Posts

Posted on

Rome: Getting there

This trip to Rome was my first trip overseas, so it was an adventure. Connie was in Rome last year and she made for a great guide and interpreter for our trip.

Thanks to Connie chasing point and airline miles, our flight to Rome on American Airlines only cost us about $71 each in taxes and fees. The initial itinerary was a simple one: Charleston to Philadelphia to Rome. However, since it was booked so far in advanced, it ended up getting changed several times and we ended up flying to Miami, 8 hour layover there, then on to Berlin and finally to Rome (both on Air Berlin). The 8 hour stay in Miami was made more enjoyable thanks to a couple of passes for AA’s Admirals Club lounge from one of Connie’s Twitter acquaintances.

Experiencing our 1st airline lounge thanks to the generosity of @tmount. Thanks, Trevor! @imabug & I appreciate it. pic.twitter.com/Txmbjt6KCJ

— NR4CB (@NR4CB) November 26, 2015


This is the plane that took us to Europe!

IMG_20151126_135912.jpg

The Air Berlin flights were quite nice. When we boarded in Miami, flight attendents offered passengers some candy. Seats were pretty comfortable with a decent amount of leg room. There was an in-flight meal (something you don’t see flying around North America anymore) which was pretty tasty (something pasta-y I think…don’t remember what it was now). Upon landing in Berlin (TXL), passengers were offered a piece of chocolate. The plane didn’t go to a terminal gate with a jetway, so passengers got off the plane using the front and back exits of the plane (very efficient) and then a bus to the terminal.

IMG_20151127_012641.jpg

The Air Berlin flight from Berlin to Rome was also uneventful and very nice. We landed in Rome (FCO) and once again passengers left the plane using multiple exits.

For a first transatlantic trip, this was a pretty good journey. I’d totally fly Air Berlin again.

Posted on

Inside the old computer power supply

Popped the cover off the old power supply from the computer to have a look at the innards. I had blown a lot of the dust out of it earlier, but there was still a bit clumped around the wires that come out the back.

In the dead power supply
In the dead power supply

It’s pretty densely packed in there. At first glance, all the components on the board still look in pretty good condition. Since the main culprit for why the power supply went flaky was the main power switch, I looked there first.

Corroded power switch terminals
Corroded power switch terminals

Replacing the switch would have been a pretty simple fix to resurrect this power supply, but a closer look shows a good bit of corrosion at the one terminal and the wire soldered to it.

Corroded switch terminals
Corroded switch terminals

It will still probably be a fairly easy fix, but I’ll have to replace the one corroded wire along with the switch. The other end of the wire isn’t going to be that easy to get to to remove and replace. I’ll probably leave this for a project to work on after moving into the new house.

Posted on

Rome holiday highlights

Got back from our almost 2 week Rome vacation last night. Had an excellent time while we were there. Just a few highlights of the trip while I’m thinking about them.

  • My first trans-Atlantic flight
  • Hotel La Scaletta – great place to stay at the beach. Easy trip in to Rome on the Roma-Lido metro line.
  • Seeing St. Peter’s Square/Oval and the four Papal basilicas (St Paul Outside the Walls, St Mary Major, St John Lateran, St Peter)
  • Sunday Angelus where the Pope wishes you a good lunch at the end
  • The usual touristy sites
    • The Pantheon
    • Roman Coliseum, Roman Forum and Palatine Hill
    • Trevi Fountain
    • Campo de’ Fiori
    • Piazza del Popolo
  • Scavi tour and climbing the dome at St Peter’s Basilica
  • Walking through Villa Borghese
  • Fountains
  • Gelato

More posts and photos to follow.

Posted on

Time for a new power supply

After nearly 6 years, it seems the power supply in my computer has decided to go flaky.

The problem started about a week ago when the computer abruptly shut down on me. After a few seconds it powered back up, and didn’t happen again for a while. Then the sudden shutdowns started to become more frequent. Sometimes the computer would stay running overnight, other times it would shut down 3 or 4 times in rapid succession. It would stay running for a few hours, then boom. Other times it would be up for a few minutes, then boom. Frequent but intermittent.

Primary suspect was the power supply. I reseated all the cables going from the power supply to the motherboard and wiped the BIOS, but that didn’t help things. Then I noticed the main power switch on the power supply was broken and didn’t toggle on/off anymore. Seems like a good candidate to cause such problems.

While the power supply was the main suspect, I wasn’t able to rule out other problems too like something bad on the motherboard. Fortunately someone in the Charleston Tech Slack had a couple of 650W power supplies he was willing to let me borrow. They’re smaller than the 800W supply currently in the computer, but 650W is enough to run things.

Disconnected the old power supply from everything and connected the loaner. Since the power supply is just a loaner, I didn’t bother with putting it in the case.

Computer with a temporary power supply attached
Testing with a temporary power supply

Computer’s been up and running on the loaner power supply for a few hours now with no issues so far. Compared to what the computer had been doing before, that’s a significant improvement and a good sign that something in the power supply is faulty. I’ll keep it going for a couple more days to see how things go, and if everything’s ok I’ll order a new power supply to replace the original one.

Posted on

New mailbox and post

At some point Thursday night, or very early Friday morning, the mailbox post got knocked down. No idea what happened or who knocked it over, but it was hit hard enough to snap the 4×4 post right off a few cm above the ground. I was just walking out of the house to the car Friday morning and saw it lying there on the ground.

IMG_20151120_072250.jpg

sigh. Jerks.

So, it was off to Lowes to buy a new post and some concrete. This morning I dug out a hole next to the original post, cut what was left of the old post off at the ground and put in the new post. Got it nice and straight, set it in the ground with the concrete and filled in the rest of the hole with dirt.

We had been planning on replacing the mail box with a new one anyway, so I went ahead and put that on to the post. Shiny new mailbox post, shiny new mailbox. Maybe it will help add to the curb appeal of the house.

DSC02372.JPG