Backing up to a remote server is nice since I don’t have to fumble about with DVDs or tapes or anything of the sort. Furthermore, it’s good to have off-site backups. On the down side, I’m now trying to push 45GB of data up to this server (the same one hosting this site) at 36.6 KB/s; this could take a while. My music collection, ripped from CDs to FLAC, comprises 32GB of that. Slow as this is, I’ll be glad to have an off-site copy of it; if my house were burnt or burgled, losing all my music would be one of the worst losses.

1. Search locally or on the internet for an appropriate mounting bracket designed for mounting a 2.5-inch disk in a 3.5-inch bay. Buy it.
2. Shut down and unplug the computer into which the hard disk will be installed. Open up the computer’s case.
3. Discover that the mounting bracket you bought is physically incompatible with the drive bay and/or the hard disk.
4. Scrounge up some string, cardboard, and rubber bands.
5. ???
6. Close the case, plug the power cable back in, boot up, and write a blog post describing your daring exploits.

The box actually came with Ubuntu Linux installed, but to get things set up to my satisfaction I had to do a fresh install anyway. I’m presently running Kubuntu (i.e. Ubuntu with KDE, not Gnome). I’ve got the recently released version 7.10, “Gutsy Gibbon”. Works beautifully. In particular, Kubuntu supports all my hardware flawlessly with only a very tiny amount of work on my part. Linux has come a long way since I first used it.

Shopping for bicycles was fun, although considering how many times I drove back and forth across Albuquerque in the process I’m not sure my purchase did much for the environment. I rode a lot of bikes. Most of them were perfectly good machines, but all of them are different, and ergonomics and subjective preference play a large role in one’s opinions of bikes. The only truly bad bike I rode was a Kestrel Talon, which had remarkably unstable handling. Then again, some people ride them and like them, so maybe it’s overreaching to claim that the Talon is an objectively bad bike (though it’s hard to imagine how anyone could like that thing).

My favorite bikes, aside from the Madone, were a 2007 Jamis Eclispe and a 2006 Giant TCR1. The former is a mixed steel and carbon fiber frame; it’s an uncommon combination, but the bike rides wonderfully smoothly, and it has character. Though the Eclipse has undeniable appeal, the Trek and the Giant are lighter and stiffer and ride almost as smoothly. The Giant TCR1 is a full-carbon bike which felt quite similar to the Madone; I’d be very happy on either bike. After hearing several anti-China quips from salespeople trying to sell me bikes made in America and Europe, I was rather tempted to buy the Giant to spite them — I think that sort of economic nationalism is perfectly odious. But ultimately I followed the guidance of a less spiteful cosmopolitan spirit and simply bought the bike I liked best for its own qualities. The Trek Madone was somewhat cheaper than the Giant, and I think it cuts a more elegant image.

I’m on the road again. Woohoo!

In the morning, I drove through Salt Lake City. From the freeway, it looks like a blandly generic piece of Americana. (Then again, interesting places tend not to locate themselves next to freeways.) If I get back there in the future, I’ll want to see the Mormon temples, and, of course, check out the lake.

Heading west from Provo, I climbed up into the mountains. In higher and wetter areas the omnipresent western dead grass / sagebrush flora turns into forest dominated by various juniper species and scrub oak. It doesn’t really feel like a forest since the trees are all too short and scrubby to form any sort of canopy, but they are dense enough to justify the term. It’s a very pretty ecosystem.

The next point of note was Moab. The terrain near Moab is quite alien and fantastic. It’s home of Arches and Canyonlands national parks. I want to go back and get lost for a few weeks.

I drove southeast, cutting across the SW corner of Colorado. I saw Chimney Rock (which I recognized from playing the Oregon Trail games long, long ago). I continued south into western New Mexico. A remarkably small amount of rain was sufficent to cause flooding across the highway. Not expecting it, I hit the first patch of water rather faster than I would have liked. My car now has a fine coat of mud. The sunset across the western New Mexico desert was quite spectacular. It was dark by the time I reached Gallup, so I didn’t see much between there and Albuquerque.

Albuquerque is sunny and hot (surprise!). This hotel is pretty crummy aside from the virtues of cheapness, free WiFi, and proximity to UNM. I’m looking forward to finding an apartment. The UNM math department has various in-service things planned for the week of the 13th, including TA training. I have been given recitation sessions for two classes of calculus. I’m not sure whether they’ll make me do grading for them, but it should be fairly light duty either way.

Classes start the 20th. I’m signed up for complex analysis, differential equations, quantum computing, and a numerical analysis / advanced linear algebra class. One of the physics profs told me that ordinarily, he would suggest taking the general first-year-grad level quantum mechanics course, but that the person teaching it this year is, umm… not so good, and perhaps I might want to take it next year. So, I’m taking quantum computing instead. I expect it will be very abstract; its only prerequisite is linear algebra, no quantum mechanics needed.

