#100 1/9/14 Real work and computer work

Real Work...
The short version of the story is that the oil furnace quit working.  I'd have been suspicious of a bad batch of fuel had it not failed a couple of weeks earlier.  When your furnace is in the basement or a closet it's bad when it fails but it's a different program when it's 100 miles away and it's -27F.

There really was not choice but to drive.  It was less than 50F in the house upon arrival and even after four hours of wood in the wood burning furnace, wood in the fireplace insert, a catalytic heater and a big kerosene heater it remained cool but above the ever critical 32F.

Tuesday I began the quest for a repair person and my first call to a nice guy I've used before was cut short when he responded "I can't help you.  I just had my knee replaces."  My first thought was he could come over and talk me through the diagnostics and I could tell him about all the people I knew who had had knee replacement surgery and what they did right and what they did wrong but he ended the call before I could offer up that idea.  He did give two other names and I called each of them and left messages.

Upon receipt of the first response late in the day I started an explanation of what was happening and what I'd don and what I thought was wrong.  "I only work on gas furnaces.  What you said about your oil burner might be right.  I don't know."  It was still -24F.  I was a bit warmer.  This was day #2 of a three-day "fix."

The third guy called and said it was probably the filter.  Only a couple of weeks earlier I'd discovered that this burner actually had a fuel filter.  This confirmed that I am an idiot.  The guy said change the filter and that will fix the problem.  He asked "do you have a filter?" and recommended the hardware store about 15 miles away as a source.  A trip to the Ace Hardware store and an expenditure of $2.45 set me up for the filter changing process after watching a couple of YouTube videos.  Changing and cleaning was pretty simple, as was "bleeding the line" but I did find that the #2 fuel oil was red and it shot out farther than anticipated.  The furnace ran fine for eight hours and then did not come on.

On day three the third guy showed up.  These oil burners are pretty simple.  The pump moves the fuel oil.  A transformer generates a spark that ignites the fuel oil that shoots out of a jet and an electric eye looks for sparks and fire and shuts the hole thing done if it's not working.  He replaced the transformer.  His time and the transformer were about $300.  I learned all about his life and made a few suggestions and shared a few perspectives on life as guy just trying to make things work.

Real Work...Computers
Computers really don't fail as much as they did twenty or more years ago.  The real failures are infrastructure issues and back office issues and cloud issues and major application fixes, upgrades and glitches.  This was a pleasant reminder of a simple hardware failure.

In many venues I've recommended the Samsung Chromebook which sells new for $249.  As a web appliance used in conjunction with web applications such as Google's it's a great device.  It's my goto PC and I used it far more than my desktops or high-end notebooks.

The case is grey and looks like aluminum or titanium or some other metal that is probably polluting and destroying the earth but it's plastic which is polluting and destroying the earth.  When using it I try to remember to not lean on it too hard with hands.  Starting with my furnace failure on Monday this was not a good week and the Chromebook accompanied me as I went about in the -20F and colder weather talking to people and getting ready for my furnace repair trip.  Usually it's carried in a fairly tight slipcase but the six-hour battery was a bit low and I jammed the power adapter in. 

Somewhere during the day on Monday I either leaned on it or threw it in or out of the car a bit too aggressively.  The screen image is pretty interesting, certainly not something I could have created if I had even had a vision of that image.  My first inclination was to order a new Chromebook and throw this one into the nearest river or stream where it would ooze plastic into our drinking water but YouTube clued me into a site called www.screendoctors.com or something similar and a new screen is on it's way for $67. 

So No Work...
Both of these events have consumed my time and my mind and prevented me from chasing real work...but I did have a call from a headhunter today and will call him back on Friday.  The end of the week looks more promising than the beginning of the week.