What I did today -instead- of Rocketry.

[Sooner Boomer]

I've been fighting computer problems. The computer(s) have won most of the battles (so far).

I've got an old P2 system I built around 2000. It runs XP. It was OK for the stuff I wanted to run on it back then. I also downloaded and archived a bunch of data from all over the web. The computer has reached the end of its functioning life. I need to get all that data off somehow. I used to use Samba (SMB - Server Message Block) to network my machines. the version of SMB that runs on XP has been deprecated and won't connect with my current machines (would have made things a LOT easier!). I bought an IDE-to-USB adapter, but it won't power the drives. So it's going back to Amazon. In its place, I ordered a hard drive enclosure with built in USB interface. It gets here tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

I tried firing up my old office computer I bought at a Black Friday sale in 2009. I got the Click of Death from the hard drive. Fortunately, I've got a small drive from a defective laptop I was given. Also fortunately, I've got the original systen disks that came with the computer. I replaced the drive (it was made back when this was easy to do). I went through the entire re-installation process. But now it won't boot to the hard drive. Nuts! I'm not going to mess with it any more right now. I might end up putting Linux on it.

While I was typing this post, on my current (3-year old) laptop, it froze. Nothing could get it going. It was so frozen, not even the three-finger-tap-dance could reset it. No reset button. I could pull the power plug and let it die. Or, I could do something stupid. I went with Option 2. I cracked the case (Geeze - those screws are *minuscule*) and pulled the battery. Put the case back on, and pressed the power button. Nothing. I started to sweat. Then a message popped up - CMOS Checksum error. I clicked the Any key, and after a second, it booted. I'm going to start backing up EVERYTHING on the laptop! I can do a lot of the day-to-day stuff from my tablet, but I don't want to lose any data if the laptop dies.

And last, but Lordy not least, with all this digging through old computers, I stirred up a lot of old dust. I've been on the edge of a sinus migraine for the past two days. Now it's a stress AND sinus migraine. I sure picked a bad time to give up drinking and drugs! (that's a joke - I seldom drink, and don't indulge in illegal substances)

 

[Cape Byron]

Found an old Kindle 4 from 2011 in a drawer. Back to life and on the network after 10+ years asleep.

 

[teepot]

I'm in a rut. All I have done today was watch You Tube Videos from Ukraine and some golf videos. Yesterday I actually left the house. I went Home Depot for some insecticide. And then Smith's for groceries and ice cream.

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Found an old Kindle 4 from 2011 in a drawer. Back to life and on the network after 10+ years asleep.

View attachment 584840

That's great! I also found an old Acer Aspire One from around 2009. I fired it up and it works great. Slow, but just as fast as it did when new. I used to use it as my home file/print server. The ethernet port died, so I had to use a USB 802.11 "dongle". I'm glad I started playing with this particular computer. On it are old pictures I was looking for. I've written several memorial pages for the club web site, in memory of members that have passed recently. Added the pictures to the pages.

 

[Cape Byron]

That's great! I also found an old Acer Aspire One from around 2009. I fired it up and it works great.

It’s great to get older tech working, and even better to recover photos.

I still use a Kobo e-reader. I can load PDFs onto it, so it holds the family manuals for dishwashers and such.

 

[Hobie1dog]

morning breathing treatment....again

 

[jqavins]

Day 48. June 6th. Apr 6th. I guess that makes it two months.

Did little to nothing.

I thought contacting a place called the NCC would help me figure out this credit card debt. I thought they were a consumer non-profit. LOL, they offered me basically ANOTHER monthly mortgage payment! I thought it was a non-profit to help figure this out. God I am naive. The only way out of this is some sort of BK and keep the house (my only real asset). Ideas?

I did gather up enough clothes to donate that I was able to take down a clothes rack freeing up space to work through the other 2/3rd of the bedroom it was packed into.

Nope cooked nothing. Dominos Delivers. What a loser.

God I miss her.

Lather Rinse and Repeat.

There are actual nonprofit services. Here's someone's "5 Best" list, though I can't vouch for the source. This is not to say that bankruptcy might not the be the better answer, only that if the first guys were less that helpful it doesn't mean you have to give up on that route right away.

 

[jqavins]

I've got an old P2 system I built around 2000. It runs XP. It was OK for the stuff I wanted to run on it back then. I also downloaded and archived a bunch of data from all over the web. The computer has reached the end of its functioning life. I need to get all that data off somehow. I used to use Samba (SMB - Server Message Block) to network my machines. the version of SMB that runs on XP has been deprecated and won't connect with my current machines (would have made things a LOT easier!). I bought an IDE-to-USB adapter, but it won't power the drives. So it's going back to Amazon. In its place, I ordered a hard drive enclosure with built in USB interface. It gets here tomorrow. Fingers crossed.

Have you tried installing the drives in another computer, if you've got a desktop which makes that possible? Dumb question, of course you would if you could. It's usually the most certain way, if one can.

I sure picked a bad time to give up drinking and drugs!

Picked a bad week to give up sniffing glue?

