Head swapping fun over at Manbabies

Lionel want a half dozen of these to go, with a selection of dipping sauces.

I logged into a server that I haven’t done work on in a while, but gets weekly use:

bash-2.05b# uptime
 6:17AM  up 1645 days,  2:05, 2 users, load averages: 1.13, 0.50, 0.24

Over 4.5 years without a reboot. That’s some good software.

This story is sad, but very poignant. I wish I had posted a link to it on Mothers Day.

Here’s a visual comparison of data storage then and now. I remember having a 10MB (that’s Megabyte) hard disk about 20 years ago…

Oh, and that Mint 3 Musketeers bar with the wacky LOTR style TV ads? When you actually get one, it’s smaller than a standard 3 Musketeers, doesn’t taste as minty or chocolaty as a peppermint patty or Andes mint. In true movie reviewer style, this gets two thumbs down from me and Amy.

Oh, and for those of you having pre-marital anxeity, at least your proposal didn’t go like this!

My ancient Toshiba cable modem (DOCSIS 1.0!) has been acting strangely (occasionally having 30-80% packet loss, etc.) for a few months now, and gave up the ghost about a week ago. I kind of knew this was coming – when we moved into this house 2 years ago, the only reason the Cox guys were willing to hook it up to the cable line was that it’s serial number was still in their system.

I bought a replacement (Linksys BEFCMU10 ver. 4 – DOCSIS 2.0) a short while ago. It works fine, but the neatest thing about it is when connected to fast sites downloading big files (system updates, video, etc.), I’m getting > 1.2MiB/s. I think this has something to do with Cox’s “Speed Boost” feature which ups the data rate for a short time under certain conditions. One other benefit is that the new modem has a diagnostic page up at http://192.168.100.1, which may prove useful sometime in the future.

Note to self – don’t start watching cute cat and/or rabbit videos online unless you have hours and hours to spend…

Speaking of cats, Lionel managed to con me and Amy into feeding him twice this morning, in flagrant disregard for his diet (he’s around 18-20 pounds, which is too much for a cat his size). Often, he’ll bug both of us for food indepenently when we come home in the evening, as in “oh, you’re home now, feed me!” even if he’s just been fed. We switched to diet food that you can only get from the vet, and that seems to be working – he doesn’t bug us about eating as much as usual.

Now that lots of people have commented on the whole NBC leaving iTunes issue, I’m surprised that nobody has mentioned the guys in Redmond who help keep things like MSNBC going… The no proof conspiracy theorist in me could easily see some back room dealings going on, especially with Amazon (what NBC switched to) being a Microsoft DRM licensee.

In other Microsoft news, what’s up with Linux being a dirty word on Xbox Live?

Man, this hits home. I remember in high school hating to hear the phone ring… Heck, even if it wasn’t for me, I didn’t want anything to do with it. I’m completely behind the “email is better, less intrusive, and often more useful” school of thought, but often times nobody checks their email.

Speaking of phones in high school, I remember a prank call I got back then. Someone called claiming to be from the FBI, and said “I know about all those illegal program you have” or some such bogus line. Unfortunately for him, he called on some weekend night, asked to talk to me instead of my parents, and when I asked about how he liked working for the government if he had to call teenagers at home on the weekend, *click* .

Speaking of not checking email, I’m rolling on and off the GTD bandwagon. I’ve tried a few pieces of software, such as Omnifocus and kGTD that proceeded it, and while they are useful, I just can’t bring myself to use them on a regular basis. Here are a few of the issues:

The 43 folders “store items for when you need them” metaphor breaks down when taken into a computer

Almost all the task managers work on a project basis. They don’t provide a repository for documents, notes, etc that need to be attached to events and tasks. The only planner I’ve seen that can do this is Time and Chaos which is frankly weird in parts, and has no Mac version. What I would give to attach a folder to a contact, or a document to an event. It’s really all I ask.

I have physical stuff that needs to go along with jobs

I often get equipment or parts in. Right now, what I do is when I get the item, most of the time it goes directly in my car, so I don’t forget it when I’m out and about. Unfortunately, this doesn’t always happen

I’m bad at initial processing of issues

I’ll sit on phone messages for a day or two over the weekend. I’m particularly bad about physical mail. I think this is a discipline thing – I get freaked out at having a really long todo list, so I avoid adding things to it by avoiding the initial processing step. Bad Zack! Bad!

I’m probably ADD or something like it.

On the upside, I’ve started using DevonTHINK Pro and a ScanSnap to organize all my papers coming in. That plus the awesome PDF->DevonThink workflow really reduces my filing clutter on the computer, and hopefully in meatspace as well.

Ok, enough rambling. It’s off to bed with me!

