Archive for October 12th, 2005

Follow-up on the Dead Harddisk

Published by
James
at 23:49 UTC Oct 12, 2005 in Computing. 4 Comments

After replacing the harddisk and reinstalling all the drivers, upon plugging in the printer it hanged the computer. I am getting too old for this. So I went and bought a Mongkok Special this afternoon, got it picked up early this evening, and had the necessary applications, anti-virus, anti-spy, and OS updates installed tonight. As it will be used by M and Alec only, I have less than 1/3 the application I would need to install. It made me miss my gym time so I did the stepping machine at home instead.

The good news for M is, and thanks to Tin and the coop’s mother server, M had all her clerical works emailed to Alec’s school Tennis Club president, so they are all safe and sound in the IMAP server.

No such lucky for the practice quiz questions she made up for Alec although. Lucky for Alec, I suppose. Which reminds me our IMAP email server is actually a great and convenient way to backup any data files. All there is needed to be done by one is to email oneself’s data files to one’s own email account! Then there will be a copy in the local drive and a copy offsite! Which is even easier than my previous suggestion for M last night to have her works stored in her iPod mini.

Now, I have ample time to bring to old computer to the shop and have them salvage any parts and swap out the faulty parts and I would have a spare PC or a server. Not such a bad thing after all.

Capricorn One

Published by
James
at 9:25 UTC Oct 12, 2005 in GlobalAffairs. 0 Comments

The second Chinese maned spacecraft has just been launched safely into outer space. Congratulations!!!

It is however surprising to me that the weather at the launch pad seems to be less than ideal. It took something like 20 seconds for the spacecraft to disappear from sight into some thick haze. Not to “lift others’ spirit, and crush our glory” but such weather was never seen with American launches whatsoever.

Another odd thing was the broadcast videos. Some of the video quality and rocket separations are so odd they seem like… cartoons. I was going to say computer graphics but they are even much less quality than the Incredibles! The shots of the astronauts are… stills! No shaking or movement any kind on the spacecraft’s interior and the astronauts. Some angles are so odd, like the lateral views of the spacecraft with the Earth, that they look like have to be graphic illustrations.

Though the event has to be real or otherwise the Americans would have screamed by now, and I just want to comment on how poor the broadcast video quality and do not mean to have been conspired by any means, it is, however, all much to much like the movie Capricorn One.