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My Almost-daily Journal |
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| About I love trying out new things, especially when it comes to internet technology. I never really kept a journal, but it's something that I've always wanted to do. Now, everybody will get a chance to look inside my twisted, and somewhat-warped mind.
I've also subscribed to Audio Blog, so a few times a week, I'll leave actual voice blogs. Very cool!XML Newsfeed  |
Thursday, September 30, 2004
The Wedding March The week heading up to the big day has been quite a stressful one. The stress isn't ill-received. On the contrary, I love the stress and the challenges. I work better with too many things on my plate. I just wish that I had a two-week wedding march, in order to complete tasks at my leisure. The most daunting aspect of the stress has been prioritizing tasks. My task list has now overfilled two pages. I feel good when task completion momentum is faster than task addition. The thing I miss most this week due to planning a wedding, a honeymoon, web work, charity work, engineering work (what an inconvenience), and domestic duties (i.e. bills, house, etc.) is sleep. I've been averaging about 3am lights out, and about 7am lights on. I'm pretty exhausted. I think I'm seeing the light at the end of the tunnel. Engineering work? I think my organization is under some illusion or spell that I'm not going to be here for two weeks. Work keeps piling on, expectations and stress-levels are increasing, and I have a deliverable list of someone that is going to work 6am - 8pm for the next month. Do they not know that today is my last day? Do they not know that I will not be back until the THIRD week in October? It's almost funny. Almost. Someone is going to be in for a rude awakening when shit hits the fan on October 4. I'll be basking in the Hawaiian sun, drinking Hawaiian Punch, without a care in the world when feasibility studies, engineering cost estimates, timelines, validation testing matrices and CAD designs are being demanded by our customers. It'll be wake-up time for someone. It won't be me. My list now has been reduced somewhat. Most of the things I have to deal with involve rehearsal dinner, tuxedos, and making sure things are orchestrated correctly. I also need to make sure all our rings are insured, which requires faith that my jeweler is going to fax appraisals to my insurance company when I am gone. Finally, the biggest dilemma right now is the weather. Monsoons, gale winds, typhoons, hail, sleet, freezing rain, funnel clouds, and Arctic blasts are all coming in for a visit this Saturday. It's sickening that the last month has been dry, 75 degrees and clear skies. I guess Murphy has a sick sense of humor. If I could get my hands on him, I'd make him choke himself. Oh well. I guess the Greeks are going to get a taste of matrimony, comedy-club style, where everybody is seated at their tables, and we get married by Eddie Murphy on the dance floor. Not exactly what we had in mind. I guess that's the price I pay for not wanting a church wedding. posted by Dino at 9:46 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Tuesday, September 28, 2004
Testing the new server permissions. Mike, Peter's friend at work, has been going gangbusters making sure our server doesn't ever get hacked again... at least not by anyone but him!!! Mike's my hero. posted by Dino at 1:22 PM (permanent link) (0) comments Friday, September 24, 2004
eBay item 3837676332 (Ends Sep-12-04 11:50:06 PDT) - Jean Pierre Le'pine pen from Ex-Wife This is one of those awesome ebay listings you hear about once in a while. I thought it was hilarious. This guy is sure bitter about his divorce. posted by Dino at 11:19 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Thursday, September 23, 2004
Computer Altruism It's sucks sometimes knowing too much about computers. It crushes me to hear coworkers at work talk about taking their computers to Best Buy or local computer stores for "virus removal" or "spyware cleanup" or the installation of antivirus software. That's when I usually chime in and say, "I can fix your computer." What the heck is wrong with me!? Do I not have enough to do at home!? So my latest streak of computer altruism is helping out a coworker with a computer from hell. A few months ago I had his computer, a relic IBM Aptiva with 128 MB of RAM, running on an old Pentium 3 500 Mhz cpu. "My computer is having issues", he tells me. After reviewing his system, I decided to scrap Windows 95, install a second hard drive, and load Win XP. Adding a second hard drive is usually a no-brainer. Not this computer... he had no additional bays, so I had to fabricate a hard drive cage from muffler hangers. Worked like a champ. I hate working on old computers. Hate it hate it hate it. So, since I did that install, I now am a permanent 1-800-TECH-SUPPORT for that computer. Heaven help me. Lesson learned. My bottled advise should always be, "If the computer is more than two years old, take it to Best Buy." So a few days ago he started describing that his IE was running slow. I had him try a few