Archive for November, 2004


Sick of banners

11/19/2004

There are a few sites I visit (gaming sites mostly,) that are on those ‘free’ web space providers. The ‘free’ means that you are forced to have banner ads at the top of your web pages.

To anyone who has one of these, for the love of God spend some CASH and get a regular host with no banners.. pleeeeezzzz.. those ads are SO gaddam annoying. Go and get an ArisHost account - it’s 30 bucks FOR THE YEAR. Yeah, 30 bucks a YEAR. Anyone can afford that.

So if you have one of those banner’d sites - get off your lazy duff and spend the (oh my God) 30 bucks. Your site visitors will thank you immensely for it. (grin)

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Looking back

11/20/2004

I’ve been listening to a lot of stuff over at the 80’s TV Themes Super Site recently. I will wholeheartedly admit I like tv show themes. I always have. Anyone who grew up in the 80’s knows that some of the best theme song writing occurred at that time - particularly in the early 80’s. The writing of the tunes was so good that if you heard just the first 2 seconds of a theme - you knew what show it was.

In addition to having a lot of audio, they also have a lot of video clips, too. There is a particular clip in the Potpourri section which has the description of:


“Well before ‘Seinfeld’ made poking fun at everyday life hip, Mike Leonard mastered the art as the Today show’s Winnetka, Illinois correspondent. Here, he examines why adults are so fussy about sandwiches. It’s long, but well worth the download.”

Yes, it is worth the download. Very corny humor, but very reminiscent of how morning broadcasts (and television in general) used to be. At that time that segment was made (1984) I was 9 years old. Times were a lot simpler back then. The economy was in great shape. Reagan was in office. Every year at Christmas there would be lots of presents for my sister and I. There was always good food on the table, the house was always warm and I lived well. Most of my friends did too. I mean heck, even my poorer friends had ColecoVision video game systems.

I did use computers back then, but all that was available were things like TRS-80’s and Commodore 64’s - and they were awesome - even with no internet. Internet did not exist as we know it back in 1984.

I was a Nintendo kid through and through. In 1985 Nintendo was introduced and my parents got me one. I must’ve had a million games (give or take) for that system. Also awesome.

I never worried about paying bills (remember I was between the ages of 9 and 11 during this period) or going to werk or any of that crap.

My family didn’t have cable (as a matter of fact I didn’t get cable until the early 90’s) and most of my friends didn’t have it either. All of us used to watch Saturday morning cartoons. To a kid in the 80’s, that was the highlight of the week. You waited all week just to watch cartoons in the morning on Saturdays. And it was great. You were glued to the tv set eating your Cocoa Crispies (or your particular cereal of choice) and loving every second of it.

Although I love my internet, my modern conveniences and all that this new age brings to us, sometimes I just want to go back to a time when…

Phones had real bell ringers and they were all on a cord.

TV remote controls had nice big buttons you can READ and the batteries lasted FOREVER.

You could go to McDonalds and get your Big Mac in a styrofoam container (remember, burger on the right, fries on the left)

Most cars had big comfortable bench seats that felt like your grandma’s couch.

Listening to your music was available on FM radio, vinyl or cassette - only.

Buying gas for 70 cents a gallon or less was normal.

Driving without a cell phone doesn’t freak you out - because most people didn’t have them.

Girls wore big poofy hair and tall tight jeans.

You could buy a brand new cassette of your favorite band or artist for 5 bucks.

Rock was king.

ABC and NBC were the only channels to watch for sports.

A “loud” stereo in a car was 50 watts.

The Corvette and Camaro were the hottest cars on the road.

Trucks still looked like trucks (and were priced like trucks.. CHEAP)

Your local deparment store was the coolest place in the world to get anything - and there was no Wal-Mart.

Most states only had one area code for phone numbers.

The speed limit on highways was 55mph.

Johnny Carson was hosting the Tonight Show.

The Muppets was on tv at 7pm on Thursday nights.

A haircut was 2 bucks (for girls - 9).

Sugar packets had an actual full teaspoon of sugar in them.

Dunkin’ Donuts only sold coffee and donuts - that’s it.

…

There are more.. but I wish there were times when you could take like.. one month a year, and just do everything the way it used to be.. well.. the way it used to be for me at least. (grin)

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‘Puter stuff and werk stuff

11/21/2004

Several thing-a-ma-doo’s:

Kat’s computer is finished for the most part. All she has to do is pick up a modem for it so I can install/test the thing, then she can take it home.

