Make iTunes Work
Tue Jan 04, 2005
Kate's computer was giving me fits trying to get iTunes to work properly. It went down like this. Insert CD-1, rip, insert CD-2, nothing, nothing. After ripping one CD iTunes would not recognize any more CD's! p00p! So off to google we go.. Found this article - Only First Audio CD Recognized - on Apple's site. Did the trick. Amazing how handy google can be when I feel like throwing the computer out the window. Made me grumpy. Windows is truly a crappy operating system.
Choose your weapon
Tue Jan 04, 2005
Stumbling through the Internet can be fun. I ran across http://schrammguitars.com/ Dave Schramm's web site a while back. He has been generous enough to share some of his knowledge. Check out the guitars in various stages of being built right on the front page! I was first drawn to the page by the http://schrammguitars.com/selectingguitar.html Selecting a Guitar article. Then found the http://schrammguitars.com/intonation.html Intonation and Fret Placement piece fascinating. Lots of good reading material there. If you really want to get stuck for a while you can follow the link over to http://onlineapprentice.com/ The Online Apprentice . They'll show you how to build your own guitar and what you need to gitter done . Now I need to practice more to justify owning such a grand instrument.
Graphing Calculator Story
Fri Jan 07, 2005
This is a pretty good one Jeremy sent to me. It's the story of how this guy worked at Apple without really working there and had his program included with every computer that shipped for years. So sit back and read The Graphing Calculator story.
Net Perceptions Update
Mon Feb 14, 2005
So I was just goofing around on the Internet like normal and decided to take a look at Net Perceptions web page. Had some really great times at that company. Kind of sad to have seen it go down the way it did. But check it out now. This is the line that kills me "The Company is pursuing an opportunistic, value-focused investment strategy and is not targeting any specific industries". Sound like corporate bull? Sure does to me. The only thing that would have been better is if they had something about leveraging synergies. They obviously need to go back to corporate wannabe school. Believe me, I could teach them a thing or two. Clicking around a little it looks like some of the old senior engineers started a little support company for the old recommendation engine NetP 7 or whatever it was called there at the end. They are at Tornago Systems. Hope they are doing awesome and still having fun.
10.3.8 broke uControl
Mon Feb 14, 2005
So after blindly updating my iBook the latest OS X update ruined my control key life. Searching around frantically I found that there were others reporting the same thing. Ack! Without control where the completely inane CAPS LOCK key is I'm lost. So off to a big Google search it is. Third hit down yielded DoubleCommand. Bang! Back in business and it seems a bit simpler than uControl. (which they have since fixed by the way) In the end I don't think I needed all the functionality that uControl offered. All I wanted to do was swap a couple of keys. Simpler is usually better in my book. Life is good again.
Epic - weird, but cool...
Tue Feb 15, 2005
This is a very well done flash movie. Might sound like an outlandish view of the furture computer and Internet landscape, but is does it really sound that far off? When you have about 8 minutes check out EPIC. Mad props to Kurt for pointing me over there.
New music is good
Tue Feb 15, 2005
Once again Jason shares the wealth and directed me to Audioscrobbler which is a site that can track your music listening habits, build a profile, and group you with people of similar taste. That way you can see what others might be listening to and give you the chance to discover some new music. They could still probably use a really good collaborative filter a la NetP's good old recommendation engine. Ah, the uses for technology. You can check what I've been listening to by hitting my user page. Once they get the classical tagging worked out it will be super great. That's the fun of a community driven project though. Plenty to argue about. Almost forgot that it even has support to grab the stats from an iPod as well. Pretty slick trick. So even when you're on the go it will update when the iPod synchronizes. Love technology. Well, sometimes anyways.
Silly Lord of the Rings Renditions
Thu Feb 17, 2005
I found this to be too funny. Sent it to a few friends already, so if you are looking at this you can delete the email or simply refuse to visit my site any more. Either way it's all good and these are still funny.
The catapult idea
and
The Mortor argument Both are little animated gifs taken from The Fellowship of the Ring movie. HA! Can you believe that was 2001? Derned.
The catapult idea
and
The Mortor argument Both are little animated gifs taken from The Fellowship of the Ring movie. HA! Can you believe that was 2001? Derned.
Camp Ho!!!
Fri Feb 18, 2005
Big Bill hooked us up with a http://www.eurekacamping.com/apexxta_03.asp new Eureka! tent . Super awesome. Can't wait to head out to the woods and give it a shot. 3 persons and dual vestibules! Plenty of room for little Zoe and all our stuff. Thanks Dad!
Goofing with Google
Fri Feb 18, 2005
Started messing around with http://www.google.com/searchcode.html Google Free . Pretty neat way to add google search to your own site. Right now it's all the way at the bottom of this main page. Hopefully I'll get it tweaked out and add it all over the darn place. Or something. They have all sorts of Customize it Your Way and all this kind of rhetoric. Going to give it a try when I have some more time. Also going to cram out an RSS feed for fun's sake. Again, when I have time.
