It wasn't me. You can't prove anything.


2011-05-31

Phone zombies

Radiation from cell phones can possibly cause cancer, the World Health Organization said today.
CNN Headline News email

I've been wondering who would step up and declare that radiation, even if from a really popular device like a mobile phone, causes cancer. The industry that has grown up around these little devices has been denying tooth and nail for decades that this is infarct a fact.

There is a cancer pad in my trouser pocket as I type this. That might produce something other than a brain tumor. That would be my back pocket.

(in a zombie moan voice) Brains! Did you get my text? Brains.

How many people have to die before the truth is known to the world? No one is after the tumor's opinion. Pack of bigots.

Notes:

At lunch, I shot a really quick picture and video of the fountain out front of the building. Then I walked over to Target to pickup another set of earphones. I then walked over to McD to get a cheap lunch. It felt good walking around in the heat. Not sure why. It felt like Summer. I'm sure the third time I have to do it, I'll be wining about how hot it is.

Hop, the movie, was late. It sucked, but it was an Easter film and was weeks late. Fail.

They really should teach kids how to tell a joke in school. It is an important skill for most people. I think it would be good for civilization as a whole. Comedic timing 101.


2011-05-30

The Holiday that wasn't

The company I work for does not give us the day off for Memorial Day. We get other perks. Yes, it sucks on Memorial Day to trudge in, but it is not so bad to get the week between Christmas and New Years day off. Give, take.

The building we are in has a holiday schedule. They do not run the AC and they make everyone sign in. It is funny to look at the sign in sheet and every single name except one is my company. The AC was the worse part. We were supposed to have AC today. Something didn't work right. I have an excuse to do things in the lab. The labs have their own cooling system on the roof. I do not envy the office folks. It all got straightened out after a while.

I did get some sympathy from the family yesterday. I was not the only one who had to go in today. A couple guys from the fish fry yesterday and a couple more guys riding the bus this morning also had to go in.

Though, one of the guys was headed to the north side of Houston on the bus just to attend a BBQ at a friend's place. I hope his friend appreciates the effort he is putting in. He and I spoke of my grandfather and is great uncle who both fought in WW II. We also spoke of marriage, church, bicycles, cars, weather and sunglasses. I'm going to miss that crazy bastard.

The busses are on Sunday schedule. Fortunately, the bus I rely on is a mall buss and runs on Sunday on a reasonable schedule. Many of the side street busses just don't run on Sunday. Not sure how people are going to deal with it. I suppose they will do what I would do and walk the gaps if they can. The bus was packed. People were standing. It looked like people were headed to work and play. You know, people stuff.

Grumbling aside, it is not so bad.

Traffic was pretty much nil. We had the lunch place to ourselves. The rest of the building was hot all day. We had to enter through the back door. Quiet. Not many calls today, even from people in my company. Odd


2011-05-29

Houston driving

Nat mentioned wanting a vehicle with a snorkel. It will work better for Houston driver she says. Watch this and tell me you still want to bother with it.

Awwww!!!

Just in case your contacts were drying out.

Books

I am quite blessed. I get books from the BARD system. This is a service of the NLS. They provide audio books to blind people. This is fantastic. I have read more in the past several months than the rest of my life. I have no idea how to thank these folks. The old way of doing it on tape was pretty ridiculous.

This is list of the books and the date I downloaded them (legally) from BARD. Not that any one cars, but the table came out of LibreOffice.

Date Downloaded book Status Notes

https://nlsbard.loc.gov/cgi-bin/nlsbardprod/index.cgi

2010-10-30 The girl with the dragon tatoo done
2010-11-01 State of Fear
By Cryton
2010-11-26 analog 2010-11

2010-11.06 Asamov 2010-09 done
2010-11.06 Asamov 2010-11

2010-11.06 The girl who played with fire done
2010-11.06 Asemov Astounding 2010-10

2010-11.06 Black Star Rising

2010-11.06 Brainboy and the Deathmaster

2010-11.06 The Captains' Honor done
2010-12-02 Analog 2010-12

2010-12-02 Betrayal in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery done
2010-12-02 Born in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery done
2010-12-02 Ceremony in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery done
2010-12-16 Babel-17 done
2010-12-26 Song of fire and ice series 1 - 4
Via web
2010-12-28 Bear, Greg-City at the End of Time

2010-12-28 McCaffrey, Anne-Catalyst- A Tale of the Barque Cats

2010-12-28 Stackpole, Michael A.-Blood Legacy- The Blood of Kerensky, Volume 2

2010-12-30 Fantasy in Death

2010-12-30 Asimov's Science Fiction (January 2011)

2010-12-30 Conspiracy in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2010-12-30 Creation in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2010-12-30 Divided in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-01-20 Glory in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-01-20 Analog Science Fiction and Fact (Astounding!) (January-February 2011

2011-01-20 Holiday in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-02-27 Imitation in Death

2011-02-27 Immortal in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-02-27 Innocent in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-02-27 Kindred in Death

2011-02-27 The Lost, J. D. Robb

2011-02-27 Loyalty in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-02 Memory in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-02 Origin in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-02 Portrait in Death; An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-02 Promises in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-02 Purity in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-03 Rapture in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-03 Salvation in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-04-16 Atlas Shrugged

2011-05-28 Seduction in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-05-28 Strangers in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-05-28 Suite 606 J D Robb

