Roaming mountains

Today at work a couple of thunder storm es rolled past. It never fails to amaze me how graceful those huge monsters are. They are as big as a mountain and yet they just float there steady. Sometimes growing. Sometimes breaking up. All the time they are a presence of their own.

The small thunderheads are tall and skinny. They hit the thermal level and the top flattens out. They are called anvil clouds. Dark clouds make rain, lightening, thunder, hail, tornadoes. They can be dangerous.

Majestic is the word that comes to my mind. Clouds in so many forms are beautiful. Stark gray overcast is about the only form of cloud I find ugly. My favorite are th poofy cumulus clouds floating at low altitude with wispy cirrus clouds at high altitudes. Storms are both beautiful and dangerous, like large wild animals. I wonder if more people are killed in the western world by weather than wild animals. Heck, the while world.

Psychopath

I heard this on the radio this morning. Nat gave me a ride because I'm under the weather.

They had a little contest to find out who got the right answer. Supposedly a large number of serial killers answer this question a specific way. Of course, the correct answer to this question means you are you are a psychopath.

A woman attends her mother's funeral. She meets the man of her dreams there. Two weeks later she murders her sister. What is her motivation for killing her sister?

Every one's first guess was because her sister was banging her new boyfriend. Wrong.

I default to the "Its a trap!" response and say it is only because the sister had it coming and all the other information was superfluous. Wrong.

The correct and there for psychopathic answer is, to see the man again. If the guy went to the mother's funeral, he would probably go to the sister's funeral as well. This apparently is how psychopathic people think. The life of the sister was worth less than the chance to meet this guy again.

The guy who called in with that answer was very careful to say it took him a couple tries to get the answer. I don't blame him for a bit of back peddling.

Very interesting question this morning. Nat and I debated weather this scenario was going to show up on Criminal Minds or Lie to Me first. It was awesome to have something to talk about on the way in this morning.

day

Home Script

Remember me complaining about moving all my media under a per date format? Well, I did so. It works great. I upgraded my sly script for home use. This starts a new blog html file and creates a 'current' link to the current date folder.

This script is written in bash. Bash sucks. I prefer Python. This script was already written in bash so it stays in bash. One day I might upgrade it. This willing to happen until I have some free time at work. This is the way that IT professionals say never. We do not have, by definition, free time.

Things I need to do when I have time

• Upgrade the firmware of a desktop to test the one USB stick thing that will not work for one of our employees.
• Figure out where several retired bits of equipment belong besides under my tables.
• Track down all the USB keys.

What I did today

• Setup IPs for like ten pieces of equipment.
• Figure out why two users have trouble sharing a file. This to a couple hours. I left thinking I need to replace a messed up switch.
  • Find a bandwidth tool.
  • Figure out how to ping -f.
  • crawl under fifteen desks and track wires for hours.
  • unplug network cables and go hunting around for dark connections while using people's complaints to help track down the destination.
• Make a release for one of our products.
• Set up systems for shipping.
• Ignore the script I was supposed to spend this morning fixing. I spent the morning fixing the network problem for the same person.
• Fix a broken IP for a different user.
• Change the password on routers.
• Setup Windows update for a bunch of computers.
• I documented something, bu I do not remember what.
• Be sick all day and complain, but no one cares. I'm out of sick days.

And all in like 10 hours. There was a bunch of other junk that I forgot.

We had Chinese for dinner. I've consumed NiQuil. Later looser. I'm off to have funky dreams.

Emergency exit

Yup, I hope he is alright. I'm also laughing my ass off. I like the nonchalant attitude of the other bus riders.

Wow, that's a low pass

Imagine all the low passes we are not getting on web sites.

Misspoken year

I have not heard an adult make the mistake of saying 1908 when referring to a couple years ago. I have heard several young people of teen vintage make this mistake. The assumption is that older people who lived through the 19xx era through their adult lives would have a much harder time coping with the change. It seems to not have been a problem over all.

AVG for Linux

AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 8.5 for Linux (hereafter abbreviated to AVG Free) isn't AVG's first scanner for Linux. The company has released binaries for both 32-bit and 64-bit architectures for Linux and FreeBSD, and the scanner itself is loaded with features up to the brim. Despite all this, it is utterly useless for the intended audience.
As per AVG's licence requirements, the Linux scanner is meant for private, and non-commercial use only. Fair enough. But without a GUI to handle the dozen daemons and command-line scanning tools, a normal desktop user would probably struggle.
...
The built-in scheduler cannot currently schedule system scans. To top it all, the scanner itself lacks the ability to clean, quarantine, or even delete the infected files. When an infected file is found, the scanner lists the complete path to the infected file, and it's up to you to take further action.
...
Unfortunately, it's a stark reminder of the first commercial software for Linux – semi-prepared, unpolished versions of their Windows cousins, dumped on to the Linux users for cheap publicity. The ploy didn't last for long. Neither will this.

tuxradar

Years ago someone at our company had to hunt down a virus scanner for linux. There was a blanket contract obligation for all computers to run virus scanners. We ended up installing one similar to this that was scanning ext3 partisans on linux boxes on a linux network for windows viruses. I believe there are scanners somewhere for linux viruses on linux systems now. I'm having a devil of a time finding one.

How vlogging looks

How vlogging looks

This is Philip De Franco show. This video (the edited version) had over 400,000 hits at the time I wrote this blog post. This is one of the more popular shows on YouTube as far as I can tell. I cannot describe it. Go watch.

What is happening here? He gets asked so often how he does his show that he is putting up some raw footage of him talking to the camera. I could have told you this is how he does it. He has moments of energy and moments of thought. He edits out the moments of thought and planning. The end result is a video that keeps the feel of spontaneity.

Edited version

Unedited version

There is one pretty distinctive place where the videos line up. When he talks about the guy breaking in to Paris Hilton's place he uses both his fists. This is a relatively unique hand gesture and occurs in the first video at about 59 seconds and the second at about 36 seconds.

I wish he hadn't put up the music. It is an awesome song, but I would like the absolute raw footage of one show. I'm an editing nerd though. Maybe that is why he didn't put it up like that. Now I want the song.

There is a ton to learn here. In the edited video you notice a great deal of emotional faces presented. In the uncut video, you notice a lot more what I wall call neutral face time between the moments of energy. This is life. This is like memory itself. We gloss over the boring bits and remember the highlights. Tis approach works in video as well.

Adam, Watch both tese videos and think about Flanking Position.

Mowing the yard

I mowed in the heat of the day again. I just can't bring myself to repeatedly mow in the early morning or late evening. I have in the past.

This Saturday, I get up late in the morning and fix some coffee. Nat made some sandwiches. By the time I got motivated to do anything it was 14:00. The hottest part of the day. YES! Perfect time to mow the yard. You should see the faces on some people as they drive by. I cannot, but I can imagine.

I had weed-whacked the front earlier in the week after coming home from work late. That amazes me. The yard was looking scraggly. It needed a bunch of attention. The yard still doesn not look very good. I need to find someone who can do the beds.

My dad says we can tear out the old plants. Lay down some felt stuff. Put in some wood chips and not have to worry about half the weeds from then on. As it stands, the weeds have taken over the front of the house. Something must be done. I have no money to do anything nice. I need to find a place that gives plants and trimmings away for free. Then I need to find someone who simply loves to do this kind of thing because I'm lazy and I just have no love for it.

Perhaps a rock garden. I can salt the earth so nothing will grow and put in something that never needs maintenance.

Why

Why there? Why now? Why do you think?

Chalenge

Personally, I'm sick of lawyers running things. Lawyers make the laws as members of legislatures. Lawyers enterprate the laws as judges. Lawyers even enforce the laws from on high as the top cop of the U. S., also know as the executive branch of government.

If we want change. If we want something different to happen. I believe we need a person from a different background as president. It would be great if they were in the legislative and judicial branch as well, but we will start with the presidency. I believe we need a plumber. Considering all the shit coming out of Washington lately, it would be good match.

What do you think?

Title Change

I changed the title of the blog from "Just Kelly" to "Plastic Kelly". It has bugged me that the URL and the title have not matched. This may cause some loss of hits from search engines only if someone was searching on the term "just Kelly". Otherwise it will only change the top tittle of the page. It isn't like I am a national treasure. I wonder if any one will notice.

Favorites, shortcuts and links will all still work.

