2005 - March

Archive for March, 2005

Vacation time

3/22/2005

As of today I am officially on vacation for a few days. I believe I’ve earned it and thensome. Over the past few months I’ve been dealing some crap here and there, so the chance to relax a bit is more than welcome.

Since I got some time to write, here’s what’s been going on. Granted, most of this stuff is probably boring to most, but most people’s lives are and you’ve got nothing better to do than read my crap anyway. :-) So…

This week (actually, last week) I’ve made the decision to never host a web site for anyone ever again. On reflection, I think I’ve officially hosted sites for about 5 people in the past. Only one has never screwed me, all the rest have. There is one site left that I am hosting. After the 31st of this month, it’s off my server. Then from here on out, it’s my stuff only. If someone wants to host a site they can reg the domain and pay for it themselves.

I’ve discovered a new old game that a co-worker introduced me to: Birth of the Federation. It’s a Star Trek game. Very cool, I’m addicted to it. I don’t know what year it was made but it is an older game. It’s an old-school “turn style” strategy game. I like it a lot. The only problem with the game is that it’s a known issue that it crashes on Windows XP constantly. However I’ve downloaded a few patches and things seem to be working okay now. I will be playing a *lot* of BoTF during my vacation. (grin)

My stupid Wahl hair trimmer’s battery kicked the bucket. It’s got one of those stupid batteries that’s custom to it and you can’t replace the gaddam thing. So I had to go to Wal-Mart and buy another one. 25 bucks wasted in my opinion, because there should have been some place (other than contacting Wahl just to get a stupid battery which would have been more trouble than it’s worth,) just to get one. To those who would ask “Why own a hair trimmer?” Well, first of all, the ones on the back of Norelco’s (the 3-head type) positively suck ass. They don’t cut anything without tearing your face apart. Secondly, a true trimmer is good for sideburns and hair in other places.. use your imagination there. Girls who read that get excited. Guys who read that get disgusted, thinking to themselves “Dude, I did not need to know that.” Either way, I don’t care. The fact of the matter is that girls don’t like to encounter a mangled forest in the nether regions, ’nuff said.

The laptop is still running great, and speaking of which, my sister received hers. That one is also running great. Speaking of computers, having a 100% wireless setup is completely a-w-e-s-o-m-e. I can’t understand why I didn’t do this sooner. My only complaint so far is that when I’m transferring files to/from my file server, there is a noticable difference in speed. Little pauses here and there due to wireless latency. Kinda sucks. Other than that, no complaints. Everything else is working great.

I am entertaining the idea of getting an older Laserjet 4 Plus as I mentioned earlier, but I need to save up a few bucks before I can do that. Because my laptop has Bluetooth, I will be able to make it wireless with this thing. Alternatively I could just hook the printer up to the file server and network print it that way… but then I would have to keep the printer close to the computer and have this big honkin’ printer cable. I’m thinking it might be worth the 67 bucks (price of the thing I just linked) to do it. This is the type of printer I’m talking about (nice price, eh?). True, an HP LJ 4 is old. Real old, but, for personal use they never, ever break. And you can print thousands of perfect laser quality prints before the thing even begins to run out of toner. Refurbished toner is cheap, too. Furthermore, if my LJ breaks, there are lots of local techs that can fix it. There are only four major things that break on LaserJets, and the standard maintenance kit will fix them 99% of the time.

I am trying to sell my old 1987 S-10 black truck. I currently have an ad out. I’ve gotten maybe 7 calls on it. They all say the same thing, it’s either “Okay I’ll call you back when I’m ready to look” or “I’ll call you [this day] when I’m ready to see it” - and nothing happens. At this point, whoever calls next I’m just going to tell them “Listen, it’s $1200 bucks. I will be here Saturday..” and see what they say. If nothing, I won’t bother. I’m sick of people stating they will do something and then not do it, that’s a complete waste of my time.

Okay, ’nuff for now. ;-)

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Spirit of Putnam

3/25/2005

I had to go pay for my tax return today. 110 bucks. Not bad. I say “not bad” because it used to be $125 or more when I was working out of state. When working in state, you save a few bucks on processing your tax return.

