Sunday, May 03, 2020
Unlocking lockdown
The Gorse Fox notes that his security camera is providing clear evidence that people are beginning to move about much more. When first installed he might see 5 alerts between 8pm and 8am. Now that number has at least doubled, if not trebled, and most of the increase is between 8pm and midnight. If he can be bothered, he might get round to plotting a graph. Then again...
Got it
The Gorse Fox is delighted to report that, on checking all of the overnight backups, the fix that he developed yesterday has solved the problem of the hibernating disks. No, as each backup job wakes up it runs a small script to go and look at the disk and then waits for 10 seconds to make sure it has "spun up". Then the backup kicks in as usual.
Now he can return to other matters such as the "tawnyowl' rebuild and what to do, longer term, about media storage and streaming.
Now he can return to other matters such as the "tawnyowl' rebuild and what to do, longer term, about media storage and streaming.
Saturday, May 02, 2020
Study
It's been a lovely day. The sun has shone and the temperature has been a mild but comfortable mid-teen. The Silver Vixen has spent much of the day working on some protective masks. Several early versions didn't work, but after test fitting against the Gorse Fox, several times, she got the fitting right and we now have a perfectly functional protective mask.
The Gorse Fox spent the day working on the new NAS and the backup system. Overnight tests had shown that the new NAS's ability to hibernate the disks created a problem and the backup system couldn't identify the potential target devices. After some thought the Gorse Fox came up with a solution that effectively woke the disks just before the backup process was due to kick-in. We will see, overnight, whether this does the job.
Much of the rest of the study-time was spent cleaning up the new build for "tawnyowl". This is because we managed to introduce an error in the build script (somewhere) and need to re-run several build steps
The Gorse Fox spent the day working on the new NAS and the backup system. Overnight tests had shown that the new NAS's ability to hibernate the disks created a problem and the backup system couldn't identify the potential target devices. After some thought the Gorse Fox came up with a solution that effectively woke the disks just before the backup process was due to kick-in. We will see, overnight, whether this does the job.
Much of the rest of the study-time was spent cleaning up the new build for "tawnyowl". This is because we managed to introduce an error in the build script (somewhere) and need to re-run several build steps
Friday, May 01, 2020
Progress
The day started with Jasper using the Gorse Fox as a trampoline at 6:30. The Gorse Fox decided that was silly and ignored hime for 45 minutes and then made his way quietly downstairs. He didn't make his customary coffee as the machine is so loud it may have disturbed the various sleeping beauties upstairs and the Gorse Fox decided they all needed their rest.
Once everyone was up and about and fed, Urban-Cub and Ellie joined the Gorse Fox on a walk to Sainsbury's. More cat food was needed along with other essentials such as chocolate and wine. While we were in the store the heavens opened and it was still raining when we finished our shopping. It's only rain. So we tucked Ellie into the buggy and raised the rain cover and headed home. By halfway the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Overall it had been a pleasant couple of hours.
The Gorse Fox picked up some lovely looking hot dog sausages (Dino's) and some rolls. That was lunch sorted for the three of us, but the Silver Vixen (not a fan of hot dogs) declined the offer and munched on something healthy. (Talking of health, the Gorse Fox weighed himself this week for the first time since lockdown. He was expecting bad news, but was actually exactly the same weight as last time he checked before lockdown).
The afternoon has been spent back with the Synology NAS. Further reorganisation has taken place, and files have been flying back and forth round the network. The Gorse Fox thinks he has the basic structure right, but being cautious he wants to check everything out of=ver the next few days before he starts deleting information from the old NAS devices. He is still debating a few design decisions but may well leave one of the existing NAS devices as the master source for the various Raspberry Pi projects and coding projects. The rest of the device will probably be used as the target for Apple Time Machine backups. Like all design decisions, there are pros and cons and the Gorse Fox will (of course) document it all along with the reasoning.
Once everyone was up and about and fed, Urban-Cub and Ellie joined the Gorse Fox on a walk to Sainsbury's. More cat food was needed along with other essentials such as chocolate and wine. While we were in the store the heavens opened and it was still raining when we finished our shopping. It's only rain. So we tucked Ellie into the buggy and raised the rain cover and headed home. By halfway the rain had stopped and the sun was out. Overall it had been a pleasant couple of hours.
