Took the family to see the latest Bruce Willis Die Hard movie this evening. Even took my daughter who definitely prefers frilly girly movies. It was great, though I embarrassed her continually by laughing out loud. But it was a comedy, wasn't it? I wonder where they got the freeway to destroy. Yippee Ki Yay.
Johnny wanted a big LCD monitor for his birthday, but it was too big for my budget, so we compromised and bought him a large selection of little stuff. We started a week ago with an industrial cube shaped chassis the size of an end table. Then we ordered a used motherboard from someone on the overclockers internet forum. Next were some parts from Newegg, and some special standoffs (for the industrial chassis) from another Internet supply house (parts $3, shipping $5). Today we followed up with a regular computer chassis from Iguana Micro, a local computer shop. We tried "Surplus Gizmos", but their selection was pretty meager. The stuff was either really old, or weird/dirty/ugly, or actually valuable, which meant it cost more than we wanted to spend. Once everything arrives he claims he will have enough parts to assemble four computers. Right now he only has one, a P2 system screwed down to a piece of plywood. He has got it running Windows XP, and it actually runs. He continues to surprise me with what he is able to accomplish. Meanwhile we have the parts for these four computers scattered around three or four rooms of the house. You can't even walk in the family room, the floor is covered with bits and pieces.
His siblings got him a CD (Russian Circles?) and a book: "Zombie Survival Guide".
Saturday, June 30, 2007
Thursday, June 28, 2007
Criminal Credit Card Behavior
About once a week I receive in the mail an advertisement from a credit card company. This envelope often contains three preprinted checks that I can use to draw on my credit account. I inevitably shred them.
But why should I have to shred these papers? I did not ask for them. I shred them to protect myself from the inconvenience and hassle I would encounter if someone else managed to incur charges on my account.
I am tired of hearing about identity theft. If credit card companies continue to behave in irresponsible ways, they should be carrying the burden of responsibility for misuse of their documents. Maybe that will discourage them from their current irresponsible behavior.
But why should I have to shred these papers? I did not ask for them. I shred them to protect myself from the inconvenience and hassle I would encounter if someone else managed to incur charges on my account.
I am tired of hearing about identity theft. If credit card companies continue to behave in irresponsible ways, they should be carrying the burden of responsibility for misuse of their documents. Maybe that will discourage them from their current irresponsible behavior.
Monday, June 25, 2007
Stairs
Generally speaking, I prefer to take the stairs instead of the elevator. Elevators you have to wait for, and then you have to stop and let other people on and off and sometimes they are crowded and sometimes they smell, but mostly you are just standing there. I prefer to be moving. I will admit that when we stayed on the 47th floor of the Westin in downtown Seattle, I did not even think about taking the stairs, but four or five floors does not phase me. I may have to stop at the top to catch my breath, but that is okay.
There is a large quantity of talk these days about the large number of people in America who are overweight and how we should all be getting more exercise. I am one of them, and I am working on it. One of the common recommendations is to take the stairs instead of the elevator. What I have noticed is that most stairwells in modern buildings these days are fire stairs. All concrete, steel and big pipes with maybe a splash of paint.
If we are really serious about people using the stairs, buildings should be designed so that stairways are the first option, not the last. I have been in a number of buildings recently where you cannot use the stairs to go up. Some places the ground floor door to the stairs is locked from the outside. Some places the door to the floor you want may be locked from the inside.
It may seem foolish to equip skyscrapers with easily accessible stairways, but if you build it, they will climb, especially if the stairs are on the outside.
Near as I can tell, stair climbing burns about 4 Calories for every 10 steps, or 15 Calories for 3 flights of stairs. Walking on level group consumes about 100 Calories for every mile. So walking up the stairs of a 10 story building should burn as many calories as a walking one mile. 10 stories times 25 steps per story equals 250 steps, divided by 10, and then times by 4 gives you 100 Calories. Does not seem quite fair, does it? I would be beat after climbing 10 stories, but climbing stairs is harder work, you are burning energy faster, and that is what makes you tired.
