Bend in the Weather

I started reading that there is a new browser making the rounds.  Sure another browser?  We already have Firefox, Mozilla and Opera why another?

Well...  it's taking browsing to the next level.   It's got a bunch of new features.

It's got a handy blogging tool, integrates into Flickr, (photo sharing)  Technorati and even Delicious (Bookmark sharing).

It's based on the Firefox code base, so it works on Mac, Linux and Windows.

It's still in it's infancy but is quite useable.   It's basically a fork of Firefox on steriods. 

Pauline and I dragged ourselves out of bed Saturday morning. We'd have a big day previously and were pretty beat, so a sleep in was well in order.

Pauline was up prior to me, and I heard her on the phone. She was talking to my Aunt.
With everything that had gone on the previous week I had completely forgotten I had previously arranged to help my Aunt get SuSE Linux down on her computer.

Being the sweetie she is, she was ringing to say she wasn't expecting us after everything that had gone on with Jessie... though a quick chat with Pauline and we thought it was be the best idea to keep busy... so after a quick shower and a we headed down to Geelong to see her.

Coral (A.C. to me -- short for Auntie Coral! ) must have a lot of faith in me after my last attempt at her computer!
She had ordered a new motherboard, CPU and video card as a result of ongoing heating problems and unexplained freeze ups (even after replacing the memory and reinstalling the operating system).

So we headed down, Pauline to help oversee A.C. put build the computer, and myself to help with the OS installs for WinXP Pro and SuSE 10 (64-bit edition) in a dual boot environment.

A.C. has an external backup disk, but we needed to save her existing data to there as well... without overwriting it by reinstalling Windows.

We decided we could boot up using a Live Distro of Ubuntu, and then copy the data onto the USB Backup Disk. Unfortunately it was in NTFS format, which is only read-only under Linux...

We then hooked up her Laptop to the USB drive, and copied the 6.5GB she had off it, so we could then format the USB device to FAT32 (something Linux can write to.. and still be rad under Windows).

The laptop only had a USB1.0 connection... so the 6.5GB took quite a long time... and it was finished at midnight!

It was then we could use Ubuntu, and copy the existing data of her HDD onto the backup drive, so we didn't lose her Photos, Documents and other value information.

Once done it was a matter of installing Windows XP Pro, applying the Service Pack 2, and installing the various drivers for the hardware. We then installed SuSE Linux 10 and also applied all the updates.

What we didn't count on ... was the fact it was the start of daylight-savings! This meant we lost an hour... and very quickly it turned out to be around 8:30am!

After a long night, we had a newly build computer, running flawlessly and extremely fast (it was an upgrade at the same time), as well as two operating systems and most of the patches applied. A job well done!

I've left A.C. to install most of her software and complete the Windows updates.

I'll also be posting more details on SuSE 10 over the next few weeks and the various applications available.

A.C. like many others isn't a Linux geek, but a regular home user who's sick of Microsoft 'reformats' and constant $$'s to the OS... SuSE 10 is perfect for her, and provides her all the tools she needs.
I suspect many more could find that SuSE 10 (and other Linux distributions) could provide them with a real alternative from Microsoft.
It's come a long way since the early days, and Desktop Linux has made great leaps forward in just the last year. I run my home computer as a Linux Desktop, and use Windows for only about 2-3 applications that aren't available on Linux.

Once these or suitable replacements find their way... Windows will be gone for good. OpenOffice has long replaced Microsoft Office on my desktop!

Pauline and I rose late in the morning on Friday...
Rather tired and emotionally drained.

We decided it was not the best idea to mope around the house so we headed out after brunch for the day.

We'd been greeted by a lovely cloudless morning that soon had clouds rolling in for the afternoon, though it was still warm and if not a little humid.

We packed some fruit, made up some drinks and filled the car up with a tank of fuel and pumped up the tires.
We had to get out of the house, out of the city and enjoy some time reflecting on the good times we had with Jessie.
So the idea was to head up to Woodend, and look at Hanging Rock.

We bundled up the highway, taking our time, looking at the scenery and stopped at Woodend for a look around. Found a nice country fruit and veg shop and purchased some strawberries for the afternoon.

