When I went to bed last Thursday, my computer was fine. When I came home from work on Friday, my computer was not fine. The OS had frozen, and no amount of mouse clicking or keyboard button pressing would awake it from its ice cold slumber. Connecting remotely via SSH also did not work, which really had me worried. The obvious fix (which I learned from years of using Windows) was to give the computer an old fashioned hard reset. When this failed twice, my next option was to boot up using my most recent operating system CD and to try to check/repair the disk using Disk Utility. When Disk Utility puked at me 2-3 times, I knew I was in trouble. In one last ditch effort I went old school from the singler-user command line and attempted a /sbin/fsck -fy, which also failed. Even after all the futile attempts at salvaging my disk, I knew that I had a Time Machine backup safe and secure on an external USB drive that basically contained a clone of my computer, so in theory all of my files should be just fine.

For those of us that have spent any extended amount of time in the Land of Academia, theory isn’t always backed up by empirical data…or is it empirical data isn’t always backed up by theory? Either way, I remember in physics lab once or twice when I may or may not have fudged some data points to make them fit better on the trend line. In my present day story, I had no control over the trend line and had no effect on whatever outcome Time Machine had in store for me. I had never tested out a full system restore from a Time Machine backup and had no idea if it would really work. All I could do was cross my fingers and wait the seven hours that it would take to fully restore my 300GB of data. I went to bed wondering and hoping that everything would be a success, however, I had my doubts.

Before we continue, I’d like to make a point for all the Mac haters. Apple does not design or manufacturer hard drives (sidebar). The hard drive in my iMac could be the same hard drive that is found in your Dell or your HP or whatever other non-Apple piece of hardware you own. All Apple did with my iMac was pick a good vendor and a good model, then stuck it into the machine. In fact, you can read the specs on the Western Digital Caviar SE WD3200AAJS that failed me on their website. Actually, now that I think about it, this is NOT the first Western Digital drive that I’ve owned that has suffered a premature death. Interesting.

Moving on, the next morning I woke up to the pleasant site of a fully restored system using a brand new hard drive. I had lost nothing.* Time Machine had succeeded! The free app built directly into the operating system had worked exactly as advertised, and as and end user, I couldn’t be more thrilled with the outcome. Time Machine had kept my files safe, and when I needed them was right there to say, “Here you go, Mr. Lepolt, sorry for your troubles.” That’s exactly how I would expect backup software to work. Bravo.

If you own a Mac, use Time Machine.

*Time Machine allows users to “ignore” directories to backup, and as expected these directories were not restored.

Cedar Point and Kings Island both have web cameras pointed at the WindSeeker sites that update on a very regular basis. I wrote a custom script to run on my computer that basically captures a number of these images throughout the day from each camera. Each day I take the collected images and use a piece of software that allows me to generate a video from the sequence of images. The daily videos are then stitched together to provide a weekly summary of WindSeeker progress that I upload to YouTube.

So, that’s it. Nothing special, just a bunch of image grabs stitched together for a video. I hope that you will continue to enjoy these construction updates as they are posted!

Cedar Fair currently owns 11 amusement parks and six water parks at a total of 15 different locations in the US and Canada. In the summer of 2007, a year after Cedar Fair acquired Paramount Parks, they introduced a new type of season pass that allowed access to all amusement and water parks owned by Cedar Fair. Having taken a yearly trip to Cedar Point for 24 consecutive years and living less than 30 minutes from Kings Island, I decided that this “Maxx Pass” was a solid investment. Three years later and a silly name change to “Platinum,” Abi and I both have these season passes that can still be used at all 15 properties. This summer we decided to exercise our season passholder privileges to the fullest…well, not quite to the fullest, but close enough.

