Stabs from the past

I had a Commodore 64 about 20 years ago. It was lovely for what I used it for (running a ham radio hardware plug in). It had a fantastic keyboard for its day, one that I still think is superior to many keyboards even now.

The Commodore 64 computer has been revamped. As you can see here, it's now a state-of-the-art computer but one with the same old interface. I'm tempted to try one out just to see how it feels.

Stabs from the past

Day by day, we make incremental progress

I'm making incremental progress with the computer problems. I've got a new DVD drive in my #1 computer to replace the one that toasted with the old power supply and I've been able to get the #2 computer's boot drive reformatted, wiping out the old WinServer2003 installation.

Funny thing, though. This is the computer I'd been using for a few years for my Wonderware work computer. It'd BSOD on me occasionally and then with increasing frequency until by the time I stopped using it, it'd be BSODing 4-5x/day. I'd been thinking it might've been the RAM going bad somewhere, but I hadn't done much about it.

I had it BSOD on me again earlier today when I was installing Windows from the CD. Okay, no problem, I got it restarted and it's working now, sorta, but I was having some problems getting it to recognize the MS Mouse off the USB ports. I got a msg that the USB ports weren't being recognized correctly. NOOOOOOOO problem, I'm now up and running and can reboot this computer happily.

While I was booting it, I went into the BIOS to change the boot order so it'd hit the hard disk first and not the CD. Plugged that info in, and hit F10 to save, pressed Y and then ENTER, and BLAM! DOS/ASCII garbage on the screen.

Gee, that doesn't sound like a RAM problem, I said, that sounds like some kind of a CMOS/motherboard problem.

I tried to change the boot sequence in the BIOS again and at the same point I got EXACTLY the same DOS/ASCII garbage on the screen. Even with the same colors on the characters.

So, I'm going to identify if this is the motherboard or something repairable. If worse comes to worst, I can always buy a new mobo for this tower for $50-60 and plug in the CPU chip and I'll be in good shape.

What's nicest about all of this is that I'm now solving problems on the #2 computer, because the #1 computer is actually up and running still. Hot damn!

Day by day, we make incremental progress

Yet another fucking disk crash---aaaargh!

For the 5th (I think--I'm losing count) time since early summer of last year, I've had yet another C: drive die on me. My computer guy has given me a new motherboard and a new processor and a new boot drive all on warranty, but I've still got to spend tons of time reinstalling and reconfiguring everything. I was ready to be done with this garbage after the 3rd time it happened, but, nope, I apparently had more in store.

Just stay the hell outa my way for the time being and we'll all be happier. Yuck. :(

Yet another fucking disk crash---aaaargh!

The computer bulletin

I have a functioning boot drive and I'm able to see the old C: drive, which APPEARS largely intact. I'm going to do a backup of the old C: drive in case it continues to degrade or it dies completely, then install the new software on the new C: drive.

Faaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahk.

The computer bulletin

Today is not going well

I'm dealing with lots and lots of hard disk issues (for the umpteenth time), piddly bits of paperwork, and petty annoyances. Patricia used to have a sign that said:

I was ready to fight dragons, but my life has been small spiders and stepping chewing gum.

(I could have dealt with dragons....)

It's been like that today. Or maybe like this:

Today is not going well

Computer's working again, hurray

After a couple days of screwing around with the computer myself and then giving it to my computer guy, it turned out that the RAID/SATA controller had gone south. My computer guy worked on this all yesterday and was able to recover my C: drive (yaaaaaaaaaaaay!) and get it back to life. That was at 10:30pm last night and, even after a whole day of working on this, he only charged me $100. I'm enormously pleased.

I didn't have any way of running more than one drive and the DVD/CD, so I went out to buy a SATA card. Best Buy had one, their website said, but when I drove out to Springfield, they couldn't find it. Bugger. :( Springfield's to the east of Eugene. I drove first to the Office Depot in Eugene only to discover that they do sell SATA cards, but only online. I then drove to the far western side of Eugene and found what may be the only SATA card for retail sale in Eugene at a small computer store. It's slower than I wanted and was about twice as much as the same thing online, but I really NEEDED this card to get back to work. So I bought it, brought it home, and configured the computer. I'm alive again.

A much better (and slightly less expensive) card is coming on Saturday and then I'll hook the rest of the SATA drives up and do some more backing up. Meanwhile, I've deadlines that I want to get back to. And I really really really have had quite enough problems with electronics, technology, or ANYTHING for quite a while!

Computer's working again, hurray

Stuff

The C: drive on the new computer is being a pill. It may be a controller issue, though, as I can't get the computer to acknowledge a new drive on the system, either. I had work to do this weekend, damnit, and didn't want to be hacking with the computer and losing time to things. Computers are the Universe's way of showing us that we are not in control.

But here's a good quote du jour that a friend who signs himself "Miles Vorkosigan" on FB said today. It's a darned good quote:

Watching the Fringe Christians and the Fringe Muslims trying to one-up each other in bad behavior is like watching the Voldemort-vs.Sauron Global cage match mixed with a Dr. Seuss morality tale.

