Category Archives: Writing

It Ain’t What You Think, Part 2

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The original plan was to upgrade the current workstation with new MB, RAM and CPU, keeping the disks as they were. Mostly because 1) I’m lazy and 2) I was not looking forward to transferring all my working files/programs to new disks. Been there, done that. Not fun.

Best laid plans, and all that.

Turned out the case I ordered (and liked best) was designed more with solid state disks(SSD) in mind. My boot disk was already SSD but a little on the small side. So I bit the bullet and switched to M.2 and SATA SSD for the boot and data disks, respectively. Kept the data disk at one terrabyte since that was the same size as my old HDD drive and perfectly adequate for my needs. Had some minor bobbles with USB and PSU connectors, but got the new machine (and by this point it was an entirely new machine) up and running, and now time to transfer the files. Getting everything off the old drives was easy enough with a large USB backup disk. And then…

Let’s simply say that certain modern backup/clone/restore software didn’t work as advertised and let it go at that. You know what did? A backup/restore program included with Windows 2007 back so long ago they were still referring to it as Windows NT. By the time it was done everything was in place and working just like on the old PC, programs and data alike (and yes, all my working files and the WIP for The Laws of Power book 4 made the trip in good shape). All I had to do was resize the partition to account for the larger disk and everything was set.

I’m always somewhat surprised when things go right. I’ll probably reincarnate the old machine as a Linux or ReactOS PC just to play with. Waste not, want not.

It Ain’t What you Think

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New Desk

In computer years my workstation was just shy of Methuselah. Not that I really cared. Writing and light gaming doesn’t take that much horsepower. Then I decided to take a course in machine learning.

Why?

Because.

I’d been an IT guy for most of my day job years. Had the degree, did the work, coded, often built my own computers just for fun, that kind of thing. It had been a while, though, and I wanted to try something new, like a different computer language and an introduction to AI. Learning something new freshens the mind, and frankly mine was getting a little stale. Problem was my computer was overdue for an upgrade which the course made apparent. So I thought why not build the replacement yourself? You get exactly what you need.

Well, that’s the plan anyway. One thing has definitely changed since my last build. I mean, I knew there would be differences and thought I had a handle on what I needed to research. One thing I hadn’t counted on, because I’d never run into it before:

Fakes.

Things advertised as a two terrabyte flash drive that, well, aren’t. Then there was a name-brand external disk bought from a reputable dealer. It provides the promised storage but, judging by the model and serial number, is almost certainly counterfeit. Kind of annoying. Adds a complication when you’re trying to source parts.

Buyer beware.

Monday. Just…Monday.

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The deer are in the yard again. Not the one above, but could be her twin. Which goes along with the twin fauns she also brought to the feast. One nibbled the hem of my jeans on the clothesline, but decided the taste wasn’t up to her standards.

The trial is over. This was my second experience as a juror in a criminal trial and if I never have a third it’s all right by me. Let’s just say I know more about some of my fellow citizens than I ever wanted or needed to, and now I shall do my absolute best to forget it. Also, I do realize If poor judgment was a crime we’d all be in trouble at one time or another, but some people elevate it almost to an art form. What a waste.

And to cap things off, our silly cat got himself skunked in the early hours of the morning and I was too groggy to treat the situation as was needed. So now we have to wait for the funk to wear off.

Did I mention he’s a lap cat? We’re obviously being punished for something.

Civic Duty Again

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I’ve got jury duty today and have to leave in a few minutes. Actually, it’s the second time I’ve been called since the move, but the first trial got cancelled so now we are here again. I actually don’t mind. It’s never going to be convenient, but so what? Someone’s future is on the line. That’s not something you take lightly.

Besides, I much prefer being “juror xx.” Could be worse.

Could be the defendant.

Roll Over Carl Sagan

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Voyager 1 launched in 1977. Its stated mission was to do flybys of Jupiter and Saturn. It did so with aplomb, discovering, among many other things, active volcanoes on the moon Io, and just how intricate Saturn’s rings are. But that wasn’t the end of its mission. Its trajectory after its last flyby was toward an even more ambitious destination.

Out.

 As in, leave the solar system completely. Which it accomplished in 2012 by passing out of the area known as the heliosphere, the area of local space more affected by our sun than whatever forces might lie outside it.

Not its primary mission, but possibly more significant in the long view. Our very first robotic foray into interstellar space. Aside from instruments, it carries the “Golden Record,” with greetings in fifty-five languages on the assumption that any aliens smart enough to find It are also smart enough to figure out how to play it. It would be to their advantage, because the record also includes music by Beethoven and Chuck Berry. Which inspired the long-running joke: What will be our first communication from an alien species? “Send more Chuck Berry.”

I have my doubts, with all due respect to Chuck Berry, and this is also due to one more new discovery from Voyager 1: the Hum.

No one was expecting new science from the probe once its primary mission was over, as both Voyager probes were designed and expected to be operational for only five years. If that had been the case, Voyager 1 would still have been the first man-made object to leave the solar system, but it would be a dead hunk of metal when it did so. After forty-four years Voyager 1 and its sister craft Voyager 2 are both still very much alive, and Voyager 1 was the first to hear the universe singing.

Well, okay, it’s more of a hum, which why they call it that. For those of us who grew up fussing at science-fiction in movies and television which almost always depict spacecraft rumbling very loudly through space when there’s no air to carry any sound, it was a bit humbling. Yes, there is no air to speak of in space, so we can’t hear sound there the way we were designed to hear it, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t any. It appears the spaces between the stars contain traces of ionized gas—plasma—vibrating in a narrow band. It’s far too faint for us to hear, but with the right instruments to detect, amplify and interpret the wave forms, it becomes sound.

So it turns out the universe is humming to itself.

So much for the emptiness of space and the silence of the stars, both are illusions based on a misapprehension—ours. We just had to learn how to listen.