Monthly Archives: October 2008

Sports, Uncategorized

Replacement Prognostication, Week 9

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A week off for most of the NFC North leaves me without much to talk about here.  I could mention the pre-season expectations for the Dallas Cowboys going in the shitter.  But since I don’t know any Cowboys fans that read this blog, what fun is that?

What are you going to be for Halloween?  I think next year, I’m going to try to think about it a little further in advance, and try to make a good, authentic costume.  This year wasn’t bad, but…

No more delays, here are your predictions for Week 9.

SEASON RECORD: 22-15

  • Packers – lose
  • Bears – win
  • Vikings – win
  • Lions – lose
  • Chiefs – lose
  • Dolphins – lose
  • Seahawks – lose

Don’t forget to vote on Tuesday, unless you’re like me and you did already.

General, Uncategorized

Six Days to Go, Please Remain Calm

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When we get down to the wire in important elections, I think it’s easy for people to lose their heads a bit.  After all, what do we love in America more than anything?  No, it’s not Dunkin Donuts.  We love confrontation.  We love the stories of us versus them.  We watch sports contests of one type or another 13 months of the year, and we produce endless droves of “reality TV” that pits one group of people in a contest against the other.  Why do we do it?  So we can know who the winner is.  We want to decide who is better.

And like the 4th quarter of a playoff game, this last week is more tense the any time earlier in the race.  We’ve chosen sides, we’ve decided who to root for, and we desperately want to see our team win.  At the same time, we’ve been building up a callus of hatred for The Other Guy.  This is what we need to be wary of, and we really should just let it go.

Hopefully we’ve all had time to reasonably think through the issues, and we’ve made an informed choice.  That’s the sensible thing to do.  It’s a little bit insane to actually and truthfully be gripped by tangible fear at the prospect of our candidate coming in second.  We have a good system in place here.  We have checks and balances built into our system of government (for the most part) that keeps an undue amount of power out of any one person’s hands.

To think that Your Candidate will solve all the problems he’s proposed to solve is naive, but so is the notion that The Other Guy is going to single-handedly flush our democracy down the toilet.  The world continues to evolve and the status quo continues to change, but it is much bigger than one man in one office in one American city.  Moreover, the rhetoric of a political campaign is generally a lot sharper than actual policy.

Make no mistake, this is an important election; there is a lot at stake, and the President of the United States continues to be a key international figure.  But regardless of the outcome next week, it’s not worth jumping overboard if things don’t go the way you’d like.

Climate, General, Sports, Uncategorized

A Potpourri of Catching Up

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Just being out of commission for a day can set you back a little bit.  I had 36 new articles come through my New Scientist feed this morning…

In the category of “It’s Always Something,” we have: Flatscreen TVs turn up the heat on climate, showing once again that we can ALWAYS find a way to destroy the planet.  Is the Earth this fragile, or are we this big?

At this point, the celebrity (or quasi-celebrity) who I idolize the most is definitely John Hodgman.  He exudes an ideal combination of hilarious and intelligent.  If I could be this funny, I wouldn’t really need to worry about anything else.  His second book is a great gift idea for Jason, by the way…

Oh, and in case you hadn’t noticed (and I barely have), the Milwaukee Bucks basketball team has committed to showing up for at least 82 more games, and their season begins tonight.  I have entered basketball seasons with no hope for the Bucks in the past, but this is the first time since I took an interest in the NBA in the late 80s that I start a season with neither hope or interest.  Well, maybe that’s not 100% true– I must be at least vaguely interested, or you wouldn’t be reading these words.  However, I’m not as interested in following the fortunes of the team as I am the story of their inevitable collapse.  I pity the Tom Enlunds and Michael Hunts of the world, who make a living writing about this team.  It can’t be a very good living…

Oh, and you may have noticed a significant uptick in the size of the ‘archives’ available on the site– my sick day was good for researching and solving the problem I’d had with importing data from the old tikiwiki blog.  So if you care to relive the days when my words were much prettier, stop by 2003 or so.

That is all, carry on.

General, Uncategorized

Slower Than Expected

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Howdy.  I stayed home sick today, so pardon me for being brief.

Michelle and I went the Halloween shindig @ the Price house in Hartford on Saturday– it was a good time, and there is photographic evidence in the DaytoDay gallery.  We also made a “homemade” pizza on Sunday, and there are a couple pics of that, too.  It turned out really well.

But anyway, I wanted to get those photos posted about 4 hours ago, but it took me this long to:

  1. learn that some extensions for PHP hadn’t been enabled on the new server,
  2. figure out that some of the plugins here rely on the extensions in question,
  3. find out what to do to enable those extensions,
  4. figure out that the reason I couldn’t get them all enabled was because I needed to install extra packages from the Slackware install disc,
  5. backup the base ( / ) directory on the server,
  6. install the needed packages, and
  7. finally upload the pictures that I wanted.

