2005 - July - menga

Archive for July, 2005

Maddox was right, to a degree

7/17/2005

I recently read Maddox’s latest article (link). He started firing off about certain internet-only words/phrases that bug him to one degree or another. Some points I agree with, some I don’t.

I didn’t even know what the word blog meant until my 77th post. Is my site a “blog”? I don’t know. Call it whatever you want. It’s true there are some parts of my site labeled as “blog”, but not many.

Maddox seems to be targeting political blogs, mostly. He complains about the really skinny micro-text sized layouts, and any word that has blog in it, such as Warblog, Blogosphere, videoblog and so on.

I would agree that some blog sites use fonts that are way too small or unreadable. This is the reason I offer themes (a special huge-font “Maddox” version is available). However, the one thing Maddox forgot (possibly on purpose) is that you don’t have to read a blog via its web site. You can use something called feeds, like RSS, XML, ATOM and so on - something that Maddox’s site doesn’t even offer (which he could very easily - he is a programmer). If the layout of a site doesn’t float your boat, use a feed. Free software is readily available to read feeds, like Mozilla Thunderbird. Since Maddox openly admits in his FAQ (yes, he does use the word “FAQ” expecting you to know what it means) that bandwidth is an issue, wouldn’t it make sense to offer a feed?

I agree that some blog sites plug things way too much. The reason for visiting any blog site should be its content. Nothing more, nothing less. If you start polluting your pages with links to Amazon, other blogs, advertisements and so on, your site will start to suck - and fast. I see it this way: If you want links to other sites, make a links page.

I disagree with Maddox’s definition of podcasting. Podcasting is not just streaming audio. It’s a broadcast feed subscribed via RSS. Streaming audio is only part of the definition. Read all about it here.

I agree that anyone who pronounces URL as “erl” should be tarred and feathered. URL is not a word. It’s an abbreviation for Uniform Resource Locator. It’s a short-short version for those who can’t bear to say the phrase “web address”.

Small semi-related note: If someone asks me for a web address, I will state it to them as [site].com, such as guitari.st, to which they always reply “Is there a www dot in front of that?” Um.. NO, that’s why I didn’t say it in the first place, you retard. 99.999999% of web sites do not require the “www dot” as you call it. Web domains can be loaded without the obligatory WWW in front of them.

I agree that the term “webmistress” is outright stupid. Yes, it’s true, female webmasters who use this self-appointed title are usually uppity and bitchy as all hell. I’ve run into a few of them in my day. They’re all the same. Most webmasters that are true to their craft only go by one title: “Site Administrator” or just a shortened “admin” - whether male or female. The title for an administrator should not denote gender whatsoever in my opinion.

I do 100% agree that Xanga blogs are at the bottom of the barrel. Here is an actual post from a recently updated Xanga blog. I’m not linking it, because this kid doesn’t need promotion, trust me. Oh, one more thing - I did not edit any of it. I copied/pasted right from that other blog to here.

Hey yall watz ^ me n/m just bein bored..newayz i woke up around 12:30 lol thats waaaaaaaaaaaayyyyyy to l8 for me ..Then around 2:15 i was gonna mow the lanw but my dad already started and im too tired rite now lol im lazy..Newayz i mite go over to kyles today i dont know.I tlked to ashley yesterday for liek 1 minute but she had to go to her bday dinner.So newayz all i did yesterday was pretty much nutin just sittin on the computer…Are cable got shutoff cuz were tryin to save a little money for kansas city so i dont have no cable lol and i luv my tv.But its freakin hott outside rite now so i mite chill inside lol.Hope u like the new song its by saliva.CLICK CLICK BOOM!!! lol well i guess im gonna go tlk on the computer some more since i got nutin to do..ttyl bye! I <33 Ashley EDITTTTT~!!!!!!!!!!!!! Lol i changed my song again.newayz i went over to kyles house and hung out with him and zach so that was pretty cool now im home so i guess i will ttyl bye! I <33 u Ashley

Holy SHIT is that hard to read. Ugh.