I'm in a rut. All I have done today was watch You Tube Videos from Ukraine and some golf videos. Yesterday I actually left the house. I went Home Depot for some insecticide. And then Smith's for groceries and ice cream.

Welcome to Rut Land*, my friend. It's comfy down here, isn't it?

* Not to be confused with Rutland, VT.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I'm in a rut. All I have done today was watch You Tube Videos from Ukraine and some golf videos. Yesterday I actually left the house. I went Home Depot for some insecticide. And then Smith's for groceries and ice cream.

Juts don't start spending 22 hours in bed most every day. That's what caused my major blood clot in my right lung 3 years ago....inactivity. Blood thinners/rat poison, have completely dissolved it now.

 

[Hobie1dog]

We went up to the Yamaha motorcycle dealership and picked up my new tires that got mounted on the aluminum rims that i'm hopefully going to retrofit onto my outdoor powerchair

 

[Hobie1dog]

We mailed out my ineffective Vertigo lighter that quit working, to get repaired at the service center. It's out of warranty and they charge $10 to get it fixed, but it was $5 postage, so there's $15 I have in it, but it has my name engraved on the side that one of my cigar buddies did for me, so I want to Keep it working now.

 

[Reinhard]

While I was typing this post, on my current (3-year old) laptop, it froze. Nothing could get it going. It was so frozen, not even the three-finger-tap-dance could reset it. No reset button. I could pull the power plug and let it die. Or, I could do something stupid. I went with Option 2. I cracked the case (Geeze - those screws are *minuscule*) and pulled the battery. Put the case back on, and pressed the power button. Nothing. I started to sweat. Then a message popped up - CMOS Checksum error. I clicked the Any key, and after a second, it booted. I'm going to start backing up EVERYTHING on the laptop! I can do a lot of the day-to-day stuff from my tablet, but I don't want to lose any data if the laptop dies.

The next time this happens, press the power button and keep it pressed until your computer shuts down or reboots. It usually takes 10 seconds. This also applies to smartphones.
On modern hardware the power buttons functionality ties into the operating system. If the OS crashes or hangs, this might interfere with the power button. For that reason, the power management hardware contains this extra safeguard to shut down the system regardless of the state of the more complex parts of your system (OS, CPU etc).

Reinhard

 

[Sooner Boomer]

Over the past two days, I've mailed two packages. The clerk asks. "Anything liquid, fragile, hazardous, &c, &c". I answer, "no, it's a ferret". I don't think they pay attention to me...

On the way home, I saw this -

 

[Antares JS]

I noticed at the end of the building of this miniature last night that most of the crown spikes had broken off. Rather than complain to the company which probably wouldn't have been able to replace it anyway, I fashioned new spikes from a brass rod and drilled holes in her head with a pin vise to install them.

 

[Hobie1dog]

nightly breathing treatment, my lungs seem to not be getting any better, now there is greatly decreased air quality with all the Canadian fires pushing all the smoke down into the US.

 

[gdjsky01]

Well Day 49...
Yes 7 weeks at 9:44am PDT. GOD I MISS HER!!!!!

• Took over 50 clothing items, mens and womens to donate.
• Worked on work.
• Gathered up the ingredients for 3 instapot recipes from the grocery.
  • Yes an Egg loaf chopped into egg salad is going to be the first... baby steps... tomorrow night.

Pretty much nothing else.
A sad day, from a sad old man. But then they are ALL sad. (Worked in the rocket shop... different thread)

But a foot in front of the other.

Have I mentioned: GOD, I MISS HER!

 

[Cape Byron]

Couldn’t think of where else to post, but unfortunately there has been a fatality at the IOM TT. Thoughts are with his family.

Isle of Man TT 2023: Spanish rider Raul Torras Martinez dies in Supertwin race

www.autosport.com

 

[Sandy H.]

Couldn’t think of where else to post, but unfortunately there has been a fatality at the IOM TT. Thoughts are with his family.

Isle of Man TT 2023: Spanish rider Raul Torras Martinez dies in Supertwin race

www.autosport.com

Hate to hear that. Racers understand risk, but I wish it was all off the table.

I realized that I've been to 3 Mod-Lite events this year and all 3 events had a driver transported to the hospital. All were fine, but I hate that it happens to anyone.

 

[Imaknow]

Worked until 9:15pm from 8:30am with no break. Not that I mind work, but when one has to extend their day by 3hours because a director-level person comes down on your group and is wrong, it sucks. Thus my post in "what are you drinking right now?"

 

[teepot]

Same thing as the last 2 days. I forgot today was Wednesday. I thought it was Tuesday all day. When I realized it was Wednesday I went in and told my wife I thought it was Tuesday and she said she thought so too. Wednesday is trash pick up and we missed it. Good thing we don't make much garbage. Lots of recycling but only a couple of bags of trash. Saw a very interesting video on You Tube. It was our Channel 8 in Vegas. A 911 call came in about something crashed or landed in someone's back yard. They said there were two beings that were 8' or 10' tall and the something looked like a cigarette. They said the beings had large shiny eyes and big mouths. now here is where it gets interesting. On Police bodycam you can see something falling out of the sky. It could have been a fire ball. But it didn't look far away. The cops were taking it seriously. They asked passing motorists what they saw. Lots of witnesses of the fire ball. It looked very similar to a burning aircraft falling. The Police contacted all the bases around here and were told it's not us. Maybe I should have told somebody about what I saw last summer. I've been watching the sky the last few nights. The chance of seeing something again have to be really really small.

