Music
I added the functionality to my music script to create a fantastic file. I've filled out the list a bit. I also added a simple duplicate finding routine that checks for duplicate file names. It only does the file name at the moment. Some duplicates slip through, but not nearly as many. I've spot checked the duplicate file and sure enough the files are there more than once. The sheer number of duplicates is frightening. 12556 duplicates out of 53537 total files including non music files. That is like one fourth.
There is an interesting side affect to removing duplicates. I notice the more obscure songs play more often. Mostly common stuff gets copied over and over. That moves their play time up artificially. This is not such a big deal. It does affect which artists I put in my fantastic list. I stop and think to myself "I'm going to hear them more often." This keeps Weird Al among others out of that list.

Output
-------- Summary -----------------------------------------
Total files processed   > 53537
Good files in playlist  > 32633
Bad files out of list   > 6557
Fantastic files         > 3882
Number of Duplicates    > 12556
Elapsed seconds         > 520.85
Files/second            > 102.787750792
----------------------------------------------------------

-------- Info --------------------------------------------
Good file               > kelly_good.m3u
Fantastic file          > kelly_fan.m3u
Duplicate file          > kelly_dup.dat
Log file                > kelly_log.log
Directory processed     > /mnt/music
----------------------------------------------------------

Fantastic list
"Alanis Morissette",
"Anna Nalick",
"Alison Krauss",
"Audioslave",
"/Beck",
"The Black Crowes",
"/Blondie",
"/Bluegrass",
"Bonnie Raitt",
"Bjork", "bjork",
"Butthole Surfers",
"/Cake",
"Concrete Blonde",
"Cowboy Junkies",
/Creed",
"David Allan Coe",
"Dave Matthews",
"/The Doors",
"Dixie Chicks",                                 # Amazing artists, lousy politics.
"Fiona Apple",
"Eric Clapton",
"G Love and Special Sauce",
"/Garbage",
"George Thorogood",
"/Jewel",
"Johnny Cash",
"Kittie", "kittie",
"Kid Rock",                                     # Marginal
"Linkin Park",
"Lisa Loeb",
"Lucinda Williams",
"George Thorogood",
"Matthew Sweet",
"Mazzy Star",
"Moldy Peaches",
"Natalie Merchant",
"/Nirvana",
"No Doubt",
"Norah Jones",
"/Prince",                                      # Yah, I like prince. =\
"Primus", "primus",
"Rolling Stones",
"/Sarah McLachlan",
"Sheryl Crow",
"/Staind",
"The Scabs",
"Tracy Bonham",
"Tom Petty",
"Tom Waits",
"/Tool",
"Ugly Americans",
"Veruca Salt",
"/Whale",
"Willie Nelson",
"ZZ Top"

Bad list
"/U2",                                          # Fuck U2.
"/Rush ",                                       # I'm tired of Rush.
"/Classical/",                                  # Not at work.
"pimsleur", "Pimsleur",                         # Not unless I'm in the mood for a lesson.
"/Luca Turilli",                                # Just annoying.
"/jazz", "Jazz/",                               # Just because Jazz drives me nuts at work.
"Barry White",                                  # I like Barry White, but not at work.
"Destiny's Child",
"/George Clinton",                              # So 80s and he came out in the 90s.
"/Damnation_History",                           # Religious nonsense.
"FetenHits",                                    # Too many shitty songs.
"Cradle of Filth",                              # Blekh!!!
"/Starship",                                    # Over plaid.
"Quad City",
"Love Tractor",
"grand Funk railroad", "Grand Funk Railroad",   # Soooo sixties.
"Matisyahu",                                    # Not my taist.
"Motley Crue",                                  # Reminds me I had long hair once. =[
"/Living Colour",                               # I didn't laugh at the show aether.
"Bombtrack (live)",                             # This track is both preachy and messed up.
"More Bounce To The Ounce",
"Boyz II Men",                                  # Too happy.
"Kansas", "/Yes/",                              # Too ... much like Rush.
"Menudo",                                       # Give me a break.
"Less Than You Think",                          # Sounds like a busted washing machine.
"/Moby",                                        # Who?
"Funk Box",
"/Emperor",                                     # Makes me want to burn kittins.
"Radiohead and U2",
"/Spice Girls",                                 # You have got to be kidding me.
"Arular [2005]",                                # Because they support terrorism.
"Culture Club",                                 # Oy!!
"/N.E.R.D.",                                    # Yeesh
"/Trivium",
"/In Flames",
"/Killswitch Engage",
"/Project 86",
"/Ultimate Fakebook",
"/Urge Overkill",                               # There are like nine copies of this song.
"/Sinch",
"/Spineshank",
"/Skinlab",
"/Silent Hill 2",
"/Sevendust",
"/Dimmu Borgir",
"/Liars Academy",
"/Element Eighty",
"/Blindside",
"/Emperor",
"Deftones - 10 - Mx",                           # A mile of blank in the middle.
"/Iced Earth",
"/12 Steones",
"The Beta Band",
"- Moby -",
"The Mighty Mighty Bosstones",                  # I just don't like the guy's voice.
"/Dimmu Borgir",                                # Makes my throat hurt.
"Disgustipated",                                # Another disturbing distracting song.
"Mohammed Rafi",                                # Distracting. Too early sixties surf movie.
"Funkalicious",                                 # I've herd it.
"Funkadelic",
"Funky Homosapien","funky homosapien",          # Just, no.
"To All the Girls I",                           # Yuck.
"/Bill Evans",
"/Anthology 1992-2002",
"/Basement Jaxx",                               # Too dancy again.
"08 - Ignoreland"                               # One of the copies skips like mad.
"Red Red Wine", "RedRedWine",                   # The reason I wrote this script.
"Tool - Aenima - 14 - (-)Ions",                 # This song is disturbing.
"_U2_",
"/John Frusciante",
"13 - Proud Division",                          # Song is messed up.
"Built This City",                              # This song is so over.
"Tripping The Light Fantastic",                 # Too dance-ish.
"/Dio",                                         # Who ever listened to Dio?
"2525",                                         # The most depressing song ever written.
"/GRP All-Star Big Band",                       # Not my bag.
"Saturday Night Live"

Cold
It is cold today in Houston. There was a record low over night. It is about ten degrees colder this morning than it was yesterday. It feels warmer. That is because it is below freezing. The moisture has moved out of the air for the most part. The wind is not blowing very hard. The sun is just came up over the Target parking lot. It is supposed to get up to the fifties today.

Glasses Came in
Nat and my glasses came in. I like mine. They are about half as large as I thought, but they work. I mean, they are small. That does make them light. They look OK. I intend to only use them as a backup for the contacts so we will see how it goes.
They fit under the safety glasses. They ride kind of high so I can look under them to read easily. That is a good thing. I'm tired of bifocals. It is nice to have something comfortable to change in to when my contacts get the better of me.

Well Done

This took some effort. Well done.

Big Hole in the Water
No, not a boat. Just a cool looking drain hole. How often can you say that? I had to link to it. I want some better prospective. I want them to shove a pickup down it or something.