–edit–

Here’s a translation of the above with all errors fixed for the “elite” impaired:

yall = Misspelled Y’all (Texas slang for You all)

watz = Misspelled what’s or what is

^ = Supposed to be up

n/m = Supposed to be nevermind

bein = Misspelled being

neways = Misspelled anyways, which should be anyway in non-plural form

lol = Internet abbreviation for laughing out loud

l8 = Abbreviated late

lanw = Misspelled lawn

rite = Should be right. “Rite” and “Right” are two completely separate and different things.

im = Missing punctuation for I’m which is I am

kyles = Friend’s name without proper apostrophe indicating possession, such as Kyle’s house

i = Improper capitalization for what should be I

tlked = Misspelled talked

liek = Misspelled like

bday = Non-existent abbreviation of birthday

nutin = Misspelled nothing

sittin = Misspelled sitting

shutoff = This is two words, not one. It should be shut off

cuz = Misspelled cause which is the wrong word. It should be because

were = Missing apostrophe indicating proper contraction. Were and We’re are two different things. Were indicates past tense, such as “There were two apples here.” We’re is a contraction of “We are”, such as “We’re going to the movies tonight.”

kansas city = Missing capitalization indicating proper town name. In this case, it should have been Kansas City, Missouri.

luv = Misspelled love. Luv is a model of a Chevrolet pickup truck.

freakin = Misspelled freaking

hott = Misspelled hot

mite = Should be might. Mite and Might are two completely separate and different things.

u = Misspelled you

tlk = Misspelled talk

ttyl = Internet abbreviation for “Talk to you later.”

<3 = Internet representation of a heart, placed sideways.

For those keeping score, that’s 20 errors, not including the abysmal grammar. It’s great to see our school system is teaching our kids so well, isn’t it?

Maddox says lastly “I hate blogs”. Yeah, we all do to some degree. Some are good, some are bad, some are awful… but at least it gives us something to read. Just don’t read Xanga blogs. They’re awful.

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Very offensive link of the moment

7/17/2005

This one landed a spot on my links page: Jesus Dress Up

The funniest parts to me are the signs “Hang in there baby!” and “TGIF”.

Yeah, I’m goin’ to hell for this one. For sure.

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With coffee in hand and a smile on my face

7/18/2005

This week marks the last days of me working at my current job. I called out sick today (oh yes, I’m very sick, cough cough choke gag wheeze sputter). Terrible thing, this is. I may be sick the rest of the week.

Right now, somewhere in Connecticut, there is a room full of people taking computer support calls from mostly angry customers. Just about all the people working in that room are aggravated, egdy, irritable and just plain miserable. The rest are “comfortable” where they are, succumbing to the numbness of being just another number at a big company.

I am far away from all that.

I am sitting here, at home, in a properly air conditioned room, smoking a cigarette, my laptop in front of me. I have my coffee and I’m wearing a t-shirt and jeans. There’s not a phone headset in sight. I doubt the phone will ring more than once or twice today. The only sound I hear is the air conditioner’s fan running. To my right, I can look out the window and see beautiful trees full of green with a calm breeze gently moving the leaves.

I am calm, at peace and at ease - and I will enjoy every single second of it.

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Electric bill myths dispelled

7/18/2005

A little over a month ago I bought an air conditioner. It’s a small one, either 5,000 or 7,000 BTU’s.. not sure. Probably 5,000. On average, I run the A/C somewhere between four to six hours a day. It gets turned off at night. Using an average number of five hours a day, this means I ran it for about 150 hours for the month.

The electric bill came in today. The cost for about 150 hours of A/C use on 110 volt? Seven bucks, or roughly 23.3 cents a day. I had projected that the bill would probably be fifteen bucks higher, but it was less than half of that. That was nice.

