You can take away a lot of things, but not people’s iPods!
like a scolding parent it’s trying to make it tougher for that country’s eccentric leader to buy iPods
Full story here.
The North Korean nuclear situation should end quickly now!
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Monthly Archives: November 2006
Shooting Rabbids in my dreams with toilet plungers
24 hours in to owning the Wii and it is really a blast. So far I think the favorite Wii Sport is boxing. Tennis is a close second. This will definitely be a lot more fun when we buy a few more Wii remotes so we can all play at once. I also picked up a copy of Rayman – Raving Rabbids which is pretty funny and a lot of fun to play. There is something satisfying about shooting a bunch of deranged rabbits with toilet plungers. You owe it to yourself to at least go to their web site and check out the rabbids.
If you see a Wii in stores – buy it. You will not be disappointed.
That’s just Wii-tarded
I’ve been on the hunt for a new Nintendo Wii game console and have not had any luck finding one. So today I got up early and went and stood in line with around 99 other fools at a local Best Buy that was supposed to have some. I was told they opened at 8am, some people were told 9am, but all the employees that were entering the building told us 10am.
I was out there almost 2 1/2 hours when a few Best Buy employees came out and told us that they had 30 Wii’s to sell and that they were going to issue tickets for the first 30 people purchasing a Wii in line. I was person number 31 but thankfully there were a few couples and parents with their kids so I ended up getting ticket number 26. I am now the proud ownder of a Nintendo Wii, or as ticket holder number 29 kept yelling “I’m finally Wii-tarded!”
So far we’ve just played with the Wii Sports game that comes with it but the games are a blast. Nintendo really went after the average gamer and made it a pretty good value. If you go buy an XBox 360 or a PS3 (if you can find one) you are going to spend between $400 – $600 just for the console itself – no games. The Wii is $250 and comes with a game. It also plays all the GameCube games and you can download all of Nintendo’s older games across the internet as well as some games from Sega. Even the controller from the GameCube are suppoed to work with it. Nice touch.
Now I just need to pickup a few more Wii-motes and the kids and I can play against each other. Great job Nintendo.
This week’s theme: Regulus
As a WordPress.com user, you only have so many options for the look and feel of your site without paying money to edit (and save) CSS. I’m never happy with the look of my site so I am always changing it. I’ve come close before with the White As Milk theme, but I never really liked how that forced me in to a more centered theme on the page.
I’ve tried all of the themes on WordPress.com and I like and dislike something about all of them. This week I am trying Regulus, which has just about everything I want, but I have one small flaw with it; it doesn’t seem to respect the vertical and horizontal space around images. That’s something I am looking in to, but the Regulus theme is very, very nice. Give it a try on your own site.
Update: Google Reader vs NetNewsWire
It has been 6 weeks since I decided to try Google Reader over NetNewsWire (NNW) and I wanted to share some results. For pure speed and layout I think NNW does a better job. For nearly everything else, I think Google Reader does a good enough job that I am sticking with it. NNW was removed from my Dock weeks ago.
The portability is just too attractive with Google Reader. I don’t have to have my PowerBook with me to keep up with feeds – I can just hop on any computer with Internet access and catch up.
If I have one big complaint with Google Reader it is with performance when there are a lot of feeds. I believe this is more to do with the Apple environment than with Reader, as I don’t see any real lag as I use Reader on a WindowsXP system. When I use it on my PowerBook I know that I can get the processor up and the fan blowing by moving through the Reader items too quickly. I like to use the J and K keys for forward and backward navigation and I keep my view set to All Items (G A keys) and show Only List Updated in the subscriptions areas and Show Only New in the items area. Get moving too fast through your feeds using the J and K keys on a PowerBook and you will probably see what I mean.
What is the technology behind Google Reader? Any java in it at all? I ask because it seems like java-based things tend to heat things up on my PowerBook by cranking the CPU. High CPU=high heat. High heat=crank up the fans.
But, I’ve learned how to work around this issue by going back to the home area (G H keys) and then coming back to the All view. From there I can move through the unread items pretty well until I start doing too much back and forth with J and K. You can tell it is coming because everything is moving item to item really fast and smooth when all of a sudden they just get slower and slower. If you use something like MenuMeters or Activity Monitor you can see that the CPU is at, or near, 100%.
