08:29 – Barbara arrived home yesterday afternoon. She called when she was about half an hour out, so I left the front door open so that Colin could lie there at the door and watch for her. Eventually, I heard frenzied barking, immediately followed by the sound of the door opening and Barbara’s voice. He’d watched her arrive and stand out at the curb talking to Marcy for several minutes without saying a word. It was only when she actually got to the door that he started barking. He does that with the mailman and UPS guy, too. Lying in wait to pounce. He scared the crap out of the FexEx guy the first time he did that.
I started writing lab sessions for the life science kit yesterday. The one I decided to write first, which will actually be in the four or fifth lab chapter, is about observing osmosis and plasmolysis in plant and animal cells in hypotonic, isotonic, and hypertonic saline solutions. I’m using a red onion as a source of plant cells. I’d originally intended to use a smear of ground beef as a source of animal cells, but while I was giving Colin a pill the other day I had what may be a better idea. Barbara buys containers of very thinly-sliced lunch meat at the supermarket. I’m going to try using that.
11:39 – Border Collies have some truly bizarre quirks. Colin loves sticks, which is normal. When we return from a walk, he’ll often grab a stick and indicate that he’s ready to run around in circles like crazy. He often maintains a 2- or 3-minute mile pace for several minutes, until he’s gotten at least a couple miles of running and I finally get dizzy from turning around and around.
The only problem is the sticks. After he finishes running, Colin often comes in coughing and choking from the bark and wood chips he’s swallowed. So a week or so ago, I decided to make him some running sticks. I got an old broom from Barbara and we cut the broomstick into convenient lengths. The first trial didn’t go well. As I was getting the leash connected, Colin completely ignored the running stick. We went out the front door, and he continued to ignore it. I held it up to him and said, “Stick!” He put his ears back. I tossed it out onto the front walk, where it made the ringing sound of dried hardwood. That scared him. He finally approached the running stick, very cautiously, and sniffed it. I threw it a few feet into the yard, he chased it, stood looking down at, and then turned and walked away. Hmm.
After some effort, I finally convinced him that the running stick was not his enemy. He finally picked it up and carried it down the street. As usual, he dropped the stick when he noticed something more interesting. He did pick it up on our way back to the house. So, we’re standing in the front yard with him holding the stick. I said my usual to get him started, “Let’s run around like crazy in circles!” He took off at a slow trot, did half a circle, dropped the running stick, and looked at me, expecting me to pick it up and throw it for him. Apparently, he decided that the running stick is a toy-to-be-thrown rather than a stick-to-be-run-with.
So I tried to convince him otherwise, over many sessions over several days. I keep repeating “Stick!” hoping that he’ll change his mind. At this point, he’ll pick it up and run in circles with it, but only very half-heartedly. I’m lucky if he’ll do two full circles at a slow trot, versus 50 or 100 running dead out with a “real” stick. Geez.
I am at my wit’s end trying to get my new den system to run Linux, any Linux. I’ve tried Ubuntu, Linux Mint, PCLinuxOS, and several other distros. I’ve even tried Fedora. I’ve actually had Linux Mint up and running twice for most of an evening each time. I disabled the screensaver and power saving mode and everything appears to be fine. Then the next morning there’s no video. This is driving me nuts. Normally, I’d figure there was a hardware problem, but I’ve run into this before. This is definitely a problem with Linux video drivers or some other software.
Just to rule out hardware problems, I actually considered installing Windows. The trouble is, the latest version I have is XP, which I don’t think would install on this hardware. Some time ago, someone offered to send me a Windows 7 disc and activation key, saying he had a group of keys and plenty to spare. The trouble is, I can’t remember who made that offer. If he reads this and is still willing to mail me a disc and activation key, please let me know.
Occasionally there is an offer of a free (at the moment) book on Kindle that I can’t resist sharing.
Chainmail Made Easy: Beginner’s Guide in 7 Easy Steps!
If it’s just for testing whether the hardware works, you could probably torrent a Win7 DVD image. If everything works, you can then look into getting an official disk and license key.
You can get the Windows 7 ninety day test drive here:
http://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/evalcenter/cc442495.aspx?ITPID=wtcfeed
Ninety days should be long enough to eliminate hardware bugs.
Some time ago, someone offered to send me a Windows 7 disc and activation key, saying he had a group of keys and plenty to spare.
I believe that was me.
RBT wrote: “Just to rule out hardware problems, I actually considered installing Windows.”
I actually double checked the date to make sure it wasn’t April 1st.
Poor Colin. He knows what makes a good smelly, crunchy running stick, he defined the entire category of running sticks. Nobody knows what makes a proper one better than Colin. Some people, who have never even had a good satisfying mouthful of running stick much less done any running with one, seem unable to understand such a simple thing, despite all the training Colin has provided.
Are you letting Colin bring home some lady friends for the night?
Ray, if you have a spare key or three for Windows 7 and are willing to part with them I’d appreciate them.
Bill, no need to check the date, I’ve always known he was a pragmatist at heart.
Ray, if you have a spare key or three for Windows 7 and are willing to part with them I’d appreciate them.
I could probably spare some Home Premium Keys. I will not post the keys anywhere publicly so you will need to send me your email address. Send the address to rayt435 at comcast dot net (or ray at tbp dot org).
The only difference between professional and home premium is professional will allow connection to a domain. I run three versions at home (home premium, professional and ultimate) and home premium works quite nicely in such an environment.
There are several differences between Windows 7 home and professional. One such is that home will allow up to 10 connections from other pcs and pro will allow up to 20 connections from other pcs. A very stupid limitation if you ask me.
There are several differences between Windows 7 home and professional.
I did not want to go into the trivial details. The big one, at least to me, is no domain connection and I know some people run a domain at home. The other issue is that you need W7 Professional to run Windows XP mode. You also don’t have RDP or location aware printing (makes sense) in Home Professional. I did have a domain controller at home at one time until I found out I was being a dork for the sake of being a dork. Even at work a workgroup would do just fine for our purposes.
Are you letting Colin bring home some lady friends for the night?
If you mean the four-legged sort, I’m sure Colin would take care of business without bringing them home, or taking all night about it.
Gotcha. We do not run a domain controller here and I have 14 PCs in the LAN. The workgroup is just fine even though we do have occasional rights issues.
Well, yah, but that’s an unfortunate reality of early-21st-Century American life.