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It’s Wednesday after work and if you are in Saudi, that means it’s Miller time. Oh wait. Not quite. But it IS the weekend and that’s something to rejoice in any country or culture.
Today it’s was 107 degrees. No, it’s NOT a dry heat. It’s actually humid because we are about a half hour from the Gulf. Tomorrow it’s supposed to be about 114 degrees and I will be ON the Gulf at a place called Qatif. According to Wikipedia, “Qatif is a historic, coastal oasis region located on the western shore of the Persian Gulf in the Eastern Province of Saudi Arabia. This region includes the town of Qatif as well many smaller towns and villages. The historic oasis area shows its first archeological evidence of settlement beginning about 3500 BC.” So this place is old!
We are leaving at 7:30 am to try to beat the heat (fat chance). We’ll first stop at the “Souks” which are the local markets: fish, veggies, etc. I believe that Qatif is actually an island in the Gulf, so it should be nice and humid, in addition to hot. However, for a Minnesotan, that has great appeal. This should be
It says...
"eWay. Preparing Saudi Aramco for the future." Now how's THAT for specific? another Saudi adventure that brings me into contact with the “real” Saudi Arabia and I’m very much looking forward to it.
Meanwhile, here are some random photos. The Land Rover was parked on my way to work. I couldn’t resist a photo of a sign that says “Camel Trophy” even though I have no idea what that means.
The other photos are of our external hard drive. This little black box contains every bit of information we are using. And the red light started blinking. I don’t know much about hardware, but a blinking red light is
never a good thing. After some research back in Minneapolis, here what they came up with (God forbid there would be actual words displayed on the hard drive that a normal person could read! This thing holds 250 Gigabytes of data, but can’t display three words about what the red blinking light means.) Here is the secret code:
* 3 flashes = Partition problem with hard drive. Reformat the hard drive.
* 4 flashes = Fan problem
* 5 flashes = ROM problem
* 6 flashes = Hard drive can not be recognized
* 7 flashes = Problem with Motherboard (RAM,
Ted's MacGyver Setup
Can I cool a hard drive with a dying fan with a desk fan? LAN, or Hard Drive Controller)
* 8 flashes = Self-destruction sequence activated. Explosion imminent. (Cut the red wire or the blue wire?)
OK, I added the last one, but none of them are in the least bit desirable. So we counted the flashes, which isn’t as easy as it sounds because the thing doesn’t stop blinking. However, there is one long blink and three short blinks, so either it’s Morse Code for “I’m dying here” or it means that there is a “fan problem.” Although Britney Spears had a fan problem (lack of), I’m thinking it means the type of fan that keeps the hard drive from frying to a crispy critter.
And that explains the photo of the fan aimed directly toward the vents in the hard drive. It is also propped up on a scotch tape dispenser so that the bottom doesn’t get too toasty either.
The kind folks in Minneapolis have promised to send us another hard drive to use, but my prediction is that it will arrive on June 4. We leave on June 3. Needless to say, I am doing a hard drive backup, oh, about every 2 or 3 seconds, hoping
that it will hold on until the end of our last session. Please keep our hard drive in your prayers tonight.
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Tot: 0.135s; Tpl: 0.012s; cc: 10; qc: 60; dbt: 0.0781s; 1; m:domysql w:travelblog (10.17.0.13); sld: 1;
; mem: 1.2mb
ellen
non-member comment
Da da da da....................
So the question is did the hard drive Live or die? Is it a conspiracy? Is Dick Cheney listening to everything you are saying? The problem with a black box is that it is a BLACK BOX! And you never can get inside..................Good luck!