And off again

They landed it yesterday just to do some normal maintenance. Here it is taking off again, the next day or two later. It appears to be from a flat trailer behind a pickup truck.
Link

Breathing
I went to the doctor. I do not have asthma, though I do have some kind of long term bronchitis. I looked at the x-ray and saw no clouds or anything. You could see the little tubes at the bottom mostly. That means they are clogged with glop. The doctor gave me the same treatment that one would take for asthma. I'm supposed to call him back in a week and let him know how it goes with this medicine.
So, I stop taking the stuff I was taking over the counter. The only thing that was working was the expectorant. I am tired of coughing. That is the truth. I know Nat is tired of my coughing. I'm sure my coworkers will be happier if I stop coughing.
I'm sure I'll blog the results.

Good News

A study conducted by UCLA's Department of Psychiatry has revealed that the kind of face a woman finds attractive on a man can differ depending on where she is in her menstrual cycle. For example: If she is ovulating, she is attracted to men with rugged and masculine features. However, if she is menstruating, or menopausal, she tends to be more attracted to a man with duct tape over his mouth and a spear lodged in his chest while he is on fire. No further studies are expected. email from Anna

Sounds about right. Kind of goes along with my assessment of the Dixie Twits the other day.

Look Ma! No Wheels

I've always had a thing for aquatic planes. I have no idea why. They just seem cool. I stumbled across this video here. Pretty cool. Those Canadians are nuts.

Dixie Twits

In 2007, the Dixie Chicks received:     a Grammy for "Best Country Album" for their album "Taking the Long Way,"     a Grammy for "Song of the Year" for "Not Ready to Make Nice,"     a Grammy for "Record of the Year" for "Not Ready to Make Nice" and     a Grammy for "Album of the Year" for "Taking the Long Way." Am I the only one who suspects their much better showing in 2007 may have more to do with finding the right (or rather, left) friends than with finding some previously-hidden talent? Shamlessly lifted from The Jawa Report

Do you remember the beautiful talented girls in high school who you really wanted to fuck, but after the first three minutes of hanging out with them, you wish to God they would just .. shut ... up!

Computers Suck
Nat's computer died. It made a "ieieieieeieieieieiei" noise when she turned it on last and then quit. I suspect the power supply, but when I replaced it that didn't work. It is not an identical power supply, but what are you going to do. The computer is an eMachines. I've heard nothing but nightmares about the brand. It is out of warranty. Basically we are screwed.
If I have to replace the motherboard in Nat's machine, I fear I will have to buy a new copy of the OS. This is because of some recent Slash Dot articles that basically complain about exactly that. You have got to be kidding me. It is no wonder they are so cheap. They suck. I've heard warnings for years not to buy them. I didn't have any say in this purchase. I'll have say in any subsequent purchases.
Nat has been using my computer. This is kind of cool. She has been using my machine for a couple of days now and her only complaint is that it is slow and some videos will not play off the net. There are a bunch of plugins that wont work either. I can occasionally get Java to work in Firefox under Linux, but it is hit and mis.
Pretty soon Elle will need her own computer. i should have one running right now. I'm just lost for an OS. I can't get the drive in the machine that we have for Elle to work. Something about missing bits here and there. I refuse to buy another copy of Windows for both Nat and Elle. That is just not going to happen. I would be rewarding Microsoft for making shitty OS software. I'm just going to have to figure things out.
I would love to put Linux on both machines. Nat wants Windows features. Elle needs children's software. There are no titles for kids that I'm aware of for Linux. That means Windows in both cases. It makes me sick. I've never gotten any program of any substance to work under Wine or Crossover Office. Those packages are still in the "play with it until it works" stage. I don't have time for that crap. I need it to work out of the box.
I cannot really blame developers for not supporting the "other OS". Even developing for Mac is a pain in the ass. If it requires X amount of effort to develop a package for Windows. It will take X *1.5 to develop for Windows and Mac. It will take X * 2.2 to develop for Windows, Mac and Linux. It will take X * 2.8 to develop for Windows, Mac, Linux and OS/2.
You have to not only redevelop parts of the program. You have to rethink what you are doing in so many cases. Then, you have to have the same features on all the platforms to keep from getting sued. Some features are a snap on one system and a pain in the ass on others.
The world of software development is glad that Microsoft controls the vast majority of computers because they have one target to aim at. Now IBM is coming up with a Single Desktop solution to make Windows, Mac and Linux software run seamlessly side by side on one PC.Great. That doesn't salve the problem of developing for each OS unless IBM is the one who wins.
It doesn't fix my problem. I need a computer that Nat can and will use. I need a computer that Elle can and will use. I don't have much money. I barely have enough money to make ends meet. What do you suppose I should do?

Went Dancing
Nat and I went dancing. We went with Ken and Jen. It was someone's birthday. Nat will have to fill in the details. It was a particularly good time. We should have taken the camera and video camera. We are going to sneak them in next time.
We saw two sets of racers on the way home. One set in the parking lot of the club. The normal set at Kroger up the street. I'm really getting sick if this. Some one drove through our front yard. It looks like they parked in our driveway and took off through our front yard at some point. I'm going to keep my shotgun close for the next tress passing prick who decides to damage my property.
Oh, right. Back to the party.
Had a great time. Took a few pictures, but with someone else's camera. So, no pictures =[
God I'm tired. I'm off to bed.
Hey Ken, it didn't work.

Birthday Dinner
Nat made the best birthday dinner for me Thursday night. She went through all kinds of trouble to make things perfect.
She knows I love General Tso's chicken. Nat ate the sushi and I ate the chicken and noodles. It was wonderful. It is a magical memory. I hope Nat knows this meant a lot to me. I wonder if i didn't want anything from any one else so her gift would feel like more.

Way off

You scored as Peter Pan. Your alter ego is Peter Pan. You are a child at heart. Anything you believe is possible, and you never want to grow up. Peter Pan 100% Donald Duck 69% Goofy 56% Sleeping Beauty 50% Snow White 38% Cinderella 38% Cruella De Ville 38% Pinocchio 38% The Beast 31% Ariel 19% Which Disney Character is your Alter Ego? created with QuizFarm.com

