9:00 - Thoth
died sometime during the night. When I came into my office this morning,
I found
thoth with pilot lights on but a blank screen. I assumed that
it had just locked up, per the usual, but when I power reset it,
thoth
failed to boot.
Those boot problems have been getting more frequent lately. Yesterday, as
I was doing laundry, I started my normal full weekly backup. This time,
instead of doing it on the Tecmar DDS-3 tape drive on
thoth, I ran
it on the Seagate DDS-3 tape drive in
messier, my new main system.
I went downstairs to put the white load in the dryer and the dark load in
the washer. When I came back upstairs, I noticed that
messier had
already started doing the verify pass. Now, I know that Seagate tape drives
are fast, but that was ridiculous.
At the time,
thoth had a web page displayed in Mozilla and looked
perfectly normal. When I moved the mouse, however, it was apparent that
thoth had locked up yet again. Microsoft Backup, running on
messier
, had been backing up
thoth when
thoth locked up. So it just
skipped that volume and went on to the next one.
The way we're set up, all of our working data is on the server,
theodore
. Running a backup of
theodore introduces two problems: first, it's
much slower to backup data across the network than from a local volume. Second,
if someone has a file open on
theodore, it doesn't get backed up.
That means, for example, that we can't check our mail during a backup of
theodore because if we happen to have the Outlook PST file open when
the backup program tries to back it up, it'll get skipped.
To address that problem, as well as to increase data redundancy, I keep a
copy of the full data directory from
theodore on
thoth, using
an xcopy batch file periodically to copy all new or changed files from
theodore to
thoth. I run that batch file immediately before doing
a tape backup, and then backup all of
thoth, thereby backing up the
backup data directory rather than the working data directory.
Thoth
also holds the primary copy of our archive data directory, which contains
all of our old data. That all worked fine as long as we were using the tape
drive on
thoth to do the backup (and as long as thoth wasn't locking
up).
But in addition to the problem of
thoth locking up, the time needed
to backup
thoth remotely from
messier was going to be a problem.
I decided that since messier is soon to become my primary system, it made
sense to copy the databack directory (the backup copy of our main working
data) and the data directory (our archive data) from
thoth to
messier
and then just backup
messier. So I rebooted
thoth and left
it sitting at a login prompt, hoping that if the GUI wasn't running
thoth
would be less likely to hang up during the long copy process.
It took quite a while to copy 13 GB of archive data and 3 GB of working data
from
thoth to
messier, even over a 100BaseT connection, but
the copy completed successfully. That done, I went ahead and did the full
weekly backup on
messier. That completed normally, and at about 6
GB/hour for backing up data from a local volume, versus about half that for
backing up a remote volume across the network. I'm very glad I decided to
install that DDS-3 tape drive in
messier the other day.
After the backup completed, I started thinking about what to do with
thoth
and
messier. Because
messier is to become my new main system,
I was about to stick in the Office 2000 CD and do a full install of Office
2000. Then I got to wondering if I really wanted to do that. Perhaps I should
just install Mozilla, Opera, OpenOffice, and so on, and leave the Office
2000 CD on the shelf. I decided to think about that overnight, but I'm still
not sure what I'm going to do. I had planned to leave thoth as a secondary
system, which would give me access to Microsoft applications if I needed
them, but with
thoth now dead, that's no longer an option. Of course,
I have my den system (which I'm writing this on) and it has the full Office
2000 suite installed. So perhaps I will see how well I can get along without
Microsoft Office installed.
Once I post this up to the server, I'm going to head for my office and disconnect
thoth. I'll set it aside until I have time to tear it down and rebuild
it. At that point, it will become a Linux server. My Linux workstation,
herschel, is still sitting in shrink-wrapped boxes in the dining room.
Once I get some of the items cleared from my to-do list,
herschel
becomes a higher priority.
11:32 - After screwing
around with things for a while, I finally ended up installing Office 2000.
