Tag: Links

Backup the Backup

After many years of accidentally deleting or losing data, I have come to a point where that should no longer happen.

When my old machine died, I thought I would turn it into a backup server.  I was unable to make that dream come true as it was too far gone to resurrect.  I was however able to find an adequate machine for $50 that does all I need it to.  I wanted something that would be able to work cross platform as I currently have 2 windows machines and I want to eventually buy a Mac Book.  The only option that seemed to be the right decision was Linux, specifically Ubuntu.

After working on many different options, I found what I believe will be the easiest and best way for my specific situation.  I have samba running on my Ubuntu Intrepid machine with the built-in windows backup client backing up the machines on a weekly basis.  While I haven’t researched it  yet, from what co-workers have told me Apple’s time machine program should work much the same.

This link was the clearest on how to set samba up:  http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=202605

From there it was just like sharing folders or drives in Windows.

Now that my testing is complete, I can add some hard drives and put it in production mode.  My wife is so thrilled that she shouldn’t have to worry about losing data anymore.

Feel Like a Number

While I am used to feeling like a number in our quantity over quality soceity, something just happened that I have to share.

I attend Ivy Tech Community College, and have since 1999 off and on.  In that time they have exponentially grown to become the school with the largest enrollment in the state of Indiana, with currently over 110,000 students enrolled.  As the state has lost it’s large manufacturing base of employment, people (like me) have went to school to help us find new careers.

Over the past couple of years, communications from the school have went downhill as far as information goes.  Most communications are either a weekly job or volunteer posting, informational updates, or the one that really puts a thorn in my side, “Pick Ivy Tech.”  Essentially an advertisment sent to students.  Why are they wasting money sending letters and emails to people already enrolled asking them to pick Ivy Tech?  Haven’t they already?

This last incident is the “straw that broke the camel’s back.”  The Bloomington campus has outgrown it’s space, and until they can build additions they have leased annex campuses.  While this can be great for situations such as this one, it can also be a nightmare.  The Liberty Drive campus does not have adequate parking.  While it is a pain, I’m not complaining.  I work at IU where parking is sometimes not even a possibility.

This email was sent to all Bloomington students:

Additional Parking Options for Liberty Drive:

1. Park across the street from the Liberty Drive campus. The spaces
reserved for Ivy Tech students are located in the parking lot previously
occupied by the MCL Cafeteria; across the street and just south of the
Liberty campus.

2. Park at the main campus and take the Rural Transit shuttle to the
Liberty Drive campus.

Click the link below to download the Rural Transit schedule:
http://services.bloomington.ivytech.edu/media/pdf/academics/IvyTechBus.pdf

For more information about Rural Transit, go to:
http://www.ivytech.edu/bloomington/about/shuttle.html

While these options are helpful, they create equal if not larger problems.  For those of you who know the area, Liberty Drive is a busy road that has many large businesses on it, and it is a major thoroughfare for the west side of Bloomington.  Also crossing a 4 lane road is a dangerous affair, as a student in high school I remember students being severely injured and even killed on occasion trying to do the same thing to get lunch.  Due to this, MCCSC closed their campuses and upgraded their cafeterias.  There is no intersection near that has a crosswalk, and the road curves at this point as well making visibility for the drivers an issue as well.

I felt a response was necessary to highlight these potentially fatal flaws.  While hindsight is 20/20, I could have left a couple paragraphs and a few remarks out.  I was mainly trying to give them constructive criticism, and point out alternatives.

Here is my response:

While the additional options you have listed are helpful, please let me remind you of the hazards and reasons why these options are not feasible.

1.  Park at MCL.  While there is plenty of parking at that location, and in the scope of things, close, it is also very hazardous.  It is hazardous for the same reasons why Bloomington High School South closed it campus.  People were hurt and died.  It is dangerous for people to cross 4 lanes of traffic at any time on that road, let alone rush hour.  I hope your recommendation does not lead to serious injuries or death for anyone.

2.  Park at the Main Campus and take the Rural Transit.  While this option might be okay for full-time students, but for people like me who work full time and take classes when they can, this is impossible.  I can barely make it to class on time, let alone wait for a bus that comes once or twice an hour.

My wife brought up a great idea that would really ease the parking situation at liberty drive.  Perhaps you could lease (through your agreement with IU) one of their buses to use as a shuttle during the hours when it is needed most.  This dedicated shuttle would be a better option than the rural transit, and make the students really feel like they are cared for.

I for one am tired of the “stupidity” in the communications from this school.  The email you sent was “the straw that broke the camels back” for me.  I don’t need pointless communication, I need real communication.

