TGIF

Found out Wed night that the pool will be opening a bit later than we expected. A cracked distribution switch makes for a $150 repair, IF we can find the parts. *sigh* They are looking now - should hear from them this weekend. The winter was HARSH, but I have a sneaky suspicion that this particular crack was caused by the landscaper we hired last year. I caught one of the workers sitting on the dist switch - the very one that is cracked now, right at one of the main support pipes. hmmmmm...

I watched Tomb Raider again the other night while Patty retired early - she's not feeling 100%, likely the mold in the air from 28 days of rain out of 30 this month! I have a bit of sinus trouble myself, but not so bad I can't watch Lara Croft!

I put a bunch of my favorite mp3 files on the Zaurus - it makes a very nice player! Now I need to find wireless earbuds with a tiny transmitter. :)

Repartitioned the external 80gb drive and reformatted it as a single 80gb NTFS volume. Got tired of the unstable fat32 partitions - apparently usb mass storage is not up to huge fat32 volumes. NTFS is more stable, in my limited experience. If I need to get to the info without an ntfs OS? I'll use Knoppix.

If someone would invent a way to connect a USB drive to the Zaurus... Now THAT would be great! Maybe have a CD-ROM drive for it as well? :)

I did a little checking - right now, the sweet spot as far as computer hardware is with the ASUS P4P800 motherboard, the Intel P4 2.8ghz HT CPU (800mhz FSB), and two 512mb Kingston PC3500 CAS2 DDR434/DDR400 RAM chips. This combination is $701 shipped from Newegg,com. Combine that with any of the GeForce4 or GeForceFX cards and you have one great system! Ah well, perhaps in a year or so I will be able to afford whatever is the sweet spot then. :) Purely an excercise in futility now. But I like to keep up with technology, even if I can't buy it all!
posted by MikeM at 8:29 AM    

 
Well, the cover is off the pool and the Pool Man is coming by today or tomorrow to officially open it up - add chemicals, start the pump, check everything out, flush the filter and prep it for the initial start-up. The water is green. Not attractive. This was a hard winter on the poor pool - there are repairs which need to be made, such as the weather strip around the concrete skirt - was partially evicted from it's seat, leaving a 3' chunk of it outside the seam. *sigh*

Finished the Draco Veritas fanfic novel. Only 12 chapters complete, with 7 more planned. Oh, how will I ever survive?!

Got several books from the www.baen.com website - yes, free books online! I downloaded a couple of Keith Laumer books - so far very entertaining, and will keep me happily reading on my Zaurus. This thing makes an awesome e-book reader!
posted by MikeM at 7:53 AM    

 
After the Matrix, we returned home and had a great ham dinner that couldn't be beat and watched "Catch Me If You Can", which was also very good.

I didn't get any computer stuff done, other than a little tweaking of the Sharp Zaurus' contents. I finished chapter 11 of the Draco Veritas fanfiction novel, and realized that it was uncomplete! Checked the website for more, and there was indeed a chapter 12. Out of 19 total. ARGH! Since Ch 11 was posted in Dec, and Ch 12 was just posted the 23rd of this month, I anticipate a bit of a wait before I can get to the end of this book!
posted by MikeM at 11:51 AM    

 
Sunday we watched Matrix - the original one - and then Monday we saw Matrix 2. I was impressed - very good plot and pacing, with good performances all around. I was a little put off by Morpheus' new 'evangelist' persona, however. This plot meshes nicely with the first movie, and moves the story along at a nice clip. The ending is cliffhangerish, but not to the point where people will howl for blood.

I have heard reviewers say that they didn't understand it at all - and to this all I can say is that the reviewers must not have seen the first one, and must not have been paying attention. The second movie makes perfect sense - the plot points are great, and build on the first one. If you are a computer geek/nerd type, you will understand subtle points that I can't go into here, but if you are not, ask your geek friends what they believe Agent Smith to have turned into.

Oh, watch ALL of the credits, there is a pretty decent teaser for the next Matrix movie at the very end of the reel.
posted by MikeM at 11:47 AM    

 
Tomorrow we see Matrix 2 - and have a nice ham dinner! Looking forward to that.

Today I think we are going shopping, perhaps I should get off of here and go, before it gets too late and everything closes?
posted by MikeM at 2:50 PM    

 
Yesterday Patty and I watched four more episodes of Buffy - she looked so YOUNG in the first season.

