Week of 6th May, 2002

Last Week

Monday, 6th May

May Day Bank Holiday today. This is, perhaps, illogical - I know Sweden, at least, celebrates this on the actual day - but our Bank Holidays are always either side of a weekend, except for Christmas, which is a law unto itself.

Talking of May Day, preparations for the annual May Day Procession and Maypole dancing are well advanced. The celebrations will be the weekend-after-next, and I've booked leave, since it's a working weekend. The only thing I have to do beforehand is to build a new loudspeaker cable - the previous borrower of the kit lost/mislaid/failed to return one cable. Not a problem, I already know almost all that I need to know. The only question is, "Do I need to make up a daisy-chain cable, with multiple connectors?" Must ask, although even a simple end-to-end would be all I'd need.

Back to Daynotes


Tuesday, 7th May

I'm trying to get King configured so that I can put him on a shelf out of the way. This will require a capability to telnet into him via the network, which currently I can't do.

There are a multitude of reasons for this - first, he's not on the IP address I thought he was. The D-Link box is handing out one address, but he's sitting on another - the one I set at first, when dhcp didn't work. I thought I'd changed that - evidently not. Add to that problems with TCP wrappers and it's no wonder I couldn't get in.

I tried various settings in hosts.allow, and even removed the tcpd call from the telnet line in inetd.conf, but nothing worked. But before that I want to get him onto a dhcp-assigned static IP address. And nowhere that I can see is there a file I can edit. Of course, I'm probably looking in the wrong place.

And linuxconf doesn't seem to want to set him for dhcp either. Nor does any edit I do in linuxconf seem to stick. There must be a reason for this, but I can't see it, not yet anyway. It's probably blatantly obvious after you've done it once.


In home news Hopalong has passed his MOT test, at the first attempt, yet! Not bad for a 14-year-old car. Oh, I've got to fix a blown rear foglight bulb, and make safe the end of the bumper where the truck ripped it off last year, and most important, get the front door hinges fixed, but none of these were showstoppers. The doors will be done on Friday, when he will have his service, and I can do the rest.

Once that's done, I can tax him for another year.


The connectors I need to build the new cable for the May Day kit are now obsolete. There is a compatible version from another manufacturer - at least, I think they're compatible, the pictures in the catalogue suggest this, but you can't really tell until you try to mate old and new connectors. I'l have to make inquiry of the parts stockist - that'll be either RS Components (where you have to have an account, available only to bona fide industry) or their retail arm, Electrocomponents.

Back to Daynotes


Wednesday, 8th May

The problem with dhcp on King was simple - dhclient wasn't running. Invoke that from the command line and all is well, King is now on the IP address I expect him to use - but telnet still doesn't work. I'll try using the Psion as a terminal, plugged into one of King's serial ports - and if that works, King will be on a shelf out of the way within days. Then I'll experiment with SSH, probably using Putty on Fujisan - or I may do that first.

Back to Daynotes


Thursday, 9th May

It's been quiet at work these two days - apparently there's very little material that needs processed in the building. The commercial load is still high, though - which is good. The more money they make, the more secure my job is likely to be - although I'm not a direct employee any more. Apparently, contract negotiations for the renewal in November are about to start, and things are, allegedly, going well.

On the people front, there are some changes. And I've come up against a decision point - do I continue playing with expensive, high-tech toys, or do I start moving towards a management role? I've already made a start that way - training and low-level decisions seem to devolve on me (and a couple of others of equal seniority in the business), but I'm unsure whether I should make an overt move towards formalising this. After all, if you promote a good worker (which I flatter myself I am), you may get a good manager, but you're guaranteed to lose the good worker. Stil, it's only part-time to start with.


RS's tech support line couldn't tell me whether their particular connector is intermateable with the Cannon XLR-LNE, which I need for the May Day kit repair. I may have to offer to rebuild all the cables, using a more recent connector type.

Back to Daynotes


Friday, 10th May

Hopalong is due for his service today, and I'll get the door hinge pins replaced at the same time.

Later: Hopalong is serviced, although the brakes aren't right. I'll have to get them looked at a.s.a.p. Jane isn't happy.

The panic about lost cables for the May day kit is over - the cable wasn't lost at all. As far as I can tell, the previous borrower found that one of the cable reels had fallen apart, so he coiled two cables onto one reel. I found this out when I inspected the kit this afternoon. That's one less problem, although I'll have to try to find another small wooden cable drum for the loose cable.

It turns out that the local Boy's Brigade Brass Band cannot officiate at the celebration this year, so I'll have to make arrangements for mobile PA again. No problem, I've done it before - the replica van provided by another committee member will have a loudspeaker on the roof, and an amp and CD player inside, all run off the car battery. I'll have to rush a bit to derig the mobile PA and set it up as part of the fixed kit, but I can do that.

Back to Daynotes


Saturday, 11th May

Lawn mowing today, and of course, I broke the last two replacement cutter blades for the mower. These things are disposable plastic, and they break easily. Replacements are UKP1.98 a pack of 6, which isn't too bad, except that the last two broke at the same time.

So I had to visit the local DIY shop - who didn't have any in stock. They did have replacement fluorescent tubes for the kitchen lights, so I got one - one tube has been out for weeks (it won't strike).

I went on to another branch of the same chain, and got my replacement blades - teo sets, this time. After that I could complete the mowing.

When I got back, I chatted to my neighbours for a while - their older cat, Jessie, has just been put down, after 14 years, because he was dying of cancer. They're left with the other cat, Tigger, who is a young tabby, and still rather nervous - he was apparently ill-treated by his former owners.

It seems there is a Jubilee Street Party being organised, to celebrate the Queen's Golden Jubilee. Our party will probably be on the 1st of June - pray for good weather.

Later:  As I typed the above, King was getting a Seti WU - that's 130 returned for credit

Back to Daynotes


Sunday, 12th May

Back to Daynotes

Next Week