The Gorse Fox picked up some lovely looking hot dog sausages (Dino's) and some rolls. That was lunch sorted for the three of us, but the Silver Vixen (not a fan of hot dogs) declined the offer and munched on something healthy. (Talking of health, the Gorse Fox weighed himself this week for the first time since lockdown. He was expecting bad news, but was actually exactly the same weight as last time he checked before lockdown).
The afternoon has been spent back with the Synology NAS. Further reorganisation has taken place, and files have been flying back and forth round the network. The Gorse Fox thinks he has the basic structure right, but being cautious he wants to check everything out of=ver the next few days before he starts deleting information from the old NAS devices. He is still debating a few design decisions but may well leave one of the existing NAS devices as the master source for the various Raspberry Pi projects and coding projects. The rest of the device will probably be used as the target for Apple Time Machine backups. Like all design decisions, there are pros and cons and the Gorse Fox will (of course) document it all along with the reasoning.
Thursday, April 30, 2020
Mirrors
Its been a day of two parts. The first part was bright and sunny, but a little windy. The second part was dark and brooding and interspersed with very heavy rain. The Gorse Fox made the most of the morning brightness to walk to the pharmacy to collect a prescription for a neighbour. It was a lovely stretch and, with no queue at the pharmacy, the Gorse Fox was there and back in about 45 minutes.
Once home, he retired to the study. The new NAS arrived yesterday evening and he has spent much of the day going through 37 introductory videos to ensure he understood the features and functions. (Isn't it a good job you can play YouTube videos at 1.5x or 2x speed?) Once that was done, he started to migrate some data from the existing NAS to the new one. He's taking this slowly as the new device presents itself to the various systems very differently from the old ones. As a result he is limiting the files, at first, to those accessed by Condor. He then needs to satisfy himself that, when Condor shuts down, it can find the new NAS again without intervention. Once that is sorted out, it will be a similar exercise for the Raspberry Pis, and the various other Linux computers. When the Gorse Fox is convinced the device is correctly mounted at startup for all systems, then he can complete the various file transfers and clean things up on the way.
Another feature that is different between the old and new NAS devices is support for streaming media. This will take a little bit of experimentation to decide whether to use the inbuilt features or to bite the bullet and build a Plex server on a new Pi.
Once home, he retired to the study. The new NAS arrived yesterday evening and he has spent much of the day going through 37 introductory videos to ensure he understood the features and functions. (Isn't it a good job you can play YouTube videos at 1.5x or 2x speed?) Once that was done, he started to migrate some data from the existing NAS to the new one. He's taking this slowly as the new device presents itself to the various systems very differently from the old ones. As a result he is limiting the files, at first, to those accessed by Condor. He then needs to satisfy himself that, when Condor shuts down, it can find the new NAS again without intervention. Once that is sorted out, it will be a similar exercise for the Raspberry Pis, and the various other Linux computers. When the Gorse Fox is convinced the device is correctly mounted at startup for all systems, then he can complete the various file transfers and clean things up on the way.
Another feature that is different between the old and new NAS devices is support for streaming media. This will take a little bit of experimentation to decide whether to use the inbuilt features or to bite the bullet and build a Plex server on a new Pi.
Wednesday, April 29, 2020
Rebuild
The rebuild of "tawnyowl" is now complete. The Raspberry Pi is updated to "buster", PHP and WordPress are both up to date, and the MySql database has been replaced with MariaDB. The old database has been imported, and all of the media, themes, and plugins have been restored. Everything seems to work beautifully. So what next?
The Gorse Fox removed the updated drive from "tawnyowl" and started again. The idea is to redo the complete rebuild in a single pass to check all of his configuration scripts and his documentation. If that completes without incident he can consider when "peregrine" may get the full upgrade treatment.
Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox is still waiting for Amazon to deliver the new NAS. He suspects it will be tomorrow before he gets a chance to start working on that.
The Gorse Fox removed the updated drive from "tawnyowl" and started again. The idea is to redo the complete rebuild in a single pass to check all of his configuration scripts and his documentation. If that completes without incident he can consider when "peregrine" may get the full upgrade treatment.
Meanwhile, the Gorse Fox is still waiting for Amazon to deliver the new NAS. He suspects it will be tomorrow before he gets a chance to start working on that.