My tax people are located in the heart of Putnam Connecticut. Their business is in an office located in the Ward building. “Ward” is short for “Montgomery Ward”, which is a business, started by a guy named Monty Ward (I put in the “Monty” part). I don’t believe Ward owns the buildling anymore, but the name stuck. Or maybe Ward does own it.. I don’t know.

The Ward buildling is dead set right in the middle of the part of Putnam known as the “Antique District”. Today happened to be a nice day, so I parked in my usual spot and walked over to the Ward buildling to pay the bill. During my walk I looked around.

“Wow.”

Why wow? This place sure has changed for the better in the last 15 years. Buildings have been renovated, business is bustling, and dare I say.. the area has a bit of Bostonesque feel to it.

“Not bad for a mill town.”

Not bad at all.

“Should’ve brought the camera..”

I will be taking pics tomorrow. The area is definitely worth looking at.

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What time is it? 4:30!

3/26/2005

I don’t like time zones at all. They’re annoying. On the East coast of the USA there is the added annoyance of Daylight Savings Time. Fortunately in Connecticut we only have one time zone w/DST. It’s a good thing I don’t live in Indiana, they have three (EST with Daylight Savings, EST without Daylight Savings and CST).

On a world basis, there are times zone for continents, North America, Australia, Europe.

..and let’s not forget military time zones. Small note: Connecticut is in the Romeo military time zone… I think? “Romeo”, by the way, is the NATO phonetic pronouncation of the letter R.

It’s enough to drive you up a wall.

There should be a way to abolish all these darn zones and just go by one world time, period. Does it exist?

Yes.

“Internet time” was introduced on October 23, 1998. This method of time is not too hard to understand. Instead of hours and minutes, a day is calculated using 1000 “beats”. A good calculator is here.

There are no zones. Everything revolves around one standard of measuring time. I think it’s positively brilliant. Again, read this for a better explanation.

The coolest part: Watches are available that display internet time. I want one. ;-)

Will Internet Time ever rule over traditional? Probably not… it makes too much sense. (grin)

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Shots from the antique district

3/26/2005

Some photos from Putnam Connecticut.

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Dimension gets retired, Stinkpad (still) lives

3/26/2005

My network consists of several computers. The one that stayed on the network all the time up until today was the Dell Dimension 4400. This is a computer that started out at P4 1.6GHz w/256MB, a 40GB drive and a 64MB video card. Over the years it got upgraded to a 2.4GHz CPU, a 160GB was added, the video card was upgraded, then downgraded because I put the “good” card in my other box (my AMD).

The last change to this box was the wireless network using a Blitzz Wireless-G card I bought at Wal-Mart. Actually, I bought two of them. One was for the AMD, the other for the Dell. My laptop already has wireless built in to it.

Sorry to say, the Dell just didn’t cut it on wireless. It would constantly drop its connection, over and over. In addition to that, it would also cause other computers on my network to lose connection also because of its flaky nature. The fact of the matter is this: As a file server, the computer was just too slow to process requests on wireless. On regular LAN it would do fine, and did that for a long time. On wireless, however.. um.. no. (grin) I mean, were it used as a “normal” computer it would never have wireless problems. I’m just asking more than what the box is capable of giving to me.

Today I yanked the 160GB drive out of the Dell and put it in the AMD box which will now act as my file server. The Dell is officially retired.. and I don’t know what I’m going to do with it. If anyone wants a cheap Pentium 4 2.5GHz with a CD burner drive, let me know. I’ll let the box go for $150, that’s about what it’s worth.

Being that I now have a spare Blitzz Wireless-G card, I decided to try it out on the Stinkpad 390. Yes, the same Stinkpad laptop with Windows 98, a single USB port, a battery that won’t hold a charge to save it’s life and a maximum resolution of 800×600 (bleaaaAAAAaaaahhh).

And whadya know, it worked. I’m typing this blog entry from the Stinkpad on Wireless-G, Windows 98 and all. It’s amazing. The reason it’s amazing is because this computer is so darned old - yet it works. According to my little wireless utility, I’m getting a 61% signal strength, which is so-HO crappy… but it’s cookin’ right along.

I think the only reason I keep this laptop around is to see if it can actually do modern computer stuff being the age it is. Chock up another one for the Stinkpad. It does wireless.

