Michele finally read my page. It's been about 6 months since she last read it.

She said, "I read you page... You better watch it talking about me..."

She was giving me a one hipper. That means she wasn't too serious. If she had given me the two hipper or the dreaded two hipper with lean and point, I'd be scared.

I've been looking for this quote for a while. Google Answers found it for me.

“I believe in the supreme worth of the individual and in his right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. I believe that every right implies a responsibility, every opportunity, an obligation; every possession a duty.

I believe that the law was made for man and not man for the law; that government is the servant of the people and not their master.

I believe in the dignity of labor, whether with head or hand; that the world owes no man a living but it owes every man an opportunity to make a living.

I believe that thrift is essential to well-ordered living and that economy is a prime request of a sound financial structure, whether in government, business or personal affairs.

I believe in the sacredness of a promise, that a man's word should be as good as his bond; that character-not wealth or power or position- is of supreme worth.

I believe that the rendering of useful service is the common duty of mankind and that only in the purifying fire of sacrifice is the dross of selfishness consumed and the greatness of the human soul set free.

I believe in all-wise-and all-loving God, named by whatever name, and that the individuals highest fulfillment, greatest happiness, and widest usefulness are to be found in living in harmony with His will.

I believe that love is the greatest thing in the world; that it alone can overcome hate; that right can and will triumph over might.”

John D. Rockefeller, Jr. quotation as inscribed at Rockefeller Center, New York City

Thanks to Dan and Nathan at the office, two Mac gurus, I have this running at home.



Yes, they got OS X running on Michele's old Apple 8500 Mac. It originally came with a 120MHz 604 CPU and I upgraded to a 233MHz 604e CPU a few years later.

Michele has no embraced the dark side and runs a Win98 box, but the old Mac was too good to let let fade into a closet.

The OS runs well, and allows Mira to surf the web easily. Finally, each girl has a computer to use.

I was impressed with how easy it was to get Apache up and running on the box. Just point and click. Smooth.

I guess I am now realizing what it means to be slashdotted, even in a minor way.

On Thursday, I posted in a comment thread a link to the quicktime movie of me riding a Segway HT. In under three days, the link got over 5000 hits and used up over 11 gigs of data transfer bandwidth. My web host allows for up to 10 gigs of data per month after that it's 4 cents a megabyte. The quicktime movie is a little over 3 megs, so the extra charges added up quick.

I got up this morning and checked my email. I saw the note from the web host about the new charges for bandwidth. I was already $40 in debt by the time I read the email.

I've moved the page and movie to another site I own that has unlimited data transfer and used a redirect from the old URL. I'm sure the pace of hits will drop down soon, but for now I'm trying to avoid the $40 per Gig charge.

More news later, I have to go take a shower...

"There has grown in the minds of certain groups in this country the idea that just because a man or corporation has made a profit out of the public for a number of years, the government and the courts are charged with guaranteeing such profit in the future, even in the face of changing circumstances and contrary to public interest. This strange doctrine is supported by neither statue or common law. Neither corporations or individuals have the right to come into court and ask that the clock of history be stopped, or turned back."

-Robert Heinlein, Life Line, 1939

One of my buddies, in a mailing list flamefest included this tasty line:

"Are you even remotely aware of the super-hyper-meta levels of irony at work here?"

I think you could tag that onto most flame wars easily. Bravo!

So yesterday I was reading the LA Times and thought that it might be an interesting read on Slashdot. So I submitted it:

Wow, a mild slashdotting of my site. 1,100 hits in 2 hours to the Segway HT page. I guess people do read the comments.

Mark Shuttleworth is my hero. Young, smart, rich, and a week on the International Space Station. I am beyond jealous.

For many years I have been reading the writing of Robert X. Cringely, a tech writer and pundit. I saw that he had posted a new story today and clicked expecting a funny insight as usual. I was blown away to read that his baby son died in his lap of SIDS. In his lap! My God, I cannot imagine a more horrific thing that your child dying your arms.

My thoughts go out to him and his family.

While Michele is away we have had a domestic disaster!

While I was cooking dinner, Zoe was standing at the sink. She wanted to help and wash off the dirty dishes in the sink. I warned her to be careful.

I turn my head back toward the stove and hear a small smashing sound. Zoe says, "Uh-oh! Um, Dad...". I spin around to see my beloved coffee carafe in the sink, missing the bottom. She dropped it and shattered the glass.

