I always enjoy La Maison Simons

cotton top

I enjoy shopping at La Maison Simons. I like the fact that this store has an outlet at Carrefour Laval. For some reason one of the things I learned after traveling to Dubai in 2007, is that Le Carrefour Laval is the biggest mall  in Quebec.

I picked up 2 sets of blue flannel kitty sheets at Simons.
 

Sundress

I also got a few items of clothes for myself. They already had some summer items out, including some sundresses, and this model of flowery cotton only had 1 small left and it fit really nicely, so it came home with me despite the fact I won't be able to wear it until May.

Sundress with Cardigan

I also got a white cotton cardigan sweater which complements the dress nicely. The last item I picked up is a cotton Indian type top very reminiscent tops I wore when I was in my late teens. All the items are either Twik, Simons home brand or other exclusivity.

Is King Abdullah of KSA like Schrödinger's cat???

That was the question that went through my mind this morning.  Currently the news media make him both alive and dead at the same time. This reminds me too much of the Schrödinger's cat paradox which I had to explain at work this week on the day I wore my Tshirt from Think-Geek. You would think at a company filled with engineers that they would know the paradox.. but I digress

Considering that the King of Saudi Arabia is 85, and has just had various surgeries in the US, it could be he is dead. It would not be far fetched at all. Fact the official Saudi government is denying it and saying the King is in "Excellent health" makes me suspicious. Currently if they announce Kings death it could lead the country to go into turmoil like Egypt so they don't want that. 

So King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia is like in a box in Morroco and until someone opens the box, he could be dead or alive at the same time, much like Schrödinger's cat.

Eyefinity 6 - Not User friendly - the continuation

I got to understand the Eyefinity 6 a bit better today. If I had used 6 Displayport LCD's I would not have had the issue I ran into when using 6 DVI LCD's. As it went I ended using 2 Displayport LCD's, and 4 DVI. I had to use my Bizlink Dual-Link to displayport  active adapters on 2 of the heads to get them going.  I originally tried my Apple DL to mini displayport adapters  since those are also active and while they lit the monitors in windows, they were enabled at 640x480 and no other mode was available. Overall M-series displayport products work with most adapters out there. They ship with Bizlink adapters because they overall worked the best with the product and they don't officially support anything else, but they work with all the apple adapters, though the analog apple adapter is bitchy in my opinion. You're better off with monoprice then apple any day.

On M9188 we can use adapters that are 'passive' I guess. At least single link DVI to displayport. The Analog to displayport have to be active since they have to convert digital signal from card to analog and the Dual link DVI to displayport is active.  I just found an article that kind explains/highlights the problems I was having with the Eyefinity. Slowly I am adding displayport monitors in my team. Most of my employees have anywhere between 4 and 8 displayport LCD's at this point. The bBench where I happened to setup the Eyefinity has no displayport LCD's. I had to put 10ft cables on 2 on the bench next to it.  The bench where I test 16 heads has 16 LCD's all DVI/Analog and nothing else.

Connections problems aside their interface to configure monitors in windows is non-intuitive. Instead of helping client make a desktop it lets mostly Windows arrange monitors. So while you boot on the first/second head of the card, these became heads 5 & 6 in windows and then the  monitor layout I got in the only 6 headed stretch mode offered was just strange. I'll have to play with it some more, but I find it hard to configure. The Powerdesk interface to configure one or two M9188 is quite friendly and reasonably intuitive.  I've never had newbies using it who have a hard time using the interface to get where they want to be.  The questions I get usually are on the stranger features for niche markets, like edge overlap.

The Eyefinity offers a limited number of configurations with their 6 heads. The merge options are 2x1, 1x2, 3x1, 4x1, 2x2 and 3x2 and then I believe the choice of modes for those configs are also limited. I only had 3 resolution choices with the 3x2 .

With a M9188, you can do just about every permutation of a rectangular/square shape that windows supports with 8 heads. So things like 2x1, 1x2, 3x1, 1x3, 1x4, 2x2, 4x1, 1x5, 5x1, 6x1, 3x2, 2x3, 1x6, 7x1,1x7, 8x1, 4x2, 2x4, 1x8 can all be done with our interface. additionally I could do 2 x 2x2's or 2 x 4x1's or 1x4's or even a 2x2 plus 2 independent displays plus 2 displays cloned if that was the layout I wanted.  We also offer standard resolutions which most monitors support today, as well as all the resolutions supported by the monitors connected.

So assuming I'm using 1680x1050 monitors for each of those layouts listed above I will have a minimum of 8 resolutions offered for those layouts and I can mix and match. Well stretched surfaces all have to be of the same resolution, but if I had a stretched surface it could be a different resolution then independent surfaces and clone surfaces.  As well if you have 2 M9188's you can do the same types of configs up to 16 heads. Including setups like 3x3, 4x3, 3x4, 5x3, 3x5 and 4x4. Additionally if you cabled your 4x4 wall all wrong you can just move the display for it to work in your layout without having to recable it.  There is flexibility as to where which input of the card is in comparison to the other. 


This is probably not the last time I rant about the Eyefinity 6, I'll get a chance to play with it some more and see if there is anything I like about it. I suppose it might be fun to game on it in 6 heads. I'm so outside the gaming loop I would have no idea what game would use it.

The one thing the other co-worker who tried the Eyefinity 6 before me did was to try it with several Triple heads to go displayport edition. Sadly he wasn't able to find 6 to try to get 18 heads, but he thinks it's doable :) That's just cool. I would have no use for the config, but I love that it can be done.

Disclaimer: The opinions on hardware/software on this blog and the other related to the Eyefinity are mine alone and not related to the company I work for.

To see my later rant on the EyeFinity 6 click here.

EyeFinity 6 - not very user friendly.

