Windows 7 re-install notes

So part of re-installing Windows is going to be installing all the software again. There may be a way around this, but I'm thinking that a full re-install may not be a bad thing. Here's what I have currently installed (I'm amazed that I accumulated so much in the 7 months or so that I've had this...):

Adobe Flash Player 10 plugin, Adobe Reader 9.3, AnyDVD (need to find license key), ATI Catalyst, AviSynth 2.5, Bioshock, Bonjour, Cantera, DVD Decrypter, ffdshow, GIMP, Ghostscript, GSview, Haali Media Splitter, iTunes, Java, MATLAB, MPC-HC, MeGUI, MS Silverlight, MS Visual C++ Redistributable, MikTek, MIT Kerberos, Mozilla Firefox, Mozilla Thunderbird, OpenAFS, OpenOffice, Opera, Python, QuickTime, Civilization 4, SimCity 4, Slik Subversion, SolidWorks, Starcraft, Steam, SubtitleCreator, TeXnic Center, TextPad, TortoiseSVN, VLC, VobSub

We'll see how much of this stuff I put back when I'm done. Fortunately I should still have most of the downloaded install files.

Update (2010/03/01 5:33 PM):

Am a bit annoyed because I'm hearing that I could have installed an upgrade version of Windows 7 on top of the RC without having a prior Windows license, i.e. I could have bought the $35 student version of Windows 7 Pro from the university bookstore instead of the $120 OEM version from Newegg. Oh well.

The installation itself was quite painless. Required no user interaction in the middle of the installation procress.

As for transferring files and programs, having them all on a separate partition (a small C: partition for the OS and two larger partitions for files and programs, ala /home and /usr) really helped. The installer copied everything on the C: drive (which was only few GB) onto a folder called Windows.old, which was nice because the "Windows Easy Transfer" utility wasn't so great at getting all the application settings (e.g. my Thunderbird mail profile).

I've re-installed most of the programs simply to get them properly registered with Windows and indexed in the start menu search bar (most of them still run fine just double-clicking on the executable)...all I have left are the games, the DVD ripping software, Ghostscript/GSview, GIMP, SolidWorks, TextPad, and VLC.

So, yeah. Yay Windows 7.

Updates!

Ahh...we're a little behind on updates. A couple things of note:

1.  SC makes a multi-configuration dress.  By hand.  It's main attraction is that it only has one seam.  Otherwise, it's quite unprofessional.  But jersey is forgiving and it looks alright.
2. Another French bread iteration; turned out much like the 2nd attempt (so it's not the flour, it's the yeast and/or rise time).
3. Another clementine/lime meringue pie; still runny on the inside despite chilling ~12 hours in the fridge. Also, I think we have sufficient evidence that the meringue turns sticky after a few days. I wonder why...
4. We buy a sewing machine!
5. We buy yarn! SC makes a scarf and fingerless gloves (for her gloveless fingers). The yarn is acrylic (PMMA, melting point 160°C), so I'm wary of wearing it when there's any risk of  fire (i.e. always).
6. We buy 100% cotton yarn! I learn to crochet and make miniature hats for miniature cats (hat says: where is my cat?) and an ursine Black Knight (ala Monty Python).
7. We plant seeds! Thai basil, sweet basil, green peppers, and an orange tree to accompany our mint, garlic, chives, and avocado.

Projects currently under way

1. Another dress! SC wishes she had taken a topology class in school.
2. One step closer to the fish tube! An illustrated history of the fish tank (which is, after all, the other half of the title) will follow soon.
3. Windows 7 RC is about to expire! And I can't install my retail version over the RC, so I'll find out how useful the Windows backup utilities are...

GITS season 1 is awesome!

Ghost in a shell => Ghost in a box (thanks to Smur Charades...difficult since he has no arms) => Cat in a box (a la Cat Box) => Cat in a shell => naked snail!

French bread adventures

The recipe:
2 C flour
1 t yeast
1/2 t salt
3/4 C water

1. Mix 1-1/2 C flour, yeast, salt, and water.
2. Let sit 15 min.
3. Gradually knead in additional flour
4. Let rise 1:15
5. Fold, let rise 1:00
6. Shape, let rise 20 min.
7. Slash
8. Bake 40 min. @ 425 °F
9. Let sit in oven 15 min.

 Empirical results:

 

Above is the first time I used this recipe, and I followed it exactly (rather, I wrote the recipe to match the procedure for this bread)

 

 

This time, I was in a hurry so I added a few drops of vinegar and performed the rise in a hot water bath:

 

I skipped steps 2 and 5, reduced step 4 to 1 hour, and may have futzed around with the baking time & temperature as well. There weren't giant air pockets like the first time, but it was still a light, fluffy, springy bread; pretty good for a total of 2 hours.

