tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67231956869647080792024-02-28T15:44:27.735-08:00Software SojournerTinker, Tailor, Soldier, SRE, SWE ... the further adventures of Drew Derbyshire, Software Engineer.Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.comBlogger179125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-9122257351715027392024-02-20T12:17:00.000-08:002024-02-20T12:43:39.805-08:00The World's Most Expensive Arcade Emulator?<p>At least <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2023/11/spawn-of-cerberus.html">one of the three heads</a> of <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2023/10/last-of-v8-interceptors.html">xena, the warrior system</a> now has multiple purposes (for a sufficiently loose definition of purpose).</p><p>Last year, I put <a href="https://retropie.org.uk/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;">RetroPie</span></a> (a wrapper for <a href="https://www.mamedev.org/" target="_blank"><span style="font-family: courier;">MAME</span></a>, the Multi-Arcade Machine Emulator) on a dedicated <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2023/05/the-games-computers-play.html">Raspberry Pi 3B+</a>, and <a href="https://www.dosbox.com/information.php?page=0"><span style="font-family: courier;">DOSBox</span></a> (a game oriented MS-DOS emulator) on a spare Raspberry Pi 4B. (They could not share the same machine because <span style="font-family: courier;">RetroPie</span> needs an older OS version, but the newer faster Raspberry Pi 4B needs a newer OS.) The <span style="font-family: courier;">MAME</span> host was fine, and the <span style="font-family: courier;">DOSBox</span> host worked reasonably well but was running flat out with newer games. </p><p>I love Raspberry Pi units for their low power consumption, which is why I run a use one for our router and two others to run emulated IBM mainframes on them 24x7. But none of those units clutter my office desk; the two game emulator hosts sit mostly powered off right under my nose.<br /><br />xena is also on the KVM at my desk, but while she's physically huge she is <a href="https://kitten.kew.com/2011/11/photo-friday-office-catpacity.html">completely out of the way</a> <i>under</i> the desk. When running Ubuntu Linux, she supports <b>both</b> <span style="font-family: courier;">RetroPie</span> and <span style="font-family: courier;">DOSBox</span>, and while she is ten years older than the Raspberry Pi units, she was built for top of the line performance, not cheap efficiency. That means that even today she can handle <span style="font-family: courier;">MAME</span> more easily than any Raspberry Pi.<br /><br />So yesterday both <span style="font-family: courier;">RetroPie</span> and <span style="font-family: courier;">DOSBox</span> got migrated to xena, freeing the two Raspberry Pi units for other nefarious purposes away from my desk. xena has purpose!<br /><br /><br /></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-20340362570195799082024-01-27T10:23:00.000-08:002024-01-27T21:54:57.925-08:00Been There, Broke that<p> </p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2gKX-0xcz5nYpKN96Rou80M1hc69s_CUfviEqlQZApF9OordHvtbK7dQ-GbnKAswDu3i8Vu3P4iwCrgUF-6c9agkY4wAJCS4OkGHF_MGTZ_NCG6Wu3KpPCWu5EFfhjx91dqoL8tBfiZCsNSfkshWPN5aS7SYbjKE4AY9__Rj0c0dGDoZOg4y5_-eYr3o" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3098" data-original-width="2459" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEg2gKX-0xcz5nYpKN96Rou80M1hc69s_CUfviEqlQZApF9OordHvtbK7dQ-GbnKAswDu3i8Vu3P4iwCrgUF-6c9agkY4wAJCS4OkGHF_MGTZ_NCG6Wu3KpPCWu5EFfhjx91dqoL8tBfiZCsNSfkshWPN5aS7SYbjKE4AY9__Rj0c0dGDoZOg4y5_-eYr3o=w317-h400" width="317" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Old (torn) Strap Top, Spare Strap Bottom</b></td></tr></tbody></table><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I've previously noted that I torque my right leg and thus <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2023/01/new-improved-revisited.html">the right foot strap tends to slip off</a> my exercise bike. It happens enough I usually check (and have reset) it every time I use the bike. Of course, this increases the wear on the pedal strap, and I discovered it was torn this morning.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">This is no big deal because I've got spare straps. I grabbed one, verified it was a right (not left) strap, and went to install it. that's when I looked at it closely, and realized it was not actually a new strap: it was already torn.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;">Time to check the rest of the inventory, more carefully, and toss any other dead straps.<br /><br />(And yes, if you look carefully in the photograph, <i>both</i> straps are torn.)<br /><br /><b>Update</b>: I had three open sets of straps, and <i>all </i>the right pedal straps were torn; I threw them all out. I had one sealed set, used the right pedal strap from that, and ordered two more sets.</span></p></div><p></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-16149796604446034802024-01-26T13:26:00.000-08:002024-01-26T13:46:14.424-08:00Voodoo Hardware, Unearthed<p style="text-align: left;"></p><p><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDBIulYCm0c_QkqLtB-XMqQfNEQjIE44T4qAwgyx0HyLhr99zeqe3xFQCDt1CB-3utccqhvqQF4KA7cNzRM6ALOcig0bced_JVJR9pXXF5ZmFde-AmtgeV5O14TfIHlJx1kDgk2Wpz1HKfthIeIStseErx5VQLRck-nzRJI8nRtKxTyI_Q_qT_e07yTHQ" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="640" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhDBIulYCm0c_QkqLtB-XMqQfNEQjIE44T4qAwgyx0HyLhr99zeqe3xFQCDt1CB-3utccqhvqQF4KA7cNzRM6ALOcig0bced_JVJR9pXXF5ZmFde-AmtgeV5O14TfIHlJx1kDgk2Wpz1HKfthIeIStseErx5VQLRck-nzRJI8nRtKxTyI_Q_qT_e07yTHQ=w480-h640" width="480" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Thermometer Used in My Previous Offices</b></td></tr></tbody></table></p><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">OK this is truly strange.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">This is the thermometer I used for years when I worked in an office to check the building temperature versus my perception. It's a WYSIWYG device; it shows the current temperature and that's </span><b style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><i>it</i></b><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I haven't used it since I left Google, and of course the battery was quite dead. Today, I was curious about the temperature in my office closet and had a spare battery; I threw the battery in. </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">The thermometer displayed a reasonable temperature about a degree low compared to my office thermometers (one is my office thermostat and the other is a weather station with three remote sensors); that's fine, the two thermometers don't always agree with each other exactly.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">But then things got weird.</span></span></p><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I've flipped it over to see the back of the case, and when I flipped it back and could see the display again, the LCD suddenly had "Mem" in a corner. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">(It has <b><i>no</i></b> buttons to turn on a memory function or any other display. It just <i><b>doesn't</b></i>.)</span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I power cycled it (by removing & replacing the battery), and it powered up with "Min" & "Max" also showing. </span><br /></span><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I power cycled it, and it powered up with a clock display (WFH?). </span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span>I power cycled it, and it powered up with a blank display.</span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"><span style="font-size: medium;">I power cycled it, and it powered up flashing.</span></span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><div style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I power cycled it, and it powered up with just the current temperature. </span><br /><br /><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I quit while I was ahead (or least breaking even).
