Done last week (20150906Su - 12Sa)

[mdlbear]

Fairly productive this week. Still feels like I'm getting farther and farther behind.

Lots of network administration -- I now have all three of the household's routers upgraded to dd-wrt. By the way, the fact that now Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent gives you yet another reason to upgrade your computer to Ubuntu or Linux Mint.

Emmy had some lovely 4x6 prints made of "cat and mouse", and I finally got Curio's Rainbow Bridge page to a state where I don't mind posting the link. I cried while I was working on it. (This is not a bad thing, on the whole. Tears are better than being numb.)

More links in the notes.

0906Su
  * Up 5:30; W=199.2; dishes
  % it's raining.
  * Installed netgear 3500 (with DD-WRT) as gateway, sitting on the shelf above the DSL
    modem and plugged into the UPS.  Went smoothly, except for a delay while I didn't have
    DNS configured correctly, so DHCP clients didn't work.
  : DNS seems to be working on Cygnus; the windows 8 machine insists on using the gateway
    as the first DNS server, but disabling DNSMasq works.  Configuring DNSMasq doesn't
    seem to work.
  : Emmy had some lovely 4x6 prints made of "cat and mouse"
  * Book sorting with N.  Also moving bookshelves to make room for piano.
  * Upgraded the former gateway.  Now ...253.  Doesn't seem to reboot automatically after
    an upgrade.
  ~ update firmware on gw -- build 21061 has problems with ssh.  Looks like that's the
    most recent, though.  Replace with a 4300.

0907Mo Labor Day
  * up 6:10; W=197.6; dishes
  * go through bills and statements looking for (and finding) things that need to be paid
  * Swap WNDR4300s -- the upgraded one is now in the Great Room.
  * upgrade the other WNDR4300.  * Replace it with already-upgraded .253
    Note that the Netgear upgrade page doesn't refresh, so it just sits there spinning.
    Checking for the presence of a WiFi network with SSID=DD-WRT works.
    -> configured.  Not entirely clear whether things will go smoothly, so haven't swapped
       yet.  May test by changing the DHCP address range.  Or may go do other stuff.
  * bagels and lox for lunch.  Forgot Costco was closed; I'd gone there because I also
    needed a circuit tracer at Home Depot.
  * Drive with Colleen - Walgreens for D3 and iron, Alki via Avalon Way, then across via
    Barton to Westwood, where I stopped in the QFC for milk, eggs, and fruit.
  * increase DHCP range to 61 -- 129-190.  (leaves 128 and 191 free)
  : rename dmz -> wap3
  & a transfer would have been marginal, so paid the mortgage out of my checking account.
  * Checked AMEX; nothing due.  Paid Viewtech

0908Tu
  * Up 4:45; W=199, p=4-5; 
  % Damned back.  *right* QL this time.
  @ Ridgewing Guitars f(Peggi Warner-Lalonde)
  @ Apathy | The Shadow Sanctuary f(Stef Maruch) depression

0909We
  * up 5:35; W=198;   
  * 7am leave for work
  * 9am meeting: Dawson 05.301
  % productive at work -- coding done on $PACKAGE; now need unit tests.
  : The washer hasn't been picked up.  OTOH an electrician _was_ here, yesterday; they put
    in a dryer outlet in the closet, but of course not the 110V outlet we also need, and
    they disconnected much of the garage including the door opener and the outlet where we
    plug in the CMax.  :P
  * Walgreens run, mostly for Colleen.
  * humira

0910Th
  * Up 5:40; W=199.8; 
  % Back slightly painful; naproxen, methocarbamol, and heat seem to be taking care of it
  * replace gw (which has problems with ssh) with a 4300 (West).  -> Painless.
    Apparently I got the setup right the first time.
  * upgrade (or whatever) the WNR3500.  No hurry on that one once it's been replaced.
    " Don't hesitate to use at least the "Standard-USB-FTP" build.
      For models that REQUIRE the K26 build (like the WRT610nV2, WNR3500L,
      RT-N16...etc...see note above) "
  * Called Kathy@HomeDepot; apparently the order went into their system and got *silently*
    dropped.  Now schedled for the 17th
  @ I'll see you tomorrow.: seanan_mcguire National Suicide Prevention Day
  * reconfigure the 3500.  Currently factory defalts becase priorities) -> wap2
  % 10:30 sleepy.  Feeling unproductive.

