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Jun. 5th, 2009
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I spent an hour and a half last night at Ed's, where his machine was refusing to boot - getting to the desktop and then locking completely solid.
After trying MemTest (to check for bad RAM) and a different login (to see if it was something specific to a particular profile), I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu, burnt it to DVD and booted off of it.
This gave us a working OS without touching the hard drive - and even better, access to the hard drive. The most important files were word documents - all of his writing. And as he didn't have a spare hard drive around to get them onto, I needed another way to get them off the machine.
So I installed Dropbox onto it, created an account for him, and then he just dragged the important files into it - at which point it backed them up nigh-instantly onto the Dropbox servers - and mirrored them onto his laptop.
Not so useful for his music/image/video collection, as more than 2GB isn't free, and it would have been a tad slow to copy the files up over their internet connection. But as a way of getting important small files off of a dead box it worked admirably.
(He's now got his hands on a USB hard drive, so he'll be getting the rest of the files off today - but having a way to get the important ones off ASAP was incredibly handy.)
After trying MemTest (to check for bad RAM) and a different login (to see if it was something specific to a particular profile), I downloaded a copy of Ubuntu, burnt it to DVD and booted off of it.
This gave us a working OS without touching the hard drive - and even better, access to the hard drive. The most important files were word documents - all of his writing. And as he didn't have a spare hard drive around to get them onto, I needed another way to get them off the machine.
So I installed Dropbox onto it, created an account for him, and then he just dragged the important files into it - at which point it backed them up nigh-instantly onto the Dropbox servers - and mirrored them onto his laptop.
Not so useful for his music/image/video collection, as more than 2GB isn't free, and it would have been a tad slow to copy the files up over their internet connection. But as a way of getting important small files off of a dead box it worked admirably.
(He's now got his hands on a USB hard drive, so he'll be getting the rest of the files off today - but having a way to get the important ones off ASAP was incredibly handy.)
Delicious LiveJournal Links for 6-5-2009
Jun. 5th, 2009 12:00 pm-
DnD character sheet for the iPhone. Very neatly done, and works in any web browser. Takes character files from the WOTC character generator.
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With what looks like very good cause.
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Well, not _me_, obviously. I haven't been having sex for a quarter of a century...
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Two of the three patients were legally blind in the treated eye; they can now read big letters on the eye chart. The third could read the top few rows of the chart but is now able to pass the vision test for a driving license.
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Not safe for work unless you work in porn. With dragons.
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Because, frankly, their science is awful.
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Fascinating essay on subcultures and their invisibility to the central block of culture. Only funnier and better written than that.
Test post from the phone
Jun. 5th, 2009 12:13 pm
Trying Shozu as Nokia removed the app that I used to use.
Well, that seems to work. It pisses me off that Nokia retired LifeBlog (which would post to arbitrary sites from the phone) and replaced it with Nokia Photos (which would post to arbitrary sites from the desktop) and Share Online (which posts only to sites that have done a deal with Nokia).
Anyone got a suggestion for a better app for posting photos to LJ from a Nokia N85?
Elections so far
Jun. 5th, 2009 04:36 pmLooks like the swing has been anti-Labour, which means to either the Conservatives or Liberals, depending on which one is a stronger contender to beat Labour in any particular council.
The evidence for this is that the Liberals have lost a fair number of councillors, but only one actual council - the ones where they are already in control are largely being held by them. Presumably the councillors they are losing are in places where a swing to the Conservatives is more likely to unseat Labour control.
The BBC's estimated projected national vote share puts the Tories on 38%, Labour on 23% and the Lib Dems on 28%, which would be a result I'd be very happy with in a national election, as it would push a Lib/Lab coalition, grounded on a move to PR.
The evidence for this is that the Liberals have lost a fair number of councillors, but only one actual council - the ones where they are already in control are largely being held by them. Presumably the councillors they are losing are in places where a swing to the Conservatives is more likely to unseat Labour control.
The BBC's estimated projected national vote share puts the Tories on 38%, Labour on 23% and the Lib Dems on 28%, which would be a result I'd be very happy with in a national election, as it would push a Lib/Lab coalition, grounded on a move to PR.
Wind on the sea
Jun. 5th, 2009 09:59 pm
Siemens launches the first floating wind turbine. 2.3MW, 100m of flotation element, and cables up to 700m long.
From