Jericho: Oh! That button!

The Mac saga continues. If you aren't familiar with this story, have a look at the previous episodes:

Mac Zap!

iMac

Okay, so, since January we have had a dead G4 sitting in our basement. All of our files tucked away on the hard drive. This has been a pain in the ass for both Steph and I.

I keep thinking maybe I'll take it and have it looked at and then again, maybe that will cost a couple hundred bucks and just not be worth it - a new Mac mini is $599 retail. Paying half that to get a 5 year old machine fixed seems silly.

The essential thing was to retrieve all the files. I have all kinds of stuff loaded up on that hard drive that I really wanted back. If the drive was fried - at least I would know there was no hope. I needed an external hard drive enclosure. This is a cool little box that allows you to take an old hard drive and turn it into a mobile storage unit. The G4 had a 20 gig drive - that would make a heck of a back up device.

I went out to MacMall yesterday looking for a drive enclosure. They had several models to choose from, depending on what size and type of drive you own. The first one I spotted was $35 - much cheaper than a full repair. I dug a little deeper and found a $21 for a 5.25 ATA drive. I thought that's the type of drive I had, but I wasn't sure.

I went out to Apple, got into their support area and went spelunking for manuals on the G4. I found the section I was looking for - right there was a list of frequent system problems and their solutions. Second from the top of the list was "Screen is Black, No Startup Tone, Drive Does Not Operate " - ummmm ..... that was SO my issue!

I started clicking links. I quickly absorbed that there were several reasons for these symptoms and several fixes. The top of the list was to reset the Cuda chip (?) the next was to reset the logic board, followed by reseating all the components and finally replace the logic board and replace the power supply - these last two being the problems I thought I might have.

Okay, I had no idea what a Cuda chip could be. They mentioned in the fix document something about PRAM. I remember years ago a key command that "zapped the P-RAM" but I couldn't tell you what that meant or what the key command was now. Either way, I began printing documents and took them home with me.

When we got home, I went to the basement and set up the G4. I hooked up mouse and keyboard but didn't hook up the power. I cracked open the case and looked at the document:

"Press the Cuda reset button on the logic board to reset the Cuda chip. The Cuda reset button is located to the right of the battery."

Okay, the battery was easy to find. The lithium clock battery on a Mac looks like someone chopped a AA battery in half and glued it to the mother board. Now, which way was "to the right" of the battery I will never know. I figured it had to be in proximity of the battery. I found something that looked about right. I touched it and it felt like a button. I swear to you, this was a guess. This thing looked nothing like a button that would bring my computer back to life. I just found a picture out on the web, with a nice arrow and everything - you be the judge!



Could you have picked that out if you didn't know it was there? I know I couldn't!

I closed the case back up, plugged in the power and hit the button to turn on the Mac. The fan came up, the hard drive spun and it gave the start up tone! Success! A few seconds later it was bitching that the time was incorrect - duh! I zapped the PRAM - that info was gone! :)

I moved the 4 gigs of info off the old G3, shut it down and set it on a shelf. The G3, Titus, has been a good computer for nearly a decade. I set up the G4 where the G3 had been and loaded all the updates. In just an hour I had restored the G4 after sitting around for nine months.

I walked upstairs and found Steph in the bedroom - the rest of the house is too hot to breathe in, much less live in. Steph was enjoying the air conditioned sweetness of our bedroom. "What's that look for?" she asked.

"I fixed the G4 by pressing one button," I answered.

"It's fixed?!"

"Yup. Pretty, too."

"Let me get this right. We spent $1700 dollars to replace a computer you could have fixed by pressing one button?"

I smiled "Yup."

Max: OMFG

This dude is a-fucking-mazing. He takes hardcore bass chops, mixes it with singer/songwriter vibes and gives me chills.

Max: Weirdo for Hire

Anyone need a well-worn computer/network tech who really sucks at sales?

It appears I suddenly find myself with a lot of free time.

