Lawrence "The Dreamer" Chen's Blog

Well, here I am sitting in the dark....had to make some reconfigurations of stuff so I can still be online for the moment....

But, this is like the 3 significant outage in the last couple of weeks. Didn't I get a letter earlier this year saying that there had been like 4 in the previous year, and that they were going to be working on improving reliability of the system? Forgot to talk to my doctor about what to do when the power is out, and I want to keep breathing while I'm sleeping....

Earlier I blogged on how I had pulled the trigger on buying a DPP-600HD to maybe have DC power backup for such things. Only problem was that UPS was supposed to deliver it today. Scheduled Delivery July 3rd. It last showed as out for delivery at 4:45am. Obviously they didn't show up at all, even though I canceled my plans for today to stay home and wait for it.

Not sure what has me more annoyed. Since my electric bill goes up every month, even though I'm on average pay plan....and I'm sure running CPAP and the associated others (like needing more AC because it gets warm and wet under the mask otherwise). isn't helping my costs.

Can't say that I'm using more power than I did when I lived in Ohio....and at first my bills seem to match what I used to pay back there. But now its like 60% more.... wonder what I'm getting for it.

Though still, I think I'm more annoyed at UPS still. Though as this power outage stretches on....that's changing.

I have been meaning to get a Duracell DPP-600HD Powerpack for some time, as a backup power solution for my CPAP. That's the intended primary use. Though I'm sure I'd find other emergency applications for it....

While Amazon/Prime would be a cheaper faster way to get it...if I was doing cash out of pocket spending....since its ~$150+tax right now, and I've seen ~13x+tax. But, pulling the trigger on actually getting despite having been hit by a bunch of power outages recently....has been a problem. Other priorities and belt tightening.

Today, I saw that the 20% off shopAMEX promotion was going on again. So, I popped over for a look. And, saw that I had enough points to get a 600HD from a shopAMEX merchant. Now the price of the unit is much higher than Amazon.com, and there is a charge for standard delivery of it...so more expensive and slower. But, since its points it has a different feel to it.

While the 600HD was the first thing I checked via shopAMEX, it wasn't the thing that I was going to purchase at first. I remembered that I'm still looking for a new dresser to solve the disintegration of my old one and the piles of clean laundry cluttering up my bedroom floor. But, there weren't any suitable dressers available for the amount of points that I had left (and I didn't want to get an advance on points). Even though this means that I'll have to buy a dresser for much more...and the procrastination on it could mean I won't get one until next year....

So, not finding a suitable dresser under my points threshold....I went ahead and pulled the trigger on getting the Powerpack 600HD.

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This morning while I was at home waiting for the building owner to show up to see about some noises inside the wall behind kitchen sink/washer&dryer. UPS showed up with a box from TigerDirect.

That should be the off-lease IBM ThinkCenter S51 that I snapped up thinking I'd rebuild 'box' on a new machine.

The condo's quarterly pest control was going to be at 1:30pm today, so he was thinking of setting off some kind of pest control spray bomb in the utility room...which may or may not reach into the wet wall space of my condo. Or consult with the pest control company on what else to try. Later as I was listening closer to the noise, I wondered if it sounded like a feret...because there's a "Lost Ferret" sign out by the mailboxes. Turns out the "Lost Ferret" is from the unit above me.

I popped in to work for a bit, and then returned around 1:30pm for the pest control visit. I arrived to find that FedEx ground had been by and there was a box sitting by my front door. Meanwhile, the building owner said the neighbor upstairs wanted to take a look and see if he can get the ferret out, otherwise the ferret owner would pay to have an exterminator deal with it. There's no openings in the wall that I knew of, but I let him. Pest control guy later showed up to do some spraying.

Well, the box was the pulled/untested power supply that I had snagged off of ebay. All the power supplies that matched the part number online were of this 'untested/as-is' condition...or more than what I had original paid for the computer (and more than what the off-lease computer I just got). Alas, it didn't make 'box' work again. Either I got another dead power supply or there something else wrong with the system that is making the powersupply not turn on. Not have an ATX P/S tester handy, I can't tell if this is the case or not.

Anyways...that eliminates one option for getting 'box' back online.

I'm pretty much leaning towards installing the latest Ubuntu server....since it looks like the main things I'd require on the system are DNS (master), DHCP (wonder about setting up peering), NTP, ddclient x 2, and email relay to my outbound.mailhop.org account, vpnc. The ivs-status-sniff stuff will just go away. And, I'll gradually remove all evidence of it and simplify the configurations on my border routers (been close to running out of nvram on them).

Hmmm, just realized that I never changed the configs on the routers to account for the lack of the internal router 'box' to reach my ReplayTVs for IVS...not just they were (date) confused because they were doing NTP off of 'box'...and first DNS in the search list was 'box'....

Also not sure vpnc is needed now, since it won't be functioning as an internal router anymore. Someday I'll upgrade to a computer where it'll be safe to install a vpn client again. My windows boxes are both pretty dorked in the network config department. The W2K box is completely dorked...when 'lhaven' died...it became pretty usuable because I couldn't get into the configs to change my DNS server. I haven't found the install disk, so risking a repair install hasn't been an option. The other computer is also somewhat messed up, though not as bad.