2011-05-28 Survivor in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-05-28 Vengeance in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-05-28 Visions in Death: An Eve Dallas Mystery

2011-05-28 The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet's Nest


2011-05-28

Keeping the kids calm in a war zone

This is Mexico

Yes, my love, everyone on the floor. Little ones... what? What, my love? No, nothing's happening love, just put your little faces on the ground... with your... beautiful ones, put your little faces on the floor. Nothing is the matter, nothing is going to happen to us, just don't get up please. We are going to sing a song! We're going to sing... I know which one! Yes! If rain drops were made of chocolate, I would love to be there... Who wants chocolate!?
We open our mouths in order to taste... let's open our mouths! Put your heads on the ground, ok? This is how you are gonna open your mouths... are you opening your mouths? Awwww, let's see if it's true. Do you guys have your little mouths open to catch the rain? Cmon, Miguel, I don't see your little mouth.

You know, I hear people complain about how dangerous U. S. schools are now days. I just can't help but think that a metal detector at every entrance would not have helped this situation.

Kelly is boring

Field Data
Title Kelly is boring
Description This is a couple vids Nat took of me. Trying to dispel any notion that I'm an interesting person. I would argue that I'm boring in a good way.
Tags picknic table park family fun birds bird poop eating breakfast food pancakes Whataberger paranoia Canon Elph 300 Houston Texas
Link Link

Beautiful and scary

This guy is in Canada. He is old and probably retired. He is also nuts. I'm subscribed.


2011-05-27

Notes:

Someone saw my slow motion test from yesterday and asked for more. I asked if they had any ideas to send me an email. I really want every day activities that will look interesting slowed down just a bit. I cannot stop a bullet or a blender blade or anything. Just 10 times. It is fun and seems to be even just a bit interesting. Still trying to come up with other ideas for videos.

I want to run around the office and figure out where all the IT type equipment is. Things get moved around a lot in this company. We are supposed to keep track of things. I take my camera and take pictures of all the stickers on the equipment. I then reconcile the numbers in the DB. This time I'm going to swipe the bar code reader and try to get it to work for me. That will make things work much better.

We got some Velcro wire ties. The lady who purchased them bought more than I wanted. I think that was a good idea because I'm burning through them. I've even started using 1 tie on 2 wires in a few cases. I haven't even started using them in the labs yet. I'm scared that the lab jockeys will bum rush me for more once they see them used. That is probably a good thing. I really dislike using zip ties in all situations. When you have weight or a stressful situation they work better. If you might need to rerun wires at any point, the Velcro ties work many times better. I'm sick of having to cut zip ties every three inches on some runs. (Jake!)

An old nickle has 25% coper. 75% nickle. New ones have no copper. I don't know what the new combination is. I don't think any one cares. It even without the expensive mettles, nickles cost more than a nickle to make.

Pocket toilet

Need some of these for Faire.


2011-05-26

Slow motion test

Field Data
Title Slow motion test
Description Quick vid of me acting a fool for YouTube.
Tags lips mouth noise flutter slow motion slowmotion Canon Elph 300 Houston Texas
Link Link

GoPro Go that extra mile

Yes, LiveLeak web site has a lot of work to do on their embedded player. If I mess with the numbers, it starts cropping funny. Please forgive the letterboxing.

Lion

This one said GoPro in the description. This is as close to a living wild lino's mouth as I want to get.

Para-crash

If man were meant to para-plummet, we would have had nylon cord coming out of our butts. Now this guy does, but he is now the exception that proves the rule. Pretty sure this is also a GoPro by the sound it makes bouncing on concrete.


2011-05-25

Notes:

The fountain at work is being fixed. For some time, I've wanted to shoot some high resolution stock video of it flowing. No sooner did I think of this than whomever has their hand on the nozzle turned the pressure down to zip. Then off all together. Then I noticed a couple guys standing next to the fountain scratching their heads and looking a bit dismal. Now it is drained. Something ain't right. Still waiting on my stock footage.

Resizing drive partitions is a drag. Well, if I could just drag the partitions and change their size, it would be an improvement. I ended up installing an OS today for a second time because it was on too small a partition.

Walked in the door and right back out again this evening to mow the front yard. it was not high, just shaggy. Elle helped me by watering everything. I made her ware ear plugs.


2011-05-24

Notes:

It cracks me up. I watch old Star Trek shows and they are constantly going back and forth in time. Time has no back and forth. it is entirely fiction. Time really is what is right now. It may be a cool idea, but nothing is written.

This morning I nearly tweeted how sick I am of the whole social media thing. I stopped myself just in time. Then, I tweeted this.

Dell techs are good at what do.

Stress test

I have no idea how to stress a computer. There are all kinds of stress tests. There are the ones designed to tell if the PC is going fail under normal use. Some tell you if you are ready to ship. Some tell you at what point your design burns down the building.

This morning, I was asked what I meant by mild to medium stress test.

Mild Can the computer stand aggressive, but normal use.
Medium How far can we go before the first failures, but no damage.
Hard When do we cause damage.

Makes seance to me. The word stress tells me that we start at mild. Someone thought that I should not call it mild because that does not say "stress" to them. Whatever. The other IT types knew exactly what I was saying.

This all has to do with overclocking. It is amazing how hot a chip gets before it shuts down. I remember chips that shut down at 45C. Some of the ones we are using shut down at 87C or so. Crazy. That is enough to take skin off your finger I believe.