(No pictures. Michele took the digital camera to Paducah...)

I now face a decision. Buy a replacement carafe for $17 plus shipping or buy a new l33t coffeemaker from Target for $30. The original coffeemaker is $32...

I'm leaning toward the new maker since it has the timer function that will have the coffee already made as I wake.

Those that know me in real life know that while I am a fan of Star Trek, I do not like the episodes where the Captain is faced with an 'ethical dilemma'. Star Trek should be about mystery, fighting, and sleeping with green skinned babes.

Alas, I find myself in an ethical dilemma.

I bought an IBM hard drive for my computer about a 18 months ago. I have been buying IBM drives for several years because of their reliability. About six months ago, I began to have trouble with the drive. I did a little research on the net and found that many, MANY people were having problems with their IBM 75GXP drives like me.

I ran the IBM drive fitness test, and it said the drive was bad.

Fuck. A bad hard drive? Fuck, fuck, fuck. (Three extra 'fucks' because my Mom is reading this and it makes her squirm...)

I call IBM and request that they 'cross-ship' a replacement to me. Cross-shipping is where a manufacturer sends you a replacement part before you have returned the broken part. It is commmon in computing where without even the defective part, the computer is useless. Typically, you give the manufacturer your credit card number. If you fail to return the defective unit, they charge your card. Simple idea.

IBM refuses to cross-ship me a drive. They wanted me to ship my bad drive first. And they refused to move the data from the bad drive to the new drive. I had no way to get my data off the bad drive.

After pondering this a bit, I finally went out and bought a Maxtor hard drive. I took the time to move to Windows XP at the same time. Big problem. Windows XP won't recognize the defective IBM drive directly.

At this point I have to go through the long process of using an older 9 gig drive as a transfer drive. In a complicated procedure of booting and swapping cables, I finally move my data from the IBM drive to the old transfer drive to the new Maxtor drive.

A big pain in the ass. I decide not to buy IBM hard drives again.

Here comes the dilemma. There is a class action lawsuit against IBM for the way they handled these 75GXP drives.

Normally, I am against these large class action lawsuits for a few reasons.

1) The lawyers get rich
2) The consumer gets little of real value
3) It clogs the court system

But I am quite mad, dare I say vexxed, at IBM for the way they handled this problem. What to do? What to do?

Sue or not to sue. That is the question.

Dear Readers,

Go read Strong Bad's Email now.

Crapfully yours,
Michael

Rat Trap Report:

2 tripped traps - no sign of rat or eaten peanut butter.
1 untripped trap.

Tonight I try again.

I just set three rat traps outside. Time to see how big those buggers are. We saw one Saturday up in the trees. I'm sure if we saw one, there are many.

Report in the AM...

Teaching my mother how to use her Tivo is much harder than teaching my daughter to read...

So Michele is talking to me about her upcoming trip today:

Michele: blah blah blah when I return on Tuesday blah blah blah
Me: Huh? Tuesday? You said you'd be back Monday.
Michele: No! It's Tuesday!
(I point at the calendar that I have been instructed to consult daily)
(It clearly shows Monday as the return day)
Me: Um, look at the calendar.
Michele: (exasperated) But the ticket isn't valid on Monday!
Me: Um, OK. So you are coming home Tuesday?
Michele: Yes! Tuesday!
(She then leaves the room to go remake the calendar on her computer)

Again I am at fault for my lack of mind reading skills.

Aquaman Sings

Here is the cover art of the CD I made:

OK, go read the Stinkfactor site. It is simply fantastic.

I challenge any of you lurkers to eat six Saltines in 30 seconds. Slackers.

Dungeon Siege is $32.99 at Fry's. Must... resist...

Happy Birthday Martin! If any movie studio execs are reading, please give him a seven figure development deal to so we can get a sweet box at the Staples Center and be guys instead of fathers for a while.

My loathsome brother is mocking me again. Bastard. He has all kinds of cool images and stuff on his page. What is he, a fuckign professional or something?

Lastly, how sweet is this?

Yes, I've been fucking around with the base html for the page this morning. I'm bored while I sit her with Mira on the computer next to me playing on Disney Blast.

Two small items:

I saw this on Rebecca Blood's weblog.

