A couple of weeks ago, I was forced to buy a new furnace. As it turned out, the warm weather in the following week and a half meant I probably could have postponed the purchase by a week or so, at least. But, as that turned out, the check I wrote that Wednesday was not cashed until just this past Friday - over two weeks. Generally speaking, checks are deposited very quickly by companies. They like to earn interest on money, if nothing else. Thus, this delay had me slightly worried about lost checks, claims that I didn't pay, having to cancel payment on said check after writing a new one, fighting collection agencies, cancelling business with what I had thought to be a trustworthy HVAC company, etc. Turns out they just take their time collecting their pay.
Anyway, it would have cost ~$500 to fix the furnace, so I figured that was the equivalent of ~$500 off the purchase price of a new furnace. Since the condenser coil above the old furnace wasn't installed properly (the drain pipe was too narrow and clogged), the old furnace was rusted out, and I think dripping water had fried the electronics in the broken component twice already. I was tired of that furnace. Incidentally, A.B. MAY fixed it the last time and did nothing to even investigate the rust. Plus, they incorrectly installed a new water panel in my humidifier, which caused it to leak water all over the back part of the basement. Needless to say, I was not happy with A.B. MAY.
Still, I had Neal Harris and A.B. MAY out to give me quotes on a new furnace, just for kicks. Neal Harris started their furnaces at $2775 for a standard 80% furnace, and an 80% 2-stage variable speed furnace was $4180. Not what I was hoping to spend. A.B. MAY's prices were $1790 and $3593 for the same type of furnaces. Still a bit pricey, really. My friend, Brian, recommended ISSA Heating, Cooling & Plumbing, and their prices were $1650 and $2550. What they lacked in professionalism (and there was a definite lack, there), they made up in price, confidence, personality, and trust-inspiring behavior.
So, I ended up spending $2550 to fix something A.B. MAY should have fixed last year, but the new furnace will allow me to get a high-efficiency heat pump next year or so. Overall, I haven't had too much stress over spending that money, so I'd call it a good purchase.
Sunday, November 9, 2008
My Cell Phone
I've known for a long time that my cell phone is old and out of date. I've taken pride in my ability to talk to people on such an ancient device. I've even learned to text on it! I still don't think a phone needs a built-in digital camera, mp3 player, or whatever else is available on cell phones these days - all I do is talk (and now a bit of text) on it!
However, the other day I was fiddling with it absentmindedly. One of the things I do is to flick the antenna out and back in. Well, my phone has gotten so old that one of the people I was with laughed that my phone even had an antenna. I realize that extending the antenna likely never had any effect, and was their to make previous generations more comfortable with the high-tech devices, but it has served me well as a little doodad to twirl and otherwise play with. It pains me ever so slightly to know that my next phone will almost assuredly not have such a useless game included in its construction.
I have no deeper point to make - I just thought it was a rather amusing situation/observation. Also, my cats are still adorably cute.
However, the other day I was fiddling with it absentmindedly. One of the things I do is to flick the antenna out and back in. Well, my phone has gotten so old that one of the people I was with laughed that my phone even had an antenna. I realize that extending the antenna likely never had any effect, and was their to make previous generations more comfortable with the high-tech devices, but it has served me well as a little doodad to twirl and otherwise play with. It pains me ever so slightly to know that my next phone will almost assuredly not have such a useless game included in its construction.
I have no deeper point to make - I just thought it was a rather amusing situation/observation. Also, my cats are still adorably cute.
Tuesday, November 4, 2008
President Elect Barack Obama
Holy fuck; he is inspiring.
Edit @11:16PM: I completely forgot about Biden during that speech, and was surprised to see him walking out on stage.
Edit @11:16PM: I completely forgot about Biden during that speech, and was surprised to see him walking out on stage.
Monday, September 8, 2008
Wal-Mart Lost
Today, I wore one of my Tech-Ed shirts. It has the word "LOST" printed on the front in the style of the TV show, but it's actually talking about "OnPath For SharePoint" being "Never lost." I had wondered a couple points during the day as to what people thought about me based on a first glance at my shirt.
When I went to Wal-Mart tonight for my regular grocery shopping, I found out. As I was exiting the store, the greeter girl commented on the fact that she never understood the show "Lost." I replied that my shirt wasn't actually about the TV show - that it was referring to some technology or other, so I didn't know what Lost was about. She then finished her previous thought, apparently, saying that it was a "Lost show" for her. I concluded the exchange by saying that I didn't really know what the technology was, either, so I was "lost" on both accounts.
