It’s going… going…

Posted by Photonstopper on December 1, 2007
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It was cold (about 30 degrees) and breezy at about 9:30 PM when I went outdoors to check on Comet Holmes. The weather lately has not been hospitable to observing what with clouds, rain, and even a bit of snow. Tonight the sky was briefly very clear overhead. Aiming into Perseus with my binoculars I fished about only briefly before spotting the cometary cloud very high overhead. It has grown even larger than it was but has faded dramatically. Even with our "clear" skies, light pollution and the dimness of the object made it impossible to see without the binoculars. Predicted weather for the next few days is mostly cloudy with rain and snow, so this glimpse at the sky is apparently about all I'll be seeing for a while. It's going… going….

Update: I went out again at 10:30 to try and take a look at Mars but the sky had gone from clear to mostly cloudy. {Sigh!}

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Winter is setting in

Posted by Photonstopper on November 30, 2007
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Cold Mill Stream
Cold Mill Stream

Today is a day off for me since I worked Saturday and Sunday last weekend. I ran errands midday: to the Post Office, recycle center, heating/cooling supply shop for filters, Taco Bell for lunch, and Staples for the heck of it. Along the way I stopped by the Mill Stream Reservation of Cleveland Metroparks in Strongsville, Ohio. The land there is a large wildlife preserve with a tiny parking lot and observation blind at one end — it's good to see the wetland set aside for wildlife. The chilly wind was whipping up, stinging my ears and bare hands as I held my camera for a few shots. Overhead I heard the call of a single chickadee and later the screech of an unseen hawk. Aside from a couple groups of mallard ducks bobbing about in the stream and on the ice-skinned pond, the woods and waters were largely quiet. Winter is setting in.

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The end for DirecTV?

Posted by Photonstopper on November 26, 2007
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We've subscribed to DirecTV satellite service for many years. That goes back to the days when we lived in Cleveland and the city had no cable TV service. Satellite gave us lots of programming, excellent customer service, and at a price lower than cable when cable became available. Sunday morning we had a power outage of about two minutes. When the power came back our DirecTV receiver rebuilt its channel list the way it normally would in such a situation. The difference this time was that our local channel satellite feed was gone. No matter what I tried I couldn't get the local channels back. We get lousy off-air reception except for a couple of digital channels so we really want those satellite local channels. A call to DirecTV customer service didn't resolve the situation… the guy said we should buy a new receiver. Well I have to say that sounds bogus. We're receiving all of our other satellite channels with good strength only the local channels have disappeared — channels we must pay a surcharge to receive this way! Stupid. So AT&T's U-Verse IP television and Internet service package is looking better all the time; it also isn't affected by weather the way DirecTV is. Kind of hate to say goodbye to our satellite provider but customer support means a lot and I didn't get it Sunday. I'll try again tonight and what happens then may just be the deciding factor!

UPDATE: Tonight I unplugged the receiver so that I could connect it to a spare UPS I had laying around. Kind of clunky but I figured it would be good to protect the satellite receiver, stereo receiver, and the DVD player from power problems including brief blackouts. I called DirecTV customer service to give them one more chance. Just as I was finishing my explanation of our situation I checked the on-screen channel guide and –surprise– the local channels were back! All I can figure is mebbe having the receiver unplugged from power for a longer time may have completed the reset it needed whereas it didn't get fully reset with an intentionally short power-down. Or mebbe it was DirecTV's fault and they didn't want to fess up. In any case, the DirecTV support woman said she thought when I was working on the equipment I must've jiggled the antenna cable just right to restore service. BLOCKHEAD! The satellite feed is a "1" or a "0" — it's either connected or it's not so you'll always get all or nothing. A loose cable isn't going to cause most channels to be listed and leave out a few. Where did they go? Did they leak out on to the floor?? Sheesh! DirecTV support used to be fast and effective — call 'em up, within a few seconds you were talking to a real person, and the problem got resolved. Now, once you get past the horrible phone answering system, it's little help and a lot of sales talk. A year or so back we also had a less-than-pleasant experience with their local on-site service provider who tried to trick us into signing a service contract! We have our local channels back now (no thanks to "them") but this experience has really soured me on DirecTV. It still may be time to move on and the end for DirecTV.

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No change for Missy

Posted by Photonstopper on November 26, 2007
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I heard from Dr. B. today regarding Missy's fructosamine test result. He said it was higher than he would like but that it is better than it was. He advised staying at our present insulin dose and we're to have another test in December. Missy's geriatric system may not be able to achieve the same high level of control as a younger cat's. We also need to be careful not to send her into a diabetic seizure by using too much insulin! So there's no change for Missy right now.

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QotD: Computer Recycling

Posted by Photonstopper on November 25, 2007
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Have you ever recycled an old computer or laptop?  Where did you take it, and what steps did you take to protect your personal information?

