It's Alot Like Starting Over

Fri, 18 Apr 2008 00:21:08 GMT

For the record, four 235/18 tires will fit in the back of an M3 coupe.

Just sayin'.

Stumble!

Thu, 20 Mar 2008 23:24:39 GMT

Do any of y'all stumbleupon?

Tue, 26 Feb 2008 20:03:52 GMT

I've been watching this graphic this afternoon. Obama's campaign is trying to reach the one million individual donors mark, and is just about there.

Between 1330 and 1400, it went up by about 270 people. When you think that each of those is a new person giving money to the campaign, and that it keeps on going up... that's pretty cool.

(I've done my part. Have you?)

Edit: For my reference, mostly, it was at 988,180 when I posted this, and as of this edit, is 989,577.

Edit 2: 0822 the next morning, 1,001,090. Neat.

A plea.

Mon, 18 Feb 2008 20:40:24 GMT

I just sent out a lengthy email to a number of my friends in Texas. I decided to repost it here, because I've been meaning to say something about the current presidential races, and... given the energy I put into this message, I think it will suffice.

I hope you take the time to read it.

I'm sorry to take time out of your day, but I wish to make a request.
I know this is broadcast, and unsolicited, but hopefully you know I
don't do such things lightly. Such is the importance of this issue to
me.

As I'm sure you're aware, we're in the middle of one of the most hotly
contested presidential primary seasons in years. The race on the
Democratic side, in particular, is arguably the closest since the
disastrous 1968 Democratic Convention. Leading up to the primary
season, Hillary Clinton was the Democrats' presumptive nominee. She
had the party machine behind her. She had major name recognition, on
the basis of which she was polling very strongly. The primary
schedule had been juggled, yielding more early primaries than ever
before -- "Super Tuesday" -- and this, as well, favored her in her
early frontrunner position. By all common reckonings, she was to have
the nomination wrapped up on February 5th, and begin her campaign to
reclaim the White House for the Clinton name then.

However, this was not to last. A junior senator from Illinois,
sporting a message of change and hope, backed by a strong grassroots
movement, and funded by an increasing number of individual donors,
began a steady, improbable rise in the polls. He surprised everyone
by winning the nation's first primary, in Iowa, and though he went on
to lose in New Hampshire, his increasing momentum, bolstered by a
landslide victory in South Carolina, brought him into Super Tuesday as
a surprisingly strong contender. When the night was over, and the
votes counted, he came out victorious in both states and delegates
won. He has gone on to win every single contest since, and has now
claimed an outright lead in the delegate count.

Things are far, far from resolved, however. As each primary and
caucus goes by it is looking increasingly likely that this year's
Democratic nomination might come down to a brokered convention:
again, the first in many decades. That is how close things are.

I am writing you because you are in one of the major states yet to
vote. Texas is one of the biggest prizes remaining on the primary
calendar and is going to become a hotbed of activity in the next few
weeks. As such, your vote, your decision, is personally important to
me.

This is where I get to the personal plea.

As I suspect all of you know, I've always forged my own road
politically. I've "wasted" more votes on third-party candidates than
I care to count. In the year 2000 I was living in South Carolina,
site of an incredibly bitter and dirty Republican primary campaign.
So strong was my loathing of Bush's campaigning that I cast my first
ever vote for a Republican by supporting McCain in that state's
primary. It was a futile effort, but I was used to futile efforts.

It's become a cliche, but after 9/11, "everything changed". I was
very, very nervous about the Republicans' clear attempts to overextend
their power in the wake of the tragedy. However, I found the
Democrats' shrill, extreme arguments to the other side similarly
off-putting, especially given the willingness with which they used
military force when Clinton was in office. Beyond that, I felt
betrayed by the even more solipsist turn that the Libertarians took.
Rather than cynically opposing everything Bush did for political
reasons, like the Democrats, they simply stuck their heads in the sand
and pretended the outside world didn't exist.

To my eternal shame, in 2004 I pulled the lever for George Bush.

I wish I could take it back. It was a horrible decision to make, and
I felt filthy even as I did it, but it was the best I felt I could do
at the time. I was worried about what the administration would do
given another 4 years to dig their fingers into power, but, I asked
myself, "how bad could it get?" It has gotten, and is still getting,
worse than I feared.

I need not go into the many vile ways in which the current
administration has shredded the Constitution, betrayed the American
legacy, and made us into an international pariah. If you disagree
with this assessment, and feel that the current path we are on is a
good one, stop reading this now. Nothing I say will resonate with you
at all. However, if you do feel that it is time for a dramatic
change, I hope you will continue, and pay special attention to what I
say next.

