Alternative fuel

Not every one is a blithering imbecile. Someone at Rice University, in Houston by the way, came up with a way to better utilize a byproduct of making biodiesel. Glycerin is highly caustic. Remember, nitroglycerin is highly explosive. Well someone put two and two together to come up with a use for it as ethanol for another alternative fuel. Someone was paying attention in class.

Rice has always had a place in my hear. They were the first institution of higher learning to turn me down.

MS-13 Mistrial

As one juror broke down in sobs and two others started to cry, state District Judge Devon Anderson declared a mistrial Friday in the Ashley Benton murder trial, saying the jury had been deadlocked for six hours. Anderson set a hearing in two weeks to determine how to proceed against Benton in the killing of a rival gang's leader. Both sides said they will evaluate their positions. The case could be retried or a plea deal may be struck. Houston Chronicle

I cannot believe this chick is going to get less than murder. She went to a gang fight with a knife. What the hell did she think was supposed to happen?

Is six hours all it takes to be deadlocked these days? Who the hell was on the jury? I'm sure the one who sobbed was a mother. This is the problem with having a diverse society. Pretty teenage murderers get off for no good reason. Let's hear the story of how she got in the gang. Did she have to commit a crime or have sex with people in the gang? Sometimes pretty rubs right off.

4x4 on the street

The other day I was waiting for Nat to pick me up at work and I noticed three huge diesel 4x4 pickups roll by. They were just lumbering through the city and each appeared to only have one occupant. I could feel the curvature of the Earth shift. How they didn't sink in to the concrete ... That heavy of a truck is all but useless as a 4x4 anyway. I have a buddy who put huge balloon tires on one and he can actual drive it on the grass without instantly sinking to the frame. If you have normal street tires you will get stuck in wet grass. I've seen it done. All four tires spinning. The grass was only deep as the tire. Everyone thought the driver found some mud, but no. The truck was simply spinning it's wheels on grass. ... Useless.

God, they are cool though.

Corporate Orgy Planner

Now, that's a job title I want on my resume. it all stems from an NPR story this morning about a book I believe was called working from IX to V. It's about jobs of ancient Rome and maybe some other places. Well, the first orgy planners were priests. Go figure.

Small Talk

Lunch Conversation

• How much the rap phenomena was like 1970 country.
• Bling, Country was all about dope, money and broads in the 1970's. Modern hip-hop is pretty much the same.
  
• Lyrics: The lyrics are all about dope, money and broads.
• They typically mention their own name in their music so you remember who you are listening to because all the songs sound the same.
• Liberal sprinkling of the "N" word.
• Video game rubbish.
• Soccer tonight and the chances of rain.
  

Weekend

I called my mom. I like calling her because she is always happy to hear from me. They are headed to a huge flea market this weekend. Sounds like one of those things I would have hated as a kid. I have no idea what Nat and I are up to this weekend. Elle has some party to go to. That should be interesting. I might end up with some pictures out of it.

Weather

What's up with the weather lately? I remember complaining that it rained every day at 3:00 when I walked out of work for the haul to the bus. Now, it is pretty much the same thing at 6:00. It didn't follow me. It is just sunny then rainy then sunny then rainy again all day. I thought it was supposed to be nice last weekend. It wasn't really. I've heard the weather will be yucky over the Fourth holiday. Great. I hope I heard wrong. As I type, there is thunder rolling around outside my window. Yet, the sun is shining in.

Thunderbird

The email program I use at work is called Thunderbird. It sucks. It goes away every time you try to delete a bullet. Pain in the ass because half the emails I send around at work have some sort of bulleted list in them. I'm afraid to upgrade because it is Linux and thing fall apart if you don't do it right. They do in Windows too, but no one seems to care about that.

Aquatic Smart Car

Category: Dunk  Talk

I've had it in my head about modifying a Smart Car so that it floats and runs on water as well as land. Ever since I saw the episode of Top Gear where the guys made old heaps float, I've thought "You should use something small and light like a Smart Car." Well, I cannot get it o of my head. It would work I tell you.

The car is already plastic. Rig up a pan on the bottom and seal it. Use the guts from a Jet-ski. I bet you wouldn't even need to use the engine from the jet-ski. Those things are modular from what I've seen. The hard part would be making the controls and other stuff go through the water tight bits to the water. That is the challenge on all water craft.

(See what I mean about drunk talk?)

Programmers vs. Users (prerequisites)

Category: Venting

Programmers HATE the idea of prerequisite packages. That is when building a software package or an RPM, when a message pops up that says another package is required. This is wonderful. It keeps the bare minimum number of prerequisites for a given package. I'm just surprised how strongly programmers try to avoid them. That is a good thing too. It does help me understand why I have to do so much work to get things to work from a user point of view. On Windows, most packages include what they need. This leads to DLL hell.  In open source, you are not really aloud to include other folks stuff unless you comply with all kinds of rules so they don't. The user has to track shit down and make it work. Good for programmers. Bad for customers. Well, not so much bad as annoying.