How to install software
It never fails to amaze me how may ways there are to install software. Even one one OS there are so many solutions. They all have their problems and most of them are simply lacking.
There are two concepts regarding installing software. There is the package manager. If you are on windows you just said "a what?" because Windows doesn't do well with package managers. At my old company, they wrote their own package management system  They called the software shelf. It was a web page that linked to all the installs. It aloud you to install sanctioned software packages and upgrade as you went.
Well, most other operating systems have these package managers built in, or available. They use repositories that hold the individual packages as needed.
The other concept is the one most folks are familiar with. It is the single package install. This is where you put a CD in the drive and it comes up asking you a bunch of questions and installs some software. Or, you download a package from the net and install it on your system. This is very hard to maintain. Things get broken when packages conflict. Things get broken when one package removes a shared file. Things get broken when different versions of things conflict.
If you bought a computer and stuck it in the closet and ever turned it on. It would run just as well in five years as it did that first day. When is the last time you had a computer go five years without having a melt down somewhere along the way? The above problems along with a few others are the reason computers get slow and start breaking as they are used.
If you never install or remove any software, the computer will run better for longer. If you lock the users out of the engine compartment, the can't destroy things as easily. But people need to upgrade and keep up to date virus detection, spam detection, firewall, ad removal and other kinds of software on a daily basis. These are layers upon layers of things that can go wrong.
In Linux, there must be ten different ways to bundle up software for distribution. I use YUM/RPM. I also use apt-get/DEB to a lesser degree. There is the one in Linspire. I'm not familiar with it. SUN has their own on Solaris. I hear it is lacking. YUM is the package manager and RPM is the method of installing the individual packages. Apt-get is the package manager and DEB is the method for each package. None of these are compatible with each other. They claim to jump the gap, but there are always troubles in my experience.
Why doesn't Windows have a package manager? Well, they do, kind of. Windows has an installer with no repository support  tha I'm aware of. It is the Windows Installer. However, when you base your existence on commercial proprietary software, no one is going to agree to put their install in a repository with every one elses stuff. There could be a repository for open source software for Windows. That will not happen because Microsoft would have to support it in some way. If MS decided not to (which they have because their investors won't allow it) it will not happen. I bet you could get YUM and RPM to work on Windows with some work. You could make repositories that are for win32 and win64. It sounds easy enough to me. Well, easy to some one who knows it well enough.
When I want to update mys system at home to the latest software versions of just about everything, I type in the following command.
sudo yum -y update
or
sudo apt-get update
Those commands will update the minor version of most software packages. If I want to cut a bit deeper, I use the word "upgrade" in stead of "update" and a further leap of version numbers will be taken.
When I want to uninstall a package the command is something like the following.
sudo yum remove <package>
That's it. The package manager worries about all the required packages and libraries. Sometimes there is a dependency that needs to be resolved. That is a pain. Nothing like it was before YUM or apt-get.
That is it. All the software on my box that I installed using YUM gets updated in the background while I get on with my day. Somethings things go hey-wire, but any time you make changes stuff freaks. I have to say, it is much better than keeping everything up to date by hand.
So, who keeps the repositories up to date? Right now it is the community of Linux users who sign up and give a few hours a week to the cause on their own time. I believe Linspire has paid people doing it. Red Hat may have people on staff who help out. I bet most of the companies involved in enterprise systems contribute in one way or another. It is the high end users out there who do the trudge work though.
To install a piece of software you first must decide if there are any prerequisites required. These are called dependencies.  On Windows and other non repository systems this is pretty much a manual step. you don't know until you try to install or, for the love of God, read the instructions. If you are on a repository system (YUM or apt-get for example) the package management software tries really hard to install all the dependencies and their dependencies and their dependencies before installing the package in question.
In Windows (and other closed source projects) most programs include the dependencies in the install package. This can cause conflict. It is referred to as DLL hell. In open source OS projects most of the dependencies are not included because of licensing. Open source says you can freely distribute a package unless you make it part of another package that you sell. Thus, most. open source projects have a long list of all too separate dependencies. Without a package management system you are in trouble.
A good example is a sound editing program that I installed on Windows many years ago. it could not support MP3 directly because of lichening. MP3 is a proprietary format and you must pay to use it in your program. When you clicked on "save as mp3" a dialog box popped up telling you to got to www.whatever.com and download a specific DLL file and put it in a specific spot. They could not put it there for you because that would be redistribution. You had to go get it yourself.
I'm sure any one who has made it to this point is a confirmed geek. Let me guess, Nat, my parents, and most random people have dropped off before this point. Maybe Adam and Ken (Viper) made it this far. None of my other geeky friends read my blog. Let me know in the comments.
Back to the subject. . . There is no silver bullet. Every single method of install and removal has problems. They mostly have the same problems. Don't put on enough, take off too much, or break something that was working. There is a movement in the world to have a one folder install called zero install. All dependencies would be linked from withing the folder and to run the program you would just double click the folder. When time comes to remove the program, you delete the folder.  it is very easy to find the dependencies that have no folders pointing to them. You could choose to remove them or leave them there. This is a Utopian idea that might actually work. it would eliminate DLL hell and would make the  Windows Registry redundant. It would make the dependency torture easier. If you need five different versions of a library on your system, just rename their folders and point your link point to that one copy. Hard drives are cheap.

Absent Minded Programmer
So, someone comes in to my office. I take off my earphones to talk to them about something related to work. When they leave I look around for where I laid my earphones. They are not in the normal five places I do find the cord and follow it.
They were around my neck.

Lunch Conversation
It was mostly about the case of the psycho astronaut who allegedly tried to kill a romantic rival.
# No one has spoken to the male astronaut's wife. He was married too.
# One of the night show people asked what kind of car she was driving would go 900 miles without stopping for gas or to pee. Is it one of those special NASA cars?
# Someone interviewed by the news asked "What is with Clear Lake raising all these crazy women?" I have to agree.
# The local news last night said they were having "over night coverage" of the situation. They stuck a camera in the window of an SUV while it pulled into a garage. "She is probably laying down on the floor of the SUV ..."  - Bastards.

Jihady Joke
How may Jihady does it take to take over the world?
One to be radical. And the rest to do nothing.

hmmm, not very funny is it.

Backseat Poltergeists
So, Elle said she didn't want to go to school today. That never worked when I was a kid, but it did with Nat this morning. She missed Elle from the long weekend without her. Nat and Elle were on their way to Nat's mom's place. Things were running smoothly. Then, from the back seat comes "Mommy, I ate too much."
Then came the sound that every parent' knows all to well. A sound deserving of it's own paragraph.
BWAAAAAKH!!!
Nat tells me Elle did a pretty good job of confining the torrent to the back seat. I picture Elle's head spinning and puke spraying all over the car like a vomit lawn sprinkler, but I'm assured that was not the case.
Nat had to stop at Target and get a new booster seat. The old car seat is in the trunk festering as I type. That is going to be a fun clean up this evening.
Reminds me of a story from my childhood. I was enjoying a bag of marshmallows. Yah, marshmallows. Well, I vaguely remember my mother telling me not to eat too many, but you know kids. I ate my fill, snapped my fingers and went to bed. Sometime later, in the middle of the night. I stumbled into my parents room and said something very profound. Something every parents hears at least a dozen times.
"Mom, I don't feel so gooBWAAAAAKH!!!"
My father didn't miss a beat. From the dark, without even being fully away he says "Somebody just threw up." Can't put nothing past the old man.
Well, I puked on the carpet again and my mom rushed me to the bathroom. I assured her
"I'm finBWAAAAAKH!!!"
I knelt corrected.
Ah, payback is a bitch.

New Contacts
I like these new contacts. The prescription is a bit stronger. I'm getting to the point with glasses that the world looks fish-eyed around the edges. None of that with contacts. Everything is just clear. Well, clear as long as the contacts are sitting the right way. I have astigmatism so the contacts mus sit with the correct bit pointing up. About every hour I have to give them a nudge to point them in the right direction. I've tried blinking different ways and looking in strange and stressful directions, but nothing really works. You just have to nudge them with your finger.
I had to order some new lenses. I have a new prescription anyway. I really do see better with contacts. I can read signs sometimes while riding in the car. I still can't make out the menus behind the tellers at fast food places. I think I get the most out of the vision I have with contacts.
I have to ware glasses with the contacts to read. That is kind of back-asswords, I know. I like getting up out of my seat and walking down the hall able to recognize people. and not trip over my own feet. Bifocals have warn their welcome thin. I'm just plane tired of only seeing half of everything. Someone needs to come up with a real cure for focusing the eyes. Either thin out the human lens or come up with auto focusing lenses for glasses or contacts. I don't care how you do it. Make them zoom while your at it.