We got the Eyefinity 6  a couple of months ago, after waiting for it for close to 4 months. Originally the purchaser just saw ATI HD 5870 and not additionally the  Eyefinity 6, so we ended up with a Matrix 3. That had to be sent back and the right one ordered. When it arrived I tried to use it in a couple of my systems but they didn't have enough power to handle it. I had a co-worker test it in his system to ensure it was functional, and was too busy to try it out until now.  We had purchased a 750W power supply for a team member and never put it in a system, so I put it in the GA-EX58-Extreme with 12Gb that I use most often to test 16 monitor configs. We even changed the casing, because I was having issues putting a pair of M9188's  into the system and I figured I might want to put 2 Eyefinity's so I can use it to compare to the 2 M9188's. Compare is a big word. I'm not comparing performance but seeing how certain things behave in Windows.

Generally I know more about multiple monitor behaviours in Windows then most people, with the exception of the engineers I work/ed with. I know it from NT 4.0 to Windows 7...  But there are issues I've stumbled across in our WDDM drivers in 'stretched' desktop that I have no basis in comparison with anything else out there in the field.

To get back to the EyeFinity, I put it in a Dell T7500. It was the only free system I could think of that could handle the power hungry requirements of this card and it's size. I used the same displayport to minidisplayport adapters I use on the M9188 and the same DVI to displayport adapters since I was using all DVI LCD's.  Part of the reason for this is that the Eyefinity 6 comes with 5 adapters. So I figured I'd just use the ones we use. They are pretty standard, or so I thought. They have worked on other displayport ATI and Nvidia products.  

I installed drivers and for the life of me I could not enable more then 2 heads at a time.  I tried more then one driver package. I looked for threads talking about it.  I just found something about passive and active adapters so I think that's my problem. I may not have had that problem had I used the adapters it came with I suppose but the fact it came with 5 when I want to connect 6 already means I need to use at least one other. They provide 2 mini displayport to displayport , 2 DVI to mini displayport and 1 HDMI to mini displayport. So unless you have those exact connections, you have to go out and buy adapters. Does not make it an intuitive product. 

The M9188 comes with 8 mini DP to DP adapters and 8 DVI to displayport adapters. When you connect them to whatever LCD you have they work. The M9188 is NOT power-hungry. If you had 4 PCIe x16 slots like in a Dell T7500, and there were drivers that supported it you could put 4 x M9188 and it would boot.  You don't even need extra power connectors. You'd have 32 heads. But I digress.

I'll continue my experiences with the EyeFinity 6 later today.

Ziva the Diva...

I just love this picture of a sleeping kitten. 

Aren't her toes the cutest.

In this one she looks like a Gremlin :) 

I pwn you!

What not to put in a resume when applying for an internship - Part II

Talking about cover letters, when you write one of those, it's to highlight your qualities. Not to write about the company you're applying to. When I look at cover letters that say "I can't wait to work for your company and then they ramble on about the company for a full paragraph." I lose interest. More so when they quote directly either from our website or even the job posting.  I know all about the company I work for,  it's the person who's applying I want to read about.

Another no-no. Our company has several divisions. When apply for a job in my division don't ramble on in your cover letter about the other division and same thing during the interview. The only impression I'm going to get is that you want to work in the other division. So I won't hire you.  I remember one interview years ago, where I was explaining to a candidate what we do, and how we test graphics cards and after I was done I asked him if he had any questions, and he asks "Can I test network cards instead?"

The CV itself especially for a university student applying for an internship should not be more then 2 pages, If you've had that many jobs, the least important ones, should be reduced to one sentence. No one needs a full paragraph on a 2 month job you had at age 16. If the interviewer wants to know more about that job, after reading the date and job title, he will ask you. Using a bigger font to make your CV appear like it has more substance doesn't fool anyone either.

Look at it from a different perspective. Sometimes a manager might get a pile of 200 resumes to go through in a day or 2. There's no time to read everything you skim read. The CV's that are more difficult to read because of font size, formatting, layout or presentation definitely end up in the reject pile at that point to reduce the number of applicants to a manageable size.

One of the worst CV's I saw in this batch had to be the kid who other then stating his name, address, 2 email addresses,  fact he's graduating this April, only listed 6 notable classes he took in his bachelors program and their descriptions.  A brochure from the university would have been just as about as informative. It doesn't tell me anything specific about the candidate.

One of the funniest things I've seen on a resume in a long time has to be the kid who plays WOW. I mean if he said he was playing WOW and nothing else, that would be fine. It's what he says. "Work with guild of over 100 members to overcome many obstacles and achieve greatness".

I kid you not.

From the guild we know it's Alliance. We're considering joking with him at the interview, and saying "Sorry man, we only hire Horde players". Or "Sorry man, your gearscore is too low for this position".

One had a section on his CV called a "Key word index", under which he had [I'm presuming his] qualities written with no structure or text formatting.  I could also go on about bad formatting but that could be partly because all the resumes get collected and sometimes get submitted it one large word document by the University who submits it to our HR dept. Then there's the ones where you have to print them from the website, and the formatting there can be off and I can't tell if it's the fault of the website or applicant.

What not to put in a resume when applying for an internship - Part I

My department hires engineering interns from universities around Montreal, and we've been known sometimes to get students from universities in Sherbrooke, Quebec City and Ottawa. Since the jobs in my department are technician jobs rather then engineering jobs, I have found that first and second year COOP students looking for a first internship are the best choice.

I'm not sure if it's a sign of the times but I had twice the amount of 3rd & 4rth year students applying for these very "junior" positions especially from schools without COOP programs.I tend to weed those out because I've found over the years a percentage of students close to graduation feel that their skills are underutilized in my department and somehow think after they were hired for one job that we could give them something more interesting to do. When we tell them this is the job they are stuck with for 4 months, that's when the productivity goes way way down.

To avoid having unmotivated students, I tend to chose the most inexperienced. Those who have not had an opportunity to work in the computer or electronics field are my first choices. They are the ones who appreciate the opportunity to work with us the most. In return they are the ones who stand to gain the most from working with us.

I generally judge the candidate on their personality rather then on their experience. I like to choose those who are willing to learn and do any task assigned to them and do it well. Someone who's work I can trust, who won't lie about the work they did or ignore problems to finish on time. When I interview I like honest answers. I do ask questions about PC's and the windows environment to gauge the level of skills because while all the positions are junior some are more junior then others. If someone doesn't know the answer I expect an I don't know. Not some bullshit answer to try to hide the fact that they don't know. I do quality assurance I can't hire someone who will lie about the quality of the product.

