Re: [DotGNU]Jabber/DotGNU Meeting Times

[root]

ok, hi, all.

well, lemme give a run down of my past 2 days:

Wed morning, i install a new CPU and SDRAM chip into my desktop. everything
works fine, so i go off to work. come back 5 hours later. still have 5
hours until the first dotgnu/jabber meeting, so i decide to go ahead and
re-install linux, to make use of my new computing power (had been running
fvwm2 on a 133MHz. wanted to move up to Sawfish on a 475MHz). i back-up my
important files, and shutdown for a full wipe of the drive, for a nice,
clean, fresh  installation. i reasonably expected to take no more than 3
hours, since even on my 133 it only took 1.5 hours to install a new red hat
work station.

i start installing... it gets to the kerberos rpm, and freezes. "arg!" i
say, as i reboot. try again. same thing, same place. "double arg!". by this
time i've wasted half an hour. "ok, no biggie, i'll just try mandrake,
maybe the red hat disk is messed up or something." i start the mandrake
installation up, and it freezes on installing perl. "sigh...".
unfortunately there is no way to install just the kernel and work my way up
from there. one of the great annoyances with packaged distros is that they
have a "base" that *must* be installed, even if you'll never use kerberos
or can get away with no perl for a couple of days (which although doable,
is hard for me since i'm a perl junkie). so, no working around that.

ok, i dig around and find an old FreeBSD CD. i boot it up, but blankly
stare at the screen as it prompts me for info i have no idea about. i
rummage around for a manual or some printed out freebsd readme pages or
*something* around my house. nothing. by this time i have 1.5 hours till
the meeting.

thinking fast, i call up my best friend, wanting her to try and email the
dotgnu and jabber lists for me, saying i may be late, and someone from
jabber could take my place if i am. but no answer on her end. later find
out she was at a late movie with friends.

just then it hits me that it could be a hardware problem. i open her up to
look for obvious stuff... nope, no obvious stuff. it was working fine this
afternoon after the upgrade, anyway. even rebooted and ran some tests to be
sure. i took out the CPU and RAM chips and re-installed them, hoping any
errors i had caused would be fixed. i would have re-installed my old CPU
chip if i had not been so hasty to get rid of it, dropping it off at a
friend's on the way into work. i put it all together, and fire her up with
red hat again.... installing... "damn! freeze on kerberos again! what the
freak is this?!?". it's a standard K6-2 500MHz CPU with a powerful enough
thermal system.

now it's an hour till the meeting, and i have a couple of tricks up my
sleeve. i calla friend who lives in the same town, and ask them if i could
come over to use their computer. "sorry, man, it's broke".... "oh, ok,
nevermind". *click*

hm... ok, i have one last idea. i recall norbert bollow has his telephone
number in his sig, maybe i can remember it? i have a pretty good memory,
but appearantly not that good. i wouldn't have minded the long-distance
charge to wherever the freak in europe he lives, but wasn't sure how he
would have liked a phone call in 7 in the morning to say don't bother with
the meeting after all today.

well, that was day 1.

days 2 and 3 were not any better, with me running around to the public
library, TCC campus (my college), and FSU campus (not mine, but they don't
ask for student ID to use their computers). neither of those places would
allow me to install new software (jabber client) onto their machines.
windows installer block, or something.

it wasn't until the end of day 2 that i slapped my head and realized that
while i could not install new software, i could have sent out emails to the
lists. i resolved to do that in the morning, day 3.

afternoon, after coming home from work to take a shower before heading off
to the library to send the emails.... i head to the car. *grrrr*....
*grrrr* "dammit... it's not starting."

i then have one of those moments of dropping down to my knees, and
clutching two big handfuls of earth, screem to the heavens
"wwwhhhyyyy????"..........

5 minutes later i'm calmly picking the dirt out from my fingernails in the
bathroom.... i think it had something to do with the swirling pattern of
the grains as they were carried down the drain, but while watching them i
had a revelation.

i went into my room, opened up my box, and took out the RAM chip, leaving
in the new CPU. i leave the old 64 MB RAM in there. i fired the box up, and
started installing Red Hat while finishing the dirt-removal.

aha! it works! it is alive!!!!

and here i am...

news on the jabber/dotgnu meetings will be coming up as soon as i take care
of the 370 emails and 120 jabber messages waiting for me (yeah, this was
the first thing i did)...


Norbert Bollow wrote:

> Adam Theo <address@hidden> wrote:
>
> > for the next round of jabber/dotgnu meetings, there will be 3:
> > 7pm Thursday UTC/GMT
>
> I'm there, but there doesn't seem to be any meeting taking place...
> in fact I seem to be all alone :(
> Or maybe I'm doing something wrong?
>
> Greetings, Norbert.
>
> --
> A member of FreeDevelopers and the DotGNU Steering Committee: dotgnu.org
> Norbert Bollow, Weidlistr.18, CH-8624 Gruet   (near Zurich, Switzerland)
> Tel +41 1 972 20 59       Fax +41 1 972 20 69      http://thinkcoach.com
> Your own domain with all your Mailman lists: $15/month  http://cisto.com
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