Wednesday, February 01, 2006

Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Available

Internet Explorer 7: Beta 2 is available for testing on Windows XP. I'm currently installing it. I had to first validate that I have a legitimate copy of Windows XP. It also recommended installing the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool (I assume it leaves XP intact :).

This preview is for hobbyists and professionals only. Less technically capable users should never ever run beta software.
"Evaluation of Internet Explorer 7 should start now, but the software should not be used on production systems in mission-critical environments. Internet Explorer 7 Beta 2 Preview will only run on Windows® XP Service Pack 2 (SP2) systems, but will ultimately be available for Windows Vista, Windows XP Professional x64 Edition, and Windows Server 2003."

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

Monday, January 30, 2006

SSIK & KISS

In August of 2000, BigMac and I went to see KISS at The Frank Erwin Center. It was the fourth time I'd seen them and it was the fourth time BigMac had seen them. The show was awesome and afterward, we went to Stubb's BBQ to see SSIK. SSIK is the loudest, most obnoxious KISS cover band I've ever seen. They play obscure early KISS tunes and they are fantastic. We keep hoping that we get another chance to see them.

By the way, it was 32 years ago today that KISS played their first gig at the Coventry in Queens, NY.

Fortune Cookie

Saturday, I met some friends at China Wall. My fortune cookie said "You will be selected for a promotion because of your accomplishments".

It's about time.

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Our little church

For the next month, St George's Episcopal Church will be the featured parish website on the Episcopal Church website. This is the national church, so it's a real honor (there are 7500 Episcopal Churches in the US). Our website was designed by Bazzirk, Inc.

Saturday, January 28, 2006

Four Wheel Drive Camper Van

Four Wheel Drive Camper Van
I took this a couple of weeks ago at Springhill Restaurant in Pflugerville. I think it may be a Sportsmobile conversion.

Luby's is hiring...

Luby's is hiring...
I went to Luby's yesterday for lunch and noticed that they are looking for a part-time office asstainst with flexible hours. I wasn't looking for a job, but the flexible hours do sound nice. I've never seen an asstainst position before that wasn't full-time. If you're interested, please check with the Luby's at 13817 U.S. Highway 183 North in Austin.

Texas State Capital

Texas Capital
I shot this picture from my truck, while waiting for the signal to change. I took it with my Treo 600.

Friday, January 27, 2006

Deal - 19" Dell LCD

This is the deal I've been waiting for. $261.75 for the monitor with free shipping. This monitor normally sells for $349 and shipping is $19, so this was an easy way to save $100. At the Dell Outlet, this same monitor sells for $319. I should recieve it in about a week.
Product Highlights
  • Sharp and brilliant images of text and graphics with a maximum resolution up to 1280x1024 pixels
  • 8 ms response time improves image quality in high motion applications reducing ghosting, jagged edges enabling crisp, clear images
  • Contrast ratio of 500:1 delivers high color accuracy and color uniformity
  • Built-in power and cable management feature helps to keep desk clutter-free
  • Viewing angle can be tilted 4° forward and 21° backwards for viewing comfort
  • Includes a 3-Year Warranty
  • Dell-branded monitors undergo exhaustive testing for performance, reliability, durability and compatibility with Dell™ systems
  • Supported by Dell™ Technical Support when used with a Dell™ system

Monday, January 23, 2006

The Subdudes new album is here.,,

The subdudes will release their sixth studio CD on Jan. 24, 2006! The album, 'Behind the Levee' will be the second release for the 'dudes on the Back Porch label.
More importantly, they will be at The Glenn at the Backyard on March 3, 2006. It's been a few years since I've seen them (and Amy's never seen them). If you're interested in seeing a great live band, call us and we'll try to get a group together.

FreeNAS: The Free NAS Server

FreeNAS is a free NAS (Network-Attached Storage) server, supporting: CIFS (samba), FTP, NFS protocols, Software RAID (0,1,5) with a Full WEB configuration interface. FreeNAS takes less than 16MB once installed on Compact Flash, hard drive or USB key.
This looks like NASLITE which I discussed a long time ago and ran for about a year. This one's free (obviously) and offers many more options. It looks like it's worth checking out.

Sunday, January 22, 2006

Thanks for the upgrade, Kirk !

For Christmas, my brother-in-law and his family gave me $25 to use to upgrade my Flickr account to the Pro level. This should give me some options I haven't had before, and should be good for the blog.

