Hot *damn*!

So I've had this new Western Digital 7200rpm 80GB hard drive in my possession since last Christmas.. got it, more memory, a scanner, and a new CD burner all right around then--birthday and Christmas. I installed the new burner--just a swap-out--with no problem. The memory was a half-day affair due to some dust accumulated in a slot; the scanner got installed without incident a while later. The hard drive, though--I knew that would be a time-consuming affair, and I don't like having my computer out of commission for an extended time.

I had: 5GB then CD burner on IDE1, 12GB then CDROM on IDE2. Regardless of rationale for that configuration, it meant the CD burner and main HD slowed each other down--the 24X drive couldn't burn reliably at 8X (though software prevented coasters). The ideal configuration was this: 80G drive on IDE1, CD burner on IDE2, other HD(s) and CDROM on a PCI IDE controller card. And, I needed to get the data from the 5 onto the 80 so it could be my boot drive. Thus I needed to get the controller, get a copy of Ghost--I thought--to copy the image over, probably be half a day downtime.. never got around to it. I did get the IDE card, and a while later installed it, though didn't plug anything in.

Until tonight, that is. My dad was online, so I couldn't do much anyway--decided it was about time to install. Started with the default manual setup--but FDISK didn't want to see more than 10GB of the 80.. so I decided what the hell, I'll try the EZ-Install software. Much to my surprise, it was wonderful--in a very simple, automated way, it partitioned the drive how I wanted, formatted it, and then neatly copied an image of the 5 onto it. A bit of drive swapping, cable routing, and jumper-changing later, I'm fully functional. Only thing left out is the old 5, as I have nowhere to a) mount or b) power it. I plan to get a new case soon--the old one, nifty and black though it may be, is too proprietary when it comes to installing new hardware. Inconvenient trim, specialized mounting rails, etc etc. Need me a new nifty case--headed to the local little computer shops, maybe some big stores, tomorrow.

My machine is flying right about now, with the faster main drive all by itself on an ATA/100 capable controller and cable.. whee! Need to test the CD burner at some point, too. :)

Update, 3:15am: Oh yeah, just converted the new drive to NTFS, too. Saved me about a gig of space--FAT32 uses all kinds of unnecessary space with its large clusters--among other benefits.

As a result of

Downtime: About 35 new posts and 18 emails, read a chapter of an iffy war fiction book, saw Harry Connick, Jr, Sixpence None the Richer, and the Wallflowers on late night TV

Shuffling of equipment: My speakers are currently L) behind the monitor and R) on the floor, giving my music a rather ethereal, surrounding presence. :)

Installations/reconfiguration: Faster machine, -much- more space--I can now resume downloading with abandon (over a modem, anyway) and installing stuff, yay!

Breakage: I should bring that 17" monitor that "won't turn on" up from the basement and fix it, to complement my upgrades and improvements. :)

DHS.org sucking: My redirectors (skreidle.n3.net, skcomix.n3.net, for examples) are still down, after a good two days. They're "relocating their servers", they say. Two days downtime? LJ was down for maybe an hour when they reloc'd.

darksmile renaming himself to eideteker w/o mentioning he was doing so, apparently right before I composed my "So how did I get to --- friends?" post: He disappeared from my friends list and I missed about a dozen of his entries, but I'm all caught up now. :)

The monitor, she is b0rked

My dad got a 17" monitor from Mike Ward, with the information that "it doesn't work right, you can have it if you can fix it" or something to that effect. (Acer AcerView 77e, Mfd Oct98)

With power and no data, it gives a nice "No Signal" error, looks fine.

With data, ah.. it projects the short, fat rectangular screen image as a tall, narrow, extremely pinched (pincushion in) image instead. The onscreen settings aren't anywhere near enough to set it right. Wonder if it's fixable w/o professional assistance? Wonder if using different drivers would help? (Update: Nope, appropriate drivers don't help, and working on a badly misaligned monitor from several feet away is really hard on the eyes.)

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I drooled when I saw a commercial for this monitor/tv earlier. Uh-huh. 60" plasma HDTV. Sh-damn.

What do you get when you combine math and terrible puns?

Conversions!

1 millionth of a mouthwash? = 1 microscope

Time between slipping on a peel and smacking the pavement? = 1 bananosecond

Weight an evangelist carries with God? = 1 billigram

Time it takes to sail 220 yards at 1 nautical mile per hour? = Knotfurlong

16.5 feet in the Twilight Zone? = 1 Rod Serling

Half of a large intestine? = 1 semicolon

1,000,000 aches? = 1 megahurtz

Basic unit of laryngitis? = 1 hoarsepower

Ratio of an igloo's circumference to its diameter? = Eskimo Pi

2,000 pounds of Chinese soup? = Wonton

Shortest distance between two jokes? = A straight line

453.6 graham crackers? = 1 pound cake

1 million-million microphones? = 1 megaphone

This set of groaners has been brought to you by yournailbunny

This Friday Five is going to be quick, I can tell.

1. Did you vote in your last elections?
Yes.

2. Do you know who your elected representatives are?
Only when I look them up.

3. Have you ever contacted an elected representative? If so, what was it about?
Not directly. I've participated in polls at Vote.com that result in letters being sent to various adminsistrators and elected officials, but that's about it. Topics frequently involved gay rights, which I vote in favor of.

4. Have you ever participated in a demonstration?
Not that I remember.

5. Have you ever volunteered in an election? What was the result?
In high school, as a requirement for a Humanities class, I think. I think I was handing out sample ballots, outside the polling place. Chatted with a conservative Christian, which wasn't fatal.

Change of comic

Michael Poe's Exploitation Now ended, apparently for good, in mid-September.. but he started a new strip earlier this month, Errant Story, which promises to be as good if not better.

Jobs applyin'

Applied for a Robotics/Mechanical Engineer position with Spatial Integrated Systems that was posted yesterday through FlipDog; started planning an applicaiton for an Automation Engineer position with International Flavors and Fragrances that was posted a month ago with ASME, but decided against it when I noticed that position was not currently listed on IFF's site.

Afternoon, whittling away the "To Do" list.

The list that floats from day to day in my Visor until I delete items.. today's item was "bike tire"; namely, replacing the front tire on my motorcycle, which was sporting fine cracks over pretty much the whole surface due to age. Removed the wheel no problem, decided to ask a shop to mount/balance the new tire (which I bought a month or two ago), found a Honda/Kawasaki dealer/servicer across town who'd do it (on my Yamaha rim, they didn't care) for $30--about expected. Had about an hour to wait, so I first checked out the contents of the shop--gear, clothing, motorcycles of all kinds, etc--then walked across Mathis Ave to the shopping center and wandered up and down that a time or two, visited a huge grey and white cat, piddled around some more, got my wheel--including a new valve stem for an additional $16; apparently the old one was risking failure--and went home, stopping to visit the macaw on the way.

Truck's intermittently making a rattly noise vaguely reminiscent of the time the rear axle assembly failed--hope this isn't a repeat performance.

I want to take the bike out to Skyline Drive tomorrow, while it's still colorfully leafy, and since the weather's supposed to be even more gorgeous than today. Wonder if I can find company by then?

Professional Experience

I really with I had experience with and/or knowledge of Programmable Logic Controllers (PLC, most commonly Allen-Bradley) or Distributed Control Systems (DCS). Those seem to be among the most in-demand skills for Automation/Control Engineers to have, and I don't have them--nor any good way to get them outside of learning on the job.

Need experience to get the job, need the job to get experience.

Let's go for a ride..

Anyone local want to join me for a motorcycle ride along the Skyline Drive tomorrow? :)