Another no-go

Looks like Micropilot is out, they don't have any more summer positions available.

Dunno what I'm going to try next.

Peachfuzz

Apparently I'm sprouting hair again. Go fig. I hope it stays around longer this time.

That's the end of that

Got final confirmation from Apple today that the Visa is a bust, so I'm officially stuck here for the summer.

Oh well.

Magic Hands

So the other day I was reading the release notes for the latest linux kernel, and I noticed some mention of improvements in the piix IDE driver.

Now, for the longest time my laptop has been having these odd hiccups with the harddrive where it would seem to timeout and reset when reading arbitrary sectors, which was causing a huge performance hit. I was worried that I would have to get a new harddrive, a cost I could do without at the moment.

But then when I was reading the description of the driver improvements, it mentioned that earlier versions were having trouble with random bus timeouts, the exact same problem I was having!

So finally today I decided to give it a whirl, and compiled up a brand new 2.6.21.1 kernel. I resisted the temptation to roast some marshmallows over the CPU for the 45 minutes or so that it was churning away, and then finally installed it and rebooted.

And...

No more HD hiccups! Yay! My laptop is useful again!

Edit: actually, it seems the HD is still being stupid, but mostly before the kernel boots which is an interesting change, and pretty much rules out software bugs. Oh well, one of these days I'll just get a new one.

Another brick wall

CDS is a bust, they require me to have completed my second year of university, which I haven't.

Now I'm going to see if SWAP will let me in. Wheeeeee.

Thus it begins again

So today I got instructions for going through the J-1 process with CDS. I need to fill out an online form (done), then fill out an online application, get a "co-op advisor" at my university to fill out an interview form and sign an unofficial transcript, blah blah blah.

It'll apparently take a minimum of 10 days for everything to get sorted out, assuming everything does get sorted out. That means the earliest I'll be in California is the 27th.

Windshield Washers

So this afternoon I decided to take a look to see if I could get the windshield washer jets on the jellybean to spray a bit more evenly. Currently the passenger side ones spray a bit low/weak, and the driver side ones spray a bit off kilter.

I pulled off the nozzles, blew some air through them to clean them out, fiddled around a bit, but no dice. The one on the driver side is a bit loose so it sits at a slight angle, and I couldn't figure out why the one on the passenger side wasn't spraying as much.

I think at some point I'll just buy a new pair of nozzles. They're really easy to install and remove, and the current ones are getting a bit dry and cracked after 10 years of baking in the sun.