That's Latin for 'The die is cast'. Tradition states it's what Caesar said when he crossed the Rubicon river (which was the border into Italy - bringing his army into Italy was pretty much a declaration of war).
The phrase is, understandably, in my head. The die is cast, the Rubicon crossed - I went out and bought the new computer today. And I don't doubt I'll be fighting it for a few days. I got the basic set-up done at the store, but the Apple people didn't want to mess with the PC aspects. There's a whole set of steps I have to tackle now, which seem to be needed to get the thing into order so I can use the CADD software I need for school.
In fact, come to think of it, it's now a little less Caesar and a little more 'The house that Jack built' or 'For want of a nail...'. I need Dynascape CADD installed for school. To install Dynascape, I need Windows 7 installed, and I need to set up Bootcamp and partition my computer. I can download Windows from school - but I also need to download support software, and need to burn it all to a disk for installation. And guess who cleaned up a while back? I could find only 2 CD/DVD disks in the house, and the computer says it can't burn onto either. So I'm stalled out for lack of a disk, at the moment.
Monday I shall tackle the computer people at school, see if they have a disk of Windows, or buy a blank and try this again.
I think I can install some of my other stuff in the meantime - Adobe and Office. And I have plans for a felted computer case, but won't start it until I'm sure this is up and running what it should - the guy at the store said they have a good return policy, if this doesn't work out. Fingers crossed it does!
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Showing posts with label technology. Show all posts
Saturday, 19 January 2013
Sunday, 13 January 2013
Lang Syne
Remember those old National Geographic magazines I bought a few months ago? I meant to show off a bit of what was inside them, but don't think I ever did. So here's a quick look at what the cutting edge was like, 90 years ago.
National Geographic was just starting to get some colored pictures. I think they're supposed to be color photographs, but they look more like someone painted over a black and white photo.
There was an article in one of them on Holland, which I was excited about because my mother's Dutch. Only think - everyone's wearing the traditional costume in these pictures, and the wooden shoes!
And there were at least 3 pictures with someone knitting. Apparently it's in the genes.
The articles had a few prime notions too. It's a little odd to think of a large, scientific-type magazine like this one apparently thinking it completely the norm to use concepts like Manifest Destiny (which was sort of a White supremacy, we-were-born-to-rule idea; think British India or the Boer War), referring to 'the ladies' or 'the weaker sex', describing a South American as 'a Peon type', or having one of the authors casually mentioning how he let his pre-teen son loose in the jungle to shoot at birds for amusement.
And just to show how much else has changed...imagine buying a house for this price.
You'd maybe have a car in the drive that looked like this:
And you would still have to dip your steel-nib pen in the inkwell to write your letters and do your accounting.
National Geographic was just starting to get some colored pictures. I think they're supposed to be color photographs, but they look more like someone painted over a black and white photo.
There was an article in one of them on Holland, which I was excited about because my mother's Dutch. Only think - everyone's wearing the traditional costume in these pictures, and the wooden shoes!
And there were at least 3 pictures with someone knitting. Apparently it's in the genes.
The articles had a few prime notions too. It's a little odd to think of a large, scientific-type magazine like this one apparently thinking it completely the norm to use concepts like Manifest Destiny (which was sort of a White supremacy, we-were-born-to-rule idea; think British India or the Boer War), referring to 'the ladies' or 'the weaker sex', describing a South American as 'a Peon type', or having one of the authors casually mentioning how he let his pre-teen son loose in the jungle to shoot at birds for amusement.
And just to show how much else has changed...imagine buying a house for this price.
You'd maybe have a car in the drive that looked like this:
Saturday, 4 February 2012
Unprintable
Sometimes things you take for granted get complicated. I'm working on the Pysanky patterns, and need to print out the graph of the newest ones to take around with me and knit from.
As a student, I could always just use the printer at the lab. So while I still have my old printer, it hasn't been used in years. I had to buy a new ink cartridge (because the old one was dried up) before I could even test it to see if it still functioned. And hell, now I know why Dad refills his cartridges, and why the joke is that it's cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy more ink.
