Little bit of a Weird Day

I'm really not sure what to call this new level of craziness.

Yesterday I drove an hour (each way) to pick up some old cameras......actually 3 old cameras that turned in to 4! The newest was a Nikon FM which is somewhere between 30 and 35 years old, then there's the Pentax Spotmatic SP1000 (Mid to Late 60's), Miranda Sensorex (Mid 60's) and a Konica Autoreflex A (Late 60's) that was thrown in, along with 2 Vivitar shoe-flashes, a bunch of filters and some other random items. It all came to $150 without counting gas. Oh yeah, the Nikon came with a 35-70mm Nikkor zoom lens as well. Yup; Craig's List can be awesome.

So what brought on this orgy of vintage camera buying? I'm glad you asked! I've been teaching a bunch of our middle schoolers photography since last year when they were 7th graders and I'm down to 4 who have not only stuck it out, but also smart and capable. Therefore I've decided to try and take them to the next level by going back to a previous era. I started teaching them about reading light and learning to deal with it via the 3 variables that they have control over (eg. film sensitivity, apeture, and shutter speed). To give them hands on practice, I'm going to make them use film....that's right; I said FILM as in 35mm film, completely manual cameras with ZERO automation. In fact, I'm going to make them use hand-held light meters as well!

What I'm trying to do is to slow them down and learn to deal with the light. I might have bitten off more than I can chew; we'll see.

The other slightly crazy thing that I think has really classified me as a super-geek. It started with me coming home after not only battling the construction, traffic and Chick-Fil-A drive-through, but after a last-minute trip to the doctor where I got a shot directly into my shoulder muscle to try and take down inflamation. So you could say that I was primed to go off. Then I walked into the house to find no one except the crazed pup had been left in by herself and had successfully gotten onto the table and not only eaten the rest of my dinner, but then knocked over a container of strawberries, then proceeded to poop on the floor....in multiple places. In the process of chasing her around and throwing her furry butt out, I also got my thumb snagged on her tooth. Did you know that thumbs bleed profusely?

Oh yeah, did I mention that the reason that the idiot dog was in the house in the first place was that part of the fence had blown down? That'll get fix tomorrow after work.

So, what do you think I did after that? As luck would have it, the new mount I ordered for a broken lens showed up in the mail today. This was the "kit" lens that came with the school's Nikon D40 DSLR that got it's mount busted when a student dropped the camera. So they bought a new one and was going to throw out the old one when I rescued it. After a little Googling, I found a site that showed how to replace that mount so I decided to give it a try. The up-shot is that I took that lens apart, replaced the mount as a destressor....and I really feel a whole bunch better now.

Weird huh?

Misc. Ramblings

It's that time..... The time in between benchmarking our 8th graders to see what they know (or don't know) and standardized state testing. Which of course if HIGH STRESS time for all teachers!

So, what do I do to relieve stress? Glad you asked! I dabble in technology of course. There's been an unexpected round of computer work which paid for and got me started on a parallel round of computer upgrades around the house. I've been writing about my desktop and server upgrades, but this is not about that.

It started out as a simple call to help a co-worker's husband with a laptop that he'd been given. It was an old 133mhz bus, PIII little laptop that he wanted to get going, but wasn't worth enough to invest any real money into. To make a long story-short, that machine died very quickly and he ended up with a far better replacement; a Dell Latitude D610 which was an older, but still very usable Pentium M based machine that just needed some upgrades. We ended up putting about $150 into it, which included a new WD 250Gb HDD, 2Gb of RAM, and a complete reload. In the end, he was VERY happy and going to town on his new wireless ecstasy.....right up until his desktop developed a catastrophic failure that very week!

So then, it was off to the races: 2 different HP desktops with integrated video that showed to be failed "southbridge" chips, 2 laptop purchases, and a sold battery later, I made enough (with a little bit of added luck) to have enough to do some personal upgrading as well. Let me explain:

• While I was looking for a machine for a client, I came across an IBM T43p (yes, that's a "p" on the end of the T43), on Craig's List for $250.... maxed hardware specs, and Windows 7 loaded! So this replaced my resurrected T42 with the 15" Flexview screen which went...
• To Josh to replace his A31 which went to......
• Camille's Uncle Dean who needed something to replace his REALLY aging A22m. In the meantime, the machine that I had bought to go to him, but killed in shipping, gave up some parts to go to a "barebones" T42 that was sold to a client and ended up partially paying for the T43p that started this whole mess! Make sense?

I'm currently in the process of putting together client laptop number 2 that will pay for the rest of the upgrade. So basically it's a chess game. All the moves ultimately end up paying for the technology upgrades that happen around here, so that those don't have an impact on our real-world budget!

