The Squamidian Report – Sept. 2 / 06
Issue #222
Also in this issue:
The Ontarion
Hi All,
As you know, we have been doing a fair amount of highway riding this summer. But Sue’s helmet never actually fit her head very well. It was loose enough that it would ride up her forehead as the wind pushed against it. So it wasn’t all that comfortable for her. We took a toot into the city where there would be a better choice of helmets available and picked up one that fit properly. A properly fitting helmet is much more comfortable to wear and stays put in the wind. There is a big Yamaha dealer down in North Van over near the Second Narrows Bridge that has a large accessories department and lots of helmets to chose from. They carry pretty well any type of riding apparel you may want as well as goodies for your bike. Much more interesting than shopping in a grocery store. And it made for a nice sunny summer morning ride.
But getting back to helmets, they need to fit snuggly. Not tight so you get sore ears or a headache but snug. A snug fitting helmet needs to be spread a bit with your thumbs as you put it on or take it off. Once on, there should be no extraneous movement. It should move with your head only, not on its own. While full-face helmets offer the most protection, they are also the heaviest and tend to obstruct vision to an extent. We picked up a ¾ helmet, normally known as an open face helmet. There is no lower face coverage but vision is not restricted in any direction. There are clear face shields available that snap on giving good protection from weather and flying debris. We use them when dirt biking and I’ll probably put one on her helmet for her.
Another kind of helmet we see out here are the beanie style. Also know as skullcaps, they are just plain useless, covering only the back part of your head. They are basically a legal way of riding with no helmet and the only ones you see wearing them are the grease balls and goof balls. I may come close but so far I don’t really qualify as either of those, yet.
*
Geek
Speak – Hey, I can screw up too!
Sometimes we make a small easy job turn into a larger, unnecessary job. The power supply fan in my P4 system, my MAIN system, went on the fritz. It started to sound like a belt sander or chain saw. Can’t have that, so the obvious solution is also the simple solution. Replace the stupid fan. That simple.
So I disconnected all the cables from the back of my computer case and popped the hood. Removing the power supply is easy enough, just four screws and it slides free. All the wires running from the supply box to the motherboard are long enough that I didn’t even have to bother disconnecting them. I took the cover off the power box and removed the old fan and then gave the inside of the power box a good dusting. Installing a new fan was a breeze, as I just happened to have a couple of new fans, still in their boxes sitting in my parts box. Doesn’t everyone? Solder a couple of wires together, put the box back together and re-mount the box to the tower’s frame. Mission accomplished.
But how could I resist giving the rest of the innards a good cleaning. So, to make it easier to do a through job of cleaning the CPU fan and heat sink, I removed the fan. That meant releasing a couple of clamps and lifting out the fan. The fan didn’t pull away from the heat sink, and the heat sink didn’t pull away from the CPU. The thermal induction tape that ensures a thermal bond between the two should have let go but it didn’t. So I inadvertently yanked the CPU out of it’s tiny docking station with its tiny docking clamp still in the locked position. It wasn’t something I should have done but we all makes mistakes on those very rare occasions.
Close inspection of the hundred or so tiny pins on the bottom of the CPU didn’t show any damage and the docking station seemed OK so the next step was to separate the CPU from the bottom of the heat sink. It took a fair amount of pressure to get it free. This brings up a problem with using TIM, that Thermal Induction Material that I talked about when I built this system. It should have let go very easily to avoid this very situation. Because you can’t get at the CPU’s docking clamp until you remove the heat sink, the thermal bond has to let go or you yank out the CPU, just as I did.
Only thing to do at this point was to clean off the TIM residue and apply some thermal paste, then re-assemble the components. Next problem, I couldn’t find my tube of thermal paste. Now that’s frustration, we should all know where our thermal paste is. This was Sunday afternoon and I didn’t feel like driving into the city to get some. The only places here that might have something that would do are closed. However, I knew that Ryan and Emily were in the city shopping so I called him on his cell and asked him to pick some up.
So he picked up a tube of thermal paste for me and then I had to wait for hours for them to get back. Once he dropped the stuff off it took only a few minutes to re-assemble the CPU, heat sink, fan combination and then set the computer back up. Only hit one snag at boot-up. Because the CPU had been out of the system, BIOS recorded it as being replaced and asked me to confirm what it was finding. The CUP had not actually been replaced but even though the computer was unplugged and partially dismantled, the CMOS battery was still active (as it should be) and therefore BIOS recorded the disruption. Kind of cool how that works.
