I have been following the global warming debate for a long time even if until recently it has been rather one sided. In the 1990s I believed that the potential for global warming as a result of the greenhouse effect was a real concern. The science seemed to make sense and it was evident that eventually it would become a problem. I must confess I am no longer so sure; therefore I thought it might be fun to look at global warming from all angles and see what we find.
Working through this topic is not going to be easy. The amount of information and data is not trivial. Consider for a moment the concept of measuring global temperatures. How many data points do you need and where do you take your measurements. Since you can not take measurements everywhere all the time you are forced to take a sample. Suppose you decide to take temperature measurements every hour at a thousand different stations. Would that be representative of the entire planet? Most of the earth’s surface is ocean so should most of our temperature measurements be made above the oceans? What I am leading up to is that before you can make any statements about your measurements, you have to prove that the method you use to make the measurements is valid. Then you have to prove that those measurements are representative of the entire planet within a margin of error small enough to detect significant differences over time with some degree of confidence. There is also bias to consider but I think we can let that go for another day.
The alarmists like to point to anecdotal evidence such as melting polar ice and destructive storms like Katrina to support their position. They predicted a horrific Atlantic hurricane season last year that never materialized. It would be very convenient to state that the melting ice proves global warming is occurring and equally convenient to state that the failure to correctly predict the hurricane season last year proves otherwise.
However, this is science and not politics. You can’t pick and choose the data you like or dismiss predictions that fail to happen. Science is a tough game and saying that the issue is settled because you have more people on your side is ludicrous. In the late 1800s the idea that the atoms in compounds like sodium chloride would dissociate into ions when dissolved in water was considered absurd. And yet, the 1884 thesis making this statement won its author Svante August Arrhenius a Nobel Prize in chemistry in 1903.
I generally admire a person who supports their position with passion even if I disagree with them. Do I disagree with the idea of global warming? No. Do I disagree with global warming alarmists like Al Gore? Absolutely yes. When these zealots covered their ears with their hands and went, “La la la la…” to drown out those who disagreed with them I changed sides. What Al Gore and his followers is selling is not science. Some have called it socialism hidden in a cloak of environmentalism and maybe that is true. But that is not the issue here. What we need to sort out is the science part of global warming with neither the politics nor the religious fervor of the global warming activists.
If it turns out there is a problem then we think it through and try to find a solution that is both effective and affordable.
At the end of this exercise I may find myself doing a 180º turn on this issue provided the numbers shake out that way. As Richard Feynman once said, “Nature can not be fooled”.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Sunday, May 4, 2008
First Amendment Rights
During a recent visit to our public library I was treated to a remarkable spectacle that illustrates how one can remain illiterate while surrounded by books. While navigating amongst the bookshelves in the library I observed three boys, perhaps 13 to 15 years old, huddled around a library supplied laptop computer in the reference section.
Curious about what could render three adolescent boys motionless for so long I walked over until I could clearly see that they were watching a video showing a woman performing oral sex on some guy. Cartoons and comics always depict boys watching pornographic images with a wide eyed stare; and I am here to tell you it is real. They were truly spellbound by the visual candy in front of them and oblivious to the rest of the world. The slack jaw on the youngest boy suggests that his more experienced and learned friends were providing him with an important part of his education. When he starts dating we certainly know what will be on his mind all evening.
When I mentioned this to the librarian while checking out my books she reacted as if I had told her that no one had dusted the windowsills recently. She said something about it being the parents’ responsibility, that there wasn’t anything they could really do, and besides, and here it comes, it is protected by the first amendment. Can you imagine James Madison, pen in hand, facing Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and asking, “Do you think we need a new amendment to protect pornography or do you think the first amendment pretty much covers it?”
You can’t help but wonder how adult men sworn to uphold the Constitution can give their seal of approval to McCain-Feingold, the type of law the first amendment was specifically designed to prevent, and still maintain a straight face as they justify their ruling that pornography, including virtual child pornography, deserves protection under the first amendment. If I sat on the Supreme Court and faced a case involving pornography I would point to the tenth amendment and throw the lawyers out of my court room.
