Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

Yesterday, the replacement motherboard for my Dell Latitude CPx J650GT came in. This afternoon, I borrowed a friend's dining room table to perform the work, since I didn't have a clear spot available at home to work.

I had an online copy of the service manual, and someone's online notes on disassembling this laptop model. The operation went smoothly -- all but one of the screws came out easily. As I took out the screws, I placed them in an empty egg carton so that I could keep them segregated and sorted. The hardest part was popping the CPU card and putting it into the new motherboard. I re-assembled everything in reverse order. Then I booted up the system....and realized I forgot to plug in the display. So the keyboard came off again, connected the display, and put the keyboard back on. I booted again.....and everything worked. I also checked the amount of memory, and all 512 Mb were recognized.

I ran both Windows XP and Ubuntu Linux, and both OSes ran well, without any glitches. I also ran a Memtest86+ test, and it passed with flying colors.

I am now looking forward using this laptop for years to come.

I hate being stumped by software and hardware problems. It's like the problem is mocking me, telling me I'm not good enough to solve it.

( Here's what's on the docket. )

Any ideas?

A follow-up to my last post. It appears that I started a tangent about scented vs. unscented personal hygiene products.

I personally like stuff that's lightly scented. I like the Nivea for Men product line. It's a brand name I recognize for high-quality skin care. And their aftershave balm has a nice light scent. Some women I know like it a lot.

As for colognes, I hardly use them these days. But when I do, there's Eddie Bauer "Ebtek" (for the spring and summer) and Abercrombie & Fitch "Woods" (for the fall and winter). Canoe is good too.

I tend to turn away from stuff that's too heavily scented or overpowering. There are some Calvin Klein colognes -- Obsession in particular -- that just wrinkle my nose.

I used to like Old Spice. Dad used it. How many men use Old Spice because their fathers used it? And do women like that scent as much as the ads say?

It's been said that there is a strong link between scent and memory. I remember my high school sweetheart using her mom's Windsong on a couple of dates we were on.

And then there is the story of Owen. He was a student from Nigeria whom I used to work with in college. He used to drench himself with Jovan Sex Appeal cologne. I don't know why. Maybe he thought the more he used, the more women would find him attractive. Ugh.

I don't want to smell people's colognes or perfumes from 10 feet away. That's excessive. If you're up close and personal -- or even intimate -- with me, that's the time I wouldn't mind a nice scent.

Some time ago, around last summer, I upgraded Thunderbird to a new version. The system crashed during this upgrade, and in the process, I ended up losing a lot of my email filters. These "filters" are rules to redirect email to folders if they match a particular subject line or sender. These filters help keep my inbox clean. I didn't lose any email, as far as I know -- just the filters.

Slowly but surely, I've been re-restablishing these email filters. Tonight, I think I have nearly all of them restored. I'm ready to export them and import them on other systems, using one of the Thunderbird add-ons.

Using a DVD+RW disk for the original digital mastering did the trick. This afternoon, I dubbed a copy of the VHS tape my dad made in 1991 containing all the Christmas, family gathering, and vacation movies. This evening, I added chapter breaks, split off a few separate titles, and added title pictures. All of these changes were written to the disc.

I then booted up Ubuntu, and copied the DVD+RW disc to a DVD+R disc. I'm watching the final result now. I now have a DVD I can burn copies of and give to my relatives. I'd still like to send the original 8mm films to a conversion house for a better transfer to DVD, but the verion they produce won't have my dad's narration.

I also ended up making a couple of coasters trying to copy my tape of Tiny Toy Stories, a collection of the first 5 Pixar shorts. The tape has copy protection on it, which I didn't find out until a few seconds after I started dubbing. Grumble, grumble. (I had a power glitch the first few seconds of the first dub.) Anyone want a coaster?

Of course, I now need to get more DVD+RW discs for the sole purpose of DVD editing.

I got up early this morning and restarted the transfer of The Mind's Eye to DVD. This time I didn't delete any titles. I spent about a half hour putting in the chapter breaks and disc title. When I finalized the disc. ejected it, and played it on another DVD player, I noticed my chapter breaks weren't there. Instead, it used the default breaks, spaced 10 minutes apart.

Later, I did the same with Devo: The Men Who Make The Music. This time, both the disc title and chapter breaks didn't stick.

I also scanned the cardboard covers of the tapes and printed them out on specially perforated DVD cover stock.

I'm not completely satisfied with the results, but I'm satisfied enough to be able to watch these shows on DVD. After all, it's a personal project for private use. I have no desire or intention to make further copies. Unfortunately, that may not be good enough for the FBI, who are always on the lookout for video piracy.

I like shopping. I like hunting for bargains. I like driving. But lately I think it's been taking its toll on me.

Last week, I went to 4 Big Lots stores to pick up a stack of 100 DVD+Rs for $16. That's a damn good price. Micro Center wants $21 for their stack of 100. But it took me traveling to 4 stores to do it. T‎his week, the object of pursuance was an HP 4 Gb flash drive, also at Big Lots. This find took me 3 trips. (Yes, brands, sizes, and styles matter.)

I sometimes think about the gas I'm wasting, along with the wear and tear on the car, and the time it takes to chase down these deals. Is it really worth my time and energy to save a few bucks?

Yesterday's "Writer's Block" topic was boycotts: What companies do you boycott and why?

( Here's my list. )

I've been using my "older" laptop this week. Tardis Mk III is a Dell Latitude CPx with a 650 MHz CPU, a 40 Gb hard drive, and 512 Mb of RAM. It's dual-boot Windows XP annd Ubuntu Linux.

Last year, I purchased the RAM form a vendor on eBay. It passed the Memtest86+ test, so I kept it. Two weeks ago, I purchased replacement RAM from computermemoryoutlet.com. It too passed the Memtest86+ test, so I kept it in the machine as well.

Despite the new memory, I boot up, and I get a read/write error early on into the second DIMM during the POST test. At one point -- and it happens at two different locations -- it writes 00EF00EF and reads back 00EF00EE, or something like that. And so the BIOS automagically reduces the available memory to 256 Mb. I can run both OSes on it using only 256 Mb of memory, but it's darned slow.

I tried taking it to a laptop repair place, and they were reluctant to look at it, since it was an older machine. I don't think they'd do a repair beyond replacement memory.

So now I'm thinking I have a memory socket -- or probably a solder -- that's going bad, or gone bad. I can limp along with what I have, or start saving my dollars for a new laptop, or both. I found a nice model on overstock.com that I like. But the purchase will have to wait until I'm gainfully employed again. I hope one will still be available but the time I'm ready to buy.

Once I retire it, what can I do with this laptop and accessories? It's not exactly working well, so I probably can't give it away like I did its predecessor. Maybe someone can use it for spare parts.