Thursday, September 30, 2004
To Hell and Back
and it only cost me 50 bucks!
When I got up this morning, I wasn't ready for the day that was about to hit me.
It began when I pushed the power button on my computer. It started to spin up from being on standby last night, then it decided it wanted to go back to sleep... not so good. After a couple more tries and unplugging it and plugging it back in, I decided something was definitely wrong. I opened up the case and started unplugging things that could be a problem. When I unplugged my hard drive, it booted fine. "Great." I thought, my hard drive is dead. "Well, time to go to school."
I was pretty down about the prospect of having lost a year's worth of data. At least it wasn't all of it though. When I got my new hard drive (200GB) and copied my files off the old one (40GB) I left everyone on there "just in case." Fortunately, I had brought the drive down to SLO with me a couple weeks ago when I went back to San Jose for the weekend.
While I was eating lunch, I got a call on my cell. I'm already over my minutes for this month and still have like a week left on this bill. I looked at the number and noticed it was an on-campus number. Turns out it's the bookstore- the iPod I ordered just came in. What a kick in the nuts this felt like. I just got this thing I can store all my music and even back up my documents to, and I have no computer to hook it up to.
Once it came time to head home, I waited for the bus, reading the iPod user's guide like 5 times, silly me, I didn't realize it had games on it! I got on the bus and sat there for a few minutes. Then I remembered that bus #4 also goes back to the stop I get off at and gets there faster, so I hopped off the bus to get on that one. There were no other busses there. I went to look at the schedule and suddenly the bus I was on (and my only ride home for the next half-hour) closed its doors and took off. I ran after it for a few seconds, but the driver didn't seem to see me.
Great. No computer, no ride home, no cell phone minutes, and I have an iPod with no music. I decided to really just wallow in the crappyness of life and walk from campus to the bus stop where I left my car (Johnson & California). By the time I finially make it back there, I am so tired and frustrated that I can't see how my day can get much worse.
I arrive home and begrudgingly start to put my old 40GB hard drive into my computer to start it up, at least I'll be able to use it and have all the music I had as of last year. I push the power button. It starts to start up, then back to sleep. My computer is narcoleptic!!! At this point, I'm a bit confused, but also a bit relieved- this means it's not my hard drive that's broke, it's something else. At this point I am thankful- hardware can be replaced easily, data and software is not so easy, especially when you download a lot of it and don't back it up. = o
I took my 200GB hard drive over to work and Jim let me use this cool device that allows you to plug any IDE hard drive into a usb port. The cool thing is it's just two little adapters, data and power. I plug it in and pray. To my amazement, it spins up and there is all my data! Alive and well. At this point I'm thinking "OK, back up everything" so I copy my "My Documents" folder to my work laptop just in case. After a few minutes I realize that it looks like the drive is working just fine. Once the copy finishes I head home.
I got back and Matt really wanted to see how the iPod worked, so I connected my hard drive to Kevin's laptop with those cool connectors from work and set the iPod up on it. It works really nicely- my day seems to be getting better.
At this point I'm thinking the motherboard is messed up, because connecting drives seems to screw things up. This means I will have to buy a new motherboard, processor, and memory- several hundred dollars that I was actually planning to spend soon on the same thing, as it's about time for an upgrade. I figured, well, I guess this kinda forces me to upgrade.
I do a little test though, I plug my hard drive and CD drives into the power but NOT the data. This way, they will power up, but they aren't connected to the motherboard. It starts to spin up, then dies. Aha- a power supply problem! As bas as this sounds, it is the cheapest, easiest fix for a computer. You buy a new one for 50 bucks or so, plug it in and turn it on. After a short trip to Best Buy (Chris didn't buy anything! Amazing!) I came back and put it in and amazingly enough, it worked!
So my computer is working fine- or so I think. Apparantely something I did reset the windows drivers for my soundcard and they are being bastards about reinstalling. I spent the next couple hours wrestling windows and soundcard drivers, but at last- it works!
All my iPod software is installed now on my computer and everything seems to be working wonderfully. I guess after 4 or 5 years my power supply had just had enough. Considering it was a cheapo one that came with the case I'm kinda suprised it lasted this long.
Current Music: The Postal Services - Give Up
Link of the Day: Gmail - Want an invite?
Random Picture:
When I got up this morning, I wasn't ready for the day that was about to hit me.