Finally! Some pictures!
Sun Feb 20, 2005
Yeah yeah.. I finally added some pictures after almost a year. There's still a giant glut to get through, but this will have to do for now. Added some pictures from New Years and the vacation Katie and I took to Aruba which was way fun. Took my little http://www.yamaha.co.jp/english/product/guitar/silent_guitar/ silent guitar with me to Aruba. Was paranoid about taking it on the plane. Leave it to the internet to have things like this out there - http://timberens.com/essays/miscellaneoustips.htm Tips on traveling with a guitar . Now granted this is not a full sized guitar, but it never hurts to read some tips. In the end there were absolutely no problems and it fit on top of other people's stuff in the overhead compartments. Was that off topic? Sure felt like it. Back on task.. I updated a bunch of stuff in my style sheet. Most probably won't notice any differences, but if you are keen and observant you just might.
Get your credit here
Mon Mar 07, 2005
Been on the news a ton lately, but Jason let me know about it even before then. If you go to you can request a credit report from the 3 big credit companies for free once per year. It's part of the new credit disclosure thingy.. I'm sure resourceful people can use that Internet thing to find out more about it. Just doing my part to proliferate the publication.
Does he ever stop...
Tue Mar 08, 2005
posting stuff about classical guitars? Apparently not If being on call didn't suck so bad I might have had the time to update the web log a little more frequently. As it stands on call does suck a lot, so not as many updates. Ranting about being on call, in fact, could be an entire web site unto itself. That is a story for another time. Let the info dump begin!! I'm lucky enough to own a nice travel guitar made by Yamaha, but back in the day when I was looking around I stumbled across this guy who has a little snippet on how he made his own called Retro Blue. I have to say he did a super cool job on it. Gives a guy ideas that he could do his own, but time and space.. always an issue. Next up we have an Australian Lutenist - Michael Stitt who has been nice enough to put a ton of information about J.S. Bach and his works for lute up on his site. Just took a look and it appears they have already updated the site, which is great since it was borked up the last time I was there. You think I'm finished! HA! Only a master of defenestration could stop me now. Looking for rare sheet music? Don't want to buy a whole book just to get one piece? Want to have it on your computer so you can print it out any time? Go check out Every Note. They have a awesome selection of music for piano, classical guitar, violin, flute, and even opera! Have my eye on a couple of Sor pieces I have not seen elsewhere. Interesting to read the little write up the have posted from the New York Times about how they acquire the music. Pay for it by the kilo. Cracks me up. Think that's enough for now. More to come.. still catching up.
Updating the site some more
Tue Mar 08, 2005
Jumping right into the early 00's finally. For trying to stay so cutting edge I've sure managed to fall behind. My hatred for XML aside I have always been intrigued by RDF and all it has to offer. So I've managed to cobble together an RSS feed for my site. If you use Firefox the Live Bookmark thing should show up now when on the main page. I'm still working on it, so I'm not going to be adding the goofy little xml logo that is on so many sites these days. Maybe when I finally understand what I'm doing, but that may never happen either - be it with xml/rdf or otherwise. This might lead to a question I seem to get quite often. Why don't you just use a prefab web portal? . Honestly I have nothing against them, and some are quite nice. Every couple of years I give Zope and all it's varied products a try. I've even been know to blast down the latest versions of PostNuke and the other PHP variants once in a while. In the end I do it for myself and my own learning process. I seem to get a lot out of breaking things and making them better. Forcing myself to read the standards documents (a lot of websites could make good on that one) and following the specs put forth therein. Cramming my site through the html validator, which by the way is saying I've got quite a bit of work in store. I'm not saying I will never change everything over to some portal thingymabob of some type, but it's not going to happen in the near future. I'm still having way too much fun.
My string experiments..
Thu Mar 10, 2005
In my recent endeavors to learn classical guitar I have been on the supreme quest to find the perfect strings. Searching around the Internet this story can be found in many places, but this is my story. The story of the strings - The uncompleted task.
First off I'd like to plug our good friends over at Strings by Mail. They are a small operation trying to make good by selling mostly strings for acoustic guitars and some odds and ends. The guy posts in a forum I read quite often and seems to be a generally affable type. Just yesterday I received my first order from them. Great prices and great service. I will be ordering from them again in the future. This is not a paid advertisement.
Let us take things in chronological order...
D'Addario Pro Arte Silver EJ45
After purchasing my first classical guitar I had no clue which strings to try. My years of electric guitar told me that D'Addario made some pretty darn good strings and it was all they did for a living. Figure it would be as good a place as any to start. Turns out I was right. The strings were easy to tune and sound really good to a beginners ear. Tuned up pretty quickly and stayed in tune quite well. So for the first set I don't think I could have gone wrong!
Augustine Imperial Black
In typical Sergent fashion the second I changed my strings I hit the Internet and read all sorts of articles, news group postings, forums, anything I could get my hands on. Couldn't decide. Ordered a sampler pack from Guitar Salon. Slapped on the Augustine's. I have to say at first I was a bit disappointed. Here's what I noticed.