Now you can listen to My Station

The does the fun ever start ? Radio Show ! is available for your listening pleasure. You can check out a a description of the station. Here are the last twenty songs I heard:
  • Fleetwood Mac: Landslide
  • Wilco: Forget The Flowers
  • Soundgarden: Outshined
  • Van Halen: Right Now
  • Pink Floyd: Mother
  • Lucinda Williams: Drunken Angel
  • Dave Matthews Band: Ants Marching
  • Stevie Ray Vaughan: Honey Bee
  • Red Hot Chili Peppers: My Friends
  • Molly Hatchet: Fall Of The Peacemakers
  • Dionne Farris: I Know
  • Cinderella: Somebody Save Me
  • Matchbox Twenty: 3 AM
  • Dido: Here With Me
  • Beastie Boys: An Open Letter To NYC (Instrumental)
  • Ian Moore: Lie
  • Little Feat: Fat Man In The Bathtub
  • Grand Funk Railroad: The Loco-Motion
  • Adam Sandler: The Buffoon And The Valedictorian
  • Pantera: ________ Hostile

Saturday, January 21, 2006

The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time

The Top Ten College Pranks of All Time:
The staff at the Museum of Hoaxes studied hundreds, if not thousands, of examples of the genre of the college prank to find the ten most worthy of immortal fame. The pranks were judged according to three criteria: creativity, fame, and shock value.

Thursday, January 19, 2006

Top 50 Inventions in the past half-century

Popular Mechanics: Top 50 inventions
In the past half-century, scientific and technological advances have transformed our world. PM convened a panel of 25 experts to identify innovations that have made the biggest impact, from the hospital to outer space to the kitchen. Here, then, are the breakthroughs of our time.

Commemorative National Championship Coca-Cola Cans

Commemorative National Championship Coca-Cola Cans
We bought these at Wal-Mart in Round Rock on Tuesday.

Open-Air Sports Cars

There seems to be a trend to create high-performance sports cars that leave you in the wind. These are created by small companies. A couple are trikes and one is an actual four wheeler. The performance is phenomenal because they are so light.


I can't find any evidence that any of them are currently sold in the US, although the T-Rex does have a dealer network here.

Free VMware Player & ReactOS

Free VMWare Player and ReactOS v0.2.9 Machine
A couple of days ago, I downloaded VMware Player. I have installed some Virtual Machines, including Linux and ReactOS 0.2.9. This is the way to try out ReactOS. There's no need to burn a CD, then reboot the PC. Just launch the Player, then choose the VMX file (or just double-click on the VMX file) amd you've booted to that OS in a virtual machine on your PC. The machine is only able to access those devices that you want it to.

Run virtual machines created by VMware Workstation, GSX Server or ESX Server. VMware Player also supports Microsoft virtual machines and Symantec LiveState Recovery disk formats.Easily and safely evaluate pre-built application environments, beta software, or other software that is distributed in virtual machines, without any installation or configuration hassles. Share a virtual machine with a colleague or friend."

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Best blonde joke ever!

I normally don't like these, but this one is clearly the best of the genre.

Friday, January 13, 2006

Friday the 13th

If you're superstitious, you might want to stay home today.

Thursday, January 12, 2006

Salad on the wrong day

I am currently working from noon to 9pm, so I generally eat lunch and dinner a little early. Yesterday, I got to Baja Fresh at 11:01 and was the 8th person in line. I thought it was odd that there were so many people eating there so early. Two people in front of me asked for burritos and the cashier had to ask which of the five burritos they wanted. I wondered why they hadn't gone over the menu while they had been standing in line, but I chalked it up to people being inconsiderate and was going to blog about how inconsiderate people can be.

I ordered a salad and went to get a drink and then sat down. I surfed the Internet on my Treo for a couple of minutes and they called my name. I noticed when I went to get my food that the dining room was filling up, but I really didn't think much about it. I continued to look at my phone while eating. I finished up about 11:20 and looked up and the restaurant was full. I got up and cleared my table off to let someone else sit down and headed outside. There was a line out the door with 30 people standing outside. I was wondering why there were so many people there.

As I was pulling out of the parking lot, I looked over the door and there was a big sign that said "Free Burrito Day - January 11, 2006"

Monday, January 09, 2006

Rose Bowl paraphernalia

Rose Bowl Shirts and Had
This weekend (like every other Austinite) we went and bought National Championship shirts (and a hat) at Academy.

The big question: Is Vince going to be a Texan now?

Post Number 500

Five Hundred
It's taken 602 days to reach 500 posts and 5000 users. Those are two important milestones. Thanks for your help.

In related news, I have now changed the counter to reflect page hits (rather than unique users) as it's a more realistic number.

Broke the template again

I somehow messed up the blogger template and now I think it's ugly. The advantage to this layout is that it shows more of the content (now that there's less content). This weekend, I bought a book about Cascading Style Sheets (CSS) and hope to do a redesign in the next couple of weeks. This will actually be the first redesign. Until now, I've been stuck with using preconfigured Blogger templates. That is too limiting.

I'm not a very good designer, but my homepage looks the way I want it to. It looks that way, because it's been refined over the past ten years. It reflects the vision I want reflected. That has never been the case with my blog. Soon, I hope to change that.