Anyway, it was a puntastic conversation, even if it really only used variations on just the one pun. For next time, I suppose we'll have to work on our creativity. Mostly, I was just impressed with the enthusiastic outgoing nature of the new girl.
When I went to Wal-Mart tonight for my regular grocery shopping, I found out. As I was exiting the store, the greeter girl commented on the fact that she never understood the show "Lost." I replied that my shirt wasn't actually about the TV show - that it was referring to some technology or other, so I didn't know what Lost was about. She then finished her previous thought, apparently, saying that it was a "Lost show" for her. I concluded the exchange by saying that I didn't really know what the technology was, either, so I was "lost" on both accounts.
Anyway, it was a puntastic conversation, even if it really only used variations on just the one pun. For next time, I suppose we'll have to work on our creativity. Mostly, I was just impressed with the enthusiastic outgoing nature of the new girl.
Thursday, August 21, 2008
My failure as a homeowner
So, a couple weeks ago, my failure as a homeowner became official. The neighbor across the street came over and rang the doorbell one Sunday morning while I was asleep. Carrie answered the door, and the neighbor gave her some local church material, then asked if she (Carrie) would mind if she (the neighbor) weeded the front landscaping. Of course Carrie didn't mind, so I woke up to a weeded front garden!
Obviously, this worked out well for me - I got some free yard work. However, I still do feel bad about the whole thing. I asked my dad what the appropriate response was - do I offer computer help in return? Do I pretend nothing ever happened but take better care of things in the future? Do I send a fruit basket? He agreed that not making a big deal out of it was probably the best course of action for now.
And of course, this is just one of my many failures in homeownership. I will skip the documentation of those for now...until they reach ridiculous proportions.
Obviously, this worked out well for me - I got some free yard work. However, I still do feel bad about the whole thing. I asked my dad what the appropriate response was - do I offer computer help in return? Do I pretend nothing ever happened but take better care of things in the future? Do I send a fruit basket? He agreed that not making a big deal out of it was probably the best course of action for now.
And of course, this is just one of my many failures in homeownership. I will skip the documentation of those for now...until they reach ridiculous proportions.
Sunday, July 13, 2008
New computer specs
I've begun purchasing components for my new computer! I'm getting very excited. It will end up very similar to this one: Ultima. I've purchased the ram and power supply in order to take advantage of mail-in rebates that expire on the 15th or so. I will purchase the rest in my next credit card billing cycle, most likely.
Update: The HD4870 has fallen in price to $284.99! $25 saved so far just by waiting!
| Qty. | Image | Product Description | Unit Price | Savings | Total Price |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  | $189.99 | -$20.00 Instant, $50.00 mail-in | $119.99 | |
| 1 |  | $284.99 | $284.99 | ||
| 2 |  | $99.99 | -$8.00 Instant. $35.00 mail-in | $113.98 | |
| 1 |  | $329.99 | $329.99 | ||
| 1 |  | $21.99 | $21.99 | ||
| 1 |  | $119.99 | -$30.00 Instant | $89.99 | |
| 1 |  | $94.99 | -$5.00 Instant | $89.99 | |
| 1 |  | $234.99 | -$20.00 Instant | $214.99 | |
| Subtotal: | $1,265.91 | ||||
Update: The HD4870 has fallen in price to $284.99! $25 saved so far just by waiting!
Wednesday, June 18, 2008
Things I want to buy
I still haven't fully recovered from that string of expenses, and I still haven't gotten my Kansas tax refund, but once I have the money, there are a number of things I want to buy. I really do want to do everything I can to help the economy.
First, I think I want to get this stringing machine: Gamma Progression II 602 Stringing Machine. The sooner I buy it, the sooner I'll be able to save ~$20 every time my string breaks. This should pay for its $339 price in a couple years...
Second, I do need a new primary computer if I am to keep up with today's gaming rigs. Since I haven't fully picked out every component, it's hard to estimate the cost of my new computer, but I'm guessing between $1500-$2000 to be safe.
Third, I plan on making my next lawn mower an electric one. I'm still hoping my current lawn mower lasts through the summer, but sometime in the relatively near future, $100-$200 will be spent on an electric lawn mower.
Fourth, I need to get my deck repainted/stained sometime in the near future. It's quite ugly, and having bare patches probably isn't very protective for the wood (or, more accurately, only having patches of paint).
Any other recommendations for things to buy? Leave a comment!
First, I think I want to get this stringing machine: Gamma Progression II 602 Stringing Machine. The sooner I buy it, the sooner I'll be able to save ~$20 every time my string breaks. This should pay for its $339 price in a couple years...
