Butch's bloghttp://www.sysmango.com/blog/2/atom/feed2008-08-11T07:38:52-05:00Day 2502, node 1001, a nightmarehttp://www.sysmango.com/content/day-2502-node-1001-nightmare2008-11-10T22:45:02-06:002008-11-10T22:46:06-06:00Butch
For node 1001 (9?) I thought I would
share a nightmare of mine. And if I'm quick, I'll get it done before
SysMango.com day 2502 (which starts in binary as 1001, but that's
just me being technical and silly because you won't get it, and I had
to look it up, and it really does depend on which way your system
stored numbers).
October 26, New York Times RSS feed.
An item from the Lives column. Article is titled "Facebook
in a Crowd."
The author of this piece is a Canadian
writer. This Canadian writer uses Facebook,
and has 700 friends. (at least they did at the time the article was
written, in the summer. Just checked it's at 1014 now.)[Yes this guy
has more friends on Facebook and I have posts on my website].
Facebook being what it is, I'm sure
that the vast majority of the then 700 friends were not local to
Toronto. I'd expect that most of them are the more normal tenuous
connection or connection through a connection (friend of a
friend-type). For whatever reason, the articles author decides to
throw a Facebook event. So he invites his 700 Facebook friends to a
bar for a get together.
One shows up, and it's not even a real
friend. It's the friend of a friend. And that's it.
That's also my nightmare.
Only, I don't think that anyone at all
would have shown up for the event.
For the record: I spend most weekdays
sitting alone inside a medium-ish gray cube. None of the cubes
around me are populated. I counted today. Between empty cubes and
people working from home or other locations, I was the only person in
24 cubes (of which I sit near the middle) and 3 small and 3 large
conference rooms. If I didn't get up out of my seat and found
someone to talk to, I believe it is absolutely possible that I could
go a whole day in the office and not even see another human being,
not hold one face-to-face conversation.
Sometimes I wonder why I even go into
the office. Obviously it's not because it's niceA to work around
other people.
And my nightmare is, assuming that any
of my 32 Facebook friends, 33 less Natalie, were actually local, and
if I was the "throw a Facebook event" type, I'd expect that
exactly 0 people other than the person having the event would show
up.
And as I'm not really that big of a fan
of drinking alone, I don't think this particular nightmare will ever
come true. I don't see myself ever putting together a group
activity. But if I did, I'd expect to be drinking alone. Even if
all 700 of my friends (I only have 33 on Facebook) said yes.
I guess that's the price of not being
interesting.
]]>
For node 1001 (9?) I thought I would
share a nightmare of mine. And if I'm quick, I'll get it done before
SysMango.com day 2502 (which starts in binary as 1001, but that's
just me being technical and silly because you won't get it, and I had
to look it up, and it really does depend on which way your system
stored numbers).
October 26, New York Times RSS feed.
An item from the Lives column. Article is titled "Facebook
in a Crowd."
The author of this piece is a Canadian
writer. This Canadian writer uses Facebook,
and has 700 friends. (at least they did at the time the article was
written, in the summer. Just checked it's at 1014 now.)[Yes this guy
has more friends on Facebook and I have posts on my website].
Facebook being what it is, I'm sure
that the vast majority of the then 700 friends were not local to
Toronto. I'd expect that most of them are the more normal tenuous
connection or connection through a connection (friend of a
friend-type). For whatever reason, the articles author decides to
throw a Facebook event. So he invites his 700 Facebook friends to a
bar for a get together.
One shows up, and it's not even a real
friend. It's the friend of a friend. And that's it.
That's also my nightmare.
Only, I don't think that anyone at all
would have shown up for the event.
For the record: I spend most weekdays
sitting alone inside a medium-ish gray cube. None of the cubes
around me are populated. I counted today. Between empty cubes and
people working from home or other locations, I was the only person in
24 cubes (of which I sit near the middle) and 3 small and 3 large
conference rooms. If I didn't get up out of my seat and found
someone to talk to, I believe it is absolutely possible that I could
go a whole day in the office and not even see another human being,
not hold one face-to-face conversation.
Sometimes I wonder why I even go into
the office. Obviously it's not because it's niceA to work around
other people.
And my nightmare is, assuming that any
of my 32 Facebook friends, 33 less Natalie, were actually local, and
if I was the "throw a Facebook event" type, I'd expect that
exactly 0 people other than the person having the event would show
up.
And as I'm not really that big of a fan
of drinking alone, I don't think this particular nightmare will ever
come true. I don't see myself ever putting together a group
activity. But if I did, I'd expect to be drinking alone. Even if
all 700 of my friends (I only have 33 on Facebook) said yes.
I guess that's the price of not being
interesting.
]]>As the odometere turns: 1000 SysMango.com nodeshttp://www.sysmango.com/content/odometere-turns-1000-sysmangocom-nodes2008-11-09T23:02:46-06:002008-11-09T23:09:09-06:00Butch
I looked at a link
created to the last post, and I couldn't help but notice that this
post SHOULD be node 1000. For those of you who are not following the
technical disasters here, I use the Drupal
CMS to run the site. Drupal uses node ID internally (and externally
if you didn't do anything to change it) to keep track of content
created.
