Second day of class. Don’t have my textbook yet, which puts me in company with about three quarters of the class, but still something that needs to be taken care of.
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January 18, 2007
Accounting Day 2
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January 17, 2007
Classes out due to weather
All the NHMCCD campuses have been closed for inclement weather. Specifically, the temperature has dropped below freezing.
I have mixed feelings about this. My math class was scheduled to start today, and I have a hard enough time with math that I’d rather not compress the class even further.
On the other hand, I got to sleep later.
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Computer Acting Up, part 2
Keyboard fiddling didn’t accomplish anything. Suspicion has now turned to the battery/power system.
Battery life on this machine, an Acer Aspire 3000, has always been lousy. It also rapidly got worse. The battery life dropped noticably within three months of purchase, and by nine months from purchase the battery life was under ten minutes, meaning the computer couldn’t really run without a power cord any more.
When the system is freezing up, I’ve started fiddling with things and several times triggered a “Not Responding” message from the power management program. This also somewhat ties to the system only working if I let the bettery drain completely before bootup. Makes me think the system is freaking out because the battery is always showing a critically low state, and it isn’t charging.
Sadly, a new battery appears to cost $150. I’m really not sure if I think this computer is worth that, even less than a year old. Given past experience, I’m certain the new battery will just dwindle and die again in the course of a year or so anyhow. Might be easier to make do with a computer that has to be unplugged to turn it off, since I’m far from certain a new battery would solve the problem. Have to keep tinkering.
Edit: further tinkering supports the wacky-battery hypothesis. Restarting with no battery at all in machine works fine. I ordered a third-party replacement battery, rather than one from Acer; hopefully the quality will be a bit higher. Would be nice to be able to run without a wall outlet again.
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January 16, 2007
Computer acting up
My computer is misbehaving. Sometimes after bootup, the trackpad and keyboard will stop responding, and then the computer will freeze. An external mouse will continue responding throughout, so it’s not a hard lock, but it’s still not letting me do anything, either. Unplugging the power from the machine and letting the battery die will result in it coming up correctly the next time I turn it on, after which it will resume the wacky behavior.
I suspect it’s hardware related, particularly the ribbon cable connecting the built-in keyboard to the motherboard. That’s a common reason for laptop keyboards to stop responding, and when I pulled the keyboard off to check, I found the plastic clip which holds the ribbon in place was cracked on one side. I dropped the laptop earlier today, which could have jarred the ribbon out of place. I reseated the cable; we’ll see if that controls the issue or not. If it works, I may have to get out the superglue and fix that clip. I don’t want to take it to be repaired, because I suspect the only fix I’d be offered is to replace the motherboard. That’s more trouble than I want and more money than I want to spend.
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Microeconomics Day 1
Tuesday/Thurday class at Cy Fair Community College, Fairbanks Center
Professor Tara Chand Nuwal
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Statement of Intent
I seem to have joined the blogging community, however temporarily. I don’t particularly plan to publicize this blog, so the readership isn’t likely to extend past me and any friends or family members who happen to stumble upon it. This is fine; the posting is apt to be both boring and erratic.
I set this WordPress install up primarily to take notes in my college classes. I’ve had very poor success in the past with note-taking, or, for that matter, being organized in any form or fashion at all. It’s not a strength. The last class I took, however, I set up a wiki page and updated it continually as I went with notes and assignments. That worked pretty well. I did well in that class, for a variety of reasons, but the note-taking certainly helped. I could certainly take notes with a pencil and paper, but historically I don’t. I suspect the fiddliness of playing with the wiki helped keep me interested in updating it; I’m hoping WordPress will give me the same degree of entertainment, but in a more manageable format. Time will tell. Also, the auto-installer for the wiki I was previously using has vanished from my hosting provider’s config pages, and while I’ve configured wikis in the past, I’m lazy. The auto-installer for WordPress works just fine.
In any case, while this site is primarily a note repository, I intend to add some commentary here and there. I have a few half-finished essays floating around in my brain that I may get around to typing at some point. Maybe some commentary on current events will appear; sky’s the limit.
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Accounting Day 1
First day of class, Accounting 2401 at Cy-Fair Community College, Fairbanks Center
Professor Sarah Smith
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