things on the phone to no avail. "Just bring it in and I'll look at it", I told him. The computer has now been at my house for two days. My analysis: he got hit by a few different viruses and spyware crap. If you have kids, either stand over their shoulders when they're checking their email, or give them highly restricted access to your operating system. His new high-tech virus turned off the ability for Norton to do liveupdates, as well as updates on MS Windows site. It caused a program called update.exe to run continuously in the background that tied up system resources to 100% all day long. It was a nuisance. Removing the rogue file was easy. Then as soon as you would reboot, system would slow down again. File reappeared, even with no internet connection. I had a similar problem with Josh's infected cesspool of a computer. Turning off system restore, then running NAV solved the problem. But his computer still perplexes me. Internet is still slow, and I still can't do liveupdate. At least now his cpu resources aren't tied up. I'm going to spend day #3 going through this computer with a fine-toothed comb. I hate viruses. I hate spyware. And I hate infected computers. Why is it that my computer(s) never get infected with viruses or spyware? Why do I do it? I don't know. I like to help people that can't help themselves, assuming they put due diligence into trying to fix the problem, first. There's nothing I hate more than lazy people that just pawn off work without thought. This was not the case here, and for that, I was appreciative. Three MCSE certified PhD's in computer science couldn't have fixed the demon computer I've been working on. It's a fricken case-study. Maybe that's what I get out of it: the challenge. And this one is quite the challenge, since it's ten times slower than the shittiest computer sold today. Notes to the public: 1) If you know nothing about computers, and you're thinking about buying a computer, buy it from Dell. They give you a 1-800 number to call with issues. You can talk to them for hours and hours at a time. I learned most about computing from being on the phone with Gateway about ten years ago. One time I had a four hour marathon session with their Tech Support. 2) If your computer is more than two years old, or you're using an operating system that's more than two generations old (i.e. Windows 95 or 98), then it's time to turn your computer into a boat anchor... and I'm not in the anchor business. I can help pull your hard drive out of your boat anchor to help save your data, and then run the old computer over with my car, but the help stops there. 3) If you have a newer computer, and you've exhausted all self-help avenues such as Microsoft's knowledgebase, and your computer is running Windows 2000 or Windows XP, then I will look at your computer. Pickup and delivery is your responsibility, and I work at my own pace. Backup your data because worst-case scenario is I'm doing a full reformat-install. posted by Dino at 3:51 PM (permanent link) (1) comments Friday, September 17, 2004
The Computer Room Move Now that Josh's old room is factory fresh with a new paint job, new closet door, new blinds, and SS outlet covers, the move is on! The computer desk that we used in the dungeon for our computer room is a huge workstation desk. I'm not sure I'd even call it a desk, since there are no drawers on it... just a huge taupe work area connected to a taupe metal frame. Thank goodness for commercial modularity! The top of that table weighs at least 60 lbs. It's a beast of a table. Ten people could stand on it and it won't even budge. Anyway, a few screws were unfastened, and I had that desk apart in three minutes. It was a delight to transfer to the new computer room (except for the 60 lb. top). So now the computer "desk" is set up, and I still have to somehow haul up my file cabinets, desk drawers (it's a modular, seperate unit that really doesn't even match), book shelf, the printers, and the mini fridge (that never, ever gets used). The room looks marvelous without all the clutter. I don't know how it's going to look all packed in. Danielle and I were talking about adding a lounge chair in there and make it sort of like a library. Danielle LOVES to read her books, and with a lounge chair there, she can read while I do web work. Other than to try and keep the home office clutter-free and less "dungeon-esque", my biggest problem I face is networking. What's the best way to renetwork my house. If you're Peter, you'd just go wireless. And that might not be a bad idea. But, for some reason, I'm fond of Cat5, Cat5e, and Cat6 cableing. Plus I'm a little reluctant to broadcast my bandwidth into the airwaves. You just never know nowadays. I guess I'm a little old-fashioned. My choices are to just run Cat5 cable downstairs into the old dungeon computer room, where the router and cablemodem would continue to live, or run cable coax into the new computer room, and run the router, printserver, and cablemodem out of that main room. I really like my desk space and having three less devices to look at and take up real estate is semi-appealing. I think I'm going to start off with just