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I have this Toshiba Laptop - South American or European Edition.

Model = A135-SP4796 

Ever since I downgraded it from Window Vista - Basic Spanish Version, I am having a hard time finding all of the XP drivers. For starters, Toshiba will not help. They have some kind of evil agreement with big Microsoft, not to make it easy for anybody to put XP on it. But I am stuburn, I had Vista. I think Vista is the worst OS that MS has come up with. I do not no many people who like Vista, not even in Big corporate Offices. Everybody is still using Windows XP.

I had started a few weeks ago on this Laptop which belong to my niece. I found some drivers on Hardware Central and Geeks to Go Forums and that helped me to get the Wireless card drivers, The video and eventually the sound to work. Now I am working on it again. I am trying to find the 2 missing drivers:

1) Ethernet Driver - which I can do without as long as I have the wireless working

2) Mass Storage Device - The lack of this prevents me from connecting camera’s USB flash drives or IPODS to it.

Does anybody know who manufactures these 2 parts, The driver has got to be out there somewhere and I will not stop searching until I find it.

Also I hate Toshiba  - Curse them for not helping all of us that resist Vista! 
I almost put Ubuntu Linux, but thought that my niece who is 12 years old may not know how to use it!

Please post comments below.  Thanks!

Miami is listed as one of the worst cities for traffic. The average commuter spends at least one hour to get to work each day. Some of these people live within 15 miles of their job, yet it takes them a whole hour to get to work. The reason is simple, not enough roads for too many cars. So the city has been trying to take care of this, by building new roads and busways. But that has its own problems, these projects are long and costly. They also have to block existing lanes on the highways and less lanes, means even more traffic. Another problem that Miami has, is too many tourists from too may different countries. They may know how to drive in their own cities, but they do not know that Miami is different.

Too may people think that driving offensively is the answer. What they do not realize is that you also have to drive defensively. Almost every day, there are about 10 to 15 car accidents. The main reason is that the persons involved were driving normal. They were following the normal traffic rules. For example they drive through a green light, with no need to look right and left. But in Miami that is the wrong answer. If you want to survive for many years without getting into an accident, somebody needs to teach every driver that you must look left and right, even when you drive through a green light, or just about any intersection. They also need to teach this to all of the high school kids that just got their drivers license. Too many people run red lights, so you have to look out for them, and that is about the only way to avoid accidents. My only conclusion is that you have to drive defensively or you will become another statistic.

Here are some of the recent topics of this blog

1)Use Sales Tax to help collect money from illegal immigrants and help pay for Hurricane disaster relief so that all of us homeowners can pay less on property taxes and insurance. 

2) Personal Loan are sometimes better than Equity lines of credit Some personal loans offer rates of 5 percent or less at a fixed rate While most Home equity lines charge you the prime interest rate of 8.25 percent and even though they tell you that you can same money on your income tax return the truth is that it still is not worth it. the tax savings is often less than 10 percent of your income and this amount can be a very samll savings compared to the higher prime interest rate of 8.25 percent So if your payment on 50,000 loan is only $210 a month at 5 percent rate, then then why should you pay $350 for an equity loan where even if you subtract the $50 tax savings you still end up paying $90 extra per month. 

3) How to win the war in Iraq? Its easy

We need to let our the FBI and CIA, run the operations much more like Jack Bauer does in the FOX TV show 24. I know some Muslim groups concerned about Fox show 24, but that usually are the ones that may actually have something to hide. Our civil libertys are protected especially when we are good people and have no criminal intentions to hide. Like those who send money to bad people they should be punished. And in jail you do deserve to have less freedom. 

4) We need to do something about the high price of Homeowner insurance and taxes in South Florida.

We need to crack down on insurance Fraud and overpayments from insurance companies that are driving up the cost of living in south Florida. This may create a Real Estate Bubble worse than that which happened in 1920’s
Yes there was a bubble in the 1920’s and this can and will happen again if we do not stop these tax and insurance increase from ruining our economy. We really should use sales tax as a way to defend our economy. 

5) Fight back again evil homeowner associations.

This is like legal communism and we must learn how to fight back against them we live in a free county, so do not let a bunch of lawyers come up with rules that go against the freedom that we deserve in America. 

6) The new Homestead Hospital in South Florida

This new Hospital will really help create new jobs in Homestead and South Miami and it will give a little boost to the currently flooded Real Estate market in the area.
I have heard rumors that it will be finished very soon, perhaps my mid April 2007. So if you own a house down there. do not sell it yet. 