There is a large quantity of talk these days about the large number of people in America who are overweight and how we should all be getting more exercise. I am one of them, and I am working on it. One of the common recommendations is to take the stairs instead of the elevator. What I have noticed is that most stairwells in modern buildings these days are fire stairs. All concrete, steel and big pipes with maybe a splash of paint.
If we are really serious about people using the stairs, buildings should be designed so that stairways are the first option, not the last. I have been in a number of buildings recently where you cannot use the stairs to go up. Some places the ground floor door to the stairs is locked from the outside. Some places the door to the floor you want may be locked from the inside.
It may seem foolish to equip skyscrapers with easily accessible stairways, but if you build it, they will climb, especially if the stairs are on the outside.
Near as I can tell, stair climbing burns about 4 Calories for every 10 steps, or 15 Calories for 3 flights of stairs. Walking on level group consumes about 100 Calories for every mile. So walking up the stairs of a 10 story building should burn as many calories as a walking one mile. 10 stories times 25 steps per story equals 250 steps, divided by 10, and then times by 4 gives you 100 Calories. Does not seem quite fair, does it? I would be beat after climbing 10 stories, but climbing stairs is harder work, you are burning energy faster, and that is what makes you tired.
Sunday, June 24, 2007
Accuracy
I have an old automatic from Eastern Europe that I like to shoot. When I first got it, it was very difficult to hit anything. As time went by, I seemed to get better. At the beginning, I suspected the gun was not very accurate, being as is was old and worn. I do not think my technique improved that much, but maybe it's that last few percent that makes all the difference. After all, accuracy with a firearm is only measurable at the target, not at the shooter. Well, you might be able to measure a shooter's accuracy these days without looking at the target, but I think it would be very difficult. What I am trying to say is that accurate shooting technique only comes with practice. It is not something you can learn just by following step by step instructions. Kind of like ice skating.
Friend of mine wanted to learn to ice skate. Tried it once, had a terrible time. Thought to go read a book on the subject, maybe that would help. First paragraph in the book says ice skating is best learned from someone who already knows how.
So practice with a particular gun would make you more accurate with that gun, and perhaps with other guns of the same make and model. Practice with a variety of firearms might make you a better shot in general. And some people practice a lot. We watched "Down in the Valley" (with Ed Norton) the other night. A bit slow at first, but pretty good overall. As the old guy at the movie store says: "Ed Norton doesn't make a bad movie". Anyway, Ed demonstrates some first rate gun handling. The movie uses this to support the idea that he is really good with a six-gun. It is one thing to be able to handle a gun and shoot it, it is another to actually be able to hit anything with it.
Friend of mine wanted to learn to ice skate. Tried it once, had a terrible time. Thought to go read a book on the subject, maybe that would help. First paragraph in the book says ice skating is best learned from someone who already knows how.
So practice with a particular gun would make you more accurate with that gun, and perhaps with other guns of the same make and model. Practice with a variety of firearms might make you a better shot in general. And some people practice a lot. We watched "Down in the Valley" (with Ed Norton) the other night. A bit slow at first, but pretty good overall. As the old guy at the movie store says: "Ed Norton doesn't make a bad movie". Anyway, Ed demonstrates some first rate gun handling. The movie uses this to support the idea that he is really good with a six-gun. It is one thing to be able to handle a gun and shoot it, it is another to actually be able to hit anything with it.
Headlight Conspiracy
I imagine you have noticed by now that all new cars have their headlights on all the time. I find this really annoying, especially when they have the new extra bright xenon headlights. For Pete's sake, we're in the city, all the streets are illuminated with street lights. You don't even need headlights at night around here, but now the law says they will be on all the time. It is probably not even a law, just some bureaucratic regulation.