Night rally

Its almost like they are after the moon and it keeps running away.

I've flagged several videos for showing street racing in residential areas. This is clearly sanctioned. They set up obstacles for goodness sake. About half way through the video there is a residential neighborhood. This car is simply blasting by people's houses. Just after that section, someone is crossing the road and causes the car to spin. What sound like an argument happens and they get back on track, but a hedge does some real damage to the vehicle.

Looks like the moon lives another night.

Pocket bike

Ignore the last 30 seconds. This is, I think, Taiwan. That bike in the first part of the video is 20 years old. It is a fold up scooter made by Honda. I think it is pretty cool. I bet I could take that thing on the bus without comment. If worse same to worse, I could doll it up to look like a horn case or something.

Having money is better

I insist that having money is better than not having money.

Having money lets you do ridiculous stuff like the above video. I would love to have a jet in my front yard, stripped, up on blocks with a sign that says "best offer" written in duck tape on the size. That would make my life complete.

Good Dog

This is something I'm noticing about vlogs. People get more hits when they take shots of their families and pets than pretty much anything besides a straight up unique event. The secret must be to tern every vlog entry in to a unique event about your family and pets.

ShayTards Another example. There is no silver bullet.

Working the weekend

It has been a while since I worked the weekend. I do not enjoy working the weekend. It would much more rewarding if I got paid for working the weekend or got some kind of comp time or a couple slices of pizza or something. No. I get a great big steaming bowl of Jack.

Working on the weekends is better than not having a job. Many people and resources are gone on the weekends. This is a good and a bad thing. I do not have people bugging me because of mouse problems. If I need someone's input, they are not around to get it. Double edged sward.

Bitch bitch bitch. I'm glad to have a job.

Political affiliation

I, Kelly, do hereby disassociate myself with any and all political parties or such ilk.

• I will not base my decisions for voting on any agenda put forth by such an entity as a political party.
• Nor will I listen to a group pretending to be a a political party or pretending not to be a political party.
• I will base all my political decisions on the individual and their history, what I think of them and what they have accomplished.
• No other criteria will be taken under consideration.
• I reserve the right to change my mind at any time without notification up to the point of turning in the ballot.
• I reserve the right to complain at all times.

Any questions? Good! ... That is all.

Political affiliation

I, Kelly, do hereby disassociate myself with any and all political parties or such ilk.

• I will not base my decisions for voting on any agenda put forth by such an entity as a political party.
• Nor will I listen to a group pretending to be a a political party or pretending not to be a political party.
• I will base all my political decisions on the individual and their history, what I think of them and what they have accomplished.
• No other criteria will be taken under consideration.
• I reserve the right to change my mind at any time without notification up to the point of turning in the ballot.
• I reserve the right to complain at all times.

Any questions? Good! ... That is all.

Working the weekend

It has been a while since I worked the weekend. I do not enjoy working the weekend. It would much more rewarding if I got paid for working the weekend or got some kind of comp time or a couple slices of pizza or something. No. I get a great big steaming bowl of Jack.

Working on the weekends is better than not having a job. Many people and resources are gone on the weekends. This is a good and a bad thing. I do not have people bugging me because of mouse problems. If I need someone's input, they are not around to get it. Double edged sward.

Bitch bitch bitch. I'm glad to have a job.

It wasn't me

Drunken Employee Shoots Server
Target Practice writes "A drunken mortgage worker at RANLife Home Loans decided for unknown reasons to take out the company's $100,000 server with a .45-caliber automatic, blaming the damage on an imagined assailant who: mugged him, assaulted him with his own weapon, drugged him, and then broke into his office to shoot said server. According to acquaintances, he had threatened earlier that day to shoot the server and maybe himself."

Slash Dot

Not this time any way.

Work Construction

I had all these grand plans of timelaps and videoing the progress of the fountain construction. This is what I've gotten so far. Fail. Still, kind of fun to shoot. I'm surprised the construction guys didn't get upset.

Creepy Walk

Not sure why I even shot this video. It was a boring walk through a field of high grass. Looking back, it is kind of creepy for some reason.

Sick of being lied to

The media is light up by Obama's vacation status. The liberal sources say he is working while on vacation and cover what green stuff he is doing. Never mind the jets and entourage he drags around with him. The conservative media is afraid to complain too much about Obama's vacations because they want him on the job as little as possible. No one wins. Hang a "gone golfing" sign on the front door of the White House.

The Wiki Leaks guy is on the run or in hiding more or less. I personally feel he should be targeted by the CIA for assassination and the trail should lead right back to the CIA and every one should know exactly what happened. I'm listening to a radio podcast from an Australian station know as RRR (triple 'R'). The chick talking is sympathetic to the guy having to deal with rape charges and making joking comments about who is on the take. I didn't catch who she thought ways paying. Frigging bias Australian radio.

I feel like I'm being lied to by every one who wants to talk to me. Advertisers, tech support, news media, the government, preachers, even broke princes from Africa who just need a helping hand laundering money. Every one wants a piece of me and I'm tired of it. Is it or is it not against the law to lie to people? What about if people just have a bias because they believe something different from me? Does that count.

Bias is a difficult argument. You have to have a bias to have an opinion. Once you have an opinion, you have bias. It is a catch twenty two.

Another story I heard about was this number found via a poll that said 2x% of Americans believe Obama is a Muslim. When interviewing a liberal one of the shows just took the guys word that this is due to conservative who hate Obama because he is black. No one on the show questioned his conclusion. I would like to have heard where the hell he got the demographics that were not available from the study. The statement just slipped by. Oh, well, it must be conservatives. It couldn't just be stupid people who don't have the sense to avoid answering the phone at dinner time.

Polls are another thing. Who is answering these polls? I've never been polled. I screen my calls. If I don't recognize the number I do not answer except by mistake. I'm in Texas. Maybe they don't poll down here. I have a land line, but it doesn't ring. I mark any unrecognized email as spam. I do not take online surveys because many are fronts to get your phone number and spoof your bill. I give survey people at the stores an evil "don't mess with me" scowl. I'm pretty good at it apparently.

No one wants my opinion. No one cars about my bias. They only want to sell me things. They only want my vote. Truth does not enter in to it. Money is a bias as well.

Notes:

In the process of creating a new fountain area in front of the building where I work, they destroyed the sidewalk. They are fixing that today. I noticed two particular areas. I wonder if no one thought to drive the trucks and cranes over the same already broken spot. These sorts of things do not always sort themselves out. Maybe it was already weakened for whatever reason before all the construction.

I shot a video of the cats chasing the laser pointer last night. I couldn't help but notice again that I can see the laser pointer far better (brighter) on the screen of the camera than with my naked eye. I do not understand what is going on here. The same thing happens on traffic lights, the red LED clock next to my bed, pretty much all red lights. It makes me think that I perceive color a bit differently, or that my eyes are simply not strong enough to interpret red with the same intensity as normally sighted folk.

I'm going to start keeping all my content in a date sorted folder system. That is, I'm not going to keep separate folders for video, pictures, audio and text. I'm going to have one date based folder system and just separate everything under that based on need. This is how I've done it at work. I've done this on an individual basis under videos and blog and whatever kind of other content. Now I'm going to put it all under one folder system. This will help keep organized and will give me one place to go to back things up. Yes, phrase that has eggs and basket in it keeps going through my head. That is what the backups are for.

Absolutely everything of any significance needs to go on the blog. I need to stop using Facebook and twitter except for useless chatter and to advertise my blog. YouTube should probably fit under the same umbrella. I should just use it for content that ends up on the blog.

DnD

I got to DnD and had a root beer float with vodka. It was awesome. it tasted like a root beer float with vodka in it, only good. It was A&W Root Beer and unknown brand vanilla ice cream.

We played first edition DnD. Wizards of the Coast is up to fourth edition. There is a growing swath of DnD players who do not like fourth edition. I have my own problems with it. Here are some of the arguments I've heard against it.

• All the character classes feel like rubber stamps of the same class. There is not enough difference between classes to make the games interesting or to specialize. Every one is average.
• Combat is too complex and takes too long. The rules are more akin to a MMORPG than a pencil, paper, dice based experience.
• You can't play without miniatures. Some think this is a plus, some a minus.

I know there are as many opinions as players. Please add to the list in the comments or email me (in the right pain somewhere).