Hallelujah Virgin
Well having fretted for a number of weeks regarding the scheduled (but clearly not happening) holiday to Jamaica, Virgin Holidays finally made contact yesterday. (The Gorse Fox should explain he has been trying to get some sense out of them since March 14th.) Yesterday's email include a voucher for the full amount of the holiday which could be used in rebooking. It also said that if we had decided to cancel, there was an online form to complete and we could have a full refund. The form was duly filled in and would not submit from "Safari" on the Mac, so he logged in to "Eagle" (a Linux server) and filled it in again... pressed Submit and got an immediate confirmation. The Gorse Fox now has to await a phone call apparently.
Tuesday, April 28, 2020
Rain
The forecast rain set in overnight. It has been grey and wet all day. The Gorse Fox had to pop to Sainsbury's this morning. We were in need of some cat food and as he also needed to pick up some of Jasper's dry food, he took the car. It seemed strange, driving for the first time in about a month. Anyway, he managed and picked a prime time for the trip as he didn't have to queue at all. When Sainsbury's was done, he drove up to the Farm Shop at Runcton for the kibbles. Sorted! Jasper now has food to last for a couple of weeks and dry kibbles for the next two or three months.
The rest of the day has been spent playing with Ellie, though Urban-cub is now home. She arrived mid-afternoon but has gone to bed to get a bit of sleep after a couple of hectic and emotional days.
The Gorse Fox did get a few minutes in the study, but not enough to conclude any further work. He used the time to update his documentation with the latest conclusions. He has also heard from Amazon and is expecting his new NAS to arrive tomorrow (but expects it will be at the end of the day).
The rest of the day has been spent playing with Ellie, though Urban-cub is now home. She arrived mid-afternoon but has gone to bed to get a bit of sleep after a couple of hectic and emotional days.
The Gorse Fox did get a few minutes in the study, but not enough to conclude any further work. He used the time to update his documentation with the latest conclusions. He has also heard from Amazon and is expecting his new NAS to arrive tomorrow (but expects it will be at the end of the day).
Monday, April 27, 2020
Eureka
It has been a bitty day. The weather has been fair, though slightly cooler than of late. There is rain forecast for tomorrow. Ellie pretty much dictated the day. She was very good and the Gorse Fox found himself camping in her tent, building a tower out of Lego, then putting it away; playing with her Paw Patrol toys with her; getting the Lego out again and building another edifice; then being pressed in IT Support when her iPad didn't work. This, however, appears to be terminal. The Gorse Fox cannot even power it up. Panic. That is one of her comforters! The Gorse Fox retrieved the Lenovo Tablet he reads at bedtime. He set up a children's account for Ellie and downloaded CBeebies and YouTube Kidz. Panic over. Peace was restored.
The Silver Vixen joined us for a walk to the lake after lunch. We had planned to feed the ducks, but it was quite clear that they didn't need any extra food. In fact they studiously avoided us instead of charging towards us like they do usually. Over on the island we could see a swan sitting majestically on its nests and making the most of the afternoon sunshine.
Once we were back, Ellie entertained herself, the Silver Vixen watched a sewing video and the Gorse Fox returned to the "tawnyowl" rebuild. He had had brief (if rare) moment of clarity overnight. He wondered if yesterday's blank screen was in fact being displayed as such because none of the blog configuration had been done. He retrieved the wp-content folder from the backup and tried again. Voila! The test blog was alive again and displaying all its content as it should. The Gorse Fox still has to fix some permissions, but essentially we are on the home stretch.
Urban-Cub, incidentally, is still looking after the Princess's children. She did, eventually, give birth to baby Annabelle overnight but it did not go smoothly and she ended up in Intensive Care for most of the day. She seems to be on the mend now, though. Urban-Cub will stay with the kids another night so that mum, dad, and baby can remain at the hospital.
Once we were back, Ellie entertained herself, the Silver Vixen watched a sewing video and the Gorse Fox returned to the "tawnyowl" rebuild. He had had brief (if rare) moment of clarity overnight. He wondered if yesterday's blank screen was in fact being displayed as such because none of the blog configuration had been done. He retrieved the wp-content folder from the backup and tried again. Voila! The test blog was alive again and displaying all its content as it should. The Gorse Fox still has to fix some permissions, but essentially we are on the home stretch.
