Everybody Staze…

So, after my last post, I figured I’d give an update on that issue as well as other projects for the coming weekend.

As to my last post, there’s cautiously good news. My Apple SE escalated the case to AppleCare Enterprise, who have been very good about gathering the needed data, and keeping me updated as to the status of the issue. So, this last Tuesday, after a weekend of running with 10.5.7 and having a really crappy day Tuesday of trying to make things work, I decided I would downgrade back to 10.5.4. Well, after 3 hours of wiping the two servers, and installing 10.5.4 and things looking good, the next day we still had issues. Better, but not by much. So, I heard from AppleCare Enterprise that day (Wednesday, which I took off), and I got him the info he needed that night, and Thursday. Today, seemingly, Engineering thinks they have a fix. Bad news is, it might not make it into 10.5 but rather 10.6. But, they’re going to try. So, goodish news on that front.

Also for the past week (since 10.5.7), we’ve been having issues with a program called KeyAccess. Basically, this program allows us to “key” an application, and install it on all the computers in the building, then a server piece basically keeps track of how many instances of the programs are running, and keeps that inline with how many licenses we own. It’s the best thing since sliced bread. Job would be extra impossible without it. So, 10.5.7 comes out, I install it in 4 labs, and things seem to work. Only, I only tested on Intel Macs. On the PPCs, KeyAccess doesn’t launch on the client, and therefore applications won’t run. So, I email the company that makes the software (Sassafras Software, Inc), and tell them what’s up, and we think we have a fix, until the next day, when it’s still happening. At that point, I email back, and they say they’ve also had word from another location having the same issue. So, at home I email back and forth with one of their people who is 3 hours ahead of me about the issue. I send some logs, and some ls output, and he basically says they’ll try to work on it in-house the next day. So, next day, I’m working with them, and they get some more info, and finally get the issue reproducible in house. Today, they send me a new build that seems to work. Say it’s a timing issue (not sure quite what they mean by that, whether it’s coming up before networking, or whether it’s not syncing with the server)… so, 2 days, bug fix. Gotta really love small companies (I’m guessing they have probably 12-15 people, at most).

On the home front, we planted a medium sized Daphne ordora ‘Marginata’, which is a “typical” winter daphne, in the space formerly occupied by the very unhealthy Rhododendron (which, I placed in a pot, and is doing much better now). Hopefully we’ll have some nice, knock you on your ass, daphne to smell come next February.

Blueberries are doing about the same, though they seem far less impacted by the warmer weather we’ve been having recently than they have in the past. Be that the mulch, or the older plants, I can’t say. But they seem VERY happy.

This weekend is probably really going to be a fair amount of cleaning the garage, yard work, and various household tasks. I’m going to weatherstrip the front door, maybe trim the door so it’ll clear a rug, which also means changing the threshold. I don’t think I’ll be doing the PRV, but I might try to at least dig the old one out so I can tackle it next week.

Oh, btw, I got some new pedals for my bike. They’re Nashbar (http://www.nashbar.com/) Highlander Pedals, which are rebranded Wellgo WAM-D10′s (Review: here). They’ve got a nice big platform for normal shoe riding (with great spikes to bite into your shoes) on one side, and MTB clipless on the other. So far, I’m very happy. Previously I was using the stock Shimano clipless pedals with plastic clipless platforms, which sucked. Now if I could just get my saddle to not kill me. Oh, and btw, the Nashbar version was $30. The Wellgo ones are $50.

BTW, my bike is a 2001 Bianchi Volpe. I’ve replaced the Saddle with a more comfortable one, the pedals (now), and the tires with some 28 x 700 Gatorskins (hard, but smooth and nearly puncture proof).

That’s all for now… maybe I’ll post more this weekend.

Just thought I’d post and give a quick update on the last two days.

Yesterday, Tara and I tackled a long overdue project that I’ve been dreading since it involved a bunch of time in the crawl space (well, 30-45 minutes). We replaced the dryer exhaust vent. The old one was one of those wedge shaped ones that directed all the flow downward, and had a flapper below the “wedge” that keeps outside air and critters out. Well, the vent was situated right above the ground (it comes out from one of the crawl space vents). So, the vented air goes right into the ground, and if there was any soil/debris buildup in the herb garden, it would block the flow of exhaust. The other problem being the flapper had long since stopped working/been clogged with lint and debris. So outside air came down the vent into the laundry room, making it even colder. So, we replaced the vent exhaust with a modern louver style (one of these). The advantage is supposedly they have better flow, they don’t blow down into the ground, and they actually close, so no more air coming down the vent pipe. YAY!!!!