I had a ball last night. My character was out of a magazine. It was column in a table. I borrowed three dice and a pencil. The one I carry with me died on the job. It turns out I had another pencil, that looks like a pen. I also have an app on my phone that rolls dice.

• I used a loin cloth full of rocks as a sap, like a sock full of nickels. Our DM has this fascination with taking all our possession and equipment away and pitting us against dragons.
• We didn't fight giant ants, but we stole their bridge.
• I dealt the killing blow on a giant crayfish using my sap.
• We made a deal with a bunch of fungus (long story) to get rid of the crayfish eggs in exchange for a way out of the dungeon. It turns out we found our own way out. We kept the bargain to save ourselves from the crab and to get the experience for getting rid of the eggs. Getting rid of the eggs was so impossible, the amount of xp was not given in the module.
• I sat on a ledge for four hours, alone, in the dark, next to a scary pit, with a hole in the ceiling I could not hope to reach, holding one end of a rope that was not tied on the other end, did I mention it was dark? I mean, even with introversion, it is spooky, just sitting there.
• We nearly killed ourselves by asphyxiation twice.

How many battles is that? We fought like six times. We traveled all over the place. In fourth edition we would have had to leave it half way through the second skirmish. You should see the DM guide we are using. It looks like it has been through a couple dungeons.

We did spend an hour of clock time and goodness knows how long in game time trying to separate a badger from it's claws. The same for properly adapting the giant crayfish's claws as weapons. That didn't quite work on either front. This is much more fun that running through a three hour battle in clock time that takes three minutes in game time.

Kelly's day

Just what did Kelly spend his day doing? Well, I pretty much got one thing done today. I found a cable.

    o [device]
        - Windows software on my internal windows machine.
            + Double checked the com port in the bios.
            + Tried multiple com ports and speed settings even though the manual specifies which ones to use.
        - Linux, Kevin had set this device up before on his system. We tried his system, via the com port with no luck.
        - Tried capturing the Ethernet packets with wiresharc.
            + connected to full network.
            + on isolated hub via 10/100 base T switch with no luck.
            + Verified that plugging in a working network device (my windows machine) did work in the same configuration.
            + Tried computer to computer Ethernet hookup.
            + Dan and I double checked the DNS and DHCP settings for the IP. That end looks like it is set properly.
        - Verified that the serial cable I'm using is a straight throughput cable and not a NULL (asked Adrian and Don). The manual says to use this kind of cable.
    o Jeff did check the power supply for output and it appears to be in spec.
    o There is still a missing serial cable that came with the device.
        - found the cable, worked.

We had a very expensive piece of equipment take a powder. It refused to work or respond. There is a serial port and an Ethernet port on this thing followed closely by a bunch of lights. I downloaded a bunch of information and found our copy of the software. Then I scratched and clawed for five or six hours trying to get it to frigging talk to me.

We tried a couple of serial cables. It says in the doc that a null modem will not work. You need a straight through serial cable. I thought that is what I was using. Nope. I went so far as to ask one of our hardware folks to put a meter on the cable to make sure pins 2 and 3 were not swapped (null modem cable). Things started looking up quickly once Kevin found the cable that came with the device.

The idea of getting information off the device was a complete wast of time That took the lion's share too. The device was set to all zeros for IP information. This means, apparently, that the device stoops trying to communicate over the network.

Now that cable, the manual, and a CD with the software on it are parked on my shelf with a "Do not steel!" label attached. it is about time we started documenting things a bit better than "So and so did that last time. Ask them." Meh!!

Kelly saves the day. Well crap. Jeff said "I was told that if any one could do it, you could." This is kind of boosting to the ego, but now I'm even more the go-to guy for off the wall strange stuff that is broken. Really, all I did was track down the correct cable. Is this a good thing?

Notes:

Podcasts and vlogs are very concerned about time. So many folks are tied in to the idea of a show that is a set period of time. Many of the shows go to great lengths to make shows end on a zero. The shows that stick to good content and smooth flow regardless of end point work just fine to me. I suppose there is no problem with aiming at a length.

Obama has taken 9 vacations in his first 20 months. Imagine a Republican doing this. That is something like 70 days. I wish I could take 70 days.

I stepped in a hole this morning. This is normal. The ground I walk down is insanely uneven and torn up. The powers that be keep putting in cables and conduits under the ground along that easement. I'm not sure they could put in a sidewalk that was not designed to be picked up and dug under. Anyway, I didn't twist my ankle. I suppose you have to win one once in a while to prove it is possible.

Notes:

24% of American (polled) believe that Obama is a Muslim. 5% think he is neither a Christian or Muslim. I ponder that position. He calls himself a Christin, but like so many Americans, when the rubber meets the road, he is not a good one. I believe that changing your mind changes your religion. If he thinks he is a Christian so be it. I don't think it is all that important. I feel that Obama believes in Socialism and Marxism (at least what I know of those philosophies). I feel these beliefs are where our current president's passion calls home.

Spent most of the morning working on some laptops. Thanks Dad for helping me with the monocular hat. Normally, this would kill my back. That Thain worked great.

Setting up some Windows 7 laptops. Everything is going well. Where is the Windows update feature. There used to be something under control panel. There was a link in Internet Explorer. Nope. So, I head over to someone who I know has a Windows 7 machine. They say "It's under the start menu, right there." ... dang it!

Toy Story 3 is number 7 movies of all time (money) in the U. K.. A large number of people are hoping it hits at least number 3 before it has had it's run.

Nat brought lunch up to work this afternoon. She had worked out just up the street. She and Justin had a conversation for 45 minutes about kids and TRF.

I learned today that even old crappy laptops might have magnificent wireless transceivers. Sitting at my desk this old laptop that came in because it has problems could pick up thirty one wireless routers. One of which I know for a fact is half way across the building. Another I'm pretty sure is across the street. My phone could pick up three. All of which, I'm pretty sure are in adjacent offices and floors.

New router

Why in the world have I been down for the last day and a half? Well, I'll tell you. Where do I begin?

Our old wireless router only does web. Wep blows so I decided to hook up a new router. $20 Belkin. Not a bad deal to be honest. It is small, and does 802.11g wireless with wpa2. I've heard that wpa2 has been cracked. They are all cracked. Who cares. I'm just trying to keep the look-e-lieus out for the most part. Not a bad router for $20 like a say, but a different router showed up in the box than was in the ad. Not a bad thing. It looks like it has all the same stuff. I'll deal.

First attempt: unplug the old router. Plug in the new one. Disaster. Nothing works. Everything breaks. No connection at all. Normal first attempt. Read the instructions.

Second attempt: Get an IP on the inside through the wired network. One thing down. No internet. Try repeatedly to hook up the internet. Finally, get something to come through on the wired network. It is an at&t page saying I got the password wrong and to call the number.

Call the number:
Robot: "What OS do you have? You may answer Windows, Macintosh or other."
Me: "Other."
...
Rep: "Please activate Internet Explorer."
Me: "I told the robot I'm using Linux."
Rep: "Um .. OK. Let me put you on hold."
Robot: "do-te-do-la-la."
Rep: "OK .. let me try to reset your password."
Me: Hooray. Not this is not in quotes. That is because I only thought it.

Then I had to call back to get the password reset again. The lady was far more helpful even though she too nearly swallowed her own eyes when I said the word "Linux". This time went much more smoothly because I now have a security question. I feel so special. she really really needed me to check my swbell email, which I have not done in 5 years to give her a good review.

Whatever, the internet now works on one machine.

Third attempt: I tried to set up my computer to have a static IP. This has got to be easy peasy because it doesn't tell you anywhere in the manual how to do it. It turns out the router and computer are very picky about IP addresses and gateway numbers. So picky that the computer will tell you it is updating a number when it is really just happy to try to use the old wrong one again and again. Got the two computers up as static that I need.

Fourth attempt: Hook up wireless. This was shockingly the easiest thing to do. Type in the pass key and bob's your uncle. You are as on the network as the wired computers. Even got my phone running on wireless in no time.

Still need to do the DynDNS settings. ... Can't tell, but that might be working as well.

Notes:

I spent most of the morning reading how Microsoft Exchange server communicates with clients. This is the glamorous life of an IT professional.

Did you get your $31 after the Exxon Valdez spill?

