Microsoft officially announced today the name of its latest Operating System since it debuted Vista on the market just over two years ago.
In keeping with the latest trends (well trends that have been in use for years by Linux and Apple), Microsoft is going to name its latest offering with a number for the first time since Windows 2000 was put on the market in 1999.
The latest name.... Windows 7.
The article above cleverly paints both a positive and negative with the number 7. I'll mention the fact that they used "Seven deadly sins" as part of the negative since it made me smile.
Showing posts with label geek. Show all posts
Showing posts with label geek. Show all posts
Tuesday, October 14, 2008
Friday, August 15, 2008
New Computer
So, I'm writing this little entry on my brand new computer. Well, not really brand, as I've had it for a little over a week now. The computer I'm talking about is one of those new "ultra-portable" computers that every one is talking about. The ones that are about the size of one of the portable DVD players that you can pick up.
There are not a lot of bells-and-whistles on the computer. No CD-Rom drive, no harddrive. Its got a fairly impressive 8" screen, and wireless Internet which makes it perfect for taking with you to the mall or even in the car. Its small enough to fit into the side pocket of most cargo shorts. (That is how I carry it around with me since I don't own a purse.)
The keyboard takes a little getting used to though, as the keys are small and compact which can make it a little difficult to type. I often find myself hittig the wrong keys while typing simple messages.
All in all its a great little item which I gladly use while sitting on the couch to do most of the tasks that I have on the Internet. Personally, I think that everyone should get one.
(Mine was free.) But you can pick one up for about $300 fully installed.
Portability: 4.5/5
Usability: 4/5
Cool factor: 6/5
Most people may find the interface cool, as everything is preinstalled and setup. Once you settle on the "Wow factor" someone will tell you that you're using Linux and you'll want to rush out and get it.
----
Speaking of which, have I mentioned that I managed to switch all 4 of the computers in the house to Linux. Even my wifes? .... Under *her* request?
I was sitting there playing with some of the advanced graphics stuff that are available in Linux, more specifically I was making it rain on my desktop.
Cool shit eh? Bet you that you want it now.
There are not a lot of bells-and-whistles on the computer. No CD-Rom drive, no harddrive. Its got a fairly impressive 8" screen, and wireless Internet which makes it perfect for taking with you to the mall or even in the car. Its small enough to fit into the side pocket of most cargo shorts. (That is how I carry it around with me since I don't own a purse.)
The keyboard takes a little getting used to though, as the keys are small and compact which can make it a little difficult to type. I often find myself hittig the wrong keys while typing simple messages.
All in all its a great little item which I gladly use while sitting on the couch to do most of the tasks that I have on the Internet. Personally, I think that everyone should get one.
(Mine was free.) But you can pick one up for about $300 fully installed.
Portability: 4.5/5
Usability: 4/5
Cool factor: 6/5
Most people may find the interface cool, as everything is preinstalled and setup. Once you settle on the "Wow factor" someone will tell you that you're using Linux and you'll want to rush out and get it.
----
Speaking of which, have I mentioned that I managed to switch all 4 of the computers in the house to Linux. Even my wifes? .... Under *her* request?
I was sitting there playing with some of the advanced graphics stuff that are available in Linux, more specifically I was making it rain on my desktop.
Cool shit eh? Bet you that you want it now.
Friday, May 30, 2008
Saving grace...
and a small database.
One of my tasks at work is to ensure that the installation of our software is correct. And by correct, I mean, does what I want it to do.
When I came back in January one of my first tasks was to make sure that there was an upgrade procedure to go from our old version 4.2 to our new version 4.3. Our current users (and myself) spend alot of time making customizations to the configuration of the application, creating groups, assigning rights and privileges, etc. For 4 versions now, there has been now way to upgrade the application from one version to the next so users would have to spend alot of time redoing all of the work they've spent months doing.
Today, I was trying to determine why the database upgrade wasn't working like it should. I'll leave the fact that the software is going past 8 weeks late for another day...
When the installer got to this point it would simply crash and die a horrible death. Initially I blamed it on the developers and their "It works for me" attitude. Then I thought about blaming our release manager just because its fun to make him sweat.
After alot of experimentation, as to why the script would run then fail when I started over again (by removing the database and reinstalling). It was bugging me, so I started documenting why it was working sometimes and then not.
Turns out (after saving you from some serious nerdy goodness) that its totally the fault of the implemented database. We're using a simple memory database called HSQL to store the configuration information, and well it wasn't getting the table information until after it was restarted.
I passed the information on to our installation developers and I should have a new build the end of next week. Judging from past performance and how it took 7 weeks to get a beta installation....
On other notes, I have a new word of the moment. SPORK.
One of my tasks at work is to ensure that the installation of our software is correct. And by correct, I mean, does what I want it to do.
When I came back in January one of my first tasks was to make sure that there was an upgrade procedure to go from our old version 4.2 to our new version 4.3. Our current users (and myself) spend alot of time making customizations to the configuration of the application, creating groups, assigning rights and privileges, etc. For 4 versions now, there has been now way to upgrade the application from one version to the next so users would have to spend alot of time redoing all of the work they've spent months doing.
Today, I was trying to determine why the database upgrade wasn't working like it should. I'll leave the fact that the software is going past 8 weeks late for another day...
When the installer got to this point it would simply crash and die a horrible death. Initially I blamed it on the developers and their "It works for me" attitude. Then I thought about blaming our release manager just because its fun to make him sweat.
After alot of experimentation, as to why the script would run then fail when I started over again (by removing the database and reinstalling). It was bugging me, so I started documenting why it was working sometimes and then not.
Turns out (after saving you from some serious nerdy goodness) that its totally the fault of the implemented database. We're using a simple memory database called HSQL to store the configuration information, and well it wasn't getting the table information until after it was restarted.
I passed the information on to our installation developers and I should have a new build the end of next week. Judging from past performance and how it took 7 weeks to get a beta installation....
On other notes, I have a new word of the moment. SPORK.
Thursday, May 29, 2008
Experimentations
Music: Skinny Puppy - Schrimpz
I've been away from this for the last few days for no fault by my computers.
You see I have been trying to go all open source on the computers that I own. I already have one running Linux which I'm using as my webserver of sorts. Its been working wonderfully and I have not had a single complaint about it since I set it up 8 or 9 months ago.
The harder one to deal with is my personal computer that I use constantly (too much if you ask my wife) [But thats part of being a nerd. :-)] On my own computer I use for a lot of different purposes, the most imporant is to manage the Photos that I've been taking lately. For this I use Adobe Lightroom, there is no acceptable open source substitute for this program. While messing around on the computer I actually manged to get Lightroom to install on my Linux computer at home. Hurdle 1 was clearly avoided.
Hurdle 2 is a little more tricky. I am music-nerd. I have lots of music and I am particularly fond of the out-of-print 7" vinyl tracks that I've managed to obtain**. To help me organize the collection of obscure music, I've come to trust and love iTunes. This is my downfall.
I have been experimenting with other Linux media players and none offer the functionality and organizational ability that I require. The only one that has come close has been Amarok, but its a sack of shit. When you change an artist, genre, album, year, etc on the mp3 file normally it gets stored in the file so that the next time you load the file it will have all of the information. Not Amarok, its big "selling" point is the Database that is uses for faster searching and interface loading. Now, see the problem. I change my song information and load it into my iPod and things are different, they don't match up. I don't like being tied into an application and having my information at the mercy of one thing in particular. ***
So far this week I've installed 4 different distributions (*) about 9 or 10 times to see if I can certain things working.