While this may not be your area, I must say the emails that say “choose Ivy-Tech” are pointless when I’m already attending.  What am I going to do?  Move to another state to attend a community college?

Respectively,

Lee Lawmaster

As I stated, hindsight is 20/20.  Some of my comments were a  mistake, but I was emotionally charged at the time.  I would send an apology for some of my remarks, but as you are about to see it would only make the situation worse.  I sent this email to the person who sent it, and I CC’d the Chancellor of the Bloomington Campus.  I thought it seemed worthy of skipping any chain of command due to the safety issues involved.

Here is the response from the Chancellor:

Lew: You copied me, so let me respond.  Your message was signed “respectively” and I assume you meant “respectfully”. It was neither. If parking is an insurmountable problem for you, I believe a full tuition refund is still available to you through Friday.  Contact Jennie Vaughan in students affairs and she will assist you with your withdrawal.  This concludes responses from campus staff to you on “stupidity” of “pointless” communication on this matter.
————————–
Please excuse any spelling errors.  This message was sent from my PDA.

Whoa!  From everything I’ve heard about this guy, he’s the nicest guy you’d know.  I didn’t mention having a problem parking.

In the end I said some things I shouldn’t have.  I do realize that.  Although you would think a person in that position would see through that and see the serious safety issues with their plan.  Since Ivy Tech has a monopoly on 2 year degrees in Indiana, I don’t have a choice of seeking another institution for education that is affordable.  I know from talking to my fellow students that communications with the school are sub par though.  I guess they just don’t want to listen.

I’ve learned where I don’t want my children to go when they reach college age.

One other note:  I received a mailing yesterday, I made the Dean’s list for the Summer semester of 2009.  While that’s great, I think this overshadows anything I could accomplish at this school.

Going Back to the Darkside

After a call from PC Max regarding my computer, I found out some financially crushing information.  My computer is officially dead.

The motherboard will not respond, I’ve had problems with it since I bought it off of eBay.  I’ll never trust ASUS products, this motherboard was a headache from the word go.  They also said that my video card was starting to show signs of going as some of the capacitors are starting to mushroom.

Their recommendations where to replace it with an “upgrade box” which essentially replaces all the internal parts.  This would have ran about $450.  I built the computer for this cost.  Plus this would be like throwing more money into a big money pit.  As I’ve written about previously, I’ve replaced the motherboard, replaced a hard drive and went through 5 power supplies on this machine alone.  I’m not sure if I work it too hard, or if I’m having some bad luck.

After making some tough choices, we decided to purchase a Dell Optiplex 760.  There are many advantages to purchasing this, but there are some disadvantages.  I will outline them below.

Advantages:

  • 3 year warranty opposed to standard Dell 1 year warranty
  • If any problems happen, I can bring it into TS for service
  • Business class machine that should hold up to whatever I throw at it

Disadvantages:

  • Can only hold 2 hard drives; I currently have 4
  • More costly than building a machine
  • Pushes back my anticipated purchase of a MacBook Pro

While the disadvantages do not outweigh the advantages, they are something to think about.  This machine also has a Intel processor, something I haven’t had since 1995 which was in my first computer, a 486DX2 running at 50mhz.  Since then I have switched to AMD for their better price points with unequaled performance.  I just hope this machine is as good as my old one was.

It’s specs are:

  • Core 2 Duo running at 3.06ghz
  • 4gb of DDR2 ram running at 800mhz
  • 320gb boot hard drive
  • 16x DVD-RW drive
  • 16 in 1 Media Card Reader (for SD/CF and other types of flash memory)
  • On-board video with a digital video adapter card – a good system that is used at IU

I am not purchasing a monitor, keyboard, mouse or any other peripherals with this to save money.  I have all of these items, and don’t really need new ones.  Dell is currently saying I should receive it by September 3rd.

My plan is to buy a new 1.5tb hard drive to replace the space I use on 4 hard drives.  This will let me have the space I need and want via an internal hard drive.  I’m going to sell 3 of those hard drives to try to recoup the cost.  I also need to buy an adapter to get the information off of those old drives.

I’m going to keep my old machine and eventually buy a new motherboard and processor.  It will be my Linux box.  This will also be an addition to all of the extra tax write-offs we will have this year.  With a new child, remodeling my business space and a new computer, we should have a nice tax refund next year.

Half a Decade

Five years ago tomorrow, I became a husband.  While I didn’t really know what I was getting myself into back then, I actually appreciate it now.  Five years really doesn’t sound like much, but it’s an accomplishment in today’s world.

Throughout these years, Rachel and I have accomplished many things together.  We bought a house, she got her master’s degree, I lost my job and now our newest adventure, our first child.

