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Please accept with no obligation, expressed or implied, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low stress, non-addictive, gender neutral celebration of the holiday practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasions and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all -- and...
(deep breath here)
A fiscally successful, personally fulfilling, and medically uncomplicated recognition of the initiation of the generally accepted calendar year 2009 (and the Hebrew Years 5769 and 5770), but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great (not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country or is the only "America" in the western hemisphere), and without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith, or sexual preference of the wishee.
By accepting this greeting, you are accepting these terms: This greeting is subject to clarification or withdrawal. It is freely transferable with no alteration to the original greeting. It implies no promise by the wisher to actually implement any of the wishes for her/himself or others and is void where prohibited by law and is revocable at the sole discretion of the wisher.
(This wish is warranted to perform as expected within the usual application of good tidings for a period of one year, or until the issuance of a subsequent holiday greeting, whichever comes first and warranty is limited to replacement of this wish or issuance of a new wish at the sole discretion of the wisher.)
Oh, and that old flame who set me on fire for Valentine's Day? Well, they really need to clean the undersides of these buses a little more frequently. But it was a helluva ride...
Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in, at 12:00 EST, as the 44th President of the United States, on the ceremonial west front of the United States Capitol.
Here's a transcript of his speech, courtesy ABC News.
better !pout !cry
better watchout
lpr why
santa_claus <northpole >town
cat /etc/passwd >list
ncheck list
ncheck list
cat list | grep naughty >nogiftlist
cat list | grep nice >giftlist
santa_claus <northpole >town
who | grep sleeping
who | grep awake
who | egrep '(bad|good)'
for (goodness sake) {
be good
}
better !pout !cry
better watchout
lpr why
santa_claus <northpole >town
Thursday, December 24, 2009 @ 10:48 a.m. - Comment
tuned up and stored so I don't lose it again. Adapted from a version on Slashdot.
A helicopter carrying a pilot and a single passenger was flying around above Seattle when a malfunction disabled all of the aircraft's navigation and communications equipment. Due to the darkness and haze, the pilot could not determine the helicopter's position and thus, the course to get back to the airport.
The pilot saw a tall building with lights on and flew toward it, then had the passenger draw a handwritten sign reading "WHERE AM I?" and hold it up for the building's occupants to see.
People in the building quickly responded to the aircraft, drew a large sign, and held it up in a window. Their sign said "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER."
The pilot smiled, waved, looked at his map, determined the course to steer back to SEATAC airport, headed there, and landed safely.
After they were on the ground, the passenger asked the pilot how the "YOU ARE IN A HELICOPTER" sign helped determine their position.
The pilot responded "I knew that had to be the Microsoft support building, because, as they do with everyone, they gave me an answer that was technically correct but completely useless."
The passenger continued, "You must have been in marketing before you became a pilot."
"Yes, I was, how did you know?" the pilot replied.
"Because you didn't know where you were or what you were doing, but expected the computer tech to be able to help you. After he answered your question, you were in the same situation as before, but then you decided it was his fault."
Wednesday, December 9, 2009 @ 10:38 p.m. - Comment
Also called points of inflection, they are, to paraphrase James Burke, "the days the world changes".
You can't always see them coming, but sometimes you can.
Verizon will be rolling out, next year, its newest wide-area wireless internet service, called LTE (Long Term Evolution) on a completely new frequency band at 700MHz. The space was opened up by all that crap we went through to transition to digital television, and because it's as low in frequency as it is, it will cover and building-penetrate better even than Nextel; *much* better than current cell/PCS services. I have my own thoughts about what its effects will be on those traditional cell services, but I'll get to those later.
What I'm on about today, though, is a different confluence:
LTE is a pretty high speed data service.
Video compression is *very* impressive these days.
TV stations have been spending close to 100 grand apiece on ENG trucks with 40 foot microwave sticks for a long time now.
Now, while Hurricane Katrina proved you can't always rely on stuff other people run, I have a sneaking suspicion we're going to find that most TV stations can cut back from 3-6 'stick trucks' to just 1 or 2... but more to the point, it has just become practical to go live from a shoulder cam... directly.
Even if you are not a TV station.
It will be interesting to see how *that* works out.
Tuesday, December 8, 2009 @ 10:43 a.m. - Comment
87 BMW e24 project car for sale. If you don't know what "e24" means, this may not be for you... :-)
Not pulling any punches; it's drivable, but it's rough.
Monday, November 23, 2009 @ 01:35 p.m. - Comment
Finally. ;-) Only took a year and a half.
We will release no code before its time, I guess.