The intonation on the G and B strings seemed a bit weird. I thought it was my guitar that was set up improperly, but later I'll find out differently. The Imperials also took forever to settle down. For almost a full week every time I would pick up the guitar the first 2 or 3 minutes would be spent tuning up the strings again. And in that first week they seemed to go out of tune frequently. So there is the bad.
The brighter side of this story is that these strings sound beautiful once they are settled in. The intonation seems to improve. The sound is bright, but not tinny. Sweet, but not soft. On a cedar top they sound great and seem to have quite a long life. Very romantic. That rough spot starting up is just a killer.
Savarez Corum Alliance 500AR Red Card
Next up in the sampler pack was the Savarez strings. I'll make this one short and sweet. They are good strings. Excellent in fact. I can understand how some people love the sound. My preferences are different and I didn't like the snappier bright sound. They were almost tinny they were so bright. Great volume and a good feel. A good string for people looking for that sound. It's just not me.
Hannabach Silver 200 900
Wow. That is all I can say about the Hannabach's. This particular set is labeled as Medium/Hard tension, though they feel closer to the hard end than medium. As I write this they are still on my cedar topped Ramirez. They tune up quickly, settle down quickly, and have fabulous intonation. Love the fact that they are a little thicker. I think it helps my bigger fingers to be a little more accurate. Also for me it makes performing barre's easier. Most people find the harder strings harder to barre. For some reason I found the opposite. Still figuring that one out. These strings sound awesome. Bright, bold, powerful, round.. pretty much every good quality that I look for in a classical guitar sound. Am I giving it away that these were my favorites?
La Bella 2001 Series
I have yet to try these. They are next on deck for the Ramirez if I can get myself to take the Hannabach's off. Lets see.. It was the night before last I put some Hannabach 815's (hard tension) on the Hill (spruce top) and it seems to have cleared up many problems I thought I was having when I had some Augustine's on there. Because the harder tension seems to be the way to go on that guitar I ordered up another set of the 200 900 Hannabach's and a set of Augustine Regals which are supposed to have a little better quality than the Imperials. Only one way to find out. Practice practice practice. The fun way to wear out strings.
And thus ends my dissertation on classical guitar strings. Figure this will serve as much a memory jogger for myself as well as helping someone else out that might be going down the same path. Still more experimentation to go. I hope to update as I learn more.
New office setup
Sun Mar 27, 2005
This is pretty darn cool. Been on my to do list forever it seems like. Finally one little thing complete, but so huge. My computer room/office had been in the basement since we moved into this house back in 98. For the last.. jeeze.. probably two years I have avoided being in the room. It's dark. There are no windows to the outside. In my younger days I loved this type of environment for spending my hacking time. Toiling away learning the latest programming language. Figuring stuff out. Something has happened in recent years. Maybe all this computer time is catching up with me. Maybe my vampire blood has been diluted. Either way.. Got my computer desk all the way upstairs in the bedroom now. Two windows! This is good. Been catching up on some long over due work today and it's totally groovy. One down.. 67 items to go!
Spring means less updates
Thu Apr 21, 2005
No time for complaining about the lack of updates to the site! No time for anything but being outside and enjoying the weather. This type of thing seems to happen every year. Spring hits and it's time for corvettes and beers on the porch. It's a good time of year. Check that - Great time of year. Hope everyone enjoys it as much as I do. Be that as it may I have still had some time to goof around with some tech stuff. Been checking out http://www.modernmethod.com/sajax/ Sajax and all the AJaX modules available out there. Lots of hype over something that's been around for a while. Widely know now because of gmail and some other famous web applications. It's all good I reckon. Also been looking at quite a few wiki's (wikii?). Kurt likes http://instiki.rubyforge.org/ Instiki , which is pretty darn cool. I've decided, just to be contrary, to give http://moinmoin.wikiwikiweb.de/ MoinMoin a try. Lots of good ideas to be had from these gems. See, I really didn't have anything to say.
On a good topic
Fri Apr 29, 2005
Great for a Friday smile. On Bullshit is a book by a Princeton Philosophy Professor. In the words of Jeremy I think I may have to buy it as a matter of principle.
People are goofy
Tue May 10, 2005
It's fun to watch web stats. For example: Every month, here at thesergets.net, get about 12-20 search requests through google for things like master sergent or tech sergent or how much to sergents make . I guess the only thing I can hope for is that google might some day have a spell flag put on that will ask people if they meant SERGEANT . So people looking for information on sergeants please go back and check your spelling and try again. Now that I have totally messed up the search engines it will be interesting to see what happens in the coming months. Update to come. Thank you. That is all.
How do you spell messy?
Wed May 25, 2005
These type of web searches always crack me up. I was sitting there staring at my own handwriting wondering how I can even read it? That prompted me to go give a search for improving writing technique. Took a few minutes to narrow down the search removing all the preschoolers from view. I know how to write already! Albeit poorly. So up comes Handwriting tips and away we go. Seems I am a finger writer which is improper form. Muscle groups.. relaxing the right pieces of the upper body. Apparently I have some work to do.