 

This one was a bit disappointing. I used the hot water bath again, did a 1 hour 1st rise and a 45 min. second rise, and otherwise should have been pretty similar to the original recipe, but the crumb came out a lot denser. It could also be the flour¹ or the slashing technique (diagonals this time instead of one straight down the middle)

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1. I used 1/2 C whole wheat flour in all these cases, but this time it was King Arthur Traditional Whole Wheat Flour, and the first two times it was King Arthur White Whole Weat Flour

Dinner Party details!

So we had this Chinese New Year dinner party last week with some of our friends. It's become somewhat PC to refer to it as "Lunar New Year",¹ but I'm okay with claiming it for China...

Preparation photos:

Roast duck: we bought a whole roast duck at the Asian supermarket. Awesomely fatty and delicious.

 

Barbecue pork buns: We made these according to the usual recipe (well, we toned down the yeast a little because the original recipe was rather excessive). The barbecue pork also came from the supermarket.

 

Sichuan noodle: Actually just linguine and chili sauce (老干妈)

 

Red bean porridge: A dessert dish, with red bean², rice, tapioca, dates, Goji berries, lotus seeds, lotus petals, and sugar. Nobody liked it except me. There are still leftovers 1 week on...

 

A fish! It's a silver carp, cleaned (scaled and gutted) at the supermarket. I'm stuffing ginger and green onion into it before we steam it. SC says fish is important for New Year's dinner.

The party:

Some dishes that I forgot to take pictures of:

1. Rice cake, tree fungus, and luffa. Stiy-fry. The rice cake is the bland kind (i.e. not sweet), so you can cut it into pieces and stir-fry it in a salty dish. Sticky rice cake is important for New Year's because of its homonyms. Luffa (丝瓜) and tree funges (木耳) are totally normal, good-tasting things to eat.
2. Steamed egg thing. I'm not exactly sure how this was supposed to turn out. Ask SC.
3. Tsingtao beer. I wanted to get some Chinese liquor, but the good stuff (I was looking for 茅台 or 五粮液) was really expensive.
4. Clementines. The sweetest ones ever, from the farmer's market³
5. Snacks. Lots of em: wasabi peas, sunflower seeds, "sesame soft flour cake" (沙琪玛), cookie rolls, haw flakes...

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1. Yeah, that's right, I used the British comma. Wut.
2. Known here as Azuki beans
3. Saw a woman at the farmer's market with a cloth shopping bag that said "My carbon footprint is smaller than yours." What an asshole...

Dinner Party

We had a dinner party for Chinese New Year today! Photos and recipes to follow...

Lemon Meringue Pie

The Recipe
Crust
  1 C graham crumbs
  1/2 C crushed pecans
  2 T brown sugar
  4 T butter
Filling
  1/3 C lemon juice
  1/4 C clementine juice
  1 T clementine zest
  4 egg yolks  14 oz condensed milk
  2 clementines, peeled and sectioned
Meringue
  4 egg whites
  1/2 C sugar

1. Combine crust ingredients, press into pie tin. Bake 10 min. @ 350 F
2. Combine filling ingredients (except clementines), cook on stove
3. Line bottom of crust with clementines, pour in filling, and then meringue
4. Bake 8-10 min. @ 350 F to brown meringue
5. Cool, then refrigerate

The Fish Pie

We made this one about 2 months ago. It's a fish pie because there's a fish shape carved onto the meringue.
We followed the recipe above, and the results are shown in the photo at the top of the post. It was a lot of fun to make (the meringue took forever because we didn't have an electric mixer. Also I couldn't chuck a fork into the 3/8" drill. Maybe if I had a bigger drill with a 1/2" chuck, that would have worked out better), and it was great. I especially liked the clementine sections--a burst of flavor and texture within the lemon custard matrix.

The Giraffe Pie

Oh no! This one came out really runny. We used 3 eggs instead of 4 and didn't cook it for as long...maybe that's why?
Also, we used lemon+lime instead of clementines, and as a result, the citrus sections were still a really nice texture, but now intensely sour instead of pleasantly clementine-flavored.
We did use technology to our advantage this time around, though: a food processor to crumble the graham cracker, and an electric mixer for the meringue.
Also we gave part of this pie to Charlie for her aid rescuing me in the midst of the alternator adventures, and she said it was great! So there you have it; independent verification of our pie-making skills.

The Alternator Adventures: concluded?

Alternator came in the mail yesterday! It matches exactly with the original one (which the first two replacements didn't). I got the requisite tools from lab (12mm and 17mm box wrenches, socket extender, Loctite 518), put in the new alternator, accidentally dropped a socket into the car, spent 1.5 hours looking for it (finally had to take the alternator back out and reach in with a magnet-on-a-stick), and put everything back together!
SC is concerned by how much of the car is held on by zip ties.
I let the sealant cure overnight, charged the battery at home (one theory as to why the original alternator and then the second replacement alternator died is that sustained high charging currents burned out the internals...but then again, it's supposed to be an 80 A alternator, so it's not a great theory), and started the car today.
Anyways, looks good! It's working for now. The real test will be whether it fails in the next few weeks or so, but at this point I think I can be a little optimistic.