One of the issues we had with the overclocked machines was a bit odd. Adam heard a buzz coming out of the CPU somewhere. It sounded like a loose key jingling against metal. We called in the guy who put it together. We traced it down to the PCI cover in the back of the CPU. I must have bumped it while installing the video card. I didn't even notice it until Adam pointed it out. Good ear.

Some of the tools involved.

CPU-Z

Intel burn in

Prime95


2011-05-22

Elle and the park

Field Data
Title Elle at the park
Description This video has it all.
Overpowering wind noise.
Kids.
Pets.
Did I mention wind noise?
Tags park family fun playground kids pets dog slide tube Canon Elph 300 Fort Bend Missouri City Texas
Link Link

Breakfast at the park

Field Data
Title Breakfast at the park.
Description Breakfast at George Bush Park. We shot this at around 08:00 this morning 2011-05-22, Sunday.
Music: Long Road Ahead Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tags ducks birds nature family fun happy sun good weather breakfast park George Bush Park Canon ELPH 300 HS Houston Texas
Link Link

Tumbler

I now have a tumblr address here.

I thought anout moving the blog over there, but you cannot do simple formating like tables and such. Screw that. If I figure out the details, I may move the blog some day. Be prepared.

Right now, I'm using it as an info dump.


2011-05-21

What's next?

Field Data
Title First music, then THE COSMOS!!! (rant)
Description Subtitle: Where will it end?
Free music for YouTube. Well, not so free.
http://www.incompetech.com (there is no music on this YouTube video)
Tags royalties royalty free music youtube video rant mcdonald's canon elph 300 houston texas
Link Link

Something really cool is going on. There is a guy www.incometech.com who is very good at making music. He has put many of these up on the net and has instructions with how to properly site what you use. Now, if you use his stuff, it gets caught by YouTube and one of his ads goes up on your video. If you are a partner and monetize your own videos, you can get an exemption. As far as putting up music and such goes, this is awesome. It does, however, make me wonder just where it will end.

  • If I happen to pan my video past a McDonald's, will McDonald's get a slice of the pie?
  • Will the software company who makes the editing software want a cut?
  • Will the camera manufacturer want their percentage?
  • I used electricity in the process, do I need to send the power company a check?
  • My ISP charges me twice for the video already because I have to upload it and then test it at least once to make sure it worked. I pay for bandwidth now. It is not unlimited. That is a double billing right there.
  • Is every face that accidentally passes the lens going to have the right to sue?

You get the idea. I'm not kidding. If I walk down the street and video a couple signs and someone drives by with music playing loud enough for me to pick up, I'm screwed. I'm not even talking about me making money on the videos. The videos I put up now are not monetized by me. The ads you see are from the music people. Pretty soon, every logo that happens past the screen will want a slice of the pie. They do not realize that there is not enough pie to go around.

At some point we are going to have to shoot the videos around the frigging ads. I am already concerned with not using the bottom of the screen because that is where ads pop up.

Off topic. Rolling ads suck. Those are basically commercials that run in front of your video. I want to know how many people, like me, have just hit the back button on a YouTube video because the ad started running and never bothered to watch the video at all. I've done this several times. I bet this stat is not available outside of worried executives at YouTube.

Update: The notes I was reading.

Photobucket

Photobucket


2011-05-19

Canon Elph 300 test

Field Data
Title Canon Elph 300 slow motion test with cat
Description A couple clips. Cat slow motion. You know how it goes.
Please feel free to bitch and moan in the comments.
Music: Nile's Blues, Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/
Tags cat playing laser pointer slow motion gas prices dirty carpet Canon Elph 300 HS Houston Texas
Link Link

Day

Lunch conversation. I didn't get a lunch today. Such is the life of an IT professional. There was little chit chat either. I asked Lance about any upcoming gigs. Adam got an SD drive for home. I was impressed by the drive, but in the middle of something. Normally, I get some off work conversation during a day. There is nothing wrong with it. It helps keep the mind focused on tasks to let go of that concentration for a minute or two.

At some point near the end of the day I attempted to hijack someone else's conversation. They were talking about their favorite local lunch style restaurant. One guy defended McDonald's. We spoke of getting sick off of one or the other restaurant.

I was such a wreck when I left work. It is funny that I feel so much better now that I came home. I ate something and put up a video on YouTube. Spend a bit of time with the family. Just a bit of relaxation makes the world seem like not such a bad place.


2011-05-18

Morning

Field Data
Title First thing in the morning
Description Funny how much work getting up and going is.
Tags Morning commute getting ready vultures buzzard buzzards dumpster rolly pollys sunny family fun canon 940 elph 300 HS Houston Texas
Link Link

Notes:

Today I learned a few things about databases and how some computer languages come about. The is not the funny thing. The funny thing is that I learned them at lunch, not on the job. I had other things to learn about the job. Where do the user ID numbers go in xyz database? Nothing really that will carry over to tomorrow beyond my current position. This is normal. Our lives are a pile of things we learn and experience.

You have to "learn" words three times in some cases using aspell for Windows. That blows. The software is difficult to install and maintain. Drag. How Linux.

25% of felony defendants don't show up on their day of trial. Bounty hunters are 50% more likely to bring back their targets. Bounty hunters end up catching 97% of their targets. -APM

Lunch conversation

We thought we would get rained on before returning to work. The sky looked like it was out to get hapless fools without rain gear. We survived.

