I’m not sure who to hate most.
It has to be one of Dell, Microsoft or Intel, and perhaps all three. I have spent the morning wrestling with the two miserly USB 3.0 ports on my high-end Dell Laptop. I have hitherto had two large (3TB) external drives plugged into them, but recently acquired a new USB 3.0 device, a high-speed card reader. This required that I obtain a fourth device … a USB 3.0 hub to allow me to expand (daisy chain, as USB was designed to allow) my capacity for high speed devices.
It all worked fine for a few days, then the USB drivers (supplied to Dell by Intel) stopped recognizing devices, and even caused the system to hang when booting up in the morning. Unplugging until the boot is completed usually gets around this, and they are recognised when they are plugged in later. This is an unsatisfactory solution.
The latest drivers are installed. The USB is the last in the boot priority in the BIOS. Some very expensive work-around solutions have been suggested. Any expert advice in the area of USB 3.0 and Renesas drivers would be very welcome. Explicitly unwelcome will be any evangelisation or subtle smirking from Apple or Unix enthusiasts.
The only good to come out of the morning is that I have now rationalized the mare’s nest of power cables, power bricks, and USB cables that had evolved over the last few years. And my desk is clear (though I now have to deal with the floor).
Back to photography. Yesterday was a teaching day. I spent most of the day in the office, but having got where I needed to be by mid-afternoon, took myself for a walk along the waterfront.
My love of everything maritime has been confessed previously. I regard it as a tragedy that our collective paranoia has forced the closure of the most interesting parts of the port, and for that matter, our airports. The red tugboats, for example, have been part of Wellington’s visual identity since the early 70s when Kupe, Toia and Ngahue replaced those two old heroines Taioma and Tapuhi. Kupe was sold and was replaced by the Vietnamese-built Tiaki. Sadly, it is no longer possible to walk alongside and examine them as you once could.
Shots through hurricane-wire fences are very unsatisfying. Fortunately, part of the port is still open to the public, though it is rare that anything of great interest berths in those parts. Yesterday, there was a sturdy steel trawler in port, a stranger to me. She was the “San Jennifer” owned by Hikurangi Fisheries Ltd, and normally resident in Mangonui, Northland. She left port as I walked by, and despite her rough-looking exterior, she had the sweetest sounding diesel I have heard for a while.
A little further around, at Queens Wharf, which the barbarians keep trying to develop with preposterous notions like hotels, HMAS Newcastle was berthed. She has been there for three or four days now. An Adelaide class frigate, she is based on the Oliver Hazard Perry frigates of the US Navy. They were superseded by the ANZAC class vessels. Newcastle is not pretty, but she has a purposeful look to her.
In the end, I chose to go with an image of architectural textures taken from the waterfront. As you can see there is an enormous variety of styles from the sheet glass at either end of this stack, to the textured panels and painted concrete of the intervening structures
Back now to the problem solving (and to clearing the floor before Mary gets home).
That middle building… I think I worked in it at one. If it is the one I’m thinking of, there was a cafe and a gym on the ground floor.
As for your technical problem, it sounds to me like a power issue. On startup the power drain is going to be highest. I’m assuming that the hub is powered? I read somewhere that manufacturers only provide enough power to fully drive three out of four sockets, and I can believe it! A beefier power supply of the correct voltage might help.
Thanks Cliff. Each device has its own power brick … but you are suggesting something of the same voltage with a greater output? How much greater? And does the increased current pose any threat to the USB appliances attached?
Bear in mind that I am not an expert in the field, but I don’t believe so. If the voltage doesn’t increase, then they will draw what they are designed to. If the voltage is higher then their current draw will increase, potentially frying the device.
Like your work
Regarding your remote HD issue, have you installed a backup program? I found they can increasingly make these things slow the whole game on start-up, better to install and operate a separate backup program that isn’t so hungry and doesn’t insist on doing it’s thing at boot, e.g. like some antivirus setup options do. My culprit was Memeo. Just a thought.
Thanks Andrew. I do have a backup, but it is set to start 5 minutes after boot, so that ought not to be the problem. I use an optimising program that minimises the number of programs that start on boot.
There may be good reasons, aesthetic or technical, but a few of your photos, like todays, lack a bottom. This, to me, makes them incomplete.. The last time was the “golden” tree. That view started at a point on the trunk just below where the branches began on up. The is likely a matter of photo interpretation, and I am interested in your thoughts.
You may well be right, Dennis. I was interested in the contrasting textures of the buildings from one building to the next. At ground level, there were other structures in the way that confused the separation between buildings, and were in my opinion a distraction from the contrasts I wanted to show.