I woke up this morning after about 11 hours of sleep. That’s two nights in a row with that volume of sleep, and my body hasn’t felt so rested in a long time. I know it’s needed when the only sinus headache I get is mild.

is sick, and she was catching it before she left for New York. So, it looks like I’m following her lead. Copious amounts of Vitamin C, as well as the aforementioned sleep, are helping my body to fight it off, thankfully.

First thing I did was address a situation that has been frustrating me for weeks now. The wireless bridge that we use for our internet connection hasn’t been able to find a network to attach to, for about 75% of the time. When it does find one, it attaches for just long enough for me to attempt to load a page, and then it drops again. This thing has problems seeing the wireless router that’s right next to it, much of the time.

So, I moved the bridge back out into the hallway (closer to the source), and it picked up signal. It was as slow as dialup, but it was solid. I jumped up and down for joy a little bit, and then started browsing teh intarwebs from bed, where my comforter was still invitingly cozy. After a short while, Buddy joined me, so I surfed and petted the dog. Good times. Eventually, I decided to get up, and set the W2K3 server to update itself while I took a shower. And it was a perfect, relaxing, just-long-enough hot shower. My back muscles and neck muscles relaxed (which is a miracle, lately). I was smiling as I got dressed.

Update was successful, and now with intertubes, there’s no reason that I shouldn’t go and get that USB wireless adapter for that ancient iMac that’s downstairs. It’s not AirPort compatible, but I had found an adapter by Belkin that has open-source drivers (well, the makers of the chipset put out open source drivers, so it’s the same, in the end). It also happened to be the least expensive of the bunch, so I hit the ATM, hopped a bus, and headed to CompUSA in Frandor.

I picked it up, amazed and content that my day of technology was going so well. I decided to ride the bus the long way back so that I could get some reading in. Yup, still working on Wishsong of Shannarra.

By the time I got home and let the dog out, I was a little light-headed and shaky. This confused me, until I looked at the clock. 3:12 PM. I hadn’t eaten yet. SMRT. So, I set some eggs and hash browns cooking, and pop the wireless adapter into the iMac.

This is where things stop being easy. The device registers in the hardware list in Ubuntu, but it’s acting as if there’s no driver installed. Don’t think I can use ndiswrapper with a PC driver on an iMac. Also, I need to download some packages to do that, and the point of getting this was so that I wouldn’t have to run a wire to the iMac from upstairs. And I really don’t want to haul this thing into work.

So, I grab my iBook and bring it downstairs. I start searching for some drivers, and set the W2K3 Server (Alpha-Trion) to download some more updates. At this point, the connection is slower than dial-up. Still there, but crawling. I grind my teeth a little, but I’m able to bring up the Ubuntu forums page, which is about the best font of Ubuntu knowledge ever. And it’s down for some database cleanup. No access.

On the good side of things, the eggs and hash browns were delicious, and hit the spot.

The update on the server dies, because the connection has. I go upstairs, grumbling in my old-man grumble, and move the bridge around until it gets a signal. Nothing stable to be had, unfortunately. So, I packed up my shit, snapped a pic of the Playstation that I’m putting up on eBay, and headed out. After a nice walk, I enter Theio’s to find that my usual spots are taken. No biggie, there’s a table near a plug, so I sit there.

Right in the direct sunlight. In my black shirt and slacks. I started to sweat. IN OCTOBER. There is something wrong with that. I could barely see my iBook’s screen, and I was totally overheating. Thankfully, one of the nearby shaded seats was vacated shortly afterward, and I sit there now. Just out of the sunlight, decently cool, and with an idea to get some online shit taken care of, and then maybe some writing.

I’ve got coffee (stay caffeinated, young padowan), water (but do not dehydrate thyself), notebooks, my iBook (OptimusPrime), and idea to say screw it and put Panther on that old blue-green iMac at home (Kup). It’s funny, but Panther has a lower memory requirement than Ubuntu does.

Today has gone from restful, to stressful (self-induced), and back to restful.

Is it legal to use what would otherwise be a pirated copy of a depricated operating system? That is, one that is no longer supported and/or available for purchase from its company of origin?

Edit: What about an OS that’s still supported, but no longer available for sale?

So, I’ve got this TV that -almost- works. It’s pretty old tech, so I thought someone here might be interested. ? Anyway, this is what I posted in the local FreeCycle group:

I’ve got a Sanyo 91C82 20″ television that I’d like to get rid of.

