Too Cute

An action shot of the sheepy blanket with it's brand new owner. This is just too sweet...I think I've got a toothache!

Here endeth the knitting content for this post. Techno phobes, avert your eyes.

Now on to something less cuddly, but to my geeky eyes, still quite adorable: I got me one of these:
No, it isn't a toaster. It's a Netgear Storage Central (SC101). Once upon a time when I was working on getting tech certifications, I built a little server to practice putting hardware together and installing software and other fun stuff like that. After the exams were all taken, I used the box as an all purpose file/print/DHCP server. Sadly, my mighty little server didn't make it through our recent electrical crisis. I'm not sure whether it's just the OS partition that's bad or the whole drive or if it's something else. A day's worth of troubleshooting yielded lots of different (and conflicting!) error messages, and fickle creature that I am, I gave up on it pretty easily. I turned on the DHCP service in my router and got this little e-toaster thing for data sharing:
( front, back and inside views) The front has a weird little twist latch attaching the bezel to the case. There's even a little drawing that says to use a coin to untwist it. The back has ports for ethernet port (10/100) and power, plus a reset slot for paperclipping. On the inside, there's (just barely enough) room for 2 IDE drives. There's no fan, just passive cooling via two big heatsinks:
Advantages:
1. Simplicity.
2. Small footprint.
3. Low noise. You hear the drives spinning but that's about it.
4. Price. It's about $90-120, without a drive, though there are deals with bundled drives.
5. Extensive features. I haven't tried any of these, but apparently the SC101 can mirror disks, and also span volumes across disks, and even span across multiple SC101s.

Disadvantages
1. Non-standard disk format. If this device dies, I can't just pop the disk into my desktop to retrieve data.
2. Proprietary software required. You need to install Netgear's software to get to your data. You can't just browse through network in Windows Explorer.
3. Heat. Passive cooling is silent but less effective at heat dissipation. I'm worried this might be a problem in the summer.
4. Fewer security options. From what I can tell, it's either on or off. Having a full-fledged server offered more granular security options.
Conclusions: It's good for what I'm using it for: file serving. For data backup, I'm less convinced. The non-standard format really bothers me. What if it breaks? How do I get my stuff off of there? I'm sticking to optical media for now.

Now, if I can only find a way to network an unnetworkable printer, everything will be back to normal.

Reconstruction Ramblings

I am not a tidy person. I'm a pack rat and a yarn pig and a receipt saver and a whole bunch of other things that tend to make my personal space an absolute mess. Now that the electrical problems are fixed, I'm in the midst of putting all my stuff back where it was. I would kill for the managable mess that it was before! Especially since I was extremely naughty on Ebay last month and I now need room for this:
It's a used Louet S10 (or possibly S15) that took the slow boat from Holland and arrived at my house last weekend. I'm a neophyte spinner so putting it together was an interesting little puzzle. I think I got it right...mostly. It's making all the right spinning movements without any creaks or squeaks. If anyone sees anything wrong, please tell me! Maybe next weekend, I'll have time to try it out.

I finished the Inner Truth scarf for ISE3! Here's blocking pic:
I completely forgot about my blocking wires. The thought of sticking a few dozen pins into this thing should have jogged my memory. And here's the finished pic:
Pattern: Inner Truth (Magknits Sept. '06)
Yarn: Lion Brand Fisherman's Wool, dyed with food dye
Needles: Size 8 Boye 10" straights (from my very first knitting set, Awwwww!)
I blocked it to 6" wide. It grew way more in length than I anticipated: from 48" to 58". I hope my ISE3 spoilee doesn't mind it being almost 5 feet long, especially since she said she wanted a 4 foot scarf. The pattern is a nice, fairly easy cable. I really want to knit this scarf again, maybe with an LT on one side to balance the RT on the other. Whether I tweak the pattern or now, I'm excited about any chance to use hand dyes! Yay! Speaking of which, what should I do with the leftover yarn? There was also way more of that than I anticipated - about 70g worth.

Stash Separation Therapy

My yarn is in hiding, at least until the electricians leave. I didn't realize I would miss having all those random balls and needles and projects hanging around. As promised, I have been working only on WIPs since my last post. It's all fairly dull and un-photo worthy. It's a good thing I have this beauty to show off instead:
And a peek at the back:
This is the fruit of many hours of labor on the part of the knitting group at work. It's for a former coworker who is expecting a little girl any day (minute??) now. The pattern is the Counting Sheep Blanket from Easy Baby Knits. The book calls for it to be knit in strips, but we did separate blocks instead, so as to spread the work out. I made a couple of plain block and a fuzzy sheep block. You probably can't tell from the pictures, but the sheep are sooooo cute!

Wide World of WIPs

We've had some electrical problems at the house recently (see the venting post, if you dare!), and there is an electrician coming later this week to rewire stuff and add some outlets. My computer stuff will have their own dedicated switch in the fuse box. This is really great, except that my stash is in the way of the old outlets. The next few evenings are going to involve a lot of creative stash hiding - in closets, the spare bedroom, wherever. This little home improvement thing has also shed light on my embarrasing WIP situation. So, to keep my self honest, I'll make this pledge publically: I will not to cast on for anything new until the following projects are done:
1. Inner Truth - this has a deadline, so it's at the top of the list. It's about 20" and my Scarf Exchange spoilee wants a 4 footer.
2. Icarus - this is getting kinda pathetic. I have to put this tragic figure to rest already!
3. Striped Manos/Lopi felted bag - I had forgotten about this until this weekend. It needs the straps sewn in and then it's got a date with the washing machine.
4. Felted Shibori Scarf - stalled at ball 3 of 4
5. Funky Tank Top - still no neck and arm bands! That's really all that's left to be done.
I was going to promise to do them in order, but total project monogamy, even for brief stints, is too painful to contemplate. Fickle fickle me. Don't think these are all my WIPs. I'm sure there are more waiting to be rediscovered in my stash. I could have sworn there was felted messenger bag I started who knows when....