Thursday, September 28, 2006
Fame at last. A photo of my studly self was distributed to thousands of homes last Tuesday. The Lorain Morning Journal put me on the front page baby! Ok, it was only the B section, but above the fold you bet! They must be tryin' to increase circulation or something.
Posted 11:35 AM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- BTW, when I go to the dog park I always gas up at the Marathon station sitting right on the Rt. 83 jog (just north of Rt. 2 and 254). It's in competion with a Wal-Mart next door. Today I paid $1.93/gal.
Tuesday, September 26, 2006
Check this out! Who says an Ivy League education isn't worth the money? Actually this has nothing to do with that except that the guys in the article are from Cornell. Well, maybe it does have something to do with that after all.
OLEDs With Solar Charging Capability
Posted 12:38 PM by A. O. (0) comments
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Well whatdayaknow. The PayPal button has somehow moved itself up in the menu bar. How odd. An amazing coincidence too, seeing as how I just got dinged by the site hosting service for $95.40. Gotta hand it to them for consistency, they do this to me every September without fail. John and Mike paid for last year (blessed be their names), John and Andy the year before (I think). Salt of the earth those guys. Anybody else feeling salty? Being I haven't had to pay for a couple of years I suppose it's really my turn, only amounts to two bags of dog food (sorry Niki), but if anyone besides those guys should feel so inspired I'll be sure to tell Niki that dinner's on them. As an extra bonus I'll put the PayPal button anywhere you want (within reason, and profanity doesn't become you).
Posted 10:20 AM by whatley (3) comments
Comments:
- Egads. We have the first (of what I'm sure will be many) donation for RBT hosting fees. Niki eats again! A good thing too. The look in her eyes was starting to make me kinda nervous. Only $85.40 to go you wascally wabbits you.
Post a Comment- Thank you John and Terri! You've warmed the cockles of my heart. Niki has food in her bowl again so I'm sure her cockles (if she has cockles, and I'm not about to check to see if she does, this will remain her little secret) are warmed too. She said she'll split the $35.40 with me, is that a great dog or what? Hey, wait a minute, where's she going to get $17.70? She doesn't have a job! Oh, yeah, me either. We'll think of something.
Stone Circles of the British Isles. And the Megalithic Map to show you where they all are. Pictures abound. Be sure to read this Government Health Warning before going henge-hopping.
Posted 10:20 AM by Andy (0) comments
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Monday, September 25, 2006
"Don't take it personally. It's business." An observation by Scottish singer/songwriter Dick Gaughan. Musically, I place him with Archie Fisher, Stan Rogers, and Ewan MacColl as the best contemporary solo producers of celtic tradition, as well as unrepentant rabble-rousers and curmudgeonly resisters of creeping societal rot. (Here, stick thumbs in ears, wiggle fingers wildly, jump up and down, cross eyes and make rude noises. Optional: wiggle posterior in society's face, if so inclined.)
Posted 9:32 AM by Andy (3) comments
Comments:
- Andy, be careful who you're calling "Celtic". The Scots and Irishmen I know are very likely to ask you "What da feck is dis "Celtic" bollocks?" They identify as either Scots or Irish even if they grew up in London or Liverpool. The traditions are similar and even share some tunes, but are very distinct from each other. The Welsh, Cornish and Brittany celts are genetically, linguistically and musically different from the Irish, Scots, and Manx celtics. Thanks to the Romans, the Danes(who probably were actually Norwegians), the Anglo-Norman Brits and the Roman Catholic church the pastoral celts never got to form a recognizable pan-Celtism which could be transmitted down the generations so that concept is pretty modern.
Just remember what they say, "You can always tell an Irishman, but you can't tell him much."
Post a Comment- Yeah. We're bastards all (thanks to the rapacious Romans and Dane-wegians). But we'll always have bagpipes. Or: If you can't stand the beat, get out of the ceili.
Sunday, September 24, 2006
I have this handy little utility called StumbleUpon which is a customized random search engine. You establish a number of areas of interest and the program conducts a random search based on any or all the interests, your choice. Its really fun for brain-dead web surfing.
This morning it landed on this YouTube video on how to make A Bump Key. I haven't read the "refinements" section yet but it seemed pretty efficient without them.
Feeling paranoid, yet?