Urban-Cub, incidentally, is still looking after the Princess's children. She did, eventually, give birth to baby Annabelle overnight but it did not go smoothly and she ended up in Intensive Care for most of the day. She seems to be on the mend now, though. Urban-Cub will stay with the kids another night so that mum, dad, and baby can remain at the hospital.
Sunday, April 26, 2020
So Close
The Silver Vixen has been concentrating on her sewing. Urban-Cub got a call from Princess to say she was going into labour. Urban-Cub hit the road as she would be looking after the existing kids while the fun happened.
The Gorse Fox returned to the rebuild. A night's sleep and some concerted fiddling about has got everything installed and, at one point working! The issue was then restoring all the data. The command to do this seems easy enough and the data is clearly back in the database. However, the blog management software (WordPress) then decided to act dumb and at first wouldm't let the Gorse Fox log in, then wouldn't even show a log-in screen.
He will sleep on it.
The Gorse Fox returned to the rebuild. A night's sleep and some concerted fiddling about has got everything installed and, at one point working! The issue was then restoring all the data. The command to do this seems easy enough and the data is clearly back in the database. However, the blog management software (WordPress) then decided to act dumb and at first wouldm't let the Gorse Fox log in, then wouldn't even show a log-in screen.
He will sleep on it.
More NASty failures
Blast! The Gorse Fox had 5 more backup failures overnight. He has been nursing this disk since Christmas, but fears it really is on its last legs. He has had to bite the bullet and has ordered a new 2-bay NAS system as a replacement. Hopefully it will arrive and get set up before the inevitable happens and the old drive disappears in a cloud of rust particles along with one set of backups. (Clearly, the Gorse Fox has at least one additional set of backups.)
Saturday, April 25, 2020
Minus 7 Plus 6 Minus 5
What a frustrating day. The Gorse Fox decided to uninstall many of the steps taken yesterday, then reinstall in slightly different sequence. All went well up to a point. That point, however seemed to be inpenetrable. The Gorse Fox is now embarking on an exercise to step back again and then work forward following slightly different instructions along the way.
Meanwhile, in real life, the weather is bright and sunny though the wind is a bit chilly. It is certainly warm enough to enjoy the garden if you select a sheltered spot. The Silver Vixen, Urban-Cub and Gorse Fox popped round to the car park of the Pink Pub earlier. There is chap selling plants and compost (and eggs). Compost was loaded into the buggy with some flowers and Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen spent the morning sorting out the front garden. It looks very nice and when the geraniums hit their stride, it will be a riot of colour. (The car park also had a huge lorry selling fresh meat. This is the chap who is usually at Chichester market and is know for the quality of the meat and the value for money. Certainly, the Gorse Fox was very impressed with the prices he was displaying. We, however, have no space in the freezer for any more food, so will have to wait and try him another time).
Meanwhile, in real life, the weather is bright and sunny though the wind is a bit chilly. It is certainly warm enough to enjoy the garden if you select a sheltered spot. The Silver Vixen, Urban-Cub and Gorse Fox popped round to the car park of the Pink Pub earlier. There is chap selling plants and compost (and eggs). Compost was loaded into the buggy with some flowers and Urban-Cub and the Silver Vixen spent the morning sorting out the front garden. It looks very nice and when the geraniums hit their stride, it will be a riot of colour. (The car park also had a huge lorry selling fresh meat. This is the chap who is usually at Chichester market and is know for the quality of the meat and the value for money. Certainly, the Gorse Fox was very impressed with the prices he was displaying. We, however, have no space in the freezer for any more food, so will have to wait and try him another time).
Friday, April 24, 2020
Three forward and One back
The Gorse Fox has had a mixed day. It's been a case of taking several steps forward on the rebuild of "tawnyowl" and then the occasional step backwards. To add to the fun there is the occasional "Grandpa will you come down and play with me?" The first time that call came this morning the Gorse Fox was cajoled into folding himself into her tiny wigwam and pretending to sleep. He played along. This afternoon he has been following her around, reading to her, and pushing her in her swing. The Silver Vixen has been preparing the finishing touches on the dress she is making for Ellie and had another tea & chat on the driveway with Tinkerbell and Lady Penelope first thing this afternoon.
Back in the study, "tawnyowl" now has the "Mariadb" installed, along with PHP and Rexx/SQL. The issue at close of play is that Wordpress is playing hard-to-get. The Gorse Fox is not overly concerned. He will return to this tomorrow. Once everything is working he will probably trash the system again and go through the whole rebuild script from the beginning to ensure it is working correctly. (This is important because he suspects that there will be value in upgrading "peregrine" in the near future, and that's the "production" version of the private blog).
