A pebble redirects a river

Today one of our hardware folks came in to complain about how complex on of our software projects has become. He tried to check out package A and it has many dependencies called externals underneath the top level.  He had to get project to build all the way though  just in order to get his one little bit to work. Sure enough one of the external packages would have some issue because we are in the middle of a lot of development. These things happen. He wants to add his change, so he needs to check out the latest.

So, he walks in my office and says "What happened to blah project?!" His problem was project A had and externals folder with project B that also had an externals folder which might contain project C which ... Well, you get the idea.

One of the other developers was walking by and got drug in to the conversation. We discussed scenarios and battled our opinions and observations back and forth. During this impromptu meeting, there were a couple of global design changes that will affect several projects. They are good things in my book.

This all started as one developer complaining to another out of frustration for making a very minor change in I believe one file on a Friday afternoon. It struck me as funny how that worked. This is something that can only happen with a limited number of developers. Huge companies have a problem fixing things like this down the road.

We have a development manager at our company now. I have a feeling that once he gets up to speed on larger projects he will make these kinds of decisions and changes like this will not occur after a quick meeting on a Friday afternoon as a result of frustration over checking out a bunch of files and trying to make a minor change then build a bloated project.

Tired

Too tired to think. Must get some sleep. Sick.

Computer hooked to TV

Nat finally hooked her computer to the TV. I've been trying to get her to either hook Elle's computer up or her own. She is watching some online video. No, a movie she borrowed from the library about tornadoes. The day we got the TV, I tried to get her to hook up one of the computers.

"Wow honey, this is beautiful." It is quite beautiful. Her computer running Vista seemed to recognize the TV without trouble. It hooked up straight through a standard VGA connector. It is, after all, a monitor with a few extra bits attached that allow it to be a TV on the side. The hard part was running a network cable from the hub over to that part of the living room.

We used one of my wireless-less connectors. They are fifty foot Ethernet cables. I paid $12 a piece for them. They have been invaluable.

I'm looking forward to the $300 DVD player we got for Christmas to sit and collect dust now. It has too many shortcomings anyway.

She surfed the net for a moment on the TV. It has a resolution of something like 1280x720 or something. That is good enough for most computer tasks. It is 32 inch. Not too shabby.

Videos

Jacked up ride

They don't show him coming to a stop. He must pull up next to a house.

Never even slows down

God Bless America. This was filmed in Saudi Arabia.

More carnage

WARNING People clearly die in the above video.

AMD vs Intel

In Linux when you use a command called uname to get some information about the system. It turns out there is a difference between the exact same OS installed on a genuine 32 bit system and a 64 bit system with a 32 bit OS. At least, there is a difference when using kernel code to build a driver.

When you uname -p and see i686 or athlon, the kernel build will make a difference. Pretty much the same thing occurs for 64 bit AMD vs 64 bit Intel processors.

This is not that big a deal because I've been working in this area for over two years and it just became an issue today.

Now, when I figured this all out, It upset me. I thought to myself, I feel like smacking someone. The only person that came to mind, in an automatic not even thinking about it way, was Bill Gates. This issue pretty much has nothing to do with Bill Gates. This one might just actually not be his fault. Still, no other faces came to mind ripe for getting smacked.

So, who to smack? ... ... Linus Torvalds, No. The kernel team has to build the kernel to run the best on different systems. So it must be Intel and AMD. No. They are just competing with one another and cannot step on each other's patents. Patents are intellectual property. So, RIAA. ...

Yes!! RIAA <SMACK!!!>

Tipsy Tow

The title of this one was "The wrong way to tow a car". Pretty close. I'm not sure if the owner of the car being towed was smart by cranking their wheels all the way to the right before parking illegally. I assume there was something like that going on.

Nooooooo

And not even a public hearing. How dare they put a donut shot right at the end of my morning walk. Do you have any idea how tempting it is to stop off on the wait for the bus? It is like torture. They have no idea how good a colache tastes after a mile and a half walk. How smooth a bottle of chocolate mile chases a bag of donut holes.

BASTARDS!!!!

Blues Brothers Car

I finally caught this guy long enough to get a picture of his car. I've seen it around a couple of times. I feel kind of funny taking a picture of something that unique without asking.

When I got home I thought, I bet he is on other web sites. So he is. Scroll down a bit.

"It's a small world after all ..."

No more Truck Nutz?!

I just know every one of my friends are going to want a pare. I'm surprised I haven't seen these on some of their vehicles already.

The Real Monster

This video reminds me of those Japanese monster moves from when I was a kid. Actually, it looks better than those old movies. There is a blue haze from the distance. The fall is slowed because of the size of the crane. Film makers should take some notes.

Nader

Why is Nader running? I do not have a problem with his running because it will defuse the Democratic vote even if just a little bit. Dork. I've heard more than one person say in an interview that Nader is a prick. I've heard he wants to open the door for third party folks to have a shot at the presidency. Work on the House and Senate first. There is a lack of representation there and you won't cost the whole of the American people a choice in the process.

It is the United States, and I suppose he has the same right as I do for running for president. I just don't think his strategy is the most appropriate for the time. I'm not running for president because I do not want to waist any one's time or money. especially my own.

Many people blame Nader for Gore loosing Florida because Bush only won by like 500 votes. Nader took nearly 10,000 or so and exit poles said Nader voters would have voted for Gore 2 to one over Bush. Here we go again. Those numbers come from memory after listening to Talk of the Nation.

22 inches Baby!

I have a brand new 22 inch monitor. My parents, God bless them, turned up with it this afternoon. It was a birthday present. I gave my old Sony to Nat. Elle gets Nat's old monitor. It is a full musical monitor afternoon.

Movies fit better. The resolution is much higher, 1680x1050 at 60 HZ. Nice. I have acres of space to put my programs. This monitor has digital connectors. That means darker blacks and brighter whites. All the colors are matched via the digital numbers so they are as accurate as the manufacturer can get them.

I love my parents, and not just for the stuff they give me. They also got rid of the huge heavy TV that was worrying me. They took it to a local garage sale and dropped it off. My father and I carried it to the back of their pickup. I told my mother not to let him pick it up by himself. It is just too heavy. They made it all the way round the corner before dropping it off at the first yard sale. Free, as long as they could pick it up.