One year
It has been one year today since I started the new job. I suppose I can't call it a new job now. I've made it past a mile stone. the job is hard. Thats good.
So, I could lament over the past year. I could compare and contrast the two jobs. No one wants to hear that. The biggest difference is going from a fifty thousand person company to a roughly fifty person company. It is nice working for a medium company. I got closer to the folks I work with. It helps that I knew most of them before I worked here.
We have lunches together. We do things outside of work with each other. It is more of a village feeling.
However, When I used to work for a print house, I never felt the way I do here. The print house was a sweat shop. We kept getting new managers and they kept throwing up their hands and leaving. We were disgruntled. No one worked there because they wanted to. The only people who seemed to enjoy their job were the delivery people. They worked on contract and were paid pretty much per delivery. The rest of us just hated to be at work.
Maybe it was the smell. That place had a bad smell from all the chemicals we used in the different process. Now that I think about it, that may have had something to do with it.

George Carlin Rules

New Rule: Stop giving me that pop-up ad for Classmates.com! There's reason you don't talk to people for 25 years. Because you don't particularly like them!  Besides, I already know what the captain of the football team is doing these days:  he's mowing my lawn. New Rule:  Don't eat anything that's served to you out a window unless you're a seagull.  People are acting all shocked that a human finger was found in a  bowl of Wendy's chili. Hey, it cost less than a dollar. What did you expect it to contain? Trout?     New Rule:  Stop saying that teenage boys who have sex with their hot, blonde teachers are permanently damaged.  I have a better description for these kids: lucky bastards. New Rule:  If you need to shave and you still collect baseball cards, you're gay.  If you're a kid, the cards are keepsakes of your idols. If you're a grown man, they're pictures of men. New Rule:  Ladies, leave your eyebrows alone.  Here's how much men care about your eyebrows: do you have two of them?  Okay, we're done. New Rule:  There's no such thing as flavored water.  There's a whole aisle of this crap at the supermarket - water, but without that watery taste.  Sorry, but flavored water is called a soft drink.  You want flavored water?  Pour some scotch over ice and let it melt.  That's your flavored water. New Rule:  Stop messing with old people.  Target is introducing a redesigned pill bottle that's square, with a bigger label.  And the top is now the bottom.  And by the time grandpa figures out how to open it, his ass will be in the morgue.  Congratulations, Target, you just solved the Social Security crisis. New Rule:  The more complicated the Starbucks order, the bigger the jerk. If you walk into a Starbucks and order a "decaf grande half-soy, half-low fat, iced vanilla, double-shot, gingerbread cappuccino, extra dry, light ice, with one Sweet-n'-Low and one NutraSweet," .  Ooh, you're a huge jerk. New Rule: I'm not the cashier!  By the time I look up from sliding my card, entering my PIN number, pressing "Enter," verifying the amount, deciding, no, I don't want cash back, and pressing "Enter" again, the kid who is supposedto be ringing me up is standing there eating my Almond Joy. New Rule:  Just because your tattoo has Chinese characters in it doesn't make you spiritual.  It's right above the crack of your ass.  And it actually translates to "beef with broccoli."  The last time you did anything spiritual, you were praying to God you weren't pregnant. You're not spiritual.  You're just high. New Rule:  Competitive eating isn't a sport.  It's one of the seven deadly sins.  ESPN recently televised the US Open of Competitive Eating, because watching those athletes at the poker table was just too damned exciting.  What's next, competitive farting? Oh wait. They're already doing that.  It's called "The Howard Stern Show."   New Rule:  I don't need a bigger mega M&M. If I'm extra hungry for M&Ms, I'll go nuts and eat two! New Rule:  If you're going to insist on making movies based on crappy, old television shows, then you have to give everyone in the Cineplex a remote so we can see what's playing on the other screens.  Let's remember the reason something was a television show in the first place is that the idea wasn't good enough to be a movie.   New Rule:  No more gift registries.  You know, it used to be just for weddings.  Now it's for babies and new homes and graduations from rehab. Picking out the stuff you want and having other people buy it for you isn't gift giving, it's the white people version of looting.     New Rule (and this one is long overdue):  No more bathroom attendants! After I zip up, some guy is offering me a towel and a mint like I just had sex with George Michael.  I can't even tell if he's supposed to be there, or just some freak with a fetish.  Don't want to be on your webcam, Dude.  I just want to wash my hands.     New Rule:  When I ask how old your toddler is, I don't need to know in months.  Not "27 Months."  "He's two," will do just fine.  He's not a cheese.  And I didn't really care in the first place.

These rock. I'm not sure where my dad found them. They are new to me. I don't know where to put the link so I'll put it to George Carlin. Sounds good to me.

Weekend
Anna hung out at the new house and watched the game. She went dancing too.
Josh hung out at the in law's place for the game. Sounds like he has some pretty cool in laws.
Trip had a village over to his place for the game.
Rob from work had a party with coworkers.
Nat and I hung out at the house and missed Elle. She was in Kansas seeing her father off. He shipped out to Iraq just before kick-off. That really took the wind out of my sails. He is about the  closest person to me who has gone to Iraq. I have some friends over there and some friend's relatives. Elle is near and dear. Her father is there for important to me.

Elle just made it back a few minutes ago. Nat is in the kitchen making tacos for dinner. Elle keeps asking if she can help. There is something on TV. The cats are hanging out at Nat's feet waiting for something to drop. The dog is locked up in the cage, or she would be there too.
Sounds like a family.

Super bowl Sunday
Yesterday, I poisoned my back yard. I sprayed for weeds and bugs. I'm not sure it did any good.
Nat is dressing up the cats. It cracks me up that the young one can't walk in cloths, even if they don't cover his feet.
The dog is going nuts because we are not dressing her up too.
I'm putting off doing taxes. I'm not sure what to do with all the paperwork. I need a tax person.
Ted ships out to Iraq today.
The Super bowl is at 5:00. I'm probably not going to watch because, I just don't care.

We went to Sam's. and got a load of food for the month.
Hold your hat, because we have the windows open. It is a banner day in Houston.

Car woes
So, Nat took a left the other day and the car makes this grinding noise in the right front. I'm thinking constant velocity joint. I'm also thinking "They fucked up the car last month when the fixed it." Well, it turns out the wheel well wall (say that a couple of times fast) came loose on that side. it had enough damage that they replaced it. Of course it did. $104. In mechanic speak that meas it was a $10 part.
I would love to kick off a rant about mechanics. I would like to call them every name in the book and say that someone needs to come up with binding arbitration for mechanic shops. Someone needs to outlaw the BBB's practice of not taking complaints aimed at members (so only crooked companies should be members). I would make some innuendo about actually doing something about the situation. However, you and I know I will not do anything about it. that is why mechanics get away with this crap. I wish I were the kind who would sue. Then again, that sounds like a bunch of effort. If I were that motivated, I would have fixed the damn thing myself.
Nothing is covered by the stupid warranty we got. The only good warranties have done is make car manufacturers fix a couple of chronic issues. For example, Honda had CV joint problems for a couple of decades. Every small car they made would blow the CV joints at 60 - 80 thousand miles. This was no skin off Honda's nose because their warranties only went to 36 thousand at the time. in the nineties, many of the warranties went to well over 50 thousand miles. Honda finally did something about the design of their CV joints. They seem to last longer now. I knew a mechanic in the early nineties who made a very good living fixing Honda CV joints and automatic transmissions. That was all he did.
There were no warranties on cars until the Japanese got into the market. None of the things that go wrong with the care a ever covered. I remember a friend in the late eighties who had an RX7. It had a bumper to bumper warranty that only covered moving parts in the drive train.  RX7 has a Wankel engine. There are only 4 moving parts in the frigging thing. They will never go out. The rest of the car will rot away and the moving parts in the engine will still work. Things like bumper mounts and door handles are not covered.
It's getting to the point of institutional deceit. That is where the lies become so ingrained into the fabric of the business that people don't even call them on it any more.
Didn't I say I was not going to rant? I better stop now.

