So, um, where is everyone?
- Thread starter Mercutio
- Start date
I'll hopefully have some new things in store for us soon. They should either cause happiness, controversy, or problems. 
Hopefully happiness. I haven't had much to add in the last few weeks, so I've not been helping the quietness.
Hopefully happiness. I haven't had much to add in the last few weeks, so I've not been helping the quietness.
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
I read everything, but with working and commuting there is less time for posting.
Alright, you're all excused.....this time.
Excellent! I'll get the vicious rumour mill going - Psssst! Hey, did you hear the news? Doug's going to merge the forum with SR!!Doug said:
My resurrection of this thread, of course, did not mean to overlook Mark's many recent contributions. In fact, I highly recommend we try to improve upon this trend.Mark said:
Nothing as glamorous as a merge...I'd venture a guess that Eugene wouldn't go for something like that, nor would he have any reason.
I owe you guys some long overdue maintenance on the site, and I'd like to increase the functionality to improve the experience...and eventually make it possible for people to create articles and other such things. I've got some of the technical problems sorted out, and a few more of my problems include the redesign. lets just say I'm having a severe case of designers block.
If you're wondering what that screen capture represents, it is the directory contents of my web development environment on my local machine. Each folder that has the word "version" or "ver" is an iteration of a new design attempt for this site. Notice the dates...but disregard "mambo", it has nothing to do with our site. Within each "version" directory are roughly 5-10 mock-ups of a new site...none of which I've liked enough to pursue.
When I finish the work I'm trying to accomplish and the new site is up and running, I'll make a post with some of the designs I came up with so you guys can laugh.
I owe you guys some long overdue maintenance on the site, and I'd like to increase the functionality to improve the experience...and eventually make it possible for people to create articles and other such things. I've got some of the technical problems sorted out, and a few more of my problems include the redesign. lets just say I'm having a severe case of designers block.
If you're wondering what that screen capture represents, it is the directory contents of my web development environment on my local machine. Each folder that has the word "version" or "ver" is an iteration of a new design attempt for this site. Notice the dates...but disregard "mambo", it has nothing to do with our site. Within each "version" directory are roughly 5-10 mock-ups of a new site...none of which I've liked enough to pursue.
When I finish the work I'm trying to accomplish and the new site is up and running, I'll make a post with some of the designs I came up with so you guys can laugh.
I still vist SR occasionally. Every time I do, I get more and more dissapointed with the signal to noise ratio. The old standby's don't post there nearly as much as they used to. Here there is a much better S/N but unfortunately the signal level is low. We need more people with high signal levels... But then again, who doesn't.
Myself and I (and me too) have a worsening signal to noise ratio these days. It's sad but I think it's stemming mostly from the fact that I've been living in near-total personal isolation for going on 4 years now. I'm also finding that - and this is the part that is scaring me a little - I'm finding it difficult to express thoughts to others verbally. I just keep drawing blanks when I try to express ideas, or try to develop analogies to explain things. And that just furthers my ever-increasing tendency to stay silent and not even bother attempting to get into conversations about stuff.
It's not quite the same story when I'm writing. When I'm writing my problem is that I just don't have much to say anymore - at least not anything particularly intelligent. If everyone here were into inane chatter and random, off-the-wall comments then perhaps the situation would be different.
Anyway, all of you should consider yourselves that the three of us have a built in squelch control, otherwise you wouldn't be lamenting the quiet ... you'd all be begging for the ignore function. :wink:
It's not quite the same story when I'm writing. When I'm writing my problem is that I just don't have much to say anymore - at least not anything particularly intelligent. If everyone here were into inane chatter and random, off-the-wall comments then perhaps the situation would be different.
Anyway, all of you should consider yourselves that the three of us have a built in squelch control, otherwise you wouldn't be lamenting the quiet ... you'd all be begging for the ignore function. :wink:
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I wish that I could spend more time here.