The data aspect of this question is really pretty easy. With any PC that I dispose of, so long as the hard drive works, I simply run Darik's Book and Nuke. The hard drive is wiped of the licensed OS, applications, and all data that ever existed on it. If the hard drive doesn't work, I tear it apart and physically destroy it. Then it's tossed. I sleep well knowing my data are safely removed or inaccessable. Then there's the hardware…

The recycling aspect of this question is the worst! Even when you, in good conscience, deliver a computer to a group, company, or agency that is supposed to "recycle" it, there is a really good chance that bad things will happen. The computer hardware may wind up as someone else's environmental problem instead of being properly disassembled, materials recycled, and safely disposed of. The issue of proper disposal of electronics is a real and growing environmental concern for the whole world and needs serious attention — much of this junk winds up in Third World countries. I agonize over this every time I get rid of some old device –computer or not– but just try my best to do the right thing. As of now, about all I can do is turn the thing over to local government and hope they get the job done right.

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Ouch!

Posted by Photonstopper on November 25, 2007
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I took off Saturday's work to make an appointment at the doctor's office — I needed to get my now-infected bite looked after. It was a half-hour wait after my on-time arrival when I finally was seen and explained my situation to the nurse-practitioner on duty. (Normally it would tick me off to wait that long but I was just happy to get in.) By then my right index finger and part of my palm were tender and swollen with reddening skin all around the bites. As expected she prescribed a tetanus shot and a week-long course of oral antibiotics to help knock down the infection. The nurses and the nurse-practitioner that tended me were all very good though the practitioner asked "is the cat still alive?" Yes, she is, and though I didn't punish Missy, she got no reward "fancy food" after the incident! By the time I left the office it was about 2 PM so I didn't bother to go back to work (the office was about an hours' drive). It was kind of fun having unexpected time off but it felt like hooky. The evening was spent watching TV movies –so much Christmas holiday programming already– and Sweetie decided we would watch Christmas With the Kranks on DVD — more Christmas programming! The Kranks movie was very good. It had been long enough that I'd forgotten much of the detail. When bed time came, oh-oh! the tetanus injection site on my right arm was sore! Sleeping on my side was very uncomfortable … I'd forgotten what immunizations feel like! Nevertheless, I slept well and awoke this morning with the redness and swelling fading from my hand. My arm, however, still feels like I'd gotten punched there good. Ouch! 

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Thanksgiving bites

Posted by Photonstopper on November 24, 2007
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We had a nice Thanksgiving visit with family in Northwestern Ohio. Mom is doing well; she's even looking at replacing her landline telephone with a cellular phone to reduce the cost and call her children daily to "check in." We also visited my my sister and her family. A tour of my nephew's recently-purchased fixer-upper house was included. The house needs plenty of work everywhere you look. He had already hired a new roof installed on the 900-square-foot place. Now there's painting, flooring, wiring, plumbing, and all the other "ings" needed to make the place livable. It'll be a great place for a young bachelor… a little house on a big lot with a view of the Maumee River! Really grand. Near the road, on his property, is an ancient inn — the main structure was apparently built in about 1900. The roof is completely shot but the walls are ceramic block. Restoration will mean huge amounts of labor but it could be worth it. He'd like to use it as a sort of club for his friends and himself. I could see it being renovated into a guest house and rented out. Either way, the residence takes precedence and the bank dictates it must be in livable/salable condition within six months. Once completed I believe he'll see a big return on his investment some day. In the mean time it will be a great place to live.

Friday morning Missy was in a grouchy mood. Instead of simply yowling in protest over having me stuff a tablet into her mouth she hissed and aggressively bit my hand! She had never bitten me so hard before; I could feel one of her lower teeth hooked beneath the skin of my right palm, at the base of my index finger. One of her upper teeth penetrated, though not so deeply, the back of my hand. I didn't punish her. I did get the pill into her. The wound has become infected as I feared it would. (Cat bites usually do get infected.) Today (Saturday) she took her medicine without trouble and I've got an appointment to get my hand looked after. It will probably involve antibiotics and a tetanus booster injection. She's still a "good ol' cat" but this was reminder she's also a sharp-toothed force to be reckoned with!

Sweetie and I did a couple of errands Friday morning (after the bite). Then we headed to the observatory where we installed plastic sheeting over the office windows on the inside. I'm hoping the sheets will help the room heater keep the office above freezing this winter. Good timing on the effort… it got down to 28 degrees (F) or so last night! We headed home via state route instead of freeway and had a very nice afternoon. I made dinner –baked spaghetti– and we later watched a DVD of the comedy movie Knocked Up. It's a sex comedy and tells the story of the maturation (over nine months) of a very immature guy as the woman he got pregnant deals with her situation. Very funny with a good base story but for adult audiences only due to adult situations, nudity, and loads and loads of foul language.

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Good ol’ cat

Posted by Photonstopper on November 20, 2007
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To the vet with Missy this afternoon. It was time to see how well her blood sugar level was being controlled. It turns out she's doing very well indeed. Her weight is 9.1 lbs., up a bit from last visit when it was up to 8.9 lbs., and a good, healthy weight for a cat her size. Her blood glucose was 68.7 — tested twice because Dr. B. couldn't believe it. That puts her blood glucose at a "low-normal" level, way down from the last visit when it was 387. The fructosamine test will be back tomorrow (Wednesday) and will be a better indicator of just how well she is doing — glucose can rise and fall rapidly depending upon a number of factors. She was cringing, yowling, and growling during the exam and blood taking and was, as usual, ever so happy to get back into her carrier. In the waiting room after the exam she got feline treats which she ate enthusiastically — a trick she repeated at the food bowl when she got home. Good ol' cat.

