Hashemian Blog Web Tools, Financial Markets, Technology Sunday, September 28, 2008 Herniated Disc and Half Marathon  One of my biggest anguishes I've had about getting hit with a herniated disc has been my inability to participate in my town's annual half marathon. But as I recovered from this affliction and started to run again I began to think that perhaps my fears on that front were premature and I could at least try the race this year. So I decided to register for the event next week and give it a shot. My running performance hasn't been anywhere near before my injury. I jog slowly about 4 or 5 miles depending on my condition every other day and I've learned to be satisfied with that. Running 13.1 miles has been such a distant goal that I knew I was deluding myself about running, let alone finishing, this race. Then to add insult to injury I got hit with another blow to my back yesterday. I must have over-extended myself lifting heavy bags after grocery shopping. Those with back pain know what I'm talking about. As you begin to straighten up you feel the dreaded pop in your back followed by the pang of sharp pain. It's unmistakable and it's the beginning of yet another bout with extended back pain. After muttering a few expletives under my breath I realized that this was the kiss of death for next week's half marathon. Just my luck! Oh well, perhaps this was a sign that I should accept my condition and avoid strenuous activities. Yet there's that stubborn part of me that just won't capitulate. So after a painful night, I popped two Advils today and decided to pay a visit to the half marathon course to evaluate my condition. I planned to run the course as far as I could and then quit at the 7th mile or so, if I could get that far. Right from the start the back pain kicked into high gear and kept hounding me to stop. "No way," I thought to myself and I kept on going with pain piercing my back and pins and needles radiating down my legs. I wasn't about to let the pain force me to quit. As I passed every mile marker already painted on the course, I said "one more mile" and pressed on. As I reached the 7th mile, I had a sudden realization that I've made it this far, might as well finish the darn thing. The temperature was mild but humid, pain was my only companion, and there were no water stations to get hydrated, but finish I did. When I incredibly passed the finish line, I continued for another fraction of a mile as a sort of a victory lap. Dehydrated, exhausted, and pain-ridden (and not just in my back anymore), I got in my car to drive home, dazed at what I had actually done. I hadn't stopped even once. It was one smooth jog from beginning to end. I'm not sure if this was a case of mind over matter or just a foolish act to defy my own body and prove a point. Whatever the case, I learned that the human body can sometimes be pushed beyond its perceived limits. The jury is still out on whether I can repeat the performance next week at the race. On top of that I might have aggravated my condition today. But even if I can't, I know I ran the half marathon even before the starter pistol's trigger will have been pulled. back pain,marathon,half marathon,running,jogging,herniated disc Labels: back pain, running <Herniated Disc and Half Marathon> // posted by rh 2 comments Saturday, September 13, 2008 Windows XP Service Pack 3 Error  Last week I stumbled upon this Gmail Blog post mentioning that IE6 (Internet Explorer version 6) now supports some of the GUI enhancements offered by Gmail. But in order to exploit these enhancements, one had to apply a critical update to IE6 from Microsoft. An interesting point cited by this post was that Google and Microsoft developers had worked together to address the issue. I didn't think these guys even talked to each other, let alone cooperate to release an update for the IE6 browser. I had always wondered why Gmail appeared less fancy in IE6 than in other browser like IE7 or Firefox, and this post finally resolved that mystery. Now I'm not the type to jump on a patch or a service pack as soon as Microsoft releases them. I still use IE6 on Windows XP at work and at home alongside Firefox 3, and I have no desire to upgrade to Windows Vista or IE7. The prospect of better Gmail experience however was tempting enough for me to pay a visit to the Windows Update site and apply the IE6 patch. I have automatic updates disabled on my machine and apparently I was missing a lot of them as I was suddenly greeted with a long list of security and critical patches once I got the process rolling. Among the list were two notable items, IE7 and Windows XP Service Pack 3. I promptly opted out of IE7, but decided to give SP3 a green light. Little did I know that I'd be wasting the next 3 hours of my life over this inane service pack. The process started our smooth enough. a number of patches were applied, followed by the obligatory reboot. Then came the SP3 update from hell. The sluggish process would run almost to the end at which time an error dialog box would pop up with a simple message: "Service Pack 3 setup error. Access is denied." Huh? Access to what is denied? Acknowledging the message would commence a rollback process as sluggish as the installation itself, followed by an automatic reboot. Not acceding defeat, I ran a Web search on the error and found this KB article from Microsoft Support. Apparently I wasn't the first person having this issue. Following the advice of the article, I exited my antivirus program (AVG) and tried once more, but again I got the same error. Perhaps Windows Defender was the culprit, but stopping that process didn't help either. After a few more tries shutting down various programs like Diskeeper and Symantec's Backup agent, I was still getting nowhere. Finally I fired up Process Explorer and slaughtered every process in sight until only the basic ones remained. And yet, SP3 defiantly refused to be installed. It was the same old snail-pace install-error-rollback-reboot that I was getting well acquainted with. There comes a time when a person must cut his losses and move on and my time was then. Most likely the trouble was a registry permission issue which is also mentioned in the KB article and a solution is offered. But by then my patience had already run out and by that final reboot I decided that SP2 was good enough for me. In the end it turns out that SP3 doesn't really offer anything substantial over SP2. A few security fixes and optimizations but nothing so crucial that’s worth this kind of hassle. Happily, the IE6 update had been applied (possibly among the first set of patches) and that wiped away any modicum of temptation I might have had to give SP3 one more shot. The computer is working as before (even after the multiple upgrade onslaught), Gmail enhancements now appear fine on IE6, and my only regret is not stopping after the first SP3 update attempt went awry. Sorry SP3, we just weren't meant to be together. windows xp,gmail,windows service pack,internet explorer,firefox,microsoft,google Labels: google, Microsoft <Windows XP Service Pack 3 Error> // posted by rh 0 comments

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