Rather busy weekend
Sep. 10th, 2007 08:52 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
johnridleySince the lightning strike that we had that whacked a bunch of equipment, entropy seems to have taken a specific interest in our house, or at least me. Seems like every time I touch something, it goes wrong. But I did make headway this past weekend, though it was hard-fought.
Computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could just pinch them.
I ordered a new mainboard for the eMachines which had a mostly-smoked mainboard. The hardware install (moving CPU & RAM, bolting things together) went fine. The original intent was to use that machine as a PVR (MythTV) but since it's now the only machine in the house with a full compliment of ports (parallel, serial) I decided to move it back to my machine, and take mine and make it the PVR. The extra ports allows us to run some flash programmers and an AVR Microcontroller development system that I just got off eBay a few weeks back.
All day Saturday the PVR drive was copying to a new version and resizing (160 to 250 GB). GPartEd is good but kind of slow when shifting partitions. Dropped that into the new box, and it went pretty well but the nVidia drivers on it don't work with the 8300GS card I got from Dell. Also the program data got wiped, but this time the build of the new Myth to support Schedules Direct worked. However, the data won't populate into the database. So I went back to the old hard drive in the old PC for a few more days.
Luckily, last night the KnoppMyth guy released a new version. Downloading now. Even if I have to do a ground-up reinstall, it's not so bad. With any luck we can preserve our old "duplicates" database - having to retrain the system with what episodes of everything we've already seen/archived would be a bit time consuming but I'll live with it if I must.
On the desktop machine, I put WinXP back on. I have mixed feelings about reinstalling from scratch. It takes time but it seems refreshing to me to set a machine up from scratch matching my current thinking on "how things should be." It gives me a good opportunity to upgrade everything, take a fresh look at what software I'm using, and generally clean out the cellar.
I discovered the RSS reader I've been using, Firefox extension "Fizzle", has a pretty serious security hole that the author isn't interested in fixing. So I discovered Google Reader and I really like it (besides it being nice, it's the same everywhere).
A new season of sunday school started at church on Sunday. The young adult section has some online-based thing that they're starting up, so they needed a connected machine to get online in their room. I put in an old Netgear wireless router that I rescued from the trash (the radio wasn't working; turned out to be a bad capacitor in the power supply causing tons of RFI). I couldn't find the PCI wireless card, so I punted at 10PM on Saturday, grabbed the laptop and the projector and set them up.
Sunday came around, and everything went pretty well, except the brand-new projector that has a whole 12 hours on it started exhibiting horrendous vertical white lines (looks to me like a stuck mirror in the DLP chip). So that's probably going to have to go back for repair; luckily still well under warranty. Just another damn thing breaking on me.
House projects
The big positive step forward for the weekend is that I got the first layer of floor in the basement. Plastic base/waterproofing (Delta-FL dimpled plastic) on the bottom, 3/4" T/G OSB over that. Bought the luaun plywood last night and hauled it downstairs before collapsing. I was one tired puppy after that day (I really needed the ride to work this morning; I'd be too stiff to move if I'd driven).
The luaun goes down next; it's easy, it just lies over the top and gets tacked with some small nails (brad nailer I think, probably 9 brads per sheet). I have a few walls and perhaps cabinets to put in (the base layer mfg actually recommends building non-supporting walls over the underlayment). Then there's a feathercoat to go over seams and nail holes before we can put down tile.
The garage door opener hasn't repaired itself, but I'm going to leave it be until the basement is in some kind of order.
New car
Jenn ordered a Ford Fusion last week. Lexi is going to get the Taurus. The Windstar will sit around for the most part. One of us will take it somewhere at least once a week so it doesn't turn to a pile of rust in the driveway. It'll be there for runs to Lowes or if I need a car when Lexi's out with the Taurus.
The Fusion has a manual transmission, so it'll give us something to train Lexi on once she's competent on auto. Hopefully the clutch will survive the experience. At least we'll have a car with a manual to drive again. Maybe I'll get to drive it once in a while.
Not sure what Tom's going to be driving in 6 years. Minivan, I guess, if a teenaged boy can stand to drive a 12-year-old minivan. He'll get his chance in the Fusion so he can learn stick too. He might take it with him when he goes off; it'll be about 8-9 years old at that point.
Computers, they're so naughty and so complex. I could just pinch them.
I ordered a new mainboard for the eMachines which had a mostly-smoked mainboard. The hardware install (moving CPU & RAM, bolting things together) went fine. The original intent was to use that machine as a PVR (MythTV) but since it's now the only machine in the house with a full compliment of ports (parallel, serial) I decided to move it back to my machine, and take mine and make it the PVR. The extra ports allows us to run some flash programmers and an AVR Microcontroller development system that I just got off eBay a few weeks back.
All day Saturday the PVR drive was copying to a new version and resizing (160 to 250 GB). GPartEd is good but kind of slow when shifting partitions. Dropped that into the new box, and it went pretty well but the nVidia drivers on it don't work with the 8300GS card I got from Dell. Also the program data got wiped, but this time the build of the new Myth to support Schedules Direct worked. However, the data won't populate into the database. So I went back to the old hard drive in the old PC for a few more days.