Perhaps this is just a reflection of how tired I am, but bright headlights from oncoming traffic really bug me. I can tolerate the old incandescent, properly aimed, low beam lights of oncoming cars, and I can even deal with the occasional misdirected light because of curves and hills, but the situation has gotten much worse in recent years. We now have high powered lights, brighter lights with more accurate reflectors, more concentrated lights, and more lights out of alignment. The number of people driving around totally oblivious to what's going on around them, much less the effect they are having, has not changed, but their effect, because of the newer lights their cars are equipped with, is much enhanced making them a real menace, er, annoyance.
We have a 2001 car that has some newish headlights. My wife was following me home one night and I noticed that one of the headlights seemed to be bobbling. It would get very bright, and then dim, and then bright again, kind of like it was loose in its' mounting and wavering in its' aim. I checked it out later, and the mounting seemed to be very solid. It took me a few days of thinking about it but I finally concluded that the headlight's aim was just a tad high. If the car hit even a little bump (like a road joint or a pebble), it would be enough to deflect the aim of the headlight. The area of concentrated illumination is so well defined that a small deflection could move that area to include my rear view mirror, and so the light would appear brighter. So I adjusted that headlight down a fraction.
Recently I saw two movies that included: 1) a one legged woman, and 2) horrific automobile accidents involving driving with your lights off. One, as you may have guessed, was "Grindhouse", by Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez, which featured the girl with a machine gun for a leg. The other was "The Lookout" by Scott Frank. So now I am wondering if perhaps the people who were behind this "headlights on all the time" business managed to influence the movie people to use "driving with your lights off" as a plot device. I am sure it is a conspiracy.
Anyway, if we are going to have lights on all the time, could we at least use marker lights or some kind of low intensity headlights in the city? Do we really need airplane landing light strength headlights on residential or downtown streets? And does having lights on all the time actually have a negative effect on the accident rate? Or was this just somebody's political hot button?
Perhaps this is just a reflection of how tired I am, but bright headlights from oncoming traffic really bug me. I can tolerate the old incandescent, properly aimed, low beam lights of oncoming cars, and I can even deal with the occasional misdirected light because of curves and hills, but the situation has gotten much worse in recent years. We now have high powered lights, brighter lights with more accurate reflectors, more concentrated lights, and more lights out of alignment. The number of people driving around totally oblivious to what's going on around them, much less the effect they are having, has not changed, but their effect, because of the newer lights their cars are equipped with, is much enhanced making them a real menace, er, annoyance.
We have a 2001 car that has some newish headlights. My wife was following me home one night and I noticed that one of the headlights seemed to be bobbling. It would get very bright, and then dim, and then bright again, kind of like it was loose in its' mounting and wavering in its' aim. I checked it out later, and the mounting seemed to be very solid. It took me a few days of thinking about it but I finally concluded that the headlight's aim was just a tad high. If the car hit even a little bump (like a road joint or a pebble), it would be enough to deflect the aim of the headlight. The area of concentrated illumination is so well defined that a small deflection could move that area to include my rear view mirror, and so the light would appear brighter. So I adjusted that headlight down a fraction.
Recently I saw two movies that included: 1) a one legged woman, and 2) horrific automobile accidents involving driving with your lights off. One, as you may have guessed, was "Grindhouse", by Quentin Tarantino & Robert Rodriguez, which featured the girl with a machine gun for a leg. The other was "The Lookout" by Scott Frank. So now I am wondering if perhaps the people who were behind this "headlights on all the time" business managed to influence the movie people to use "driving with your lights off" as a plot device. I am sure it is a conspiracy.
Anyway, if we are going to have lights on all the time, could we at least use marker lights or some kind of low intensity headlights in the city? Do we really need airplane landing light strength headlights on residential or downtown streets? And does having lights on all the time actually have a negative effect on the accident rate? Or was this just somebody's political hot button?
Saturday, June 23, 2007
Daily Quotation
This is one of my favorite quotes from the Vietnam era:
"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman (attributed)
I think it sums up the whole Vietnam era double speak perfectly. I had thought that Richard Nixon said it, but evidently not. And this Robert McCloskey is not the same one who wrote "Make Way For Ducklings", though they were contemporaries.
"I know that you believe that you understood what you think I said, but I am not sure you realize that what you heard is not what I meant."
