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Utter.
Computer.
Frustration.
Look, all I want to do is a little word processing, right?
So my VAIO's fan starts to work. I even figure out that if I crack open the CD, the fan doesn't have to "pull" as hard to get air into the machine.
Goody.
Then it stops, quietly, letting the unit get good and hot. The fan refuses to come back to life, which means I can only use the machine for about 5 to 7 minutes before prudence dictates shutting the unit off.
Of course, this time constraint makes me want to do unreasonable things, such as start Internet "Explorer" while Outlook "Express" is out looking for mail. The result is most horrid... the machine locks up tighter than a tick buried in a dog's hide. Even Ctrl-Atl-Del doesn't work, forcing a hard shutdown.
Of course, that just means we're going to go to "Safe Mode" next time we start, and we'll spend just about all of the 5-minute run time watching and waiting while Windoze decides all is fine with the hard drives.
Turn the machine off again, this time letting the "operating system" do its thing.
I fire up the desktop, load the file I'm going to be working on, and try to print it. No dice. The machine complains that there's either not enough memory or disk space to do the job. Oh, joy. We've got 64 MB of RAM, and the drive with the smallest amount of "free" real estate had just a shade under 40 MB of such stuff. My old Osborne-1 used to get by with just 64 KB to do all sorts of stuff; do I really need more than 40 MB to print out a file?
I decide to clear off some of the disk space. It can't take long... right? After all, that's why I got the Iomega RW-CD.
Strangely, though the unit is attached, the software seems to not be installed. I fetch the install CD, install the Adaptec software, and reboot. Upon running the program, it wants to do a test. Fine. I wait.
And wait. Oh, Lord! Now, my desktop has locked, requiring a flip of the Big Red Switch to recover. Restarting the machine results in nothing, as the disk checker and the antivirus appear to be blocking one another... at least nothing is going on for a while. I reboot. The system comes up directly in Windows, no disk check, no login, or anything. I decide maybe a disk check is a good idea. Disks D and E check out fine. Disk C starts, goes a little way, and restarts, then goes a little way, then restarts again, and so on.
Apparently the purveyors of this "operating system" decided to create a mission-critical application that requires no disk writes to occur while the disk is being checked. No problem there, except that these same designers, in their Infinite Wisdom, decided to let any other process that wants to perform a disk write to just go right ahead, thereby forcing the disk checker to go back and start over from scratch. Idiots!
With the limitation on my VAIO, it turns out the only other machine in the house with a modem is the one with FreeBSD on it. It does not make me much happier.
After successfully figuring out how to make it connect to my ISP, I find that during the installation, neither an X Windows server nor client was installed, as it is automatically with most Linux distros. Installing the server brought me back to the early days of Linux, when you needed to specify all sorts of technical parameters to make the thing work. I finally get it to work, but for some reason, it won't.
Aha. There's no client, even though I thought I'd asked for one to be installed. I go back and repeat the procedure. No dice.
Okay. To hell with GUI. Where's lynx?
Not found, says FreeBSD.
Criminy. I've got to go and find it, somewhere. After about 10 minutes of searching, I've found a half dozen other apps I'd like to have, but no lynx.
Aha. After rustling through the FreeBSD book for 15 minutes, I learn that lynx may be found among the ports of Linux programs. Whoopee! I get to run the system configuration program... again! Except that I've already examined the possibilities under web-related programs, so unless lynx is hidden among the programming languages, I am just out of luck.
I have half a mind to wipe FreeBSD and reinstall Linux. I don't have the time for this.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, as of about 7 pm, I'd translated about 1500 words, which is a pretty poor showing for a day's work (though it really wasn't a "day's work" because I spent most of the day trying to get some cooperation out of a bunch of soldered, etched silicon wafers). As it turns out, by the time I finished with the assignment, the word count stood at just slightly more than 3400. It's off to the client now... assuming Outlook "Express" has done its job... which is by no means a slam-dunk.
Ah, well. Enough crabbing.
Today was the Fourth of July, and Huntur's one-week birthday anniversary. The child is marvelous. (Is it true what they all say, that I feel that way because the child is not my responsibility? I hope not. At least, I don't think so.)
I celebrated the Fourth by reading about 50 pages of Benjamin Franklin's writings. His views on just about everything are, I think, as valid today as they were when he penned them. Franklin - who was described by one of his English contemporaries as "the most dangerous man in America" - is one of a few people I once included on a list of historical figures with whom I would have liked to have had a dinner and conversation.
Talking about the Fourth, the Pagosa Lodge and the businesses downtown apparently have decided to alternate sites for the town's fireworks display. Drew called me up to the veranda around 9:15 pm or so to see what we could see of this year's downtown show. I could not help but observe that, viewed from about 10 miles off, a fireworks display looks pretty puny, particularly given a backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, barely discernable against a lighter sky.
I spoke with Galina this morning. She is tired from dragging all of the waterlogged stuff out of our storage space to the landfill. She reports that the stuff that survived is now taking up copious amounts of volume at the Pearland house, and that I will have to deal with it when I get there.
If I get there... I have not heard anything from Houston about coming down in the near future. My next trip may be delayed until August, assuming it happens then. Galina plans on leaving for home on Friday, probably. That doesn't give me and Drew much time to clean up around the place in preparation for the visit by Shannon's parents next week, but it's better than not having any time at all.
Cheers...
Computer.
Frustration.