We stopped and had a bite and a coffee at a nice diner and just relaxed. Once refreshed, we headed up to Hanging Rock.

We drove up there... realised it was like Fort Knox (with a fence and electric gate to match pentridge!) and entry was going to be $8.00 for the car. It was already around 3:30pm, and we didn't see it as good value so we turned around.
(It's a national park that our tax dollars fund and I still need to fork out to walk around the bush. It's a natural reserve... the animals are all native, so why the funds?), It's pretty poor when you need to PAY to see a few trees and a rock.

Not to put us off.. we'd already been enjoying the day, so we thought we would head over to Daylesford, the home of the alternative lifestyle, the kook, mineral water and spas.

We cut through Woodend to Daylesford and stopped off at the Trentham Falls on the way.


It was a great place for a toilet break and just to enjoy about bit of natures beauty in a very natural waterfall surrounded in Aussie bushland.

Daylesford is a nice little town, though it's charm has been lost in the last 10-15 years as many from the city have moved in.

One of the killers of the place has been the erection of modern cottages and condos in a rural Victoria city.. that is surrounded by gorgeous country cottages. I've never seen worse eye sores!

We stopped in at a collectibles store on the main road, who have loads of 40, 50, 60's and even some 70's memorabilia.

We saw tonnes of Elvis, Beatles, The Monkeys, Beety Boop, Ford/Holden, Kiss collectibles... as well as a a very large Coca-Cola collection.. featuring all types of Coke stuff, from original yoyos, bottles, money boxes, Santas and the like. I even saw a Coke bottle that looked more like a glass 600ml milk bottle!

We spent some time down at the Daylesford Lake and even took a walk around part of it. By then it started raining and was approaching dusk quickly, so we called it a day and headed back home.

A relaxing day after such a stressful week. It was great to spend some time alone with Pauline outside the hussle and bustle of normal life. Something we need to do more of...

We had to put Jessie down yesterday. We'll miss our as she had become one of the family.

She gave us so much joy to every day. She didn't last a long time but she had a good time. She was one of the happiest dogs I have ever known. She always loved to meet people, dogs and even the occasional cat!

Her idea of aggresive was to attempt to lick someone to death.

We're still coming to terms... as it is so .

R.I.P. little Jess. You were here on this planet far too short, but you made every day count... and brought everyone that knew you so much joy. Jessie 16/1/2001 - 27/10/2005 (4 years, 9 months, 11 days)

Jessie at 3 months (in Pauline's arms)


Jessie at 4 months


Jessie at 15 months


Recently (7/10/2005)

The Vet has just called.

He's recommended we put her down.

Unfortuantely it's the most humane thing at this stage. They have run out of options.

We're heading in to see her for the last time.
I'll post more later....

During the build of my PC I took some photos of the progress, so you can all see how it went.

I was too lazy to grab the Digital camera (and I think I didn't have any batteries) so you're stuck with the small fuzzy ones I get off my Nokia Phone.
I blame the camera phone, not my poor ability to focus it!

Starting point
This is a picture of all the parts layed out.

I'm using an ASUS AN8-SLI Premium motherboard, AMD Athlon64 x2 4400 CPU, 2 x 1GB of KingMAX PC400 dual channel DDR-SDRAM RAM, ASUS 6600 256MB PCI-Express Video Card and a 200GB Western Digital SATA-II HDD


The computer case
All the parts will get housed in the new case.

The new case features front panel IO (Sound, USB, Firewire) that is accessible down the bottom via a hidden door.



Inside the Case
It shipped with a 300W power supply (though I did order a 400W one). I haven't changed it as yet, and am watching how it goes... may switch it over yet.

It came with one 12cm fan (under the power supply) though I did add another one (in the front of the case) near the hidden 3.5" HDD enclosure. This will help air come through the front, blow over the disk, CPU, Video Card and out the back one.



The motherboard
Here is the motherboard.
Pauline has attached the CPU (the silver square with a black square around it). The CPU fan hasn't been fitted as yet.

You'll notice the diagonal metal heatsink (it's the bit with the metal pipe attached). It appears to move the heat from the CPU away to where the fans will pick up the heat.
Clever and Simple.