As an aside even though I find flag burning to be far more offensive than pornography, I believe it is protected by the first amendment since it is a political statement. If someone is so passionate in their hatred of America that they feel a need to desecrate its flag they may do so without government interference. This can be a topic for another day; so let me get back to the original subject.
Within a week of this event the local newspaper carried a story about a teenage girl being inappropriately touched by a boy in the library. Now where do boys get such ideas? Parents would be wise to take note of how their children improve their minds in public libraries that give unlimited access to the internet. Most parents would probably agree that this is not the best utilization of library resources.
For those of you who think access to hard core pornography is appropriate for children just entering puberty I would ask that the libraries and education professionals make access dependent on learning something useful. Imagine a thirteen year old wanting to learn more about homosexual S&M techniques clicking their computer mouse and all of a sudden seeing a window pop up that says something like this:
Curious about what could render three adolescent boys motionless for so long I walked over until I could clearly see that they were watching a video showing a woman performing oral sex on some guy. Cartoons and comics always depict boys watching pornographic images with a wide eyed stare; and I am here to tell you it is real. They were truly spellbound by the visual candy in front of them and oblivious to the rest of the world. The slack jaw on the youngest boy suggests that his more experienced and learned friends were providing him with an important part of his education. When he starts dating we certainly know what will be on his mind all evening.
When I mentioned this to the librarian while checking out my books she reacted as if I had told her that no one had dusted the windowsills recently. She said something about it being the parents’ responsibility, that there wasn’t anything they could really do, and besides, and here it comes, it is protected by the first amendment. Can you imagine James Madison, pen in hand, facing Thomas Jefferson and Benjamin Franklin and asking, “Do you think we need a new amendment to protect pornography or do you think the first amendment pretty much covers it?”
You can’t help but wonder how adult men sworn to uphold the Constitution can give their seal of approval to McCain-Feingold, the type of law the first amendment was specifically designed to prevent, and still maintain a straight face as they justify their ruling that pornography, including virtual child pornography, deserves protection under the first amendment. If I sat on the Supreme Court and faced a case involving pornography I would point to the tenth amendment and throw the lawyers out of my court room.
As an aside even though I find flag burning to be far more offensive than pornography, I believe it is protected by the first amendment since it is a political statement. If someone is so passionate in their hatred of America that they feel a need to desecrate its flag they may do so without government interference. This can be a topic for another day; so let me get back to the original subject.
Within a week of this event the local newspaper carried a story about a teenage girl being inappropriately touched by a boy in the library. Now where do boys get such ideas? Parents would be wise to take note of how their children improve their minds in public libraries that give unlimited access to the internet. Most parents would probably agree that this is not the best utilization of library resources.
For those of you who think access to hard core pornography is appropriate for children just entering puberty I would ask that the libraries and education professionals make access dependent on learning something useful. Imagine a thirteen year old wanting to learn more about homosexual S&M techniques clicking their computer mouse and all of a sudden seeing a window pop up that says something like this:
The minor would then have to navigate through a series of screens that tests his general knowledge. Questions could require multiple choice or fill in the blank answers. It is alright that they can look up the answers on the computer or God forbid they might actually pick up a book to find an answer. We can even include some math problems. With a little luck the child will grow increasingly frustrated at having to run through this intellectual gauntlet and ask his parents to buy him his own computer for watching triple X videos.
Assuming other people besides me see this as a problem the next step is finding an acceptable solution where parents could exercise control without a physical presence. I think I have such a solution and may share it in a later post if I sense any interest.Sunday, April 20, 2008
Live Educated or Die
Months having gone by since my last post, I am inclined to again blame a lack of inspiration. This however would be dishonest. The truth is that I spend too much effort trying to write about neutral topics. I try to stick to positive events in my life and keep things light. Unfortunately this is not working for me. I realize now that I am not cut out to write about what I did on my summer vacation. So let me draw my inspiration from the things that interest me.
In my last blog entry I expressed my appreciation to Norman W. Edmund for starting a business intended for people like me. I have since learned that Mr. Edmund advocates teaching the scientific method in our schools and believes our educational system has failed in this duty. I have a recollection that the scientific method was discussed in school at some point but I may have learned it on my own. In any event I agree that it is extremely important to teach students the scientific method and pound it into their tiny little minds over and over again every time they take a science course.
