Dear LiveJournal,

Damn, that sucks.

Sorry to hear it Lean, that's a pain. Definitely have to make those regular backups, though.

I'm currently looking for SATA-IDE interface cables for that said hard drive. Hopefully it'll work and salvage whatever I could.

And yep, backups should be done regularly. That few weeks since my rig was fixed was its last hurrah, could have made backups then.

My PC died last week: Motherboard, power supply, primary hard disk giving up among others -- taking all my PSD's, important documents, and patching stuff. Heck even my thesis from my engineering days were gone. Even my students' grades, too.

I'll try to recover the files from the primary disk.

And that is why you buy an automatic voltage regulator.

I do have that, sir. I don't plug anything direct to the power outlet.

Not those cheap ones you can buy in computer stores, the ones that are built for industrial use.

Yes indeed. Though that default one lasted for around seven years.

But anyway, let me cry in a corner.

Stupid question, have you tried replacing the PSU to see if your rig is alive again?

Tried replacing the user?

Tried Pdub's advice. No use. I'll try to sell the user on eBay.

I tried several diagnosis on the rig during the weekend. Apparently it can't boot when the (supposedly) damaged IDE hard drive is connected. If it isn't connected, it won't even boot up. At times that it boots up with the IDE drive connected, it says "Disk read error" so I had the one conclusion that it's RIP hard drive for me. Sometimes the rig doesn't boot up without the IDE disk connected (all lights are on however).

You could fistbump the air in anger if that will help.

Tried doing the lambada around a goat. Still no use.

Two days early, but summer is officially here. 38°C today.

Starting to get pretty hot and humid here, too. Last Summer wasn't too bad, this one's shaping up to be brutal though.

The weather here's been ridiculous.

Today: 20 degrees, rain.
Yesterday: 20 degrees, rain, and horrendous winds.
The day before yesterday: 30 degrees, rain, hail, and thunder.
The day before that: 35 degrees, sunny.

What's the normal summer temperature out there?

Around here, usually anything from 30-40 degrees celcius.

And that's just the nights.

It's been consistently hot here too. About 33 degrees here today, but tomorrow it'll get up to 39. I'm really not a summer person because of days like that. Days that are unusually cold are so much easier to manage.

I'm writing this from my iPhone, as my inept ISP is still having issues (it's been out since Thursday).

Painful. Who's your provider?

We've had a couple of cooler days here, bit of a welcome change. Not expecting that to continue through the whole Summer, though.

TPG. I was probably a bit hasty with calling them inept, since my net is now running after some configuration tweaks. I guess I was frustrated because I've already used up over hald my data allowance on my phone (resets on the 18th) and there was a lot of cool stuff I wanted to check out (mainly JaoSming's Community Ballahs videos and that Pro Wrestling X kickstarter campaign). It's amazing how much of my life kind of depends on an internet connection of some kind. I basically never call anyone anymore.

I upgraded my PC with the new CPU and motherboard that I bought, but now the computer is barely even booting anymore. It starts for a few seconds and then it shuts down by itself. After doing a bunch of testing, it looks like the mainboard may just be defective. I left it at my local pc shop, but i think I'll probably have to RMA this shit...

TPG. I was probably a bit hasty with calling them inept, since my net is now running after some configuration tweaks. I guess I was frustrated because I've already used up over hald my data allowance on my phone (resets on the 18th) and there was a lot of cool stuff I wanted to check out (mainly JaoSming's Community Ballahs videos and that Pro Wrestling X kickstarter campaign). It's amazing how much of my life kind of depends on an internet connection of some kind. I basically never call anyone anymore.

TPG aren't too bad but I have heard stories from some of their customers about connection issues and difficulty resolving them. I can't comment on their broadband service but at one point many, many years ago I was with them on dialup and there were a little less reliable than some of the other providers I've tried over the years. You're absolutely right though, you don't realise just how much you rely on and enjoy immediate access to the Internet until technical difficulties get in the way of it.

So do they shut your net off when you are over your cap or just throttle the speed down?

I'm on an unlimited plan, so I would have thought neither.