Comments Off on monday madness

By Dave, November 8, 2004 1:57 pm

got started with the greenhouse this am. took the wall by the shower down and repositioned the one by the toilet. added a support at the end of the shower and put another piece of blue board there. added a piece of 1×4 on the outside of the blueboard at the shower end. cut the blueboard off above the bamboo top support for air and light transfer. added a piece of bamboo across the entire area and turned so the bend is away from the wall with a screw at each end and one piece of wire to the upper bamboo a couple of feet from the qhut end to help support it. now to find a sheet or curtain to affix to it for a door and will be finished with that part for now.

moved the cement to a row inside the south end wall. got to add plastic and some brick and boards for additional plant storage. moved a pallet in and covered with plastic and have started moving plants in. big stuff is in except for the cactus. may move it in today may be tomorrow. got the rock and brick moved away from the tarp on the east wall. am considering doing it and the east roof in metal. can do it in a couple of days and next predicted rain is thursday. May not take that long to build. just can't decide if I want to do it now or do almost as much work and have to redo it after the trailer is in here. course the metal roof I put up now will have to be changed too but nor as much or as soon as the temporary would be.

as promised here are the problems encountered saturday night…

it all started with trying to print out a form on the filemaker site. Though I had used the apple migration program the printer wasn't there. not a problem says I. I have set up printers on many machines and oses and lans before so should not be a problem. wrong was I! went to the printer setup utility in the utilities folder and selected print to windows printer. showed the lan and I selected the workgroup and then computer. no printer showed up.

then went to the old ibook and it printed fine. so it is still working just not seen on this machine. went to the xp (boo hiss) machine and made sure that all the stuff was set up correctly on there and some update or the other had changed the workgroup to mshome instead of workgroup. Found it thinks I. Wrong again. changed that back to workgroup and restarted xp. still not there.

old mac still prints fine. so I goes online and does a search and find quite a bit of trouble with printing to windows in osx 10.2 and 10.3 but nothing that I find and try works. finely get to someone that suggests to set up cups through the browser. fine says I. I will do just that.

so I go to the browser and load the localhost url and get the screen. then go to add printer. wants a username and password. so I give it one. and then another. and then another. and another. doesn't like any of them. so I go and check and all of them have admin privilages but none work.

so back online to look for a solution to this additional problem. I try activating the root user and cups doesn't like that one anymore than any of the others. finely find an article that says that apple changed the password encryption scheme in 10.3 but failed to get all of cups's ducks in a row and gives several ways to correct the problem.

I try a couple and as it is real late at this point they don't work. then note that there is a line in the prefs for cups that just bypasses the password protection all together. as this is my machine and all I want to do is print a damn form I comment out that section and finely am able to get to the add printer page.

go to the old mac and get the info from the printer file and paste it into the journal as a lazy way to cut and paste between the two machines instead of just logging on in a im session with both machines. but what the hay. got the data over to the new one and after some more minor fiddling I am finely able to print the form. so I do. Then find that I can't do what I thought I could so have to go and change some things in the form and print it again then go to the next page and print that too and call it a night. crawl upstairs with never another thought to the printer stuff sitting on the blog.

Sunday morning we get up and head out to georgia. went to the west georgia flea market at carrolton. after getting a few dozen books that look promising we head for cheaha where we have lunch.

Food was fair. Not worth the price they charged as the buffet is out of meat when we get there. they put some tough chicken out and some pan fried ham after we had filled up on veggies. Ate a bit of the ham anyway and was fair. scraped the pan on the strawberry short cake and it was good. the other pudding i got wasn't worth the effort. turnip greens were fair. dressing was good but chicken in it was tough. pinto beans were cold but fair. potato salad was ok but some of the potatoes were under done. mac and cheese which I liked last time was out of a box and not cooked long enough so was a bit gritty. tea was ok but there was too much ice and not a big enough glass. over all not a place to return to. A quick thrown together sandwich would have gone down about as well and not cost near as much…

then down the hill toward munford and across to the back road to coldwater. through to bynum leatherwood road and then 431, alexandria road then cedar springs and alexandria/jacksonville highway and the bear knife sale with 15 minutes to spare before they closed the in door.