When I taught introductory chemistry in college I always spent one lecture talking about the scientific method and tried to show how it could be applied to familiar topics. By discussing the importance of verifiable facts and the power of experimentation I hoped that they would get some sense of how science works.
I am sorry to report that the experience was seldom rewarding though I did have a few students who exceeded my expectations. In general I suspect that Mr. Edmund is corrrect in his assessment of our educational system except that I think his indictment of the system is too narrow. I dream of a world where the ignorance is limited to the scientific method. If my experiences are representative of how prepared our students are when they enter college we are in big trouble. The word clueless comes to mind.
It really bothers me that our young people can’t do simple arithmetic, can’t find India or the Pacific Ocean on a globe, and have no idea who fought on either side during World War II. Worse yet, I get the impression that many students simply don’t care. This is troubling. Not knowing something is called ignorance. Being comfortable with that ignorance is called stupidity.
During a discussion once with some of my demented colleagues someone suggested a system guaranteed to motivate all students to work to their full potential. In any given class the student with the lowest year end grade is either shot or else hauled off to some labor camp. What better reason is there for studying hard and acquiring knowledge than one’s survival? Joseph Stalin could hardly improve on such a system.
I imagine many educators straightening up in their chairs and reading that last paragraph a second time. Some will upon honest reflection find themselves quietly agreeing with the concept. Yes, there must be more immediate consequences albeit slightly less extreme. Their students if they can read are completely puzzled by the paragraph and asking, “Who is Joseph Stalin?”
In my last blog entry I expressed my appreciation to Norman W. Edmund for starting a business intended for people like me. I have since learned that Mr. Edmund advocates teaching the scientific method in our schools and believes our educational system has failed in this duty. I have a recollection that the scientific method was discussed in school at some point but I may have learned it on my own. In any event I agree that it is extremely important to teach students the scientific method and pound it into their tiny little minds over and over again every time they take a science course.
When I taught introductory chemistry in college I always spent one lecture talking about the scientific method and tried to show how it could be applied to familiar topics. By discussing the importance of verifiable facts and the power of experimentation I hoped that they would get some sense of how science works.
I am sorry to report that the experience was seldom rewarding though I did have a few students who exceeded my expectations. In general I suspect that Mr. Edmund is corrrect in his assessment of our educational system except that I think his indictment of the system is too narrow. I dream of a world where the ignorance is limited to the scientific method. If my experiences are representative of how prepared our students are when they enter college we are in big trouble. The word clueless comes to mind.
It really bothers me that our young people can’t do simple arithmetic, can’t find India or the Pacific Ocean on a globe, and have no idea who fought on either side during World War II. Worse yet, I get the impression that many students simply don’t care. This is troubling. Not knowing something is called ignorance. Being comfortable with that ignorance is called stupidity.
During a discussion once with some of my demented colleagues someone suggested a system guaranteed to motivate all students to work to their full potential. In any given class the student with the lowest year end grade is either shot or else hauled off to some labor camp. What better reason is there for studying hard and acquiring knowledge than one’s survival? Joseph Stalin could hardly improve on such a system.
I imagine many educators straightening up in their chairs and reading that last paragraph a second time. Some will upon honest reflection find themselves quietly agreeing with the concept. Yes, there must be more immediate consequences albeit slightly less extreme. Their students if they can read are completely puzzled by the paragraph and asking, “Who is Joseph Stalin?”
Monday, December 17, 2007
A Belated Thank You to Norman W. Edmund
In 1963 I purchased a three inch reflector from Edmund Scientific Company. This telescope included a simple fork type equatorial mount on a wooden tripod, a simple finder scope, an eyepiece that provided a magnification of 60×, and a Barlow lens in case I needed more magnification.
The telescope was delivered a few hours before we left for a two week vacation to Sussex County, New Jersey not far from Stokes State Forest. This being many years before the developers discovered the area, seeing was always excellent up there. During this vacation I spent many hours looking at planets and trying to find some of the objects listed in my dad’s Norton’s Star Atlas.