Second, I do need a new primary computer if I am to keep up with today's gaming rigs. Since I haven't fully picked out every component, it's hard to estimate the cost of my new computer, but I'm guessing between $1500-$2000 to be safe.
Third, I plan on making my next lawn mower an electric one. I'm still hoping my current lawn mower lasts through the summer, but sometime in the relatively near future, $100-$200 will be spent on an electric lawn mower.
Fourth, I need to get my deck repainted/stained sometime in the near future. It's quite ugly, and having bare patches probably isn't very protective for the wood (or, more accurately, only having patches of paint).
Any other recommendations for things to buy? Leave a comment!
Monday, June 16, 2008
Fileserver
Before I left for San Diego, my fileserver's northbridge fan and heatsink became separated. It's really worse than a divorce, in many ways, because things are all fucked up, but there's still hope, which means uncertainty, lots of work, and very careful handling of electronics. OK, so I don't know much about divorces.
The lack of heat transfer away from the chip kept my fileserver from booting. Since I've already complained about my loud northbridge fan, I chose to take the opportunity to replace that noisy piece of hardware. I already had a spare fan from somewhere, so I went to the hardware store to find screws long enough to secure it. At the hardware store, I had the bright idea of comparing the screw holes of the two fans and found that they didn't line up. That's when I made the coolest discovery of the week: Krazy Glue comes in a small bottle with a tiny brush built into the lid! I glued the fan to the heatsink, and it stuck almost immediately.
When I got home, I couldn't find my isopropyl alcohol. I was able to get some last Friday night, though, and I set out to clean the bottom of the heatsink and the top of the northbridge heat spreader. I remember isopropyl alcohol working much better than it did. I had to cut the thermal paste off the heatsink, for the most part. Perhaps thermal paste is just that horrible compared to thermal grease. The important thing is that I could now keep my northbridge chip cool.
Doh! The power cord for the fan doesn't reach! I had to pry the fan off the heatsink and re-glue it, rotated ninety degrees. A little thermal grease later, and I was ready to plug my motherboard back into the rest of the computer.
Everything is working mostly. The only weird things are related to mdadm and the raid, I think. The automatic resync operation seems to fail. The first night, I had "watch -n 1 cat /proc/mdstat" running, but I woke up to stack traces being dumped to the screen every second instead of the nice md status. I tried again, but came back later to find the same stack traces showing up every once in awhile. So, I loaded the graphical interface to try and catch more information - but the error stopped. The resync also stopped at 8% and refused to go any further.
I decided that some write activity might wake it up, and started up some bittorrents. They worked well for a few tens of MB, but now my fileserver seems to have rebooted to an initramfs prompt and automatically started a resync. It's currently at 6.9%. I'll see what happens at 8% before I go to bed, and will update as things progress.
Update: 1:49 AM: resync is at 9.6% and going strong.
Update: 9:21 AM: resync is at 64.9% and going strong.
Update: 12:14 PM: resync is at 85.9% and going strong. I'm getting bored waiting for this.
Update: 3:16 PM: resync is done. Things have rebooted, and I will begin some bittorrent stress testing shortly.
Update: 10:23 AM: Fileserver is still up after a couple days of heavy I/O. I'm happy!
The lack of heat transfer away from the chip kept my fileserver from booting. Since I've already complained about my loud northbridge fan, I chose to take the opportunity to replace that noisy piece of hardware. I already had a spare fan from somewhere, so I went to the hardware store to find screws long enough to secure it. At the hardware store, I had the bright idea of comparing the screw holes of the two fans and found that they didn't line up. That's when I made the coolest discovery of the week: Krazy Glue comes in a small bottle with a tiny brush built into the lid! I glued the fan to the heatsink, and it stuck almost immediately.
When I got home, I couldn't find my isopropyl alcohol. I was able to get some last Friday night, though, and I set out to clean the bottom of the heatsink and the top of the northbridge heat spreader. I remember isopropyl alcohol working much better than it did. I had to cut the thermal paste off the heatsink, for the most part. Perhaps thermal paste is just that horrible compared to thermal grease. The important thing is that I could now keep my northbridge chip cool.
Doh! The power cord for the fan doesn't reach! I had to pry the fan off the heatsink and re-glue it, rotated ninety degrees. A little thermal grease later, and I was ready to plug my motherboard back into the rest of the computer.