networking that room into the "network", which means I'm going to have to get Cat5 cable into the basement. My choices are: 1) drill into the floor right behind computer desk, 2) cut rectangular hole in wall, drill down through footer, snake Cat5 cable into basement, and finish wall with network outlet to match scheme in room, 3) drill through wall to access spare bedroom #2 (that room is networked, and there's a switch in the room)... only problem is that computer desk is opposite of the wall I'd be drilling into, 4) drill into heat duct (through register), to snake cat5 downstairs (I've had bad luck with heat duct networking... bad connection for some reason). My preferred choice is #2, but that means I have to be a handyman again, and I'm sick of it. I'll probably do #4 and see what type of connection I can get. This way, with a direct line feed into Josh's room, I can take switch and use it to split the line for Danielle's computer. The most interesting thing that came out of the big move was the realization of the cable spaghetti created through years and years of accumulation of power cords, network cords, phone cords, etc. There's nothing more that I hate than clutter and chaos. I had three power packs that weren't being used, as well as three phone cords, a USB cable, an old mouse, old speaker wire, and a patch cord. It's nice when starting fresh... you can keep the order. And it amazes me after seeing all the spaghetti, that everything actually goes back together nicely (i.e. I'm not scratching my head wondering where different cords go). Another nice thing is the hardwood floors. Desk chairs slip easily back and forth with little effort. That's very nice. I also put felt on the bottom of the desk, so moving from one end of the room to the other won't be a problem. Finally, my last crusade after getting permanently wired in that room will be to decide were the printers go. I have a huge HP large-office quality printer... I think an HP 4050. It's not a cute little "desk printer". Right now, that monster is sitting on top of the refrigerator in the dungeon computer room. Not even sure I'm taking up the refrigerator. I also have an HP 1100 color printer for photos, as well as a Canon scanner. Shit... lots or peripherals. I sure wish I could find a Marvel corner unit and an additional table piece to enlarge the usable working area. I have a feeling I'm not going to have much luck with that. If anybody knows anybody that uses Marvel office furniture (taupe/tan/beige) I'd love to get matching components for my desk. I'm going to check ebay and the 'net right now. Oh yeah, one more thing... computers are going to be side by side. I really hate that I'll be using a 20" CRT and Danielle iwll be using a 17" LCD. I hate that they don't match. If I see a deal on Dell's 20" LCD's I think I'm going to buy a two-fer. I'm sick, I know. I want everything to match, including keyboards, mice, as well as cases. Not sure what I'm going to do. Oh yeah... I'm Chatty Katy... not sure the idea of having an upstairs home office is going to be a great thing. Usually, I can have customers just follow me into the basement and I can work. Now, I have to lead them through my house... and if Danielle wants to go to sleep while I'm working with a customer, it's going to be a slight problem. Final revelation: the "dungeon computer room" may not have been all that bad. Definitely had its benefits. Bachelor party is tomorrow. I'm having a little anxiety. I hope everything goes as planned. More will follow on the bp. posted by Dino at 2:49 PM (permanent link) (1) comments Monday, September 13, 2004
The House Revival Josh's old room will now be used as our computer room and office. Computer(s), scanner, printers, file cabinets, etc., will now be displaced from "The Dungeon" and will find a new home upstairs. I have a Herman Miller or Steelcase heavy duty commercial office utility table (you can dance on this thing with ten people and it won't even budge) that I have used a two-computer work station desk. I'm not sure if Danielle and I are going to use that as our computer desk, as it really won't go well in the new room. I think Danielle is going to check Art Van and see if anything jumps out at her. Ultimately, it would be nice to have two nice computer desks, but if my taste were king, we'd have to spend $1000 for two nice desks and matching chairs. I have a great idea! Perhaps my two-computer workstation table can stay in "The Dungeon" and that can become my computer "Service Center" where I can work on customer's computers, build my computer(s), and perform all my computer maintenance and electronic maintenance tasks. That sounds like a wonderful idea! This way, I can keep my plethora of computer parts in the basement, instead of hauling them up to the new "Computer Room"! I have enough working computers in my house, where I can keep a few running downstairs... everybody needs a walk-up in every room of their house. Finishing the new "Computer Room" was a pretty daunting task. The ceiling (I hate painting ceilings) needed three coats. It's just so darn hard to paint the ceiling. It always looks like you're getting