I was a real novice but quickly discovered the joys of astronomy. Double stars were new to me and though they seem somewhat boring to me now they were generally easy targets and provided me with lots of experience in finding objects in the sky. For those unfamiliar with the term, a double star is simply two stars whose images are so close together that they appear as one with the naked eye.
The excellent seeing and my youthful eyesight made finding the globular cluster M13 in Hercules a cinch. The ring nebula M57 in Lyra was more challenging, but I found it. I quickly learned to adjust my expectations since I was looking through a 3 inch telescope at objects that I had only seen before in photographs taken with enormous instruments such as the 200 inch telescope at Mt. Palomar.
Some time later I purchased a copy of Webb’s Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes which provided information about just about everything worth seeing using a small instrument. More and more astronomy filled my waking hours. The only books I read were on astronomy and I began to believe I would eventually make a career out of it.
In 1966 my dad recognized my passion for observing and decided to help me out with an upgrade. He drove me to the Edmund Scientific store in Barrington, New Jersey to buy the parts needed to upgrade to a 4¼ inch instrument. Our shopping cart included the mirror, mirror mount, a larger equatorial mounting, aluminum tube, diagonal mirror, new finder scope, and a rack and pinion focuser. I can’t be absolutely sure but I think this was the trip on which I purchased my very own updated Norton’s Star Atlas. This book still sits proudly in my bookcase and gets used at least monthly. But the real prize was getting to spend a few hours in the coolest store I had ever been in before or since.
Walking into the store I immediately noticed the hundreds of radiometers on my left with their rapidly spinning vanes making a pleasant tinkling sound. A few meters away the store had mounted a working World War II vintage Japanese periscope. Looking through it provided the prelude to a journey of discovery. An entire room filled with surplus items including aerial cameras, lenses, mirrors, magnets, and other stuff lay before me. Shelves and tables filled with one of a kind items cast their hypnotic spell over me. I still recall that trip to Edmund Scientific many years ago. I also recall when I took my own boys there. Even though their interests are very different from mine they still thought visiting the store was a marvelous experience.
Over the years I acquired dozens of items from Edmund Scientific and spent many hundreds of hours entertaining myself with them. Upon reflection I realize how influential all this exposure to the tools of science was to my choice of careers. I still have a lot of the things I purchased there including magnets, polarizers, tools, lenses, and books. I still use the meter stick that was a part of a very inexpensive optical bench bought there.
I am pretty sure Edmund Scientific changed the nature of their business not too long ago, selling off everything except their industrial optics business. Times change and business decisions are made for very good reasons. The important thing is that Edmund Scientific Company was there when I needed it. For this reason I am sending here and now a big thank you to Norman W. Edmund who founded the company that made my journey into science a little bit easier.
The telescope was delivered a few hours before we left for a two week vacation to Sussex County, New Jersey not far from Stokes State Forest. This being many years before the developers discovered the area, seeing was always excellent up there. During this vacation I spent many hours looking at planets and trying to find some of the objects listed in my dad’s Norton’s Star Atlas.
I was a real novice but quickly discovered the joys of astronomy. Double stars were new to me and though they seem somewhat boring to me now they were generally easy targets and provided me with lots of experience in finding objects in the sky. For those unfamiliar with the term, a double star is simply two stars whose images are so close together that they appear as one with the naked eye.
The excellent seeing and my youthful eyesight made finding the globular cluster M13 in Hercules a cinch. The ring nebula M57 in Lyra was more challenging, but I found it. I quickly learned to adjust my expectations since I was looking through a 3 inch telescope at objects that I had only seen before in photographs taken with enormous instruments such as the 200 inch telescope at Mt. Palomar.
Some time later I purchased a copy of Webb’s Celestial Objects for Common Telescopes which provided information about just about everything worth seeing using a small instrument. More and more astronomy filled my waking hours. The only books I read were on astronomy and I began to believe I would eventually make a career out of it.
In 1966 my dad recognized my passion for observing and decided to help me out with an upgrade. He drove me to the Edmund Scientific store in Barrington, New Jersey to buy the parts needed to upgrade to a 4¼ inch instrument. Our shopping cart included the mirror, mirror mount, a larger equatorial mounting, aluminum tube, diagonal mirror, new finder scope, and a rack and pinion focuser. I can’t be absolutely sure but I think this was the trip on which I purchased my very own updated Norton’s Star Atlas. This book still sits proudly in my bookcase and gets used at least monthly. But the real prize was getting to spend a few hours in the coolest store I had ever been in before or since.