When I get a pile of CV's the first thing I do is check the GPA's. Unless the student has either 2.6/4.0 or 2.9/4.3 minimum GPA I can't hire them. [I don't agree with this policy but I can't fight it either]  The next step I check if they are first or second year.  

Out of 32 received CV's from one university, I had 10 left after this filtering.  I also filtered out the guy who used such a funky font that it was unreadable for me. Here's a tip, when writing a CV use a common font like ariel, or times new roman and never smaller then a 10 point. They aren't pretty fonts but they print nice from any word processor on any PC.   

There was the guy who addressed his CV to a company other then ours in his cover letter. That's a pretty big no-no especially for a QA job. If you're spacey by nature, best not to mention any company and make your cover letter a bit more general.

...will continue tomorrow. 

Rice with Lentil stew

Today I made some plain brown rice and an Ethiopian spicy lentil stew.  I mixed 2 recipes together. I wanted the spice mix from the Ethiopian version and the vegetables from a non spicy version. I like my lentils cooked with celery, carrots, onions and garlic. 

As for the type of lentils I used a split lentil mix, which I believe also includes green and yellow split peas. I also added 2 cubanelle peppers and a couple of sun dried tomatoes.  I was afraid between the Berbere spice mix and the 2  peppers that the stew would be too hot for me, but it came out perfect. It's hot, but not enough to make my nose sweat.

I'm not surprised I like how spicy my stew turned out, it had black pepper, cayenne pepper and cubanelle peppers.  I don't find cubanelle or jalapeños peppers that hot. I suppose with time I'll get to know which peppers are the best for making food spicy. 

My 1974 Toro 724 SnowThrower still rocks

We got about 20 cm of snow overnight, wet heavy snow. Since hubby is forbidden by me to do anything straining because I want him to heal properly from surgery, I figured I'd take out the beast since I knew I couldn't handle the volume of shovelling needing to be done. 

I can't complain about the service I'm getting from SylJack, the truck came around 2ish and since it was the first time in a week the driveway was completely free of cars, the driver did 4 passes on my driveway. I just had to clear the path to the house, the path to the back of the house and access to the back door. It couldn't be opened. One should always clear all doors from snow even if it's just enough to open the door.

Toro 724 Snow Thrower  - Model 31677 from 1974

Last fall I got the old Toro Snow-thrower fixed at the insistence of my hubby who figured he'd like to try this cold weather device.  My ex kinda laughed at me saying if I hadn't used the machine in 10 years what were the odds it would work? Well it's a machine. Unless you can't find parts, generally you should be able to get it going again. When we picked it up from the repair shop I asked the guy what he thought of the machine. He said to me "Hold on to it, this thing will outlive any current snowblower". Mentioned that the ones at Costco were made out of "Nylon", or another way to say plastic and cost nearly $1000. It cost me around $150 to get the beast working again. 

I used it today for the first time since 1993.  It's like riding a bike, one never forgets how to use a snow blower. This thing weighs over 200lbs, so more then twice my weight. So I've always had fun manoeuvring it, and getting it started. I'm too short to be able to pull the cord at my height. I have to stand on a milk crate to get it started.  Sadly today in an effort to get it started for the nth time, I accidentally yanked off a cable. I wondered if the machine would still work. It did. But the problem was getting it to stop... It wouldn't until it ran out of gasoline..  I found the manual for it at Toro with the serial number.  The model is actually a 31677 and the serial number starting with 4 tells me it's the one from 1974. Obviously it's indestructible.

When I was searching to find manuals I found a thread where someone was asking if it was worth buying it and I feel it is. It will cost less to buy it, get it fixed at a repair shop then buying a new one and it will last longer. Of course if you know how to fix these types of engines yourself, then it's definitely worth it.

It's Caturday!

 It was amazing to watch such a large cat be so sweet and tender and mother the kittens. This photo was taken a couple of days after we got Ziva, when she was just 2 months old.

Ziva at 2 months old sleeping next to Jethro.

This photo below was taken when Jethro was about one, and the youngest cat in the house. I had just gotten for the cats this fountain water bowl. Pixie and Zeke took to drinking from it right away. Jethro spent more time soaking his feet in it.

How can you drink with his stinky feet in the water?

Elizabethan collar anyone?

Jethro had a bit of a cold about a year ago and he had runny nose and eyes. He rubbed his eye so much it got infected. The only way to prevent himself from rubbing his eye was to put an Elizabethan collar on him. I spent a week treating his eye while he wore the collar. First I'd wash it with a solution of baby's shampoo and water, then I'd put a drop of Polysporin antibiotic drops for eye/ears, and of course make sure to soak off any run off from his eye.  He was incredibly sweet tempered for a collared cat with a sore eye. He'd come when I'd call him to treat his eye, and just let me handle him. As if he knew I was doing it for his own good.

Jethro playing with a toy despite having an Elizabethan collar.

I find bristol board works best to make a collar. It's supple and light weight enough. You can make it to the size of cat that needs it. Start with a bigger collar and trim it down to the perfect fit. I use a plate to make a circle.  One I cut out head form I staple both ends after putting it around cats neck.

Taking a break from playing.

I ended up putting a collar on Ziva after she was fixed. I remember waking up the morning after her surgery to noises that sounded like someone plucking on a guitar. It was Ziva pulling on her stitches. I knew with her determination the best thing I could do to let her heal properly was to collar her. So I did. She was pissed off at me the first day, but I kept the collar on her until she was healed enough she couldn't hurt herself anymore. Probably 8 days.

I'm not enjoying this contraption you put on me.

More about Lebanon and protests

I mentioned a few postings ago  how even the Lebanese are protesting to have their economic concerns addressed. It's not hard to understand that they would if you spend any amount of time living there.  

My understanding seeing it from the outside, is that the people are fed up that so much energy is expended figuring out which party represents what and is allied with who and all this political posturing all the while pocketing the money that belongs to the people and nothing gets done about ruling the country and making things work again. 

