Hmmm... Let's see... What rhymes with Nantucket?

You get three guesses, but the first two don't count.

For that matter, while I'm at it, what rhymes with the sound of shit hitting the fan?

The truth is, I don't know, either.

There just seems to be no end to what computers can't do. There seems to be no end to how many things computers aren't good for. There just seems to be no END to the vast wasteland of time that computers consume. I thought they were supposed to save time? Well, from my perspective, computers seem like a monumental waste of eternity.

Sometimes, it is the unsuspected things that bite you. The unexpected. The unforeseen. Once you think you have found the last angle, the computer finds a new way to bend. Often it is simply a new twist on a repeat performance repeat performance repeat performance repeat performance repeat performance repeat...DIVIDE_BY_ZERO_ERROR

Abort, Retry or Ignore?

Well, ignorance is bliss, so let's try...Ignore.

Nope. That didn't work, either.

I had a repeat performance today of the disk drive power down. But it was a little different this time. However, I suspect the problem I had this time was related to the problem I had the first time. It may not have been Mickeysoft's problem at all (though it sure would be nice if the whole damn system wouldn't crap out when you stick a bad floppy disk in the drive - but that's another issue).

You see, the side of my computer is still open. It has been open since I got the thing. I have so frequently had to go in there to muck with the disk drives that it was just easier to leave the panel off. Now I see that there is a considerable build-up of balsa dust inside. That was my fault for sanding some wood indoors last week, but that, too, is another issue.

What happened today (well, yesterday - it may be 3:00 am, but I am still up, so I don't know what day it is - "today", "yesterday", "hellday", "omigodday") was an odd thing. Since I have this laptop that I am using for some embedded DOS development, I have been putting my keyboard to Borg (my desktop computer) in between the computer and the monitor when I was not using it. Well, this time, as I was putting the keyboard up after checking my email (or some rather mundane task), one of the disk drives made a weird noise like it was spinning down...or up...or both. And it happened coincidentally with the keyboard brushing up against the power cables that connect to the drives.

I shut down the computer for a few hours (I was not in the mood to deal with it) and I came back about 2:00 am (about an hour ago) and decided to check it out. I came back at 2:00 only because I couldn't sleep. But not because of the computer - I really couldn't care less at this point (but I'll try). Anyway, there is a "Y" connector in there to split one of the power supply lines (because there simply wasn't enough), so I began to suspect that maybe it was a crappy connector making crappy connections.

The "Y" connector passed inspection, however, and with flying colors. What I discovered - albeit not to my amazement, since nothing amazes me about computers anymore - is that the connectors from the power supply were crappy! Crappy as hell, I might add. They were so crappy that if I crapped on them it would be an improvement.

If I plugged the power supply connector directly into a disk drive, I could push and pull on the back of the wires going into the connector and they would move in and out. Yeah, real solid connection there! I got a very tiny screwdriver (like ones for repairing watches) and went to work on the connectors, using the screwdriver as a potato masher, so to speak, to distort the female pins so there would be some actual friction against a male pin when inserted.

Oh, yeah, that feels better!

Now the thing actually makes contact when I plug it in, and it actually stays there. Actually! I suspect the problem yesterday was related (was it yesterday, or was it yesterday's yesterday?). Yestersometimeago. Whenever. When that happened, it happened sortly after I did something with the keyboard (I don't remember if I was just moving it out of my way, or if I actually was using it and was putting it back out of the way). I probably bumped the connector then, too, but the computer wasn't doing anything at the time. But, who knows? It's all wicked, right? Smoke and magic...but mostly smoke. That sort of thing.

It's a circus, what can I say?!