Look, all I want to do is a little word processing, right?
So my VAIO's fan starts to work. I even figure out that if I crack open the CD, the fan doesn't have to "pull" as hard to get air into the machine.
Goody.
Then it stops, quietly, letting the unit get good and hot. The fan refuses to come back to life, which means I can only use the machine for about 5 to 7 minutes before prudence dictates shutting the unit off.
Of course, this time constraint makes me want to do unreasonable things, such as start Internet "Explorer" while Outlook "Express" is out looking for mail. The result is most horrid... the machine locks up tighter than a tick buried in a dog's hide. Even Ctrl-Atl-Del doesn't work, forcing a hard shutdown.
Of course, that just means we're going to go to "Safe Mode" next time we start, and we'll spend just about all of the 5-minute run time watching and waiting while Windoze decides all is fine with the hard drives.
Turn the machine off again, this time letting the "operating system" do its thing.
I fire up the desktop, load the file I'm going to be working on, and try to print it. No dice. The machine complains that there's either not enough memory or disk space to do the job. Oh, joy. We've got 64 MB of RAM, and the drive with the smallest amount of "free" real estate had just a shade under 40 MB of such stuff. My old Osborne-1 used to get by with just 64 KB to do all sorts of stuff; do I really need more than 40 MB to print out a file?
I decide to clear off some of the disk space. It can't take long... right? After all, that's why I got the Iomega RW-CD.
Strangely, though the unit is attached, the software seems to not be installed. I fetch the install CD, install the Adaptec software, and reboot. Upon running the program, it wants to do a test. Fine. I wait.
And wait. Oh, Lord! Now, my desktop has locked, requiring a flip of the Big Red Switch to recover. Restarting the machine results in nothing, as the disk checker and the antivirus appear to be blocking one another... at least nothing is going on for a while. I reboot. The system comes up directly in Windows, no disk check, no login, or anything. I decide maybe a disk check is a good idea. Disks D and E check out fine. Disk C starts, goes a little way, and restarts, then goes a little way, then restarts again, and so on.
Apparently the purveyors of this "operating system" decided to create a mission-critical application that requires no disk writes to occur while the disk is being checked. No problem there, except that these same designers, in their Infinite Wisdom, decided to let any other process that wants to perform a disk write to just go right ahead, thereby forcing the disk checker to go back and start over from scratch. Idiots!
With the limitation on my VAIO, it turns out the only other machine in the house with a modem is the one with FreeBSD on it. It does not make me much happier.
After successfully figuring out how to make it connect to my ISP, I find that during the installation, neither an X Windows server nor client was installed, as it is automatically with most Linux distros. Installing the server brought me back to the early days of Linux, when you needed to specify all sorts of technical parameters to make the thing work. I finally get it to work, but for some reason, it won't.
Aha. There's no client, even though I thought I'd asked for one to be installed. I go back and repeat the procedure. No dice.
Okay. To hell with GUI. Where's lynx?
Not found, says FreeBSD.
Criminy. I've got to go and find it, somewhere. After about 10 minutes of searching, I've found a half dozen other apps I'd like to have, but no lynx.
Aha. After rustling through the FreeBSD book for 15 minutes, I learn that lynx may be found among the ports of Linux programs. Whoopee! I get to run the system configuration program... again! Except that I've already examined the possibilities under web-related programs, so unless lynx is hidden among the programming languages, I am just out of luck.
I have half a mind to wipe FreeBSD and reinstall Linux. I don't have the time for this.
Meanwhile, back on the ranch, as of about 7 pm, I'd translated about 1500 words, which is a pretty poor showing for a day's work (though it really wasn't a "day's work" because I spent most of the day trying to get some cooperation out of a bunch of soldered, etched silicon wafers). As it turns out, by the time I finished with the assignment, the word count stood at just slightly more than 3400. It's off to the client now... assuming Outlook "Express" has done its job... which is by no means a slam-dunk.
Ah, well. Enough crabbing.
Today was the Fourth of July, and Huntur's one-week birthday anniversary. The child is marvelous. (Is it true what they all say, that I feel that way because the child is not my responsibility? I hope not. At least, I don't think so.)
I celebrated the Fourth by reading about 50 pages of Benjamin Franklin's writings. His views on just about everything are, I think, as valid today as they were when he penned them. Franklin - who was described by one of his English contemporaries as "the most dangerous man in America" - is one of a few people I once included on a list of historical figures with whom I would have liked to have had a dinner and conversation.
Talking about the Fourth, the Pagosa Lodge and the businesses downtown apparently have decided to alternate sites for the town's fireworks display. Drew called me up to the veranda around 9:15 pm or so to see what we could see of this year's downtown show. I could not help but observe that, viewed from about 10 miles off, a fireworks display looks pretty puny, particularly given a backdrop of the Rocky Mountains, barely discernable against a lighter sky.
I spoke with Galina this morning. She is tired from dragging all of the waterlogged stuff out of our storage space to the landfill. She reports that the stuff that survived is now taking up copious amounts of volume at the Pearland house, and that I will have to deal with it when I get there.
If I get there... I have not heard anything from Houston about coming down in the near future. My next trip may be delayed until August, assuming it happens then. Galina plans on leaving for home on Friday, probably. That doesn't give me and Drew much time to clean up around the place in preparation for the visit by Shannon's parents next week, but it's better than not having any time at all.
Cheers...
