Compaq F700 repair

Recently I had the job of fixing a Compaq F700 that overheated and shut off after about 15 minutes of operation.  Needless to say the cooling fan was completely clogged with dust as can be seen in the picture below.

To get inside of this computer you need to find some hidden screws.  First you remove the panel above the keyboard, then the keyboard then the CD ROM drive.  There are three screws hidden above the CD ROM front edge.  Then there are three screws you must remove from the bottom, two are standoffs and one is above the hard drive.  I circled their locations in the picture below. 

There is another screw that can only be reached from above, once the CD ROM is removed.  There is a hole now available that goes down through where the CD drive had been to access a hidden screw down below.  You have to remove the screen and all the usual screws to finally get the top cover off the laptop.  Once you remove the main board the cooling fan screws are hidden under some black sticky plastic.  They are extra small and hard to remove.

Hurricane Sandy

As Hurricane Sandy approaches our coast I am compelled to think back over the last few years.  Somewhere on this blog I talked about how when Florida was promoting the gay lifestyle for two years in a row three hurricanes per year crossed through Florida, some hurricanes crossed more than once!  Then there was California voting in gay marriage and in one night 800 dry lightning strikes started almost 1000 forest fires.  Then last year New York adopted gay marriage and three hurricanes/tropical storms hit New York state in one year!

One tropical storm hitting in 20 years is more the normal for New York state.  Maybe only one in every 10 years, but last year 3 tropical storms hit NY in one year!  Is that supposed to be a coincidence?  Now we are bracing for tropical storm "Sandy".

This storm is just the beginning of the end.  I have seen visions of smoke rising out of many cities.  I have heard "this will happen here" when I see the unrest in the middle east.  I have had dreams where the government forces are attacking innocent civilians in the cities just like what has been going on in Syria and other countries.  This upcoming election is a loose-loose situation.  Either way we loose.  If one side does not win they claim they will start a second civil war.  If they do win they will finish off this country. 

We need to pray for a miracle!  We need a revival to save this country.  We have committed three major sins.  First there is the shedding of innocent blood - abortion.  Then there is promoting homosexuality in our schools and with the changing of the definition of marriage, this is the "abomination that brings desolation".  And last of all we have abandoned Israel, God's country and His people. 

12 Things to look for in a new web site

Here are twelve things to look for when you are creating or purchasing a new web site design.  These are some serious questions that you need to ask before investing in a new web site.

1. Does it use an industry standard platform such as Joomla or Wordpress or does it use some sort of “custom code”?  If it is not based on an industry standard platform, then how many bugs are hidden away in the “custom code” and how is the custom code going to be kept up to date?

2. Does it rely on Java and or on flash in order to work?  If so there are a lot of people that have those disabled or they do not work properly on their computers.  An animated jiff can usually do the same thing as flash without any of the risk.

3. Does it have a simple HTML/CSS based menu system that can be easily followed by and indexed by the search engines?  If the menu is hidden in flash it might as well not exist.

4. Does the web site submit a site map weekly to Google and to the other search engines?  That is the quickest way to get your web site indexed by the search engines.

5. Does it have titles on all of the pages, all of the links and on all of the pictures?  Titles are an easy and safe way to stuff keywords that are highly ranked by the search engines.

6. Does the home page have a clear purpose?  What do you do?  What makes your company better than the competitors?  If they have to search to see why your web site exists then it might as well not exist. 

7. Does the home page have a place to sign up?  It needs some sort of “Call to Action”? There has to be an easy way to sign up for web only specials, deals, monthly newsletters, etc.

8. Does the home page have social media links?  Follow us on Facebook, LinkedIn, and whatever other social sites that your company uses?  Can they “like” your company?

9. Is there a “about us” or “Contact us” with you physical address and phone number?  I almost always want to know where a company is physically located before I order anything from them.

10. Does it have an easy to find search function that returns relevant results?  I hate it when I have to use Google to search inside a web site for something that I know is hidden in there somewhere.

11. Does it support mobile browsers?  This usually requires that it detect a mobile device and then reformats the entire site to fit on the mobile device.

12. Does it use colors that make the text unreadable?  There needs to be lots of contrast between the background and the text.  For example green text on a blue background can be unreadable. 

New roof project

Well for months I debated between putting on a metal roof or using shingles.  Metal costs a tiny bit more but is many times faster to install.  Well the folks at 84 lumber had Architectural shingles on sale for $86 per 100 square feet.  That compares to about $105 everywhere else.

First I had to remove the flat roof over the deck and replace the last 1 to 2 feet as they had rotted out.  Then I put on a new roof using roll roofing.  Basically you nail down a 9 to 10 inch wide strip around the outside edges.  Then cover those strips with roof cement and then put the new roofing on using that cement, and nail down the top edge.  That way no nails are visible when it is done.  However it leaked the first time it rained because the cement was not dry yet in the seams.

Here is the roof when it was almost done. Note that I spilled a little roofing cement on the flat roof near the ladder.

Here is the new roof once it was done on the first side.  I also replaced the attic vents because 84 lumber had them for less than $10 each and the old ones were very rusty.  The vent pipe in the middle was spray painted after this picture was taken.

Next the car port roof needs replacing, it has always leaked.

Here are some "Before" pictures, first one of the main roof then one of the carport roof.