Walking into the store I immediately noticed the hundreds of radiometers on my left with their rapidly spinning vanes making a pleasant tinkling sound. A few meters away the store had mounted a working World War II vintage Japanese periscope. Looking through it provided the prelude to a journey of discovery. An entire room filled with surplus items including aerial cameras, lenses, mirrors, magnets, and other stuff lay before me. Shelves and tables filled with one of a kind items cast their hypnotic spell over me. I still recall that trip to Edmund Scientific many years ago. I also recall when I took my own boys there. Even though their interests are very different from mine they still thought visiting the store was a marvelous experience.
Over the years I acquired dozens of items from Edmund Scientific and spent many hundreds of hours entertaining myself with them. Upon reflection I realize how influential all this exposure to the tools of science was to my choice of careers. I still have a lot of the things I purchased there including magnets, polarizers, tools, lenses, and books. I still use the meter stick that was a part of a very inexpensive optical bench bought there.
I am pretty sure Edmund Scientific changed the nature of their business not too long ago, selling off everything except their industrial optics business. Times change and business decisions are made for very good reasons. The important thing is that Edmund Scientific Company was there when I needed it. For this reason I am sending here and now a big thank you to Norman W. Edmund who founded the company that made my journey into science a little bit easier.
Friday, November 30, 2007
Comet 17P/Holmes
I went outside tonight and checked out Comet 17P/Holmes. I found it just a little south of α Persei. With my 7×35 binoculars I observed a dimly glowing ball roughly a half degree in diameter. I reckon I just wanted to be able to say I saw it.
I also observed Comet Kohoutek back in 1973; but I needed a much larger instrument to see that since it was partially lost in the evening twilight. Using an 8 inch richest field telescope I was able to clearly make out the tail; so I knew with certainty that it was indeed the comet. Kohoutek was so spectacularly unimpressive compared to expectations that I didn’t dare miss it. And yes, over the years I have had many people ask me if I saw Comet Kohoutek.
I also observed Comet Kohoutek back in 1973; but I needed a much larger instrument to see that since it was partially lost in the evening twilight. Using an 8 inch richest field telescope I was able to clearly make out the tail; so I knew with certainty that it was indeed the comet. Kohoutek was so spectacularly unimpressive compared to expectations that I didn’t dare miss it. And yes, over the years I have had many people ask me if I saw Comet Kohoutek.
Sunday, November 25, 2007
My First Telescope
Science has been a major part of my life since around 1962 when I bought my first telescope through the mail. I paid $3.95 or so to Criterion Manufacturing Company for a 26mm diameter objective, an eyepiece to give maybe 40× of magnification, and a series of concentric tubes that slide over one another to focus.
I spent the first hours after receiving my telescope examining everything that I could see from my bedroom window. I checked out the surrounding houses, birds, the IPI water tower, the railcars sitting on the nearby tracks, the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Newark, and even the stones in the driveway next door.
By nightfall I was a practiced observer and trained my telescope on any and all celestial objects that looked interesting. Naturally, the moon was my first target and I was lucky to have nearly half a moon to look at. I had seen the craters before using my dad’s binoculars but now they looked so big, but less sharp. My dad pointed to a bright object in the sky and said, “That may be Saturn”.
Balancing the telescope on the porch railing I quickly discovered the advantage of a solid telescope mounting. Despite my best efforts the tiny image of Saturn danced constantly around the center of the field. Nevertheless, there was Saturn with its rings. That was all it took to wet my appetite for more.
At the time it didn’t occur to me to ask my dad how he knew this was Saturn. Since then I figured it out. He knew the stars reasonably well and simply knew that the bright object he was pointing out to me was not a star and had about the right brightness and color to be Saturn. Now, even I can do this easily.
As the weeks and months passed I learned about many aspects of observing that can only be appreciated by another observer. For example you learn to dislike the full moon. Not only does the full moon look relatively featureless through a telescope, but its presence in the sky pretty much destroys your chances of being able to see dim objects like nebulae or galaxies. I also began to suspect that telescopes are cloud magnets.