My laptop is still without operating system because I was messing around with it and haven’t bothered to reinstall Windows yet.

Today is my last day of freedom. I had the whole week off last week. It was great. Got a lot of things done. Got lots of sleep, too. I did not announce this week off on my blog because I didn’t want a lot of people bothering me. How did I get the week off? I went from contract over to full time at my job. They asked me when I wanted to start. I asked if I could start on the 22nd instead of the 15th. They said “okay”, so I got a week off. No pay this week but the mental relaxation was well worth it.

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Dead pixels on monitor

11/22/2004

My new Sony monitor has developed two red dead pixels on it. Bummer. But I’ve already called that in. Should be receiving another one shortly. I just didn’t mention it previously.

The dead pixels aren’t *glaring* bad.. but they are bad enough so it looks like two tiny dead mosquitos on my monitor. Bleah.

The deal pixel thing is weird because the monitor didn’t have any when I first turned it on. It seemed to develop them after a few days. Odd. It’s especically odd considering there is nothing near the monitor which would cause interference and the face it’s plugged into a surge protected power strip. Oh well. New one is on the way regardless.

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Strong Bad blows up the Compy

11/23/2004

I watch the cartoons at Homestar Runner a lot. Corny humor but cool. I think my favorite part about the site is the fact that the writers love to write about yester-year technology - a lot. You’ll see tons of stuff about really OLD computers and video games (like Thy Dungeonman and Peasant’s Quest). I think that’s cool because I -REMEMBER- playing old crappy games like that (ha!). The games there are all playable too. Neat.

Strong Bad has been using the Compy 386 since his old Tandy blew up (literally). And he just blew up the Compy recently.

It gets me to thinkin’… could someone actually write e-mails using a 386 computer with just MS-DOS? I mean, how would you even get MS-DOS to connect to the internet in the first place? Yeah, I know you can get an IP address using the MSCLIENT for DOS.. but is there any 16-bit app available that would actually send and receive e-mails?

This got me to more thinkin’.. I had to find out.

Answer: YES. The BareBones DOS E-Mail System. I couldn’t believe it when I saw this. Electronic mail from DOS. Unbelievable. Who’da thunk it.

It just goes to prove that if you have the Arachne DOS based graphic web browser or the DOS based version of Lynx text browser combined with the DOS mail program.. you feasibly could use a 386 computer to browse the web and send/receive e-mail.

And to think.. a computer like that is literally 15 bucks at a garage sale - monitor and all. You get a 386, floppy drive (probably 5.25!!) then you’d have to pick up a super-old 3com 10mbit ethernet card or a really old external modem for another 3 or 4 bucks. The computer would probably have a 20-MB (not GB) hard drive or less and no sound card.

Makes me almost want to run out and do it.

Nah. (grin)

But.. you’d probably never ever get a virus. Who in their right mind would program a virus to destroy a 386? What would be the point? (grin)

–[edit]–

This is how this site looks using Lynx. And yes there are web site visitors who come to this blog and use that amazingly enough. :-)

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Old way is good way

11/24/2004

I tried separating the blog from the rest of the site.. din’t work too well for me. So the site is back to the way it was (and the people rejoiced.. oooo)

But I did put a link to the board on the right. (grin)

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Paper shredder workin’ O.T.!

11/26/2004

Today is an officially recognized holiday (for whatever reason) were I werk. So today is a paid day off. Woo-hoo. (grin)

Decided to go through my mail today which I haven’t gone through in about two weeks (yeah, that’s bad.. I know).

Out of all the mail I received, I may have gotten three legitimate postal letters. All the rest were the following:

- Platinum credit card offers with fake cards inside
- Magazines I don’t want but get anyway
- Existing credit card “special offers” and “upgrades”
- “Season’s Greetings” from existing credit cards
- Existing credit card checks
- Advertisements

Platinum credit card offers with fake cards inside

These are those mails you get with what you think is a credit card inside, but it isn’t. It’s a fake.

Magazines I don’t want but get anyway

Ever receive a magazine in the mail and say to yourself “I don’t remember signing up for this(?)” I get a few of these. Fortunately there’s no bill or subscription attached.. yet I got subscribed somehow.

Existing credit card “special offers” and “upgrades”

Yes, YOU can now upgrade your credit card to super-ultra-supreme platinum status! Except.. it’s just the same old card with discounts on hotels that cost you an extra five bucks a month and don’t increase your credit limit whatsoever. What an offer!! (duh….)

