. Oh, never mine - ed.].

The show was kind of uneven, and given the story line was the death of the character, not exactly a happy show to watch. But it did try to deal with some important issues: how to live your life, even as you are dying; how to reach out to your child, even as she does her best to define herself apart from her father; and in the end, how to reconcile yourself to a past full of human mistakes.

As the character lay in his bed dying, he was listening to music from the movie "The Wizard of Oz." The song - Somewhere Over the Rainbow, as sung by the late Israel Kamakawiwo'ole.

Somewhere over the rainbow way up high
There's a land that I've heard of once in a lullaby

Somewhere over the rainbow skies are blue
And the dreams that you dare to dream
Really do come true

Some day I'll wish upon a star
And wake up where the clouds are far behind me

Where troubles melt like lemon drops
Away above the chimney tops
That's where you'll find me

Have a Great Weekend Everyone - Aloha!