Free PACS system

Just found this: http://www.pacsone.net/index.htm?

I'm thinking of loading it up on a spare workstation I have and playing with it.

NerdTest

35.714285714285715% of me is a huge nerd! How about you?

The Escrow juggle

Just got my property taxes for the year - so I check my escrow to see if there is enough to cover the payment... not even close. The mortgage company wasn't taking enough for the taxes.. this was expected since it was a new house and my taxes were 7$ last year, but it was still a pain to call in and have them readjust it - I was trying to do the math and follow along just to ensure there would be no screw ups.

Anyway - it's all settled now, that was my math moment of the week. My mother in law (math teacher) would be proud!

BASH & SQL

I spent 9 hours yesterday writing my first BASH script. While BASH isn't the hardest to understand, it's a little confusing for someone who has more of a VB background than C. The script basically takes and variable value (number of times to run) and performs an sql script that many times. The SQL script pulls 1 record from a table that has a flag set to N, updates various other tables and then inserts a record into another table and updates the flag on the original table to Y.

If you are wondering what this is for, it's to resend some information into a long term archive. The host system believes these records were already archived, so this is to trick the system into re archiving those exams.

The system can handle about 100 new entries into the queue every 15 mins, so I have a crontab entry to run the script once every 15 mins, placing 100 entries into the queue.

With 175k entries to be re archived, I estimate around 18.5 days to complete the migration.

I'd post the script here, but unfortunately it contains proprietary info in it.

My Apple Care Story

So.... around July 25th I decide to load bootcamp. I download the app, run the tool and go to burn a cd for drivers. The cd won't burn and I get a failed to calibrate error. So then I continue to try and burn several different cds - different typed and brands. All of them fail to burn. So the next day I call Apple and schedule a repair and to send it to their facility in Texas. The box arrives the next day and I send it off.

On the 28th I checked my status online and it showed it was ready to be shipped back. On the 29th when my laptop didn't show up I called Apple care - they said it was waiting on a part and would be shipped after the part came in.

So 11 days later, on the 9th of August my laptop showed up - but DHL sent it to the wrong house down the street. So I had to track it down and convince the people that it was delivered to that the package was really mine. After I finally got it home, I started it up and found that they had wiped my HDD. No worries since I had backed up the computer before I sent it off.

So I started to reload all my apps - when I went to reload my saved data I found that my backups were bad and I was unalble to recover any data. Not anyones fault but my own for not checking my backup after it was performed.

To make things even better, when I went to burn a cd (the initial reason I sent it to applecare) I was still unable to, and was getting the same errors. I found that they had replaced my system board but didn't even touch my super drive.

I decided I would try to clean the lense on my superdrive and see if that would fix my issue. While I had the mac open I also noted the part number and model number of my superdrive just in case it needs to be replaced. At this point I'm afraid to call Applecare again and loose my mac for another 10 days.

I used an Isoprpyl Alcohol wipe (for electronics) and cleaned the lense, then reassembled the mac - booted it up and tested it, it successfully bured 2 cd-r's in a row, with no errors.

So - for a trip to applecare I got a wiped hdd, a new systemboard and it still had burning issues, I should had just tried to fix it myself in the beginning!