Bad Precedent
I've noticed some fallout from the Mooninite scare in Boston. It seems that the police were very upset about this kind of thing going on. It seems there is a rebellious streak showing amongst the youth. Has there ever been a time where the younger people didn't want to piss off the older people? Several other cities didn't freak out. What's up with Boston?
Let's recap. A bunch of hippies want to promote a goofy (and funny) TV show by leaving light-bright boxes all over the city. This is a promotional stunt just to get attention. Hey, that's great. Those boxes are just about the size of a Claymore  mine. They have lights and batteries visible. They could very much be mistaken for bombs to someone who doesn't know what a bomb looks like. Isn't that one of the rubs though? What does a bomb or mine look like?
If I were a cop, I would worry the next time someone says that those blinking boxes all over the city are just a promotional gimmick and not to worry. People walking past will know instantly they are not dangerous.
These guys were just trying to get a message across. Think about it. All the terrorists want to do is get their message across.

What a couple of morons

he men, Peter Berdovsky, 27, and Sean Stevens, 28, had been hired by a marketing firm, Interference Inc., which had been hired by Turner Broadcasting. They placed 38 of the devices on buildings, under bridges and in other spots around the city, and each earned $300. The devices, featured flashing lights in the shape of a character from the cartoon show “Aqua Teen Hunger Force.” ... Other cities made sure that the devices were being taken down Thursday. In New York, the police contacted Interference Inc., which told them that at least 20 devices had been placed in Brooklyn and Manhattan. The police found two devices, at West 33rd Street and 12th Avenue, stuck to metal panels under an overpass, and said they believed that the others were removed by passers-by. New York Times

Whatthe hell where they thinking?!? Yes, lets put up scary boxes in the subways. I hope these dopes get the book thrown at them.
Video

Eye Doctor
So, I went to the Eye doctor yesterday. It was enlightening. The doctor has a new toy. he has a camera that takes a picture of the inside of your eye. I don't know how it works, but it works pretty well. It only gets the back wall, so my surgery areas didn't really show up. It was still cool. My doctor also showed me some examples of diseases and how they look in the pictures. Scary stuff.
My summary is, other than where I had surgery, my eyes are quite healthy. Even where  I had surgery, the problems are isolated, hens the surgery. Yay me!
Nat wants to go in next week for a check up. She mentioned that she just may be ready to get some glasses. Don't tell her I blogged this. She will kill me. I don't know what the problem is. I've worn glasses all my life. Someone out there enlighten me.
The doctor let me walk out with a sample pare of contacts. They work great. I'm going to wait for a couple of days to make sure they work for me and order some. I miss waring contacts. They are a hassle, but I can just plane see better with them. I plan on ordering another pare of glasses eventually. I'll get them from that online place I used before, or maybe Wal-Mart. I'm definitely not spending a lot of money on them. They will hopefully only be a backup.

Can't type. Eyes dilated.

Vista
I'm hearing a resounding yawn at the release of the new Microsoft OS. Most people have the same plan. If they get a new computer and it comes with Vista, that's OK. No one has plans to upgrade really. I don't blame them. So far, the biggest advantage I've read about is a one click presentation mode for laptops that disables the screen saver and beeps and such. Thats .... nice. There are some security updates. That is handy too, but not much more than you could get from third party folks.
The 64 bit support is supposed to be better. No one cares about that until it doesn't work.
The only thing that I really miss from Windows is playing games. I don't have time to play games anyway. Pretty much everything else I can get done via Linux. It is getting to the point that I do not need to mess with too much to get things to work any more. It was really bad a couple of years ago. Everything you wanted to do required massaging the code a bit to get thing to work on your box. Nightmare. There are easily a dozen projects out there to allow Linux to run Windows games.
In Linux, some programs like Adobe and Open Office take ages to open up. This is because the whole program is running when you click on the file or evoke it from the command line. In Windows, many programs have a pre-loader that just sits there eating up environment resources waiting for you to click on something that they pay attention to. This approach does make applications like Office and Adobe pop up faster upon a click, but enough applications do this that it causes a general slow down of the computer. You can't even tern most of the m off. You don't get the choice.
So, I click on programs and it takes a while in Linux for the application to pop up with my data file. I have to remind myself as I sit there twiddling my thumbs that I will not suffer as much slow down or crash time because of this. I think in the long run it is faster the Linux way. Though I understand why MS has made the choice it has. People notice the initial delay more than a general slowdown. It won't be much longer that computers run so fast that it won't make much of a difference. I hope that is the case any way.
People say Vista has a new look, but from the screen shots it doesn't look that far off. I still like Mac OS feel better than any other I've used. Gnome sucks only slightly less than KDE so I stick with it on Linux. One of the guys at work got a Mac and told us stories of getting nEdit to work and other programs that he was used to using from Linux. it sounds like a snap if you find some good examples on the net. Apparently there is quite a following of Mac OS for hackers willing to share their talents at getting things to work.

Birth Announcement

Well other then the rats life is good.  We had the baby.  Cheyenne Jazmin Laurel [last name censored] born 1/11/07 at 100mph in the front seat of the truck.  And when I say born she was out and on mom's chest completely born at 100mph.  The birth went well and mom and baby did and are doing wonderful....the truck is finally just about back to normal.  Had to call a crime scene clean up company to get some stuff they use.  Worked really well.  James (proud papa)

Oh, the rats. That is an interesting story too. A rat died in a buddies cubical at my old work. It got stuck in a trap in the hall and drug itself bleeding to his filing cabinet. Pretty damn disgusting. They had squirrels in the celling at one point. I wonder if they ever fixed the hole.
James, it would have made an even better story if she were borne in the back seat of the Camaro at 100 mph.

No clear winner

No clear winner is emerging from the deadly fighting in Gaza between the Hamas and Fatah movements, a sign that neither is strong enough to knock the other out. The bitter rivals have been buying, smuggling and building weapons for months trying to gain an edge, but they have held back from all-out battle and find themselves in a stalemate. That leaves many Palestinians with grim hopes that a power-sharing deal still can be worked out between the Islamic militants of Hamas and the more moderate President Mahmoud Abbas of Fatah. Chron.com

Imagine that, no clear winner in a fight in th emiddle east. You know, that article makes it sound like the writer would like one side to get it's ass kicked just to have something else in the news. I agree. I would love one side to really pull the stops and just anialate the other side just so there would be some freash news.
So, the Palastinian people are at each other's throats trying to decide who will lead them to victory distroying Israel. This kind of thing shouldn't even make the news any more. This was behind other stories like Mided Reviews for Clinton in Iowa, Ripple effect of Windows Vista Rollout and Racial strife at Quaker school.

