Tech Meltdown: 2005 Summer Edition
August 20th, 2005This summer will go down as one of the worst for the Armstrong family in terms of technical problems. Not only has 3hive been plagued with technical difficulties, we lost the first iBook, our dryer has been threatening to boycott drying of clothes for a few months but finally succeeded in it’s goals on Thursday of this week, the Nikon D70’s weird shutter problem got to a point where half of the photos we wanted to take weren’t being taken, our front hose faucet decided to not turn off, one of the front sprinklers decided that it would be a good time to launch it’s popup piece into the driveway (where Leta discovered it and started making noises like she was asking it questions about why it was in the driveway) and the main computer in the house decided that the “Security” update I downloaded and installed should completely dork the computer into a funk so severe that several lawyers were called and consulted about punitive and/or emotional damages. The main computer of the house holds around 40 gigabytes of photos, going back several years.
Here is a rough timeline of the day.
6:45am: Leta makes her first of many awakening noises. We have learned to wait for her to be pleasant before going in to get her, otherwise her behavior is erratic and can lead to a Bad Day. She was fairly sweet this morning.
7:00am: Administer the morning bottle (yes she’s still on the bottle, she won’t take a sippy cup just yet, and we’re tired of the screaming about it).
8:00am: Sit down to watch kids shows and play with Leta. We decide that we’re going to Sears to look at dryers. With a kid, laundry becomes a way of life.
9:10am: Purchase dryer at Sears. It is a badass. 12 months, no interest. Only real way to afford the badass dryer. Plus, rebate and free delivery/install with fresh duct work. Mmmm fresh duct work. Linty fresh.
9:40am: Arrive home from Sears. Decide that it’s so pleasant out, we’ll do some gardening. Leta refuses to put feet on grass. Must tell her to quit being such a baby about it.
10:15am: Discover front faucet is not going to shut off after Heather asks why the hose is still running. Have to run downstairs and find shut off valve and grab wrenches to dismantle faucet.
10:38am: Faucet reassembled with washer from ancient toolbox. Probably purchased 10 years ago, but still rubbery fresh. Seems to be holding.
10:39am: Leta has first of four poopy diapers. On the evenings and weekends, I am on poopy diaper detail.
12:04pm: Leta is laid down for a nap. She isn’t pleased about this, but succumbs 18 seconds after crib dropoff.
12:10pm: Gathering all my crap for a stint on the main house computer to edit and print some photos for JB and McQueen of our recent road trip. Maybe do some more work on some shots and post them to flickr.
12:13pm: Realize that machine needs to be restarted due to a security update. Machine is super sluggish shutting down, forcing me to hard reset the machine.
12:18pm: Upon reboot, greeted with flashing question mark. Begin to chant mantra, “This is not good” over and over a la prayer in Frannie and Zoey. Will not stop this until 11:08pm.
12:19 – 1:30pm: Scurry about house trying to find recovery CDs and hard drives. None work. Both Leta and Heather awaken. Heather knows something is wrong and is terrified that our run of bad technical luck is going to destroy the family and take the farm. I console her mentioning a couple of options, one including firearms and perhaps a cricket bat, the other her new iBook and a FireWire cable.
Decide to try to install older version of operating system on main computer. Was at Mac OS 10.4.2. Will try to do a fresh install of 10.4 and rebuild the OS updates by hand. Can’t. Machine doesn’t even show it’s own hard drive as an install option. Start to claw eyes out and then stopping while remembering that eyes are useful and that would be misdirected rage.
1:30 – 2:08pm: Main computer is not seen on FireWire. Decide it’s Google time. Seems like the update has caused others a lot of grief. Determine that it’s time to call in the wolf.
2:45pm: Purchase the excellent Disk Warrior from Alsoft. They did not pay me to write this: IF YOU OWN A MAC, YOU NEED TO BUY THIS SOFTWARE TODAY AND INSTALL IT IMMEDIATELY. Download the software and install on iBook.
3:00pm – 5:00pm: Attach main computer to iBook via FireWire cable. Reboot main computer, holding down the “T” key, forcing it to boot into something called “Target Mode”. I believe this is to allay any urge to destroy the machine through physical means. Launch Disk Warrior on iBook and after a moment, it brings up the drive on the main computer, but says there are problems. I turn it loose, allowing it to do it’s thing.
Thirty minutes later, I decide to check on the iBook. It has fallen asleep and Disk Warrior is displaying a disconcerting message. I decide to fix the energy settings so that the machine will not go to sleep when plugged in. I force-quit Disk Warrior and start it back up, again seeing the drive and letting Disk Warrior do it’s thing.
I decide to walk away in the middle of this process and go to the hardware store to buy a replacement washer or sprinkler head, Heather and Leta joining me. Leta decides that it will be necessary to bring three toothbrushes with her to the hardware store.