Big Movie Weekend

We went to see three movies this weekened:

Thursday, January 05, 2006

PortableApps.com

PortableApps.com | Your Digital Life, Anywhere™: "A portable app is a computer program that you can carry around with you on a portable device and use on any Windows computer. When your USB thumbdrive, portable hard drive, iPod or other portable device is plugged in, you have access to your software and personal data just as you would on your own PC. And when you unplug, none of your personal data is left behind."

Trojans get surprised...

Longhorn Bus Stop
The University of Texas Longhorns shocked the Trojans and beat 'em at their (virtual) home field and became the National Champions. Here's a couple of quotes from USC that show the difference between being gracious and not.

Pete Carroll: "It's been wonderful doing what we've been doing, it's too bad it had to end. We just couldn't get it done."
Matt Leinert: "I still think we're a better football team, they just made the plays in the end."

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Williams Tower - Houston TX

Williams Tower - Houston, TX
This is a shot of the Williams Tower (formerly Transco Tower). I took this on New Year's day from a neighborhood across the 610 Loop from the Tower. Once again, the night snapshot mode of my SD450 gives me a nice photo, where my A10 would have given me a black (or mostly black) image.

Thursday, December 29, 2005

Twue

You can pick a banjo and you can pick your friends, but you shouldn't pick your friend's banjo.

Owokee Beer

When I was in college, I was living in the dorm for the two weeks between the spring semester and summer. I thought that I was the only person in the entire dorm. One morning, I walked out of my room and saw another guy putting out his garbage. We were both shocked that we weren't the only ones in the building, so we spoke. He asked if I drank beer and I said I did. He said he had some "Owokee" beer and I should come by after work and have one. All day, I looked forward to this exotic beer from the Orient that my new Asian friend would expose me to. The friendship was short-lived however, because when I showed up handed me an Old Milwaukee.

How to switch to GMAIL

How to switch to GMAIL (documented by Google):
Switching to a new email address can be a pain, but it doesn't have to be. To get personalized help on how to switch to Gmail, enter the domain for the email address you no longer want to use, and click 'Help Me Switch'. Or view general instructions on switching from any email address. Change is good. It can be easy too.

Monday, December 19, 2005

Glad it's over...

U-HAUL in the rearview mirror
Today, for the first time since Thursday morning, I don't see the above image every time I look in the mirror. The truck should get about 35% better gas mileage without the trailer on the way to Houston on Saturday.

Sunday, December 18, 2005

The Mighty Mississippi

The Mighty Mississippi
I took this from the Visitor's Center in Mississippi at about 5:30PM yesterday. I used the night vision feature of my new camera (Canon SD450) and love this shot.

908.2 miles in one day

We left Round Rock, TX at about 7:45 yesterday morning. We arrived in Fort Payne, AL this morning at 12:15. That means we averaged about 55MPH. We started with a full tank of gas and filled up once in each state (Texas, Louisiana, Mississippi & Alabama). We were asleep as we hit the pillow and were both up by 8:30 this morning.

So, to recap:
Miles: 908.2
States: 4
Average Speed: 55
Bobcats observed: 1 (ask Amy)

Thursday, December 15, 2005

Goodbye, Doug.

Thanks for all of your help. Amy and I wish you the best of luck in Atlanta. We'll try to make it there to visit you!

Stupidest email ever

I got an email yesterday at work that went to 167 people. The person that sent it was trying to figure out if their mailing list included everyone it should. She asked us to "Please let me know as soon as possible if you ARE NOT receiving these!".

My "Stolen" Hotel Clock

Picture058_15Dec05
My wife gave me a clock for my desk. It came with a subscription to TIME magazine and it has a place for a picture. On a previous trip to Alabama, we stayed in a Holiday Inn and I kept the access card (electronic key). Amy didn't provide me with a picture to put in the clock, so one night I got bored and cut up the access card and put in the place for the photo. It now sits on my desk and several people have asked me where I got the clock and I always tell this story because everyone thinks I stole the clock.

Iraq's Election & Laundry Baskets

I noticed that Iraq held free elections today and I laughed at how low-tech they were. They had a big Tupperware container with the lid attached with Zipties. A slot was cut in the top. Then I remembered that the last time I voted in Round Rock, I put my ballot in a locked metal box with a slot cut in the top. The big plastic tub just looked funnier.

I bet it wasn't even Tupperware. It was probably Sterilite!

Business Card Rant

5 Things that will make me throw your business card away:
  • Format the phone number with periods. (800) 555-1212 is the correct way to format a phone number. 800.555.1212 is not.
  • Make it slick and shiny.
  • Make sure your picture covers 33% of the surface area.
  • Put a registered trademark after your job title. The one I'm looking at says "REALTOR®"
  • Put some information on the card with such a small font that it looks like a squiggly line.
The business card a friend handed me a couple of days ago for a realtor meets the last four, but the phone number was formatted correctly.