I think I’ll take a nap for a while now.

"Roll Your Own", Uncategorized

A Non-Technical Reference for How Torrents Work

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Someone mentioned to me recently that they don’t know how to use bit torrents.  When there is a common and pervasive computer technology out there that we can’t really get a grip on, asking to have it explained can make you feel like an idiot.  For the wikipedia version of what bit torrent(s) is/are, please follow this handy link.  For a shorter, less detailed explanation, continue reading.

The principle at work is this: if you download a file from one place, you can only download it as fast as that place can upload it.  If it’s a file that a lot of people want, that place is going to need a whole ton of bandwidth.  However, if a bunch of people already have a copy of the file, you could really spread out that ‘upstream’ burden by taking a little bit from this guy, and little from this other guy, etc.  For really popular torrents, you have the potential to maximize your download speed without putting a heavy strain on any one uploader.

So when you download a .torrent file, what the hell is it? Again, without too much detail, this is a file that tells your computer who to connect to to get the content that you want.  For example, I downloaded a torrent of a Slackware linux distribution last week.  The torrent file was tiny, so it only took a second to download.  By opening it with a bit torrent client, I was able to connect to others that already have the file I needed, and I downloaded it in no time.

What do you need to use torrents? Like I said, you need a client in order to open a torrent file and download what you want.  This is really simple to think about if you equate it to POP3 (not web-based) email– if someone sends you a message, that message only exists in a file on a server unless you have a client program (like Outlook) that knows how to retrieve it.  So, you need a BitTorrent client in order to open those torrents.  On Windows and Mac, I think the easiest one to get and use is from BitTorrent dot com.  My Ubuntu system uses a client called Transmission by default.  Either way, it’s going to do the same thing: download by tracking to a torrent.

How long is this going to take? The speed that you get when downloading a torrent is going to vary based on how many people are uploading (or “seeding”) the file in question.  So depending on that, and the size of your file, it could take minutes or hours or days.

Where does the file go once it’s downloaded? This is going to depend on the settings in your bittorrent client.  Personally, I like things to be dropped right on my face, so I have my set up to put all torrent downloads on the Desktop.  But it’s something you might need to adjust with your individual software…

And this is illegal, right? It’s absolutely not.  Sharing files via torrent is actually (subjectively speaking) the most efficient way to disceminate data over the web– why download something a million times from one location and clog up one corner of the Internet when you could spread the traffic around?  Granted, there is a lot of illegal content being shared via torrent (copies of movies, TV, music, and pirated software), but there’s also a lot being shared that’s 100% on the up-and-up.

Hope this was a little bit helpful.  It’s definitely NOT an exhaustive or comprehensive discussion of how torrents work, but this should be enough to get you started.  Enjoy!

Sports, Uncategorized

Replacement Prognostication, Week 8

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Proof positive that the sun even shines on a dog’s ass some days– I went 7-0 in my predictions last week.  That probably means I’ll be experiencing an outrageous collapse this time around, because karma works that way.  Here in the Milwaukee market, there is joy, because even though the Packers have the week off, channel 58 is carrying Brett and the Jets.  Or, you can opt to listen to AM 620, which is replaying the Instant Replay Game from 1989.

There was a hilarious and ridiculous poll in the Journal-Sentinel this past Monday asking, “Are you ANGRY that Brett Favre called the Lions to tell them how to beat the Packers in Week 2?” or something along those lines.  I couldn’t BELIEVE the number of positive responses they got to that.  I mean, seriously?  You’re gonna get upset about that?  We still kicked the holy living hell outta them.  When I heard this story I laughed with pity at two people/entities:

  1. Brett Favre, because he’s apparently such a childish prima donna that he feels compelled to “stick it” to those who he thinks have done him wrong, and
  2. the Detroit Lions, who have such a laughable excuse for a football team that they can get “inside information” and they still lack the talent or skill to best their opponent.

Anyway, I wish Brett no ill, but I do lose a little bit of respect for him every time something like this comes up.  I’m not sure if it’s Brett himself, or just the media that paints him as acting a lot smarter and more important than he really is, but in the end, you have to take everything he says and does with a grain of salt.  Enough commentary, then, and on to your picks for Week 8.

SEASON RECORD: 20-13

  • Packers – bi
  • Bears – experimenting
  • Vikings – just kidding themselves
  • Lions – lose
  • Chiefs – lose (to Brett & the JETS!)
  • Seahawks – lose
  • Dolphins – lose

Don’t forget to enjoy the World Series– a great matchup of two teams that it’s hard to hate (unless you like the Red Sox, the Mets, or the Yankees).

And finally, birthday salutations to Kevin, who is turning 33 today.

The Singularity, Uncategorized

Oh, #*@&!%.

