The Great American Earthquake

The earth is starting to move in America. Can you feel it? Republican congressional candidates can, and they're scrambling to move to the center away from George W. and his failed leadership.

Do you feel, as I do, that Washington DC has packed up our kids, and money, and shipped them all off to Iraq? Even our senators and governors are in Iraq, or maybe it just seems like it. Because every time I watch the evening news, its very likely that I'll see a clip of politicians in flack jackets, standing in some desert in Iraq or Afghanistan. Here's an idea: let's leave the politicians in Iraq (the Iraqi's supposedly want a democracy, right? Let's give 'em some of our politicians) and bring the troops home to their moms, wifes and kids.

Have you noticed the shift in America, though? I certainly have. When I first wrote about fueling our family truckster with E85 ethanol, that was sort of an "out there" kind of article. Less than a year later, with gas at $2.50 a gallon, I'm jockeying in line with Soccer Mom's for the town's lone E85 pump.

Suddenly E85 is cool. Even Goerge W. finally had to learn to pronounce "Ethanol" for his state of the union address. Politicians are talking about bio-diesel, solar and windpower. Suddenly they're talking about "energy independence" and citing Brazil as a model for the U.S.

As I go about my every day life, I sense the growing dissatisfaction with the President's leadership, and a longing for change. REAL change, not just political-speak change. The kind of change that moves America away from the poison and pollution of oil, and towards a sustainable cleaner, more independent future.

Go, Big Baby

Have you been following the college hoops? If you're planning to watch tonight's "elite eight" between LSU-Texas, you owe it to yourself to read John Lopez's article about Glen "Big Baby" Davis.

Lopez's piece is about the human spirit, standing up for yourself, seeing the humor in any situation (no matter how bad), and overcoming adversity. Sounds cliche, I know, but give it a chance anyway. In a sports world full of Barry Bond's, Lopez and Big Baby remind us why the NCAA still matters.

No matter the outcome tonight, this Baby's already the Big Winner.

The Big Squeeze: Is China Elbowing U.S. out of Russian oil?

Will the U.S. be the odd man out when it comes to Russian Oil?

Russian President Vladimir Putin today inked a deal with China's Hu Jintao to supply oil to China's exploding economy. The pair also agreed to build a new pipeline branch to move oil from Siberia directly to China's thirsty mouth.

A deal between Russia and China simply continues a thawing of relations. With so much in common geographically, increasing trade between Russia and China makes sense. Russia has clearly been searching for a way to improve their stature and influence in the world. What better way than to cozy up with China, conencting Russian energy with China's economy. I wouldn't be surprised down the road to see a Russian/China trading block to counter the economic and political influence of the U.S. and E.U.

Click here to read more about what China's growing energy consumption means to the U.S.

The signs are everywhere: the U.S. needs to quickly move away from an oil based economy, and embrace renewable sources to sustain its growth.






http://mymountain.blogspot.com/2006/01/giant-slurping-sound-that-bush-cant.html

Word of the Day: Ransomware

I learned a new word today: Ransomeware.

A new trojan called Cryzip was recently identified by a virus tracking company. Cryzip will hold your computer files "hostage" and then then demand a $300 ransom. You can read about it here.

Sigh.

For virus programmers (you know who you are, and there seem to be a helluva lot of you these days) here's an idea. You guys are always trying to stand out in a crowded field, right? Always trying to build a name or a reputation for yourselves?

Here's how to do it.

Turn your genius to producing viruses that actually do some good.

For example, produce a virus that will fix a few of PC Magazine's top 50 PC peeves. I especially hate the one when I right click on a file and select "send by email," only to find that Windows has decided to name my email, and then write my email message for me. Some genius thought it would be helpful if they always named the subject of my email for me, and then always inserted, "The message is ready to be sent with the following file or link attachments" directly into the message.

If your "right click file" virus some how slipped past my anti-virus filter and andI awoke one morning to that this nuisance had somehow been fixed on my PC, guess how upset I'd be? Not very upset. I'd be grateful. I may even voluntarily file a "friend of the court" brief at your eventual trial, to tell the judge just how much I appreciated your kind work.

The best way to show up Bill Gates isn't by poking holes into his holy operating system. The best way to tweak Big Bill would be to plug his holes for him, to fix what he couldn't fix, or wasn't willing to fix.