IT'S DATA TIME!!!

This morning while I was at work, UPS dropped off the last parts to my file server.....2, 2 Terabyte hard drives! So I was more than a little excited to get home. Of course, they look like any 3.5" hard drives, but good grief! Just the idea of it is a little mind boggling. In the end, I went $100 over budget, but I think it'll be worth it.

The price of 2Tb drives dropped to around $150 to 170 a few weeks ago, so I began to agonize. My original plan was to buy 2, 1Tb drives, mirror then and "call it a day" as my boss would say. But the more I thought about it, the more I reconsidered my original plan. 1Tb costs around $70-80 and the 1.5Tb drives were about $90-120, so the jump to the 2Tb drives just wasn't that much more for double the capacity when the various retailers dropped the Hitachi drive to $150. And since I'd plan to mirror for the best fault-tolerance, I wanted as much as I could get.

So in the end, the file server will cost just under $400 of which $300 was for the drives alone. But in the end, I'm pretty happy that I'll have all the capacity I'll want or need for some time. It's really hard to believe when I think back to the first PC that I built myself had a 120Mb drive in it!

I am; OH SO READY FOR THE DEATH OF SNEAKER-NET!!!

Last Things First

I really want to write about building the File Server first since I'm in the middle of planning and working on gathering parts, so I can discuss the process....in terms of how I would go about putting this together. As I've talked about before, we, like most families in this digital age have a need for storage; "digital closets" where we put our digital shoeboxes of images, videos and music. What I had before, was an extra drive in my desktop workstation where I kept back-ups of indeterminant and inconsistent ages, not ot mention the fact that when something new needed to be save or something old needed to be retrieved... the bane of my existence (sneaker-net) came into play! We all know what a pain in the neck that is!

So, what I really need (as unglamorous as it is), is a stable running file server with some sort of fault-tolerance. This sort of thing can be had in a wide assortment of types and sizes:

• The simplest of course would be disks attached to any workstation either directly or via some sort of inteface card eg. RAID adapter.
• Then there's the Network Attached Storage option (NAS), which are simple and generally inexpensive. You can buy either a "turn-key" solution that ranges from $200-500 (normal consumer models depending on capacity), or BYOD (Bring your own drive) types that run $125-200 where you then buy one or more drives to create your own file server.
• There is of course the most complex solution; the FILE SERVER, that can be run on a wide variety of software (Windows to Linux).

Let's run through a quick pluses and minuses of each solution then:

• An attachment to an existing workstation is the simplest of cheapest with the obvious advantages. However, the disadvantages are that you have single point of failure, and that failure probably coming sooner rather than later since it would have to remain "spun up" at all times. Very little flexibility since the operating system would need to be optimized for workstation use vs. as a file server, meaning that it wouldn't be as simple to set up security and services in terms of the various users etc.
• The NAS all-in-one setups are simple and easy to work with. They quite often come with packaged back-up software and the BYOD versions can be built to be as big as your budget. These things are small compared to an actual computer, really not much larger than most external HDDs. My main complaint with them is that they typically run a proprietary version of Linux as well as file system; meaning NOT FAT/FAT32 or NTFS, so if you have a controller go down then you can't just attach the drive(s) to a machine and get to the files! Also, many of the companies that sell them are random American or Asian resellers that are just contracting the hardware and will often disappear, never to be heard from again!
• Why would you want to build an actual FILE SERVER though? They represent another computer (quite often large and heavy), and unless you are conversant in the use of headless machines controlled through the network, then you have another monitor and keyboard (if you don't want to buy a KVM). On top of that, if you end up buying server software, such as MS Server03, that's another added expense.

Since I've decided to go with the last option, let me just "cut to the chase" and explain my rationale. First of foremost, I can build the thing (with the exception of the storage drives and case) FOR FREE! ...and you guys know that I'm all about FREE so let me explain this:

• I saw on the ThinkPad Forum that someone was trying to sell some old desktop equipment which included a P4 era Tyan Micro-ATX Mobo that was designed for server use (2 built-in ethernet ports), along with some P4 and Celeron processors. This board also has onboard video which also eliminated the need to have a card for that. I had some parts that the guy could use and so worked a swap for the basis of the file server....NO COST!
  
• Seeing that I now had a M-ATX mobo, I now had the option to use a small case that doesn't take a lot of room. I actually have an old EMachine M-ATX case that I could have used, but I really hate the look of EMachines in general so found a Cooler Master mesh-front micro case that was $38 with free shipping from Buy.com so went with that.
  