We return home and I install the new sprinkler head.
5:04pm: I check on the iBook. Disk Warrior has mentioned some problems and that I’ll need to click some stuff to fix them. I do. In the middle of the fix, the main computer hard drive shows up and I browse it to see if the photos are still there. They are. I click the rest of the necessary buttons and decide to walk away.
6:02pm: iBook check reveals that there was a problem. I repeat the process in Disk Warrior.
7:20pm: Leta is in bed, and this time, there are fewer files with problems, but some of the files are ones that other people have mentioned the “Security Update” breaks. Hmmm. Ponder further legal action and click some more buttons.
8:30pm: Do a check. Looks like it worked! I can see the main computer hard drive in the Finder of the iBook! Breathing is much easier.
Eject main computer hard disk from iBook. Disconnect cables and reboot main computer. Wow, the fans on the main computer sure are getting louder by the second… The Apple logo is there though. And the little “shit is happening” widget is showing that the computer sees the hard drive. Decide to let the computer do it’s thing and walk away.
10:00pm: Machine has not restarted, appears stuck on logo screen. Decide to see if I can reinstall Mac OS 10.4 (machine was at 10.4.2. Remember all those paragraphs ago?).
10:40pm: Install complete! Machine boots up. Files still there. Will update to 10.4.2.
10:59pm: All updates (not including ones labelled “Security”) are installed and machine reboots. Heather asks for verification and I show her the 160 folders of our photos. She sighs and I shut down the machine, vowing that tomorrow, we back it all up. The pain.
I’ll write about the Nikon D70’s issues later, but I’m writing a lenghty letter to Nikon in my head. I don’t normally write manufacturers directly, but this time, it’s personal. o
Pfff. You act like that was all a big deal or something. Puhleeze.
Just playing. Good to hear that the pics are safe.
At least you know what you’re doing. I’d be forced to run in circles, weeping and repeating, “Oh, no. Oh, no. Oh, no…”
Glad to hear everything’s okay. You must have the patience of a saint.
Unreal. I hope that you are backing up those photos on an external. My wife knows that if the house is going up in flames – grab the freaking brick and run, the cables will come loose eventually.
Glad that you got it working again…back to the poopie diapers.
WH
I hate it when stuff like that happens. But as Zaz said, at least you know what you’re doing. If it were me, I’d be having a panic attack waiting for a more technologically smart person to pop up on my buddy list.
I usually just upload all of my photos straight to Flickr and delete them from my computer. That’s mainly because I have like no space left on my iBook. I just hope nobody bombs Flickr or something like that.
Wait, you were playing with Leta at 8:00 and then an hour and ten minutes later you had already BOUGHT THE DRYER? Do you live in the parking lot? Of Sears? Because when my kids were Leta’s age, that errand alone would have taken ALL. DAMN. DAY.
You young kids with your organization and togetherness and whatnot. Sheesh.
Sorry about all the technical meltdowns this summer. Thanks for all the great posts about what’s going on in Leta-land!
I’m going to go out on a limb and guess your “main computer” is a G5… It’s amazing how many problems those things have had since Apple started selling them. What a pain. They’re great when they’re working.
I have a G4 iMac and a G3 iBook and neither have had any problems with the udpates (so far). I just don’t get it.
By the way, be thankful you don’t have sewer lateral problems. Computers, sprinklers and dryers are cheap compared to lateral replacement. I may be facing that one before the year’s up.
The cheapest price I’ve gotten is $15k. Somebody shoot me.
Badger, we strike when Leta’s in good spirits and we are not close to nap time. We have learned to move quickly.
Wow, I’m so glad I’m too lazy to install security updates right away. Seems to be the way to go — wait a few days and see if anyone has any problems. Thanks for the post — now I know not to install this one either.
If you can replace your “it’s” with “it is” then use the apostrophe. Otherwise, leave it out. There are exceptions to that rule, but let’s start with that.
I want to read your website, but it’s a little annoying when your grammar is off. I’m confident that you can learn this simple rule and stick with it. I’ll be watching.
Ouch. I was hoping that once Microsnot got into bed with Apple, that MS products might start to rise to the level of Apple products. Alas, it appears that Apple is dumbing down…
Ain’t technology grand? It will be even better when your sympathetic readership can send you a shot of bourbon through some sort of replicator thingamagigy. In the interim, here’s some virtual bourbon and sympathy.
Don’t worry about the bottle/sippy cup transition. I have vaguely recall the frustration of having a child who would not take a sippy cup, but the specifics of how and when this was accomplished elude me now. It’s far more important, developmentally speaking, that Leta learns how to say “suck it” to people like Grammar Retentive.
Grammar,
Yeah, I don’t think that writing something at 11:45 pm had anything to do with not being bothered to proof my post. Plus, your condescending tone. Bleah.
