Bright lights, big city

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I missed the 5:00 pm train by about 30 seconds yesterday, mostly because I was in a hurry to catch it and I started off toward Back Bay station and turned around when I realized that South Station was closer than the 5 minute time lag at Back Bay could justify.

I looked at the clock this afternoon, and realized that it was 4:52, and I said to my partner “that’s not going to happen”, and I waited for the 5:40.

It’s strange, how different it all feels: I used to think nothing of running for the train at the last minute, after yet-another-line-of-code. Now, I just shake my head and think of what else I can do to occupy my time for another fifteen or twenty minutes, and then I take a leisurely walk to the track shown on the new displays.

The schedule has been changed around: it’s funny how the trains have slowed down.

Rainy Day Man

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We went out to lunch at a restaurant in Hull, where we could look at the boats in the marina and the houses on the hill that overlooks the bay behind the causeway. It’s been raining, but that was OK: it kept the traffic low and the restaurant quiet.

We both had lobster bisque in a bread bowl. I’d never tried it before, and it was very nice. We split a bottle of wine with the meal, and then drove down the coast and then back home.

I woke up about an hour ago, and heated up some Cream of Mushroom soup for us: neither of us were very hungry, and a cup of soup went down very well.

I just turned on the TV while she’s dozing, and I found a PBS special showing Carol King and James Taylor singing together. They may have redefined “Harmony”: two experienced, wonderful performers, with so many miles behind them and nothing to prove. It’s a perfect end to a rainy day.

Expert Functionality

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Let me say, in my own defense, that I had, before this started, made backups. I have the backups, ready to go when I need them.

I got a “new” machine: a Dell Dimension E510, which I picked up in the usual place with the usual surprise that someone had left something like that behind.

There was an APC UPS there next to it, and a scanner, and a printer that looks a lot like the one I already have. I’ll have to go back and get them, because I think they’ll probably work.

You see, the problem was that the E510 had a virus in it: one of the nastiest I’ve seen. Now, I gave up fighting that arms race years ago, just like everybody else, so I knew right away that I would need the CD to install “Windows XP Media Center Edition 2005″ back into the machine. I figured that I could use it for a desktop in the meantime, just by putting Ubuntu on it.

Ubuntu has gotten to be a memory hog lately, but this E510 can take it: 2GB of Ram, a 2.8 GHz dual-core 64 bit processor, and a 155GB hard drive. Holy carp: someone dropped this machine in the trash, just because it had a virus.

The hardware tests passed with flying colors: the boot menu lets you boot to a utility partition, and I ran the full suite of tests. After that, I installed Ubuntu and looked around the HD: it had a hidden partition, right at the end of the disk, and fdisk told me it was type “CPM”.

Now, unless you’re still using an H-89 like the one I built in 1980, you don’t run CP/M. The only things that might have a “CPM” partition are emergency-repair utilities that use it so that they don’t have to pay Microsoft for running DOS.

Google confirmed: this generation of machines came with a built-in backup copy of the Windows XP OS, ready to move into position if a virus or misconfiguration trashes the NTFS partition. It was just sitting there, ready to use. I backed it up to a thumb drive.

You can guess the rest: Partition Magic wouldn’t touch the disk, claiming “Error #155″, which means that there’s a partition which doesn’t start on a cylinder boundary the way PM expects. I tried to use fdisk to move the Utility partition’s starting boundary, so that I could use PM to resize the Windows XP part of the disk and set it up for dual-boot, and I wound up with an unusable partition. The machine still booted into Windows XP: I had rolled in the replica before I got exotic, so it “works”.

I’m gritting my teeth, is all: I’m supposed to be a pro. No, scratch that: an amateur wouldn’t have made the backups. I’m supposed to be able to get the machine back in service and walk away, no matter how messy the result: it boots into the original Operating System, and that’s all the user would care about.

I want to be better than that. I want to do it just right. I want to have every “I” dotted and every “T” crossed.

It’s a bad habit in my business, and I’m trying to break it.

A trip down memory lane

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I picked up a printer from Freecycle a couple of weeks ago: an “All in one” unit made by Dell, which has a scanner and a color printer and a fax machine all built in.