I get that the country has gone through various forms of war and military actions that have left some of the infrastructure in horrible state. But it's far worse then it should be if they actually spent the time and money to fix it instead of fighting over who should do what and how and when,.

I can't remember if it was on Facebook or on blogger that I mentioned that cooking in Beirut poses some interesting challenges. As far as I can remember, every time I've visited Beirut there were rotating electrical cuts. Generally 3 hours a day that means there is no electricity at my mom-in-law's house. My understanding is that in less populated areas, you might be without electricity 6 hours a day. Generally on a rotating schedule. It also means that you can't keep food half as long as you can in a place where the fridge stays constantly cold. 

There's also no water provided by the city at my mom-in-law's building. The water that comes into the house is brought in by cistern. And if there is no electricity when the water arrives, you have to wait 3 hours before it can be pumped up into your container on the roof.  It also means this is not drinkable water, so you have to buy your  drinking water and lug it home.Even those homes in some parts of Beirut that do get their water from the city, still must buy their drinking water.

As a Montrealer I take having electricity and drinking water for granted.  Sure we have electrical black outs, generally following storms, whether it's rain, ice, snow and/or wind but otherwise our electricity is pretty stable. As well the drinking water is pretty drinkable . Of course using a Brita filter improves the taste, but you don't get sick drinking Montreal water. My hubby who would not drink anything other then bottled water and not even make tea without using bottled water will drink Montreal tap water. 

Then there's the salaries and the infrequency at which people are payed. You get paid on a monthly basis but sometimes you won't get payed for 2 months. Makes it kinda hard to make ends meet especially when you are living from paycheck to paycheck.

People complain about the roads in Quebec.. you should see the roads in Lebanon. The one thing I won't complain about is overall Beirut is quite clean as a Middle-Eastern metropolis. However some areas outside the bigger urban centers are nasty so is the shoreline in some areas.  The pollution can be pretty bad. They still have really old cars on the road. There's also no really good public transport, which means there are far more cars on the road then there could be. No train system either.

I could go on and on and on about all the things that need to be addressed.....

On the other side of the coin I have nothing but profound admiration for the Lebanese in general. Most I have run across are ingenious and resourceful, generally friendly, warm  and passionate people. Sure sometimes that hides a darker side where they pull a fast one on you [most Lebanese will tell you never to trust a Lebanese, but I can safely say there are just as many you can trust!] but then there are black sheep in any group! 

I'm hoping their new leader Mr. Mikati will address some of the more pressing issues, but as with every political change in Lebanon, one must wait and see. 

On m'appelait toujours vendu

Comme je le dis dans mon profile je suis une Québécoise. Je suis née à Montréal, et j'ai grandi à Montréal-Nord et Rivière-des-Praires.  Le français est ma langue maternelle. Ma mère, enseignante au primaire, avait décide que j’apprendrai l'anglais très jeune pour me facilite la vie. Elle m'a appris les concepts de base a 3 ans, et m'a mis à l’école anglaise à partir de la maternelle.

Les cours de français langue seconde pendant que j’étais à l’école, de '67 à '79 n’étais pas suffisant pour même m'apprendre à écrire convenablement.  Je communique bien oralement mais par écris, c'est pas les gros chars! Avec un bon correcteur orthographique je me débrouille, mais cela ne corrige pas mes fautes de grammaire. Je préfère écrire en anglais maintenant car c'est plus facile.

On m'appelait vendu quand j’étais petite dans mon cartier car j’étais la seule francophone qui allait à l’école anglaise. Rendu a 18 ans, on me trouvait bien chanceuse de pouvoir communiquer si aisément en anglais. 

Pour ma part, j'ai appris à mes filles le français en premier, et l'anglais a 3 ans. Au primaire je l'ai ai mise dans un  programme d'immersion française dans une école anglaise. Au secondaire elles on suivi le programme de baccalauréat internationale . C'est ce qui ce rapproche le plus de l'enseignement bilingue dans les écoles publiques.

Je trouve dommage que toutes les écoles au Canada ne soit pas bilingues. Ce serait génial si tous les Canadiens apprenait autant le français que l'anglais à l’école. J'ai le droits a mes rêves :) 

Slip-streaming done finally

I finally got around to slip streaming my AHCI, RAID and SAS drivers into both my Server 2003 32 & 64 bits and my Server 2003 R2 32 & 64 bits.

It took me 2 tries for both Server 2003, I must have been distracted. But when I got to the R2, I got those working on the first shot. I've burned CD's and have installed Server 2003 R2 on my Intel DX58SO system and made the images for all the other OS' available to the rest of the team.

Hopefully I won't have to redo them any time soon. I mean it took 3 tries for XPSP2, 2 tries for XP64SP2, 2 tries for  each of Server 2003 32 & 64 bits. Lots of time I could have used to do something more exciting :)

Sick again - Hospitals SUCK!!!!

The last 2 times I took hubby to the Montreal General Hospital for his surgeries I got sick. Last time was December 8th, which was the day after a snow storm. The hospital parking was full and there was nothing on the side streets. I ended up dropping him off, then going around in circles for 20 minutes before a spot with parking meter freed itself. Of course by then I couldn't remember what floor he was on, so ended up trying out 6 different floors to find him. Not surprising I touched elevators and doors, so I caught a stomach flu. Heck it was barely 4 hours after we got back from hospital when I had projectile vomit happening.  I was at my therapists, I had to ask hubby to take me home. First time I was too sick to make it home by myself  since I was a kid.

I took him on Monday for another appointment. This time we could park in the hospital parking lot and I was super careful. I must have washed my hands 3 times and used that hand sanitizer they have everywhere in the Hospital a dozen times. Enough that my hands were burning on the way home. I'm sensitive to alcohol and I rarely ever use hand sanitizers. But I figured better safe then sorry. Apparently it wasn't enough. Somehow I'm sick again 3 days after the appointment. I had a co-worker tell me yesterday I sounded like I had a bad cold. Today my eyes are tearing, my nose is leaking and I feel like crap.

