Dan

I did that. No dice. 7's were still streaming continually.

OK... so I'm working on a few comps today at a neighbors house- a little basic cleaning, setting up a home network, easy cheesy. Then they ask if I can fix a keyboard on their laptop (HP ze5700). Enter the end of my day. The "7" key is busted. I mean completely busted. In their failed attempts to do something they completely ripped out the key and tore up the underlying circuit thing. So, it's pretty well screwed. I told them they could buy a new keyboard relatively cheap and replace it. Can you get it to connect to an external keyboard? Sure, I say. Well, to make a long story short... the computer is continually acting as though the "7" key is being continually pressed. I removed the laptop's keyboard completely. Still 7's continually being typed with no keyboard whatsoever attached. I tried everything I could thing of, but bring up any cmd window (not an easy task when all you can type is 7c77m7777d77) and a steady stream of 7's start flowing. So, any advice? It beats anything I'd ever seen.

Technically, we've never withdrawn our troops from Europe after WWII either. I guess.

Yes. The Chroise makes the fans jump for joys and make some noise! Start the Chroise! forget the toys.

IMO, these tax issue discussions are funny. All it does is put the tax rate back to where it was 10 years ago. It didn't kill the country then, it won't kill the country in 2011. Like it or not, the only way you're getting the deficit down is a tax increase like this and cuts. So, if you want a balanced federal budget, you have to realize that some measure of tax increase is required. What should be discussed is the wholesale changes in healthcare, medicare, defense spending, and so on and so forth. Obama has laid the outline for some very serious and profound changes. Good or bad, I couldn't begin to tell you yet; but the guy is taking on some huge issues that he's almost certain to fail in (and by fail I mean not get passed through congress). So, in the end, I'd be shocked if Congress does a quarter of what he's outlined.

Hamdan Rocks! the Chroise and the rest are boys! Yeah Hamdan!

They must have a great sense of humor to do that in public is all I can say.

Interestingly, I was in LA last night with a very highly conservative republican watching the prez and then Jindal. Even he thought Jindal blew it. He was fairly disappointed when it was all said and done. It was a whiskey night needless to say.

Obama has repeatedly stated that this bill will create or save an estimated 3.5 million jobs. I would put spending like this clearly in the "saving" jobs category, as opposed to creating. Granted it may create a couple, but certainly not many. These types of projects aren't nearly as wasteful as everyone seems to think. Money from something like this goes directly back into the economy in a variety of ways. Much of the work is probably through Universities, hence university overhead keeping administrators employed. Researchers are famous for using grant money to buy supplies, equipment, reagents, and so forth - they'll spend every dime they get; plus they'll hire/support Post Docs with the money. One thing is for certain, if you give someone $100 dollars for a research grant; they'll spend every penny of that - none of it goes into a bank or account. Granted we can argue should they be spending money on this particular research project? Should they be spending it as part of this bill and not some other bill? And so forth. But, I'm less worried about this kind of spending helping the economy than I am money to some governmental program. I guess everyone just assumes researchers and the industries that support them don't need an economic boost like the housing/auto industry does?

Exactly... kinda. The point I attempted to throw out was that many people have a false perception of reality. The A-Bomb is perceived as the instantaneous and complete annihilation of a City. More traditional bombing methods are seen as something you have a chance to survive. I'm not saying that's true. I'm saying that's the perception. And because of that perception, the use of atomic bombs is looked upon more negatively.

I would suggest the much the difference of opinion is just perception. For example, Firebombing is less bad because it's 100's or 1,000's of bombs dropped over the course of hours and I can hide in the cellar and still survive. An atomic bomb, on the other hand, is a single bombed that in an instant completely incinerates an entire city. Hence, I'll take my chances with the "traditional" bombs because they're not as devastating. Not saying any of that is true - just saying that is likely many people's perceptions.

oooo... look hornet's nest. *poke, poke* Love it. Unfortunately, I think gordon gave up on this thread quite a few posts ago. Hopefully, he doesn't give up on posting other insider notions.

I agree! I think we should only own up to ~30 seasons. No way we should let last season go down a season of record for the franchise. I'm also a little confused by all this season vs anniversary stuff. Is it kinda like how the Chinese call what we call the first birthday your 2nd because your first birthday is the day you're actually born?

All miles better than the Bills' design. Interesting though that they all have similarities with the big "50" and the double emblem idea. I wonder if the league mandated certain aspects of the design.

Maybe it's just due diligence. With Jackson's contract still up in the air; Omon still an uncertainty; and Lynch getting into trouble, maybe they just want to cover all their bases and see what's available. It never hurts to bring guys in and talk to them. Or maybe its just a smokescreen to throw other teams off by making them think we're trying to sign a RB. My guess, nothing comes of it and they're just fishing. Personally, I'd like to see them bring in every potential FA. At least it shows they're doing something. Of course, it won't mean anything come Sept. but it keeps us in the running of winning the offseason.

Yep. You summed it up pretty well. I try to look at this like what's the big deal... it's just a patch. But, seriously, it looks sophomoric to say the least. I can only assume they had one of those 5th grade contests to let kids draw designs. Just bad.

Hope its a good machine. I didn't max out the options, but added about another $1,000 to the list price with memory, Velociraptor drives, board upgrades, the works. But, that was the nail in XPs coffin for me. Windows 7 is supposed to come out this fall and they say you can upgrade from Vista, but with XP it'll be a complete overhaul. You'll need a full Windows CD for the UBCD. Then spend a little time to update the antivrus definition files and it becomes a really handy tool.