Reluctantly, you can see that the responsiveness of iTunes that I have been experimenting with isn't quite up to par. Clicking play normally doesn't take 30 seconds to respond, and using the volume slider in the app shouldn't cause the MP3 to skip.
** Read: file-sharing.
*** Hence, my reluctance to actually buy any music from the iTunes music store. I refuse to purchase music that I can't move, copy, rip, burn, encode, recode at my whim. Call me old fashioned, but you're essentially renting the song. (Though, the DRM-free stuff at iTunes is interesting.... )
(*) - meaning flavours of Linux.
I've been away from this for the last few days for no fault by my computers.
You see I have been trying to go all open source on the computers that I own. I already have one running Linux which I'm using as my webserver of sorts. Its been working wonderfully and I have not had a single complaint about it since I set it up 8 or 9 months ago.
The harder one to deal with is my personal computer that I use constantly (too much if you ask my wife) [But thats part of being a nerd. :-)] On my own computer I use for a lot of different purposes, the most imporant is to manage the Photos that I've been taking lately. For this I use Adobe Lightroom, there is no acceptable open source substitute for this program. While messing around on the computer I actually manged to get Lightroom to install on my Linux computer at home. Hurdle 1 was clearly avoided.
Hurdle 2 is a little more tricky. I am music-nerd. I have lots of music and I am particularly fond of the out-of-print 7" vinyl tracks that I've managed to obtain**. To help me organize the collection of obscure music, I've come to trust and love iTunes. This is my downfall.
I have been experimenting with other Linux media players and none offer the functionality and organizational ability that I require. The only one that has come close has been Amarok, but its a sack of shit. When you change an artist, genre, album, year, etc on the mp3 file normally it gets stored in the file so that the next time you load the file it will have all of the information. Not Amarok, its big "selling" point is the Database that is uses for faster searching and interface loading. Now, see the problem. I change my song information and load it into my iPod and things are different, they don't match up. I don't like being tied into an application and having my information at the mercy of one thing in particular. ***
So far this week I've installed 4 different distributions (*) about 9 or 10 times to see if I can certain things working.
Reluctantly, you can see that the responsiveness of iTunes that I have been experimenting with isn't quite up to par. Clicking play normally doesn't take 30 seconds to respond, and using the volume slider in the app shouldn't cause the MP3 to skip.
** Read: file-sharing.
*** Hence, my reluctance to actually buy any music from the iTunes music store. I refuse to purchase music that I can't move, copy, rip, burn, encode, recode at my whim. Call me old fashioned, but you're essentially renting the song. (Though, the DRM-free stuff at iTunes is interesting.... )
(*) - meaning flavours of Linux.
Monday, May 26, 2008
Spontaneous Day
Music: Alec Empire & El-p - Shards of Pol Pottery (Hard Mix) | Skinny Puppy - TFWO (Live)
What a great weekend. What a truely great weekend!
Did you ever have trouble trying to express that amount of fun that you've had doing something in particular, yet want to tell the entire story from start to finish without missing a single thing? Thats the point where I am right now, I'll see if I can do it justice.
The day started out with the notion that it was Nerd Pride Day (I keep calling it International Nerd Day). (You can see it here. Yes, I am one of the "cool" people who has a facebook account, so? Its nerdy.)
As the day progressed past noon, my wife and I turned it into Spontaneous Day.
I later tried to rename the day Random Day but that was vetoed and squashed by my wife numerous times.
Here is how it happened:
Sunday was just like any other day, I had woken up early and begun to make plans for the day. Since it was a special Nerdy type day (well, not much is different from any other day) I decided that I was going to format my computer and put the latest version of Fedora on it.
Shortly after deciding this my wife had gotten out of bed and asked me to watch a movie with her, The Thomas Crown Affair, we begin to watch it and half-way through we begin to discuss thoughts of going for a drive, she was initially thinking Sussex but I was thinking somewhere new. Some place we hadn't been before.
I grab the road atlas from the shelf and begin to leaf through the pages looking for someplace cool to go. I settle on a senic drive around a lake on the other side of the County and begin to show it to my wife.
She interrupts me with: "Want to go to Maine?"
Thus began Spontaneous Day!
OK!
It was 12:15 when we decided this, we showered, dressed and at the gas station 35 minutes later.
We had initial plans to persuade friends of ours to come with us on this journey as they seem to as random as we were, after a 15 minute cell phone discussion on the way to their place and then a further 15 minute discussion with them in their living room, they still wouldn't budge. Pansies.
We hit the road and drove to the US/Canada border 45 minutes away.
We take the turn off for I-95 and head towards Houlton, Maine and the beginning of our adventure. We drive for what seems like an eternity, but in reality was about 15 minutes until we reach the signs for customs.
Up until this point I had never driven across the border, I had always flown, so this was a new experience. We get to the Customs agent, and he asks us what we are doing and we say going over for the after noon, by this time it was about 2pm so we knew we didn't have much time to do anything before having to go back. He checks our passports and we head into the US.
We see a sign for a Visitor Information center, so we decide to go in and find a map of Maine so that we couldn't get too lost. The little elderly ladies working the center were terrific.
On the way in we say a young gentleman pick up a girl and put her on the trunk of the car, I was beginning to wonder why he did this until we could hear the thumping music coming from the car. I look at my wife and say, "She likes the vibrations." We giggle at them for a good 20 minutes.
Her: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Canada."
Her: "Where are you going today?"
Me: "We don't know."
Her, puzzled: "What do you plan on doing?"
Me: "We haven't figured that out yet."
Her, thinking we're idiots and laughing: "Well, how can I give you information then?"
Me: "I dunno, you have a map of Maine?"
Her: "That I can help you with."
She then proceeds to hand me brochures, pamphlets and her kidney for places that are in the area, and by area I mean New England. She starts telling us about the wonderful stuff in Portland, Bangor, Bar Harbour and Boston.
I turn and say thanks before going back outside to giggle at her, and the horny couple in the parking lot.
We drive around Houlton, taking note of the million and two flags displayed in various locations, stop for a shopping trip at Marden's, and then found a cute little walking bridge over a river.
We drive through town and look for something new to do, its 3 and there much be something else in Houlton. We see a sign for "Million Dollar View" and think that it might be a groovy thing to do. We turn around and head up the road. We're driving for what seems to be quite a long time (10 minutes) when my wife reads that there is a 500,000 square foot mall in Presque Isle, I pull a u-turn on the road and make like a bandit for the mall.
We get to Presque Isle at about 4:30, giving us exactly 30 minutes to browse through the mall, its stores before settling someplace to eat. We notice when we pull in that there is a K-MART, there hasn't been a K-Mart in Canada for something like 10 years, and its open until TEN that night.
We're going through the mall, I stop at a CD shop any my wife at a clothing store briefly before going to Sears and Staples as our final stops before the mall closes. We come back out and are startled to see that the mall is still open we take a run back down and stop at the dollar store.
As we're leaving the store it hits me. No, thats not right.
As we're leaving the store it *HITS* me.
We crossed the border at 2pm this afternoon. Thats a time-zone. Its only FOUR pm. Holy shit we have another hour before stuff closes!
We take our time in going back down the mall, I buy some music (The Kooks and Arcade Fire) and Amanda goes clothes shopping.
Its time for supper, we're starving, its 6pm in our bodies (and minds) and we go to this place called Ruby Tuesday for supper. Its a cute little spot and we order some food (Salmon and Chicken) and talk about when we go home, what we have to do, etc.
We gather up the stuff that we bought and hit the road again, we figure we'll drive back down to Houlton and drive across the border there and then the 45 minutes to home. The bugs were crazy down there and we had to stop halfway down to Houlton to clean them. We stopped at a gas station to clean them and noticed a sign as we turned in that said Canada left. (essentially)
After getting bitten 15 times in 2 minutes by the hoards of mosquitos outside we turn down the road and head back to Canada. We looked at the map and figured we had 10 minutes to get customs. 30 seconds later we were at the border.
