Back online

[eyoungren]

So, most of you know we lost A/C in June and the majority of my Macs have been off since then.

Yesterday, the temps dropped due to a low pressure area moving in. We hit 91º and for the first time since June it was 78º-80º in the front room. Today the high will be 99º and the forecast is set for an average of 104º starting Saturday. The weatherman even proclaimed that the 110ºs and higher are now over.

I feel that with the coolers I have, it is now sufficient to bring the inside Macs back up.

So, server back up and 2.3DC G5 back up. Backups are now happening again.

Will assess the garage later. I've got five Macs out there still to bring back up.

 

[rawweb]

I love it! I always have a hard time justifying multiple units with the Mrs. Out of curiosity, what do you do with each machine? Does each have a unique purpose?

 

[Amethyst1]

Erik is teh president of teh Internetz

 

[eyoungren]

Well, all back online…

Would have posted this earlier but I decided to hit myself in the head with a hammer by not copying over all my stuff from Dropbox that had changed before I last booted the Mac Mini. Consequently, I've been running around dropping in files from backup. Thankfully, a backup to the server that was made THIS MORNING when I turned the server back on!

 

[eyoungren]

I love it! I always have a hard time justifying multiple units with the Mrs. Out of curiosity, what do you do with each machine? Does each have a unique purpose?

Ahhhh…yeah, purpose. Yes, I do have a 'purpose' for each one. Whether they actually fultill that purpose is a different matter.

Mac Pro - Daily driver.
G3 - File server
2.3 DC G5 - Finance
2.7 DP G5 - Test and intake (meaning I use the Mac to set up any new Macs I get)
G4 - Glorified NAS (It has 2x 3TB hard drives)
12" PowerBook - Testing
17" MBP - Media device for whatever I need/wish when out working in the garage.
Mac Mini - Word processing, specifically for special projects, Mac for gaming (think Dungeons & Dragons). Also, AirMessage, so I can iMessage with my Android phone.
17" PowerBook - Word processing, iTunes, assistance when working on the MP

No idea what I am going to do with the Quad G5 just yet.

 

[z970]

Erik is teh president of teh Internetz

And he is to be addressed as "sir" with every mention!

No idea what I am going to do with the Quad G5 just yet.

Perhaps delegate it as a secondary machine, sir?

 

[eyoungren]

Perhaps delegate it as a secondary machine, sir?

I have some image in my head of it doing work in the garage, I just don't know what that work is. I need hard drives now though. Everything I have is in a Mac (all four bays in my MP have drives).

 

[Amethyst1]

No idea what I am going to do with the Quad G5 just yet.

Make it a build host for a ppc64 Linux distribution - it has the grunt for that

 

[eyoungren]

Make it a build host for a ppc64 Linux distribution - it has the grunt for that

I might just do that. Been looking at trying Linux at some point.

First though, I NEED to get that garage cleaned up. I was on the way to that in May, but then the heat came on and a lot of things are sideways in there right now.

 

[2984839]

Definitely hear you on the heat issue. I powered down a lot of my stuff this summer too. My other problem is noise, but I just bought a roll of sound deadening material that I will try on the rack cabinet downstairs to quiet those things down a bit.

 

[Imixmuan]

I live in Phoenix as well and this morning was absolutely heavenly. I went out to Dreamy Draw for a hike, first time since the pandemic hit. Not crowded and it was actually...cool. Fifty straight days of above 110 totally sucked, and the smoke from those fires the other day-could hardly breathe.

When you say your A/C went out...I hope you had swamp coolers at least? I have both...thinking of turning the swamp cooler back on now that high temps are only 101-102.

 

[eyoungren]

When you say your A/C went out...I hope you had swamp coolers at least? I have both...thinking of turning the swamp cooler back on now that high temps are only 101-102.

No, the house was built in 2007 so it's designed for central. I live in a HOA and while I would have bought four window A/C units, two of the windows they would have gone in face the street. The person who checks for compliance would have noticed that and I would have been given a warning letter. So, I had to use portable A/C units for those windows because they have exhaust vents that fit in the window but do not stick out.

But I could not afford those until later. So the first purchase was box fans, then a portable evap cooler (which we still use) and then the A/C units as I could afford them. I just can't afford $6000 for a new central A/C unit (at a discount!) or payments, so this is what I had to do.

In the living room we run the portable A/C (14,000 BTU) and the evap cooler. With all the 110º+ days we averaged around 90º in the front room with both. The space includes the kitchen and I'd have needed an electrician to install a power plug to use an A/C I could not afford to effectively cool the entire area. So, all I was hoping was to maintain at least one cool zone.

This morning was awesome. First time it's hit 78º in the front room since early June!

 

[sawpits]

Good to hear from you about that. But I have to wonder, why do people want to live in the desert?

 

[eyoungren]

Good to hear from you about that. But I have to wonder, why do people want to live in the desert?

We've been here 20 years. Moving here was because of jobs. We got out of California in 2000 because AZ had a lower cost of living and from what I could tell people were hiring.

I got a job fairly quickly and so did my wife. This was pre-kids. Back then, I loved the heat and so, Phoenix was great. Over the years two things happened. Phoenix steadily grew hotter and I grew less tolerant to the heat.

The summer 20 years ago wasn't nearly as hot as it is now - and I was 30, not 50.

That said, for 18 years if the A/C went out I could call the landlord. We own now, so the only person who can pay is me.