This is post 1000. An odometer moment
has been reached for SysMango.com. A little analysis seems to be in
order. There are exactly 2 people reading the site. And I think I'm
one of them.
(Hi, Yvonne. Love you, and thanks for
all the support).
The rest of you are looking for
information on a traffic accident that happened about 2 hours north
of here, or aren't actually people, but code running inside some
search engine, screenscaper, some kind of blog plagiarism engine or
just something that's following any of the number of links I spew due
to twitter,
utterli, Pownce
or whatever else I'm casting links to. (Welcome to my site, please
make yourself comfortable.)
And honestly, I'm not really surprised.
I'm not really that interesting.
SysMango.com was first registered on
2003 March 31. It was mostly a reaction to Natalie's sister (Hey,
Miriam) having registered http://churnbutterdesign.com/.
I had been thinking about having a site of my own for a couple of
years (who didn't when they first got on the Internet in the
mid-90's). Miriam getting a site, well, that made me just do it.
So, the site has been up for 2050 days.
And this is node 1000. That's an average of 0.49 nodes a day for
the last 5.62 years.
That doesn't mean that I've posted 1000
meaningful things. Some of those nodes are administrative items
needed to maintain the site. Some of them where created and then
unpublished in my 2 year experimentation with the contributed modules
for Drupal that used nodes to hold things. A few were actually
written by someone else in the almost never used SysMango.com forum.
Yes, I created forum about the time my
brother, Brian, got rid of the forum on his site. At the time, I
was starting to have a change of heart about the validity of forums
and their potential use. Since then, I have realized that I really
don't like them after all. I have little to no interest in
maintaining them. I find the software less than useful and the whole
idea of a forum to be ill advised.
That, and the fact that there really
isn't a community of people here to put anything meaningful into
them. There is still a forum here, but no one is using it. Least of
all me.
So here I am; one thousand packages of
meaningless, uninteresting information later. And honestly, I'm not
sure why I keep doing it. Other than I like screaming meaningless
uninteresting gibberish into the void every couple of days or weeks
or even months at a time.
This site has never really gained
anything of an identity of its own. I don't really want to be a
single topic blog. While the idea to have multiple sites going, each
about a single topic, is the way some people do things, I never
really understood that. I barely have enough content generation
going to justify this one site.
I guess the big problem really is that
I can't stand the feeling of just reposting links to other content
that has been talked about elsewhere to death. This is especially
true when I don't think I have anything meaningful or interesting to
add beyond the posting of "here's an interesting link." And
while BoingBoing
handles that really well and in an interesting way, I don't have the
energy to do the concept justice. And as no one is reading this
here, not really what I want to spend my time doing.
Looking at the clock, it just became
SysMango.com day 2051.
I don't have anything more interesting
to say other than I'm sorry it hasn't been more interesting.
There really isn't anything
particularly interesting about having created 1000 nodes here on the
site. But as people seem to attach special significance to these
moments when a digit is added, I figured "why not?" and just
posted all this.
So, please, everyone enjoy SysMango.com
day 2051 (and any subsequent days till I post anything again).
Comments appreciated.
]]>
I looked at a link
created to the last post, and I couldn't help but notice that this
post SHOULD be node 1000. For those of you who are not following the
technical disasters here, I use the Drupal
CMS to run the site. Drupal uses node ID internally (and externally
if you didn't do anything to change it) to keep track of content
created.
This is post 1000. An odometer moment
has been reached for SysMango.com. A little analysis seems to be in
order. There are exactly 2 people reading the site. And I think I'm
one of them.
(Hi, Yvonne. Love you, and thanks for
all the support).
The rest of you are looking for
information on a traffic accident that happened about 2 hours north
of here, or aren't actually people, but code running inside some
search engine, screenscaper, some kind of blog plagiarism engine or
just something that's following any of the number of links I spew due
to twitter,
utterli, Pownce
or whatever else I'm casting links to. (Welcome to my site, please
make yourself comfortable.)
And honestly, I'm not really surprised.
I'm not really that interesting.
SysMango.com was first registered on
2003 March 31. It was mostly a reaction to Natalie's sister (Hey,
Miriam) having registered http://churnbutterdesign.com/.
I had been thinking about having a site of my own for a couple of
years (who didn't when they first got on the Internet in the
mid-90's). Miriam getting a site, well, that made me just do it.
So, the site has been up for 2050 days.
And this is node 1000. That's an average of 0.49 nodes a day for
the last 5.62 years.
That doesn't mean that I've posted 1000
meaningful things. Some of those nodes are administrative items
needed to maintain the site. Some of them where created and then
unpublished in my 2 year experimentation with the contributed modules
for Drupal that used nodes to hold things. A few were actually
written by someone else in the almost never used SysMango.com forum.
