quick workaround for: "Not a com32r image" when booting from USB stick on ubuntu.

[Note: The best solution is to just boot into windows and use unetbootin to make the USB.]


I've been trying to install a bunch of PC's to drive a bunch of CNC machines. Linux, as expected, manages to mess things up. When booting from a USB stick I get "Not a com32r image". The hack below seems to work:

After some fiddling around with the syslinux config files and still not getting it to boot properly, I found a deceptively simple workaround for this: Just type "help" on the BOOT prompt, and when you get the help menu, just hit enter. The system will now boot!

Confirmed that this also works for me when booting a USB stick created by 10.10's USB creator.

http://www.linuxquestions.org/questions/linux-mint-84/trying-to-boot-linux-mint-9-from-usb-flash-drive-vesamenu-c32-not-a-com32r-image-829397/

Not the only greek problem, but it can't help

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v33/n23/james-meek/diary

Politis once looked into opening a restaurant with music. He found that the regulations insisted on one permit if he had a band with three stringed instruments, and another, completely different, for a band with four.

"You do not make the poor rich by making the rich poor."

Watch Does U.S. Economic Inequality Have a Good Side? on PBS. See more from PBS NEWSHOUR.

go team.

While there are many reasons for these troubling trends, the state cannot ignore the role its policies have played in the economic decline. For seven consecutive years, executives polled by Chief Executive magazine have ranked California as having the worst business environment in the country. In a 2011 survey of its members by CalRecovery, a California coalition of businesses and industries based in the state, 84% of about 400 executives and owners who responded said that if they weren't already here, they wouldn't consider starting up in the state, while 64% said that the main reason they stayed in California was that it was tough to relocate their particular kind of business. In a recent op-ed, Andrew Puzder, chief executive of Carpinteria-based CKE Restaurants, which manages 3,000 eateries around the country, called California "the most business-unfriendly state we operate in."

http://www.latimes.com/news/opinion/commentary/la-oe-cox-malanga-california-business-20111114,0,1011551.story

How to boot thinkpad X1 from USB.

1. Format USB stick so it has a bootable ISO image (linux has various ways to do this; I used usb-creator-gtk for no particular reason other than it was already on my machine).
2. Power cycle.
3. Hold down F12.  The initial screen says to hold down the "blue botton" which doesn't exist.
4. Select the USB stick from the bootable options.
5. Press return.

Of course, like many things to do w/ linux and installation these days, this just doesn't work (at least for me).  I keep hitting "(initramfs) Unable to find a medium containing a live file system" which is a known bug.  

So, now the google searching begins.  


Looks like it's a USB 3.0 issue.  The most expedient fix is to check for other USB connections on the laptop.  The one on the left side of the x1 seems to do the trick.

"Examples are the underrated IQ booster of the universe."

 Each technical paper I have to read lately serves as another inductive step proving this bromide.  Ugh.

Navy death ray

http://www.wired.com/dangerroom/2011/02/unexpectedly-navys-superlaser-blasts-away-a-record/

The free-electron laser is one of the Navy’s highest-priority weapons programs, and it’s not hard to see why. “We’re fast approaching the limits of our ability to hit maneuvering pieces of metal in the sky with other maneuvering pieces of metal,” says Rear Adm. Nevin Carr, the Navy’s chief of research. The next level: “fighting at the speed of light and hypersonics” — that is, the free-electron laser and the Navy’s Mach-8 electromagnetic rail gun.

Best thing in Zurich so far: Bowmore 18.

Unusual for an Islay: not much iodine, fruity, long finish.

Going to get a bottle when I get back in the states.

In other news: walked around for 20 minutes and saw 5 starbucks.  Weird.

For christmas: a glass as big as a bottle! And Macallan 18 is good.

I'm not going to spend $130 on a real bottle of it, but it had a nice, clean, dry taste.  More will be procured at some point.

Teacher's Highland Cream: Good blended whisky for less than $20

I used to hate scotch, whisky, whiskey, bourbon (well, still do) and anything else that tasted of alcohol from many years of being a bouncer and ejecting free booze on a weekly basis.

Then I had Lagavulin 16.  Just fantastic.  Of course, even on a crazy sale it's $50.   And more typically is $62 (plus tax).

So I've been on the lookout for good, cheap liquid that is vaguely like a great single malt.

Perhaps one of the smoothest, easiest to drink blended whisky is Teachers "Highland Cream."  It really is very easy to drink.  I bought this bottle earlier today and already got through about 1/5th of it while watching Top Gear w/o noticing.  (Notice the empty glass, which was a constant source of irritation.)

I'm going to put it down a floor so I don't interact with it further (the high cost to society of alcoholism, the unlikelihood of me hitting PRs as a boozehound, etc) but I really could easily drink the entire bottle.  And then probably do something stupid that costs much more than $20.

The good: it has a vanilla/honey/something scent and taste that I really like.  There seems to be a set of blended whiskys --- Johnnie Walker Gold, Chivas 18 and Teacher's --- that have this smell and taste and I'm really a sucker for them.  (To be honest, it might just be the nose of well-tempered grain alcohol.)    This is below Chivas 18 and both are below JW Gold (one of my favorites, neat and at room temperature) but it's very drinkable.

The bad: there is a slight odor of grain alcohol.  Perhaps a slight taste too, if I pay attention.  A bit of water (or ice) seems to kill that.  I'm going to pour 1/2 Highland 10 single malt from Trader Joe's (also $20) into the next glass to see if that mellows it better.

I only bought it b/c so many different whisky blogs recommended it as a good value / cheap / best buy bottle.  They were right.  I much prefer it over Famous Grouse, Finlaggan, and the usual budget booze recs.

Actionable advice in case of nuclear explosion

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/16/science/16terror.html?partner=rss&emc=rss

Suppose the unthinkable happened, and terrorists struck New York or another big city with an atom bomb. What should people there do? The government has a surprising new message: Do not flee. Get inside any stable building and don’t come out till officials say it’s safe.

 The advice is based on recent scientific analyses showing that a nuclear attack is much more survivable if you immediately shield yourself from the lethal radiation that follows a blast, a simple tactic seen as saving hundreds of thousands of lives. Even staying in a car, the studies show, would reduce casualties by more than 50 percent; hunkering down in a basement would be better by far.

Whiskey party.

One way to spend a few hours on a saturday: sampling from several thousands dollars worth of scotch (mostly not mine).

Various conclusions:

• Laphroaig 30 is great but not worth $300.
• Oban distiller's edition is one of my favorites.  About $70 from the cheapest online store.
• I like Caol Ila 12 and 18 alot, but don't care much for the other 4 samples I had
• The Macallan 12 from 10 years ago is crazy good compared to what they release now.
• Glenfarcias 10 is pretty smooth and not that expensive.
• Master of Malt has a really nice selection of samples (http://www.masterofmalt.com/drinks-by-the-dram/).   They charge in british pounds, however, so not the greatest exchange rate.
• Google's droid phone has a cool feature where you can take a picture of a bar code and it will look up that item on the net, finding the cheapest price (I paid $100 for the oban above, it found it for $67).

Here's my friend, looking a bit worse for wear, but well neigh invincible behind a fortress of scotch bottles.