My original Criterion telescope is long gone but a few years ago I saw a slightly earlier version of this telescope for sale on eBay. I could not resist the temptation to buy it. It is almost an exact duplicate of the telescope I had and even has the odor of phenolic resin like my original one had. I have this telescope in front of me right now as a reminder of that life changing event.
I could probably think of more to say about this but I need to end now. I see something out the window and want to take a closer look.
I spent the first hours after receiving my telescope examining everything that I could see from my bedroom window. I checked out the surrounding houses, birds, the IPI water tower, the railcars sitting on the nearby tracks, the Anheuser-Busch Brewery in Newark, and even the stones in the driveway next door.
By nightfall I was a practiced observer and trained my telescope on any and all celestial objects that looked interesting. Naturally, the moon was my first target and I was lucky to have nearly half a moon to look at. I had seen the craters before using my dad’s binoculars but now they looked so big, but less sharp. My dad pointed to a bright object in the sky and said, “That may be Saturn”.
Balancing the telescope on the porch railing I quickly discovered the advantage of a solid telescope mounting. Despite my best efforts the tiny image of Saturn danced constantly around the center of the field. Nevertheless, there was Saturn with its rings. That was all it took to wet my appetite for more.
At the time it didn’t occur to me to ask my dad how he knew this was Saturn. Since then I figured it out. He knew the stars reasonably well and simply knew that the bright object he was pointing out to me was not a star and had about the right brightness and color to be Saturn. Now, even I can do this easily.
As the weeks and months passed I learned about many aspects of observing that can only be appreciated by another observer. For example you learn to dislike the full moon. Not only does the full moon look relatively featureless through a telescope, but its presence in the sky pretty much destroys your chances of being able to see dim objects like nebulae or galaxies. I also began to suspect that telescopes are cloud magnets.
My original Criterion telescope is long gone but a few years ago I saw a slightly earlier version of this telescope for sale on eBay. I could not resist the temptation to buy it. It is almost an exact duplicate of the telescope I had and even has the odor of phenolic resin like my original one had. I have this telescope in front of me right now as a reminder of that life changing event.
I could probably think of more to say about this but I need to end now. I see something out the window and want to take a closer look.
Friday, November 9, 2007
Fatal System Error
Mature people understand that automobiles can divine the existence of extra money in your wallet or bank account, even a secret Swiss account. Squirrel away five hundred dollars and the transmission breaks. Similarly, homes can detect the existence of free time. Plan to take an evening off relaxing with a good book and the spring for the garage door breaks, not a major job but time intensive enough to guarantee that you will just finish before bedtime.
Computers are neither motivated by money nor time. Computers strive to frustrate. Futhermore, computers seem to know when they have the upper hand and thus show no mercy.
After spending a day at work and teaching a class in the evening I came home to relax only to encounter an agitated wife directing me towards her computer where I faced a blue screen with the following message:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
Attempts at rebooting only confirmed the same message:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
I have a tendency to attribute most if not all computer problems to either a faulty operating system or else a defective hard drive. I used to ignore the operating system as a suspect but then SP2 came along for Windows XP; but that is a whole different story.
A part of me believed that this time it wouldn’t be the hard drive since I had recently backed up all of the computer’s files. Hard drives only quit when you don’t back them up, right?
It is in my nature to try the simple things first despite low probabilities of success. Therefore I used the F8 key and tried booting up in safe mode. I wonder why they call it safe? Is there a hidden command that boots the system up in unsafe or dangerous mode? There is also the option of booting up the system in safe mode with a command prompt, obviously a means of switching rapidly to dangerous mode if it is needed to fry incoming viruses. Neither of these options offered any relief for my wife’s digital habit. In my next experiment I tried to restore the system to the last good configuration. Good for who? This is a clever feature developed by Microsoft so that people experiencing problems similar to ours can restore their systems back to a point where the message on the screen will read:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
At this point I went to bed and offered my system for use in the meantime.