They asked me for a photo id at my new job. I thought they wanted a photo for an ID, so I put on a shirt and tie and had my wife take a few shots, outside in the morning light. The funny part was that I couldn’t find the cord that connects my camera to my laptop, but after hunting in all the usual place, I remembered something that I had noticed-in-passing while reading the laptop’s documentation, and I took the memory stick out of the camera and plugged it into the special port on the front of the laptop that’s made just for that purpose.

I sent the best one in, but I got a call and they told me that they were looking for a copy of my drivers license instead, I guess because everyone has to check that kind of stuff now. No problem, I told them: I’ve got a scanner right here.

… Except it wouldn’t scan. The Dell website has drivers for everything up to windows Vista, but nothing for the Windows 7 OS that’s in the laptop. I tried to install the one for Windows Vista, and it didn’t work, and then I realized that the “Vista” drivers came in both 32-bit and 64-bit flavors, so I downloaded the 64-bit version, and put that in instead. It worked fine.

Still, I’m a belt-and-suspenders kind of a guy, so I took the Dimension 4500 that I had just installed Ubuntu on, and put on Windows 2000 instead: I figured if the time came when my wife wanted to scan something, she’d need the machine in user-friendly condition.

The screen came up in 640×480 mode, and I realized that I was taking a trip down memory lane, back to the time before all the drivers in the world came bundled with Windows. There was no network connection, and the copy of Internet Exploder was doing just that every time I turned it on. I downloaded the Ethernet driver – thank you, Mister Dell, for Service Tags and your great website – and that got me to the point where I could acquire the video driver that allowed the screen to run at 1280×1024 again.

The drivers for the printer needed upgrades for some of the chipset software, and some of the I/O components, so I decided that I’d wait a while and see if I can borrow a copy of Windows XP from someone at the club: there’s a license tag on the machine, but I don’t have any media handy, at least not for the “Home” edition. Until then, Windows 2000 would have to do. I waved away the nostalgia, and set to work on fixing the DVD drive in the Dimension 600. It’s just not reading DVD’s anymore, so off I went to the recycling station, to try to get a replacement drive.

There wasn’t anything there except for an old HP machine, which had been stripped of RAM and the hard drive – funny how common that’s become, almost as if someone is doing it at the recycling center – but it still had a CD-RW and a DVD-RW in it, and I brought them home and took them out.

I had to open the DVD by hand, with a two penny nail, and I found a CD inside it, which was unlabeled. I popped it into the laptop, and found out that it was a copy of Windows XP Home Edition.

I still had to download SP2 from Microsoft, but you can’t have everything. Funny how things seem to work out like that sometimes: my desktop can print and scan and send faxes, and so can my laptop, and although XP isn’t the premier OS anymore, they still issue security patches for it, so for now, the 4500 is back in the Windows world, set up for duel boot with Lubuntu 13.04.

War room

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I dropped off the rest of my old pool supplies at my sister’s house, and picked up two computers that I had given her years ago. I forgot to bring the Coleman stove, but she still has the other one I was going to trade, which runs on Propane instead of Naptha, so we’re both ready for a power failure. (The power just failed while I was typing the above line. Swear to Ghod. I hadn’t thought to connect these new machines to the UPS: serves me right. I was staring at the light over this makeshift desk, thinking that it might be loose in the socket, and then everything died for about thirty seconds. Either God or the Electric Company is teaching me a lesson.)

I had an “Interior” door in my shed, and I brought it inside along with a couple of saw horses, and set up a workplace in my family room, next to the Ethernet jack and the six-outlet power plate where my air conditioner plugs in.

The Dell 2550 just beeped when I plugged it in, and at first I thought it was because of the Linksys KVM switch, but when I opened it up I found out that the RAM and the hard drive are both gone, so now I’ll have to look on the Dell website and decide if the machine is worth reviving. It’s funny: I’ve been picking up old computers from my customers for years, and I usually wind up rehabbing them for the VFW, but I’ve been “decluttering” my shelves lately, so I didn’t have any hanging around.