• I have an the optical drive from an old machine so don't need that, as well as RAM from the same machine so, again, NO COST!
• Then a Craig's List ad appeared posting a PCI card that would allow me to do RAID with an onboard SATA controller. It was $50 on Newegg, but cost me $20 cash, so now I'm up to an outlay of $58.
• Also from CL came a recert. Dynex (Best Buy house brand) 400w power supply for $10 and I'm now at $68 spent.
  
• I've had an old copy of legitimate copy of MS Server2000 for years in a box that I can use so that's NO COST as well.
  
• Now, if I can score 2 SATA drives for $230 or less, then I will have met my goal of building a file server for less than $300 TOTAL OUTLAY! This shouldn't be too difficult since 1TB HDDs commonly sell for less than $70 and 1.5TB HDDs quite often will sell for around $100!

There's an accumulation of reasons why I decided to go with a "full-blown" file server vs. a simpler solution. Firstly, I wanted the most fault-tolerance I could get for my money...including the ability to simply connect the drives to any functioning Windows type machine and get at the files if necessary. Secondly, my situation gave me the ability to spend very little on the hardware while giving me the greatest flexibility in control. For an outlay of less than $300, I should be able to do a machine with a separate OS drive (allowing me to do a rebuild without disturbing the storage) and 2 1.5TB storage HDDs set up in a mirrored RAID array, giving me a decent amount of "peace of mind".

So there you have it. I just have to accumulate enough money to buy the drives and build the thing. Then the fun starts and we'll see how much running Server2000 that I remember!

Nuts and Bolts

I'm in the process....the unglamorous process of upgrading my main workstation and storage solution. I say "upgrade" as if I previously had some sort of plan or system in place, but actually, it was only an extra 160Gb HDD in my desktop. And as all digital packrats and photographer know; there's never enough storage.

And so it started. In the beginning it was a quest for more storage....and since (at that point) storage meant my desktop machine where most photo editing was done, it involved that as well. It was time for that as well. It was already obsolete 4 years ago when I built it based on the AMD Athlon XP 2500+ "Barton" CPU, 512Mb of RAM and 2 160Gb/7200rpm hard drives. For me, that was a pretty nice unit. Four year and 2 MS Service Packs later, even the mid-term RAM upgrade (to 1.5Gb) wasn't enough.

My brother encouraged me to go with a simple NAS, but in the end I decided to build 2 brand new machines instead of rebuilding 1!

Ultimately, that will mean; 1 full-blown digital media "workstation" and 1 full-blown "file server" with mirrored storage drives that would give me enough room and security! Budget? As little as possible, which would eventually mean >$500 for the whole desktop rig and >$300 for the file server.

Tall order? Stay tuned and see how it was done!

What The Cell?!?

What else can be said about cellphones that hasn't been said over and over? Am I about to trumpet the virtues of the iPhone, rant about students randomly calling their parents from school on their "against policy" phones, or talk about my wife's need to upgrade to a "dumb-phone" with a keyboard since she texts regularly now?

No, nothing so exciting, just plain laziness. In my house, I'm the fetcher. Josh is the fetcher in training, but he's only good for small pieces of trash and papers off the printers at this point. So anything else is really up to me. This was especially significant the last 2 summers, since Camille has had back surgery both of them. In general, its not bad with the exception of the cellphone issue! We've not had a landline for a number of years now and are quite happy with simply having our individual cellphones. However, there is a fly in the ointment. I hate running across the house to get/find it!

We're all familiar with this drill. Phone rings, and your spouse looks at you helplessly since she's laid up from back surgery, you run across the house trying in vain to get to the phone before it goes to voicemail, you can't find it or you drop it while trying to get the darned thing open and it....goes to VM! Or better yet, you are talking and have to go into another room since the kids are being loud and the signal is lost or voice quality goes into the Darth Vader mode since you don't have enough bars in enough places.

I used to have a solution to this issue, back in the dark pre-GSM days when I had this cradle that I put my phone in, then it sent the signal to a 2-line Semiens deskphone system that distributed to all of the handsets strewn throughout the house. The cellphone stayed in it's cradle where it got charged and stayed put in a place where it got a good signal. Unfortunately, those cradles have gone the way of the DoDo; so what to do?

Recently I ran across a system called "Link-to-Cell" put out by Panasonic implemented in a DECT 6.0 expandable phone system. Unfortunately, the retail on a 2 handset system was around $120 (well beyond "Frugal" guidelines for phone items). So I kept looking on eBay regularly and sure enough, they sold for less there, but still in the around $50 range. I couldn't pull the trigger on it, but was able to wait out an auction for a set that didn't sell. I contacted the buyer and "low and behold" he offered it to me for $30 including shipping! I jumped all over that and PayPaled the payment.