Heather mentioned earlier today that I had some it’s its problems. I’m still up to my ass in system issues on the mothership computer, so I’ll get to it when I can. If errors like that are going to put you off reading this site, please go elsewhere.
If you respond to this with snark, I’ll ban your IP. I’ve had a bit of a stressful weekend and to put it into perfect Lancashirian, “I can’t be mithered.”
Also, I have every bit of faith that YOU’LL learn that you are a pompous ass.
ha! i work at the apple store and we had a ton of people calling and asking us questions about the security update. apparently, apple broke everything that was 64bit (which is everything in 10.4.x). it is repaired now so you can download the security update. gosh, you went through a ton of work trying to fix that.
and you’re right, disk warrior is the best thing on the face of the earth! everyone that comes in with data problems we sell them disk warrior.
i’m lame and am still running 10.3.9 and dealing with mail/safari crashes all the time. i WORK at apple and still don’t have 10.4… there has got to be something wrong with me!
Dj: You might want to consider writing mystery novels, I was holding my breath that entire post.
Here is a quote by Chicago psychoanalyst Robert Galatzer-Levy concerning Freud: “Although experiences with feces and toilet training may serve as a model for psychological functioning in later life, toilet training per se is usually not so important as why such a model was chosen and how it functions currently. There may be less emphasis on `anality’ due to the fact indoor plumbing has become more available.
“The invention of indoor plumbing at the end of the last century was a major source of misery in that it demanded much more control of defecation than was necessary in a world of chamber pots and outhouses. Large families such as Freud’s (eight to ten people) had to share a single toilet, and Anna and Sigmund were evidently plagued by constipation. Attempts at early toilet training may have made things worse. As the number of toilets per person has grown and ideas about toilet training became more liberal (promoted not only by Dr. Spock but also the washing machine and Pampers), anal retention came to seem less central to psychological life.”
However, grammar retentive, is here to prove that anal retentive is still alive and going strong still today.
Really all I take from that is Leta goes to bed early. REALLY EARLY. I wonder what it is like to have time alone after the kid(s) are in bed.
Oh and my 17 month old is still on the bottle. Why? Because I am a lazy bad parent and it’s easy for me. That and while nursing her she REFUSED to take a bottle. I would be at work while my husband cared for a pissed off 8 month old who wanted nothing but breast. After the struggle we had to get he ron the damn thing I sure as hell ain’t ready to get her off of it.
Jesus (pronounced “HAYzoos” so as not to offend), is it too Mae West of me to ask for a drink for myself after reading that catalogue of a day? On the upside, you sure got a lot of stuff done. Most people can’t boast about their weekends like that. Most people, like me, just have a drink and weep that Six Feet Under is over.
Ah, the weeping.
Sounds like Mercury is retrograde.
May was my month for Karmic explosion. I was laid off on the 2nd; the dishwasher caved in and died two days later; five days after that, the pull cord on my lawnmower tore out of the housing in my hand when I went to start it. The week after that, the kitchen sink faucet exploded… figuratively, not literally.
We now have a new dishwasher installed; my Dad came over and repaired the lawnmower (thank god for Dads); and, we have a new faucet that cost an obscene amount of money because it was a discontinued Delta part.
I’m still unemployed, but at least I can wash dishes, scrub vegetables, and mow the lawn while I’m waiting for job interviews.
We bought a washing machine and dryer from Sears. One year later, we started getting rust spots on our clothes. A service call revealed that the lid and top of the washer was rusting and that we would be charged something like $200 to repair this, since we did not have a service agreement. A trek to Sear’s particular bolgia of torment at the hands of clueless and indifferent customer service imps finally yielded the corporate verdict that its too much to expect that the interior of a washing machine to withstand water for a year, so no, they won’t fix it without charge.
We have higher design standards and will therefore shop elsewhere in the future.
Its (that is to say, well, “its” — and yet you still know what I mean to say, fancy that) too bad because they had a good reputation, but it seems they have decided to liquidate that.
I’m glad you were able to recover your photos. My brother-in-law lost 8 months worth last week. It prompted me to back mine up this weekend.
I just love the word “pompous” and when you add the word “ass”… well that just makes it even more fun to read! LOL!
Sorry to hear about all your tech trouble. Like others have said, it’s good you at least knew what to do! I’m always lost in your techno-jargon and am quite envious at your knowledge of such matters. Almost makes me want to learn more about this here computer stuff. Almost.
“…call in the wolf…” – I love that.
Jon, since there is some bizarre technology curse hanging over the Armstrong household right now, I’d also encourage you to make sure you have current backups of yours and Heather’s MT databases. I learned the hard way not to put too much trust in that “automated” backup functionality that most hosting providers offer for your website. Regularly backing up is such a pain in the ass but SO much better than the alternative!