Everything is working mostly. The only weird things are related to mdadm and the raid, I think. The automatic resync operation seems to fail. The first night, I had "watch -n 1 cat /proc/mdstat" running, but I woke up to stack traces being dumped to the screen every second instead of the nice md status. I tried again, but came back later to find the same stack traces showing up every once in awhile. So, I loaded the graphical interface to try and catch more information - but the error stopped. The resync also stopped at 8% and refused to go any further.
I decided that some write activity might wake it up, and started up some bittorrents. They worked well for a few tens of MB, but now my fileserver seems to have rebooted to an initramfs prompt and automatically started a resync. It's currently at 6.9%. I'll see what happens at 8% before I go to bed, and will update as things progress.
Update: 1:49 AM: resync is at 9.6% and going strong.
Update: 9:21 AM: resync is at 64.9% and going strong.
Update: 12:14 PM: resync is at 85.9% and going strong. I'm getting bored waiting for this.
Update: 3:16 PM: resync is done. Things have rebooted, and I will begin some bittorrent stress testing shortly.
Update: 10:23 AM: Fileserver is still up after a couple days of heavy I/O. I'm happy!
Microsoft Tech-Ed: Friday June 6
My last day at Tech-Ed was fairly uneventful. The morning started out well with the final Data Dude session, which included the full demo of the DB2 support that was announced. Only about ten people showed up to that presentation, but that's pretty much expected for early Friday morning. Still, it was nice to have my software displayed in it's full functionality. The keynote presentation really didn't show much.
That brings up another point. I never really thought about the personal honor in having my software in the keynote presentation of one of the biggest technology conferences, and featuring Bill Gates. I had only looked at it from a task point of view - it was something to do and something to get done. One Microsoft employee commented on how it was pretty amazing to have only been working at IBM for under 2 years and already have my software in the Tech-Ed keynote. Apparently, most Microsoft employees would kill for that. I didn't know what to say, so I made some comment about watching my back.
I guess I felt like I had achieved a slightly higher level of maturity, having accomplished this. I think I felt even more mature at the airport waiting for my flight back home, though. I was able to keep up a conversation with a stranger (who had Tech-Ed in common) for a full two hours. It was fairly amazing, from my perspective.
It's time for the most important part of this post: a full cataloging of what I got in Orlando:
That brings up another point. I never really thought about the personal honor in having my software in the keynote presentation of one of the biggest technology conferences, and featuring Bill Gates. I had only looked at it from a task point of view - it was something to do and something to get done. One Microsoft employee commented on how it was pretty amazing to have only been working at IBM for under 2 years and already have my software in the Tech-Ed keynote. Apparently, most Microsoft employees would kill for that. I didn't know what to say, so I made some comment about watching my back.
I guess I felt like I had achieved a slightly higher level of maturity, having accomplished this. I think I felt even more mature at the airport waiting for my flight back home, though. I was able to keep up a conversation with a stranger (who had Tech-Ed in common) for a full two hours. It was fairly amazing, from my perspective.
It's time for the most important part of this post: a full cataloging of what I got in Orlando:
- 14 t-shirts
- 1 slinky
- 1 squishy basketball
- 1 flying, howling monkey
- 1 foam dart flinger
- 1, 1GB flash drive
- 1 medium-sized notepad/binder w/ pen
- 1 mechanical pencil
- 1 water bottle
- 1 backpack
- 1 LINQ pocket reference book
- 1 luggage tag
- 1 key chain compass
Friday, June 6, 2008
Microsoft Tech-Ed: Thursday June 5
Once again, we'll start with what's important. Breakfast today had nice crisp bacon, good sausage, eggs, biscuits and gravy, and bagels. I overate slightly, but that's not too much of a problem.
My early morning session involved adding indexes to objects queried through LINQ, and would be interesting and useful if I had to do that for actual applications. It's just not something that can be worked into a generic data provider, near as I can tell. It was still a good talk, if a bit light on content (there was half an hour left out of a 75 minute presentation time slot).
My next morning talk was on DataDude and the new features in the GDR release (8 weeks after SQL Server 2008 is finished, apparently). There were a lot of cool features presented in the talk. It will be interesting to learn more about DataDude's capabilities as I move forward on my work project.
Lunch was pretty standard, but wasn't my favorite. There was some good Mongolian beef dish, but I probably should have skipped the rest.
For my 1:00pm session, I attended another DataDude talk on database references. It was a bit strange just because we spent 30-40 minutes talking about a few workarounds and random other stuff, then talked about the upcoming VS2008 GDR release which will apparently remove a lot of those situations. It was unclear exactly when we'll need the information we acquired once the new release comes out, but knowledge is good for its own sake, sometimes.
