DAMN it's Cold!

Problem: Just waiting for SP2 to install; sometimes it takes forever so I have time to complain about the weather. It's really cold here; I'm not kidding! I usually don't complain about these things, but I recently took a little trip to Florida and I think it spoiled me. In Florida the temperature was low 80's every day. People were walking around in shorts, riding with the top down, swimming, laying in the sun; in general they were acting like it was Summer time, not the middle of January! The real problem is, I didn't stay there! I had to get home and back to work (such as it is).

Solution: I guess there are lots of possibilities:

1. Stay in the house (not really an option)
2. Carry a hot water bottle (too heavy and the damn thing gets cold, too, after awhile)
3. Dress like an Eskimo (don't want to destroy my macho image)
4. Carry a hot potato in my pants (note to self: if you do this, make sure the potato is in the front)
5. Carry a couple dogs everywhere (not too practical around work)
6. Piped in cocoa (fattening)
7. yada, yada.....
8. yada....
9. Go back to Florida (THAT's the ticket.............)

Hung at the F8 Screen

Problem: The user reported that his machine wouldn't boot. I found that the boot process was stopping at the F8 screen. I was able to change selections with the arrow keys, to select Last known Good Configuration, for instance. But the boot process would not continue.

Solution: The first try was to run XP Setup and attempt a Repair (not the "Repair Console"; I still haven't found much use for that capability!). Sometimes the OS is not corrupted beyond hope and you get the option to Repair the current installation during XP Setup. Unfortunately, this time I didn't get the Repair option, so the OS had to be rebuilt from scratch. Ugh!