I set it aside, putting the thermometer in my (chilly) office closet, which was in fact the planned original destination.</span></span></div></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-70220754187735349472023-12-30T20:19:00.000-08:002023-12-31T21:17:20.531-08:00… And a Partridge in a Pear Tree<p>I <a href="https://hachyderm.io/@swhobbit/111659822170707193">mentioned to a friend</a> that if he cannot describe <a href="https://scottstuff.net/posts/2023/12/27/home-network/">his home network</a> setup in under 500 characters, I doubt "home networking setup" is the proper description. <br /><br />That may also be true of our own LAN, but it's seriously simpler than <b>his</b>. To wit …<br /><br />Ziply Fiber gives us residential 1 Gb/s FiOS service with DHCP.</p><p>Behind the router (below), the primary network is a flat /18 address space. Multiple physical machines host virtual and/or emulated machines, and internally route packets destined for them.</p><p>The primary switch is a ~ 2007 24 port 1 Gb/s Netgear unit; 4 8 port Netgear units help in various rooms. (Collectively, they can be thought of as Dumb & Dumber.)</p><p>3 eero 6 units provide both our primary Wifi access and a guest Wifi network. We'd use one of <i>them</i> as the router, but they don't support IPv6 tunneling via 6in4.</p><p>The router is a Raspberry Pi 4 CM plugged into a dual Ethernet Seed Studio board using OpenWrt; it runs services for:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>NAT services & port forwarding</li><li>An IPv6 tunnel (via 6in4) to Hurricane Electric</li><li>DHCP server</li><li>Dynamic DNS to publish our IPv4 address</li></ul><p></p><p>A Raspberry Pi 3B Plus runs services for:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>NTP</li><li>DNS</li><li>git</li><li>SMTP relay</li></ul><div>All residence devices have fixed IPv4 addresses known to DNS and DHCP.</div><p>As for the devices actually on the network, it has (not counting virtual/emulated devices) :</p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>13 streaming devices </li><li>10 computers</li><li>10 IoT Devices </li><li>6 tablets</li><li>2 watches</li><li>2 iPhones</li><li>an iPod</li><li>a game console <i>and</i></li><li>a printer </li></ul><p><b>p.s.</b> most importantly about the network — Our network manager of 31 years is <a href="https://www.kew.com/gallery/creatures/kewms-monitor-97.jpg" target="_blank">Binkley the Ether Bunny</a>.</p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-22505649902513929932023-11-07T07:53:00.002-08:002023-11-07T07:53:38.651-08:00Spawn of Cerberus<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> <span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; white-space-collapse: preserve;">It's official, I've got a silicon relative of Cerberus under my desk. </span></span></p><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; transition-property: none !important;"><span style="font-family: arial;">The xena, The Warrior System, can now run:</span></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;"><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>MacOS Ventura (or its older sibling, OS X El Capitan)</li><li>Windows 10 (with it hosting Ubuntu running under WSL v1)</li><li>Ubuntu 22.04.3</li></ul></div></div><div class="x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r x1vvkbs xtlvy1s x126k92a" style="animation-name: none !important; background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 15px; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; overflow-wrap: break-word; transition-property: none !important; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><div dir="auto" style="animation-name: none !important; font-family: inherit; transition-property: none !important;">Now I just gotta find a use for at least some of its many talents (beside space heater).</div></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-4547431827417214752023-11-03T11:16:00.007-07:002023-11-03T11:29:45.358-07:00Planned Obsolescence: Avoided!<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkS9JsoE1h9FIIgodrQW-7LYbsWGAbH668Ul18LH57Ahi7c2r0G_jg_JsnUhyphenhyphen-p-v3TG_bMKQY5maHQa80THMsDbwLte_30698hJ8JIP4r8JTBv9XMXaW2qc6NkpuxA3YX7sfedLTCRN7ranU0GXRkXZ_CcD2QGfQbsx-3GPAMPSTwg0t96-pAoq6JL7Y/s2436/Eero%20Perfomance%20Report.PNG" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2436" data-original-width="1125" height="400" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjkS9JsoE1h9FIIgodrQW-7LYbsWGAbH668Ul18LH57Ahi7c2r0G_jg_JsnUhyphenhyphen-p-v3TG_bMKQY5maHQa80THMsDbwLte_30698hJ8JIP4r8JTBv9XMXaW2qc6NkpuxA3YX7sfedLTCRN7ranU0GXRkXZ_CcD2QGfQbsx-3GPAMPSTwg0t96-pAoq6JL7Y/w185-h400/Eero%20Perfomance%20Report.PNG" width="185" /></span></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Performance Report From Our WiFi Access Point</span></b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;"><br /></span><p></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">With various system & application installs I've been doing this week, I've copying big payloads between systems and downloading packages from Internet. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">The most noticeable thing was that downloading a </span><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">4.7 GB file </span><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">from archive.org took a leisurely 30 minutes. Both our internal links and my FiOS Internet are better than that, so it was probably on their end. But it points up that we have gotten rather used to end-to-end 1 Gb/s performance.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">The impressive thing is not actually the network speed, it's that internally we've had this basic infrastructure for 16 years. When we moved to Kenmore 2007 and discovered using WiFi didn't cut it, we installed a Gigabit/second unmanaged Ethernet main switch in the network pantry and ran 16 ports to it. Since then we have run additional six ports, added four small switches in various rooms, upgraded the Wi-Fi access points, and did multiple upgrades of our Internet service. However, we have never upgraded the speed of the main switch, and the wires running from the network pantry to our desktops are the same ones we installed originally.</span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">(And even our oldest computers, my early 2008 Mac Pro & our 2012 MacBook Air, have Gigabit Ethernet ports. A few $35 Raspberry Pi units don't. Ah, well.) </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium; white-space-collapse: preserve;">No doubt our infrastructure has slid from bleeding edge to merely slightly above average, but I'm still happy with it. </span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;">I</span><span style="white-space-collapse: preserve;"> guess I've been doing it right.</span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b>P. S.</b> In the <i>there is always a faster gun nearby</i> department, I should point out I <i>know</i> we do not have the best network on the Northshore of Lake Washington. That would go to a former coworker one town over who has 10 GB/second Ethernet and VLANs in his house. To each their own …</span></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-78257714119611653212023-10-29T17:05:00.021-07:002024-02-20T12:14:22.516-08:00Last of the Mac (Intel) V8 Cheese Graters<p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_ITODFI3RLJy_i9lUKISER_cBJBwdBNH8uLwO6017nhy4fPgqeIXBW9qswvMsJcGnQPDJ29Q7HVZpYQRXXgysq_zt0FFJyOoYFn1Aa5T2ZoUPiddH2DQNK7PZBHpT-AOJY9J4qLuxO5BcME7jB-JuDXFAEIjS_6ctnuVpVnxKyfjhoWV-HNQPx6RuG8/s588/el-capiTAN.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="358" data-original-width="588" height="244" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjC_ITODFI3RLJy_i9lUKISER_cBJBwdBNH8uLwO6017nhy4fPgqeIXBW9qswvMsJcGnQPDJ29Q7HVZpYQRXXgysq_zt0FFJyOoYFn1Aa5T2ZoUPiddH2DQNK7PZBHpT-AOJY9J4qLuxO5BcME7jB-JuDXFAEIjS_6ctnuVpVnxKyfjhoWV-HNQPx6RuG8/w400-h244/el-capiTAN.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>xena's configuration before I upgrade the OS</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;">Early in my time at Google (2008), I wanted to switch from a VGA monitor to a larger monitor which supported dual DVI, which my spiffy work Mac laptop already used in the office. This meant I might also upgrade my (as it turned out to be last) Pentium Windows PC; I got <i>seriously </i>carried away and spent too much money to get 42 pounds of a high-end Mac Pro (the ones that look like cheese graters) with:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>8 64-bit 3.2 GHz Intel cores</li><li>8 GB of memory</li><li>500 GB disk (and space for three more)<br /></li><li>Four Dual DVI ports</li></ul><p>The Mac Pro was christened <b>xena</b>, the Warrior System (Second of her Name). Both xena and my on-call Mac laptop talked to a 30" HP monitor, the same model as I used at work. </p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"></ul><p>She later got mid-life upgrades of two SSD disks (160 GB and 512 GB), 2 TB hard drive (for Time Machine backups), and a USB-3 card.</p><p>xena was ahead of her time for a home machine. She was sufficiently ahead of her time that she was <i>always</i> under utilized, and 16 years later, xena's performance specifications are still not horrible. (Her power consumption was and <i>is</i> horrible, but nobody's perfect!)</p><p>After seven years, xena was retired in favor of a 2015 iMac (kendra, fourth of her name); we also replaced my spouse's system with the same model. That wasn't an upgrade for me per se, but kendra did have a slightly higher clock speed, twice the memory (16GB), and used a fraction of the power.