Yes, I created forum about the time my
brother, Brian, got rid of the forum on his site. At the time, I
was starting to have a change of heart about the validity of forums
and their potential use. Since then, I have realized that I really
don't like them after all. I have little to no interest in
maintaining them. I find the software less than useful and the whole
idea of a forum to be ill advised.
That, and the fact that there really
isn't a community of people here to put anything meaningful into
them. There is still a forum here, but no one is using it. Least of
all me.
So here I am; one thousand packages of
meaningless, uninteresting information later. And honestly, I'm not
sure why I keep doing it. Other than I like screaming meaningless
uninteresting gibberish into the void every couple of days or weeks
or even months at a time.
This site has never really gained
anything of an identity of its own. I don't really want to be a
single topic blog. While the idea to have multiple sites going, each
about a single topic, is the way some people do things, I never
really understood that. I barely have enough content generation
going to justify this one site.
I guess the big problem really is that
I can't stand the feeling of just reposting links to other content
that has been talked about elsewhere to death. This is especially
true when I don't think I have anything meaningful or interesting to
add beyond the posting of "here's an interesting link." And
while BoingBoing
handles that really well and in an interesting way, I don't have the
energy to do the concept justice. And as no one is reading this
here, not really what I want to spend my time doing.
Looking at the clock, it just became
SysMango.com day 2051.
I don't have anything more interesting
to say other than I'm sorry it hasn't been more interesting.
There really isn't anything
particularly interesting about having created 1000 nodes here on the
site. But as people seem to attach special significance to these
moments when a digit is added, I figured "why not?" and just
posted all this.
So, please, everyone enjoy SysMango.com
day 2051 (and any subsequent days till I post anything again).
Comments appreciated.
]]>Change: one already out of the wayhttp://www.sysmango.com/content/change-one-already-out-way2008-11-04T23:34:57-06:002008-11-05T00:06:28-06:00Butch
There is some poetry about the ending of this so very long election. For the first time in I don't know how long, we know on the day of the election. At the end of this road, unlike the previous two presidential elections, we have certainty at the end of the day the votes are cast. There isn't the promise of court challenges of the results as reported. There isn't the risk that the vote will be questioned till the Electoral College meets, till the Congress accepts the results.
I'm already starting to wonder what statements will come out of the conservative world over the next several days. Which message will they distill as to why they failed with what seemed at times to be a confused message.
In one way, it is poetic that it is raining. I look forward to seeing if we can wash away the partisan politics, the politics that have acted as such a wedge in this country, and start getting back to where we can work together.
I am a little afraid of a Democratic House, Senate and President. See the first six of the last eight years. One party in complete power, that scares. I don't care which side it is. One party owning the whole thing, isn't that the kind of situation that normally causes problems? I'm more afraid of what the Dems will do to themselves over what the Republicans will do in response to the election.
And how do we keep all the people who are newly awakened to the American political process involved, engaged and acting on the issues. I don't mind that there are issues out there than Americans will disagree about, serious issues where agreement will not come easy, if at all. I do care if the inability to agree causes legislative logjam and failure of democratic processes.
And yet, this year, this election, I do feel that both parties made their best arguments about what they feel is important.
And now we start moving forward. Certain that the voice of the people, and I hope it proves to be the largest voting block we have ever seen, But not the largest we will ever see.
Yesterday I worried that the American system was coming to the breaking point, the start of the road to the end.
Today, I'm looking forward. I don't yet see the end; I see the hope of a new beginning.
]]>
There is some poetry about the ending of this so very long election. For the first time in I don't know how long, we know on the day of the election. At the end of this road, unlike the previous two presidential elections, we have certainty at the end of the day the votes are cast. There isn't the promise of court challenges of the results as reported. There isn't the risk that the vote will be questioned till the Electoral College meets, till the Congress accepts the results.
I'm already starting to wonder what statements will come out of the conservative world over the next several days. Which message will they distill as to why they failed with what seemed at times to be a confused message.
In one way, it is poetic that it is raining. I look forward to seeing if we can wash away the partisan politics, the politics that have acted as such a wedge in this country, and start getting back to where we can work together.
I am a little afraid of a Democratic House, Senate and President. See the first six of the last eight years. One party in complete power, that scares. I don't care which side it is. One party owning the whole thing, isn't that the kind of situation that normally causes problems? I'm more afraid of what the Dems will do to themselves over what the Republicans will do in response to the election.
And how do we keep all the people who are newly awakened to the American political process involved, engaged and acting on the issues. I don't mind that there are issues out there than Americans will disagree about, serious issues where agreement will not come easy, if at all. I do care if the inability to agree causes legislative logjam and failure of democratic processes.
And yet, this year, this election, I do feel that both parties made their best arguments about what they feel is important.
And now we start moving forward. Certain that the voice of the people, and I hope it proves to be the largest voting block we have ever seen, But not the largest we will ever see.
Yesterday I worried that the American system was coming to the breaking point, the start of the road to the end.
