signs of life in the laptop...

the board itself actually seems to not have a short in it. the short appears to be connected to the video cable. but, it's bad enough that it's setting off some kind of shut down on the board or something. i don't understand it quite yet...

i decided i was going to fix it rather than sell it. if there was something blown on the board, and it was really bad, i should be able to see it. so, i took it apart to check to see if i could find any blown capacitors or otherwise wonky seeming parts. now, swapping out parts on a board is...i know how to do it, in theory, but i wouldn't bother actually doing it, because i know the outcome. i mean, i know how to take a laptop apart, too, but i couldn't actually do it.

when i was a kid, i wanted to be a surgeon, but i abandoned it because i realized i could barely write my name on the lines. it was actually kind of a profound experience. i've got all this knowledge in my head, but my hands are fucking useless to me.

did i mention i was a nerd?

so, i took it apart and quickly realized there wasn't anything visibly wrong with it. so, i plugged it in for a lark and it got power on the led, indicating  the actual board is ok.

the next thing to do is to put it back together piece by piece, checking to see when it stops. and, it stops when i plug the video in.

i've played with it enough to know that's where the break is, but i'm not yet convinced that the part is broken. it may not be snug enough, or may require some tape. i'm going to ask around on the forums before i give up and order the part.

but, the board is fine, and that's a huge relief.

the conservative party of canada has this stubborn ignorance of history that insists it cannot do well in quebec due to the reality that it tends to elect leaders from outside quebec, rather than because it's policies are not appealing to quebecers. this has something to do with brian mulroney, who in fact just happened to be in the right place at the right time. i mean, quebec just picked the younger trudeau over the irish-quebecer mulroney-clone, muclair.

worse, it insists that it's policies are appealing to quebecers, and quebecers just won't vote for people from outside quebec. quebecers don't react well to that kind of dismissive attitude, or the kind of pandering that the party clearly wants to promote.

the reality is that it is not likely that the conservatives will do well in quebec any time soon for the reason that quebecers lean well to the left of the conservative party. there is no answer for them, besides repeating mulroney's march to the centre - which will lead to a revolt in the grassroots.

maxime bernier is not a progressive conservative. so, i do not think that maxime bernier poses justin trudeau much of a threat.

the winning strategy for the conservative party requires winning large amounts of seats in ontario, and particularly around toronto. they will need to win back moderate suburbanites in the 905. bernier will not be able to do that, either - because he's quite clearly not very bright. to ontarians, bernier is the same dumb conservative that the ontario pcs have been running for years: he looks good in a suit, but doesn't have a thought in his head.

the only candidate that poses a serious threat is lisa raitt.

A recent C.D. Howe Institute report found 90 per cent of the black market would disappear if pot cost $9 per gram, projecting $675 million a year in federal and provincial revenues if governments only applied existing sales taxes.

i think this is probably close to right, so long as an economy of scale is maintained. otherwise, the predictable outcome is that the legal market only reaches young people, while older people keep the black market running.