I looked and cat got a nice little swiss army knife for $15. I started to get several but just couldn't do it. got all i need right now other than replacing my main one and they didn't have one that would have done what I need as well as the one I have now so will keep looking.

then home. and a long sleep.

got started on the greenhouse as stated earlier. Just came in from working on it more. got bertha unloaded and reloaded with stuff out to the side of the qhut. almost got enough out of the way to get the dozer in there. should finish it tomorrow morning. got stuff moved in the greenhouse and the carpet up to get started on the block wall on the east side. got to pour a foundation and set some for the base then gonna stack them and use surface bonding cement to finish it off.

Comments Off on print info

By Dave, November 7, 2004 12:22 am

<DefaultPrinter HP>
Info HP
Location WORKGROUP
DeviceURI smb://WORKGROUP/TARACATSBOX/HP
State Idle
Accepting Yes
JobSheets none none
QuotaPeriod 0
PageLimit 0
KLimit 0
</Printer>

Easiest way to get the info from one to another…

And no deliveries…

Comments Off on First post on the new iBook

By Dave, November 5, 2004 11:43 pm

Made it to Huntsville today. Went about 25 miles out of our way due to a wrong turn and me not stopping to look at the map. Found MacResourse easy enough. Went in and they had Filemaker on the self. Got it and looked around. The iMacs were nice, both the old 800mhz ones and the new 1.6ghz ones. But as I keep thinking the laptops make the most sense. The iBooks are plenty fast and the new ones will take 1 gb ram chips on top of the 256 they come with. The Powerbooks were nice too but a bit out of our range.

Anyway got a new iBook G4 with a 1.2 GHz processor and added the 1 GB ram. Also got a bag for one. Would have liked to get 2 but at 40 a pop will swap as necessary. Total was more than I like to think of but tis done and paid and home.

The swap to this machine was wonderful! Put a firewire cable between them and rebooted the 933 while holding down the T key and it booted into harddrive mode or some such. need to look into just what the deal is there. Have done it with pc's before for just data swap but not with firewire. anyway the 1.2 took about an hour to move all the programs and my home directory and the settings over. took up 20 GB or so. Told me to take the cable out and shut off the 933. then finished the boot process. came up with my desktop and the stuff open that I had left on the old machine. Had to reregister a couple of programs but as of now most everything is working. Some of the x stuff isn't like gimp but I using graphic converter for most of the things I do now and don't really need gimp. will reinstall it and the x server and such but for now I can work right along.

And though it's only a 1.2 GHz processor it is perceptibility faster in normal operations. I don't know if this processor or bus or memory or all of the above but opening and closing programs and documents is quicker. Boot time is about the same.

Cleaned the junk off the 933 and cat is using it. She is upstairs watching star trek movies on it right now. downloaded a avi player and showed her how easy it is to install programs on a mac.

New iBook Hardware Overview:

Machine Model:        iBook G4
CPU Type:        PowerPC G4 (1.1)
Number Of CPUs:        1
CPU Speed:        1.2 GHz
L2 Cache (per CPU):        512 KB
Memory:        1.25 GB
Bus Speed:        133 MHz
Boot ROM Version:        4.8.5f0

Now to get a bar code reader.

And build the database. Got filemaker installed after removing the program and pref folders and reinstalling. I was pissed but it worked the second time. I had removed them before the first install from where I had installed a trial version a few days ago but something didn't get removed or something. Anyway tis installed and running now. Now to go through the tutorial and start working on the project. Am thinking bigger all the time but i think most of it is doable. whether it will be worth doing is a different thing entirely. I guess we will see. Got to get the form from filemaker and get Cat a copy too.

New keyboard feels nice. Touch pad too. Won't be that way long if its anything like the other one. But there is also bluetooth wireless. That I am gonna look into for the home and store computer stations. Plug a bluetooth usb dongol in and have everything already there of course a usb hub would do the same but with wired components. and a lot cheaper with no batteries to buy. will see what is available.