Urban-Cub took Ellie across to LA for a weekend with Pistol Pete.
The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent a quiet hour in the garden enjoying a rum and coke and imagining we were in Jamaica. It was warm and sunny and other than the lack of background reggae music and a butler to keep bringing the drinks, it was easy to imagine.
The garden is looking particularly handsome at present. The Acers are wonderful and lush. We were hoping to plant several more in the ground in the early spring but missed the opportunity because of the lockdown and difficulty in getting the right compost. We'll wait unit they are dormant in the Autumn and plant them rather than leaving them too much longer in their pots.
Back in the study, "tawnyowl" now has the "Mariadb" installed, along with PHP and Rexx/SQL. The issue at close of play is that Wordpress is playing hard-to-get. The Gorse Fox is not overly concerned. He will return to this tomorrow. Once everything is working he will probably trash the system again and go through the whole rebuild script from the beginning to ensure it is working correctly. (This is important because he suspects that there will be value in upgrading "peregrine" in the near future, and that's the "production" version of the private blog).
The Silver Vixen and Gorse Fox spent a quiet hour in the garden enjoying a rum and coke and imagining we were in Jamaica. It was warm and sunny and other than the lack of background reggae music and a butler to keep bringing the drinks, it was easy to imagine.
The garden is looking particularly handsome at present. The Acers are wonderful and lush. We were hoping to plant several more in the ground in the early spring but missed the opportunity because of the lockdown and difficulty in getting the right compost. We'll wait unit they are dormant in the Autumn and plant them rather than leaving them too much longer in their pots.
Thursday, April 23, 2020
3.14
The Gorse Fox has missed Pi day by a month or so. Much of today, however, has been dedicated to getting "tawnyowl" back up to running status with all of the latest software releases. The upgrades have been interesting! The scripts and documentation that recorded the original set-up no longer work seamlessly. Most work, but some patently don't. This has made the day a little challenging. By now, the Gorse Fox would have hoped to have the whole system built, instead of which he has only got as far as the database build. He has paused at this point because MySQL seems to be superseded by MariaDB and he needs to be sure that his code will run against it. Cue an overnight pause.
In other news Urban-Cub and Ellie headed off to Sainsbury's and the Gorse Fox headed off to the pharmacy to collect a prescription for some isolating neighbours. Unfortunately, one of the medications is not currently available so the Gorse Fox will have to return and collect it when it finally comes in.
It has been a lovely day, weather-wise. Urban-Cub and Ellie have spent much of the day outside in the garden. The Silver Vixen made the most of the time and worked on the dress she has been making for Ellie.
In other news Urban-Cub and Ellie headed off to Sainsbury's and the Gorse Fox headed off to the pharmacy to collect a prescription for some isolating neighbours. Unfortunately, one of the medications is not currently available so the Gorse Fox will have to return and collect it when it finally comes in.
It has been a lovely day, weather-wise. Urban-Cub and Ellie have spent much of the day outside in the garden. The Silver Vixen made the most of the time and worked on the dress she has been making for Ellie.
Wednesday, April 22, 2020
Bake off
Among the delights that have filled our day today we include cupcakes. Ellie was intent that we bake some cupcakes... and when the Gorse Fox says "we" he doesn't actually include himself in the pronoun.
Urban-Cub and Ellie got stuck-in (so to speak) and after flour, sugar, eggs, and heavens knows what else got sprayed around the kitchen the wonderful smell of baking started to permeate the house.
Once the cakes were cooked and suitably cooled it was time that they were iced. This involved a chocolate icing and some "Frozen" edible stickers. (At least, the Gorse Fox hopes they were edible). Ellie got totally involved in the icing process, particularly, it appears, in the cleaning of the bowl afterwards.
Urban-Cub and Ellie got stuck-in (so to speak) and after flour, sugar, eggs, and heavens knows what else got sprayed around the kitchen the wonderful smell of baking started to permeate the house.
Playing
While Ellie was playing, the Silver Vixen unwrapped her new overlocker. We fired up the DVD (which was a most peculiar format), on the Linux Mint partition on her old laptop, "Osprey". The Windows partition wouldn't play it, so we had to swap. Once she had finished, the Gorse Fox took the DVD to his study and ripped it down to the NAS so that she could watch it on any device. She then spent the afternoon using the overlocker to finish making a dress for Ellie.