Today, I'm looking forward. I don't yet see the end; I see the hope of a new beginning.
]]>America can now move forwardhttp://www.sysmango.com/content/america-can-now-move-forward2008-11-04T22:12:25-06:002008-11-04T22:39:46-06:00Butch
It seems congratulations are in order for Barack Obama
Now you have to wonder, what happens.
One of the things that I think we have all now have to be worried about is how much the plans of Obama will have to change after that very first President-eyes only briefing that talk about all the things that the rest of us just don't know. What things has the Bush Administration been hiding that will change things incredibly.
I haven't said anything here about my own feelings for this election, how I was planning to vote. I think it is enough to say that I am happy with this outcome. I am curious President Obama will change the way the Republican party works. I wonder how the neoconservative movement will alter their tactics now that "The Real America" has clearly shown itself as not created in the narrow vision of America that they projected.
Tomorrow, we get to wake up, and move forward with dealing with the problems that have weighed so very heavily on this country over the last several years. All this change, and not one drop of blood.
God bless the Constitution.
And God bless these United States.
]]>
It seems congratulations are in order for Barack Obama
Now you have to wonder, what happens.
One of the things that I think we have all now have to be worried about is how much the plans of Obama will have to change after that very first President-eyes only briefing that talk about all the things that the rest of us just don't know. What things has the Bush Administration been hiding that will change things incredibly.
I haven't said anything here about my own feelings for this election, how I was planning to vote. I think it is enough to say that I am happy with this outcome. I am curious President Obama will change the way the Republican party works. I wonder how the neoconservative movement will alter their tactics now that "The Real America" has clearly shown itself as not created in the narrow vision of America that they projected.
Tomorrow, we get to wake up, and move forward with dealing with the problems that have weighed so very heavily on this country over the last several years. All this change, and not one drop of blood.
God bless the Constitution.
And God bless these United States.
]]>VOTE-2008http://www.sysmango.com/content/vote20082008-11-04T20:33:50-06:002008-11-04T20:35:38-06:00Butch
]]>
]]>Something funny from TEDhttp://www.sysmango.com/content/something-funny-ted2008-10-28T20:42:00-05:002008-10-29T06:10:22-05:00Butch
This picture shows you something of what happened when I went into work this morning. The picture is from a security camera at work after the fun stuff had happened. It's not my car.
When I arrived at the office today, I noticed the landscaping crew was working on the east end of the lot. I don't like parking near where they work. Why be in their way? I do like parking near a door, so I drove past the back of the building to the west back lot. No parking spots near the doors, but I did notice that there was a fog. No one from the landscaping crew was nearby, so it wasn't them blowing dust and dirt away from the building. Maybe it was the construction along I-64. No, it was coming from between my lane along the fence and the building.
That's when I noticed the car smoking in the lot.
Needless to say, I parked away from it.
Walking past the car, towards the office, I couldn't help but notice the smell, the heavy black smoke and the orange flame licking out from grill.
That's when I started running (should have taken a picture first, but hey, it was a fire in a parking lot full of cars).
Due to no one answering the emergency line, I ran to the front desk and told them about the fire. That's when the bulding called 911.
The picture is from a little bit after the fire team left the scene from the security camera in the lot.
The red car's bumper was partially melted and the plate was scorched brown. Virginia uses blue on white. Get the picture.
Needless to say, it was a little harder today to keep ones mind on ones work.
This picture shows you something of what happened when I went into work this morning. The picture is from a security camera at work after the fun stuff had happened. It's not my car.
When I arrived at the office today, I noticed the landscaping crew was working on the east end of the lot. I don't like parking near where they work. Why be in their way? I do like parking near a door, so I drove past the back of the building to the west back lot. No parking spots near the doors, but I did notice that there was a fog. No one from the landscaping crew was nearby, so it wasn't them blowing dust and dirt away from the building. Maybe it was the construction along I-64. No, it was coming from between my lane along the fence and the building.
That's when I noticed the car smoking in the lot.
Needless to say, I parked away from it.
Walking past the car, towards the office, I couldn't help but notice the smell, the heavy black smoke and the orange flame licking out from grill.
That's when I started running (should have taken a picture first, but hey, it was a fire in a parking lot full of cars).
Due to no one answering the emergency line, I ran to the front desk and told them about the fire. That's when the bulding called 911.
The picture is from a little bit after the fire team left the scene from the security camera in the lot.
The red car's bumper was partially melted and the plate was scorched brown. Virginia uses blue on white. Get the picture.
Needless to say, it was a little harder today to keep ones mind on ones work.
]]>Phillies in World Series: Watching Game One http://www.sysmango.com/content/phillies-world-series-watching-game-one2008-10-22T20:51:54-05:002008-10-22T20:53:53-05:00Butch
It is wonderful to be watching the
Phillies
play at the start of the World
Series. I was not able to see many (any) Phillies games this
year from here in Virginia. Honestly, I have had trouble getting
into baseball since the last strike. And not being able to watch
Philadelphia teams whenever they are on has been my biggest complaint
about living here.
