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June 1, 2006

2006, The Year of Personal Techniclogical Catastrophies

Superstition dictates that bad events always arrive in threes. Night before last, the final shoe on this three legged beast had dropped.

First, my wide-format printer died. The head developed a leak that made every print look like an inky massacre, rendering hundreds of dollars worth of pigment inks and paper stock useless to me. I liquidated all the supplies on eBay and replaced the printer with a cheap all-in-one unit. Although I've vowed to never make prints at home again, I still miss being able to do it.

The second shoe to drop was my original server that started as a VIA Mini ITX board in a To Boot shoebox later installed into an antique wooden box I picked up at an antiques show which I attacked with a dremel to add holes for the ports and ventilation. Three years of continuous use and an early spring heatwave seemed to have killed it.

I replaced the shoebox with a spare five or six year old system I had in the basement. Things seemed to be going well until Tuesday when I noticed I couldn't get to my site from work all of a sudden. I returned home to find that the system wouldn't boot up anymore.

I tried a different power supply, isolating memory sticks, reseating everything. It was just dead. The third shoe had dropped.

I was dissapointed to see that my own locally owned computer store ("Tran Microsystems") had been converted from the friendly neighborhood shop where one could buy new and used stuff at a fair price to a rude little joint staffed by loud-mouthed upselling hawkers who try to convince you that blinking LEDs and neon cords enhance performance. I gave in and went to Microcenter and picked up the cheapest of everything I needed to get back-online.

We're back and not a moment too soon. Sorry for the interruption and I hope that this system makes it longer than the last two!

Now if only I can find that gassy smelling oil leak on my cycle before it gets serious...

Posted by jordanh at June 1, 2006 2:36 PM

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