The CPU
This is the CPU housed on the motherboard.
It's only tiny and normally hidden by the large fan and heatsink that sits on top of the processor.

This is an AMD Athlon 64 X2 4400 model (phew that's a mouthful!) . Basically that means it's a 64-bit processor and the x2 tells you there is two phsyical processors in the one chip.

This makes it perfect for running two Operating Systems at the same time. (Linux + WinXP Pro under VMWare).



CPU Fan/Heatsink and Memory
The motherboard is now ready to place inside the PC case.

The CPU and heatsink have been put in place, as well as the memory.
There is 2 x 1GB of RAM in the machine. One has to place the memory in particular slots to maximise the use across each of the CPU cores. By default each CPU will address a seperate bank of memory, to improve latency time and performance. That's not to say they can't access the other bank if required.



Housing the Motherboard
The motherboard is now placed in to the PC case.

It is cabled up, including all the I/O ports, power, sensors and the front panels.

The HDD enclosure (bottom right) has been removed to make cabling the front panel easier.



Completing the build
Here you can see the PCI-Express card (you can see the top of it... it's the white horizontal lines), floppy, HDD and enclosure, as well as the DVD-RAM have been put in place.

The red cables are for the SATA-II drive, as well as an external plug for external SATA disks (out the back). Very handy!



Final Thoughts
So there you have it!

A shiny new computer that should see me through for some time. It's now running SuSE 10 (64-bit edition) as well as Windows XP Pro (32-bit Edition) under VMWare.

It's extremely quiet, very cool and blindingly fast.
It will keep me out of trouble for some time!

I thought I would stick a photo of Jessie up here.

Seeing I'm not seeing her as much as usual... I'm finding photos help.


This shot shows Jessie chewing on one of her favourite toys. She loves soft toys... and can sit there for hours just suckling it!

Yup... that face and eyes of 'Who me?'

Hopefully we see her back here shortly the place feels pretty empty without her.

Tonight we visited Jess again.

It's hard to see her the way she is... you just wish you had a big wand and could make her better.

We stayed for about 30 minutes... but she was getting distressed by the end of it so it was time to leave.

She's still vomiting (we thought she had stopped, but she did it about 5 times whilst we were there). So she's not improving...
It's frustrating and confusing... Are we doing the right thing by her?
Are we just prolonging her misery?

Hopefully the Barium Meal tomorrow gets to the bottom of it. At present... we only seem to be treating the symptons... which is painful to watch her suffer.

I got a call from the animal hospital.

The good news is that it appears that it isn't cancerous.

That's a welcome relief. This means it might be inflammatory bowel disease but we'll be undertaking a barium meal test to see if we can see what's going on.

The test can't be done until morning... as it gives time for the pain killers to wear off so they don't skew the results.
It's a difficult call, you want to do the test, but you don't want your animal in pain.

We've gone ahead and instructed the hospital to do the test. They have assured me that whilst she will be in a little discomfort the other drugs have dropped the acidity of her stomach.. making life much better for her.

I still don't think she's eating... and will be on the drip as such... though I can't blame her.. her throat is so inflamed I doubt I would want to eat/drink either!

I'm about to leave work, I'll go home and get changed and we'll be going in to see her.

She must be wondering what on earth she's done wrong and why we've abanded her.

Hopefully the Barium test tomorrow gives us some answers to the underlying problem.

I really just want my happy and fun loving dog back.

I am back to work today.

I took Monday-Tuesday off with the things going on with Jessie, but needed to go into work for a few reasons:

• Clear my head
  


• Ensure nothing too pressing is going on at work
  


• Ensure the time passes quickly leading up to the results

I have no idea what the result of the biopsy will be... and at this stage it's 50:50 which way it will go...

If she does have the big C in her stomach, it's probably best that we do put her down so she doesn't suffer. The Vets have pretty much told us they can't do anything for her if that's the case.

In one sense I'm hoping it's the other one... but that too is quite painful for her..and will take a while to recover. Though, that's probably more being selfish than actually thinking of what's best for her.

Pauline and I will have a long chat about it once the call comes in.