I think, therefore I croak

2004-05-19T18:03:00.000-05:00

Sh#t, my back hurts...
No, its not be just getting old-DER (not old), I've got scoliosis (curvature of the spine)... so stress is not evenly distributed and thus well supported... therefore parts of my back just simply hurt sometimes... and today seems to be one of those days.

2004-05-19T18:00:00.000-05:00

Woohoo... Wireless print server...
Just got my wireless print server I ordered from newegg.com. Now, I don't have to have a dedicated machine to act as a printserver. Plus, being wireless, I can put this where I want. It does parallel and usb printers... wireless and ethernet hookups... and speaks all the major protocols: tcpip printing, windows (smb), and mac (appletalk). Haven't set it up yet. Hopefully its not a pain in the ass.

2004-05-19T12:41:00.000-05:00

*oh*...uh oh... (scrambles out of office cube for the can)...

2004-05-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

Misc (aka sh#t I'm too lazy to categorize)...

Well, now that I've managed to successfully *sarcasm* stagnate my blog, think I'll post. Actually, I just got fed up w/the work it took to express my thoughts... I like to bitch and moan, but to take the time and effort to put it in a blog requires work... guess that just makes me lazy. That, and the fact you really can't post ALL your thoughts because some ppl who read it know you. So, when your whining about someone (job, family, friends), you can't really throw it in a blog they might read. Well, you can but then you'll havve to deal w/all the sh#t that goes with it.

Hmmm.... I'd like to say I have something clever/interesting here... mmmm, but I don't.

Some favorite joke names I enjoy nowdays for azzhole sites that make me register:
Hugh Jass
Haywood Jablowme
Mike Hunt
Amanda Huginakiss (from the simpson's. And, no, I like chics not dudes).

Errr... lately, I've been gamin in JK2 doing Insta-gib. JK2=Jedi Knight. Insta-gib=1 shot, 1 kill. Pretty d#mn cool. My char is deadmeat. So, I dare your lame azz to get on and grease (kill) me. Actually, I'm not that good so shouldn't be too hard.

Err..... ????.... hmmm..... memory cache empty.

2004-01-20T16:02:00.000-06:00

Dean... he's angry... all the time... That's only I know about the guy... he's angry all the time. Every ad I see.. "Hi I'm Dean and I'm angry...". Over and over... apparently he's angry all the time. He lost in Iowa and he's what? you guessed it, angry! The guys got some serious anger issues.

"Hi I'm Dean. I lost in Iowa and I'm angry. When I win, I'm angry. I'm angry when I eat. Heck, I'm angry when I'm nailing my wife. I just made all the lights and I'm angry. I'm angry when I'm not angry. And you know what, that makes me angry."

Jeez... just what I want... someone angry w/a nuke button available. You know what, that makes me angry... hey, think I'll run for office. Grrrrrrr.....!!!!!

2004-01-13T16:04:00.000-06:00

Back in the saddle again... Well, after taking a much deserved hiatus from the mating game aka dating, time to jump back in. Probably been a few years. Yes, I was that sick of it. But, new town new start... plus, give me a chance to see the sites some. Gotta get my GE profile (Great Expectations) updated, might toss something out on Yahoo Personals but don't know... other than that, guess it'll just be pure random luck... I don't do the "bar/stalking prey" thing so that's out. Could try kidnapping which solves the "get a girl prob", but puts a real damper on the whole "get to like me" thing... plus there's the whole jail thing too... so gonna pass on that.

2004-01-13T14:11:00.000-06:00

Viva Las Vegas! Got finished booking hotel and airfare to Las Vegas this weekend. Friend and I are going to Vegas to have a blast. Never been, hear Vegas is pretty cool. I don't gamble so the massive gambling losses shouldn't be a prob. Will probably catch alot of sites. Got Wayne Newton on my list... he's been around so long he's went from uncool to cool again.

2004-01-13T14:08:00.000-06:00

*lets out explosive breath* I'M ALIVE... I imagine my absense has killed all the traffic that passed thru. But, what the heck, I'll post anyways... heck, maybe I'll have an anon log I can post all uncensored thoughts to... err, I don't think so. Anyways, I'm alive and busier than a 1-legged man in a punting competition. At some point, I'll post some stuff about what's been going on.

2003-11-05T23:18:00.000-06:00

Aww man... no "Major Tom" or "Silent Running" in iTunes music store... was looking for these... not found. Bummer.