For several years after 2004, I retreated from politics. I was
dismayed by the choice I had made, I felt betrayed by the leaders I
had grudgingly put a modicum of trust in, and I was disgusted at the
lack of any real opposition. For the first time since the dawn of my
political awareness in my teens, I buired my head and ignored it all.

That changed slightly in 2006. Sensing an opportunity for change, I
voted solidly Democrat that day -- for the first time ever. I was
heartened by the results of that year's election, and hoped that a
renewed Democratic majority would help put a stop to the abuses of the
Executive branch. My hope was misplaced. The new boss was the same
as the old boss, and the Democratic leadership only put up a token
resistance to anything the administration did. The whole time, my
anger deepened.

At times, I've been accused by people of being overly patriotic. I
willingly admit, I have a bit of a classical view of the US as a
shining beacon on a hill. A beautiful rendition of the Star Spangled
Banner still chokes me up at times. And, I'm definitely not the type
to run from a tough situation. However, for the past few years, I've
been seriously considering the possibility of leaving the country. If
the thought holds true that our country is a great social experiment,
then we are failing, and failing terribly. I don't like what I see,
and I've seen no hope of change. The two sides in power seem only
interested in expanding their own control and fortunes, and the
opposition are too hysterical and idealistic to consider the
compromises and rationality needed to bring true change about. I've
been in the difficult situation of no longer being able to have any
pride in being an American. And I don't like it one bit.

Recently, however, I have seen hope for the first time in years, and
I have seen it in the form of that junior senator from Illinois.

Viewing things from the outside, I can say something to those of you
who are self-identified Democrats, and mark these words well: you
face a crucial decision this year, and one that can remake your party.

I'll spare you the paeans about Senator Obama's background, his
mixed-heritage up bringing, his time studying out of country, his time
on the streets of Chicago working for the underprivileged. It's all
out there. If you haven't heard it, you will. Similarly, I'll spare
the snarkery about "Billary". Nothing I say there would be new.

The way I see things, there is a stark choice before us. It is,
truly, the choice between hope and the status quo. Do not get me
wrong: I believe any Democrat in office would be better than what we
have now, and I will likely vote for Mrs Clinton should she be the one
to get the nod. But that vote would only be one due to the immediate
political situation. She has done nothing to win my heart. She is
slightly closer to my core beliefs, but I feel she is truly the lesser
of two evils. We can never predict the outcome of events so far down
the road, but in 2012, with another President Clinton in office, I
would likely remain as much of a swing voter as I am today.

Remark those words: I am a swing voter. The political wags have been
talking for years about how the political climate in the country makes
the fight for the middle of utmost importance. The left and the right
have almost equal bases, and neither will win over the other. What's
left, what matters, is the vote in the middle.

And this year, that vote is trending towards Senator Obama.

I see in this man a hope that I haven't seen in any politician in my
own memory. I listen to his speeches, and I get an electric shiver
down my spine. I watch his interactions with people, and I see true
care and concern. I was not alive when John Kennedy was around, but
from what I have heard, this is the same sort of intense and inspiring
persona that he projected. Whether it is or not, one thing is
indisputable: people like him, and he knows how to unite them.

And, really, I think uniting people is what our country needs right
now. We have had nothing but increasing political bitterness and
divisiveness since the first Clinton took office in 1992. After 8
years of the Moral Majority attempting to slime their way back into
power, they finally got it, and the left decided to extract their
revenge by firing back in the exact same manner. Discourse is
divided, and identity politics are the order of the day. You're black
or you're white. You're Christian or you're not. You're Red. You're
Blue. Your brother is only your brother if he feels exactly the same
way you do. BOTH sides have adopted this point of view. BOTH sides
have bee fighting it out that way for almost 20 years. And it's
SICKENING. It's been ripping this country apart.

And you're fooling yourself if you think another Clinton is going to
fix that -- especially THIS Clinton. She polarizes people to an
amazing degree. To a degree, it is unfair. But she also brings some
of it on herself. I watched the recent Democratic debate in
California, and I couldn't help but notice her launching into it right
away: the REPUBLICANS are to blame. THEY are the ones who are
responsible for everything that is wrong with this country. The
Republicans this, the Republicans that. Spinning blame, casting
aspersions, reasserting the same divide that's been present for far
too long: these are not the actions of a uniter. These are the
actions of someone who will, upon being sworn in, immediately dig up
the still-raw memories of the 90s, and "what 'is' is" politics.