good coverage, but most of the time, you're not. Couple that with not wanting to get paint in your eye, and usually, the roller is more dry than wet (i.e. it's not "almost dripping" like it should be when painting walls). This was the first time that I ended up using 3M's new blue masking tape. I masked off the ceiling a few days after it dried with a nice "masking tool" The masking tool still required two people: Danielle would play "musical chairs": as I masked the ceiling, she'd move a chair over in front of me, I'd step over, continue masking, and she'd repeat. The masking tool allowed me to put the tape one totally straight. We painted the walls with dripping rollers... and still many areas required a second coat, and even a third coat. You think you're totally covering a wall, but when that paint dries, your sins are revealed. Framing the room was the hardest... painting those dreaded wall/ceiling corners, hoping paint doesn't creep through the tape and up on the ceiling. The blue tape was a miracle, and no paint creeped. I was amazed. Danielle was a champion painter, and was finishing walls faster than I could frame. I was very impressed. I think she enjoyed her painting experience, and she may even start her own TV show: "Prissy Eye for the Manly Guy". We were up well into midnight last night, starting painting well after 8pm... it may have been 9pm. She stuck through the turmoil of painting without losing steam. There were a few times she noticed "shiny things" in other rooms, but for the most part, she did more than her share of labor. The room ended up looking totally rich and marvelous. We decided on a color named something like "Applesauce Butter". You won't need me to tell you that it's a deep, golden brown. It looks very rich in that room. Now, I'm troubled over the oak trim. I don't like oak trim at all. Oak trim is for country homes and farm houses. Unfortunately, I just can't subject myself to painting oak... it's a beautiful, rich (and expensive) wood; it's blasphemous in the woodworking trade. I may just pull the molding off and save it, and replace it with primed and painted white trim. I need an executive order to be able to do that. The request is in. We'll wait and see. Next on the hit list will probably be painting Spare Bedroom #2. Not sure if I want to sign up for this before the wedding. Lot's to do. And shit... I still have three web projects that need to be completed or at least started. I've been totally slacking like a loser. But where do I find the time?! On top of that, there's still four weeks of work to fill into 2.75 weeks. I still haven't been fitted for my own tux. Slacker! Finally, family room has been buttoned up as much as it can be. We moved a large table to the corner and we're using that for a TV stand. I ended up buying an APEX 20" TV?DVD combo. I'm not the combo type, but for the cost ($179), I just couldn't pass it up. It's not a flat screen or a Trinitron, but the picture looks sharp, and APEX DVD players are always on the elite end (not bells and whistles... more on the end of being able to play almost every DVD/CD type). Oh yeah... we're going to move our shower gifts into the basement, and finally start utilizing the non-used room of the house: the living room. I'm going to move the home theater up from "The Dungeon" and put it upstairs in the living room. It's not an easy job because I'll need to mount surround sound speakers, which means that I'll have to snake speaker wire up in the attic... which also means I'll have to drill holes either in the ceiling, or into the opposite walls (damn... I weep just thinking about the work involved, snaking speaker wire into walls). We have lots of work in front of us. I want to do everything today... that's my problem. But Rome wasn't built in a day, right? posted by Dino at 10:40 AM (permanent link) (0) comments Tuesday, September 07, 2004
Josh's Big Move... My Big Overhaul All good things must come to an end... Josh the tenant is now Josh the homeowner! Yes, Josh, Steve Jarnac and I moved Josh out to his new house in fashionable Ferndale on Saturday. Two big truckloads later (less one saltwater aquarium), and Josh is on his way to homeowner. Josh's house is very nice and very quaint. The nice thing is that he has easy-on and easy off access to 696. That's the great thing about Ferndale, Pleasant Ridge, Hazel Park and Warren: you can cut 30 minutes off of any commute. I spent the weekend cleaning out the garage, R&R fluorescent fixtures in the garage, cleaning carpet & walls, upgrading power outlets & switches, adding motion-sensing exterior lights, and replacing interior light fixtures. Our future plans are to bring the home theater upstairs and actually use the living room, paint Josh's old room and convert it into an office, and remove over half a decade of clutter. It's already taking shape... and I almost feel like a new homeowner. Ironic thing is I bet Josh is doing the exact same thing: personalizing his house as pride of ownership takes over. Congrats to Josh as a new homeowner... we both are onto the next chapters of our lives. posted by Dino at 2:02 AM (permanent link) (1) comments |