The first virus that does good will probably get a lot of publicity. Think about it. You'll be famous, instead of infamous.

And don't forget to send me the "right click file" virus.

More thoughts on Bonds and sports heros

Scott over at Scott's Spot blog answered my March 8 2006 essay, "There are no more sports heros." If you haven't already had enough of this topic, I recommend this entry to your reading list.

http://scottro.blogspot.com/2006/03/where-have-you-gone-joe-dimaggio.html


Here's my recommended thought for the day for Daunte Culpepper:

Fame is a vapor, popularity an accident, and riches take wings.
Only one thing endures and that is character.
-Horace Greeley

SI Lament: There are no more heros.

Is the sports hero dead? Sports Illustrated writer Phil Taylor apparently thinks so. Lamenting the fall from grace of San Francisco big bat Barry Bonds, Taylor said that the Bonds steroid scandal made him sad (poor, sad Phil Taylor!). Then Taylor put forth some provocative, questions to readers of his recent SI column. These questions were as tough as any question that a serious sports writer can ever ask:

"Giving our allegiance, our affection, to a sports star is a riskier proposition than ever," wrote Taylor. "Is there anyone safe to root for? Is there an athlete out there who won't make us eventually feel like a fool for holding him in high esteem?"

Taylor makes the failure of the sports hero appear to be some kind of recent phenom. His list of failed figures only went as far back as Pete Rose and OJ Simpson. Such short memories we have. In fact, sports hero's have been failing their worshippers for as long as they have been human, which is to say, they have always failed us. If we stretch our memories a little, we can recall the Black Sox scandal of 87 years ago. Think a little harder and you can go back thousands of years and recall how Goliath let down the Philistine's by failing to defeat a boy with a rock.

Taylor is right in his conclusion: living vicariously through the achievements of our sports hereos is a risky proposition.

But then he asks, "is there anyone safe to root for?"

To that question I can only answer, go down to your local homeless shelter and root for the people who show up there each day to make a difference. Go to your kid's school and root for his teacher and principal. Go out to this website and root for our troops in Iraq. Go out to ChristopherReeve.org and root for this organization to continue building on the legacy of Chris and Dana Reeve.

The secret is, Mr. Taylor, to root for something that matters. I hate to break it to you, and it may take you awhile to comprehend what I am about to say.

Professional sports doesn't matter.

Read it over and over again if it didn't make sense the first time.

Don't get me wrong -- participating in sports offers plenty of good lessons in cooperation, teamwork, striving, personal best, and healthy active lifestyle.

But at the professional level, it should be seen only as entertainment. Sports figures will always fail us when they are elevated to level of gods, because they're not gods. They're just people with a little bit of talent, nice cars, good lawyers and a lot of money.

And it seems mighty hypocritical of you Mr. Taylor, as a representative of Sports Illustrated, to be lamenting the fall of the sports hero. After all, SI has had as pivotal a role in building up Barry Bonds and other hero's as any media outlet. Build 'em up, then tear them down, eh Mr. Taylor? SI will make a profit either way.

But if you must root, and you are serious about your hero-quest, then my constructive advice to you is to root for real people, who are doing real work, that really matters.

They're out there, and a kind word from you would really make their day.

Kirby Puckett's Legacy

Baseball fans everywhere are mourning the sudden loss of hall of famer Kirby Puckett, who died yesterday of a stroke at the age of 45.

I'll never forget watching Puck play in the Metrodome. He was a delight to watch, because he always gave 110%, always had a smile, and always seemed to be enjoying being on the field.

Sure, Kirby had his troubles just like the rest of us. Thank goodness most of us don't have to live out our shortcomings on a major league stage. But thankfully, the bright light of the good works Kirby did during his short life will surely fill in the shadows.

Here's a good piece about Kirby written by Jim Reeves. Jim waxes quite eloquently about Kirby's appeal. It's an honest essay.

Kirby once said, "I love the game. This is fun for me. It was fun when I was a kid. It is now. I didn't play baseball so I could get out of the ghetto. I played because I enjoyed baseball."

"And now look, I'm in the big leagues!"

You certiainly are, Kirby. We'll miss you.

Shame on Timberwolves fans for booing injured man

As much as I love to call myself a Minnesotan, and as proud as I am of the state I live in, I was completely ashamed of the Minnesota Timberwolves fans who boo'ed a man as he was being wheeled out of Target Center last night by paramedics.

The man had been hit in the face by a basket ball purposely tossed into the stands by all-star forward Kevin Garnett, who was then ejected from the game. To his credit, Garnett appologized to the dizzy fan and his hysterical little girl. To his discredit, Garnett's discussion of the incident to the media was laced with profanity.

So there's the man sitting with his special little girl. One moment, having a great time, treating his daughter to game. She had probably been looking forward to it for weeks. He looks up just in time to see a hard basketball hit him in the nose. In a split second, the entire target center is focused on him. His cage clearly rattled, paramedics rush to him, as his emotional daughter cries aloud, wondering if her dad will be alright.

Rather than expressing sympathetic concern to man and his little girl, Timberwolves fans passed immediate judgement.
"The ball wasn't thrown that hard," they thought.
"They guy is faking."
"It's his fault Garnett was ejected."
"He's setting himself up for a lawsuit."
"Boo!"

Being clocked in the head by a basketball, even one tossed lovingly and gently by K.G., can in fact inflict a serious injury. Perhaps it didn't look very bad from way up there in the cheap seats, but it certainly may have been serious. Study up on head injuries, and you'll learn that they all need to be taken seriously and that that symptoms can appear hours or even days after the injury.

It's a sad day for me to finally have to acknowledge that perhaps Minnesotans really are not as nice as we would delude ourselves into believing. But there it was: so-called fans booing one of their own while a scared little girl bawled her eyes out for the father she loved.

Shame on Timberwolves fans for their cynical, childish, and downright mean behavior last night. Shame, shame, shame.

Cheney's right to bear arms

I know I've been strangely silent during the past week. The news events just seem to keep speaking for themselves, without any help from me.

Regular readers of this blog, if there are any, probably remember that I'm a hunter, and proud of it. I think hunting is a great way to connect with the great outdoors, and encourages people to take up an interest in wildlife conservation and habitat preservation. Here's a link to one of my favorite hunting entries to MyMountain.

Here in Minnesota, I'm generally in good company when I express my love of the hunt. I have faced challenges expressing this opinion while residing in more urban environments, such as Chicago, where guns go hand in hand with gang activity and robbery and many people have never had the opportunity to experience a responsible hunt. Growing up in Minnesota your experience with guns is probably a positive one, as opposed to growing up in Cabrini Green.

So I have to say that my heart goes out to Dick Cheney. I can only imagine how aweful I would feel if I accidentally shot someone.

I am incredulous at how the White House has handled the entire situation. First a delay in releasing the news, which suggests to me a continuation of a policy of not being forthright.

Then they decided to blame Cheney's shooting victim. Yes, because it was apparently his fault for "stepping out of line." Every responsible hunter knows that if you pull the trigger and someone gets hurt, its the shooters fault. No question. You do NOT pull the trigger unless you know what your bullet (or pellets) are going to hit.

Then spokesman Scott McClellan thought a more lighthearted approach would be best. So he decided to find humor in the situation, which seemed to be working until the 78 year old victim had a heart attack. Not so funny now, eh?

Sadly, this entire tragedy we see playing out in the news just seems to be the latest in a series of communications blunders that the American people are coming to expect from this administration. I know being forthright is a near impossibility for an administration that is feeling besieged to the point it needs to authorize secret spy programs on its own people. But if George Bush were to ask me, I would give him two points in just four words so that even he could understand it.

1. Be honest.
2. Fire McClellan.

To wrap this up, no matter how you feel about guns, I'd ask you to consider not lumping responsible hunters in with "gun enthusiasts." The problem with the NRA is that they do not know the difference. So intent are they to protect the supposed right to bear arms, that they do the entire fraternity of responsible hunters a huge disservice.

However, I don't believe that my ability to share the magic of a hunt with my children is in any way compromised if I can't use automatic weapons. View this short video and you'll soon understand what I mean. People who use automatic weapons and who like to blow things up are not the kind of people that you will see me hunting with, ever.

Them, or Dick Cheney.

Snow day on the East Coast! New Englanders, try to make the most of it!

To those of you in the northeast who are enjoying a day off from work, I wish you a great day. I suggest leaving the TV turned off. It's a great day to read a book, or play a board game. Tell your kids a story. Days like this do not come along often enough.

Click here to see pictures of people in New York City dealing with the storm. They're actually very pleasant, a nice glimpse of life interrupted in NYC.

Christians Celebrate Darwin's Birthday

No, you read correctly. The birthday of biologist and evolution theorist Charles Darwin is this week, and some Christian churches are gearing up for a Darwin Day celebration. Are evolution and Christianity inherently incompatible? For an interesting perspective on the "you must choose between Darwin or God" debate, read this, and let me know what you think.

A Cultural Collision: Thoughts on the Mohammed Caricatures

Days of violent protests across the Muslim world stirred up my curiosity. I finally decided that I should view these cartoons in order to see what all the fuss was about. Perhaps I would learn something abou the Muslim world. If it were not for such a violent global reaction, I couldn't have feigned interest in this issue if my access to heaven depended on it.

Finding these pictures on the internet was not easy. It took me about 20 minutes of googling. I am not aware of a single U.S. newspaper willing to publish these caricatures. Most publications and websites seem to have pulled the content out of fear. Even the U.S. Government has sided with the Muslims to curry favor, which to me seems very disingenuous. For a country that talks about exporting its "values," apparently freedom of expression is not one of them.

I mean no disrespect to the Muslim world. Yet, I make no appologies that I am fighting to live in a world where ideas, even bad ones, can be shared and discussed and "outed" without the fear being killed.

Only in a world where ideas can be expressed freely will you and I be free to practice the religeon we are called to.

I wish you could come to know Jesus, yet I will not slay you, will not chant "death to you," will not cut off your hand, stone you, nor turn you into a pillar of salt if you do not come to know Him. If you want to talk about Jesus, I will talk with you. If you want to take a crucifix and plunge it into a decanter of urine, I will not stop you and I will still talk to you. I may speak out against your actions, but you must be free to reveal who you are through your words and actions. Beyond our differences we may become friends, or pleasant acquintances.

I will therefore do what no U.S. newspaper has dared to do. Here are the caricatures of Mohammed. Make up your own mind about these pictures. I think they're silly, and I can certainly see how a Muslim may be offended. If it were Jesus, I would be offended (such as the Jesus depicted on TV in the 'Book of Daniel.') You'll find the Mohammed images at http://www.brusselsjournal.com/node/698

President and House to America: War Good. College Bad.

For the 100th post to My Mountain, I'm sorry to tell you that I'm a little upset today. I had hoped the 100th post would be more life affirming.

But someone has to ask the question: What the hell is going on up on Capital Hill?

Despite my earlier post, President Bush will soon ask Congress for an additional $120 billion to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, which would bring the total cost so far to $440 Billion, according to Knight Ridder.

And despite my rock-solid treatise on the importance of funding education, the U.S. House voted today to make a college less accessible, when they passed a budget reconcilliation bill that cuts a record $12 billion from government backed student loans.

Let me see if I have this straight: War good. Education bad.

I guess if you can't get a student loan, you can always join the Armed Forces. Afterall, they'll pay for your college, right? In any event, making college less accessible for high school kids can only be good news for military recruiting, given the increasingly stiff resistance recruiters face for access to teens.

Let me jump back to the cost of the war.

Just for kicks, go back and read this CBS article from 2003, where they discussed what the war could possibly cost: Budget director Mitch Daniels guessed $50 to $60 billion. Former White House economic adviser Larry Lindsey guessed $100 billion and $200 billion. "Defense officials" were estimating of $60 billion to $95 billion.

Three years later, we're closing in on a one-half Trillion dollar price tag, with no end in site, and no clear way to win this war. Although I supported this war in the beginning under the illusion that it would make our country safer, I don't feel safer. I just feel lied to, spied on, and embarrassed at America's soiled reputation in the world.

And those are just the financial costs. The human cost of this war is already more than any of us can bear. More than 2,000 U.S. lives lost. Nearly 20,000 soliders wounded. 30,000 civilians killed. Fathers, sons, mothers, who will never come home.

Its no wonder to me that Americans are running away in droves from this President. If his party isn't very, very careful, they will find themselves on the outside looking in after this next election. The surest way to defeat for the Republican Guard, er... I mean Republican Party, is to keep voting unlimited Billions to send our kids to war, and to keep cutting billions from a program that helps our kids pay their way through college.

Reaction to the State of the Union Speech

Slovenly, or Infected? Can the stigma get any worse for fattys?

It's not easy being fat, especially in a country that values youth and unrelentingly hyperexposes the population to concepts of beauty that are impossible to achieve. In the face of the onslaught of negative imagery, I have immense respect for people (large, medium or small) who are emotionally strong enough to be at peace with their physical selves.

For as long as I can recall, there has been a stigma attached to being "fat" in America ("gee, no kidding Scott! Brilliantly insightful observation there buddy!"). The common social assumption from my vantage point has been that, if you are fat, then you must be a lazy, undisciplined, slovenly, overeater with no self control. And by the way, so's your Mamma because you probably inherited that fat-DNA from your parental units.

As if that heaping plate of scorn that America heaps upon it larger citizens isn't bad enough, lets now add "infected" to the list.

In fact, research are now discovering evidence that the 60 million Americans defined as obese may in fact have a viral infection contributing to their situation.

Read about the Fat Virus here.

And if you ever learn about a Smart Virus, please email me immediately. I need to catch me some of that!

Suicide Isn't Painless.

I don't care what the words are to the theme song from M*A*S*H. Suicide isn't painless for the people left behind.

After being asked by our Pastor, I decided to help out at church today with a funeral. It was for a 32 year old man who I should have known, but didn't. He killed himself over the weekend, leaving behind two beautiful kids, a boy age 4 and a girl age 7, inconsolable parents and a dazed wife. It was the saddest funeral I've ever seen. I've never witnessed such grief expressed at a funeral.

Afterward I saw a veteran insurance man that I know well. I said, "Al, thank goodness you're here. At least that tells me he's leaving something for his family." Al said they'd be taken care of, and you can always trust Al.

I don't know nearly enough about suicide. The pain may be over for the man, but its just begun for his family. I can't fathom what illness or trouble could have overcome this man. I just know those kids want their father back tonight, and no amount of money can ever replace what they've lost.

Thought for the Day

Dwell not on the past.

Use it to illustrate a point, then leave it behind.

Nothing really matters except what you do now in this instant of time. From this moment onwards you can be an entirely different person, filled with love and understanding, ready with an outstretched hand, uplifted and positive in every thought and deed.

Eileen Caddy

Thoughts on Google Subpeona

You've already heard that the Bush administration has demanded access to Google's ever growing database, which contains an array of information about you and I, and what we search for on the internet. AOL, MSN and Yahoo have already complied, but Google is fighting it. If you haven't heard about it, click here.

Privacy advocates suddenly find themselves in an argument that has been framed thus: Either you're with us, or you're with the pornographers and pedophiles.

Ostensibly, because there are perverts and terrorists in this world, no U.S. citizen should harbor illusions of any semblance of privacy. The government should be able to rumage around in our lives for anything that looks interesting, and given Bush's executive powers, he can find any kind of excuse to lock us up without due process, torture us, shuffle us off to secret prisons, never notify our families, never let us speak to an attorney, not even have to tell us what the charges are. And by the way, he's not subject to any oversight by the judicial or congretional branches.

I hope you've never researached a term paper on "Osama Bin Laden" or searched for "Nude teens" on Google, or you might wake up some morning in a Romanian prison. Yes I am exagerating, but no, I am not making this up. Welcome to the New Evil Empire.

For information businesses like MSN, Google, Yahoo, and Double Click, being based in America with valuable databases means that you can expect to be served an array of invasive subpeonas over time.

In a business where trust and reputation are everything, what does being a stooge for the U.S. government do for your reputation? Not a lot. The 95% of the population of Planet Earth that lives outside of the good ol' USA may not like, for their own personal reasons, knowing that their Google profiles are effectively the property of the US Govt. If Google loses this fight, their global reputation will be forever tarnished.

How long will it be until some of these tremendous global businesses decide that they can easily host these services outside of the U.S.? After all, why even bother with this kind of crap when the expertise and connectivity to run your business exists outside of the U.S.

As the Bush Administration continues to bully the world and stick its finger up the butt-holes of Americans, America will lose its edge in the increasingly competitive world of internet business.

Meanwhile, if you're looking for a decently priced web or email host, check out www.pchighway.com. For a few bucks a month, they'll host your data in Switzerland.

The Re-invented Al Gore

My reaction to Gore's MLK speech:

I just finished listening to the speech, in which Gore basically lays out the points for the prosecution of the President for spying on Americans. If Gore had put as much passion into campaigning for President as he did in his speech to civil rights activists, he would be president today.

Gore nailed it!

The limp pickle former-Democratic presidential candidate seems to have found his groove as a passionate second guesser of the Bush administration. Thank God, someone has stepped up to articulate the anger and sense of betrayal that many Americans feel after learning that Bush has shredded the constitution. Thus far, the only democrats who have opened their mouths on this issue just seem to be ticking people off with their partisan whinning.

As my own Independent political leanings continues to drift further and further from the Republican extremist politics practiced in the White House today (am I drifting, or are they?), I commend Gore on a speech well made. The reaction by independents to his speech were measured as being very favorable.

Though I voted for Bush in 2000 when he briefly floated toward the center, I will be hard pressed to consider a vote for any Republican candidate this year who insists that the president is right in creating a constitutional crisis with his domestic spying agenda.

Perhaps Bush's chummy relationship with Russia's Putin has rubbed the wrong way. Has Bush influenced Putin? It appears that Putin instead has rubbed off on Bush. America is not the Evil Empire, and so Gore is correct to articulate a case against Bush's perversions of presidential power.

Gateway to Hell - or How I restored audio to my MX3560 laptop

The one or two of you who read this blog regularly realize that you never quite know what you're going to find on topic. It might be a reminisce, a father gushing over his kids, an American citizen angry at whatever. It may be interesting, or I might bore you to tears.
I make no appologies, because this just a blog. Thoughts go straight from my little mind to you, with very little editing. For people who like this blog, that's probably the attraction. For those who hate it, that's probably the reason.

Today brings another such rant, but this time I've decided to take on a multibillion dollar corporation. Gateway Computer, you should be ashamed of yourselves.

It has been three weeks since I bought a Gateway MX3560 laptop computer. I was attracted to the compact size, the price, the quality of the screen, the price, the length of time I can run it on the battery, and the price. I also thought it would come with legendary Gateway support, should I ever need it.

I began my descent into frustration and anguish after I upgraded the laptop from XP "Home" edition to XP pro. I also just wanted to get all of that crap off of my PC that Gateway loads it up with: you know, samples of Norton, a trial of AOL, etc.

Upgrading the my MX3560 should have been a no brainer, and would have been if Gateway had posted the correct audio drivers for the machine in their support area. So for weeks, I've been chatting with a guy at Gateway support named Trent. God bless Trent -- he really tried to help. But everything he had me try failed, for no other reason than the drivers were wrong. But after weeks of screwing around with this, I finally had to take matters into my own hands and try to Google an answer. What I discovered is that there are others out there in the same boat that I was in. Many pleas for help, yet no one has definitively posted a cure for this ill.

So today, I am writing this entry in the hopes that I can save at least one gentle soul from the frustration that I went through.

If you are the owner of a Gateway MX3560 laptop, and after installing Windows XP you find that you have no sound, and you've tried everything (including their "automatic" driver installation software) but nothing seems to work, here's the driver you need:

It's called the SoundMax audio driver. The file name on support.Gateway.com is D00188-002-001.exe. Click here, and hopefully you will go to the write place on their website. At present, Gateway does not say that this driver will work with the MX3560, but trust me -- it does. The driver they are giving you is the wrong one.

Look, if a numbskull like me can google an answer to this problem, why can't Gateway? With all of their resource, why should it take weeks and weeks for them to solve this problem? Clearly, I was not the only person having this trouble.

I know that I mentioned price as a major reason for purchasing this laptop. But I'll let you in on a little secret: I would pay 20% more for a laptop that I thought would come with competent technical support. I had always thought Gateway was known for its great "South Dakota" support. That was probably when it was a South Dakota company. Now that's based in San Diego with manufacturing jobs shipped to China (I don't know where Trent was based. If he was Indian, he had a good American accent), perhaps Gateway is now content just to be a lowest-cost manufacturer and to compete as a commodity.

So my parting advice to you is that if you're thinking of buying a Gateway laptop is to base your decision entirely on the price/feature comparison. The Gateway brand no longer represents quality support.

Please excuse me. I need to go writ an email to Trent at Gateway support and tell him how to solve his problem

One down, only four more missing drivers to go.

UPDATE:  If you are unable to install this driver on your PC with Vista/7/8, try running it in Windows XP compatibility mode. I was able to do this successfully. Just right click on the Driver, choose Properties, the click the Compatibility tab. Check "Run this program in compability mode for:" and choose "Windows XP."