This proves a few things. First of all, a singer smaller air conditioners will not put your electric bill through the roof. Secondly, judging by the math I just did, I could run the A/C unit a whole lot longer and still not get whacked too hard on the bill.

If five hours a day of A/C use is 23.3 cents, then that means 24 hours (a full day) of A/C use would be $1.12 a day (rounded). Times that by thirty days and the total would be $33.60 for the month. Obviously I am not going to run my A/C 24 hours a day because it would kill the unit from being overworked - no doubt about that. However, if I ran the A/C for ten hours a day instead of five, the cost would still be under fifteen bucks a month.

So to all out there who are not buying an A/C unit because they think their electric bill will soar, think again. It’s not as expensive as you think. It wasn’t for me.

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Wild turkey on the prowl

7/19/2005

This is a wild turkey - a male one (you can’t see this in the photo, but a draped long feather in the front indicates the male). Him and his buddy (not in the shot) were walking thru the backyard looking for potential females.

The most turkeys I ever witnessed in my front yard were about twenty or so (this is true).

The wild turkey has got to be the most ungraceful bird I have ever seen in my life. It crashes through the woods when flying and when it lands on a branch, it usually breaks.

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“Bee-Beep” this, asshat

7/20/2005

One thing that really annoys me to no end is people who use cutesy words and phrases in place of common courtesy. The worst phrase of them all is “bee-beep”, as in to imitate a car honking.

This happened to me today.

I was walking around a corner, and got the bee-beep because someone got in my way (which happens A LOT). I would much rather hear “Excuse me, please.” This gives me a reason to move. If time is short and you are in haste, use “Coming through” - don’t use the bee-beep.

Bee-beep goes right along up there with really bad stale jokes people use at checkout lines, such as:

“That will be fifty-two dollars and thrity-nine cents, sir.”
“Yep! Here’s my fifty! Printed it fresh this mornin’!”

“Have a nice day, sir.”
“Have a good one!”

(What the crap does “Have a good one” mean, anyway? A good “one” what?)

“May I have your name, sir?”
“Sure! Just give it back when you’re done!”

Blah.

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..now with dorky icons

7/21/2005

I found this old plugin that allows for topic icons for my posts, so I tried it. It worked. This is inspired from Slashdot - they’ve been using them for years. Any site that runs phpNuke also has the ability to use topic icons as well as many other content management systems. LiveJournal also uses them, but.. others were first.

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Soft foam toys are for children

7/21/2005

The above is what we call a “stress toy”. Those who work in the office environment are very familiar with these. At werk (last day is tomorrow by the way.. BOO-YAH!) they handed these things out a while back. Later on they confiscated them all because employees (including yours truly) kept chucking them around the office constantly. I was able to hide one away and keep it. I took my smiley ball home with me last week. After all, they did give them out as “presents” to employees in the first place.

Receiving a stress toy is an insult. First of all, the company who gave it to you is saying “We wholeheartedly admit your job sucks ass. While we could pay you more or give you better hours, um.. we can’t (and won’t) do that, so.. here’s a foam squeeze ball. Enjoy!”

Indeed.

The ironic thing about the toy depicted above is this: On the backside of the toy, a.k.a. Mr. Smiley’s ass, it says “Service with a SMILE” — which translates to (saying to customer) “Bend over and EAT MY SHIT!”

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Garmin StreetPilot i3

7/22/2005

In the midst of all the home shopping that is going on for the upcoming move up North, I had a thought:

I am not going to have any idea where I’m going when I get there.

This is true. I’ve lived in the tri-state region of Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island all my life. I don’t know anywhere else very well. As a matter of fact I don’t really know the western half of Connecticut that well either, but that’s another story. In short, while it’s true I know of the major routes like I-95 in the north, the rest is completely foreign to me.

The solution is to get a mobile GPS unit. I have been toying with the idea of getting one for the last year, but haven’t because of one reason: Cost. GPS units are very, very expensive. You can easily spend thousands of dollars on one.