It began when I pushed the power button on my computer. It started to spin up from being on standby last night, then it decided it wanted to go back to sleep... not so good. After a couple more tries and unplugging it and plugging it back in, I decided something was definitely wrong. I opened up the case and started unplugging things that could be a problem. When I unplugged my hard drive, it booted fine. "Great." I thought, my hard drive is dead. "Well, time to go to school."
I was pretty down about the prospect of having lost a year's worth of data. At least it wasn't all of it though. When I got my new hard drive (200GB) and copied my files off the old one (40GB) I left everyone on there "just in case." Fortunately, I had brought the drive down to SLO with me a couple weeks ago when I went back to San Jose for the weekend.
While I was eating lunch, I got a call on my cell. I'm already over my minutes for this month and still have like a week left on this bill. I looked at the number and noticed it was an on-campus number. Turns out it's the bookstore- the iPod I ordered just came in. What a kick in the nuts this felt like. I just got this thing I can store all my music and even back up my documents to, and I have no computer to hook it up to.
Once it came time to head home, I waited for the bus, reading the iPod user's guide like 5 times, silly me, I didn't realize it had games on it! I got on the bus and sat there for a few minutes. Then I remembered that bus #4 also goes back to the stop I get off at and gets there faster, so I hopped off the bus to get on that one. There were no other busses there. I went to look at the schedule and suddenly the bus I was on (and my only ride home for the next half-hour) closed its doors and took off. I ran after it for a few seconds, but the driver didn't seem to see me.
Great. No computer, no ride home, no cell phone minutes, and I have an iPod with no music. I decided to really just wallow in the crappyness of life and walk from campus to the bus stop where I left my car (Johnson & California). By the time I finially make it back there, I am so tired and frustrated that I can't see how my day can get much worse.
I arrive home and begrudgingly start to put my old 40GB hard drive into my computer to start it up, at least I'll be able to use it and have all the music I had as of last year. I push the power button. It starts to start up, then back to sleep. My computer is narcoleptic!!! At this point, I'm a bit confused, but also a bit relieved- this means it's not my hard drive that's broke, it's something else. At this point I am thankful- hardware can be replaced easily, data and software is not so easy, especially when you download a lot of it and don't back it up. = o
I took my 200GB hard drive over to work and Jim let me use this cool device that allows you to plug any IDE hard drive into a usb port. The cool thing is it's just two little adapters, data and power. I plug it in and pray. To my amazement, it spins up and there is all my data! Alive and well. At this point I'm thinking "OK, back up everything" so I copy my "My Documents" folder to my work laptop just in case. After a few minutes I realize that it looks like the drive is working just fine. Once the copy finishes I head home.
I got back and Matt really wanted to see how the iPod worked, so I connected my hard drive to Kevin's laptop with those cool connectors from work and set the iPod up on it. It works really nicely- my day seems to be getting better.
At this point I'm thinking the motherboard is messed up, because connecting drives seems to screw things up. This means I will have to buy a new motherboard, processor, and memory- several hundred dollars that I was actually planning to spend soon on the same thing, as it's about time for an upgrade. I figured, well, I guess this kinda forces me to upgrade.
I do a little test though, I plug my hard drive and CD drives into the power but NOT the data. This way, they will power up, but they aren't connected to the motherboard. It starts to spin up, then dies. Aha- a power supply problem! As bas as this sounds, it is the cheapest, easiest fix for a computer. You buy a new one for 50 bucks or so, plug it in and turn it on. After a short trip to Best Buy (Chris didn't buy anything! Amazing!) I came back and put it in and amazingly enough, it worked!
So my computer is working fine- or so I think. Apparantely something I did reset the windows drivers for my soundcard and they are being bastards about reinstalling. I spent the next couple hours wrestling windows and soundcard drivers, but at last- it works!
All my iPod software is installed now on my computer and everything seems to be working wonderfully. I guess after 4 or 5 years my power supply had just had enough. Considering it was a cheapo one that came with the case I'm kinda suprised it lasted this long.
Current Music: The Postal Services - Give Up
Link of the Day: Gmail - Want an invite?
Random Picture:
Wednesday, September 22, 2004
Late classes rule
Funny how 10am seems late now.