OpenOffice looks like it has a lot of promise, but I need the real Word 2000
to work with documents that I exchange with my publisher. Also, as much as
I hate it, Outlook 2000 is the best solution for me for mail, at least at
the moment. I suspect that'll change once I get a Linux workstation up and
running. I did install Mozilla 0.9.9 and am using it both as my default browser
and as my HTML editor. Otherwise, I'm keeping things pretty simple. I've
installed WinZip and Irfanview, and will install Norton Internet Security/AV
in a few minutes. Other than that, I'll just install applications as I find
I need them.
The new system is fast, as you might expect given that it's a Pentium 4/1.7G
(versus a Pentium III/750 on the old system). Having 512 MB of RAM probably
helps as well. Everything just pops up onto the screen now. One minor problem
is that I didn't install a floppy drive in this system. The only thing I
really need that for is transferring images from the digital camera, but
I have a USB SmartMedia reader around here somewhere. I'd better dig that
out.
If you haven't done anything about the CBDPTA yet, please, please do so now. Visit this
EFF page
first, and then make your feelings known to your representatives. Don't
put it off, and don't assume that so many people will be expressing their
outrage that you don't need to bother adding your voice. We all of us need
to contact our representatives and let them know how we feel about this.
This is a battle we can lose, folks. In fact, at this point if I were betting
on the outcome I'd say we
are going to lose it. But we're certainly going to lose it unless everyone does his part. This means you.
We need hundreds of thousands of emails, snailmails, faxes, and telephone
calls arriving in the offices of senators and representatives. Millions would
be better. We need to let the people behind this outrageous proposed legislation
know that they've kicked over a hornets' nest, and that if they allow this
measure to become law they're going to get stung. If that doesn't happen,
this bill is going to sail through, and we're all going to pay the price.
Don't let that happen. Please. Contact your senators and representive and
let them know that you are unalterably opposed to this or any similar legislation.
Please. Do it now. Right now. Stop reading this page, go to the EFF page
I linked to above, and make your feelings known.
Wednesday,
27 March 2002
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]
8:50 - Barbara
is off to play golf with her father this morning. They haven't been able
to play much lately, between bad weather and her father being ill. I'll continue
work on the
HardwareGuys.com website. I've been busy updating component recommendations. You can see what I've done
here
. The rest of them should be finished and posted today. Once I finish those,
I have to update the recommended system configurations and re-do all the
work I'd done in FrontPage to translate material that was cut from the new
edition of
PC Hardware in a Nutshell
into web pages. Then I'll do a final pass through the HardwareGuys.com web
site to recreate all of the old pages and eliminate the FrontPage garbage
from the HTML. At that point, the HardwareGuys.com web site will be finished,
other than making periodic updates and adding new material from time to time.
I'll do a quick refresh of the major pages immediately before the new edition
hits the bookstores, of course. Then it'll be off to work on the next project.
Thursday,
28 March 2002
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9:19 - How ironic. I got a call from
Brian Bilbrey yesterday to tell me that
Codeweavers had released Crossover Office
, a product that allows Microsoft Office to run under WINE emulation on Linux.
Then I got a couple emails from Roland Dobbins with links to articles on
Crossover Office. Both of them were thinking, no doubt, of my earlier comments
that I'd convert to Linux in a heartbeat if I could run Microsoft Office
on Linux. Well, now I can.
The irony is that I no longer care. In the past two weeks, Microsoft Outlook
has munged my mail data and Microsoft FrontPage has trashed a day's worth
of work. I've already abandoned FrontPage, and I will soon abandon Outlook.
I no longer care about running Microsoft Office under Linux. I want to start
running standards-compliant software--a web page editor that writes standard
HTML, a mail client that stores its data in an industry-standard format,
and so on.
For the last week or so, I've been using Mozilla Composer for maintaining
this web page. I'm in the process of converting the HardwareGuys.com web
site to W3C-compliant HMTL, again using Mozilla. Mozilla isn't the best tool
out there. It's buggy and quirky. But it does have the unquestionable advantage
of producing standard HTML. And I would be very, very surprised if Mozilla
Composer ever decided to deleted every file in a directory as FrontPage did.