After coming home from work, eating, and preparing for the next night’s class I tackled the computer problem again. This time I pulled out the box of disks and books that came with the system and actually read them. I swear there are people out there who think these books and packages of disks are a part of the packing material and throw them out with the cartons. From my manual I learned that Dell furnishes a neat little feature on the back of their systems where four small lights come on when you power up the system and tells you that your hardware is functioning provided all the lights are green. Any combination containing one or more yellow lights means you have hardware problems. Our system only showed green lights, a good sign.
Next I tried the Dell diagnostics CD which provides some means of testing various parts of the system. I was pleased to see this work and I soon began running a bunch of tests that might explain the blue screen. Finally on the diagnostic testing of the hard drive we looked at the screen and saw:
IDE Disk Read Test
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg. Block 93188711
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected
and
IDE Disk Read Test
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg. Block 93193861
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected
Identical information was obtained during the IDE Disk Verify Test except the Error code is 0F00:1A44.
For whatever reason some small sector of the hard drive became corrupted and needed to be fixed. I figured this would be a good place to try out the Windows XP recovery console which can be reached by booting from the operating system CD. That was my next try.
Did I mention that while all this is going on my wife is sitting behind me asking, “Are we there yet?” or maybe it was “Will I have my computer tonight?”. Using the CD the system booted up and loaded drivers and whatnot until I reached the screen where you are given the choice of aborting, reloading the operating system, or hitting R to repair the operating system. I hit R and though expecting to see the recovery console, I was presented with a command prompt that asked which operating system I wanted to repair even though there was only one choice. I typed 1 and hit the enter key. The command prompt came back with something like:
C:\WINDOWS Administrator Password? or some such thing. I never entered a password on this system and my wife claimed she didn’t either. This made me suspect that a hacker might have figured out a way to get though our maze of firewalls and discovering a lack of any password put one in themselves effectively locking us out of our own computer. I tried hitting enter without typing any password and followed this up with a few educated guesses for a password. Microsoft only gives you three tries and then you are out.
Desperate, I organized all of the information I had and attempted to get into a real-time chat with a Dell representative. No luck. I then put everything into an email since they responded so quickly the last time I had used this service. I hoped that maybe Dell put some sort of default password into the system but I would have to wait until they replied the next day.
Wednesday started as any other morning and a check of my email indicated that Dell had not yet responded. After work and school I checked again and still no message from Dell. Lucky thing I found a copy of PC Disaster and Recovery at the college library. Here I learned that XP Professional has to have a password for the administrator account. Since I knew I didn’t enter one it had to be my wife who entered it, except she didn’t know she was entering the most important password of the system and didn’t keep a record of it. Is there a patron saint of lost passwords?
Anyway I decided to try some various passwords that might work especially since this password had to be entered before my wife discovered the importance of secure passwords. Now she comes up with passwords that might look like:
&tF89#b5N+
or some similar jumble of characters. I knew I only had three guesses per CD boot cycle so they had to be good guesses. My fourth guess was correct. I still can’t get over this!
Now at the command prompt I typed Chkdsk /r and hit enter. After about thirty minutes the display indicates that two repairs had been attempted. There is a temptation to fiddle with the boot section of the hard drive but as a scientist I know you should never make two changes at once. So I attempt with suppressed excitement to reboot the system normally. The seconds ticked and the old familiar desktop photo popped into view. From the cheering coming from over my shoulder I assume I did a good thing.
Computers are neither motivated by money nor time. Computers strive to frustrate. Futhermore, computers seem to know when they have the upper hand and thus show no mercy.
After spending a day at work and teaching a class in the evening I came home to relax only to encounter an agitated wife directing me towards her computer where I faced a blue screen with the following message:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
Attempts at rebooting only confirmed the same message:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
I have a tendency to attribute most if not all computer problems to either a faulty operating system or else a defective hard drive. I used to ignore the operating system as a suspect but then SP2 came along for Windows XP; but that is a whole different story.
A part of me believed that this time it wouldn’t be the hard drive since I had recently backed up all of the computer’s files. Hard drives only quit when you don’t back them up, right?