Tis late and the eyelids are heavy. Till the morn…

Comments Off on another not good day

By Dave, November 4, 2004 12:37 pm

so far today i have gotten up, fixed and drank a cup of green tea and eaten a cup of yogurt. tried to figure out what i was doing with the website and blosxom and gotten the basic setup going. feel like shit with mood to match. slept about 12 hours last night. or was in bed that long. about 2 to 3 hour at a stretch actual sleep with 15 minutes to an hour between actually sleeping. numb as usual with that time of sleep but getting less so now that i have been up for almost an hour and a half. mind not here yet. don't know if it will be today or not.

and closing in on 10 pm now. been nonproductive in the extreme today. most of the day just existing. feel a bit better than this am but still just barely. may just have a bug, still not sure what the problem is.

called macresource in huntsville this afternoon to check on filemaker pro 7 and they have it in stock. checked the map and there are a couple of ways to get there from here. or rather from attalla anyway. the two roads come back together right at or in huntsville and seem to be within 2 miles the same distance. gonna take the one we haven't been on before. the intersection that the restaurant that we stopped at coming back from the festival in florance is where we turn north onto 231 so have traveled all but about 30 miles of the roads anyway. that is other than the shorter way to get from 431 to 77 that we are gonna try. the map of alabama that we got at wallyworld has been very helpful. just hate that we got it there…

Comments Off on not good day

By Dave, November 3, 2004 9:54 pm

other than the obvious just not a good day. neither for the us or the world nor me. in order of importance of course.

did a bit but overall was a washout. tried to work a bit on the 14 wide but between the dizzies and chest not a lot got done. better then worse again seems the pattern this time. had a period of time I was considering a trip to the er but that too passed. mostly gas i think. sure hurts like hell though.

figure tomorrow on taking some of the walls inside the greenhouse down and moving things around to get the remaining plants inside for the cooler weather headed our way. one thing that will have to go is the carpet. I hate to expose the dirt again but can't have both plants and carpet in the same area. not sure what we'll do in there yet. guess will figure it out as we go.

did get some of the books moved inside the 12 wide. they are now arranged along the walls only one box deep so are a bit more accessible. I think they are arranged so that even if we have a heavy rain that soaks the floor around the door they should stay dry.

got the scanner going on mac again. downloaded the newest graphic converter and scanned the front and back of a couple of paperbacks. I need to learn more about it's apple script capabilities. I am wanting to scan these covers at a fairly high resolution and then save a copy at 2 or 3 different resolutions for different site requirements.

gonna have to see about ordering filemaker tomorrow. I really need to get started on that soon.

looking back at blosxom again too. the biggest holdup on the live site is the format and ability to move it at will. not that will has anything to do with this mess but if need be I want to be able to move it easily without having to back up and restore a database and all that involves. with blosxom all that has to be done is move text files. that is no problem. and I suspect that i can build templates in filemaker to allow the entire thing to be built in there and simply exported to the site as needed.

Comments Off on bad title fair book

By Dave, November 2, 2004 9:25 pm

The title is "Ring For Tomb Service". I rather enjoyed the book but the title is a bit of a put off. One other area I had problems with was one of the kitchen helps constant use of profanity in the form of bloody, bleeding, flipping and such like. It just had a wrong or forced feel about it and in my opinion the book world have been better without it.

The book takes place at the Pennyfoot Hotel in England around the turn of the century or slightly there after. The Detective is Cecily Sinclair, the owner of the Pennyfoot. While the St. Bartholemew's Week celebration is going on there is a murder and the theft and substitution of a valuable goblet that is on display at the local church. The murdered man was the bell ringer at the church. When things don't quite mesh for Cecily, she starts investigating and trying to deal with the reappearance of her ex-manager who she loves.

Of course there are also a few other little problems she has to cope with, like overworked domestic help who are in turn trying to cope with a 50 something strong woman's bicycle club staying at the hotel and the Bishop that brought the goblet to town for the celebration who also has a room there. Then there is the new doorman that has a bit of a cockney rhyming problem and the new manager that seems to stay in his office working on the accounts.

Over all a pleasant read. I will certainly be visiting the Pennyfoot Hotel again. Tis a fun book and though one in a series it stands well on it's own.

—————–

Listening to Inside Mac Radio at http://www.osxfaq.com/radio/ and one of the spots was about envision http://www.opendoor.com/envision/EnvisionDetails.html. they claim it's a new way to experience the web. will see about downloading it and see what the buzz is. not sure what it has above the standard browser but…

Comments Off on why to vote against bush

By Dave, November 2, 2004 12:42 am

http://www.wilwheaton.net/mt/archives/001732.php

Comments Off on Monday all day

By Dave, November 1, 2004 11:16 pm

Got a bit done today even with the down time I had to take.