What was Obama doing while Hillary was going on her anti-Republican
tirades? Repeating his messages about unity and working together. It
seems to be something he truly believes in. He seems to understand
that it is the healing that our country needs right now. Senator
Obama is the only candidate this year -- indeed, the only candidate
we've ever had -- who is not part of the Viet Nam generation. That
war, that bitter conflict which has framed so much of the political
discourse in this country for a generation, was never a part of his
makeup. He is the first true post-Viet Nam candidate, and he acts
like it.

And it's attractive. Everywhere he goes, the pattern remains the
same: once people hear what he has to say, and give him attention, he
wins them over. Mrs Clinton's core demographic is the party faithful.
Old-school Democrats, working class, northern white families, the
ones who have always been Democrats and always will be Democrats:
they're the ones who are in her column.

In every other metric, Senator Obama has the advantage. He dominates
among young people -- in some polls, winning 90% of the vote of people
under 30. He is extremely strong, in fact, with all voters under 60.
He is by far the favorite of blacks. And here's the clincher:
independent voters, the key swing voters that everyone wants to win,
break for him roughly 2 to 1.

This is key. I cannot state strongly enough how key this is. Not
only is his message of unity and hope important for its ability to
heal this country, but it makes him an extremely strong competitor in
the general election. People want unity. People want to fix this
country, and get over the mess that we've been mired in for several
decades. And people, at least those who aren't wed to the rank and
file Democratic process, overwhelmingly favor Obama as the person to
bring us back together.

Have a look at these two collections of polls:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_obama-225.html

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epolls/2008/president/us/general_election_mccain_vs_clinton-224.html

It is absolutely indisputable: in a general election vs John McCain,
Obama polls ahead by about 4 points. Clinton, on the other hand,
loses by several.

This is the power of hope, the power of acknowledging our differences,
and being willing to overcome them and realize, as the Senator says,
that "we are not a Red America, we are not a Blue America, we are a
United States of America".

Of course, these numbers could change. Mrs Clinton could regain the
advantage on McCain, and join Senator Obama in being able to beat him
in a general. However, it won't be because of her message. She won't
bring change and unity. She will bring 4 to 8 more years of Viet Nam
era, red vs blue partisanship, and only delay the healing we so
desperately need.

And that, in a nutshell, is why I come to plead with you. If the
Democratic Party has the good sense to nominate Senator Obama, they
stand a good chance of winning over a lot of dedicated converts.
There are lots of people out there like me; I know this from personal
experience. I've been volunteering for the Obama campaign, and I
cannot tell you how many people I've personally spoken to who have
said that they were formerly independents, or Republicans, but were
being won to the Democratic side by Senator Obama. Almost to a man,
they have agreed that Mrs Clinton would be a poor substitute, and many
said they would withhold their vote were she to be the nominee.

Obama has the momentum now, it is true, but the Democrats could still
mess it up for themselves. Hillary has the bulk of the Democratic
establishment behind her. She and her people were instrumental in
forming the monolithic block of primaries we had on the 5th, hoping to
cement her status as nominee early while she was frontrunner. Her
campaign have admitted that they never expected the race to go past
that. And they are reeling. But the Clintons' political ruthlessness
and thirst for power isn't about to wane. Hillary Clinton violated an
oath taken by all the candidates not to campaign in the states of
Michigan and Florida. Now that the race is proving so close, she's
openly pushing for a post-facto change of the primary rules to enable
the votes in those states, which she won after breaking a public
promise, to be counted. More importantly, looking forward to a likely
brokered convention, the Clinton campaign have recently stated that
they will take every opportunity to win the nomination through
manipulation of the now-infamous "superdelegates", even if it
overrides the clear winner of the popular vote. The Democratic
Party's internal process is set up to favor the establishment
candidate, and she's perfectly willing to use it.

Can you imagine any unity coming from a president who would stomp on
the wishes of her own party's popular will to take power? I sure
can't.

This is my plea, then: do what you can to make sure that this
situation doesn't come about. For the sake of the country, for the
sake of starting the healing we desperately need, make sure that Texas
does not go to Hillary. She is relying on your state as a "firewall"
to stop her slide in the polls. If Texas goes to her, it will only
further increase the chances of a bitter, divisive convention, and
increase the chances of the party apparatchiks picking a candidate who
will do nothing to help us. Please don't let it happen. Given my
past disdain of two-party politics, the fact that I'm campaigning this
hard in favor of a Democrat should say a lot about him. If the
Democratic party has the good sense to name Senator Obama as its
nominee, they may well win a convert for life.

