Vista not booting, black screen with cursor blinking

Haven't been around in a while, but this could be useful for others. The following just happened to my wife's computer - after restart it would get to the black screen with cursor blinking and nothing would happen past that. No F8, no F11.

After inserting Windows CD and rebooting the computer, I've got to the repair screen. Automatic system repair would not help. System restore to an earlier point - no effect either.

All of that has lead me to a single assumption - boot files/sector have been corrupted.
After some googling, I discovered following page: Unable to boot in windows vista- windows boot configuration data file is missing required information which explained everythign.

Just in case I am copying here the steps of second method, which helped me:

1. Boot from your windows vista DVD.

2. Click the options which says Repair your computer.

3. Select the operation system and click next.

4. In System recovery options, click command prompt.

5. Now type Bootrec /RebuildBcd, and then press ENTER.

6. Restart your computer after it finishes.

Emergency Tip: If the Bootrec.exe tool cannot locate any missing Windows installations in step 5.

Type the following commands in the order from top to bottom.

1. Bcdedit /export C:\BCD_Backup and press enter

2. ren c:\boot\bcd bcd.old and press enter

3. Bootrec /rebuildbcd and press enter


Hope this would be useful.

"The Three Terrors"

Shidduch survey (via Bad4)

via Bad for Shidduchim

We have a request from a Ph.D. candidate:

Kiki Beth Ehrenpreis, M.A.
PhD Candidate, Clinical Psychology (Health Emphasis)
Ferkauf Graduate School of Psychology
Albert Einstein College of Medicine, Yeshiva University

She wants your shidduch experiences quantified for science to analyze. Help her out! Go to her survey http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/shidduchsurvey and tell her about your dating. Heck – she’s practically a psychologist, in case you need it. Afterwards shoot her an email and be entered into a raffle for a iPod Touch. ( orthodoxjewishdatingstudy@gmail.com)

Dude... Wait, what?

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Stupid Questions and Research

Moshe recently asked me some dev question on the IM and I didn't solutions from the top of my hat so I made a small research and found answer which fitted his needs perfectly.
So when he thanked me I answered that I love doing research which confused him because he thought I hated it based on the post I wrote some time ago.

So I figured that I had to clarify this.

I hate when people ask stupid questions which they can simply think of or just google it. Obvious stuff. Something that takes less time googling than asking me and me googling it and then answering it.

At the same time questions which imply learning of something new or finding solution for a reasonable problem are something I love to do. This is usually programming stuff, something you may apply in the future again. These kinds of researches make me feel

Things I need

There's a list of things I need but never get a chance to get for various reasons. Here are some of these things:

- Apple Macbook Pro (13" or 15" - undecided) or MacBook Air to make my backback lighter
- USB 3G modem + monthly plan
- 24" screen (currently have 19")
- Bunch of books
- Carrrr

This is not a full list obviously but I believe some of these things could've made my life much easier and more productive (such as 3G modem or car)

It just hit me!

I was listening to the song which I heard on the radio for the first time when I was in yeshiva in 2004 and it just hit me how far away that was! When you grow time doesn't seem to be so far compared to your childhood (90-es for me) but sometimes you realize that 5 years could also be such a long amount of time...

PS. Most of you probably don't know that my memories are mostly associative and I usually use music to remember moments from past. I can still clearly see moments from around 95-96 when I listen to certain band. You get the idea...