Robert McCloskey, State Department spokesman (attributed)
I think it sums up the whole Vietnam era double speak perfectly. I had thought that Richard Nixon said it, but evidently not. And this Robert McCloskey is not the same one who wrote "Make Way For Ducklings", though they were contemporaries.
Friday, June 22, 2007
Too much technology
1) Google is now offering to put ads on your blog, and will pay you for it. So, I thinks, that would be cool, but does anybody even read my blog? Maybe I should put a counter on it, see if anybody is reading it. So I looked up counters, on Google, naturally, but it got too complicated way too fast. So (so, so, so, is there a pattern here?), I think I'll work on the other end, I'll put my blog address on my business cards and pass them out and see if I can drum up some business, so to speak. Worry about the counters later.
I am thinking that if there are only a couple of people reading my blog, it wouldn't make sense to put ads on it. But if there are thousands, then yeah, maybe ads would be worthwhile. I might actually generate some income. I would, in effect, get paid for writing. Now that would be cool.
2) I went to a job fair over at OGI the other day, thought I might get some business cards to pass out. I had heard that there was a place that would print a small quantity on the spot, but I could not find them. Only places I found wanted $17 for a thousand and a few days to get it done. So I fired up my word processor. Looked up business cards in the help file, and low and behold, they have a special function for just this purpose. So I tried it out. After fooling around with it for an hour and getting nowhere, I gave up and just used copy and paste. I used an old manila folder for card stock and my wife's paper cutter that she uses for scrapbooking. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
3) I have gotten tired of "Chuck" and am trying to change over to using "Charles". Most everyone I know knows me as "Chuck", and that's fine, but for all my new business/internet contacts I am trying to stick with "Charles". I have an old email address I use for all those businesses/websites that want your email address that incorporates "Chuck". So I logged onto the email website to try and add an alias and I couldn't. I needed a password. I only use this email account at home, and my email program has managed to remember the password, and it is something stinky like rgk4xyz, so I never bothered to remember it. But now I need it and my web browser (Firefox) seems to have forgotten it. It seems to be doing that more and more lately. Probably some kind of virus/spyware/adware crud has corrupted one of the files. Or a bug. Who knows? I've been down this road before. Back to the subject at hand. I have the passwords written down in a folder that has been stored someplace safe, which means I will probably never be able to find it, so it looks like I am stuck with chuck for the time being.
I am thinking that if there are only a couple of people reading my blog, it wouldn't make sense to put ads on it. But if there are thousands, then yeah, maybe ads would be worthwhile. I might actually generate some income. I would, in effect, get paid for writing. Now that would be cool.
2) I went to a job fair over at OGI the other day, thought I might get some business cards to pass out. I had heard that there was a place that would print a small quantity on the spot, but I could not find them. Only places I found wanted $17 for a thousand and a few days to get it done. So I fired up my word processor. Looked up business cards in the help file, and low and behold, they have a special function for just this purpose. So I tried it out. After fooling around with it for an hour and getting nowhere, I gave up and just used copy and paste. I used an old manila folder for card stock and my wife's paper cutter that she uses for scrapbooking. Turned out pretty well if I do say so myself.
3) I have gotten tired of "Chuck" and am trying to change over to using "Charles". Most everyone I know knows me as "Chuck", and that's fine, but for all my new business/internet contacts I am trying to stick with "Charles". I have an old email address I use for all those businesses/websites that want your email address that incorporates "Chuck". So I logged onto the email website to try and add an alias and I couldn't. I needed a password. I only use this email account at home, and my email program has managed to remember the password, and it is something stinky like rgk4xyz, so I never bothered to remember it. But now I need it and my web browser (Firefox) seems to have forgotten it. It seems to be doing that more and more lately. Probably some kind of virus/spyware/adware crud has corrupted one of the files. Or a bug. Who knows? I've been down this road before. Back to the subject at hand. I have the passwords written down in a folder that has been stored someplace safe, which means I will probably never be able to find it, so it looks like I am stuck with chuck for the time being.
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