Reload June 23, 2008
Posted by a1291762 in : eve , add a commentSo… I wanted to increase my Windows partition by 5GB to fit a game. I saved the original partition to the old backup disk using WinClone. Then I realised my main drive was too fragmented to let me allocate another 5GB to Windows. I then copied everything from the internal hard disk to the backup disk. Then 2 things went wrong.
First, I managed to completely lose the Windows filesystem. At the same time that I re-partitioned the disk, the WinClone image just vanished.
Second, I had installed a new version of rsync (in an effort to get syncing going with the NAS backup disk) and it silently ignored the -E switch, totally screwing up my Mac OS X install (yes, I know resource forks are legacy but I’ve got some important apps that still rely on them).
So I’ve had to rebuild my Windows install from scratch. Luckily I don’t really have anything installed on there (just whatever games I’m playing at the moment). I noticed something though. A feature found in Boot Camp 1.2 has been missing in every version since. When I do “Advanced Properties” on the video card I get a series of ATI tabs in addition to the standard tabs. If you don’t install the Boot Camp 1.2 drivers first you don’t get this. I think you can get a similar effect by installing a full Catalyst driver but at least one of the things I use, PowerPlay, does not seem to be mentioned in the Catalyst driver I found. So I’ve built my Windows install up by installing Boot Camp 1.2, 1.3, 1.4 and then the 2.0 drivers. I probably could have gone from 1.2 to 2.0 but who knows what else has come and gone in the mean time…
My Mac system is missing some bits but all the important stuff is back now. The biggest problems were Palm Desktop (which makes extensive use of resource forks, even for data files) and AppleWorks. I seem to have thrown out the AppleWorks CD. Luckily the internet keeps things like this around so I’ve got it back too. I’ve also got Mac Office 2004 (got it for Bree and it comes with 3 licenses so I’ve got it installed) and NeoOffice. Mac Office was a joke. I installed it off the CD then I had to download and run, one at a time, 20-odd updaters. Hey Microsoft, how about a combo updater or at least letting the update tool run the available updates one after the other without intervention?
The thing that bums me the most about all this? I lost my savegame for FEAR. I’m not sure how far I was but it’s enough that it’s annoying to have to do it again.
Not enough time… June 8, 2008
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentIt’s been a while since I’ve posted to this blog. There’s just not enough time in a day to do everything I’d like to so different things get neglected at different times. Lately, it’s been this blog.
Here’s some of the thing that have been happening.
The Nokia deal is done. I will become a Nokia employee on the 17th. Their benefits add up to more than I was expecting so there’s an effective pay rise in there too (on top of the pay rise I got after the yearly salary review).
I did Jury Duty a while back now. It was interesting but a blunder on the part of one of the lawyers meant the case had to be scrapped (we heard something we weren’t supposed to) and restarted at a later date.
From the last week of January to mid May I was on a diet. I lost 10kg and I need new clothes. I didn’t really have a plan or program or anything. I just started eating about 2/3 as much at each meal. It’s enough that I feel hungry when meal times come around but not enough that I’m starving all day. I still have snacks and “bad” food but since my total input is less, my weight has gone down. It’s a principle I picked up from The Hacker’s Diet, something I actually did some years ago now. I used the Eat Watch program to track my progress.
I started doing the exercise plan from the book but as winter came on I had trouble getting up in the morning so I gave it up. I noticed something though. It didn’t make any significant difference to my weight loss (something the book does note). I also noticed that while I don’t feel any different as a result of losing 10kg, I did feel “better” while I was doing the exercise routine. Why is it that these separate facts can’t be kept separate? All you ever see is people saying that you _have_ to exercise to lose weight and that losing weight will make you feel better.
Anyway, since I wasn’t starving or anything I didn’t increase my meal size much after officially ending my diet and as a result my weight is still going down, currently sitting at just over 93kg. When will it stop? I don’t really know, I’m just along for the ride :)
We have a Wii now. We got one for the Wii Fit which Bree is using in lieu of trying to maintain an exercise program. Apparently a Gym membership is at least $500 per year while a Wii + Wii Fit is $550 just once. The Wii Fit is much more fun than any gym though I guess you won’t get the same results if you use one. To be fair though, you can’t go to the gym for 20 minutes while your kids are asleep but you can use the Wii Fit.
Bree got Drop Dead Fred and watched it with the kids. Isaac totally freaked out during the scene where he gets his head stuck in the fridge. The kids in general are skittish when it comes to watching non-kid-oriented movies that are scary or violent. I guess that’s why it doesn’t take much to get a PG rating.
Isaac is growing up fast. He no longer has a dummy. It took him longer to get over it than Emily did. It also took him longer to get over his something than Emily did but he’s come good now.
He went off of swimming like Emily did and it took some weeks of one-on-one lessons with me in the pool before he’d stop screaming everytime we went near the pool. He went off of kindy and threw big tantrums when we dropped him off. He was generally fine once we left but would then throw tantrums when we picked him up. We’d throw tantrums almost anywhere, droping to the ground screaming long and loud.
After a few weeks of constant work he started getting better. His tantrums eventually got to the point of being merely formal protests without any real feeling in them. He still throws tantrums from time to time but he’s always been more into screaming and tantrums than Emily was. When he’s mad at us he’ll go and get a hug from Emily, it’s cute to watch.
Isaac can’t sleep without a nappy still. He does do a wee in his nappy when he wakes up (like Emily did) so we’ve got him Nappy Pants so he can actually take himself to the toilet (not that he has yet but perhaps as it warms up he’ll do it). However he’ll still wee without waking up, which has even caught us out while driving home after being out.
Sirens. The kids know they come from Ambulances or Fire Engines. For some reason though, they’re terrified of them. Emily always asks me if someone is dead when she hears one.
Emily starts prep next year but it looks like she won’t be going to the school we picked out. Despite being on their list for the last 4 years we didn’t get in so now we’re looking at other options. It might not be a bad thing though because we haven’t looked at anything since we moved and we’re more south than we were when we originally looked around.
The kids play well together. They love singing and doing actions. I’ve got a bunch of kids songs on an iPod in the car that they like listening to. It’s funny driving along and all of a sudden they both start waving their arms around, doing actions that they’ve figured out for the song.
They both love the song Angels by Robbie Williams and request it whenever they’re in Bree’s car (it’s on her iPod). Emily can sing most of it. She actually sings lots of songs but in a sub-vocal way. She tends to get really shy when she hears her voice so it’s hard to get her to perform for other people.
Wii Party June 8, 2008
Posted by a1291762 in : Uncategorized , add a commentWe had a Wii party yesterday. I don’t think you could do that with any of the other consoles. Everyone, even the kids had a go and it was a pleasant afternoon of fun and silly antics. Watching everyone do hula hoops on the Wii Fit board was one of the many highlights.
The kids are now looking forward to the next Wii party.