Over the week-end, the Linux server at my house shut down several times. It provides
- file service to
- the desktops in the house (Windows desktop, Mac desktop, my travel laptop)
- the Sonos music system
- email service for my private domain
- web server for my personal website including password-protected access to
- the document storage
- the music collection
- 10 years of photo albums and some home videos
- a Wiki note-taking server
This was quite annoying, since it was doing it at a time when I was trying to finish up my 2013 tax filings, and of course the program is on my (Windows) desktop but the files are mounted from Samba shares on the Linux box.
At first, I thought it was happening when I was doing certain file operations, so I attributed it to a bug in a recent update to the Samba file service, but then it occurred to me, that an ordinary system crash should lead to a reboot. So I thought maybe I had picked up some malware. The uptimes were getting shorter ... under an hour. So I went to look at /var/log/messages and learned that a motherboard temperature sensor was triggering a shutdown when it reached 139 degrees Celsius. My next thought was a failed fan in CPU or power supply, but after opening the case, I found all the fans in good working order. But a large chip with a 4cm x 4cm heat sink was hot enough to fry an egg. A google search for the motherboard's model name gave me a board layout picture which identified the hot chip as the SouthBridge (disk controller, mostly). So it was clear that I needed a new box.
The old box was a HP Pavillion, and the local Best Buy had a current HP Pavillion for just under $500, so I picked it up Monday afternoon and after dinner, I started scouting out how to get online again.
My first hope was that I could just remove the hard drive in the new computer and plug in the old drives and see if it booted. No such luck: No bootable files found. I swapped the drive connectors with no improvement.
Next thought was to boot from a Fedora Linux Live CD and look around. But it would not boot from the CD. I tried a lot of things to find a boot configuration menu, but without luck:
- The power-up screen offered no suggestions
- The Quick Start booklet had no useful information other than to suggest that if I started up windows, I would find a program that might give me more documentation or information about a telephone number for technical support.
I put the Windows drive back in, and did the "first boot and system setup" for Windows 8.1. I found the so-called documentation, which was useless. Finally, I called the 800-number for technical support. In India. After insisting on taking all my personal information before I could ask how to boot from a CD, he asked why I wanted to do that. "To install Linux instead of Windows", I explained. "Why would you want to do that?" I explained. He explained that running Linux on HP Consumer grade computers was not supported and would void the warranty. I explained that I am used to installing and managing Linux systems, but I needed to know how to boot from a CD. He did not know, but put me on hold while he "explored resources". After about 10 minutes he came back to tell me that he would transfer me to another support group that might know something about Linux. And after 30 seconds of switching noises, I landed on a recording that explained that "this office is now closed, please call back during business hours".
I called back to the 800 number. Went through the same script with a new person, who told me that I would get a boot device selection menu if I hot the "Fn" key. I had reused my old keyboard, which did not have an Fn key, but the keyboard that came with the new computer had one. I made the mistake of thanking the support rep; he hung up. I switched keyboard and rebooted a fair number of times while tapping the Fn key. No result at all.
I called back to the 800 number. Same script. Same promise of a referral "but I will stay with you to make sure you get connected". Still the call got lost after about 5 minutes in the hold queue after the alleged transfer.
Called back 4th time. By now, the wait before the first rep was 35 minutes. After going through the script, this rep saw that I had been through the mill 3 times, and sent me to the US-based professional workstation support group. When the rep there answered after about 5 minutes in the second hold queue, he was surprised that I had been transferred, because he was not supposed to touch consumer products and did not have any documentation for Pavillion desktops. He did know a lot about unix. He also had used the Pavillions and gave be some hints about boot escape keys:
- ESC is an EFI configuration menu called "Startup Menu"
- F2 is firmware based hardware diagnostics
- F9 is "Boot Menu", selecting a boot device for this boot only
- F10 is "BIOS setup Menu".
When I tried to boot from the CD, I got "Secure Boot Failure - Unsigned Content".
He thought I should be able to select a "Legacy Boot" option instead of the "Secure Boot" default configuration, but reminded me that he really was not trained on advanced configuration of Pavillion Systems. He then promised to find me a competent support rep in the consumer product group.