Our lives before each other were as different as night and day, but our beliefs have kept us close in many ways.  I think it’s the core reason why our bond has lasted.  It’s a case of opposites attracting.  Our bond has done nothing but grow closer over time, something I hope doesn’t end anytime soon.

We will be celebrating our 5th anniversary with a trip down to French Lick.  We’re going to spend a night at the French Lick Springs Hotel and perhaps do a little gambling.  The traditional gift of the 5 year anniversary is wood.  While the trip is our gift to each other, I have to break the rules and buy a present.  While I can’t say what it is yet, I know she will be pleasantly surprised.

I hope to get a chance to relax, as I haven’t had much time to do that in a while.  School starts back up in 11 days, and I’m back to work at TS full time right now, but that will be scaled back to 24 hours a week at the end of the month.

Today is my father’s 58th birthday as well, I called and left him a message this morning.  I hope he got it.  I love you dad.

August is a very busy month for us.  My father’s birthday on the 13th, our anniversary on the 14th and Taylor’s birthday on the 26th.

I Can See the Finish Line

Much time and effort has been spent recently on finishing the basement.  My dad came over 2 days this week and helped me, and Rachel has helped me when possible.

I finished installing the new paneling on Friday and we starting installing trim today.  To help save money, we have went with a “rustic” look.  Instead of using “regular” trim, we are using 1×4 standard boards for baseboards and ceiling trim.  We are going to leave them unfinished to help with the effect.  We are then using pre-finished trim for inside and outside corners and filler strips.  These pre-finished pieces are interesting, as the finish isn’t a stain or wax, but like a sticker.

My plans for tomorrow are to work on the trim some more, and get as far as I can.  I start summer classes on Monday, so I will need to rest up as my first class is at 8am.  We are also going to look at 3 futons for possible purchase.

Our plans were pushed way up due to an unforeseen email I received from my aunt Beth.  She’s coming out!  They should be here July 3rd.  We always stay with her when we go to see them in Oklahoma, so we need to return the favor and show her some Hoosier hospitality.  We have currently planned taking a tour of the Indianapolis Motor Speedway as they’re big racing fans, fireworks at Memorial Stadium and a tour of Monroe Reservoir.

We’ve decided to purchase 2 futons for our sitting area downstairs, to make it cozy and a good sleeping area.  We are also bumping up our plans to install a shower downstairs for my aunts arrival.  This way any guests we have will have their own full bathroom.

We will soon get to finally utilitize all of the space in our home, and not just half of it!

Meltdown

Last night Rachel and I had a computer meltdown. My main hard drive was not responding, so I rebooted to get a “disk read error.”  I removed the computer and cleaned it out, switched some power cables – which lead to a rant about all of our computing issues.

I’m purchased a new 160 gig hard drive to replace the failing one. I was surprised at the price for a small hard drive these days, for $40 you can buy a 160 gig!

This is mainly a band-aid on a bigger problem, but I’ll remain optomistic.

So Far

So far I have mostly completed the office area of the basement, it just needs new paneling, paint and the floor coating.

I have begun on the other side of the basement, beginning with the removal of the hideous ceiling fan.  It worked, but did not fit the look or atmosphere we want in our home.  I had a fun time trying to wire the replacement light fixture we put in it’s place, as it had a remote switch wiring scheme.

I have not completed much work on the other side besides the removal of the paneling and replacing the one fixture.  From what I can tell, our walls are sound.  We did have a slight worry since we have a pine tree about 10 feet away from that corner of the house.

We recently had the corners of our gutters repaired, which I think may have been the root of our water leakage issues.

There is one issue that I’m still trying to wrap my brain around, and that’s how I’m going to run new cable, phone and LAN lines to the exterior wall in the living room.  I had believed that there was a line directly going to the corner of this room, as the label on it said “attic.”  I was wrong.  Access to this particular spot is difficult due to the placement of our fireplace.  This particular spot is almost just above the fireplace.  I’ve always wanted a fireplace, but for this particular instance I do not.

My concrete repair work started out slow, but is going much better now.

When I attempted this method of repairing, I came into many issues.  When my sander would contact the patch, the patch would fly out of the hole.  So I changed my game plan, and just filled the hole and not the surrounding areas as well.  This method has went so well that I would like to do the whole basement, but Rachel will have none of that.  She just wants the rooms done.

Our next few weeks are booked, so the time I have to dedicate to working on this is little at the moment.  I have basically the same things to do on this side as I did in the office.  The key difference is there is less wall area to renovate.  I guesstimate that with only 2 or 3 more weekends, I will be ready to put new paneling up.

