Category: Weblog

At lunch we headed out to grab our free Slurpees at 7-Eleven.
We walked into the store and said, “Where’s the free slurpees?”
The man behind the counter said, “Seven to Eleven!”
I said, “Yeah, where”s the free Slurpees?”
He said, “It’s over! Seven to Eleven!”
Evidently the knuckleheads at Corporate 7-Eleven decided to only have free stuff from 7AM to 11AM.
Fuckers…

Tomorrow my youngest daughter, Mira, turns five years old. It will be a good day.
I spent the evening wrapping presents and attaching a basket & bell to her new bicycle. The Magic Talking Grill is sure to be a hit as well.
I also did the final touches on my MeFI CD Swap. I had resisted opening the CDs I got before I finished my mixes. I started listening to them tonight. The CD from greengrl is absolutely kick-ass. I hope she likes my selections as much I like hers.
My good friend Len has launched his blog. Please give him a read and a comment for encouragement.

I went from 500+ emails in my inbox to under 100. The flow of emails in unending. Eventually it will wreck all productivity in modern business.
There’s got to be a better way.

We are out of ice, so I am drinking my scotch neat. Usually I have two rocks to chill the scotch just a bit. Life is rough.
I just finished a book I picked up at the local discount bookstore. It’s called Rebel Moon and based on the story form a 1996 video game. It’s not worthy of a full review. The book hums along for a bit and at the end the rebels basically lose and the story abruptly ends with the appearance of aliens. We don’t even know what happens next. There’s no sequel. What a ripoff, even at $2.99.
I was talking to some people at work about what apps to run to protect yourself from things like spyware and other malware. Here’s a list of what I run defensively.
ZoneAlarm – A software firewall that also controls outbound traffic
Norton AntiVirus – If you don’t run antivirus, you are asking to get your computer wiped out.
AdSubtract – Pop-up blocker and privacy software.
AdAware – Spyware scanner.
Spybot – Alternate spyware scanner
SpamBayes Outlook Addin – Spam filter for Outlook.
Oh, Michele just got back from her Quilt Meeting. Gotta go.

On the 4th I finished my latest book, The Golden Age. I was quite pleased, but the author did leave me in a classic cliffhanger.
The Golden Age – John Wright
The Golden Age is a classic space opera with a twist of occuring outside the typical swashbuckling firefights of many Sci-fi novels. In Wright’s far future, humans are immortal and surrounded by ultra-smart artificial intelligences that help them manipulate thier perception of the world. No longer do most people physically travel anywhere, they mind is fed the senses and experiences where android bodies and remote sensors.
The protaganist, Phaethon, is a hero in a world without desire for adventure. Society is content to stop progress and bask in their utopia. Without revealing much plot, finds that the world is not as it seems and soon learns that part of his past has been hidden.
The story follows his attempts to find out what’s really going on in a world of fantasy and illusion. The story is a bit slow in the beginning until you pick up the lingo and concepts. Soon enough you are hanging on for the wild ride.
The book ends in a cliffhanger with our hero ready to face the final outcome in the next book. Amazon can’t deliver it fast enough. To bad my library doesn’t have it.

First, here is a page with picture on my recent upgrades to my Tivo. Enjoy.
Today was a good home day.
I went bike riding with the kids to the park.
We washed Michele’s car in the driveway.
I watched the kids play in the hot tub while I surfed on the laptop.
I burned a DVD from video I extracted from the Tivo.
Mira took a nap on top of me (I was forced to take one too.)

Today we celebrate the Independance of our country and the great things our nation has done.

The American Flag by Zoe Pusateri

I went to see the movie Winged Migration tonight. The movie is absolutely wonderful. I can’t wait to take the girls. Jacques Perrin, the director, also made the movie Microcosmos about insects.
The film is the story of the bi-annual migrations that birds make to avoid winter. The cinematography is spectacular. Through various methods there are constant shots of birds in flight as if you are with them flying alongside. It’s hard to describe, watch the trailer.
They show many dangers the birds face along the way and you will be surprisd with what you see. The small audience I was with actually clapped for the bird at several points. The next time you see birds overhead you will think about it differently. Go see it.
Spam Filter for Outlook
I’ve tried several anti-spam solutions and found this one recently:
SpamBayes Outlook Addin

The software only works for Outlook, but it works well.
The ‘bayesian’ software learns what you consider spam and sorts it better and better the more you train it. I am quite impressed with it’s performance.
Geekage
I pulled the trigger and bought the DVD burner this morning. Woot me.
Weblogs
Mr. P fought a chair and lost.
My brother new Flash banner rocks.
Griff continues to be funny.

If you start packing an two story house into a moving van at 6PM, you will probably spend the next eight hours packing it. Packing a moving van at night is not a good idea.
The next day you will feel tired, sore, and your eye’s will hurt.

Today was supposed to be a restful day in preparation for Michele and girls trip to North Carolina. I suppose it was, but I got several things done. Not exactly what I wanted, but good stuff.
Computing
First, I began to rewire the house network. For various geeky reasons, I wanted to have my main PC see the internet with a static IP, not behind a firewall and also see into the network behind my firewall into the the other computer. This requires the install of a second network card and faith in my firewall software not to bridge the networks.
Don’t tell me I should be behind the hardware firewall, I wants what I wants…
While monkeying around in the box to install the card I did a bit of cable maintenance and other tidying up.
I got the networks up and running and everything worked great, without issue and I could hit the Tivo from my main computer.
I went and did some other things like take the kids to the game store and lunch.
When we returned home I began to try to extract some video from the Tivo. The transfer started, and for some reason the computer blue-screened and rebooted. Windows XP never does this to me. Like OS X and linux, the OS is fairly rock solid with apps crashing, but rarely the OS dumping.
It keep happening and I looked up the specific error code. Ram Problems. Ram Problem? WTF? The RAM must have been knocked loose earlier int eh day I guessed. I reopened the case and reached in. The RAM was hot, almost too hot to touch. Something was wrong. The RAM I use has a frigging heatsink on it.
I touched the elaborate heat sink for the CPU and it was even hotter. Uh-oh. I checked the main CPU fan, and indeed, I had unknowingly unplugged the fan while doing my maintenance. I plugged it back in and rebooted. Everything was fine. It does make me happy that the comput can run half the day with no fan at all and the case closed. All my effort to put in good heat sinks was worth it.
Tivo
The Tivo is now completely hacked. I’ve installed both TyStudio and TivoWeb.
With TyStudio I can extract video directly from the Tivo and convert it to usable video formats. This afternoon I turned an episode of Good Eats into an SVCD and an episode of Da Ali G Show into a DVD file.
With TivoWeb I can control my Tivo from a web interface. There’s pretty much nothing I can’t control with the TivoWeb interface.
All I need is the DVD burner and I’ll be in heaven…
Geekage
Michele needed a specific audio clip from a film. It was only available as a streaming RealAudio clip. In case you find yourself in a similar situation, you may need:
RealAudio to WAV Converter
WAV to MP3 Converter