I seem to have taken on greater responsibility in my "day job" as an IT Trainer. Right now, the classes that I teach are the best-attended ones my company has. As an instructor that means I'm spending more time with my students and less time goofing off during the day. I ended up working on this message over a span of almost 5 hours.
And I'm moving. Which is not pleasant in the slightest. On the other hand, I'm going through my collections of old computer parts, 10 year old computer books, clothes, papers... I'm looking at my life and what I've done since I became an adult. Sometimes I'll find something and spend 20 minutes just remembering something about it. Other times I see something I once treasured (e.g. a Voodoo 5500 or a 4GB hard drive, or clothes that I haven't worn since I was 18) and I can't see why I've held onto it. The best thing is finding photographs.
And my ex- and her partner are moving as well... to within walking distance of my new apartment. Which is a happy thing - and another reason I haven't been around as much. Depending on the day of the week (grumble time of the month grumble grumble) I really am getting back some of the life that I once had. It's not the same but right now it's enough. They offered me space in the house they are buying, but unfortunately I'd already signed the lease for my apartment. They are giving me their (heated) garage instead - so I'll continue to have a workshop and a place to store all the computer stuff I have. That took care of my biggest complaint about moving (well, that and all the cabling and A/V distribution stuff I can't use any more).
My new apartment is on a 3rd floor, which is probably a good thing, since that will be some kind of excercise for me. Oddly enough I have been losing weight (to the tune of 4 - 6 pants sizes over the last eight months or so), although I'm not particularly trying.
Since my time is so fragmented right now I've been spending more time with novels and comic books. Something that is so great it just about makes me cry is the wide availability of comic books on the bittorrent networks. I can put 20 years worth of one title on my laptop or on my file server and when I'm too worn down to do anything else, there they are for me. When I find something new that's good, I make sure I go buy it from the anime/manga-infested local shop.
Computer projects are taking up very little of my time right now. This also contributes to not posting much on my part - I'm just not doing anything that interesting on the computer front. I haven't even bought any new hardware in the last month. I can't recall going so long without purchasing at least a hard drive. Seems like 90% of the tech work I do ends up being spyware removal.
The weather here is starting to get nice again, so hopefully I'll be out and about with my camera. I see a lot of cool/interesting things on deviantart.com (safe for work - it's just a site where artists and photographers post their work) and I basically despair of ever taking a good picture.
I seem to have taken on greater responsibility in my "day job" as an IT Trainer. Right now, the classes that I teach are the best-attended ones my company has. As an instructor that means I'm spending more time with my students and less time goofing off during the day.
I ended up working on this message over a span of almost 5 hours. And I'm moving. Which is not pleasant in the slightest. On the other hand, I'm going through my collections of old computer parts, 10 year old computer books, clothes, papers... I'm looking at my life and what I've done since I became an adult. Sometimes I'll find something and spend 20 minutes just remembering something about it. Other times I see something I once treasured (e.g. a Voodoo 5500 or a 4GB hard drive, or clothes that I haven't worn since I was 18) and I can't see why I've held onto it. The best thing is finding photographs.
And my ex- and her partner are moving as well... to within walking distance of my new apartment. Which is a happy thing - and another reason I haven't been around as much. Depending on the day of the week (grumble time of the month grumble grumble) I really am getting back some of the life that I once had. It's not the same but right now it's enough. They offered me space in the house they are buying, but unfortunately I'd already signed the lease for my apartment. They are giving me their (heated) garage instead - so I'll continue to have a workshop and a place to store all the computer stuff I have. That took care of my biggest complaint about moving (well, that and all the cabling and A/V distribution stuff I can't use any more).
My new apartment is on a 3rd floor, which is probably a good thing, since that will be some kind of excercise for me. Oddly enough I have been losing weight (to the tune of 4 - 6 pants sizes over the last eight months or so), although I'm not particularly trying.