4% of the universe is supposed to be dark matter or energy or some clap-trap. I'm telling you, there is no dark matter. There is no dark energy. There is a missing static value in the margin of existence that we just haven't figured out yet. This is a rounding error or a bit of a gap between two subatomic particles that we just have not witnessed yet. It might be a focusing problem that light has when traveling through open space. There is a school of thought and experiment that says gravity and light are just angles of approach to atoms.

No plans for this weekend beyond yard work. No plans for a video. may make something very short for this evening. Not sure. Need ideas. Easy stuff that is not complex.

All WYSIWYG html editors suck. I've tried several. I now use a text editor and just type the html out as I go. I was using Google docs to generate my rudimentary html for blog entries. Google removed the normal editor for some crappy one that has no html view. Useless. I've even stopped using gdocs for archiving my blog entries.

There is no past, only memory.
There is no future, only speculation.
Now is just an instant in the broad bath of everything.
The universe only has to exist for an instant every instant.

The yard

Some call it a yard.
To other folks it is a garden.
If it has a wall it may be a court yard.
My yard is a mess.

The weeds want to take control.
The ants want the same.
The birds eat all they can of the ants.
I need a goat for the grass.

I've wondered many times if the grass cars to be mowed.
The ants, I'm sure, do not like being poisoned.
The ground likes being tilled.
The house wouldn't mind a coat of paint.

We have two surviving young trees.
They like being watered and weeded.
The landscaping is an abomination to nature and order.
If only I drive or green magic to help things live.

One day I will build a golem from broken toys.
This construct will weed the yard and water the trees.
it will trap the field mice and stomp the ants.
It will mend the fence and never forget to lock the gate.

Not if I started on Mars

This one is for Lance. He is the only person off the top of my head who I know can solve the cube of many migraines in this short of time. I would need to take a screwdriver with me if I tried this.

The law of escalation of information

Someone has to run the program. Someone has to pay for the equipment. Someone has to pay for the power, space, security guards, mopping the floor, and cleaning the windows. It doe doesn't matter if it is on a computer in your bedroom or the server room. Someone has to pay for it, pay to maintain it, pay to program it, pay to replace it.

Knowing an idea existed is enough to make it exist. Even a thought in lone dying mind has existed. Once an idea achieves foothold in a second mind, it runs. it evolves. It grows. It becomes a trend or a patent. The idea is placed on a pile of existing prejudices and run through all existing pattern recognition. The end result is a bigger pile of thought, complete fabrication and a side of information.

Once mankind learned how to communicate he started a trip from oblivion to enlightenment. This enlightenment is going to cost money because someone must pay for crunching the numbers. Pay in treasure, freedom, life, future or past. Something is due the cost of it all.

The law of escalation of information says that information is created only by building on existing knowledge run through filters and can only be destroyed in theory by ending the existence of all supporting data. This cannot be done easily because the one performing the destruction knows. You can lie about it. You can try to bullshit your way our of information. It still exists. There for, it becomes the basis for more information.

Causation -> result

Irony is a foreign concept to so many people. I'm going to give an example of non irony.

We had an email problem. People's email would hang for a bit and loose connection. Then it would come back. This happened a couple times a day.

I sent someone an email explaining we were working on it and close to a possible solution. The problem happened as I hit send. This is not irony. This is coincidence. Mostly because I don't think my email initiated this episode of the issue.

Irony would be if the the problem were caused only by people complaining about the problem.

A black fly in your glass of wine is not ironic. If you are drinking the glass of wine to celebrate having exterminated all the black flies and ended up with a black fly in your glass of wine, that is ironic.

Causation -> result

Irony is a foreign concept to so many people. I'm going to give an example of non irony.

We had an email problem. People's email would hang for a bit and loose connection. Then it would come back. This happened a couple times a day.

I sent someone an email explaining we were working on it and close to a possible solution. The problem happened as I hit send. This is not irony. This is coincidence. Mostly because I don't think my email initiated this episode of the issue.

Irony would be if the the problem were caused only by people complaining about the problem.

A black fly in your glass of wine is not ironic. If you are drinking the glass of wine to celebrate having exterminated all the black flies and ended up with a black fly in your glass of wine, that is ironic.

Notes:

A couple of the financial shows say there are signs of things getting better in the economy. To me, it sounds like things are flushing out. That is, the survivors are poking their heads above the para pits, but it does not sound like things are all that much better.

"Live and let leave." The new mantra of folks who believe immigration law should be enforced.

Job security is not a Boolean.

There is only one universe. We are all in it together. Every choice matters. There are no do-overs. There is no reset button. There are no backups, unless you make them yourself.

Need to watch Predators, and Hangover according to my friends. Sounds like a plan.

There are people on G. Gordon Liddy podcast arguing over what the Tea Party is fighting for. They sound like they forget that they are on the same side for the most part.

T-Mobile is indeed coming out with a hardened Android phone. I bet it is the same thing that Sprint came out with not long ago. It will have to be a different frequency of course. I pondered this before. I don't have the money right now, but I will be looking at this sort of phone.

Calling all cars

Time for drawn guns and ducking behind doors.
Time for aiming at a stranger with intent.
Time for sweating the human life right over there.
Time to screaming orders to the man who messed up.

No time for family and friends.
No time to think about dashed dreams.
No time to worry about the bills and taxes.
No time to update your will or Facebook.

does that guy have kids?
What did that guy's parents do to him?
What is he so damn worried about?
What does he think he will do?

All I can do is stop him.
Things have gone too far for a talking to.
I bet he wishes he stayed in bed.
I know I do.

Grilling

A couple years ago I learned that the people at 911 don't really know where I live. If I call from a mobile phone, I have to be quite descriptive to get them to the correct place. One of the operators gave me our Keymap reference number, but I didn't have a pen and forgot it. Need to looks this up.

Why you ask?

I must be getting old because I'm just starting to get the hankering for grilling. I have no idea what I'm doing. This should be fun. The only grill we have is an old crappy charcoal grill that is filthy, rusty and full of bugs. We also have no long forks or tongs to my knowledge. They have been lost, rusted out of existence, or been hocked on eBay by the insects in our garage.

it isn't like I want to roast a pig. That is best done in a pit anyway. I've mentioned not wanting to dig in the back yard. I just want to cook burgers and hot dogs. Maybe some sausage. ... some ribs maybe ... pork chops. Can't do a brisket on that thing. I would need a smoker to do any good at a brisket.

Notes:

"There can be no 'G' in a MAC address. The characters are in hex." Heard passing my lips this morning.

Robin goods video formats and codecs.

The Caffeination podcast guy and his wife have a new addition. From now on, new parents should just take a six month hiatus from podcasting.

They dumped sand in to holes in the front of our building this afternoon. It amazes me how much noise this created. It is nothing compared to the earth moving jack-hammer from a couple months ago. crunch crunch crunch beep beep beep bong bong bong wooga wooga wooga crunch crunch crunch ...

Someone asked me to join a fantasy football league today. Sounds like fun, for someone else. I have no desire. It is fun to be part of something that other people are in to. Not this though. I just don't have the ability to stick with it. I've heard there are web pages that do all the work for you if you don't really want to participate. That would be for me.

Joke

An was sitting at a bar with an empty glass in front of him. Someone asked if he would like another. He replied "Why would want another empty glass?"

I hate people

Jury convicts former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich of making false statement to the FBI, hung on all 23 other counts.

CNN headline email

Western Civilization is doomed. This guy is as crooked as a cornered snake, but he makes the trains run on time. That is a reference to Mussolini.

The people of the U. S. need to wake up and start flushing these dirt bags down the toilet. Every member of the jury needs to be investigated for accepting bribes or being threatened. This bastard is going to get off with a slap on the wrist if this stands.

I know I was not on the jury. I know I do not know all the facts. I know my accusations are unfair. The bad man is going to win, again. Politicians are going to learn that it doesn't matter how they treat their constituents because as long as the right palms get greased, it will all come out in the wash.

Dammit!!!

Bazinga!!

I'm half way through the third season of The Big Bang Theory. Nat told me I would like it. She tells me I laugh out loud every five minutes while watching the show. I really do get most of the references. I've looked a couple up as well. I have to say it is the first situation comedy that I've learned as much while watching.

