Recovering from a lost password

For some reason, a Dell Windows 7 Pro laptop 'forgot' its password.  I took the hard drive out and recovered the data to an external hard drive and a DVD.  I had to connect this laptop hard drive to one of my desktop computers to do that.

I tried a system restore back from the boot menu, but that didn't work either.  So, I tried to reinstall Windows 7 Pro by using my DVD.  Didn't work.

Next, I used a Dell Windows 7 Home Premium 64-bit DVD to install the OS successfully.  I then got the driver for the network and downloaded the Dell utility to create restore disks.  That process is going on right now.  I hope to use the restore disks to make the hard drive 'factory fresh' with Windows 7 Pro again.

This is why one must not use an administrator account to do daily work.  If this password was corrupted on a standard user, the problem could have been easily fixed by using the admin account to reset the password of the standard account.

Instead, this is turning into a multi-hour saga ...

Almost two full weeks of glorious weather

The omega block is weakening as the high pressure system that was over Chicago has moved east.  Sigh.  It was a beautiful day again and yesterday was a perfect day for the Terry Fox Walk at Aden Bowman.  The sunflowers grew quite a lot this past week.  Unfortunately, that is not going to continue with cooler weather.  Hopefully, I will be able to harvest 3 more heads the next few weeks.  Not ideal growing conditions at all.

The last day of summer is Michael Faraday's birthday this year

The omega block is staying put and it was 28°C today.  This is also the day Michael Faraday was born in 1791.  This is the IET (formerly IEE) Faraday bio webpage I read almost twenty years ago.

A glorious day thanks to the Omega Block

It's been nice all week and it's thanks to where the jetstream is.  I love it when we have days like this thanks to an omega block.  Clear skies and counter clockwise cycling of warm air from the south make for above average fall weather.

This makes for great sunflower weather too.

And, I saw this face in the sky as the sun was setting:

Tomorrow is Michael Faraday's birthday and the fall equinox.  The days are getting shorter.  Sigh.

My first Tableau Public

Learn About Tableau

I got this data from StatsCan and had to clean it up (data here).  I added the first 3 digits of the city postal codes as Tableau Public couldn't seem to figure it out from the city names.  It still didn't recognise the postal codes because it defaulted it to USA, not Canada:

Click on unknown in the corner

Edit the locations

Change country from USA to Canada

Happy Birthday Valerie Tryon

Half a decade ago, I came across Valerie Tryon's CBC CD of Chopin's Scherzi and Ballades in the cutout bin at L'Atelier Grigorian in Oakville (I went there this past summer and they are now closed!).  From then on, I was hooked.  I subsequently bought her APR CD with my favorite solo piano work (Schumann's Fantasie).  This was followed by her 3 CD Chopin a Chronological Journey.  I listen to the third CD in this set quite often (Third Piano Sonata, Barcorolle, a Nocturne).  Then I got the APR CD of two of my favorite Mozart Concerti (KV 491 and KV 503).  She plays Godowsky's candenza in KV 491, but also supplies a track with Hummel's cadenza (which Annie Fischer played in her EMI recording from 1959).  Very enjoyable and a source of much pleasure over the years.  I bought 3 more APR CDs from Presto Classical this week as a birthday present for myself  (Mendelssohn and Ravel).

Well, Valerie Tryon is 80 years old today.  It is amazing how solid her technique is, but she is truly an artist.  There was this recent article in the Hamilton Spectator about her.  She also helped a fellow pianist as noted in this Ottawa Citizen article.  Enjoy this interview from Youtube.  Many happy returns to you Valerie Tryon.  You've touched my heart and I hope many more people discover your art.