mouseworks (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
mouseworks) wrote2011-02-04 09:53 pm
mouseworks) wrote2011-02-04 09:53 pm
Jinotega Day
When I got outside after futzing around on line, water from an overflowing sewer line was running in the gutter nearest my house. One of the neighbors said something in Spanish that sounded like a warning and pointed to the water. I took a breath...
Since I'd had to have wiring work done of my house to get two grounded outlets for the computer stuff and wanted to be able to test the wiring in future rentals I might consider, I walked up to the hardware store which didn't have the right sort of AC circuit tester, but which did have modern versions of the double knife switch with two flat wire fuses that had been my original and ungrounded junction box. The hardware store didn't have a circuit tester with a second probe, so I couldn't test grounding with the one they did have for AC.
A box of books I'd mailed out of Virginia on January 5 had arrived with a charge of C$5 for customs. Someone from Direccion General de Servicios Aduaneros, Administracion de Aduana Postal had been through the box, put a list inside describing the contents inside, and then taped it up. Aduana/Customs in Nicaragua wants us to know it cared, just like Homeland Security went through my check on bags and left a note, I suppose. Duty on the box was five cordobas, with cordobas now running 22 or so to the dollar. The box was in transit or Managua for one day less than a month. It still weighed 27 or so pounds, so I got a taxi home.
Got the box up packed and called the guy making my bookcase, asked how that was coming and said the books were now all over the sewing machine but not to rush since I didn't have any cloth. I then asked if his friend the Nicaraguan electrician would want to see what the gringo electrician did to put in proper wiring for computers. He thought that he would (and we're talking about it as wiring for computers, not as any criticism of how the guy wires houses for lights and refrigerators).
One of the books was a book on growing tropical fruit in Florida that I'd saved since finding it about fifteen years ago in a used book store. It also tells what the nutritional components of each fruit is and whether it's for jams and jellies or for eating out of hand. I also had more Spanish books, and a bilingual reader I need to start working through.
After that, I bought honey at the Coffee Growers Coop and crema from my landlord's renting agent who also runs a pulperia.
Then I hooked up the OWC Neptune firewire case and found out that the hard drive inside had died. I think the Seagate drive is under warranty still, but would have some difficulty proving it hadn't been dropped in shipping it here. I took the case apart to get the drive out and will see what the boys at the shop have in the way of replacement drives. If they don't have something I can use or if the problem is in the case (which is older than the current drive), I'll see what the USB external drives look like. I could possible partition one and make a Windows XP partition for the Acer and a Mac partition for the Mini. The Neptune case only works with FireWire, advantages and disadvantages with that.
Note to self -- consider preventive maintenance replacement of the cased external drives every two years, especially if they've been stored without running them for a while.
I shudder at getting inside a Mac Mini, but people have added more memory and larger notebook drives to those.
Since I'd had to have wiring work done of my house to get two grounded outlets for the computer stuff and wanted to be able to test the wiring in future rentals I might consider, I walked up to the hardware store which didn't have the right sort of AC circuit tester, but which did have modern versions of the double knife switch with two flat wire fuses that had been my original and ungrounded junction box. The hardware store didn't have a circuit tester with a second probe, so I couldn't test grounding with the one they did have for AC.
A box of books I'd mailed out of Virginia on January 5 had arrived with a charge of C$5 for customs. Someone from Direccion General de Servicios Aduaneros, Administracion de Aduana Postal had been through the box, put a list inside describing the contents inside, and then taped it up. Aduana/Customs in Nicaragua wants us to know it cared, just like Homeland Security went through my check on bags and left a note, I suppose. Duty on the box was five cordobas, with cordobas now running 22 or so to the dollar. The box was in transit or Managua for one day less than a month. It still weighed 27 or so pounds, so I got a taxi home.
Got the box up packed and called the guy making my bookcase, asked how that was coming and said the books were now all over the sewing machine but not to rush since I didn't have any cloth. I then asked if his friend the Nicaraguan electrician would want to see what the gringo electrician did to put in proper wiring for computers. He thought that he would (and we're talking about it as wiring for computers, not as any criticism of how the guy wires houses for lights and refrigerators).
One of the books was a book on growing tropical fruit in Florida that I'd saved since finding it about fifteen years ago in a used book store. It also tells what the nutritional components of each fruit is and whether it's for jams and jellies or for eating out of hand. I also had more Spanish books, and a bilingual reader I need to start working through.
After that, I bought honey at the Coffee Growers Coop and crema from my landlord's renting agent who also runs a pulperia.
Then I hooked up the OWC Neptune firewire case and found out that the hard drive inside had died. I think the Seagate drive is under warranty still, but would have some difficulty proving it hadn't been dropped in shipping it here. I took the case apart to get the drive out and will see what the boys at the shop have in the way of replacement drives. If they don't have something I can use or if the problem is in the case (which is older than the current drive), I'll see what the USB external drives look like. I could possible partition one and make a Windows XP partition for the Acer and a Mac partition for the Mini. The Neptune case only works with FireWire, advantages and disadvantages with that.
Note to self -- consider preventive maintenance replacement of the cased external drives every two years, especially if they've been stored without running them for a while.
I shudder at getting inside a Mac Mini, but people have added more memory and larger notebook drives to those.