Archive for July, 2006
7/1/2006
Title of this article from a cool Tom Petty song.
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Independence Day stuff
You can make yourself sound really smart by knowing a few things about the upcoming holiday.
July 4th, 1776 is called Independence Day, not just “4th of July”.
The actual date of the first Independence Day was July 4th, 1776. Not 1876. Not 1976. It was 1776 when it happened.
The reason it’s called Independence Day is because it is a celebration of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence, declaring independence from the Kingdom of Great Britain. Not the Germans. Not the Japanese.
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eon8 fools everyone
Eon8 was a cool little site that generated a lot of mass hysteria over the simple question WHAT IS IT? The guy who ran it put a good chunk of the internet community in a general static of panic.
In brief: Guy launches site. Puts a countdown timer on it. Says that it (but doesn’t say what “it” is) will be “deployed” on July 1st. To add to the mystery, he puts encrypted random codes in various places. Everyone freaks out and has wild speculation on what “it” might be when it’s deployed. Then 6/30/2006 happens and the guy who runs the site explains it was all just a study to see how the internet public would react to a lack of information.
Worked like a charm.
I found out about this today and it put a big ol’ grin on my face. Every few years or so someone puts up a site like this, freaks everyone out, then sits back and says “Gotcha!”
Things like this are sometimes needed to put people in check. ;-)
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7/1/2006
Taken at Pennzoil station in Inverness, FL
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7/2/2006
Above: Brandy new lawn tractor for Pop’s house (after one use). Twin blades. 13.5 horsepower Briggs and Stratton motor.
Rock.
Never in my life have I used a “virgin” lawn tractor, as in one that has never-used blades, a motor that starts with no problems whatsoever when you turn the key and so on. This tractor very effectively cut down the forest, a.k.a. Pop’s lawn. It was getting a bit on the overgrown side.
Result:
Nope, not perfect, but about a million times better than the way it looked yesterday. Come to think of it, I should have taken before-and-after photos..
This is also the first time I’ve used a twin-blade setup. When you engage the blades, a vortex of wind is created under the tractor and yeah, I’d say it’s pretty darned good at doing what it’s supposed to do.
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7/3/2006
Some random internet stuff..
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Ballet Deviare
When you think of ballet, you think of symphonic style music with pretty ballerinas dancing to the soothing sounds, right? Right.
Not these girls.
Quote:
“Ballet Deviare’s mission is prompted by the fundamental desire to modify and expand the restrictions of ballet and to further legitimate heavy metal/extreme music as an art form.”
Some will read this and think it’s an awesome idea, while others will think it’s absolutely ridiculous.
You be the judge.
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Group Hug
This is a neat site I just found out about. Some things written there are cool while other things will outright give you the creeps. But it’s still an interesting read nonetheless.
The one recurrent theme you will see on Group Hug more than anything else is the fear of being alone - by both genders. A lot.
My recommendation: Don’t read this site too much, else you might actually get depressed. ;-)
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Yet another example of how Macs suck
It is no secret that I have a severe distaste for Apple computers.
The “fix” to the latest MacBook problem, that being the “squishy button” trackpad issue, is to use origami. I’m not kidding.
I said it before and I’ll say it again, Macs suck - so much so that people who use them have to fix hardware problems themselves.
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Those crazy French people..
Periodically I will receive really odd messages from that Yahoo! account I resurrected. All of them are in foreign language, usually French and from people I’ve never chatted with. The latest one I received was (translated):
I note that you are not on line. With the next time. Thank you for the gift
I am the gift that keeps on giving I suppose. ;-)
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7/4/2006
Happy Independence Day to everyone. Yeah, I know, the image.. well, it’s my little way of making social commentary on current events. ;-) This is about as political as I will get on my own web site because I can’t stand politics.
I did not see any fireworks because of Pop is still in healing mode. No, I am not complaining. There will always be next year. It is more important that his foot heals properly before any other consideration.
Sometime today I will be heading back to Tampa. The roads should be mostly clear but I will still be careful nonetheless on the drive home.
I asked Pop earlier what he thinks of Inverness and Florida in general. Some interesting discussion came out of that.
