Clearing the brain so it keeps working
Science/Technology
And the fog rolled in…
Aug 12th
Tonight/this morning I was ready to sit in my lawn chair and look for shooting stars. The Perseid meteor shower was to hit its maximum two days. The sky promised to be clear. The mosquitoes did not promise to stay away, but I have my bug suit. 
So, I drove the truck out into the field, had my chair sitting in the bed, and I watched the night sky.
I saw a couple of shooting stars, but no storm/shower. Kind of a sprinkle. I had a grand view of the summers stars. The sky was dark enough to see the Milky Way. For an hour I enjoyed kicking back and just watching the sky turn.
Then I noticed some of the horizon stars were not as bright as they had been. Passing clouds I thought, not a big deal. Then I noticed more and more of the stars were just that much harder to see. Dang too many clouds except I stood up and the sky was clear once again. The cloud had formed much lower as fog around my truck. I stood for a while in hopes to see one or two more meteors, but within 15 minutes the fog was at my head. No more star gazing.
I should have guessed with the heavy rain this afternoon, and the warm temperatures today that fog would form easily. I just wish it would have held out for an hour or two. I’m sure I could drive one way or another to get out of my little fog bank, but the bed and work are calling me. Maybe tomorrow will be better.
Early morning
Jul 30th
I woke up a little before my alarm this morning. Wide awake at 4:00 am. I realize this is because I went to sleep much earlier than normal, but still that was an hour of sleep I could have used.
Oh well.
Hard drive restore is going slowly, but is making progress. So far I’ve been able to restore 1 partition from the drive and I’m working on reading data off of the primary partition. It looks like all of my recent additions are completely corrupted. That just means more time spent doing what was just finished. So much for digitizing my CD collection.
I think, but I’m not positive yet, that I will be able to get most of the important stuff restored. The drive itself is on its last legs, so I’m not sure how long it will keep spinning. Most of the restore software I’ve been able to get my hands on are telling me the same thing. The drive is failing, and I should back it up. Unfortunately, the drive is failing and doesn’t like being ‘backed up’. Different software does allow me to restore different parts of the drive, so that is a plus.
For those interested, I’m now using some restore utilities on Ubuntu Linux to access the drive. After this is done, I’ll mount the drive in an external bay and see if Windows will see it better. It may take some time before the Linux is finished, because it stops when it doesn’t fix/copy a file. The more problems it runs up against, the more it stops. Unfortunately, when I am at work I can’t hit the button to make it continue. It does try to do multiple reads before saying it can’t copy it, so that is a plus. It also does a file compare after the check, to make sure it was a clean copy. That just takes forever when the drive being copied is failing.
Since I woke up early, I was able to continue the process 10 times, for files that could not be copied. Every one of those was something I can live without. I just have to wait until it is done before I can see what I got back.
I should know better…
Jul 27th
Why didn’t I back this drive up? I know it was the old machine. I didn’t really do that much on it. Surf the web, write a blog, catch up on a ball game. No I didn’t do much on this machine.
The hard drive crashed/failed. I think I will be able to get some of the pictures that were on this machine. I think I have duplicates of all of them, but I’m not sure yet. My daughters did their homework on this machine, and I think all the old reports are toast.
Some recent pictures that I took with the phone are gone. A new e-book list, vanished. Software updates poof. Some music became an electronic ghost.
Hmm… I do have another hard drive I can drop in this machine. I think I know where the windows install disk is. Maybe I can get the machine functioning again. I may drop in some other operating system. Who knows.
Then there is one other loss. I’ve never used it. It was there like a memorial for the past 6.5 years. Kept when I upgraded the computer. Disk imaged over when I got this drive. Gone are some web bookmarks. Little used since 2003, simply marked “Sarah’s Favorites”.
Another High Tech adventure!
Jun 21st
What is it with me and high tech toys recently? I bought myself a book reader (read the many nook posts.) and now I have a new ‘smart’ phone.
All I really ever wanted in a phone was the ability to make phone calls. You know, dial the number, the phone rings and someone on the other end picks it up. Then you have a conversation until it is finished. You hang up and that is the end of it until the next call.