Yesterday a new Bill was passed that may help me to get a slightly better rate next time I renew my insurance, but I still think that a lot more needs to be done.

So here is an email I sent to the Governer. I still have not received a response, but I know they have been busy over the last week or so.

Dear Governor Crist:

I understand that you are really trying to help reduce insurance rates in Florida and I would like to thank you in advance for that.
Now I would like to know if this will be something that we will see as some kind of refund from our current insurance premiums which have doubled since last year,
Or will this be an effort to prevent further increases. I have noticed that over the past year, almost every neighbor that I speak with has been hit with a premium increase of almost $200 per month. Some of us see this, when our banks do an escrow analysis and that is my case. My bank is asking me to pay an extra $2000 toward by escrow Balance and then my payment will still go up by $150 per month.  I really cannot afford this and my wife is ready to sell out house and wants us to move to Georgia.

We may all have to move to another state:
I also want you to know that 3 other families from my wives side are all planning to do the same. They all want to move to Georgia. There must be a better answer. If too many people begin to leave Florida, that may Hurt the economy even more.
So now having said this, I would like you to consider this:

Solutions:

1) Reward those who have Solid Houses and those who do not file claims:
I live in a community called Venezia Lakes. The Zip code is 33186 My house was built in 2001 by Carribe Home builders.My house is of solid reinforced concrete construction. The roof is of Barrel Tile, I have shutters and I do use them.

2) Crack down and Punish Scammers:
I am very sad when I am invited to a party and I here people brag about how they became rich Thanks to Hurricane Andrew, of Wilma.
These people should be punished and not rewarded. Those same people try to tell me that I am a fool because I should have filed a claim last year.
When Hurricane Wilma hit last year, we did not suffer any damages. We may have lost one or 2 roof tiles, but that is it. If any of my neighbors filed claims, believe me they are fraudsters. The houses in my community are built very strong and up to code.

I am very certain that one of the main reasons that insurance is so expensive is because there is a lot of fraud and exaggeration whenever we get a storm.
I also know that if you created a law that punishes people for filing claims and rewards those of us who do not, would be of great assistance.
I never files any claims and I would not unless my house was really destroyed. I know that only a tornado could do that. But the odds of a tornado are less than that of a Hurricane. Let us make those people who scammed Andrew, Katrina and Wilma
Be the ones who should move to another state.

3) Let us pay a higher wind deductible!
I am willing to pay a much higher wind deductible if only I could see my insurance premium reduces, to where I can afford it.

4) Reevaluate the “East of US1“, barrier:
There are many parts of South Florida, especially Homestead, where US1 is much further from the coast. The houses are brand new and solid, yet we cannot get windstorm insurance there. This is going to have a negative effect on the home values if something is not done. Why can’t the barrior be based upon how many mile from the coast you live, versus using a highway that is inconsistent.

Please let me know if you can share any simular stories or comments about this topic.

I hope it’s not too late, but this year so many people in Dade and Broward County are all in the process of finding new ways to adjust to their New Year’s surprise. And you may ask: What is that surprise?

Well this year: 2007, almost every homeowner that uses an escrow account to pay their taxes and insurance, suddenly will have to come up with a shortage to pay for the increase in insurance and maybe some taxes too. The average is about $200, but for some people this may be much higher. If you are a landlord and you were making a $200 cash flow, say goodbye to that. If you were already just  breaking even, now you will have to dig into your pocket. You can try to ask your boss for a raise, but that will probably be a joke too. 

So what will happen? Many people may feel like myself. We just do not know what to do. Should we refinance, sell our house and buy a smaller one, Or you may even be thinking about selling your houses fast and running away to another State that does not have Hurricanes, like Georgia or Texas.

But is that the answer? Or will Tallahassee realize this crisis and actually do something about it, before its too late and the whole South Florida economy tumbles.

What do you think will happen? Do you too, want to move to another State, Or are you willing to fight it out?

To all that support my blog, and any new visitors..

I want to wish you a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

I will be off from my day job, but I will be in town..

I hope to get some extra rest and then enjoy lots of holiday cheers and party’s and celebrations.. 

Also too all: Have a Happy New Year..

I just activated my new anti Spam features… and I will cleanup and remove those old and nasty comments that some spammers placed in this blog.. shame on you whoever did that…