The Greatest Story ever told! Read it from the beginning for the full impact!

No Lion for You

Our five year old iMac died a couple of weeks ago. I applied a security update and it never came back. Please don't let this scare anyone from installing updates, especially those related to security! It's just there comes a time where a computer wears out, and this was our iMac's time. It turned out to be the hard drive (HDD).

The 17" Intel iMac

However, being the near computer-whiz I am, I decided to attempt a fix. It can't be too hard to replace a HDD, right? Wrong. (This guide does  a good job of explaining it and the author still answers questions - nearly four years later!) So I decided to go the easy route - external HDD. My dad came over to help, and we got started...and immediately ran into an obstacle: I didn't have the install/recovery disc anymore. The original Intel iMacs ran OS X, Tiger version, which I had upgraded to Leopard and Snow Leopard. Since I was planning an upgrade to Lion soon, we performed a quick maneuver and created a bootable usb drive for the new OS, Lion!

Lion is a big set of files, somewhere between 3 and 4 GB, so it took a while to download. When it finished, we followed these instructions to create the bootable usb drive. The next step wasn't quite as successful. When we plugged the drive in the dead iMac, the drive was not recognized properly and it wouldn't boot. What went wrong? The processor. From what I've read so far, Lion only works on 64-bit processors and the early Intel iMacs were 32-bit.

There might be some hope, though, for this computer. My sister has one and, hopefully, still has her recovery disc. From there it's just a couple of upgrades and we'll be back in business!

My encounter with a Lion denial reminds me of this clip, which is where the title for this post came.

Tree trimming

I spent most of this past Saturday trimming back our tree in the front yard. It was hanging out in the street a bit farther and lower than the city evidently likes. (I know this because the city sent me a letter telling me so.) Instead of letting the city take care of the issue and charge me for it, I figured it wouldn't be too much to do it myself. One of these days, I'll learn not to figure!

Here's what the tree looked like before I started:

Both of these are copies of the pictures the city took.

I forgot to take pics before I started.

Here's the pile of limbs I hauled to the alley. I actually had to cut up a few of the limbs because they were too big to drag back.

And here's the finished tree:

Now my wife can make this right turn without

scrapping the top of the truck! 

That little bit hanging over is just over the sidewalk.

Seriously!

Hopefully, this makes everyone concerned happy. Just one more example of the new things you end up doing as a homeowner.

An Introduction to Marilyn

Tonight I introduced my kids to Marilyn Monroe. We watched "Some Like It Hot" on Netflix. I remember watching this when I was younger, maybe high school. That's when I fell in love with Marilyn. I always liked this movie best. It might have been the dress she wore on her date with Tony Curtis, but it's pretty funny as well. Jack Lemmon is hysterical! My kids really enjoyed it, too. Not even one complaint about it being in black and white! I think maybe next we'll watch "North by Northwest", one of my favorite Cary Grant movies. Nothing like instilling a little culture in the next generation.

Splunking in San Francisco

Union Square side of Westin St. Francis

with the Splunk flag waving

I just got back last night from the Splunk .conf2011 in San Francisco. The conference was fantastic! I've been to a few conferences before, mostly for training, but this was tops! Held at the Westin St. Francis in downtown SF, the opening atmosphere was electric, fueled by Led Zeppelin and people passionate for making new and better IT and business processes. I know, that sounds crazy and geeky, and to a degree it is. But I don't think it's any different than consumer previews held by companies like Apple, Google, and Microsoft.

Splunk, for those who don't know, is a company that started out handling IT logs, providing an easier means to search and access those logs. It has grown into something more, something with security, something to streamline business, something to enable views of data in new and usable ways. It can even be used to see what's popular on Twitter and to track shipped packages. I am excited about the possibilities for the future and plan on working on some apps for home use as well as business.

Anyway, thanks to all those who made .conf2011 a great time of learning, networking, and making friends. I hope to see everyone again next year!

Time to go splunking

The next couple of months have me traveling a few times for work. Monday I'm headed to San Francisco to attend Splunk .conf2011. Splunk is a logging search tool for networks, a "Google for logs" I've been told. It can be used for so many different things: security, business, web, applications. So this probably means little to most who'll read this, but I'm excited.

Towards the end of September, I'll be headed to DerbyCon, in Louisville, KY. This event is similar in nature to the recently finished DefCon, in Las Vegas. It's a hacker convention, with talks covering a wide spectrum of topics, as well as a capture the flag type event, a lockpicking village, and a "hacker" theater. Again, I'm excited.

In the middle of October, I've been invited to give a talk at a small conference in Idaho. I'll be speaking on email security. This time there's a little bit of nervousness mixed with the excitement, but I'm looking forward to it.

Whew! Lots to do and only a little time!

My Soundtrack

When I worked on the flightline in Florida, I wanted my soundtrack to start off with Metallica's "Whiskey in the Jar". That heavy guitar riff playing as my crew and I walked out of the hangar, moving in slo-mo, hanging missiles and bombs off fighter jets. Perfect, right? Guns N' Roses' "Welcome to the Jungle" would have fit nicely too. And now, when I drive to work, Sammy Hagar's "I Can't Drive 55" has special meaning.

I like ballads, too, so my soundtrack would also include a bunch of slow songs. Things like GNR's "Patience", Marc Cohn's "Walking in Memphis", James Taylor's "Sweet Baby James", Matt Nathanson's "Come On Get Higher". (Don't let your kids listen to that last one. That's more for the "romance time" of life, not the sentimental ones.) The point is, there are a lot of songs that speak to me, as I'm sure there are for other people.

So, question for today: What songs do you want on your soundtrack?