The other machine was my old Dimension 600SC, and it started right up in Ubuntu 11.04. My sister couldn’t remember her password, though, so I had to boot into “recovery” mode and reset it. After that, the update manager started nagging at me to upgrade, since 11.04 isn’t supported anymore, and I told it to go ahead, and now it’s at 12.04, which is the Long Term Support version.

I had burned a DVD with 13.04, but the Dimension wouldn’t boot from it. Either the DVD writer is one of the old kind that only works with a certain type of DVD, or there’s something else wrong. I swapped the DVD drive with the CD, but it didn’t make any difference: I just get a lot of “Read” errors and then it stalls. Ergo, it’s now at version 12.04, which I could download from the net. I’m kind of miffed that Ubuntu won’t fit on a CD anymore.

Well, all that took until now, and I just took the other Dell machine that someone gave me, a Dimension 4500S with 256MB of RAM, and hooked it up to the other KVM port. The BIOS battery is dead, and I have to reset the date every time it boots, but I’m going to stop by the drugstore and buy a new one at lunch. The 4500S had XP Pro on it, but it’s so slow I swear I can count the electrons as they flow by on the wire, so I’m going to put 13.04 on it and turn it into a “Desktop” machine like the ones I’ll be working on.

I have a new job, in a place that uses Linux a lot more than most, so I’ve set up a war room where I can go through all the stuff users are going to ask me when I get there: switching from KDE to Gnome, doing backups, writing’s CD’s or DVD’s, etc. It’s going to be good to have a single place to go every day, instead of an appointment list and all the printouts from Google Maps. The T-Pass has gone up to $228 a month, which f()*#&$ng amazes me, but my spreadsheet assures me that it would cost a lot more to drive, so I’m going to be buying T passes again.

When I’m ready, I’ll take the door and the saw horses and put them back in the shed. No hurry, though: I might set up a Beowolf Cluster, just for fun.

Silverbacks

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I arrived to find signs at the end of the ramp, saying that the lot was closed for paving. I found a spot on the street: it was Saturday, so I figured “no problem”.

The men inside straightened me out in short order: “This is Cambridge!” they laughed, and they told me that if I was going to be there all day, I could still park in the lot because they were only paving the ramp, not the whole thing. I went out and moved the car.

I got advice from several old friends: some older than me, most younger, but good and valuable advice from all. They told me what I’d need to be up-to-speed on, and what wasn’t likely to be a problem: the list was surprising, both ways.

We had three or four people who came with their computers, and we installed Linux on the machines – it was an Installfest, and that’s what we were there for – and I even discovered that M.I.T. has a PXE server with an image for DebAthena and for a couple of other Linux versions.

We broke for lunch around Noon, and I was surprised to find a couple of the guys talking about their diabetes medicines, and doctor’s visits, and old friends no longer present. We didn’t talk that much about Linux, although there was a little chest-thumping about “Mate”, whatever that means, and the never-ending debate about KDE versus GNOME. By and large, though, it was about things that really matter: family, kids, jobs. We’d all been through too much to waste time on trivia.

I guess this is what it feels like to be one of the old gorillas.

I love it when things work

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I went out just before lunch, and I took the charging plug out of the lawnmower connections.

I have a lawnmower with electric start. When I bought it, I though it would be the same kind of electric start that’s in a car, but it’s not: there’s a battery and a starter motor, but no alternator to recharge the battery. You have to plug it into an AC outlet to recharge it, and there’s a “wall wart” charging unit to convert the 110 volt outlet to 12 volts for the battery.

I had lost the old one, and I couldn’t find it anywhere, and I finally gave up and ordered a replacement from an online supplier. It arrived yesterday.

I had to put a piece of tape over the switch for our bedroom lamp: the wall outlet next to the door runs through the switch, so if the switch was turned off, the charger wouldn’t be working. The outlet usually controls our lamp, but not last night: I switched off the lamp with the built-in switch, and left the wall switch on.

Today, after charging all night, I disconnected the cord and wheeled the lawnmower out of the shed. I remembered, at last, to use the “priming” bulb on the side of the carburetor. It started up within a couple of seconds of turning the key. My electric start is back and working, even though the battery is ten years old.