String update... Volume 2
Thu May 26, 2005
When last you heard from this topic I was trying a bunch of strings. Here's a mini update for those who care. Back in March I put the La Bella 2001 Series strings on my cedar guitar. I'm happy to say they are still on there as of this writing. At first the bass sounded too splatty for my taste. But as they settled in the splat was replaced by a nice even pop. I have been really happy with these strings. The package said they were the medium tension, but they feel incredibly light. I haven't really noticed any extra buzzing or other problems. So in all I would have to say Yes it's a good string. Still figuring out what to put on the Ramirez next. Considering I don't play it too often (maybe a couple of times a week) it will be a while before I really need to consider it. On the spruce side of life we left off with the Hannabach 815 hard tension strings. After a few hours of practice with these puppies I realized I was not in my pay grade. My hands were killing. Granted it can be a good thing if you are into that, but I was wanting to make music - not muscle. Off they came. On went a set of Augustine Regal Reds . These are advertised, accurately I think, as medium/hard tension. The basses for Augustine strings are denoted by the color and the trebles by the line (Imperial/Regal with the Regals being a slightly harder string) . These strings were awesome. Made me want to pick up my guitar over and over. Great sweet sound with a brilliant bright tone. Does that even make any sense? Hard to describe sounds. From there I installed a set of Augustine Black basses. These are quite a bit lighter than the reds and had that same splatty sound I had criticized earlier in the La Bella 2001 's. In the same light they have improved over the weeks, but still lack the punch of the reds. You think I'm finished? Ha! Think again. Embracing change, as I am want to do, I then opted to go from the Regal trebles to Augustine making my overall string tension on the light side of medium (at least in my book) . This combination is extremely easy to play and has a very bright tone, but still lacks that punch of the Regal trebles. That is where things sit today. I ordered quite a few more and varied sets of strings from http://www.stringsbymail.com Strings by Mail and am looking forward to reporting those results. What a wonderful experiment!
Good weekend in Lutsen
Mon May 30, 2005
Went up to Lutsen with some friends and had a great time. Put up a few pictures on the picture database, so check it out. Want to know where Lutsen is? You'll have to look it up for yourself. Google Maps aren't quite cool enough yet (don't have it listed even) and Mapquests' ads are so annoying I would rather not send any traffic their way. So pull out the old trusty atlas and turn to page Minnesota and the look north. Way north. If you are looking at Thuderbay then look south of that. Super beautiful land up there. Still feels like "the old days". Unless you are in Grand Marais there are no signs of almost anything modern besides snowmobiles and 4-wheelers. Good to get away from it all for a while.
OS X and the office
Thu Jun 02, 2005
Finally had a reason to look for an Office Suite type software application for OS X. I actually didn't even look very hard. Been using OpenOffice for quite a few years on Linux and, while it's slow, I have always been happy with the results. Went out and about searching and found NeoOffice/J for my little iBook. Works really well so far. Like always it's a bit sluggish, but it seems to be able to handle most of the microsoft documents I've needed to view and edit. Not sure it could handle some of those extreme spreadsheets that accountant types throw together once in a while. Luckily I only have one dot in spreadsheet-fu and rarely need to view such monstrosities. Hope to keep it that way.
Garlic and Butter
Mon Jun 06, 2005
Croutons do make a mediocre salad incredible. They really do! so good.
Tiger Tiger Tiger
Tue Jun 07, 2005
Upgraded my iBook to OS X 10.4 Sunday night. Went smooth as silk I'm happy to say. Haven't had a chance to mess around with http://www.apple.com/macosx/features/spotlight/ Spotlight yet, but am looking forward to it greatly. Also the new Mail client seems to be pretty cool. Well, it lost all my filters. That wasn't cool. On another Apple note. During a lazy Saturday morning I finally had the chance to play around with GarageBand. What a hoot. Hooked a single mic into my mixer and then into the iBook. Couple of clicks and it was recording. The sound quality was awesome, the performer's quality was not so good. Ended up not saving any of the classical guitar pieces I played, but had a great time trying. Have to say - recording yourself and then listening and then replaying is a great learning technique. There were huge improvements in my playing even doing this a few times with a single piece of music. Will keep working on it and post some samples when I have time.
More Misc Materials
Wed Jun 08, 2005
Some interesting tidbits for some downtime reading. Spent some time reading forums of people arguing about the effects of aging on a guitar. People often refer to a good old guitar as having been played in . To most that would mean a sweeter nicer sound, and sometimes even louder. Some people believe it's all a crock and is just an idea planted in people's minds by aliens. As for me I lean towards the camp that believes it is possible. Even after playing my spruce top for a few months the sound has changed considerably. It could be argued that my technique and/or playing ability has changed (some might say improved) . Since there are no mass of scientists around you'll have to take my word for it. In support of my claim here's http://www.acousticguitar.com/Gear/advice/vibration.shtml an article where some nutty people have tried to artificially age guitars . Pretty subjective in the end, but very interesting. Continuing down the path to enlightenment.. Factory vs. Handmade guitars is a lively little bit on how much better off you are in the long run to spend a little more on a quality hand made guitar rather than going with the cheaper factory option. The site is not available as I'm writing this. Crud. Hope it comes back.