But the joy of the post season is that
when the Phillies are in the post season, it's really the only game
that's on. Of course, I would love to actually make it to Philly for
a game.
My parents have tickets for the game
Monday. I wish.
Nothing more to do than to watch the
game on TV.
TiVo actually. I'm about 10 minutes
behind real-time.
]]>
It is wonderful to be watching the
Phillies
play at the start of the World
Series. I was not able to see many (any) Phillies games this
year from here in Virginia. Honestly, I have had trouble getting
into baseball since the last strike. And not being able to watch
Philadelphia teams whenever they are on has been my biggest complaint
about living here.
But the joy of the post season is that
when the Phillies are in the post season, it's really the only game
that's on. Of course, I would love to actually make it to Philly for
a game.
My parents have tickets for the game
Monday. I wish.
Nothing more to do than to watch the
game on TV.
TiVo actually. I'm about 10 minutes
behind real-time.
]]>SysMango.com update for October 16http://www.sysmango.com/content/sysmangocom-update-october-162008-10-16T23:09:56-05:002008-10-16T23:16:43-05:00Butch
I just finished an update of the site
to the latest version of Drupal 5 to close a potential
security issue reported by the Drupal
team. And looking at the site, I couldn't help but notice that it
has been over a month since I last
posted anything. Not exactly living up to my own expectations
for the site. And yet, I'm still more active than a few peopleIknow.
A big part of the issue has been that
I'm in one of those phases where the computer just represents work.
Sometimes a lot of work. And not all of it enjoyable. Not that
anything is wrong with work. It's just that sometimes I am looking
for something more than just using the computer.
Yes, you read that right. Sometimes
Butch doesn't like computers any more than you do. They're not a
toy. They're a tool I use to make a living. Well, maybe they're not
always just a toy. Maybe just most of the time I use computers as
toys. But it's not like I'm playing games with them. Not video
games, at least.
I'm pretty much at the place where
video games are just for my kids. But that's another story.
The update was done to protect against
a security hole. I am going to be going back through the modules for
Drupal 6. I will be looking to see if enough of the modules I use
have been updated or have replacements for Drupal 6. I may just
decide to unpublish some of the content (like the polls) that rely on
some of the modules that have not or will not make the jump from D5
to D6.
I am also considering what I am going
to do about the Gallery
install I have. I haven't been using Gallery all that much recently,
having used Flickr
more for the daily
photos (I do try to do it everyday, just not always successful).
I will be trying to post more about
what I am doing. I guess my biggest fear is that I'm boring. I know
that a lot of things I think about are not exactly unique. I really
try hard to not talk about politics, work or the war. I think I
should leave politics and war to those that actually have a clue
about those topics. And what is what I am sometimes trying to
escape.
I don't want the to be unused, but I
also do not want to just repost things that have been posted
elsewhere. And I don't want the site to become a single topic, one
dimensional affair (which I'm afraid I did with the Uru-related
content).
As part of upgrading the site, I will
be going through and reviewing all of the content again. I am
thinking about tweaking the taxonomy and organizing things
differently. I have a to-do list with about 40 items that need
something added back, edited or changed in someway. There are almost
1000 nodes on this site between this
blog, the almost never used forums
and a couple of other pages. (This post being node 993).
Maybe I'll try to do something special
for node 1000. And then maybe not. I'll more than likely just put
some kind of meaningless placeholder in node 1000. It's not like
anyone even sees the numbers anymore.
If anyone has any ideas or comments,
please feel free to either comment or send me a message.
]]>
I just finished an update of the site
to the latest version of Drupal 5 to close a potential
security issue reported by the Drupal
team. And looking at the site, I couldn't help but notice that it
has been over a month since I last
posted anything. Not exactly living up to my own expectations
for the site. And yet, I'm still more active than a few peopleIknow.
A big part of the issue has been that
I'm in one of those phases where the computer just represents work.
Sometimes a lot of work. And not all of it enjoyable. Not that
anything is wrong with work. It's just that sometimes I am looking
for something more than just using the computer.
Yes, you read that right. Sometimes
Butch doesn't like computers any more than you do. They're not a
toy. They're a tool I use to make a living. Well, maybe they're not
always just a toy. Maybe just most of the time I use computers as
toys. But it's not like I'm playing games with them. Not video
games, at least.
I'm pretty much at the place where
video games are just for my kids. But that's another story.
The update was done to protect against
a security hole. I am going to be going back through the modules for
Drupal 6. I will be looking to see if enough of the modules I use
have been updated or have replacements for Drupal 6. I may just
decide to unpublish some of the content (like the polls) that rely on
some of the modules that have not or will not make the jump from D5
to D6.
I am also considering what I am going
to do about the Gallery
install I have. I haven't been using Gallery all that much recently,
having used Flickr
more for the daily
photos (I do try to do it everyday, just not always successful).