Now, back to looking for an apartment…

Yesterday I drove across Washington and Oregon, and saw my mom and brother on the way. Leaving Oregon today, I discovered that southwestern Idaho is completely blanketed in smoke from the Murphy complex fire. I’m not sure how close I got to the fire itself, since the visibility was on par with a bad day in Claremont, California. I lunched in Boise. I haven’t previously been to Boise within the span of my memory; I thought it was a surprisingly nice city. The rest of Idaho and northern Utah was a blur — it’s all dead grass and sagebrush (with some occasional juniper). Having grown up in Pendleton, Oregon that sort of terrain is so familiar to me that I tend not to give it much attention anymore.

My bicycle is on top of my car. I wrapped the forward-facing parts in plastic (held in place with duct tape) to prevent it from getting splattered with 1200 miles of insects. It looks very ghetto, but it works.

I should make Albuquerque tomorrow evening.

In your opinion what is the best kind of farm not to rear pigs on, and which is the best breed of pigs not to rear? I want to be sure I approach this endeavour in keeping with all government policies, as dictated by the EU under the Common Agricultural Policy. I would prefer not to rear bacon pigs. But if this is not the type you want not rearing, I will just as gladly not rear porkers.

Kudos to Sallie James of Cato for bringing this to the attention of the blogosphere.

I don’t know the precise amount of money my parents make not growing wheat, but it’s on the same order of magnitude.

I’ve now moved to using a CAPTCHA system to prevent comment spam. Also, comments no longer need require my approval before appearing; they will show up immediately, provided that you are recognized as human.

Email me if you have any problems posting comments.

I bought a new AC adapter recently, but the laptop was still having serious power issues. In this case, I suspected the problem was just poor electrical contact (stemming from the previous traumas the laptop has suffered). I cleaned off the power port contacts using acetate to dissolve any plastic coating the area: still no improvement. There was some visible damage to the power port resulting from (2), so I opened the patient up to conduct an exploratory surgery. Yes, that’s the motherboard in the photo. And, no, it was not easy to take out.

It turns out that yanking a power plug out of a laptop using pliers can do bad things (not that I had much choice at the time, since it was melted in place). The ohmmeter pinpointed where my yanking had partially broken the circuit. I proceeded to solder up the break. I had never before picked up a soldering iron, so I was fairly terrified that I might destroy my computer. However, the ohmmeter confirmed that my soldering patched the circuit, and the laptop did boot when I turned it on.

At this point, it appears that the patient will make a full recovery.

Update, May 27:
The patient appeared to be in good condition for a day and a half post-op. However, the normal (small) stresses associated with connecting/disconnecting the power plug broke my soldering repairs. I had to operate again. I just finished this second surgery. The power system is functioning properly for the moment; we’ll see if my repairs hold up. Unfortunately, the patient picked up a scar this time around: I had to cut through some plastic to extract a stripped screw.

Update, May 30:
The patient’s previous symptoms reemerged yesterday, and I spent all of this morning in a third round of surgery. Upon closer inspection, I determined that I had failed to remove the plastic coating from the power port contacts. It turns out that I was mistaken in my choice of solvents: acetate does not dissolve the plastic which melted onto the power port. The power port is a very small recessed area which is difficult to see into and difficult to illuminate. This time around, I pulled it off of the motherboard entirely, to better see and manipulated it. I disassembled it as far as possible, and then thoroughly scrapped the contacts. Reassembled it, soldered it back onto the motherboard, and put the laptop back together. I’m still fairly inept at soldering, so this all took a rather long time. However, the computer seems to be working properly now.

I also had an offer from the University of Delaware. In my judgement, UDel actually has a somewhat stronger math program than UNM does; however, I was very impressed by the quantum computing group at UNM. Before visiting, this particular group was just one of several things at UNM which had piqued my interest (hence my decision to apply to math, rather than physics).

I hadn’t really been planning (or wanting) to make any hard decisions on exactly where to direct my research interests until later on (say, after the first year of grad school). So, under these circumstances, choosing between the two schools was a bit nerve-racking. Indeed, I am suffering pangs of uncertainty, doubt, and second-guessing even as I write this post. However, I’m fairly certain that I’d be suffering just the same if I had made the opposite choice. Anyway, I think there is a very good chance that I will indeed be able to join the quantum info group at UNM. And there are other options open to me at UNM; if things don’t work out with that particular group, it would only be a small disaster for me, not a large one.

On the topic of small disasters, I should say something about my travel experiences. Over the course of the last week I traveled from Seattle to Albuquerque to Delaware and back to Seattle (with several planned and unplanned layovers along the way). Flying was perfectly dreadful. I made three mad dashes across airports to catch flights (I’m 2 for 3), was separated from my luggage (subsequently delivered to me at UDel’s math dept. in a hay-filled van driven by a cowboy-hat-wearing redneck goatherd — wtf?!?), suffered a cumulative 13 hours of delays, and caught a cold. Next time I need to travel to the east coast, I’m going to walk.