Smashing Idea

I wonder if I would be any good at desctruction derby. After a quick look at some of the rules, Maybe so. Even if there are rules about having to watch out for flags or something, I could rig up a remote kill switch and have a walky-talky to someone keeping an eye on the bash.

Get myself a neck brase and it sounds like a plan.

Couple videos

I'm board. Nat is watching a series she likes marathon style. I didn't get up until three this afternoon. I was supposed to throw the weed eater at the yard today. It was too nice for herbivore carnage. I slept like a stone. I think the scotch and water helped. Good old Johnny Walker Black.

No one has called today. No one wanted anything. Nat and I have just sat around the house and ate junk and either surfed the net watching videos of car stuff or watched a British show about chasing down a child molester.

Off to the videos.

Ghost Rider 5

These goofballs need to be tracked down and arrested for endangering the public. How many tax dollars go in to this kind of thing? I mean, this is some place in Europe, but the idea is the same.

The most boring police chase ever

How did this make it to feature status?

The vehicle we need in Houston

Oh, wait. That snorkel kit isn't good enough for Houston. You would need one that did about four meters for the floods around here. Nice idea though. Actually, I'm impressed. Even with a snorkel kit, that kind of thing isn't easy.

New kind of rollover

More snorkel kit fun

Leaserly Sandy drive, through a swoop

New weapon and ammo

No, I didn't buy any of these. I'm just blogging about them. Cheaper than a new laptop though.

The gun

I learned about a new pistol and ammunition today. I had heard of Springfield before, but never paid much attention because I knew they didn't really make their weapons. They import weapons from other manufacturers around the world. It even has a feature of the lower pint just below the end of the barrel does not move. This allows you to shove the gun into someone's gut without the slide coming back and thus rendering the gun unable to discharge.

It is a Springfield Armory XD. It comes in several calibers including .45 GAP, which I hadn't heard of until today.

The Bullet

I feel stupid not having heard of the .45 GAP until today. This is the .45 ammo used by Glock. ACP stands for Automatic Colt Pistol. GAP understandably stands for Glock Automatic Pistol. There is also a .40 GAP.

The .45 GAP was developed for the Glock 37.

Conclusion

The XD is the firest real competition for Glock I've noticed. There have been other attempts I'm sure. I'm just not in the loop on firearm news. If I were in the market for a new pistol, I would seriously consitter the XD in .40 S&W. That is what I say today at any rate. My mind is hardly made up. Nice accessories though.Ever wonder where the game creators get those freaky weapons.

Update

Another link

Date Night

Nat and I went on a date night. It was fun. We went to Alamo (There is another theater in Houston?) and saw Fools Gold. Save your money. All the previews were for shows that were all about relationships. They were all comedies about relationships. They all had the exact same formula. All the best bits of this movie were in the preview.

They all probably have those scenes that pass for funny these days. Those scenes where people are made uncomfortable enough that the only way out of the uncomfortable feeling is to laugh about it. That just seems like a cheap way to get a giggle out of someone. God forbid you tell a joke. Is it possible to laugh with someone, without laughing at someone?

I sat down in the completely wrong theater. I couldn't get this other title out of my head. I would have swore we were there for the other movie. They were both the some kind of flick. The kind I just got through describing. I really think that I could have sat through either without noticing which I had attended.

I had a BLT and the $5 shake. Nat had a mimosa and the cheese plate. I do not understand how you can eat a bit of cheese and a cracker or two and feel like you had eaten anything. I'm glad she enjoyed it. They have the best BLT sandwiches. They give you a key of bacon.

When Nat and I got home, the cat puked on the carpet right in front of us. I had just changed the cat box. I'm looking forward to doing the dishes and mowing. Yuck.

I then watched Sleuth (2007). Now that is a good movie. It is extremely well made and a good read (it has a plot). It has some hard to watch scenes, but they are supposed to make you feel that way. They are not done to make you giggle, or get sick all over the keyboard. (I watch on the computer) They are there specifically to prod emotion and ponder. They work. I wish I had been watching Sleuth when at Alamo earlier this evening.

Who needs a Helicopter

I can't tell if the plane is facing in to the wind. Even if so, it is quite impressive. Slow speed maneuvers are very difficult, or so I've heard.

STOL

Negative voting numbers

If I had a choice, I would vote against someone as apposed to for someone. It would be nice to pick the worst candidate and vote against them. Having this ability would prompt positive campaigning.  I think in today's world of instant communication and easy research, the negative vote would play on people's propensity to complain. "I don't like any of the candidates on any side." I'm hearing this all over the place.

"None of the above" comes to mind. I forget which party put that on their ballot. If no one won a majority, the office remained empty. Not sure that works on the large scale.

I wonder what kind of problems would come up. If all the candidates have a negative number at the end, then the one with the least number of negatives would either win, or the vote would have to be redone. or something. If you were a candidate, who no one knew about, for example, in some races you could just keep your mouth shut and win by lack of attention. That would be bad. There must be other negatives to negative voting numbers. Perhaps a rule of zero is as low as you can go would work. Or, negative vote is only worth half a positive vote. The numbers could still hit zero quickly.

If this were to be implemented, people would want to split their vote. 80% for A and 20% for B. Now you are getting in to the area of thinking. People have proven they cannot punch a hole in a sheet of paper.  Perhaps all of this is simply too many options for the average Joe/Jane to handle.

Home box

I'm watching Aliens 3 on my computer. It is a hight quality movie. Earlier it was running all choppy. The video would simply skip every couple of seconds. There was something going on with X. When I ran a top, X was eating the machine alive. ON my other box fast-user-switching was at 99% CPU.

For as much as I think I know about computers, I have no idea what was killing both my machines. I rebooted the server. I just shut down some programs on the desktop and kept going. After a while, the desktop stopped with the jumbley video and the movie started playing properly. I have no idea why.

On a Windows box, you normally don't recover even with mass quantities of elbow grease thrown at it. Then, it happens all over again. With Linux, at least you can go poke around and try to figure out what is going on. You don't need any new tools either. Most of the utilities you need for poking about under the bonnet are already installed in a default rig. I've wanted to put together a thumb USB drive with lots of utilities, but I'm lazy and will blow it off until it is too late, so I'll rip someone else's work off.