Sunday, December 11, 2005

Craftsman Toolbox

Red Craftsman Toolbox
We've really made great strides at getting our house clean and organized. One of the worst areas are my workbenches. This is the answer to that. I bought both pieces for $149 (normally $219) at Sears.Com.

It was a fantastic online shopping experience. I ordered it Wednesday night when I got home from work (for store pickup). Friday, I ran by the Sears at Hancock Center. I walked to the (unattended) merchandise pickup area. There was a kiosk and I scanned the card I'd used to make the purchase. My name appeared on a TV on the wall with a timer that showed how long I'd been waiting. I had been there about 5 minutes, when a guy brought out the chest and cabinet on a hand truck and rolled it right out to the Jeep and loaded it.

I've ordered online for store pickup from other companies and it seems that each time, there's 5 minutes of confusion, followed by someone saying "OH! This is an online order!". This is after I've told them that I'm here to pick up an order that I placed online. Sears has this down to an art. I'm glad to see them doing things well, as I worked for them for almost three years while I was in college.

Friday, December 09, 2005

Sissy up your truck for the holidays...

Sissy up your truck for the Holidays!

iPod 101

For those of you who will receive (or have already received) an iPod for Christmas, Apple has put together all you need to know. Check it out at iPod 101!
"If you're a new iPod owner or simply need a refresher course on how to get the most out of your iPod, you've come to the right place. Welcome to iPod 101: Your guide to rockin' out, gettin' down, and boogieing with your iPod, iPod nano, iPod mini, or iPod shuffle."

Tuesday, December 06, 2005

TV Shows available on iTunes today

iTunes Music Store enhanced their television offerings this morning and the following shows are now available.
ABC

  • Lost
  • Desperate Housewives
  • Night Stalker
Disney
  • The Suite Life of Jack & Cody
  • That's So Raven
NBC
  • Law & Order
  • The Office
  • Surface
  • The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
  • Late Night with Conan O'Brien
  • Alfred Hitchcock Presents
  • Dragnet
  • Adam-12
  • Knight Rider
Sci-Fi
  • Battlestar Galactica
  • Battlestar Galactica Miniseries
USA
  • Monk

Saturday, December 03, 2005

YFML is coming today!

Welcome to Texas!

More storage, faster

I went to Fry's last night and picked up a Seagate 200GB hard drive. It was originally marked $139. It was on sale for $99 and there's a $50 rebate. I also bought an Airlink+ External USB 2.0 Enclosure for it for $35. This will give me a portable 200GB drive for $85. That's a great deal

Thursday, December 01, 2005

Conversion to iTunes

I have never completely moved our CD collection to the computer. I've started and stopped a few times, but now that Amy is getting an White Apple 4 GB iPod Nano for Christmas, I am using iTunes to rip and convert our entire CD collection. We have more CD's than I thought, I've been working on it for a few evenings and I'm just now completing the C's. I'm using Amy's system and it has two optical drives. I have iTunes set so that when I insert a CD, it rips it, converts it to AAC format, then ejects the CD. Because of the two drives, it's working almost continuously.

Once the album has been stored in the iTunes Library, I run iTunes Art Importer to capture the album art. This way, the screen on the Nano will always show the album cover on the CD.

Tuesday, November 29, 2005

Mozilla Firefox 1.5 Released

Mozilla Firefox 1.5: "The final release of Mozilla Firefox 1.5 is now available for download from GetFirefox.com for most major operating systems or from the mirrors. Users of the release candidates should receive the update soon."

Worst fortune cookie fortune EVER!

"Don't behave with cold manners"

Rock & Roll Hall of Fame - New members

New York, New York, November 28, 2005 - The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Foundation today announced its 2006 Inductees.

The following artists will be inducted at the Twenty-First Annual Induction Ceremony, which will be held Monday, March 13th 2006 in New York at the Waldorf Astoria Hotel:
  • Black Sabbath (Geezer Butler, Tony Iommi, Ozzy Osbourne and Bill Ward)
  • Sex Pistols (Paul Cook, Steve Jones, Glen Matlock, Johnny Rotten, Sid Vicious)
  • Lynyrd Skynyrd (Bob Burns, Allen Collins, Steve Gaines, Ed King, Billy Powell, Artimus Pyle, Gary Rossington, Ronnie Van Zant, Leon Wilkeson)
  • Miles Davis
  • Blondie (Clem Burke, Jimmy Destri, Nigel Harrison, Debbie Harry, Frank Infante, Chris Stein, Gary Valentine)