Whom ever came up with the characters really does know geeks. The show is loaded with stereotypes, but they got many of them right in my opinion. The best example that comes to mind is the fact that one of the geekiest folks comes from Texas and has parents who would not be considered highly intelligent by academics. Not all smart people come from New York and California. One of the shows is all about the geeks trying to learn football. The guy from Texas knows football backwards and forwards. He says "Football is ubiquitous in Texas." He is correct.

One of the geeks gets the girl. Things are not 100% perfect on the first try in the bedroom. They talk briefly about being just friends and end up falling right back in to bed together. If at first you don't succeed ... .

Two of the characters are tasked with coming up with an experiment to prove some theory about string theory. I do not believe string theory is real. It is a way to make thing complex in order to obscure the fact that scientists are squandering grant money. They play some Rocky type success music in the background, shoot the scene from multiple angles in a mock attempt to show action. The two characters sit there and stare at the formula for a long time, shortened by the magic of cinematography. One says he needs an aspirin. They go right back to the same joke action and staring.

This sort of thing is completely real. That is a valid thing to do on code sometimes. Sometimes you just flip through the code for a long while working out what it does and what it needs to do. Then you add that one magic procedure and a call or two, or perhaps change a plus sign to a negative. Then bam! you have it. This is not always the case by any measure. It happens though. More often than managers like.

There is another thing a bit different about this show. The characters have consistent flaws. They learn some lessons and don't learn others. This is not unique to the show, but it adds to my enjoyment. There are times one character just gives up on another character and hits the comic book store. For example, the group tries to head out for a movie. The most picky character has all these rules for picking a particular playing of a show. The theater has to be right. The local cuisine has to be right. Blah, blah. The other characters diagram and map out the options and end up just going to the show without him. After they are gone, he scans the work on the whiteboard and agrees that was the only option.

In case you haven't gathered, I like the show.

Lunch Conversation

• One of the new people had his first encounter with our big boss. No details follow.
• GenCon
• One of the guys was warring a shirt that said "Rogue" on the back of it. That took fifteen minutes to explain. Something about betraying his party at GenCon. Well played.
• There was a game at GenCon all about reading brain activity and moving a ball up and down. There was much made about how the ball acted when some people put on the helmet.
• Wedding photos.
• Which lead to bachelor party discussion.
• Which lead to another bachelor party discussion.
• Which lead to some places not family friendly.
• Something about a party bus related to the wedding.
• Something about a festival outside the wedding.
• There were better sushi places, but this one is right across the street from work. Fortunately, they have some chicken choices. The chopsticks nearly killed me, but I did it.
• My blog has been sucking lately. I agree.
• I'm just plane tired and use up all my brain power learning my new position at work.
• I'm trying to think of things to video.

I don't remember any mention of video games. I spent so much time trying to master my chopsticks that I missed much of the conversation.

Notes

The new keyboard works, but is annoying. I have to hit the keys just right to get character I want. In effect, it slows me down. This is a good thing to be honest. I mistype passwords quite a bit. It is quieter. Nat appreciates that. Giving it more time. Until I get a keyboard made of concrete and steel, I'm kind of stuck. It is kind of funny because all this time I've been trying to condition myself to have a lighter touch. Now, with the new hardened keyboard, I have to hit very hard to type accurately. Does this qualify as irony?

You know, Republicans and some Democrats alike say the Democrats are going to get hammered this Fall. I am just not buying it. I believe that the American people are not yet done with the socialist experiment. The Democrats may loose some pull this Fall. That happens to a good president, but I just don't think it will be the land slide that some people say.

$36,000,000 every hour spent at Wal-Mart in the U. S.. 90% of Americans live within 15 miles of a Wal-Mart. I do.

Nothing is beyond debate. Ever. Nothing is without question. Ever. Nothing is written and there for unchangeable. Ever. All things human are flawed and there for subject to change and failure.

Remember all that talk of making the oceans more safe for seals. Aren't they just so cute?!? Well, we have more seals now. With more seals comes more sharks. Some say we are returning to a state that the world was in before humans came along and killed all the seals and sharks. Thanks environmentalists. Really appreciate the effort.

Wonder like ponder. Wander (pronounced with a long 'a' like can and hand) like meander. I may never get this right. Frigging ignorant spell checkers are no help on this one.

Sometimes at work I get the idea that I'm not going to hit next on the music. I'm just going to let it play no matter what happens. Music is not distracting, but dealing with the music is distracting. This usually dies within about three songs. Even with a script that eliminates duplicates by file name and allows me to filter out a ton of crap, I still don't like a bunch of the music that comes across.

Day

I'm trying to think about what I learned today. I know I learned something. What was it?

• I learned that I don't know crap about RPC on Exchange. Working on it.
• P-CAD sucks.
• Firewalls are even more of a pain in the ass when you have the ability to make changes.

There must have been something else.

On a personal note. I had a bunch of hits on my videos. No secret formula. I need to make more videos of music gatherings. People seem to like them.

Chris's birthday party

This was a bunch of fun. If there is anything anyone is pissed about, contact me before you call a lawyer. The email is in the upper right hand corner of this page.

It took me an evening to shoot this footage and an entire day to edit, render and uploadng it. Now that I am done, I have a hard time finding the energy to promote and post it. Must find strength!

Link to the Blaggards. they are the band playing.

Videos

I don't get it.

Just your every day car crash. Could happen to any one.

Kind of cool. Some pilots off a carrier goofing around. I mean training, ya.

TV

Doctor Who
"I don't belong on this planet either"
"Sometimes winning is no fun at all."
Everything around you and me is art and magic. What a wonderful and fresh moral to a story.

Eureka
"Was that an earthquake?"
"We are not that lucky."

Haven
They have some really nice cinematography in this show, but I have to say that it sucks. I'm getting tired of shows that are based on one person having a special power to see or experience things that no one else can. They are an outcast. They are shunned by normal people and have some confidant whom the trust. Isn't every single super hero plot based on this story?
I don't even want to lke this show.

I'm going down hill. It worries me to watch the next show. What horrors will it bring?

Lunch Conversation

2010-08-13

We talked about work pretty much the whole time. We went over the company web page. Where to begin?

The engineers think that web pages exist to transfer information. The sales people think the web page should only exist to get people to contact the sales. I think they are both wrong. They need to talk to the frigging customers and find out what they are looking for when they are looking for our products. Don't just ask them. Find out what problems our customers are trying to solve with our products and make sue they know our stuff solves the problem.

We also covered some internal politics. I was a bit uncomfortable on this subject because one of the people talking has a voice that carries. He still had to speak loud enough to make himself heard. People back at the office probably heard. That is just the person's projection. He should have gone in to opera. No damage done.

Notes

A film critic said he wished he could just say a film sucked and leave it at that. He hates having to explain why a film is bad when it is just bad. I wander if every film and book critic says the same thing.

Today is Friday the 13th. That doesn't mean what it might have meant a long time ago. When I was younger, I thought more of it. I'm not better or worse for the way I am. It just is.

Massive headache all day. I hate that.

Has anyone ever caught a meteor shower from space?

I son't want to know if any one replies to my comments on YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, whatever. It is all a bunch of vial garbage anyway. No one has anything nice to say on the internet.

VM Linux

VM Linux

There are three computers under my desk at work. We have many networks and many different needs. This is normal in many companies. I dream of a day when we can consolidate things down to one machine, even a laptop, and run virtual machines for our other needs.

Here is what I envision. We set up a windows system for all the users who need a computer. Let's face it, people want to use windows. Those who need a local Linux box will run in a virtual machine. We will have real Linux boxes for servers and test machines in the labs. We need to test hardware and crash things on real systems.

You could keep a running system on your hard drive and never use it. Make a copy and experiment. Screwed it up? Blow it away and make another copy. If you get something working that other people need, make a copy and let them run it.

What things do we do on our local Linux boxes that we could not do on a virtual machine? Hardware comes to mind. Mostly, we build software and do some development on our local Linux boxes. The hardware is in a server.

It seems to me that we do a great deal of breaking things. We try to keep linux running smoothly on our boxes in order to do email and connect to the network. Then we break it by trying to upgrade Python. Or, type [>$ sudo rm -rf /] and for some reason hit the entry key before hitting the tab key to complete the path. That command prompt can be an unforgiving motherfucker some days.

So, what open source virtual machine creation software works on both Linux and Windows?

VirtualBox is supposedly open source. it is by Oracle. I've tried to use it in the past with some luck. I believe it is based on QEMU. Not sure. It does run on both Windows and Linux. It looks like the same data files can go back and forth.