Which is better? Well, It depends on who you are. They are both good and bad. Users buy software. If it is annoying, they will find alternatives. Programmers, well, are programmers. They want things to work. Every other decision we make is to eliminate users having to call us for support. that is a good thing for both users and programmers. Sacrifices are made in the design. Alternatives like etching your data on a clay tablet, start to look better.

You get the dilemma? I'm bad at explaining this stuff. I'll give up before I explain my way into a corner.

Blogging Stuff

Nat said I left a bunch of stuff out of the Smart Car post from yesterday. She said I left out the bit that she would like the car as a run-about during the day while Elle is in school and that sort of thing. I stick to the fact that it can't hold the family so there would come times that she would have to run home and get the other car when she could have just swept by and got us on the way home from her errands. That point kind of fell through.

I'm lucky in one way, I know for a fact that my boss reads my blog. I am not tempted to say anything bad about him (here). He is an old friend of mine so if I had anything to say, I could catch him outside of work if need be and bring it up. Our friendship would survive most crap. It has so far anyway.

I could probably think of other stuff. My blog serves the following purposes in my life.

• Vent (bitch and moan).
  I need an outlet to say some of the things that I cannot say to people's faces. There are times it isn't a a person. I might be mad at God or tired of the world and I just want to stand on top of a mountain and shout at the whole place at once.
  
• Other outlet.
  I'm not sure how to explain it, but this blog satisfies my creative need for the most part. I put pictures and thoughts up here. I sometimes get stories stuck in my head and put them here to get them out. Expect something about an aquatic Smart Car soon. Ever since I saw the aquatic Top Gear It has stuck in my head about building a home made Perfect Houston Car, an aquatic Smart Car.
• Drunk talk.
  You know what I mean. Where you have a few drinks and cook up some goofy idea and people build on it. How many space stations or cures for cancer have been built in people's minds while having the drunk conversation that never got recorded? Well, people think up that goofy stuff and only feel confident enough to talk about it while getting smashed among fiends. I do it here, because I don't drink much.
• Spark conversation.
  Nothing puts a smile on my face like blogging something that we spoke about somewhere or, even better, someone mentions that they saw something on my blog and we end up talking about it. That is a kick.
  
• Remember things over the long term.
  I've blogged about things that I know I'll need to know about in the future. These are usually computer related and I have a feeling that I'll need the same info again someday. This is a bad use of a blog really.
  
• Tell people about me.
  "How far can you see?"
  
• Help people keep up with what is going on in my life.
  I am paranoid about blogging events before they happen because someone might use the info to rob my house or something. Blogging after the fact is OK. Besides, what else is a blog for?
• Leave a legacy.
  Not that it is a wonderful legacy. It is nice knowing the information here has a chance of out lasting me. Maybe after I'm dead, I'll get some hits. =]
  

Everything on this blog is filtered through my prospective. I make plenty of excuses, but that is just the way it is. I do not let any one else put in their two cents unless in a quote, hearsay or a comment. I've been thinking of killing the comments because of all the spam that goes on. I haven't been hit too many times, but once is enough to piss you off.

My first post started with "So, why a blog?" I've had some time to work out the details.

Quick pic from a couple of days ago

Smart Car

Nat and I pulled past our first Smart Car this morning on our way in. It was gray. I thought the whole point to a Smart Car is that they were hip and a bit outrageous. It seemed to be rolling along just fine. There are better ways to get 50 mpg. They are light, easy to park, good economy, and they are pretty cheap to begin with. They are little icy-tincy cars though. People worry about getting in wrecks with them. They are actually not that bad in a crash. Smart Cars are not highly rated though. There are worse new cars you could be caught dead in - so to speak.

Smart cars are all over Europe. They were featured in two movies that I remember lately. The remake of The Pink Panther, and The Da Vinci  Code. One of which had a car chase in a Smart.

I found out today they make a convertible. I thought it was a death trap before. Nat said she would like one for running around town. It will be fine when Elle is at collage, but there is no room for a child seat. I believe it has air-bags too. They are worth a look for sure.

Why do engineers like the Smart? Because there is plenty of room for improvement.

Screen Saver

I mentioned that I switched to the XScreensaver a couple of days ago. I wanted the one minute delay on the screen lock. There is one annoying feature of this screen saver. When you type in the wrong password, it says "Sorry" after not letting you in. That bugs me. I was the one who typed in the wrong password. The computer didn't do anything wrong. It should say "are you sure you are who you think you are?" or something like that.

