Beer Goggle Dreams

October 9, 2008 10:46 AM 10/9/08

It’s me.

Was up all night last night futzing with different computers trying to get them all configured properly. Almost finished with my mother’s system. I managed to recover the password for my mother’s Gmail so that was pretty cool. I’ll transfer her data tonight then re-do her router tomorrow so that it all will work properly when she plugs it all back in.

For the record - the recover/show passwords extension for Thunderbird can be used on 1.0 versions of the app as long as you edit the install.rdf file so that the minimum version is 1.0 instead of 1.5. You might want to remove the extension afterwards though just in case there’s a security or stability issue with it.

Thanks to some prodding by the guys on the NetBSD port-cobalt list I finally figured out that the RAM in my Qube 2700 was bad. Swapped that out, got the thing loaded, and started compiling a new kernel on it last night.

Which of course didn’t help me this morning when I replaced the kernel and rebooted the machine only to have it not complete the boot. And since that system doesn’t have a serial console it’s likely I’m reloading it from scratch again. That is unless the NetBSD boot loader can be manipulated through the panel buttons on that box.

No biggie as that box is going to be the main storage for the home network so once support for USB is done and Samba is installed all it needs is drives.

I like the Cobalt products. Low power, small form factor, and now inexpensive for the older units. I think I’m down to one left that isn’t up and running doing something and I’ve got a use for that one as well.

I still have some boxes that are pretty hefty horsepower wise like my older Netra/150 (the old green/gray box) and my E450 but frankly I can’t afford the power to run them right at the moment.

This all reminds me that I have to get the Vaxstation 4000-60 back on the network. I really do want to learn VMS but it’s a time consuming process and I couldn’t get the freeware to transfer to the machine properly the last time so I was stuck with some buggy networking stuff.

In other news the AIG executives are insane. “Hey! Let’s get the bailout money and throw a $500k bash at a resort to celebrate! What? We need more money? Well okay then we’ll just ask the government for more!“ Assholes...

*falls asleep at the keyboard*
*is poked with a fork by the waitress*

*ZZzznerk!* *Snort!* Antiestablishmentarianism!

Wha? Huh? Oh...right...the journal...

Haven’t decorated for Samhain/Halloween yet. I’m not sure if I want to try this year. Maybe some spider webs or something but nothing big. Next year though...next year... ;-)

*Dreams of computer controlled electric copters disguised as fairies and a giant talking tiki*

Since it’s not raining today I should really get a tarp over the wood pile so it stays dry. It will still be a little damp by the time I get home but it should dry out without too much trouble. I can’t wait for a sunny day because we’re heading into winter and those will be less and less. Regardless I’m going to see if I can put some of it into the shed. The shelves in there are currently unused and it’s the perfect place to store that wood.

I really really need to get my act together. Organizing things helps but until I get everything on an even keel I’m definitely going to be more tired in the future not less. Not a good thing but not avoidable in this case because there’s so much to do...

September 23, 2008 11:15 AM 9/23/08

So while I have next week off this week is shaping up to be annoying. I’m still working on getting the Cobalt Qube2 to accept the SoundBlaster Live! card under NetBSD 3.0 and my friend in Florida is helping me out there but it’s still being annoying. (Oh and whoever put the sbl* reference in the GENERIC kernel config file but didn’t make sure it worked - bite me.)

Other technical projects include the lighting stuff using the Freeduino, finding a replacement computer for my in-laws that doesn’t cost a fortune, and starting on the black-locust root-ball staff for my friend from Western Illinois.

I will likely take pictures of all the tube amps to put up on E-Bay tonight. I’m going to have to “smoke test” them to make sure they work because older equipment like that goes for more if it works. I can’t decide to insist on local pickup only for these or not. They’re pretty sturdy but I’m still concerned about shipping them.

I need to pick up some of the clean water containers this week to empty the rain barrel into. Thankfully those don’t cost too much and I won’t need to pick them up until the end of the week. I might get a Brita filter and filter all the water before storing it. That won’t solve bacteria stuff but it should get rid of any roof gunk that might have gotten into the barrel. The barrel itself is heavy-duty food grade plastic and was used for food before so the water should be clean enough. It still will need to be boiled if we want to use it for cooking or drinking.

Looked at the idea of putting up some sort of wind turbine at home and the best I could come up with would be two “oreo” style Savonius units on the garage or the anemometer style installed in the roof vent. Regardless if I want to use wind I’m going to need more than that.

I also priced solar panels and it looks like the good ones will cost anywhere from $300 - $600 each. I estimate that if I want to generate a kilowatt of power it will cost me somewhere in the neighborhood of about $4500. I guess I’ll have to start saving my pennies for that one...

The wasps show no sign of returning. Point in fact _all_ the wasps in the area are strangely absent. Makes me nervous. I’ll clean the one vent out today or tomorrow then worry about them if they come back. Though I will likely take someone’s suggestion and spray ammonia in the old nest locations as it supposedly keeps them from coming back to those spots.

Still no luck on getting the second Color LaserJet 2550n to print properly. I might consider swapping parts into the parts printer again and see if I can cobble it all together into one working unit but that’s a last resort as this one is close to working.

I’ll be highly pleased next week if I can get my workshop outside organized enough to start circuit design stuff from scratch and also editing anime music videos. Secondly I will definitely be happy if I can get all the servers into the basement and all the stuff out of the third bedroom. My wife really needs an office space and I’ve owed her one for quite some time now. So really those two actions are going to be my focus for next week. If I get to cleaning out the garden then that’s good too but frankly that can be done on a weekend without too much trouble.

I do have one thing I _should_ do before this week is out and that’s price getting someone to come out and check the fireplace and chimney. I could leave that to wait until next “fat week” but if it’s not too expensive then I’d like to get it done sooner rather than later.

Not much else going on at the moment. I’m basically biding my time until next week where I’ll do a great deal of stuff to get things into shape.

Back on the bike and back to work...