Bad day for hard drives! Don't buy Chinese produce!

At school a teacher told me the external hard drive wouldn't respond.  I looked at it and found it wasn't even spinning.  So, I took it out of the case and a piece of plastic fell out.  The drive had worked out of it's power connection even though it was screwed in! Looks like too many G's were applied to it.  Anyways, it worked fine once I put it back together.  Good luck for that one.

Then at home, my Athlon 64x2 5000 wouldn't boot.  I eventually traced it to a troublesome Seagate 250 Gig SATA drive.  I took the Seagate 250 Gig SATA drive out and the computer booted.  I had just recorded some TV onto that drive on Sunday!  It had given me problems a few weeks ago - wouldn't show up in the BIOS and I had to jiggle the cables and it worked again.  This time that wouldn't work.  So, I put it in a USB 2.0 case I just got and it still wouldn't work. Next, hooked it up to a temp USB-SATA connector and the drive would show up in My Computer, but I couldn't access it.  It kept on making a cyclical clicking noise.  This wasn't a heavily used hard drive.  It was once a boot drive, but I don't use that computer very much anymore.  Very disappointing - was it poor QC from this Chinese made drive?  They just don't make hard drives very reliable nowadays!

I also got an e-mail from a church friend warning against eating Chinese Mandarin oranges.  This was sent by someone from VIDO.  Her friend broke out in a rash because of a reaction to the pesticides used.  I don't buy Chinese Mandarin oranges.  They tend not to rot because of how they are chemically treated.  The Japanese Mandarin oranges tend to rot quickly - a good thing actually!

Taiwan Elections - no break throughs, but hope?

Well, there were no breakthroughs in the Taiwan local elections.  DPP wins Tainan and Kaohsiung and KMT wins Taipei, Taipei County and Taichung.  It was pretty close in Taichung though. Sad.  Taiwanese didn't wake up yet.  I'm very disappointed.  However, the number of council members for DPP and KMT was even at 130 each.  Tsai Ing-wen may well be running for President in 2012 and I hope she can build momentum and WIN for Taiwan.  We need her.  Full results were obtained from the Central Election Commission website.

Now, to show the cultural difference between Taiwan and Canada, in the summary of candidates, the CEC displays the educational level achieved by each candidate:

Now, using President Ma as an example, what use is a bought PhD in law from Harvard University if said PhD says illogical things like "the judiciary is biased" when the judgments handed down don't satisfy the KMT?

We were at parent-teacher interviews yesterday and instead of focusing on how many "E's" our kid got, the talk was about is he being a good kid and does he enjoy school.  Is he learning?  Note:  more "E's" doesn't mean more learning.  It's not about being smart, it's about working at it (practice).  Our kid is very lucky to have the teacher he has.  I would say she is a master teacher.  She genuinely enjoys her job and spends a lot of time in the classroom with her students academically and during the lunch hour.  A dedicated teacher indeed.

Cyprien Katsaris Plays Listz's arrangement of Beethoven 9th

I bought this CD decades ago in Calgary I think.  I was telling my baby that it was "music singing piano".  He really likes the dvd of Karajan conducting Beethoven's 9th.  So, we pulled this CD out and he thought it was funny that a piano was replacing the entire orchestra.  Cyprien Katsaris is quite a virtuoso pianist.  His recordings are hard to come by nowadays, but the complete set of Beethoven symphonies is available for quite a reasonable price.  Too bad they didn't sell it even cheaper given that these were recorded in the 1980s.  One of the interesting things is that Katsaris plays a Mark Allen concert grand that was custom built.  I found this 1982 article by Gary Graffman about Mark Allen's pianos.  Graffman is a pianist who lost the use of his right hand and had to end his two-handed career in the 1960s.  He's a teacher at the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.

Don't climb on the Dinosaurs

This sign use to be at the Tyrell Museum.  However, after the renovations, not only the sign, but the dinosaurs disappeared.  Too bad. It was a pretty funny sign!

Stephen Kovacevich and Schubert's D 960

I bought this CD at HMV in Square One I think in the 1980s (or was it Sam's on Yonge Street?). I pulled it out to listen as I was exercising again.  It was the first recording of Schubert's last piano sonata I ever bought.  I think I read good things about it in Fanfare and the Penguin Record Guide.  I had always admired Stephen Kovacevich. I think I heard him interviewed on Stereo Morning in the early 1990s and Terry Campbell mentioned something about how his recording company (Philips) was good.  I distinctly recall Kovacevich pretty much had no comment.  I guess that's because he was moving on to EMI at that time.  I always felt Philips slighted him and favored Alfred Brendel.  Too bad, Kovacevich made several great recordings for them (Beethoven concerti, some solo work including the Diabelli Variations, some outstanding Brahms, the Bartók concerti, the Grieg & Schumann concerti, and a couple of Mozart concerti records).  I would like to get more of his recordings, but even his EMI Beethoven Sonata set is hard to get, let alone his old Philips recordings.