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Maybe the scary AI researchers all took a vacation over the summer, or I just missed the best headlines.  But check this mother out: Computer circuit built from brain cells.  You have to wait for the scariest excerpt of all:

Brain implants can allow the paralysed to control robot arms or learn to talk again, but suffer a drop-off in performance when scar tissue coats their electrodes. “An intermediate layer of in vitro neurons interfacing between man and machine could be advantageous,” he says.

Yes, who can say what sort of advantages a neural interface with your computer could provide?  I can only think of about a MILLION.

General, Uncategorized

Choking on My Googles

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Hey, in case you were looking for something fun to do with your gmail account, try this:

  1. Forward your Gmail address to your more oft-used POP3 account
  2. Don’t logically think through how mail servers behave
  3. Set your Gmail account to check the POP3 mail from THE SAME ACCOUNT YOU’RE FORWARDING TO.
  4. Watch the mail pour in with the feedback loop you just created!!

In all seriousness, though, is anyone out there using Google Apps (formerly ‘Google Apps for your domain)?  Anything good or bad to say about that?

"Roll Your Own", General, Uncategorized

Probably Just Delusional

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I’ve worked on moving my home server operations to a new machine this week.  As of last night at around 7 o’clock, the web server has moved (mail and file server ops, for those using them, are still on the old machine for the time being).  It’s a completely subjective assessment, but the site seems a little faster to me today– possible, I suppose, that the server is processing SQL queries more quickly, but I may just be deluding myself.  Overall, I feel pretty good about not having to enlist as much help from Joe as usual.  At this point, I’m confident that if I felt the need to change, add, or otherwise modify the way that I’m hosting my websites, I’d be able to do it.

Work has slowed down for the semester.  I had a chance to catch up on most everything over the last couple days, and that’s a good feeling.  It does, however, leave one with a little extra time to assess where one is at professionally, and depending on how that goes, it can make one more or less apt to do something productive during the work day.  I could at some want ads over lunch, maybe…

I still need a Halloween costume for the weekend.  Michelle and I are going to a party where the costumes are “mandatory.”  It’s a good idea, because in the end, it’s probably more fun, but for the neurotic, the compulsion can be a bit stressful.  I’ve a few good ideas over the last couple days that would’ve worked GREAT if I’d started seriously thinking about a costume back in September.  Any ideas?

Finally, today is my dad’s birthday– he is turning 55…  Happy b-day, Dad.

General, Uncategorized

Reining In Spending, Kickin' It Old-School

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Michelle made the comment to me on Monday that she’s been happy to have done a better job than usual over the last couple weeks to check her weekend expenditures.  Going out or socializing in general will typically carry a hefty price tag, and we’ve both been making concious efforts to do fun stuff that doesn’t cost a lot (yes, I can hear you as I type this– baseball season not withstanding).  I had a bad habit within the past 12 months or so of carrying a small balance forward from month-to-month on a credit card.  Not the end of the world, but it’s hard to get yourself caught up when one of the first things you have to pay out for at the start of the month is that $100 or so that you overspent the month before.

I finally have gotten to where I’m not carrying that balance anymore.  It has come at the expense of some of the stuff that I like to do for fun, though; I don’t go out for wings on Thursdays with the Mundschaus as much anymore, and I’d like to take Michelle out for dinner and entertainment a lot more often than I do.  I’m trying to come up with ideas for fun that are much lower cost, but still entertaining.

One of the things that we used to do in college that was cheap and lots of fun: playing cards.  We had a sheepshead night at the apartment on High Ave for the better part of a year or two, I wanna say.  Over the years that have passed since college, I’ve made occasional efforts to get some people together to play online, and for maybe a month or so when I lived in Bozeman (5 years ago now), it worked.  After a while, finding a time that worked for all parties got complicated and we sort of gave it up.

So there are a couple problems.  It seems like the vast majority of Americans who play cards right now are interested exclusively in poker, which holds absolutely no interest for me.  I like to gamble a LITTLE bit, but the whole point of a card game is to do something that’s affordable.  Even playing a quarter-a-point at sheepshead means you can probably have a good time for several hours and spend under 5 bucks.  Another thing is, you really need to have 5 people to have a good game, and I think 6 (where the dealer sits out) is ideal.  I wouldn’t mind getting a group together again, but somehow, everyone’s schedule is always really flaky.  Maybe the answer is to have a group much bigger than what you need for a game (like get 12 people to commit to a night per week, so if everyone is there, you could have 2 tables, and if not, you wouldn’t be in a position to have to cancel).

So if you live in the Milwaukee area and might be down with a card night, let me know.  I sort of have visions of this bygone time where our grandparents got together with friends at someone’s house and enjoyed the evening very affordably.  No reason we can’t get back there, if you ask me…