Author Archives: gmcdavid

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About gmcdavid

Retired IT professional with a wide range of interests. Married. Three sons, two with autistic-spectrum disorders and the third being transgender with Ehlers-Danlos syndrome. From Chicago but now living in the Twin Cities metro, Minnesota. Episcopalian. Carleton College (BA 1972, physics) and Stanford University (MS 1974, Applied Physics; MS 1976 Statistics).

Return to St. Luke’s

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My wife Mia and I left Windycon about 9AM Sunday, missing the con events of that day. It took nearly an hour, in perfect traffic conditions, to reach the east side of Evanston. Our objective there was St. Luke’s Episcopal Church. We were members of it from 1977 until 1997, and were married there in 1978. The church went through a difficult period in the late 1990’s, but has since recovered and seems to be thriving again. The liturgy is still excellent. Some people from our day are still members, and we were able to talk to a couple of them, including our old EFM mentor. There was quite a crowd for an ordinary Sunday in November, especially in the age of Covid. We introduced ourselves to the new Rector and told her how happy we were at how the parish is doing under her leadership.

Windycon 2021

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My wife Mia and I spend the past weekend in Chicagoland. Friday and Saturday we were at Windycon, a science fiction convention that we have frequently attended since the 1970s. This was first SF con we have been to since the world shut down for Covid-19. There was no Windycon in 2020. Covid, of course, has not gone away, but this year Windycon was back, with changes. There were very strict and detailed Covid policies. Proof of vaccination or a recent negative Covid test were required for admission. Masks were required everywhere except “while … actively consuming food or drink in the consuite or green room” or for performers while performing and at least 6 feet from anyone else. Bill Roper has a positive con report, with which I completely agree.

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A Computer Memory Upgrade

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Having experienced resourse limitations on an HP EliteDesk 705 G2 SFF I decided to add more memory to it. It has four slots for memory and came with two 4GB memory modules. I ordered two 8GB modules from Crucial, where you can search for upgrades compatible with your particular computer model. These arrived and I proceeded to install them, hoping for a 24GB system. This proved to be trickier than I had expected. Continue reading →

Rang Gaeilge, 20ú lá Mí na mí Dheireadh Fómhair 2021

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Duinnín agus na Bollain (tuilleadh)

  • Chiúnaigh an tseanbhean tar éis tamaill agus d’fhill Brídín. ar
    an gcomhluadar. Thóg an tAthair Pádraig an buideal uaithi.
    Bhain se an corc as agus é ag mothú gurbh é uair na cinniúna é.
    Bholaigh sé é. Ansin dhoirt se braon ar a bhois agus bhlais sé de.
    Bhí sé ar an bpoitín ba ghairge agus ba ghránna a bhlais sé
    riamh, ach ní raibh aon amhras air ach gur phoitín é. Bhí na
    cailíní á choimhéad. Chuimil sé an braon go cúramach ar alt a
    ordóige.

    ‘Tá leigheas ann ceart go leor,’ ar seisean.

    The old woman calmed down after a while and Bridey returned to
    the company. Father Patrick took the bottle from her. He removed the cork,
    feeling it was the moment of destiny. He smelled it. Then he poured a
    drop on his palm and tasted it. It was the harshest and ugliest poteen he
    had ever tasted, but he had no doubt but that it was poteen.
    The girls were watching him. He carefully rubbed the drop on a joint of his thumb.

    ‘That is certainly medicine,’ he said.

    Ciúnaigh Calm; pacify
    comhluadar (social) company m
    mothú Feeling, perception; sensation, consciousness m
    cinniúint Destiny; chance; Tragedy, misfortune f gs cinniúna
    Bolaigh smell v
    doirt
    braon drop m
    gairge Harshness, pungency f
    gránna ugly
    coimhéad watch, guard m
    Cuimil rub, stroke, fondle; wipe
    alt joint m

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Duct tape disk

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Following up on Installing Debian Linux I decided to replace that machines’s hard drive by a 500GB SSD. This went quite smoothly. The only hitch was that the 3.5″ SSD mounting bracket for the 2.5″ SSD did not have any any screw holes to match those in the space left behind by the old 3.5″ drive. So I ended up securing it with duct tape!

I also had to reinstall Debian. The free edition of Macrium did not have an obvious way to transfer the Debian partition from its external USB drive to the new internal SSD, even though there was plenty of space. I expect this can be done, but I did not have the knowledge. I could have left Debian on the USB drive, but the new SSD had space for it and I have too many USD devices hanging off that machine anyway.

Adding new disk partitions to a Linux system

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The default Ubuntu installation process places all of the files in a single disk partition. However, it may be desirable to use multiple partitions. In particular you might want to have /home in its own partition and have yet another partition for the swap area. This way you could install another Linux distribution and have it share the swap area and /home, so you can save swap space and share your data files between the distributions. I have done this successfully on another system. In that case I created the multiple partitions when installing the distributions. For the Ubuntu installer it is the “something else” option when you choose how you are going to use your disk. It is fussier than following the defaults, but easier than the Slackware disk partitioning I used to do.

What if you followed the default Ubuntu install process and want to create additional partitions after the fact? That is what I wanted to do before I ended up Rebuilding a Linux System.

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Rang Gaeilge, 28ú lá Mí na Mheán Fómhair 2021

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Duinnín agus na Bollain (tuilleadh)

  • Is ansin a chuir an diabhal cathú air. Bhí air suí síos ar an
    trasnán. Phléasc a cheann le físeanna. An mhaith a dhéanfadh
    dornán beag bonn do mhuintir Shé … aturnae don mháthair,
    spré do Bhrídín, faoiseamh don deirfiúr bhreoite, dram don
    tsean-    lady, cearca . . . bó. Bhí a lámha ar crith nuair a bhrúigh
    sé an cláirín anuas ar an mbosca. Chuir sé ar ais sa pholl folaigh
    é. Chuir sé an tomhaisín ina phóca.

    It was then that the devil tempted him. He had to sit down on the crossbar.
    His head exploded with visions. A small handful of coins would be good for
    the Shea family … an attorney for the mother, a dowry for Bridey, relief for
    the ailing sister, a dram for the old lady, hens … a cow.
    His hands were shaking when he pushed the palm down on the box.
    He put it back in the hiding hole. He put the small paper cone in his pocket.

    cathú Conflict, battle; temptation
    Pléasc
    dornán Fistful, handful; small quantity or number m
    bonn sole; coin gpl here
    aturnae Attorney, solicitor
    spré wealth; dowry
    faoiseamh Relief; alleviation, ease m
    breoite Sick, ailing.
    crith tremble, shake; trembling, shaking v and m
    brúigh press; push, shove
    cláirín Little board; short stave; Flat part; palm (of hand m
    tomhaisín Small measure, small amount; Cone-shaped paper bag; wallet, purse m

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Installing Debian Linux

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After Rebuilding a Linux System I decided to see if I could add another distribution to it. I was short of space on the hard drive, but I had a 250GB SSD. Unfortunately, on opening up the computer I could not see an easy way to connect the drive internally. I did, nowever, have an external SSD case with a USB 3.0 connection, so I put the drive in there and connected it to a USB 3.0 port on the computer. Then I booted from the netinst iso for Debian 11. I set the root (/) partition on the new USB ssd, but used the same swap and /home partitions I had created for Ubuntu. I could not see any reason not to use the same swap partition and I am guessing that since Ubuntu and Debian are quite similar it will possible to share /home. We will see….
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