  • Work
    • Sendmail and other dark arts.
    • Database realities and how no one can wright a proper DB
    • Oracle, experts and assholes.
    • Past employment
    • Overclocking chips, all the work paid off. The compile time on the project was cut in half.
  • I tried to bring up Atlas Shrugged, but couldn't get a word in. Fail.
  • The restaurant we were eating in is cheap Mexican food. Is it run by the Mexican Mob? We hope so. The food is good and it is too cheap to stay in business. The place it is in has been a kiss of death for every other restaurant. We have hope for this one.
  • RC helicopters and controlling them with a mobile phone.
  • Giving up sodas and other health related thoughts.

Joke

Some strong language.


2011-05-17

Overclocking

I got to learn a bit about overclocking processors. It turns out it is much easier than it used to be. It is still a bit beyond my expertise. I'm still out of my depth a bit. I can hang with the automatic settings, but until I have a pile of processors to blow up, I'm not going to push it far beyond the healing edge. Some systems have mouse driving BIOS setup software running. How cools is that. I suppose that is what the big bucks buy you these days.

If you are running windows, you can throw the automatic diagnose and adjust switch in the software. It runs a bunch of tests, adjusts the system. It then reboots an repeats until the tests say the system is as fast as it can go and still be stable.

Our end result needs to be linux. Hopefully, the settings persist after we put an OS on the system. I believe we will need to leave windows on the system in a patrician just to run the over clocking software. Only time will tell.

At least I learned some things. let the automatic stuff run. Don't play with the BIOS until you learn what you are doing. That is, until it doesn't work.

We still have some testing to do in Linux.


2011-05-16

Give'em hell Pete

Strong language

This is one of the dangers of putting yourself out there on the internet. This guy runs a small business in Dallas repairing and sprucing up cars. He is good at it if his past videos are anything to go by. He does not put ads on his video. Not many people in Texas do. There is something about us southerners that turns the folks at YouTube off. I would like to have stats per state of partners. That's another blog.

You need a license to drive a car. Any but reeminga asshole can be a commenter on YouTube.

Don't give up Pete. Turn off comments and ratings on your videos. You don't cash them in anyway. You are a conservative man in a conservative state. The cards are stacked against you online.

My morning

I want to complain about something related to work. I don't want it to reflect on my current employer. This sort of thing happens everywhere. It all boils down to a break in communication.

I set up new user computers. I put them in the office where they go. I help people move when they need it. I help set up after crashes. You know, every day IT stuff. I did plenty of it today. Simply put, I moved a computer three times in the last couple work days.

The computer was supposed to go in Office A. I waited until the day before the person showed up and sure enough it goes in office B. I put it there. Come day one of the new employee, bright and early, the email comes out of HR that says "Please welcome New Guy. He is in office C." I run down to office C. It has "New Guy" on the door and the wrong network connections. I move the two computers and run a cable across five offices. Install a switch and make the correct connection happen. It is hooked up and ready to go in record time.

The big boss walks in with the new guy saying he wants it in office A. Should have been down there from day one.

Yup. You betcha boss. I will blog about it.

Notes:

The internet was not designed specifically to withstand a nuclear attack. It is simply fault tolerant, though it has a long memory. The internet is not immortal, though it will go down hard. The internet is not immune to censorship. Anything the powers that be can hide in real life, they can hide in virtual news. That or they can deny it. That or they can brag about it and do it anyway. If all the choices to vote for are in on it, there is no democracy.


2011-05-14

It shows

Anything that is in my mind will play out on the page and in the videos I do. I've noticed this over and over. If I let myself get depressed and think that I am not worth much, that shows. If I am feeling confident or dominant, this shows up as well.

There is an eyelash sticking down from my top eyelid. It hangs like a branch in front of my vision. It has been there off and on for years. I'm trying to remember a time where it was not there. Was I born with this affliction? Is it a different eyelash from when I was younger? How do eyelashes know not to grow any longer than they have to? This distraction shows.

I ordered a new camera. I don't make money with this vlogging thing. I should't spend money on it. The camera and other bits are causing me just under $300. This brings me such pleasure that I make excuses for the expenditure. I could love boating or riding motorcycles. I could love flying planes or walking on other planets. This is my vice such that it is.

Notes:

It's funny. Some days when I'm at work, but forget to clock in, I get fifteen calls telling me so. Other days, No one notices. Not sure how to tell one day from the other. Sounds like an interesting sociological thesis.

Blogger went down for a couple days. They said it was for maintenance issues. It looked and I hadn't lost any data now that they came up. I'm glad I keep copies of my stuff.


2011-05-13

Rain

Field Data
Title Rain time lapse
Description Rain time lapse. Made from the sixth floor near Beltway and Westheimer.
Music: "Prelude in C (BWV 846) Kevin MacLeod (incompetech.com) Licensed under Creative Commons "Attribution 3.0" http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/"
Tags rain time lapse timelapse canon 940IS Houston Texas
Link Link

Remove any curse

Use the following magic words to cure any curse in minutes.

Flexilis sum, gluten es.
Dicis, me resilit.
et ad te haeret.

Translation

I am rubber, you are glue.
What you say bounces off me.
and sticks to you.

Planet Killer (paten pending)

The device has mas of only a few tons. it is a silver cylinder about 3m long and about 80cm in diameter. It is accompanied by a coil of very thin fiber that has more mass than the rest of the device. This wire is several km long with properties that allow it to match the curve of a planet at many km above the surface. The whole thing will fit easily in a standard shipping container with plenty of room to spare.