Money is waisted on the young
Watch the after math first.

Happy to be alive, but still spouting stupidity.

Then watch the actual wreck.

Proof that some people have more money than brains.

Internet Panic
So, I wanted to hop on the internet last night about 3:00 am to check what year that car was on my blog. (by the way, I think it is a 56 Victoria) Only, the internet was down. No lights on the modem and no web pages on any of the computers. This sort of thing has happened before. I remember really hoping it was just some glitch that would take care of itself. This is not out of laziness. This is because I dread calling tech support for DSL.
I use Linux. No one at the tech support for DSL has herd of Linux, nor do they have any scripts ready to deal with Linux. I could write them some, but they don't care. These people are Americans somewhere in this country. I can tell by the accents. They mostly sound like idiots fresh out of high school who are kicking it back at this job until something better comes along. I mean hell, they get to sit the whole day. That is a great benefit.
I miss dealing with the tech support in India. The tech support we had at my old job was lacking most of the time. I would come in early to call tech support before the U. S. people started picking up the phones. The folks in India would not depend solely on their book of scripts to get them through. If you had some odd ball case, they would at least understand what you were trying to do and hear you out. This is because they had been to college. Where the Americans had not. I never asked, I could just tell. I can just tell that the infants I get here in the states, for the most part, just don't care if my problem ever gets fixed. I have to use Nat's machine because it has Microcrap as an OS and go through the script "No, I don't get any web pages." "No, I can't get a connection." "Yes, I hooked it straight up to the computer, not through a modem." When I started the conversation with "I can't DHCP an IP through the DSL modem. any more. It worked yesterday and every day for a year before that."
Thank goodness it just came back up today. I was genuinely worried I was going to have to deal with those idiots again. I wish the phone company would just outsource the jobs. It isn't like the Americans really want them anyway. Hell, half the applicants are probably illegal immigrants any way.

We need these in the states

We need these in the states. I would like them place around our neighborhood and only vehicles that belong here are aloud through. I want another set at the end of my driveway.

Atempted Murder on YouTube

Just how many counts of atempted murder are there in this video?

Question for the masses
Can someone tell me what make and model this car is?

Good Save

This guy gets more cheers for saving his ass than he would have making the top.

Big

There is just no other word for it.

Just plane fun

Balloon tires get you further off road than a big engine. Of course, both doesn't hurt a bit. Besides, these guys seem to get the idea. They are just having fun.

I'm sold

I don't car if I can't understand a word the announcer is saying. Watch to the end.

The Man at Home
Elle's father, Ted, is headed to war in Iraq week after next. Most of the people who know Ted don't really picture him as the Marine kind of guy. The only time I've hung out with him, he seemed like a "slider". That is someone who slides along in life until something happens. Then they scramble to cover. That isn't a bad thing really. I do not mean it as an insult. I've been a "slider" too.
I am Elle's step father. Ted was not ready to  be a dad. I'm not sure I was either. I'm not sure any one is except my friend Adam. It seems like he spent his whole life making himself ready to be a dad. It was pretty cool when he and Laurie finally adopted Cecilia. They make great parents.
Nat and Ted made a wonderful, beautiful little girl. People say "How did you two make such a great kid?" Nat and Ted both seem to hate that. I would too. I have to say it scares me that Elle seems so low maintenance now because I can tell she will be preppy when she gets older. I can soooo see her as a cool kid or whatever the equivalent is in a few years. I am practicing cleaning my shotgun in front of an audience.
I've said before that it seems I should have been a soldier. I am disabled. I cannot go. I feel left out. I feel I should have gone and fought.  The funny thing is, I'm a woos. I far prefer to avoid fighting. I would rather swallow my pried and avoid a fight.
I read military blogs. I watch videos from the war. I pay attention to the MSM because you have to read between the lines to figure out what is really going on. My over all opinion is "It's a war zone." Things get done. Sometimes good people die. Bad people get away. The thing about a war is that the situation has gone too far for talking to resolve the issues. Things have gotten out of hand.  The U. S. is sending troops to Iraq and the whole Middle East is sending troops to fight us there. There have been reports of Egyptians, Syrians, Chinese, and God knows who else being captured or killed trying to fight us there.
Yet, here I am. I sleep at home every night. I get hot meals regularly. Even when I go "camping" it doesn't resemble camping much. No one is shooting at me (mostly). Yet, I'm a provider for a family. I do my best to keep food on the table and a roof over our heads.
Ted is doing his part too. In a broader sense he is protecting his family. I'm not belittling what he is doing. It is an important contribution. I would rather the fight be taken to some foreign land than be fought on the streets of the U. S..
Nat works as hard as I do just keeping things a float. I don't know how families do it where both spruces work full time. It is like climbing a haystack. It is wonderful when Nat can run an errand or help a friend of ours while I'm stuck at work. It really does take two people to keep the family going.
So, yes, we all have our parts. I enjoy being a family man. Nat complains that I spend too much time on the computer, but hey, that's part of being me. I should not let myself feel like less of a man because I am not on the front lines. But ... I do. A little bit.

Weather and Racers
It's funny. Last night was clear and cool. The racers were out in force. Running up and down the road. It was a Thursday night. That didn't seem to make any difference. Don't these people have jobs? Then I remembered the weather report. Friday morning (this morning) was clear, and beautiful, but this evening is supposed to be cold and wet. I'll have to remember that the Racers watch the weather channel.

Pills
I've become a pill-popper. Through this whole winter, I've been sick. I remember a week where I said "I haven't felt snotty all week." Then I got all snotty shortly there after. This has been a real problem since last year. I think moving to the sticks and mowing my own lawn have made things worse. I've had this constant cough since I moved to Houston at the ripe old age of five or so. This year has been particularly brutal.
Every morning I wake up and start coughing. I hack up a lung, spit it into the toilet and start take a warm shower where I proceed to hack up the other lung. It has gotten to the point that I don't like taking showers on the weekend because of the coughing.
At some point, I start popping over the counter (OTC) drugs to dull my symptoms. I take the following.
# Decongestant - make things move around better.
# Antihistamine. - keep the body from making more.
# Expectorant - loosen what is already there.
These medicines all work together very well. That is the trouble. They multiply each other's affects. You have to be careful particularly with antihistamines. You can screw up your urinary system pretty good if you are not careful. I take low doses of all of them when I mix them up. I chase them down with a analgesic or two some days.
All this makes me feel like an addict. I can tell days that I don't take this stuff. I clog up and can't breath. I'm sick of being sick. I don't know what to do about it. I've been to doctors. I've tried everything I can think of. I need a lung transplant or something. My body is just not meant for Houston weather.
My last doctor hinted that I might have asthma.  That would suck. There is just plane nothing you can do about asthma. I fear being diagnosed because it will fuck my insurance for the rest of my life. The president is about to do that for me with his new pay for it yourself insurance. I suppose we are all just supposed to shut up and die like good little nobodies. I hate the way this country treats it's people sometimes. Most of the people who run things have enough money to not care how the system is broken. We should make our elected officials live like us poor folks for a while before they can get any power. Yup, that will happen.
It makes me angry that I have to deal with insurance when I'm sick. I don't worry about getting better, I worry about getting over charged because I'm the only sucker who has insurance. No one else bothers to pay their medical bills, so I have to take up the slack.
I better leave it at that before I start really ranting on the subject.