So what I decided to do was use two main systems. The one I'm writing this
on is my Windows 2000 box. The one that's still sitting in pieces in the
dining room is my Linux box. Once I get past rewriting, updating, and expanding
the HardwareGuys.com site (and doing my taxes), I'll build that Linux box.
It'll sit under my desk and be attached to a monitor and keyboard sitting
on my desk. I will have two primary systems, one running Windows and one
Linux. At first, I may spend 80% of my time on the Windows box and 20% on
the Linux box. Over time, that ratio will reverse. Eventually, the Windows
box will be used only at the infrequent times when I absolutely need to run
a Windows application. As time passes, I have no doubt that that will happen
less and less frequently.
Speaking of irony,
MS-NBC reports
that AOL has reversed an executive decision that required all 82,000 AOL/Time-Warner
employees to use AOL email for internal communications. Among the problems
that AOL/Time-Warner employees complained about for months were that the
email software crashed frequently, that it didn't support sending large attachments,
that they were often summarily disconnected, that if they attempted to send
a message to multiple recipients the AOL mail software decided they were
spammers, and that many messages were simply lost in the AOL ether.
An apologist for AOL said that AOL email was designed for consumer use, not
business use. That's okay, then. I guess their position is that consumers
shouldn't object when any of those things happen. So now AOL/Time-Warner
is in the humiliating position of depending on other ISPs to provide their
mail service. That's the moral equivalent of Microsoft deciding that Windows
Server is inadequate and using UNIX on large Microsoft corporate servers.
Oh, wait. That's already happened, hasn't it?
We headed up to Bullington last night to do some observing, even though Luna
was nearly full. The sky was lit so brightly by Luna that it was impossible
to bag many DSOs, but we did get a few. We also saw Comet Ikeya-Zhang. It
was down in the muck, but we were able to see a distinct tail in binoculars.
Oddly, the comet was more impressive in binoculars than in the scope, where
it showed as just a fuzzy ball with no tail.
We'd met our friend Bonnie Richardson up there, expecting relatively comfortable
weather. The Weather Channel forecast called for temperatures in the mid-
to low 50's and relatively calm. Instead, the temperature had dropped to
about 40 by 8:00 p.m. and there was a stiff breeze. That dropped the wind
chill to below freezing, not to mention blowing books, maps, and even scopes
around. Bonnie had to leave by 9:30 to pick up her sister at work, so we
decided to pack it in as well.
Friday,
29 March 2002
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8:30 - Mozilla
0.9.9 has some pretty odd bugs in it. Bugs that I'd have thought were so
fundamental that they'd have been exterminated long ago. Many of them have
to do with text-entry boxes and right-click context-sensitive menus. For
example, when I bring up the Mozilla browser, it sometimes won't accept characters
in the URL box. That is, I click on the URL box and type "www.something-or-other.com"
and my typing doesn't show up in the box. It's not that the browser is hung.
I can click on a link on the page being displayed, and it goes to that page
as expected. It's just that the browser won't accept typing. That doesn't
happen all the time, but it does happen maybe one time in ten that I start
the browser. This happens on different systems, which otherwise work fine,
so it's definitely Mozilla.
Also, for some reason, Mozilla often doesn't display a cursor. For example,
I'll visit Google and click in the search box, where I intend to start typing
a search string. No cursor. It accepts my typing normally, but there's no
way to tell where I am in the text box, which makes it hard to modify the
string later. Mozilla also still has some severe rendering problems. For
example, when I visit PC Magazine, the left-hand column (where choice like
"Opinions" are listed) is often blank. The box itself is there, but no contents
are visible. The links themselves are there, because I can see the cursor
change as I move it around in the box, and if I click blindly I go to another
page.
One of the most aggravating bugs is the defective (or entirely missing) right-click
copy/paste functionality. I was working on web pages with Composer yesterday,
and this is a real problem. I was trying to insert links to other pages.
