Wednesday, September 28, 2005

Zen and the Art of Solving Computer Problems

I've written a post the other day about meditation, happiness and scientific research in the matter (of happiness). I haven't posted it yet.

Today my computer went caput all of a sudden and I'm sorry to say that no Zen and no meditation helped. I'm cranky, annoyed, even a bit depressed.

This afternoon I'll take it to the tech (unless the motherboard jumpers reset will work first).

For now I'm on the laptop trying to remember where I left off.

I'm pretty sure I haven't lost the data on the hard drive, but if I did that would suck big time. Last time I backed my system was a few months ago.

So no Zen and no art of solving computer problems. Just angst.

Update: The motherboard jumpers reset worked. I'm back up and running baby. You should see the stupid grin I have on my face - YAY!

Back to our regular programming tomorrow. Now, I need a beer!

19 comments:

Trée said...

Melly, sorry to hear of your computer issues. I hope they get resolved soon to your satisfaction.

I love meditation and equally anything and everything about Zen. Can't wait to see your thoughts on both matters. Take care.

Melly said...

Trée, unfortunately it happened because of the UD agent. I've been on the support forum all morning.

Anonymous said...

Ah, Zen and computers.. and dead computers. We have all heard of the Zen saying 'what is the sound of one hand clapping?' Now we have 'what is the sound of no keyboard typing?' :) Bummer about the compy.

Anonymous said...

Sorry to hear of your computer woes Melly. Stay centered.

Melly said...

Thank you Steve and Easywriter.

'what is the sound of no keyboard typing?' - hilarious.

And yeah, easywriter, for the sake of compy, I will try to stay centered - that was a good one too :)

At least you guys make me laugh.

Carolyn said...

Hi Melly, thought I'd pop over and visit :) Thanks for stopping in at my blog the other day.

PC probs are frustrating; however, you sound as if you know how to deal with them. I hope you get it fixed as I would like to read your post on happiness. I could use a cup full-- with sugar-- no lemons, lol!

Trée said...

Melly, I popped over to read the thread on the support forum. If you can ever pin point what part of your system has failed I would love to know. I have 14 computers, old and new, that run the UD agent 24/7 with a little over 6 total years of cpu time volunteered so far on this project. If your computer failure is somehow related to the UD agent I would love to know how. Please keep me updated on what you discover.

The agent may have somehow caused an issue but then again it might not have anything to do with the current situation. I'm very curious to learn more.

Melly said...

Hey Carolyn, thanks for coming and sorry it's on a day with a lame post.
Promise to do better next time :)

Melly said...

Trée, it's working now. I fixed it doing the jumpers thingy on the motherboard.
I will try to figure out what causes the problems. Maybe Gromit and these guys can help me out.
Thanks for the mental support.

Trée said...

Melly, good to hear you are back up and running. Sometimes finding the cause of a problem that only happens here and there is difficult. Reminds me of an old car I use to have that would give me problems that I could not duplicate at the dealership. Took me almost three years before we could pin point a design flaw in the engine that led to my starter overheating. What a pain that was.

Melly said...

Yikes. And yet, you stuck with the car. Must have liked something about it :)

Actually, it happens after the UD submitted results and starts on a new set. So it's not so sporadic. Hopefully they can help me out. I really don't want to stop.

If you have any idea of who else can help me solve this, please let me know.

Jean said...

But first you'd better back up your critical data!

Glad it got working again.

Melly said...

I'm all wined and dined and you're absolutely right, Jean. First I'm going to back up everything. Definitely!

rdl said...

I am waiting with baited breath for your happiness post. The cold beer sounded good. I'll check back tomorrow. Thanks for stopping by enjoyed seeing you again.

Melly said...

Thanks rdl, same here :)

Anonymous said...

You know how many times I've wanted to kill my computer cause the program has crashed :) The autocad (a drawing program) we use here at work likes to get tempermental with some drawings. I HATE trying to redo what you've already written. It's the worst thing.

Melly said...

Josh, it claimed I overclocked it. I don't know that I did. Of course I blame you because I just told you the other day how I fried my motherboard a while back and boom this happened. So you see, it had to be you. You might as well fess up.

Jennifer, oh yea, I've worked with autocad a bit too. I didn't like it at all. It's all over now and I can breathe lightly.

Unknown said...

I have come to the conclusion that computers are capable of having a mind of their own. In the movie I, Robot we are told that bits of infromation join together to make their own protocol. In 2001: A Space Odyssey HAL malfunctions to take over the entire mission so that he alone will meet the higher form of intelligence at the monolith. HAL malfunctions because he was told to keep a secret from the two astronauts that were responsible for getting the ship to its destination. They were not told the reason why they were going. The other crew members were in hyper-sleep and knew the mission's objective.
So do computers need us on the higher plane to work properly? Maybe.

Melly said...

Most AI predictions think that with the internet and all the computers connecting, a new consciousness will emerge that way.
It's interesting to think about it, and there are people who actually try to guard from it.