</p><p>kendra and her twin lasted seven years as well, and were replaced last year by Mac Studios twins (tamara & minerva) using an Apple M1 Max chip with again twice the memory (32 GB), and 1 TB SSD. Again, they may not be upgrades, but the pure SSD makes it far smoother. kendra and her twin both got food chained to family in Syracuse.</p><p>xena<i> </i>is still here; after eight years of retirement I'm still looking for a use for it, but it's such a <i>nice </i>system I can't ship just it off<i>, </i>especially she's sort of The Last of the V8 Interceptors.</p><p style="text-align: left;">For reasons not completely understood by even me, this summer I acquired three upgrades for xena:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>A 1 TB SSD drive </li><li>Another 8 GB of memory (doubling it)</li><li>A Metal-enabled Nvidia GTX 780 video card</li></ul><p style="text-align: left;">The 1 TB SSD was because I didn't want run on platters, and I had stolen the 512 GB SSD (mentioned above) for another system. I want to make it triple boot (MacOS, Linux, and Windows 10), and that wasn't happening on a mere 160 GB SSD. </p><p style="text-align: left;">The video card makes at least a some sense for two reasons. First, the old cards would occasionally cause corrupted video for reasons I never figured out. Second, one cannot do (an officially unsupported) upgrade of MacOS beyond a certain point without a Metal-enabled video card.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The memory was mostly simply I didn't want to even <i>think</i> about memory when I do find a use for the machine.</p><p style="text-align: left;">I've been sitting on them until Katherine was free to install them (which happened this weekend). And oh, my goodness, they work! <br /><br />Now I just have figure if I will:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Do an unsanctioned-by-Apple upgrade, </li><li>install Ubuntu,</li><li>get a dual monitor KVM for kendra, xena, and foghorn-leghorn (a Raspberry Pi 4), and</li><li><b>most importantly,</b> determine what actual use I could <i>possibly</i> have for the machine.</li></ul>Decisions, decisions …<br /><br /><b>Update:</b> I upgraded to MacOS Ventura, and she now also has Windows 10 (w/WSL 1) & Ubuntu 22.04 Desktop on it. I have a keyboard/mouse switch, I question if I even <i>want</i> a true KVM.<p></p><p></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-4566216611622840172023-07-02T16:08:00.023-07:002023-07-02T16:40:21.736-07:00The Ad-dressing of Computers<p>First, sad news: <span style="font-family: courier;">Pepe Le Pew</span>, our only 8GB Raspberry Pi 4B, has been stress tested and founding sadly wanting. It's been flaky for an indeterminate length of time, and by stress testing it crashes reliably. (Its older smaller brothers, both 2GB Raspberry Pi 4B units, <span style="font-family: courier;">Foghorn Leghorn</span> and <span style="font-family: courier;">Wile E. Coyote</span>, have had no such problems.) </p><p>So Pepe Le Pew is in the recycling bag. Luckily, the supply shortages for Raspberry Pi have eased; I was to able order a replacement unit for only a small premium, and it arrived promptly. The arrival led to concern over a new system name. That's more important than in most houses, because our machines have assigned IP addresses and names for remote access. (It's not like you can point at the things!)</p><p>The topic of the name led to:</p><blockquote style="border: none; margin: 0px 0px 0px 40px; padding: 0px;"><p style="text-align: left;">me: "I need a system name, a Looney Tunes character." <br />Katherine: "<span style="font-family: courier;">Marvin the Angry Martian</span>"<br />me: I don't think "Angry" is part of his name. We know he <i>is</i> angry, but it's not in his name. <br />Katherine: "The name <b>not</b> to use is <span style="font-family: courier;">Michigan J. Frog</span>. It performs brilliantly … until someone is looking."</p></blockquote><p>Good advice, but this didn't give me a name (I'd already used <span style="font-family: courier;">Marvin the Martian</span>). I then considered the protagonists of various Looney Tunes cartoons; while I had used most of them, I realized I had missed one: <span style="font-family: courier;">Porky Pig</span>.</p><p>I wasn't sure of that name. A Raspberry Pi 4B is <i>not</i> a bloated system, however, the unit <i>is</i> bigger than its siblings. I did consider that a secondary function of that machine and its extra memory is to run the free Raspberry Pi version of <span style="font-family: courier;">Mathematica</span>.</p><p>Give our nickname for <span style="font-family: courier;">Mathematica</span> is <span style="font-family: courier;">Mathpig</span>, we have a winner.</p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-84759256820731862342023-05-28T12:10:00.008-07:002023-05-28T12:16:13.011-07:00The Games Computers Play<p><span style="font-size: medium;">For years, I kept making half-hearted attempts at getting <a href="https://www.mamedev.org/" target="_blank">MAME</a> (the arcade simulator) working. Several months ago, I tracked down a collection of old games (which don't come with MAME due to copyright reasons), and did get MAME working with them on a dedicated Raspberry Pi 3b with an SDXC card for storage. That particular machine has gone to a friend, but last month I acquired a Raspberry Pi 3b+, and got the setup working again.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I also recent got MAME added to one my bigger Raspberry Pi 4b units with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M.2" target="_blank">M.2 SATA SSD</a> storage. Then I put <a href="https://www.dosbox.com/" target="_blank">dosbox</a> on it, and it works well for older DOS and Windows 3.1 programs; I've got a dosbox configuration which has running smoothly with speed of a 486DX-33. And the 4B is <i>not</i> dedicated to games, it also runs emulated IBM machines and other software.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(Falcon 3.0 video doesn't look any good on the 4B, but anything older is fine. And I can slide Falcon into a VM onto ada, our one modern Intel x64 box. Hope is not lost)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">I decided to go for the gold and also put dosbox on the Raspberry Pi 3b+ that runs MAME. It … didn't go well. Not even Lemmings runs cleanly. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">But I don't need multiple machines to play multiple versions of TETRIS on, honest. Right? </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;"><i>Right</i>?</span></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-34595930520246993432023-04-02T11:58:00.017-07:002024-01-27T10:06:07.443-08:00Walk a Mile in my Shoes<p><span style="font-size: medium;">I wanted to visit the East Coast this spring. However, after having a chat with both various people and my legs, my travel plans are set for Spring 2023: I'm not going <b>anywhere</b> far this spring.</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Basically, when walking, I have too limited a range. I could do two miles a day in Stoneham when I weighed more, but since I let a MS relapse scare me two years ago, I have not been getting out. Now, walking just 0.26 miles with a cane inside leaves my legs tired. That's too low to even visit someone and do things like visit a park, hit a mall, and go out to dinner in the same day. I want/need better range to take a trip, even if using my cane and services like wheelchairs in airports. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">The good news is that I've been walking enough to show myself:</span></p><p></p><p style="height: 0px;"></p><ul><li><span style="font-size: medium;">It's <b>not</b> my bad knees limiting me.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">It <b>is</b> a lack general of conditioning of my legs.</span></li><li><span style="font-size: medium;">I noted (above) that I've done short walks of 0.26 miles (17 loops around the downstairs); how I feel after them is enough to know I have something to build on.</span></li></ul><p><span style="font-size: medium;">And I have a plan, namely a treadmill. My sister happens to already own what I am looking at, a <a href="https://www.horizonfitness.com/horizon-t101-treadmill">Horizon T101</a>. It's small and basic; the unit is not good for a serious runner or a tall person, but I'm neither. My stretch goal for Labor Day is to able to do two miles on it; I'll settle for feeling comfortable after walking half that. </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">(One caveat is my knees could start acting up. I'll deal with them when I've enough done work to wake them up.)</span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">Of course, upstate New York is beautiful in Fall Foliage Season … </span></p><p><span style="font-size: medium;">p.s. My exercise bike rides will continue, probably at a reduced pace. And it probably puts the kibosh on my previous secret plan, getting a road tricycle this spring. </span></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-79410324188189069712023-01-31T18:15:00.021-08:002023-02-01T10:01:46.904-08:00Fine Tuning Monitor Performance
<p span=""><span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Back in in the age of steam and the Intel 80286, after graduating MIT Katherine set off </span><span>with friends </span><span>on their bicycles to ride from Boston to Santa Barbara. She left behind with me two plush creatures (Binkley & Gunther) to help me track her progress.</span></span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">After Katherine's ride, <a href="https://www.kew.com/gallery/creatures/kewms-monitor-97.jpg" target="_blank">Binkley & Gunter</a> joined her at UCSB; the staff shortage in Boston was corrected that Christmas by the arrival of Snuffles, the Plump Plush Platinum Programming Polar Bear (or Snuffles P. Bear for short). Snuffles was a happy resident of my (ever bigger) CRT monitors for ten years.