Rolling down the window to talk to the customs agent near got me killed by the mosquitos, we found ourselves back on our way to Canada. Bringing Spontaneous day to a thrilling conclusion.
Our Route:
View Larger Map
What a great weekend. What a truely great weekend!
Did you ever have trouble trying to express that amount of fun that you've had doing something in particular, yet want to tell the entire story from start to finish without missing a single thing? Thats the point where I am right now, I'll see if I can do it justice.
The day started out with the notion that it was Nerd Pride Day (I keep calling it International Nerd Day). (You can see it here. Yes, I am one of the "cool" people who has a facebook account, so? Its nerdy.)
As the day progressed past noon, my wife and I turned it into Spontaneous Day.
I later tried to rename the day Random Day but that was vetoed and squashed by my wife numerous times.
Here is how it happened:
Sunday was just like any other day, I had woken up early and begun to make plans for the day. Since it was a special Nerdy type day (well, not much is different from any other day) I decided that I was going to format my computer and put the latest version of Fedora on it.
Shortly after deciding this my wife had gotten out of bed and asked me to watch a movie with her, The Thomas Crown Affair, we begin to watch it and half-way through we begin to discuss thoughts of going for a drive, she was initially thinking Sussex but I was thinking somewhere new. Some place we hadn't been before.
I grab the road atlas from the shelf and begin to leaf through the pages looking for someplace cool to go. I settle on a senic drive around a lake on the other side of the County and begin to show it to my wife.
She interrupts me with: "Want to go to Maine?"
Thus began Spontaneous Day!
OK!
It was 12:15 when we decided this, we showered, dressed and at the gas station 35 minutes later.
We had initial plans to persuade friends of ours to come with us on this journey as they seem to as random as we were, after a 15 minute cell phone discussion on the way to their place and then a further 15 minute discussion with them in their living room, they still wouldn't budge. Pansies.
We hit the road and drove to the US/Canada border 45 minutes away.
We take the turn off for I-95 and head towards Houlton, Maine and the beginning of our adventure. We drive for what seems like an eternity, but in reality was about 15 minutes until we reach the signs for customs.
Up until this point I had never driven across the border, I had always flown, so this was a new experience. We get to the Customs agent, and he asks us what we are doing and we say going over for the after noon, by this time it was about 2pm so we knew we didn't have much time to do anything before having to go back. He checks our passports and we head into the US.
We see a sign for a Visitor Information center, so we decide to go in and find a map of Maine so that we couldn't get too lost. The little elderly ladies working the center were terrific.
On the way in we say a young gentleman pick up a girl and put her on the trunk of the car, I was beginning to wonder why he did this until we could hear the thumping music coming from the car. I look at my wife and say, "She likes the vibrations." We giggle at them for a good 20 minutes.
Her: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Canada."
Her: "Where are you going today?"
Me: "We don't know."
Her, puzzled: "What do you plan on doing?"
Me: "We haven't figured that out yet."
Her, thinking we're idiots and laughing: "Well, how can I give you information then?"
Me: "I dunno, you have a map of Maine?"
Her: "That I can help you with."
She then proceeds to hand me brochures, pamphlets and her kidney for places that are in the area, and by area I mean New England. She starts telling us about the wonderful stuff in Portland, Bangor, Bar Harbour and Boston.
I turn and say thanks before going back outside to giggle at her, and the horny couple in the parking lot.
We drive around Houlton, taking note of the million and two flags displayed in various locations, stop for a shopping trip at Marden's, and then found a cute little walking bridge over a river.
We drive through town and look for something new to do, its 3 and there much be something else in Houlton. We see a sign for "Million Dollar View" and think that it might be a groovy thing to do. We turn around and head up the road. We're driving for what seems to be quite a long time (10 minutes) when my wife reads that there is a 500,000 square foot mall in Presque Isle, I pull a u-turn on the road and make like a bandit for the mall.
We get to Presque Isle at about 4:30, giving us exactly 30 minutes to browse through the mall, its stores before settling someplace to eat. We notice when we pull in that there is a K-MART, there hasn't been a K-Mart in Canada for something like 10 years, and its open until TEN that night.
We're going through the mall, I stop at a CD shop any my wife at a clothing store briefly before going to Sears and Staples as our final stops before the mall closes. We come back out and are startled to see that the mall is still open we take a run back down and stop at the dollar store.
As we're leaving the store it hits me. No, thats not right.
As we're leaving the store it *HITS* me.
We crossed the border at 2pm this afternoon. Thats a time-zone. Its only FOUR pm. Holy shit we have another hour before stuff closes!
We take our time in going back down the mall, I buy some music (The Kooks and Arcade Fire) and Amanda goes clothes shopping.
Its time for supper, we're starving, its 6pm in our bodies (and minds) and we go to this place called Ruby Tuesday for supper. Its a cute little spot and we order some food (Salmon and Chicken) and talk about when we go home, what we have to do, etc.
We gather up the stuff that we bought and hit the road again, we figure we'll drive back down to Houlton and drive across the border there and then the 45 minutes to home. The bugs were crazy down there and we had to stop halfway down to Houlton to clean them. We stopped at a gas station to clean them and noticed a sign as we turned in that said Canada left. (essentially)
After getting bitten 15 times in 2 minutes by the hoards of mosquitos outside we turn down the road and head back to Canada. We looked at the map and figured we had 10 minutes to get customs. 30 seconds later we were at the border.
Rolling down the window to talk to the customs agent near got me killed by the mosquitos, we found ourselves back on our way to Canada. Bringing Spontaneous day to a thrilling conclusion.
Our Route:
View Larger Map
From International Nerd Day to Spontaneous Day...
Music: Alec Empire & El-p - Shards of Pol Pottery (Hard Mix) | Skinny Puppy - TFWO (Live)
For some reason this didn't publish 2 weeks ago. (Dated: May 18, 2008)
What a great weekend. What a truely great weekend!
Did you ever have trouble trying to express that amount of fun that you've had doing something in particular, yet want to tell the entire story from start to finish without missing a single thing? Thats the point where I am right now, I'll see if I can do it justice.
The day started out with the notion that it was Nerd Pride Day (I keep calling it International Nerd Day). (You can see it here. Yes, I am one of the "cool" people who has a facebook account, so? Its nerdy.)
As the day progressed past noon, my wife and I turned it into Spontaneous Day.
I later tried to rename the day Random Day but that was vetoed and squashed by my wife numerous times.
Here is how it happened:
Sunday was just like any other day, I had woken up early and begun to make plans for the day. Since it was a special Nerdy type day (well, not much is different from any other day) I decided that I was going to format my computer and put the latest version of Fedora on it.
Shortly after deciding this my wife had gotten out of bed and asked me to watch a movie with her, The Thomas Crown Affair, we begin to watch it and half-way through we begin to discuss thoughts of going for a drive, she was initially thinking Sussex but I was thinking somewhere new. Some place we hadn't been before.
I grab the road atlas from the shelf and begin to leaf through the pages looking for someplace cool to go. I settle on a senic drive around a lake on the other side of the County and begin to show it to my wife.
She interrupts me with: "Want to go to Maine?"
Thus began Spontaneous Day!
OK!
It was 12:15 when we decided this, we showered, dressed and at the gas station 35 minutes later.
We had initial plans to persuade friends of ours to come with us on this journey as they seem to as random as we were, after a 15 minute cell phone discussion on the way to their place and then a further 15 minute discussion with them in their living room, they still wouldn't budge. Pansies.