A couple of us had a discussion of Linux on the home front this afternoon. It turns out most of the older guys (myself not included) are all about windows at home. Several of the younger guys have no problem setting up and using a Linux box at the house. Maybe I'm drawing a bad conclusion based on age, but it is nice having someone to discuss the trials and tribulations of getting DVDs to play for example. There are a couple guys far better at this sort of thing than I. For example, one of the guys plays WOW under wine on a Linux box. I'm proud of him. I got Second Life to work kind of, but that was a whole different can of worms.

Night Kelly must go to bed. Morning Kelly will be upset. Well, Night Kelly says "screw Morning Kelly" again. "I want to blog." Morning Kelly will just have to get over it.

Breaks work

Well, we know what job the pilot below got the next day after that landing.

Boingy - Boingy - Boingy

Any landing you can be strapped to a backboard and hauled off still breathing is a good one, right?

Better Day

So, I had a pretty good day today. I got some things fixed. I figured some things out. I found out where I stand on a few subjects. Not too shabby.

I missed lunch today. I was just in the middle of a bunch of changes and I didn't want to go until everything was checked in. Once I got things working, I didn't want to make any more changes. It would have broken things for sure. I told Jake I was going to take a screen shot and have it framed. That project built straight through with all the bits I added. Yee-haw.

I forgot to bring in any new podcasts, so I listened to music. It was the first time in a while. I forgot how nice it can be to listen to music over news reports all day. We have 66,000 entries on the playlist at work. Only 14,000 are duplicates. Not too shabby.

When I left today, I had a since of accomplishment. That is a wonderful thing. When I left Tuesday, I knew there were problems and it upset me that I hadn't gotten them all taken care of. The difference was a good night sleep. I went to bed grumpy. Nat came in at some point to get towels. I vaguely remember her scooping up the cat on her way out.

Got sandwiches on the way home. Got home and watched LOST with the family. Surfing the net and chatting about Barbie cloths patterns with Nat. She is on a kick. She has no idea how difficult it is to keep my eyes from rolling back in my head when she mentions the first word. I love her very much. Must ...  not ... swallow ... tung.

Completely missed the loonier eclipse. Not only would we have missed it regardless of the clouds, but the weather  would have utterly obscured our view. Nat and I are not too broken up about it. It would have been cool to see though. Maybe next time. Isn't that in like fifteen years.

I wonder what tomorrow will bring. Hopefully something just about blog worthy, but not too interesting.

Imperfect Day

What I did today was something simple. The idea was to take a couple of small projects and mash them in to a larger project. Well, that sounds easy enough. Well, the problems lined up to bit me in the ass. One after another every problem I've ever had with any of these packages along with some new ones showed their ugly heads in order to make me look like an idiot in front of the boss.

Oh, and someone pulled me off this tip top priority issue for an even more pressing need in the morning to do something that didn't work. Other stuff is piling up behind me.

I cannot tell you how much of a pain in the ass it is to stare at my screens while nothing happens on my computer. The box only has 512 MB of RAM. I looked it up. 2 GB is about $35. I would have saved that this morning in thumb twiddling time.

Starts all over again tomorrow. Stay tuned.

Podcast

Left, Right and Center should change it's name to Kind of Center, Left, and Pinko.

Dead ant, dead ant ...

Nothing like old jokes to open a boring blog.

I killed ants this evening. I loaded my weapon with the most deadly chemical weapon available to the average home owner. You can get this elixir of death at Home Depot. It has a picture of a still kicking ant on the cover. It's targeted audience is the sadistic home owner. I'm lazy. The ants do not know that I'm simply letting them invade my yard so they will have big hills for me to jab my ant sticker ( a large stick with a mettle point on the end ) clear to the bottom of their mounds, wallow out a hole and spray poison. Then, I stop the hole shut. This is to make sure the poison does snot escape before soaking in to the dirt.

Then, I go round spraying the fence, windows, doors, cracks in the sidewalk and those gaps in the brick. Those gaps in the lower bricks on the walls have got to be there for drainage. The termites will build mounds up to the side of the wall to one of those gaps and get in. Ants will too. You have to keep a three inch or greater space between those gaps and the dirt and grass. There has got to be a better way. Some kind of one way valve or something that will keep the frigging ants out. I fill those things up with poison. I spray any loose dirt next to the house including the flowerbeds. I soaks'em good.

I am an evil bastard. Well, when it comes to ants anyway. Yup, next week I'll hit them with the gradual stuff that they take in to the mound. That stuff makes them swell up until they bust. Gets the queen too. I spread that stuff over my yard and imagine a queen gasping for air, crawling her way to the top of the mound, trying to save her eggs, only to be snapped up a hungry bird who could give a crap about her polite.

I unloaded three heavy loads of poison. The formula says my yard should take three quarters of a normal load. Screw that. The back yard smells like a train wreck at a chemical plant. That's the way I like it. If I weren't broke, I'd do the field next to my compound just for the hell of it. I enjoy it that much. Not doing the spraying. Knowing that I'm killing the vermin that want to invade my home.

Damn good thing we don't have a dog. Remember, I'm doing all this in the dark while cussing at the ants and laughing maniacally to entertain myself. I wonder what the neighbors think.

I wore my safety glasses. It is cool outside tonight. They fogged up terribly. They are the kind of safety glasses that cover your eyes from the side as well as the front. They fit over most glasses. That just makes them fog up worse. I found myself lifting them up to let some air in. That was not working. Of course, I just had to take them off every five minutes and wipe the moisture out. What is the point of safety glasses you have to remove every five minutes? Of course, no sooner do I walk in than I have to reload the automatic shower cleaner thing. It squirts me straight in the eye. Didn't hurt. Near miss I guess. That or I'm numb from the sensation of chemical burns. Am I supposed to ware safety glasses in the frigging shower?

Good times.

Ken ... NO!!!

Back Ken! You don't need one of these. You have enough flame in your life!!!!