The Alternator Adventures

Wednesday
Battery charge warning light comes on intermittently. I figure that it must be okay, as long as it's still intermittent (c.f. running out of gas incident). But then it stays on, and the Internet tells me that it's an alternator problem.
After work, I drive home trepidatiously, fretting that the lights are dimmer than usual and fearing that my battery will die. I get home okay and discover that a headlight is out (explaining the dim lights) and I still have enough charge to start the car again.
I trickle-charge the battery overnight (my neighbor dubs it a "plug-in hybrid") and am pretty proud of my workaround.

Thursday
Call up my dad, print out the relevant parts of the factory service manual, look online a bit...this looks like a pretty elementary repair. Should be able to do it myself. How hard can it be?

Friday
I loosen 2 of the 3 bolts, so the alternator should be able to pivot. But it doesn't. Why not? Is there another bolt? Is it caught on something? Finally I give up, and as I'm re-tightening the bolt that pulls the alternator against the belt, I realize that it is in fact moving; I just wasn't applying enough force. Hammer time, and I pivot the alternator down far enough to remove the belt.
However, I can't get at the last bolt holding the alternator in; my wrenches are too fat.
Running total: 3 hours.

Saturday 
Drive the car (a 1995 Infiniti G20, by the way) to the lab. With the right tool (a 17mm box wrench), the last alternator bolt comes out readily.
At this point, I expect the alternator to slide out, but it doesn't. It pivots, but won't come out. What. That doesn't even make any sense. I spend two hours wiggling it in vain while SC searches online. We develop various theories (SC suspects a 4th bolt, I'm convinced there's a spring pin), until finally, almost as a matter of chance, I discover that it just takes more force than we'd been applying previously.
And now the fun part: the alternator is stuck inside. Can't get it out. We tried. Believe me, we tried. We failed.
Internet says to drop the A/C compressor, but I don't want to do that. Could disconnect the coolant hose, but I don't want to do that, either. Finally we disassemble the alternator inside the car, and even then we are barely able to get it out.
Running total: 7 hours

Tuesday
Call around, prices are $170 at an auto parts store nearby, $100 on eBay, and $110 at an alternator/starter specialist in the city. Decide to go with the latter (can you use "latter" with more than 2 items?), so we take the train up and end up in this dirty little shop with stacks of remanufactured alternators and a bored Chinese dude surfing the web.
His computer says they have our model in stock, but he can't find it. He calls around and then tells me he can get it in 45 min. but I have to pay now. I'm a little sketched out, so I call this other alternator store to see if they have it in stock.
When I get off the phone, though, the dude's got a plan. He's miraculously found one that will work. I'm a little skeptical (SC is really skeptical), so we compare it to the old one, and the pulley is the wrong size.
Dude says he'll swap the pulleys. He ducks behind the counter where I can't see him, makes a bunch of loud noises with an impact wrench, and after 10 min. comes back up and says that the pulley won't fit, but if we wait 45 min. he'll get us an alternator from a different store.
SC and I wander around looking for food. Lured into a Vietnamese restaurant by a sign promising $3 sandwiches, we end up getting pho and a really good pork sandwich (the secret ingredient is pâté).
After 45 min. we go back and the dude has a different alternator for us. In retrospect, it was probably the same alternator; he just got a pulley to fit. It matches up with our old alternator, though, so we take it and head triumphantly homeward. Actually we spend 45 min. waiting on a cold train platform, and then head triumphantly homeward.
It only takes 2 hours to put the new alternator in (disconnecting the coolant hose turns out to be trivially easy). High-fives all around, and a shot of gin (there was some mouth siphoning of antifreeze, and ethanol is an antidote for ethylene glycol)
Running total: 15 hours (public transportation is slow)

Wednesday
Drive triumphantly to school to return the tools I'd borrowed from the lab. Yay!
On the way back, I hear an awful rattling sound, and a bit later I hear something small fall off and bounce along the road. I pull over but things look okay under the hood. I speculate that some bolt isn't tightened enough, so I drive to the lab to get the tools back.
Along the way, I hear a loud 'pop', the rattling suddenly stops, and the charge warning light comes on. I check to see if the belt has broken, but it's still there, just off the pulleys. And the alternator pulley is completely loose.
I call the dudes at the shop, tell them what happened, and we agree that the dude who put the pulley on was to blame for doing it wrong. He says they'll get the right alternator tomorrow morning and we can exchange it.

