November 20, 2008 Archives

I am in geek heaven. I'm typing this on my main computer. Immediately to its right an older, slower computer is doing some downloading. It's mainly used for storage nowadays. These two PCs share a common monitor through a KVM.

My current video card has two VGA ports and I'd like to go to two monitors if I could just figure out how to hold them on my desk. I got this when we moved in 18 years ago. It's a great desk. It still has a slot so paper can feed from below into a dot matrix printer.

Down the hall in what is still considered Stef's playroom I am formatting and reloading a friend's machine so it can be recycled through the family. There's another carcass on its side nearby. Running Windows 98, the owner would like her files but can find no way to retrieve them. Worst case I pull the hard drive and plug it in to a little USB hard drive reader I've got

This house has a small wired lan and wireless elsewhere. My router has 11 devices logged in since its last reboot. There are actually two routers and two small hubs. This was all bought when I saw things on sale--very cheaply. I have few brand names and consider these parts totally interchangeable.

With all these machines on at the same time I've had to temporarily unplug the MythTV DVR. It will be back tomorrow, I hope.

I enjoy these tech projects and am usually pretty good at them. I have built PCs from a table full of components without instructions. I often take on more than I can comfortably handle.

There was a time when shade tree mechanics could work on a car with a few tools. No more. Everything's locked down and part of a system. I suppose that will happen to PCs too. For guys like that will be sad.

37° was the reading on the carmometer as we drove to Sleeping Giant just after noon. The jury is still out on how much longer we'll be able to walk the trail before winter wins.

As predicted by Helaine and poo-pooed by me, there was ice under some of the dead leaves. It was a tiny fraction of the trip but a slippery harbinger of why this can't be a year round activity. A few vertical rock faces even had small dripping icicles.

Fingerless gloves, earmuffs and shorts. Yeah--37° and I'm still dressing like the UPS man. I am a sight.

(this entry corrected for earlier typos)