So I pulled the 2 gig drive out of the 8500 and snapped the case back up; it needs a good dusting but otherwise is in great shape. Tonight I have to reinstall OS9 on Renie’s loaner G3 and drop a bunch of software on there for her.
Steve brought in a LaserWriter 4/600 as well that he wants to sell; I have to see how much it would be to Ethernet it up to the network and perhaps get some machines printing on it, and then figure out how much to give him for it. Then figure out how much RAM it has.
Max is no longer. May his memory rest in peace. I installed a fresh copy of OS 7.5 after extended histrionics on Apple’s website attempting to find and/or download a usable disk image of the Disk Tools floppy (which I didn’t bring with me.) Once that hurdle was over with, I installed the OS via floppy (remember that?) and shut him down. I’m going to sell him with a Farallon adapter, two SCSI adapters and possibly my spare Zip drive to sweeten the deal, although I could possibly use the Zip for the 7100. Speaking of, I think I’m going to pull the original 2MB drive out of that and drop it into the 7100 for added space, then load OS9 onto the 4MB Barracuda I put in it last summer. I also dug out a keyboard and mouse and set that with the 8500, which got a fresh copy of OS8 this morning (it didn’t like the copied OS8.5 disk I tried yesterday.)
It’s beautiful outside today, but due to get cold and rainy this afternoon; it was 70 earlier but it’s going down to 30 tonight and tomorrow. Dammit. I got a ripe, rich whiff of cut grass this morning and it just made me ache for summer. Of course, when it’s 95 and Baltimore-humid, which is not unlike swimming in warm snot, I will be wishing for sweater-weather again (say, mid-June.)
Downloaded Palm Desktop 4.0 today. Will try it out tonight. I also found the camera I will probably buy when I get around to buying a digital camera.
The CapitalDesignDC site went live yesterday; I think K. is really happy with it. I have to invoice her tonight. I also have to get an invoice printed and sent to K. for the Oakleaf stuff. J. also seems happy with the 10-20 work I’ve done- I have icons to tackle tonight (big fun.)
This past Friday marked the year anniversary of my writing in this log, and I have to say, I’m proud of the fact that I’ve kept with it this long.
Instant Palm Desktop 2.6.3 is crap. Oh, and so is NT Server. Oh, and so is DAVE when you’re trying to copy something to a Win box over 50K. On a happier front, I was able to find and buy a 100MB Zip expansion bay drive for Scout for $45 new from the dealer; on sale and with 10% off, free UPS shipping. Sweet! No cables, no power supply, no other bull, just what I want.
Elsewhere, I’m sending my electronic vibes out over the airwaves: Sell, dammit! Sell!
Very, very tired today. I was down in Laurel working on 10-20 until about 12:15 last night, so I got to bed at 1am. Site is looking good, but I want a solid day of tweaking it on a PC (i.e. from home) to get it looking tight.
Today I was pulling up to a light to make a left, and I was behind a guy in a big Mercedes. He had a bumper sticker on his car (on the paint, the ignorant fuck) that said ‘Vote Bush’ and in smaller letters ‘Fight for Freedom’ or some such bullshit. Now, since I’ve been in Baltimore, my tendency to hit the horn button on people has dramatically decreased since the NY State days. But when this dude sat through the first 10 seconds of the green light, I gave him a good old hearty honk for being asleep.
I have been fighting off crushing, absolute boredom here at work trying to learn 3D StudioMax from a book. It is not working. I am not happy. I have almost fallen asleep twice attempting to read the book.
Huh. Pretty nice. Also, 10% off and free shipping until March 31. Something to consider- most of the FireWire CD-burners are around $250 or so.
Last night, my printer crapped out on me. It’s a LaserJet 4ML, and I had it set up to print through the Barricade router to the PC, but I was going to get it set up to print through the 7100 as a bridge when I bought the server rack. Last night it printed three pages and then started making a horrendous clacking noise like the gears were shot. I stayed up until about 1 pulling the cover, where I found the main drive gear off the motor was coming loose from the spindle, so I pushed it back on and replaced the cover. A print of a test page only repeated the sound. There’s some kill switch that does not allow you to print with the cover off the unit, so I can’t see exactly what is going wrong, but I’m going to do some surgery on it this weekend. a search on Google revealed this parts site, where the drive motor is $44 and the gear assembly is $40. Maybe if I can’t resurrect it by myself I’ll find somebody to fix it, because it’s a great little machine.
In the meantime, I’ll hook up the Epson 740 and use that.
Printers have dropped in price dramatically, too. For under $300, there’s this Brother printer which (I think) has the serial interface I need, as well as USB. This Lexmark has parallel, serial and USB and it’s around $500. And this Epson is $300, has parallel and USB, and prints at 1200×1200. Huh. Well, we’ll see what happens.
Feeling a measure better today. It’s mid 60’s outside, sunny, and feels warm. I’m still unmotivated at work, but I feel a measure better than I did yesterday.
I have a bone to pick with Palm, the makers of my otherwise fantastic handheld, the IIIxe. Why is it so hard to A. figure out where a file is, B. find a simple file that should be on your site at all times, and C. figure out that both your company and Microsoft are providing misleading information as to what and what can’t be synchronized on the handheld and through the Desktop software? Here you say that the handheld will sync with Outlook and Outlook Express, but here you tell us that it won’t work with Outlook Express, and because I don’t want to use bloated, buggy Outlook, I can’t synchronize my Palm with my e-mail client, a simple function of matching up database records and importing/exporting data. In a perfect, user-friendly world, I should be able to have one central database of contact information for all my peeps, and be able to send it to my cellphone, PDA and computer so that all of them are intelligently updated and current. Instead I have three seperate units all carrying different and outdated information and only one way to update them all- waste my time entering repetitive text for three different OS’s.