Posted 10:41 AM by A. O. (1) comments
Comments:
Post a Comment- Not paranoid ... just remembering what my Dad used to say, "Locks are there to keep honest people honest."
Thursday, September 21, 2006
The UN General Assembly is in its 61st Session (Sept 2006 through Sept 2007). Here is the first report of the General Committee, the organization and adoption of the agenda for the 61st session. There are many items directed to cost savings. For example, meeting support does not extend past 6PM, and members are directed to begin meetings on time. There is a notation to not bother the Secretary General for reports unless they directly impact critical and active agenda items.
Reference the General Assembly debate, and specifically, member states' turns at the podium: The presentations for September 19th include G.W.Bush. The link includes both video and text choices. The presentations for September 20th include Hugo Chavez. Interestingly, Chavez's speech is the only one that does NOT yet include the text. This morning, the notation next to the Chavez speech text button was [text not available]. Now, the notation shows [English] but the button does not work. That's OK. The news media has taken care of it.
As a compare/contrast, here is a link to a UN Speech made by Hugo Chavez a year ago on September 18, 2005.
Posted 11:30 AM by Andy (2) comments
Comments:
- Maybe Chavez was right. Norwegians thought Bush was saluting Satan. Sean Penn calls Bush a dumb devil. Does Bush worship the devil? Signs of Satan. And finally:
George Bush has a heart attack and dies. He goes to hell where the devil is waiting for him. "I don't know what to do here," says the devil. "You're on my list but I have no room for you. But you definitely have to stay here, so I'll tell you what I'm going to do. I've got three people here who weren't quite as bad as you. I'll let one of them go, but you have to take their place. I'll even let YOU decide who leaves." George thought that sounded pretty good so he agreed. The devil opened the first room. In it was Richard Nixon and a large pool of water. He kept diving in and surfacing empty handed over and over and over. Such was his fate in hell. "No!" George said. "I don't think so. I'm not a good swimmer and I don't think I could do that all day long." The devil led him to the next room. In it was Tony Blair with a sledgehammer and a room full of rocks. All he did was swing that hammer, time after time after time. "No! I've got this problem with my shoulder. I would be in constant agony if all I could do was break rocks all day!" commented George. The devil opened a third door. In it, George saw Bill Clinton lying naked on the floor with his arms staked over his head and his legs staked in spread-eagle pose. Bent over him was Monica Lewinsky, doing what she does best. George Bush looked at this in disbelief for a while and finally said, "Yeah, I can handle this." The devil smiled and said, "Monica, you're free to go!"
Post a Comment- As one news analyst pointed out, remember that Hugo Chavez is running for reelection in Venezuela. His focus group is the electorate there. And he has a bunch of oil to play with. So while his rhetoric was unvarnished and refreshing, it is probably meaningless in the larger scheme.
Wednesday, September 20, 2006
I attended the quarterly meeting of the United British Society last night. My folks are members and since me mother is poorly, I went with me old da'. Local storyteller Mike Mazur provided the program. Mike is one of the founders of Celtic Ceol (with Dermot Somerville and Jimmy Noonan) and with Dermot Somerville, performs as the Bodhran Brothers. He told me, if I saw Tim Wallace, to give him a hard time. So this is for Tim: "Do you know how copper wire was invented? Well, two Scotsmen spied a penny lying on the ground and grabbed for it at the same time..."
Posted 8:19 AM by Andy (2) comments
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Post a Comment- Another one I ran across recently: "How do an onion and bagpipes differ? No one cries when bagpipes are cut up."
Saturday, September 16, 2006
From the Washington Post: The ID Chip You Don't Want in Your Passport.
"If you have a passport, now is the time to renew it -- even if it's not set to expire anytime soon. If you don't have a passport and think you might need one, now is the time to get it. In many countries, including the United States, passports will soon be equipped with RFID chips. And you don't want one of these chips in your passport."
Posted 6:12 AM by whatley (2) comments
Comments:
- On the cutting edge, the gambling industry currently uses software that can passively identify individuals from video camera images. The RFID chip is a clumsy and intrusive attempt to "sanitize" the borders. As usual, the limited imagination of a bureacracy insures that such attempts will be too little, too late. Victimize the legitimate and empower the dangerous by giving them tools to target their weapons. Imagine a shark able to scan and identify a specific fish in a school. The shark grows fatter and the statistical anonymity of a schoolfish ceases to be effective.