The Gorse Fox popped about the house. He grabbed a DVD belonging to Elli and tried to rip that so that it could be viewed on her iPad. This was a failure. A bit of Googling, however, came up with another program that would appear to do the job. After parting with some coins of the realm, he downloaded the code and fired it up. It took slightly longer, but it successfully ripped the DVD into a format that we could play. Success.
The nice man from Amazon arrived with the SDCards the Gorse Fox had ordered. The NOOBS code was copied to the SDCard and the Gorse Fox set up the raw "tawnyowl" in the family room, linked to the TV. It took a while (it is a slow, old Pi), but eventually the device was re-initialised and ready for configuring... that, however, can wait until tomorrow.
The Gorse Fox popped about the house. He grabbed a DVD belonging to Elli and tried to rip that so that it could be viewed on her iPad. This was a failure. A bit of Googling, however, came up with another program that would appear to do the job. After parting with some coins of the realm, he downloaded the code and fired it up. It took slightly longer, but it successfully ripped the DVD into a format that we could play. Success.
The nice man from Amazon arrived with the SDCards the Gorse Fox had ordered. The NOOBS code was copied to the SDCard and the Gorse Fox set up the raw "tawnyowl" in the family room, linked to the TV. It took a while (it is a slow, old Pi), but eventually the device was re-initialised and ready for configuring... that, however, can wait until tomorrow.
Tuesday, April 21, 2020
Smile
The Gorse Fox likes a bit of friendly banter, as long as it is humorous and makes everyone feel better for it. Because it was so sunny today, the Gorse Fox decided to wear his hat to protect his head now that his luscious locks are thinning so conclusively.
At Sainsbury's he had picked up a bottle of rum among the items in shopping. As he went to the SmartShop Scanner he started the checkout/payment process but needed authorisation from a member of staff for the alcohol.
As she wandered over, the Gorse Fox preempted her arrival with the quip "I have a bottle of rum here, but don't have any id to prove that I am over 18".
She looked him up and down. She smiled and retorted "Don't worry, the hat gives that away".
The Gorse Fox believes that was touché!
As she wandered over, the Gorse Fox preempted her arrival with the quip "I have a bottle of rum here, but don't have any id to prove that I am over 18".
She looked him up and down. She smiled and retorted "Don't worry, the hat gives that away".
The Gorse Fox believes that was touché!
Shops and things
The Gorse Fox was up early. The Ocado shopping list needed to be entered and refined, and experience from the last few weeks has taught the Gorse Fox that early morning is best. He also took the opportunity to book a delivery for 3 weeks time... keeping a weekly delivery slot in place for us.
Once everyone else started their morning faffing about the Gorse Fox retired to the study and made use of the time by re-testing the database restore process from his backups. This was important because he is about to start rebuilding "tawnyowl" and needs to feel confident there will be no unforeseen problems with the test database.
With everything under control he linked the "pi" up to the little TV and started the installation. Well, that would have been the theory. In fact he did nothing. The little TV clearly was so old that it did not support any HDMI mode that the Raspberry Pi could attempt. Stymied.
By midday everyone else was about ready so Urban-Cub, Ellie and the Gorse Fox headed off to walk to Sainsbury's. There was a fair list of items that Ocado did not have in stock so we needed to source ourselves. While we completed our shopping trip/exercise session, the Silver Vixen completed her Pilates. This was conducted by her usual instructor, using a series of sessions she has uploaded to YouTube.
The afternoon was spent mostly in the garden. Ellie had some quiet time in the lounge so we sat in the garden and made the most of a an hour or so of peace. During this time, the Silver Vixen's new overlocker was delivered and she has spent the rest of the afternoon reading the manual. The device itself still sits in the delivery box.
The Gorse Fox almost made use of the time and connected up "tawnyowl" to the TV in the family room and started the installation. Again, he was thwarted. This time the TV functioned correctly but when he selected the particular installation option it returned and error message to say there was insufficient space on the 8GB SDCard. Pah! New 16GB and 32GB cards have been ordered. Everything has been put away overnight.