We’re going to take a 16 day road trip to eight different parks. Due to time constraints we’re going to skip the five stops in California, water park in Aurora, OH, and one in Canada (after the Olympics I think you’ll agree skipping the latter is acceptable). Without further ado, I present to you the order of events for our Roller Coaster Adventure Tour 2010:

• Worlds of Fun (Kansas City, Missouri)
• Valleyfair (Shakopee, Minnesota)
• Michigan’s Adventure (Muskegon, Michigan)
• Cedar Point (Sandusky, Ohio)
• Dorney Park & Wildwater Kingdom (Allentown, Pennsylvania)
• Kings Dominion (Doswell, Virginia)
• Carowinds (Charlotte, North Carolina/Fort Mill, South Carolina)
• Kings Island (Kings Mills, Ohio)

Our schedule and the distance between the parks requires that we reserve a full day for travel the day before visiting a park. Basically we’re going to drive for a day, then ride coasters for a day, repeated a total of eight times.

Where available I *think* we will visit the adjoining water park (Abi really wants to do this, personally I’m not a huge fan). There’s also an outside chance that if everything stays on schedule that we might be able to make a stop in Santa Claus, Indiana at the one and only Holiday World. That may end up being a game day decision at the end of the trip.

So there you have it, our summer vacation plans. Probably not exactly your standard vacation, but I think it sounds like a heck of a lot of fun!

Flight of Fear (or “FoF,” as we have nicknamed it) is an enclosed roller coaster. 100% of the ride is indoors and in the dark, which adds to the experience and excitement of this ride. The majority of the ride takes place basically inside a huge cube, so track is twisting and turning and placed in the most ridiculous locations that you could possibly imagine. Since the ride is mostly dark, people generally don’t get a chance to fully enjoy the beauty of the design and implementation of this ride. That is of course unless you get stuck inside!!! (or you pay a few bucks for the ‘behind the scenes tour,’ I’ll post the link when I find what I’m looking for)

We started the ride like normal, accelerating from 0-60mph in about 4 seconds, and then flipping upside down a couple times, twisting and turning through the steel track. About halfway through the ride the track goes level and applies some brakes before the grande finale. Usually the brakes slow the train down enough to let riders catch their breath before a few more twists, turns, and inversions. However, this time the brakes stopped us completely.

We sat their for a moment of two, feeling the track shakng back and forth beneath us. Another moment or two go by, and I wonder if something could be wrong…will the brakes let go?

And this is the point when I start to get really excited. Seriously, right now I’m hoping that the ride has broken down and that we’ll have get off the train and walk down those metal stairs that you see on nearly every ride. We wait another minute or so until a KI employee shows up on the platform. “Um, we’re having some technical difficulties right now, and we’re doing our best to resolve the situation. The mechanics are on their way over here right now.”

That was when I took out my trusty iPhone to start documenting the whole thing. I took some pictures, I took some video, I even called Kevin because I knew that he would completely appreciate our current situation. I tried to update Twitter, but there was some stupid problem with the API at the time. Stupid Twitter.

About 12-15 minutes later the brakes on the track released and we got to finish our ride. At the unloading platform there were ten or so KI employees and 2-3 mechanics, waiting to make sure everyone was alright. We were…but some people were more “agitated” than others. I was thrilled. I wanted to do it again.

For years I have always wanted to get stuck on a roller coaster and have to climb down to safety. It has never happened, and I can always hope that someday it will…but I sure got to take home a great story today!

There was a box shipped via UPS next day air on my porch Thursday evening. It would appear that Vinnie somehow pulled it off and got my camera back to me in time for the tennis tournament this weekend. Good news for me!

And, just for fun, here are some good lookin’ veggies!

