The Old Dog Barks

First thing I see on the web this morning, 7.6 Magnitude quake off of the Philippines.  So why does that bother me?

You see this mashup of a project which involves each night the site, corporate headquarters, off site to both Data Center and off site to all Back Up Data Center is managed by Accenture Management Services (yep the same one from the TV ads) from their Operations Center in (wait for it)————————-Manila!

Just hope the crap we have someone to talk to this evening!

I knew yesterdays post was a mistake, Damn Murphy anyway!

Is NOT the headlight of an oncoming train!!

I wrap this project on the morning of 1 September and we should begin the trek home late evening of the 1st.

Do Not expect an instant up-tick of production as we have to GET home and then several days of post project Preventative Maintenance and report writing shall ensue.

After that my plan (and we know about plans right) is to take at least a week off with my feet up and do some damn writing!

Let us hope that this plan survives contact with reality!

With winter almost upon us this Week in Saratov there good news to report.

In Saratov, opened a new road to the perinatal center

In winter, the snow-covered roadway “ambulance” made their way with difficulty, sometimes even had to push. And finally yesterday inaugurated the new road – sleek smooth asphalt, no bump.

The driver tried to bribe the inspector

Being inside the company car, the citizen gave one thousand rubles inspector in exchange for a failure to report on infringement of traffic rules. Under investigation check.

Saratovets said bribe extortion bailiff

In the investigation department of the manufacturers’ area of ??the city of Saratov turned 26-year-old local man with allegations of illegal activities bailiff Zavodsky district department bailiffs Saratov Department of the Federal Bailiff of the Saratov region.

Deputy Minister of Health kicked stray dog

It is reported that the Deputy Minister of Culture Vladimir Barketovu not like the fact that people are running around gathering stray dogs barked loudly during speech Alexei Danilov.

In the Marxist’s investigation attempted murder

Moving along the highway in the Soviet area, the man demanded to stop the car, and then, on the basis of sudden-onset personal aversions, paid the driver with a knife in his neck.

MPs allow smoking Crocodile Gena and Wolf

Garri Bardin said that the pictures should be shown in the original author’s version, since removal of scenes may result in the loss of the idea of ??drama and animation.

At the Pentagon, check out the book on the Elimination of Osama bin Laden

The author is a former U.S. Special Forces soldier, Mark Owen, who wrote in his book that the terrorist was already dead when the soldiers broke into his home. As the author of the book, in the room they found the body of Osama bin Laden with a gun lying next to an AK-47 and a Makarov pistol with empty cages.

In the U.S. trial four soldiers who were planning to kill Obama

A group of U.S. soldiers who hold anarchist views, planned to make a revolution in the country and nurtured plans to assassinate President Barack Obama. Court of the State of Georgia is considering a case against four soldiers were part of a group of anarchists.

The number of victims of West Nile fever in the United States reached 66

Outbreak of West Nile fever in the United States has already killed 66 people, with the largest number of deaths (30) Reported in Texas, where authorities have imposed a state of emergency. Over the past few weeks in the USA recorded 1,600 cases in Texas – 733.

Scientists: Asteroid Apophis will not collide with Earth in 2036

Scientists estimate Apophis April 13, 2029 will come to Earth at a dangerous distance of 38 thousand kilometers and can even be seen with the naked eye. However, the probability of Apophis collision with our planet was predicted in 2036, not in 2029.

ALMA telescope has found a sugar molecule from the star in the constellation of Ophiuchus

ALMA radio telescope in Chile’s Atacama desert discovered a simple sugar molecule in a double star located in the constellation Ophiuchus, and remote from us at a distance of 400 light years, astronomers say in a paper published in the Astrophysical Journal Letters.

In Europe, fears that the Russian and the Chinese take over the moon

In the European media openly discussed the possibility that the Chinese and Russian “zagrebut” all the possible mineral deposits, leaving Europe “with the nose.”

NASA plans by 2020 to build its own base on the moon

The space agency NASA plans to return to the moon and build a lunar base, own, said director of NASA manned space flights in Russia Michael Serber. “We want to return to the moon and stay there for a very long time,” – said Serber.

In Argentina, in order to save the whales will shoot seagulls

Argentine authorities are already working on the problem of proliferation of open landfills. However, they believe that to save the whales will soon shoot is a must.

And that was the Week in Saratov.

This guy echos my thoughts about WWII, and the entire Cold War. After all that, we should just roll over and play dead? Don’t think so, Skippy.

Kip yer powdah dry,’n’ ‘hawk sharp, ‘y’ b’ a-needin’ soon.