UPDATE: The fructosamine result was 483 (normal is 172-370) which indicates, on average, that Missy's blood sugar level is running high. Her insulin regimen will likely need some tweaking and, I'm guessing, it will involve twice-a-day injections to smooth out the ebb and flow of blood glucose. We're to speak with Dr. B. next week.

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Rainy but nice

Posted by Photonstopper on November 19, 2007
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Saturday was dark and rainy as was Saturday night. Our scheduled observatory open night, of course, was canceled due to opaque skies. The good thing was the decision was easy; no partly-cloudy skies to tease us! I hope nobody showed up… my predecessor in the job used to open for visitors even if the telescope couldn't be used due to weather. Not me! So we stayed home and watched a film I never heard of —Noel— picked up at Target for cheap. Turns out it was a fair movie: not predictable except that it contained at least one "Christmas miracle." It boasts a strong cast including, uncredited, Robin Williams whose character gets his Christmas wish. Well, I won't tell you what his wish is >>no spoilers here<< but it's probably not what you think.

The weather was better on Sunday. She ran the oven's cleaning cycle and cleaned the racks in the morning. Then we went out for a Taco Bell lunch and a little shopping excursion to Medina just to get out of the house. We made a quick stop at Petiti's Garden Center which is now all decked out for Christmas. The real reason for the stop was to pick up gravel to ballast the base for a Christmas tree idea She came up with. More on that project and a photo or two later!

After a stop at Medina's Target for cat litter and to stock up on bottled beverages (Vitamin Water), we stopped in at an intriguing new place: Good Taste Wine and Food Shop. Wonderful food smells greeted us as we entered the modern building. We were greeted warmly by staff and wandered around the place: part kitchen shop, part cooking school, and part restaurant. Not much for non-carnivores, nonetheless a pleasant visit.

Autumn Sunday
Autumn Sunday

It turned out Medina was having their annual holiday kick-off on their Public Square: their Candlelight Walk weekend. It was late afternoon when we visited but there were horse-drawn carriage and wagon rides and stores were open that usually are not open on Sundays. The square and it's old buildings are charming and beautiful. Nearby big box stores have hurt the little guys in noticeable ways but, every now and again, some uniqueness shows up. The business mix regularly changes and we miss a couple of shops we came to treasure there. We did stop by the (genuine) "army surplus" store (where I picked up a pair of woolen glove liners), a home decor shop, and a hobby store. As we were packing into the car to head home I saw a beautiful scene: a church steeple rising from behind colorful autumn trees. I grabbed my camera and got a few shots from the courthouse parking lot. Off to home where I cooked up a nice pot of bean and spinach soup, enjoyed with crusty sourdough bread. The weekend started off rainy but ended nice.

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Further adventures in IT

Posted by Photonstopper on November 15, 2007
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Tonight I get to transfer our email system and files from an old server to a powerful new one. The process is actually pretty simple –at least that's the way it looks– but very time consuming. After installing the email server software on the new machine, I had to wait until we closed for the day so that I could stop the old server and copy all of the system and user files. The best way I have to do that is a two gigabyte USB drive. I had forgotten, however, that the old server is USB 1.x which can be very s-l-o-w.  So here I am blogging while the files get copied. I check in now and again for progress and problems. It hasn't been an hour yet (it's 10 PM) but I actually thought I might be done by now. Silly me! Fortunately the new server is USB 2.x so putting the files in their new home should go quickly. And so I wait.  Once this is all done the system should be exceptionally fast and much more reliable — the old server had been crashing on a regular basis.

The USB filled up at about 10:45 PM … just slightly shy of completing the copy job! I was pretty sure I'd have space left over in that 2 GB. So now I'm emptying the USB on to the new server and I'll have to figure out what did not get copied. That can be a real trick! We'll see how I do tonight or wait for screams and hollers tomorrow!

Well the files copied across just fine and very fast. I couldn't figure out what was missing. But after a couple of hours working though file permission problems –the software did not configure things the way it should have– I think I have everything working and most things in place. It's 1:34 AM. Ugh. A broadcast email to all users and then home for a couple of hours of sleep. Then back in by 9 AM to see how things really are going!

FINALLY (Friday): The project turned out just fine. Very tired Thursday at work and, after an 8.5-hour day, at home but fairly happy about the outcome. It seems the data that didn't get copied were the database for our individual address books. Went to the old server, copied the database, deposited it on the new server, and the address books were restored! Only one glitchy thing to fix regarding my administrative access –more permissions issues– but I'm pretty happy with the outcome. Most users didn't notice that there had been a major move except that the server performs better and (so far) more reliably. That's the outcome I had hoped for and about as good as this business gets.

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