Flip Woes Stick Woes Drax & Mac Woes

[ehowton]

I performed the surgical procedure on my teh max0r myself, with a highly sharpened #2 pencil, and my glasses off so I could visualize the extremely tiny holes where the capacitors used to be. The light comes on and it chimes (the two key identification features of a mac with no hardware problems) but it will no longer init video, and I don't know why. I've already reset the PRAM and PMU to no avail. The next step in all the troubleshooting guides is, "Contact Apple." I can assure you, that isn't going to happen.

My XP box is going on four years old. Oddly enough, the 2.8GHz Hyper-Threaded CPU is still a viable chip. When drax0r and I built these boxes several years ago, we chose (to our determent at the time) cutting-edge hardware. It seems to be serving me well now. However, I'd like to double my RAM to 2GB. I cracked the case this afternoon to find 2x512MB sticks of Patriot DDR3200 Dual-Channel memory. Ordering a similar pair looks like its going to run me about $50. Remember my external iTunes volumes which I replaced with a .5TB drive on Black Friday? Well that turned out to be a 7200rpm drive, and I had earmarked it for insertion into the XP box. Since it was not only down but cracked open for the first time in at least two years, I added that as well. Shiny. I pulled another 160GB drive from my DirecTV DVR after discovering it can't do anything linuxwise to put in my Ubuntu server. It ran at 5200rpm.

Finally unboxed my 7-port USB 2.0 hub and attached it to my Belkin Flip. See, Belkin makes a USB (required for mac mini's) + Audio KVM. Nice. It has two USB inputs, one for keyboard, and one for mouse. Not wanting to follow the crowd, and having drivers for everything cross-platform, instead of plugging my mouse into that USB slot, I plugged in a USB hub, and plugged my mouse into that. Now every time I hit the "Flip" button, everything (scannner/printer, thumbdrives, and mouse) goes with it. BAM! Unfortunately, its USB 1.0, so I sent Belkin an online form telling them so. Such small minds.


At $60, they damn well outta support USB 2.0!

Speaking of online forms, remember my back-ordered desk? I rec'd an email from them telling me I may not ever get it. Fine. I asked them to cancel the order and make preparations to send a truck to retrieve the corner piece they delivered. I sure hope they don't try to argue with me in by suggesting I keep it. There is zero use for it without the second desk.

Back in 2000 I made several business trips to Andover, Massachusetts, eventually pulling a three-month TDY over there. I was transitioning between contracting companies while our client was transitioning between accounts. It was a tumultuous time, and I asked for backup. They sent me drax0r, and the rest, as they say, is history. This afternoon I dropped him off at the train station for his two-day rail trip back. I'll miss you buddy. Hurry home.


They flew my wife and boy out to Mass for a visit.

In conclusion, I'd like to welcome back my wife catttitude who has begun posting again after her two-year hiatus.

Took the kids to the grocery store and we picked out some Blue Bell and all the fixins for banana splits - they've never had them before - and just like my father with me, I introduced them to marshmallow creme! We came home and the children were flush with excitement.

We sat on the couch and I was going to "make" them sit and watch The Sound of Music with me. Turns out I didn't have to. As soon as we got the first scene out of the way ("Is the whole movie adults singing on the mountain?") they were glued. We turned it off at intermission as it was already 2300, but they're both excited to see the exciting conclusion, and that makes me happy too!

Comments

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

:-) Welcome back Mrs. H. :-)

Hmm... I didn't read this for the most part (I skimmed) but I didn't "read read" it. So if there was something completely imperative that I needed to read... you need to point it out to me. :-)

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

*cough cough* I got first comment?! Holy shit. *laugh* Awesome. That calls for a shot. :-D But I must wait until people have gone to sleep. I need a shot glass that is worth owning... should tell Tomas to get me one. *giggle*

I miss him. :-| Dang it. E-mail time I think.

Later :-)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Go easy on him. He's having a tough weekend.

rough week

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

*sad look* Yeah I am going easy on him... he called me last night and told me. I feel really bad that he got caught... not like it's my fault but I can still feel badly. :-(

Praying that this works out better then worst because... you know this could really suck ass if he doesn't handle it correctly... you're older - wiser - he said you said you would help him; I'm unsure what all that entails, but it's none-of-mine and I won't ask but... :-) Thank you. I am sure he has thanked you multiple times, but from me... thank you.

Re: rough week

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I do what I do because of who I am. While you're thanks is always appreciated, it is never required.

Re: rough week

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

I realize that it is not required.

However it does not hurt anything to thank you Eric.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

There should never be anything important enough here that is a MUST READ for you, but thanks.

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

*raised eye brow*

You know sometimes you respond to my comments in a very strange manner Mr. Howton...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I always reply honestly, and directly. Sometimes my words may not make sense to you. Sometimes they don't make sense to me. That's not to say I'm a medium - blindly reciting letters and images that come into my head. Regardless of how you may perceive them - they're likely either what you need to hear, or what I need to say.

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

Hmm... no snide remarks or good responses some to mind. Merely... I suppose so. Although I once heard it said that if you could not communicate coherently that you shouldn't communicate at all. And that you should at least make an effort to make yourself understood.

No I'm not rebuking you or anything like that. Just repeating something I heard.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Yes, well...if we did what you heard, there would be no satire, no tongue-in-cheek, no innuendo or inference. And that ma'am, would be a very boring world.

[snapper521.livejournal.com]

Yeah I know.

[leonardii.livejournal.com]

I too have a not so old Belkin USB hub. And it's 1.0. Belkin just sucks in this arena.

I've tried using it with different attachments - funniest side effect was: I plug in a flash drive - and the sucker heats up to 98 degrees, I swear! It was inserted for about 5 minutes... just long enough for me to extract some files from it. I reached down to remove it... and HOT DAMN! That thing was burning HOT! USB 1.0 sucks!

I've relented. I'm going to go purchase a new hub. I just have too many USB devices - my laptop USB ports and my current hub ports are ALL in use and I'm already having to swap devices. *boring*

So, yeah - I'll be getting a new hub myself.

Nice pics, as usual.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

If I made USB KVMs, I'd use USB 2.0. Hello, my name is Eric, and I'm not a friggin' idiot!

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

Tomorrow I will be upgrading to Leopard - hopefully! We'll see how it goes.
I have Chris on retainer just in case I have any issues. (BTW...he did get hired full-time with Apple.)

I also finally bought new speakers today.


And I'm really excited that catttitude is on LJ again!!!!! Finally some backup! :)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Its my understanding the mini runs faster with Leopard on it than Tiger. Its the opposite of Microsoft's Vista strategy! Asses. Good luck with the upgrade and congrats to Chris - NOW HE CAN GET BACK ON LJ?

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

Chris on LJ? I doubt it! He's not even posting on barrettnet.com anymore.

Hopefully the upgrade goes smoothly. *fingers crossed*

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

If he comes across any old G4 logic boards for a mini, I'll take one of those. I hate being macless. It feels like...death.

You're really going to dig Leopard.

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

I'll let him know. :)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Thanks dude. Mazzel.

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

Mazzel.

[catttitude.livejournal.com]

Look at my babies in Andover, that seems so long ago.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Going on eight years now. Crazy to think about.

[irulan-amy.livejournal.com]

Mmm...banana splits.