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something akin to software progeria
Wednesday, June 23 2021
Yesterday I'd taken delivery of a T7200 socket-M Core 2 Duo, which would finally give me the ability to upgrade the processor of my old Intel Mac Mini. Alongside it came a 128 GB SSD, and yesterday I installed both in the Mac Mini. Today I managed to alter the Mini's firmware to allow an upgrade from 2 GB RAM to 4 GB RAM and then install Mac OS 10.6.8 (Snow Leopard) onto the SSD. It turned out, though, that in today's world, Snow Leopard is too dated of an OS to be all that useful. The version of the Safari web browser that comes with it can't open much more than Google.com, and the latest version of Chrome refused to install. Considering that Snow Leopard is only a few months older than Windows 7, it's experiencing something akin to software progeria. Remember that Woodchuck, my main computer, is running Windows 7, and it has no problem running the latest version of Chrome. I tried to find a modern browser without luck, though I have a feeling there's a version of Chromimum out there that would probably work.
I've been using a technology called VNC on my Macs (both this Mac Mini as well as an older one based on the G4 PowerPC processor) to allow me to control them remotely from Woodchuck in a manner similar to Remote Desktop. I do this using a Windows client program called VNC Viewer, and it works fairly well, though it's not anywhere near as fluid as Remote Desktop. This might be a function of the weak processors involved, though it might also be a limitation of the technology itself.
All the assembling and disassembling of the Mac Mini to upgrade the CPU, RAM, and boot disk eventually wore out the tiny fragile U.FL connector that attaches the antenna to the WiFi card (which had to be detached every time I needed to gain access to the motherboard and re-attached before I could test functionality). The connector ended up so mangled that I replaced that antenna with an RP-SMA antenna connector where there would otherwise be a screw in the back of the Mini.
Late this afternoon, Sharp Transmissions called to say that the Subaru was fixed. Apparently the pipes I'd originally thought carried coolant and that turned out to carry automatic transmission fluid do actually send the fluid up to the radiator to be cooled. I hadn't been fully aware of the fact that cars might cool more than just coolant in their radiators. In addition to coolant and transmission fluid, they probably also cool air conditioning refrigerant and perhaps even motor oil. The guy from Sharp said the metal pipes carrying the transmission fluid to the hoses had pretty much rotted away, and he'd had to salvage replacements (including something called a banjo fitting) from an old transmission, since Subaru doesn't manufacture replacment parts any more. He also mentioned that it appeared someone had tried to fix the problem with epoxy. "That was me!" I volunteered. "Well," said the mechanic, "you almost got it." Evidently I hadn't destroyed the transmission and the car was once more driveable. As for the cost, it would be $628, which seemed reasonable to me.
This evening Gretchen met Nancy and Kate at Hasbrouck House in Stone Ridge to watch a movie and eat french fries. As for me, I did my usual Wednesday routine of drinking perhaps a bit too much and also eating some cannabis at around 5:00pm. I ate a fairly large lump, though it didn't end up having much of an effect. Perhaps I didn't give it enough time to kick in, because I'd taken diphenhydramine a little after 7:00pm.
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