To use the device, take it to a low orbit and expand the wire along the path of the orbit. Use the included control pad to maneuver the device and fiber to the most efficient vector. The placement does not have to be perfect, but the closer you get to the apex, the more spectacular the devastation. Once prompted, exit the vicinity of the plant as quickly as possible. The device is utterly vulnerable at this point. There is no attempt at defence of the device itself. It is recommended that some sort of third party automated sacrificial defence mechanism that will not get in the way of the device be deployed simultaneously.

The way it works is instantly creating a spacial de-phase area approximately 10000km long and dozens of km wide. This instantly freezes in place once activated as compared to the largest body of mass nearby. This will be the sun the planet is orbiting. The device lets the planet pass it and uses the inertia of the planet to slice the it in two. The matter that hits the de-phase area will be thrust perpendicular to the planet's direction of orbit. This causes a churning effect inside the planet.

The cut will be along a jagged line that is offset on purpose from the center of gravity. The nature of out of phase space prevents the planet from easily closing the hole before catastrophic damage is done to the structural integrity of the body.

The de-phase area will dissipate within a few dozen hours. Within a few hundred hours no remaining detectable ripple will remain.

If the planet has a solid core, the two half's will attempt to acquire slightly different orbits and basically collide as any two bodies would. This will cause massive liquefaction and turn the planet inside out grinding any civilization to very hot dust.

If the planet has a more liquid core, the entire planet will turn itself inside out taking all inhabitants and all their creations on the surface several hundred km below the surface. The outer shell will cool in to slowly thickening crystal.

Satellites are all but gaunted to be destroyed. More often than not, small moons are knocked out of their obit by gravitational drag effects. Occasionally, rings of debris are formed. The included control pad is not configured to predict these outcomes.

If the planet had a magnetic core, it will be demagnetized.

All of this devastation will render the planet uninhabitable for an extended period of time. However, this will not last. In as short as a couple of hundred years, the planet may be mined or even occupied by stout explorers. Even with the Planet Magnitizer (paten pending), It will take several thousand years for an atmosphere and any oceans to begin to return. The only life that typically survives is bacteria and similar microbes.

Notes:

Today was one of those days where, at lunch time, I stopped for a moment and asked myself if that was possible. The day was frigging busy that nothing I did all day seemed to go right or get fixed. It was one of "those days" all round.

Some of the folks were talking about jury duty today at lunch. Someone mentioned the trial they were on. Someone else mentioned the times they got chosen or stricken. yet others said they would like to have no job and be able to just do jury duty. They won't pick lawyers.

Nat went to belly dancing class last night. She said she had a hard time following directions and keeping up. It sounded to me like had a difficult day and needed to eat something and get some rest before heading straight over after taking care of her mom. Still, sounds like good fun exorcise. She joins several friends who are in the same class. It sounds like something that will help her get out of the house and get up and moving. We could all use that.

I had to set up a new XP system today. It is just damn ridiculous how many updates have to be performed on those systems. If I were in charge, you would one stop clicking. All the updates would be downloaded in on shot to bring the system up to day. They would then be installed and the machine rebooted as many times as it took. By the time all was finished, the machine would be ready to use. Meanwhile you could go get a sandwich and not have to babysit a bunch of ULA statements that you are not going to read anyway. Alas, I am but the IT guy. No one cares if I have a better idea.


2011-05-11

Vids

Popping transformers

It looked like this the evening before that last hurricane blew through Houston. Before even the first wave had hit Galveston, the electricity was going out all over the city. Strange that.

It's only 120m

Not quite time to phone the insurance on the way down.

This is only 50m

That sucker is under some pressure.

Notes:

There are no heroes any more. No one can step forward and act like a savior. They are human and thus have flaws. These will be exploited by people who want their agenda over the one presented by said hero. This makes me fear that a non human politician will come on to the scene in the near future. There will be a non human put in charge of people's lives because the non human has fewer flaws or at least more expected and acceptable flaws. I wonder if it will be a robot with a chainsaw hand.

Yesterday, I tried shooting a video at lunch yesterday. We went to Smash Berger. The burger was awesome. I waved the camera back and forth trying to get every one just for grins. I wasn't making a production about it or anything obtrusive. I had the camera out for all of fifteen seconds. When I got home, I watched the video. People looked like dear in headlights. The conversation halted. It was frightening.

My toe hurts. The toenail on my left big toe has an edge on one side that is digging. I hate that. Some call this an ingrown toenail. I believe that I let it get a bit too long before trimming it. It appears to have been hitting my boot as I walked. It didn't make me uncomfortable until I took the boots off yesterday evening. Then it hurt like crazy for a couple hours. I bumped it walking to the can in the middle of the night and had trouble getting back to sleep. Today it is just sore. I think it is healing. There are no marks on the toe that I can find. By the end of the day, it felt much better, but I can still feel it if I step the wrong way.

We had a code update today. It is funny that 5 seconds after hearing the new code, I completely forgot the old code. It really was just straight replaced in my memory.

We have some flash drives we use on computers. Who doesn't? I had to copy the data off one of these little torture devices and put it on a regular hard drive. As it went there were errors. It kind of worked. I copied the image, then ran a bunch of recovery tools on the new drive. It sucks because I didn't hear about the results by the time I left. I'll only hear about it tomorrow if it didn't work.