I will be trying to post more about
what I am doing. I guess my biggest fear is that I'm boring. I know
that a lot of things I think about are not exactly unique. I really
try hard to not talk about politics, work or the war. I think I
should leave politics and war to those that actually have a clue
about those topics. And what is what I am sometimes trying to
escape.
I don't want the to be unused, but I
also do not want to just repost things that have been posted
elsewhere. And I don't want the site to become a single topic, one
dimensional affair (which I'm afraid I did with the Uru-related
content).
As part of upgrading the site, I will
be going through and reviewing all of the content again. I am
thinking about tweaking the taxonomy and organizing things
differently. I have a to-do list with about 40 items that need
something added back, edited or changed in someway. There are almost
1000 nodes on this site between this
blog, the almost never used forums
and a couple of other pages. (This post being node 993).
Maybe I'll try to do something special
for node 1000. And then maybe not. I'll more than likely just put
some kind of meaningless placeholder in node 1000. It's not like
anyone even sees the numbers anymore.
If anyone has any ideas or comments,
please feel free to either comment or send me a message.
]]>How the LHC destroyed my marriage (not really) http://www.sysmango.com/content/how-lhc-destroyed-my-marriage-not-really2008-09-10T06:57:40-05:002008-09-10T07:00:35-05:00Butch
Natalie
is a science teacher (for at least part of most days). One of the
topics that Natalie teaches is the basics of atoms. Yesterday, CERN
started the LHC,
which some folks believe is going to result in the destruction of the
Earth, the Universe, or at least a very significant subset of All of
Reality.
Considering
the fact that we are all still here, and I am able to write this (and
you read it), it would seem that it is safe to assume that just
turning the beam on was no where near as large an existential threat
as those people predicted. But it is nice to know that someone is
monitoring the situation -->link.
(Thanks to Paradox
for the link).
My
position is how often does one get to cover the topics of study for
the largest, and most expensive, research experiment ever, that just
happens to also be in the 6th grade curriculum you are
going to start teaching any day now? And that there are people that
think that this experiment, if successful, will destroy the whole
planet, the universe and a large part of all of reality.
Cool,
or what?
"Butch,
you have no idea of what I actually teach, or how I have to do it."
Natalie's
a special education teacher. So it seems that the LHC is not exactly
something her group is ever going to actually deal with (why not,
it's still fun?).
And
it really doesn't help that I'm trying to have this conversation
while she is rushing to get her tea made and her body out the door.
It's not really my fault. Paradox
and XKCD reminded
me via posts to their respective sites.
And,
let's face it, existential threats, even just movie plot ones, are
really kind of interesting when you don't have that much going on.
]]>
Natalie
is a science teacher (for at least part of most days). One of the
topics that Natalie teaches is the basics of atoms. Yesterday, CERN
started the LHC,
which some folks believe is going to result in the destruction of the
Earth, the Universe, or at least a very significant subset of All of
Reality.
Considering
the fact that we are all still here, and I am able to write this (and
you read it), it would seem that it is safe to assume that just
turning the beam on was no where near as large an existential threat
as those people predicted. But it is nice to know that someone is
monitoring the situation -->link.
(Thanks to Paradox
for the link).
My
position is how often does one get to cover the topics of study for
the largest, and most expensive, research experiment ever, that just
happens to also be in the 6th grade curriculum you are
going to start teaching any day now? And that there are people that
think that this experiment, if successful, will destroy the whole
planet, the universe and a large part of all of reality.
Cool,
or what?
"Butch,
you have no idea of what I actually teach, or how I have to do it."
Natalie's
a special education teacher. So it seems that the LHC is not exactly
something her group is ever going to actually deal with (why not,
it's still fun?).
And
it really doesn't help that I'm trying to have this conversation
while she is rushing to get her tea made and her body out the door.
It's not really my fault. Paradox
and XKCD reminded
me via posts to their respective sites.
And,
let's face it, existential threats, even just movie plot ones, are
really kind of interesting when you don't have that much going on.
]]>Waiting for Sporehttp://www.sysmango.com/content/waiting-spore2008-09-09T21:46:07-05:002008-09-09T21:48:37-05:00Butch
Back
when they first announced the release date for Spore,
I pre-ordered the game. I thought that this would be a good game for
the boys. They love constructing things. They have recently taken
to some of the Civilization type games on GameTap.
Spore, in all of it's "massively single-player"-ness seemed
right up their alley.
I
can't help but say I am a little fascinated with the game concept. I
really think it will be interesting to see what the game will bring.
The
release date announced was 07 September. This, was 2 days ago, on a
Sunday.
Why
is it that I only just received an e-mail this morning saying that my
pre-order was being shipped?
In
the past couple of days, Spore has been all over various media.
Specifically, there has been a lot of conversation about the protest
over at Amazon
and the number of single-star reviews the game has received, both for
game play and the rather draconian DRM employed.