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Beware of the welch

3/27/2005

I did up a simple web site (which I’m not going to link) for a guy who promised me many business contacts for web design. Being that I’m the cautious type, I said “Okay. I’ll do a very simple site for 50 bucks. I’ll even register your domain and host it.”

Yeah, I know. Dumb move. But I did it anyway. This guy had a good sales pitch and I fell for it. Anyway..

I went 15 bucks in the hole by registering the domain. The hosting I could cover.

A few weeks go by. I hear tall tales of “Oh yeah, you’re going to start to get calls for web design, you watch.”

Not a single call occurred. Not one.

So.. whatever. I got 50 bucks coming to me anyway, no big deal.

Or so I thought.

For several weeks I hear tales of “A payment was sent in the mail” and yadda yadda yadda.

No payment ever arrives.

Okay, fine. I’m no fool. I announce the site is going to go down on a specific date if I don’t get the 50 owed to me.

Magically… a payment arrives. But hang on.. the enveloped is TAPED TOGETHER. Ah well, no big deal, a 50-dollar check is good.

I open the taped envelope.

One check for 25 dollars and two five dollar bills, one of which is ripped.

“What the frig is this…” I said to myself.

Okay, so.. I get a payment. This supposed “businessman” sends a check and cash in the mail in a taped-together envelope. And it’s short.

What to do.. what to do..

Hm, I know what I’ll do. I’m pocketing that 10 bucks which doesn’t even cover the domain reg cost and ripping up that check because that’s worthless to me unless it’s the full amount, which it wasn’t.

The site, hm.. what to do with that. Should I take it down? Nah, too easy… Oh, wait, I got it. I’ll transfer it to one of those cheap-ass free web site hosters that sticks a big ugly banner at the top, and I’ll take away the graphics. Yeah, that works.

Fuck you, welcher.

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Today is my b-day

3/27/2005

Today’s my birthday. Any one of my friends who has a lick of sense will call me to wish me a happy birthday. If you don’t, you’ll be hearing from me later. ;)

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Allo luv

3/27/2005

For some reason I find frogs with British accents very entertaining.

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Wake-up call

3/28/2005

Yesterday I turned 30. I got good birthday wishes from family and friends, which was all good. During the span of pretty much the entire day, I felt somewhat depressed.. mostly because when I take stock of what I’ve done in life, I’m not too overly happy with it.

Granted, I did run my own business for a year and a half, and was able to get out “clean” without owing any monster debt. Not too many people can say that. While my job isn’t the best in the world, the bills do get paid - and at least I work compared to some people I know. I have my health, my well being and a few bucks in my pocket.

That’s the good part.

The only bad part about being 30 is that I’m still living at home with pop. Some label me as “loser” because of this, others say “Dude, I know the feeling, rent is expensive” - and it is. The entire reason I’m living at home is because of cost. The rent’s cheap, what can I say.

I joined one of those online dating service things because my birthday left me really lonely this year. In addition to the whole “30 and still at home” thing, the single thing doesn’t help out any.

On this service, I received what was probably one of the most sarcastic nasty replies (I wrote first) from a girl. It included the phrase “dead end loser” and pegged the fact I was 30 living at home. Note: In my profile I do check off the option of “living at home” because I believe in honesty when it comes to dating.

But anyway, ouch. That hurt a lot. A whole lot.

Here’s what I don’t understand. If a man is living with parents due to whatever situation, be it a failed marriage, fiscal woes or whatever, he’s a loser - even if he’s the nicest guy in the world. If a woman does the exact same thing and has to live with her parents, she’s considered just “being closer to her family”. Same situation, different gender, different label. For some reason, society labels the at-home thing “okay” for the woman and “bad” for the man.

Regardless of that, I got socked with it. Message received.

I am going to start making phone calls today and I’m getting a home of my own. I’ve scoped out a few places on the ‘net and I think I can afford it. There’s one particular place in Mystic which is looking quite nice…

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Contestant number 1

3/30/2005

I have picked three places to be possible roosting spots (as in places to live). Two are in Norwich, one is in Mystic. My first stop this Saturday will be Mystic. The price is somewhat steep, but, it’s got everything I want. I just have to find out a few things, such as whether the place is fast-internet capable or not or so on.

The hunt begins this Saturday. If I like what I see I will be out of here in a month.

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