We hit the road and drove to the US/Canada border 45 minutes away.
We take the turn off for I-95 and head towards Houlton, Maine and the beginning of our adventure. We drive for what seems like an eternity, but in reality was about 15 minutes until we reach the signs for customs.
Up until this point I had never driven across the border, I had always flown, so this was a new experience. We get to the Customs agent, and he asks us what we are doing and we say going over for the after noon, by this time it was about 2pm so we knew we didn't have much time to do anything before having to go back. He checks our passports and we head into the US.
We see a sign for a Visitor Information center, so we decide to go in and find a map of Maine so that we couldn't get too lost. The little elderly ladies working the center were terrific.
On the way in we say a young gentleman pick up a girl and put her on the trunk of the car, I was beginning to wonder why he did this until we could hear the thumping music coming from the car. I look at my wife and say, "She likes the vibrations." We giggle at them for a good 20 minutes.
Her: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Canada."
Her: "Where are you going today?"
Me: "We don't know."
Her, puzzled: "What do you plan on doing?"
Me: "We haven't figured that out yet."
Her, thinking we're idiots and laughing: "Well, how can I give you information then?"
Me: "I dunno, you have a map of Maine?"
Her: "That I can help you with."
She then proceeds to hand me brochures, pamphlets and her kidney for places that are in the area, and by area I mean New England. She starts telling us about the wonderful stuff in Portland, Bangor, Bar Harbour and Boston.
I turn and say thanks before going back outside to giggle at her, and the horny couple in the parking lot.
We drive around Houlton, taking note of the million and two flags displayed in various locations, stop for a shopping trip at Marden's, and then found a cute little walking bridge over a river.
We drive through town and look for something new to do, its 3 and there much be something else in Houlton. We see a sign for "Million Dollar View" and think that it might be a groovy thing to do. We turn around and head up the road. We're driving for what seems to be quite a long time (10 minutes) when my wife reads that there is a 500,000 square foot mall in Presque Isle, I pull a u-turn on the road and make like a bandit for the mall.
We get to Presque Isle at about 4:30, giving us exactly 30 minutes to browse through the mall, its stores before settling someplace to eat. We notice when we pull in that there is a K-MART, there hasn't been a K-Mart in Canada for something like 10 years, and its open until TEN that night.
We're going through the mall, I stop at a CD shop any my wife at a clothing store briefly before going to Sears and Staples as our final stops before the mall closes. We come back out and are startled to see that the mall is still open we take a run back down and stop at the dollar store.
As we're leaving the store it hits me. No, thats not right.
As we're leaving the store it *HITS* me.
We crossed the border at 2pm this afternoon. Thats a time-zone. Its only FOUR pm. Holy shit we have another hour before stuff closes!
We take our time in going back down the mall, I buy some music (The Kooks and Arcade Fire) and Amanda goes clothes shopping.
Its time for supper, we're starving, its 6pm in our bodies (and minds) and we go to this place called Ruby Tuesday for supper. Its a cute little spot and we order some food (Salmon and Chicken) and talk about when we go home, what we have to do, etc.
We gather up the stuff that we bought and hit the road again, we figure we'll drive back down to Houlton and drive across the border there and then the 45 minutes to home. The bugs were crazy down there and we had to stop halfway down to Houlton to clean them. We stopped at a gas station to clean them and noticed a sign as we turned in that said Canada left. (essentially)
After getting bitten 15 times in 2 minutes by the hoards of mosquitos outside we turn down the road and head back to Canada. We looked at the map and figured we had 10 minutes to get customs. 30 seconds later we were at the border.
Rolling down the window to talk to the customs agent near got me killed by the mosquitos, we found ourselves back on our way to Canada. Bringing Spontaneous day to a thrilling conclusion.
For some reason this didn't publish 2 weeks ago. (Dated: May 18, 2008)
What a great weekend. What a truely great weekend!
Did you ever have trouble trying to express that amount of fun that you've had doing something in particular, yet want to tell the entire story from start to finish without missing a single thing? Thats the point where I am right now, I'll see if I can do it justice.
The day started out with the notion that it was Nerd Pride Day (I keep calling it International Nerd Day). (You can see it here. Yes, I am one of the "cool" people who has a facebook account, so? Its nerdy.)
As the day progressed past noon, my wife and I turned it into Spontaneous Day.
I later tried to rename the day Random Day but that was vetoed and squashed by my wife numerous times.
Here is how it happened:
Sunday was just like any other day, I had woken up early and begun to make plans for the day. Since it was a special Nerdy type day (well, not much is different from any other day) I decided that I was going to format my computer and put the latest version of Fedora on it.
Shortly after deciding this my wife had gotten out of bed and asked me to watch a movie with her, The Thomas Crown Affair, we begin to watch it and half-way through we begin to discuss thoughts of going for a drive, she was initially thinking Sussex but I was thinking somewhere new. Some place we hadn't been before.
I grab the road atlas from the shelf and begin to leaf through the pages looking for someplace cool to go. I settle on a senic drive around a lake on the other side of the County and begin to show it to my wife.
She interrupts me with: "Want to go to Maine?"
Thus began Spontaneous Day!
OK!
It was 12:15 when we decided this, we showered, dressed and at the gas station 35 minutes later.
We had initial plans to persuade friends of ours to come with us on this journey as they seem to as random as we were, after a 15 minute cell phone discussion on the way to their place and then a further 15 minute discussion with them in their living room, they still wouldn't budge. Pansies.
We hit the road and drove to the US/Canada border 45 minutes away.
We take the turn off for I-95 and head towards Houlton, Maine and the beginning of our adventure. We drive for what seems like an eternity, but in reality was about 15 minutes until we reach the signs for customs.
Up until this point I had never driven across the border, I had always flown, so this was a new experience. We get to the Customs agent, and he asks us what we are doing and we say going over for the after noon, by this time it was about 2pm so we knew we didn't have much time to do anything before having to go back. He checks our passports and we head into the US.
We see a sign for a Visitor Information center, so we decide to go in and find a map of Maine so that we couldn't get too lost. The little elderly ladies working the center were terrific.
On the way in we say a young gentleman pick up a girl and put her on the trunk of the car, I was beginning to wonder why he did this until we could hear the thumping music coming from the car. I look at my wife and say, "She likes the vibrations." We giggle at them for a good 20 minutes.
Her: "Where are you from?"
Me: "Canada."
Her: "Where are you going today?"
Me: "We don't know."
Her, puzzled: "What do you plan on doing?"
Me: "We haven't figured that out yet."
Her, thinking we're idiots and laughing: "Well, how can I give you information then?"
Me: "I dunno, you have a map of Maine?"
Her: "That I can help you with."
She then proceeds to hand me brochures, pamphlets and her kidney for places that are in the area, and by area I mean New England. She starts telling us about the wonderful stuff in Portland, Bangor, Bar Harbour and Boston.
I turn and say thanks before going back outside to giggle at her, and the horny couple in the parking lot.
We drive around Houlton, taking note of the million and two flags displayed in various locations, stop for a shopping trip at Marden's, and then found a cute little walking bridge over a river.
We drive through town and look for something new to do, its 3 and there much be something else in Houlton. We see a sign for "Million Dollar View" and think that it might be a groovy thing to do. We turn around and head up the road. We're driving for what seems to be quite a long time (10 minutes) when my wife reads that there is a 500,000 square foot mall in Presque Isle, I pull a u-turn on the road and make like a bandit for the mall.