Liberals really are nuts

"Based on strikingly irrational beliefs and emotions, modern liberals relentlessly undermine the most important principles on which our freedoms were founded," says Dr. Lyle Rossie's, author of the new book, "The Liberal Mind: The Psychological Causes of Political Madness." "Like spoiled, angry children, they rebel against the normal responsibilities of adulthood and demand that a parental government meet their needs from cradle to grave." ... "A social scientist who understands human nature will not dismiss the vital roles of free choice, voluntary cooperation and moral integrity – as liberals do," he says. "A political leader who understands human nature will not ignore individual differences in talent, drive, personal appeal and work ethic, and then try to impose economic and social equality on the population – as liberals do. And a legislator who understands human nature will not create an environment of rules which over-regulates and over-taxes the nation's citizens, corrupts their character and reduces them to wards of the state – as liberals do." World Net Daily

It isn't just me. I'm so glad to hear this news.

In Briton, they call it 'nannystateism'. That is accurate. Liberals are people who never really wanted to leave home. They never got disciplined properly when they were children and now they want to force discipline on all people through the government.

It reminds me of a story. A friend of mine's son was involved in a fight at school. It turns out he was the only one being punished. When she finally got to see the video footage (CCTV, she had to as a lawyer to right a letter to get hod of it) she saw that the other boys were indeed playing keep-away with her son's hat or something. Anyway. She demanded that those boys be punished as well. Eventually, they were. Originally the school officials were going to do nothing to them.

This is the kind of thinking that forces both sides of the conflict to realize they will evoke reaction by their actions. The boy who threw a punch. and the boys who provoked him by belittling him.

Young parents are not teaching their children that there are consequences to their actions. Too long I've suffered at the hands of young people who have no self discipline and parents who will bail them out of any situation without letting them suffer in the slightest way.

Remember the bitches who stole girl scout money and where then unrepentant? I have dreams watching them clean up horse shit from the side of a road in the rain while their entire school class watches and laughs.

Wouldn't it be nice if people listened to this and made different decisions based on new information. Wouldn't it be nice if things changed sot that people understand that every one has to be given an opportunity to live and yet live within rules. If they violate the rules they will be punished. And, that not every tortured sole deserves a living because they had a hard time of it or because their ancestors were oppressed.

People should not be taught that the government/state will not come in and save them every time something blows up in their face. You must watch your own back, the backs of your family, friends, neighbors because it is the right thing to do. Not because you will get anything other than your back watched in return.

Some people turn to gangs to live out their lives under the umbrella of group protection. Some people enter in to bad relationship after bad relationship for the same reason. It sounds like we can add liberalism to that list of ways people can remain children throughout their lives. It is one more way people avoid becoming adults and taking responsibility.

Ballistics Jell slow motion

I've watched the Myth Busters do a bunch of stuff with ballistics jell. It never looked this cool. I wonder if the formula is just different. You can see the spiral action of the bullet as the jell expands in it's wake.

Hand of God (War Porn)

Just for the heck of it.

My laptop is calling me

Dell finally dropped my laptop below $1000. I can't believe it.

PLAY High Resolution, glossy widescreen 14.1 inch display (1440x900) edit VIDEO CARD 128MB NVIDIA® GeForce® Go 8400M GS edit MEMORY 2GB Shared Dual Channel DDR2 at 667MHz edit HARD DRIVE Size: 120GB SATA Hard Drive (5400RPM) edit OPTICAL DRIVE 8X CD/DVD Burner (DVD+/-RW) with double-layer DVD+R write capability edit WIRELESS CARDS Intel® 3945 802.11a/g Mini-card edit INTEGRATED WEBCAM No Camera edit BATTERY OPTIONS 56Whr Lithium Ion Battery (6 cell) edit SOUND OPTIONS Integrated High Definition Audio edit My Accessories My Service WARRANTY AND SERVICE 1Yr Ltd Warranty and Mail-In Service edit ENVIRONMENTAL OPTIONS Free Recycling Kit edit ALSO INCLUDED WITH YOUR SYSTEM Integrated NIC and Modem Integrated 10/100 Network Card and Modem Processor Branding Intel Centrino Core Duo Processor Starting Price $979 As low as $30/month

I upgraded the RAM and display. I think everything else is stock. It came with a DVD burner stock. Nice.

To change the color would cost like $30. That would pit it over a grand. I do not want to change the color, it just strikes me as odd that they would charge that much for it. If I were Dell, I would throw in one color change for nothing and charge for more color changes. ... I think you can swap them out at will, like a phone case. Not sure.

I've been sitting here looking at the page for about fifteen minutes. I have to close the page. Need to move on.  Come on Kelly, you can do it. ... Did it. few!

Does it have a FireWire port? How many USB ports does it have? Are they powered? I can't find the simple information on that Dell laptop. Kind of annoying. ... OK, found some basic info. No real tech info though. I may call Dell and ask them where the technical info resides.

Muse

I'm trying to think of something to say. I could give a weather report. I could talk about Elle's plans this weekend. I could talk about Nat and my plans. I could talk about friends and babies and divorces. I could rant on about blogging.

Weather

It is rainy as all get out. The ground is already soaked from last night and the bad stuff is to hit this afternoon. That means I probably won't be able to mow tomorrow. I have to get out there and do something about the clover. I'll probably just hit the high spots with the weed eater.

Elle's Plans

Elle went to visit Nat's mother(grand mother). I'm not sure how well that is going to work out because she is pushing eighty. I hope her the best entertaining a five year old while toting around an oxygen tank. I'm glad they get some time together. I know Elle loves her grandmother very much and will appreciate the time spent.

Nat and I

Nat and I plan on a date night at some point. I have been looking forward to it for over a month. All the time Breanne worked at Alamo, we only made it over there once. This is for Valentine's day and a bunch of other stuff.

Every time Nat wants to stop on the way to the house to buy fast food I cringe and imagine the date night flying away on dollar bill wings. Nat seems to think it is about my money vs her money or something. I just want to do something together besides surf the net back to back in the computer nook.

Friend: babies and divorces

It seems like every one we know is either having a baby or getting a divorce. Over the last couple years, the majority of our friends did one or the other, or both. I could go through a list. Hell, one of my closest friends had three babies and one divorce in the past couple years. I suppose that's life.

