HP 9000 A5236A Fibre Channel Enclosure FC10 1010D drive size limitation

Just in case anyone's interested, the HP 9000 A5236A Fibre Channel Enclosure FC10 1010D can't support any drives bigger than 73Gigabytes. Don't know if this is true of other old FC enclosures or not.

Sarah Palin and conflicting impulses

Whenever I see Sarah Palin head toward an embarrassing moment, my brain locks up from the conflicting impulses and I have to look away. On the one hand, part of my desperately wants her to fail in the most abject way possible, so there's no chance she'll be elected. On the other hand, another part of me feels empathy for her. We've all been in situations where we've been over our heads and looked silly.

For example, the bit The Daily Show seized on where Katie Couric asked her what newspapers she read before she was tapped for VP. It certainly looks like her brain locks up on her and she can't think of one, so claims to read nearly all printed media. To me it's like a slow motion train wreck, I just have to look away.

Scams and other free things

Is there are word for something that is free, but really is just a sales pitch in disguise? If there isn't a word, there should be. How about really f***ing annoying? Or maybe, scam? Both of those seem to fit nicely.

I just got a call from a Terminix tele-marketer asking me when I want to schedule my "free" termite inspection. Of course they already tried this trick on me once when I bought my current house almost five years ago. Basically, they inspect for termites and set there standards really low. Meaning if they see termites in the ground within six feet they call you over and tell you horror stories about houses falling apart, etc. Then they tell you about their Centricon system which they developed for the Navy, blah, blah, blah.

Basically, my house is surrounded by trees. Trees are made of wood. Termites eat wood. So you'll find termites in the ground around my house. Finding them in the ground right next to a house is cause for concern.

Of course, I had to figure this out the hard way the last time I got a free inspection, by freaking out, calling the person who did my home loan and getting a free visit from the person who did the original termite inspection.

The people who do these inspections are a separate group from the people who service your house. I'm almost 100% sure they are commissioned sales reps. Bastards.

Slo-mo Kung-Fu

One thing I love about my cats is that they feel compelled to fight all the time. If one of them relaxes for a minute, the other one feels compelled to sneak up on him and jump him. I think part of it is being boys and part of it is the fact that they were feral for 3 months before I got them. Check out the picture to get the idea.

But I think age is starting to catch up with them. For the past few minutes they've been fighting in slo-mo. It's as if they're fighters who are each paid to take a dive. But, no, after a couple minutes, they're speeding up and now they're fighting and running at full speed.

The other thing that's funny is that they'll switch from fighting to grooming each other and back by the second. I guess that means that they really love fighting.

A new addition to my blog. Cute pictures of wild animals!

I started putting out food for stray cats and other wild animals (mostly raccoons) a little over three years ago. Since the critters were really cute, I hooked up a camera so my friends could see. And now that I have a blog, it makes sense to share some of the still images.

Hopefully the motion detection on my camera will work and they'll always be a couple of pictures of raccoons eating cat food at the top of this blog.

Compassion's cost

As I was driving to Chipotle to get some food, I started musing about downsizing both in companies and in government. A simple way of putting the debate is:

"Compassion costs money". Helping people takes time & effort and, in effect, money. Welfare helps people who don't have a job. Drugs aren't legal because we don't want people to fry their brains.

People who are against "big government" are really saying: "We want to spend less on compassion." But I think every time you don't help someone you become a little less human.

With this thought in my head, I went into Chipotle. The cashier (who I think is asst. manager as well) was talking to the person just ahead of me and said: "You know, I'm always right. It's a burden really", half tongue-in-cheek.

When I got to the front of the line, I told him about Cassandra of Ancient Troy. She was friendly with the god Apollo who gave her the gift of foresight. But they quarreled and she left him. Since Apollo couldn't take back the gift (once the gods gave something, they couldn't take it away), he made it so no one believed her.

The asst. manager said: "Yes! Yes! That must be where I got it from! And for that" and he handed me back my money and zeroed out my order. Then he said: "You've restored my faith in humanity." Which made me feel really good.

So I guess some types of compassion cost money and some don't. And either can return big dividends when you least expect them.

Tree Fishing or Adventures in Geekdom

Now for some comic relief. Here's a story that partly explains why my roof is in such bad shape (the other part is the flat roofs are a pain and natural wear and tear).

It took a long time for me to come to terms with the fact that I couldn't get over the air HDTV reception at my house. It took even longer for my cable operator to provide HDTV over their cable network. In my futile quest for over the air HDTV reception, I even developed a freakish sort of sport that I called tree fishing. This is provided solely for comic relief. Please DON'T do this at home. Here's what I did:

Climb on your roof. Attach a weight to the end of some high test fishing line and throw it over the end of a high, thick tree branch. After successfully hooking the tree (meaning the weight has slipped over the tree branch and is tugging the fishing line towards the ground) let out enough line so that the weight drops to the ground. Tie the fishing line to something. Climb down off the roof. Now tie the end of a spool of coaxial (Cable TV) cable to the fishing line. Wrap the place where they connect with lots and lots of electrical tape. Climb up on the roof and use the fishing line to pull the coax over the tree branch and to you. Once you get the coax to you, tie it to something sturdy on the roof.

Now climb down from the roof. Measure out how much cable you'll need and cut that much off the spool. Crimp a connector onto that end of the cable and connect it an omni directional antenna (which looks like a 3" thick white plastic pizza). Climb back onto the roof and pull the antenna up off the ground until it comes very close to the branch you originally hooked. Bring the cable into your house and connect it to your HDTV receiver.

Yes, I really did this. Yes, I do feel silly. And please, please, please, don't try this at home. I think I am exceptionally fortunate that there wasn't a lightning storm while this contraption was in place. It probably would have somehow started a fusion reaction in my house and turned the whole thing into a tiny thermonuclear device destroying everything within 5 miles. Or maybe it would have destroyed all my home audio and video equipment and set my house on fire. Either way, don't try this at home.

The funny thing is that I could get TV reception for stations that were literally static on the ground. A good example would be Howard University TV (Ch. 32 in the DC area). With an antenna on the ground there was no sound and no picture. With the antenna in the trees I could get a perfect picture. But still I couldn't get HDTV.

Most people can get great HDTV reception (even through concrete walls in a basement) using a Silver Sensor -- an antenna originally made by Antiference (a UK company). Antiference has since licensed the design to Zenith. For more information on HDTV reception a good resource is Keohi HDTV

More updates from the disaster site

Here's the latest. More than half of my cabinets and half the counter top from my kitchen are the latest casualties. (sob). But now all the demolition is done. And I get to re-do my kitchen. And since the mold people are finished downstairs, I don't have to corral my cats in my bedroom. They don't seem to mind hiding during the day, either, which is good.

So a week from today, or rather, yesterday (February 16th) is the target for when I get my house back. Here's hoping everything stays on schedule.