While I waited on hold again, I figured out how to switch to "Legacy Boot". At that point, the machine would no longer boot the Windows hard drive, but it booted the Linux CD, which allowed me to see the old drive that was still plugged in. So I exchanged the Windows drive for my old Linux system disk ... and the system booted to my old Fedora Linux desktop.
I had almost forgotten my Workstation support rep, but he came back and apologized for having been unable to find me help. He would file an escalation request and someone should call me back within a day or so. But he was pleased when I told him that once I had the basic information on where to find the menu, I had solved the problem myself. He was as disgusted as I was about the poor quality of the documentation and the support. He did suggest that if I would buy professional products instead of consumer products, I would get technical support from the United States instead of from India. And I pointed out that those products cost about twice as much for similar capabilities.
The irony is that a few years ago, I had a couple of HP laptops for which I needed technical support, and the support reps in India were EXCELLENT, well trained, polite, knowledgeable and patient. This was a great factor in my purchase of a HP desktop rather than a Dell or an ASUS (is that who took over Gateway/eMachines?) But I can no longer recommend these HP systems.
Tuesday, April 8, 2014
Monday, April 7, 2014
Bringing Manufacturing Home to America
I came across a pointer to this article from the New York Times:
www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/business/us-textile-factories-return.html?pagewanted=all
The story is that a fair amount of manufacturing that fled the United States between 2000 and 2009 is quietly coming back because it actually makes business sense to manufacture close to the customers. Low wages in Asia does not always translate to higher profit margins, for several reasons:
- the lower wage expense may be balanced by higher transportation costs
- merchandise subject to fashion's vagaries may be obsolete by the time the design gets sent to Asia and the goods get shipped back.
- the cheap manufacturing plants in Asia may not share your understanding of what "a quality product" is.
So even in Textiles, which was considered the premier example of a labor-intensive business that HAD to move off-shore, some jobs are coming back. But in returning, they have changed.
- there are fewer jobs now. Instead of 1000 workers in the plant, there may be 100, assisted by robots
- the jobs are not the same jobs: Rather than low-skilled mill workers (high school dropouts) they are machinists, mechanics and programmers that can maintain the robots.
Interesting reading!
www.nytimes.com/2013/09/20/business/us-textile-factories-return.html?pagewanted=all
The story is that a fair amount of manufacturing that fled the United States between 2000 and 2009 is quietly coming back because it actually makes business sense to manufacture close to the customers. Low wages in Asia does not always translate to higher profit margins, for several reasons:
- the lower wage expense may be balanced by higher transportation costs
- merchandise subject to fashion's vagaries may be obsolete by the time the design gets sent to Asia and the goods get shipped back.
- the cheap manufacturing plants in Asia may not share your understanding of what "a quality product" is.
So even in Textiles, which was considered the premier example of a labor-intensive business that HAD to move off-shore, some jobs are coming back. But in returning, they have changed.
- there are fewer jobs now. Instead of 1000 workers in the plant, there may be 100, assisted by robots
- the jobs are not the same jobs: Rather than low-skilled mill workers (high school dropouts) they are machinists, mechanics and programmers that can maintain the robots.
Interesting reading!
Back at Blogspot
I have been away for a couple of years - there was a lot happening in my life. I may ease back in and we shall see what my new focus may be.
Since the last post here, I met a delightful woman and married her. So while I may have a fresh perspective on dating in retrospect, it remains to be seen if it is something I can share here.
Since the last post here, I met a delightful woman and married her. So while I may have a fresh perspective on dating in retrospect, it remains to be seen if it is something I can share here.
Sunday, November 25, 2012
Walking lightly on this earth ...
For several years my doctor has been nudging me to lose weight, and I have tried as best I could, but despite regular exercise, the weight has been inching upwards. At my annual physical exam this summer she repeated the usual lecture, and repeated the suggestion that I should look into the weight management program offered by a branch of the same multi-location medical service group that she works for. This time she actually put a brochure in my hand, which may have been what made me eventually sign up for an orientation session a couple of months later. Now I wish she had done that a couple of years ago, so I could have gotten started earlier.