Nat and I would both love to have a baby. I"m nearly forty. I know that sounds funny coming from a guy, but that means I'll be sixty two or so at the collage graduation. Elle is awesome, but Nat and I just wanna. Besides, I swore I would not have an only child. Look at me now.

Blog Rant

This blog has gone down hill. That or it is in transition. My muse takes it's sweet time to smack me in the face these days. As I read blogs, the same things roll across the screen over and over. The names change. The date changes at the bottom of he posts. People are pissed off about the same old thing. Me included.

My blog is all about outlet. I have things bottled up inside that need to come out and this is the place that leaves a stain.

I wonder if my lack of things to complain about means I'm happy? Nah, couldn't be. Doomsday Kelly, happy. Never. I'll have to stop complaining when my friends don't post. It is probably a good sign.

Piranha

These don't look anything like piranha.

My father send these to me a couple of days ago in an email. They don't look anything like a piranha. The email sad "Who's up for some noodling in the Amazon?" I think I'll pass. Cool pictures. I googled around for a bit but came up with a huge blank. If any one does figure out what kind of fish this is, let me know.

Debate

People have lost the art of debate. People want to fight. There is a difference between debating and fighting. I'm listening to Left Right and Center. People are only civil when the other person agrees with them. They interrupt when someone says something they disagree with .They sound like a bunch of middle school kids fighting over Superman vs Batman. it really makes me feel like their opinions do not mean as much. I'm sure it makes for better ratings or sells more widgets in the commercials. I'm disappointed.

One of the folks just said, from the liberal side of the fence, "Clinton and McCain, there is no comparison." That I agree with, from the conservative side of that same fence.

None of these folks have their toes in the political ring as far as I can remember. They all have an opinion and have apparently had opinions for some time. This makes them qualified to be on the radio. I've had a blog for years and I've bitched about politics for years so I think I'm about as qualified.  Well, maybe not. It's my blog and I'll bitch if I want to. ... OK, upon farther listening, I can tell at least some of them have been involved in politics.

For the name Left Right and Center, they all sound like a batch of liberals to me. I am from Texas. I wonder if I'm conservative for Texas standards. I think not. I bet I'm officially a "pinko" by Texas standards.

I'm still writing in John Robert Bolton for president this Fall. I cannot vote for either Democrat that will be presented. I do not want to vote for McCain because he scares me for some reason. The Democrats will win if the next election unless they seriously screw something up. I worry McCain will snap some time over the next five years and we will all say "God, we dodged a bullet. What if he had been president when that happened?"

Numbers

I can't remember my age if you put me on the spot. I have to do the math half the time.

Trillion

Trillion is a million times a million. 1,000,000,000,000

Ways to grasp the heft of the number trillion:

If you made one million dollars take home a year, it would take you one million years to have earned a trillion dollars.

If you made one billion dollars take home a year, it would still take you one thousand years to earn a trillion dollars.

A million seconds is about eleven and a half days.

A trillion seconds is about 32,000 years.

A trillion dollars is about enough money to buy every one in the U. S. one thousand boxes of Girl Scout cookies each. About $3300 a each. ($1,000,000,000,000 ÷ 300,000,000 people in the U. S.) Or, one of Jake's new laptops each.

The latest U. S. budget is 4.2 trillion dollars.

Googol

Googol a one followed by 100 zeros or a trillion times a trillion times a trillion times a trillion times a trillion times a trillion times ten thousand)

10,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,<breath>
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,<big breath>
000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000, <gasp, pass out>

I believe the example I saw said there are not this many atoms in the known universe. Why would you ever need a bigger number?

Googolplex (a bigger number)

Googolplex is a one followed by a Google zeros. I'm not cutting and pasting that one.

Memory Lane

I grew up to Carl Sagan's documentaries. This particular one spawned a story about one of my friends on a long trip with his family. He was trying to explain to his step mom that the concept of multiple dimensions. She could not get past the fact that the little paper cut outs representing the flat land creatures had some height. My friend said "Yes, but ignore that for sake of example." but she could not ignore it. She cloud not conceptualize a two dimensional creature.

Half the funky stuff I talk about on this blog had it's seeds planted in one of the PBS documentaries I watched as a kid.

Houston Metro vs Chick on Bicycle

Three guesses who won. link.

Apollo Con

It is a horror/sci-fi convention in Houston. Please support. Sounds pretty cool to me. A major geek fest. I wonder if I'll catch any of my friends turning up. I wonder if Nat and I wll attend?

Sick Day

I took today off. At 05:30 I awoke to my alarm blaring. I hadn't gotten much sleep. I coughed and grumbled most of the night. I had gone to bed before 21:00. I just plane felt run down and ill. I had hoped a good night sleep might help. Well, it was the extra five hours after I was supposed to get up that seem to have helped. As of about 13:00 I fee much better.

At the moment of waking, I was sitting in bed and pondering my commute and day that lye ahead of me. My throat hurt to the point I didn't want to cough, but I had to any way. I thought about asking Nat if I could get a ride much later in the morning. Then the little voice came on in my head and told me to just cal in sick. I need the time I answered. The little voice said "Trust me, call in sick." So I did.

Then I rolled over and listened to Nat and Elle bounce around the hose a couple times trying to get ready fir their day.  I laid there expecting Nat to walk in and get something she needed. We haven't been sleeping in the same room for months. I think that is just the way our marriage will go for ever. Hey, some folks have separate houses like my grandparents.

So, Nat walks in to the bedroom looking for something. I mumbled something and she stopped startled a bit. We spoke of her trip she needed to make today. She needed gas money. Yadda, yadda.

I eventually got up and took a shower. Once I started feeling a bit better I got on the computer of course. I listened to some music. Then I read some blogs. Then I wrote a couple blog entries. Nat just got back with some fast food for dinner. It is still early so I'm sure we will eat again before bed time. I didn't eat any dinner last night so I'm hungry.

It's funny. I was able to do some work from the house. If I had a phone and network access, I could so easily do most of my job from the house. I could not read the front panels of lab machines. I could not throw a switch when without help. The rest though, I could do in my underwear from home. I'm not going to hold my breath.

