It was interesting… According to the ‘panel’ there aren’t any plans for fracking in Bucks County, and that since Bucks doesn’t have any ‘unconventional’ wells it would be very expensive to frack here (compared to communities that already have unconventional wells). Scott Perry (DEP Deputy Secretary – Oil&Gas Management) actually seemed believable ;’) Most of the rest were your standard bullshitters (and I expand that to include self-serving narratives, evading answers).

The only pol there who seemed worth listening to was Sen. McIlhinney, and he seemed to lose his cool pretty quickly when he realized the audience didn’t agree with his perception that ‘they’ had done a wonderful job with this legislation (Act 13).

Marguerite Quinn refused to be photographed by anyone not credentialed unless she knew them personally. She tried to stay away from anything that might make her look bad (like anything to do with Act 13, the topic of the forum), so a cardboard cutout could have served as well.

Andrew Heath (Renew Growing Greener Coalition) explained in detail how close the coalition was to withering away until they signed on and how a lot more money was going to flow in so they could be more effective. Unlike most of the audience, he didn’t seem to see any conflict with the fact that the money was coming from those companies whose only real interest was their bottom line. Andrew so interested in the coalition’s survival that any conflict-of-interest wasn’t even on the radar, and became very defensive when it was pointed out to him.

The answer to why ‘we’ should frack now and with such fervor? Energy demand and independence. The pink elephant here was the enormous profits, though these were actually denied by the panel (seriously, they said some of these ‘producers’ would lose money at current market prices).

Alternatives to fossil fuel? Apparently there are none according to that panel. Not a word was mentioned. It was as if this was a done deal, nothing else was on the table (re: Act 13) and it was only a matter of what could be gained in any negotiations.

The panel seemed unprepared for the resistance the audience exhibited to anything that appeared to allow fracking operations to go forward. They seemed to be in a ‘bubble’ that had already accepted that this was going to happen, regardless of any negative results. As if the circles they move in just didn’t contain any alternative thought. I don’t think that any of them realized it, but they represented Act 13 as a talented, well trained representative of a Gas Company would have.

Officials in attendance (though I probably missed someone):

Senators Chuck McIlhinney (R-10) and Bob Mensch (R-24)

Representatives Marguerite Quinn (R-143), Paul Clymer (R-145) and Kathy Watson (R-144)

PA Dept. of Environmental Protection, Scott Perry

PUC (Act 13 Responsibilities), John Herzog, Esq.

Renew Growing Greener Coalition, Andrew Heath

Penn State Marcellus Center for Outreach & Research, David Yoxtheimer

Pennridge Chamber of Commerce. Betty Graver (Moderator)

out of Las Vegas that has spent a lot of time defending Free Speech. Marc’s blog The Legal Satyricon is well worth a visit.

A recent opinion piece he wrote regarding Rush Limbaugh can be found at CNN here. Marc’s been influential in promoting Anti-SLAPP legislation:

SLAPP [Strategic Lawsuits Against Public Participation] suits are brought by people who know very well that they will never prevail in the case. Bringing the case is their punishment of those who criticize them. You do not really have freedom of expression without an anti-SLAPP law on the books in your state.

SLAPP lawsuits are simply another way to stifle free speech.

And regarding Fair Use (of copyrighted material):

My grievance with Righthavenwas that it really took the concept of copyright, as being a thing to protect creative expression, and simply turned it into a money-generating machine, and more offensively, it did so without regard for fair use. As a First Amendment attorney, the most important part of the Copyright Act, to me, is Section 107 that protects fair use. You must have fair use in order to have free speech. Otherwise, you can simply use copyright to privately stifle that which the government never could. I found it objectionable that Righthaven was suing people for what was clear fair use with no regard for it whatsoever.

In a time when morals take a second (or worse) place in the Justice system, it’s good to know there’s still a few guys like Marc around.

It turns out they often don’t make the same decisions that are recommended to patients, and appear to place much higher value on quality-of-life factors. 

I have found the safest way to deal with these is to get the computer re-booted into Safe Mode as soon as possible and then to do a scan with Malwarebytes AntiMalware. Here’s how you can do that:

1. You may want to print these instructions before continuing since they won’t be available after you shut your computer down in step 2.
2. Click the Start button and then click Shut Down.
3. In the drop-down list of the Shut Down Windows dialog box, click Restart, and then click OK.
4. As your computer restarts but before Windows launches, press F8.
5. On a computer that is configured for booting to multiple operating systems, you can press F8 when the boot menu appears.
6. Use the arrow keys to highlight the appropriate safe mode option, and then press ENTER.
7. If you have a dual-boot or multiple-boot system, choose the installation that you need to access using the arrow keys, and then press ENTER

If you miss it, restart Windows and try it again…  Once successful, you will see a screen that looks similar to this:

Select Safe Mode with Networking. Once in Safe Mode you will notice the display has changed a bit, this is because Windows has started with only essential programs and services.

Now, download Malwarebytes Antimalware. and install. At the end of the install it will ask you if you want to check for updates and run the program, click OK. (If you already have it installed, click on the ‘Update’ tab and select Check for Updates. When finished click on the Scanner ‘tab’ and select Scan).

Run a Quick Scan.

If any infections/threats are found, make sure they are checked, and select remove.

You may, or may not be told to restart to finish removal. Either way the system is ready to restart back into ‘Normal’ Windows.

