Ya know what sucks?
Hard drive failure. It sucks.
Especially when you realize the failure stemmed from a problem you neglected to fix the last time you had a big systems failure, intending to take a break from hardware troubleshooting for a couple of days… when instead you just forgot.
That’s what sucks.
Just so you know.
Also I seem to be at the center of a wave of hardware failure – I sure hope I don’t suddenly have the semi-mythological SNAFU field the way some folks do. My buddy Sean regularly experiences watches dying, computer problems, and so forth, and I have literally seen him touch a computer at the moment it freezes.
As a graphic designer, it’s made him very well-behaved with respect to backups.
I’ve had inexplicable instability in the firewire chain on my main box, which currently has two drives unmountable, who knows why; there’s nothing wrong with them, I suspect, since no change has occurred to them physically or from a software perspective; as usual, I suspect the latest system update, but must research it.
Most annoyingly, our Apex AD-1600 DVD player died as we switched disks while watching the extended edition DVD of The Fellowship of the Ring on Xmas just before heading out to see The Two Towers. Fortunately, we were able to play the remainder on my G4 tower – the first time in the three or so years I’ve owned it that I’ve even inserted a DVD into the machine’s DVD-ROM drive.
A few minutes of googling revealed that the very inexpensive Apex players are very prone to hardware failure, and when they go, you’re SOL. So it appears I should have spent a few more bucks for it, but it was hard to resist on Amazon – under $50 with free shipping, as I recall.
Oh well.
Viv says she never reads this because I’m “always talking about computers.” Alas.
Oh! Just to keep things interesting, yesterday afternoon, a few minutes after the drive failed on Bellerophon, I got a call to be go-to guy for a Mac and OSX Server-based hosting farm that’s co-lo’d at Digital Forest way the heck in the northern part of the city. It’s a part-time 1099 gig, but after speaking to the interested party on the phone, it sounds like the kind of thing I could do, and he and I got along on the phone.
(Yes, I’m aware of the irony here – as I told the gentleman on the phone, I should have recognized the drive failure as a harbinger of his call.)
Of course, this brings the matter of the driver’s license back to the front burner, something I’m sure Viv will be pleased about.
Lastly, Bellerophon will probably be up and down this week, since I’m clearly in need of actually completing my backup protocols; please bear with me!
driver’s license?
sorry about bellerophon. especially, since the last time bellerophon suffered a meltdown, xenophon decided to follow suit. my fingers are quite crossed…
Sorry, felicity, I just assume everyone knows I haven’t ever had a driver’s license.
I got my first driver’s permit since I was about twenty this summer – the fender-bender the other day was in the context of a driving lesson (well, at the intended – and factual – end of one).
Since I’ve never driven the need for a license is, uh, rather conceptual to me. A job that requires it as this is likely to makes it more concrete: shows me where the money is, if you will.
I’d still rather go to my grave without one, but, if you’re Roman….
I am in awe. I thought only members of my terminally weird family were the only people in the USofA that did not obtain driver’s licenses…
My father told me that a group of well-meaning fellow students once forced him to try driving. Put him behind the wheel of the car, and all piled in. He says they were shaken and chastened by the resulting experience. He said also that the world was a safer place with him not driving.
May your decision be a wise one, oh Roman!
Funny about the DVD player – I bought my parents the same model for Christmas, also from Amazon. The plugged it in and lo and behold, the door doesn’t open. Off it goes to Amazon land to be replaced. Grump.