Since my time is so fragmented right now I've been spending more time with novels and comic books. Something that is so great it just about makes me cry is the wide availability of comic books on the bittorrent networks. I can put 20 years worth of one title on my laptop or on my file server and when I'm too worn down to do anything else, there they are for me. When I find something new that's good, I make sure I go buy it from the anime/manga-infested local shop.
Computer projects are taking up very little of my time right now. This also contributes to not posting much on my part - I'm just not doing anything that interesting on the computer front. I haven't even bought any new hardware in the last month. I can't recall going so long without purchasing at least a hard drive. Seems like 90% of the tech work I do ends up being spyware removal.
The weather here is starting to get nice again, so hopefully I'll be out and about with my camera. I see a lot of cool/interesting things on deviantart.com (safe for work - it's just a site where artists and photographers post their work) and I basically despair of ever taking a good picture.
Corvair
Learning Storage Performance
LunarMist said:
I know you aren't JEHH / Jason, I was just stirring up more trouble -- as usual. :eekers:
JEHH was one of the top 3 reasons I permanently left Sñorage Review. The forum section at SR is plenty awash in cyber-personalities exuding advanced symptoms of Internet Illiteracy Syndrome (IIS) and Internet Posting Diarrhea (IPD). I might take a look at their "informational content" about once every 2 or 3 months, otherwise, I prefer to stay far away from that disaster.
Bartender
Storage is cool
Jason brought a rash of enemies to Storage Review. I didn't particularly like him, but in one thread he was being brutalized by his enemies, so I came to his defense. Actually, it wasn't really to defend him, but the thread was a congratulatory thread for another poster, and these dummies hijacked the thread to argue with Jason. I politely told them to stop the nonesense and take the fight elsewhere. It worked for that thread.
Bartender
Storage is cool
Funny thing, we had a 'where is everyone, quiet around here' conversation during April of last year.
Gilbo
Storage is cool
There are still good posters at SR, although I'll be the first to admit that the forum has degenerated terribly, which is actually the entire reason I registered and then started posting, occasionally, here.
I don't think it would take much effort at all to make things dramatically better. My brief thoughts on how to fix the situation were posted in SR's own current "Where is Everyone" thread. Incidentally, FutureShock, jtr, and Continuum come to mind off the top of my head as examples of sensible individuals who still post regularly, and I know there are several others. There are some newly registered people that are posting quite frequently, and , while the majority seem IIS and IPD as Corvair so eloquently points out, some of them are bound to be reasonable, and potentially knowledgeable individuals.
I don't think it would take much effort at all to make things dramatically better. My brief thoughts on how to fix the situation were posted in SR's own current "Where is Everyone" thread. Incidentally, FutureShock, jtr, and Continuum come to mind off the top of my head as examples of sensible individuals who still post regularly, and I know there are several others. There are some newly registered people that are posting quite frequently, and , while the majority seem IIS and IPD as Corvair so eloquently points out, some of them are bound to be reasonable, and potentially knowledgeable individuals.
Gilbo
Storage is cool
while the majority seem to suffer from IIS and IPD...
jtr1962
Storage? I am Storage!
Thanks for the compliments, Gilbo. I try to do my part on SR along with a few others to keep at least some semblance of civility and intelligence there. Sadly, I rarely find threads worth posting to in either forum. Not much is happening on the hardware front, which I suspect is partially behind all those "repeat" threads in the computing forum. The B&G is usually a ghetto, for lack of a better word. If not for Future Shock, balding_ape, yourself, and a handful of others I'm not sure I would find a good reason to post there at all any more.
I'd like to post here more often than I have recently, but like Mercutio and some others I'm getting busier than I've been in a long while. Last Friday I interviewed for a freelance position. With any luck this will mean two major clients for me instead of the only one. I've been busy on that taxi sign light project. In fact, we're close to getting a contract which should hopefully mean good money for my friend and myself, but it's been hell to get there. The last few days I've had a horrible case of something like the flu, and my carpal tunnel acted up for no good reason last weekend.