Thanks Dean! I was leaning towards the Avira. But had not heard of the Nod32. I'll have to look into it some more. I've downloaded the Vipre upon your advice to other posters but haven't really had the chance to use it much yet. I agree on th AVG. It's not bad, but kinda bulky. It serves me well but I'm not sure I'd put it on less knowledgeable person's machine. I expect delivery of the machine in 5-10 business days. Of course, it's customized up a fair bit. I'm a little anxious about it; never got a brand like this. But, it was a really good price and had decent reviews. We'll see I guess. Also, I bit the bullet and went with Vista SP1. I know all the issues with Vista, but I just couldn't see putting XP on a comp that should be around for another 5 years or more. Have you ever tried the Ultimate Boot CD for Windows? I've found it pretty darn helpful with machines that were really bad infected or messed up. Good for machines that get the passwords changed too.

I agree with everything you've said. I also saw the program from the OP. It makes me wonder... is this the type of effort it would take to truly crush the terrorists inside Pakistan and other countries? There seem to be several parallels to the ideology and surrender not being an option. Would the world today even allow such a complete obliteration of people in those tribal regions?

Every computer I've ever seen that uses IE7 as the primary or sole web browser gets bogged down with Spyware stuff within a couple of months and eventually you see a myriad of problems, some similar to your current problem. Every computer I've ever seen that uses Mozilla Firefox as their primary or sole web browser remains relatively spyware free. As far as features go, I'd say they're pretty well similar. Some will argue Firefox has more features. For me, however, it's all about less spyware/pop up/malware crap that make firefox a must use. It certainly sounds like you've got some decent malware on your machine. I'm sure you've read it, but about all I could suggest is to try a few of Dean's ideas in this thread and see if that helps.

Have you tried starting the comp in "safe mode" and then running the various antivirii programs? Better still, if you have a bootable CD, start from that and then run the programs. Another trick I've tried: "Cntl+Alt+Del" get the Task Manager and try to End all nonessential processes. This requires a little more effort because you'll want to google each process to see what it is, write them down one by one. Then go back and "End" them. (The worst that's ever happened is I "End" something that's critical and the comp crashes and I restart and start all over again.) Then run your antivirus stuff. Doesn't always work, but sometimes helps. Then I'd suggest stop using Internet Explorer. On a related, but similar note. I was going to ask this in the CD board this afternoon, but this thread seemed a good place to start. What good (i.e. free or very cheap) antivirus programs do people (Fez, Dean) recommend? I'm about to buy a couple work comps and of course want to load something on them. I've used Norton in the past. (but you have to pay every year and I've seen so many viruses get through it, that it makes me wonder why pay for something that never seems to actually prevent something from getting on my machine.) On my current laptop, I'm using AVG free version, and it seems to be sufficient. A friend uses the Avira Antivir and seems to like it. Any other alternatives? Again, I don't mind paying something, but I'd rather not pay much because I'm not sure any of these things work that well.

If they were really such bad asses, wouldn't they just shiv the mofo's stealing their logo? Talk about the pussification of America... sheeez even the Hells Angels are becoming wimps.

It was another one of those programs on the History/Discovery/History International Channel. I saw it a few weeks or so back. They apparently had 2 separate programs trying to build atomic bombs. One of them was based in North Korea and I believe that was the one they tested. All the details of the program are a little fuzzy to me. But the Japanese scientists were ordered to burn all records of the program when they surrendered. However, one set of documents made it out and some prof at Arkansas or Texas had them and some. I found it a fairly interesting program because I had never heard anything of a Japanese atomic bomb either.

Off the top of my head, I'd guess... they didn't know how many more bombs we had, plus they weren't really fighting or defending anything. They were just being slaughtered with our bombs. I think the power of their resolve is the fact that it took 2 bombs when it was apparent that after 1, they stood zero chance. Also, I saw another program that said they were working on their own atomic bomb. They "supposedly" tested it after our first bomb was dropped. Their test failed. So, perhaps they finally realized they just had no alternative and finally did what was best for their people.

I don't think we're completely disagreeing here. I agree we'll have to pay for this all someday and inflation will most likely be one mechanism of paying for it. However, the current federal debt has more than doubled in recent years. Has inflation more than doubled to pay for that? I don't see that as being the case. So, yes, it may increase in the future, but currently it has not. Hence, we're not yet paying for our federal spending of the last few years. I'm not sure anyone is arguing for the decline of state's rights. Even the portions of the "stimulus" bill that provide for education funding are going to just give the states the money to spend on their schools. I don't think the feds are planning to circumvent the state's right to spend money on schools. In fact, several state's are considering not accepting portions of the fed cash because they don't want it. The problem now, though, is that the states are as bankrupt as anyone. So, they can't spend. If they can't spend they lay people off, nix projects, etc. The feds are the only ones that can spend money they don't have.... hence they're saying they should. Not sure I agree with it, but I believe that's the logic. How any of this is socialism is beyond me. The country has become well-footed in the idea that tax money should be given to private businesses whether it be to defense contractors or car manufacturers. How does the current bill take us any closer to socialism? It's merely continuing what most everyone is so fond of. Sure, Republicans don't like giving money to factory workers; they'd rather give it all to defense contractors or Exxon. While the Dems want to give it to everyone they can think of. But, what's the difference? We're still taking tax dollars and giving it to someone.