Next time I think I'm going to wear a friggen mask. I mean I usually have a decent immune system, like wtf?

Is that a grapefruit in your pocket?

Everything goes better with a grapefruit.

A pair of cats, a USB drive and a grapefruit!

At least that's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I spice cat.

More cats....

This one is really cute. 

Do you mind? We're kind of busy here......

They always love hanging out in my old wooden step ladder. I suspect they use it to play "King of the Mountain".

Spock on top, Ziva in middle and Jethro towards the bottom.

My work is keeping me in shape of late

I work for a hardware vendor testing the hardware mostly in Windows environments on a variety of machines,usually HP's, Dell's and Lenovo's but also clone machines mostly built from Asus, Gigabyte and Intel motherboards. I work in software quality assurance but what I do is closer to qualifying hardware.  

Since I test software on new hardware, I'd say for every product we've made, I've found 1-2 hardware bugs that had not been seen by those who qualified it before me. In general my team will probably find 4-5 hardware bugs that were missed by ASIC and hardware. Not because they are incompetent, or not thorough enough but because testing in real environments may bring up problems that don't appear in simulations. As well the products are tried out in far more systems and LCD's when they hit my department.

Lately I've been helping the hardware quality assurance team do compatibility instead of focusing on testing interfaces. I volunteered to do it.  I like the variety it provides, where I can spend less time on software and more time on hardware, It's helpful too because I can help my team with configuration issues. I liken it to trail-blazing. I tend to discover new hardware and then pass the knowledge to others.

So in the past 2 weeks I've probably tested close to  30 different OEM systems to ensure they worked properly with our product, and also to find what the 'sweet slots' for each individual machine are. They were all HP and Dells because currently the Lenovo BIOS does not work with our product and until they work with us to find a solution, my testing is limited to the other 2 large vendors. 

The systems I've tried out includes the following HP's: xw4400, xw4550, xw4600, xw6400, xw6600, xw8400, xw8600, xw9300, xw9400, z400, z600, z800, & ML110-G5. The dells include:  The Precision 490, 690, T1500, T3400, T3500, T5400, T5500, T7400, T7500, Optiplex 960, Optiplex 980 & the Dimension 9200c.  The sad part is, I now know how many PCIe slots each has, what they are both mechanically and electrically, and which slots work best with our products. Now I have to take all this data, and make a document that will be used in the future by our tech support and sales department

My testing of all those systems also includes lugging those beasts back to my workbench.  The biggest of them all, the T7400/7500/690 from Dell, weighing in at 55lbs, I stick to lifting, and putting on a cart. Pretty much all others which probably vary between 20lbs-45lbs I will carry around the department, from the shelf where they sit in HQA or from one of the people in my team with the system. 

Now I'm about 105lbs these days, so I've been spending half of my time telling the guys I work with that I can lift and carry these machines myself. It's sweet that they all want to help, but with my osteoporosis, I'm supposed to do weight bearing exercises, this works great. In one day I might move 4 systems, for about 5 minutes each. It's perfect for me.

New pastels

I've added 3 more pastel drawings in my art gallery. The first two are part of a new series where I've been trying to express my emotions, which I called Women in E-Motions.

This one is called shame

This one is called regret

The last one is a Church basking in an Aurora Australis.

Are your cats driving you into a circle?

It's amusing, because the door is closed, the cats form a circular formation near the door.

Going clockwise from the left, Ziva, Spock, Jethro, and Pixie.

Here's a close-up of Spock's mug and his mutant feet. See the 'thumb'? 

Aye Aye Sir!

Gluten free bread & Pasta...

I made a variant of this gluten free corn bread. I only used 1/2 a  cup of corn flour, and the other half cup was Bob's gluten free flour mix and I did use 1 cup of brown rice flour.  I also added a tablespoon of caraway seeds and a tablespoon of flax seed to the mix as well.The bread came out really nice. 

I couldn't wait to try it with this goat's milk Brie that I found today. I so love cheese and I've found now 3 different types of goat or sheep  cheese. There's the feta type, which is great in salads, there's the Kashkaval type which is great for making mac and cheese and melts in general and there's Brie.. what can I say for Brie.. it's great on bread to be savoured.

Today I went through the spice cabinet and took note of all the ones we were low on and picked up most of  the spices at the Super C on Brunswick & Deacon and then I went to the Bulk Barn at Marche de l'ouest for the rest of the spices. Bulk Barn I found out carries 4 types of gluten free pastas. I had the rice pasta shells with Kashkaval cheese for dinner tonight - so it was shell & cheese :)  Sadly they do not carry unsweetened carob chips. That was a little disappointing. 

They marched like an Egyptian....

The protests going on in Egypt since January 25th, has caught the attention of the entire Middle East and North Africa. It's undoubtedly caught the attention of the world, is the whole Arab world going to change?  The fact protests in Tunisia led to toppling their dictator is enough to encourage the Egyptians to protest until the same thing happens in their country.

My husband has been saying that this discontent has been bubbling under the surface for years and if it doesn't bubble over now, it will very shortly. The momentum will not be stopped. Sooner or later many of the regimes in this part of the world will change. Hopefully not for the worst. Perhaps it might be time that the west let the people from this region chose their leaders, even if they don't appear to be a choice we might have chosen.

I doubt most in the west realize that the countries in the Middle East and North Africa are far more repressed and conservative today then they were in the 60's. No doubt helped along by the various dictators and autocrats. I won't even begin to figure out how the USA had something to do with it, but for sure all these dictators have survived in their own countries by being allies with some of the most powerful countries in the world. It doesn't matter that the dictator, like say Saddam Hussain was hard on his people as long as he was friends with the right leaders.

Most of the leaders in the Middle East and North Africa are old men. Like in Egypt. Mubarak is 82 years old. How can he possibly think he knows what's best for his country which is 50% people under the age of 19.  He wouldn't have a clue. This is obvious, they are chanting for his departure, his solution is to dissolve the cabinet, you know shuffle his friends around, change the titles and pretend there were big changes. It hasn't fooled anyone.