We get to Presque Isle at about 4:30, giving us exactly 30 minutes to browse through the mall, its stores before settling someplace to eat. We notice when we pull in that there is a K-MART, there hasn't been a K-Mart in Canada for something like 10 years, and its open until TEN that night.
We're going through the mall, I stop at a CD shop any my wife at a clothing store briefly before going to Sears and Staples as our final stops before the mall closes. We come back out and are startled to see that the mall is still open we take a run back down and stop at the dollar store.
As we're leaving the store it hits me. No, thats not right.
As we're leaving the store it *HITS* me.
We crossed the border at 2pm this afternoon. Thats a time-zone. Its only FOUR pm. Holy shit we have another hour before stuff closes!
We take our time in going back down the mall, I buy some music (The Kooks and Arcade Fire) and Amanda goes clothes shopping.
Its time for supper, we're starving, its 6pm in our bodies (and minds) and we go to this place called Ruby Tuesday for supper. Its a cute little spot and we order some food (Salmon and Chicken) and talk about when we go home, what we have to do, etc.
We gather up the stuff that we bought and hit the road again, we figure we'll drive back down to Houlton and drive across the border there and then the 45 minutes to home. The bugs were crazy down there and we had to stop halfway down to Houlton to clean them. We stopped at a gas station to clean them and noticed a sign as we turned in that said Canada left. (essentially)
After getting bitten 15 times in 2 minutes by the hoards of mosquitos outside we turn down the road and head back to Canada. We looked at the map and figured we had 10 minutes to get customs. 30 seconds later we were at the border.
Rolling down the window to talk to the customs agent near got me killed by the mosquitos, we found ourselves back on our way to Canada. Bringing Spontaneous day to a thrilling conclusion.
Friday, May 23, 2008
And then there was South Africa
You know how I mentioned that OOXML was approved and I wasn't happy? Well neither is South Africa. They just filed an injunction/complaint with the ISO body to review the process and hopefully revoke the appointment of OOXML to an ISO standard.
All the information can be found:
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080523052458101
All the information can be found:
http://www.consortiuminfo.org/standardsblog/article.php?story=20080523052458101
Contact
Music: Ministry - Supernaut (not the cool Reznor version)
I totally forgot to mention this the other day (like last week when it happened).
While I was in Brunei in April I had the opportunity to order some CDs from a very well deserving artist in LA (Abby Travis). I had heard her work a number of years ago and had recently discovered a few of her songs while prowling around the Internet.
To make a long story short. I ordered all of her cds (3) and awaited their shipment. About a month had passed and I was beginning to wonder what had happened to them along the way as I had gotten notification from the payment company that the order had shipped before May.
To my surprise last week I had gotten an email about it. Initially I thought it was from an assistant, or the payment company. NO. It wasn't.
I had actually gotten an email about the order from Abby herself. How cool is that? Turns out that the address had been marked incorrectly and returned to her. So she was putting it back in the mail. So cool.
Have I mentioned that I'm a loser?
This is why I prefer to buy music directly from the artist, I know that they get all of the money and you get cool stuff.
The last order I had made (from KMFDM) I had actually ordered early enough to get an autographed copy of the CD. Every band member had signed the booklet. How often do you see that now? Did I pay extra for the autograph? Nope. And the price included a t-shirt.
I totally forgot to mention this the other day (like last week when it happened).
While I was in Brunei in April I had the opportunity to order some CDs from a very well deserving artist in LA (Abby Travis). I had heard her work a number of years ago and had recently discovered a few of her songs while prowling around the Internet.
To make a long story short. I ordered all of her cds (3) and awaited their shipment. About a month had passed and I was beginning to wonder what had happened to them along the way as I had gotten notification from the payment company that the order had shipped before May.
To my surprise last week I had gotten an email about it. Initially I thought it was from an assistant, or the payment company. NO. It wasn't.
I had actually gotten an email about the order from Abby herself. How cool is that? Turns out that the address had been marked incorrectly and returned to her. So she was putting it back in the mail. So cool.
Have I mentioned that I'm a loser?
This is why I prefer to buy music directly from the artist, I know that they get all of the money and you get cool stuff.
The last order I had made (from KMFDM) I had actually ordered early enough to get an autographed copy of the CD. Every band member had signed the booklet. How often do you see that now? Did I pay extra for the autograph? Nope. And the price included a t-shirt.
Thursday, May 22, 2008
24 hours of bliss....
then this.
Music - The Secret Machines - Still See You
Less than 24 hours after Microsoft announced that it would be supporting ODF with its latest Office 2007 service pack comes out in 2009, did the European Commission counter and basically say, "Oh yeah!? We'll just see."
What they're saying is that they will make sure that Microsoft does it right the first time. This is the same commission that fined Microsoft close to a Billion dollars (most of which was late payment fees) for being a Monopoly with regards to Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. (You can't buy a copy of Windows in Europe that is shipped with IE or WMP because of this commission.)
I personally think its a good thing, because they have a history of supporting things, mostly industry and International standards half-arsed. (Web-designers will take note of CSS)
The thing that I just thought about is this. The Service Pack with the new support is in 2009... TWO THOUSAND and NINE.... and they can't figure out how to support their own format in NINE MONTHS? What are they stupid? No, they're not stupid they just created a monster that they can't control.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63120.html
Music - The Secret Machines - Still See You
Less than 24 hours after Microsoft announced that it would be supporting ODF with its latest Office 2007 service pack comes out in 2009, did the European Commission counter and basically say, "Oh yeah!? We'll just see."
What they're saying is that they will make sure that Microsoft does it right the first time. This is the same commission that fined Microsoft close to a Billion dollars (most of which was late payment fees) for being a Monopoly with regards to Internet Explorer and Windows Media Player. (You can't buy a copy of Windows in Europe that is shipped with IE or WMP because of this commission.)
I personally think its a good thing, because they have a history of supporting things, mostly industry and International standards half-arsed. (Web-designers will take note of CSS)
The thing that I just thought about is this. The Service Pack with the new support is in 2009... TWO THOUSAND and NINE.... and they can't figure out how to support their own format in NINE MONTHS? What are they stupid? No, they're not stupid they just created a monster that they can't control.
http://www.linuxinsider.com/rsstory/63120.html
Wednesday, May 21, 2008
Who put them in charge...
Music: Thanatopsis - Cross Section
I've been following the headlines these last few months concerning Microsoft's attempts to create an ISO standard document. They are trying to get OOXML to become a world wide standard for sharing documents with a government or organization. The problem they're having is this:
1. Its complicated. The document used to describe the standard was almost 9,000 pages, most of the features and functionality will only be available when using Word. (Surprised? I'm not.)
2. Its been done. PDF was created and standardized as a document exchange format. Some might say that PDF won't allow for editing documents, well for that Sun (the people behind Microsoft's cheif competitor, Openoffice.org) had ODF standardized several years ago and has been supported by many companies including IBM and Corel. This will allow you to share your document and edit it. Voila.
During the process, Microsoft hijacked votes in countries like Sweeden which before the vote had 6 active companies and at the time of the vote an additional 22 joined. That makes me angry. But thats not the point of this.
The point is this. Microsoft announced today that they are NOT going to be supporting their own OOXML format (because they can't figure it out) until the next version of Office which has no release date (I can guess 2012 by past performance).
The kicker... their main purpose of the press conference was to announce that they are supporting ODF documents. The same format that they were fighting when they devised a scheme to confuse the world.
Talk about not knowing what the right hand is doing....
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-05-21-022-26-NW-MS-SW
I've been following the headlines these last few months concerning Microsoft's attempts to create an ISO standard document. They are trying to get OOXML to become a world wide standard for sharing documents with a government or organization. The problem they're having is this:
1. Its complicated. The document used to describe the standard was almost 9,000 pages, most of the features and functionality will only be available when using Word. (Surprised? I'm not.)