Apple extras...
Thu Jun 16, 2005
Not much to report today... just blurbing.. iTunes music store is cool except for the dumb DRM that the downloaded files have. Found a pretty nifty tool in JHymn that will get rid of it all. Worked really slick. iPod related...
I listen to a lot of classical music. The problem I have is that the levels some of the older tracks were recorded with is very low. So low in fact that sometimes when I'm in my car with the windows down I can turn my iPod up all the way and still not here the music. In comes [http://volumebooster.tangerine-soft.de/ Volume Booster for the iPod]. I guess in Europe the iPod is crippled with even less volume capability, so people had to hack their way around it to hear some loud tunage. It works pretty well, but needs to re-sync all the songs every time a change is made to the volume settings. This can be avoided with a simple procedure they include. Works pretty well, but you'll need to watch out for the rocking tunes. They will be especially loud.
I listen to a lot of classical music. The problem I have is that the levels some of the older tracks were recorded with is very low. So low in fact that sometimes when I'm in my car with the windows down I can turn my iPod up all the way and still not here the music. In comes [http://volumebooster.tangerine-soft.de/ Volume Booster for the iPod]. I guess in Europe the iPod is crippled with even less volume capability, so people had to hack their way around it to hear some loud tunage. It works pretty well, but needs to re-sync all the songs every time a change is made to the volume settings. This can be avoided with a simple procedure they include. Works pretty well, but you'll need to watch out for the rocking tunes. They will be especially loud.
Guitarathon again..
Mon Jun 20, 2005
Want to build your own guitar? I do.. . Here's some stuff for you! Luthiers Mercantile International has just about all the stuff a person would need. It's really cool to look at once in a while and scheme and dream. Get the same feeling looking in Corvette parts catalogs. Then if you need some amazing tuners on your classical guitar check out Gilbert Tuners. They are getting great reviews from regular folks on the various forums out there. They look cool and ( for the time being ) are pretty reasonably priced. One more. Interesting reading on Double Top Guitars. Using different composites to form a layered guitar top. A lot of fun reading for the dreamers and schemers among us.
Off the wall
Mon Aug 08, 2005
I'm on a roll. Was just cleaning out some old bookmark and I ran across a few I had to share. You can thank me later for this complete waste of time. Check out some words of wisdom from Bruce Lee. Some zen stuff going on there. Just be the web page... This is a great medley of old nintendo game themes. When they get to tetris it makes me so happy that I cry. Thanks for that one Kurt... I think.. Here is a bookmark I should probably not delete. Procrastination. I'll write more about that later. Just like cleaning a closet. Spend more time goofing with the stuff in the closet and not as much time with the cleaning part.
Summer rambling
Mon Aug 08, 2005
Long time no update! Summer always seems to zip right by. Even when it's 119,000 degrees outside! Makes me appreciate the new air conditioner. Not much to report. Slapped some new strings on the Munich a bit ago - Augustine's again Red basses with Imperial trebles . Also took some time to adjust the truss rod. I guess for a long time it was kind of a no-no to consider putting a truss rod in a classical guitar, but Kenny Hill decided that was crap and did it anyways. That is totally cool with me because it made it mostly easy to lower the action (distance from the fretboard to the strings) . The instructions are right on their web site and made it very simple. The only problem was getting my huge hand into the sound hole. A little painful, but I'll manage. Super awesome now, really easy to play. There should be evenless excuses for my junky technique. Back to work for me!
Nobody expects...
Tue Aug 23, 2005
the unexpected! Unless of course your name is Katie in which case you may indeed be expecting the unexpected. I trust none will expect to object to a wrecked sect of neglect? How suspect! However, if you wish to be correct - disconnect and detect a project with intellect. Barring any of that go to the Picture Database and check out the new addition . Addition? Well, you'll have to petition for a position regarding the early edition of Katie's condition. Precarious position! Really it's a matter of tradition. A new acquisition that requires much nutrition. Apparently I can't stop. Better call a cop before I flop. oooo... too late
Techno nerd links
Wed Oct 12, 2005
Identity 2.0 is an awesome presentation given by Dick Hardt about the next generation of digital identity and all the hurdles surrounding it. Love the presentation style. Even if you are not geek you might want to check it out. While browsing through some RSS feeds on Google Reader I read a pretty amusing anecdote called Insects and Entropy. A little story of our tendency towards complexity, and how it's not always a good thing.