Protests against authoritarian Arab regimes have also broken out in Jordan, Yemen and Algeria. Even the Lebanese are protesting because they want their economic concerns addressed. To quote a student from the Lebanese University "Egypt and Tunisia had only one dictator, we have had 15 or 16"

La belle province had awesome fries.

I liken myself to a french fry connoisseur since sometimes the only thing on a menu I can eat is the french fries. Friday I was treated to a french fry by my ex, which we picked up at the Belle Province restaurant in Lachine on Provost and 10th avenue. 

The fries were really good. They had good taste, no greasy aftertaste [which I often find with Lafleur's fries], they were crispy enough, good size. I was just going to pick a fry from McD, but I'm glad he suggested these fries. They were much better then McD fries would have been. I suspect that the poutine my ex had was really good too since he finished it before I had finished my fries and he can be a slow eater like me.

Some of the worst french fries I've had in the past 5 years had to be the french fries at the Johnny Rockets on the Marina Walk in Dubai. They were obviously frozen fries and they were always undercooked and most often cold. 

Did someone say B-A-C-O-N?

I read recently this article about "Why Bacon is a gateway to meat for Vegetarians". 

It had me laughing as I've been a vegetarian for close to 20 years. I've never been a full vegetarian in the sense that I will still eat shrimp and other sea food about twice a year, and fish, especially salmon maybe once a month. 

What can I say about bacon? The smell of bacon often gives me nausea. When my eldest daughter lived with me for 2 years, one of the stranger rules I imposed on her was "No cooking of bacon between midnight and 7 am".  I made that rule after being woken up by the smell of bacon for the nth time. This despite sleeping on the top floor and the kitchen being on the main floor.  At the time she liked making herself bacon around 3am and it would always wake me up, it would make me nauseous and it would prevent me from going back to sleep. 

Still on the topic of bacon, they make a variety that is called bacon with maple syrup. I also had a ban on cooking it in my house when I am present. The smell of it cooking increases my nausea like you would not believe. 

So I think if I end up eating meat again one day it won't been bacon that will have lured me back. It's most likely to be chicken or lamb or possibly some exotic game meat. But definitely not bacon. Though probably the most appealing form of pork fat has to be "les oreilles de crisse" found at sugaring off parties in Quebec.

I know chicken is most likely. I used to take a way home that passed in front of a KFC and I'd crave chicken almost daily. Lamb I've been craving for years, and I even put a little bit in my mouth to taste how my Irish stew [which people say rocks] felt. Of course I did not swallow, and made a cat very happy with a little piece of half chewed meat. As for game meat, it's less likely that game animals are filled with hormones and antibiotics and is more likely meat that I would not have issues with. 

Whenever I hear bacon I think of 2 things. Some commercial for dog treats where the dog keeps thinking it's BACON!!!! and "That 70's show" when Eric Forman would pronounce it ba-con. I can hear a little Eric repeating ba-con ba-con ba-con over and over....

It's almost Caturday!

I enjoy photography and since I tend to stay home a lot, I take a lot of pictures of my cats.  So I think I'll  be sharing some..  I like taking pictures of my cats while they look out the patio door because it's the way I can catch them completely natural and often catch all of them. I mean it's hard enough to get 1 cat to pose for a picture but 4? The following two picture were taken before Zeke passed away in July 2010. From left to right, Jethro, Zeke & Ziva

What do you think she wants? 

Look at me! Look at me!

Another Canadian store bought by a US giant

So I read 220 Zellers had their lease bought by the giant retailer Target. That kinda sucks since Zellers in my mind has always been the Canadian WalMart equivalent. It use to mean that money spent at Zellers went back into Canadian pockets, not so much when it becomes a Target. 

Second problem with Zellers converting to Target stores, is that Target does not want to keep Zellers Employees. I can think of my cleaning lady, a late 50's something woman, who's been working at least 10 years re-stocking shelves at night at Zellers. She's barely making ends meet, hence why she cleans my house.  If they lay her off from Zellers to rehire her at minimum wave to work for Target, she won't even be able to make ends meet anymore.

I was reading that according to Quebec laws Target should not be allowed to fire a 20 year veteran employee of Zellers to rehire them at minimum wage. But it remains to see how they will deal with that. I bet you suddenly all the employees they had to keep will be "BAD" and fired for 1001 reasons so they can hire cheap labour. 

I've been assimilated......... by the Lebanese

It had to happen. After 4 years of being in a relationship with a Lebanese, I actually know more about Lebanese politics then I ever wanted to.  I don't care about politics.

The fact Mikati’s appointment as premier on Jan. 25 has been Hezbollah endorsed, does not make Mikati part of the group. It certainly doesn't turn Lebanon into an Iranian state, as some headlines I've seen in the past few days seem to suggest.  As best as I understand it, Mikati is a Sunni  business man from Tripoli who doesn't share Hezbollah views. He's a moderate.  Nothing that should make anyone paranoid.

Paul Kingston, an expert on Lebanese politics from the University of Toronto, suggests that the new government won’t be dramatically different from Hariri’s, because it is still constrained by the same power-sharing and international pressures.

To me that sounds like business as usual.

Jethro and his all cat band

  Pixie on guitar, Jethro on vocals and Zeke on bass. 

On loan from Kahnawake, Whisper on drums. 
July 2009

Cat Lady

From Left to right, Pixie, Spock, Ziva and Jethro in my arms.

It's not Caturday, but I'm talking about my cats anyways....

Jethro and Ziva

I think I was 10 when I got my first cat. It was a white tabby cat. I've pretty much had a cat ever since.  Especially since I discovered at 17 that one of my many allergies was an allergy to cats. The best way to deal with an allergy is exposure over time. So I figure so long as I always have a cat, I don't react to cats. If I were to go without then probably I could never have one again. 

Currently we have 4 cats. There's Pixie, male orange tabby, 7 years old now, there's Jethro, male black/white tux Main Coon, 2 1/2 years old, there's Ziva,  female light grey tabby with white stomach/ female who is about 10 months old and the baby Spock who is 7 months old he's a dark grey/black tabby with white  belly. All of them have mitten paws. All except Spock are poly-dactyl. Spock is unique because his front paws have thumbs but no extra toes.