They have several different program; I signed up for the most intensive, which they call the Decision-Free CORE Program. This is an excellent program, designed in multiple layers.
First, it is a medically supervised diet program. You eat nothing but the specially designed food they sell you, which include 5 different formulated protein shakes (Vanilla flavored whey protein, chocolate-flavored ditto, chicken soup flavored ditto, and soy based varieties of the first two) to be mixed with water. The soy based shakes turn into a pudding when prepared with half the normal amount of water. There is also a multigrain cereal package blended with dried cranberries, dried milk and whey protein that can be cooked in the microwave to create an oatmeal-like porridge for breakfast, and some miniature microwaveable dinner rations that allow for some semblance of eating a meal for lunch and dinner. The "standard" daily intake of 1 cereal, 3 shakes and 2 dinners adds up to around 1000 kcal per day, which means that if you weigh 100 kg (220 lbs) to begin with, you are 1500 kcal in deficit before you start exercising, so you are GUARANTEED to lose at least 3 pounds per week.
Second, it is packaged with the same kind of health education support group that you might find in programs such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but since this is operated by a medical clinic, the groups are led by certified health educators. The leader of my CORE class is a German behavioural psychologist who also free-lances as a life coach.
And finally, significantly overweight people like myself see a doctor in conjunction with the weekly class several times per month, and they draw blood samples for lab tests to make sure nobody's electrolyte balance gets too far out of alignment. (There is some concern about heart damage from potassium deficiency on an extreme diet like this.)
In the beginning I was worried that I would get really sick of the endless protein shakes, but one can add significant variety with non-caloric flavor additives. Tabasco pepper sauce on the oatmeal, for example. Or using aspartame-sweetened diet sodas instead of water in the shakes. There are 14 varieties of the packaged dinners, and ways to "doctor them up" with the chicken soup or by combining two in a single meal. One could also worry about being hungry all the time, but the program instructions are really simple on that point: If you are hungry, drink another shake or eat another packaged dinner. Yes, you will get more calories with more rations, but far less than if you "go out of the box" by giving in to a temptation to eat something that is outside the program. The one thing that we all crave - but can't find an approved solution for - is something crunchy. Regardless of former eating habits, we all wish we could eat vegetables, but that is NOT allowed in this program, until after we reach the goal weight and change to the maintenance program which will indeed require us to eat a lot of vegetables every day.
After 7 weeks, I have lost close to 25 pounds (11.5 kg) and I hope to be able to ride the program all the way down to 70 lbs (32 kg) below my starting point. If all goes as planned, I should get there in 4 more months, in time for my daughter's wedding.
They have several different program; I signed up for the most intensive, which they call the Decision-Free CORE Program. This is an excellent program, designed in multiple layers.
First, it is a medically supervised diet program. You eat nothing but the specially designed food they sell you, which include 5 different formulated protein shakes (Vanilla flavored whey protein, chocolate-flavored ditto, chicken soup flavored ditto, and soy based varieties of the first two) to be mixed with water. The soy based shakes turn into a pudding when prepared with half the normal amount of water. There is also a multigrain cereal package blended with dried cranberries, dried milk and whey protein that can be cooked in the microwave to create an oatmeal-like porridge for breakfast, and some miniature microwaveable dinner rations that allow for some semblance of eating a meal for lunch and dinner. The "standard" daily intake of 1 cereal, 3 shakes and 2 dinners adds up to around 1000 kcal per day, which means that if you weigh 100 kg (220 lbs) to begin with, you are 1500 kcal in deficit before you start exercising, so you are GUARANTEED to lose at least 3 pounds per week.
Second, it is packaged with the same kind of health education support group that you might find in programs such as Weight Watchers or Jenny Craig, but since this is operated by a medical clinic, the groups are led by certified health educators. The leader of my CORE class is a German behavioural psychologist who also free-lances as a life coach.
And finally, significantly overweight people like myself see a doctor in conjunction with the weekly class several times per month, and they draw blood samples for lab tests to make sure nobody's electrolyte balance gets too far out of alignment. (There is some concern about heart damage from potassium deficiency on an extreme diet like this.)