Caribou goes public
Fri Oct 14, 2005
Looks like www.cariboucoffee.com Caribou , our favorite coffee joint , went public today. And didn't do so well! Apparently us Minnesotans like it much more than the rest of the country, at least according the the Strib short for Start Tribune article [http://www.startribune.com/stories/535/5668215.html Caribou off to bitter start]
Diesel good, but pricey
Sat Oct 15, 2005
I was wondering why diesel prices continue rise while gasoline continues to decline. Hit google with not much luck for once, so I went to http://www.ask.com to bug Jeeves. Found an article from last year that had a pretty good explanation. Darn free markets. For the curious the article is - http://www.detnews.com/2004/business/0409/18/business-277183.htm
No words necessary...
Sat Oct 15, 2005
And.. we're off
Thu Oct 20, 2005
What have I done? Messed it all up again for sure. Here's the scoop. For quite a while I've been into using MoinMoin as a personal notebook. Just click on the link to find out more about MoinMoin. Well, I liked it so much I decided to set up my notebook as the web site. There are certainly going to be a few things that are still missing, or hard to find. My rss feed is borked, the picture database is back to the original configuration - no loss of content. Dave and I will be working on sprucing the pic db up a bit. The eventual goal is.. Well, I have no idea. Eventually I'd like to get comments working. Also, there will be more content available to those who create accounts and even more available for family members and friends that create accounts. Will be setting up the WebLogArchive for easy viewing of the old entries. Most of them made it over in the conversion with only a few major flubs here or there. I will work on cleaning it up, but no promises.
Where Zoe came from
Sat Oct 22, 2005
Nope, the stork didn't bring her. We picked her up from Goldberry Yellow Labs. It's awesome to look at all of Zoe's relatives. They look so much alike it's scary. And really cute. I still believe we got the best of the best in our Zoe bean.
Tips for Wisconsin drivers
Tue Oct 25, 2005
Here are some friendly tips for our Wisconsin neighbors when visiting lovely Minnesota.
- On Ramps - These are generally considered speed up points that allows one to gain speed when merging from a slower road or side street onto a major thoroughfare. On these occasions the usual practice in to press fairly hard on the right-most pedal known as the accelerator.
- Turn Signals - Us Minnesotans have not yet developed telepathy. It is, therefore, imperative that we let each other know our intentions. This is accomplished by using the turn signal. It's the stick coming out of the left side of the steering column. Drifting over slowly is not sufficient warning. Please allow a few moments for your blinking light to register with our busy brains.
Why?
Tue Oct 25, 2005
I'll never understand why these darn weather people put themselves through this stuff. Poor Al Roker this time. Luckily he just fell over and nobody was hurt. What goes through the heads of these folks? You can catch the video here http://www.crooksandliars.com/2005/10/25.html#a5541
Cool fuel
Tue Oct 25, 2005
More about cars! Jeremy sent me a pretty cool article on an Israeli company that is coming up with a way to make hydrogen from water by using a metal coil in the fuel tank. Sounds promising. Here's the article The car that makes it's own fuel.
Under Arm Attack!
Wed Oct 26, 2005
This has to be one of the funniest commercials I have seen in a long time. I know a lot of my friends have put up with me talking about it quite a bit, so I finally was able to find it on the old Internet. It's a citibank commercial of some kind, not really important:
http://www.dhadm.com/index.php/dhadm/index/citibank_rewards_the_wizards - Hopefully it will be there for a while. Lots of laughing is laudable
http://www.dhadm.com/index.php/dhadm/index/citibank_rewards_the_wizards - Hopefully it will be there for a while. Lots of laughing is laudable
We'd bitch if our ice cream was cold
Thu Oct 27, 2005
So after eight million council meetings and four hundred planning meetings and six or more years of actual work the Minneapolis Airport finally opened a new runway. The good news? Increased capacity by about 25 percent. Should be able to handle a lot more traffic which is good since Chicago's O'hare airport is basically maxed out and they are years from any type of expansion. It will allow Minneapolis to be a bigger hub for the Midwest bringing business blah blah blah... The bad? Everyone bitching about the noise. Don't get me wrong, I'm not a big fan either. We live right under the flight path. The problem I see is this - Nobody wants the bad associated with the airport, but everyone wants the good. Move the airport you say? Then all we'll here is it's too far away and don't ruin that land and not near my town. Bah! Can't have it both ways. At least for a little while Katie and I will have a little less traffic over our house. Soon it will be maxed out again I'm sure, then it will be back to our normal. If I come up with a better solution I'll be sure to let the powers-that-be know. Until then we'll all just have to take a man pill and drink a big cup of shut the f up. Oh, here was the article that got me all fired up. Welcome to the 21st century.
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5691868.html
http://www.startribune.com/stories/462/5691868.html
I feel great!
Thu Oct 27, 2005
This ad is the source of what has to be some of the longest running inside jokes ever. So this is me helping everyone out by passing along this clue. Steve, you're a great guy with great skills. You're gonna do great. Live it, love it...
