Thoughts On A Sunday

It was a late night for yours truly, staying up to watch the Red Sox pound the Cleveland Indians in Game 6 of the ALCS, 12-2.

The Sox had pretty much won the game in the first inning, scoring 4 runs on a grand slam. The Sox never looked back.

All of the Red Sox Nation is hoping that their team will pull off a win in Game 7 tonight, leading the Sox to the World Series against the Colorado Rockies.

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It was also a sad day for the Weekend Pundit household.

Today was the last cruise of the season out on Lake Winnipesaukee on the Official Weekend Pundit Lake Winnipesaukee Runabout. It is scheduled to be taken out of the water on Monday, winterized, and stored away for the winter.

BeezleBub and I had some last minute maintenance to perform before handing it over to the crew at the marina, including changing the oil and filter, topping off the fuel tank, cleaning the interior of the boat, and removing all of the equipment and unmounted seat cushions and storing them away in the basement of The Manse.

I can't wait for May, when The Boat will once again ply the waters of the lake.....

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While BeezleBub and I were doing some of the pre-storage maintenance on The Boat we were listening to the beginning of the New England Patriots-Miami Dolphins game.

I cannot believe how it turned out during the first quarter and first 15 seconds of the second quarter. The Pats were on fire!

The Pats won 49-21.

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I'm not the only one questioning the wisdom of the sale of Verizon's wireline assets in northern New England to FairPoint Communications.

At least the editorial is dispassionate, saying that there are too many unanswered questions that require scrutiny.

[H]ow is the average man or woman on the street expected to come to an informed decision? Listen to union activists who have only their own interests to serve? Take the uninformed advice of "Stop the Sale" signs popping up across the region? Take on faith the doom-and-gloom letters to the editor?

None of these. This is a very complex financial issue that does not readily explain itself. It is one where the public interests must be represented by each state's Public Utilities Commission and departments such as that of the Maine state advocate — those with the resources and manpower to separate the wheat from the chaff, so to speak.

This is exactly what's needed to figure out if the deal is good or bad for the consumers in northern New England. We should not be forced into “buying a pig in a poke”, to use an old saying.

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I have to admit that I am quickly becoming disenchanted with Microsoft, McAfee, and Dell.

Deb's computer had a problem with McAfee at one point, necessitating an uninstall and reinstall. I used the back up disk that came with the Dell and everything installed just fine. Then, during the registration process, a pop up informs me that the Dell Service Tag number is missing, therefore, the registration aborted. It also meant that after 30 days I would no longer be able to update the virus definitions are scan engine. A quick e-mail to Dell and I found out how to set the Dell Service Tag number in the BIOS. No problem, right?

Wrong.

The McAfee registration server still couldn't see it or believed that it was the wrong one, so the registration aborted.

Another 'chat' with Dell, and they sent me a link to a download that would fix the problem. Files downloaded, installed, and then a try at McAfee registration. Registration fails.

This time a phone call to Dell and I was told that there was an update to the BIOS for Deb's machine available and that I should download it and flash the BIOS. I did that, the new BIOS looked fine, and then I booted the machine and tried to register McAfee again. Registration aborted again. I'd now spent three hours trying to cure the problem, I had other things to do, so I let it go for the day.

It's now Sunday morning. I start Deb's machine, it gets to the main screen where a user can boot their configuration...and the machine powers down and restarts. And then does it again. And again. And again, ad infinitum.

To make a long story short, it turns out that the culprit was one of the files I downloaded from Dell called Autopowr.exe. It was meant to be used on older systems with older versions of Windows. With XP it is triggered every time it reaches the main post-boot screen and the computer would restart.

Once the problem program was deleted, the problem went away.

But I still can't register McAfee and McAfee keeps telling me it's Dell's problem. But Dell Tech Support can see the Dell Service Tag number, so I have to believe it's a problem at McAfee's end. If this doesn't get solved soon, I'm going to demand my money back. After all, what good is a three year subscription if I have no way of updating the McAfee files because McAfee won't recognize the machine?

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Game 7 of the ALCS started off well, with the Red Sox getting on the scoreboard first.

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Jon Henke from the Fred Thompson campaign was liveblogging the GOP debate tonight.

I, on the other hand, was paying closer attention to the Red Sox.

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Chris Muir's Day By Day is back!

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Raven has some pictures to disprove the theory that global warming has dulled the fall foliage colors. That certainly hasn't been the case around here.

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And that's the news from Lake Winnipesaukee, where the leaves are in full color, the weather is still warm, and where, all too soon, the boating season is done.