Tiger, liger, whatever.

The laptop did successfully resurrect, and so far i haven’t run into any application compatibility problems. I haven’t had the time or inclination to explore the bells and whistles. I suppose the one I want to demo most strongly is videoconferencing in iChat, which I am sure I will be able to explore with Eric and my dad. However, at the time that Tiger was released, I recall reviewing the hardware requirements and concluding that the in-house hardware did not support the feature to an acceptable degree, and will not for some time to come.

UPDATE: light text on dark background font smoothing in Tiger SUCKS.

Fingers crossed

the machine’s made it past the startupscreen this time. I’m still hearing massive disk thrash.

Crap, I picked up a Mac-centric disk-repair tool within the last couple years, um, DiskWarrior. Hope I don’t have to figure out where the discs are, given the move.

Oh, naturally

So, it seems as though my laptop’s OS upgrade may have hosed something, given that I have been awaiting a completed reboot for well over an hour.

If only I had two hours to rub together.

The mini is here!

Hooray! We got back to the apartment just in time for me to run down and pick up the new Mini box, which in due time will be the server. Of course, I’m not sure what monitor to hook it up to on the dry run, so it will have to wait a bit, I fear.

… and we're back.

I hope.

Looks like we’re back in business!

I’m sure my mail config will have to be hacked upon, as I reacll having to do something bruteforce with a dependency that referenced “localhost” but I am also considering chucking the self-admin bit vis-a-vis mail anyway.

As will quickly become apparent, I have been blogging the whole time we were down, since October 27.

La laa, la la laaa

What do you call a workday that begins at 6 am and ends at 8 pm?

In other news, we bought the floor for the house’s large family room over the weekend, about $1.5k, in a thicker-plank red oak than the existing oak that was under the carpets. On the whole, the remodel is on track to go over our hoped for budget, but not ridiculously so, and the pace that our contractors are keeping is stunning, measured by the yardstick of hearsay.

My mom’s birthday was Sunday, and I called minutes before her midnight, from work.

On Saturday Viv and I had lunch with League brothers Manuel and Jeff and ex-Seattleite daymented, and afterwards took them over to the house to see the remodel in person. It was great to see all of them and interesting to have guests at the house, dust, remodelers, and all.

An oddity about the weekend was that each day was scheduled to within an inch of its’ time, beginning at 8am and ending at 10 or so, and none of my activities involved alcohol.

On sunday, Viv and Spence and I also went to see “Magnificent Desolation,” a Tom Hanks / Ron Howard 3-D IMAX film about the moon landings. It was pretty good, but I was preoccupied. At least I did note with pleasure that the movie dealt directly with the problems the filmmakers had set for themselves: a) re-enactments of Moon-landings beg the re-enactors to address the Capricorn One scenario (pace OJ) and b) the much-remarked-upon single most distinguishing optical feature of the Moon’s surface is a lack of long-range dimensionality, calling into question the wisdom of such endeavors as, oh, as 3-D film concerning lunar exploration.

There were indeed, I’m happy to report, some wonderful, intimate 3D sequences covering such things as lunar rover travel, the landing process and suiting up for lunar EVA, and a lovely postmodern remastering of the LEM’s lunar liftoffoff. Alas, though, I was too preoccupied to properly focus on the film.

My ISP finally deigned to provide service and apparently I am now the proud owner of yet another new router and, according to the service person, “one IP address.” This, of course, make me insane with rage, but having worked such a long day, the form it takes is restricted to involuntary eyelid twitches. I have considered contracting these twitches out to Danelope, as he is ever so much more amusing when fueled by irrational hatred, but have declined to do so, on the grounds that he should actually purchase them from me as an ancillary inspirational resource.

Shortly, as well, the new whybark.com box should arrive. It remains an open question when I will have the time to configure email and web and database dervishes on the device.

In conclusion, why can’t I receive my hard-copy New Yorker on Mondays? It would give me something to look forward to.

Jacob Marley

When you’ve been awakened in the night by your beloved kitten ferociously gnawing on the still-warm, headless corpse of a rat while crouching on you, purring loudly, the world changes.

Budget

Week two of the remodel and the check I just wrote tells me we’ll be over budget. Still, we’re asking for a lot and I do think we have a shot at getting it in before Thanksgiving. Tomorrow we’re looking at floors all morning, starting early.

There’s a store near where I live that advertises Seattle’s largest selection of imported beers. I’d guess the claim is true. I found several beers I’ve been looking for for some time on an inaugural visit. The selection is grouped by country, as in a wine shop, and offers extensive tasting notes fluttering from the shelves. I’m looking forward to regular visits.

The ISP says they will have a site visit implemented on Monday. Here’s hoping.