</span>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://www.kew.com/gallery/creatures/ahd-monitor-97.jpg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="546" data-original-width="500" height="400" src="https://www.kew.com/gallery/creatures/ahd-monitor-97.jpg" width="366" />
</span>
</a>
</td>
</tr>
<tr>
<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b><span style="font-size: medium;">The Tribble, </span></b><b><span style="font-size: medium;">Snuffles, and an assistant on duty ~ 1997
</span>
</b>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<br />
</span>
<span style="font-size: medium;"><span>Alas, in ~2000 we moved to LCD monitors, and her position was literally eliminated (she is a
<i>plump
</i>
bear); Room was made for her elsewhere in my office, but no creature bigger than Thomas Tech Bear could balance on the thin LCD monitors since then.
</span>
</span><p>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">Until this month, that is. I discovered that one can buy stands for LCD monitors. Thus, she able to reclaim her time-honored position, joined by a few senior friends.</span></p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
</p>
<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<tbody>
<tr>
<td style="text-align: center;">
<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXfKKf7vZbs1VO_Yb55zJHfDYHC_Q3hzCKZlpUjME_R2DNolgGpcrvlUfxXr9iGEqbUGt3PyOpK2OIQpoF_jiaXNRO8T8-9Nh1iQK57M09rNLSe0GGTDLEHSLdmCysZk2wCFSfuTNvQxajc5yVIl9YOSczcT4SjLAEuDdju9-nLBJqy9Lz2KzVscw/s4032/IMG_2516.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgfXfKKf7vZbs1VO_Yb55zJHfDYHC_Q3hzCKZlpUjME_R2DNolgGpcrvlUfxXr9iGEqbUGt3PyOpK2OIQpoF_jiaXNRO8T8-9Nh1iQK57M09rNLSe0GGTDLEHSLdmCysZk2wCFSfuTNvQxajc5yVIl9YOSczcT4SjLAEuDdju9-nLBJqy9Lz2KzVscw/w400-h300/IMG_2516.jpeg" width="400" />
</span>
</a>
</td>
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<td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<b>The Tribble, Seymour Crayola,Thomas Techer Bear, and Snuffles P. Bear
</b>
<br />
<i>(click for a larger image)
</i>
</span>
</td>
</tr>
</tbody>
</table>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<br />The 2023 monitor creatures, briefly:
</span>
<p>
</p>
<p style="text-align: left;">
</p>
<ul style="text-align: left;">
<li>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<b>The Tribble
</b>
(<i>1983</i>):
Since he arrived during my mainframe era, the Tribble has graced every primary monitor I've used; that has included two mainframe terminals, ~ four PC CRT's, and ~ five PC LCD monitors.
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<b>Seymour Crayola
</b>
(<i>2000</i>):
Our Patron Bear of High-Performance Computing; he missed the 64-node Thinking Machines CM-5 I used in the early 1990s (upper right in the photograph), but more recently he constantly wanted to use my Google credentials to borrow a datacenter or three.
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<b>Thomas Techer Bear
</b>
(<i>1978</i>):
The Dean of our Plush Faculty.
</span>
</li>
<li>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<b>Snuffles P. Bear
</b>(<i>1990</i>): Our Patron Bear of Chocolate (those
<b>are
</b>
Thin Mints at her feet), and the Kendra Electronics Wonderworks Directbear of Marketing.</span></li></ul>
<h4 style="text-align: left;">
<span style="font-size: medium;">In Her Own Words
</span>
</h4>
<p>
</p>
<div>
<div>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<i>I just program for Drew because Binkley Bunny (who is as snowy white as I am) and Gunther Bear used to help Drew program from the top of kendra's monitor. They went west in September [1990] with Mom so that Mom and Binkley could work on their PhDs. That made the Wonderworks understaffed, so at Christmas [1990] Mom asked me to live with Drew.
</i>
<br />
</span>
<center>
<span style="font-size: medium;">— Snuffles P. Bear
</span>
</center>
</blockquote>
<blockquote>
<span style="font-size: medium;">
<i>My mom is very proud that I'm a computer literate bear. She also thinks Drew has gone off the deep end, although she doesn't mind.
</i>
<br />
</span>
<center>
<span style="font-size: medium;">— Snuffles P. Bear
</span>
</center>
</blockquote>
</div>
</div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-48764478304033089782023-01-11T13:08:00.005-08:002024-01-27T10:03:09.522-08:00New! Improved! Revisited!<p>One of the exercise pedals needed to be revised a week after our <i>last</i> visit. </p><p>With my bow-legged feet, there is a certain amount of toe-out stress on the pedals. This means sooner or later the straps with their hole can slip out of the friction fitted pegs on the pedal. The right pedal slipped out three times on two rides, so I took action.</p><p>I added Gear Ties under the pedal; they counter the toe-out force by pulling the bottom of the straps together; like a cotter pin on an axel, they don't apply force in the main (vertical) direction of the force on the strap, but keep it from falling off.</p><p>Problem fixed. I hope. <br /><br />(The left pedal may need the same treatment. Not today.)</p><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><div class="separator" style="clear: both;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjT4upPkBa0s-RKU_8Ej5Dbd7WsMqML0xmfiXAOzrsvyC_geXrHvnRlMJDNW_takZrCHmIN0FTvF-dsGl4islqqZ-xnqrKgK8uAW1eOYcrB79-xe22kTw9Fe3E36TeEwiFrRhR9r_5WUlJQbQQrmX5TTZdnvBvZ7vkMzTf6gTUC6mE_aClx1f9QxM-r" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjT4upPkBa0s-RKU_8Ej5Dbd7WsMqML0xmfiXAOzrsvyC_geXrHvnRlMJDNW_takZrCHmIN0FTvF-dsGl4islqqZ-xnqrKgK8uAW1eOYcrB79-xe22kTw9Fe3E36TeEwiFrRhR9r_5WUlJQbQQrmX5TTZdnvBvZ7vkMzTf6gTUC6mE_aClx1f9QxM-r" width="320" /></a></div><b>Underside View of Pedal with Gear Ties</b></div><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGT_095ZOZxFwQw0oekSXP6xlIgwdkScYrO4z_F0UgAMMajMzowshB4wGAaATkd78H5Mr7xljrpPhlgCiKb1-qW6s5xNXHSH4FaNikNBUxW-U_upSzT-_sQehn0k5VZBFIUSE3gDKgOyM5d3-WYxnQrBHbKTBiGXi8VxCTSTrj8hFNa0RqH3h0Kh0A/s4032/IMG_2492.jpeg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgGT_095ZOZxFwQw0oekSXP6xlIgwdkScYrO4z_F0UgAMMajMzowshB4wGAaATkd78H5Mr7xljrpPhlgCiKb1-qW6s5xNXHSH4FaNikNBUxW-U_upSzT-_sQehn0k5VZBFIUSE3gDKgOyM5d3-WYxnQrBHbKTBiGXi8VxCTSTrj8hFNa0RqH3h0Kh0A/s320/IMG_2492.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Sideview of Gear Tie on Pedal<br /><br /></b></td></tr></tbody></table><br />Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-9964888872040171152023-01-07T10:51:00.002-08:002023-01-07T10:53:11.130-08:00Throw Another Brick on the Fire<h2 style="text-align: center;">Headline: <i><span style="font-weight: normal;">Syracuse woman wins award for oldest furnace</span></i></h2><p style="text-align: left;">Pity the oldest furnace contest was not in the Boston area when we first moved there; the winner in Syracuse had a furnace only from 1910. The Stoneham house was over a 100 years old when we bought it in 1995, with a oil fired steam-heat furnace which may have been older than the house.