Then today, the other project I’ve been meaning to do: repair the front sillcock (a frost-free Nibco 90). Back when we bought the house, I noticed that if the sillcock is open, but there is no flow (a sprayer on the hose, a Y with both sides closed, etc), it would leak at the stem. Opening it up, the packing was all torn up. So, I tried to rebuild it at the local hardware shop with various parts. Afterward, it wouldn’t leak, but it was a bitch to turn on and off, and it didn’t turn on all full flow unless you opened the valve all the way. So, this year, while wandering around the local hardware store, I noticed they had rebuild kits for “Fu San” Frost free sillcocks (not that I can find such a thing exists… the receipt, however, says “Flor Repair Kit”) that looked like they had the right parts. So, I pulled it apart again, and brought in the stem. Then at the store, put it all together with the new parts. Similar to this. Turned the water back on, and viola, it works like brand new! And the vacuum breaker seems to work again (it was kinda weird between the first time I fixed it, and now). Cost of repair kit, $2.99.

Other than that, Tara and I are going to be on cleaning duty the next day or so since Tara’s mom and aunt’s are coming to visit. Hopefully we’ll be ready for them. We’ve been struggling to control a sugar ant problem in our guest room (of all places, that doesn’t ever have food in it). Here’s hoping it’s somewhat better by then.

So, there it is. Have a great weekend!

So, last week before leaving for Portland, I fertilized the blueberries again. They’re looking quite nice, though I’m still confused why only two are flowering. My hope is that with some judicious pruning this winter, we can get them all flowering (from reading, flowers are borne on 2 year old wood, so it could be that there’s just too much young wood on them. *shrugs*). Then yesterday, we went and picked up a yard of doug-fir sawdust. Turns out, this was way too much. So, we now have sawdust about 3-4″ thick under the berries, as well as all the way to the fence. =P Oh well, it should really keep the weeds down, and will certainly make the blueberries happy.

Now I’m reading up on lawn care. The front yard at our place looks the best it has, well, ever. It’s extremely healthy, very few weeds, and all and all very nice (bit of crab grass, but I hope to take care of that soon). The back, on the other hand, not as nice. TON of weeds on the north side, I’m guessing due to the lower light levels. So, I’ve been trying to weed-n-feed there. Hopefully that too will work.

We also finally got around to removing the very sick/dying rhododendron that had been planted next to the front door (in a built-in planter). It doesn’t get any rain in that location, and because of the make-up of the planter (mortar, bricks, etc), it was probably WAY too alkali for it anyway. I put it in a 25gal nursery container with a rough 70/30 mix of peat/perlite, some acid loving osmicote, and a good drench of Superthrive. Hopefully it’ll perk up. The one that was sick and dying elsewhere on the lot I did the same thing to last year, and it’s extremely healthy now.

Tonight I’m going to double the RAM in the web server/file server/energy monitor, etc. Hopefully everything will work. I tried turning on mod_deflate on the system yesterday, and was dismayed by the performance. I hope to just enable it on some of the stuff I’m working on that will be a lot of data (further using google visualizations for power use, which 3 days of data would amount to 700KB uncompressed).

Mac OS 10.5.7 came out yesterday while I was getting sawdust, and I’ve installed it at work. So far, so good. They said they fixed some error with Dvorak keyboards, but I never noticed anything. My hope against hope is that it will fix the longterm issue we’ve had with AFP crashing on the server. Somehow, I doubt it.

This month will be the first time I can check my utility bill against the TED. I’m hoping it’ll be close… I really don’t want to have to call the local utility company to check my meter, though a newer digital one would be sweet. PGE up in Portland has been going around replacing analog ones with digital ones. I’m somewhat jealous.

At work we’re writing up a proposal for what amounts to “grant” money to offset probably budget cuts this coming year. I’m really really hoping to get 1-2 servers out of the deal. 2 servers would let me switch all critical systems over to Intel Xserves, and jettison 5 original Xserve’s. 1 server would let me upgrade the mail server and implement CalDAV. I would still need to dual purpose a machine to take up the slack from not getting the 2nd server… so, I’m hoping for 2. Mind you, this should also lower our power usage.

That’s all for now, since I can’t think of anything else.

Links for future reference:
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1521/
http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/details.php?sortnum=0616&name=Lawns

Back when we had gotten our bid accepted on the house, but before we had moved in, the previous owner had let Tara and I come plant some blueberries in the yard. We planted 6 of them, 2 3y old bushes, and 4 2y old bushes. That year, we didn’t do what we were supposed to, and remove the blossoms, so they produced the first year. Last year, the didn’t really produce at all (they were exhausted), and this year, only 2 of the bushes are really producing flowers.