There are three computers under my desk at work. We have many networks and many different needs. This is normal in many companies. I dream of a day when we can consolidate things down to one machine, even a laptop, and run virtual machines for our other needs.

Here is what I envision. We set up a windows system for all the users who need a computer. Let's face it, people want to use windows. Those who need a local Linux box will run in a virtual machine. We will have real Linux boxes for servers and test machines in the labs. We need to test hardware and crash things on real systems.

You could keep a running system on your hard drive and never use it. Make a copy and experiment. Screwed it up? Blow it away and make another copy. If you get something working that other people need, make a copy and let them run it.

What things do we do on our local Linux boxes that we could not do on a virtual machine? Hardware comes to mind. Mostly, we build software and do some development on our local Linux boxes. The hardware is in a server.

It seems to me that we do a great deal of breaking things. We try to keep linux running smoothly on our boxes in order to do email and connect to the network. Then we break it by trying to upgrade Python. Or, type [>$ sudo rm -rf /] and for some reason hit the entry key before hitting the tab key to complete the path. That command prompt can be an unforgiving motherfucker some days.

So, what open source virtual machine creation software works on both Linux and Windows?

VirtualBox is supposedly open source. it is by Oracle. I've tried to use it in the past with some luck. I believe it is based on QEMU. Not sure. It does run on both Windows and Linux. It looks like the same data files can go back and forth.

Madness

Briton is talking about a tax on collage degrees. What the fuck are these fools thinking? Oh, please, prevent people from obtaining the slip of paper that will 5allow them to be more productive. Goddammit! Has the planet gone crazy? Do they want people stupid and uninformed?

In the U. S., we are about to provide health care to people who cannot afford it. People who could afford it before, but can't after the change will be fined. People who are rich will still get better care. All members of government who matter, have say in decisions, are exempt from the rules.

People in Australia are being told they have no right to speak against the government. Some folks there say one cannot live as a human being and follow all the rules. It is normal to just blow off some of the draconian nanny-state dribble and just live.

A soldier in Texas who was diploid, lost his $100,000 plus home to a home owner's association over a debt under $2000. If you owe an HOA $0.01, they can take your house away from you and sell it at auction. They can fine you for what ever rule they think is fitting to create. There are no appeals and no binding arbitration available for recourse.

The national government of the U. S. refuses to defend the borders of our country in order to encourage an influx of immigrants who are highly likely to vote for future members of the current party in power. The borders are being held hostage.

So many Chinese love the Chinese government. Most Chinese think the great firewall of China is a wonderful thing. They feel great about being walled in a safe garden. Why else do you have a government except to defend your virtual and physical borders from invasion? Bad people and bad knowledge are bad things. Keep them out. They have drunk the coo laid in my book. I wander if this blog is available in China. China is doing research on stem cells. They make everything in the world it seems. They don't bother with too much research, just steel someone else's patents and tell the world government to go jump in a lake. Maybe they have it right.

Cap And Triad will run the price of everything through the roof. Everything that lives, breaths, moves, and makes anything will have to pay this tax. it is a way to tax air. This is an international effort to tax air. Carbon dioxide is now a pollutant. The thing you exhale when you breath is now a pollutant and will eventually be taxed in the name of Cap And Tax. Wait and see.

There is a moratorium on offshore oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico for no frigging reason. Oh, they say it is in the name of safety. I believe that it to punish red states for believing in conservative morals and voting for Republicans. But then, I believe a lot of things.

What do the elite's of the world know? It is as though the entire planet has ganged up against conservative, God fearing people. Does every person on the planet believe that someone who thinks differently than they is out to get them? Has world communication made it possible for mass hysteria on a scale not know in history? We talk to one another. We communicate. We find out that people want different things from each other. We reject those wants. We feel that we have to fight to keep what we have. Throw in a global economic slow down and you have anarchy.

Notes

The FED met today. There really isn't much they could do except screw things up. The Interest rates are at zero. These fools are not only stupid, they have made themselves redundant. Good job. I suppose this system doesn't work without some mysterious wizard named Greenspan playing the pipe and leading the invest ores to financial bliss.

Trying then new keyboard. It is one of those flexible rubber keyboards. It is gong to take some getting used to, but I think it will work. It kind of reminds me of tying on that old manual typewriter. You don't have to hit the keys hard, but you have to push them all the way down. Does that make sense? It has aa sleep and power buton that kind of work. Will wanders never sease? Normally, lnux just doesn't support the off the wall stuff like that.

Party

Then we went over to Heath and Nicki's place. A friend of ours named Ryman (Tex) lost his leg recently to medical complications of diabetes and an ignorant doctor.He seems to be taking it in well. It doesn't slow him down much.

There is something you should know about Texas. We shuck corn and clean our ARs in the front yard. heath, the red head bald buy other than me walking around, owns the trailer. He attends cook-offs and charity events with that thing. He wins prizes as well. His beef ribs and pork chops are worth trading your sole for.

I only wish I could have filmed the 45 minute discussion about porn in the driveway. YouTube would have banned me, and there was not a dirty word in it. It was instructional. That is good because there was a mother and son (recently turned 18) in attendance. I could tell he wanted to be there so bad because these are the adults he grew up around talking about sex with him being part of it. The trouble is, one of them was his mother. He had to step away for a couple of sentences more than once. One little note. The son is now older than his mother was when she had him. I man, what can she say to him?

The cleanup took quite a bit of time. I like to show the back side of parties sometimes. I shot the video of the cover take down just to show the effort that these folks go through to get these shin digs done. Look how few instructions these folks need. This comes from years of camping at TRF. The reason there is a blank spot in the audio is because one of the girls mentioned her weight. I used the wrong method of blanking it so I got a nasty chirp. Apologies.

We made it home with about ten pounds of left overs. There are advantages to staying to the end of cleanup. Heath knows how to make some frigging BBQ. Considering we brought nine pounds of potato salad, we made money on the deal. I ate a huge bag of beef fajita meat this afternoon for lunch. That is all I had. It was amazing. It was enough for about three people. Couldn't let it go bad, now could I?

Head mounted monocular

Sunday we went over to my parents. Elle showed up ready to swim, but my parents got rid of the little above ground pool because it was too much maintenance. Elle still didn't want to leave when it was time for all the working people to go to bed. I feel bad because Elle asked me later why I wanted to leave my parents and I just said "Shut up Elle." This is after I had called her selfish for wanting to stay past time to go and not being considerate for other people who have to go to work. When Elle complained to Nat, Nat further explained what was going on. She is seven. I need to cute her a break. I was tired. Bad parenting Kelly.

My father helped me make a mounted monocular. He made the first one and I made the second.

The ingredients are as follows.

A rubber pipe fitting, or shoe. The fitting is designed to screw in to a wall and slip the pipe in to. The one we used was rubber and looked like it was made for either half inch or possible three quarter inch. I'm sure I've seen these things before. I bet they sell them by the truck load at Home Depot.

A hat with a thick supportive bill. We used one hat that already had bottle opener mounted on the bill. We used another that was just thick.

Zip ties, oh, and a leather punch for cutting a nice hole in the hat. An, a Sharpie for marking the holes and where the pipe fitting will sit.

The first one worked so well we made two. I'm keeping one at work.

After about five minutes getting used to the thing, I was able to work on my laptop for about an hour and a half. using it. I wanted to do some video editing, but my laptop kept crashing. I tried fixing things. It was both a success and a failure. It was a success because I used the monocular the whole time. It was a failure because I could not find a reason except a bad video driver for the crashing. I couldn't get the error to stay on the screen long enough for it to be useful. There wasn't anything useful in the logs either. Blah.

Other than that, the old laptop works fine. I can play YouTube and hulu videos. I looked on Dell's website for a way to order a Linux laptop. You an search for several, but you cannot select Linux from the list of OS options. I emailed them, but I suppose you have to call them to get linux pre-installed. I'm not paying the Microsoft tax if I can help it. Here I go again about computers.

I ended up falling asleep and missing the majority of the afternoon. Nat tells me a couple things happened that I missed. I'll let her chime in in the comments if she dares.