Also, I felt a strange sense of accomplishment after making the screen saver work. It was nothing really. I should have done it a long time ago if it made me feel that much better about my computer. The one feature I wanted, I don't even use that often. Oh, well. I'll take it.

Toyota Prius

Rubbish! A good small diesel does better on economy. This is something I've heard elsewhere. Nat said she wanted to go do a test drive of a hybrid car. I don't mind that a bit. It really sucks that we have no diesel option for smaller vehicles in this country. They are a great idea. They have a few rankles to iron out yet.

We'll wait.

Dream

I've dreamed of taking a lap around the track on Top Gear. Well, it's been done. The bloke taking the plunge was blinded in military service to Great Briton. He beat some sighted folks. He did it with audible help from the host. The help wasn't that much. It reminds me of the 'navigator' in the passenger seat of a rally car.

Well done.

MPG

I think we should get better gas mileage in our Corolla. I did the math recently with Nat's help and it comes out to about 33 mpg. That is real rubber on the road numbers. Toyota claims it was supposed to get 41 (stick) or 38 (automatic) in normal driving. Where are they driving the cars they test anyway? I suspect that other five miles per gallon goes for air conditioning and sitting in fast food queues. It upsets me that the numbers are so far off.

I have to say, so far the car has been high quality. Nat and I both want a larger vehicle. It is going to be a while before we can afford one. I do not look forward to spending even more money on gas. We have cheap gas in this country relatively speaking. That doesn't make it any easier to pay the bill every month. I will insist on sticking with Toyota for the next vehicle. Even if it means sacrificing features or economy. I'm addicted to a vehicle that runs when you turn the key. Since I cannot go 'save' Nat when something goes wrong, I want to make sure as little goes wrong as I can.

The Math

Nat took down some numbers at a fill-up. I believe the car was at a quarter of a tank when this was taken.

Given

• 335 miles
• 2.83.9 per gallon
• $29.01 cost
• (10.2 gallons)

Calculation

• 32.8 mpg (roughly)

Party pictures

Nat is off at a multi day party in Galveston. She took a few pictures with her phone. I have them here.

That last row is a cake. Julie's husband Don did a wonderful job.

Screensaver

I bothered to change the software on my home machine (the one I'm typing on now) for one little feature. Normally, I use only the blank screen, screen saver. The screen saver I came off of is the gnome-screensaver. Competent, but lacking in the one feature I wanted. The XScreensaver seems to have all the same screen saver modes, but less choppy animation. It also has the one feature I wanted.

The one feature was a one minute delay between the screen saver kicking in and the computer requiring a password to clear. I had it with the screen saver kicking in and I had to type in my password to view the rest of my TV show. I've found myself watching TV on my computer more than on the box itself.

Little Things of the Day

• I noticed three old yellow Jeeps on the way in this morning. I noticed Some kind of yellow Hummer, the military kind, as well.
  
• Cindy Lopper is 54 today (Fifty-freaking-Four!!!!)
• 311 does not cover where I live.
• I'm missing a friend's wedding because I have to work and because I cannot drive.

Work Related Note

I do not miss the old job. I miss being the genius. At my old job, I was brilliant. Every one came to me with computer issues and I was able to fix things left and right. I was a go to guy. Now, I'm not a go to guy any more. I have gotten much better since I started this job. The people here are all brilliant. They are all capable. They are all excellent at what they do. At least, as far as I can tell.

At my old job, I was a cog in a huge machine. Here I'm a cog in a small efficient machine. There was a lot of waist at the old job. There were people who found their niche and just stagnated. At the new job, people are robust. I struggle to keep up. That's a good thing.I like the challenge. I worry I will satisfy the company's needs.

I have a buddy I've known for years who works here. He runs the DnD game most of the time. I always wondered how he did such a stressful job and still did all the stuff he managed to do in his home life. Now, I'm completely lost. I envy his balance.

This morning I thought I found a problem with one of our software packages. No biggie, that's why I'm here. I wrote up the bug and put it out on the bug reporting tool. Two minutes later someone replied "You are using the wrong variable." and showed me what I had done. I knew the moment I read that line that this was a case of creeping-dumbass. That is where an otherwise capable person makes a rookie mistake because they are too busy paying attention to everything else that's going on. It is a symptom of multitasking. The only cure I'm aware of is to slow down, focus on one thing at a time and make sure you complete tasks in stead of leaving things hang.

Half a hike

So, the tole road people hiked prices by $0.25 across the board. Then they hiked one tole road by double. Now they pulled the one tole road hike back. The $0.25 hike is still in effect. Sounds like a great way to distract people from remembering the across the board hike if you ask me. Reminds me of the temporary tax conundrum.

Yoda on the Desktop

This is the only perk for working at Blockbuster. He had to move it from his apartment to his parent's place because it was freaking him out every time he walked past it. Pretty cool in my book.