I'm
currently a little upset that people who didn't bother to pre-order
the game are already playing it. And that my copy is still being
shipped. Why did I bother buying the game right from the publisher?
What
is someone waiting for a game to make of the DRM applied? What am I
supposed to make of the 1,700+ single-star ratings on the Amazon page
for Spore? Why is my pre-order arriving 3 days later than the retail
release?
I'm
actually a little concerned right now. Will this game be another
disappointment? Will the DRM push one of my machines into the realm
of instability?
]]>
Back
when they first announced the release date for Spore,
I pre-ordered the game. I thought that this would be a good game for
the boys. They love constructing things. They have recently taken
to some of the Civilization type games on GameTap.
Spore, in all of it's "massively single-player"-ness seemed
right up their alley.
I
can't help but say I am a little fascinated with the game concept. I
really think it will be interesting to see what the game will bring.
The
release date announced was 07 September. This, was 2 days ago, on a
Sunday.
Why
is it that I only just received an e-mail this morning saying that my
pre-order was being shipped?
In
the past couple of days, Spore has been all over various media.
Specifically, there has been a lot of conversation about the protest
over at Amazon
and the number of single-star reviews the game has received, both for
game play and the rather draconian DRM employed.
I'm
currently a little upset that people who didn't bother to pre-order
the game are already playing it. And that my copy is still being
shipped. Why did I bother buying the game right from the publisher?
What
is someone waiting for a game to make of the DRM applied? What am I
supposed to make of the 1,700+ single-star ratings on the Amazon page
for Spore? Why is my pre-order arriving 3 days later than the retail
release?
I'm
actually a little concerned right now. Will this game be another
disappointment? Will the DRM push one of my machines into the realm
of instability?
Why
is it that everything has to fall apart and break all at the same
time?
The
end of August, the last DVD player I bought (a little over a year
ago) started having issues with one of the DVD's we received from
Netflix.
This really isn't unusual, Disks coming from any rental operation
are going to have issues from time to time. They are dirty,
scratched or just plain weird. And some of the disks are sometimes
slightly non-standard. I've even had that issue with at least one
DVD we bought a few years ago. If the issue with the DVD is dirt,
then the problem might also show up on the next DVD you pop into the
player; transference of dirt from the disk to the lens.
Yes,
it happens.
After
cleaning the lens and trying the disk on another DVD player we have
in the house (boy's Xbox), we found that the disk played fine. I
then dropped another disk I had just watched on my computer in to the
troubled DVD player and it had problems.
Looks
like I killed another one. In the span of the last 10 years I have
destroyed 3 DVD players, 3 DVD burners and a significant number of
optical drives in FileNET jukeboxen.
On
Labor Day, I went and bought a new DVD player for the living room.
This one includes a DVD burner and a VHS drive. I'll talk more about
that some other time.
Today,
sitting in the living room, I noticed that the Ceiva
picture frame was dark. This isn't normally a problem. More than
likely, someone has knocked the power brick out of the outlet. So, I
just ask Natalie to reach back over and plug it in, only it's not
unplugged.
Looking
at the frame, the power light is on. Looking at the network logs,
it's been doing it's thing and talking to Ceiva every hour, looking
for new pictures. Wonderful.
I
remember hearing from Natalie that her mother's Ceiva did the same
thing, went dark, while she was visiting. The unit ended up being
replaced for something like $20. But that was a while ago.
When
I went up to the Ceiva website, I understand how that happened. My
mother-in-law was pushed into buying Ceiva's one year extended
warranty. From looking at it now, it looks like they do not support
doing that with my model anymore.
Natalie
really likes having the Ceiva. And the one we did have was a couple
of years old. I don't really feel bad about replacing it, as it is
something we do actually use. But more on that later.
Let
me end by saying that I WILL more than likely be taking the Cevia I
have apart to looking at what I can do with it.
And
now I have to wonder what is going to break next. Last time we went
through one of these cycles, I think I burned a mouse, keyboard and
monitor over the course of a month.
]]>
Why
is it that everything has to fall apart and break all at the same
time?
The
end of August, the last DVD player I bought (a little over a year
ago) started having issues with one of the DVD's we received from
Netflix.
This really isn't unusual, Disks coming from any rental operation
are going to have issues from time to time. They are dirty,
scratched or just plain weird. And some of the disks are sometimes
slightly non-standard. I've even had that issue with at least one
DVD we bought a few years ago. If the issue with the DVD is dirt,
then the problem might also show up on the next DVD you pop into the
player; transference of dirt from the disk to the lens.
Yes,
it happens.
After
cleaning the lens and trying the disk on another DVD player we have
in the house (boy's Xbox), we found that the disk played fine. I
then dropped another disk I had just watched on my computer in to the
troubled DVD player and it had problems.
Looks
like I killed another one. In the span of the last 10 years I have
destroyed 3 DVD players, 3 DVD burners and a significant number of
optical drives in FileNET jukeboxen.
On
Labor Day, I went and bought a new DVD player for the living room.
