In which I take a photo every day that I'm 50, and post it here on this blog, with a bit of related blurb.
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| blue screen of birth |
I spent half of today trying to fix one of the oddest PC problems I've come across in 20 years of building and fixing PC's.
Failed...ho hum...
But I did make some progress. A few days ago, it just suddenly refused to boot up, giving the old Blue Screen of Death.
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| blue screen of death |
The error message itself is of the something went wrong type...some unknown error occurred.
Windows didn't even know what was wrong with itself...
All self-repair attempts failed...
Replacing various bit of hardware, and unplugging everything not absolutely necessary failed to reveal any faulty parts...
Swapping out RAM sticks, as it was increasingly looking like a hardware issue fixed nothing - it's not a memory issue...
Yet it will boot in safe mode...does that add more weight to the hardware fault theory, or to the software error theory? It's not clear!
I was about settled on the hardware fault theory, and was going to suggest replacing the motherboard, but at the last minute decided to run a test. I installed a new hard drive, newly formatted, removed the existing one, and installed a fresh copy of windows.
Works perfectly...
So, it's not a hardware issue (unless it's the hard drive itself, which seems unlikely).
It's a software issue, probably driver related, or some odd corruption deep in windows somewhere...but as all diagnostics show no errors, it's going to be pretty much impossible to identify and correct the error.
So I need to reinstall windows, preferably on a new drive...but then I have to work out what needs transferring/reinstalling from the old drive...it's going to be a bit messy, but it'll save buying a new PC, at least...
(By the way Andy, I found a spare 500GB SATA drive if that's any good to you? Let me know...)
Ah well, back to work tomorrow, where I don't do any of that techy PC stuff any more...actually I've never done a huge amount in a work capacity, although I've always had strongly technical elements to my role...but now I'm 100% management, 0% technical.
Not sure where that ratio's going at the moment, to be honest...
Finally, the astute amongst you may have noticed that I sneakily squeezed a climbing rope, a guitar, and an electric drum kit into the top photo...
At least the photo's not 100% technical!
;-)
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| 5p, 32GB |
A comment Jezz made in his blog last night provided some handy inspiration this evening, when I was tired and otherwise all out of ideas...
He mentioned macro photography, which reminded me that we have a little macro lens that I've not tried yet (it fits onto our prime 35mm fixed lens)...so I soon found myself scanning my desk for a subject.
I have these little Micro-SD memory cards knocking around as I'm gradually gathering stuff for our trip to Font...and I'm constantly amazed at how small they are, with such huge capacity.
This particular one is 32GB, and you can get them as large as 128GB...these are a rare breed, almost never spotted in the wild, but the technology is there - you can buy them on Amazon...
A 128GB card could hold 24 hours of 720p video...even the 32GB could hold 175 episodes, nearly 8 seasons of Friends.
I think the first PC I bought, back in the early 90's, had a 128MB HDD...it was the size of a small, thick book, and weighed about a pound!
Now, one GB, (traditionally referred to as one GigaByte) is equal to 1,000 MB (MegaByte)...so this tiny card has 1,000 times the capacity, at 1/1000th of the physical size...stunning!
Around these parts (and somewhat anecdotally), my good friend Andy (erstwhile lead commentator on this blog), coined the perfect alternative word 10 years or so ago, when discussing a technical support issue with me (and simultaneously revelling in his PC-illiteracy, as he was wont to do)...I asked him something along the lines of, how big is the hard drive in that PC?, to which he replied, it's 128...erm...GoogleBigs...?
Do you see how much sense that word makes? If I said this MicroSD card can hold 32 GigaBytes, you'd be all, like, oh ok, awesome or whatever, I suppose...
But if I said it can take 32 GoogleBigs, you'd be all like, woah, dude, that thing is huge! It's like totally rad', brah!
Thanks Andy, I'm still enjoying that one! :-)
Anyway then I realise that that first PC was nearly 25 years ago, and it just makes me feel old...it's not like I was a kid when I got my first PC...
Yet still I do find it absolutely remarkable how tiny these MicroSD's are (you'll have noticed me remarking upon it, mere moments ago...).
And they provide the perfect opportunity for a bit of macro action.
For scale, I found the shiniest five pence coin in my small change receptacle, and stood it next to the memory card...I took around 30 shots, varying angles and lighting and f-stop with abandon, as I went...
Now, usually when I take multiple photo's I find myself using the first one, and feeling that I wasted all that time taking all the subsequent useless shots, and I should just go with my first instinct.
But tonight, this was the very last shot I took! I'm fairly pleased to have worked my way towards a half decent capture.
I also learned that the camera can still focus with this combination of lenses, as close as around 3 inches (but no closer).
I think this photo demonstrates that it has some capacity for capturing the detail of the very small...
Thanks for the reminder, Jezz!
Now I just need to find an actual, non-contrived subject!
:-)
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| three come along at once |
Today is the first actual holiday day of my...erm...holiday?!
The point is, it's my first day of not working on a day on which I would normally be working...is that any clearer? If not, it probably won't help when I mention that I was working all day today...
Am I confusing you? I'm a little fuzzy myself, to be honest!
You see, this is what happens when you work on your holidays...everything goes a smidgeon off-kilter!
The thing is, my bro' has a booming business importing furniture, and I'm using a couple of days of my leave to go and sort a bunch of his PC's out...I usually do a few odds and ends for him now and then.
Of course with his business booming, I'm sure he could afford to pay an actual professional to do the work - but he's a cool brother and he knows I can use the spare cash, so he always gives me the option of doing the work if I want to, and have time.
As Anna and I had just decided that I should stay with Jazz rather than go to Florida, I had a load of time booked off with no plans, so it seemed inevitable...and I was very happy to do it for him, of course...right up until the point where I had to get up on my first Monday morning off from my proper job, and go to work!
Should've thought that one through, planned it a little better!
Still, Jools is off to Mallorca in a couple of days and it would be useful to get this done before then, so I shall work through the evening tonight and tomorrow and get all these laptops that I brought home with me sorted out.
As I was sitting here writing this, and working on one of the laptops, and doing a few other bits and bobs (why yes, I can multitask, thank you!), there came an insistent, demanding miaow from behind me.
I turned around to find that Jazz and Loz had joined forces in the hope that their combined psychic nagging powers might be enough to jolt me into action...
Apparently, it worked, as I've now realised that it's feeding time at the zoo, and the menagerie are getting rowdy...
I'd best get on...more exciting tales tomorrow!
I bet you can't wait, eh?
:-/