Pop moved to literally save himself from being taxed to death. Had he stayed in Dayville Connecticut he would have been taxed out of existence. It seemed that every four months taxes for homeowners were raised again and again with no end in sight. A $525 a month mortgage turned into $800. Same mortgage. Different (higher) taxes in a very short period of time. It’s enough to put anyone into sticker shock. This is why there were (and still are) “for sale” signs sprouting up in front of many homes in the Town of Killingly.
I do not want to end up like Pop did in Dayville. Granted, he was able to bail out of there in time and is okay now, but the fact he had to leave really bothered me. He was forced to go. The family didn’t make him leave. He has no ememies. It was the town all bent on putting taxes through the roof that made him go.
The whole experience spoke volumes to me. Aside from Northeastern Connecticut there are many towns across the United States that literally hate seniors. The reason they hate seniors is because they do not provide any income to the town. Most of them have houses that are paid, live on a fixed income and live quietly in retirement. They do not buy anything. They do not build anything. After a while, the town then magically runs out of money somehow and then taxes are raised. Then they’re raised again. And again. Finally, the seniors are forced to leave allowing younger people to come in, accept the taxes as they are, work, and buy things to contribute to the local economy.
Florida doesn’t have this problem because this is a humongous tourist state. People come here all the time on vacation all year round. Local businesses do well because of this. There are plenty of buyers both young and old. Additionally there isn’t a lot of “down time” since this is a subtropical region (the weather is good almost all the time). You would not believe how many transplants live here. Young people like myself came down here for jobs (of which there are plenty). Seniors come here to escape the tax incubus that plagues the northeast and continues to do so.
Even with the financial freedoms enjoyed here, don’t think for a second I’m going to rest on my laurels. I full well intend to agressively attack my bills, get them paid, buy a house and get that paid as quickly as possible.
With that said, Independence Day has great meaning for me this year. I have the freedom to live where I choose. I didn’t like where I was, so I moved here where I continue on my pursuit of happiness. To me, that’s part of exercising your rights as an American. Some people only dwell on the freedoms we “lost”, but I’m concentrating on the ones I have.
This is a great country. I love the USA.
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7/4/2006
On the drive home there were fireworks all the way down I-75, to I-275 and into Tampa. There are tons of people on Busch Blvd. lined up to watch all the locals fire off their best. Even as I write this there are fireworks going off right outside my apartment.
I didn’t miss them after all. :-)
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7/6/2006
Anyone who knows me knows I’m a huge fan of GPS. It started with the i3. I paid $400.00 for that the moment it was introduced to market - and yes it was worth every penny. No question. Later on I graduated to the c340 which I currently use. I gave the i3 to my sister which she now uses. Pop has the 2720.
Yes, the whole family uses GPS. None of us would drive without it.
Since Pop has the 2720, he gave me his handheld Rino 130. I needed something portable because believe it or not it comes in very handy, especially when it comes to finding your car in a huge parking lot. Flip out the 130, mark your point, then find it afterwards when you need to get back to your car.
The only problem with the 130 is that it’s bulky. It won’t fit in your pocket. Doesn’t fit well on the belt either.
I wondered if there is such as thing that wears like a wristwatch that has GPS in it.
Yep.
Garmin’s Fortrex 201 has just the right amount of cool stuff in it to do exactly what I want it for. It will do routes, mark waypoints and you can wear it on your wrist.
I also like the “TracBack” feature a lot. You walk somewhere, then use the TracBack to go back where you came from so you don’t get lost. This is very useful when trekking through the woods (as I sometimes do when I go out snapping photos in state parks).
Getting one of these is definitely on my to-do list. I won’t be getting it now. Maybe in a few months. Gotta pay some other bills first. :-)
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7/7/2006
Got something done today I’ve been meaning to do for a while: Get a fish. Another Betta. Very calming to look at as usual. And the fact it’s very low maintenance is a plus. Feed once a day, change water once a week. Easy. I like easy.