Swimming

We went swimming Saturday morning. Bill was kind enough to invite us over to his son's house while they were out of town. They have a lovely home. Their back yard is huge and covered in trees. There is a nice garden of some kind on one side and there is this little court yard area behind the master bed room that is very interesting. The coolest thing is the odd shape of the yard. They live on a culdesac and their yard appears to be that one where they just took all the left over bits they could not put a whole house on and slapped it all in to one area. This must be the place where Nat go the idea for the little relaxation area in the back yard.

We had to stop in at Wal-Mart the night before to get me a new swimsuit. I had left my old suit at Heath and Nickie's place a couple weeks ago during another party. They had a heck of a selection for $7. How can you beat that price? I know from now on that I'm buying all my swim ware and accessories early to mid August from now on.

I took the camera. I shot a video. I've been hurting for something to shoot for over a week. I also took the waterproof case. It worked magnificently. I did not take it deep. I jumped off the board and under the water about three cm a couple of times. I'm highly terrified of testing that cheap case. This is a good thing.

Elle just can't get enough of just about everything. She doesn't want to leave when so much as anything is going on. She will swim until she drowns. She will play Magog, or solitaire for hours. I wander if she would like Tetras. I don't want her to get an RSD. That is for when she is much older. Thirteen at least.

Notes

Wal-Mart is the biggest employer in the U. S. and Mexico. Wal-Mart has a bank in Mexico that is quickly on it's way to being number one there. They are nearly ready to open a bank in Canada. Wal-Mart was blocked in the U. S. a couple years ago, but that may change.

There is some talk of making a law that says if people drop off the unemployment compensation rolls, they are still counted as unemployed on all the rate counters.

The proverbial shit is being dumped from the back of a truck on to the proverbial fan as far as the whole Mexican drug problem is going. People are getting their heads chopped off for God's sake. Now there are gang members of all kinds in the U. S. military so. They are there to learn tactics and develop inroads to new territory and activities.

Podcasts quote

"You were an ATF agent for several years. Your first week on the job you were taken hostage and shot in the back."

"Yes sir. That was a great experience for me. It taught me what kind of people I was dealing with. ..."

Heard on the G Gordon Liddy show. You just don't get that sort of thing anywhere else.

More red neck mayhem

This is another angle of the same smah from yesterday. I hope he is OK. I'm waiting for this to turn up on Fail Blog.

Too many toys

This is what happens when you mix alcohol, a backhoe, a bunch of red necks and a video camera. These guys have way too much fun.

Surfing from an RC chopper

I think you are going to start getting a lot more of this kind of thing. It takes a fortune to use a real helicopter for this kind of stuff. When it comes to putting the aircraft in danger, this has got to be a better choice than the real thing. How long will it be before we have drone news choppers?

Better than cartoons on a Saturday morning

ROCKVILLE, Md. -- Police in Rockville released video Wednesday of a vehicle chase and said the pursuit ended when a 17-year-old driver backed a Ford Escape onto the top of an officer's car.

The incident happened shortly before 10 p.m. Tuesday when officers pursued the SUV, which police learned was stolen during an armed carjacking in Prince George's County earlier in the day.

Live Leak

Vehicular assault among other charges. This is exactly what I needed to kick my Saturday morning right in the balls.

Notes

I ordered one of those floppy indestructible keyboards. I've tried to use one of these before. That one double tapped keys. I gave it to someone. The keys are in a kind of funny layout on the new keyboard. I have three keyboards currently. One has a dying space bar. Another has the lower left quadrant of the entire keyboard slowly deteriorating. Another has a whole section of keys going out as well. My options are finding a keyboard made of concrete and stainless steel or trying one of the floppy waterproof jobs. Wish me luck.

Google Wave was cool. It was too complicated. The drag and drop stuff didn't work on Linux.

Kelly got game

I performed a near miracle today. The big boss walks in to my office and says he wants a faster computer with Windows XP on it. I suggest Vista because the new machines really like Vista. They would like Windows 7 if we had the appropriate licenses, but no dice. We are still putting an eight year old OS on some of our systems. Hey, it is his company. When he says jump, you jump.

OK, we need XP because of some specific software we need to run.

Dell doesn't sell any new computers with XP on them that are more than netbooks. No support any more. Microsoft has basically discontinued the OS. No one makes drivers for it any more.

I pop in the CD, boot and get a blue screen of death in a bout a minute. Don't even make it to the "Press enter to install Windows" bit.

In proper IT fashion, I weep for a moment. Then hit Google. Half an hour of shearing finds a single entry on a forum on Microsoft's page somewhere mentioning my problem. They mention switching to legacy ATA settings in the BIOS.

The first try did nothing. I look around for another version of XP. Yes, there are many versions. I found one and tried again.

It worked! ... for a while. I got all kinds of copy errors. DRAT!!!

It turned out to be the drive, not the media. Good thing that. I didn't have any other copies of that particular version of XP. Sixth or seventh try is a charm. The OS installed.

Now comes the fun part of finding drivers. Dell is normally extremely helpful for finding drivers. Just so long as you are installing an OS they support. Fortunately, the video drivers just shut up and install. The Ethernet, that is another matter.

I have been down this road before. I boot of the Ubuntu live CD and run a program called 'lspci'. This gives me what Ubuntu thinks are the device names and descriptions. Considering this Ubuntu is about three months old and the XP I'm installing is more like seven years, it is a good bet. I Google the Ethernet drivers and find one that seems to work.

At this point the install is more or less done. Get it on the network and hand it to someone who needs it. Before I let it go, I make an image of the hard drive just for good measure.

We didn't put XP on these boxes before because there was no info on what to do to get them to work. That was just before the turn of the year. The forum entry that set me on my quest was from April I believe.

Joke

Hillery asked Chelsy if she had sex with her new husband before they got married.

Chelsy responded "Not according to Dad."

Notes

I wanted to think about conspiracy theories at lunch today. I have to be careful. I am walking around the parking garage talking to myself. This is bad to a lot of people. I am back in my stumbling mode because of the weather affecting my sinuses and ears again. It helps me think. It helps me wrap my head around things. However, A bald guy, stumbling around, talking to himself about conspiracy theories is a step too far. I'm not a bad guy. I just read a lot, and talk to myself.

Notes

I wanted to think about conspiracy theories at lunch today. I have to be careful. I am walking around the parking garage talking to myself. This is bad to a lot of people. I am back in my stumbling mode because of the weather affecting my sinuses and ears again. It helps me think. It helps me wrap my head around things. However, A bald guy, stumbling around, talking to himself about conspiracy theories is a step too far. I'm not a bad guy. I just read a lot, and talk to myself.

Jokes

Puns for Educated Minds
1. The fattest knight at King Arthur's round table was Sir Cumference. He acquired his size from too much pi.
2. I thought I saw an eye doctor on an Alaskan island, but it turned out to be an optical Aleutian.
3. She was only a whiskey maker, but he loved her still.
4. A rubber band pistol was confiscated from algebra class, because it was a weapon of math disruption.
5. No matter how much you push the envelope, it'll still be stationery.
6. A dog gave birth to puppies near the road and was cited for littering.
7. A grenade thrown into a kitchen in France would result in Linoleum Blownapart.
8. Two silk worms had a race. They ended up in a tie.
9. A hole has been found in the nudist camp wall. The police are looking into it.
10. Time flies like an arrow. Fruit flies like a banana.
11. Atheism is a non-prophet organization.
12. Two hats were hanging on a hat rack in the hallway. One hat said to the other: 'You stay here; I'll go on a head.'
13. I wondered why the baseball kept getting bigger. Then it hit me.
14. A sign on the lawn at a drug rehab center said: 'Keep off the Grass.'
15. The midget fortune-teller who escaped from prison was a small medium at large.
16. The soldier who survived mustard gas and pepper spray is now a seasoned veteran.
17. A backward poet writes inverse.
18. In a democracy it's your vote that counts. In feudalism it's your count that votes.
19. When cannibals ate a missionary, they got a taste of religion.
20. If you jumped off the bridge in Paris, you'd be in Seine.
21. A vulture boards an airplane, carrying two dead raccoons. The stewardess looks at him and says, 'I'm sorry, sir, only one carrion allowed per passenger.'
22. Two fish swim into a concrete wall. One turns to the other and says 'Dam!'
23. Two Eskimos sitting in a kayak were chilly, so they lit a fire in the craft. Unsurprisingly it sank, proving once again that you can't have your kayak and heat it too.
24. Two hydrogen atoms meet. One says, 'I've lost my electron.' The other says 'Are you sure?' The first replies, 'Yes, I'm positive.'
25. Did you hear about the Buddhist who refused Novocain during a root canal? His goal: transcend dental medication.
26. There was the person who sent ten puns to friends, with the hope that at least one of the puns would make them laugh. No pun in ten did.