It’s not enough to deter me from the portability of the web based reader though. I’m sticking with Google on this one.
How I sped up web browsing in OS X
I have long been frustrated by how long the “Looking up” or “Contacting” phase of web browsing on OS X takes. I thought I had solutions in the past, but nothing really worked. While I am connected to a wired network I don’t experience the issue, it is only when I am wireless.
The symptom goes something like this: type in www.apple.com (or any site) in the address bar of the browser and wait many seconds while the browser goes from the looking up www.apple.com to connecting to www.apple.com. Once it starts connecting the performance is fine. Sound familiar? I tried Safari, FireFox, Opera, Camino, and Webkit and all had the same results.
I originally assumed that this was an issue with name resolution, the time it takes to turn that friendly name, www.apple.com, to an IP address that the computer cares about, so I tried forcing manual DNS entries. That helped a little. When I would drop out to the shell and do nslookup or dig commands the results would return quickly, which then confused the entire thing; if name resolution was fast at the shell, why was it taking so long at the browser.
So I started messing with the network settings and think I finally hit on a really simple solution. I changed my network Location from Automatic to a new one I created called Wireless. I went to System Preferences, Network, clicked on the Location drop-down, selected New, gave it a name (I chose Wireless for mine), then filled out the Airport, TCP/IP, PPPoe, AppleTalk and Proxies sections as they should be. For me the defaults were really all that was needed, but I did go back to the TCP/IP section and and the DNS servers in manaually. Comcast’s DNS servers have never been very fast so I used a pair from Verizon (4.2.2.1, 4.2.2.2) and click Apply.
Now the Lookup phase happens within a second or two for me and I’m happy with the result. Web browsing finally feels on par with the Windows world I used to live in (and still live in at work). Something so simple gave me a nice little speed bump on my 15″ PowerBook G4. Maybe it will work for others struggling with this same issue.
Another year passes
Another birthday has come and gone. One of the best parts is getting hand made cards from the kids. I’m still a big fan of cards made with crayons. As I get older I think more and more about all the things I thought I would do with my life but never did. Musician? Architect? Not even close.
There is no part of my life that has gone according to plan. That’s the background behind the name of this web site – blind squirrel – eventually even a blind squirrel finds an acorn. Honestly, I never expected to make it past 30 because of the life I lived, but I got lucky and met the right woman. From there the rest got easy and things seemed to just kind of happen – they fell in to place. So while it’s nice to reflect on the 43 years that have passed, I’m looking forward to the next 43 and what I get to experience.
Regrets? Yes and no. I’ve always regretted not going to college and getting at least a 4 year degree. But, if going to college means that I would not have met my wife – I’d rather not have the degree.
Hey, remember when you were young and how old 30 seemed to be? Now I sit here thinking “50 is not that old.” Time is the great equalizer.
It was my spudger!
Since upgrading my G4 15″ Aluminum PowerBook’s hard drive to a 160GB capacity drive, I have not needed to use the DVD/CDRW Superdrive – until last night when I needed to rip a CD in to iTunes. Unfortunately the drive would not mount and would immediately eject any disc I put in it. I tried over and over again until the drive would not accept any disc in it at all.
Tonight I pulled out all the tiny tools that are need to open the PowerBook and started the process of removing my Superdrive. The first time you open a PowerBook is a little scary, but after that it is no big deal. I was able to get the optical drive out and saw that everything looked fine from the outside, but it still would not accept a disc. So I decided that I would just take the drive apart since I assumed that I would have to replace it anyway. Nothing to lose.
When I opened it up I found a small piece of plastic was jammed in between a couple moveable parts, so I took it out and started looking to see where it may have come from. I couldn’t find any clue as to where this thing went. It was plastic, white, and about the size of the fingernail on your pinky finger. It was obvious that it had broken off of something, but what?
Then it hit me. The original instructions from iFixit.com referred to a “spudger” to help get the case open. Now, I don’t know about you, but not only did I have no idea what a spudger was, I was pretty sure I didn’t own one. So I improvised and used 2 plastic spoons. I remember that I ended up using 1 of the spoon handles to help keep the optical drive slot open while I tried to get the case together. The thing is a really soft aluminum so I kept crushing it and needed something to help keep the slot open. A tip of the spoon handle must have broken off and fell in to the drive, but it was never loose so you never knew it was in there.