Well, the night-mare plumbing project from hell was finished. All that was left was to turn the line valve on, and energize the system. Predictably, there was a problem. Water sprayed like a Las Vegas fountain from a soldered fitting which was the down-line interface between the old copper and the new PVC. Also, the shut-off leaked on the upstream side. Crappers. well, get out the saw, and start cutting. The brass ballvalve came out first, and the teflon thread tape pulled out. Then it was a trip to the cabinet for the old can of Mitee joint compound. That teflon tape works well with PVC threads, but there’s nothing like the old stuff for a metal-to-metal make-up.

Now for the next problem. The place where the cut had to go was too short between the shoulders of a tee and an adapter coupling for a standard PVC coupling to fit. Ho-hum. So it’s off the barn, and the engine lathe. Bore out the shoulder in a coupling, and then face it off to fit the gap. Done.

The big problem is still at large. The down-line side of the copper has been dripping steadily for almost four hous. Jeebus, how much water can one run of pipe hold? The short answer: not that much. Long answer: That run must be tapped into the other side of the system some where. In a century-plus old house, it’s impossible to tell where all the pipes run. So the main at the pressure tank was turned off. Now there is now water to anywhere.

That pipe has to be dry to solder. Otherwise all the torch does is make steam, and it never heats up the metal enough to solder properly. At this writing, it’s seven-thirty in the evening, and I’ve been at this crap since ten this morning. Plumbing sucks. Especially in old houses.

UPDATE:  

The gambit of tuning off the main valve worked. The pissing jenny quit drizzling like clapped-out dick long enough for a proper soldering job to be effected. WOOOT! It’s done! Meh-heh. High time, too.

He earned his pilots license at 15, his drivers license a year later. Ad astra. Rest in peace.

The Necronomicon. A dark grimorie of legend. Said to be written by a mad Arab named Abdul al-Hazred, and first translated into English from the Latin in the fifteenth century by the great occultist Dr. John Dee. Now a copy has come to light, and a digitally enhanced scanned image of the page with the heretofore only rumored “Omen Antiquitatum”; The ‘Elder Sign’, whispered in lore to be a powerful ward against evil, the Old Ones in particular, has been released. The tome was purchased in Lithuania, and is the only known copy of that edition. Find out more about it here.

The Omen Antiquitatum from the 'Necronomicon'.

This Week in Saratov there was no farm news to report.

In Saratov, the bridge over the Volga made the podium in honor of Flag Day

The collection of fashionable clothes, which was designed and sewn in two weeks, Andrew, he said, reflected the Russian folk motifs adapted to the urban youth. In addition, another theme of the collection was harping colors of the Russian tricolor.

In Krasnopartizanskaya area cows poisoned mustard

August 14 this year, the district veterinary service Krasnopartizanskaya reported mass disease of cows on pasture in the village Korneevka. Immediately went to the scene specialists veterinary station.

Insulting the police estimated at 300 hours of hard labor

The magistrate sentenced for insulting the police 23-year-old Nikolai Kochetkov to 300 hours of community service. In the police department contacted the parents of two girls who said that Kochetkov abused their daughters

Armed with the seller threatened to kill his own wife

The fact that recently she decided to divorce her husband. First man agreed to live separately, but when he realized that his ex-wife would have to pay child support, made a real scandal.

Forbes again named Angela Merkel, the most powerful woman in the world

The average age of the most influential women in the world is 55 years, with the youngest in this ranking was again a 26-year-old American singer Lady Gaga, and most elderly – 86 year-old Queen Elizabeth II.

Russian Foreign Ministry accused the West of inciting the Syrian opposition to war

Moscow has accused the West of inciting the Syrian opposition to armed struggle against the regime of Bashar al-Assad said that such methods fail to resolve the crisis.

Egypt has officially requested the IMF loan of $ 4.8 billion dollars

Last week, the Minister of Finance of Egypt Mumtaz al-Sayyed noted that Egypt may ask the IMF loan is more than previously planned. “During the negotiations with the IMF, we will discuss the prospect of an increased volume of credit up to $ 4.8 billion,” – said the head of the Egyptian Ministry of Finance.

Islamists in northern Mali bans secular music on the radio

“We mudzhahiddiny Gao, Timbuktu and Kidal (three administrative center in the north of Mali, employed by Islamists – IF), now prohibit the broadcast of any Western music on the station in the land of Islam” – quoted by European media spokesman of the Movement for the exclusivity and Jihad in West Africa Oussama Ould Abdel Kader.

U.S. again threaten Syria military intervention

U.S. President Barack Obama has once again voiced the threat of military intervention in Syria in case of a threat to the regime of Bashar al-Assad’s chemical weapons.

Prince Harry turned bare bottom

In the second picture the 27-year-old prince’s back hugging a naked girl, whose identity has not been established. Prince Harry, the pilot of the British army, he decided to spend the weekend in Las Vegas after the final training session for the helicopter flight.