2011-05-10

Give me land

A buddy at work bought some land in central Texas. He says it is hilly and has high and low spots. They are putting a pre-fab cabin out there . The septics and well are going in. It is going to be that place he and the family goes to get away.

He described the sky at night and you could tell that was big chunk of his motivation. He described the quiet like the inside of a church. He even liked the scrub trees. His arms were covered in cuts from the ceders. He cut a trail from the bottom land up to the top of his fence line. It sounds like a labor of love to me.

I let slip the idea of a tour. A friend of min had a 40 foot tour at their beach house. It was high enough to let you look over the top of all the roofs. It was really nice to watch the sun rise and set up there. My buddy mentioned that he might be able to have a 360 degree view with a not too tall observation tour. I reminded him that they make pre-fab tours.

I don't see myself every having a place like this. I have the inside of my head. Everywhere else is somewhere else.

Notes:

What the hell just happened in the air over our country? A guy tried to kick in a flight deck door. Another guy tried to open an emergency exit, which are designed specifically not to open in a case of differing pressure. Thank God. A couple other things happened. I don't think any one got hurt beyond the door guy getting his ass kicked by an off duty cop. I can't help but think that I want the frigging videos.

I heard "She blinded me with science" this afternoon. That brings back some memories.


2011-05-09

Dead email

Walked in this morning and the email server was dead. Nothing at our company will get me more phone calls than a dead email server. The sales people freak. The support people freak. Management people freak. The engineers rejoice. Some of the engineers are in support, management and sales and don't know how to act. I don't hear from them much.

What was the problem. A drive filled up. I need to make time to run a backup of some important data every week instead of every other week. Sounds easy. I don't have time to automate the issue. So, I'll spend ten times as much time doing it manually. To be honest, I have no idea how to automate the backup. I'm not even sure where to start looking. I'll figure it out eventually.

Read your prompts

Had to hook up a huge photo printer. This one is 11x17. It has all kinds of panels and plastic bits that roll around and make a mess of the order of operations for making a simple print. The user and I put in the print head. Put in the ink cartridges. We went to print a test page and it ate the paper. The left side of the paper was hitting something and not feeding properly.

I made sure all the orange tape had been removed. I shined a flashlight in the printer to look for a piece of packing foam that may have gotten lodged somewhere and caused paper to bunch up. I broke open the manual and started reading.

Someone walked by and said "You have the paper on the wrong side."

"What?" asks I. Sure enough, they pointed out that the paper feeds on the right side of the printer. A quick glance of the front of the box verifies that indeed, the paper sits on the right side of the divider, not the left.

Glad they came by. Wonder how long I would have been standing there contemplating the quantum entanglement of paper and ink. Only to find the answer in something so simple.

It is working now. I'm calling it a win.

Notes:

WII II is coming out. It might be called something else. WII don't know. May the puns be with you. Remember, Nintendo makes money with their hardware. Sony and Microsoft loose money on their consoles.

One of the guys at work has a Nook with an aftermarket OS (Android) on it. Nice. It is almost a laptop. The battery lasts forever too. Wifi. The whole bit. No, I isn't want one. The text is too small and the sound is offal.

Tried to shoot a video of Elle throwing a fit over having to fold the towels. It didn't work out. So much can go wrong.


2011-05-08

Belly dancing troop

Field Data
Title Local belly dancing troop
Description Some friends of ours have a belly dancing troop. They put on shows every so often. Nat and Elle want to get in the mix.
Tags belly dancing dance bellydancing show coffee shop coffee house class exhibition family fun family Saturday evening Conroe Texas Canon 940IS
Link Link

Jump the Dodge

Field Data
Title Jump the Durango
Description A buddy's Dodge Durango died after a belly dancing show.
Tags Dodge Durango jump dead battery jumper cables Chevy Chevrolet diesel family fun electric windows Chrysler parking lot Conroe Texas
Link Link


2011-05-07

5 minutes that will not be returned

Found here. Should have been left there.

How Obama wanted to say it

More people would watch if they did those snooze fest announcements like this.


2011-05-06

Video card install

Microsoft needs a failsafe method of installing video cards. I had all kinds of trouble with a cheap video card in Vista 32 bit. In linux, you are required to kill the GUI and work from the command line to update the driver. This annoyed me in the beginning, but now I am very glad of it. This means that all the tools to fix the broken system are there. They may not fix it, but you can at least use them to try to fix the system. As it is I cannot get the computer to come up far enough to fix the issue until I've fixed the issue on windows.

Trouble

Experiment Result
Install driver before installing card. No hardware found.
Boot machine after installing card. Blue screen of death (BSOD) endless loop.
Install card, point to old card in BIOS and try to install driver. No hardware found.
Try to boot in safe mode after installing card. blank screen.
Windows update, then try the stuff above again. Same result.
Install a different, but similar card just to get the driver installed. Worked, but still get BSOD after replacing the original card.
Install a different, identical card to verify hardware. Same BSOD even after installing the driver.
Boot linux for a comparison. Boots on troubled card just fine.
Fresh install of Vista. Won't boot Vista or Windows 7.
BIOS upgrade on my computer. Same thing.
Call Dell support. "We don't qualify video cards on server machines." Paraphrase: Your are screwed.

The re-install of Windows Vista requires a drive format. I've already installed Office and gotten everything done on the machine. The last thing to do was the video card. Now I have to start completely over again and I have no idea if it will work. I may have to send back all seven video cards we bought if they will take them.