Once again the lesson is to take your time and have the right tools. A plastic spoon almost cost me $200 for a new Superdrive and installation.
Killing time in Erie
Spending the weekend with relatives in Erie, PA, we took a ride over to the Tom Ridge Environmental Center At Presque Isle. Very neat place. You can learn a lot about Erie and its environment. We passed a whiteboard so I had to draw a picture of my beautiful wife. It drew a pretty big crowd and was one of the more popular exhibits while we were there. People were laughing and some even took pictures of it. Not sure what they’ll do with those pictures, but I grabbed the one that you see here. The full length picture didn’t come out every well but at least I salvaged the head shot. There was a Cub Scout troop taking a tour of the place and they all made additions to the whiteboard picture.
On a trip to Best Buy we found the PS3 up and available to play. I stopped and talked to someone that was playing an NBA game and the graphics were interesting. The court, stands, crowd, uniforms, etc. looked amazing. The court looked unbelievably real. The player’s skin, however, looked plastic to those of us in the store watching. That was the only game you could demo so I have no idea how the PS3 holds up under high speed game play. What was surprising was that the PS3 locked up on us. The guy playing it mentioned that the Walmart up here has been through a dozen of them because they keep locking up. I hope he was just exaggerating because people are not going to put up with freezing and minute and a half (his comment) start times after paying $600 for a gaming device. He also mentioned that he owns a XBox 360 and that he thinks the graphics actually look better on the XBox. Interesting.
I’m just disappointed that there is a DVD format war happening between Blue-ray and HD-DVD. Sony is supporting Blue-ray and Microsoft is backing HD-DVD. I would guess the Blue-ray drive is what is pumping the PS3′s price so high. I’m one that will wait and see what the Nintendo Wii looks like. They had a space reserved for one but did not have one you could see or touch. I believe that will come out this week some time.
I did play one of the coolest video games ever while there. It’s called Guitar Hero and I had a blast playing it. If you’ve ever seen the Dance Dance Revolution games, just picture the same concept except instead of the dance mat you hold a small guitar in your hands. Instead of using your feet to land on the arrows you use your fingers and the guitar – all to rock songs. It was definitely a blast, but it looked like it was a Playstation only kind of thing. Too bad, because I don’t have a Playstation. If I did I would have bought the game. It was a blast.
Lastly, I had replaced the internal hard drive on my 15″ G4 Aluminum PowerBook a little while ago with a 160GB drive and I’ve been very happy with it. Unfortunately I didn’t test the Superdrive once I put everything back together, because I learned the hard way that I must have done something to break the drive. I tried to load a couple CDs in it yesterday and it just keeps spitting them out right away. I kept trying over and over and now it won’t even accept a disk in it anymore. I don’t have any of the necessary tools away from home, but I am hoping I can get it working again when we get home. I don’t use the drive that much, but it will be a requirement when I want to upgrade to OS X Leopard later. If you’re doing your own hard drive upgrade, be careful and take your time.
The day after Election Day
Here we sit, the day after Election Day. The Democrats have won the House and the early word is they have just won the Senate as well. I guess we’ll know for sure on the 27th when everything is certified, but with elections so close you can’t blame either side if they want to recount the votes.
Do we really think things are going to change? I’ve always gone the path of researching the candidates and then voting for the best candidate, regardless of party. Will it make much difference with the Democrats in charge or will it just be more of the same but with higher taxes and a few more trees to look at? We’re still at war, the same issues facing our country yesterday exist today, and I’m willing to bet they’ll be there tomorrow.
Maybe this will bring the country together in the middle. Maybe this will knock some of the arrogance out of some of the Republicans I know. But, I doubt it. They bitched before Bush, puffed their chests out as they owned the House, Senate, and Presidency, screaming that “you’re either with us or against us!”, and will just go back to bitching about anything that happens from this point on. Everything will be the fault of the Democrats from today forward. But that’s just some of the ones I know. I’m sure the ones you know are much different, right? The Democrats aren’t much better. If they would have had any kind of platform to run on in the past they wouldn’t have been in the situation they were in. You may not like what the Republicans stand for but at least they stand for something.
But let’s not lose site of the real accomplishment that happened this week – Britney finally filed for divorce from Kevin. My favorite quote so far is K-Fed is now Fed-Ex. Nice.