Argh!

My laptop popped up with the Blue Screen of Death tonight. I've Googled the numbers that went along with it, and came back with lots of scary references to impending hard drive failure. :(

The computer is still under warranty, but I'm not sure they'll replace the hard drive if they can't replicate the error. If they won't, I suppose I'll have to become obsessive about backing up, and hope the final failure occurs before the warranty is up. (I have over a year to go, so it's quite possible.) Alternately, maybe the large number of minor but annoying mechanical problems--like my laptop's newly acquired tendency to ignore the power cord and draw from the battery and the scary looseness of the hinges--might be enough to get them to give me a new computer. Okay, maybe not.

For the geekly inclined, here's the failure info:

KERNEL_DATA_INPAGE_ERROR

STOP 0x0000007A (0xC03E1DA 0xC000000E 0xF876A000 0x07630800)

(More Googling reveals that 0xC000000E = STATUS_NO_SUCH_DEVICE)

Mmm, biscotti

Inspired by a recent post in cooking, I made some biscotti this afternoon. Four kinds, in total: lemon, vanilla almond, cinnamon, and double chocolate cherry. It turned out better than I expected, flavourwise, considering that I mixed the dough and then added the flavouring agents after separating it. Cookingwise, I toasted it a little too long on the second baking, but otherwise it turned out well. I especially like the double chocolate cherry.

In tangential news, B is going to be organizing a session at a conference in Urbania, Italy in July. Schedule permitting, I may go with him. Yay, Italy!