Nevermind…

I ran some hardware diagnostics for many hours without finding anything, but something told me to look at BIOS and drivers for my SATA RAID conroller. This is the device that controlls the 1.2TB of hard drives. I flashed the BIOS to an updated version, installed a new driver and cleared out another application that didn’t work and rebooted.

Then, I initiated a copy of 200GB or so of data [this would have caused the system to restart] and it’s all good so far. No unforseen reboots. So, it wasn’t hardware at all, but BIOS and drivers. This is good. We all love computers that don’t crash, don’t we?

Hardware Issues

This new server I have is great – until I actually started copying data to it. I think there’s something wrong with either the motherboard or the CPU. It’s hard to tell. It simply reboots with a stop error every once in a while – usually under some kind of load. The stop error is generic and nondescriptive. Does anyone know of some good diagnostic tools other than replacing hardware one component at a time?

Finally Settling In?

It looks like we’ll actually be getting local cell phone numbers now. I’ve resisted the change, but there have been too many confusions with locals changing the “1” to a “0” [the area code where I have my number is presently 713, whereas I live now in the 703 area code]. There are also some annoying things that happen when I’m “away” from my “home” area code too long – like the strange dissaperance of my voicemail capabilites, or the massive signal loss from the Katrina era [“No, I wasn’t hit by the hurricane, but my number is in an affected area…”]

They tell me I’ll get better service once I switch, but I’m not sure I believe them. One thing I do know, though, is that I will most likely pay less in mobile taxes than I did with a Houston number. This would be most heartening.

Laura or I will be sending out a note to those who should have our new numbers when we get them switched over.

Lens Distortion No More?

I have just learned about a wonderful new tool in Photoshop CS2 that is a life saver – or, to be more accurate, a picture saver. I’ve noticed dark corners in almost all of my pictures with my “bad” lens and in a lot of my super-wide pictures as well. What I have learned is that vignetting, as this is called, is a normal thing even for the most expensive of zoom lenses. Fixed length “prime” lenses do not suffer these problems nearly as much. This can be avoided [mainly minimized] by utilizing an F-stop value that is in the center of the lens’ range instead of one of the maximum or minimum values. I, of course, like to go to extremes, so this vignetting shows up in my work.

So – how does one fix it? In Photoshop there is a nifty tool to correct lens distortion – including vignetting. So – the pitures I took of my friend’s daughter now look ten times better since I’m able to smooth the exposure to the edge of the frame. They no longer look like I’m taking a picture through a tube.

It doesn’t do away with lens distortion, but really allows me to deal with what I have. It doesn’t compensate for the slow focus problem, but it will make some of my darkened pictures look a bit better. Actually, a lot better. I was quite surprised how much difference a little de-vignetting makes.

New Lens?

After spending a weekend attempting to photograph an energetic three year old, I have decided that my over 10-year-old lens is not suitable for that job. It looks as if I will need to buy a new lens. The old one is so slow to focus that the child usually moves out of focus before the lens gets there. So – blurry pictures. I think kid photography is somewhat more dificult than sports photography.

So – I’ve been looking at zoom lenses in the 70-200mm range. My current lens is a Tamron 28-200mm, but I have other lenses to cover that “lower” range: an excellent quality Sigma 17-35mm wide angle lens, a “cheapie” Canon 35-80mm which came with my old Rebel and has better clarity than my Tamron 28-200mm.

In my searches, one lens stands out: the Canon 70-200mm F/4 “L” USM lens. This lens is one of Canon’s “L” series lenses. The “L” really means their top-end professional line [and that ususally means $$$]. I looked at the 70-200 F/2.8, but that one costs over a $1000 more than this one – which seems to be the entry point for the high-end professional lenses. I even looked at an equivalent 28-200mm “L” lens, but that one was over $2000, so it got scratched off the list [I’ve even read some reviews about it that give it a “mediocre” rating – not something I’d pay two grand for]. Some of these “L” lenses cost over $6000 [Ouch! I hope I don’t need that one any time soon!] but this one is actually affordable at less than $600. Sure: it’s simple and doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as the others [like image stabilization], but it’s a workhorse and the picture quality is astounding.

Looks like I have something else to save up for!

Trillions Of Bytes

2012-01-08 23:29:28

It certainly feels like Spring today, what with 65 degree temperatures. What a wonderful day for a ride – which is exactly what I did. I’m totally stoked about riding home, too! [but then, I usually am… did I tell you I love to go home to my wife?]

I finished building the new data server with the two replacement drives that came on Wednesday. It took quite a while to rebuild the large data storage array – but that’s because it’s 1.2TB. That’s right: 1.2 terabytes… or 1,200GB or 1,200,000MB or 1,200,000,000KB or 1,200,000,000,000 bytes. That kind of space only a few years ago would have taken up a whole room with storage racks from floor to ceiling – and I certainly wouldn’t have been able to afford it. And this is all on 5 hard drives – that’s it. In a tower-sized computer case. Yes, it’s larger than average, but all this space fits in a box the size of 3 CD ROM drives. Unbelievable. And those drives are not even the largest available today! I chose them becasue they were big enough and cheap. There are 500GB drives available today and that would be 2.5TB! Wow.

That’s a lot of space. Should last us a few years.

Next steps: data migration. I’ve started this already [it seems to not even make a dent in the available space – 30GB moved so far is less than 3% of the total space where before it was almost half my drive] but the big migration is yet to come. And, we’re going to be cleaning up the directory structure as well as eliminating any duplication.

Should be fun… heh.

Spring?

When does Spring arrive? Soon, I hope.

I used to love Winter – now, I think fondly of warm sunshine and breezes. I think Winter had become an unknown Utopia – a distant ideal for me when I lived in hot, humid Houston. Now, it’s a reality. I’m still cold.

Of course, that doesn’t stop me from riding in the freezing cold. I enjoy the ride more that I dislike being cold. There are days, though…

However, all-in-all, I think I’d still rather be too cold than too hot.

I have noticed some flowers springing up in our yard and the tulips we planted are now sprouting. I hope to get some good pictures of them soon.

Heavy Watches And Broken Arms

It’s strange, being without debt. I’m so used to trying to decide how much will go toward debt vs savings – It’s like an old habit that doesn’t make sense anymore. Now, I don’t have to decide. I can simply move excess money into saving… AND NOT WORRY ABOUT DEBT! It is ia very strange feeling.

I suppose I got used to the pressure hanging over my head – or at least, used to its presence. I tried to explain my feelings to Laura, and this is the best that I could come up with: Imagine yourself wearing a 20-pound watch [some of you who wear dive watches may understand what I mean]. You wear this watch day and night, never taking it off. It’s not a comfortable watch – it’s cold and hard and has sharp edges. You keep having to look at it – you’re obsessed with the numbers on the front. You wear it for six years and while the watch isn’t what you’d call comforting, you become accostomed to its presence. Then, one day, you finally figure out that you don’t need it and that you can take it off and never pick it up again. Imagine the feeling of lightness – of freedom of movement.

Imaging also, that feeling of always wanting to look at the numbers – the numbers that aren’t there anymore [if any of you regualr watch wearers have forgotten to put on your watch, you know what I mean – you feel a little lost without it and keep trying to check the time on your empty arm…].

In fact it’s kind of like getting a cast off – you can finally itch where you couldn’t reach for so long and the feeling is simply sublime. But, even so, you still want to favor the limb: go easy on it, because you can’t quite believe that it’s as strong as it ever was and you don’t want to have to put that cast back on.

These feelings are very akin to what I have been experiencing this week.

Being debt free TOTALLY ROCKS! I’d recommend it to anyone.