For sale

One slightly used computer power supply unit. Complete with power cord, screws, and acrid smell.

$50

computer go bang

So I was sedately working this morning when I suddenly noticed an odour, the kind that reminds you of soldering or electrical fires. I got up from my desk to wander away from the computer in the hope that the smell would get stronger the further I got. No such luck. I was just on my feet when my computer decided to shut down... after emitting a popping/electrocuting noise and a pretty plume of smoke from the back.

Those are not fun moments.

Yes I may have lost 10 minutes' worth of work. (I had the good sense just three days ago to do my first real backup in weeks; this good sense led me to back up on the same computer, but due to various redundancies three particular hard drives within would have to be fried for me to actually lose any work-related stuff.)

And yes, now the room stank like a recently passed circuit board, but that would clear eventually.

The real conundrum is to how to decide what parts have died and thus what to replace. Perhaps some handy folks can figure stuff out with a multimeter, but not I; if you see me using one it's because mine is analog and I am entertained watching the needle jump around.

I assumed (and desperately hoped) that only the power supply (PSU) was toast, although past experience (of mine and countless others) says that's not the case nearly often enough. (I knew my PSU was dead because it was the only thing that smelled and upon opening it up I saw scorch marks. Plus that's where that mushroom cloud had emanated from.)

Ideally I would find another PSU to see if that's all that failed, but since we're living nomadically the scraps I have with me don't include one of those. The next best option: drive to the store, buy a PSU, drive back home, test it and hope everything works; and if not, drive back to the store, buy the next likely victim (motherboard), drive back, test, and so on.

So I carried out that next best option, going to TigerDirect and buying a shiny new 50%-higher-wattage PSU for way too much money. Installed it and... tada!! thankfully it works like a charm. No worries of overloading this baby... yet.

Back to work... now that I can.

House-sitting again

Well, it's been three weeks without a post. I imagine that should weed out those readers who unrealistically expect weekly posts. A crazy notion indeed.

We're house-sitting somewhere else now in North York. Or is it Thornhill? Willowdale? Toronto? Not a clue. Where I've set up my work, I face a big window and have a great view of the back yard, with its abundance of squirrels, chipmunks, birds and rabbits. I have yet to decide what we'll have in the soup tomorrow. A completely unrelated thought of course.

When I'm not looking down my sights at bunnies, I'm working a good chunk of the time. Carrie's been job-hunting and hearing back from various efforts; hopefully in a few weeks we'll have some real answers. We just bought plane tickets to BC for Carrie's sister's wedding. Carrie's going for two weeks, but I'll be going for only a week. It's about time... we were get antsy sitting around for so long without a holiday!!

Well I haven't got any photos of interest, so this little true story will have to suffice...


The father of a friend of a friend (you know who you are) went for a trip overseas recently. I'll refer to him as John. While there, he encountered a special breed of chicken that interested him somewhat, given his history of bird farming. Acquaintances there were raising some of these chickens in their back yard simply for producing a few eggs for consumption.

John decided he wanted to have some of these birds for himself, but he needed a way to get them back home safely and cheaply. Recognizing the downside of cramming live chickens into his suitcase, he figured it might be wiser to take some of the fertilized eggs with him and hope to make them hatch back home. He acquired six eggs and wrapped each one carefully in paper and cloth. And so they got on the plane and made it home without incident.

John had a friend back in his hood whom I'll call Will. Will had some laying hens whose eggs were about the same size as the ones John had found. John asked Will if he could cram his six eggs under one of Will's hens to try to hatch them. This was no problem, so the eggs were planted and the waiting began.

John didn't have long to wait. The following day he received a phone call, and the caller identified himself as an agent for Canada Border Services Agency. There was, he claimed, a problem with John's checked luggage: a routine scan of his luggage had since been checked more closely, revealing what looked very much like eggs. John listened worriedly as he was told that the agency would really like to have another look at his luggage. He wondered what the penalty for undeclared eggs would be...

"But... I've already unpacked everything..." managed John, "...what do you suggest I do?!"

At that point, Will decided to consider his prank call a success, and he identified himself. Other than a few extra grey hairs, John suffers no ill effects from the prank. He has vowed to get Will back one way or another.


And I haven't heard if those eggs ever hatched successfully... that was six weeks ago. Any news, 'John'?

House-sitting

We're house-sitting for friends for three weeks while they're off on a Baltic cruise. Although they're leaving the house to go on vacation, for us staying at their place is akin to a vacation. Nice comfy house to stay in, pool in the back yard. How does that adage go? "One man's home is another man's resort destination." Something like that.

It was fairly warm out last week, and Mom and Dad came over to test the pool. My mother enjoys water about as much as I do, so in my efforts of shooting photos of people in the water I didn't get a decent shot of her. Here's Carrie basking in the sun...



... and Dad putting up with some splashing. Then there's me, almost obscured by the pounding surf, quite obviously in need of my orange water wings; you'll notice those to the left of the pool.



No I don't have much to write; just felt obligated to post something... anything.