I got some data DVDs burned. I got some blogging done. I looked up some new music. I even looked up the latest Adobe Acrobat Reader for Linux and downloaded for work. I also verified some changes happened on one of our web pages. So, I got a very little bit of work done. Not a bad thing.

Tonight, I plan on getting a good night sleep and maybe taking some NiQuil or something. It is good to get better.

Amy Winehouse

She is a tattooed junkie who can knock 'em out in the cheep seats. I think I'm in love. link

I've heard some people say she shoulds like a black singer. I just think she sounds great.

Gift idea

For the conservative lady who has everything in your life, it is the Hello Kitty AR-15.

And, yes fellas, It's the real thing. Click the image for more details.

Very Local News

• Monitors at work still rock. I switched to a digital cable (DVI). The blacks got blacker and the whites got whiter. The text is more clear. The colors are move vivid. Some pictures look far better. I had the monitor with the three dead pixels  on the left hand side. I use the left hand monitor as my 'default' monitor. I switched. Now the crappy monitor with the dead pixes is also the one with the analog/blurry interface. I think I prefer it like that.
• I have one machine at work to test on. I feel like I'm scrounging for test machines.
  
• My goodness, I'm sick of the election crap. It is everywhere. What do journalists write about every other year? It is getting to the point I don't finish my podcasts. I've started fast forwarding through bits. Everything is gender, race, age, religion, wallet (class), education, geographic. It seems like the media is just so happy to separate people in to groups and watch them kill each other.
• Dropped calls
• "Thank you for taking my call."
• "I think ... "
  
• At work, I have an email in my inbox that I do not want to delete. Normally, I keep my inbox pretty clean. This email is someone saying thinks for something that I did. I greatly respect this person. I need the praise, even it if it just a passing "thanks".
• I left my charger for the camera at a friend's place again. This is becoming a habit. I really need to fix this problem. I'll get it back, but it is embarrassing none the less. There were some extenuating circumstances this time, but still. No I wasn't drinking, much.

Board Cops

I once loved the bonny tone of the pipes on a cold sunny morning. The sound wafting through the trees, through the tents. Ah, Mornings at Fair.

This is why people hate pipes. And it takes two of them to sound this bad.

February Birthday party

Nat's side of the family got together and had a party/dinner for the heck of it to celebrate all the February birthdays.

• I managed to sneak out of the restaurant moments before people got smeared with whip cream. God is good.
• I got a universal gift certificate for my trouble.
• I took a ton of pictures.
• Elle Seemed to have the best time of all. She learned to play pool and flew around the pool hall like a super girl.
• Elle got to swing with some random kids at the side of the restaurant.
  
• The cake was good.
• We met Monica's new dog.
• We got to see Monica's new trailer.

Every one and I mean every one had a camera. Nat likes my camera. She says she would like to have a nice camera. I just don't see it in the budget for a while yet. It will happen some time.

My candidate speaks

Wow.

Bolton said John McCain's policies on Iran and other foreign policies don't suck. I fear McCain. I'm not sure why. I think he is a Cammy half the time. The rest of the time I am afraid he may actually be able to get some things done while in office.

• I like McCain's comments on Israel's war with Palestine.
• McCain will not force people to join the insurance scheme.
• He likes bio fuels, and the reduction of dependencies.
• He wants a billion dollars for detection of drugs at our borders.
• He things the war on drugs is a joke.
• He proposed legalizing weed.
• States should choose whither to recognize same sex marriage.
• NRA gives him a 'C'.

My source for all information on John McCain is from Wikipedia. I cannot say the informative is perfect, or accurate, or unbiased. It is there, and it is watched.

Is Kelly's opinion chaining? Who will Kelly vote for this Fall? What does Kelly think of Hillery Clinton these days? Why hasn't Kelly said more about Obama? For answers of these and more private useless information that Kelly things is important, stay tuned to this blog.

Hat tip Pat Dollard

Mock news of the day

This shows the absurdity of the arguments used for gun control. 12,000 people die in America a year due to gun violence. Look at all the fuss. 40,000 people die in the U. S. per year due to automobiles. No one is banning them.

Good old bullet proof glass

I'm not sure if that is suppression fire, or if they saw the shooter. Quick response though. They should just put a camera on every soldier's head and recorded 24/7. What do I know. Maybe if the boys at Black Water had them, they would win lawsuits as well as battles.

Vicky Cristina Barcelona

This is the first Woody Allen movie I've wanted to see in a long time.

SCARLETT Johansson (below) has a steamy lesbian sex scene with Penelope Cruz in Woody Allen's upcoming "Vicky Cristina Barcelona." A source tells us: "It is also extremely erotic. People will be blown away and even shocked. Penelope and Scarlett go at it in a red-tinted photography dark room, and it will leave the audience gasping." The women later have a threesome with Javier Bardem (below), who plays Cruz's husband. The film also stars Patricia Clarkson, Rebecca Hall, Kevin Dunn and Chris Messina. New York Post

Ya, I'm there.

Very Local News

• Work monitors ROCK!!! If only I had a bit more RAM in the box driving them. I have $1000 worth of monitors and $70 computer. I'm not complaining. Just saying.
• I bet more people are killed by the bullets in PowerPoint than the bullets in guns.
• I've been waring my contacts lately. I really do see just a little bit better with contacts. Not enough to worry about really. The next glasses I order will probably not be the progressive lenses. The focal width of the lens just isn't wide enough for me. I tend to go through phases.
• I've probably already said enough in this blog to prevent me from ever being president.
• I believe that God is powerful enough to allow Darwinian Evolution Theory to be true. My faith is strong enough to survive the impending conflict.
• I believe that women should have the right to terminate pregnancy even if they just plane don't want to have a child. That is a big step. They should get the option to say no.
• I believe that life begins at conception. That conflicts with the above statement, but here we are.
• I believe that people need faith in something to survive. Otherwise, they go insane. Hence, the liberal parties of our nation.
• I believe that government should keep an eye on the people.
• I believe we should have a constitutional amendment that allows people to keep an eye on the government. What is the point of freedom of speech, if you are not aloud to look for something to talk about?
  
• Elle is hanging out with Ted's side of the family this weekend. She enjoys hanging out with them. She is spoiled rotten. And, why not. Kids should be kids for a bit.