</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw1Ti9m5oje4HPbMS1s4Ko5uqXLS7NixQkzcZhuUSgoZNP7PqgzLLDGb6Qsuc5EGULfYNmqbaFWryB28NnaxJd-mFm3SljTA0U-up7cnzeVDpBXn5404s3kVD-CdHqcJfoT_wOolncEmcCacOorRMdqRczZ3o2Rp0Q6qPdJqc8vnuGmzqAq9mLbk2l" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img alt="The Original Jurassic-era Furnace in Stoneham" data-original-height="1024" data-original-width="1544" height="424" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEhw1Ti9m5oje4HPbMS1s4Ko5uqXLS7NixQkzcZhuUSgoZNP7PqgzLLDGb6Qsuc5EGULfYNmqbaFWryB28NnaxJd-mFm3SljTA0U-up7cnzeVDpBXn5404s3kVD-CdHqcJfoT_wOolncEmcCacOorRMdqRczZ3o2Rp0Q6qPdJqc8vnuGmzqAq9mLbk2l=w645-h424" title="The Original Jurassic-era Furnace in Stoneham" width="645" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>The Original Jurassic-era Furnace in Stoneham</b></div><br />Our furnace service person thought it was a conversion from coal, and we privately thought it was originally fueled by dinosaur guano. Not fossilized guano, but rather fresh guano straight from the living source.<p></p><p style="text-align: left;">Around 2000 we had replaced the tank, which was leaking; we found a previous repair had been done with fiberglass … and oil <b>eats </b>fiberglass. When we replaced it, the 1500 gallon tank had to be replaced with two smaller tanks; I think they had to cut the old tank up to get out it of the cellar.</p><p style="text-align: left;">We already had gas service for the stove and hot water; in 2004 we replaced the furnace with an gas fired one. Not only did was it quieter running, the company figured out why our steam pipes banged (a low spot in a pipe), and we smoothed out our utility bills by going on a budget plan.</p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0Summerhill St, Stoneham, MA 02180, USA42.474019 -71.0942514.163785163821153 -106.2505 70.784252836178837 -35.938tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-69889984615477673472023-01-05T19:00:00.006-08:002024-01-27T10:03:53.009-08:00New! Improved!<p>My exercise bike is ~ 19 years old; the threaded posts (in photo) pushing the pedals away from the cranks so the heels of my bow-legged feet don't hit them, are more like 29 hours old. </p><p></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH8sbTp2V4jcHAp4NjWM4T2WIm_QwTgDBrZcY1dqaSABo7i_DBA-5gxp48FJ8P3dWBV-AAJpG7dQgEb2rEcn3Ee9qM-stIT6q53E5EkwbbX6d7JiHP7l3pm3MNKwOkEz2cwx5edBDgiHJ8kang_Gvv3iOLZ8HrRKihSLw-Z-z_yHhlt4nR3oehmJk2" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEgH8sbTp2V4jcHAp4NjWM4T2WIm_QwTgDBrZcY1dqaSABo7i_DBA-5gxp48FJ8P3dWBV-AAJpG7dQgEb2rEcn3Ee9qM-stIT6q53E5EkwbbX6d7JiHP7l3pm3MNKwOkEz2cwx5edBDgiHJ8kang_Gvv3iOLZ8HrRKihSLw-Z-z_yHhlt4nR3oehmJk2=w400-h300" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Exercise Bike Pedal Extender Post</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br />They became far more important as I tried to extend my ride time from 48 to 64 minutes. The problem was not the increase in overall length, that but it divides into 16 segments; going from 3 minute segments to 4 minutes on "hills" made me tired and therefore sloppy about keeping my feet straight. (Much banging of heels then occurred.)<p></p><p>The extenders work, too. I wish I'd found them years ago (It seems I <strike>wanted</strike>needed to search for "pedal extenders" not "crank extenders"), but I've got 'em now. 🙂</p><p>My first 64 minute ride is now in the books.</p><p>My thanks to my usual bicycle engineer, Katherine! </p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-29516811449042845312022-11-30T15:54:00.000-08:002022-11-30T15:54:08.040-08:00Tombs of Technology<p>I went through a lot of technology during my first 12 years years of PC ownership, where I iterated through computers every two years and constantly updated our voice and network connectivity. In 1995 we moved into our first house; after two years we had a basement full of accumulated techno-crap, which I cleaned up and out. I re-organized all the spare gear I kept in the dungeon into four storage tubs:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Computer cards and peripherals</li><li>A/C cords extension, and assorted gizmos like suicide strips </li><li>Telephone and Ethernet supplies</li><li>Audio and Video</li></ul><p></p><p>They labeled were with a sequence number and year, as in:</p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PINK4AaeyBDVm4cBAcSrEUW7cCxFwnR0bPoN5P1cAm4N_u0cX2krMh_fwZDkuA4ZCKdFb9LjBT-JYEeGLB8HkTqmoWE64-MAV-H0mLZSXk_r0EboFL7mWlf2b-bR8qWe-WPG2t924uYXkU761NMK5dAeqpDwFdbP7VKFpORAx79qvg72bdUvp2z9/s4032/IMG_2420.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj-PINK4AaeyBDVm4cBAcSrEUW7cCxFwnR0bPoN5P1cAm4N_u0cX2krMh_fwZDkuA4ZCKdFb9LjBT-JYEeGLB8HkTqmoWE64-MAV-H0mLZSXk_r0EboFL7mWlf2b-bR8qWe-WPG2t924uYXkU761NMK5dAeqpDwFdbP7VKFpORAx79qvg72bdUvp2z9/w400-h300/IMG_2420.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><br /><p>I thought I would be at adding them in the following years. <i>That </i>didn't happen, which is a good thing. The reasons are subtle, but obvious in hindsight:</p><p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I had moved four times in the ten years of and after my first computer, but after 1995:</li><ul><li>We lived in Stoneham 12 years, and </li><li>We have been here in Kenmore for 15 years (and counting). </li></ul><li>We now call professionals to run new phone, network, and video drops.</li><li>Technology has stabilized and better packaged:</li><ul><li>Our two year upgrade cycle of computers is now six+.</li><li>The gigabit Ethernet network I installed in 2007 is still running.</li><li>External connectivity via USB, HDMI, WiFi, and BT are (mostly) past their teething problems, and (usually) just work.</li></ul></ul><div>So I've still got the four cartons, but things go in and out of them far less often. This may be first I've reached in that box for a coax cable since we moved here.</div><div><br /></div><div>Of course, my office closet is several times the size of the one in Stoneham, and has everything from backup drives to (many) flavors of USB and other cables. Now if I could get <i><b>it</b></i> cleaned & organized …<br /><br />… maybe there <i style="font-weight: bold;">is</i> a fifth tomb, the size of a small room. Sigh.</div><p></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0Kenmore, WA, USA47.7583576 -122.249686319.448123763821151 -157.4059363 76.068591436178849 -87.0934363tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-56074326568892754062022-10-23T22:33:00.005-07:002022-10-24T11:34:06.460-07:00Where No Drive Has Gone Before<p>When I started at Clarkson in 1978, they had a IBM System/360 65J. Announced in 1965, it was obsolete long before I laid on eyes on it, but it was far faster than anything I had touched, and best of all, it had video terminals with erasing backspaces.</p><p>Physically, the machine required five full size frames (hence the term "mainframe") for the CPU and 1 MB main (core) storage. There were also frames for 3 MB of Large Core Storage, which was bigger but slower than the main storage. The <a href="http://www.bitsavers.org/pdf/ibm/360/fe/GC22-6820-12_System_360_Installation_Manual_Physical_Planning.pdf" target="_blank">IBM System/360 Installation Manual-Physical Planning</a> runs 161 pages.</p><p>For disk storage, the S/360 had three <a href="https://www.ibm.com/ibm/history/exhibits/storage/storage_2314.html">IBM 2314 direct access storage facilities with eight online disk drives</a> each. Each drive had 11 14" platters holding a total of 29.2 megabytes. With 24 drives (each the size of a commercial washer) across the 3 banks, the system had 699 megabytes online total. (By the mid-1990s, that storage would fit on a fraction of a single Windows 95 5.25" hard disk.)