some-antics.com

Yeah. Mr. PowerBook just kernel panicked. Wah. (And I wasn’t even doing anything particularly hefty. I had VLC, Mail, iTunes, Firefox and iChat open. Ok, was playing video off the external drive and watching it on the 23-inch display, but I’ve certainly done much more resource intensive stuff before. I’ve had all of the above running with Eclipse and plugging away at some ugly looking Java, so Mr. PowerBook certainly should have been able to hack this.)

This is the first kernel panic I’ve had on this computer :-( The last PowerBook I had kernel panicked all the time, but for a good reason.

(Very long story made somewhat shorter: When I got my second PowerBook–the one that was replacing the original PowerBook that’d been stolen when I’d gotten mugged in Amsterdam–I had new RAM installed. The RAM slot is right next to the wireless card slot, but at the time I didn’t know any of these things. I didn’t even know what ‘kernel panic’ meant. So after the RAM installation, this computer would kernel panic like crazy. And it seemed like it was only really doing it whenever I moved the computer around too much, which seemed absurd to me–this was before the motion sensors had hit the scene. So I took it into the Apple Store and chatted with a Mac Genius who looked at me like I was nuts while I explained to him what was going on. “Are you sure it’s not a specific application?” he asks. “Yes, very.” He obviously thought I was just another silly LA girl who was probably doing something like spilling nail polish remover and hairspray onto her computer, pretended to have fixed it (I didn’t know then, but what he’d done was put it into firmware mode), and then sent me home. Hurray! Problem solved! But not so much. Soon enough, at the sudden jerk or pounding on the desk, there went that blastedly familiar screen…”You need to restart your computer…” Gah! I thought that maybe I could just live with this, but there really was no way that I’d be able to tolerate not knowing what the hell was wrong with my machine. So I went back to the Apple Store, knowing that I’d be questioned and doubted again for sure, but determined to be persistent about the issue. This time, I was pushy enough to get the Mac Genius to do a full inspection–and what did he find? The RAM was still in its slot, snug as a bug, but the wireless card was flopping around. So what was going on was that whenever I would move the computer, the wireless card would move around, and my laptop kernel panicked because of all that going on. Once the wireless card was secured, that PowerBook never kernel panicked again. Too bad it got damaged by FedEx on a journey from San Diego to LA, and he had to get replaced.)

I’m not sure what the point of all this was. Just that if this Mr. PowerBook decides to make a habit of kernel panicking, I will totally break up with him. You hear that, Mr. PowerBook?

Two things: 1) I am aware that anthropomorphizing my computer is borderline absurd and/or creepy. I am also aware that threatening to break up with said anthropomorphised computer may potentially push me over into absurdity and creepiness. 2) Apologies for the not-quite-punny title. But not really, because I’m a nerd.

emma :: Feb.06.2007 :: tech, misc, nerdiness :: No Comments »

marriedtothesea.com

emma :: Feb.06.2007 :: misc :: 2 Comments »

So the Advanced Deductive Logic class got moved from our department building to the Philosophy department building (very sad as that means I have to remember to leave about 15 minutes earlier that I usually do, and it means extra time walking in the cold). Knowing that I wouldn’t be able to remember this, the address of the building, how to get there or remembering to find out before I left in the morning on Monday, I drew myself a map on my hand the night before:

Clicking on the picture will take you to its Flickr page, where a key for the symbols exists as a series of notes on the picture. If you’d rather not leave this page, though, here’s the key in a more linear format:

• X marks the spot.
• p -> q identifies X as the location where my logic class is.
• ∩ is actually not intersection, but instead the arch-y thing on campus. It has a name, but I can’t remember what and besides, drawing it was more efficient and also more consistent with the use of logical symbols as markers on the map.
• λ marks the location of our department, of course.
• That string of numbers that’s faded: Call number for Richard Montague’s “Formal Philosophy: Selected works of…” at the library.

[Edit: Hey!  This photo is my 500th photo on Flickr.  Woo, meaningless milestones!]

emma :: Feb.06.2007 :: misc, nerdiness :: 1 Comment »

Mr. PowerBook is very tired and passed out before I did. He went whirr…whirr…whirrrrrrrr! I restarted and he continued to whirr. This was very concerning, so I swapped out the battery for the new and improved, guaranteed-to-not-overheat-and-set-fire-to-your-home battery that I should have been using (I was using the old battery because the new one ran out on my flight from Providence to LA–damn you, direct flight!). Mr. PowerBook is whirring considerable less now, but I’m still concerned. Ok, ok, so what was I thinking, keeping him connected to the 23-inch display all night, running iPhoto, hooked up to the external drive and putzing about as if he were a PowerMac/Mac Pro?

emma :: Feb.06.2007 :: misc :: No Comments »