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Ordinarily I don’t talk about work here, but what the heck. On Monday I will be starting a new job as a web developer. I get to dive into programming and all the other stuff that goes along with internet stuff. I simply label it as “stuff” because if I went into what I’d actually be doing, most of my readers would have absolutely no frickin’ clue what I’d be talking about. :-)
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My current favorite television commercial is Capital One where the pillagers are camp counselors. “Burn the village to the ground, doo-dah, doo-dah.”
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7/8/2006
Just in case you ever wondered what Al is saying in the fast lyric run from the song Hardware Store (on the album Poodle Hat), here ya go:
They’ve got allen wrenches, gerbil feeders, toilet seats, electric heaters, trash compactors, juice extractor, shower rods and water meters, walkie-talkies, copper wires safety goggles, radial tires, b.b. pellets, rubber mallets, fans and dehumidifiers, picture hangers, paper cutters, waffle irons, window shutters, paint removers, window louvres, masking tape and plastic gutters, kitchen faucets, folding tables, weather stripping, jumper cables, hooks and tackle, grout and spackle, power foggers, spoons and ladles, pesticides for fumigation, high-performance lubrication, metal roofing, water proofing, multi-purpose insulation, air compressors, brass connectors, wrecking chisels, smoke detectors, tire gauges, hamster cages, thermostats and bug deflectors, trailer hitch demagnetizers, automatic circumcisers, tennis rackets, angle brackets, duracells and energizers, soffit panels, circuit breakers, vacuum cleaners, coffee makers, calculators, generators, matching salt and pepper shakers!
Makes me wonder if he ever performed the song live.
Here’s a clip of the lyric above. Make sure you buy the Poodle Hat album. My review: It’s good!
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7/9/2006
Warning: Tech post.
There were two items in my Add/Remove Programs in my Windows XP that absolutely would not go away no matter what I did.
The first one was the AOL Uninstaller after installing AIM Triton “Preview”. The second was the MyWay Search Assistant.
AIM Uninstaller
Situtation: You install AIM Triton Beta (or Preview or whatever you want to call it). It looks nice, but as with all AOL products, you delete them afterwards because they piss you off in one way or another.
You head over to Add/Remove Programs in the Control Panel and uninstall it. System prompts for a reboot, so you reboot. After rebooting, the “AOL Uninstaller” is still there. You try to uninstall it, it will not budge. You cannot uninstall AOL Uninstaller.
Blah.
This is what I did to get rid of it - properly.
1. I downloaded AIM Triton again and installed the chat client only (no AOL browser or toolbar or any of that crap).
Note: When I install things, I usually install right from the desktop. Whether this is proper or not, I don’t care. That’s the way I do it.
2. I notice a file is written to the desktop called “main”. A-ha. This must be the culprit. In my previous installation I deleted that after install. This time I didn’t touch it.
3. AIM Triton completes its install. I let it run once, then shut it down.
4. I choose to uninstall AIM from the Start Menu, not from the Control Panel as I did before. In the Start Menu for AIM you will see an “Uninstall AIM” thing there.
5. Before uninstalling, I “removed local data” first.
6. Performed uninstall.
7. Rebooted.
AOL uninstaller is now gone, as is AIM Triton. Yee-haw. One down, one to go.
Dell MyWay Search Assistant
Situation: There is a “MyWay Search Assistant” in your Control Panel that does not have the option to be uninstalled even though you thought you uninstalled it. Hmm..
Explanation: This is bundled with the sales of new Dell computers and as embedded in XP.
How to get rid of it: Very tricky. This article tells you step by step what to do, but here’s the short and short of it:
(Disclaimer: Do this at your own risk.)
1. Open up the registry editor.
2. Search for MyWay.com
3. In the same “folder” that the entry shows up in, look for something that says C:\WINDOWS\Installer\8xyz.msi - the “xyz” is different on each computer. It might be 818b.msi or 817c.msi or something different, but it always starts with an 8.
4. Head over to C:\WINDOWS\Installer in the Windows Explorer, find that file, right click it and select Uninstall. If you can’t “get” to the file, you’ll need to “show hidden files and folders” in Folder Options from the Control Panel first.
Done deal. MyWay Search Spyware is gone.
related tags: AOL, Triton, Preview, Dell, myway, uninstall
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