Once everyone else started their morning faffing about the Gorse Fox retired to the study and made use of the time by re-testing the database restore process from his backups. This was important because he is about to start rebuilding "tawnyowl" and needs to feel confident there will be no unforeseen problems with the test database.
With everything under control he linked the "pi" up to the little TV and started the installation. Well, that would have been the theory. In fact he did nothing. The little TV clearly was so old that it did not support any HDMI mode that the Raspberry Pi could attempt. Stymied.
By midday everyone else was about ready so Urban-Cub, Ellie and the Gorse Fox headed off to walk to Sainsbury's. There was a fair list of items that Ocado did not have in stock so we needed to source ourselves. While we completed our shopping trip/exercise session, the Silver Vixen completed her Pilates. This was conducted by her usual instructor, using a series of sessions she has uploaded to YouTube.
The afternoon was spent mostly in the garden. Ellie had some quiet time in the lounge so we sat in the garden and made the most of a an hour or so of peace. During this time, the Silver Vixen's new overlocker was delivered and she has spent the rest of the afternoon reading the manual. The device itself still sits in the delivery box.
The Gorse Fox almost made use of the time and connected up "tawnyowl" to the TV in the family room and started the installation. Again, he was thwarted. This time the TV functioned correctly but when he selected the particular installation option it returned and error message to say there was insufficient space on the 8GB SDCard. Pah! New 16GB and 32GB cards have been ordered. Everything has been put away overnight.
Monday, April 20, 2020
A bitty day
The day has not really flowed. The weather has been wonderful, but there were things to do and obviously Ellie had her own views regarding what should be happening.
The morning, for the Gorse Fox, was split between Elli and doing admin. There was a further letter to prepare and submit for Barclaycard, there were accounts to do, there were colouring diagrams to print for Ellie, and there were toys that needed to be played with!
The Gorse Fox also started planning for the rebuild of "tawnyowl". This involved returning to the original documentation and starting to update it to reflect the latest Raspian downloads. He also disappeared into the loft and retrieved an old 32inch Samsung TV that he could use as a monitor for the installation. (Needless to say, the TV appears fine, but the power cable is missing. A new one has been ordered, but the Gorse Fox may have to borrow one in the interim).
This afternoon saw Urban-Cub, Ellie and the Gorse Fox go for a short walk round the lake. The area where we usually feed the ducks has been taped off, so we stood nearby and hurled the duck-food across the divide into the lake. The swans weren't in attendance at the feeding point, but we did catch up with them further round the lake.
Once back home we prepared Ellie's supper and our own. While we were clearing up afterwards, Ellie tucked herself into a corner between the dresser and the kitchen top and watched her iPad. If it wasn't for the sound of the videos we wouldn't have known where she was.
The morning, for the Gorse Fox, was split between Elli and doing admin. There was a further letter to prepare and submit for Barclaycard, there were accounts to do, there were colouring diagrams to print for Ellie, and there were toys that needed to be played with!
The Gorse Fox also started planning for the rebuild of "tawnyowl". This involved returning to the original documentation and starting to update it to reflect the latest Raspian downloads. He also disappeared into the loft and retrieved an old 32inch Samsung TV that he could use as a monitor for the installation. (Needless to say, the TV appears fine, but the power cable is missing. A new one has been ordered, but the Gorse Fox may have to borrow one in the interim).
Sunday, April 19, 2020
Cross and stitch
Taking the title out of order, the Silver Vixen was having significant trouble with her overlocker (the Gorse Fox thinks he mentioned this before). He has a view that if you spend more time trying to get a machine to work than you do using the machine, it is no use. As a result the Gorse Fox persuaded the Silver Vixen to go online and do some research to find a replacement. It did take her quite a few hours, by the time she had watched various reviews and YouTube demos. In the end, a model was selected and purchased. Hopefully this will arrive on Tuesday.
As for the "cross" bit, the Silver Vixen was not amused to find that despite all efforts, Jasper has again been digging in her raised planter. Action was needed. The Gorse Fox removed Jasper's bucket and spade, some garden wire was woven around the point of ingress, and a spot found for a new external litter box. Hopefully that will do the trick.
As for the "cross" bit, the Silver Vixen was not amused to find that despite all efforts, Jasper has again been digging in her raised planter. Action was needed. The Gorse Fox removed Jasper's bucket and spade, some garden wire was woven around the point of ingress, and a spot found for a new external litter box. Hopefully that will do the trick.
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