If only we all thought through starting a blog as well as Ted.

Worth A Try

Simson Garfinkel blogs about getting hard disk drives working by putting them in your kitchen freezer.

I've worked this trick since the mid-1990s. Sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't; but the price is right.

I always place the drive in a "zip-lock" bag — get as much air out as possible. Any moister in the air will freeze, of course.

Hard drives are designed to passively move heat. I have always felt that an hour or two was long enough. Then, I try mounting the drive while it is still freezer cold, but I also try as (and after) it has warmed back to room temperatures.

When a hard drive is obsolete or beyond repair they are always good for a few rare-earth magnets!

Please Sir, May I Have Some More?

No one likes a whiner; therefore I haven't written to my blog lately.

Here are a few quick list of things happening right now:

1. After nine years working independently, I'm looking for a full-time salary job, wish me luck!
2. I've been doing volunteer work for WebKit. WebKit is the web engine behind Apple's Safari web browser.
3. PT Wetter 3 is actively remaking his to-do system, Frictionless. I will be trying this out tonight.
4. I have been fixing-up my 1993 Volvo 850 GLT sedan. It's got 179,000 miles and going strong.
5. Now that it is past 15 May it's Summer in this part of Arizona.

Something Techies Should Know By Now

Prelude: Client hoses his operation system because he is an aggressive power-user. Techs at BestBuy and CompUSA declare that his hard drive is failing. Client buys new computer. A third (part-time?) tech recovers client data to a CD-R.

Start working the problem:

1. CD-R disc is discovered not have important files, like outlook.pst.
   
2. The hard drive was placed in a bubble wrap envelope, with no anti-static properties.
   
3. The SATA connector is partially broken; someone used hot-glue to hold their connector cable.
   
4. Hardware-wise the hard drive works fine.
   
5. The file system could be in better shape: many zero-size files with names like, "X~@", but scandisk returns no errors.
   
6. Cannot access some folders. Hmm . . .
   
7. The operating system is — can you guess? — Windows XP Professional!
   
8. Unlock the folders. The procedure is nicely documented at MSKB 810881.
   
9. Recover 9.5 Gigabytes of personal data, including a 0.5 GB outlook.pst file.
   

Optimize Mail.app Database

I found Hawk Wing's blog entry very notable this morning, since I use Apple's Mail.app all the time. This tip optimizes the Mail.app "Envelope" database.

From my Terminal.app:
% ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
-rw-r--r-- 1 user admin 32M Mar 1 17:23 /Users/user/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
% sqlite3 ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index vacuum;
% ls -lah ~/Library/Mail/Envelope\ Index
-rw-r--r-- 1 user admin 26M Mar 2 08:07 /Users/user/Library/Mail/Envelope Index
% exit

From http://www.sqlite.org/lang_vacuum.html:

SQL As Understood By SQLite

VACUUM

sql-statement ::= VACUUM [index-or-table-name]

The VACUUM command is an SQLite extension modeled after a similar command found in PostgreSQL. If VACUUM is invoked with the name of a table or index then it is suppose to clean up the named table or index. In version 1.0 of SQLite, the VACUUM command would invoke gdbm_reorganize() to clean up the backend database file.

VACUUM became a no-op when the GDBM backend was removed from SQLITE in version 2.0.0. VACUUM was reimplemented in version 2.8.1. The index or table name argument is now ignored.

When an object (table, index, or trigger) is dropped from the database, it leaves behind empty space. This makes the database file larger than it needs to be, but can speed up inserts. In time inserts and deletes can leave the database file structure fragmented, which slows down disk access to the database contents. The VACUUM command cleans the main database by copying its contents to a temporary database file and reloading the original database file from the copy. This eliminates free pages, aligns table data to be contiguous, and otherwise cleans up the database file structure. It is not possible to perform the same process on an attached database file.

This command will fail if there is an active transaction. This command has no effect on an in-memory database.

As of SQLite version 3.1, an alternative to using the VACUUM command is auto-vacuum mode, enabled using the auto_vacuum pragma.

This page last modified on 2007/02/13 02:03:25

Major Moto

I like Zeldman's work, so I loaded one of his templates for this blog. Turns out that Zeldman doesn't use his own template these days. Oh well.

Since I was planning on taking the design apart and making it my own; I used it anyway. "It" being Zeldman's "Mr. Moto" template.

In hacking through the template, I found the following error:

Originally:
Variable name="bodyFont" description="Text Font" type="font" default="normal normal 100% 'tahoma Trebuchet MS', ...

Corrected:
Variable name="bodyFont" description="Text Font" type="font" default="normal normal 100% tahoma, 'Trebuchet MS', ...

Then there was the 3-pixel height the heading got pushed down the page. I still haven't firgured that one out, yet. But I did force the headline back into place. That was and is still a frustrating bug.

Before You Trash It

Before disposing of an Apple Performa 6400 or Power Mac 6400 or Power Mac 6500 you will want to pull the really unique speaker (subwoofer) from the case. Collect two of them and you might really have something.

Getting into the case is not straight forward. They don't build 'em like they used to, which is good in this instance. Skipping one of the following steps will not speed things up!

1. Remove the front façade, starting at the bottom. Release the two bottom tabs and pull very hard.
2. Pry-off the small front façade, staring at its side-seams.
3. Remove the screw from the top-back; slide the top façade off by pushing to the back.
4. Lightly pry-up the 2 centimeter tab molded into the plastic panel's front edge on the computer's right side façade. Now slide this panel off  by pushing to the back.
5. Remove the nine Philips-head screws from the steel side panel.
6. Remove the side panel by sliding it to the rear about 1 centimeter and then lift up.
7. Remove the four T-10 screws from the bottom. These have rubber bushings that are worth saving too.
8. Release the red and black speaker lead wires. It is attached, by just friction, to the small printed circuit board (PCB) near the top-rear of the computer.
9. Remove the speaker and fish out the lead wires.
10. Done.