It's funny because I like symmetrical things and yet 3 of the 4 cats now are not symmetrical. Those 3 look like they walked into white paint. 

I find cats make great companions. I've always figured 1 cat alone during the day gets bored, so I've always had at least 2 cats. The most I've had in my house was 6 cats. I find that more then 4 cats is too many cats. I hope as I age I can keep thinking that. One of my biggest fears is to end up being the little old lady with 100 cats.... 

Recyle, Reuse, Reduce....

I strive to be as green as possible. It goes along with my neopagan beliefs.  This past week-end I went through my closet, and 2 of my leather belts with a distressed look, used to look black with some leather showing through, but now mostly just leather color. They both got  some black shoe polish. They both look as good as new.

Two other belts, from man made fabrics, had areas where the two parts that made the belt were unglued. One belt I really like, it's black on one side, and a black/green snakeskin pattern on the other side, and has a buckle that swivels either side. It's perfect for travel if you want to travel light, 2 belts in one.  The other one is a faux leather with an intricate design that I'm fond of, looks really nice with jeans. The fabric glue I picked up worked really well and within a day you could not tell either of these belts had been falling apart.

So instead of buying a new belt, I updated the look on 2 and fixed 2 others. It took me less time to fix what I had then to go shopping to find a new one.  I don't wear belts as fashion statements I wear belts to keep my stretchy jeans from falling.

Nlite is great, but slip-streaming can be a pain

I couldn't slipstream without Nlite, it's a great tool, however slip-streaming is a PITA.

I wanted to make my XPSP3 and XP64SP2 to handle AHCI mode and some RAID and SAS controllers so that I can install them more easily on newer machines. I included Intel and AMD AHCI drivers, as well as drivers from Asus, Gigabyte, Dell, HP and Lenovo for latest machines.

Unfortunately first time I slip-streamed drivers into XP64, I ended up with a 32 bit driver by mistake so CD didn't work. I had to start over from scratch and make sure to not include offending driver. The 2nd time it worked fine.

I had same problem with the XPSP3, originally just to test out slip-streaming I had only included the drivers I needed for the Intel DX58SO motherboard.  So I had to re-do that one and the 2nd time around I had a bad driver  and had to redo it again as well.  I had a co-worker test it out and he says it works. 

Now I need to tackle both Server 2003 standard edition and Server 2003 R2 in both 32 & 64 bits. This will be undoubtedly just as fun as the XP's. 

I love my thinkpad Edge

I have a 15" Thinkpad Edge 0578-CTO, configured with an I5 CPU and 4 Gb of RAM. I got it with the red lid.  I just love it. It's quiet, runs quite cool, is pretty light and the battery lasts close to 3 hours. 

But the things I like the best is that it runs video, really well, the sound never stutters, the wireless network rarely has issues or too little bandwidth even on a bad day. I could go on and on  After my last 2 laptops this one feels like a bit of heaven. It's doing exactly all the things I have always wanted my laptops to do. I love that it has an HDMI port and I am running on it an LG W2253V. While I'm writing this I'm watching a TV show on it from the laptop from a file sitting on another system, via wireless and it's not having any issues. It also plays DVD's really well. My previous laptop didn't even handle my MASH collection of original DVD's in pristine condition, that worked fine in every other PC and home DVD player.  I can't stress how much I'm enjoying this laptop.

The only 'bug' I've found with my Thinkpad and it's not that big of a deal is that when I rest my hands on the either side of the mouse surface while typing  if I try to use the touchpad the mouse sometimes jitter. I have to remove my hands and then the mouse moves properly again. But this is no biggy. I can't emphasize enough how much I love my ThinkPad Edge :)

I remember the old Thinkpads from 10 years ago. They were bitchy. This one on the other hand has to be the friendliest I've used. I have yet to run into a problem with it.  

Admittedly I've always been an IBM fan. I could say it's the fault of my buddy George.  At work I'm the one who collects IBM and now Lenovo machines. I currently work with a Lenovo S20, D20, M58, A57, M52, and an IBM Intellistation Z-Pro 92xx series. I'm the only one at work who has Lenovo's. Most people don't care for them.

Cold Spell freezes Ontario and Quebec

It's been frigid the last couple of days. It's -26C this morning. Not the type of weather that incites someone to spend much time outside. Thank Goddess my Grand Vitara starts up pretty well.   Oddly enough I haven't been cold outside, but I've been cold inside. It's not surprising.

At least we have electricity in this cold. I was reading that they lost electricity for more then 12 hours in Moosonee this week-end. If I lived in such a desolate area I'd definitely have an old style wood stove in my home, that I could use to heat and eat in case of power failures.  That's the one thing that sucks about my current house is that without electricity I have no heating. It sucks that even though my furnace is fueled by natural gas that I need electricity for it to work. I should be able to start it manually and have it work without needed electricity in case of power failures. 

At least our BBQ also has a side burner, so in case of power failures we can use it to warm up food, boil water, and of course we can BBQ things as well.

Time to go get ready to brace the cold. 

Giant Tiger in Ville St Laurent

Last Friday after leaving work I was planning to go to WalMart to get my kitty litter but instead I decided to go to the Giant Tiger on Marcel Laurin in Ville St Laurent to check it out after a friend mentioned there was one near by. I was not impressed. I was expecting a bigger store and more sales. I didn't see anything special and the store isn't particularly big  

The only good thing about driving there  was that it was right next to the biggest Dollarama I'd been to, with items I've not seen at other Dollarama's. I won't be going back to that Giant Tiger though, not worth the trip. 

I noticed there's a Dollarama that opened right next to my therapists office. I should check that one out. Sometimes I find frames, sometimes I find cat toys, random stuff. I find going to dollar store sometimes fills my need to shop and I can get away with spending under $20. :) At Christmas it's where I got my cat some Christmas outfits.

New Additions to my Art Gallery

This week-end I finished 5 pastel drawings.

The first is a Red Aurora over a Cabin. I love how this one turned out.

The second is part of my women in motion/movement series, this one titled "Women walking into the sunset", which came out better then I expected.