2. Its been done. PDF was created and standardized as a document exchange format. Some might say that PDF won't allow for editing documents, well for that Sun (the people behind Microsoft's cheif competitor, Openoffice.org) had ODF standardized several years ago and has been supported by many companies including IBM and Corel. This will allow you to share your document and edit it. Voila.
During the process, Microsoft hijacked votes in countries like Sweeden which before the vote had 6 active companies and at the time of the vote an additional 22 joined. That makes me angry. But thats not the point of this.
The point is this. Microsoft announced today that they are NOT going to be supporting their own OOXML format (because they can't figure it out) until the next version of Office which has no release date (I can guess 2012 by past performance).
The kicker... their main purpose of the press conference was to announce that they are supporting ODF documents. The same format that they were fighting when they devised a scheme to confuse the world.
Talk about not knowing what the right hand is doing....
http://www.linuxtoday.com/news_story.php3?ltsn=2008-05-21-022-26-NW-MS-SW
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
New gadgetry
Music: Alec Empire - 22:24
I recently bought a new SLR camera, I've been drooling over getting one for about 3 years now and I have never been able to muster up the courage (read: cash) to purchase one. It wasn't until recently that I've been comparison shopping online to find exactly the one that I was looking for.
There were Sony 12MP and Nikon 14MP that were fairly reasonably priced, but for some reason my attention has always turned towards buying a Canon SLR. Don't ask me why as I have never picked one up or used one, heck most of the time when you get to a store to look at a camera all of the batteries are completely dead anyways.
About a week and a half ago, I finally caved. I had some extra money left over from tax season and put it towards some thing that I should have had when I did the wedding photos for a step-cousin-in-law.
When you get a camera, whats one of the first things that you take a picture of:
* family member?
* pet?
* loved one?
* your own face?
I took a picture of my face and had the image saved as a *Raw* photo so it wouldn't be compressed and distorted. I can tell you that on my right eye brow (because I cut off most of my face) I have 3 red hairs. Oh so much fun....
see here
I recently bought a new SLR camera, I've been drooling over getting one for about 3 years now and I have never been able to muster up the courage (read: cash) to purchase one. It wasn't until recently that I've been comparison shopping online to find exactly the one that I was looking for.
There were Sony 12MP and Nikon 14MP that were fairly reasonably priced, but for some reason my attention has always turned towards buying a Canon SLR. Don't ask me why as I have never picked one up or used one, heck most of the time when you get to a store to look at a camera all of the batteries are completely dead anyways.
About a week and a half ago, I finally caved. I had some extra money left over from tax season and put it towards some thing that I should have had when I did the wedding photos for a step-cousin-in-law.
When you get a camera, whats one of the first things that you take a picture of:
* family member?
* pet?
* loved one?
* your own face?
I took a picture of my face and had the image saved as a *Raw* photo so it wouldn't be compressed and distorted. I can tell you that on my right eye brow (because I cut off most of my face) I have 3 red hairs. Oh so much fun....
see here
Wednesday, March 5, 2008
Spamming myself
Music: Funkstörung - B4 || the silk demise - Dead-Letter Queue
At work I have these great little mail filters that sort my incoming mail and place it in the proper spots. So, of Jim from Company X emails me about something it will automatically get sorted into the right spot. Which is great for me, especially where I'm lazy some of the time. (Read: most of the time.)
There are also important server messages that I'm sent regarding the status of some of the hosted sites here at work. If the server goes down, I know about it in 5 minutes or less. On the weekend I don't check my work email all that regularly so getting the notices from Saturday morning on Monday doesn't look too well for me.
I changed the filter on my computer to forward these emails from my work to my personal email at home. Since I'm tied to that like glue, I'd be quicker to get the email and fix the problem.
In theory, this worked great.
I also changed my mail settings to automatically include my work email as a BCC so that I could keep a copy of what I send with the original email. Can you see the problem yet?
An email from about the server came in, and then disappeared from my inbox and went to my personal email. Great.
Problem: Remember that BCC that I said I had added to all out going email?
Well, I got the email from the server again, and it was immediatly forwarded. Which I got again, and forwarded. Within the span of about 90 seconds I had spammed my personal email about 117 times.
Made me laugh all day.
At work I have these great little mail filters that sort my incoming mail and place it in the proper spots. So, of Jim from Company X emails me about something it will automatically get sorted into the right spot. Which is great for me, especially where I'm lazy some of the time. (Read: most of the time.)
There are also important server messages that I'm sent regarding the status of some of the hosted sites here at work. If the server goes down, I know about it in 5 minutes or less. On the weekend I don't check my work email all that regularly so getting the notices from Saturday morning on Monday doesn't look too well for me.
I changed the filter on my computer to forward these emails from my work to my personal email at home. Since I'm tied to that like glue, I'd be quicker to get the email and fix the problem.
In theory, this worked great.
I also changed my mail settings to automatically include my work email as a BCC so that I could keep a copy of what I send with the original email. Can you see the problem yet?
An email from about the server came in, and then disappeared from my inbox and went to my personal email. Great.
Problem: Remember that BCC that I said I had added to all out going email?
Well, I got the email from the server again, and it was immediatly forwarded. Which I got again, and forwarded. Within the span of about 90 seconds I had spammed my personal email about 117 times.
Made me laugh all day.
Monday, March 3, 2008
Guess what I bought....
music: Slick Idiot - Let it Rain (Remixed by B-Audio)
So, today, I have officially ordered cool shit online. No, I didn't order any of the cool geeky stuff I posted back in December. I bought music, actually, offically bought music.
I read today that Nine Inch Nails recently (Saturday) released a new set of albums of instrumental music online, they made the first one available via thePirateBay to download for free. Whats the catch? There are 36 songs in total, which can be bought all together for a total of $5 from their website. I'm waiting for my confirmation email now so that I can download the tracks tonight.
I think this is how music should be made and distrubuted. Who buys CDs anymore? Really the only point to them is to have the artwork and lyrics, which are typically all available online anyways.
Go, buy the album, download album, let the record companies know that we can actually function without them.
So, today, I have officially ordered cool shit online. No, I didn't order any of the cool geeky stuff I posted back in December. I bought music, actually, offically bought music.
I read today that Nine Inch Nails recently (Saturday) released a new set of albums of instrumental music online, they made the first one available via thePirateBay to download for free. Whats the catch? There are 36 songs in total, which can be bought all together for a total of $5 from their website. I'm waiting for my confirmation email now so that I can download the tracks tonight.
I think this is how music should be made and distrubuted. Who buys CDs anymore? Really the only point to them is to have the artwork and lyrics, which are typically all available online anyways.
Go, buy the album, download album, let the record companies know that we can actually function without them.
Monday, January 14, 2008
Cool as...
Shit.
Google released an online API for their Charts application. You can build a chart in a URL an link to it and have a functional chart.
Here's the URL to create it: http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=v&chd=t:100,60,80,10,10,10,10&chs=350x200&chdl=Value1|Value2|Value3
I must say this is the coolest thing Google's done since yesterday.
Source: Google Charts API
Google released an online API for their Charts application. You can build a chart in a URL an link to it and have a functional chart.
Here's the URL to create it: http://chart.apis.google.com/chart?cht=v&chd=t:100,60,80,10,10,10,10&chs=350x200&chdl=Value1|Value2|Value3
I must say this is the coolest thing Google's done since yesterday.
Source: Google Charts API
Sunday, December 16, 2007
Saturday, December 15, 2007
Sad... but cool.
In the spirit of Christmas, here are a few of the things that I want.