Only a third of Russians still believe in the country’s leadership in space exploration

For comparison: in 2008, Russia was considered a leader in the aerospace industry 56 percent. Most Russians – 67 percent – are aware of the failures in the Russian space industry and known because of a lack of specialists and irresponsibility.

Scientists closer to creating artificial intelligence

So close to the border of the “artificial intelligence” have not approached any one computer program. The creation of “artificial intelligence” will make a real revolution in the world of computers and electronics.

Insects have discovered a process similar to photosynthesis

The scientists measured the concentration of adenosine triphosphate (ATP), and found that the green aphids, which was recorded the highest concentration of carotenoids produced unexpectedly large amount of ATP. Moreover, it appears that the light insects produce more ATP than in the dark.

Scientists have found a drug that helps prevent hunger

After the experiment, the researchers found that after the use of this ingredient people eat fewer calories, because they do not feel experienced hunger. It remains only for small: to find out how safe this drug is for human health.

And that was the Week in Saratov.

Here’s a gem for H.P Lovecraft fans. A new short silent film produced by the H.P Lovecraft Historical Society. Done in black-and-white, it’s based on the story The Call of Cthulhu. It’s available for viewing on Hulu, and on Comcast Xfinity, via Hulu.. The special effects are minimal, but effective. It’s a great way to spend about 3/4 of and hour, and not have to regret it. I can highly recommend it, and that’s something I haven’t been able to say about a movie for a long time.

Title screen from the motion picture 'The Call of Cthulhu', by the H.P.Lovecraft Historical Society.

Cthulhu idol used in the film 'The Call of Cthulhu', by the H.P.Lovecraft Historical Society.

I gots a bunch of ‘em. Right now it’s a toss up between the plumbing nightmare with the new shower, or the computer. Guess it’s the computer. Again.

It all started when I got this (brilliant??) idea. Pull the hard drive out of the old Dimension B110, and put it in the Optiplex GX270. Mechanically, it was a breeze. A couple of screws, and it’s out. A little duct tape, and it’s in. That’s because there was no proper interface for the B110 drive mounting bracket, so it had to go away. Ok, fire it up, and see what happens. Boots up normally, but no sign of the secondary drive on the drives list in My Computer. Now what? Ok, it’s not recognizing that it’s there. Do a restart, and hit F2, and into the BIOS setup. Check on the drive configurations. Ah, there’s the problem. The thing is set to ‘off’. Change it to ‘auto’. Continue the boot sequence. Boots up, and yeppers, there it is in the drives list now. Ohhh goooody. Until the next time it was started up.

That’s when the glitch occurred. The boot stopped just after the BIOS loaded, and a black screen stating that ‘Primary drive 1 could not be located’, ‘Press F1 to continue, F2 for setup’. WTF?? Ok, f2 it is. Look again. Oh, ok, the primary slave drive was ‘off’. Set it for auto. Exit, and boot. Same shit, again. Oh, the hell with it. Just hit F1, and get on with things.

I then hit the forums, looking for some info. None of what was out there pertained to this specific scenario. Ok, so I let it go for a couple of days, and just kept hitting F1. It didn’t take long for that procedure to become boorish, though. Fed up, I started the thing, and hit the F2 key immediately, and got into startup before the BIOS had a chance to load.

Set the SATA Primary drive, and Primary Drive 1 both to ‘auto’, the other slave and secondaries all to ‘off’. Exit, and hope. Bingo!! It booted normally. Tried a restart, and normal again.

Then the light came on. Going into the setup from the error page wasn’t working because the BIOS had already loaded! It took changing the settings prior to the BIOS load for them to have an effect. Oh, well. Live and learn. The hard way. Which really sucks, by the way.

This is the incredible center of twin galaxies in collision, known as The Antennae, due to the vast trails of gas and dust thrown millions of light-years into space. Situated in the southern constellation Corvus (The Crow) 60 million light-years from Earth.

As has been noted elsewhere, all of the websites hosted here at Ft. Old Dog have been having periodic problems while I have been on the road.

The problems all boil down to one (ongoing) event!  That being the Southwestern Monsoon Season.

You really have to live through one to see the havoc that the thunderstorms down here cause with communications!

Most years the effects don’t get seen as badly as this year as I am at home and can fix things as fast as they occur.  This year I ain’t there and things get fixed when they get bad enough for the Blonde Lady to yell for help or I see them over the net.  The Blonde Lady is learning but, she is NOT a Network Engineer!

To put it quite frankly, my schedule out here in the wilds is such that I might go several days without checking the sites.  If a problem affects the websites but does not obstruct the Blonde Lady’s e-mail for example it may be several days in the discovering.

Things should start to move back to normal as the Monsoon winds down.  Some major fixes under the table should occur in early September when this current project ends and I return to the Fort.

Until then, Sorry About That Folks.