Just recently I've been given a Cisco C3548 Switch to look at. This is a shit hot piece of gear. It, like most Cisco enterprise hardware, runs it's own operating system called IOS. Very cool. Unfortunately this one is buggered. It fails POST [Power On Self Test] on the Switch Core ASIC [Application Specific Integrated Circuit], that is what the amber port 6 'of death' means when it goes through POST. More specifically, after reviewing the output when it boots using a console cable, the buffers are shot.

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Theres not much happening lately. I have taken on some IT work, websites mainly. That's good fun. I'm learning a lot as I go too. I've learned heaps from the guy I'm working with.

We've sorted out Liam's room finally. He's not very keen on his bed yet. He slept the first time in it but doesn't want to sleep in it lately.

 

I've worked a fair bit on the design and structure of the suspension assembly to clear things up in Inventor. The suspension needs a big overhaul/re-design. Because of incorrect design the steer wheels toe in or out when the suspension moves.

It's my birthday today!

Kel made me yummy breakfast. We had bacon and sausages with baked tomatoes. Very yummy! I've been working on the HTPC some more, well most of the day actually. Put in the new power supply, since the existing PSU didn’t have the necessary P4 connector – a lead that supplies a rail of 12V to the main board. I had secured the new PSU with Gaff Tape because the existing Gateway PSU had a tricky quick-release system. I corrected that later in the afternoon when I re-attached the gateway bracket to the new PSU so it could work in quick release. I had to drill the PSU case to do it. I then mounted the two ‘tines’ on the PSU so it could mate with the top of the case, then be secured with a plastic clip.

I set up the TV tuner card and it’s all working well. It was missing channel 9 and also wouldn't record properly. I reinstalled the software and manually entered the details for channel 9 digital in manually [191.625MHz, Provider ID 1, Video UID 519, Audio UID 720]. It took a lot of searching to find those settings!

Anyways, everything was burbling away nicely. I had it running Nine Digital in full screen while Kel watched the Bulldogs game. I smelt burning. I narrowed it down to the HTPC. I narrowed it further to the PSU. I could feel the heat on my face coming off it from about a foot away while looking for the source of the smell. It was too hot to touch.

Speaking of Hot. I bought some brass bits and pieces to make an adapter so I could run the heater we got from Kel’s parents off the BBQ gas bottle. That’s all running very well now, although the regulator on the hose that came with the BBQ seems to struggle with more than 1 bar. [The heater has 3 bars] You can hear the muffled hissing sound get pretty loud at 2 and 3 bars! It’s much better than the tiny halogen heater. At least this gas unit uses a fan to circulate the air as well as radiating heat out of the front of the unit.

Adaptor

We had pizza for dinner. Dominos managed to bugger up my order. TWICE. I really can’t understand how the bloody hell "Puffection" could possibly be misinterpreted as either "Pan" or "Classic". Neither of the two terms they use to describe a pan-fried pizza sound anything like "Puffection". Bastards. No-I-dea! Had the pizzas remade after talking to the manager. They sent out pan AGAIN. Got it right third time! Go Dominos!

Liam is doing great, other than him not sleeping more than 3 hours at a time. Had a good night last night though. 7 Hours. He's also becoming a lot more vocal and a lot more dextrous lately. He will usually babble back when you speak to him and he will also now pick his toys up by himself with both hands, rather than only 'grabbing' them when they were handed to him. He's doing really well!

The HT [Home Theatre] box is getting an upgrade. I got myself a P4 1.8GHz and a 512MB stick of PC2700. It also copped a kick-arse piece of storage for recording and encoding video, so we don't have any IO bottlenecks. I put an 18gb Seagate Atlas 10K. A 10,000RPM U160 [Ultra 160 SCSI]. I only got the controller a few weeks ago second hand. It was pure luck. It cost me $10 for a bag of SCSI gear. There was a 5 point U160 cable with a terminator and a high quality Amphenol Spectra Strip cable. It's orange and white, looks cool. I also got an Adaptec U160 SCSI card.

I finally got Zagadka [The rogue in WoW] to level 30. With 3 minutes to spare before the server was coming down!

3 Mins to Go!

I killed up as close to the limit as I could while counting on at least 2K xp from the quest. I tried to hearth back at 5:00 until shutdown but got interrupted by a Spider. I ran and evaded then hearthed back to Westfall successfully. I then flew from Sentinel Hill to Darkshire.

The 2050 xp from killing Mor'Ladim *just* got me over the line!

I was lucky, I had a good group. We killed Mor'Ladim about 4 times. We also did two runs through the underground part of the graveyard, wiping everything as we passed through. We also killed Morbent Fell at the top of the hill. He's nasty.

Zagadka is now 3 levels past where he was before the "Incident" =P