<br /><br />Now? CPU, memory, and disk drives are even smaller, to say the least:</p><p style="text-align: left;"></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbCtHnRc5c_QaYlqECW398H0AY0fYSdcHn3it-HCMLseH_dAurizIG1Xq785YlwQC6gbDbd7Xr7qbBv1gWjJJUanL3BH2yejeTfMAeaUCd_bl1qcXP11HLVZzxsBTfXC0bHV1an8RJ2if1G10xS68OarpTFHLr6mCA-w1xVAlyfZuBkLlUGCMhfpn1/s4032/IMG_2353.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="4032" data-original-width="3024" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjbCtHnRc5c_QaYlqECW398H0AY0fYSdcHn3it-HCMLseH_dAurizIG1Xq785YlwQC6gbDbd7Xr7qbBv1gWjJJUanL3BH2yejeTfMAeaUCd_bl1qcXP11HLVZzxsBTfXC0bHV1an8RJ2if1G10xS68OarpTFHLr6mCA-w1xVAlyfZuBkLlUGCMhfpn1/s320/IMG_2353.jpeg" width="240" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Kingston 240 GB M.2 drive measuring 80 mm by 22 mm</b></td></tr></tbody></table><p></p><p style="text-align: left;">The interesting thing is that these drives are small enough to fit in new places. Formerly, if one wanted to put better drive than an SDXC card on a single board Raspberry Pi, one had to use an external 2.5" drive with a USB cable; that's a <i>tad</i> smaller than a 2314 drive, but still annoying. </p><p style="text-align: left;">But now, people such as <a href="https://www.argon40.com/ ">Argon 40 </a>are building quality cases for the Raspberry Pi 4b (compare the below to <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2018/06/marrying-within-ones-species.html">the plastic cases I used for Raspberry Pi 3b units</a>). The Argon 40 cases look great, act as large passive heat sinks, and have thermostatically controlled fans for when passive cooling isn't enough. Better still, they have added similar cases (and adapters for existing cases) that hide the M.2 drive away. </p><table cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto; text-align: center;"><tbody><tr><td><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBwHq0LviOuB1hIEsnVWzu9dZlHxB8Jp2Fgt2Ai65knmwuANdVA-duP4JNY5G8b2egdTTDVsT_UG2NH9MxAa2wamZOX0DT4y3Q7kc4D-VOZmItXYIsBAWtDsp4wuItvBn0FaD3qeHqIVY1AHyuGqhqzzvoyEvW7k5-W0s-XlNe5JO5sv7xKvQNsYR/s4032/IMG_2366.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiHBwHq0LviOuB1hIEsnVWzu9dZlHxB8Jp2Fgt2Ai65knmwuANdVA-duP4JNY5G8b2egdTTDVsT_UG2NH9MxAa2wamZOX0DT4y3Q7kc4D-VOZmItXYIsBAWtDsp4wuItvBn0FaD3qeHqIVY1AHyuGqhqzzvoyEvW7k5-W0s-XlNe5JO5sv7xKvQNsYR/s320/IMG_2366.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption"><i>On the right</i><b>: An Argon One case exposing the bottom of the installed Raspberry Pi 4b </b><br /><i>On the Left</i><b>: a simple base for the case (no drive)</b><br /><i>In the Center</i><b>: the Kingston M.2 drive from above installed in an expansion case base</b></td></tr></tbody></table><div><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPHpRZLr71T-zMAUVbd05L9-dXSd089VV_C11nnCseHFKFmwPb3pTxFe-3sjLa0Kwvm9eaRG8YxI3lLo15RbU1xl67Gb6ox9qhSiC2oUQC3mfOTFyzgT9jDbHoqB-5pmth5kt_AXxXWkwKH8_MPndw4JtrUyBtb4Wp4W2SuDeKpDUzLd7oPE3NUlP/s4032/IMG_2368.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgCPHpRZLr71T-zMAUVbd05L9-dXSd089VV_C11nnCseHFKFmwPb3pTxFe-3sjLa0Kwvm9eaRG8YxI3lLo15RbU1xl67Gb6ox9qhSiC2oUQC3mfOTFyzgT9jDbHoqB-5pmth5kt_AXxXWkwKH8_MPndw4JtrUyBtb4Wp4W2SuDeKpDUzLd7oPE3NUlP/s320/IMG_2368.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Two Argon One cases, with & without <br />the higher expansion base for a M.2 drive</b> </td></tr></tbody></table><br /><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32Y8KnLmqLR9ef2jYxjKlkEwKLsz5b5aQ6lSligy12vUjpnjF3212OqzBmD8qFiinjk2FstEZyFxKECHjeOMpObFf28aor-EZdUV66DCp5blGJh73QpOFW-7JDt37AivBI6REna9bGZW3XIgVDEp8kPqs_c1XaPtNYyoJ8PQrrArobWc_BkgdmT_z/s4032/IMG_2371.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj32Y8KnLmqLR9ef2jYxjKlkEwKLsz5b5aQ6lSligy12vUjpnjF3212OqzBmD8qFiinjk2FstEZyFxKECHjeOMpObFf28aor-EZdUV66DCp5blGJh73QpOFW-7JDt37AivBI6REna9bGZW3XIgVDEp8kPqs_c1XaPtNYyoJ8PQrrArobWc_BkgdmT_z/s320/IMG_2371.jpeg" width="320" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>The Argon One expansion base uses a U-shaped USB3 connector <br />to make the electronic connection between the base and the case.</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /></div><div><p style="text-align: center;"><span style="font-size: medium;"><b><i>Note</i>: </b>Click on any of the photographs for a larger image.<b> </b></span></p></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-42015465484204169592022-06-08T15:01:00.009-07:002022-06-09T16:28:22.987-07:00A Time To Cast Away …<p>I learned to ride a bike when I was nine years old, the spring before we moved from Cowlesville to Skaneateles.<br /><br />My sister had gotten a new banana bike for her 11th birthday, and I got her old one as a hand-me-down: A green girl's Huffy with 20" Balloon Tires and training wheels that my father had painted blue and put a hand-cut top tube on to make it boys bike. I needed only a couple weeks to lose the training wheels.<br /><br />In my teens, I took possession of another hand-me-down, a 3-three speed from my brother which was a little too tall for my diminutive height.</p><p>In 1982, I got my first new bike while living in Endicott NY, a Miyata ten speed racing bike. (Yes, it later shared garage space with our <a href="https://www.kew.com/gallery/house/miatas.jpg" target="_blank">Mazda Miatas.</a>) The highlight of that bike was in the summer of 1985 before I returned to Clarkson for my final tour of duty when I sold my car and put over 1500 miles on the bike. I also used it for commuting in Potsdam and Kingston.<br /><br />After 20 years, we replaced the Miyata with a Trek hybrid. The Trek never got the heavier use of the Miyata, especially after it was supplemented by Schwinn Airdyne (upright) and Vision Fitness HRT 2200 (semi recumbent) stationary bikes. The Schwinn Airdyne didn't last; the HRT 2200 has, and is <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2021/07/back-in-saddle-again.html" target="_blank">the bike which moved up to my office last summer</a>.</p><p>The Trek has not been touched since The Before Time. Sadly, with my mobility/balance issues, which especially cause problems mounting and dismounting bicycles, this spring I decided the Trek has zero future with me. Yesterday, we sold it to <a href="https://www.playitagainsports.com/locations/woodinville-wa/sell-us-your-gear">Play It Again Sports</a> for a pittance.<br /><br />That makes me sad, but I am heartened because the HRT 2200 <i>has</i> gotten used this month; I've already beaten last year's total (and seven other years since 2004), and it's only early June.<br /><br />Maybe there is an adult tricycle in my future. We'll see.</p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-84277264332778323322022-04-16T21:59:00.002-07:002022-04-16T22:08:02.596-07:00Everything Old is New Again<p><span style="color: #050505;"><span style="font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;">We're thinking of replacing our late-2015 27" iMacs with Mac Studios, which don't have monitors.
While we could buy shiny new 4K-resolution monitors, it's overkill. 27" Retina iMacs by default run at </span></span><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;">only</span><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;"> ~50% maximum resolution, and I wouldn't be able to see a thing at full resolution on an iMac or a new 4K monitor. And from my Mac Pro era (2008-2016) I have <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2018/06/marrying-within-ones-species.html" rel="nofollow"><i>two</i> 30" monitors </a>with a full resolution which is about same as the default (50% resolution) of the iMacs.
I'm writing this on of one them hooked to the iMac. I think this is an excellent intermediate and quite possibly permanent solution. </span></p><p><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;">I just need to find my Webcam …
</span></p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAnK375B3UzIKds006yyUuziCL-B2Uuv2ugg56ppWg8kMzOMh4-ZmlkrQA6iKS4xeDv1RoZNlu3E8hx-syX9MOzRur4rphYNCRgcEklFsizg5MyTIAob624ULbebYzVZ-YBjLh39GfeZXw8IoSphU0jZ5IJ0UbKB5oWWUZ_p1OYzerxjpPrg5CJ1n/s4032/Dell%20Monitors.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhFAnK375B3UzIKds006yyUuziCL-B2Uuv2ugg56ppWg8kMzOMh4-ZmlkrQA6iKS4xeDv1RoZNlu3E8hx-syX9MOzRur4rphYNCRgcEklFsizg5MyTIAob624ULbebYzVZ-YBjLh39GfeZXw8IoSphU0jZ5IJ0UbKB5oWWUZ_p1OYzerxjpPrg5CJ1n/w400-h300/Dell%20Monitors.jpeg" title="Dell Monitors fronting my 27" iMac" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Dell Monitors fronting (and hiding) my 27" iMac</b></td></tr></tbody></table><span style="color: #050505; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;">
(The second monitor above is a 24" Dell monitor which has been the iMac's second monitor as well.)<br /></span><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><br />
<p></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="1kp6a" data-offset-key="3grv7-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, "system-ui", ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-57902323294062860062022-03-15T07:51:00.018-07:002023-04-07T13:34:41.366-07:00I haven't heard that name in years …<p>I commonly write my name as "Drew Derbyshire", but for legal purposes my full name has <i>always</i> been "Andrew H. Derbyshire"; the former never has my middle initial, and the latter generally does. Unfortunately, people tend to shorten my birth name to "Andy", which my mother (and by extension, me) disliked. </p><p>Thus, I've used "Drew" since August 1985; I switched when returning to Clarkson for my final undergraduate tour of duty. My login was "$AHD" or "ahd", but my email said I was "Drew Derbyshire", and people simply accepted it. Now, decades later, I still use "ahd" when I can, and there many people who have <i>no</i> idea where the user id comes from. <br /><br />(I just tell them "<i>Automated Help Desk</i>".)</p><p>Earlier in 1978 as a Clarkson College freshman, I was introduced to their System/360 model 65J; it was the first large machine I used. On it, I first learned the ancient incantations of IBM OS/360 and its Job Control Language (JCL). I extensively used OS and its spawn in my work well into the Drew era (1995 or so). OS Jobs run with JCL start with a JOB card; it has an account number, a jobname (often based on the account), and a 20 character field for the programmer's name and job description (printed on the green bar listing to keep it from becoming Little Listing Lost).</p><p>(Of course, when was last time you even <i>saw</i> green bar paper? But I digress …)</p><p>Meanwhile, I've written before about my muscle memory on computers. I'll go to do something on an old IBM host, Microsoft box, or UNIX system and I can't remember how. However, my fingers tell my brain to "Stop thinking … <i>we</i> are on the case". So my head listens to the stereo, and <i>they</i> summon the ancient incantation and bang it out. Usually, it's right.<br /><br />Lately, I've been playing with OS/MVS systems (the successor to OS/360), including writing jobs on it. Yesterday, I noticed my magic fingers had taken charge without bothering to tell me, as shown by the attached.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZQhyhT6K6B5S74kjI_pmsx1cOKeL1oU9OPN1lTp-upXpIv26jNpebsybA6ZbWfVNMLJev92bOv0mBuAjxHaXFslFryloOFaf-QiY_sucsmTHI8nCoKEvacG1SpcYDQ7RseUqya4IGZ7zUyzrB6KnFSBC3AvOhmoMoTHf-Q2PBNt-npv13oz4Z2RaW" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img alt="" data-original-height="1130" data-original-width="1612" height="280" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiZQhyhT6K6B5S74kjI_pmsx1cOKeL1oU9OPN1lTp-upXpIv26jNpebsybA6ZbWfVNMLJev92bOv0mBuAjxHaXFslFryloOFaf-QiY_sucsmTHI8nCoKEvacG1SpcYDQ7RseUqya4IGZ7zUyzrB6KnFSBC3AvOhmoMoTHf-Q2PBNt-npv13oz4Z2RaW=w400-h280" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>Simple batch JOB on my local copy of OS/MVS</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><div>When I looked at that job the last night, I realized my fingers were indeed trained to write OS JCL in the "Andrew H. Derbyshire" era. Well, that's what they still do, and who am I to argue?</div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-72683964193405747992021-10-19T23:25:00.000-07:002021-12-19T12:50:09.542-08:00A Modern Relic<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #050505; white-space: pre-wrap;">Our first HD (32") TV, bought for the Red Sox in 2004 World Series, now sits quietly in the library with an HDMI switch and various spare media equipement — a DVD player, an older (unsupported) Roku, Chromecast, and a stereo. It cannot pick up live TV because it lacks a digital tuner.</span></span></p><div data-block="true" data-editor="80a8o" data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; text-align: left; white-space: pre-wrap;"><p style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">(If it died tomorrow, I could stuff a spare 30" Dell monitor </span> in the TV's place <span style="font-family: inherit;">with the monitor's line jack out feeding the stereo, with zero loss of functionality.)</span></p><p style="font-family: inherit; position: relative;"><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">We barely watch the newer, smarter, bigger, networked HD TV on the living room mantel. That TV has surround sound and newer versions of <i>all</i> the toys in the library and more. The library TV gets used even less than the living room.
</span><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">
</span><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Being chubby and dumb, the library TV sort of annoys me. But given the lack of use, we do</span> not need a library TV which …<span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">
</span></p><ul style="text-align: left;"><li><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">accepts multiple HDMI inputs.</span></li><li><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">has a digital tuner (and an antenna).</span></li><li><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">has modern Roku model as a source.</span></li><li><span style="font-family: inherit;">is thinner.</span></li><li><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">is smart.</span></li><li><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">is networked.</span></li></ul><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">Nope. Nope. Nope.</span><p></p><div><span data-offset-key="dqigu-0-0" style="font-family: inherit;">I feel better now.</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"> </span><span style="font-family: inherit; font-size: large;">😀</span></div></div><div data-block="true" data-editor="80a8o" data-offset-key="1oeil-0-0" style="background-color: white; color: #050505; font-family: system-ui, -apple-system, system-ui, ".SFNSText-Regular", sans-serif; font-size: 18.75px; white-space: pre-wrap;"></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-47883844752183027272021-10-12T18:27:00.017-07:002021-10-14T18:17:16.940-07:00End of an Transportation Era<table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYacPKNzID-kpwkLpMfwxj1CP43H-iHl6BxTG-_bOamdutqXDHcdeaAQ8XWpfUxaD-YpZawYWK7ntFgBPmyb_lmv4XReuT3PPZiiZpYPK82QUFwIcbKkx59QwdOW5eJW9fsIbqwVliQo/s545/Factory-Front-Topless.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="280" data-original-width="545" height="205" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgvYacPKNzID-kpwkLpMfwxj1CP43H-iHl6BxTG-_bOamdutqXDHcdeaAQ8XWpfUxaD-YpZawYWK7ntFgBPmyb_lmv4XReuT3PPZiiZpYPK82QUFwIcbKkx59QwdOW5eJW9fsIbqwVliQo/w400-h205/Factory-Front-Topless.jpeg" title="PURR MORE the Green as envisioned by the MINI web site" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>PURR MORE the Green as envisioned by the MINI web site</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br />I became a member of <a href="https://www.zipcar.com/" target="_blank">Zipcar</a> (the hourly car rental company) on July 23rd, 2005. As I recall, I mostly signed up in order to rent a MINI Cooper for an extended test drive of the brand. We liked it, and we purchased what became our 2006 MINI Cooper S, PURR MORE the Green. <br /><br />That car took us round-trip coast-to-coast and set our record for length of vehicle ownership, so clearly we choose well.