I installed the BIOS update on a floppy and booted up the laptop. All seemed well until I got this message:
“This process requires a charged battery to avoid an accidental power-off during an update. Turn off the computer and install a charged battery in the computer.”
Before I glued the LCD screen to the back of the laptop, I removed the battery to save on weight. Now I have absolutely no access to the battery compartment.
At the moment, I see no way to have the computer turn itself on at scheduled times unless it can properly hibernate from Windows XP. It can’t hibernate because the BIOS doesn’t support windows XP, and I can’t update the BIOS because I removed the battery.
Maybe I can hack the BIOS update to make it think the battery is installed. Hmmm, stay tuned…
I got my digital picture frame back from the framing store and they did an excellent job. Thanks Darretta Custom Framing & Gallery!
I use the Windows My Pictures Slideshow Screensaver to randomly display pictures from a directory I chose. I have a scheduled task which will put the laptop into Hibernate or Standby, depending on what is selected under the advanced power settings for the sleep button. The command is: %windir%\System32\rundll32.exe powrprof.dll,SetSuspendState
But, after many hours of trying to get the laptop to turn back on from standby or hibernate modes, I was unsuccessful. That means I have to physically push the power button in order for it to turn on and display pictures. Considering how lazy I am, this is unacceptable.
The bad news is that the current BIOS version does not support Windows XP. The good news is that there is an update that can be installed by a floppy disk. Now I need to borrow a floppy drive to install the latest BIOS…
Mesothelioma is a serious form of cancer that is related to asbestos exposure. Don’t worry, I don’t have mesothelioma and I don’t plan on getting it.
I had no idea what mesothelioma was until I bought a house with asbestos in the basement. My brother John works as a mesothelioma defense lawyer (among other things), and he told me all about the risks of asbestos exposure. Even though it looks tempting, never lick asbestos, unless that is, you want to get mesothelioma. And if you get mesothelioma, I recommend that you seek legal help from a mesothelioma lawyer.
This is the first time I’ve ever seen asbestos and it’s in my basement. When looking in the basement, my inspector pointed it out to me.
Uh Scott, I wouldn’t touch that if I were you. Why not? Because that white covering is asbestos. Oh, that’s bad.
Yeah, asbestos is bad, but only if you rub it on your skin, inhale the little asbestos fibers, or consume it. Still, I don’t want to get mesothelioma so I want the asbestos out of my house as soon as possible. Currently the asbestos is covering the wooden support beam above my furnace. It will protect the beam in case of a fire, and it was installed there for that very reason.
A house jack is pinning the asbestos to the support beam so it will need to be moved. I plan to safely remove the asbestos when I replace the columns in the basement. There are a few more house jacks and old tree trunks loosely holding up my house… but that’s another story.
I always seem to be in the middle of some sort of project. Well this time, I took apart an old laptop for the purposes of creating a digital picture frame that would randomly display pictures throughout the day. And, of course, I took pictures of the progress. Before any project I work on, I always do research on the internet and chances are likely that someoneelse has done and documented exactly what I want to do. Thanks internet!
The laptop is an IBM Thinkpad 600 with a 20GB hard drive, a WiFi card, one USB port, and then other features that I won’t be using. I will be able to remote desktop into the laptop and control it from my main computer in the house. Any pictures that I put in a certain folder on the hard drive will be in the rotation of pictures that the screensaver will cycle through. I’m going to have the laptop turn it self on and off at certain times in the day. The possibilities are endless. I can imagine a weather forecast in the morning, or maybe a caller ID text display…
I removed the CD-ROM drive, and the battery since I wasn’t going to use them and I wanted to make it lighter. I removed 29 screws in order to snap open the plastic frame surrounding the LCD screen, and to look underneath the keyboard. After removing as much as possible, including the rubber feet, I mounted the LCD screen to the back of the laptop.
I took the laptop to Darretta Custom Framing & Gallery today to have it framed in a sweet looking wooden frame, and I can’t wait to get it back.
Hopefully any information I provide here might help out some one else down the road. Let me know what you think.
We have lived in our home for almost a year now and we have yet to take a shower on the second floor of our house. It’s a little later than we had hoped but we are currently renovating our bathroom. I love taking before and after pictures as some of you may know. I posted some pictures of the bathroom before the renovation and some during the process.
I was surprised to see how cool my house looks like from the inside
I saw a keyboard for sale on the internet that claimed to dramatically improve your typing skills. The keyboard was solid black and had no letters, numbers or symbols on any of the keys. Basically, there’s no point in looking down and away from the monitor since you can’t read the keyboard. It sounded interesting but I didn’t want to spend any money on it, especially since I have a few computer accessories lying around including an extra keyboard.
So I covered a keyboard with three different colors of spray paint and then two light coats of polyurethane. The keyboard came out great. It feels like a normal keyboard and no keys are stuck or anything.
After using it for a few days I found it to be very annoying. Touch typing where your hands are in proper position makes it hard for me to hit the backspace without having to reset my hand position. Passwords are the hardest to type. I keep my regular keyboard close by as a reference for typing passwords and in case I want to switch keyboards. My typing my have improved slightly but I still prefer my own style. I’m all over the keyboard using my index fingers a majority of the time but I type faster.