Stuff

Crappy day in the office

My computer crapped out first thing this morning. I was worried that I'd lost Yet Another hard disk, a problem I've had far, far too much of this last twelvemonth. I spent the day without a computer and fretting occasionally.

But it worked out really well, you know? I had the idiot box on in the background and had lots of episodes of The Closer on while I debrided and swept and sorted and sifted.As a result of the enforced downtime, I was able to:

• process a large stack of mail (mostly junk) that's come in over the last week
• write checks and send payments on half a dozen bills
• fill up my wastebasket and recycle bin, empty them, and half fill them again
• dusted and swept (always an issue in this office)
• boxed up some spare computer stuff

The office is much cleaner, better organized, and feels much more comfortable.

Best of all, the computer is now working again! Whatever was wrong with the hard disk was fixable using the RECOVER feature from the WinXP boot CD.  A few massaged sectors, a repair to the registry from the backup logs, and ~poof~ all is well again.

But the day did inspire a considerable amount of cursing, so it's significant that early this morning before the computer died on me, I saw the Periodic Table of Swearing. (Warning: This is so beyond the concept of "NSFW" you can't even see it from there.)

Addendum: I got a report of a link problem for the picture, so here's a copy. But try the source first, please: they deserve the credit.

Crappy day in the office

The original drawings for Pac-Man!

In what may be the start of a trend, I'm posting a link to yet another blog's post. This one shows the original drawings for Pac-Man by Toru Iwatani.

The original drawings for Pac-Man!

Decommissioned a computer

My former #1 computer, CHLOE, is completely decommissioned. I had tried to get it up and running with a new 2T hard drive, but nope, it was still dying unexpectedly. Examining it Monday afternoon when we were swapping out DVD drives finally showed how the damage from the lightning strikes this past summer had manifested: half a dozen of the small on-board power capacitors were bulging and at least three were leaking electrolyte. I'd had CHLOE as my #1 computer for a number of years, so it's the end of an era.

I could have the board fixed for $60, but you know... I just don't need a second computer at the moment. I may want to get a RAID box at some point, but I don't see any overwhelming need to do that now, so I've just scrapped it.  I've got some spare parts from it that I probably won't need, including 3GB of DDR RAM, a CPU chip, and a great big tower case that may be of help.  

I've now got more room under the desk as a result, too.

Decommissioned a computer

Sun! There's SUN!!!

Well, there was sun, anyway....  Late yesterday afternoon, we had blue skies, which continued until maybe 2:30 this afternoon. It was actually warm, too, which was a pleasant change. The plants are enjoying it very much: some of the marigold seeds have sprouted and I saw at least eight sunflower seeds breaking the surface this morning. I figure there will be more later today.  

Had a lovely time at the First Friday Art Walk last night with Jim & Beth Weldy and their grandniece Caitlyn (who's in town from Tennessee). 

Back to messing with the scanner, trying to get it to install correctly under WinXP SP3. Bleah.

Sun! There's SUN!!!

Back from the road at long last

I left for SxSW in the wee hours of March 10th and returned from my peregrinations to Austin and Chicago mid-day March 21st.  I celebrated my birthday by reading email, installing software, and sleeping on the couch in my office... but I was home at last!  I did 4 appearances while on the road, got some work done, and was busy busy busy. 

I've been spending this week unpacking stuff, catching up on 2 weeks of email, doing tax paperwork (sorting receipts, which is a huge job), and getting started on the current book.  Life's not dull, that's for sure!  

While on the road, I identified the problems with my laptop being incredibly slow, too: it needs a system reload--after 4 years and lots of software, the system is all clotted up--and even more, I need more RAM.  It seems that the laptop has either 256Mb or 512Mb, so I'm having it pushed to 2GB of RAM, which will certainly speed things up.  (My computer guy may also have a spare laptop hard disk, so I'm going to get a second drive in it for backups and large file storage.) 

On the desktop computer, I've been restoring about a terabyte of information from two 500GB SATA drives that were not damaged by the lightning strike this summer.  I don't have absolutely everything back that was lost, but this is some of the most important stuff, definitely. 

New professional headshots are going to happen this Sunday.  That'll be fun! 

Back from the road at long last

Just when you think you've seen it all....

It's a G-spot mouse. Technically, it's the G Point mouse. (There are more photos at the link.)

Here's an interview with the designer, too. Okay, I really need to try one of these.

Addendum: here's a great short article with a ton of really good comments. Some jokes just write themselves, after all. 

Just when you think you've seen it all....

Been a little while...

I realized that it's been a week and a half since I posted. Part of this has been recovering after yet another hard disk crash (that's 2 major system crashes this summer; I believe that that's quite enough, thank you!) and not having passwords for a bunch of things like the blog, and part of it has been the joy, the thrill, the happiness of being laid off.

