ryyannon

And Aloha to you, Lanikai... I was following your mouthwatering cigar conversation in the Shoutbox earlier. I just received a lovely assortment from 1001cubancigars.com (they're having a 30 percent off sale on individual sticks), and can recommend them - especially for members in the EU: prices are in dollars, and with the Euro, you're getting a practically fifty percent price reduction! I see they've got a limited but interesting selection of aged cigars also - which I'm going to look into. Sorry for taking the thread OT - but my little digression is finished!

Escrow service much too complicated, and subject to endless problems. Why not Macro pics of before and after, documenting condition of watch at reception and the same after repair/modding, and systematically posted as thumbnails on the repair/modder's own sub-forum here in RWG? Not one hundred percent perfect, but fast, cheap and providing visible evidence of work and transformatons for all to see....

I kept it up for our Chinese members.

Heh.

Is Hyper-Threading like The Shortest Thread Ever? Since he can turn in on, can he tell T. how to turn it off?

The guys who repaired it should offer some sort of guarantee, no? As for technical advice, I'm as lost as you are. Have you thought of logging in to a Dell users' forum - or some sort of Dell online help...or any one of the many computer geek forums? Back to my first suggestion: work like that should be guaranteed - to produce the desired results. If you're getting the same symptoms, you could have just left the old drive in there... I'd take it back and politely ask that they fix it this time. But given the ridiculous price of a new low-end but perfectly satisfactory Dell laptop, maybe you should consider investing in one fresh off the assembly-line? Just think, you be able to log in to RWG in the bathtub, the sauna, where ever! But be sure it's running XP and not Vista...

Man, what joy to be back in Dell/Windoze-land... As relentless as I was in my praise of all things Apple for nearly ten years, my experience with The Dark Side (no, not the forum) has really been positive: I just somehow feel lighter using this stuff. Of course, even compared to this Dell (Latitude) which is already several years old, I'm confident that a new Apple 'Air' laptop would be heavenly. And only two or three times more expensive than the Dell. For my purposes (which admittedly are very limited) XP does everything I want; having spent years on OS9.1 - and having bonded with it - I never really got used to Apple OS 10+ Psychologically and even physiologically, being offline because of a crashed computer is the closest thing for me to A Really Bad Trip - back in the days when I was taking things that could produce RBTs. On to the next problem: as per my thread in the Supporters Trade sub-forum, has anyone got a replacement crystal for a PAM Asian Auto 203 Brevettato? Broke mine, and the people here in France can't find a replacement. The specs of the crystal and the bezel are as follows: 39.96mm to 40mm for the crystal and 40.2mm for the bezel's inner diameter. The crystal is in slightly convex mineral glass. Which is not to say that I'm not interested in a plexi or sapphire version if dimensions are right. Will pay for your time and postage; special offer for non-members: I'll pay for a year's upgrade to Supporting Member!

Well, by golly, it's come back to life! Thank you, C-Stone for reminding me of that precious F8 key....and for everyone else, I hope that the above command prompt will serve others who might find themselves up the same shitty creek someday... Goodbye old dinosaur iMac - just as I was getting used to you again... Life is Good

Well, for the thousands of people who are following this thread and literally pissing themselves senseless wondering what's going to happen next, here's what happened next: I dug out the instructions I had used the last time this happened (never throw anything away) and typed c:/windows/system32/restore/restui.exe and entered the command. I got a new window wherein I was able to select my own restore point. I selected two days ago, entered it, and in a new window, the system proceeded to restore itself. A new Safe Mode window opened, but nothing else is happening. Just a black screen with litte 'Safe Mode' phrases at each of the four corners. Nothing to chose, nothing to click on, no other options. I'm going to try a restart and see if the issue has been resolved....

Addendum: This actually happened to me some months ago, and I somehow found a way to type in a previous date for the system to revert back to, and it worked. At present, I have no idea how I did that. The reason why I think personally selecting an earlier date might work is that I had no choice in the dialogue window that appeared after hitting F8. There was just a generic 'Return to the last known good configuration' message, and as I said, it didn't work. I'm thinking that maybe the system thinks that the configuration that crashed it is still a good configuration. Or something like that. Anyway, I'm still wondering what command is needed to open up the option of selecting one's own date... Or any other intelligent little commands that will convince the system that I'm working hard to communicate with it...

Hum... I can actually do this in real-time whle posting here.... ok, I pressed F8 and selected a number of different options, leading up to Restore To An Earlier...whatever, unfortunately my OS is in French, but I'm sure you'll know what I mean. I first tried Resore the Active Directory, which I guess it did, and gave me a message back that everything was just fine in the system. I then tried the 'Debugging' option, but still got the blue screen on startup. Finally, I hit the Last Good Configuration option, but still the blue screen on startup. The last possible option was to try to open a command-line window. I chose it, and a blinking _ appeared at the top left of the screen, and while I was relating this event in this post, a new cmd.exe screen in Safe Mode appeared. It's now patiently waiting for me to type in some sort of command, but naturally, I've no real idea of what to write - except maybe 'Give me my desktop back!' Something tells me that it's not going to take a command like that very seriously. Do you happen to know the little magic formula (restore.exe.iwantmydesktopback) (?) Waiting with bated breath....

Thank you - I'll try that and report back. I'm using what are considered 'non-agressive' virus and malware applications (can't remember which just at this moment - oh yes, Avast and Prevx.2) but something tells me that quarantining those two Trojans (which were embedded deep in the OS) might have neutralized the whole thing. I'm going to try your suggestion right now....

While online this morning, I received a message about an automatic upgrade for my Comodo Firewall. I followed the instructions, upgraded, and ran the suggested malware scan after it was installed. Two Trojans were found deep in the OS (which surprised me, since I'm running no less than two compatible malware protections plus a stand-alone scanner) , and I elected to quarantine them (the only opti!on offered by the Comodo scan). There then came a new message to restart the whole system. It booted into XP, and then the dreaded Blue Screen came on. It continued turning itself off, rebooti!ng, turning itself off and rebooting, until I manually turned it off. I tried several times to reboot after giving it a rest, but there's always the same blue screen with no cursor. No warning messages - or messages of any kind. Just lots of blue. So, does anyone remember the sequence of keys needed to open a command box and/or to initiate a return to a previous configuration? I can Google this of course (I'm now using an old iMac which seems like a dinosaur) but I thought I'd float this out in the event that someone suggests some nifty solution or possibility to try. Thanks for your input

You mean Nanuq?

Last one out turns off the lights.... http://www.cojoweb.com/earthlights.html

Indeed, we are all pulling together here. Keep it up, guys!

end of story. http://gizmodo.com/351913/maxablaster-flas...clouds-vampires

Captain: For great justice.

CATS: Ha Ha Ha Ha ....

No Aussie girls, but an intense scene of masculine bonding from Brokebean Mountain:

I dunno Ken....pooting around New York City in a flying bean-pot...personally, I thought that was pretty spec-tac-u-lar... I mean, what do ya' want? A rose-garden?

Like the stock market, The Shortest Thread Ever is poised on the edge of a new historic low.

The Shortest Thread Ever has the shortest memory ever.

Nice one, Lanikai It's clear you love your home - not sure how many people could say the same...

There are two things that Chuck Norris and The Shortest Thread have in common: neither one ever uses the word 'sorry.' Or accept it as an excuse.