Monday, November 28, 2005

9 Boxes of Books and videos

Boxes of Books
Here are the nine boxes of books and videos that I took to Half-Price Books. They have been packed and unpacked and loaded and unloaded many times. We made sure to sift through them and get rid of the ones that mice had chewed on. There were probably 120 books and 25 VHS videos. I went to Half-Price Books with this whole pile of stuff. The employee checked my ID and entered that info in the computer and asked to be sure that I had time to wait until their offer. He then helped me unload the books and bring them into the store. He said I could wait on the couch. He called my name about 30-35 minutes later that 'The Offer' was ready. I walked up there with a big smile on my face and he said "We can offer you $20.25". I almost fell over. The way I saw it, my choices were limited to:
  • Take the money
  • Load the books back into the boxes, load them back into the truck and then give them to Goodwill
  • Load the books back into the boxes, load them back into the truck and try to sell them at our garage sale
  • Load the books back into the boxes, load them back into the truck and try to sell them on eBay.
Notice that all of the solutions except the first one include the phrase "Load the books back into the boxes, load them back into the truck and...". I took the money.

(Can you guess why I didn't link to Half-Price Books ?)

Wireless USB Optical Desktop

Clean up the look on your desk with the Kensington Wireless Optical Desktop. It's a complete wireless desktop with multimedia keyboard and optical mouse finished in a two-tone silver finish to complement today's PCs. This wireless desktop has a slim profile and two-tone silver/black color scheme. The keyboard has 19 hot keys for quick Internet access and multimedia control. The mouse featrues DiamondEye optical technology for precise tracking and USB and PS2 connection works with any PC.

What's in the Box
Keyboard, wireless optical mouse, RF receiver with PS/2 and USB connectivity

Product Description:
USB and PS2 Compatible / Works with Windows 98 or later for PC / Contains 1 Wireless Optical Mouse and 1 Wireless Keyboard Kensington 5-year product warranty and toll-free technical support Comes in Brown Box.

6.5 hours into our garage cleanup...

IMG_4366

HOW TO: Getting Started with RSS

HOW TO: Getting Started with RSS at PaulStamatiou.com

This is a very good article about what RSS is and how to make it work for you.

Sunday, November 27, 2005

How about a $139 laptop ?

AlphaSmart 3000 IR Features and Specifications:
  • 3 AA Batteries (runs 700 hours on these)
  • AlphaWord Plus, Beamer, Keywords and Calculator SmartApplets
  • Built-in Infrared Capabilities
  • User's Guide"

4.5 hours into our garage cleanup...

Garage Garbage

Fall is here...

A bird's nest and fall colors
This morning, I saw this bird's nest in one of the trees in the front yard. Please click on the photo to view the full size version, this size doesn't really do the photo justice.

Friday, November 25, 2005

It's Black Friday

I won't be taking part in Black Friday. I'm unwilling to fight the crowds and have to work today. For those of you who are interested, here's the Black Friday entry from Wikipedia:

Black Friday, the day after Thanksgiving in the United States, is historically one of the busiest retail shopping days of the year. Many consider it the "official" beginning to the holiday season. The "black" in the name comes from the standard accounting practice of using red ink to denote negative values (losses) and black ink to denote positive values (profits). Black Friday is the day when retailers traditionally get back "in the black" after operating "in the red" for the previous months, often by cutting prices considerably. In addition, most retailers will open very early.

Although Black Friday is typically the busiest shopping day of the year in terms of customer traffic, it is not typically the day with the highest sales volume. That is usually either Christmas Eve or the last Saturday before Christmas.

Because of the large amount of shopping that typically occurs on Black Friday, it has also become Buy Nothing Day.

Thursday, November 24, 2005

Everything old is new again

I just went back to the original layout for the blog. Blogger doesn't have that many layout choices and this is the best I've found for displaying the content I want to display. A couple features aren't implemented yet, but they should be in the next few days.

Howto: Have a Happy Thanksgiving!

Be careful on the road.
Enjoy spending the day with family.
Root for your team.
Watch A Charlie Brown Thanksgiving tonight on ABC.

Wednesday, November 23, 2005

The good news is...

Cheap Gas
I paid less than two bucks a gallon yesterday at the HEB at the corner of Greenlawn and Louis Henna in Round Rock.

Tuesday, November 22, 2005

Another redesign

I have heard from users in the past that this blog looked like crap on Internet Explorer. I'm sorry about that. I didn't realize that that browser was still around. I'm not completely pleased with this new layout, but it looks OK in all browsers, even in OffByOne.