Fortunately, the booting off the CD part didn't work. This prevented me from having to wipe the system just to find out it was still broken.

I fought with this for hours. Remember, each experiment above has a dozen steps. It doesn't help that the machine takes five minutes to reboot.

Did I mention it's been longer than 30 days since we bought the cards? No?

Loosing freedom

People are willing to sacrifice freedom to achieve stability. This is my premise. Assuming this premise, follow the logic below.

If you want to take away people's freedom, start knocking the tears of stability away from their society. As these beams fall, people will cry for someone to come along and take away their freedoms in the name of stability.

This has got to be why so many smaller countries seem like they are about to spontaneously combust. The elite class wants to give just the right appearance of a balance between a place suitable for investment or at least exploitation and unstable enough to convince the people of the country that their lack of freedom is required or all will descend in to chaos.

I fear this process is what is happening to the U. S. A.. Time will tell. I see it coming. The only savior will be the American people. Any one else is trying to sell us something.

Notes:

Question: Subliminal learning, fact or fiction? Answer: Yes.

"We cannot be seen as going in to Libya to kill Qaddafi." Why are we there again? This kind of thing is coming up after killing his grand children. "Command structure is a legitimate target."


2011-05-05

Wreck

Field Data
Title A wreck of a dream
Description Just something that happened.
Tags minor fender bender aftermath wreck fire truck ambulance dream premonition canon 940 Houston Texas Harris County
Link Link

Notes:

I threw away a bunch of old equipment today. Many companies throw away perfectly good equipment. Not so much my company. We tape, bailing wire and cobble things together for years before we call them dead it seems. It is good and bad. Sometimes things just need to go.

Sometimes I get weenie of looking things up. I try to say when I'm not fact checking something by saying it is from memory or some other appropriate label. Just how much fact checking is needed on a tweet, blog, web article, magazine article, book? Don't just believe anything regardless of media, regardless of author, regardless of citation. Something seems to have happened in the last several years that gives people the excuse to lie. I've heard of stories that are two good to check. Publishers only worry about what will or will not sell and what will or will not get the sued.

A buddy of mine left me bailed on me for lunch. I know him. I called a bit too early because I misread 11:37 as 11:57 on my computer. By the time the proper time rolled around, I was doing something. When I looked up it was more like 12:17. He called and left an apologetic voice mail. That was not needed. He is amazing. No one else I know has the some level of selective memory of this guy. I have no idea how his wife puts up with him.

Sleep deprived brains are simply not as effective as rested brains. Even if the animal looks awake and is acting awake, they make poor decisions and loose reaction time. - Heard on NPR, it must be true.

Frustration

All the way up and all the way down. It cracks me up. Not only does it take longer on the way down, but he has to wait for the snowmobile to catch up to him.


2011-05-04

Getting out of work

Field Data
Title Day 2011-05-04
Description Getting the heck out of work.
Tags work metro bus sunglasses stairs stairwell commute Houston Texas Canon 940
Link Link

Surviving

The first 10% of effort produces 90% of your result. It takes the other 90% of effort to get that last 10% of result.

This is not a human formula. It is a formula of nature, or reality. Flowing water knows this. burning logs know this. It just is.

When the aliens invade, you do not have to survive for ever. At some point the alien leadership will declare victory and move on. The idea is to out survive the budget constraints of the invading force.

Whether aliens or zombies, the rule applies.

Aliens can get anything from our planet elsewhere. Unless they are just looking for a party, they can get it elsewhere, easier. Invading costs money and resources. I don't care where you come from, it takes effort to take a planet. It takes infinitely more effort to keep it. Zap everyone from orbit or fly around and pick up magic beans round the corner where they are just lying around.

Zombies have to eat. If they don't eat, they simply become very still and really don't qualify as zombies any more. All that shuffling around and moaning takes energy. The laws of physics say that energy has to come from somewhere. Brains have only so many calories.

Be the guy who knows how to filter water, skin a buck, run a trout line. Have a place that no one cares about in mind. Have a backup. Be willing to let others die for you to live. They are part of the 90% I mentioned above. You be a 10% kind of guy. Not the top 10%, the meanest 10%.

Cleaning office

I have to clean up my office. This is a nightmare. I have something like fifteen computers in my office. They are getting dolled out to users over time. I have all kinds of equipment in here that needs to get packed away somewhere else. I also have a bunch of equipment that needs to be retired. It cracks me up how complex it is to get throw something away at a company. They don't want stuff growing legs, so they keep track of it.

There are two sets of shelves in my office. One contains computer equipment and the other contains more computer equipment. There are a couple books on one of the shelves. One of the shelves has a bunch of boxes leaning up against them. There are several dead computers that need to be removed from inventory at the bottom of one of the shelves. There are tons of wires that could probably find a better home on the other shelf. Both shelves at work, much like my computer shelves at home, have stuff that has spilled out from the shelves on the floor in front of the shelves. I am afraid to clean up the shelves too much because someone will come take them away from me. No one steals ugly cluttered shelves.

The thought crossed my mind that I should video or take pictures of the before and after. There is no way I could publish said media because the boss would get upset. Not sure an untrained eye could tell the difference anyway.

People all over the place have the same task. I'm getting calls from folks trying to give me equipment that looks ugly because they really don't want to throw it away. I have an access of ugly equipment to take care of as it is. I'm running out of rat holes in which to hide said ugly equipment.