What I’ve been doing every other morning is loading up an episode on the TV and watching it while running on the treadmill. Each show is about 24 minutes, which is enough time to get up to quite a sweat. This morning I did a mile and a quarter at five miles an hour then slowed down to three miles hour, then did another quarter mile at six. My biggest problem previously when running was that I focused too much on my physical condition and would wimp out after 15-16 minutes.

The best thing about anime is that it is subtitled. When I watch it I don’t necessarily have to listened to the audio, which is very important when you’re pounding away on a noisy treadmill. I would assume you to do the same thing with other subtitled video.

I’m going to see how well this works – so far I’ve been very happy with my progress.

I finally got around to posting a bunch of pictures on Flickr that I’ve been meaning to… Some highlights:

Sunset a few nights ago

Lionel eating watermelon

Amy climbing a tree (in Colorado)

The reason I didn’t post these earlier is that my Flickr account is tied to my Yahoo ID, and for some reason, my Yahoo password stopped working, and their automated system wouldn’t send a new password to the alternate email I specified. I tried their automated online system, but got caught in autoreply hell, so I finally tried calling a customer service number, got transfered, and finally got the phone number (408) 349-1572, which is Yahoo Customer Service. A nice guy named Ronald (hopefully not the burger salesman with the yellow suit and big red shoes) straightened things out, and I got a replacement password.

Other than that, things have been going pretty well. My dad is taking Amy and I along to a meeting in eastern Canada in a few days, so I’ll probably be posting a bunch of pictures and stuff about that trip soon.

How to Profile, and get it right. (linked from Bruce Schneier’s site)

DO NOT INSERT ARM!

If you remember the IBM Ad where they had Avery Brooks (aka Commander Sisko from DS9) reading about the future, you’ll find this quite humorous.

The Dreamcast Scene is pretty darn cool – the hardware hasn’t been made for years, and there are still cool ports of older games coming out for it.

Beware of beached xboxes

An interesting article about looking for the girl of your dreams.

Now THIS is what I call a station wagon!

What appears to be a 4 wheel steering Fiat, with the body put on backward!

The Cow says… “mooo… don’t eat me!”

Temporary Park

What a difference 28 years make.

Scariest prank I’ve seen in a long time.

Giant Squid on ice!

But when Cheney said his iPod needed to be recharged, it took precedent above all else and dominated one precious outlet for several hours.

Merry Christmas Iraq!

Good and Bad Procrastination

“This year’s White House greeting card extends ‘best wishes for a holiday season of hope and happiness.’ No mention of ‘Merry Christmas’ from the First Family.”

Oh, and what’s on the commander and chief’s iPod?

Gmail on your cell phone

Here’s a spreasheet of operational satellites currently in orbit around the Earth.

Rest of U2 fine with Africans Starving

RSS reader, for when you’re on the john

Fender bender ends the best Christmas light display ever.

Customer quote: “I love the Mac more every time my husband has to deal with different stuff that I don’t need to be concerned about.”

Make your own Vintage Red Cross Calendar.

Dick Cheney or Voice of God?

Promiscuity makes brains small and gonads large.

Steve “MonkeyBoy” Ballmer has to get an Xbox 360 like the rest of us!

If you blog and do something horrible people will find your blog and post it as news – both list themselves as Christians, but the real Christians will be the people visiting them in jail.

How intelligent is your design?

Interesting Unicode font

Hello Kitty Guitar and Base

Fly through the sky – a simple yet fun flash animation.

Limitations on police power shouldn’t be a partisan issue – Most laws don’t matter when we all trust each other.

If you must tow a car, don’t tow it in park!

CIA Realizes It’s Been Using Black Highlighters All These Years

We went to Bianchi’s (Speedway/Silverbell) last Sunday – it’s good, cheap italian food, and they give you a ton, if you’re looking for a place around here to eat.

Chwang Yi – for all the peripherals the now defunct MacMice used to make.

You can now get Rush Limbaugh, on your video iPod – (man, the last time I heard Rush was when I was in middle school and still young and impressionable)

Go grab Mozilla 1.5 if you haven’t already. You’ll be glad you did.

“Hey, why don’t we put the driving wheel in the trunk? No one’s tried that before.” – one of my customers who was commenting about annoying and seemingly pointless changes to a program after an upgrade

If you have a Canon Pixma printer (the iPxxxx series), you can buy or make parts for it to print on CD or DVD media.

How much is your Blog worth? ($0.00 for me!)

Hippies and Evangelical Christians, together at last! (Registration required – use BugMeNot or the Firefox BugMeNot Plugin to get by it)

Bruce Schneier: Australian Minister’s Sensible Comments on Airline Security Sparks Outcry

Drunken Moose Terrorizes Family

Guns: 1, Padlocks: 4

Steve Jobs releases new iPods

If you are a mother in Norway, you get paid.

Warning Label Generator

Bush meets Robot Einstein

Jimmie Carter – “This is not the country that I once knew”