I’m fairly certain that this was the first color television that my parents ever owned. It’s got rabbit ears, and places for both UHF and VHF antennas. It has an adapter that my brother added, which makes it cable-ready. It does not have any RCA inputs.

I am no TV repairman, but I thought that someone here might be interested in taking this off of my hands. First come, first serve. Please contact me via email only.

Edit: There’s even a service manual listed on eBay. Heh.

From Jim Macdonald, in the RSS feed:

http://syndicated.livejournal.com/makinglight/267969.html

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Apparently, I need to upgrade my OS to MacOs 10.4.x to be able to sync my Motorola Razr v3c, with either bluetooth or USB. Turns out, no matter what I do, I can’t transfer files over USB – it has to be bluetooth.

So, the mini USB port on the phone is for charging, and for contact/calendar syncing only. Is it me, or is that stupid? I mean, allowing -some- data on the phone to be accessible via both connection techniques, but not all.

If you’re going to enable USB data transfer -at all- on a phone, just go whole hog. Let the filesystem be recognized as a USB drive. For serious.

I’m all for adding Bluetooth to my iBook, but it looks like I’m going to have to hack my Mac to do it. Or deal with an annoying little dongle/USB adapter.

Then again, this is certainly tempting.

That would mean the upgrade process would go something like this:

1. Replace dying CD/ROM drive with used Combo drive (from eBay).
2. Upgrade to MacOS 10.4 (from eBay), or 10.5, if it’s out by then.
3. Add aforementioned Bluetooth mouse with USB bluetooth adapter.

If I wasn’t planning on making these upgrades to my iBook eventually anyway, this would seem crazy. :) I still hold firm that old hardware is both useful and upgradable, especially with the miracle that is eBay.

Hell, I just got a 512 SODIMM for ‘s iBook (traded gaming books for it) for $28 on eBay.

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has a new website. A home page, even.

http://stormtheworld.us

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In the category of news that is also good, I have this guy now:

His legs have to be positioned -just so- to not look like they’re broken. Side-effect of his alternate mode, methinks.

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More later, I’m certain. :)

I bought the PS2 so that I could play both games (mostly PS1, though the access to both PS1 and PS2 libraries is fantastic) and watch DVDs in my office. I have a small TV (13″ or so), that happens to be a TV/VCR combo unit.

This was bought in 1995, so that I’d have a TV for my dorm room. The VCR combo bit was hugely convenient, as I love movies.

The VCR part eats tapes now. I’m gonna fix it, but it doesn’t work. I CANNOT record anything with it.

And yet, when a DVD is played through my PS2, I get copy protection retardation.

I CANNOT PLAY A DVD THAT I LEGALLY PURCHASED THROUGH A PLAYER THAT I LEGALLY PURCHASED ON A TV THAT I LEGALLY PURCHASED. Okay, that my parents legally purchased.

Now I have to hook up an R/F modulator (that I already own because I’m USED to this horse shit), and consume more electricity.

Irate isn’t even the word.

All this makes me want to do is tape DVDs, once the modulator is set up and the VCR portion is fixed, and give them to people. Not that I will, but I freakin’ WANT to.

Death and destruction.

Update: Since the copy protection trigger lies in the TV itself, the R/F modulator does nothing. The irony, of course, is that while our big-screen TV, inherited from , is dead, this thing just keeps going.

Lesson learned: Never, EVER buy a TV combined with anything else.

Holy crap, there’s a lot of email backed up in my Smart Networks account. Clearly I need to start making weekly time to get back on the horse for this. As it is, I’m working OT at LiquidWeb tomorrow, so tonight ended up being the only time.

Buying used has been a success today! I have scored:

• USB-to-mini-USB 5-pin cable for my Motorola Razr.(got sick of borrowing the one from Benny’s Palm)
• 512 MB of RAM for my iBook
• A Sony PS2, so that I can play games and DVD’s in my office. Now all I need to do is fix the VCR part of the TV/VCR combo, and I’ll be all set.

also scored in the upgrade-what-you’ve-already-got category by purchasing an LED upgrade kit for her mini Mag light. I’m going to see how hers works out, then will likely purchase another from ThinkGeek.

All of the money used to purchase this was gotten from selling off things that I don’t need to those that will find a use for them. This makes me unspeakably happy.