I suppose any forum needs a critical mass to keep it fresh enough to attract more users. Here at SF we have a good signal to noise ratio but it only takes a few regulars to get distracted with their lives off the Internet before things get "stale", for lack of a better word. At SR other the other hand, there are easily enough posters to keep it interesting all of the time, but too many suffer from the IIS and IPD syndromes you mentioned. Maybe this has to do with the decline in literacy which you lament. Whatever the reason, it's almost shocking that so little substance can come from so large a group, especially when that group is mostly of above average intelligence.
I'd like to post here more often than I have recently, but like Mercutio and some others I'm getting busier than I've been in a long while. Last Friday I interviewed for a freelance position. With any luck this will mean two major clients for me instead of the only one. I've been busy on that taxi sign light project. In fact, we're close to getting a contract which should hopefully mean good money for my friend and myself, but it's been hell to get there. The last few days I've had a horrible case of something like the flu, and my carpal tunnel acted up for no good reason last weekend.
I suppose any forum needs a critical mass to keep it fresh enough to attract more users. Here at SF we have a good signal to noise ratio but it only takes a few regulars to get distracted with their lives off the Internet before things get "stale", for lack of a better word. At SR other the other hand, there are easily enough posters to keep it interesting all of the time, but too many suffer from the IIS and IPD syndromes you mentioned. Maybe this has to do with the decline in literacy which you lament. Whatever the reason, it's almost shocking that so little substance can come from so large a group, especially when that group is mostly of above average intelligence.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
I just returned from an interesting weekend of work. It all began on Friday morning.............
I woke up at 4:30AM on Friday and couldn't go back to sleep. We were scheduled to move a server farm Friday night so I didn't go to bed at my normal time.
The arrival of the equipment dragged on into Satuday morning so I slept from 12AM-2:30AM Saturday morning and then went in to work until 8AM. I had stuff to do so I didn't get to bed again until 10PM Saturday.
I left at 6PM Sunday I left home to drive to Tampa, FL (575mi) to a client site. I arrived in Tampa with enough time to get some breakfast, leach off a hotel's wireless AP and get to the client site. I worked at the site for 10 hours and then got a hotel room and went to sleep for 12 hours.
I then left the Gulf coast of FL for Jacksonville on the Atlantic side. After working there for three or four hours I was back on the road home.
I arrived back in town with enough time for 5 hours of sleep before work on Wed. I think after tonight I'll be fully recovered.
On the upside, I'm working again.
I woke up at 4:30AM on Friday and couldn't go back to sleep. We were scheduled to move a server farm Friday night so I didn't go to bed at my normal time.
The arrival of the equipment dragged on into Satuday morning so I slept from 12AM-2:30AM Saturday morning and then went in to work until 8AM. I had stuff to do so I didn't get to bed again until 10PM Saturday.
I left at 6PM Sunday I left home to drive to Tampa, FL (575mi) to a client site. I arrived in Tampa with enough time to get some breakfast, leach off a hotel's wireless AP and get to the client site. I worked at the site for 10 hours and then got a hotel room and went to sleep for 12 hours.
I then left the Gulf coast of FL for Jacksonville on the Atlantic side. After working there for three or four hours I was back on the road home.
I arrived back in town with enough time for 5 hours of sleep before work on Wed. I think after tonight I'll be fully recovered.
On the upside, I'm working again.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Tannin has birds on the brain, I think.
e_dawg
Storage Freak
That was beautiful, i! I not only thought it was hillarious, but I thought it was a wonderfully amazing and instinctive ad hoc collaboration between three posters all taking turns "singing". Such impromptu synchronity, I thought!
Only when I read double D's post did I notice that it was me, myself, and i posting, and that they were the same person (ha! how clever). For a moment, I thought "hey, that's cheating!" ... but I still thought it was still hillarious!
