2013 — 11 June: Tuesday
I'd really, really prefer my BlackBeast1 PC to be back in business before the next dollop / wave / whatever (of MicroSpit security "enhancements" and bug fixes) hits the fan later today. In pursuit of that (surely?) modest goal I've just spent the last hour and a half pulling out data cables and power bricks — all of which possess the perverse and unnaturally prehensile tendency to tangle at a rate that far exceeds the normal inexorable rise of entropy in the copper tangle behind the desk here.
The effect of the initial cuppa has long since worn off, and I now need some breakfast. Meanwhile, as I listen to NPR it's becoming clear that a large chunk of the North American population was until a couple of days ago seemingly unaware of the data-gathering and surveillance ramifications of the hastily-passed "Patriot" Act.
Personally, I assume that anything I choose to do "online" is open to inspection by both 'good' guys and 'bad' guys, and I try to conduct2 myself accordingly. For example, I don't use any of the social networks, though I was tickled to receive an email from Yahoo (I think) within the last month telling me that my Flickr account (which I last used before Christa died, to view some photos from my friend Cathy, and don't have a clue how to log back into) now had 1TB of data space sitting there waiting for my photos.
It can continue to wait.
It's 10:31 and...
... BlackBeast is currently cut right back to the bare essentials of connected kit — screens, keyboard, mouse, network — while I sort out placement — preferably within reach — and powering — preferably without undue risk of breaking my neck tripping over a tangled mess — of 9TB of external eSATA and USB3 storage, plus the (now, very rarely-used) laser printer and the (still, heavily-used) scanner.
Meanwhile, I observe it's raining and has become noticeably cooler. That's it for summer, I suppose. I was warned not to tease Big Bro's NZ climate...
Still, there's a bit of good news: I've just unearthed 32 well-buried CDs of music I'd assumed permanently lost: four Spike Jones, four Gene Krupa, four of various other jazz drummers, ten "Greatest Hits of the 50s and 60s" and ten "Die größten Hits der 60'er und 70'er" aka "The beat goes on". This last came from the hypermarket a few miles from Meisenheim. Quite some time ago.
How can Gene Wilder be 80? That would make him Old Frankenstein, surely?
15TB back online
And only 6TB of that lives inside BlackBeast:
This is all ahead of the incoming Synology NAS and a 3TB RAID1 array later this week. I think that should hold me for a bit. Meanwhile, having snaffled the 99p Amazon Kindle ebook deal of the day I've been meaning to share this Kindle screensaver lest it be replaced by something sillier:
Not, by any stretch, a sentiment I agree with. But that's just me. [Pause] I see the silly season is upon us — a UK guvmint minister with no discernible aptitude for the UK's education process is about to throw everything up in the air and see (four years from now) if it worked. Not that he'll still be in his job by then, of course.
I have no idea...
... why my external DVD drive has suddenly decided to behave properly when connected via the one FireWire port I have on BlackBeast's motherboard, but I'm delighted to welcome it back into the clan (as it were). I was starting to think that port simply hadn't ever been connected.
Tomorrow's uncertain...
... feather warcast looking less settled than the gap between showers this afternoon, I nipped out for some fresh food while eBuyer was busy emailing me to say the Synology will be delivered between Monday and Friday... not tremendously helpful, but their free delivery is a whole lot cheaper than the courier options. I should also be commiserating with Brian as he struggles to install Win8 on one of the systems (visible at bottom left — the little AMD 64-bit dual core that was originally handicapped by the strain of trying to sustain a Windows Vista media PC build) I passed along to him for Mrs Brian.
But it's not really my fault if he displaced the working graphics card for what seems (from his reports) to be an iffier one, is it? [Pause] It's bad enough getting junk phone calls yammering at me to claim compensation for the PPI I've never been stupid enough to buy from banks I've never even banked with. Now I'm getting them on the mobile phone (sole purpose: making an emergency call while out on a walk) whose number (thanks, Vodafone) should really only be in about four peoples' possession. None of whom was a fraudster last time I checked.
All security patches now installed... Time for my evening meal.