Monitoring progress in the SUL

For those who are unaware (and this may be most readers), I very recently revamped one of my desks in the Secret Underground Lair (SUL). This is the culmination of a long-overdue equipment upgrade to our displays.The two CRT monitors in the middle photo were replaced with this pair of 23" LG

monitors.

 The next photo shows the old monitors which, to be fair, were never intended to be more than an interim monitor solution for these workstations. 

 

The new 23" LG IPS LED monitors are mounted on a Fleximounts M13 dual monitor arm, which is quite a nice piece of engineering. The last picture shows the vertical support tube as viewed from the top. It's a solid piece of extruded aluminum, with the outer wall and center cylinder each having approximately .125" in (~3.175mm) wall thickness.

 

The hardware which makes up the base is all steel, and the disk that screws up to hold the assembly to the desk is metal as well. If you're in the market for a monitor arm/support, I'd strongly recommend reading the reviews online. I purchased the monitors and arm from Newegg.com, but nearly any reputable seller will have reviews available. As far as reviews go, this was probably the fifth arm I had in the cart before I pushed the "BUY" button. At one point, I had been looking at a 27" monitor that was being offered at a very attractive price, but at least one review for the arm I had initially selected stated that it in no way would practically accommodate a pair of 27" monitors. One other thing I have to say about the Fleximounts arm is the completeness of their kit: the only thing I needed to supply was a Phillips head screwdriver for the VESA screws- everything else is tightened by one of the three supplied Allen wrenches (hex head screws). Fleximounts also includes in their kit a painted, predrilled steel plate to allow for permanent mounting of the arm on a desk. Overall, I am very satisfied with this hardware.

Other than that, I guess it's been a pretty slow week for news, blogging, tweeting- pretty quiet both on- and offline for me.

Amanda and Mike (daughter and son-in-law) came to visit this past weekend. We had a great time- played Cards Against Humanity, Settlers of Catan, had many conversations and some excellent food. Mike and Amanda are now official denizens of the menagerie!

Nothing else is new. Well, except for the story. Y'all remember my e-friend in Japan J.S. Frankel? Well, he and I have been chatting on and off over the past few months about writing, and so I'm once again taking a stab at fiction.  

Lastly, J.S. Frankel and I met on a bodybuilding site a few years ago. I'm not sure what his commitment to bodybuilding is today, but mine is down near zero.  It's something I want and need to change. To that end, I purchased a genuine Wham-O Super Ball last week at Aldi. Actually, its a Super Duper Ball. It's about twice the size of the original, and I don't think its as dense or bounces as high as the original. Still, it's a pretty nifty all-in-one workout device... I'm not going to get Arnold-sized using it, but I'm using it, and this is important in the calorie burning/muscle building department. 

One more bit of news, and then I need to put this blog to bed. Jennifer and I were out shopping yesterday, and wouldn't you know it but the TPMS (tire pressure monitoring system) warning light came on. We were able to drive Meerkat, our trusty Subie, home without incident. The thing that's mildly amusing about this is my history with flats: I've had four- exactly four- in over thirty years of driving. My first occurred in Chicago on my Chevy Nova in a slightly rough neighborhood of Chicago. Mark, Dr. Dave and I were on our way back from a concert with The Alarm and The Pretenders at the Aragon Ballroom. I turned a corner on a sidestreet, and one of Chicago's famous potholes blew out a tire- that was college days. Flat #2 occurred at high speed on I-355 on my way home from work, pre 9/11. It was the left rear tire of our 1999 Escort... the same car I drove to work last night. I remember this flat because although it was rush hour, no one stopped to see if I needed assistance. I changed that tire with my butt facing traffic. It was not pleasant. Flash forward to Meerkat. We've had Meerkat for 15 months, and I've gotten two flats, and I'd bet both of them were due to construction in the area... I know for a fact the first one was, because the technician that repaired the tire showed me the offending piece of metal.

That's it for now. As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.

CL

I try to make "milestone" post a little special; in this case, it is my 150th post, so I've decided to go with "CL" as the title... CL being 150 rendered in Roman numerals.

Big news on the technology homefront. Jennifer has been without a computer for nearly a year. Well, not actually without a computer- she has a very nice Lenovo laptop that she uses. Her desktop expired in May or June of 2014, however. We built her a desktop sometime in June or July, but we had a problem with the motherboard, so she's been using the laptop ever since then. Two Wednesdays ago, Mr. T decided that we should rectify the situation.

We replaced the motherboard.

Now, the odd part about those four words is this:

Mr. T and I were able to get together to get the job done... almost done, that is.  It didn't work- some of the fans spun up, but otherwise the PC was inert. Last Sunday, we took a fresh look at the machine. Mr. T suggested I take a look inside. I did. Much to his surprise, I started touching things- fans, jacks, cables, anything that we had attached. I may not have an A+ certification, but I know my way around a motherboard. And I actually saw the problem before I touched it: one of the memory sticks was not seated. I pushed it down until it clicked into place, and we were in business.

Everyone was happy.

Bouyed by his construction success, Mr. T called in a chit. A year or so ago, we had informally promised Mr. T a new computer after Jennifer got a new PC. With hers being nonfunctional for such a long time, we didn't have to make good on that promise. Now, though, having demonstrated his ability to build, it was time.

After a few configurations, he was finally able to put together a nice Intel-based I5 system and get everything through Newegg. Everything arrived on Friday. Mr. T got up early on Saturday, had a nice breakfast, and for six hours worked on the box.

No go.

As Bill Clinton once famously stated, "I worked harder than I did in my entire life".  Well, with apologies to the former president, its pretty close to what he said.

Frustrated, he asked me if I would look at it with him today (Sunday) Sure, that's what Dads are for.

We opened it up, and pretty much repeated the diagnostic process of the past Sunday. I had to laugh- Mr. T had admonished me for equipping Jennifer's CPU with a masive dual fan equipped heatsink; it turns out that his is just as huge! We poked and prodded for about an hour. The main issue with his box was that the main case fan would not power up.There was also a boot order issue, but we found a work around for that. After testing, we determined that there was a dead terminal on the motherboard. I have to say I was impressed with the quick response I received from Newegg. I went to their chat, entered my issue, and in about 10 minutes I had an RMA.

Jennifer's PC, on the other hand, required a bit of work. After a few days with a new motherboard, I realized that it had a problem: it would not install Windows updates. I finally figured out that Windows 7 needed to be reinstalled. Once that happened, the machine ran flawlessly.

Sorry, once again no data, but a lot of hardware- that's how I roll when I'm the I.T. guy! I did start working on a spreadsheet which will be imported as a table into the new database, and did a bit of Python work as well.

As always, I am hochspeyer, blogging data analysis and management so you don't have to.