This one includes a DVD burner and a VHS drive. I'll talk more about
that some other time.
Today,
sitting in the living room, I noticed that the Ceiva
picture frame was dark. This isn't normally a problem. More than
likely, someone has knocked the power brick out of the outlet. So, I
just ask Natalie to reach back over and plug it in, only it's not
unplugged.
Looking
at the frame, the power light is on. Looking at the network logs,
it's been doing it's thing and talking to Ceiva every hour, looking
for new pictures. Wonderful.
I
remember hearing from Natalie that her mother's Ceiva did the same
thing, went dark, while she was visiting. The unit ended up being
replaced for something like $20. But that was a while ago.
When
I went up to the Ceiva website, I understand how that happened. My
mother-in-law was pushed into buying Ceiva's one year extended
warranty. From looking at it now, it looks like they do not support
doing that with my model anymore.
Natalie
really likes having the Ceiva. And the one we did have was a couple
of years old. I don't really feel bad about replacing it, as it is
something we do actually use. But more on that later.
Let
me end by saying that I WILL more than likely be taking the Cevia I
have apart to looking at what I can do with it.
And
now I have to wonder what is going to break next. Last time we went
through one of these cycles, I think I burned a mouse, keyboard and
monitor over the course of a month.
]]>Waiting for cabin fever; Thanks, Hannahttp://www.sysmango.com/content/waiting-cabin-fever-thanks-hanna2008-09-05T21:44:32-05:002008-09-05T21:45:56-05:00ButchEveryone else is in bed. I'll probably head that myself soon. Right now I'm sitting in the loft just doing some quick checks trying to figure out when Hanna is going to get here. Right now, it's quiet. A little wet from the way forward edge (if you can call it that).
I am fully expecting that after one day of working from home and two days of staying inside because of the storm, I'll actually be looking forward to being in the office Monday. There is this small issue of having to be in the office 05:00 Sunday, but that should be over reasonably quickly. If the weather is too bad, then I will be doing that from home. Why do firewalls have to be such an issue in large networks?
Preparations for the weekend have been light. One pound of espresso from Bean There. I think everything with a battery is either charged or charging. Of course, I do miss having he UPS battery. Maybe this year I'll replace it with a new one. Really don't know how I'll handle a power outage, not that I am expecting one. The boys have been married to the computer and Xbox.
We did get some movies from Netflix, but I'm really not into anything. Problem is, I really don't know what's out there.
More later. Good night.
]]>Everyone else is in bed. I'll probably head that myself soon. Right now I'm sitting in the loft just doing some quick checks trying to figure out when Hanna is going to get here. Right now, it's quiet. A little wet from the way forward edge (if you can call it that).
I am fully expecting that after one day of working from home and two days of staying inside because of the storm, I'll actually be looking forward to being in the office Monday. There is this small issue of having to be in the office 05:00 Sunday, but that should be over reasonably quickly. If the weather is too bad, then I will be doing that from home. Why do firewalls have to be such an issue in large networks?
Preparations for the weekend have been light. One pound of espresso from Bean There. I think everything with a battery is either charged or charging. Of course, I do miss having he UPS battery. Maybe this year I'll replace it with a new one. Really don't know how I'll handle a power outage, not that I am expecting one. The boys have been married to the computer and Xbox.
We did get some movies from Netflix, but I'm really not into anything. Problem is, I really don't know what's out there.
More later. Good night.
]]>Happy Birthday, Nataliehttp://www.sysmango.com/content/happy-birthday-natalie2008-08-30T11:06:51-05:002008-11-11T10:05:11-06:00Butch
Today is the birthday of my wonderful wife, Natalie.
This is the last weekend of freedom for Natalie before she goes back to teaching sixth grade Science, Social Studies and English. I'm just hoping that she has a restful and relaxing weekend, before the insanity of the next nine months kicks in full time.
Happy Birthday, Natalie!
]]>
Today is the birthday of my wonderful wife, Natalie.
This is the last weekend of freedom for Natalie before she goes back to teaching sixth grade Science, Social Studies and English. I'm just hoping that she has a restful and relaxing weekend, before the insanity of the next nine months kicks in full time.
Happy Birthday, Natalie!
]]>Home from vacationhttp://www.sysmango.com/content/home-vacation2008-08-11T07:33:15-05:002008-08-11T07:38:52-05:00ButchWe are home after a short vacation.
There was no network connection, even via my mobile, where we were staying. I was only able to post a picture or two and sent tweets when there was an available cellular signal. I did not bring a laptop everywhere we went--too much walking--so that was the best I could do.
Today is the last day off. I am hoping to have time to transcribe some of the notes I made in my paper journal. ]]>We are home after a short vacation.
There was no network connection, even via my mobile, where we were staying. I was only able to post a picture or two and sent tweets when there was an available cellular signal. I did not bring a laptop everywhere we went--too much walking--so that was the best I could do.
Today is the last day off. I am hoping to have time to transcribe some of the notes I made in my paper journal. ]]>
