Sometimes you just get lucky...............

In no particular order, I

1. Found the black tape.
2. Enabled the network over the 1Gb hub.
3. Moved the server into position.
4. Moved the Super-PVR into position and connected up all four feeds.
5. Fused the lighting circuit!
6. Fixed the lighting circuit.
7. Fitted a temporary PCI-Express card to the workstation.
8. Did all sorts of copying and formatting on various drives.
9. Watched a bit of TV.
10. Ate a hearty meal.

All in one evening.

And then, on the other hand...............

I've got four fingers and a thumb...........(Tommy Cooper gag.)

The LNB feeds are all in place now, and once I have the server positioned I shall move and connect the super-pvr. I have managed to activate and use the SharePoint server but, it would seem, only for the intranet. I am still unable to even ping the ip address from the uni.

You win some.................

The hole in the wall has gone very well, I have it all finished and looking very neat. Sadly, the white self amalgamating tape is useless so I want to use the black. Can't find the black. The server is working fine on the internal network and can see the internet very well. Unfortunately, the internet can't see it! As yet, this is no big deal but it will be necessary before too long.

Hazel and I visited Eileen on Friday and we sorted out a lot of questions about her family in order that I could procure the next set of certificates for the research. This morning, I ordered the next three. These should tell me more about her father, her fathers cousin and her g grandparents.

We had Samuel this weekend and he has really settled now. He drifts around the house playing and engaging in obscure conversations and always has a grin on his face at long last. He is happiest when he can use his imagination to it's fullest.

Sometimes, you just have to hit it with a hammer!

So I finished off tidying up the super pvr and then got down to the server.

First problem was that the drive I wanted to use had been formatted for 64 bit raid and the 32 bit server software refused to touch it.

OK, I'll use another drive. The install suggested that I should stick with the current system so I did. I got to the first re-boot and it totally lost the plot. So I went through the whole thing again and did a quick format. This time it worked perfectly.

Now where's that hammer?

Where there's a will,

There's usually a lawyer...........................

I have got the super duper PVR up and running now. I bought a new Gigabyte motherboard and a quad core Athlon 620 processor and I am running it at half power (two cards) until I pipe in the extra feeds from the octo lnb on the dish. Media Center seems more than happy with the set up and is chugging away with over 400 hours of recording time to play with.

The next job is to re-build the old test pc and convert it into the gateway server. It should work fine but I will be treading carefully to make sure I don't have to re-install later.

The Atom will be used for a while as a nearly dumb terminal for Hazel to work from home whilst she recovers from her knee operation in a couple of weeks time.

Oh, KOFF, KOFF, dear.

Struck low by a bug and reduced to a juddering wreck for a whole week. My age is showing big time now. There was a day when I could shake off a common cold and just carry on working. No longer, I have been confined to bed and / or chair for the whole week.
Before I collapsed in the corner, I managed to re-install the new motherboard and get everything up and running again. I now need to buy a third motherboard and run the quad core and 8Gb of ram on it and buy a new CPU and ram for the current new motherboard..................confused, you will be. (I stole that from Soap, a sitcom)
In addition to all that, I also have to buy one of the new mobile mini-itx cases and a 60Gb ssd for the camper (as and when the gears are fixed).

ooohs been a busy boy den?

Well, I have I suppose.

I made the new motherboard a happy soul by putting in the new graphics card and it all worked splendidly. Then I got cocky and re-installed the old motherboard and it wont even boot..........it shows every sign of being a short somewhere. The snow has been and, hopefully, gone leaving only the dog mess that it covered and we all trod in. Is it just me, or is there a lot more canine faecal matter around these days?

I dropped into Waterstones looking for a Dummies guide to Sharepoint and they didn't have one. So, on the way out I rummaged in the bargain bin and bought a very cheap Dummies guide to Ruby on Rails. Then I looked on Amazon and found a Dummies guide to Sharepoint for the same price so I was well pleased and bought it there and then.

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A Happy New Year (and custard)

Well, it's all been and gone again for another twelve months. The food was good this year and the presents were very nice too. As my idea of a good drink is orange juice, I was pretty happy in that department too. Paul and I visited janis on the Sunday after Christmas and got her running again. More on that on the other blog.

Samuel had some smashing gifts including a micro Scalextrix set from Paul and a Thomas carry around set from Hazel and I. On the second of January, we played the re-named 'Dodgy Santa' game and had a lot of fun for a couple of hours and that, pretty much, was our Christmas this year. Very quiet and most enjoyable.