Set up printer with new cartridge, plug into computer. Try to print and printer promptly goes offline. Someone said it might be I need to install a driver, or maybe the printer just doesn't work with this computer. The old computer was a PC, this one is a Mac and 10 years newer.
But wait, I still have the old computer. So I figured maybe I could just use my USB, get the file onto the old computer, and print from that. Did that today, remembered the old computer can't read my new USB, put the file on the old USB instead, and got it onto the old computer. Plugged in the printer, and the computer found it, but apparently no driver or whatever was needed to install it there either.
It seems I've had the printer all this time, and never used it, or I would have found that out before. I don't seem to have the CD with the necessary program. And I'm sure after almost a decade, my father wouldn't have kept it either.
At this point I had a headache, and decided I'd had enough. The printer is in its corner until the next electronics recycling I can get to. I will see if anyone wants the ink cartridge. And I will stop at the library and print the graph tomorrow before I go knitting. Some things aren't worth the hassle.
I did some carding and knitting instead. Three silk/wool batts done, and half a sleeve knitted. My new sweater, at least, is entirely satisfactory so far.
As a student, I could always just use the printer at the lab. So while I still have my old printer, it hasn't been used in years. I had to buy a new ink cartridge (because the old one was dried up) before I could even test it to see if it still functioned. And hell, now I know why Dad refills his cartridges, and why the joke is that it's cheaper to buy a new printer than to buy more ink.
Set up printer with new cartridge, plug into computer. Try to print and printer promptly goes offline. Someone said it might be I need to install a driver, or maybe the printer just doesn't work with this computer. The old computer was a PC, this one is a Mac and 10 years newer.
But wait, I still have the old computer. So I figured maybe I could just use my USB, get the file onto the old computer, and print from that. Did that today, remembered the old computer can't read my new USB, put the file on the old USB instead, and got it onto the old computer. Plugged in the printer, and the computer found it, but apparently no driver or whatever was needed to install it there either.
It seems I've had the printer all this time, and never used it, or I would have found that out before. I don't seem to have the CD with the necessary program. And I'm sure after almost a decade, my father wouldn't have kept it either.
At this point I had a headache, and decided I'd had enough. The printer is in its corner until the next electronics recycling I can get to. I will see if anyone wants the ink cartridge. And I will stop at the library and print the graph tomorrow before I go knitting. Some things aren't worth the hassle.
I did some carding and knitting instead. Three silk/wool batts done, and half a sleeve knitted. My new sweater, at least, is entirely satisfactory so far.
Wednesday, 24 August 2011
Why Caution is Required for Fax Machines
Something interesting happened at work last night. I was hearing rumors of the police poking around, and then I heard the explanation.
It seems someone using a fax machine had dialed 9-1-1 instead of #-1-1, which presumably was a shortcut to one of the other machines in the building. And so the machine dialed. And when it didn't get a fax machine on the other end of the line it could send to, it paused for a bit and tried again. Several times. And 911 calls with hangups still get checked out. So enter the police, and the building security, and they finally figured out what happened, and had to get in touch with the sender and tell them to stop the fax machine. It seems to have been a complete mistake, so I hope whoever it was gets off with a warning.
One of my other colleagues mentioned a similar thing seems to have happened once with a phone in her office. Proof enough that care in dialing and verifying the number on the display screen are more important than one might think.
It seems someone using a fax machine had dialed 9-1-1 instead of #-1-1, which presumably was a shortcut to one of the other machines in the building. And so the machine dialed. And when it didn't get a fax machine on the other end of the line it could send to, it paused for a bit and tried again. Several times. And 911 calls with hangups still get checked out. So enter the police, and the building security, and they finally figured out what happened, and had to get in touch with the sender and tell them to stop the fax machine. It seems to have been a complete mistake, so I hope whoever it was gets off with a warning.
One of my other colleagues mentioned a similar thing seems to have happened once with a phone in her office. Proof enough that care in dialing and verifying the number on the display screen are more important than one might think.
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