Luckily, last night the KnoppMyth guy released a new version. Downloading now. Even if I have to do a ground-up reinstall, it's not so bad. With any luck we can preserve our old "duplicates" database - having to retrain the system with what episodes of everything we've already seen/archived would be a bit time consuming but I'll live with it if I must.
On the desktop machine, I put WinXP back on. I have mixed feelings about reinstalling from scratch. It takes time but it seems refreshing to me to set a machine up from scratch matching my current thinking on "how things should be." It gives me a good opportunity to upgrade everything, take a fresh look at what software I'm using, and generally clean out the cellar.
I discovered the RSS reader I've been using, Firefox extension "Fizzle", has a pretty serious security hole that the author isn't interested in fixing. So I discovered Google Reader and I really like it (besides it being nice, it's the same everywhere).
A new season of sunday school started at church on Sunday. The young adult section has some online-based thing that they're starting up, so they needed a connected machine to get online in their room. I put in an old Netgear wireless router that I rescued from the trash (the radio wasn't working; turned out to be a bad capacitor in the power supply causing tons of RFI). I couldn't find the PCI wireless card, so I punted at 10PM on Saturday, grabbed the laptop and the projector and set them up.
Sunday came around, and everything went pretty well, except the brand-new projector that has a whole 12 hours on it started exhibiting horrendous vertical white lines (looks to me like a stuck mirror in the DLP chip). So that's probably going to have to go back for repair; luckily still well under warranty. Just another damn thing breaking on me.
House projects
The big positive step forward for the weekend is that I got the first layer of floor in the basement. Plastic base/waterproofing (Delta-FL dimpled plastic) on the bottom, 3/4" T/G OSB over that. Bought the luaun plywood last night and hauled it downstairs before collapsing. I was one tired puppy after that day (I really needed the ride to work this morning; I'd be too stiff to move if I'd driven).
The luaun goes down next; it's easy, it just lies over the top and gets tacked with some small nails (brad nailer I think, probably 9 brads per sheet). I have a few walls and perhaps cabinets to put in (the base layer mfg actually recommends building non-supporting walls over the underlayment). Then there's a feathercoat to go over seams and nail holes before we can put down tile.
The garage door opener hasn't repaired itself, but I'm going to leave it be until the basement is in some kind of order.
New car
Jenn ordered a Ford Fusion last week. Lexi is going to get the Taurus. The Windstar will sit around for the most part. One of us will take it somewhere at least once a week so it doesn't turn to a pile of rust in the driveway. It'll be there for runs to Lowes or if I need a car when Lexi's out with the Taurus.
The Fusion has a manual transmission, so it'll give us something to train Lexi on once she's competent on auto. Hopefully the clutch will survive the experience. At least we'll have a car with a manual to drive again. Maybe I'll get to drive it once in a while.
Not sure what Tom's going to be driving in 6 years. Minivan, I guess, if a teenaged boy can stand to drive a 12-year-old minivan. He'll get his chance in the Fusion so he can learn stick too. He might take it with him when he goes off; it'll be about 8-9 years old at that point.
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no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 03:57 pm (UTC)With the trillions of dollars in consumer spending we've given to the Chinese the last few years, they are set fair to outbid us on the international oil market - and they're going to need to do so, if their energy hungry 'westernization' proceeds at the current rate.
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 04:01 pm (UTC)Hopefully by then we can replace something with a serious alternative; electric, hydrogen (I hope not but who knows), clockwork...
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 04:06 pm (UTC)And, unfortunately, I wouldn't put it past many US citizens to fully support such actions, especially if it's put in some couched terms.
I kind of want the Taurus back when Lexi's done with it. It's fine for the 4000 miles or so I put on it a year (that's only 167 gallons of gas, and I could certainly cut my driving down below that). Actually the main thing I drive the car for is likely to be going away soon (our TKD studio is in hard financial times and may shut down at the end of the month; that's about 1700 miles a year right there).
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 04:57 pm (UTC)*If* they were both here and driving at the same time, I suspect that they'd either share a car or share mine. I'm getting a new car because I'm getting annoyed by driving the van everywhere even though 90% of the time a small sedan is all I need (ideally, I'd drive the Taurus, but it's really hard on my back, and it's old enough that it doesn't get that much better mileage than the van anyway). We're keeping the van because there are times that we need it.
Lexi's just getting to drive the Taurus now because it will actually save driving, as she will be able to drive herself into school when she needs to, rather than somebody dropping her off/picking her up. She's not going to be driving everyday, as there's a perfectly good bus running (between band and extracurricular activities, she needs to be in town two or three times a week when the bus isn't available).
no subject
Date: 2007-09-10 05:17 pm (UTC)The new car at this point is due to a combination of dislike of driving a minivan everywhere (which is perfectly legitimate) and moving to a smaller car with about 6 MPG better mileage - not enough to justify the car on its own but as long as we're getting a new one anyway, might as well be small and economical.
Besides, I've had more than enough of big cars. I don't really like them. I can't complain about the Taurus, it's a good car, but I'll be happy to have something reasonably sized to drive around in again.