Somedays, you get lucky.

Cars are expensive

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Henry came back in after he started the car, and said the power steering sounded just as bad as I had told him it did.

We agreed that it would be best to add some power-steering fluid after he got his hand down behind the engine and got the cover off the reservoir and found out that the dipstick showed there wasn’t any fluid in these. I had asked the guy at Central Buick to check the fluid levels: he told me that the oil was two quarts low, and they added some, and he added about seventy-five bucks to the bill.

We drove to Auto Zone in Stoughton, and bought some extra antifreeze and some power-steering fluid. We added the fluid right there in the parking lot.

The battery was dead. The starter just clicked when he tried to start it. The manager at the store brought out a tiny portable jump starter, and offered to help. The car started right up, and I figured it was just a problem where the battery had been run down by the stereo Henry’s friend had installed for him.

Halfway home, it died, in the middle of Central Street. I called for a tow, and the tow driver dropped us at my home: this time, I had it towed to a local garage that I trust.

I told my son “It’s just a machine”, and that “Cars are expensive”, which is what my dad always said to me when I had the Volkswagen that ate up all my earnings week after week.

Mike called me up yesterday morning: the mechanic at Central Buick had forgotten to reconnect the alternator after doing the work I had paid almost five-hundred bucks for him to do.

One of Those Days

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I told the wife that I’d take the car over to the next town, and get an estimate of fixing my old bike. She asked me to drop off some old lawn furniture at the Salvation Army.

My old bike was a Fuji S10S, which was a very highly-regarded machine in 1976. It had the Sun-Tour “B” derailleur, which was the one to have back then. I always liked it, and took the bike cross-country a couple of times, with a bike rack on the back of my old Toyota.

Five or ten years ago, I gave the machine to my sister for her kids. I figured I was done with bicycles, but then I spent the summer in Montana, and had to get around on the “Community” bikes they have there at the National Park, and I lost twenty pounds.

I have a really good bike here: a carbon-composite machine that’s worth over $1,000, that my wife got at a yard sale for $35. It’s a beautiful, professional-grade machine. It’s also the machine that I dumped in the driveway when I took it out last, wobbling on the short-wheel-base while I tried to figure out how the step-derailleurs worked. I scraped my arm and my leg, and decided that I need to work my way back up with a slower, less nimble machine, one which matches my old-world skills.

My brother-in-law looked in his shed, and told me that the old bike was still there. I picked it up when I was up there a few days ago.

The Salvation Army refused to take the lawn furniture. They said it wasn’t salable.

The bike shop said the Fuji wasn’t worth fixing: they quoted me $200 “at least” to put it back on the road, and suggested I buy a used bike off their rack instead. They had one for $237 which the police department had traded in: thick tires, straight handlebars, and click-once-per-gear shifters just like my new one.

I put the Fuji out in front of the house, and put a “curb alert” ad on Craigslist. The guy who picked it up was happy to have it, and left his phone number in case I find the key for the bike lock that was looped through the arms on the seat. I’m had a second beer after supper, and I’m sitting here contemplating my mortality and the impermanent nature of man-made objects.

Morning stiffness

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It happened about Three AM.

I answered a call of nature, and wound up on the floor with my wife standing over me.

She had bought a rug at a yard sale. It looked great on the bathroom floor.

I walked in, three-quarters asleep, and tried to close the door while turning on the light so as not to wake her up.

It wasn’t a fall, exactly, but I did wind up dragging down the suction-cup soap dish and its contents, and putting a gluteus-sized dent in the non-skid mat that covers the shower floor. After a couple of panicked cries of “Bill? BILL?”, she came and helped me to stand up, and promised that we’d throw out the rug, which was obviously not intended to be placed on a tile floor. We found a freeze-pack in the freezer, and I wrapped it in a tile and surfed the web until I fell asleep around Seven AM.

I woke up at 11 AM, feeling stiff as a board, and I knew the worst was yet to come. I’ve spent the day with the heat pack on, aside from a couple of trips outside while I tried to walk off the stiffness. Nothing broken, but I’m going to be asking for a new pain reliever prescription.