Wednesday, September 29, 2004

New feature...

Google now has my blog among the pages they scan. That means you can finally use the navbar above to search my blog.

Monday, September 27, 2004

Hand Dryers...

American Dryer, Inc. (a manufacturer of hand dryers), lists four advantages of hand dryers over paper towels:
  • Save 90% vs Paper Towels
  • Improve Hygiene
  • Protect the Environment
  • Maintenance-Free

However, paper towels offer one obvious advantage over hand dryers:
  • They dry your hands !

Friday, September 24, 2004

NAS on the cheap

I first mentioned this product about a month ago. Yesterday, I spent about 5 minutes getting this Linux server up and running. NASLite-SMB is really a simple server OS. I booted it on a Dell Optiplex GL+ (133Mhz Pentium/64MB/1.2GB), with a Hawking Technology Ethernet card in it. I then configured the workgroup, IP address and formatted the hard drive. I then rebooted and was able to connect to it from my PC without issue.

Thursday, September 23, 2004

Concerts & Albums

Here's a list of the bands or artists that I've seen more than 4 times:

Here's a list of the bands or artists that we own more than 4 CD's for:

Here’s a list of the bands whose entire catalog we own:

Somehow, I expected there to be more overlap

Tuesday, September 21, 2004

Sunday, September 19, 2004

The First Magazine for Technology Projects

Make brings the do-it-yourself mindset to all the technology in your life. Make is loaded with exciting projects that help you make the most of your technology at home and away from home. This is a magazine that celebrates your right to tweak, hack, and bend any technology to your own will.

Coming early in 2005, Make is a hybrid magazine/book (known as a mook in Japan). Make comes from O'Reilly, the Publisher of Record for geeks and tech enthusiasts everywhere.

Wednesday, September 15, 2004

Repackaging music for fun and profit...

I am a Kiss fan. I have been since I was 14. I saw them twice in the 70's and three times this decade. They are one of the major recyclers of their own music. "Beth" is their biggest hit ever, here's a list of 13 Kiss albums that the song appears on.

Other artists are also master repackagers.

I've seen Jimmy Buffet five times. 10 Jimmy Buffet albums include "Margaritaville".

I'm also a fan of Aerosmith. 9 Aerosmith albums include "Dream On"

I gave all of these artists the benefit of the doubt and only used their releases or soundtracks. I didn't dump in every compilation. Your numbers may vary.

If you want to send me an email...

Send it to my mother and ask that she "Send this to everyone you know". I will get it quicker than if you just emailed it to me in the first place.

Monday, September 13, 2004

An unreal evening 11 years ago...

I had lived within an hour of Houston all my life, but I always heard about this great blues bar in Austin called Antone's. It's where Stevie Ray Vaughan and The Fabulous Thunderbirds got their start. I had seen The Fabulous Thunderbirds as the opening band in front of ZZ Top and The Rolling Stones at the Astrodome in 1981. On any given night, I knew that you could see great bluesmen. My dream was to see Albert Collins at Antone's.

Soon after I moved to Round Rock from Houston in 1993, some friends bought tickets and took me to see Albert Collins at Antone's. It was a spectacular evening. Kim Wilson (singer and harmonica player for The Fabulous Thunderbirds) blew the harp and Albert played like magic. He died later that year.

Friday, September 10, 2004

Plans for tonight....

After work, my wife and I are headed to a happy hour at Shady Grove. It's a birthday party for a couple of her coworkers. That should be fun and I'm sure we'll eat dinner there.

Later, we are also attending a Will Taylor and Strings Attached show at St. David's Episcopal Church. This is the first show of the Strings Attached Collaboration Series 2004-2005. Tonight's show features Trish Murphy (with special appearances by Kacy Crowley and Renee Woodward.

Thursday, September 09, 2004

Uh-Oh...

Yet another hurricane is headed towards our family members in Florida. Be sure and see the latest tracking information at Dave Barry's Blog or the real source, noaa.gov.

Wednesday, September 08, 2004

Are You Worthy?

Are You Worthy?. I doubt it, but if you think you are, try Arrogant Bastard Ale. A friend of mine and I split a 22 oz bottle in Chattanooga, TN a couple of years ago and I've been a fan ever since. It got a 91 - Highly Recommended on BeerAdvocate.com.

Saturday, September 04, 2004

I'm finally going to stop paying TimeWarner...

I moved from Road Runner to SBC's DSL service about a couple of years ago. RoadRunner simply wasn't reliable. Calling TimeWarner's tech support was not helpful. I've been wanting to move to satellite for about a year and I finally placed my order with DISH Network. I will save $25 per month, but will get more services.

Friday, September 03, 2004

I'm not a doctor...

A couple of days ago, a coworker was complaining of stomach pain. He pointed to where it was coming from and asked if his appendix was there. I said "No, it's much lower". The fact is he complains often about pain and I figured he was just being a hypochondriac.

This morning, though, his wife called to say that he was in surgery to have his appendix removed.

I feel a tad guilty, but then what kind of idiot asks a computer nerd for medical advice ?

Wednesday, September 01, 2004

Open-Source on-the-fly Encryption Software...

I learned about TrueCrypt up on my daily trip to the Tinyapps Blog a week ago today. It is one of the coolest free applications I've run across lately.
These are the most important selling points:

1. It can create a virtual encrypted disk within a file and mount it as a real disk.
2. It can encrypt an entire hard disk partition or a device, such as USB memory stick, floppy disk, etc.

I created a 32MB encrypted partition on my 64MB USB memory stick.