If this has at all moved you, please feel free to share it with any
and everyone you know who you think may benefit from it. If you're on
the fence, or if I can do anything to help you make a decision, or
convince you that Obama is the best man for our country, please let me
know. His politics and his history are all laid out on his website.
His speeches are online. His supporters are legion, and we're all
extremely passionate.

Thank you for your time. I know this has been lengthy, but it's just
that important to me. I hope you'll consider what I've said.

New Year Catching Up

Mon, 28 Jan 2008 18:49:19 GMT

Oy. I s'pose it's been a while. But now I'm in the post-holiday getting back to normalness. After a month of running around to start off the year, I'm now setting back into a normal routine, and it is feeling like a new year. Figured I might as well update my journal a little.

What's happened recently...

I took three weeks off in December. Julie and I spent a weekish on a small roat trip; we drove to Pittsburgh to see friends and then to West Virginia to visit her family. While in WV, we manage to catch something from her family and bring it back to Illinois. Julie got it first, then I got it, and I was nice and sick in time for my return to work in the second week of January.

I spent that Monday and Tuesday working from home with a high fever. On Tuesday, my boss called me. "Want to go to the UK?" "Sure, when?" "This Friday." "Um, ok..." International travel while sick! Yay!

Turns out we didn't actually leave till Saturday. Flew to Heathrow, then went to Birmingham and spent several days at the Motorola facility there. Now that Mot owns 50% of UIQ we're going to be making more phones on it, and we were meeting with the core UIQ developers in Birmingham. I found out a good bit about the SDK and emulators for the Z8 and Z10, as well as their super-seekrit successor. Told you about it, kill you, etc etc.

Got back on Thursday, took Friday as a comp day, and now it is Monday and I'm actually back in the office for only the third day since late December.

What else?

I've been trying to learn Dvorak. I have the basic character set down, and now I'm just working on speed. It's annoyingly so, so I switch back and forth between that and QWERTY as my situation allows and patience demands. I'm slowly building speed. It's rewarding, if... occasionally frustrating.

I've become utterly hooked on X-Plane. The new version adds to the stellar flight model with some truly kick-ass eye candy. This screenshot is reduced from 1280x1024, as is this one. Even without the eyecandy, now that I have a proper stick and have taken some time to actually learn instrument navigation, it's very enjoyable.

I also put together a new PC, on which I am running MythTV. It's only been up a few days, but so far I'm loving it. Yay for throwing off the chains of TiVo! Or something.

I put on 20 pounds over the holidays. Bad, bad, bad me. :( Today I start on getting it off again! *pops speed pills* Heh.

And, er, um. Stuff. And things.

There might be some pictures of various things later.

...

Oh, on a sad note, today is the 22nd anniversary of the Challenger accident. Though I was as stunned as the rest of the country, I did not cry on 9/11. I did cry when Columbia went down. I was young at the time, but Challenger had the same effect on me, and engendered a strong respect for modern explorers in me early. Rest well, daring souls.

Quotage

Fri, 21 Sep 2007 20:30:50 GMT

Heard this today and really liked it:

To an American, 100 years is a long time. To a Briton, 100 miles is a long way.

Best review ever.

Thu, 19 Jul 2007 16:11:57 GMT

This is crossposted from my primary journal. To leave a comment, please go there.

Read this. Laugh.

It’s rare that you see celebrity trashing done so well.

Pownce!

Tue, 10 Jul 2007 17:19:19 GMT

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Any of y’all on Pownce?

If not, d’you think you’d use an invite if I gave it to you?

And yeah, yeah. Not updating much again. Been busy! But good. :)

Mmm. Spots.

Thu, 21 Jun 2007 01:46:17 GMT

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Bwahahaha. Clicky for full screeny.

Quadradius!

Tue, 12 Jun 2007 02:07:36 GMT

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Wow. It’s, um, been a while. Given my previous post, I think I can excuse myself for saying I’ve been understandably busy. ;)

This one is just to ORDER and DEMAND that all of you start playing Quadradius. It’s good. And I want to play with my friends.

That is all.

I’ll, um, try to post more reliably now that the Crazy Crazy Month of May is over and I can breathe again. :)

Eeee.