So I guess the bottom line here is next time you install a CPU, use thermal paste, not the TIM tape. If you ever need to remove the heat sink, you will thank yourself.
doug
****
Greg had sent in some picture from the BBQ for Karin. I finally got around to posting them at: http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/Greg/karin.htm
****
Hello
everyone!
Yup it’s
September already and the kids are heading back to school on Tuesday.
I guess
that means I’ll be picking up garbage along the property line again. They tend
to think they’re at home or some other dirty place when they finish whatever
they’re eating or drinking and drop it at their ass as they pass our place. I’ve
been tempted to strap a big plastic barrel to the light post on the boulevard
but they’d only graffiti it and drop the garbage beside it anyway. Oh well,
maybe this years crop of kids will be a little more respectful of other
people’s property. We’ll have to wait and see.
*
You can
tell its fall when the Hospitals and all the other charity organizations are
sending you ticket order forms in the mail. I guess most of them are good
causes but if I bought a ticket on every one of them, I’d have no money left to
pay my property taxes. Seems they’re all thinking big these days and are
charging an average of $100.00/ticket. It’s ok to ask for the moon I guess but
I’m sure more people would take a chance on these lotteries if the tickets were
a more reasonable price. I guess the charities figure it’s less work to sell
half the number of tickets at twice the price. With the prizes they’re offering
nowadays they don’t seem to have any problem meeting their financial goals. The
latest one that arrived in the mail has everything in their prize list from a
Ferrari to a $500,000.00 water front condo on the harbour in Toronto. I like
the fact that they give you a choice if you are one of the winners of the
fantastic cars they offer as prizes. You can take the car or you can take the
value of the vehicle in cash. I think I’d be tempted to take the cash since I
already have a good vehicle. As far as the condo goes, I think you have to take
it as awarded but you can then sell it if you don’t want to move into it. Hell,
the condo fees and the taxes in a place like that in a PRIME Toronto location
would probably bankrupt most of us in a couple of years anyway so why not turn
it into cash as soon as you can after winning it! I think that’s the better way
to go anyway. I don’t know of too many people that want to move to Toronto let
alone live right downtown. The condos come with a new Porsche worth $80,000.00
and a lump some of $20,000.00 in cash. I guess the cash is so you can afford to
pay the taxes for the first year! LOL!
Actually,
the brochure says that the 20 Grand is to help pay your moving costs when you
relocate to the condo. Come to think of it, it just might be cool to keep the
condo as your “cottage”. Instead of heading for Muskoka every weekend you can
head for Toronto and watch the animals that roam up and down Yonge St. The one
big difference being, the animals in “Cottage Country” don’t shoot back whereas
the ones in TO sometimes do! Part of the charm of Toronto is the huge mix of
people both normal and abnormal that frequent the downtown. I figure I won’t
worry about all that until I’ve won the condo, THEN Carole and I will have to
decide whether to sell the condo or move in! I’m sure I can tell you right now
which it’ll be…… SELL!
Good
Choice!
*
The
mornings are once more starting to smell like fall. There’s heavy dew on the
grass and the temperature hovers around the 10c mark first thing. It is still
pleasant to sit on the patio with a cup of tea as long as the sun is shining
and there isn’t a breeze. By around 9:30 am the temp is up to a respectable 20c
and the day feels more like another summer day. It won’t be long before the
leaves are turning colours and the frost is showing up again. Let’s hope the
fall is as enjoyable as the summer sunshine was this year and that the cold
holds off until mid December.
I’ve
really enjoyed this summer weather wise and as long as the days are warm and
sunny I’m sure we’ll enjoy the fall as well. Carole and I have talked about
taking the train out of Orangeville through the Caledon Hills to see the fall
colours. I’m sure this will be on our agenda in the coming weeks. You can’t
beat the wilds of southern Ontario for beautiful colours in the fall. The
beautiful crimson forests in rural Ontario can rival any scenery Canada has to offer.
Funny how we sometimes can’t see the forest for the trees isn’t it?
That’s
all for this week. I look forward to talking to you all again next time in The
Ontarion Report.
Bye for now.
PS:
Something To Think About>
What
happens if you get scared half to death twice?
****
The Family and the Squamidian sites:
http://members.shaw.ca/doug_b/ and http://www.thedougsite.ca
Have a good one..
the
doug
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