Wasabi Funyons
I found Wasabi Funyons at the Exxon at Westheimer and Dairy Ashford. They were all I dreampt of. I still think they should be all over the place. I hope the company doesn't think no one wants them because no one can find them. Well, now you know.

Wonderful News

docinthemachine writes with news of felines getting human retinal implants. The cats were afflicted with a version of retinitis pigmentosa, a disease that also blinds humans. The implants are 2-millimeter-wide chips surgically implanted in the back of eye. Each chip's surface is covered with 5,000 microphotodiodes that react to light, sending electric signals along the eye's optic nerve to the brain. The article makes clear that the implants don't allow the cats to see — what they get is impulses of light. The hope is that the electrical activity in the optic nerve will encourage new retinal cells to grow. The article notes: "The chips, which provide their own energy, have shown encouraging results in clinical human trials, in some cases improving sight in people with retinitis pigmentosa or at least slowing the disease's development. Narfstrom said chips have been implanted in 30 people." SlashDot

This is wonderful news. Retina problems are the most common reason for blindness. I keep hearing little bits here and there about new things in the field of curing different kinds of blindness. One of these days, someone is going to get a new retina or eye. I know too many people who suffer like this. I'm not going to soft cote it. Not being able to see sucks.

Give them a hand

I've said it before and I'll say it again. Why don't I have this kind of free time? This looks like someone's class project. I think they did a pretty good job.

Ken's Birthday
So, it wasn't that big a surprise. It was fun. I think we had more fun keeping the tarp under control than partying with friends. Well, Maybe not.


And then there was smoke.


The boob crown


The Handcuffs ... followed closely by forced tickling.


The biting of toes.


Then we went dancing and then we went to I-Hop. I was too ill to eat. Poor Nat had to take me home. I hadn't drank more than a single shot, but I was coughing all day. Imagine that, me coughing.

All the pictures here
.

Will it help me with my web surfing?

"There are always those who are willing to take things one step further than others. A group of guys known as OC Team Italy is one of them. They recently pushed an Intel Pentium 4 631 to over 8000MHz using an ASUS P5B with modified voltage regulation and liquid nitrogen. Overclocking is cool and all, but this extends beyond what some would perhaps call useful. Still a milestone though." Slashdot

It used to be so cool when someone would get a chip to go some screwy-fast speed. This time they double the going rate of 4 GHz and I just don't care. Computers are not about speed so much as can it help me do my homework faster and better? Or, can I play games on it without skipping? They will pretty much all play moves and music. They will all play You tube videos. They will all pretty much do anything with a spreadsheet or email or PowerPoint or most any other office task. Some computers will still not play all the games, but who cares. They do most of the stuff. And they don't need 8 GHz to get it done.

Suburban Death From Above
I'm trying to think of a good use for this at Faire. We  could paint it up like a dragon or something like thatl. It could only be a blaast flying around faire blowing fire at people. <giggles like a little girl / mad scientist>

Bank
I called one of the banks I use this morning. They have some information incorrect. I wanted to get it changed. Well, I can't do it over the phone. I can't get into the web page until I go in to the branch and correct the data. I'm not even sure that will work. I can withdrawal all my money and close all the accounts over the phone, but not get a single piece of data changed. That tells me the information is more important than the money to them.
I remember a couple of years ago one of the news shows did an expose on how easy it was to open an account and start using it as ID without any real paperwork or very much effort. I bet this embarrassed the banks in to the opposite direction.Now you can't do much beyond pay bills and move money around online. Even at that, moving money from one institution to another has become a chore.
Just how bad has online and phone bank fraud gotten? it is a bit like the new sealed plastic containers holding merchandise on store shelves. you know the ones. They are a full millimeter thick plastic that you need a pare of tin-snips to get through. You will ruin a pare of sizers trying to cut into them. Half the time I end up cutting myself on the exposed plastic while attempting to free the bobble I've purchased that isn't worth anything for resale. This too is a response to people steeling from the stores. Someone will slip an item out of the packaging and in to their pocket. odds are, the anti-theft device is on the packaging. Make the packaging a pain it the ass to open and you make the device harder to steal.
So, once again, the honest, law abiding citizen pays for the actions of criminals from both ends. We pay for the more expensive packaging and the longer time it takes to get our data changed with higher prices at the end of it all. We spend more time trying to get our item or service than the criminals would spend in jail (on the whole).
There is just too much shit to worry about these days. Humans are not getting dumber, we are just getting more and more overwhelmed.

Brrrr ...

Rotten Door
So, Nat calls me yesterday and says the "bottom of the back door fell off." That sounded pretty ominous. It was the plastic sweeper thing that is tacked to the bottom of the door. We stopped at Home Depot and got a new one. I really hate that place.
I had to cut the strip to fit with a hack saw. It looks like that is what the last person did too. The bottom of the door is wet and rotten. I was trying to pop the new strip in place with the door still up, but it just wasn't in the cards. Once I got the door down, I figured out that the damage is pretty bad. There was basically no wood left to screw in to. I went and got some longer nails and used them. There is still a gap under the door. I crammed in some sponge insulation, but it still sucks.
We are going to need a new door. Nat didn't like that one anyway. She doesn't like the glass in the door. I agree. I would rather have a solid door too. It will cut down on the light in the living room a bit. That is a good thing in my book.
I need to find someone who can recognize termite damage. Before I get rid of the door I really want someone who knows what they are talking about tell me that was or was not termites. I need to do some maintenance on the back door area and the little step we have out there. Nat noticed a piece of wood in the front flower bed. I nearly cried and hoped it hadn't fallen off the house. Fortunately, it was just a stick.
My buddy says the only way he was able to salve his back door sealing problems was to put in a storm door. That sounds like a great idea. I may have to do the same thing at some point. He mentioned an over-hang might work too, but I have no protection from the North East which is the direction that all the northers come in from in my neck of the woods. I like the storm door idea, but I do not look forward to installing the damn thing.
It is so wonderful being a home owner.

Lunch Conversation
Coke Zero
We covered the different diet additives to diet soft drinks and their after tastes. Most diet soft drinks taste OK to me at the first moment. The after taste leaves me feeling like I just licked the inside of an oil pipeline. If I swig it and don't let it sit in my mouth very long, it tastes better. Well, not so much better as it won't make me retch. I need to cut them out anyway so perhaps I can use diet sodas to kill the desire for sodas in general.
Economic downfalls of the minimum wage
# Once you raise the minimum wage, you automatically (or so it seems) raise inflation.
# Some countries tie it to inflation. Thus, if inflation doesn't go up, neither does the minimum wage.
# Some countries have no minimum wage. They have a welfare system that keeps people at some kind of minimum.
The chick who died in a contest "Hold your wee for a Wii" and the fallout
# What the fuck were they thinking?
# A nurse called in to warn them, but they blew her off.
# Manslaughter or wrongful death? That is the question.

