Computer update and a walk through the infinite drawer of cables

Parents’ new iMac set up and humming. New 10.7.3 update un-downloadable on my cpu or theirs so another time. Clicked the “apply to all” button to make all appleworks files open in pages. Let the good times roll.

As reported earlier, while working on their computer this morning cleaned my desk, set up the cat cam and diddled around with cables and old ipods and such. Why exactly do I have a USB to VGA cable? Where would it have come from and what the heck could it have pretended to do? Very odd. Maybe it’s VGA to USB? I don’t think that’s any better.

Maybe this would be a good time to get rid of all the older ethernet cables, some of which I know to be crossover cables and some I’m not sure of. I have a brand new, very long, just in case, ethernet cable. And I have more firewire cables than a body can bear and one, count it one, new hdmi to hdmi cable.

Anyone want a USB to ethernet cable? I kid you not.

And I found some {gasp} phone cables. One is apple-issue white new-in-package. Several USB camera type cables. One standard power cable for anything known to mankind. And OMG a SmartDisk FW CDRW drive. Oh oh, does it need a power transformer? (You’ll remember I pitched a bagful of those recently). Plug it in with a single 400-800FW cable, pop in a commercial audio CD and voilá! iTunes pops up and asks do I want to import it. Holy cow. Who would have guessed?

Way down at the bottom, some audio cables including some very very nice Monster gold-plated stuff. They used to force that on us and we took it because it was free.

I’m afraid to put my hand in any deeper. Maybe it will magically resort itself.

[update] I brought the USB-VGA cable to work today for grins and the first fellow looked at it closer than I had and exclaimed: “it’s a USB to Serial adapter! Do you know what you could do with this???” Then I looked closer and realized it was not 15 pins in the plug but only two rows and fewer. My bad. Thanks Rich for the ID.

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Return of the Cat Cam

I know you’ve all been missing it. I was cleaning up my desk while working on my folks’ new computer today and fiddled around with the old external isight camera. Downloaded an EvoCam update, found a firewire cable that would work, and Blam! dear friends – the return of the Cat Cam. Keep an eye on the sidebar!

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Everything old

seems especially appropriate again eventually:

If any form of pleasure is exhibited
Report to me and it will be prohibited
I’ll put my foot down so shall it be
This is the land of the free.

The last man nearly ruined this place
He didn’t know what to do with it
If you think this country’s bad off now
Just wait til I get through with it.
Duck Soup, 1933

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Ah the things we find

Started reading Border Country by Raymond Wallace. So far so good. Early on there was a reference to wheat wine which caught my eye. Tonight another reference made me look it up:

Wheat wine is considered to be a traditional beverage of Wales, and while it is not commonly drunk anymore, there are still winemakers there who specialize in producing it. This wine lends itself very well to home winemaking, as it requires few ingredients and little effort. Yet, the results are surprisingly good. Here are two simple wheat wine recipes that are definitely worth a try. Both produce hearty blends that are well worth the wait.

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From the Quote Box

Keep away from people who try to belittle your ambitions. Small people always do that, but the really great make you feel that you too, can become great. When you are seeking to bring big plans to fruition, it is important with whom you regularly associate. Hang out with friends who are like-minded and who are also designing purpose-filled lives. Similarly be that kind of a friend for your friends.” — Mark Twain

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