<br /><br />I know the date because (for the first time in years) today I logged in, and I glanced at my account as I cancelled my membership. <br /><br />Zipcar has been free for me for years as a (former) Google employee, but that's getting to be a long time ago — now they are moving my account to their $70 standard annual plan and retiring my previous membership plan. (Which makes me wonder if current Googlers are being moved as well, but not enough to ask.) <br /><br />It was occasionally useful me when it was free, but it wasn't worth paying for. Likewise, it could be useful for Katherine when she still traveled extensively for work and took day trips down into the Silicon Valley. Even before the pandemic, her travel dropped off over the years to where she didn't even go to the last <a href="https://www.semiconwest.org/home">SEMICON West</a> before the pandemic. (That broke a streak of ~25 years.)<br /><br />Ah well, Zipcar taught us MINI Coopers are fun.Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-16677362676793565972021-09-23T12:15:00.006-07:002021-09-23T12:23:52.349-07:00The Power Hit Catalogue (No expects the Spanish Inquisition!)<p></p><ul style="text-align: left;"></ul>The tools you need for a longer power hit has appeared in the <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/wirecutter/reviews/tools-for-a-power-outage/">Wirecutter</a> by the NY Times. <br /><br />While <a href="https://www.pse.com/en/pages/pse-projects/kenmore-electric-system-improvements">PSE has greatly improved our system reliability</a> since we moved here, one should be prepared. Thus I took inventory based on their list: <br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Portable generator (<i>none</i>)</li><li>Surge protector (3)</li><li>Uninterruptible power supply</li><ul><li>Small/medium (5)</li><li>Large (3) </li></ul><li>Small Power bank (3)</li><li>Portable power station (<i>see UPS, above</i>)</li><li>Power inverter (<i>none</i>)</li><li>LED lantern </li><ul><li>Small (2)</li><li>Large (2)</li></ul><li>Flashlight</li><ul><li>Small (4)</li><li>Medium</li><li><a href="http://elektrolumens.com/FireSword-V/FireSword-V.html">Fire Sword V</a></li></ul><li>Headlamp (left behind by a contractor, actually …)</li><li>Entertainment</li><ul><li>Board Game (several)</li><li>Card decks (several)</li><li>Music </li><ul><li>9200 tracks on iPhones </li><li>BT Speaker </li></ul></ul></ul><p style="text-align: left;">We don't have a generator, portable power station, or power inverter. With three 1500 VA UPS units, we <i>do</i> have basic power reserves, and have never really felt the need for more.</p><p style="text-align: left;">We also have things other devices which don't need A/C that the Wirecutter didn't mention:</p><p></p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>Natural Gas </li><ul><li>Water Heater</li><li>Stove</li><li>Fireplace</li></ul><li>Radio</li><li>Small refrigerator (12 VDC)<br /></li></ul><div>Katherine notes our freezer is good for keeping things frozen for 24+ hours without power.</div><p style="text-align: left;">In case of a <a href="https://www.cdc.gov/cpr/zombie/index.htm">Zombie Apocalypse</a> or lesser event (the Pacific Northwest <i>is</i> earthquake country), we also have Go bags and cat carriers for bugging out. The inventory of those bags is not included above. We <i>really</i> need to update all the perishables in those bags.</p></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-19400857694331948822021-08-06T12:19:00.006-07:002021-08-06T12:55:47.475-07:00An AccommodationI rode on my usual schedule of every other morning; due to minor distractions, today wasn't <i>quite</i> as far as Wednesday. Given I did get reasonable mileage in, and that my legs had trouble holding me up after I slid off the bicycle, I guess I did a decent amount of work. <br /><br />As they say in Weight Watchers, "Progress, not Perfection".<br /><br />I really detected that my legs were wobbly when I crouched to swap my water bottle for a post-ride Cherry Coke Zero in my tiny office refrigerator (loaded only yesterday).<br /><br />The new refrigerator is both a reward for my riding regularly, and an accommodation of my knees not wanting to do the stairs too often (and not wanting to bother Katherine, either). It also makes a refrigerated prescription that I take weekly more accessible.<br /><br />My now riding regularly was highlighted in two small ways this morning:<br /><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>I asked Katherine to bring up breakfast so I could save my knees, and I noted to her, "We know I'm riding this morning". I realized it just wasn't a question to me. It doesn't happen until it happens, but I had <b>A Plan</b>, and I meant to follow it (and did).</li><li>Mid-ride, I realized that I could and <i>wanted</i> to ride harder, and I picked up the pace a bit.</li></ul><div>I have long way to go, including fitness not related to the bike and making other accommodations as needed, but . . . progress.</div><div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6CGxQFnO5XO3_apxy2E91IBSqrZXRH2fKl88M1BRJjoU7xmB8q8to0hYKWgnvoP_p0vk2a-THhEeSOH9CbxuBlnyT-Ect_eBQqTShb4OaqdkqaykT2JZoC2eUFMvQ6tkA7me6fb9Ke8/" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img data-original-height="1536" data-original-width="2048" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQ6CGxQFnO5XO3_apxy2E91IBSqrZXRH2fKl88M1BRJjoU7xmB8q8to0hYKWgnvoP_p0vk2a-THhEeSOH9CbxuBlnyT-Ect_eBQqTShb4OaqdkqaykT2JZoC2eUFMvQ6tkA7me6fb9Ke8/w400-h300/IMG_1882.jpeg" width="400" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><b>New R<span style="text-align: left;">efrigerator Between the Cat Tower and the Wastebasket </span></b></div><br /></div>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-7144030816763294642021-08-02T12:39:00.010-07:002021-08-04T09:52:39.435-07:00Plan BT<p style="text-align: left;">I mentioned that I needed to adjust the music for my exercise bike <a href="https://hobbit.kew.com/2021/07/back-in-saddle-again.html" rel="nofollow">now that it is in my office</a>. This had multiple failed iterations:</p><div><ul style="text-align: left;"><li>The main speakers in the office stereo are oriented for my desk, not the window that my bike is under.</li><li>The secondary zone for the office stereo has a UX which was <i>clearly</i> an afterthought. (I suspect drink was involved, too.)</li><li>My spare set of cheap computer speakers weren't nearly up to the task of music.</li><li>The computer (iMac) speakers were good in a pinch, but don't fill my ears from across the room. (On an absolute scale, they may be higher quality than what I'm actually using.)</li></ul></div><p style="text-align: left;">But now, success!</p><p style="text-align: left;">The exercise bike console has a field expedient solution — a battery powered stereo BlueTooth speaker which my phone talks to. (I also used the phone as the music source is riding downstairs.) The speakers required no cash outlay; credit card reward points were my friend.</p><p style="text-align: left;">The field expedient part is the impromptu harness that keeps the speaker balanced on the console. The strength part of the harness is a quartet of 12" gear ties; I am not sure they would be up to holding the unit on a road bike, but are fine here. Two long rubber bands act as a secondary suspension to reduce wobble.</p><p style="text-align: left;">It occurs to me that the no longer mobile speaker will require recharging; I'll either dig out our longest USB cable or use one of the battery packs that live in our various briefcases.</p><p style="text-align: left;">Most importantly, I am now <i>using</i> the bike (and the speaker); I have had eight rides since it moved upstairs.</p><table align="center" cellpadding="0" cellspacing="0" class="tr-caption-container" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><tbody><tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYsM4mIfx9r2FFqRqKsi4f2zFUSxsK8eZRDEZzlLCYzJP2-yDe4qF46ZSPDLcz0o0-v9PDj062nTEFMmBOGb9Kk6kuWmLIdq9qU-rFWIdD5IF72A-QcwxSdXKzAo6eYmK29VZn5UpDfx0/s4032/IMG_1876.jpeg" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" data-original-height="3024" data-original-width="4032" height="300" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYsM4mIfx9r2FFqRqKsi4f2zFUSxsK8eZRDEZzlLCYzJP2-yDe4qF46ZSPDLcz0o0-v9PDj062nTEFMmBOGb9Kk6kuWmLIdq9qU-rFWIdD5IF72A-QcwxSdXKzAo6eYmK29VZn5UpDfx0/w400-h300/IMG_1876.jpeg" width="400" /></a></td></tr><tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><b>(Formerly) Portable BT Speaker Secured to My Exercise Bicycle.</b></td></tr></tbody></table><br /><p style="text-align: left;"><br /></p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6723195686964708079.post-71181906057409969092021-08-01T16:21:00.003-07:002021-08-01T18:33:21.207-07:00Riding in the Rain<p>Well, THAT parade got rained on.</p><p>I don't think road bicycles are for me any more. In particular, while I might still have the power in my legs, I don't have the flexibility and balance for the mount/dismount. </p><p>However a semi-recumbent tricycle may be good idea, say next season after I get better conditioned. Or one that <i>seemed</i> a good idea I found out that they run ~ $4500. Given how little used my current bikes have been used over the last 20 years, I can't see the ROI on that expensive a toy. </p><p>Back to the semi-recumbent exercise bike.</p>Drew Derbyshirehttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05317251474221035476noreply@blogger.com0