 

[Cape Byron]

Hate to hear that. Racers understand risk, but I wish it was all off the table.

I realized that I've been to 3 Mod-Lite events this year and all 3 events had a driver transported to the hospital. All were fine, but I hate that it happens to anyone.

Riders, teams, marshals, spectators - everyone knows the risks and everyone attends and participates knowing the risks. It will always be the most dangerous circuit, and that is indeed a large part of its appeal.

Raul was an experienced rider, more experienced than many on the circuit. He knew well the risks involved.

Six riders lost their lives at the IOM TT last year. It is a real risk.

Again, my thoughts are with Raul's family and friends.

 

[Cape Byron]

Well, in contrast to the gravity of the above post I didn't buy this today. And I'm not going to.

Thunderbird 2 Bottle Opener [Official & Exclusive]

Introducing the officially licensed Thunderbird 2 Bottle Opener - a must-have, exclusive novelty for every Thunderbirds aficionado. Inspired by the iconic International Rescue's heavy-duty transporter, this unique bottle opener takes the form of the meticulously detailed front of Thunderbird 2...

shop.gerryanderson.com

 

[Sooner Boomer]

I figured out one solution to back up my ancient computer. Another old computer! I mentioned that I have an old Acer Aspire netbook. At one time it was my file/print server. It still boots fine, and runs XP. I stuck one of the 1Gig external hard drives on it (one that was part of the file server setup), and started copying. The ethernet port on the Acer doesn't work, so it connects via a USB wireless "dongle". It's slow, but in a couple of days, I should have all the files copied over. Now - to shop for a new desktop computer!

 

[Hobie1dog]

morning breathing treatment

 

[OverTheTop]

Expensive day. We are having a house built so went to the builder's showroom to pick things like bricks, roofing, window colors, taps, flooring, carpet, kitchen appliances, tiles, sinks etc. Ended up costing us $137/minute . At least they gave us free cheese and biscuits, and a cup of tea.

 

[Hobie1dog]

I removed the fenders off of the outdoor powerchair. Removing 4 screws left me sweating and short of breath.

 

[Cl(VII)]

Went snorkeling, got sea sick, put ginger drops and gum on list for things to take to next Ironman...a sea sick swim would be a really hard 2.4 mile start to a long day.

Going to take a guess at a product and try it out tomorrow when jet skiing (assuming the weather is ok). Experience with NON-DROWSY sea sickness remedies very much welcomed.

My oldest wants to do the 8 mile swim for Alligator Island race next year when some other folks from my tri-club come for the event. He can do it for sure, but I'm not sure I could survive 3-4 hours as his safety kayaker.

 

[prfesser]

Yesterday I drove up to Younger Daughter's place, stayed the night. Got up at 4:45am to take her to St. Louis for an endoscopic procedure to remove the stents in her bile duct and pancreatic duct; just got back. Ducts are enlarged from the stents (good!) and she has only mild discomfort, doesn't even need tylenol (very good!) She'll visit a doctor in Carbondale who does the Whipple procedure laproscopically. They're still kinda pushing for that surgery but with a 15% chance that she'll be diabetic for the rest of her life...errr....maybe not. We'll see if the ducts have been enlarged enough to no longer present problems.

 

[Hobie1dog]

went to the pipe/car shop for a couple hours, luckily there wasn't very many people in there

 

[gdjsky01]

Day 50.

April 6th 2023 was the last morning I got to talk to my wife. What, about 9 weeks ago. Seems like yesterday.
People ask "How you doin?"
The answer is, "Terrible thanks for asking."
Everyone means well. I appreciate that!


So what did I do today?

Well I found something unexpected at my door. See for the most part, over the past 9 weeks, I simply decided that there is no reason to give a damn about what happens to this world anymore. The hate and intolerance have become, well, who cares? The planet? So what? It is the descendants that will deal with it (or not).

Then someone comes along and makes me realize that while a vast majority of the humans on this planet are intolerant hate filled zealots, there more than a few that are true caring, honest, tolerant, empathetic, and yes, even loving people. People like my Kim, who simply refused to hate. Ya know what? We have some of those right here on TRF! They know who they are. A package arrived. The message was understood! The hat will be my Rocketry Launch Hat from here on out.

Otherwise I wrote two more creditors telling them she is not around, here is her death certificate. There is no estate.

I threw a bunch of stuff away. I gave a friend a container of her cooking magazines.

Got super sick from taking an Iron pill. Wow... guess that needs to be 'with food'.

Got another threatening form letter.

Otherwise... sad.. pain... what do you expect after 27 years? Bawled a bit. Lather rinse and repeat.