Russian asshole driver

Remind me never to take a trip to Russia. At least not one where I'll be on the roads about the same time as this guy.

Robots Wanted

It is bad enough the pilot has to perform a maneuver that is a miracle every time, but the guy with the hook has to thread a needle while standing on some guys shoulders. They need a robot for this. That or recruit straight out of the Cirquedusoleil.

Old Job

I mentioned that today was my two year anniversary of working at my current job.  Learning every minute too. I got a phone call this afternoon from a new person at my old employer. He asked me a question about one of the old systems that I used to support. He was very apologetic. He said he would make sure to loose my number. That's OK, as long as there is no abuse.

It would have been so cool to have an answer. The error they are getting is one of the errors that could mean all kinds of things. I worry that when they move the system, some unforeseen change in the way the system sits on the network will cause some seemingly unrelated problem, much like the one I found last night.

The fellow who called sounded very qualified. The trouble is, some of that equipment sounds older than he does. They are trying to move a VMS system (that should run shivers up your spine on it's own) to the next county. Then they want to plug it in to a much improved and upgraded network. I like that idea. The VMS system is circa 1992. Oh, and it was five years out of date when it was implemented.

Good luck.

He did mention that the powers that Be are looking at replacements for the old enough to drive system. They have been looking at that same software replacement since I can remember. I really hope it happens. I really hope the asset tracking path at the company gets an overhaul.

Honestly, I miss some of the folks over there where I used to work. There are some fine folks keeping that place going. The leaders have made some decisions that I would not have, but that is true anywhere.  I think I could work there again if push came to shove. Hopefully it doesn't. I prefer the atmosphere where I am now. The coffee is better too, Oh, and there are free sodas.

The little talk today did bring back memories. I thought about VMS and the servers that were used every day for two years without a reboot or error. I cannot match that today, on anything. Hell, my phone needs to be turned off and back on every couple of weeks. My DVD player has a black screen of death message that shows up on occasion. This world is entirely too crash tolerant.

Very Local News

• Today is my two year anniversary at my current job.
  
• On the bus this morning, the discussion was all bout politics. Three people were shouting at one another across the bus.  They were quite nearly at opposing ends of the bus talking over the road noise, other people and the drone of the heater. Every one's jaws were flapping and yet, none of them heard each other. They were all trying to make points and yet it didn't seem to make any difference. Clearly, they all had made up their minds. The only thing they agreed on was a glee that Bush was leaving office. The word change kept coming up. I hate to tell them that none of the candidates have anything new to add to the scene.
  I put my headphones on and ignored the rest of the conversation. The news was all about the primaries last night. The word 'change' was uttered by the candidates about a million times in every sound bite. Good luck with that.
  
• I watched a movie last night called "Shacking Hands with the Devil". It is about the UN involvement in Darfur Africa. Basically, the UN forces are there to be peace keepers, yet they have no ammunition for their weapons. They are constantly hamstrung by politicians. Woman and children are slaughtered by the train load all around them and they are told to not take sides.
  The movie was quite revealing. I remember reading stories about the UN troops protecting thousands of people in a camp, then pulling out to let them all be chopped to pieces by men with machetes from the other side of the conflict. It was in the papers and online. No one seems to remember it except me among my click.
• Ronald Reagan was the president of the Actor's Guild long before leading the country. He was the first president who wore contacts. I think every one since has worn them.

Display

At work, I got some new monitors. They are like 22 inch or something. They kick serious butt. It took me a couple tries to get them to run properly. I had to download the new ATI driver and follow some simple instructions. It turns out that the key was a switch on the command line --force. This caused the old configuration to go away and the new configuration to replace it. I cannot control my resolution now, but the screens are basically jammed in the highest resolution. I'm happy for the moment.

This also fixed another problem I had. On the left screen the mouse pointer looked normal. On the right screen the mouse would always look like the image that it held as it passed from the left screen to the right. You know when you move your mouse over the border of a window that is resizable, it changes into arrows. Well, my mouse would only jump around on the spot. The "hot pixel" was god knows where. It made selecting text and resizing windows a nightmare. It also made using a larger mouse pointer impossible because the hot pixel was even harder to guess.

Updating the ATI driver made it all work. The new driver supports 16x9 numbers for the wide screens and dual heads. Well, not all of it works. I can not tell what resolution I'm running under because the normal method of changing the screen resolution no longer works. All the "ATI-setting-blah" stuff in the xorg.conf throws it a curve.

I'll take it. ... I wish this were the end of the story.

Irony is not lost on me often. Sometimes I reject it. I spit upon it and claw at it's eyes.

Nat and I went to Sam's Club this evening for $270 worth of odds and ends. You know, food, toiletries. The lot. It was raining hammers while Nat pumped gas into the car. It was coming in sideways. It was still raining hard, drops like gravel falling off the back of a truck as Nat ordered the food at a window from people none of us ever met.

We get home. I do the cat box. I eat some fast food we picked up on the way home. I'm ready to sit down and calmly blog the blog entry above. My machine takes a very long time to boot. Then the windows bit called X failed to come up. I went through several steps of diagnostics. Several reboots. I tried to remember the latest updates I ran in case I needed to revert. I thought about a bad update from Fedora or Livna. I thought about the painful lack of changes I've made to the machine in since the last time it worked fine.

The thought of a friend who just got a top-notch notebook for gaming crossed my mind. The thought of another friend who got a very top-notch desktop just for gaming crossed my mind. The thought that if anything happens to this machine, I have no way of replacing it. I will be begging for spare parts just to type my blog. I'll not be computerless because I will not be able to use Nat's computer. Elle's computer will be off limits. The web server is a full desktop. It would still really suck to have this box just die.

Then I remember a power flicker between the cat box and the hamburger. Great. What if something is really fried. I'll never get back up and running. I'll go on a tirade and cuss and blame myself for things that are not in my control. I'll wish someone would come along and burn the house down because I'm sick of paying the bills. I'll hide in the bathroom and cuss at the wall under my breath because I do not want to wake Elle or upset Nat.

Then I noticed I could not ping www.yahoo.com, yet, I could ping the neighboring machine. I reset the router. Everything started working again. "Why the hell would X fail if I can't get to the internet!?!" I don't want to know. I just want the damn thing to work.