Once you have restarted into Windows (Normal mode) I suggest running another scan with the Antimalware until it results in 0 ‘Objects infected’.

Please note that the above is really only successful if it is done before the Rogue Anti-virus has infected the system further then it’s first warning.

Please note: MSE will not install unless you have a ‘valid’ copy of Windows (XP, Vista, 7 or 8).
Here’s the procedure I use in most circumstances:

Download install Malwarebytes Anti-Malware and update it’s definitions. Then run a Quick Scan and follow the instructions for removal (IF any threats are found — if not, great, proceed…)

After finishing the above, download micro$oft Security Essentials, and remember where you saved it.  Optionally, for the paranoid: Once downloaded, you may disconnect yourself from the Internet. Technically, you will be exposed for a short time.

Now, uninstall your current Anti-Virus. You will probably have to re-boot to complete the removal.

As soon as the computer boots back up to the desktop, go to where you saved the MSE install file and execute it (double-click ;’).

Once finished (and updated), you should have a little green icon that looks a bit like a castle top with a banner flying:

Wow…  It had been a long time since I had seen that error, one that was more common 10 or 15 years ago, when hard drives had less life span and reliability.  I told him there was nothing we could do over the phone, that I needed to get his computer, and we made arrangements.

As soon as I got it back to my lair, I determined that BIOS was not seeing a drive any longer.  I booted up off a ‘live’ GParted CD-ROM and Gparted reported an error; ATA1: Not responding.

I’ll cut to the chase here: It turns out that his drive is a Seagate ST35000620AS (Part No.: 9BX144-621) and is one of about 21 different Seagate/Maxtor (Seagate owns Maxtor now) models that have faulty firmware that can put the drive into a non-responsive state (read: Brick, Door-stop, etc.).

Seagate is being very quiet about the issue, much to the dismay of it’s loyal customers.  Seagate doesn’t list the drives effected, but has setup a system where you can submit your Hard Drive Serial Number and they will tell if a firmware update is available. I’m guessing this system was designed under the close guidance of an attorney.

When I put in my friend’s serial number, it reported there was a firmware update for it.  It’s a little late for that though.  The firmware update is only effective if applied BEFORE a failure.  So I started going through the process of trying to get an RMA, as Seagate has said they will help with any data recovery on drive effected, but Seagate reported to me that this drive was not covered, as it was sold as an OEM part to HP.

So, with high hopes, Unicorns and Butterflies dancing in my head (yeah, ok, I’m lying) , I wrote to HP support. After 3 emails back and forth, Vincent S. reported to me:  ”…I regret to inform you that the hard drive has gone bad. To resolve this issue, the hard drive needs to be replaced.”  Well, duh.  After 3 or 4 more emails, I discovered HP would not help with the drive since the computer was out of warranty.

Looks like I was on my own (as well as thousands of other hard-drive owners), so I hit Google and waded through the articles, forum posts, suicide threats, etc., etc.   What I found was that people were having success ‘un-bricking’ their drives using one of two methods:

1. Using about $30 worth of parts, setting up a TTL/USB connection (requires soldering) to the bricked drive to reset the firmware problem.
2. Replacing the PCB board (which contains the firmware ROM) on the drive.

I decided on #2…  On the other side of the world now (Malaysia), a small PCB board has begun it’s journey to me, eventually hitting the USPS where I should be able to track it.  Should I care to.

UPDATE: The PCB board replacement did not work for me. I put the original board back in and sent the whole drive off to someone who reset the firmware for me. This was the final ‘fix’, and the drive is actually still in use today (12/08/2011).

Related links:

Seagate Barracuda 7200.11 drives said to be failing at an alarming rate

Reputable EBay seller of Seagate PCB boards

Instructions for TTL/USB fix

Services: 7 p.m. Monday, February 8, in Bethel Baptist Church, Sellersville. Call 4:30 to 6:30 p.m. Monday in the church. The Jeffrey A. Naugle Funeral Home, 20 N. Ambler St., Quakertown is in charge of arrangements. Interment in Chestnut Hill Union Cemetery, Coopersburg. Contributions: Bethel Christian Education Trust Fund, Bethel Baptist Church, 754 E. Rockhill Road, Sellersville, PA 18960

Note: I am looking for a more recent photo, will post if I can find one

Once I had it in my hands it became obvious that the power plug ‘receptacle’ had become loose inside the unit, so I took out a hammer and smashed it into little pieces. heh. Kidding. Although I think that was one of Frank’s proposed solutions…

Removing the cover exposed this:

In the above image it’s not easy to determine what’s going on with the power plug, so here’s some close-ups:

And from a different angle, you can see the ‘lift’:

So, I whipped out my soldering iron and melted some solder… Here’s a closer look at what I found after lifting the plug receptacle off the PCB board:

Once the receptacle was removed, I ‘tinned’ the 4 feet that protrude from the receptacle. Then I melted the mating solder points on the PCB board. Then holding the receptacle in place, I proceeded to burn my fingers several times (solder in one hand, iron in the other, I’m lucky it was only my hands getting singed…). Eventually I found a method of leaning a light object against the receptacle so I could use both hands for soldering.

Once finished, I re-assembled and tested. Plugging in the power (male) felt solid and secure, and the unit recognized the external power source, charged batteries, etc.

Then Frank told me he had already bought another GPS… Bastard.