Garmin just introduced to the market two baseball-sized automotive windshield mounted (via suction cup) GPS units, the StreetPilot i2 and i3. The only difference between the two is that the i2 is monochrome (black/white with grays) and the i3 is 32,000 colors. Both are backlit and can be read in sunlight (very important). Both will talk to you to tell you things like upcoming turns and whatnot. Both will display maps in 3-D or 2-D. But most importantly, the price is less than half of their bigger units. You can get the i2 for $300.00 and the i3 for $400.00. I decided to splurge and got the i3. I should be receiving the unit sometime in August. I’ll be able to write a detailed review of it then.

Here’s what convinced me to buy the i3:

1) It’s made by Garmin.
There are other manufacturers of mobile GPS units like Lowrance and Magellan, but I’ve noticed that units made by Garmin last longer and can take abuse. My pop owns a Rino 120 and its as tough as nails. They can definitely take a beating. I also like the fact that Garmin recognized that there are those of us out there that want small, simple (but informative) mobile GPS units.

2) Cost.
Definitely a large factor. Through my research, I could find no other dash or windsheld mountable GPS-only (meaning not PDA) units in the price range that Garmin is offering.

3) Easily transportable.
If I want to move the unit from one vehicle to another, I can do so, with ease - to any vehicle.

4) Data can be easily loaded to the unit, and comes with data.
The i3 comes with a “MapSource City Select North America NT v7 DVD” with the unit - you don’t have to buy it separately. Very nice. Data can be loaded via a TransFlash card with USB. This means I can pop the DVD into my laptop and send the data with no fuss, no muss.

5) Comes with a car charger.
I like this because I don’t have to buy one separately.

6) Runs on 2 AA batteries.
If the car charger fails or if I lose it, this thing is said to run for around six hours on 2 AA’s.

Possible bad things about the i3 (this is strictly guessing because I don’t physically have it yet):

1) No touch screen.
You have to use a wheel/click thing. The interface is completely menu driven. This may prove to be difficult setting a POI (Point-Of-Interest).

2) Too small?
The display area is 176×220 pixels. That’s pretty darn small. I don’t know how readable this unit actually is. We’ll find out soon enough.

3) Brightness control?
The description mentions nothing about whether you can set the brightness of the display or not; something I find important, especially for night driving.

4) Volume control?
The description also mentions nothing about a volume control for the talking portion of the unit. I would hope there is one, either by dial, knob, menu-on-screen or whatever.

Stay tuned for my next entry on this one…

Product link for Garmin StreetPilot i3

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Corrosive adventures

7/24/2005

Pop’s truck (2000 GMC Sonoma) had a hard time starting this morning. I took a look at it. From the way it was attempting to fire over, I could tell that the battery was failing. “Okay, no problem here, just buy another battery.” I headed over to the car parts store and bought one.

I lifted the hood. The negative terminal was fine. The positive terminal had corrosion all over it. I figured that the corrosion would break when I took off the terminal from the battery.

That’s not what happened.

This is what happened:

Your eyes do not deceive you. On attempt to take off the terminal from the battery, the whole assembly went with it. It appeared to be “fused” to the terminal itself.

For an hour, pop and I tried to break off the corroded part from the terminal with no success. After a while we headed back to the parts store and bought a new terminal, then headed back home again. On inspection, it looked like a wiring nightmare neither of us were equipped to deal with - so we couldn’t remove the old terminal wire.

Being the genius that I am, I said to myself..

Okay.. maybe if I’m gentle enough I can tap/chisel the corroded part off. I’m left with no other options.

Success. After another hour of carefully tapping the corrosion with a flathead screwdriver and a hammer, I was able to break the screw from the corroded area.

The little pile of dust you see is all the crap that came off the terminal itself.

After the screw broke loose, pop and I proceeded to use water and baking soda to clean off the terminal as best we could. The new battery was installed.

Fired right up, just like it should. Problem solved.

Here’s a little souvenir, the busted piece that was on the old battery originally.