...and I use Linux!

click the screenshot for a full version

Life without walls.
---Microsoft

(my response to recent Microsoft ads)

I installed a fresh Gallery 2.3 and manually moved my old content from Gallery 2.2.5. View counts have been reset, but the database is no longer corrupt. This should let me finish the California Trip album and some other stuff. You can visit it here:

http://dwm.cc/gallery2

This update was also needed for Drupal 6 integration, which isn't stable yet (it's one of the last requirements before upgrading my site to Drupal 6). I'm going to hold off on enabling my older Drupal 5 integration until I know it works with the newest Gallery, so some of the links won't work until then.

I wanted a line-in for my car, so I bought a LineX transmitter (on right) because a friend had one and it works respectably well. The problem is that it has to be turned off when not in use because it uses batteries. It's easy to forget if stored in the glove compartment, and more easily stolen if left in plain sight.

Sorry for the lack of personal updates lately, especially with some people. Last week was a bit hectic with a tropical storm and my car needing work, and this week I haven't been able to sleep more than a few hours at a time. I think it could be that I've been fighting something, so hopefully this will get better, but it's left me in a state of grogginess where my mind is foggy and in no mood to sit down to compose anything. Even my last post here was pre-written. Anyway I'm not sure who's actually reading this, but I just wanted to say I'm working on it.

Today I did something I swore I'd never do. I added a real friend as a MySpace friend. David Martin with a myspace account? What is the world coming to. Don't expect me to make a habit of it though. There's a lot about their website that annoys me. Zodiac signs for example. Who cares if mine is Cancer? I sure don't. Useless clutter with demonic undertones. It has no place on my profile.

Then there's the safety aspects. Why should their name be bigger than mine? I have enough ego problems! Why should I force people to see ad banners that could give them seizures? And have you seen the themes people use? Those could give some serious eye strain.

Then there's the social aspects. What would you feel if I added you and didn't list you as a "top friend"? Would you like me to list everyone I consider more valuable than you publicly? Or perhaps you'd like me to prove that we weren't as close as you thought we were. Everything about that is stupid and offensive. I don't want to do it, and you know what? I don't have to. You all deserve better, and you certainly don't need the validation of being on a list. Some people add junk entries just so they don't offend anyone, which to me means even more clutter.

And then there's scalability problems. Maybe I should create a livejournal account to communicate with friends who use that, and maybe I should create a xanda account to do the same, and don't forget youtube, webshots, private forums, online rpg's (ack! don't ask about that) and who knows what else. No! Sites should use trackbacks and rss feeds to communicate so you don't have to. It should be as elegant as replying on your own blog.

oh.. did I mention it was my idea to join and I added this person as a Top Friend?

The bad news is my Internet was down most of the day. Storms tend to do that to DSL, but it turns out the line was just unplugged. Doh!

The good news is this thing somehow completely missed Orlando.. the strangest prediction route was actually the most accurate. But.. you know even if it had hit us, I still wouldn't have cared. It's not even a hurricane yet (it's supposed to strengthen and come back way north of us). I'm totally desensitized after the 2004 season. Charlie knocked out our power for a week, Francis for the better part of a day, and Jeanne actually did a complete loop in the Atlantic before nailing Orlando for the third time in six weeks. I just slept through that one. pfft.. don't even tell me unless it's a Category 4. Seriously.

8/12/2004 - Charlie

9/1/2004 - Francis

9/24/2004 - Jeanne

In other news, President Bush made a statement today that because of the diversity in America, all nations should be rooting for the US in the Olympics. "When we win, you all win!" (ok not really, but it would be amusing)

ps: I forgot that I had set the site slogan to "cones, cubes, spheres, and more!" from Cheesy Invaders. "It's the cheesiest!" I think it's funny though, so it's staying on my news feed.

1) I uploaded a lot of my California trip pictures. You can view them here:
http://dwm.cc/v/trips/2007california

Unfortunately its database is corrupt so a lot of pictures won't show. I decided the easiest way to fix it is to start over once Gallery 2.3 is released, so you'll have to wait a while. There's a number of reasons, but I won't bore you with details.

2) I had upgraded Cyrix with two 750 GB hard drives (RAID-1) with the intention of putting its two 500 GB drives in my computer. My existing drives were a disaster waiting to happen as they dated back to 2000 and I had no backups..

Anyway I just replaced the three IDE drives in my computer with one of the SATA drives. The other 500 GB drive is in an external enclosure I bought for $21 after rebates. This has several advantages:
a) My old drives combined were still smaller than 500, so I have more space.
b) My system is much quieter (two of the old drives were noisy)
c) My boot time is cut in half. Half. Stupid Grub.
d) There's less heat, and it uses less power (one drive instead of three = ~20W)
e) The disaster-waiting-to-happen has been averted - I have backups!
f) The SATA 1 port is a dedicated 150 MB/s link to the Northbridge - no longer do my three hard drives share the limited 133 MB/s PCI bandwidth with my 100 mbps full duplex network connection to Cyrix. This might improve performance under heavy load..
g) The drives themselves support SATA 2, so they are forward compatible with a newer Core 2 MB upgrade if I go that route (I considered this when I originally bought them for Cyrix)

3) In this past year, there are only four people I've had real conversations with outside my family, and each probably knows me better than a certain person in my family. It's nothing I'm quite willing to get into here, but I might post some more personal stuff in the future.

Short version.. I updated my contact form to include an anonymous feedback mode that doesn't ask for your name/email:
http://dwm.cc/node/58

Long version.. sardonic Facebook commentary. Read more if you want.

For those who didn't know, I went on a road trip in California last December. We took many pictures which I still mean to post (this doesn't count!!), so here's one I was just working on (ps my picture to the right on the home page was taken in Death Valley as part of this trip):

The problem was that my friend accidentally covered part of it. This was disappointing because it was the best version available, so here's the procedure I used to fix it.
(click the picture or keep reading to see the fixed version)

Yay, my sample ballot for the Republican primary arrived. The first item on the list is Ric Keller vs Todd Long for Florida Congress district 8. Keller has been sponsoring anti-college student legislation on behalf of the entertainment industry, which he claims to represent more, saying he has Disney in his district. Well perhaps they can vote for him because I'm not going to. He's been in office several terms and seems too comfortable with his position. I encourage you all to displace him. I'm hoping Long wins the primary so I won't have to vote Democrat/abstain in the next election. Yeah, I actually said that. What a sad state our government is when the chief reason for voting is because you dislike the other guy more.