Both messed up networking are connected to previous attempts to install VPN software (SecureRemote). It was largely flawed because they didn't support users with their own routers doing NAT. Largely because every IANA non-routeable ranges were being used somewhere within the worldwide network of the company, which was all NAT'd behind a single IP in Canada. Made location based (or restricted) services fun to use from work...because they would mistakenly set Canadian preferences or deny access because only US IPs were allowed.

It was particularly bad with Yahoo..which kept bouncing us over to yahoo.ca and then defaulting to only searching Canadian sites.

Anyways....wonder when I'll get cracking on trying to build the new 'box'. The off lease machine came with a 40G drive, but do I use it...or see if I have any other IDE drives around (probably too late to buy one).

Last night I experienced another Kansas Weather Event. Starting to wonder if I had known about these things, would I have called Manhattan, Kansas home?

Last night it was rain, and lots of it. I may as well have been a solid water coming down everywhere....almost the instant it started....I could hear water pouring into my living room. I had towel handy, and the put empty trash containers along the patio door and that kept most of the water at bay.

Carpet was dry by morning.

But, then the inevitable next happened. The power flickered and then went away. I was watching TV at the time (L&O: Criminal Intent). Guess I'll have to pick up the ending later. Things were humming on the UPS. Though somethings bounced...I turned off the TV and the V880N. Seems my HDVI5 switcher isn't on a UPS. So, there was no using things while the UPSs beeped. I thought I had disabled the beeper in the UPS, but maybe it only disables if it knows there's a computer attached....there isn't so...hmmm.

The UPS handling 'lhaven' died immediately. So, no IRC. So, even though the cable modem was still working and lasted more than half an hour. And, the DSL modem never went down. I was quickly without Internet, as computers ran down. And, my wireless access points are connected to desktop UPSs. I think I should move the access point to the PowerSource 400 that was backing up my phone/VoIP/router/dsl.

I went around shutting down some other computers to help stretch the UPSs....

Seems the Lasko floor fan and the Kenmore Envirosense air purifier didn't like being on the UPS...probably the TRIAC to make low speed fan and the simulated sine wave of the UPS output not getting along. I turned these things off. And, then after pacing around for a while, and checking various light sources. And, finding it getting warm and stuffy indoors. I went out and listened on my HT to the weather spotters, and checked out the area.

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Link: http://www.woot.com/Blog/ViewEntry.aspx?Id=8372

My latest Woot acquisition has arrived. On 2 for Tuesday last week, they featured these Fire Extinguishers. I got 2.

When I first moved into my condo there were no fire extinguishers on the property...though I had an old halon one, and later picked up an aerosol can like fire extinguisher.

Later with an impending visit by the fire marshal, the landlord came into all the units and put fire extinguishers under the kitchen sinks. I was leasing to own at the time.

Later I become owner, and he didn't ask for it back. But, nearing time for the yearly visit by the fire marshal he went around asking for all the fire extinguishers back so that they could be inspected. It never came back. Eventually a fire extinguisher was mounted to the wall by the stairs...one on each level. Guess that was sufficient.

Plus I still had mine.

But, I had been thinking of getting additional fire extinguishers just for the sake of convenience. Though buying fire extinguishers online is hard and it wasn't really something I wanted to walk 3 miles to and another 3 miles back to get. And, I didn't think it would be something I could do on impulse.

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Link: http://www.channelregister.co.uk/2009/06/11/microsoft_money_cancelled/

Its personal finance and small business software package.

The software will no longer be available to buy after 30 June and anyone who has bought MS Money needs to activate it before 31 January 2011.

My copy expires in March 2010. Hopefully Intuit will have a painless way for us to migrate to the Mac version

Though there are other reasons to still run Windows at home....Money was always on the top of the list for reasons why I was hesitant to make the full leap to running something other than Windows as my main desktop system. I have been playing with some of the stuff that needs windows with XP installed in VirtualBox. Like while EncoreViewer will run in the VM, it can take up to 5 tries to successfully read the smartcard. While I've almost never had trouble reading the card into my circa 1993 Windows XP Desktop.

Wonder when I'll get serious about making the switch. I suppose one option would be to start new in 2010. But, there have been many times that I've searched all the way back to 1998 when I first started using Money.

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When I was at Wal-Mart on Memorial Day, I stopped to look at water filters. I was thinking that it was maybe time to replace the PuR filter cartridge in the counter top dispenser. Though I got to looking at faucet attached water filters. I had thought of getting one now and then, but kept putting it off.

So, looking over the available models....the DuPont one caught my eye. The top end model there was about the same price as the top end PuR one, but the DuPont featured 4 stages instead of 3.

And, it said 200 gallons instead of 100 gallons.

So, I got it.