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/nutrigrainad.html
http://www.ebaumsworld.com/nutrigrainad.html
Cool Illusion
Tue Nov 01, 2005
Jeremy just sent me this and it is pretty freaky.
http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html
Stare at the + in the center and watch the dots disappear. The mind is a powerful thing to waste. err.. something like that.
http://www.patmedia.net/marklevinson/cool/cool_illusion.html
Stare at the + in the center and watch the dots disappear. The mind is a powerful thing to waste. err.. something like that.
Gus is a star
Thu Nov 03, 2005
During guitar practice last night Gus decided to make a scene. I was able to capture it on my little digital camera in movie form. While waiting for the water meter reader personage this morning I got goofing with iMovie. The creation is GusQuixote. iMovie is really slick stuff, and the help files were actually helpful. Go figure. When you have some really free time - check it out.
Picture Testing
Fri Nov 04, 2005
Been experimenting with the Gallery macro that is available on the main MoinMoin web site. It seems to work pretty well from my initial testing. Hit CategoryPictures to see what I have put in there so far. For right now I'm definitely going to keep the old http://www.thesergents.net/cgi-bin/ppdb.cgi Picture Database around. Like always I'm still trying to figure this out.
Decaffeinated coffee not good for you
Thu Nov 17, 2005
Here's the article - http://www.americanheart.org/presenter.jhtml?identifier=3035336 So it's final. Decaf is bad for us. I always suspected it. I mean, it tastes terrible, so how could it be good for you? Sounds like after three months the LDL in the decaffeinated drinkers began to rise, along with some wacky ApoB. Looks like more reading for Dana. Oh and this quote
- The decaffeination process can extract flavonoids and ingredients that give coffee flavor.
- From nutritiondata.com (bioflavinoids): Flavonoids are a class of water-soluble pigments that are found in many plants. A few thousand different flavonoids have so far been identified. While not labeled as essential nutrients, many of these compounds serve as antioxidants or play other important roles in maintaining the health of your body.
Outage
Wed Nov 30, 2005
Sorry to all those expecting the network to remain stable through the storm yesterday. We had some pretty good ice and heavy snow. Everytime that happens my internet connection goes wonky. My router is a good little router, but when it looses signal it requires manual intervention to help it back to life. Yesterday between noon and about 5:15pm thesergents.net and all those we host would have been down. I'm going to try and get in touch with everyone that cares to set up some alerting so we all know that it's down when it's down and up when it's up. Should be even more fun - if that's possible.
Dave has a bLog
Fri Dec 02, 2005
He's actually had it for a while now, but thought I would point some of my readers who may not know of Dave's blog over there.
http://www.zeisler.org/blog/
http://www.zeisler.org/blog/
- Go check it out and leave some comments for him! It's fun!
Loony Links
Fri Dec 02, 2005
Lucky for me I have quite a few friends (well, at least two) that send me whacky stuff from all over. Keeps the mind moving at least. Here are some of the recent items they have sent me.
- Watch how powerful jet engines really are
- Crazy new bike designs. I would like to try some of these out. Cool!
- Hydrogen Truckers - Might be good for Cryogas in more ways than one!
- Pirate Ninja Axis - where do you fall?
Eolas v. Microsoft
Sun Dec 04, 2005
At least interesting to tech types and possibly many friends of ours because one of those friends is on the case.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1895907,00.asp
Eolas won the judgement, Microsoft was going to vigorously defend, now it looks like their giving up. Granted I hate software patents in general, but it's always good to see Microsoft get it handed to them. Mostly because it happens so rarely.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1895,1895907,00.asp
Eolas won the judgement, Microsoft was going to vigorously defend, now it looks like their giving up. Granted I hate software patents in general, but it's always good to see Microsoft get it handed to them. Mostly because it happens so rarely.
- The patent had to do with ActiveX - a good idea that was poorly implemented - surprise!. Maybe they will grow a clue and dump it altogether. Since the inception of ActiveX it's been a security blight on the Internet. And that's how I feel about that.
We Can Read
Mon Dec 05, 2005
Yes, we can read in Minneapolis, but according to this USA Today article we could read better than Seattle last year. We've dropped to the second moster literate city! I'm guessing they had a lot of time last year to get caught up in Seattle because of all the rain and the fact that we didn't have a bad winter.
Weather sites need improvement
Tue Dec 06, 2005
If I were a teacher I would give all the commercial weather sites an E, or a F, or maybe an unsatisfactory, or even does not meet expectations. Seriously, they are terrible. Accuweather causes Firefox to crash 6 out of 10 times. The weather channel's site is packed with advertisements and pop-ups, and where there hell can you find the relative humidity on their site? Good luck I say.
So I was bitching to Dave about all this, ye who spends more time outside than most outdoors men I know, and he suggested http://www.noaa.gov/ and sure enough it's about the best site for weather I've seen. No counting for accuracy just yet. They will have to earn my trust. It is, however, my tax dollar at work. I already pay for this! Why shouldn't I look at it!
Dammit Dave, do you dare to diagnose Dana's deficit in determining daily doldrums?