Unix on the Mac
I'll have to do some homework. I've heard from one of the guys up here who bought a Mac recently that the Unix on the system is pretty cool. They do not use Xfree86 so if you want to use things like nEdit or other GUI programs, you have to build and install that first.
 I've always had a soft spot in my geek heart for Mac. I wish I had the drive to get one. They just plane cost too frigging much. Now that they come with an Intel processor, SATA drives, and standard stuff like fire wire and USB, there just isn't enough unique about them to worry about paying the extra money. The OS is nice, but you are still in the Apple sandbox. The hacker community is on the ball making how-to instructions for getting a bunch of stuff to work.
I'm still not sold.

Kryptonite Evening
Nat and I went to the show. We saw "The Good Shepherd". It was OK. I was not impressed with the direction of the show. It didn't flow well. I enjoyed myself though.
We were sitting in the theater just before the beginning of the show and I Jen calls me. I didn't take the call because it is just plane wrong to take calls in the theater. I sent Jen a page saying we were in a movie. She texts me back that "Going dancing call us later."
... Dancing, I haven't gone dancing in so log. Nat and I ended up going. and having some fun. Ken bought me a drink called Kryptonite. It is served in a small pitcher with a glow stick in it. I also had a shot of tequila. I didn't even feel the drinks. That is the way it goes with me. I drink a bit and nothing. I drink a bit more and feel slightly buzzed. I drink one more thing and get sick. I suppose it keeps me from binging or something like that.
It was a fun evening. We need to get out more like that.

Tape to MP3
It seems like the geeks that be are coming up with a gadget to fill just about every niche. It turns out I've had a couple of people look for this one. It is a box the size and shape of a CD/DVD-ROM that fits in one of bays in a standard computer case. The software clams to rip straight to mp3 and it has auto-reverse.
I have friends who have called me late at night looking for something like this. They need one for records too. That mite prove difficult to put in a half hight cradle.

Finger Memory
I know for a fact that memory is linked on an as needed basis to every nerve in the body. I know this because there have been several times I've had to go back and sit down at my desk to remember why I got up in the first place. I have had to dial an imaginary dial pad in mid air when someone asked me a phone number.
I remember using a locker for weeks in high school and walking in one day to realize that I have forgotten my locker combination for no good reason. That tells me that even though I use it on a daily basis, it is not in the conscious part of my mind. It is not being touched when it is used in a way that will keep the memory alive. The process of retaining information is like web of points. If one point drops off the web the other points around it will try to reconstruct the missing point. Something is not truly forgotten until all the surrounding points are gone too.
This is deductive reasoning. Our minds love patterns. Our whole lives are built on recognizing patterns. In speech, writing, music, mathematics, every thing we do to communicate is pattern driven. One produces a pattern and someone else is supposed to pick up on that pattern. We have to recognize patterns in patterns.
It makes programming almost impossible. We need to come up with a program that learns patterns and the proper way to fit into those  patterns. It is more of a mesh than a cut and dry "When A, Do B" situation. People say "I need to find myself." all the time when what they are really looking for is their place in the web of society. Just don't tell them that.
By the way, a classic liberal may say "I want to find myself." Where a classic conservative might say "I want to find where I fit." That is what I bet any way.
I have a theory that dreams are just the brain's way of pinging all the nodes on the network and keeping them alive. That is why they are so off the wall most of the time. Well, they seem to be in my head anyway.
I bet that all memories are constructed the same way, even if they are accurate to reality or not. I remember throwing a ball. If I play it over and over in my head I can't help but let it change a bit. Details fade away. It is very easy to change the physical memory. For example if I threw the ball to a friend, I can picture myself in the exact situation throwing to another friend. If I play this over and over, the original memory is blurry and the new one seems more real.
This scares me when thinking of eye witness testimony.
There is an episode of Friends where Fibi blames Ross for something. She treats him like shit most of the episode only to walk through the experience that made her mad. Once she does this, she hops from memory to memory in order. Then she realizes it was a dream. The only thing that makes her realize it was a dream is her concuss logic. This is fiction, but it kind of proves my point. I know when I first wake up from a dream, I'm in "la-la land". There is no reality or dream. It is all just there. I have been known to talk in my sleep. I've worried people with what I say. When waking up from my dreams I have found that I'm not always playing myself in them. I've woken up thinking I was someone else for a bit. That is dangerous. I have no idea what that means, but it scares the hell out of me. What if I get stuck there?
So far, so good.

Crippling listening
I listen to NPR in the mornings on the way in to work. Sometimes I keep listening while I start my morning. It ends at like 09:30 or so. The station 90.7 I think it is goes to classical music at that time. I search through the channels until I hear news or music that I like. that is hard to find in this town. I have landed on this other station that plays a show called Democracy Now. I've heard of this before. it is a leftist (as in pinko liberals) show that sits there and attacks Bush for a couple of hours. I have heard conservative blogs say the liberal media really has it in for Bush and will never let up. The conservatives are right (no pun intended) on this count. I heard the current president of the United States called a "criminal", "insane" and worse about ten times each in ten minutes. I don't mind bias really. That is what freedom of speech is all about. They had no basis for their hatred. They were not stating facts. They were just complaining and spouting allegations.
Democracy Now was interviewing some soldier in Iraq who was clearly not pleased with his situation. He spoke of a friend who was hit in the face with a sniper's bullet. No one could fire back because no one knew where the shot came from. I hate to say it, but that is a fact of war. The things he complained about sounded like the same things every one complains about in a war zone. You know, "We are getting shot at and no one wants us here." Well, I'm glad you and your fighting buddies are over there defending my right to speak and warship freely here in the States. I wanted to call in and thank him for his fighting efforts regardless of his signing some petition saying the U. S. needs to abandon Iraq. They don't air opposing opinion though.
I just can't take the rhetoric for long. They only aim at people who blindly hate the establishment. There seems to be a large group of people in our midst who need a cause to fight. They pick the government because that is the closest authority. You can't sue God. You can't complain about religions cranking out terrorists. You have to respect all opinions. No, you just have to tolerate other opinions. You do not have to respect them. It is funny that the very group that spouts off about intolerance every time some known terrorist has a toe stepped on are the first to prevent opposing points of view.
It is no wonder there is a long list of people who are willing to blow themselves up for cause. They must have had do listen to modern radio or something.

NFS is FUBAR
So, the server that hosts our home folders had a melt down this morning. No big deal. It was back up in record time. Something I noticed though is a couple of servers never quite recovered. It boiled down to NFS would not let the dead connection go in order to re-establish them. Now my real problem was that I could not get in to VNC. VNC's problem was that it could not read the password file in user_a's home folder. The real solution to this is to put the VNC password file somewhere other than the user_a home folder.
I bet if it were on the local drive, I would have been able to login and look at my data. As it was, I was screwed. The best solution to this is to avoid using NFS. I've been told that NFS started as a stateless connection protocol. In other words (and we all need those other words to understand) NFS doesn't make a connection between two computers until a request comes through. A connection is made and when the request is done, the connection is dropped. Well, this sounds like a great idea until you have conflicts that require file locking and crap like that. So, some loose cannon decided to duct tape in some file locking code in NFS. Thank you open source. This fixed his problem, but screwed the rest of us.
I'm not sure what the alternatives are. SMB, I use it at home and it seems to work better than NFS, but it still has serious drawbacks. Besides, the moment Microsoft says "We are going to encrypt all share traffic for security reasons." SMB is out the window. So I've heard anyway.