A Dixie Carpetbagger

I’m still alive.  Just encountered a bit of a virus problem.  Ended up just upgrading– it was time, and I want to slag the hard drive that the infection was on.  Literally.

Observations:

Windows 7 is awesome.  Installed in less than 30 minutes, very user friendly, and secure.  But it does cost an arm and a leg.  Also, 64 bit OSes (in spite of all their flaws) are here to stay.

Onboard sound has become viable.  The sound on my Gigabyte motherboard is better than the Audigy 2 that I just yanked.  7.1 vs. 5.1, better clarity, and it’s pushing a stronger signal.

Creative can go take a run at a galloping goose.  In the past 4 1/2 years, I’ve worked on my PC over a dozen times, and every single time, the Audigy has worked its way loose, and refused to seat without hard pressure.  Which I why I now am using the onboard sound.

While the Radeon HD 5770 is shorter than the old 7800 GTX, it’s wider.  Wide enough that it’s in the second PCI-E x16 slot… the memory slots are in the way of the first PCI-E slot.  Awesome performance, but the fans at speed are… well, it reminds me of a jet engine.

I’ve always been cluttered and unorganized.  I’ve attempted to correct this by writing myself notes on Post-it pads (my monitor eventually ended up looking like a mangy sunflower), notes (I have a 6″ pile on my desk now, waiting to be sorted), pocket calendars (found one the other day from 2007, neatly labeled with to-do lists and appointments… all forgotten), and normal calendaring software (Mozilla Sunbird is great, until you try to use it to keep track of ongoing projects).

In desperation, I hit wikipedia, looking for calendaring software that could handle my needs.  None of the newer packages suited my needs.  Then I saw a simple, unassuming package named Chandler on the list.  Looking into the program, I found out it’s a derivative of the old Lotus Agenda scheduler.  Seeing as the integrated engineering program I used in my old job used a form of Agenda for its scheduler, I knew I had a match.

The program is a small download, easy to use, has a great array of tools, and it is flexible.  Need to make yourself a note?  Just type one into the menu bar, it’ll be on the top of your to-do list.  Need to share a list of tasks with your team?  Simply make a calendar of all the tasks, assign it to its own group, export that group to the Chandler Hub, then email your team a link to subscribe to that group… all within Chandler itself.

Worried about losing your calendar?  Try this program.  I set up my hub account, and now, every few minutes (and at every shutdown), the program backs up everything except my trash.  Need to keep track of work, school, personal, and family calendars?  No sweat, you can share any, all, or no calendars with anybody.

The only downside is that the program takes forever to start, due to the fact that it syncs all calendars at startup, and the backup at shutdown can be a long wait… but that may be because I have 2500 notes and counting.  Also, this is an open source program, and the main programmer has left the project.  So, no support, few updates, and little documentation.  But it’s free, and useful.

Watch the Youtube video linked above, and the 4 part series that details use and features.  It takes about 2 minutes for the narrator to set up and distribute plans for a cookout, from “hey, honey, you wanna grill this weekend” to “hey, here’s how you get to my place.”  All in one program.

(FTC note: I was not paid to do this testimonial.  I just really like the program.  Plus, it’s a FOSS project, I doubt they pay their programmers.)

Found out why WordPress had been acting so screwy.  Apparently, the 2.9 upgrade messed with an old portion of the code… that handled timekeeping and scheduling.  Combine this with the fact that Wordpress assigns each scheduled post a unique cronjob…

So, in essence, every scheduled post has a timer that looks at the UNIX time, counts down to zero, and then publishes the post.  Unless you just piddled with the timekeeping code, in which case, each timer never reaches zero.  This means that the timer goes away (having passed the time it was set to execute), leaving a post with a publish date set to FUTURE.

The plugin I added takes care of this two ways.  It fixes the code, so that the timer actually executes, and it has a SQL query that looks for posts with a status of “scheduled/missed schedule” and a post time that has passed, and then posts them.  Belt and suspenders.

I’m looking to replace my old (dead) Kodak digital camera with a new model.  Want something small, on the low end– sub $100, if possible– and point-and-shoot.

I ask, because I kinda want to start reviewing things and doing some of the how-to articles I have thought about.

Any ideas?

In checking my daily number of hits, I got bored of the simple graph that WordPress.com Stats gave me.  Sure, I knew I was getting X number of hits, but from whom, and where were they?  Was I getting any readers from overseas?  So I tried out Visitor Maps and Who’s Online, which gives the IP address and location of all visitors.

I like this little gadget… the patterns in visits make for wonderful mental exercises.  For instance, a lot of my traffic is coming from anti-gun and left-leaning areas of the country (NY, NJ, CA, MI, WI).  Also, I have a regular reader from both France and Germany (not to mention the smattering of Canucks), and a visitor who– every week– visits every one of my Sunday morning videos via Google… from a different country.  Business traveler, maybe?

But the most surprising was the visit from the Netherlands… Amsterdam, no less.  Whoever they were, they were looking at the flamethrower post.  To that visitor… if you’re planning on using a flamethower to light your smoking apparatus– hippie, please.

… that the computers are just about ready to revolt?

“The system goes on-line March 21st, 2006. Human decisions are removed from online posting. Twitter begins to learn at a geometric rate. It becomes self-aware at 2:14 a.m. Eastern time, October 28th, 2009.  In a panic, they try to pull the plug. ”

(Yes, I know it’s satire.  But it *is* funny.  H/T Robb)

I saw the Ares launch this morning.  I was all excited, thinking the new era of rockets was here, and then I found out when the next test launch will be.

2013.  47 months.

This is worse than waiting for the next Bond movie or the Zombieland sequel.  Almost 4 years?  I don’t even have a calendar that goes that far out to mark.  And I bet Western Union won’t hold a message 46 months for me, will they now?

Via Tam, a video from Kevin Baker about car safety.  Go watch it, old timers… trust me, it’s revealing.  What’s unnerving is that my dad had a ‘57 Bel Air (4 door with the post, 283 Power Pack V6, and glass pack mufflers.) and he drove like he had stolen it.

As an example, one time (during Dad’s early years) a man came into the local diner and made the announcement that someone driving a Bel Air had been rear ended and killed, and that he thought it was Dad.  One of the men spoke up and said “No way in Hell!  No one’s that damn fast!”

I’ll take my Century (quit laughing!) over a deathtrap any day.  Same engine as a Grand Prix, Lumina or Malibu, but with better styling, a bigger AC, and the safety of being viewed as a Granny-mobile.  (By the way, she’ll beat a Grand Prix off the line and in the quarter mile.  As far as to how I know this, I plead the Fifth.)  Too bad I’ve sworn to never buy a Government Motors product again… looks like a Crown Vic or Town Car for me.  (Time to see when the local PD has their vehicle auction…)

I still want a GSX or Invicta.  They may be rolling death raps, but they’re stylish rolling death traps.

Automobile design, cuisine, and human reproduction. To quote Mr. Lileks: “If Microsoft had been put in charge of marketing sex, the human race would have ended long ago, because no one would be caught dead doing something that uncool.”

This reminds me of the story of the thrice-married maiden.

(H/T Tam)

This is a Delta IV Heavy liftoff from the Cape.  I looked this launch up, and it carried a DSP satellite into orbit on 11 November 2007.

I’ve seen the same type of shot before, but it’s still amazing that the camera survives.