In the beginning I was worried that I would get really sick of the endless protein shakes, but one can add significant variety with non-caloric flavor additives. Tabasco pepper sauce on the oatmeal, for example. Or using aspartame-sweetened diet sodas instead of water in the shakes. There are 14 varieties of the packaged dinners, and ways to "doctor them up" with the chicken soup or by combining two in a single meal. One could also worry about being hungry all the time, but the program instructions are really simple on that point: If you are hungry, drink another shake or eat another packaged dinner. Yes, you will get more calories with more rations, but far less than if you "go out of the box" by giving in to a temptation to eat something that is outside the program. The one thing that we all crave - but can't find an approved solution for - is something crunchy. Regardless of former eating habits, we all wish we could eat vegetables, but that is NOT allowed in this program, until after we reach the goal weight and change to the maintenance program which will indeed require us to eat a lot of vegetables every day.
After 7 weeks, I have lost close to 25 pounds (11.5 kg) and I hope to be able to ride the program all the way down to 70 lbs (32 kg) below my starting point. If all goes as planned, I should get there in 4 more months, in time for my daughter's wedding.
Saturday, November 24, 2012
My growing art collection
Over the past year I have gradually started to think of myself as an art collector. I have a list of artists that I follow; I regularly go to visit the galleries where my favorite artists tend to exhibit; I love to go to opening nights and I struggle to go home without buying anything. To help me enjoy more and spend less, I have a focus for my collection: "I buy paintings of mountains I can see from my house, painted by living artists that I have met". Of course, I cheat on both accounts: Often I don't meet the artist until after I have bought the works. And some of the pictures I drool over are not actually of the peaks behind my house, just some that look similar.
But this one really is the cluster of mountains that I can see from the panorama window over my kitchen counter. It is titled "San Roque Canyon" and is painted by John Iwerks (grandson of Ub Iwerks of Disney animation fame - the artist who actually drew "Steamboat Willie, the first Micky Mouse movie). I spent the middle of Thanksgiving Day hiking up this canyon with my beagles on a leash, putting 15,000 steps on my pedometer.
I first saw a larger version of it at the Easton Gallery last spring. It was a show with about 30 paintings by each of John Iwerks and his wife Chris Chapman. The only problem was that it way way too big for my house, measuring about 40 by 50 inches (100 by 125 cm). So I wrote to ask John if he would be willing to make me a smaller version, which he graciously agreed to. This one is just 12 by 16 inches.
Sometimes I find something I like at a less prestigious venue. This one called "Little Red House" by Paul Edwards was hanging in a church where I attended a folk music concert, and the pastor had invited his parishioners to bring in art for display. Paul Edwards is 93 years old, retired from a career as a Disney artist. I liked the masculine feeling despite it being a watercolor painting, and this looks very much like a compound I can see halfway up the mountain when I look out my window. It is 16 by 24 inches, and I had it reframed in a blonde natural wood frame with no matte to look moare at home with my other paintings.
Marcia Burtt is the most prestigious painter in my collection. This 18 by 20 inches piece is titled "Mountain Overlook #1". It was the beginning of my serious collecting. When I got it home, I thought it made the landscapes I had bought before look bad in comparison, so I gave them to my ex-wife who fortunately still likes them.
I have written about this painting "Peace, a quiet evening" by Karen Feddersen in an earlier post.
Each of the three panels is 20 by 20 inches (50 by 50 cm), It holds the place of honor in my living room, and I love it as much today as when I first saw it. Every night when I come home and turn the lights on, I draw a deep breath of admiration.
So what is next ?
Last week-end I was gallery hopping with a friend who loves the Oak Group painters as much as I do. At the Sullivan Goss gallery we saw a couple of breathtaking pieces that fit neither of my rules, but still tempted me greatly. One was by Ray Strong, the other by Angela Perko. Both of them scarily expensive (the Strong one especially) so I let them stay there, but I will probably go back and visit them again. I have also been very charmed by the recent work of another Oak Group member, Jeremy Harper. Jeremy has not painted "my mountains" but I think I might commission him to give it a try.
Watch this space!!
Thanksgiving - time to catch up with life
This blog has been languishing ... for almost a year. I have been too busy living to sit down and reflect on life. That is good and bad. Good that I have a life - bad that I do not take time to reflect.
