As those of you who read the Internet OTR Digest know, last week I came to the painful realization that I wasn’t going to be able to attend the Cinncinnati Old-Time Radio and Nostalgia Convention this week. My plan was to make this server available for any and all photographs, sound files, and interviews possible from the two-day convention. Even set things up so that direct computer-to-computer conversations could be held via Gizmo (VoIP application that ain’t Skype).

So naturally the Windows machine in my office decides to start throwing Cyclical Redundancy Errors…

Instead of using the time to catch up, I’m now running around in little circles using the Linux machine to gather information on ways to fix the thing…and it looks like I’m going to need to pick up another hard drive to back it up and to replace the main drive (haven’t figured out how to transfer Windows to the new drive yet, since it came with this computer and so there’s no startup disc but rather a hidden drive partition containing the OS install files).

About the only thing that’s saving my bacon right now is a computer donated by Martin Grams, Jr. (he of the Mid-Atlantic Nostalgia Convention and author of a bazillion OTR and nostalgia books) - I had been using it as a mail server backup machine, but it’s now being pressed into service as a temporary replacement for the blown machine while I desperately work on it. By the end of this morning, I should have the important applications (Gizmo, etc.) installed on it, so I should be able to continue without too much of a stumble, and hopefully by Friday will be up-and-running as if nothing much had happened. Just don’t be surprised if I’m a little slow in responding to email over the next day or so…