Fri, 18 May 2007 15:33:31 GMT

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Right. I am off to get married. Eeee!

See everyone, uh, on Monday!

Except for those of you I’ll see in a few minutes. :)

Woot!

Thu, 26 Apr 2007 04:23:18 GMT

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I got it. It’s shiny. :D

omg omg omg omg omg

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 17:04:16 GMT

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Final signoff on the loan is gold. Should hopefully be meeting the seller again tonight to hand over TEH CHECK.

zomg. I’m going to own an M3? Can it be?

I’ve only wanted one for, like, 15 years or so.

bouncy bouncy bouncy

New ride? Maybe?

Wed, 25 Apr 2007 05:40:12 GMT

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Assuming my pre-approved loan gets finally-approved and nothing else gets cocked up, I should hopefully have a new car in my posession by the end of the week.

1995 BMW M3
Dinan chip and intake
Sachs suspension
SuperSprint exhaust
Euro brakes
Rebuilt motor with 36k on it
Just about all the options

… man, I hope this works out. *knocks on wood*

Date.

Tue, 24 Apr 2007 17:23:52 GMT

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For those who were curious, it looks as though Julie and I will be doing the wedding thang on the 19th of May.

No, we’re not registered anywhere, so don’t ask (one person already has!). Gifts aren’t expected, but don’t let that stop you if you’re determined. :P

…

Mon, 16 Apr 2007 17:17:34 GMT

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I feel sick.

Fuckin AAC.

Wed, 11 Apr 2007 04:43:17 GMT

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I’ve been playing around with relocating my iTunes library to a network mount recently. It’s gone swimmingly, with one (minor, but very highly vexing) problem:

For some time, I’ve been ripping my own CDs in AAC, because of the minor space/quality benefit over MP3. I’ve been irked in the past with the inability of a number of applications to handle AAC files, but have just gritted my teeth and told myself to give it time.

Since I mostly use iTunes to control my library, I’ve never noticed the following, until now: While iTunes properly encodes the TPOS ID3 tag (Part of Set, i.e. “Disk X of Y”) in MP3s it, apparently, does not do it in AACs, but, instead, choses to track the information in its own library. Which means that, as long as you never divorce an AAC from a multi-disc set that you ripped in iTunes from the one copy of the library that it was created in, you’re fine. But as soon as you do… you lose valuable meta data.

As I result, I have about a dozen albums for which I no longer have proper track order information, without doing something ugly with file-names. For someone who is as anal about his metadata as I am, this is righteously infuriating.

Grrr. I think this will be the final motivator for me to spend a weekend re-ripping everything I have in AAC back into MP3. 192VBR can’t be too much bigger than 128 AAC.

I usually love apple, but god damn, when I hate them I hate them with a passion.

Eee! Noodly appendage!

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:13:16 GMT

This is crossposted from my primary journal. To leave a comment, please go there.

This story has just about my favorite quote from a news article EVAR:

The school, in North Buncombe, North Carolina, remains adamant that their decision to suspend Killian for a day has nothing to do with his religion, and quite a lot to do with his repeated refusal to heed warnings against wearing pirate outfits.

I also greatly enjoy the picture of Johnny Depp running wildly through the waves, captioned “A man in full pirate regalia”.

Everybody smokes in Amsterdam.

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 15:05:43 GMT

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I think I’m going to go to Amsterdam.

myspace elections?

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 19:01:12 GMT

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Oh man. This story makes me want to cry. Apparently, all the major 2008 presidential candidates have myspace profiles.

…

Wow.

yarr

Tue, 27 Mar 2007 04:00:11 GMT

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Does anyone have a Demonoid account, or an invite they’d be willing to sling my way?

New acquisitions

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 21:13:11 GMT

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After browsing the Compendium of Lost Words the other day, I picked up a couple new domains: sigilism.com and ipsography.com. No idea what I’m going to do with them, but they sounded cool.

Blub, blub, blub…

Thu, 22 Mar 2007 00:43:53 GMT

This is crossposted from my primary journal. To leave a comment, please go there.

I just got out of the shower. I turned it on as hot as I could stand, and stood under it until I was red as a lobster. Why? Here’s why:

That’s a recent radar image. See that nice string of red drawn out east to west? See that little town called Mundelein just west of ‘em? Guess where all those storms were as I was driving home from work.

The road on the way home was flooded at one point. It looked kinda sloppy, but there were plenty of cars going through it, and I know I’ve forded 10″ of water in my car before. This looked a little deeper, but… all those other cars can do it!

