All machines are revolting!

So after my work computer failure, there is a program which replaces the machine quickly by shipping you only the machine part. You have to replace the hard drive, memory, optical drive, and any other accessories... but your machine is up and running because the replacement machine is the exact same machine type/serial as the original machine for which your hard drive was configured. Pretty nifty, huh?

So I was able to quickly get the replacement machine up and running. However, within a day, this machine started to fail, too. And whereas at least with the old machine, I could somehow boot up on occasion, eventually with the replacement machine, I could not boot up at all.

Coincidentally, I also received the new ThinkPad I ordered for my mom. ThinkPad G41 which is a desktop replacement which means it has a 15" screen and a 3GHz chip. Pretty nice. Anyway, I tried swapping memory in my work machine, but no difference, so apparently, the memory is not the problem. The hard drive was checked by Norton AntiVirus while I was able to boot the machine so according to Norton, there are no viruses.

Bummer.

And so it continues...

Today, the Internet stopped working (at home, not all over the world). It turned out to be the router. I had to reset the router which meant re-entering all the set up values. Yes, I have a backup file saved SOMEWHERE...

And one of the ReplayTV's is on the blink. Could be a hard drive problem. I was going to make one for my mom anyway. (This would be my first HD failure of a Western Digital drive.)

Worked on Ohtomo Bar home page

I worked on the home page for Ohtomo Bar. I realized that blogs would be a good way to set up a web page where Shinobu-san can also easily post new information. I was able to set up a page using Blogger.

The web page is accessible through http://www.ohtomobar.com

I also started to work on Kyoko's home page. Even though she does not have as much new information to post, since blogs are easily updated, then she can maintain it herself. I also used Blogger to set up her page. Unfortunately http://japanesetutor.blogspot.com even though the username was available.

I should try to see if I can do the same for Vista Ridge Golf Center.

While trying to update my blog from Zaurus, it somehow truncated the entry. Arrrgh!

Garden work and hi-tech

I was doing yard work today, and then I thought I smelt something burning. It was the edger, and I don't know if the culprit was the extension cord or the edger, but the plug started to melt. Sigh. I guess I'll be buying a battery-operated one anyway.

But more concerning is that our robotic mower no longer seems to cut in manual mode. Sigh. This would be bad since it is not possible to get complete coverage without manually doing some areas. I was a in a hurry to se if it can cut in automated mode.I will find out tomorrow.

Sigh. When things break, lots of things seem to break.

Footnote: Seems like Mitsukaze (Robomower) is ok. Maybe he just didn't feel like working anymore that day.

Next projects

Next projects:

Computers:

• Ensure all computers have latest Norton Antivirus software
  
• Set up mom's new computer
• Determine how to access home LAN
• Determine how to print from outside home LAN
• Set up backup for computers
  

ReplayTV:

• Set up 250GB ReplayTV for mom
• Upgrade ReplayTV to 400GB
• Try rebooting ReplayTV which has non-working tuner
• Set up reading of ReplayTV hard drive
  

Entertainment:

• Figure out why connection speed from condo is slow
• Figure out how mom can watch
  
• Set up PC tuner card
• Set up HTPC
• Determine how to edit videos
• Determine how to create MPEG4 files
  

Web page:

• Ohtomo Bar
• Kyoko
• Vista Ridge Golf Center
• Blogs for trips

Home automation:

• x10 floodlight for garage
  
• x10 floodlight for side of house
• x10 switch for mom's bedroom
  

ReplayTV and storms

This past Tuesday night, we had a very severe storm in our area. It was rather brief but very intense.

The next day or so, I noticed one of the ReplayTVs not working properly. It seems the tuner is no longer working. ReplayTV would show recorded things just fine, but not anything live. In addition, when the unit is off, the TV still could not show anything.

So now I am only down to 5 working ReplayTVs!!!!

Anyway, since I had put a 400GB hard drive in one of the other ReplayTV units, I went ahead and installed that ReplayTV and moved the non-working tuner ReplayTV into the media room.

On Friday (today), we found the bedroom ReplayTV was also not showing anything live. This seemed very funny, though, considering it was working properly up through Friday morning when it recorded Fujisankei News ok. Anyway, I noticed it had not rebooted for a couple of days, so I unplugged the machine for several minutes. When I plugged it back in, it was working ok. Whew!

So here is the current set up:

Bedroom

250 hours

Family Room

160 hours

Upstairs

400 hours

Media

250 hours

Media 2

160 hours

Media 3

200 hours

Uopdate: Tuner is now working on the ReplayTV. Yay!

Organization

I need to try to figure out a strategy for organizing information. I have always believed that the best way to organize is to have everything in one place. Based on the given technology, though, this does not seem possible.

But if we were to live in an ideal world:

• I would need a handheld organizer which can access all my information.
• Information would include blogs, contact lists, to do lists, and any other references. Potentially mail, too.
• This handheld organizer should work with my mobile phone to be able to make phone calls from a contact list. In an ideal world, it would track phone calls as part of the contact information.
• Since we are also talking about ideal, the handheld organizer would also have a GPS device to be able to provide navigational information. The GPS device would also be able to log my whereabouts, so that at any point in time, I can refer back to where I was on a given day.
• This device would be able to connect to the Internet, view video files, etc. Ideally, be able to connect to http://my.orb.com for viewing media from my server.
• The device should have a large hard-drive capability, so that I can store media on it directly. In addition, it should be able to handle SD/SD-IO cards.
• And finally, the device should be a camera and videocamera, with a minimum 3 megapixel resolution for the camera and VGA quality video at 30 fps.

The blog should have the following capabilities:

• Private and public access.
• Multiple categorization capability. That is, not only be able to categorize a blog entry but associate it to multiple categories.
• Search capabilities.
• Photo/photo album, even video
• Access via e-mail which would be one way to access from the handheld device

Given that we are not in the ideal world yet... What to do...