As for this Schubert, he upheld his usual high standards of dynamics and judgement. I added Pollini's recording after I bought his.  I also have Leon Fleisher's (his first major 2 handed recording in decades).  Then recently, I got Clara Haskil, Géza Anda and Curzon's (on CD and DVD).  I guess there is something about Schubert that draws me in.  Perhaps, it is because he lived such a short life (even shorter than Mozart!).  For me, this sonata is to Schubert what Mozart's KV 595 was to Mozart.  You can sense the end (of their lives) is near in both works.

Lin Cho-liang - Saint-Saëns 3rd Violin Concerto

Exercising downstairs listening to the Mendelssohn Violin Concerto from this CD.  When the Saint-Saëns 3rd Violin Concerto came on, Elisha ran upstairs to get his baton (pencil) to conduct.  I have the Julia Fischer DVD of this violin concerto, so he was familiar with it. He conducted the first movement and part of the 2nd.  He doesn't like slow movements.  He then had a change of taste and wanted to conduct "music singing" - Beethoven's 9th.  So, we went upstairs and put on the von Karajan/Berlin Philharmonic DVD and he conducted the last movement.  I had bought the entire set of 3 DVDs for a bargain on Amazon marketplace. Glad I did, my baby loves it and so do I.  Beethoven is totally other worldly.  How could a deaf man compose such a glorious work!

SMTP Server in Windows 7 Pro - FRUSTRATION!

There was an SMTP server in Windows XP.  With Windows Vista Home Premium, that disaappeared.  I'm using Windows 7 Pro and I figure it should have the SMTP server.  Did several searches and still couldn't figure it out! Tried to install some stuff in IIS, but that didn't work (couldn't actually see SMTP anywhere).  Tried Free SMTP Server - it wouldn't even run (said couldn't find the internet).  Also found this page about setting up hMailServer, but I haven't been able to figure it out!  This is very frustrating.  I just want to send out e-mails from Integrade Pro.

Tried running Integrade from Windows XP mode under Windows 7. That didn't work either.

Now trying to setup Outlook 2010 for the board IMAP server.  Taking quite a long time to setup.  Crashed. Error said you can't configure an Outlook Exchange E-mail account while Outlook 2010 is running.  Have to do it from Control Panel. Tried to do it - can't find the server.  Can't check the username (you have to have Outlook on!).  Circular problem.  This is VERY STUPID.

This SUCKS.  That's why it's handy to have a Windows XP machine lying around.

Valerie Tryon and the Schumann Fantasie Op 17

This CD does not disappoint.  I was most interested in the Schumann Fantasie, Op 17 as that is one of my favorite solo piano works.  I heard the name Valerie Tryon and the Rembrandt Trio on CBC Stereo when I was in grad school (1990s). Never gave it much thought back then as I don't listen to chamber music too much.  The Schubert and Mozart sonatas are nice too.  I had a chance to listen to Valerie Tryon in Ancaster in the summer of 2009, but didn't act on it.  That recital was actually put together by the piano dealer I bought my Mason and Hamlin Model A from (don't buy a piano from The Music Group - I got terrible service from them and had to deal with Mason and Hamlin directly).  I have no problem with Mason and Hamlin - great company to deal with as they fixed the problem my dealer should have resolved.

The only thing I was disappointed with was that the audio quality didn't wow me.  Not that it was poor engineering, but I was hoping for something great from APR - a small English company. Valerie Tryon's technique has stayed solid even though she was over 70 when this CD was recorded.  She should be better known!

Cashing in on the US mid-term elections

I had a hunch that the irrational stock market would surge after the US elections.  It was delayed, but today, the TSX and the Dow hit pre-recession highs.  My bet on MFC-T paid off, but I could have made even more money (sold too low).  MFC-T rose over $1/share even though it lost almost $1 billion.  Weird.  I'm not one to believe that QE2 by the US Fed is going to work.  As others have pointed out, it's meant to devalue the US$ and export the pain to US trading partners. After cashing out of MFC-T, I decided to put some cash into TKO-T which took a big hit yesterday when it's mine in BC was rejected by the federal government.  Now, this mining company has a PE of 7.4 and I think this is a buying opportunity.  I hope I'm right!

Well, I really cashed out of MFC-T way too early.  It's continued to go up to almost $15 on Nov 5.  Darn it!

Elisha likes Schumann's 3rd and 4th Symphonies

I have Schumann's Rhenish Symphony playing and our little conductor, Elisha, took up his baton (pencil) again to conduct.  He's conducting the Concertgebouw Orchestra (actually it's Bernard Haitink).  He definitely likes German romantics as Brahms is also a favorite of his.  I'm also an addict as I started out with Sawallisch's set with the Staatskappelle Dresden, then got Haitink's, next Norrington's and now Gardiner's (in the DG Schumann 200 year box) sets of Schumann symphonies.