The Johnson Blog

Ramblings of a geek with a few hobbies…

  • First Project

    This weekend I used my new saw for something a bit more delicate than the workbench.  Decorative shelves for Ana’s sewing room!  So they wouldn’t look too crappy, I also had to buy a router this weekend (the non-electronic kind, who would have thought…).  I’ve never used one before but it turned out quite fine.

    Here’s one of the pair.

    More photos available.

  • This is what happens

    Every now and again, when I’m done changing David’s diaper, he ends up looking like… this!

    I know, I know… terrible. 🙂

  • How did they do that?

    We’re into month 2 of a writer’s strike in Hollywood, but ER is STILL ON. A new episode aired last night. What’s it going to take to kill this show? It’s on something like its 30th season, isn’t it?!

    Sure feels like it anyway.

  • Rough Life

  • Someone stole your platelets

    That’s what the nurse told Ana today after getting her blood tested.  Bad results, she’s down to 15,000.

    She was just about weaned off the prednisone, but is now getting bumped back up and will be tested again next week.

  • Mounting ISOs in Vista

    Does anyone out there have a suggestion for software that actually works on Vista for mounting ISOs? I’ve tried a few with varying results – from immediate BSOD on boot to nothing but a black desktop on boot (cursor included).

    1. MagicISO – This is the one that worked the best until a reboot. I’d just arrive at a black background with a mouse cursor – no login screen
    2. Virtual Clone Drive – Caused the Blue Screen of Death upon install and subsequent boot. Even in Safe Mode. I had to boot from the Vista disc, attempt a repair (which failed), then drop down to command line and rename/delete system32driversvclone.sys (I think that’s what it was called). Then everything came back up so I could uninstall this horrible excuse for an app. Note, I just realized that download page doesn’t include Vista as a platform. Oops. I had read others who were successfully using it on Vista so gave it a shot.
    3. Can’t remember what I uninstalled – I uninstalled it because ULead didn’t recognize the virtual drive. Now that I’ve ran into these recent problems I really wish I could remember the name of the software I was using because it worked except for the ULead visibility.
    4. Daemon Tools Lite – Yeah, this might have worked but is packaged with spyware crap.

    All I want is to be able to mount an ISO as a virtual CD/DVD drive. A nice-to-have feature would be for that drive to appear as a CD/DVD drive in ULead Media Video Studio 11 (edit: changed the name). For some reason MagicISO did (and worked until reboot) but others didn’t.

    Any recommendations?

  • Baptism Today

    This morning David was Baptized at our church, Little Flower.  Photos are up.

    Ana, David, and I thank all of the wonderful family and friends that attended – you made the day.

    * Church photos courtesy of Brian since I had my hands full and couldn’t get behind the camera myself;  thanks Brian.

  • Workbench Completed

    More photos available…

    I really like how it turned out. 

  • Project

    Ana gave me a compound miter saw for Christmas, so I can now attempt a few projects around the house like crown molding.  I’ve never really been very good at building things, but I suspect that’s mostly because I: 1) just don’t try to often and 2) never have the appropriate tools. So, needless to say, thus begins what should be an interesting little adventure.

    Yesterday I discoved that before I can actually properly use the new saw I need to mount it to a table/workbench.  Well I don’t have a suitable table.  Much to my dismay I learned that the solution to this is to… build one.  So that’s what I did tonight – I built the frame of what is a very simple yet sturdy work bench.   All that’s left is the table top and shelf and it’ll be ready to accept the saw and other tools.  I was really surprised that it’s actually looking and feeling like a real, sturdy workbench!

    I used this website as a guide, and will be making a few additions such as built-in electrical power with a switch to turn off the whole table.

  • Quote of the Day

    It’s early but I’m pretty sure this will be the quote of the day…

    I had just opened up a gift from Ana, a t-shirt from ThinkGeek with “dad” written in binary. I made note that “david” would only require two more little lines on the shirt to which Ana replied:

    “David is Dad with a little Vi!“.  Perfect 🙂