Post a Comment- Be afraid of foreigners! Be afraid of the government! Be afraid of foreign governments!
But it can be OK if you buy this thing we're selling. It'll work till we tell you to be afraid again.
Then we'll sell you something for that.
As the Tom Lehrer song says " . . .Don't drink the water and don't breathe the air!"
Be afraid of people selling you stuff!
Thursday, September 14, 2006
Because I've always felt there was limited interest among this group I refrain from making computer related posts. The "cool tools" link was my one attempt to share some of the software I run into but it never generated any response so I more or less stopped updating it. Andys' posts about setting up his new PC sort of inspired me to add something that I know will be dear to his security related little heart; a sandbox program. What's a sandbox? I thought you'd never ask. A description is at the bottom of the "cool tools" page. Read that first, then if you want to know why I recommended that particular version go here (warning: long and a bit techy).
Posted 9:47 PM by whatley (0) comments
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My computer audio manager comes with a graphic equalizer that also allows me to pick evironments like concert hall, arena, city, alley, parking lot, bathroom, forest, sewer pipe, under water and the most appropriate, padded cell. Resistance is futile. So put on a CD and throw yourself against the walls repeatedly.
Posted 10:40 AM by Andy (0) comments
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Niki (my dog) graduated from obedience class last night! She even got a diploma! I'm so proud. Having a degree may have gone to her head a bit though. She wants a graduation party and insists that from now on I refer to her as a Canine American.
Posted 9:18 AM by whatley (4) comments
Comments:
- I congratulate her. Now she is formally qualified to PhD (pile it higher and deeper). Are you going to buy her a graduation outfit and an indoor astroturf porta-doggy-potty? When is the dogtail party? I will make doglat-chip biscuits. My recipe won honorable mention during the bark-off at the Lorain County fair. I expect her to start posting on the RBT soon.
- The dogtail party will be Saturday the 23rd in Tappan Square, otherwise known as the Oberlin Doggie Doo. I went last year. It was hokey but fun and, best of all considering present circumstances, free. There'll be quite a few booths selling home made dog treats so your doglat-chip biscuits will be in good company. If anyone feels like comming along let me know.
- Murphy sends his congrats. He wanted to save his cap and tassel but they went the way of the frizbee. Chewed and abused. However, he is waiting for his new car. Perhaps Nikki would enjoy a coming out party, meet the eligible gents and such. Will she be having a Bas Mitzvah? You have established her citizenry but I know nothing of her ethnicity?
Post a Comment- Having had a certain veterinary procedure prior to our first meeteng Niki's interest in eligible gents will, alas, forever remain nil. Poor baby. As to her ethnicity I tell her that her mother was the princess of small tribe in the Balkan mountains, her father sixteenth in line to the British throne.
Tuesday, September 12, 2006
Free alternatives to expensive programs suggested by PC World. See the article titled Keep it Simple. For example, instead of Microsoft Internet Explorer, try Mozilla Firefox. The features are good enough that Microsoft is including some (like tabbed browsing) in the Windows Vista operating system that is supposed to replace Windows XP. Instead of Outlook, try Mozilla Thunderbird. Instead of Microsoft Office, try OpenOffice. Instead of Windows Media Player, try The Quintessential Player.
I use Firefox and Thunderbird, but have to go back to Internet Explorer when I update Windows XP (they are programmed to work together better). Since I already have the Microsoft Office suite, I will keep using it, but you can save the $$ and get the functionality from OpenOffice.
Posted 12:25 PM by Andy (0) comments
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Saturday, September 09, 2006
Hey! Marsha is a mother-in-law! Josh got married last Saturday in Chicago to his very long time domestic associate, Ryan. The wedding was worthy of magazine coverage. Can't remember a more perfect social function from beginning to end. Party at Ryan's father's house Friday night, wedding Saturday at the Chicago Racquet Club, and brunch Sunday hosted by the groom's parent's at the LuxBar on Rush St. not a single glitch or unpleasant moment in the entire affair. Will post pictures as they become available.