The next session was also on DataDude, but was a basic overview of functionality, which I've seen before a few times. The presenter was a non-Microsoft consultant, though, and it was interesting to hear what he found to be the coolest aspects, and then hear the questions and concerns from current and potential developers and DBAs.
The main happening on Thursday was the Attendee Party, though. Everyone was bussed over to Universal Studios for a three-hour exclusive party. All food and drinks were free, and the pool of people waiting for rides was limited to just the 6,000 people attending Microsoft Tech-Ed this week. Of course, that's still a lot of people, and the wait for the new Simpson's ride was 45 minutes during the first half or more of the party. When we were leaving, we saw it had dwindled down to about 20 minutes. The wait for all the other rides, like Jaws and Men In Black, was about 10-15 minutes. E.T., being rather sucky, was a very short wait, but I knew from a previous visit to Universal Studios in L.A. that E.T. sucked, so I didn't even have to waste that amount of time. The Disaster ride apparently broke, because people were leaving the short line an hour before the party ended.
Now, when I say food and drinks were free, I mean that the were included in the conference price of ~$1995. If I had lost my wrist-band and still wanted to attend the party, I would have to pay $110. Additional guest passes for those that brought their family along were also $110 each. That's really quite a lot of money for a three-hour party. But, since I didn't have to pay, I'm glad I got to go.
I've been trying to think of the single word that best describes the combination of extravagance, phoniness, gaudiness, cheesiness, chaos, and consumerism that makes up those types of amusement parks. I think I may end up getting TiVo when I get kids just so they can skip the commercials for all the crap out there, and minimize that influence. I don't want my kids begging me to go to these places, then beg me some more to buy random souvenir crap. It's all a bit depressing, really.
But the party was fun anyway.
My early morning session involved adding indexes to objects queried through LINQ, and would be interesting and useful if I had to do that for actual applications. It's just not something that can be worked into a generic data provider, near as I can tell. It was still a good talk, if a bit light on content (there was half an hour left out of a 75 minute presentation time slot).
My next morning talk was on DataDude and the new features in the GDR release (8 weeks after SQL Server 2008 is finished, apparently). There were a lot of cool features presented in the talk. It will be interesting to learn more about DataDude's capabilities as I move forward on my work project.
Lunch was pretty standard, but wasn't my favorite. There was some good Mongolian beef dish, but I probably should have skipped the rest.
For my 1:00pm session, I attended another DataDude talk on database references. It was a bit strange just because we spent 30-40 minutes talking about a few workarounds and random other stuff, then talked about the upcoming VS2008 GDR release which will apparently remove a lot of those situations. It was unclear exactly when we'll need the information we acquired once the new release comes out, but knowledge is good for its own sake, sometimes.
The next session was also on DataDude, but was a basic overview of functionality, which I've seen before a few times. The presenter was a non-Microsoft consultant, though, and it was interesting to hear what he found to be the coolest aspects, and then hear the questions and concerns from current and potential developers and DBAs.
The main happening on Thursday was the Attendee Party, though. Everyone was bussed over to Universal Studios for a three-hour exclusive party. All food and drinks were free, and the pool of people waiting for rides was limited to just the 6,000 people attending Microsoft Tech-Ed this week. Of course, that's still a lot of people, and the wait for the new Simpson's ride was 45 minutes during the first half or more of the party. When we were leaving, we saw it had dwindled down to about 20 minutes. The wait for all the other rides, like Jaws and Men In Black, was about 10-15 minutes. E.T., being rather sucky, was a very short wait, but I knew from a previous visit to Universal Studios in L.A. that E.T. sucked, so I didn't even have to waste that amount of time. The Disaster ride apparently broke, because people were leaving the short line an hour before the party ended.
Now, when I say food and drinks were free, I mean that the were included in the conference price of ~$1995. If I had lost my wrist-band and still wanted to attend the party, I would have to pay $110. Additional guest passes for those that brought their family along were also $110 each. That's really quite a lot of money for a three-hour party. But, since I didn't have to pay, I'm glad I got to go.
I've been trying to think of the single word that best describes the combination of extravagance, phoniness, gaudiness, cheesiness, chaos, and consumerism that makes up those types of amusement parks. I think I may end up getting TiVo when I get kids just so they can skip the commercials for all the crap out there, and minimize that influence. I don't want my kids begging me to go to these places, then beg me some more to buy random souvenir crap. It's all a bit depressing, really.
But the party was fun anyway.
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