The Time Sink

Yep, we made it home okay. I just never made it to the update... We had more than the usual amount of unpacking and associated work to do once we got in: Daniel has a birthday party tomorrow (it's early, but next week he's in school), so we couldn't just drop things wherever and pick and sort and unpack like we usually do.

That also meant I had to get all the computer stuff and the book bags out of the kitchen post haste. You see, I never quite know in advance what I'll end up in the mood to do while I'm doing nothing, so I take a collection along. Sometimes I read light works, other times I'll research something, often I just escape. ...and sometimes I just try to stay even with the newspaper.

This time seemed to sort itself out to learning more about JavaScript and re-reading some H. Beam Piper...

Just before we left, I found The Complete Paratime, a collection of Piper's Paratime stories including Lord Kalvan. That made for some good beach reading...

A tip of the hat to a regular Daynotes reader:

From: Dan Bowman
To: John Dominik
Subject: Your Redirector

...isn't.

Still stuck on last week,

dan
still stuck

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From: John Dominik
To: DanBowman

Just like me - wandering the wilds ... This is what happens when you update on your hard drive and then forget to transfer... ;-)

Fixed now... The redirector. Me, still lost and wandering... ;-)

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From: Dan Bowman
To: John Dominik

Been there, done that; have the Don Armstrong Commemorative T-shirt,

dan

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From: John Dominik
To: DanBowman

Funny you should mention him... he beat you to it. ;-)

...and that's a big thanks to Don for all the editorial work he does for the Daynotes Gang.

So, last night, in the midst of cleaning in preparation for the kid's party at the house (after we get done playing urban assault at the local laser parlor this afternoon), I got a touch of the geek whimsy and threw a Mandrake 7.1 HDD (that was scheduled for a reload) into that pen-based unit to see what would happen. I had no expectations other than hoping I wouldn't damage the video system. ...and I'd never tried a Linux HDD swap.

Interesting... It took the drive. Sure, the drive was set up on a P-120 laptop, but I didn't expect what I ended up with: a working system. The machine booted and Mandrake discovered some things were missing and let me delete them. More importantly, it found the new video system and didn't even want to try 800*600. That was a Good Thing, since those pads will only do 640*480. ...downhill. ...with a tailwind.

All in all, the experience was just that: another data point on the learning curve. ...but a nice one to have; at this point I can move forward and see if the pad will recognize that external SCSI CDROM. If I can do that, I'll have an easy route to a clean install.

No, I don't think I want to use one as a replacement for the laptop... Maybe... Dunno'...

I do know that I would like to try a base RedHat install to one of the 128mb solid state drives I have available. If I can pull that off, I could use one of these as a firewall. Think about it: low power, configurable to my specs, the modem hanging off the serial port, a NIC in one of the PCMCIA slots, and maybe even a wireless NIC in the other PCMCIA slot...

Yeah, I'd still have to deal with the heat issue for 24*7 operation, but I've found a hack for that. Unfortunately, I doubt I'll be getting back to this one until later in the week...

Ya' know, I really need to read Dave's Daily Drivel before I start playing around with things. I'd have saved myself at least some worrying:

I can install TurboLinux 6.0 on a 386SX, then take out the hard drive and put it in a Pentium IV and it'll boot.

Sheesh...

Brian has one this morning I may suggest to Shelley:

My next house will have no kitchen--just vending machines and a large trash can.

I mean, like, really, you see, like, man, you know, in a year or three we'll have a teenager. I can see the food prep area moving from a sunk cost to a profit center.

I will need to find a coin-op microwave first...

John says my plan won't work because the boys will need an income. ...and I'm that income.

That's okay; it's called 'churning'... If the cash stays in the house, that's fine with me. Heck, I'll even work out something in the way of frozen pizza; that seems to be a favorite...

...and I am glad the last two days are over: work's been a load. So it's now close enough to call it 'the weekend' and time to take a load off. The barbecue is already preloaded with mesquite and all I have to do is fire it off when I wake up.

Okay, I made it to vertical mode. Cognitive functions appear to be only partially on-line...

The ribs went on about 0830 with a rub instead of a mop, details later if they turn out. The tri-tip went on about 1000. Now it's time for a break before company comes.

Yeah, no rest quite yet: Shelley's dad will be here in a bit with his wife; and Grandma Cox will join us for Daniel's 'adult' (read: older, quieter crowd) birthday get together.

Man, I don't know if we can officially declare summer over; but, if I get a vote...

Daniel's "Grandparent's Party" went over real well and the meat turned out overdone but okay. Yeah, less cooking time and a mop on earlier. The rub worked out well though, just enough sealing action to keep the meat from drying out. Saved my tail, even though that portion of the show was billed as an experiment.

...and school starts tomorrow. ...in almost a "Why Bother" style: it's an early release day. Oh, well; let them work up to it...