Played Galactic Battlegrounds some more - starting to lose interest. I usually do that with top-down wargames. Ah well. Back to my old favorite - Mechwarrior 4!

Of course, Deus Ex 2 comes out soon...
posted by MikeM at 2:48 PM    

 
Just started playing Star Wars Galactic BattleGrounds - Clone Wars - Not horrible. Reminds me of Impossible Creatures, and that one kept me interested for a week or so, even though it was just a limited demo. This one is the full version, so should have lots more interesting stuff in it.

Last night Patty and I watched the first three episodes of Buffy - the 1st season DVDs came in!

posted by MikeM at 7:18 AM    

 
So far so good! The computer still shuts down correctly. I just received that CF/SD card reader that I ordered, and it does the same thing that the sandisk one did - if seems to work until I put in a card, at which point it locks up the computer. I took it to work and installed it there, same problem. As a last-ditch effort I tried the SD instead of the CF, and it worked. Hmmm - perhaps my CF is messed up a bit? Maybe it cannot handle the 256mb cards?

In any event, it works fine with the 128mb SD card. I can use that to transfer whatever I need, and the docking station at home, so I am now connected to the Zaurus as I wanted to be.

Buffy was awesome Tuesday night - I expect a spinoff at some point in the near future, but I hope is based around Faith and not Dawn. :)

I'm up to chapter 5 of the Draco Veritas fanfic novel by Cassandra Claire. She is a great writer, and I am thoroughly enjoying her work. (Link below - 5/16)

I just downloaded a bunch of e-books in html format, and apparently have gone past the halfway point on my 256mb CF card in the Zaurus! I'll be pruning back a bit, I think.
posted by MikeM at 7:30 AM    

 
Oh, by the way, uninstalling the APC software with the cable detached resolved the shutdown problem. My computer now shuts down correctly!
posted by MikeM at 7:54 PM    

 
Wow - just finished Deus Ex. THREE endings. Save wisely! Put it this way, you can save once you have completed all but the final steps of each of the three options, then load from there and just do the last requirement. All three options are interesting, but I'm afraid that were I actually in this situation, I know exactly which option I would take. In order not to spoil it for those who may be playing in the future, let's just say that I like computers. **Grin**

A word of advice for anyone playing - DON'T USE THE GHOST CHEAT TO GO THROUGH WALLS! Especially in Hong Kong. Especially in the corporation building. Especially when you can't seem to find a passkey. That area is off limits, you come back later... if you cheat, you run the risk of screwing up the future portions of the game, and if you kill the wrong person, the game will lock completely up at one point.

Also, before you start, read the online FAQ at the website, and get the patch for your version. Patch is important if you want to play all the way through the game.

http://www.eidosinteractive.com/games/info.html?gmid=109 for the Game of the Year edition
http://www.eidosinteractive.com/games/info.html?gmid=50 for the older standard edition
posted by MikeM at 7:53 PM    

 
The blue screen of death with the comment "driver has corrupted the executive memory pool" was the final straw for the APC software. Every time the UPS would lose connection to the USB hub, or anything else went wrong with it, I would get that BSOD message. So, I disconnected the usb cable, coiled it up and stashed it in a drawer, and uninstalled the APC software. I would prefer to have a stable system without auto-shutdown as opposed to an unstable system that might auto-shutdown, that is if shutdown is working at all. I might reboot a few times and see if that fixed my shutdown problems.
posted by MikeM at 9:20 AM    

 
Returned the reader and bag, but also bought new ones from Buy.com. As well as a 128mb SD card. And Buffy the Vampire Slayer Season 1 on DVD. So I'm an impulse shopper. :)

Saturday was game day again! This time we went up against some of the most dangerous beasties yet! Two gricks made things interesting for a moment, then came a huge lizard that we made short work of, but then a roper nearly ended the entire game for us, until I spoke up and made a bargain with it for our lives. Then we fought a grey ooze - nasty, and a trio of Duergar, who were invisible at the time. Of course, so were we. On hindsight, it would have made more sense for me to have protected the entire party with 'protection from arrows' than invisibility, but it worked out OK. :)

Last night we saw X-Men 2 with a friend - great movie, far better than the first one, with actual cursing and death and such. Wolverine is no longer a pacifist wuss.

