What was the high point of your day? 2.0

[Gwaithmir]

My caregiver gave me a soothing back rub. 

[Rizen]

I have a lot of days where I don't necessarily have a high point but made steady progress toward my goals. I got my place nice and clean, cooked some meatloaf, wrote two pages in my book and worked on my latest piece of concept art. I had a good day.

[Dānu]

I installed the main parts of my new computer in the case and it booted up without issue.  The CPU idle temperature is a bit on the high end but within normal.  It's not something I'll worry about for now.

Is your processor Intel or AMD?  AMD runs hotter than Intel ones and so your temps might be quite normal?

I did some testing. Under heavy load, the CPU cores max out at 81 C. Max defined by AMD is 95 C. Tdie, the die temperature, reached 84 C. After returning to idle, Tdie went to 44 C. All the cores are idling at under 40 C. During testing, the heatsink fan kicked up to high a few times, but even then, it was very quiet. I'm guessing that the temperature displayed in BIOS was Tdie, which is about 5 C over the internal CPU temperature.

[Dānu]

I installed and tested my new graphics card. I'm installing Spierman Remastered to check the 3D graphics but it should be fine. The bottom plate of the GPU is not perfectly straight, which is annoying, but it really doesn't affect anything (besides my feelings). This build came together a lot faster than I expected. I knew that I had three weeks before anything would have to be returned if it were defective, but I've managed to pull it all together in basically a week.

[brewerb]

I climbed up a ladder this morning, so about and additional 6 feet.

[Gwaithmir]

I received an unexpected call from my nephew in Maine. We chatted for about an hour and a half. We're hoping that he has a chance to visit me this spring or summer. 

[Rizen]

I finished my latest piece of concept art. Dragons are really hard to draw, especially my version, which are an intelligent starfaring race and stand upright. I've struggled a lot withy this type of character but this turned out pretty good.
https://www.stirts.com/mayne

You should support me; I'm one of the few people keeping Deviantart from becoming a full-blown AI porn site. :[

[Dānu]

Sealed up my new gaming computer. I need to swap the HDMI cable from that I've been using for testing to its permanent cable. And I intend to add an external hard disk. But otherwise it's basically complete.

[Dānu]

Successfully cross-flashed the controller I was working on. Last night, I thought I had screwed the pooch and bricked a $20 card. But I returned to the problem this morning and was able to work the problem through.

[brewerb]

Successfully cross-flashed the controller I was working on.  Last night, I thought I had screwed the pooch and bricked a $20 card.  But I returned to the problem this morning and was able to work the problem through.

Time for a nap? 

[Rizen]

I wrote 2 pages in my book today. I was stuck on a chapter but I worked it out so I'm feeling pretty good.

[skyking]

The State electrical inspector came out today, a different guy, and he passed the solar panel and inverter installation. All that is left is getting the net metering agreement done and permission to operate (PTO) from the public utility and we will be generating our own power.

[SYZ]

What are these things?   

[Dānu]

What are these things?   

[brewerb]

Not a K-Mart blue light then. 

[Rizen]

I guess seeing a new Kena game is coming out.

[Dānu]

Not a K-Mart blue light then. 

I'm not sure AI is correct on this one.

[Fireball]

Not a K-Mart blue light then. 

I'm not sure AI is correct on this one.

The AI has this completely wrong. I've never seen anything like this on an electrical panel, but then I've not had Solar panels installed.

[skyking]

Those are Midnite Solar Surge Protection Devices (SPDs). They are sized close to the string operating voltage, so a nearby lighting strike will get clamped quickly.
They will take both positive and negative to ground.
https://www.midnitesolar.com/products.ph...tCat_ID=23
When the sun is on the panels, they do glow blue to indicate they are functional

[Fireball]

Those are Midnite Solar Surge Protection Devices (SPDs). They are sized close to the string operating voltage, so a nearby lighting strike will get clamped quickly.
They will take both positive and negative to ground.
https://www.midnitesolar.com/products.ph...tCat_ID=23
When the sun is on the panels, they do glow blue to indicate they are functional

An offshoot from defense, where something a bit more robust is used to reduce destruction of spacecraft electronics via nuclear explosions.

[skyking]

I had the most wonderful experience with a contractor today.

They said they would be here today and they showed. They came with a big crew and got it done in one day, which was not expected. They took great care and did a good job. The building inspector came by to witness the shower pan flood test, and looked at their work and was impressed. He pointed out a few things and they had a great Convo about what was expected.
They were there about 8 hours start to finish. I wrote a check and will recommend them to anyone needing insulation services.
I put smurf tubing in the living room wall ahead of them and supported the plumber who was working on the hydronic systems.
The smurf is for future speaker installation. I also did the usual hyperspace bypass tube from behind the TV down to 12", so any cables from the TV down to HiFi gear will be hidden in the wall.

[Dānu]

Making several important steps toward building my new NAS.

I found the second of the pair of cables that I bought for it.

And I learned that my recent reflashing of a Dell PERC H310 raid controller that I had previously purchased appears correct. The H310 normally comes with the RAID BIOS installed and to use it for a NAS, you need to cross-flash the BIOS to that of a different card. I had two H310s that I had previously purchased, but I wasn't sure whether they had been cross-flashed to IT-Mode or not. I was able to successfully reflash one of them, which resulted in a different BIOS boot message, but not having any prior experience or examples of correctly flashed cards, I didn't know whether it was flashed correctly or not. And I had bought the two H310s off Ebay so long ago that the listing was no longer available, so I don't know whether they were sold as flashed. So I spent $20 ordering a similar card that was listed as flashed to IT-Mode. It displays the same boot message as the one I flashed, so that suggests I did things correctly. I'll end up with too many cards, but that's better than cards that aren't operating properly.

I need to flash the other H310 before I put the test rig back in storage, but I'm making good progress.

[Dānu]

Successfully flashed the remaining H310 I had. It involved a lot of hair pulling and banging my head against the wall. The process resembles alchemy more than it does computer science. The final hurdle was my confusion as to why the card wasn't showing up as a bootable device in BIOS. After some time it hit me. It wasn't showing as bootable because I hadn't hooked anything bootable up to it. Once I did, it showed up properly.

Man. What a PITA.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

Got a message from a guy wanting to buy my property on Loveland Lane. I said I'd sell all my interest in the property for $100,000/00 U$D.

Haven't heard back from him.

[Dānu]

Testing USB 3.0 adapter cards. I had three on hand, but I presumed that as long ago as I'd acquired them, they were no longer supported PCI cards instead of PCIE. I was wrong, and while I could only identify the manufacturer and model of two of them, all three appear supported under TrueNAS (i.e. Linux) and so I won't need to buy any. Which is good, because I've already spent this week's allowance.