Only when I read double D's post did I notice that it was me, myself, and i posting, and that they were the same person (ha! how clever). For a moment, I thought "hey, that's cheating!"
... but I still thought it was still hillarious!
timwhit
Hairy Aussie
Hmm, where did everyone go?
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
I am omnipresent.
But yesterday I was omnipresent with allergies, and enjoying the deep, drowsy haze of my allergy medication.
But yesterday I was omnipresent with allergies, and enjoying the deep, drowsy haze of my allergy medication.
Fushigi
Storage Is My Life
Friday: Day: Rochester, MN at an IBM briefing. Night: Out of town guests arrived for a wedding on Saturday.
Saturday: Day: The wedding followed by some light shopping (I picked up a copy of Battle Royale).
Sunday: Continuing the wedding theme, I saw Corpse Bride with a couple of friends.
Saturday: Day: The wedding followed by some light shopping (I picked up a copy of Battle Royale).
Sunday: Continuing the wedding theme,
I saw Corpse Bride with a couple of friends.
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
You missed an opportunity to see Serenity, though. That makes me a sad panda.
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Well my weekend was composed of
Trying to ghost failing drive, finding that ghost consistently is failing?
Well it is version 5.1c of the program but still?
Finding a free alternative: http://www.partition-saving.com/
Kicking off overnight, coming back next morning realizing it is waiting for me to enter the next filename to use because I didn't check automatic naming....
Kicking off again.
Napping
Wash
playing at the park with Liam
Trying to ghost failing drive, finding that ghost consistently is failing?
Well it is version 5.1c of the program but still?
Finding a free alternative: http://www.partition-saving.com/
Kicking off overnight, coming back next morning realizing it is waiting for me to enter the next filename to use because I didn't check automatic naming....
Kicking off again.
Napping
Wash
playing at the park with Liam
Mercutio
Fatwah on Western Digital
Old versions of Ghost don't support modern versions of NTFS. Fortunately, OEM copies of Ghost 2003 don't cost very much.
Fushigi
Storage Is My Life
I'll get to it... On a semi-related note, they're releasing a 40 DVD set of all of BtVS in November.Mercutio said:You missed an opportunity to see Serenity, though. That makes me a sad panda.
Lately I have been using Acronic Trueimage, which seems to work well. I like that it runs from either internal or external bootable media or the HD installation (only about 20MB) from Windows. There is no activation/registration nonsense as well.
mubs
Storage? I am Storage!
LM: if you boot Acronis from external media, can you write the image to
a) an internal DVD drive
b) an external Firwire and/or USB DVD drive
If so, does it use packet-writing?
Thanks.
a) an internal DVD drive
b) an external Firwire and/or USB DVD drive
If so, does it use packet-writing?
Thanks.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
On Topic...
Yes mubs, I was on vacation. (I wish I still was.)
In another thread said:
Yes mubs, I was on vacation. (I wish I still was.)
Will Rickards
Storage Is My Life
Mercutio said:
But I thought it would do a disk to image dump. (raw sector copy, correct?)
But it complained about NTFS this or that. Maybe it was just checking the filesystem anyway regardless?
I'll probably pick up a current copy of ghost just to be safe but I'll let you all know how this freebie alternative works as I'll be restoring tonight.
Howell
Storage? I am Storage!
Thursday: BBQ with friends
Friday: Drive two hours and tone and label a wiring job
Friday night: drive four hours to a concert
Saturday: drive two hours home to host a Two Towers party
Sunday: spend the day with family
For the next four weekends I'm either out of town with family, camping or hosting parties. I also have things going on during the day.
Friday: Drive two hours and tone and label a wiring job
Friday night: drive four hours to a concert
Saturday: drive two hours home to host a Two Towers party
Sunday: spend the day with family
For the next four weekends I'm either out of town with family, camping or hosting parties. I also have things going on during the day.
Buck
Storage? I am Storage!
Here is a picture looking out from our hotel:
