Friday Water Cooler: Computers

So there I was, minding my own business yesterday, when I started up our relatively-new quad-core computer. And that's when the agony began.

The computer would not come up - it would not recognize the drive. I pretty much tried everything to make it come up - including, tonight, the dreaded last-ditch "put it in the freezer for twenty minutes" trick - and it didn't work.

I have some other tricks up my sleeve to try to get at the data - but now I have to face the probability that a year's worth of photos - irreplaceable - are gone forever. Four Lehigh games, gone. My son's first day of school, gone. God knows what important documents on the computer - gone. Gone!

I could have taken backups, or performed some sort of RAID backup for my hard drive. I even could have kept all me media on a networked drive. But, of course, I knew soooo much more than everybody else. I was too good for backups. It was always something that I was going to do after the season. When I was less busy. When I didn't have more important things to do.

Whether I get the priceless data off of there or not, I learned my lesson.

*****

This week's game will not be televised by Channel 69 or Yahoo! Sports Online, but will be carried by Yahoo! Sports with live audio, taking from the radio feed starring Matt Kerr and Kody Fedorcha on AM 1230 and 1320 of the Lehigh Valley.

If you are subscribed to CBS College Sports XXL, you can get a webcam feed of the game through Bucknell. I've seen these before: they are surprisingly good. You won't get replays, but it works well enough. (Hint: mute the audio of the Bucknell announcers, and play the Lehigh audio instead!) If you're not subscribed to CBS College Sports XXL, you can try to use Channel Surfing.Net to see if they have picked it up, which is free. (No guarantees, though.)

*****

Finally, here are my picks of other Patriot League games from my CSN Way column this week.

Fordham at Lafayette. While Colgate and Holy Cross have gotten the Top 25 love this year from the Patriot League, quietly 5-1 Lafayette has been making an impression. After linebacker Michael Schmidlein helped demolish Harvard 31-18 this weekend at Harvard - making them “Ivy League Champions” after sweeping the Ivy league for the first time in recent memory - they welcome Fordham and the high-octane offense led by quarterback John Skelton to Easton. The hungry Leopards will feast on the Rams, and maybe re-enter the Top 25 as a result.

Schmiddle of the Defense 30, Skeltons In the Closet 16

No. 17 Colgate at No. 22 Holy Cross. It’s not the Patriot League championship game - Lafayette has plenty to say about that - but this is the game that will separate the men from the boys, and both Holy Cross head coach Tom Gilmore and Colgate head coach Dick Biddle know it. Undefeated Colgate boasts the No. 1-rated rushing offense in the nation, with a stable of running backs like Nate Eachus and Jordan McCord, while the Crusaders’ Dominic Randolph boasts the No. 2-rated passing offense in all of FCS. Two powerful offenses, and two very different styles: and once again, playoff hopes on the line -last year, Colgate’s 29-28 win over Holy Cross gave them the Patriot League title. Coach Gilmore has been using this loss to motivate his troops this here - in fact, it may be a large reason why Randolph chose to return for his fifth year - and I think the emotion, and the home crowd, gives this one to the running back Matt Bellomo and the Cross as they take another step towards that elusive title.

Cross Crosses Colgate 30, Biddle Bit By Matt Bellomo 24

Go Lehigh!