The third based on a photo Hot pink northern lights. I have no opinion on this one.

The fourth is from a photo called Sunset on Wakiki Beach. I don't like how this one turned out. I was not going to finish it or scan it.

The fifth is from a photo, represents a Latvian sunset. I like how it turned out.

Canadian Business men stranded in Abu Dhabi airport

Visa rules are now in effect for Canadians traveling to the UAE. It means that if you are a Canadian traveling to the UAE you should be aware of what type of VISA you need for your trip ahead of time and apply for it before arriving at an airport in the UAE. 

Obviously the 2 Canadian business men that got stranded at Abu Dhabi airport did not do their research, or the staff that booked their flight didn't. They were going to the UAE, Saudi Arabia and then back to the UAE. Common sense would imply that they needed a multiple entry VISA not a single entry VISA.  So if they got stuck at the airport for several hours it was their own fault. Not the UAE's fault, beyond of course the fact that they imposed their VISA' on Canadians because we would not grant their airlines more landing rights.

When I traveled to Syria this September, I knew I was going to enter the country twice, so I got myself a multiple-entry VISA ahead of my travel dates. I had no issues crossing borders either, other then 1 border guard wanting a small bribe when I crossed from Jordan back into Syria. It is not uncommon in that part of the world and it is not worth arguing over a few dollars and getting stuck for hours at a border, and my husband would argue, especially at the Syrian border.

Sure it's a little unexpected to us Canadians to have to get a VISA, since most countries welcome Canadians with open arms. But each country has the right to rule as they see fit and impose VISA' on us Canadians as they see fit. If we're not happy with that, then we should choose other travel destinations.

Bob Newhart on NCIS

It was really weird to see Bob Newhart on NCIS in a serious role. In fact a role so touching it had tears in my eyes by the end of the show. It amused me that I have been watching old episodes of the Bob Newhart show famous of course for Larry and his brother Darryl and his other brother Darryl. And then out of nowhere, bam there's Bob Newhart.

I was drawing when I was watching NCIS, so I didn't have my glasses on and that's how I recognized him right away. Apparently he did the cameo appearance partly because it's his wife's favorite show :)

Kind stranger with coupons...

I went to Walmart and Zellers this morning. I go to Walmart about once a month to pick up kitty litter. It's one of the few places where I can find Maxx Scoop for multiple cats in 14Kg pails at a good price. 

So I get into Walmart and pick up my 2 pails of kitty litter, and start to look for other items when I get stopped by a French Quebecois woman who says "Oh you have Maxx Scoop, I have coupons for it and don't need any". She gave me 2 $1 off coupons. So I saved $2 and whatever the taxes were on my kitty litter.

The  thing I picked up at both WalMart and Zellers was inexpensive frames for my art work.  I also picked up new cotton socks [92% cotton woot!] at Zellers. Now I have to go through my sock drawer and toss out all the ones with holes in the toes. 

Gotta love nlite to slip-stream drivers into a Windows [tm] ISO

So today I slip-streamed all the SAS, RAID and AHCI drivers that I had on my downloads PC onto my XPSP3 ISO using nlite . I  then tried it out on the Intel DX58SO motherboard  that was giving me such a hard time the past couple of days and it installed  XPSP3 without any hiccups. It was awesome. Nlite rocks, it's intuitive and the average techie should be able to slip-stream whatever he wants with it quite easily. It was the first time I used it to add drivers, previously I had used it to add a service pack into my XP ISO.

I'm now kicking myself for not having done it sooner.  It's just that since we may have 100 systems in my group and rarely do we have more then 2 of the same machine, if we even have 2. And often even if we have 2, like the HP Z400, they are different revision [One can take only 4 sticks of RAM, the newer one can take 6 sticks of RAM]. So in my mind making a CD that covers all options always means it's out of date because I might get a new machine tomorrow, that has controllers that won't be supported by the version I just made.

Monday I will revise my system list to make an XPSP3 bootable CD that handles the SATA drivers for all current machines we have in my team. Then I'll work on XP 64 bits, and Server 2003 32 & 64 bits. 

Should make setting up systems in ACHI mode easier for legacy OS',  I won't have to argue with a USB floppy that may or may not work on that USB port on a particular motherboard. I won't have to wonder if the reason I'm seeing that "Inacessible boot device" blue screen is because it's not seeing the hard drive or because of the SATA DVD-ROM.  I won't have to use the USB enclosure with IDE CD-ROM.

Setting up XP in AHCI mode can be infuriating

I typically install up to 11 OS' on the same drive in order of release from Microsoft, starting with XP and making my way up to Server 2008 R2. Most of the time for simplicities sake we have set up drives in IDE mode. Lately I've decided all the newer machines should be set up in AHCI mode and the systems that come with a SAS controller, we'll use that for setting up. So that we have systems set up in a variety of ways. 

I've set up several HP's [XW8600, Z800, XW9400] and a Lenovo D20 with minimal issues using a Iomega usb floppy on the SAS controller and/or just in AHCI mode.

Setting up XP in AHCI mode in some machines is like pulling teeth. I suppose if I had 50 systems of the same model to set up or even 10 for that matter, I might be motivated to slipstream the driver into XP. Though thinking about it now, slipstreaming at least the intel driver might help resolve a percentage of my problems. 

It was the Dell T7500 I'd asked one of my co workers to set up on the SAS controller using AHCI mode. After a week of arguing with XP and getting nowhere, I tried. I fought with it for some time. The blue screen error code basically said "Inacecesible boot device". Here we were thinking it was the drivers we were feeding it for both AHCI and SAS that were causing it. But in fact we later realized that it was our installing using a SATA optical drive. It was it that became inaccessible. Plugging a USB enclosure with an IDE CDrom proved to be the answer here.

With this knowledge I thought I'd have no problems setting up the new UEFI machine with intel mobo DX58SO. I've been arguing with it now for 3 days. I tried the the USB enclosure with IDE CDrom that worked so well for the Dell, but no such luck. XP installs fine in IDE mode and Windows 7 installs fine in AHCI mode.