Thursday
I go up to the city to exchange the alternator, pretty straightforward, but I miss the damn train and have to wait an extra hour.
I put the new one in as soon as I get back. I've gotten rather proficient now; it takes me less than an hour. It's not really the right size (damnit, should have checked at the store; should've known those idiots would get it wrong), but I can still get it in, and I figure, what the hell, let's see if it works.
And it does! I'm concerned that the belt isn't properly tensioned, so I rev it up to hear for slippage. Can't really hear it, so I get my neighbor to rev it while I stand in front of the car. Sounds fine. Awesome.
"What's the light on your dash next to the brake light?" he asks. I know the answer to this: it's the charge warning light. It indicates an alternator fault. Damnit.
At first it only comes on when the engine revs above 2000 rpm, but after a few minutes it just stays on. It starts raining.
Running total: 19 hours

Friday
Try calling the dudes, but can't get them, so I leave an angry voicemail. It's a lost art, I think, mostly superseded by the passive-aggressive email, and I'm somewhat proud that I still have it in me.
The car still runs, so I drive it to school and to then to work. SC entreats me to bring the charger so I can charge the battery at work, but I don't want to have to explain the situation to my co-workers, and besides, I'd made this trip last Wednesday and it was fine.
On the way back from work, the ABS warning light comes on, presumably due to low battery voltage. Uh-oh. I also notice that my headlights dim when I step on the brakes because the brake lights draw too much current. This is slightly unsettling, but I'm secure in knowing that I'd made this same exact trip last week.
Shortly thereafter, as I'm pulling away from a stoplight, I suddenly find myself unable to accelerate. I'm thinking it's the fuel pump or injectors. I'm able to maintain about 25 mph, though (it's a 45 mph road) so I keep going, hoping fervently that it'll last long enough to get to a smaller side road.
There's no shoulder, and cars are passing around me, so I go to turn on my hazards, but I hit the rear window defrost accidentally. Everything goes dim and the engine falters. I hit the clutch instinctively and the engine stalls; now I'm coasting with a dead engine.
Without really thinking about it, I put the car back and gear and let out the clutch; the momentum of the car turns the engine over and I'm back to driving at near-idle conditions. It occurs to me that I could probably make it further if I turned off the headlights, but remaining as visible as possible is pretty high on my priorities list. In retrospect, switching to parking lights might have been a good idea. Anyways, I don't make it very far before the engine dies again.
Fortunately, I coast far enough to make it into the right-turn-only lane for the side road I'd been aiming for; it's my own personal Hanukkah miracle. I have a moment of disbelief, and then I just have to laugh: why didn't I listen to SC's suggestion to charge the battery at work? I'm a dumbass.
Finally I get myself together enough to start panicking. I need to get the car off the main road. Does the side road have street parking? Yes. If I can park the car I can remove the battery and charge it at home and come back tomorrow to move the car. Can I push the car there myself? No. I call SC. Voicemail. Shit.
I start leaving a rambling message--I'm having some difficulty being coherent--but then SC calls me back. Help, I'm stranded, I should've listened to you, I need to get the car off the road, go call your friends, just get anyone with a car and get here now. I hang up and start calling my friends.
It's in the middle of talking, though, that I realize I'm in the middle of a residential neighborhood. I can probably get help from any of these houses with the lights on...oh look there's a guy standing in his doorway right now. Somewhat reluctantly, he agrees to help, and together we push the car into a vaguely legal parking spot.
I call SC back, explain the situation, and the night ends with us safely home, battery charging in the living room.
Hypotheses for why it died this time? Maybe a week of deep-cycling the battery took its toll on its capacity. Maybe--and this is my favorite due to the irony--it's because I replaced the burnt-out headlight bulb, thus increasing the headlights' current draw.

Saturday
I borrow my friend's car, fetch my car (using the fully charged battery), remove the alternator (I've really got the procedure down now), drive up to the city.
The dude at the store sees me coming and before I can say anything he tells me he got my message, they're going to refund the money, and they'll give me back my original busted alternator too. So that went a lot more smoothly than I'd expected.
Still, back to square 1.
Well, I guess the alternator's out of the car, and that was an ordeal in itself. So maybe square 2.
Running total: 22 hours

Monday
Still need a new alternator. Local auto parts store has it for $170, but they gotta order it from their warehouse, 1 week lead time. There's a different alternator specialist in the city (this one was referred to me by a lab tech who rebuilds engines professionally) that has it for $140, but I don't want another trip up to the city. So I go with the $100 alternator from eBay.
It should get here in a few days. Until then, I'm trying my best not to think about this whole stupid saga.

Giraffe Pie!

Lemon meringue pie with graham cracker/pecan crust. Made with the help of a new electric mixer and new measuring spoons that can't have their labels washed off since they're stamped metal! Yay technology!

Statement of purpose

All the analyses and experiments I do for work/lab/class go into notebooks and reports. But where do the miscellaneous thoughts and experiences from the rest of life go? They'll go here.