It is in my nature to try the simple things first despite low probabilities of success. Therefore I used the F8 key and tried booting up in safe mode. I wonder why they call it safe? Is there a hidden command that boots the system up in unsafe or dangerous mode? There is also the option of booting up the system in safe mode with a command prompt, obviously a means of switching rapidly to dangerous mode if it is needed to fry incoming viruses. Neither of these options offered any relief for my wife’s digital habit. In my next experiment I tried to restore the system to the last good configuration. Good for who? This is a clever feature developed by Microsoft so that people experiencing problems similar to ours can restore their systems back to a point where the message on the screen will read:
STOP: c000021a {Fatal System Error}
The Windows Logon Process system terminated unexpectedly with
a status f 0x00000407 (0x00000000 0x00000000)
The system has been shut down
At this point I went to bed and offered my system for use in the meantime.
After coming home from work, eating, and preparing for the next night’s class I tackled the computer problem again. This time I pulled out the box of disks and books that came with the system and actually read them. I swear there are people out there who think these books and packages of disks are a part of the packing material and throw them out with the cartons. From my manual I learned that Dell furnishes a neat little feature on the back of their systems where four small lights come on when you power up the system and tells you that your hardware is functioning provided all the lights are green. Any combination containing one or more yellow lights means you have hardware problems. Our system only showed green lights, a good sign.
Next I tried the Dell diagnostics CD which provides some means of testing various parts of the system. I was pleased to see this work and I soon began running a bunch of tests that might explain the blue screen. Finally on the diagnostic testing of the hard drive we looked at the screen and saw:
IDE Disk Read Test
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg. Block 93188711
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected
and
IDE Disk Read Test
Error Code 0F00:0244
Msg. Block 93193861
Uncorrectable data error or media is write protected
Identical information was obtained during the IDE Disk Verify Test except the Error code is 0F00:1A44.
For whatever reason some small sector of the hard drive became corrupted and needed to be fixed. I figured this would be a good place to try out the Windows XP recovery console which can be reached by booting from the operating system CD. That was my next try.
Did I mention that while all this is going on my wife is sitting behind me asking, “Are we there yet?” or maybe it was “Will I have my computer tonight?”. Using the CD the system booted up and loaded drivers and whatnot until I reached the screen where you are given the choice of aborting, reloading the operating system, or hitting R to repair the operating system. I hit R and though expecting to see the recovery console, I was presented with a command prompt that asked which operating system I wanted to repair even though there was only one choice. I typed 1 and hit the enter key. The command prompt came back with something like:
C:\WINDOWS Administrator Password? or some such thing. I never entered a password on this system and my wife claimed she didn’t either. This made me suspect that a hacker might have figured out a way to get though our maze of firewalls and discovering a lack of any password put one in themselves effectively locking us out of our own computer. I tried hitting enter without typing any password and followed this up with a few educated guesses for a password. Microsoft only gives you three tries and then you are out.
Desperate, I organized all of the information I had and attempted to get into a real-time chat with a Dell representative. No luck. I then put everything into an email since they responded so quickly the last time I had used this service. I hoped that maybe Dell put some sort of default password into the system but I would have to wait until they replied the next day.
Wednesday started as any other morning and a check of my email indicated that Dell had not yet responded. After work and school I checked again and still no message from Dell. Lucky thing I found a copy of PC Disaster and Recovery at the college library. Here I learned that XP Professional has to have a password for the administrator account. Since I knew I didn’t enter one it had to be my wife who entered it, except she didn’t know she was entering the most important password of the system and didn’t keep a record of it. Is there a patron saint of lost passwords?
Anyway I decided to try some various passwords that might work especially since this password had to be entered before my wife discovered the importance of secure passwords. Now she comes up with passwords that might look like:
&tF89#b5N+
or some similar jumble of characters. I knew I only had three guesses per CD boot cycle so they had to be good guesses. My fourth guess was correct. I still can’t get over this!
Now at the command prompt I typed Chkdsk /r and hit enter. After about thirty minutes the display indicates that two repairs had been attempted. There is a temptation to fiddle with the boot section of the hard drive but as a scientist I know you should never make two changes at once. So I attempt with suppressed excitement to reboot the system normally. The seconds ticked and the old familiar desktop photo popped into view. From the cheering coming from over my shoulder I assume I did a good thing.
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