I need some sleep.

Bitches update

Remember the rant a couple days ago complaining about remorseless little Floridians who robbed a girl scout for field trip money? Well Nat finally saw the video and went on a quest for information. It looks like, from the comments the girls appear to have left on their friend's MySpace pages that the girls are going to do something resembling time. I'm glad Nat is on my side.

The language. Not cussing. I can handle that. They sound like crack whores. And their friends sound even dumber. I don't care how well you clean up. There is no cure for stupid.If you sound stupid where people can find you they will just laugh at you and think you are stupid for letting it be found. When you go to find a job in the real world, and you will one day, Sounding stupid will stick with you for a lifetime. Don't deliberately sound like a hoodlum on your MySpace page. It isn't tough. It isn't code that adults can't understand. We sit back and laugh. Then we get on raising our kids. Hopefully we do a better job than your parents did.

"I'm sorry we got caught." "We had to give the money back ... I'm pissed." Those are from memory. I cannot bring myself to read the article again. I . am . disgusted with the gimme generation. I am hereby an old fogy who longs for earlier days when parents were aloud, nay, encouraged, no, REQUIRED to spank their little kids when they did something wrong or extremely stupid.

Here I go again, I tried to calm down and I'm off on another rant. This one gets to me.

These might be the right links. They might not. I leave it to someone better at snooping than I to know for sure.

Driver

Grabber

Eye Doctor

So, Nat ran me over to the eye doctor this afternoon. I found out my paperwork for Metro is going to take longer than I thought.I spent most of the morning trying to get a script to work the way I was telling it to work. Still not sure why it refused. I'll get it tomorrow.

I like going to my eye doctor. He works with me to figure out what does the job of making me see just that little bit better. takes a moment to answer my questions. For example, today I learned that Lasik is better with the little flap as apposed to the new no flap version of the surgery. Opening the flap allows the zapped material of the cornea to dissipate into the air at the moment it is zapped. If you do not have a flap, the vapor has to dissipate into the cornea and make the eye a bit cloudy and quite painful for several days or weeks after.

I also learned that if I live to the age of 70 or 80 I will probably have to deal with cataracts.

It was about 16:00 before my eyes really cleared up. I managed to get on the computer for a bit before that but everything took five times as long to get done.

I have a new prescription and some of the paperwork I need for Metro. Yay me. Let's find out how long this Metro thing will drag out before I blow a gasket. I bet not long. There is still one more half day I need to take in order to complete the mission. I hate that. It shouldn't cost so much. If it were not for Nat, it would take a long longer. Thanks Sweetie.

This just in; Baby Jessica, still OK

Now, 20 years after she gained world's attention, 21-year-old Jessica McClure is a wife and mother in Midland, who is preparing to collect donations given to her by sympathetic strangers at the time. McClure, or baby Jessica as she came to be known to the world, may receive an estimated $1 million or more when she gains access to the trust fund at age 25. McClure is unable to remember how she fell into the well, which was covered by a flower pot in her backyard, or how she got stuck 22 feet below the ground. She gained international attention as rescuers worked to free her. ABC News

I'll jump down a well for a million dollars. Not sure I would like sitting in the hole for so long. Come to think of it, I hate small places. I would probably come put babbling and calling myself Jessica.

It sounds like she got her shit together. I hope she has no open wells with flowerpots in the back yard. I was in my junior year of high school when this happened. I remember staying up late on a couple of nights. I'm glad she is OK.

Fat men can shoot

No comments follow. I don't want fat-boy to hunt me down. Though, I would probably hear him coming. (I kid because I respect.)

Me too

This is how I feel. Someone hit it on the head. I'm still writing in John Robert Bolton. That may change in the next five minutes. I'll let you know.

Just a little love tap

I learned some new Italian words today. I thought the race folks spaced out the cars a bit better than this. That slower vehicle may have had some problems in which case, it should have gotten out of the way. This does not look like amateur rally. But, what do I know.

Modified Smart

Lots of donuts. A toe-stand. No wheelies. Pretty impressive, even if it is heavily modified. I've wondered what it would be like if one of those things slammed on its breaks suddenly.

Stuck up little bitches!!

I wish this was some kind of spoof. But it looks real. The more I think of it the more pissed I get.

The mom deserves a metal for not walking over and snatching the "I'm sorry we got caught." bitch bald right on the spot.

Then the parents of these Little stuck up pretty bitches need to be taught how to raise children. The parents of the two little rich bitches need some jail time.

This all comes from not being allowed to smack a kid when do something wrong. 80% of the pain signal that comes from the nerves system does NOT go to the part of the brain that registers pain. It is spread like a wave all over the brain. The whole brain is affected. That is why pain and even humiliation are so useful in teaching someone a lesson.

Hat tip -> Ace of Spades.

TV

Anyone out there want a 900 lb TV? I think it still works. Must bring your own truck. It sounded like a great idea to take it. It was free and in someone else's way.

Freedom of speach

I believe every one has the right to say their piece or peace in this case. My mom may not agree with what this guy has to say, but I like the fact that I can agree that he has the right to say it. I'll be honest, I agree with some of the sentiment in this video. That is, I believe that the bible is a part of a religion that was invented in order to control people and not to save their immortal soles. I really believe that when I die, the experience will either be a fade to gray, or something akin to the Matrix. After all, it wasn't so bad before I was born. I also believe that what I did while I was here will have minimal effect on how my after life goes.

Thoughts?

Thoonk (updated)

I try not to republish whole comics It seems rood. This one is too good to pass up. I've wondered which character on User Friendly I best match. Now, I know.

And to think, I had the optic nerve surgery toolkit in my picket all this time.

UPDATE
OK, so it turned out to be a jug full of ink that squirted him in the eye. Still, It was funny.

February: The odd month

My birthday is in February. I wonder if that is the reason I like the month so much. February is short. it is odd every four years. You have to keep an eye on February. I like that in a my months. 

Antiquarians are the only sign that do well with themselves as mates. Someone told me that once anyway. I dated an Antiquarian once.  It might have worked, but didn't. Se la vi. I regret nothing. I'm much happier now.