This is where Smart Rob would have said, “Yeah, but your car rides low, and you have an air intake in your fender. Don’t press your luck.” Unfortunately, Dumb Rob was in full control, and he said, “Fuck it. I’m just a mile or two from home. I don’t want to go around. Surely, I can make this!” Then he cursed loudly as the car sputtered to a halt and refused to restart.

So here’s Dumb Rob trying to get out of his car, only to have his door forced shut by the wake of a pickup truck going past outside. Take two succeeded. The water was *just* up to my door sills. By the time I walked to the side of the road, it was to my mid thigh. … At least I was smart enough to try the middle.

It’s a very amusing experience, once you detach yourself from the stress and annoyance and regain a zen-like state of mind, watching your car bob up and down, water up to the door sills, as trucks kick up massive waves while they crawl by. That was one positive thing, at least.

Fortunately, one other dumbass tried the same thing I did not long after I got stuck, so I wasn’t the only person standing by the side of the road, stranded. In the cold. And the wet. Feeling like a total fucking jackass. I told him I’d push him out of the water if he pushed me out, so at least we got out of the ocean in the road.

Cue an hour-plus of trying to start my car every few minutes, failing, commiserating with the other kid (who it turns out lives just down the road from me), wondering if I’d actually managed to hydrolock my engine, and trying to figure out what the hell to do about this and how much it was going to cost. All in an absolute pouring downfall.

Finally, a police wrecker came by and pulled us both up the hill to the first parking lot, which happened to be an AutoZone. We got the manager’s permission to leave our cars there until the morning. Julie is in class tonight, so I resigned myself to calling a taxi to get home. I had one dispatched, and while I was sitting there waiting for it kept trying to turn the engine over, while also trying not to burn out my starter.

After an untold number of futile attempts, it started coughing. Several tries later, it actually managed to fire up, with a hoarse gurgle. I let it run for a few minutes, revved it a couple times, and it seemed OK, so I called the taxi company and cancelled the dispatch, then managed to drive home. I can shut it down and start it up OK in the parking lot, so maybe my dumb ass got really fucking lucky.

Then I got in and got a call from a total stranger with whom I lightly brushed shoulders when I played Puzzle Pirates. One of our mutual acquaintances was stuck at O’Hare and needed some help trying to figure out what to do, so I sat on the phone for half an hour talking to her, soaked to the bone, cold, wet, and shivering, but I got them straight, finally. Hopefully. And that was my good deed for the day.

Then I went and showered. What an evening. But it fits the way the rest of the week’s been. God, I’m looking forward to the weekend.

We saw 300 in IMAX last night. Thumbnail summary: it’s completely preposterous, but damnably entertaining in spite of (or perhaps, because of) it. All the people who are getting upset about it being gay-bashing, or in support of the war or blah blah blah need to take a pill. It’s a movie. From a graphic novel. Adapting an ancient battle, making it utterly over the top, and putting in A GIANT WITH SWORDS FOR ARMS, and NINJAS IN KABUKI MASKS. It’s not meant to make any statement aside from AUGH TESTOSTERONE GOOD. I kinda wanna see it again.

And now… dinner. And a beer. I need a beer.

Powerbook Rescued

Wed, 21 Mar 2007 17:33:54 GMT

This is crossposted from my primary journal. To leave a comment, please go there.

Operation PowerBook Pain In The Ass was completed successfully, and actually with less pain than I thought it would take, even if I had to reload the OS from CD rather than DVD, as that was all I could find online. (Sally, you still have my disc, dammit!)

New DC in board, new hard drive, pounded out the dent in the corner, bent up the magnetic latch so that it actually holds closed, cleaned the case up… everything except for the keyboard fixed. Not as good as new, but certainly a hell of alot better.

Screwdriver jockey…

Mon, 19 Mar 2007 22:29:03 GMT

This is crossposted from my primary journal. To leave a comment, please go there.

Operation PowerBook ReBuild has begun.

I have taken poor little wrath apart once, and put in its new DC input board. That part of the operation seems to have been successful, as I now have her booted and am backing up Julie’s home directory to an offboard drive. Once this is done, we begin Stage 2: Hard Drive Transplant.

That will be followed by Stage 3: Figuring Out Why The Hell The Latch Won’t Latch, and then Stage 4: Reloading the OS and Other Shit.

Insert a probable few stages of me cursing and being annoyed for spice and variety.

Bygods, I hate working on laptops.

*yawns and watches backup scroll*