Today I'm going to try to work on Patty's website - it really needs an overhaul.
posted by MikeM at 9:18 AM    

 
Changed my mind - today after work I will be returning the flash reader and camera bag to CompUSA, and possibly getting a larger bag and a Dazzle flash reader - they get middling-good reviews. I'll verify that it is specified to work with my brand compactflash card. Everything is hunky-dory with it today - I can read the html version of the Draco Sinister fan fiction - awesome stuff, read all three! I'm currently on chapter 14 of Draco Sinister. Hope to begin Draco Veritas soon!
posted by MikeM at 7:50 AM    

 
I'm noticing a slowdown on the internet - if the cable-surge prot is the cause, it will have to go. We'll watch it for a while.

As for the SanDisk flash reader? Installed it, installed the latest drivers for it. No see my CF card. 'My Computer' hangs when I put a card in. It seems that everything is right, no driver or hardware problems, it just doesn't work with this card. *sigh* Reading on the web I find to my dismay that there are huge compatibility problems between makers of cards and makers of readers at this point. I'll hang onto the reader - maybe I'll find a patch. In the meantime, a co-worker has a perfectly good reader that cost a bit more but I know works with my card - used it today.

Since the card reader failed to work, I decided to go ahead and try the docking station once more, just for the heck of it. Today I had to re-flash OpenZaurus on the unit, and I set up the network stuff again. At home I uninstalled the IntelliSync software and re-installed the latest version.

Someone online mentioned that you had to connect the Zaurus to the cradle with it on, and remove it also with it on - don't turn it on or off in the cradle or it locks up occasionally. Use the 'STOP DEVICE' option in the removable media tray app. They also mentioned that once it was in the cradle, you had to verify that the security was set to 'any', that the network device was set to the proper IP, with the gateway being your PC. Then they mentioned the magic words - your PC ip address has to match what the gateway for the Zaurus is, and your gateway must be the Z's IP. HMMMM.

I did this, immediately got a ping, and was able to sync and transfer files to my heart's content! WOO!

So, I put all the apps up there that I needed, and installed the Opie Reader - and was able to read html files natively, even though it still doesn't load them automatically - you have to load them from inside the reader.

Now it is bedtime - and I will be sleeping soon. Goodnight!
posted by MikeM at 10:53 PM    

 
Today was a good day. I stopped by CompUsa on the way home, picked up a USB CompactFlash/SD media reader/writer from SanDisk ($20), two surge protectors ($20 ea), 50 CD-Rs ($17), and a small black camera bag to carry (I thought) the Zaurus and associated cables around easier. ($9)

The bag does not fit the Zaurus when it is in its nice leather holder. Works OK without the holder, but then why have it? Oh well.

Ripped apart all of the mangled and twisted wiring under my desk and re-wired everything logically, using wire-ties and proper routing. Everything is now on UPS battery outlets, with all of the important stuff on the main UPS and the secondary items on the old UPS. I even have the cable for the cable-modem running through a surge bar. Next - the two phone lines into the phone - need to be routed thru the surge prots first. Maybe tomorrow.

Booted everything up at once - no beeps. With everything on and working, I pull almost 400 watts. Nice! Gives me just a bit under 30 min on this APC XS-1500 UPS I have. The other UPS is barely loaded at all, but it keeps the phone, wireless stereo headphones, CD-player, and the Dell server running nicely.
posted by MikeM at 10:44 PM    

 
Well, yesterday I flashed the ROM on my Zaurus to install the OpenZaurus package in place of the default Sharp one, and everything looked wonderful. Until I got it home and tried to make it sync up with my PC - wouldn't even transfer files like it used to. Apparently the USB networking driver doesn't like the OpenZaurus software much. *sigh*. Maybe Brian knows a trick on how to make this work. I would really prefer to use OpenZaurus, as it is more user-friendly and has more applications for it than the default software, and I would like to use Intellisync to synchronize it with my Outlook. I researched this fairly thoroughly, and tried all the things that apparently worked for others. I can get the USB network on the Zaurus to show that it is UP, but then when the PC tries to connect it locks up the Z - to the point I have to do a hard-reset, which is not good.

Today I hope to get the software install packages onto the media card, at least then I can install the additional software I want to have on it!
posted by MikeM at 8:21 AM    

 
Monday at work we had a meeting to determine what computers/laptops/printers/fax machines/copiers/etc we were going to buy for the new office site - plus we made minor changes to the networking scheme and made plans to order the switches and router components we need.

Yesterday was spent researching the new computer configurations, tweaking the pricing and configuration info to make sure we get the best possible value. Dell has a great website for this sort of thing. So far it looks like the workhorse computers will be dual Xeon 2.66ghz with 120gb drives, 2gb ram, and Appian Rushmore quad-monitor cards (dual DVI outputs).