Yesterday, it arrived and I've been playing with it ever since. It's really very simple. You connect it to up to two Bluetooth enabled cellphones and the little box sends the signal to the wireless handsets in the house. The phone connects when you go into the room, you put the phone down whereever it gets good signal and you're done! From there you just use the normal-phone looking handsets just like a regular phone.

Frugal Propellerhead Car Buying (AKA I hate new car dealerships)!

Yeah, I know; it's kind of an oxy-moron, but it was time. Our old Civic had soldiered on for 10 years of abuse and neglect. And at nearly 125,000+ miles, it was still running well, but on borrowed time before things would start to break....even on a Honda. So you do what any good frugal propellerhead would do; clean it up, invest a minimal amount to fix a few details and sell it in mid-August when parents are out frantically looking around for a car for the new driver in the family.

Sure enough, within 24hrs of putting in an ad on our school districts online employee flea market, it was sold for $4000. Not bad for a 10 year old car with it share of dings and rough spots. Now came the fun part; the dreaded "new" car shopping. We had decided that the current low price of gas is an anomaly so we were targeting a replacement with gas mileage better than a 1999 Honda Civic! It got a real world 28 city and 35 or so highway! So we were either going to have to look at "penalty boxes" or hybrids. Since we were also targeting something that was a little more roomy on the inside, the answer was obviously going to be hybrids.

I know, I know: for those who have known me for a while, this is quite a different beast (and I use the term loosely) than the Audi 90, and BMW M5 of my single days! Anyway, this led us to the hybrid version of the face-lifted Ford Fusion. I may be going soft in my daddy-of-two-middle-ages, but I can't abide ugly cars. The first version of the Fusion was for salesmen and grannies and as for the Toyota Prius..... let's just leave those to the "more liberal-than-thou" need to be seen in my suppository-shape trendy-green-car crowd! We thought the Honda Civic was going to be too small so we homed in on the Fusion. However, after crunching the numbers, it turned out that we didn't love the extra room all THAT much, so off the see the Civic hybrid.

With Mr. Opportunity knocking, we got to experience the never-fail-to-gag experience of a new car lot and the ever lovely day spent with car sale people. Let me tell ya; those guys will make you want to go out and hug a lawyer! Although we knew what to expect, it was still a little bit of a shock to the system (like jumping right into a less-than-warm pool). Remember; we keep our cars 10 years and replace them 5 years apart, so it's been a while. At Rusty Wallace we experience everything from rude behavior, to musical offices, to the "bait-and-switch". The annoying thing about all this was that we went in prepared! We knew their invoice price, we had loan % information, we knew what we wanted and didn't want, we knew that they had a week to sell the car(s) before they automatically became non-current, year-old models (we targeted '09 that they had in inventory). This is late August remember, and new car models hit in September industry-wide.

So there you are; got em' over a barrel time. It was even a rainy Monday for Pete-sakes! So, what the friendly folks at the dealership subjected us to was 3 hours of run-around that went nowhere. The worse part was that they kept using tactics like trying to get us to sign these bogus "offer-sheets" to rope you into a "Bull Stuff" deal and just repeatedly insulting our intelligence. So we walked. On the way out of the lot though, a funny thing happened, there on the Used Car side was an '08 Civic Hybrid that was $8000 less than the new version! So after lunch we went back to look at it. Amazingly, the salesman was cordial, low-pressure and easy to work with, so we worked on a deal with him that evening for 3 more hours. In the end, it didn't work out, since his sales manager was cut out of the same clothe as the one over on the new car side of the lot, but it wasn't half bad. It didn't work out, because the sale manager wanted to play hardball and was unwilling to meet us half-way (or even a quarter-way for that matter), but I'd definitely recommend that salesman to anyone.

For those of you who know my wife, you know that, that wasn't the end of it. She had Civic Hybrid on the brain now and spent several hours that night scouring the Internet for every single one between Ft. Worth and Durant, Oklahoma! My girl's a bulldog when she finds a bone to worry on! The next morning, we're off to Lewisville (an hour away) with a list of cars to look at and that's after talking to 2 other car dealerships before I leave (including the one in Oklahoma). To make a long story short, we find what I'm looking for a the first place, buy the car the next day and have a great experience with a small specialty dealer that mostly operates on the Internet.

Do I love it.... the jury's out, but it's growing on me in it's own funky way. It's put together nicely, like every other Honda I've ever owned. It's not huge with room to spare like the Fusion, but it's big enough. The gas mileage is "as advertised", we've been getting between 38 and 40 in the city and got almost 52mpg on our trip to Arkansas last weekend! That'll work!!! Hopefully, the price of gas will stay reasonable at least until we've replaced the truck in 4 more years, but if not, this car will definitely help take a little bit of the sting out of the price of gas.