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Monday April 30, 2001

A cry for help today - Don had turned on the second computer at his office -- it got half-way through the boot and died. Fortunately it's not his work machine, just a spare one that gets used if someone else is working at the office. It's four years old; has (I think) a Pentium 133 MHz. I dropped Joan into town for her physio appointment, went to Don's office and picked up the box. (The damn thing is still crashing of it's own volition, Don)

Back home, I confirmed that things were not well; it wouldn't boot off a floppy -- just crashed. After due consideration of possibilities, I decided that the best course of action would be to strip the two hard drives ( an 8 and 6 GB) and transfer them to Linley, the box I've been using for Linux learning. It has an AMD K2-350 and SD ram, so will be faster. The drives went into place, and I tried a boot up -- more in the spirit of experimentation that any real hope of a full boot to Windows. Sure enough, half-way through the win startup, it detected NEW HARDWARE and proceeded to instal everything from the serial ports up. Finally, it barfed on the AGP drivers and sulked.

YAWI -- cleaned off the C:\ partition and did the re-install. That went reasonably quickly until I got to the network part. NetBEUI got the file-sharing under way, but the TCP/IP refused to see the DSL router. I finally fixed this by digging out updated drivers for the network card, and re-installing TCP/IP. Success -- Internet explorer fired up and we were on the 'Net.

Since then, it has been a clean-out of the partitions, and re-installing the needed software -- CorelDraw 9, Photoshop etc. I then set to and transferred files over to Milly for dumping onto CD-Rom. I managed to get three complete sets of two done (one for the office, the other at home); the Yamaha burner performing flawlessly at 12 x write on bog-standard Mitsubishi blanks.

Of course, this didn't get much other work done today; but at least I've started doing an itinerary page while waiting for things to happen -- file transfers, reboots, cd burning etc.

Tuesday, May 1, 2001

As might be expected from yesterday's computer goings-on, today has been rather hectic. We decided that we really should do our Aquajogging first thing, as we missed out last night. So we were in the pool by 9.15 am, and I had a good 30-minute workout; Joan rather less, as her physiotherapy is making her a bit sore. We just got back home to find Don knocking on the door with a job for me -- a couple of brochure colour pages to proof for the printer.

I finished off the computing job by installing an old HP CDRom burner on Don's box; this is a parallel port external model, only a 2 x burner but reliable. It took a while sorting out the correct ASPI and other drivers, then installing EasyCD Writer. I also discovered a very curious thing: I had gone into device properties and enlivened DMA on the two hard drives and the CDRom. But the data transfer down the network was still sluggish, so I checked: sure enough the setting hadn't 'stuck'. I tried it again with the same result. So I mailed David Farquhar, who made the sensible suggestion to update the m/b ALi drivers; this I shall do tomorrow -- thanks, Dave.

I dropped Joan into town for her physio appointment, dropped the print job at the printer, and took the box into Don's office. A miracle! Everything worked first time on plugging in and turning on -- not my usual experience. I realise that I have forgotten the SCSI card for Don's scanner, so I'll have to install that tomorrow. Picked Joan up and returned home, to tackle some of the mountain of jobs that have to be done before we leave.

This evening I have posted our Itinerary and some maps for your edification and entertainment. It should be possible for you to at least see where we are supposed to be at each stage, insh'allah.

Wednesday, May 2, 2001

It's been raining on and off all day; and in fact it has been solid since dark. The weather forecast I heard said rain tonight and continuous rain tomorrow. More office work this morning; then into town at 1.45 pm to go to the bank and pick up Joan, who had been doing 'things'. I called round to our electronics store to get a phone adapter -- RJ11 to BT, in case I can find somewhere to jack the modem in, when in Greece.

Then I had to get stuff ready for the Camera Club tonight; photocopying the rule book and my print- mounting handout sheets (I'll probably post that in the photo page if I get time). I also gathered up the materials and tools for the demonstration. As part of the evening, it was my turn to give a short talk; and the subject I had been asked about was 'filters'. So I ratted round in my filter box for samples and packed them all up too,

The meeting went off well; I got many intelligent questions on filters and flim etc -- gratifying to a speaker, as it means that your information is being taken in. I did the print mounting demo without managing to nick myself with the craft knife, and that was well-received.

Thursday, May 3, 2001

Out for Aquajogging at 10 am; the muscles seem to be getting into shape at last... Then Joan had sundry appointments in town for face beautifying etc, while I went off to Dick Smith Electrical (the NZ equivalent of Tandy or Radio Shack) to get a micro-cassette recorder. I actually have one: an elderly Aiwa bought in 1984. But I woke at 4.30 am this morning with the thought: "That recorder is going to cark it when I need it most."