So far this first week of school has been interesting. All of my teachers seem cool, they get better and better as the day goes on, which is good because then I will actually stay at school and pay attention. It starts with my EE class, where the teacher's voice is somewhat challenging to understand and the subject matter isn't to thrilling (you've always wondered how a transistor works, right?!) Then comes my Computer Architecture II class, where we basically learn how CPU's work, which despite also sounding boring, is pretty cool. We're learning MIPS processors, which are the same kind of CPU's used in all video game systems since the NES (except xbox obviously). Finally I have Systems Programming, where we will learn about C and how Unix works, which is really interesting to me, given my interest in Linux. Speaking of which, we need Linux on our home computers for both of my CPE classes =) Anyway, should be an interesting quarter, especially since I'm only going to school every other day (working Tuesday and Thursday), but I think it will be good because every day at work is a day off school and every day at school I get to sleep in and have a day off work.
Things are so cool with Jen right now, because it's like, no matter what happens in the next couple months, even if we can't see each other quite as much, she is definitely coming to Cal Poly, so it doesn't seem as bad. She is so awesome- Psych is the hardest major to transfer into at Cal Poly. Go Jen!
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize, Pink Floyd - Time, White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl
Random Picture:
So far this first week of school has been interesting. All of my teachers seem cool, they get better and better as the day goes on, which is good because then I will actually stay at school and pay attention. It starts with my EE class, where the teacher's voice is somewhat challenging to understand and the subject matter isn't to thrilling (you've always wondered how a transistor works, right?!) Then comes my Computer Architecture II class, where we basically learn how CPU's work, which despite also sounding boring, is pretty cool. We're learning MIPS processors, which are the same kind of CPU's used in all video game systems since the NES (except xbox obviously). Finally I have Systems Programming, where we will learn about C and how Unix works, which is really interesting to me, given my interest in Linux. Speaking of which, we need Linux on our home computers for both of my CPE classes =) Anyway, should be an interesting quarter, especially since I'm only going to school every other day (working Tuesday and Thursday), but I think it will be good because every day at work is a day off school and every day at school I get to sleep in and have a day off work.
Things are so cool with Jen right now, because it's like, no matter what happens in the next couple months, even if we can't see each other quite as much, she is definitely coming to Cal Poly, so it doesn't seem as bad. She is so awesome- Psych is the hardest major to transfer into at Cal Poly. Go Jen!
Current Music: The Flaming Lips - Do You Realize, Pink Floyd - Time, White Stripes - Fell in Love With a Girl
Random Picture:
Thursday, September 16, 2004
Jen got into Cal Poly!!!
Thursday, September 09, 2004
Update on life
or lack thereof...updates, that is.
I haven't been updating much lately because of work. It's funny, I get home and usually have very little desire to even turn on my computer, let alone sit there for a while. I think it will get better before long, but right now it's sort of an adjustment... anyway, now on to my cool work story:
So the other morning I come in and Peter (my boss) says "Hey Kevin, I have a job for you." Jim (my coworker) starts smiling and laughing at me. Not sure what to do, I say "OK, what is it?" Peter explains to me that we have a new client who is having some trouble getting Word to run and could I go over there and take a look. Should be a quick fix. Meanwhlie Jim is cracking up in the background. I say "Sounds easy enough, where is it?" Peter replies, "It's at the Wheeler-Smith Mortuary," and smiles. Oh man, what a "give it to the new guy" job =) It really wasn't as bad as I thought, the room with the computer was just inside the building past the entrace room- although I came back and jokingly told Peter that the computer was right next to the "makeup room". Anyway, they were really cool, but I couldn't help but laugh about the job I was doing. I guess the deceased still need their Word documents typed.
Current Music: Cake - You turn the screws
Link of the Day: Chris sent me something awesome, I'll post it later
I haven't been updating much lately because of work. It's funny, I get home and usually have very little desire to even turn on my computer, let alone sit there for a while. I think it will get better before long, but right now it's sort of an adjustment... anyway, now on to my cool work story:
So the other morning I come in and Peter (my boss) says "Hey Kevin, I have a job for you." Jim (my coworker) starts smiling and laughing at me. Not sure what to do, I say "OK, what is it?" Peter explains to me that we have a new client who is having some trouble getting Word to run and could I go over there and take a look. Should be a quick fix. Meanwhlie Jim is cracking up in the background. I say "Sounds easy enough, where is it?" Peter replies, "It's at the Wheeler-Smith Mortuary," and smiles. Oh man, what a "give it to the new guy" job =) It really wasn't as bad as I thought, the room with the computer was just inside the building past the entrace room- although I came back and jokingly told Peter that the computer was right next to the "makeup room". Anyway, they were really cool, but I couldn't help but laugh about the job I was doing. I guess the deceased still need their Word documents typed.
Current Music: Cake - You turn the screws
Link of the Day: Chris sent me something awesome, I'll post it later