But, this year, I’ve started fertilizing with Ammonium Sulfate to see if I can re-awaken them. They look extremely healthy, and are growing quite well, but just don’t seem to produce flowers (except the two). =/

At this point, I think we’ll just have to deal with the fact that we’ll only get two bushes worth. But, since this is the 3rd year, this winter I will need to prune. And, low and behold, the only reason I like Oregon State (=P) is their Botany/Horticulture programs.

Caring for Blueberries in a home garden: http://extension.oregonstate.edu/catalog/html/ec/ec1304/

Hopefully with the fertilizer, and the fact I think I’ll add some doug-fir mulch this year, I can get them nice and happy(er). Hopefully the mulch will also help with the weeds, but we’ll have to see. Now if I could only find a good source of Doug-Fir sawdust…

UPDATE: http://www.laneforestproducts.com/products/?product_id=275 or if we want something less “sawdusty” in color: http://www.laneforestproducts.com/products/index.php?product_id=9 (should have a similar PH).

This weekend, Tara’s family are all coming back to town for Spamalot. Should be a lot of fun, but there will once again be about 9 people in the house (including Tara and I). So, that’s a lot. In preparation for that, I installed a new shower head in the guest bathroom that’s only 1.5GPM (a handheld Waterpik EcoFlow: here). It’s not a bad shower head, though I’m not sure about the usefulness of the “mist” setting. Either way, it’s better than the 5GPM of the old head. The funny thing is, the old head was marked as low flow… obviously that was before 1992 (when the Feds said showerheads had to be a max of 2.5GPM at 80PSI). Funny thing is, my current main shower head that we use daily seems to flow at about 4GPM instead of the stated 2.5GPM… Which comes to my next item…

We have high water pressure at the house. About 96psi static (no flow), which is the same pressure in the mains in my area (due to gravity because of the water tower/tank on the top of Kelly Butte above my house). The UPC (Uniform Plumbing Code) says the max is 80psi (minimum of 25psi). I thought we didn’t have a pressure regulator valve (PRV), but in fact we do, it’s just seemingly bad (it was installed with the house, and was buried under sod, and a few inches of dirt when I found it). So, I’m looking to replace that here soon. The pressure has been at it’s current level for at least the time we’ve been in the house, but I really worry about the wear and tear on our appliances and fixtures because of the high pressure. Currently, we get about 7.5-8GPM at the hose bibs, so I’m hoping that won’t be impacted too much by the drop in pressure. Some things I’ve seen indicate the flow might not change that much due to flow restriction caused by the “friction” of the water pressure and pipe walls. We’ll see. I’m hoping it’ll be an easy change out… I just need to finish unearthing the valve, and get it out. Biggest PITA is going to be “draining” the house (when I shut off the water at the street, and remove the valve, all the water in the house pipes is going to come running out). Here’s hoping a shopvac will take care of that.

On the water side, I’m also going to put a water expansion tank on the water heater after the PRV goes in. The valve will allow for pressure relief back to the city water mains if it climbs enough, but I’d rather not get those spikes (I believe it’ll keep the pressure from climbing above 10PSI greater than the supply pressure, so basically, it’ll keep it at or below 106PSI). A thermal expansion tank should prevent that completely. While I’m putting that in, I think I’m also going to wrap the water heater. It’s currently about R-16 (2″ foam), but adding a blanket would make that about R-26, which is about as good as you can do. Biggest pain is going to be moving the water heater, but, it shouldn’t be too bad once it’s drained. I also need to replace the front sillcock, but that’ll come later in the summer if I can’t figure out how to rebuild the stem (it’s a frost-free, so it’s got a long stem instead of a “normal” valve).

My other project I’m really looking forward to working on is more of my power graphing/monitoring. A site called energycircle.com (http://www.energycircle.com/) built their own “Google Powermeter” using the Visualizations API. I’m hoping to get ahold of their code to do the same. At the least, I think I’m going to switch my data collection to a mysql backend, as that will really allow for better report generation. We’ll see. I’d really also love to build one of these so that I can have a computer monitor my TED, and put the actual receiving unit I got with the TED in another room, more easily viewable. Bitch is, I don’t know a whole lot about building circuitry from diagrams, or programming MCs. Maybe I’ll pick up that Make microcontroller set at some point… =/

Also, I found this just now off that site above, which looks awesome. Wireless, web configurable, and will look at RSS feeds. I’d love to pick one of these up… I have a couple places it’d work great. Maybe in the hall where there is a giant hole at this point, or in the living room, or bedroom, etc. They have an 8″ version too, but it’s only like $20 cheaper… it’s certainly worth that for 2″ more! I’ll post some about work crap later, but at this point, there’s not a lot to discuss.

More in a couple days!