(don’t let the small red one fool you…)

On July 16, 2009, I received an email from Nikon, Inc., alerting me about a “service advisory” (aka, recall, see here) regarding my camera. Nikon requested that D5000 owners with particular serial numbers send their cameras in to get checked for a problem with the power switch not actually turning the camera on. I had not experienced any of these problems, so I was a bit hesitant to send my camera in for service basically due to the sheer annoyance of me having to be without a camera for an extended period of time (insert ominous music here). I finally decided that I [probably] wouldn’t need my camera for a decently long period of time (two weeks…Nikon shouldn’t need more time than that, right?), so I packed the thing up in a box, slapped my prepaid UPS label on it, and sent the D5000 to Connecticut. I should note that the only thing Nikon ever stated when referencing to the amount of time that it would take to get the camera fixed was: “Nikon will return serviced cameras to customers promptly, employing (whenever possible) transportation that limits transit time to two days.”

This is where you laugh and say “I know what’s going to happen next. Lepolt is going to need/want his camera before it’s fixed!” You and Murphy would be correct…almost as soon as I sent the camera in, I wanted to use it.

A little background: Seapine Software has purchased tickets to the Western & Southern Financial Group Masters Open for the past few years, and has graciously offered tickets to employees. I have graciously accepted said tickets, and have been able to see the likes of Roger Federer (Pics from 2007) smacking that little yellow ball around on a court in Mason, OH. I figured this year would be no different, so I put in my request for tickets. Again, Murphy’s interference: I wasn’t able to get tickets at the end of the tournament like I expected, but more toward the middle.

At this point I knew I was in trouble. My camera was in transit to Connecticut, I was in Cincinnati, and the tennis tournament was in a little over a week.

What do I do? I NEED my camera by Saturday! Let’s call Nikon. I’m sure by calling their 1-800 number I’ll be able to speak with someone that can tell me the whereabouts of my camera and when I can expect it to return. Right? RIGHT?!

<insert laughter>

This is where the fun begins…I called Nikon on Sunday evening and talked to Cynthia. I asked her where my camera was. She told me “it was out of her hands.” I asked how I was supposed to find my camera, and how I could get it back by Saturday. She had no idea. She did tell me that she would email the service facility, and she would email me their response by Tuesday.

It’s Tuesday. I’ve heard nothing from Cynthia. I’ll call back. This time I talked to a guy and had to explain the whole situation to him again. He told me right away that “it was out of his hands,” and “we (customer service) are not handling that.” I asked him if he knew where my camera was and he said, “it’s in Connecticut!” I calmly asked if he knew for certain that my camera was in Connecticut, or if someone else’s camera was in Connecticut. “Well, that’s where all the D5000 cameras are going.” I asked again where MY camera was. “Well, we don’t have access to that information.” I called BS and said there had to be someone there that knew what was going on. He put me on hold for five minutes…then hung up. Intentional? Probably. At least that’s the way I’ll spin it.

So I called back. This time I got to talk to Vinnie. I told Vinnie my sob story (for the third time) and mentioned how the previous support representative had just hung up on me, and how the first support representative had failed to follow through on her commitment. Vinnie really felt my pain. “It’s not funny,” he said. “I understand your inconvenience.” At this point I could pretty much recite Nikon’s whole script of how to deal with a frustrated/angry/jackass customer and knew that no one at 1-800-645-6678 would be able to do a damn thing for me. I told Vinnie that this whole situation was unacceptable, and that I was really starting to get angry due to lack of communication between Nikon and its customers, and Nikon between customer service and the repair facility. We spoke for about 25 minutes while I tried to get a loaner camera from Nikon and he read from the script which was full of “I’m sorry’s” and “I understand’s.” Probably to get me to shut up, he finally told me he was pretty sure (although he wouldn’t guarantee anything) that I would have my camera back in time. He was going to email yet ANOTHER department to see if I could get a loaner camera by Saturday. Again, he was “pretty sure” that I could get a loaner camera (but wouldn’t guarantee anything).

I’m not buying it for a second. No chance. Zero. I’m not getting my camera back or a loaner by Saturday. They’ll have to kick the thing out the door first thing Wednesday morning to have any chance of me getting it.

One interesting tidbit that I did manage to extract from Vinnie was that it could take five business days once they received the camera to generate a service order number, and they could work with me from there. Hmmmm. Five business days. This information would certainly have been useful BEFORE I sent the camera in! Stupid Nikon!!!