Max: NSA in STL

Details emerge on second potential NSA facility

"Two former AT&T employees have fingered a room in the telecommunications company's building near St. Louis as a likely center for wiretapping and Internet monitoring by the National Security Agency, according to a Salon.com article."

Max: Ummmmm

It would seem coffee is an hallucinogen.

Jericho: Dead Tired

Max has put up 17 or so posts since I last posted. The last time I published a post was over two months ago. The last post I wrote is still in draft form on Blogger. It will never be published and I'm half a heartbeat away from deleting the draft. Max did some sneaker-publishing by showing my draft to Laura. They both told me to get therapy after reading it. They are convinced I'm depressed.

I have some good reasons to be depressed. For example, my friends telling me to get therapy after I bitched about my life on a blog dedicated to bitching about one's life. Or, I could be depressed imagining the shit storm of comments this post is going to generate. However, all that pales in comparison to the thing that is depressing me the most - my job.

As I've gotten older, I have gotten more tolerant of the jobs I have worked. When I was young, I'd drop a job at the first sign of anything bad. I didn't get the idea that all jobs suck. You are being paid to do something that someone else didn't want to do. Internships are given out because those jobs are so cool, people will do them for free or a reduced salary. Normal jobs just suck. I passed up what could have been a great opportunity once because I didn't get this point. Too bad.

Since I've been in Seattle, I've held onto jobs far longer than I did growing up. Two years, three years, etc. Usually, about two months in, the job begins to bug me and I'm ready to go by ten months. I'd hang on long enough so that the job was worse than looking for a job - which I really hate. Then, off I'd go. Or, they would just fire me.

My current job is a record breaker. I didn't start getting bugged by the job until about three years in. At the four year mark, I was getting uncomfortable. In January, I had been here as a full time employee for five years.

About a year ago, someone took a serious dump on my department and the stench hasn't let up since. Suddenly, everything sucked. I was under the impression my job was on the way out. This was such a shock to Steph and I, we were looking to drop everything and move in with Steph's folks in Maine just to survive. Then, we weren't being shipped out, in fact, they really needed us. This was merely the first bump on the roller coaster. A year later, the ride is still going.

Earlier this year I tried to find another job. I had an early lead that looked really good - REALLY good. It was too good to be true and I didn't get the job even after three interviews. That kinda broke my spirit. I stopped looking after that. Replacing this job with another job just like it and being right back here in another five years just doesn't appeal.

From there, just to reinforce the message, my job got worse. The pressure increased. The hours have vastly increased. I am right now working on no less than four major projects. All of these projects have a near term dead line, they are all the highest priority, they all need to be perfect and they all seem to never end. It's possible by the end of July this pace might slacken, but who knows? We've managed to not implode up to this point, maybe they'll increase the load.

Thus, I have been mentally and physically exhausted for about three months. I managed to throw in about six days of vacation in there. Felt great. We had a great time in Canada. Two days after I got back to work I was right back to feeling like crap. Heck, I worked so hard the first day back, I might as well not taken time off. Taking time off from this job has always meant coming back to a pile of work equal to the time I was away - and now it's late! It's almost pointless to take a vacation.

So, am I depressed? You bet. So are people in Gitmo. So are people with mesothelioma. My depression has a cause. Is my brain affected, oh yeah. I'm tired all the time. Working until midnight and getting to bed around 2 only to have to get up at 7:30 night after night will do that. Don't ask me to do math - I haven't been able to do simple math for three weeks. I can't remember numbers or dates at all - not that I was great at this before, but my stressed brain is even worse at it.

There are a couple of solutions to this problem. None of them are fun. The easiest one is to just hang in and chant: "What doesn't kill me, makes me stronger. When I'm stronger, all these assholes are in trouble!"

Max: Jump

David Lee Roth Performing Jump - Bluegrass Style

This make brain hurt.

Max: Happy 6.6.6

In celebration of Satan's acendency, I now give you a terrifying vision of hell...

Max: Super Adventure Club

I wonder when Jer will get around to posting about his recent expedition to the fabled Canadas.