0911Fr
  * up 6:00; W=201.2; 
  @ ysabetwordsmith | Poem: "No Terrible Consequences" made me realize one of the
    problems with living here -- I miss the crowd of people who were always hanging around
    the Starport.  Mostly I just crawled into a corner, but they were *there* and they
    were helpful.
  : WTF Facebook?  I used to be able to scroll my friends feed forever; now it's stopping
    after a few dozen entries with a "you'd have more posts if you had more friends"
    message.   What, 528 friends isn't enough anymore? -> seems to be working again.
  @ Fox Buys National Geographic? Aaarrghg!!!!
  % had a bagel with butter in the morning, and was feeling slightly weak and lightheaded
    by 11am.  Went out and got early lunch.
  % not insanely productive, but I did get a code review out.
  : Chaos visiting through tomorrow.
  % 7:24 - done with web-reading.  Should find something else to do.  Like write.
  & Kat requested a more capable laptop; gave her Purple (Colleen's old Dell Mini)
  * 11pm - re-linked Curio's page.  I'm not really satisfied with it, but it will do for
    now.  I cried when I was done.  I miss my Pretty Boy.

0912Sa
  * Up 5:10; W=202.2; laundry
  & Wikipedia dive from Lorem Ipsum, from today's Irregular Web Comic in LJ.
  * Now using symlink and port 8080 for testing websites on nova.
  : shell and web servers on dreamhost appear to be down.
  : Back up now. (11:30)
  * Research on fluid web design, to find the CSS for scaling images.
    Fixed the images in the archived posts under Curio
  @ Fluid Images — Unstoppable Robot Ninja
    Fluid Grids · A List Apart
    Responsive Web Design · An A List Apart Article
    A responsive approach to image scaling with CSS - appendTo
  @ Microsoft pushes Windows 10 upgrade to PCs without user consent | Computerworld 
  * all my CSS stylesheets are broken -- comments are C-like, not Shell-like
  * The Ford C-Max is running rough, and the check engine light is on.  Had it towed to
    Sound Ford in Renton; went with G so he'd have a ride home.
  * burgers for dinner.  Got chickens and corn for tomorrow
  * put up wall cabinets in N's room -- she's out of space for her eggs
  * 8-8:30 take Chaos home.  Actually left more like 8:45; back 10:20.  Ugh.

Comments

My disjointed relationship with Windows

[montemplar]

I got an iMac in 2012, after a run of bad PC experiences, but installed a copy of Windows 7 (probably my favourite version, and I've used most of them since 3.1) into a virtual machine using Parallels Desktop. This allows me to retain a few Windows applications that I occasionally use, plus those games titles that are (still) Windows-only, and run them alongside my Mac apps using Parallels's 'Coherence' mode. Doing so, however, means that I never see the Windows desktop or task bar, and rarely see the Start Menu. (Windows notification icons appear in the OS X notification area.)

I did briefly use Windows 8, but gave up on it due to its desire to occupy the entire screen, plus the decidedly unintuitive Modern UI.

I've given Windows 10 a spin, and to their credit Microsoft have fixed all of the criticisms I had of Windows 8. Having said that, I'm struggling to think of any ways in which it improves on Windows 7. I'm sure there's good stuff under-the-hood, and it runs my traditional Windows application just fine. But due to the way in which I use Windows nowadays, the Live Tiles available on the new Start Menu - and on the Start Screen, if you're running in Tablet Mode - are of little use to me, as I'll never see them. The Store has virtually no apps that are of much use to me, and a lot of apps that appear to be little more that wrapped-up containers for websites. Thank goodness I installed it into a separate VM, and kept my Windows 7 one.

It's conceivable that I *might* get a Microsoft Surface Pro next year, when my current iPad will most likely no longer be supported by Apple - I've heard good things about the Surface Pen from other graphic-design folks, and being able to use Photoshop and Illustrator on it would be a plus - but unless the app situation improves dramatically between now and then, I might just end up going with an iPad Mini.

I've tried both Ubuntu and Mint in the recent past - Parallels seems to be able to support almost all Linux distros currently out there - and found Mint much more of my cup of tea. The only reason I didn't hang onto it was that I don't currently have any needs that it can solve for me.

Re: My disjointed relationship with Windows

[mdlbear]

I hear you -- stick with what works for you. I have too many needs that Windows doesn't serve.

With me it was the other way around; I've tried every version of Windows since 2.something; it's always come off the worse for the comparison with whatever version of Unix was available to me at the time. There _are_ programs that aren't available on Linux, but I can always fire up a Mac once a year for TaxCut.

[amaebi]

Getting things done is wonderful and health-preserving.

Feeling under pressure is gruesome and health-destroying.