I’ve spent a lot of time recently at work trying to sort out issues with a box that runs an ancient version of Unix. It’s been part of a “odd software and hardware problem” theme that hasn’t let up yet. Looks like they’re getting their money’s worth at least.
There has also been a bit of art recently. Angela has been working on her windows for the shows this weekend, they’re almost done. She will be posting pictures after the dust settles. She also has some rings in progress in her silver class too. I’m looking forward to seeing how they turn out. Today I finally finished the Pollen Weasels strip, head over and check it out.
Bleh, time for bed.
I’ve been needing to finish an iBook for Angela’s niece before we head up to Knoxville this weekend. The Combo drive was bad and it needed to be replaced. It’s been a bit of a convoluted story on trying to find a cheap way to do that. The short form is first the CD drive went bad, so I replaced it with a drive from a old Sony laptop. I still needed to get an external plastic cover for it, but it worked. By the time I found a good deal on the cover, the drive stopped working. So, I go to eBay and find a drive from another Sony laptop (it was cheaper than buying an Apple part) to replace it. That part finally comes in a couple days ago and I put the drive in today…only to find it there is a problem with this one too (the downside of eBay, “AS IS” auctions)!
After banging my head against a wall a couple times, I took a look at the problem. Usually, with components like this, they either work or they don’t. I’m not the kind to replace chips on a board to solder things much. In this case though, I dug into the guts of the drive and got one working drive, out of the two non-working Sony drives I had sitting there! It wasn’t my original (simple) plan, but now the iBook I bought for Angela a couple years ago can now be put to good use again.
For me, the same thing that drives me to draw is also what drives me to work on computers. Being able to take component parts or something broken and make it useful is as much a charge in it’s own way as taking the paper, pencil and ink to create something.
I’ve been getting the stuff together for the Electronics Recycling today at work and had a bit of an accident. One of the cartridges that goes to our large-format HP printers leaked and I got Cyan all over me. Fortunately, most of it just got on my hands and pants. I don’t mind my skin looking vaguely smurfy until it wears off and what better color to get on your blue jeans, than blue?
Hopefully this insomnia of the past couple days will be gone tomorrow. We’re going to see Avenue Q at the Fox tomorrow and I’d like to be awake for it.
Time to recycle another load of electronics crap.
Posted 3/1/08
“Hello, my name is Nick, and I’m a geek.”
Thinking about it this morning, I had this image of standing up at a geek support group, like the Al-Anon meetings I went to about five years back.
I say this because my apartment looks like Apple Computer (circa 1995) exploded and the pieces landed on every flat surface possible. Personally, when the number of computers in one’s possession (working or otherwise) exceeds 10, geekdom has occured.
Sigh…
The funny thing is that I enjoy it. I actually LIKE rooting through these parts and pieces, figuring out just what in the HELL they may be. I actually LIKE the idea of taking these random parts and turning them into something useful.
Its just too bad they take up so much space…