Well, I finally got around to setting it up. Removing the old aerator was a snap, ooh look at all the gunk behind it. Then figured out I needed an adapter and picked the right one and put that on. Had to go find a coin to tighten it...found a nickel.

Then attach the filter to the faucet, install cartridge....put cap on...hmmm, remove cap and push cartridge until the display flashes, put cap on...now flush....first bit was blackish.

continue flushing...and flushing....and flushing....

Hmmm, seems to be streaming a little from the unfiltered outlet. Later notice that its coming from the top, eventually tighten that enough to make it stop.

Finally it reads '000', so I fill coffee maker and I'm done.

Wait, I run some water for something else, and it does the '---' flash and wants me to flush again. What's up with that.

Notice that it seems to reset to '---' flash and flush everytime I turn the tap off for more than a few seconds.

That can't be right. Visit the dupont.com website, no help there.

Take cap and filter out....fiddle with filter...seems the power to the display is tied to filter being in and filter needs to be firmly in. But, there's a gap between the back of the end cap and the end of the filter. So, how's the filter stay tight?

Nickel isn't quite big enough to get in place to try padding...find a bigger coin to attach to back of filter. Tighten on cap until it engages the display....

more flushing.... now '000'.

Leave tap for a while...come back....it resumes display of '000'.

Guess that's fixed it.....

Just as I was starting to get frustrated and finally whipped off a question to AA asking when can I find out about American Eagle flights in/out of MHK to plan upcoming trips....

The site starts giving me the details for such flights....

Looks like there are only two sets of flights available to choose from. Still, it opens the doors for lots of options.

I did a quick look at what a flight to the Ohio Linux Fest would run me, and what kind of schedules were available. And, it looked like it might be a workable plan. I'll wait until closer to the event to book. Even though I sent the time off request for my next 3 con trips back on May 1st, I haven't heard yet. Even though there should be plenty of notice of a trip in September, November and April. Still don't know when the December trip will be...assuming it is in December. January might be better....(especially if I can get my doc to write me a script for a travel CPAP, and I allocate FSA next year to pay for it).

The tentative plan is to fly MHK<->CMH (one stop in DFW) in October using American, and to fly MHK<->ORD (one stop in MCI) in November using United. I will likely use American again for the flight to Calgary (assuming that's where I'm going)....since there are non-stop flights from DFW to YYC, but not from MCI. Not sure what I'm going to do in April...I think that's too far off in the future to plan.

This morning, there was a loud beep along with a variety of other strange sounds that woke me. The power had gone out. I could still breath, so my PowerSource400 was doing its job.

I don't yet have the humidifier plugged into the PowerSource400, but I was only using it in passive mode last night. Though I was told in chat that it'll work on an inverter, so it would work on the PowerSource400. The brochure even touts it as a feature of benefit to truck drivers and campers.... Didn't occur to me to find out. Though biggest problem is forgetting to turn it on at night, and/or turning it off in the morning.

Almost as soon as I was fully aware that the power was out and that I was still getting air....there was another beep, and power was back on. I went back to sleep for a little while longer....

Later I saw the clean air filter light was on the air purifier in the room next to my bedroom, so wondered if the air cell would fit in my ultrasonic cleaner. So, first I cleaned my cushions using it....and then found the air cell was too big. But, also time to replace white filter....or rather swap a white filter in for the grey filter....gonna say it picked up a long more funk because I traveled last weekend....

Also in between cushion cleaning and air purifier cleaning...I decided that it was time to try my hand at modifying my ComfortLite II mask. Guess we'll find out how that works tonight.

Finally, I was looking at my data...and decided I should see if I can get EncoreViewer & USB reader working on my new laptop...where its running Ubuntu...with Windows XP in a VirtualBox VM.

Had lots of fun trying to get USB working, but basically it was combine various information found online on the subject...until I got it to work. There was a bit of VirtualBox/USB and Intrepid. udev file didn't quite match, since there was already a vbox one that did the same thing that it described. Another forum post had a different method, but talked of creating a separate group...make the device nodes in that group...and adding vbox & user to the group....while the 'VirtualBox/USB' method said add user to vboxusers group.

What I went back and did was have it make the /proc/bus/usb device nodes for the vboxusers group...and then finally the devices showed up (after a reboot).

The XP VM detected the USB devices, installed drivers and the light turned green....EncoreViewer started reading the smartcard, but then it failed. I fiddled some more...eventually rebooted the XP VM, it did a bunch of stuff (some 33 updates?)...and trying again, I was able to successfully read the smartcard.

Then it was a matter of copying some files from my desktop to the VM, so I could have the historical data. Laptop way will just be so I know it would work rather than use it regularly....of course, that might change if I make it the bedroom computer after the rearrangement. Though I'm thinking a whole new computer would go there....perhaps one of those ASUS atom based all in ones.

Hmmm....

What kind of trouble can I get myself into next.

WTF! was that?

Oh just the lazy SOB delivering Pride of the Flint Hills (sic) Phonebooks throwing them at our condos. You would think that they would find somebody that showed pride in their work or was at least respectful of other people's property.