I went right to work on the Oregon USGS water particle inspection program right after I read aloud to the kids when I got home yesterday afternoon. I fixed a few problems, added a little functionality to the program, and then sat down for dinner with the family. I left the computer running while we ate and during a long talk with the one of the scientists in the USGS lab. When I returned to my computer, it was completely locked up. The computer is a nice Dell laptop that is only two years, so I was at a little bit of a loss as to why this happened. I fooled around with it for quite a long time, but could never really get it going right, so I switched over to the home computer to scan in Betty Blonde and send it up to our server. I found that our scanner was so old, it did not work with the new computer, so I had to get out our old printer-scanner with the printer that no longer works (an ugly sight that takes up too much room on the desk) so I could scan in a comic. After that, I had to download Python, GIMP, and the BleAX (Betty Blonde Accumlator of Comix) program I had written and get that running, too.
By the time I had that all finished, it was after 11:00. Then I had to start trying to figure out what to do about the broken computer. All my water inspection (the Oregon part) programming work is performed with that computer. Fortunately, Christian had figured out that there is a defective graphics chip/motherboard in that particular computer for which Dell extended the warranty. It is something that has happened to lots of people. So, even though I have a good backup, it is a day old and I will have to rewrite the code again if I cannot get it off the system before it gets fixed. I did not get much sleep last night, but maybe this is a sign that I should just stay off the computer through the Fourth of July holiday. It is a pretty good excuse to concentrate on eating hot dogs and watching fireworks, so I am going to take it as a sign even if it is not.
The lesson I learned is KEEP DOING MY BACKUPS!
Links
Our blog roll
- ( Nerdhow )
- A Mother’s Journal
- Charlie’s Guatemala Blog
- Every Good Path
- GaugeCam Blog
- H|esoteric
- JKLMNOP Nelson
- Joel and Karen
- Lyle Waldo
- Mari Loves Brian
- Ryan and Jeannie
- Ryan and Jessica
- Sonlight blog
- The Batista’s blog
- The Hamiltons
- The Ramey’s
- Torres family corner
- Trisha's blog
- Troy and Youngin
- Troy’s water blog
- Uncommon Cat
Archives
- August 2010
- July 2010
- June 2010
- May 2010
- April 2010
- March 2010
- February 2010
- January 2010
- December 2009
- November 2009
- October 2009
- September 2009
- August 2009
- July 2009
- June 2009
- May 2009
- April 2009
- March 2009
- February 2009
- January 2009
- December 2008
- November 2008
- October 2008
- September 2008
- August 2008
- July 2008
- June 2008
- May 2008
- April 2008
- March 2008
- February 2008
- January 2008
- December 2007
- November 2007
- October 2007
- September 2007
- August 2007
- July 2007
- June 2007
- May 2007
- April 2007
- March 2007
- February 2007
- January 2007
- December 2006
- November 2006
- October 2006
- September 2006
- August 2006
- July 2006
- June 2006
- May 2006
- April 2006
- March 2006
- February 2006
- January 2006
- December 2005
- November 2005
- October 2005
- September 2005
- August 2005
- July 2005
- June 2005
- May 2005
- April 2005
- March 2005
- February 2005
- January 2005
- November 2004
- October 2004
- September 2004
- August 2004
- July 2004
- June 2004
- May 2004
- April 2004
Oh, it is definitely a sign! Off to one last day of painting. Then to a week of putting the house back together before having 2 weeks of relatives in and out and LOADS of fun!
Have a great Fourth of July, Ruthie!
Yes, I agree! Backups are imperative. I don’t always remember but when I do I am oh so glad.
I am in the midst of trying to fix an old laptop which has precious pictures on it. The fan stopped working but I don’t know if that is the only problem. It gets so hot that it will only run for about five minutes. It also has a crack in the inner screen. I could probably just replace the fan and see how it goes.
Man, I hate it when that happens. We have some pictures on an old hard drive that went bad. Everyone says we will be able to recover them, but it will cost us around $1500. I set up a better backup system after that.
Stressful! Computer stuff can be so irritating. I have a real love-hate relationship with computers. I have about 8000 pictures on this computer and am slowly getting them all onto CD or onto an on-line service. Why oh why did I wait so long? I hope your problems are solved soon. Enjoy your 4th and the food and fun.
Lynn
No, no, no, you have it all wrong! When a computer breaks, you are supposed to have a week of complete and utter silence, computer and internet free, and then see if you ever want to start again. The way you broke your computer was all wrong, you just made yourself more work! Better luck next time, just wait for a lightening strike if you don’t have the courage to break it good enough yourself!
Audrey (with her tongue in cheek)
You are making a very good move Lynn to put them onto an on-line service. The CD’s, I have heard go bad sooner than people expect. What on-line service do you use? I think I need to do that, too.
Audrey! I won the lottery. I am having it fixed by shipping it back to Oregon for TWO weeks!!! It is almost as good as a lightning strike. I am going through Eric withdrawal. I think I need to give you guys a buzz this weekend.
Ken, right now I’m using winkflash for my photos. I like it so far, but have not been using it long.
Lynn
Oh, and thank you for the tip about CDs going bad sooner than people thought. Didn’t know that!
Lynn
Ken, I had no idea the cds would go bad. I was putting my 7000 plus pictures on cds. I suppose my concern with an online system would be what happens if the company goes under then I loose my pictures?
Any other suggestions? The cds just go bad sitting there? or using them alot? probably both.
I still have a reliable laptop to use but I am wanting to replace the fan on an older laptop. I have already put some of the pictures from this laptop onto cds. I wonder how they are doing. There must be a reliable source to store pictures.
Here is an article that describes the problem.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/124312/do_burned_cds_have_a_short_life_span.html
Ken,
I read the article. It sounds like using magnetic tapes might work but I didn’t look at the expense.
If a person did put the pictures on cd’s, we need to replace the cd’s every 2 to 5 years. I also thought of a hard drive but it has it problems as well. Perhaps it would be better to put them on an online service and cds to be sure.
Have you looked into the magnetic tapes?
You came to the same conclusion as I Deanne. I found that if I searched for a coupon, I could sign up for Carbonite for unlimited storage (but only the stuff under the My Documents directory) for around $103. In addition to that, I am going to keep the stuff backed up on the flash memory cards we use as well as on CD’s. I hope it works!
Carbonite is probably a good idea, especially for folks who just refuse to get a Macintosh. ;)
Yeah. I wonder why I higher percentage of Mac users have Carbonite than Windows users?