My first journey into the cell phone age occurred just a few short years ago. I thought I would get a cell phone for the two oldest daughters at home just in case they needed to get in contact with me. Little did I know that the the oldest of the two already bought a cell phone. So the extra went to the youngest. I thought that at 13 she was a little young to have a phone, but I did not want it to go to waste. I had that 2 year contract and all.
Just a little over 2 years later, my original cell phone would no longer hold a charge. So I went back to get another. I found out that there were no cell phone ‘deals’ on any phones that just made calls. They all had things like cameras, the ability to play music or even download news. Hmm. All I wanted to do was make phone calls. I got an inexpensive phone that did come with a camera, but I don’t think I ever took more than 5 to 10 pictures with it. I did use the phone part.
That brings us to late last week. Again just a little over 2 years have gone by since the last cell phone adventure. Everybody is now carrying around a ‘smart’ phone. These things can take good pictures. You can access your email. You can access the internet. You can even access your blog or other social outlet. There are even games to play on the phone. You might say you are carrying around a little computer that just happens to make phone calls.
Because of some updates to things at work, I was looking at these new smart phones. One of them would allow me to stay connected if I ever had the need. Since I could see a benefit to this, I was casually looking at new smart phones. The cost was a bit much, but I could see myself getting one at some point in the future. No big deal, my phone was working well, and I liked it.
Then came the fateful day that my cell phone died. It would no longer dial numbers. It would no longer turn on or off. It was almost less than a phone. I could still receive calls, and because of the lucky fact that I had the blue tooth turned on, I could make calls using voice commands. But I could see that it was not going to be a good way to go. The voice commands were (and still are) a bit inconvenient at times. Some of my contact names are very similar to others on the list. The voice calling would sometimes miss the actual person I wanted to call. So I took the phone in to see if they could revive it.
To make an already long story shorter, the phone was dead (and it would cost more than a new phone to fix it). I am now the proud or not so proud owner of a new ‘Droid’ phone. It plays games. It accesses my email. It post to my blog (if I had teeny-tiny fingers). It can take pictures. It can load videos. It help me when I’m lost. It can play music. It will even store books. And it even makes phone calls!
I’m not exactly sure about all of the features, but I may get used to them.
More iPad thoughts
May 20th
I was going to combine this with my last post on the iPad, but I thought that the initial thoughts could stay there without further editing.
Things I wanted to try, but couldn’t.
1) I was wondering if you could play music while doing other things. There was no music on the iPad, and I don’t have an itunes account, so I don’t know.
2) New and different apps… See above. I guess if I really want to play with one, I need an itunes account. I don’t really like that, but I guess it keeps the device safe from most viruses.
3) Needed to load an app to get to MLB.com stuff. No flash video on these devices. And the Tigers were winning. Listening to the ball game on this would have been fun.
Things I liked
1) Quick responsive touch screen. Fairly easy to type on the screen. I did have to look at what I was typing. I haven’t had to do that in years. That would set back my typing habits.
2) Screen was clear and very legible. I do like the instant enlarge and shrink feature of the touch screen.
3) Hey, I could use it in the dark…. Could have been an e-book reader for me, but then….
Things I didn’t like:
1) Fingerprints. Touch screens and finger prints go hand in hand. Really nice display messed up by finger prints.
2) No Flash. I can understand why Apple doesn’t want it, but not everybody is ready for new web videos. No MLB.com
3) No, I would not buy this to be an e-reader. It does have a back-lit screen and after a while I noticed it was harder on my eyes.
How would I use one? Would I use one?
Well I was actually thinking of many ways that this could be used. The astronomy software just jumped out at me. With that I was thinking of how easy it would be to load this with the proper software and take things with me. It is easier to carry than a laptop so the portability is great. The screen is bigger than the iPod, iPhone and other devices of that type, so it is easier on this old guys eyes. The iPad is built for sharing things. Use it to take notes, load it with things you are working on. Take it over to a coworkers desk or a meeting room. For my job it would be extremely useful.
That being said, I don’t need it. The iPad isn’t jumping out at me like the e-book readers did. I could walk into an electronics store and not have an urge to buy one. I would use one if it was given to me, and use it often, but I think there it stops.