Last night when I got home, I installed the sync software for my new Zaurus SL-5500 on my home computer - took over an hour, as every time I went to install the USB drivers, it would fail to locate them - then if I dared turn off the zaurus in its cradle, or unplug the cradle from the usb hub, my computer would STOP - blue screen of death, with a memory pool error. This forces a reboot and disk check (where it found problems) so I was getting a bit peeved. Finally I plugged the cradle directly into the USB 2.0 PCI card in the computer, and it found the drivers immediately. I have no clue why this made a difference, but be warned.

Once the USB drivers installed, I chose the Intellisync software over Qtopia, and immediately synchronized with Outlook - works like a charm. Then I used the file transfer part of the software to send several files over, including the file manager and the terminal software. I also sent over the OpenZaurus ROM package, but haven't installed it yet. I downloaded several dozen other files for it from various websites. Did you know there is a Doom package for the Zaurus that looks as good or better than the original PC version? Quake, too!

I need to load all these packages on the 256mb card, but first I should learn more about the unit and how it stores data, where it stores it, etc.
posted by MikeM at 6:43 AM    

 
A lot has happened - let's get to it!

Friday evening my new Zaurus SL-5500 showed up - I installed the 256mb CF card and it saw it just fine! I tinkered with the unit a bit and then had to put it away.

Saturday bright and early we drove to Roanoke to see my mother and father, and spend some time with my grandmas as well! Dad's mother wasn't feeling too well, apparently she had pulled a muscle in her back while mowing the yard. We wished her well and left with Dad, intending on going out to eat. Then we called Mom to see what the plan was, and she had made arrangements to have burgers and BBQ (as well as a big BBQ planned for Sunday). We left Dad's after a bit and dropped in on my cousin Kerri - she just graduated from Va Tech and got a job right out of school! We are very proud of her! Returning to Mom's, we dropped in on the next door neighbor who was having a birthday party for his wife and invited us all over - so we had BBQ pork and excellent mac & cheese, as well as german chocolate brownies and many other good eats.

Sunday we slept late and began preparations for the BBQ that day - my brother Greg (an excellent cook) prepared a huge meal of chicken and ribs, which we dented considerably. Unfortunately, we had to leave fairly soon after eating, so we missed my other uncle and his family. We got home around 8pm, unpacked, and went to bed after a game of cards which I lost badly.

More later! BUFFY IS ON!
posted by MikeM at 8:04 PM    

 
Scott showed me an article that compared dozens of DVD writers currently available, and it looks like the best choice for me would be the Sony DRU500AX - an internal IDE model that supports DVD-R, DVD+R, DVD-RW, DVD+RW, CD-R, CD-RW, and a few other methods - it is the only one that supports this many formats, so would be a good bet to still be useful in 5 years or so, once all the formats have shaken out and a standard takes hold. At $300, it will have to wait a while though. Perhaps once the price drops by a third or so I'll be able to get one.

I was thinking about my DVD-RAM, and the DVD media it can read but not write to at the moment was all written with it's predecessor, and older Toshiba W1111 - which was capable of only 2.6/5.2gb media (2 sided flippable cartridge). This 2.6gb media works in the new W2002 drive, which is 4.7/9.4gb. I am starting to think I need to test it with a 4.7gb media - it may not be able to write to the older media that was formatted with the old drive. If it works with the new media, I'll need to buy another cartridge or two.

Played more Deus Ex last night, this time had the willpower to save the game and turn it off. Awesome game - this game is as good as Half Life - with better graphics. The plot involves a conspiracy theorist's worse nightmares, involving the Illuminati, Majestic 12, FEMA, the UN, several huge corporations, a couple of Triads, the Knights Templar, and a few other groups...
posted by MikeM at 7:41 AM    

 
I discovered that I can no longer write to my dvd-ram. Oh joy. No biggie - it was a waste of money anyway. Nice toy. I am not sure if I will take it out and sell it - and get a real DVD writer, that I can watch in a DVD player - or just leave it as is. No hurry either way. I think re-installing the software might fix it, but I'll wait on that as well.

Last night I finished the last Amber novel! Great series, but a huge lot of pages. The book is 2+ inches thick, and its a trade paperback size. Brian gets to be its next victim, I think.

Now I start on a book that has been a favorite since childhood, even though I have never read the entire collected works. The Complete Tales & Poems of Winnie The Pooh, 75th Anniversary Edition. Another large and heavy book - hardback. Should be fun!