I'd copied those links by various methods--highlighting the entire URL in
the browser URL box and right-click copying or Ctrl-C copying, choosing "Copy
Link Address" from the preceding page, etc.--and then attempted to paste
that URL into the link creation dialog in Composer. Sometimes the link would
paste successfully. Other times, what got pasted was material that I'd previously
copied. In other words, the immediately preceding "copy" operation didn't
take, and instead of the URL I expected to be pasting in, I'd end up pasting
in some random text from the previous copy operation.
And speaking of pasting in, Composer is lacking some really obvious convenience
options. For example, when I bring up the create link dialog, there's no
right-click menu. Instead of just right-clicking in the URL box and choosing
paste, one has to click in the URL box and then use Ctrl-V to do the paste
manually. There are similar aggravations elsewhere in Composer. For example,
I needed to change several tables to increase cell padding from 0 pixels
to 2 pixels. When I brought up the dialog for each table, there was a box
for cell padding, but the only way to change the value was to click in the
box and delete the old value and then manually enter 2. How hard would it
have been to add a spinner to those boxes so that I could just increment
or decrement the value wtih a mouse click?
In short, the Mozilla browser and Composer are buggy and clumsy to use. But
I'll keep using them. At least I don't have to worry about Composer deciding
to wipe out every file in a directory like FrontPage did. And Composer does
generate standards-compliant HTML.
Back to work on the web sites for me...
Saturday,
30 March 2002
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10:28 - Barbara is off to Charlotte for the day to run the
Carolina Border Collie Rescue
table at a dog event. I'll be working on web pages, as usual. The HardwareGuys.com
is still a mess--broken links all over the place, missing pages, pages that
duplicate other pages because I just used them as placeholders, etc. I'm
gradually getting all that worked out.
Be careful if you get a domain renewal notice from VeriSign. I got one the
other day for Barbara's researchsolutions.net domain. I spotted it as bogus
immediately, because I haven't registered a domain with InterNIC/Network
Solutions/VeriSign since alternatives became available. So I
knew that researchsolutions.net wasn't registered with VeriSign.
It'd be hard to tell that just by looking at the document they sent me, however.
Nearly anyone who received that document would assume that it was a renewal
invoice, which is pretty clearly just what VeriSign intended. In fact, it
is a domain transfer request, which VeriSign did their best to camouflage
as an invoice. Many people will assume that the word "transfer" on the front
of this document refers to money being transferred. Few will realize that
the "transfer" referred to is the transfer of the domain itself. I probably
would not have realized if I hadn't known for a fact that I don't do business
with VeriSign. I wonder how many people will unintentionally transfer their
domains to VeriSign by filling out this document in the belief that they're
simply renewing their domain names. Here are scans of the front and back:
A warning in large red letters should appear at the top of this document--
THIS IS NOT AN INVOICE
. I think VeriSign should face criminal charges over this little scam. What
they've done is exactly analogous to those companies that send out "invoices"
for copier supplies or whatever without making clear that it is an order
form rather than an invoice. VeriSign is counting on people mistaking an
order form for an invoice, and that in my opinion constitutes fraud.
12:05 -
I finally got the images fixed. Thanks to everyone who called my attention
to the problem. Unfortunately, Mozilla Composer is about as bad as FrontPage
when it comes to changing relative links to absolute links. If I copy an
image (like the separator) that's a relative link and then post it, Mozilla
Composer changes it unilaterally to an absolute link. I hate this.
Sunday,
31 March 2002
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9:00 - Tomorrow
is the first of April, which means I need to start thinking about doing my
taxes. As much as I despise Intuit as a company, every year I buy TurboTax,
so I suppose I'll do the same this year. Every year, I'm tempted just to
do my taxes manually, which I used to do. One of these years, I probably
will.
One thing about this time of year is that my mood is predictable. I'll be
in a foul mood from April 1st through April 22nd. I hate having my money
stolen from me. I almost wish I were religious and believed in Hell. If such
a place existed, there would be a special place reserved there for the IRS
and legislators. Bastards.
Oh, well. I suppose I'd better go get the laundry done and then work on web pages some more.
Copyright © 1998, 1999, 2000, 2001, 2002
by Robert Bruce Thompson. All Rights Reserved.