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Simon Evening of Giving

Tonight, Amy and I are going to the Simon Evening of Giving with BigMac and his family. This will be our fourth year to attend this fundraiser. It's traditionally been where Amy and I kick off our Christmas shopping. It's a nationwide event, so please find a Simon mall near you that's participating in the Evening of Giving or the Day of Giving and go.
Simon Evening of Giving is the exclusive, after-hours shopping event that kicks off the holiday shopping season. This fund-raising event will include a night of private holiday shopping and family entertainment when the malls opens at after-hours for the supporters of participating charities. Throughout the mall, there will be exclusive store discounts, entertainment, food sampling and more. Last year’s Simon Evening of Giving, was held at 63 Simon Malls across the country, and raised over $2,000,000, for 2,571 national, regional and local charities including Simon Youth Foundation®.

On Sunday, November 20th, sixty-two Simon malls will be hosting the traditional Simon Evening of Giving and an additional sixteen Simon malls will be hosting the New! Simon Day of Giving. Simon Day of Giving is a natural extension of the evening event, just held during regular mall open hours – with shopping, festive holiday entertainment, door prizes, silent auctions, food sampling and of course – More Shopping!

For charities and not-for-profit organizations interested in participating or receiving more information about Simon Evening of Giving or Simon Day of Giving, please contact your local participation Simon mall.

Would you like cash back ?

Yesterday, Amy and I went to Souper Salads for lunch, Payment is required before you go through the line. I was using my debit card and the cashier (who will henceforth be referred to as cashier) said "Do you want cash back ? Like two or three dollars ?" I assumed that the reason he chose those amounts was to show that I could get any amount (not limited to $20 increments like most ATM's). I thought about it and decided that since I had no cash, that I would go ahead and get some. So, I asked for twenty. The cashier said "Oh no! I can't give you that much. I can only give you two or three dollars at the most. It's limited to half the amount of the bill". The lunch was right under $16, so I could have asked for almost $8. Amy later explained that it was so I would have a small amount of cash to leave as a tip.

On the way out, I went to the Men's room. I was just walking in and saw the same cashier washing his hands (there was a sign that employees must do so). He asked me how I was doing and I replied "Fine". I wasn't yet at the urinal, so I didn't mind answering. I was at the urinal when he asked, "Are you finding everything on the buffet OK ?" I said, "YES!" Thank goodness there wasn't a more substantial customer survey involved.

Saturday, November 19, 2005

Iron Bowl 2005

If you're in Austin, come watch the game with the Auburn Alumni at the sports bar inside Showplace Lanes Austin. The game starts at 2:30. We went to see Auburn whoop Georgia there last week and were among 40 Auburn fans. It was awesome. Today should be every bit as exciting.

Cool Site: Lifehacker

Here's some cool articles or posts that I've found on Lifehacker in the past 4 months. This site alway has great stuff. They describe their site this way:
Computers make us more productive. Yeah, right. Lifehacker recommends the downloads, web sites and shortcuts that actually save time. Don't live to geek; geek to live.

My Silktide Sitescore

I have added the following image near the bottom of the right side of the screen. It will constantly be updated with my current score. Just for reference, today my rating is a 7.9.

Click on it and see the ratings!

Finally, we've been recognized.

IT workers dubbed 'worst dressed'
"Help-desk staff were named as the worst offenders,"

Thursday, November 17, 2005

Lost on iTunes

As I mentioned earlier, earlier this week we lost last week's episode of Lost. I spent $1.99 tonight on iTunes to purchase it. We watched it and caught up. If Alias had the same deal, we would have bought those episodes as well.

Wednesday, November 16, 2005

Questions about Suicide Bombers

If you're a suicide bomber and you kill just one person (other than yourself), have you really accomplished anything ? What if you're the only person who is killed ? Isn't that really just an elaborate suicide ?

Free TV Shows

Warner Bros to offer classic repeats for free over broadband - Yahoo! News: "Hollywood studio Warner Brothers said it plans to put thousands of episodes of old television favourites including 'Wonder Woman' online for free under a groundbreaking deal with America Online."
Some of you may realize that you have been able to get free TV shows for years. Even before your first computer, you were able to 'download' television shows. You were probably even able to get them wirelessly.

data = gone

Monday was a bad day for data. My system at work has been flaky lately and in repairing it, they had to reimage it. I've lost all my old email archives plus all the work on a project I was working on. I wasn't too upset until I got home and noticed that our DVR had formatted the hard drive, taking 2 episodes of Alias, 1 episode of Lost and about 20 movies and other shows that had been in the queue.

I may do a quick backup on my main system. Anyone have 86000 floppies I can borrow ?

Sunday, November 13, 2005

Recent Interesting MAKE: Blog posts


If you aren't currently subscribed to the MAKE: Blog RSS feed, how can you call yourself a geek ? These are the coolest things I've seen there in the past couple of months.