Posted 8:31 PM by A. O. (5) comments
Comments:
- I've seen pictures of you in formal getup. You look almost... establishment. And that is a departure from known reality. Glad the fete flew famously. This was a very important event for all concerned. My congrats and best karma to the gride and broom.
- Nothin' like a famously flown fete, that's what I always say (quickly, five times). Congrats indeed.
Hey, wait a minute. This means Marsha has the potential to become a granny-lady. Gee, that Marsha sure is gettin' old.
- Y'know, now that I've had time to reflect (and get some coffee in me) that "not a single glitch or unpleasant moment in the entire affair" part makes it sound, let's be honest here, a tad on the dull side. Not that there's anything wrong with that mind you, but it does show a certain lack of foresight in that you now don't have any conversation starters for future in-law get togethers. This could have been avioded simply by inviting a carload (or two) of your old pals. We're talking a wealth of cherished memories sharable for years to come. Some examples:
"Remember when that Whatley fellow exposed himself to the bridesmaids?" (chuckle chuckle) "Gotta admit, he sure is hung." (blush blush)
"Tony told me later that the tall bald one with the beard had never been drunk before!" (shocked amazement) "That would explain a lot." (general agreement) "Remember how much trouble we had comming up with the bail money?" (nods all around)
Well, you get the idea, and I'm sure you won't make the same mistake at your daughters wedding.
- Far from dull fellows, far from dull. Danced till one, then the young prople hit the town it full regalia closing one of the local watering holes at about 4 am. Rising to the occassion of brunch at 10 with no loss of sparkle.
The Old School(house) Gang was, somewhat staidly, represented by BJ. The kids did the guest list and I, who wasn't footing the considerable bill, had limited input into the roster. Hell, I'm lucky I was there.
Josh and his island buddies were able to recount a tale of dispatching an automobile injured deer with a broken beer botle and then tossing it off a cliff with one of their buddies still hanging on to its hind leg engendring an Indiana Jones moment for all involved. The prep-school crowd was awed.
Then there is the episode of the Knickerbocker Knocker . . .
Post a Comment- After the headache goes away, one of you will have to tell me about the "bail" incident...
Shit. I can't remember any of it. Maybe that explains how the bike wound up with the "must jarried" sign spray painted on the back. And the trunk full of bridesmaids' shoes. Damn. Is this what I have been missing all these years?
Thursday, September 07, 2006
All Celtic, all day. WUMB in the Boston/Eastern Massachussets area streams a Celtic music channel. They also have folk music channels that feature contemporary folk, L'Air Du Temps ("world music with a French accent"), traditional folk, and X-streme folk ("making up new music styles").
Now that I finally switched to a DSL line yesterday, I don't have to listen in bursts as the dial-up link re-buffers every 10 seconds. It is a slow DSL line (256K down/ 128K up), but it is not that much more expensive than I was paying for the dialup each month. I went from $19.95 per month (dialup) to $24.95 per month (DSL) with the first six months at $19.95.
Posted 7:45 AM by Andy (9) comments
Comments:
- A month or two ago I was at a friends house while he accessed the net through a dial up account. Sooo sloooooow. To him it was normal, to me unbelievably frustrating. Andy, you'll never go back.
- It is just the right speed to keep me from picking up the 16-ounce Estwing reprogramming ripping hammer and adjusting the computer's personality. When I was using the old computers and the dial up together. I had to hide the hammer before I started lest I be arrested for silicon littering, and creating a public nuisance. I didn't want to meet officer Obie.
- Question: I logged onto the account tools section of the Century Tel site and saw the message: "Your current IP is being added to the mail server for access for outbound SMTP mail traffic. Access could take between 3-5 minutes to be added. Your IP will be active for 45 minutes and then will be removed. If you need access after the 45 minutes, you will need to return to the Web page to obtain access again." Does that mean that I will not be able to send email without waiting for 5 minutes each time I log on?
- I've never seen a message like that before. My best guess is that this is in effect to provide you a window of access to create new mail accounts (and whatever else their "tools" utility allows you to manipulate when logged in) and does not have anything to do with basic send/receive when using a mail client (Outlook, Thunderbird, etc.). Most broadband providers allow a user to create several mail accounts.