"Football (soccer) fans are snapping up toasters in club colours which brand slices of bread with their team's initials. Ipswich sold out of the £45 appliance in only two days. (Mirror)"
Thats right, you can buy you're very own toaster that brands your toast with the initials/logo of your favourite team. How cool would that be? You could strategically place your strawberry and blueberry jam in the grooves of the logo to recreate it in the appropriate colours.
I'm still trying to find a link where I can purchase these toasters.
---
Remote Control Missle Launcher
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/8a0f/)
Attach the cord to your computer. Install the software. Launch the missles. How much fun could that be. Now if only they would install it with a webcam so that you can mount it in odd places and control it remotely. This has already been placed on my wish list.
---
Water Powered Clock
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/757e/)
Based on this description: " How does it work? Magic mostly. And a little bit of science too. " I want it now.
---
Binary Clock
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/)
Are you a nerd? Do you know binary? Show off your ability to your friends by getting this neeto clock. You can then tell them that its now: 1000:0000 1000 pm. (8:08)
---
Plasma Mug
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/mugs/60c3/)
Think of it like a static ball in a GLASS. "Touch the outer glass with your fingertips, and watch as the colorful plasma magically follows your every move!"
---
Mood LED Jellyfish
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/9a8c/)
Did you ever have a lava lamp and think it was the coolest thing in the world? Well now you can toss out that '70s hippie crap and replace it with JellyFish! (The page has a really cool video showing off its coolness)
----
Posable Magnetic Robots
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6748/)
They're robots what more do you need to say? And with a description like this.... who could resist?
"Get a bunch! They love to play together and they'll stay happier longer. You want your Acrobots to be happy don't you? Oh, and never forget that no matter what happens - YOU are always their King. That way you can never feel guilty about how you pose them."
-----
Blunt Office Signs
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/7476/)
"This Isn't An Office: It's Hell With Fluorescent Lighting!" hehehehehe
-----
Stuffed Tux
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/288e/)
Yes! He will be mine!
I should never be allowed to be alone on this website EVER again.
"Football (soccer) fans are snapping up toasters in club colours which brand slices of bread with their team's initials. Ipswich sold out of the £45 appliance in only two days. (Mirror)"
Thats right, you can buy you're very own toaster that brands your toast with the initials/logo of your favourite team. How cool would that be? You could strategically place your strawberry and blueberry jam in the grooves of the logo to recreate it in the appropriate colours.
I'm still trying to find a link where I can purchase these toasters.
---
Remote Control Missle Launcher
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/warfare/8a0f/)
Attach the cord to your computer. Install the software. Launch the missles. How much fun could that be. Now if only they would install it with a webcam so that you can mount it in odd places and control it remotely. This has already been placed on my wish list.
---
Water Powered Clock
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/757e/)
Based on this description: " How does it work? Magic mostly. And a little bit of science too. " I want it now.
---
Binary Clock
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/lights/59e0/)
Are you a nerd? Do you know binary? Show off your ability to your friends by getting this neeto clock. You can then tell them that its now: 1000:0000 1000 pm. (8:08)
---
Plasma Mug
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/homeoffice/mugs/60c3/)
Think of it like a static ball in a GLASS. "Touch the outer glass with your fingertips, and watch as the colorful plasma magically follows your every move!"
---
Mood LED Jellyfish
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/9a8c/)
Did you ever have a lava lamp and think it was the coolest thing in the world? Well now you can toss out that '70s hippie crap and replace it with JellyFish! (The page has a really cool video showing off its coolness)
----
Posable Magnetic Robots
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/6748/)
They're robots what more do you need to say? And with a description like this.... who could resist?
"Get a bunch! They love to play together and they'll stay happier longer. You want your Acrobots to be happy don't you? Oh, and never forget that no matter what happens - YOU are always their King. That way you can never feel guilty about how you pose them."
-----
Blunt Office Signs
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/cubegoodies/7476/)
"This Isn't An Office: It's Hell With Fluorescent Lighting!" hehehehehe
-----
Stuffed Tux
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/geektoys/plush/288e/)
Yes! He will be mine!
I should never be allowed to be alone on this website EVER again.
Realizations...
of a sort.
Normally I don't post links to other sites on the Internet but I found this today and I can't help but continually reading the little dots. If you've ever wondered about American foreign policy over the years this will shed some light on interesting things that have happened. Some of the items highlighted I knew about (Saddam's funding for war on Iran after the leader of Iran went crazy after being appointed by the US). Take a look I'm sure you might find something you've not known before.
Here's something a little more light. Basically, its a random bit of IT buffoonery over the years as reported by various Techies all over the world.
---
As an update from my last post. My recent installation of Linux over the weekend*. Went surprisingly well, I managed to get Ubuntu Linux installed, configured and setup correctly twice in that time frame.
Twice!? You may be asking. Let me explain.
For some reason my laptop would seize up and after unplugging the power and booting again the OS would be completely dead and beyond repair, thus warranting a re-installation.
For the couple of days that I had my laptop setup I absolutely loved the environment that I was working with Ubuntu is a fantastic place for anyone to start their use of Linux. The only downside that I have found was the fact that my wireless was not properly detected and installed, which I was expecting and had researched ahead of time.
I may give the re-installation another opportunity during my next set of Days off, but I may hold off until after the new year and my next Certification exam has been written.
* it was my weekend, your mid-week
Normally I don't post links to other sites on the Internet but I found this today and I can't help but continually reading the little dots. If you've ever wondered about American foreign policy over the years this will shed some light on interesting things that have happened. Some of the items highlighted I knew about (Saddam's funding for war on Iran after the leader of Iran went crazy after being appointed by the US). Take a look I'm sure you might find something you've not known before.
Here's something a little more light. Basically, its a random bit of IT buffoonery over the years as reported by various Techies all over the world.
---
As an update from my last post. My recent installation of Linux over the weekend*. Went surprisingly well, I managed to get Ubuntu Linux installed, configured and setup correctly twice in that time frame.
Twice!? You may be asking. Let me explain.
For some reason my laptop would seize up and after unplugging the power and booting again the OS would be completely dead and beyond repair, thus warranting a re-installation.
For the couple of days that I had my laptop setup I absolutely loved the environment that I was working with Ubuntu is a fantastic place for anyone to start their use of Linux. The only downside that I have found was the fact that my wireless was not properly detected and installed, which I was expecting and had researched ahead of time.
I may give the re-installation another opportunity during my next set of Days off, but I may hold off until after the new year and my next Certification exam has been written.
* it was my weekend, your mid-week
Monday, December 10, 2007
On again, off again, on again ...
Listening to: Hanzel und Gretyl - L'Experience des Dificultes Technique | Nine Inch Nails - Love is Not Enough (Live)
I just wish I'd make up my mind sometimes.
It looks as though my migration away from Windows is going to be happening again. And its all thanks to my wonderful laptop.
Don't get me wrong I love my laptop I think its a fantastic piece of machinery. I've never had a computer as good as the one that I have now, but there see
ms to be some interference.
I noticed last night while I was working that my mp3s tend to skip and stutter sometimes. You never come between a geek and his music, thats sacrilege.
At first I thought it was due to bad sound quality or faulty songs. As a test I put one of the offending songs into each of my mp3 players on my computer (of which I have 5) and it played with the same stuttering results. Test one passed.
I then copied the song to my MP3 player where upon the song played perfectly without any problem what so ever. Test two failed.
After doing some quality research (5 minutes on Google) I discovered that I'm not the only one encountering this problem. There are loads of other people with my particular laptop who are experiencing similar problems. The most common problem was the microphone from the webcam was interfering with the sound. So, I disabled it.