Jones Soda Holiday Pack


Amy and I have seen the the Jones Soda Holiday Pack the last couple of times we went to Target. These are the flavors of the Holiday Pack:
  • Brussels Sprout with Prosciutto
  • Cranberry Sauce
  • Turkey & Gravy
  • Wild Herb Stuffing
  • Pumpkin Pie
They also have a regional Holiday Pack which contains:
  • Broccoli Casserole
  • Smoked Salmon Paté
  • Turkey & Gravy
  • Corn on the Cob
  • Pecan Pie.
Last year's Holiday Pack included:
  • Turkey & Gravy Soda
  • Cranberry Soda
  • Mashed Potato & Butter
  • Green Bean Casserole
  • Fruitcake Soda
Now, I really like Jones Soda and have mentioned them before. I think I'll stick with my favorite Jones Sodas.
  • Blue Bubblegum
  • Green Apple
  • Berry Lemonade

My dad would be proud...

Go ahead, see if you can beat a 90!
You Passed 8th Grade Math

Congratulations, you got 9/10 correct!

www.EndWalletButt.com

I thought that might get your attention. This seems to be a clever way to get the thickness of a man's wallet down to a reasonable size. Check it out. Here's a quote from their site.
ALL-ETT® Billfold was started in 1998 from a simple desire to solve a classic problem. By using a revolutionary design, and modern materials, it was found that we need not cling to traditional wallets whose basic design preceded having so many credit cards.

Saturday, November 12, 2005

RIP: Arrested Development

FOX has cancelled the funniest network comedy in years. Arrested Development will be allowed to film five more before the season ends.

Friday, November 11, 2005

Another Keyring Tool...

In addition to a small flashlight, I carry a small multitool on my keyring. It's a Swiss+Tech Utili-Key® 6-In-1. I'm not sure how I ever got along without it.
The lightest and most compact multiple tool ever developed. This ultra-light, durable and precision crafted 6-in-1 tool has a straight knife blade and a serrated cutting surface, a micro-sized screwdriver, a Phillips screwdriver, an eyeglass screwdriver, and a bottle opener, and weighs in at an amazing 0.5 oz. The tool makes minor repairs, assemblies, installations, and hundreds of jobs an easy undertaking. The patented quick-release design easily snaps to your key ring, and just as easily releases for multiple everyday tasks. Ideal for indoor or outdoor activities and emergency situations, this tool comes in handy on the road and at home!

New keyring flashlight...

For the past four years, I've been carrying a Photon Micro-Light® II on my keyring. It's an incredibly useful light and has come in handy on hundreds of occasions. The batteries are replaceable (unlike many of these lights) and it takes two batteries that usually cost me $3 each at Radio Shack. Recently, it has gotten dim, so I know that the batteries need to be replaced again.

Last night, I went to pick up some things at Target and saw that they had the INOVA Microlight for $5.99. Since that's the same price as getting batteries for my Photon, I went ahead and picked one up.

It offers a couple of advantages over the Photon II. The Photon has a momentary squeeze switch and an actual on/off slider. The light is either on or off. The INOVA offers a multi-mode switch and offers multiple modes (high power, low power, strobe and signal mode). There's only one switch and it's pretty ingenious. Here's the operation guide:

Operation Guide.
Press the button one time for high power.
Press the button two times for low power.
Press the button three times for strobe.

If you leave your Microlight on any setting for more than 2 seconds the next press of the button will turn it off and not go to the next function. In the high power setting your Microlight will automatically shut off after 4 minutes. Low power and strobe settings will run as long as they are active.

To reset your Microlight into signal mode:
Press the button three times for strobe mode.
While the light is strobing, press and hold the button for 5 seconds.
In signal mode your light will only works as a squeeze light. To activate normal operating modes press and hold down the button for 15 seconds until the light goes out.

Thursday, November 10, 2005

1955 Chevrolet Handyman Station Wagon

1955 Chevrolet 210 Handyman Station Wagon
I captured this in front of CD Warehouse in Round Rock. I wasn't sure what it was, because I thought (incorrectly) that all 1955-1957 two-door wagons were Nomads and all other wagons had 4 doors. This one, however, is clearly not a Nomad because it doesn't have a single long rear side window. I finally found out that it's a Handyman Station Wagon. It was obvious that it's a 1955 Chevrolet.

Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Long Blog Posts....

I don't like 'em.

Room with a view...

Room with a View
This is the bathroom at the Whole Foods Landmark Store at 6th and Lamar.

Proofreading Bennigan's menu

Bennigan's Menu
Notice how the heading is "Steaks, Ribs & Fajitas" and then notice that one of the menu items is "Grilled Meatloaf". Which of the three is it ?

The menu at their Bennigans.com has the same anomaly.

Texans, I'm disappointed in us.

Texas easily passes Proposition 2. We've proven that we are the hand puppets of bigots who have been able to legislate intolerance.

Tuesday, November 08, 2005

Kiss - Peter Criss and Paul Stanley

Peter Criss and Paul Stanley

Welcome to Washington County (Texas)

Welcome to Washington County (Texas)
We've been selling a piece of property in Washington County for the last couple of months. Yesterday morning, I drove to Brenham, Texas for the last trip related to the sale. Two or three weeks ago, this sign appeared at the line between Lee and Washington counties.

