Tuesday, April 7, 2009

Stretches. Weight training: various lower body. Stretches. Shower. Usual oatmeal breakfast. Why did Apple decide to make the keyboard shortcut for closing a window (Command+W) in such close proximity to the keyboard shortcut for closing an application (Command+Q)? That seems like a rather unwise decision to me. To work. JWG's laptop. First symptoms: blinking folder with question mark, MacBook purchased January 2007. Apple told him his hard drive was bad. I told him what to buy from Central Computer. He brought it into the office. I removed the old hard drive, inserted the new one. Upon startup using OS 10.4.10 install disc, the new hard drive was not detected but the dvd in the dvd drive was. Using FireWire target disk mode, same thing—the DVD will mount, but the hard drive does not appear. I used a SATA-to-USB adapter to confirm that the old hard drive was bad—not only would it not mount, but it physically made clicking and whirring sounds to indicate that it was damaged. I removed the new hard drive and attached it to the SATA-to-USB adapter then mounted it to my Mac Pro—it mounts successfully. I formatted it as Mac OS (Journaled), reinstalled it. Same problem—OS X install runs, but Disk Utility does not see the new drive (and does see the dvd). Probably needs a new motherboard. Staff meeting: I got a $25 Macy's gift card from Sharon S and Mike W as a thank you for helping out clin pharm in a tight spot with ICRD work. Did some catching up on email—40 messages in my inbox. More troubleshooting JWG's laptop hard drive problem. With Eric D's computer philosophy help, I discovered that the problem was caused by some rubbery-looking thing which had come loose from the sidewall of the drive bay and was scrunched at the back end of the bay. To fix it, I'll have to take the laptop case apart, but once that's done it should be smooth sailing. For a few minutes there Joel was all set to throw this laptop in the trash and buy a brand new one. BTS website: recoded the research pages to include pretty tables generated from a pseudodatabase. Prepared a final BTS website to do list. To home. Dinner at home with Patrick: leftovers. Went shopping.