How you react to something is frequently a matter of choice and I have the luxury of choosing to be happy about this. I've got savings handy, there's plenty of work in the offing, and I am free! I am enjoying sleeping late and going to the gym as well as cleaning my office out of all kinds of detritus, both former-job-related and just stacked up. I spent some time recycling old manuals (stuff that had already been released) and shredding docs related to things not yet released or otherwise company confidential. I've freed a shocking amount of space: 3-1/2 years of project notebooks does build up, after all. Thank goodness for efficient shredders! I also sent one box of equipment to the company and I'm looking for the last bits for the second box, which should wrap things up.

I also filed for unemployment. That was good. Money shall be coming in in quite adequate quantities until book contracts and other things come in. And I hope to get out to Lane Community College in the next few days to talk to them about placement for a few classes next quarter.

Life's good. Life's very, very good.

Been a little while...

"No, tell me, Mr. Bones, what's a Grecian urn?"

This is a delightful choice for a final resting place. 

"No, tell me, Mr. Bones, what's a Grecian urn?"

Email info for the hard-of-thinking

I realize that anyone who is reading this blog is probably not going to be in need of this particular link, but we all have relatives who are not as computer-savvy as we are and don't really get it. Forward this as you see fit. :)

Email info for the hard-of-thinking

Computer, she be dead

I am really upset.

I was shutting my #1 computer down (along with my work computer) for a lightning storm Tuesday evening. In the process, the main hard disk took a spike. The computer's at the repairman's right now, but we don't know how much we can recover.

I have backups that are reasonably current but aren't completely up to date. For example, my email's not current later than about 5/15/09 and there are files, letters, misc stuff that are all in varying stages of currency. I'm very upset.

With luck, we'll be able to get the files off the hard disk before it goes completely dead. But I won't know until Monday or Tuesday.

Well, it could all be worse: it could've been my work computer. I've got that safe and backed up.

Computer, she be dead

Quick Friday notes

I've a ton of things to do today, but I did want to make a few comments:

• My system is exhibiting a really shocking latency. Part of it may be the mouse that I'm using, which I think is on its way out, so that I can click on something and maybe it does, maybe it doesn't. I'll try a replacement for it soon and see if that fixes anything. But part of it is is just that Windows is taking this "Yeah, yeah, I'll get to it" attitude that I find unacceptable in any inanimate object I own. This also happens sometimes when I try to open a link from my email: I'll get a "This application is busy; do you want to retry?" message. Yer damn right I wanna retry; exactly what do you think you're doing if not listening to me? Having Windows go off into mumble mode is one of many really irritating things about it.
  
• I'm wrapping up a zillion different things, which is pestiferous.
  
• I made the mistake of installing a bunch of Windows updates yesterday. MS has gotten better about not throwing shit out on an unsuspecting market, but when the machine says "Okay, you need to restart to have all these take effect" and I say "No, do it later," I do not want the box to appear every 15-20 minutes saying "How 'bout now?" Particularly when the default is "Yes" and a stray spacebar will trigger the system shutdown with no saving throw. You know, guys, I've got the idea that I need to shut the system down and restart in order for my changes to take effect. Now piss off and let me work. If I wanted this kind of constant obnoxious reminder of my options getting in the way of what I'm trying to do, I'd be using a Mac.
• I got the unkempt hair and beard trimmed heavily yesterday. I feel much better now without hair flopping all over everything.
  
• The Babe comes home from the conference in Anaheim this evening. That'll be nice.
  

Okay, it's downstairs to whip up a fresh potta coffee and get to it.

Quick Friday notes

Bernie and BC

I used to have a 21" monitor here in my office a few years ago. My old cat BC used to sleep on top of the monitor: it was warm, it was big, and it was comfortable. He'd stretch out on top of the monitor and sleep for hours. Paws would dangle over the edge every so often and once in a while I'd have to move a leg so I could see part of the screen.

BC

Yang would do the same thing. His tummy was always a lot bigger than BC's and he'd tend to lap over the edges in some less-than-dignified ways. Once in a while, I'd have two cats curled up on the monitor at a time.

Yang and BC

When I went to a flat-screen monitor about a year ago, Yang came into the office once, looked at the flat-screen monitor, and tried to leap on top of it. This had about the result you might expect. He was grumpy with me for a while for having made him look foolish.

Bernie the Fuzzball has never known a CRT monitor. He's spending his time curled up next to the keyboard or halfway on top of it. I'm hoping to get him used to the idea of being charmingly round and somnolent nearby on the desk and not blocking the keyboard or mouse as he seems to prefer. However, he has found a place: stretched out on me, purring, and generally contributing to the writing process.

Bernie_stretched_out

Bernie and BC

Almost out of paper!

Good heavens, the End Times must be near: I'm almost out of printer paper! I was about to start a print of the manual I'm wrapping up and the upper tray was empty and the big 500-sheet tray was almost empty. Might 's well fill 'em both up before starting a print, right?

I've got ~a~ ream of 8-1/2' x 11" left. One. Uno. And that huge stack of one-sided paper I'd been using for drafts that I keep in the upper tray? It's down to about 30 sheets. The box, she is empty.

Sonomagun! I think I need to go buy more printer paper soon. Fortunately, that one ream will keep me for a few days, but only just.

Oy.

Almost out of paper!