Please note that the sign says "Birthplace of Texas". Those of you who weren't required to study Texas history may not understand that significance of that phrase. Washington is a very small town in Washington County. The Republic of Texas was born there when the Texas Declaration of Independence was signed there in March of 1836. The town was referred to (then and now) as "Washington on the Brazos" to differentiate it from "Washington on the Potomac".

Proposed Constitutional Amendments November 8, 2005

Today is the day to vote regarding these proposed amendments to the Texas Constitution. If you live in Texas, please vote today.

Sunday, November 06, 2005

Vote against reversing Texas' progress

Please read the following language and if you live in Texas, decide if you want to vote for intolerance. This resolution was created by Representative Warren Chisum and Senator Todd Staples. These two people believe that Texas is too tolerant regarding marriage and they want to legislate a solution. They aren't working to advance our state's tolerance, they are working to eliminate it. They are bigots and you should help halt their vanity project.
Ballot Language
"The constitutional amendment providing that marriage in this state consists only of the union of one man and one woman and prohibiting this state or a political subdivision of this state from creating or recognizing any legal status identical or similar to marriage."

Brief Explanation
HJR 6 would provide that marriage in Texas is solely the union of a man and woman, and that the state and its political subdivisions could not create or recognize any legal status identical to or similar to marriage, including such legal status relationships created outside of Texas.

I just installed ObjectDock

Amy and I went to the Apple Store at Barton Creek Square Mall on Friday night. I looked at all of the Macs and I love the dock they use. I thought about picking up a Mac Mini, but there is a cheaper way.

I just found and installed the freeware version of ObjectDock from Stardock. Here's a screenshot. If you've seen a modern Mac, you know how it works.
ObjectDockScreenshot
(Click the screenshot to see what it really looks like)

It's an RSS world...

You can now use the orange XML button beside the user count to subscribe to my RSS feed.

Friday, November 04, 2005

Jeep Commander stuff

Amy really likes the new Jeep Commander (I don't really 'get it'). Here are a couple of concepts based the Commander (just for her):

Thursday, November 03, 2005

Cool Trike


IMG_0602-1
Originally uploaded by eschulz.
I love these trikes. I'm not sure how practical they are. They certainly should get better gas mileage than a car, but probably not nearly as much as a two-wheeler.

Lastminute Auctions

lastminute-auction.com provides a new way to hunt for great bargains on eBay.com.

They search current offers on eBay for auctions which meet their strict simple criteria:
  1. The auction ends in one hour.
  2. The price is currently one dollar or less.
Although they find a bunch of stuff that's not even worth one dollar, they consistently uncover some really great deals

Cheapest PC on the planet ?

I've noticed recently that Fry's Electronics in Austin has been selling their house brand (GQ - Great Quality) PC for $159. It's not currently on sale, so it's a good deal higher than that price today. I've wondered if it could be any good. ExtremeTech has tested it and you can see their full review. It did pretty well.

If you're not lucky enough to live close to a Fry's, you can pick it up at Outpost.Com. It's selling today for $269, but they have run it on sale cheaper than that online recently.

New version of Yahoo Maps

Tonight, according to Jeremy Zawodny's Blog, the new version (link to Beta) of Yahoo Maps will be launched. There are a couple other related interesting sites:
"The new Yahoo! Maps offers a powerful new way to experience and use maps. Tap into this beautiful new interface either using the free Flash® viewer from Macromedia® or display via AJAX.

Yahoo! Maps also includes a rich set of APIs for both Flash and AJAX that enable you to use and publish maps on your web site or in your client application."

Tuesday, November 01, 2005

Build your own Hummer clone

Urban Gorilla 4x4 Bodies off-road body kits turn your pickup or Suburban into the vehicle of your dreams. Body packages are designed to require only basic auto shop skills and equipment. Your completed vehicle will turn heads and go just about anywhere. Get started on your dream truck today!"
I like the Combat version.

Halloween Joke

A skeleton walks into a bar and says "Give me a beer and a mop".

Sunday, October 30, 2005

Panoramic Photos of our Farm

pano_farm-3-1pano_farm-4-1pano_farm-2-1pano_farm-1-1
I used all of the automatic settings when taking these, so there are some color anomolies, but you can get a good idea of what the farm looks like.

iPod nano


iPod nano
Originally uploaded by Zengame.
This is what Amy wants for her birthday. Apple. iPod. nano. White. 4GB.

Friday, October 28, 2005

Quote of the Day...

Republican Senator Trent Lott, when asked about Harriet Miers's withdrawal, said "I want the President to look across the country and find the best man, woman or minority that he can find."