No better. Test three failed.
Other times it was because of old / out-dated drivers. I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers for my soundcard.
No better. Test four failed.
All the time I was buzzing around the internet trying to see what the problem was. Then someone casually mentioned that they had solved the problem by changing some settings in their *wireless* settings.
Could it be true, could my wireless intenet be causing all of the headaches that I've been having with my MP3s. (I've been re-ripping *tons* of songs.)
As a test, I flicked off the wireless internet and started up my test song.
Played flawlessly. Test five passed.
More swearing ensued.
And then I rejoiced as it has finally given me a reason to install Linux for good.
I just wish I'd make up my mind sometimes.
It looks as though my migration away from Windows is going to be happening again. And its all thanks to my wonderful laptop.
Don't get me wrong I love my laptop I think its a fantastic piece of machinery. I've never had a computer as good as the one that I have now, but there see
ms to be some interference.I noticed last night while I was working that my mp3s tend to skip and stutter sometimes. You never come between a geek and his music, thats sacrilege.
At first I thought it was due to bad sound quality or faulty songs. As a test I put one of the offending songs into each of my mp3 players on my computer (of which I have 5) and it played with the same stuttering results. Test one passed.
I then copied the song to my MP3 player where upon the song played perfectly without any problem what so ever. Test two failed.
After doing some quality research (5 minutes on Google) I discovered that I'm not the only one encountering this problem. There are loads of other people with my particular laptop who are experiencing similar problems. The most common problem was the microphone from the webcam was interfering with the sound. So, I disabled it.
No better. Test three failed.
Other times it was because of old / out-dated drivers. I uninstalled and reinstalled drivers for my soundcard.
No better. Test four failed.
All the time I was buzzing around the internet trying to see what the problem was. Then someone casually mentioned that they had solved the problem by changing some settings in their *wireless* settings.
Could it be true, could my wireless intenet be causing all of the headaches that I've been having with my MP3s. (I've been re-ripping *tons* of songs.)
As a test, I flicked off the wireless internet and started up my test song.
Played flawlessly. Test five passed.
More swearing ensued.
And then I rejoiced as it has finally given me a reason to install Linux for good.
Friday, December 7, 2007
I've been quietly sitting back and looking at the world lately when suddenly out of nowhere, here & here.
Let me summarize.
For years I have been proud to be living in Canada for the simple fact that I can walk into anyones house and make a copy of one of their CDs and have it be perfectly legal. The same goes for file sharing, I could obtain obscure songs from artists that have only printed 200 copies of a vinyl record pressed in Estonia and not worry.
Now, it turns out that the tide might be changing. The “Industry” minister wants to implement and update the copyright policies within Canada. What was the point of this? Who called for it?
The RIAA and MPAA.
The new laws that he wants to implement are in the best interest of the INDUSTRY and not of the consumers. These laws protect the media conglomerates that own most of the music that we buy; the companies that have profits close to $2 or $3 billion a year.
The part that gets me is that its going to be illegal for me to rip a song from a CD that I own. They are going to attempt to make me buy the digital version of the song to put onto my iPod. Fuck them.
The only thing that the DMCA will establish, and look at the US for guidance, its going to turn the average consumer into a Pirate. When in actuality they should be concentrating on finding ways to stop the people who distribute albums and movies before they're released.
I have this fear that some day soon there are going to be 20,000 lawsuits of fans in Canada for breaking the law and infringing on copyright. But then again they might try to make it mandatory for us to install software on our computers that would inhibit our ability to do illegal things.
There is no law you can put in place, no locks on media that you can install that will not be broken. Hell, they already broke the code in HD-DVD's to copy them, I think it took them a week to crack.
Oh, by the way, if there are any of you out there who want to be the next “Weird Al” Yankovich... you're screwed. They're removing the Parody clause meaning its going to be illegal to create a parody song and post it somewhere. Doesn't matter whether you're selling it or giving it away for free.
I think I'm going to move to Sweeden.
Let me summarize.
For years I have been proud to be living in Canada for the simple fact that I can walk into anyones house and make a copy of one of their CDs and have it be perfectly legal. The same goes for file sharing, I could obtain obscure songs from artists that have only printed 200 copies of a vinyl record pressed in Estonia and not worry.
Now, it turns out that the tide might be changing. The “Industry” minister wants to implement and update the copyright policies within Canada. What was the point of this? Who called for it?
The RIAA and MPAA.
The new laws that he wants to implement are in the best interest of the INDUSTRY and not of the consumers. These laws protect the media conglomerates that own most of the music that we buy; the companies that have profits close to $2 or $3 billion a year.
The part that gets me is that its going to be illegal for me to rip a song from a CD that I own. They are going to attempt to make me buy the digital version of the song to put onto my iPod. Fuck them.
The only thing that the DMCA will establish, and look at the US for guidance, its going to turn the average consumer into a Pirate. When in actuality they should be concentrating on finding ways to stop the people who distribute albums and movies before they're released.
I have this fear that some day soon there are going to be 20,000 lawsuits of fans in Canada for breaking the law and infringing on copyright. But then again they might try to make it mandatory for us to install software on our computers that would inhibit our ability to do illegal things.
There is no law you can put in place, no locks on media that you can install that will not be broken. Hell, they already broke the code in HD-DVD's to copy them, I think it took them a week to crack.
Oh, by the way, if there are any of you out there who want to be the next “Weird Al” Yankovich... you're screwed. They're removing the Parody clause meaning its going to be illegal to create a parody song and post it somewhere. Doesn't matter whether you're selling it or giving it away for free.
I think I'm going to move to Sweeden.
Coffee Problems Update
So, I've managed to track down and fix the problem that I have been having with my Java application. It was quite simple actually. I was missing a single line in my code that caused my "smoke" message.
I've spent too much time trying to figure out how to get my program to print messages to me that I forgot to actually look for the cause of the problem. Its strange how you can easily get distracted by the simplest things... ooooooohhhhh shiny.
If I had simply directed my attention to an area about 6 lines up from the error message I would have noticed what was missing. Or... I would have noticed what wasn't there so I couldn't have noticed it was missing.... thats still not right.
I noticed something was missing, but couldn't quite tell what it was initially. F*ck I hate sentences that are worded weirdly. (Yet, I go out of my way to make that last one as hard to comprehend as I could. Go figure.)
I could bore you with the details of how I fixed the program, and what exactly was missing. But I think its better suited for an explanation using the smoke detector analogy.
Solution steps:
After receiving the terribly worded "I smell smoke" message when I attempted to run my program, I noticed something.
I didn't put batteries in the smoke detector in the first place.
[Its a simple way of saying that I didn't declare a variable.] {Damn those details creeping in.}
I've spent too much time trying to figure out how to get my program to print messages to me that I forgot to actually look for the cause of the problem. Its strange how you can easily get distracted by the simplest things... ooooooohhhhh shiny.
If I had simply directed my attention to an area about 6 lines up from the error message I would have noticed what was missing. Or... I would have noticed what wasn't there so I couldn't have noticed it was missing.... thats still not right.
I noticed something was missing, but couldn't quite tell what it was initially. F*ck I hate sentences that are worded weirdly. (Yet, I go out of my way to make that last one as hard to comprehend as I could. Go figure.)
I could bore you with the details of how I fixed the program, and what exactly was missing. But I think its better suited for an explanation using the smoke detector analogy.
Solution steps:
After receiving the terribly worded "I smell smoke" message when I attempted to run my program, I noticed something.
I didn't put batteries in the smoke detector in the first place.
[Its a simple way of saying that I didn't declare a variable.] {Damn those details creeping in.}
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