Category: learning from my mistakes

omnibus, I got run over by the

Well, let’s see. I lost the drive in my laptop, again, and the backup regime I had been using when it crashed previously 18 months ago was not quite as comprehensive this time. So there was some data loss. Most preferences and history stuff, environmental details. Still annoying.

Since the iBook is out of warranty, it was time to make my own attempt at repairing the damage. A 60Gb drive from Outpost was $65. The odds and ends of tools I needed was $10 more or so. And it was about 90 minutes or so to do the job. I used the instructions and visual aids here. I needed the small hex driver, a couple of Torx drivers (don’t know why I didn’t just get a set all at once), and I picked up a couple of plastic putty knives for spudgers. Worked just fine.

I chose a 60Gb 5400 rpm drive, as it seemed to hit a good price point without getting too big. An 80 Gb drive might have been a good choice, but 60 doubles what I have been used to. And it’s faster and quieter (though warmer, too).

Irritatingly, I didn’t check the drive before I bought it so I chose a Toshiba based on the 5 year warranty. The drive(s) that failed were also Toshibas but they don’t honor warranties on OEM equipment. I would have bought from someone else, had I known.

So that’s pretty well sorted. A lot of screws involved and I have a couple left over (as did the last guy who repaired this thing). But it’s definitely screwed together.
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never trust someone who doesn’t know what they’re selling

The myth of grass-fed beef | Gristmill: The environmental news blog | Grist:

Me: Hi, do you have any grass-fed beef?
Butcher: Hmm, grass-fed? I don’t think you can feed grass to cows.
Me: Well, they’re ruminant animals, so I think that’s what they’re supposed to eat.
Butcher: [sympathetic-but-authoritative head shake] I don’t think so. They need vitamins and minerals and stuff.
Me: Uh …
Butcher: Now this [points down at large, marbled slab in meat case], this is corn-fed beef.
Me: Yeah, well, um, thanks anyway.

The comments are hilarious.

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links for 2007-01-13

if you knew then what you know now

Talking Points Memo: by Joshua Micah Marshall: December 31, 2006 – January 06, 2007 Archives:

CBS: 68% ‘optimistic’ about 110th Congress; 25% ‘pessimistic’.

Top priority for 110th: Iraq, 45%, Economy/Jobs 7%; Health Care 7%.

Perhaps some of my public opinion analyst friends will chime in on this. But I’m not sure I remember ever seeing such a stark number on public priorities on a question like this. With nearly half the respondents giving the same answer and the second highest not even rating in double digits.

The poll question I would like to see put to GOP voters who identify as having pulled the lever for Bush in 2004: knowing what you know now, would you have returned Bush for a second term?
Looking back, Kerry main strength seems to have been that he wasn’t Bush — not a bad thing, I’m glad I’m not Bush either but hardly a compelling argument. Are the Dems going to put someone forward in 2008 who can compete against whoever succeeds the incumbent? In a perverse sense, I wish we didn’t have term limits: you know he would want to run for a third term and who could talk him out of it, a guy who equates leaving with losing? He’d never go willingly. He’d throw everyone under the bus to convince the voters he was making a break with the past. I don’t think they would buy it, but who know?

what’ll they think of next?

Cool Tool: Pentel Pocket Brush Pen:

Leave it to the Japanese to create a brush pen.

I got one of these today, a Pilot, from the Kinokinuya Bookshop in Uwajimaya (we went there for lunch today). It’s a lot of fun to play with. You can make thin hairline strokes, broad strokes, great splashes of ink, all with same tool and you don’t have to dip it. I’ll try to remember to post up some stuff when I come up with anything coherent. There are Flickr groups that are all about photos of drawings, especially in precious Moleskines. Feh (to the preciousity of the medium, not the idea of drawings on Flickr).

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links for 2006-12-11

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