I also have to give Microsoft their props here: I get the feeling that they were kind enough to provide a working, functional conduit for the transfer, but Palm decided they weren’t allowed to do that and updated the Desktop software to break when it was installed. (at least, that’s what mine is doing.)
Thanks. Thanks a lot.
Hardware that works like it should dept.: I love my PowerBook. Love it. I’m so happy I bought it. It is beautiful.
I gave up on the Palm. Too much work.
OK, as far as the backup efforts went, I got the beta stuff off SLANN and burned to a disk; unfortunately the UDF format isn’t working on my Mac, so it can’t read the disk. All the S/N’s are updated and on the USB drive, and all the installers/updaters are backed up there too. It holds all my fonts and pretty much everything I can’t burn to CD on SLANN, so we’re looking good there. I was also able to get the last backed up System Folder from Massachusetts (ex-Supon laptop) onto the USB drive and off SLANN, so that freed up about 500MB of space.
Next I have to compare copies of Beta and the Clients backups and figure out if I’m missing anything, then bless the latest and greatest and hide the others downstairs (when I clean up the CD racks.) Overall we’re looking pretty good.
This truck went up for sale in North Carolina for somewhere around $7K. It’s the same color as Chewbacca and has all the tricks. *sigh*.
→ This is a syndicated post from my Scout weblog. More info here.
Last night I broke down and put plastic up over the opening on the stairwell skylight. I’ve used plastic before, most notably in the sieve-like windows in my bedroom at 1709 Bolton St., so I know it works pretty well. I installed it, hung the plants from the curtain rods in the front room, and within five minutes it was stretched taut towards the skylight. When I was up there working on it, I could feel the difference in cold air inside the well, so I figure I’ve just closed off a major chimney vent in the house. This is problematic though; I’m wondering what i can do to insulate the well to keep it warm/cold in the summer/winter. Perhaps a plexi panel cut to fit the opening?
I got all the photos, portfolio, the beta backup, and the web tools moved off the USB drive last night; the applications/installers are rearranged between their respective states, and the fonts minus the font CD are still intact. I have to strip the Mac-centric stuff off the Beta backup and burn it to disk as the final copy; what I really need to do is to find some way to archive all my data so that it’s not redundant/lost/overwritten and then keep one copy of each ‘live’. How to do this is still a mystery. I think it will involve buying a low-cost Mac FireWire CD burner sometime towards the end of the year.
Still to do:
1. Compare the final Beta backup to other copies, de-Mac and then burn to CD. Remove from SLANN.
2. Compile serial numbers for all Mac software, consolidate, and store with programs on the USB drive.
3. Compile all PC software and S/N’s, consolidate, and store on a new CD.
4. Figure out some way of storing current backups and archiving old data. Clean up the CD shelf.
The USB Drive will be used for Mac backup duty for things like fonts, programs, and a working System Folder copy.
Slann will hold all the archived client data, pictures, and other ‘working’ files. SLANN will also recieve all personal email and be the ‘sweep’, i.e. clean email off the server.
The PowerBook will hold all current client data, working files, and simply ‘read’ email.
I also need to redesign the billdugan site and update links. Yikes.
I’m thinking the /funny /flashmovie and /application directories will come down altogether.
/basement
/bathroom
/house
/kittens
/posters and
/vistas will all go inside a new directory, maybe titled ‘projects’.
/contact
/design
/downloads
/illustration
/images
/log
/resume and
/scout will remain their own directories. /training will probably live inside /design.
Yesterday I realized that I’m going to need to buy RAM for the Powerbook in order to do anything—there’s just not enough on there to run two programs at once. I still haven’t been able to get all the crap moved around yet, but I’m hoping tonight I can organize stuff.
I’m meeting JT tonight about a design job he emailed me with yesterday; I got back with K. about her job this morning, and I’m going to call K. to schedule a talk with him at lunch today. Things are rolling. Plus I got an email from Brad yesterday checking in, so I can get back with him finally.
I was reading today that Dooce got fired from her job yesterday because of what she wrote online about two weeks ago; it completely sucks for her, but she doesn’t sound too bummed out about it. Methinks she was looking to make a move anyway, but since I don’t even know her (just what she writes about online) this is all speculation.
They are making a movie about one of the most gripping books I’ve read in a long time: We Were Soldiers Once, And Young. In my mind, Hal Moore (author and commander on the ground in Oct. ’65) should be the President of the United States. Or, at least, Secretary of Defense. This book also bears on a recent post about Rick Rescorla, who figured prominently in the book, and who was featured in a recent New Yorker bio that kept me up until 2am. Anyway, I hope the movie is good.
I ordered the RAM for the Powerbook today. $99 with shipping for a 256MB chip. I figure, fuck it- if I’m going all out, I’m going all out. No compromising with this machine. No crashing like the 8500 did. And with three freelance jobs in the door, I can’t fool around with 64MB. I need to have a working, breathing machine.
A little “Nights on Broadway” by the Bee Gees today, mixed with some Zeppelin, Commodores, and Three Dog Night today.
Installed Palm Desktop 3.6 and got it to sync up with the handheld, and I remember why I love the Mac version of the desktop software so much more. It took a while to figure out, but I got it working again, and I’m happy now. Soon they’re coming out with 4.0, and we’ll see how good it is, and if it’s worth using at all.