- Yes. Up to 5 email addresses. Makes sense. Thanks. No WiFi since I am plugged in at one location. I know you set your LAN to minimize port intrusions. The Xp firewall has several exceptions listed, but the scope on each is set to subnet only and not all connections/internet. The LAN data shows a default gateway, an IP address (subset to the default), and a subnet mask IP (completely different decades). Can I manipulate these to increase security?
- The nice thing about (most) DSL modems vs. cable modems is that DSL modems have NAT (Network Address Translation) as well as port blocking capabilities. Those two things together are about 90% of a firewall and all home users typically need.
NAT: There are two types of IP numbers; public and private. There are two IP ranges that make an IP number private: 192.168.x.x (x meaning any number) and 10.x.x.x. These two ranges are not routable by the internet and any device using one cannot be seen by the world. They're for internal LAN use only. Your DSL modem has a public IP number on it. It has to so your ISP can see and route to it. NAT means that it doesn't pass that number, or any public number, along to your computer. It gives your PC a private number that only the modem can see, thereby rendering your PC invisible to the world (a very good thing). When you request a web page or mail or whatever your modem TRANSLATES the private number making the request (from your PC) to a public one (its own internal one), retrieves the information, then retranslates the IP number and sends the data back to your PC. To verify that NAT is working properly go to a command prompt and enter "ipconfig" (no quotes). You'll see three numbers; gateway (the modem) which should begin with either 192.168 or 10, your PC (first octets matching the gateways, last number different), and a subnet mask (a different number, most typically 255.255.255.0). If you don't have a private number assigned to your PC you'll need to access the modem and do some configuration.
Port Blocking: Whoo boy, this one's kind of tough to explain (and my typing finger is tired). Tell ya what. Go here: https://www.grc.com/x/ne.dll?bh0bkyd2
You'll see a page with your public IP number (the modem), You'll also see a "proceed" button. Press it then follow along ("common ports" and "all service ports" tests being the most important). This should give you a good idea whether your modem is port blocking or not. If not you'll need to configure the modem to do so.
- Here's something else you, proud owner of a new PC, might find handy:
Step by Step: Get Any PC, New or Old, Ready for Everyday Use
It's a little techy, but not too bad.
Post a Comment- Poifect! Something to keep me busily fiddling about and not bothering you with geeky questions! Thanks!
Friday, September 01, 2006
SPLOG = Spam + Blog. Grab a legitimate blog entry. Add a bunch of spurious words, phrases, advertising. Republish. How to Fight Those Surging Splogs (10/27/2005) by Wired News.
Posted 10:33 AM by Andy (0) comments
Comments:
Bequeath your heirs something that they will never throw away. Make yourself into a diamond. Prices are posted. The Life Gems company is even making Beethoven into three diamonds.
However, it is impossible to distinguish LifeGem synthetic diamonds from other synthetic diamonds. How do you know that you are really in there? See one doubter's view. After all, the value of a diamond is in its perceived, rather than its intrinsic, quality.
And speaking of diamonds, there are two companies, Gemesis and Apollo, who are making them. On the controversy between "real" (mined) and "synthetic" diamonds, Gemesis founder, retired General Carter Clarke says: "If you give a woman a choice between a 2-carat stone and a 1-carat stone and everything else is the same, including the price, what's she gonna choose?" "Does she care if it's synthetic or not? Is anybody at a party going to walk up to her and ask, 'Is that synthetic?' There's no way in hell. So I'll bite your ass if she chooses the smaller one."
Gemesis makes traditional jewel-shaped stones by compressing graphite in a washing-machine-sized pressure chamber.
Apollo is using chemical vapor deposition (CVD is used for microchip manufacturing) to build diamond wafers in which to imbed electronic circuits. Diamond is an insulator, but they have been able to "dope" the wafers with Boron and Phosphorus to make it a semiconductor. Diamond can withstand heat levels that would melt current chips. Couple a future diamond chip set to a watch-battery-sized fuel cell for power, and stand back.
Wired Magazine contributing author Joshua Davis contributed a comprehensive 2003 article about the new age of diamonds from Gemesis in Sarasota, Forida, and the dawning of the diamond semiconductor age being grown by Apollo in Boston, Mass. Another good article abpout these companies and about man-made diamonds (Feb 2, 2004) was published in Chemical and Engineering News .
Posted 8:55 AM by Andy (1) comments
Comments:
An 1885 Schoolhouse Blog
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