So I was bitching to Dave about all this, ye who spends more time outside than most outdoors men I know, and he suggested http://www.noaa.gov/ and sure enough it's about the best site for weather I've seen. No counting for accuracy just yet. They will have to earn my trust. It is, however, my tax dollar at work. I already pay for this! Why shouldn't I look at it!
Dammit Dave, do you dare to diagnose Dana's deficit in determining daily doldrums?
More Local Links
Tue Dec 13, 2005
Here's a couple of more local links I found whilst bouncing around the Internet.
- http://www.nokomiseast.org/ is not exactly our neighborhood, but it's really close and they have a really good site. Our area should take a cue. Good stuff for us local yocals. Our hood's site is this kind of sad piece - http://www.hpdl.org/ - hot, no?
Squeaker Phones
Sat Dec 17, 2005
So we can send a man to the moon, but we still can't seem to manage a full duplex speaker phone. Has anyone else noticed that they are still terrible. As good as those little starfish looking things have come - 90% of the time I can barely understand what the other people are saying. So my vote is that if we there absolutely has to be a conference call maybe we should all be on our phones. Not four people in a giant acoustically deviant conference room and 3 people on a speaker phone. Instead lets see what happens if we all are on the conference line. Good stuff huh? Think I could be an efficiency expert? Then you might say - Why is he writing this blog post in the middle of the day instead of working?. I can only answer by stating the obvious.. Goodyear Tires.
Guitar Sale
Sun Dec 18, 2005
Taking a look over the vast amounts of stuff I've collected over the years I've finally decided to let a bunch of it go. Time for new homes for much of this great equipment. Ever since I started playing classical guitar I have hardly touched any of my electric guitar equipment. So, it time to sell it off. Giving people I know first crack at it. Make me an offer, ask me questions, have at it!
- GuitarEquipmentForSale
13 Shills a Shovelin'
Mon Dec 19, 2005
Reading some local news stories online today and ran across our snow removal rules. Thought I would share with those of us in the area. And in Minneapolis you can stop by and get free sand from any of the sand stations 24 hours a day. Keep it cool...
Monday randoms
Mon Dec 19, 2005
Need to get some things out there for a Monday. Some interesting stuff.
- Noguchi Filing System is a very interesting read. Always good to see different ways to think about doing simple everyday tasks.
- Moleskine notebooks rule. I have one and would definitely like some more. Unfortunately for me I managed to hoard a ton of those old school lab books with hard covers. Will have to burn through those first.
- Transcription of ''You and your research'' by Richard Hamming. This is an excellent talk about why some people are simply able to gitter done.
- Think you can talk and drive? - well you can't. Get off your damn phone while driving.
Comments Ahoy!
Tue Dec 20, 2005
How should I do this? Comments. Comments everywhere. Everyone has comments. Guess I've been avoiding the inevitable. So here goes.
For now I'll just include a link on each page for the comments. Eventually I will make it cooler. Add it to the list.
- I've loaded up the PageComment2 macro and this is going to be the experiment. Going to leave it open for anonymous comments and everything. Just remember you're being tracked!
For now I'll just include a link on each page for the comments. Eventually I will make it cooler. Add it to the list.
Signed up for Vonage
Wed Dec 21, 2005
All the stuff came in the mail yesterday. The setup was quite easy. I decided to put it out in front of the server, so if there is any weirdness going on with mail or web services let me know. The only problem I foresee thus far is my crappy cable modem dying on me. It has a way of giving up when it's taxed. Need to figure that one out. Might be calling Time Warner a few times. Put some customer service reps to the test.
- For those of you that haven't seen the commercials on TV - Vonage is a service that allows you to use the Internet to make phone calls. No long distance charges. Well, we're giving it a shot. Always have to be cutting edge ya know.
Clean the Screen
Tue Dec 27, 2005
After years of looking for something that can safely clean LCD screens Jason let me use his Klear Screen. POW! ZAM! A clean screen is seen. Thanks Jason! There is even one called iKlear that is specially formulated for Apples. Not sure if that is bunk or if they just slap a new label on the same stuff? The regular worked just fine on my iBook.
Help on the way
Wed Dec 28, 2005
They are going to try another new cable modem. Coming out tomorrow between nine and noon. So sometime in that window we'll be down again. Newer technology might be a little better? Hopefully? Worth a shot at least.
- One good thing. The people, when I finally talk to them, are really nice. Think folks might be burning some vacation time. Probably running on a skeleton crew.
Manic Internet
Wed Dec 28, 2005
So we're all about the ups and downs again. If you're reading this you are very lucky. Seems to be about 1 hour of up to every 2 hours down right now. On the phone with Time Warner trying to get this figured out. We had a good run of a couple of months there. Now it seems that we are in the crapper again. I'll do my best to keep things up, but it appears there is nobody working in the Minneapolis network center today. Been on hold a few times waiting for the escalation as well as a call back. Nada as of yet.
- Oh!! Someone on the phone! Joy... More later. Hopefully.