I've only heard about half of these, but only half.

On we go

Feeling the heat on my skin.
Feeling the sweat drip down my face.
Feeling the sun pound in to my bald head.
Feeling the hot breeze stumble past.

The humidity is a creature standing on my shoulders.
The creature is heavy and drags me down.
The weight makes me tired and slow.
On we go.

A child runs past me in this heat.
His mother tels him to wait for her.
She has the creature on her shoulder too.
The child has not known the ravages of age.

The child dreams of monsters.
We old people ignore them at our peril.
What does that child know?
On we go.

This happened today on the way back from lunch. I had been walking on the roof of the parking garage in the sun and heat. I felt warn and wet on the way back to the office. A mother and child past me on the ramp between the buildings. The child was unaffected by the heat and humidity. He was happy to be alive and free of the drag of reality. I learned something at that moment. The walls and monsters I fight are my own. I cannot ignore them, but I can learn to live with them. I can learn to thrive amongst them. That child taught me this. How many times do I need to learn this lesson?

Keys

The c key is dying on my home keyboard at the house. I pound the ctrl-c when something goes wrong. I have a history of pounding keyboards. Even in the best of times I mash the keys due to learning to type on a manual typewriter. I've had a keyboard explode. I threw one across the room and spent half the evening hunting down a couple keys. One was in the sync if memory serves.

I tweeted about my keyboard sorrows. After mentioning the fail of my c key a friend answered my wail of woe. He tweeted "Play in b flat." hell of a guy that Lance.

This issue has made me a bit more conscious of how people are affected by their keyboards. For a very long time we have had a situation where the keyboards at work were very precious. Then, we had some keyboards come loose and we bought some keyboards at about the same time. This means, don't let any one know, we have a couple half decent keyboards lying around.

Some new and perhaps undeserving people got half decent keyboards because they are available. Some people who go the dregs of the best we could do at the time have gotten one of these half decent keyboards because I think it is only fair.

Notes

I was listening to a podcast from RRR (triple R radon somewhere in Australia). The person talking came right out and said he makes illegal recordings of TV shows so he can watch them later. It is cheaper than a DVR. What I bet he was really doing was downloading the shows from a torrent site. The laws in Australia are draconian when it comes to copy right. I've wandered how the heck people can live with some of the nuts laws in Australia. It turns out, it isn't too bad because people just break them.

Nat bought me a tie yesterday. It scares me because she mentioned it would work for a funeral. Her mother is in pretty bad shape. She is a tough old broad, but we all have a tether that stretches only so far. I'm missing a jacket. I may have to barrow when the time comes. Drag just thinking about it.

Linux comes with the utilities you need to send email. Windows is lacking. You have to install another program just to achieve the most basic functionality. Most use Blat.

The last audio CD I purchased was that one where all the bands got together and covered cartoon themes. I have long since lost it. The CD player on my twelve year old stereo is dead and has been for at least 2 moves. I don't even know if my computer will play audio CDs.

The word "Hello" did not show up until 1830.

Pakistani hypocrisy

Four CH-47 Chinooks can carry dozens of people on stretchers, or haul enormous loads of equipment or supplies. Two smaller UH-60 Black Hawks serve as workhorse transport helicopters.

The helicopters were supposed to arrive Tuesday but were delayed by bad weather. The Pentagon says they will fly when the weather clears. The helicopters will be flown by U.S. crews at the discretion of the Pakistani military. Pakistan publicly resists any U.S. military presence inside the country, but has accepted humanitarian help before.

Military.com

Nothing leaves a bad taste in my mouth like a two faced ally. They say the U. S. is an ally. They say they are helping us find the bad guys. They supply our enemies and provide safe passage across borders for same. Sure, it may not be the same people doing those things. Pakistan may not be the best oiled social machine on the planet. They are a strong, proud, noble people. Their government sucks. They let bad men use them for their own profit.

Rejecting the U.S. intelligence chief’s accusations that Pakistan is harboring al-Qaida and Taliban leaders, Islamabad said Friday it remains committed to fighting international terrorism and extremism.

MSNB (2007)

Then you have this last week

On the likely implications (or non-implications) for U.S. policy towards Pakistan, go back to 2009, and this piece in the National Interest by Bruce Riedel who conducted the first review of Afghan strategy for President Barack Obama. Having assessed all the evidence, including well-known American misgivings about the role of the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) agency, he concluded that Washington had no option but to stay the course in trying to build a long-term partnership with Pakistan.

American policy for the last 60 years, wrote Riedel, had oscillated wildly between love and hate. “What the U.S.-Pakistan relationship needs is constancy and consistency. We need to recognize that change in Pakistan will come when we engage reliably with the Pakistani people, support the democratic process and address Pakistan’s legitimate security concerns. Candor needs to be the hallmark of an enduring commitment to civilian rule in Pakistan.

...

The danger of course – and that is one reason why the WikiLeaks uproar cannot be dismissed as old news – is that allegations will stoke already strong anti-American feeling in Pakistan, making it all the harder for Washington to persuade Pakistan to do more. As Chris quotes Pakistani political analyst Hasan-Askari Rizvi as saying: “The Islamic parties and the extreme political right in Pakistan already view the U.S. as a major threat to Pakistan. They don’t view the Taliban as a threat. Now these reports have given them a lot of ammunition.”

Reuters

I'm being unfair. I know this. Honestly, it is difficult to tell if Pakistan is playing three sides against the middle or answering to far too many masters. Still, I do not trust the government to do what the say. I do not trust the tribes to care what happens beyond their back hards. The one thing I trust is the future will not bring any derisive answers.

Test paragraph/blockquote

I've used the blockquote tag for years. it is out of convention now. The quote below is just a paragraph tag with special settings. Every now and again, those old tags drop off the radar. So, I'm learning how to use a tag that can't really go anywhere.

Example opening tags

<p style="margin-left:40px;margin-right:40px;background-color:#d0ffd0;padding:8px">

This is a test paragraph.

<blockquote style="background-color:#d0f0d0;padding:8px">

This is a test blockquote.

Update

Then I tried to use a <div> to right align some text inside that paragraph. You cannot nest <p> tags. Never mind.

I agree

This list is endless. i wander sometimes if there is a comprehensive list and a stout rule of movie cliché. Is there an algorithm that an can all of movie history and give us a database of homage and hoe many times one movie rips another off? Is there a way of telling if it was well done or if it is just theft?

Getting started

It took me a full ninety minutes to run through my routine of simple stuff.

• Checking email
• Documenting what happened yesterday
• Making sure I documented anything I learned yesterday
• Tracking hours for today, setting up a time outline
• Updating my personal log
• Get a cup of coffee
• Every other damn thing and yadda yadda

I refer to this as getting my shit together for the day. Normally this takes me thirty minutes tops. I'm learning more because of the new position. It is exciting, but time consuming. I didn't leave until something like 18:30 yesterday.

Notes

I paid bills. there was a bit left over to pay the savings account back. There was a little left to pay off the extra couple bucks we had to put on the credit card last month. Natalie helped me keep the bills down to one date night, gas, bred and bananas. She is brilliant on keeping it cheap when she wants to be.

One of the podcasts I listen to was all about the corruption in China. It sounds a bit like what goes on right here in the U. S., just more intense. Local officials use their pull to get things that they do not have coming. Politicians are the same regardless of capitalism, socialism, communism, or whatever. Power corrupts. Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

Many companies spoken to about job growth say it isn't that they don't want to hire more people. It is that they do not have the money to do so.

I put in a lot of hours at work. I am not a workaholic. I've known people who could not sit still for three minutes. They had to be doing something productive or constructive or destructive every moment. They surely dreamed about building bridges.

One of the highest theft items is razorblades. I can believe it. Have you seen the price of razorblades? Well, unless you have a disease or subscribe to a short list of beliefs, you have to deal with the cost of razorblades.

Southwest Airlines just added mechanical problems to their "act of god" list right along side storms, earthquakes and high winds. This means you cannot get a refund if they have a problem with their own plane. Bastards.