Winging It

As anyone who knows me is now (probably) aware, I’ll be working for PBS shortly and doing tech support in a Windows environment.

This gave me just enough of an excuse that I was able to overcome my "but do I really need it?" common sense and buy a PC. I was smart about it, though. I used the opportunity to "kill 3 birds with one stone" (a marked improvement over the usual 2 birds).

The first bird, and simultaneously the most reasonable and least likely to be terribly useful, is that it will help me with my job. Namely, it will give me an opportunity to become more intimately familiar with Windows as a desktop OS. While I currently work with Windows machines, it is in a less “desktop user” fashion.

The second bird is that a Windows machine gives me some alternatives for software and gaming (which is, of course, of paramount importance) that I would not otherwise have had. I’d considered this angle for awhile, but the cost-to-use always seemed to be pretty low. Plus, I really don’t like the way Windows looks and feels.

The third bird is that I’ve always had this nagging desire to put together a system from its components (no, not from the individual bits of silica and copper and…). I’m not sure I can accurately describe why. At least part could be that I wanted to "prove" that I know enough about PCs (despite being a Mac person) that I wouldn’t be totally at a loss. As it turns out, I do. I’m sure that people who do this kind of thing more frequently or for a living are better at picking the best components for their desired machine, but I feel like I met my goals (those being a middle of the road machine with room to upgrade) and that’s what I was trying for.

So as the title says, $400 later… I’ve got a PC with which I’m comfortable.

Bugger

PBS hired me!

Sweet, starting September 13, I’ll be a PBS employee. Yeah baby! Thanks for the crossed fingers and all

Hey hey, whaddya know, two interviews for the price of one.

Ok, well, one and a half interviews. There’s another position opening up sometime tonight (probably) for which I was sort of pre-screened to gage my interest.

The "main" interview went well, I feel, and I should know this week. So keep your fingers crossed for one of those for me

I also heard from the Washington National Opera that they had received my resume. Nothing exciting on that front so far, though.

Ok, I’m all for preparing oneself for an interview, but I was not really expecting my precious (aka my Apple G5) to join the process.

The trouble started with the printer not working. Check that, it wasn’t being seen by the computer, which is different than not working.

After repeated “Well, ok, maybe the USB drivers/ports are just confused and I can jog the connection by unplugging and/or powering-off the printer” attempts failed (which is not crazy, it is [or was] a necessary evil with the connection to my old Palm dock), I decided to change the USB port to which the printer was connected.

So I swapped the keyboard/mouse and printer. Woot, printer showed up. Erm… but the mouse and keyboard are now MIA. Crap. sigh The G5’s have a third USB port, so I unplug my joystick and the keyboard and mouse are back.

Crap again. Did that other USB port go to the big computer parts bin in the sky? Oh hell, I hope not.

Ok, so I run the Hardware Test disc that Apple distributes with their machines. I don’t know if it will pick up a failed USB port or not, but we’ll just run it to make sure.

[Minutes later]. Ok, good, nothing reported bad. Hope that means the machine just needed a reboot for some reason. It could mean that the hardware test just can’t tell me if the USB ports are bad.

Restart. Hmm… crap again This isn’t right. Something in the startup cycle is a little off. What the hell. Ok, well, maybe it hiccuped.

Restart. Uh oh. Same thing. Damnit. Not good. Ok, well, give it a few moments… WOOO, good.

Of course, since you’re all reading this you already know that it turned out ok (my website is hosted from my G5 — which may explain why it’s slow at times, I do play games ).

Thinking back, I believe I know why the reboot was slow. A few days ago I was reading on Mac OS X Hints about altering one of the startup files to securely delete swap files when the machine is rebooted (which one might want to do, if every bit of security helps in one’s situation — see the hint’s comments for the srm solution to which I am referring). Well, a secure delete is a whole lot slower than simply unlinking the file. Which would explain the longer-than-normal startup time.

Whoops. Heh

I guess my G5 wanted to warm me up a bit for my interview (it’s for an internal tech support position).

On that note, I’m heading to bed.

Well, the National Governors Association didn’t hire me (I thought you were all supposed to have your fingers crossed?), though I was #2 so there’s that to feel confident about.

That and I do have another interview, this time with PBS on Monday. Wish me luck!

Woooo It was a really great day at the beach (Rehoboth, DE). The sun was out most of the time and when the clouds blocked it, it was a nice change until the cloud passed. Had fries (Thrashers, which are apparently the best — all I can say is that they are very good) and a funnel cake before we left. We even saw dolphins swimming down the coastline.

Going to the beach again this Saturday. Woooo!

In a totally unrelated note, when the AC breaks in the office, it gets really hot and humid.