The times when I might have sat down to reflect, events grabbed me:
- Each of my parents in turn got sick and died.
- My house needed some maintenance, and I temporarily had to move out and then move back in.
- Danish family members came to visit for several days.
- I went to Denmark on vacation and ran into more illness in the family.
- My hobbies heated up.
Fortunately, we have this thing called Thanksgiving, that occupies some of the same social space that the Easter holidays do in Europe: A 4-day weekend where office workers go home to celebrate their family. Since I now live alone, this gives me an opportunity to sit down and reflect for some hours, keyboard in hand. So I will be releasing a few posts on themes that I have wanted to write about for a while.
The times when I might have sat down to reflect, events grabbed me:
- Each of my parents in turn got sick and died.
- My house needed some maintenance, and I temporarily had to move out and then move back in.
- Danish family members came to visit for several days.
- I went to Denmark on vacation and ran into more illness in the family.
- My hobbies heated up.
Fortunately, we have this thing called Thanksgiving, that occupies some of the same social space that the Easter holidays do in Europe: A 4-day weekend where office workers go home to celebrate their family. Since I now live alone, this gives me an opportunity to sit down and reflect for some hours, keyboard in hand. So I will be releasing a few posts on themes that I have wanted to write about for a while.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Buying Art is FUN!
Last week-end I took a tour of the new Cottage Hospital. It was very interesting - on two very different fronts.
First and foremost, it was interesting to see what the state of the art in hospital technology looks like. And I have no doubt that this is state of the art. The part that has been completed holds 204 beds, and the price tag is 900 million dollars. It had better be top of the line. This is not a poster child for health care cost containment!
But secondly, this hospital is the home of a magnificent art collection - about 1000 pieces. Most of these are prints of about 20x25 inches donated by 123 local artists selected after about 400 artists competed for the privilege of giving. About 45 major pieces comprise the "landmark collection" which was sponsored by local charitable foundations. One of these caught my eye:
This painting, titled "Peace", shows dusk falling over the city of Santa Barbara, with the coastal mountain range in the background. The 3 panels are about 7.5 feet tall, and the whole piece is 23 feet wide. But where it hangs, high in the entrance lobby, it does not look out of scale. The artist is Karen Fedderson, and I had never heard of her before, but I was intrigued, and looked her up on the web. She has painted lots of California landscapes, so I promised myself I would visit her gallery.
Today was the day I got the chance. Imagine my surprise to find in the gallery a smaller version of this piece (each panel is 20"x20" for a total width of just over 5 feet) that she had originally entered in the competition to win the commission. At a price I could (barely) afford. I need it to be re-framed to match my other paintings, so I won't get it for another week, but I am all giddy with excitement that I managed to buy this piece which I have no doubt will soon be famous in this town.
First and foremost, it was interesting to see what the state of the art in hospital technology looks like. And I have no doubt that this is state of the art. The part that has been completed holds 204 beds, and the price tag is 900 million dollars. It had better be top of the line. This is not a poster child for health care cost containment!
But secondly, this hospital is the home of a magnificent art collection - about 1000 pieces. Most of these are prints of about 20x25 inches donated by 123 local artists selected after about 400 artists competed for the privilege of giving. About 45 major pieces comprise the "landmark collection" which was sponsored by local charitable foundations. One of these caught my eye:
This painting, titled "Peace", shows dusk falling over the city of Santa Barbara, with the coastal mountain range in the background. The 3 panels are about 7.5 feet tall, and the whole piece is 23 feet wide. But where it hangs, high in the entrance lobby, it does not look out of scale. The artist is Karen Fedderson, and I had never heard of her before, but I was intrigued, and looked her up on the web. She has painted lots of California landscapes, so I promised myself I would visit her gallery.
Today was the day I got the chance. Imagine my surprise to find in the gallery a smaller version of this piece (each panel is 20"x20" for a total width of just over 5 feet) that she had originally entered in the competition to win the commission. At a price I could (barely) afford. I need it to be re-framed to match my other paintings, so I won't get it for another week, but I am all giddy with excitement that I managed to buy this piece which I have no doubt will soon be famous in this town.
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