Rebecca Blood's Politics in a Nutshell:
Libertarian: We don't need rules, we can take care of ourselves.
Conservative: We need rules to help the upper class and control the lower class.
Liberal: We need rules to control the upper class and help the lower class.
Anarchist: We don't need rules, we can take care of each other.

Is it really this simple? Perhaps.


In today's newspaper I read about a woman dying in a fall from a 150 foot tall tree she was protesting in against logging. While I love the environment, I am not in favor of sacrifing people to save trees.

Here are the folks I'm trading CDs with...

Boing Boing    
hazelmegdotnet   
ph8   
Sharkgrrl   
Velocity 2

Back home in sunny socal!

I really want to crawl up into a ball for a few days now, but alas life is not so easy.

I'll be leaving to pick up the girls at my parent's house in afew minutes. Nothing like an hour of prime grade Los Angeles rush hour traffic to welcome me back home.

Looks like a CD from the CD swap appeared today. I'll have to check it out later when I'm a bit more relaxed...

While I like my job, here's what I'd rather be doing.

People of America, listen up.

When you come to Las Vegas and decide to wear shorts, DO NOT WEAR BLACK SOCKS.

It's a simple fashion rule to remember.

Just so you can confirm my true geekiness...

The topic of conversation at the table of a five star French restaurant was whether or not KITT could or could not drive up into a moving truck and stop.

I went out to several industry parties last night. Free food, free drinks. Who can complain? One party even had nice capacolla ham on the anti-pasta platter. Mmmmm, that's good eating.

Before heading back to the hotel, we stopped by a Davidoff cigar store and picked up some cigar. Actually, Bob & Brad chose them, I just helped pay. Drunk shopping for cigars isn't pretty.

Again, I had trouble keeping the damn thing lit. Others seem to do this effortlessly, but not I. Perhaps a cigar class is in order.

More meetings today. Everyone wants to sell me stuff.

While I enjoy Vegas, I miss sleeping at home. Hotel rooms always remind me of crime novels.

I can't concieve how people can be on the net without broadband. Modem access is simply suxxor. The Mirage Hotel, where I am staying doesn't have any internet access at all. They are teh suck.

I'm in Vegas for the NAB convention. Joy. Too bad Michele couldn't have come along. Vegas solo is not so much fun.

I had a quick dinner and Denny's (salad & Superbird no tomatoes) and went next door to the cinema to see Big Trouble. I have to say, it wasn't bad. Kinda like Get Shorty, but not as fast and sharp. In the middle of the movie my phone rang. Business at 8PM Sunday? Nope. It was my mother calling to chat. Sorry Mom, but for $8.25 for the movie, I'm going to watch it.

Walking back tot he hotel I stopped by a Walgreens to pick up a package of Listermints. Happily I found a diet food section and snatched some no-carb chocolate bars and Balance bars. After Saturday's crayfish boil, I need to get back on the Zone Diet.

Yes, the crayfish boil. My fraternity brother, Len had a big crayfish boil. I had never eaten crayfish before. There were SIXTY pounds of LIVE crayfish there when we arrived. Trust me, that is a shitload of crayfish. I took a bunch of pictures but I didn't have time to prep them and make a page.

Back to today... After Walgreens, I continued down the strip and saw the glowing neon words "Internet Cafe". Woot! I walk in sit down and the cool speed of broadband rolls over me.

Enough blogging, time to check my email.

BTW, Newspro 3.8 is markedly better than 3.7.

OK, I'm fading fast tonight. Here's your linkage.

Choker Sandwich - Martin's page
Megarad - Much geekage and net culture
Cockeyed - I bow to the master...
Trollaxor - With lines like "when some overly-serious goatée-stroking k5er", who can resist?
Good Eats - My cooking guru. All hail Alton Brown

On the book front I am reading remix by Jon Courtenay Grimwood. It's fantastic. The book says 'William Gibson meets Quentin Tarantino' buts it's more like 'Neal Stephenson meets Robert Heinlein'.

Now leave me alone...

I'm back in LA and the whirlwind just doesn't stop.

Work is hectic and with my trip to NAB next week coming, home is hectic as well. So much to do, so little time.

To top it all off, my eyes are killing me. If I take off my contacts to give them a rest, I can barely see with my glasses on.

I have some MLP for joo all, but it'll have to wait until later tonight...