If you wandered in here from my link on the wiki, hi, and go check out my friend Faith's album; it's some bad-ass blues rock, and she deserves to win.
Sunday, November 8, 2009 @ 11:10 p.m. - Comment
They're on my photo site, with link above on the eyebrow bar. Jillian, I don't know if you've been looking for them, but sorry it took me so long to get them up there.
My comments about the con are yet to come, but I'm still pondering on them (no, Pinky, not the same thing you're pondering :-). I should get them written this weekend; perhaps tomorrow at breakfast.
Friday, November 6, 2009 @ 10:44 p.m. - Comment
They usually immediately go wrong, afterwards, but that's my life.
Went out for some early karaoke tonight, at my current usual haunt, the Bilmar, and just before I was up to sing my first song -- I was going to sing Styx, REO, and Night Ranger, in honor of last week's concert at the Amp, which I missed -- and the guy in front of me, Gil, chanced to sing Harry Chapin.
"Taxi", to be specific.
It took a little while for the implications of that to sink through to me, but they finally did, and luckily, Deejay Doug's collection is both broad and deep.
I went up next, and sang a song that even fewer people have ever heard. Except for Gil, of course. ;-)
It's Chapin's sequel to that song, named -- appropriately enough -- "Sequel", which tells the story about taxi driver Harry, now a rock musician, playing a concert in the town where once he drove Sue home from acting lessons, up to 16 Parkside Lane.
She's moved, but he finds her, and they spend the afternoon catching up. He invites her to his show, but she declines, and they part company once again.
It's never been clear to me whether either song is actually autobiographical, the cabby's name notwithstanding, but regardless, they make a wonderful pair, and it's *so* rare that the opportunity arises to put them together. The audience didn't really get it... but Gil did.
Thanks, dude.
Hat tip, too, to Doug for having the track; I think the Sound Choice version he has is the only extant karaoke version of that work.
Of course, when I went to blog the story, I discovered that my Internet-on-a-rope drivers died in a kernel upgrade, and I'll spend the whole weekend screwing around with them... and on top of that an old circuit buddy picked *that moment* to be the only time someone'sever wanted me to look something up on the Internets with the laptop... except for the *last* time something was wrong with the laptop.
[ Hat tip: Pam for finding the YouTube track; this is the same recording, but direct, instead of through the Analog Hole. Cello pizz. Who knew? ]
Friday, November 6, 2009 @ 7:23 p.m. - Comment
of this morning's first launch of an unmanned rocket from Kennedy since the *Skylab* launch in 1972, and I'm having a ball listening to the guys on the net not really knowing what they're doing yet; they have the Shuttle launch book down so tight you never hear this stuff.
T-4 minutes and holding for a 9:24am launch; that gives me time to get my own building launched and settle in.
Later: They scrubbed. Not sure when the resked day is; probably tomorrow.
Tuesday, October 27, 2009 @ 08:41 a.m. - Comment
"'Marine', 'aviation', 'mil-spec', 'aerospace', and 'man-rated' are the 5 most expensive words in the English language.
In ascending order."
-- me
(Next is "household appliances"; I'm about to buy, if it lasts long enough, a $3100 GE fridge, for $775. Sears Outlet is tired of looking at it.)
Monday, October 26, 2009 @ 11:48 p.m. - Comment
Well, I've done a little googling around, and asked on a forum or two, and it seems that not only can I beat $1300 for the drive shaft...
I can get a just-rebuilt one off CL for $100, and my mech will probably install it for about that much, or less.
While he's at it, I'm going to have him do all the hoses and the serp belt, and flush, fill and bleed the coolant, brakes, and power steering. I think he can do that all in one shift if he overlaps. In fact, the driveshaft guy is selling me the brake rebuild kit too; might as well get it all done at once; the brakes are horribly mediocre.
I'm basically going to have him do the union (I originally wrote intersection, there; baaaad geek) of the 120K and 144K services, since I have the list now.
Monday, October 26, 2009 @ 10:07 p.m. - Comment
In the metaphysical sense, anyway; hadn't really gone all that far to get there, of course. Attended some cool panels, met some neat people, got some decent pictures, donated to their reward fund to track down the moron who set off a smoke bomb in a room and scorched the carpet, and the idiots who hammered a bunch of doors on the 6th floor...
Shouts to Fygen, who got away; Jillian, for making it all better; John, whom I hadn't seen in several years; the director and cast of the live Dr Horrible show, cause that's a fun show to be in the audience of, and all the panel members and moderators who tolerated my usual shit -- I actually didn't get called out once this year.
More to follow, probably in the next 48 hours.