I realize that this whole situation is a little bit my fault…but when it really comes down to it, I feel like Nikon should have done a better job of everything! They obviously know how long it will take to repair a single camera, how many cameras they have sold, and how many cameras they could expect to receive at their repair facility. They could have provided me with a rough estimate of how long I should expect to be without my camera! All they told me was they would try to ship it back within two days wherever possible. That’s worthless to me. Unbelievable. I can send something in the mail and tell you that it will take 2-3 days to get there! The useful information is how long it will take them to fix once they have it…information they neglected to share. Oh well.

So, I guess we’ll just wait and see. Hopefully I have something to use come Saturday…Federer is in town.

Jalapeño Peppers

You may notice that there are more plants in pots instead of the ground…well, we weren’t having a whole lot of luck with the actual garden, so Abi salvaged what she could and threw some into pots, which are doing fantastic. I keep telling people that Abi and I are pot farmers…but Abi always corrects me and says we’re “container gardeners.” I’ll let you decide.

Enjoy some new photos:
http://picasaweb.google.com/lepolt

I’m not expecting fans to ignore these feats. I won’t do it myself. I went to a number of UC games as an undergrad and was treated to some of the best basketball games I have ever seen. No, don’t forget about those. What we need to do however, is keep moving forward.

I understand that there is a big game on campus tonight. It’s a big game for both teams. UC and WV are both middle-of-the-road teams in the Big East, both fighting for that first (and second) round bye in the Big East Tournament. What’s not a big deal is the relationship of Huggs and Cincinnati for ANY player on EITHER team. Huggins’ last season with UC was in 2005. It is now 2009. No player on Cincinnati’s roster in 2008-09 was on the roster in 2004-05. Zero. There’s a chance that most of the players on WV’s team don’t even know where Cincinnati is. These players don’t care about the drama; all they want to do is win a basketball game tonight and move up in the Big East standings.

Most current students at UC weren’t around in 2004-05 either. All they want to do is watch the Bearcats win a basketball game tonight and move up in the Big East standings.

The UC athletic department decided that tonight would provide a great opportunity to recognize Bob Huggins for his exceptional efforts from 1989 to 2005. There will be a short video before the game tonight highlighting some of the great years Huggins had at UC. I feel that doing something like that TONIGHT is probably dumber than hiring Nancy Zimpher to begin with! In case you missed the first paragraph, Huggins is the opposing coach! He is coming to the Shoemaker Center tonight with plans on BEATING Cincinnati! We’re not friends tonight! Tonight we’re enemies! Why are Earth would UC take time out of pregame to say, “Huggs, you’re okay! Let’s be friends! Thanks for everything you’ve done for this program even though we suck right now thanks to controversy from your days of coaching!”

I am a Bob Huggins fan. I liked the guy from 2001-2005 when we were both at UC, and I like the guy today at West Virgina. It’s weird for me to see Huggs on the sideline at a different school, but I still want to see him get smoked by the ‘Cats tonight. Today is not the day to praise Bob Huggins and thank him for what he once did for the basketball program. That day will come…like, say, on another day when West Virginia isn’t in town? Or maybe after Huggins retires from coaching college basketball?

Come on, UC. I know ticket sales are down, but it’s a really shady thing to use controversy to sell tickets. Use excitement! Use pride! Use lower prices!

I will be watching the game tonight, cheering for the Bearcats. I am, and forever shall be, a Bearcat.

C—I—N—C—I—N   N-A-T-I!!! (N-A-T-IIIIIIII!!!)

Jonathan Lepolt
College of Engineering ’06
RallyCats ’02-06

• Splitting Wood
• Painting Another Room
• De-icing the Driveway

Thanks to CD, Evan, and Abi for help splitting/stacking wood.

Abi and I were responsible for painting and getting all the winter off the driveway.