This weekend we are going to Roanoke to see my family for the first time since Patty and I were married - we will be taking Mom out for dinner for Mother's Day, and spending some time with Dad and the rest of the family as well. I always enjoy visiting Roanoke - hometowns are like that.
posted by MikeM at 6:49 AM    

 
Well, yesterday was my birthday - had a happy one! Patty sent me a card online, and made me several nice items in dark chocolate - including some chocolate corn pops clusters. YUM! For my birthday present, I bought myself (with full permission) a Sharp Zaurus SL-5500 from Ebay for $196.50 shipped, as well as a 256mb memory card for $48 and a nice tri-fold leather case for $16. Not too bad for an item that alone retails for nearly $400! I should have it sometime next week, if everything goes well.

Last night I played Deus Ex until after midnight, then realized that I had neglected to pay the bills. So after paying all the bills, I got into bed around 1am. 5:40 wakeup call. *snore* Deus Ex is three times the game that Unreal II is. So far I have played for over 40 hours - Unreal II took only 12 total! I have found some linear aspects to Deus Ex, but for the most part you are able to choose between many alternate routes or methods of achieving the mission goal. You can choose to be ruthless or kind, brazen or sneaky, etc. One note for all you god-mode players, when you save the game and exit, you have to re-enable cheats when you reload. Also, god mode gets turned off. A lot. During the game, after loading a new section, check. At each new mission - you better check. I have died several times because god mode turned off when loading new sections - usually it stays on, but they are sneaky and reset it just before big fights.
posted by MikeM at 7:59 AM    

 
Saturday - Patty went to a huge flea market in VA, and I stayed home and played Deus Ex for 12 hours solid. I really like this game - there are multiple ways to achieve the various missions, and I have managed to play the double agent a few times. The AI is really great, and I have noticed several times where the various characters in the game have picked up on clues that I was surprised they noticed, like a footstep or the click of a lightswitch.

Sunday we played again - I haven't updated the roleplay site in months, and I really need to get caught up. Hopefully I'll have everything up to date sometime this week.
posted by MikeM at 10:25 AM    

 
Friday - Went to a new office site - we will be moving the office to this new site within 3-4 months, assuming that construction remains on schedule. Should be an excellent site, and we are making cabling and furniture decisions now.

At home that night, I burned six Red Hat 9.0 CDs from the ISOs I brought home thursday evening, and began the install on the Dell box (Rasputin). Once the install finished, I played around a bit. The new KVM switch is awesome, and the screen graphics are once more crisp and beautiful. I was able to switch to the Dell, watch the install, then switch back to my main system and watch the CD burning process. Nice! The Dell is not on a network right now, so none of that stuff is configured, but I was surprised that the install never asked me for a computer name. Maybe that doesn't apply on a DHCP system? Which reminds me, I do wish there was an option for NON-NETWORKED as well as DHCP and Fixed IP. It takes it an extra 45-60 seconds to boot while the network detection times out during boot. Minor, but annoying. I'm eventually going to update the website regarding Rasputin and the main unit, Trotsky. Stalin is still in the closet - might bring it out and try to get Red Hat installed on it as well. Then maybe I can sell it. :)
posted by MikeM at 10:21 AM    

 
Things to keep in mind when using an external USB 2.0 drive:

Windows 2000 has a 32gb per partition limit on a FAT32 system. Learned this after 1.5 hrs of format time for an 80gb drive. Failed at 100%. *sheesh* I then partitioned it into 11/26/26/17 gb chunks and they all formatted nicely. (The existing internal 60 is partitioned as 10/25/25 gb).

Windows 2000 also has a 4gb filesize limit on a FAT32 system. After an hour of MSBACKUP - was to be an 11gb file of all the important stuff from all three drives - it failed after about 20 min - out of drive space. *sigh* So I made 3 separate backups, keeping each one under 4gb, and they all worked fine. Love these hidden limitations. At least that got the important portions backed up. The parts I dropped from the backup can be easily restored from CD. I could have used NTFS, which does not have the 32gb partition limit or the 4gb filesize limit, but then I wouldn't be able to use the drive on other machines as easily. I may end up reformatting it in the future, but for now this will suffice.

Next, a file by file copy of each internal disk partition to the corresponding external disk partition. Will take a while the first time through, but after that I should just have to connect the drive and re-synchronize them, using the internal as master.
posted by MikeM at 7:55 AM