The reason for the cleaning effort is not to be repeated I'm sure. No idea what one can and cannot repeat these days. the future of my employment is hair raising. Since I have so little hair, my trouble meter is unreliable.

This is what the company gets for denying me a door on my office.

Notes:

Now Sony's PC network for Sony Entertainment has been hacked. If you play Everquest you may want to report your card lost. It appears this breach came about the same time as the other Play Station issue. I can't wait to hear the apologies for this one. Are there any Sony networks I should make sure I'm not a member of?

"Surprising rise in inflation" Where the fuck have you been? I hate experts. Oh, we were all wrong by miles, but keep paying us to be wrong because who else are you going to listen to? All I had to do was look at my list of monthly bills to tell you inflation was rocketing toward orbit. They are still making predictions that inflation will not get even worse. These experts are mad. They don't count all the things that make us all faint when we pay the tab. Lump of idiots.

Yesterday, I videoed two guys standing on the side of the fountain out front of work. They were a couple of working men types who had that stance that they were there discussing how to fix something. They pointed and sighed. They shook their heads and ended up walking off. I deleted the video because it was boring. I wanted to catch them walking in the fountain. No such luck. I wished this morning that I had kept the video because the fountain was drained. It looks like they really were there to fix something.

TV ownership in the U. S. dropped by 2%. It has as much to do with the economic down turn as the change in how people get their entertainment. Cable TV is a luxury. I do not have cable. I get my TV through the airwaves for local news. I use the internet for entertainment. The commentator mentioned that she had 1300 channels on her cable.

The reason there is not currently a contraceptive pill for men is because the side effects are considered catastrophic. There is a lot of money involved so they keep trying to come up with one.


2011-05-03

U. S. National Debt

It isn't that the U. S. can't make changes and fix the mounting debt problem. It is that we will not do so as long as everyone running the country refuse to let the other side get anything done for political reasons. The country is going to loose it's AAA rating. This will cause real world issues with normal people. it will affect the price of gas and food. People who barrow money to start businesses will have trouble getting loans and will have to pay more for the loans they get. This means lost or never created jobs.

The same old argument comes to mind. Families can't work um-teen trillion dollars in debt, the government shouldn't either. The trouble is, this is starting to sound old. People have been so slapped with this analogy that it is not making seance any more. The truth is still there. You cannot escape it by getting board of complain.

One of the analysts on the news said he gets asked every ten minutes how much time the U. S. has left before people of the world wake up and stop buying U. S. bonds and securities. He said he has no idea and neither does any one else. It will happen. If any one is right about when it happens it will be because so many people made so many guesses that someone must be right.

Really scary stuff.

GPodder

I need to find a new podcast abrogator. GPodder blows. They have many shortcomings in their design. I would like to know what aggregator the GPodder developers use on a daily basis.

  • Doesn't continue download on restart. If you kill it, you have to start the download over again.
  • The interface is clunky and not very intuitive.
  • The download screen on the latest version does not appear to update while downloading. You have to guess when the downloads are done.

There has got to be a better software out there already.

You know, I have internet access at my desk now at work. I could probably just use that computer to get my podcasts. It is a MS machine. There are aggregator programs for MS. That would fix a bunch of problems I have with my very flawed system of movement. I am constantly forgetting my USB drive either at work or home. This could be a solution. I never listen to podcasts at home. There are just too many other distractions there.

Republicans

Who will run? Who can win? Who cares. half the people standing on a stump say Obama can't win. The other half say he cannot loose. Supposedly, Obama will have a billion dollars to spend on his campaign. I cannot believe this. I'm sure it is true. I just can't wrap my head around it.

Trump is a joke. I really hope he is just messing with the media for the ratings. He would make a terrible precedent.

Sarah Palin is a choice, but I'm not sure she can beat Obama. Listen to me. I sound like I know what I'm talking about. I would like to hang out with Palin. I think she is capable. She has had to balance a budget a couple times. That is more than Obama did before becoming leader of the free world. Far as I can tell anyway.

Ron Paul scares me. I don't know why. I don't even know him. I'm afraid to look. I fear he has a chance. That the worse

Rick Perry

Mit Romny

No one else sticks out in my mind.

European Union

Europe is in deep shit.

Immigration is running out of control. It isn't that Europe is a particularly fantastic place. There are so many places in the world where people live complete crap lives that just about anywhere else would look good. Europe and the U. S. seem to have ridiculous laws and enforcement of those laws about immigration. This is causing an invasion of Europe and the U. S..

The laws in Europe say that you only need a visa from one country to travel to another country. People from Libya are getting to some island that is under Italy's care and then making their way to France. France is stopping trains from Italy. Some say this is illegal, but it is happening.

The countries with the worst human rights records are on the Human Rights Comities of all the important organizations. Many are not even part of Europe, but this fort of thing is allowed because Europe is too proud to tell people they have to get their shit together before they can sit at the adult's table.

I'm waiting for one of the countries to vote itself an Islamic republic because all the Muslims in the country vote as a block. There are people who have lived in the Netherlands for generators fleeing because the country is not their home any more.

Half the countries in the EU have made noise about leaving or pulling out of the EU at one time or another. France is tired of immigration rules. Germany is tired of paying every one's bills. Italy has had it with many of the rules. There are general rumblings of of dissent and discontent. I bet the EU will survive. The people in charge want it to succeed, the surfs be dammed.