2003-11-05T23:16:00.000-06:00

Matrix Revolutions review.... grade: B... Saw it today (opening day). It was good. Better than the 2nd (which was mediocre at best) and but not as good as the 1st. In defense of the 2nd movie, I should say this. It covered the middle of the story arc, and you're just not gonna get much "movement" at that point. Kind of like tossing a ball up, it has the least movement/velocity as it reaches the top of its arc and reverses downward. The begining and ends will generally be more exciting. Anyways, I liked it... I think they could've shorted it in a few spots. Also... it will probably take a few viewings before you pick up everything in the movie... especially in the last 5 mins when they really cram alot of stuff in there... mmm... that's it.

2003-11-04T19:23:00.000-06:00

Matrix Revolutions (movie #3).... oh crap, not another dud! .... been readin reviews and it aint pretty. they consistently say "great action special effects, no substance... ie no drama, char dev, etc". You know they said the same thing on #2 and I shrugged it off. Then, I found out they were right... frankly, #2 was a bit lame. Well, they're saying the same thing on this one and I fear they may be right. Here's one of the funniest quotes I found about the movie:
...the Wachowski brothers have delivered a dud so disappointing, they may as well have bussed in Ewoks to save Zion.

2003-11-03T05:18:00.000-06:00

"Who's looking out for you?" by Bill O'Reilly... Got this as an audiobook from iTunes music store (which rocks). Good book! Highly recommend it. Haven't finished it yet, but its been great so far. Very enlightening, well reasoned, and nicely presented. I've always found Bill to be calm cool and rational... presenting thoughts and assertions based on logic and evidence. Anyways, the books is very enlightening and I recommend it.

2003-10-31T00:15:00.000-06:00

A MacOSX "Oh crap!" moment... Had a rather interesting and bizarre "oh crap" moment today. I need to boot off my diskwarrior3 disk to defrag the drives. Prior to 10.3, I used to just press "C" will it rebooted and it booted the cd. For some reason, "C" nor "apple-C" didn't work. So, I went into "startup disks" and selected the cd. Ok, no big deal right? Wrong! When it boots off the cd, it locks the drive so you can't eject. And, when you're done w/diskwarrior, the cd is still locked. No big deal right? Just pop the drive when it reboots.. wrong! Unlike a pc, on the mac there's is no eject button on the drive door... its on the keyboard... and despite the reboot and frantically pressing the eject key, the drive wouldn't eject the cd. And, since the system was still set to boot off the cd, it just kept booting the cd which kept the cd locked. So.. basically, I couldn't get the cd out nor could i get it to boot off the harddrive. What the F#CK?! Its a fun moment realizing you're screwed and imaging yourself calling AppleSupport "Yeah, my mac is dead. It won't stop booting off the cd it won't eject". Fixed it. Opened the case (shhh, don't tell AppleSupport) and unplugged the cd drive. Wah-lah! No cd boot and straight into hd where I could reset the "startup" disk back to the hd. Then, plug the cd back in and its all fixed.

Tip for Apple... you can set standard pc bios to boot in sequence.... such as cd, then hd. You might try that. Little simpler. i still don't know how I'll boot of the cd in 10.3 w/o screwing myself.

2003-10-29T23:02:00.000-06:00

Farkin hilarious.... Fark photoshop contest: favorite sexual euphenism...
see link here

2003-10-21T22:24:00.000-05:00

Fark moment: (Admiral) Ackbar Grocery store... As I was on my way home, I glanced to my left to see "Ackbar Groceries" store in a strip mall. Had to laugh... I pictured Admiral Ackbar behind the register blurting out "Its a Trap!". (fyi: its notorious that someone will sneak in Admiral Ackbar and his catch phrase in "its a trap" into every photoshop contest at fark.com... its farkin funny). I'm thinkin about snapping a photo and sending it in to fark.

2003-10-19T22:37:00.000-05:00

Total Annihilation... Some guys at work re-introduced me to TA. It came out in like 1998 and I remember playing it some.... but that's it. Well, I've rediscovered it and its awesome... for raw carnage, its awesome. Very cool game. Think I'm gonna recommend it for the next lan party.

2003-10-19T22:33:00.000-05:00

Mac OS X: Panther (10.3) on Oct 24th... Apple is release the next version of its OS dubbed "Panther" (v10.3) on Oct 24. They're having a launch party at the Apple store here in town. Think I'll go to it... oughta be fun... plus, I want the OS. Lots of cool features, plus I'm hoping they fixed a few gripes I had also.

2003-10-19T22:30:00.000-05:00

iTrip ROCKS!... Got the iTrip (fm broadcaster) for my iPod so I can play my iPod thru the car stereo. Its awesome. Best broadcaster I've used yet. Easy to use, great clarity, and no wires. Everything I used previously was a pain the ass to use (wires everywhere) and the transmission quality sucked. Hats off to apple for a superior broadcaster.

2003-10-04T11:41:00.000-05:00

Driving differences between KC and St Louis... Thought I'd take a moment to note some of the driving differences I've noticed between KC and St Louis.