One of the things I would like to do on this trip is to record any reminiscences that the old soldiers are able to share. Like most people who have seen the inside of Hell and came back afterwards, they seldom speak of their experiences when home safe and sound. My Dad, who was in the 1914-8 war, only told me about some of his experiences when he was dying in 1972. So my hope is that, without pressure, these guys will stand on the ground they fought over and remember something of what it was like. Hence I need a reliable recorder in the hope that I can catch a little of what they say, without making a big thing of it.

Anyway, I managed to get a little Sony with the amazing battery life of 24 hours recording on a couple of AA alkalines. After that, Joan had an hour and a half before the next appointment, so we went to the Rotorua Museum to see the display on the 28th Maori Battalion which had fought through Greece and Crete. They also had a video screening of an excellent documentary on the Battalion, with interviews with some of the soldiers. We had a quick lunch, I dropped Joan for her appointment, and then went home to get some work done. Joan was back at 3.30 pm, having caught a ride with Anita across the street.

I spent a little time checking over my stock of microcassettes, which I cleaned off with my trusty Sony cassette tape wiper; then tested the new recorder for sound quality and microphone range. It performed admirably. Some of the cassettes I left unwiped, because they had music recorded on them; I think I did that for a trip in 1990; sometimes you are stuck for hours in airports or hotels with little to do, and the music helps while away the time.

I've posted some more photo articles for those interested.

Friday, May 4, 2001

Hair cutting today; we have to last for about 7 weeks, so I had a no.2 cut all over -- it's left me a little chilly <g>. But today has been warm and humid, with tropical air being blown south by a crazy mixture of lows and a blocking high to the east of the country. I am still trying to chase up a second pair of glasses, which I ordered about 10 days ago. It turns out that the special dark photochromic glass I wanted had to be specially ordered. My optician jumped on them with both feet, and they set to work immediately on a slightly lighter shade glass which will do. They've promised that it will arrive by courier at 8 am Monday morning, so we'll stop by on the way to the airport.

Don phoned in a panic to inform me that the replacement box I had installed on Tuesday was blue-screening; I went into his office after lunch and ended up doing a Win98 install-over. This revived everything, except for the CDRom burner which needs Easy CD re-installing. I'll do this later in the weekend, as I'm taking the Epson 1520 printer into his office while we're away. Otherwise he has to come here to print the colour proofs that I normally do. I've taken the precaution of making a DriveImage file, and will do another after all the software is in. This will revive the box in 4 minutes -- instead of the 30 minutes of a win install.

Back home, and continuing preparations for packing. For me, that was mostly checking on the Psion modem config so that it dialled the ISP through the cellphone. Also transferring many of the instructions for the Nikon 990 to 5x3 file cards that I carry in the camera bag. Very useful in the field, when you can't recall just how to make a particular setting.

Russell from the Camera Club came in after tea to pick up a file for his exhibition poster; and also needed a logo assembled for the 50th anniversary of the Photographic Society of NZ (in two year's time). This was a tricky little piece of work, involving scanning the drawings he had, and assembling them into a collage of the old and the new logos, plus text. I didn't have time to do a full job, but he has Photoshop, and will tweak the image a bit further.

Saturday, May 5, 2001

Rain, rain, rain; we might be excused for thinking that the monsoon has arrived. The place is awash, and we keep getting these heavy downpours every couple of hours or so. Oh well, it really didn't matter today, because we spent most of the day assembling clothes and packing the cases. The moment of truth: putting the cases on the bathrroom scales to find we're within our weight limits. Phew!! What's a poor lad to do if he can't take a tripod, battery chargers, modem, spare camera, binoculars, guide books, etc etc?????

Went out in late afternoon through another dense downpour (washed the car off nicely). We've had to arrange for a lawnmowing service to come while we're away -- I usually mow just before we leave, and the grass has almost stopped growing by now. But this tropical air and moisture has made the lawn think that spring is springing.

Joan's favourite niece, Deirdre from Auckland, dropped in to leave her superseded mobile phone for Jo and/or Rebeccah. I guess they'll sort out who gets the best one; Rebeccah has arrived at the age when it has become difficult to have strict schedules for being picked up after school; there is so much activity that requires a certain amount of after-school rehearsal/ coaching/playing that Jo has found it necessary for Rebeccah to have the mobile and just call when she's ready to come home. The same applies for weekend visits to friends' homes. We were on the point of buying a second mobile, when Deirdre offered her old one.

Sunday, (Mike was too busy today...D)