A friend of mine called me yesterday because he wasn't able to get on the Internet. Before calling me, he was on the phone with his Internet provider (which I will not name - but it's a big one) who talked him through some troubleshooting steps. They were unable to resolve his problem.

Because he mentioned that he went through this troubleshooting step, I assumed (bad move!) that they took him through the basics. After several minutes on the phone, my friend asked if turning off the modem and turning it back on might help.

-- Insert "OH GEEZ!" response here ---

I couldn't believe that that wasn't the first thing the tech support people had him do. I mean, isn't it always best to start from a known starting point? Reset, reboot, recycle...eliminate some question marks that may have led up to the problem!

Needless to say, cycling the power on his modem corrected the problem.

Most people don't care so much why something happens (unless it keeps happening) as long as they can get up and running again. I guess there is just a lack of good tech support out there. Reminds me of all my calls to Apple about my refurbished G5 system - I think it was my fourth call when I actually got to talk to someone who knew what he was talking about.

OK, yeah, well it has been a while since I posted anything here.

I've been busy.




Below, you can see the pieces that I cut out and bent for the frame. There is a guy in the class that I teamed up with who has done metal work for a living (at a journeyman level), and he has helped me tremendously in this regard and has turned out some really quality work (despite my inexperience). I have learned a lot about laying out and cutting the pieces so that they fold in a desired manner. It wasn't easy getting to this point, as this was the second attempt. The first batch was cut from the wrong grade of aluminum and they cracked when folded, so I had to get some new material and start over.



Here is a mock-up on my bench of how the pieces will look once they are assembled.



Pretty cool. I haven't figured out the details, yet, about how I am going to mount the motors to the frame, but I have some ideas.

Anyway, in keeping with the theme of this blog, I suppose I should talk about my experiences with the Power Macintosh. Yes, the marvelous (sp?) Apple computer.

I have never called tech support so many times for any other product I have ever owned. In fact, I think this is the first time I have ever called tech support for a product; but I have been on the phone to Apple's tech support probably five times now.

You see, from day one, this computer has been locking up. In fact, locking up was one of the first things this computer did when I turned it on. Nobody can figure out why it is locking up, and nobody has yet to tell me what I want to hear, which is something along the lines of, "ship it back and we'll send you a new one!"

Instead, they leave me to contemplate suicide. That's easier for them, I suppose.

The last tech support call actually connected me to someone who spoke English and knew what he was talking about. He talked me through the process of firing up the hardware diagnostics and told me to let it run for a few hours, since my problem was intermittent and probably wouldn't show up right away.

I let it run for two days.

The diagnostics found nothing.

The funny thing is, however, the computer hasn't locked up since then. In thinking back on the problem, the computer seemed to lock up shortly after turning it on. But if it is on for a while, it seems to remain stable (though not ALWAYS). My gut tells me that reseating the RAM may help - it's really the only component left (other than the motherboard) that could be the problem. I'm sure it's hardware.

The computer has been on for two days now and is still running solid. However, I am afraid to shut down Final Cut Pro and turn off the computer, because last time I did that, I reloaded my video project and all the effects had turned to crap. I'm not sure what that's about, but I suppose I could have a SOFTWARE problem on top of the HARDWARE problem.

You think?

Well, think different. NOT!

Same shit, different computer. It's all the same shit. All the same fucking bullshit. Bits, bytes and bullshit. I won't even talk about the problem my wife had with her laptop computer last night. I fixed it, but GOD I hate dealing with that crap. It has been so nice to be away from the computer as much as I have been the past few weeks.

All I have really been doing on the computer is working on my video project for class. I'll make it available for viewing on the Web once it is done. And if you want it on a video CD (once you see it), just let me know! If you know me, you know where to get hold of me. Otherwise...well...I'll think about it.

Well, enough computer crap. I took a community class a couple weeks ago called Clear the Clutter. It was conducted by a woman who helps people organize things for a living. It provided motivation for me to get my clutter under control. In response to that - having started the process so many times in my life without any real success - I decided to create some web pages to chronical my progress. It is a form of accountability that I created, in order to keep me motivated on an on-going basis. And I am surprised that I have actually been making some progress!

So, now you know why this blog has been quiet for a while. :-)