Steve brought to my attention that I had neglected to say what the van was. I thought I had posted something on that but looks like i didn't.

Tis a 1989 Plymouth Voyager Turbo SE. 4 cylinder turbo with automatic transmission. Power locks but manual windows. Mechanical and vacuum controls on the heat/ac control panel. Manual seats. 2 front doors. One rear on passengers side and a rear hatch. Need to burnish and coat with silicone grease the rear side door lock contacts. It works fine until it rains and then quits locking and unlocking. May need to put a spacer behind them as the rubber may have fatigued a bit over the years.

Got some boxes front the front moved upstairs earlier in the am while cat was at the post office mailing a book. Also moved a chest of drawers out from in front of some of the shelves in the front room. Need to move both of them to the trailer. Tomorrow.

Got worn out quick. Cat came in and I went and got the toyota truck and drove to the 12 wide. tis close to a city block if you go around by the drive and I am feeling poorly today. read a bit then came back here and had lunch then returned to the 12 wide to stare at the world for a while. Bill came by and we bsed a bit then went and started on the nissan.

Got the tools gathered up after a hunt for 12 and 13 mm sockets. got to buy a bunch next mountain top trip. or flea market trip. took the valve off to get to the alternator and removed it and the block mount. drilled the broken bolt out in the drill press and then through drilled the mount to receive a long bolt and nut using the bridgeport milling machine. so much easier than a hand drill and vice when drilling through that long an area. put it back in and relocated the front bracket and after a bit of adjustment and tightening cranked it up and was much less vibration than before. So hope that go it. Talked a bit bad to the boy when he came and got it. ;-)>

Spent several hours tonight working on organizing books in the front. Got a long way to go but it's a start. gonna move things out tomorrow and clear room to put the parlor stove in there. I think it will give enough heat for the whole building most of the time. with the big one in the greenhouse should be able to do fairly well without electric this winter (i hope)…

Need to get the plants in tomorrow too. so much to do and so much more that needs attention. not gonna get it all done this year I am afraid.

looking at getting filemaker pro 7 to handle the inventory and website data. I am leaning toward php-nuke for the website. still got to decide on the look. Cat has been working on it a bit and I like her logo concept. will see how it goes. Site url is http://www.bluespringsbazaar.com/ just fyi but it is just a blank page right now. Name is Blue Springs Bazaar. Figure that way we can sell whatever and not be too out of character.

figuring on filemaker cause I have used it before and is so much easier to develop in than m$ access or mySQL or any of the other ones I have worked with. or it is for me. 7 is a lot different but I can still get it done even having to relearn how a lot of it works ( or i hope i can). I started seeing a bit of the data structure tonight while walking around here looking at books and whatnot. tis gonna be a bitch but I think I can do it. the big part is going to be exporting the data to the different sites. But it's just a script with filemaker. Or so I am hoping. And I can have a script and one or more layouts for each site that the books need to be uploaded to and have them controlled by another master script to created each and upload and or post it to each site in the proper format. I am thinking of using static pages for each book on the site and using the built in search in php-nuke to locate book and author or text or whatever and display a list. a link to the book at abe books or paypal to buy it and a menu and tis done. as they are static pages the search engines will be able to catalog and point to them.

Guess this will be my winter computer project.

Comments Off on Tarantino plans old-style kung fu film – in Mandarin

By Dave, November 1, 2004 11:15 pm

http://film.guardian.co.uk/news/story/0,12589,1341354,00.html?=rss

Comments Off on Domestic Mail Manual R100 First-Class Mail and Priority Mail

By Dave, November 1, 2004 10:00 pm

http://pe.usps.gov/text/dmm/R100.htm

Comments Off on priority mail shipping info

By Dave, November 1, 2004 9:55 pm

http://pe.usps.gov/text/qsg/q120.htm

Comments Off on Fly Press

By Dave, November 1, 2004 9:33 pm

http://www.reil1.net/flypress.shtml

This thing is COOL! gotta see what i can find or make.

Comments Off on The Great Old Pumpkin

By Dave, November 1, 2004 8:36 pm

http://www.strangehorizons.com/2004/20041025/pumpkin-f.shtml

just plain cool!