“Season’s Greetings” from existing credit cards

You gotta love those politically correct “Holiday Wishes” and “Season’s Greetings” cards you get from credit card companies. Their computer must love me very much. I personally would find it much more entertaining if I received a “Merry Fucking Christmas, asshole. Pay your bill.” Now that is worth reading.

Existing credit card checks

Ever get one of those checks for 10 bucks from a credit card company? I get these all the time. In addition, they include checks you can write on behalf of your credit card. BAD IDEA. (grin)

Advertisements

From copiers to stock paper to circulars to directory listings to stuff you’ve never heard of.. it’s all there. (meh..)

—

I think I’m going to start using those postage-paid sign up envelopes the credit card companies provide and write a standard letter:

Dear Evil Credit Card Company,

I am not interested in any crap you have to offer. You are the bane of all existence and the demon spawn of Satan himself. What you are offering I have absolutely no interest in and never will. STOP sending me advertisements and/or offers and/or upgrades of any kind. You are polluting my post office box. Cease your evil ways because I ain’t buyin’.

Have a nice day.
Piss off.

Needless to say the paper shredder was working overtime today. I shredded about 40 documents and around 30 envelopes. I also shredded 4 of those fake plastic credit cards.

I suggest to anyone to go out to your local department store of choice and buy a paper shredder. Make sure you get the “cross shred” kind. I go through these documents I get in the mail and it is simply unbelievable how much personal information is there. Your full name, address, sometimes your SOCIAL SECURITY NUMBER, credit card information and just a wealth of information about you. If I didn’t shred this stuff, someone could easily root my garbage and spend around $25,000 on my behalf. Ya.. hoo.

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Band update

11/27/2004

Look at this, two music category posts in two days. Who’da thunk it? (I thunk it.)

I didn’t write this last night because I was just too darned tired. Yesterday afternoon the bass player and I trucked our gear (literally) to the practice spot. Fortunately for us our practice area is in a building that the vox guy runs a business out of. And he’s got the whole building. This means no rent (YES!!) and we can make all the noise we want.

We arrived around 3:30pm. We set up our stuff. Shortly thereafter the second guitar player showed up then the vox guy arrived. Then we all started playing. We basically played almost non-stop until 10pm (for real). We also finished up the first rough version of a song. Neat-o.

Even with no drummer present (because we’re still looking for one,) the vibe I got was pretty good. All of us are on the same page, there is no drama involved and no stress either. My largest fear was my “compatibility” with the music that was being played - but in reality I fit right in with it. Nice surprise there. (grin)

If things turn out okay we might start playing out in a few months. Maybe around March or April. And who knows, we might do well out there. I think we will. The biggest reason bands don’t “make it” and break up is mostly because of unnecessary drama. Attitudes clash and whatnot. However (as I said a second ago,) all of us agree on the standard rule: No drama. Very good rule to live by.

It’s all good. I’m in a great mood. (grin)

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Google Caching a bit too good?

11/28/2004

Website Publisher Sues Google over Caching

Read the above link. Good stuff. Turns out the site Perfect10.com (yes, it’s porn,) filed a lawsuit against the internet giant Google for caching full size images that subscribers to Perfect10.com would ordinarily have to pay for.

Personally speaking I am not particularly fond of when search engines “cache” your web site for retrieval later. Granted, when you put up a web site - it’s public. Some web sites state in their “Privacy Policy” or “Terms of Agreement” that you either can or cannot save a copy of the web site “for your own personal use” or something to that effect. Most don’t. Most webmasters don’t even think about it actually.

What you’re supposed to do in order to avoid your web site being cached is put either a robots.txt instruction (described here) or a meta tag instruction (described here).

If you don’t do what’s listed above, every single web page (and image) on your site can and will be cached for retrieval later by a search engine (or two or three or more).

Yikes.

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Band prac part deux

11/30/2004

Band prac #2 was tonight. Went quite well. New riffs written. Stuff coming together. A drummer was supposed to show up tonight but didn’t (got stuck at werk). However he might be able to come up Sunday. We’ll see about that.

The other guitar player I play with currently in this band gels with my playing style very well - a rare thing. Usually (not to put myself on a pedestal or anything) I’m either too good for whoever I’m playing with or the styles clash entirely. Not so with this unit. It’s actually working out quite nicely.

No band name has been chosen yet. That will come later. The music is what is more important right now.

Prac #3 is Thursday. Should be good.

—

Sidenote: Things will also be coming for my acoustic stuff shortly. I just have to put some time into it. I swear that I will get it done. (grin)

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