IOU

I’ll be buying a new computer within a couple days. It’s just a matter of finding the proper hardware for the right price.  Right now I’m leaning towards a Dell Optiplex 760, it’s a solid business class machine.  KSoB uses them exclusively, and I know their inner workings inside and out.  I wanted a quad core machine, but to get this machine I will have to sacrifice that feature.

Repairing the Floor

I have everything completed in the walls of my office.  I have one more thing to do before I can move on to the other area downstairs.

This is just a sample of what the perimeter of our basement floor looks like.  The floor originally was covered with carpet.  As a part of carpet installation, tack strips were put down on the perimeter of the floor.  Since the basement does get some water from time to time, we are not going to put a floor covering down that has the potential of being damaged due to water.  We have decided to either stain the concrete or apply an epoxy coating.

I want to repair all of these chips to make the floor visually appealing, and smooth.  I have no experience with masonry or concrete, so this will be an adventure.

With anything I have no experience with, I first search the internet for any available information to try to learn as much as possible before undergoing a project.  While there are many articles and how-to’s on how to repair a crack in a concrete sidewalk, or a missing corner from a concrete sidewalk, there is absolutely nothing on this particular issue.  I’ve searched endlessly as I don’t want to mess this up.  I hope my trial and error can help someone out in cyberspace.

I purchased some masonry crack filler that comes pre-mixed in a 1L bottle.  It seems like the proper patch tool for the job.  The first step was to remove all of the existing nails, and clean the area thoroughly.

I then poured the filler in to the holes, making sure to overfill each hole.

I tested it out to see if I could sand this filler to make the patch perfectly smooth and level with the rest of the floor.  It seems to sand very well.  There is a cancer warning for the dust particles that come from this, so I will be wearing a mask whenever sanding.

The patch is still drying and my Monday is booked.  I am planning on sanding this section down on Tuesday night.  I will update my progress then.

So It Begins…

We officially began remodeling our basement on Saturday.  Rachel and I removed the trim to all the paneling.  Sunday I got ancy and removed the paneling and installed a new light fixture.  What was waiting for us was shocking and interesting at the same time.

First surprise:  Ants!

What you are seeing is not dirt, it’s ants.  They must have been living behind the paneling for years.  When I removed the corner pieces they just came flying out.  We hosed them down with some mean stuff that we have.  It was very surprising to me that they could live behind there without coming out.  There isn’t much behind the wall except for wood, insulation and concrete blocks.

Second Surprise:  Pepsi Bottle!

Behind the hollow wall that our utility room shares was this bottle.  We’ve traced it down to being made between 1960 and 1967.  The puzzling thing is that our house was built in 1974.  Not being alive during this time, I’m not sure how long glass bottles stayed in circulation.  My dad told me that it’s possible that this bottle was still in use during the construction of our home.  We cleaned it up and will give it to my father-in-law the next time we see him.  My dad collects these things, but I think it would be more special to Joe.

This is where my progress has ended as of now.  I haven’t removed the insulation on the walls yet, but from what I can tell thus far it is in good shape.  If there is no mold on it I will reuse it and add a vapor barrier.

We have split the downstairs into 2 seperate areas for remodeling purposes.  This makes for 2 smaller jobs versus 1 bigger one, thus making it more manageable.  I have some re-wiring work to do as our home was constructed “pre-cable.”  It has plenty of flat antenna cable, but not RG6 (what is used for cable and satellite TV).  I am also re-wiring all of our phone outlets, as right now they are shoddy at best.  I had to re-wire them to make our DSL connection work.

Once all the backend work is done, I’m going to put the paneling back up.  I’m hoping to save as much of this as possible, but much of it is rotted or has big holes in it from 30+ years of living.  I’m going to call my “daughter’s mother’s step-dad” to put the trim back up.  He’s a master carpenter – someone needed for some of the complex angles this has.

After that’s done twice, we will paint the paneling to lighten up the area.  There is only 1 window for the entire downstairs and it can be a little creepy down there.  Then onto the floor.  The first step is repairing the surface.  There was carpet in there originally, and after removal of the tack strips it has caused little chips to be removed.  Shouldn’t be a hard problem to solve.  Then onto the finish, we have been discussing 2 viable options, concrete stain or epoxy coating.  I’m a fan of concrete stain, as it gives a very nice appearance.  Rachel is a fan of epoxy coating as it’s a bit cheaper.

After all this is over I then have a bedroom to re-do.  This bedroom is where I’m writing this right now.  It has a shelving unit that was crudely attached which I’m removing.  After repairing the drywall there isn’t much work to do except paint and a new closet door.

Those are the plans, but I’m sure there will be some bumps in the road.  I’ll be writing as often as I can to document the first “real” remodel of our home.  I can’t wait to see my Home Office / Man Cave become a reality!