1. More cars: On average, there's alot more cars.
2. Better congestion flow: The traffic moves alot better than it would in KC. In KC, if you got a certain amount of congestion, plan on waiting a while. There's more congestion here, but it seems to go faster.
3. Center lane is your friend: Just about everywhere you go, there's a yellow center turn lane. I figured out the purpose of it is for turning left. Normally in KC, there is no center lane and even if there was, most ppl wait for both directions to clear before turning. Here, if you wait for both directions to clear, you'll be there for a VERY long time. Instead, here you wait til the left clears, pull into the center, then pull on out once the right clears.
4. Its ok to cut ppl off: Lastly, its ok to cut each other off. Basically, if there's a large enough gap so that someone won't wreck you or have to lock up their breaks, its ok to pull out in front of them. In KC, you pull out in front of someone and impede their progress, that's rude. Here, its status quo.
5. Horn still means "asshole" in St Louis: Occassionally, I've noticed it used to communicate such as short honk "hey, lights green". But, most of the time its the long honk "you asshole". Same as KC.

That's most the major stuff I've noticed so far. I'm sure I'll add more over time.

2003-10-04T11:23:00.000-05:00

Lab Resurrected.... Finally got my lab set back up in St Louis. Still need to setup the Apple and a few other things. But, got the major stuff in place. Interesting problem w/hooking up my cable modem. There's no cable outlet in the study So, I hooked up the cable modem and the wireless router in the living room and used an wireless ethernet bridge in the study. Good idea, bad solution. The problem is my router is accessed over a wireless solution... so, when the signal drops, my computers lose their network connection... so whatever your working on, downloading, etc gets screwed... plus, I started having probs w/computers acquiring each others IP. So... I thinkin I need to get another wireless bridge, use them to bridge the distance, and put the router in the lab... this way, all computers are connected to the router via wire instead of wireless.

Update:
Lab is fixed. (intently watches network icon for disconnect as he utters those words). Instead of connection my router to the lab using an ethernet bridge, I used 2 wap's (wireless access pts) in bridging mode... connected the bridges to each other... then hooked 1 up to the modelm and the other to my router... works like a champ... haven't had a single prob in 2 hrs. Good news... I bought each wap for $70... now I can take the single wireless ethernet bridge back to Best Buy that I bought for $106.

2003-09-25T14:28:00.000-05:00

A definition of pornography... while reading a review by Roger Ebert of Underworld, he quoted a definition of porn mentioned by some writer.

"A porno movie ... is a movie where you become acutely aware that the characters are spending too much time getting in and out of cars and walking in and out of doors."

I thought that was hilarious. Had to put in the blog.

2003-09-24T12:48:00.000-05:00

Farkin hilarious... Fark photoshop contest: computer books w/Harlequinn romance covers... Another awesome photoshop contest...
see link here

2003-09-19T01:43:00.000-05:00

Fark Photoshop contest: combine 2 or more sports.... Freakin hilarious.... gotta check this out.
see link here

2003-09-16T17:29:00.000-05:00

Dumbass proposal to fine ppl who haven't patch their computers and spread viruses (Proof you don't have to be smart to publish on the net)... Saw this link off of slashdot. Someone proposed the incredibly stupid idea of fining ppl if they haven't properly patched their machines and spread viruses. How'd you like to get a $2000 bill in the mail because of an M$ flaw that caused you machine to get hacked? The problem isn't the patching, the problem is the buggy ass software in the first place. And, do you get to sue M$ when you apply the patch and it breaks your system?
see dumbass proposal here

2003-09-16T17:15:00.000-05:00

The fallacy and hypocrisy of "lost sales" in medai industry... Saw this link off of slashdot. Its to an article written by Orson Scott Card which is incredibly mind opening.

Here's some favorite quotes:
"If you wrote something as an employee of a company that paid you a salary for creating it, then your writing was a "work made for hire" and the copyright belonged to the company. You had no rights."

"A lot of publishers began routinely requiring writers to sign contracts that declared that what they wrote was a "work for hire," so that the authors wouldn't own any part of their own work."

"They've been manipulating copyright laws for years, and all the manipulations were designed to steal everything they could from the actual creators of the work."

"Movie studios have, for decades, used "creative accounting" to make it so that even hit movies never manage to break even, thus depriving the creative people of their "percentage of profits.""

"the people complaining about all the internet "thieves" are, by any reasonable measure, rapacious profiteers who have been parasitically sucking the blood out of copyrights on other people's work."

"huge fortunes like, say, David Geffen's were made by getting ownership of record publishing companies. Count on it -- Geffen got a lot richer than any but a handful of the actual performers. And when their careers are over, the record company owner keeps right on earning."

see link here