Sunday, October 25, 2009 @ 04:09 p.m. - Comment
This *is* me we're talking about, here, people.
But at least I think I have *reason* to be unhappy with them; as soon as they heard "my $1300 driveshaft replacement will have to wait a week until I have the free cash", it became apparent to them that I -- how shall I put this politely -- wasn't really in their target market ("aging, mechanically inept people with lots of money"), and they sorta quit trying.
The *other* guy got his brake fluid tested for acidity with a pH strip... not me. They didn't even tell me if my fluids were *low*.
Bad drive shaft, and here are your ODB codes -- which were exactly what you though they were -- have a nice day.
See, my thinking is, if they tell you you're paying $116 for them to run their inspection checklist -- you're going to get the checklist, all nicely marked up. Apparently not so much.
It's ok; Atlantic British has the drive shaft for about $400, and I'd rather give the rest of the money to my own mechanic, wherein he can fix a bunch of other minor fluid and leak stuff. They wanted an *additional* $116 to spend about 4 minutes reprogramming my keyfob to match the BCU. No thanks; I'll spend the whole $600 on the car/computer interface, and do that -- and everything else you think can ever hold me up for -- myself, thanks.
They're not required to run their business to suit me. But if it doesn't, I'm not required to give them the business. On almost every single item, they have a fair amount of competition. Sorry rabbit; tricks are for prostitutes.
Saturday, October 24, 2009 @ 01:12 a.m. - Comment
While that might sound like something for which a tankful of cranberry juice is the prescription, in fact it means "Used Car Inspection"; it's the local LR dealer's nickname for the 140ish things they inspect before they put a trade-in out for resale, and for the low, low price of just $112 or so, they'll do one for you, too. But wait! There's More!
So they'll do one for me. If I'm lucky, they won't charge me an arm and a leg up to the hip to simultaneously switch off my CDL, and reprogram my key fob and car to properly dance with one another.
Aw, who am I kidding -- they're a dealer, and what's more, a *Land Rover* dealer -- they'll charge me all the way up to the tit.
We will see, though, if they find everything *I already know is broken*. That will be what determines whether they get the $850 to do the 120K service, or whether I give the work to someone else.
Thursday, October 22, 2009 @ 04:27 p.m. - Comment
I wonder if this means that when I set my laptop up inside, no one will be able to tell what's on the screen from 50 feet away. :-)
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 @ 09:31 a.m. - Comment
No, not Commercial Drivers' License; Centre Differential Lock (it's a British car, don't y'know :-).
The CDL helps in the rough, but is hell on smooth surfaces, especially in tight turns. When LR went from the series I to II, they stopped installing the CDL control knob (and, eventually, the lock itself), until 2003 (or maybe '04), when they gave in and put everything back in.
Mine doesn't have the knob, but -- just now -- does have the lock; happily, they never stopped installing and connecting the *warning light*. :-)
I'll likely have the dealer flip it off Friday, when I hope to have them do their 140 point User Car Inspection. Last night, while freewayin' it down to Tierra Verde for a burger with the aforementioned Cathy, the front end got *awfully* squirrely on me; not sure whether that was cause of the CDL or something else. Back to normal this morning.
120 miles, 3/4 tank.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009 @ 09:16 a.m. - Comment
I almost feel like Cathy, or something.
:-)
So a new era has begun, here on Baylink - the "I just bought an 8 year old Land Rover, and you get to hear about all th hell it puts me through" era -- I understand this is traditional for Land Rover owners.
My particular SALTY (that is, amusingly enough, the first 5 letters of the VIN for this year) is a 2000 Discovery Series II. Pictures to follow, but Carfax and my eyeballs agree it's never hit anything (yet). It's a V8 (though the diesel would be nice, cause it gets almost twice the mileage), and an automatic (cause I'm a bit tired of shifting), and almost everything works. It has a slight exhaust leak, at the header/manifold connection, I suspect, and a noisy CV joint that only complains on tight turns.
Everything else is minor.
I've bought it it's logbook, and it's ensconced over the visor -- as my sister notes, there are a billion and six places to Put Stuff inside a Land Rover.
I'm going to take it to Dimmitt for their Used Car Inspection -- I figure if anyone knows how it *should* be running, the dealer will -- and once I've spent that $120, I'll decide whether to have the dealer do the missed 120K work, or my own mechanic. It's only $850; I may let them do it anyway.
Now, off to find the local Landy's; there's even less sense in not being tapped into the local clubs if you own a Disco than there was owning a BMW...
Sunday, October 18, 2009 @ 10:29 a.m. - Comment