automaticable

Hey, a post!  I feel that this story deserves some internet coverage somewhere, so why not automaticable!  And maybe this will convince the others to post something, other than April’s Fools Posts.

So, as some of you may know, I have been working for a commercial printing company doing IT for about half a year now.  The company has been in the middle of a massive merge and building-consolidation process.  All-in-all, everything has gone quite well.  One server crashed, but everything was recovered from backups.  However, working in a small business during poor economic times means working with some painfully old devices.

Last week I was given a pretty simple task.  I needed to set up a networked label printer that had been moved from the old shop.  Easy enough, it should just grab an IP via DHCP, and I can log onto its web interface to set it up – no big deal.  I hooked up the printer and voila, 192.168.2.13.  It was set up.  Went into our router, changed the IP from dynamic to static, and headed out for the evening.  Seemed like everything had gone great.

Now fast forward to the next morning, the pressmen are just getting ready to pull the press data from the servers, and – oh crap.  The press computer is down.  This press prints out 16,000 sheets per hour, and each sheet has 2-3 pieces on it.  You can imagine how fast I got the phone call.  I went straight to the press when I got in to see an error about an IP Conflict.  Our presses are all assigned static IP’s, so I went in to the network config – the IP assigned was 192.168.2.13.  Sounds familiar.

Turns out this label printer (I won’t name the brand, but I can’t say I’m surprised by this faulty setup) does not quite understand the meaning of DHCP and IP conflicts.  When it booted up the BOOTP process assigned it any random IP, regardless of what else might be under that IP.  I quickly unplugged the printer, and the press came back online.  In the end, I hooked the printer up to a more manageable HP JetDirect, and avoided any more IP conflicts.

The ironic part of this story?

A desk label printer this small :                                                Shut down a printing press this large :

It’s the holiday season, and we all know what that means.  Work WAY too many hours just to buy people meaningless gifts that people will use for about a month and then toss away.  One popular gift that in my opinion is the gift that keeps giving is an iPod.  I bought my first iPod 5 years ago after I graduated high-school.  Exactly a year after I bought it, it gave me that dreaded sad iPod face, and would no longer work.  I gave up.  I was distraught.  I didn’t want to have to resort back to CD’s that scratch and become unreadable, and I didn’t want to spend another $300 on a new iPod when I had one that was only a year old.  Why didn’t I just buy that extended warranty when they asked?

So what did I do instead? I got violent, because violence solves everything!  I banged my iPod against my shifter in my car three times and tired it again just to see if it worked, and by golly it turned on, no more sad face and my music was playing!**  I about shat my pants I was so excited!  Now granted, it froze up every once in a while and gave the sad iPod face again, but no worries, do the simple solution again and it works!  Now after about three years, it doesn’t freeze up anymore.  It may not work the first time, but keep trying and it will eventually.

After some investigation on to why this works, it turns out that in the older iPods there is a small connector cable that becomes loose from the hard drive through normal wear and tear.  You’re simply just knocking that cable back into place so the hard drive can be read properly.  I have had this same iPod for 5 years now, and it works wonderfully, and have not needed to buy a new one.  Nothing flashy with it either, it is the generation 4 iPod, right before it switched over to color and became more complicated.  Now, would I LIKE a new iPod? Sure, but I would only really want one if I didn’t purchase it, and it was atleast 20 gigs like the one I have now is.

So before you go out and spend a whole lot of cash on a new iPod because you think you’ve lost yours forever, try this and see if it works!  Any questions, comments, feel free to ask!

**Automaticable, Apple, and the poster are in no way liable or responsible for any and all damages caused to your iPod, Car, or self, or anything else when trying any and all “violent” techniques in hopes to remedy the sad iPod face from the MP3 player.  Reader and User try these techniques AT THEIR OWN RISK.

If you work with raw data on a daily basis, you are probably more than familiar with Microsoft Excel. But do you really know how to use Excel to its fullest extent? My goal is to be a master of efficiency, and many of Excel’s native features allow me to achieve that and are only a click away.

I would like to make a habit out of posting Excel tips, so if this first installation seems rudimentary to you (it is Excel 101, after all), make sure you check back for more advanced tips over time. But don’t run off too fast, even Excel 101 might teach you a thing or two.

Continue reading “Excel 101: 4 Tricks Everyone Should Know”

Lately I have been having a difficult time falling asleep. It takes me anywhere from 1-3 hours to actually fall asleep and I cannot figure out how to force myself to sleep any sooner. This has been going on consistently for about a month now, maybe more. Because of this I have had plenty of time to test different solutions I’ve read online, but to no avail. Some of the techniques I have tried are:

• Opening the windows. Apparently being a bit cold is supposed to trigger sleep functions in our brain. I always sleep with the windows open, so this didn’t help.
• Work out sooner/later than normal. Some people say you shouldn’t work out right before bed, some think it wears you out so you sleep better. I find neither to be helpful.
• While laying in bed, tense up the muscles in your body. Tensing the muscles releases something that is supposed to physically calm you. Again, no luck here.
• Count sheep. It isn’t a rare occasion when 1000+ sheep have jumped over my fence. Actually, most of the time I get to about 100 and then my mind wanders elsewhere so I have to start all over. Hrm.
• Think about relaxing different parts of your body, one at a time. This sometimes helps a bit, but only after I’ve been laying in bed for at least an hour, so I don’t consider this a solution.
• Take time before you go to sleep to think about everything on your mind so you do not stress over it while you are trying to fall asleep. What I think about while trying to fall asleep is the most random string of thoughts imaginable. It seems impossible to clear my mind.

The list is longer, but I think you get the idea. I’m not sure what to do here, and my lack of good sleep is starting to add up. I am against the idea of taking any kind of sleeping pills or putting any other kind of relaxants (see: alcohol) into my body to help me sleep. Even if they aren’t physically habit-forming, I know I will not be able to sleep without them if I feel they are my only solution.

So, helpful readers of automaticable, do you have any suggestions for me? Have you had sleeping problems that you were able to solve? What are your creative ways of calming your mind and body so you can sleep during the nights?