Still working on them
Posted on 2005-07-29 at 08:02
Two things I promised: An RSS feed for my blog and the ability for me to remotely post a blog entry so that I can blog whenever the mood strikes. The RSS feed is proceeding apace, but it takes a while to convert all my old stuff to the new xml format, and the remote blogging thing is stimeied by permissions issues. I'm troublehsooting it now, but I'm not sure what the problem is, so I can't say when I'll overcome it.
Today should be the day!
Posted on 2005-07-29 at 08:01
I expect to here something today from the adoption agency. By the close of business, I might be someone's dad. WeirdCool.
Giant Female Android Rampages Through Tokyo!
Posted on 2005-07-28 at 08:02
All of my headline is true, except that she isn't giant, can't walk, and didn't go on a rampage. But, there is a female android. And that's, like, cool and stuff. Oh yeah, and it's not in Tokyo either. It's in Osaka, Japan...but the remainder of the headline is totally factual and not at all misleading.
IRA says "No More Violence"
Posted on 2005-07-28 at 08:01
The IRA has declared a permanent cease-fire and ordered all their various volunteers to decommision their weaponry and begin making their fight a politic rather than military one. This is a significant event. I don't know what changed their minds, and I hope they stay true to their word, but I think this is something worth celebrating.
Anti-Intellectualism
Posted on 2005-07-27 at 08:01
What ever happened to our fascination with progress and science? Not too long ago, we looked eagerly ahead toward a future mirrored in Star Trek and even the Jetsons, and now it's all we can do to muster some passing interest in space exploration and scientific advance. Instead of embracing these new vistas being opened to us every day by science, we shun them, ignore them when they prove our older worldviews false.
We talk about the importance of college education, but all we really mean is the importance of a college degree. The jokes about the Liberal Arts are often funny, but underlying them is a deep-rooted anti-intellectualism---a belief that education is a fine enough means to an end, but should never be considered an end in and of itself.
That concerns me. We are slipping down the ladder of scientific leadership. Our society's attitude just implicitly and falsely confirms a misplaced fear that many working-class students and their parents have: college education is a waste of money, unless each day's lesson can be connected to something that will be needed on the job some day.
This attitude is damaging our country, our people, and our position in the world.
I look forward to a future when we all rejoice over our accomplishments, where we demand our priorities be the advancement of the human race, where progress isn't an abstract goal but a daily event. We should be shooting for the stars, living off the fruits of robotic labor, and putting an end to artificial scarcity. We should be doing something every day that makes us proud, and we should be celebrating each achievement loudly.
While I'm at work today...
Posted on 2005-07-26 at 08:02
...discuss the Royal Danish Army amongst yourselves.
Guild Wars
Posted on 2005-07-26 at 08:01
This game is crack. I can't stop playing it. That's why there've been no entries for a few days. I'm working on being able to post to my blog remotely (not possible right now). If I get that working, it'll mean I can blog whenever/whereever the mood or idea strikes me.
I'm so Geek Chic
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:04
At least I am according to the How Geek Are You test. About me, the test had this to say:
You're a geek and you know it. You've got all sorts of fringe hobbies and socially unacceptable tendencies. Chances are, whenever possible, you hate to be grouped with other people and sometimes go out of your way just to be different.
You're smart too. You're more willing to depend on your own brainpower to solve problems, instead of relying on others to pull you through life. You probably read a lot, and generally enjoy learning new things.
So what's it all mean? You may be considered by some to be uncool, but you probably don't care either. In social situations you may be either slightly passive or slightly loud (geeks always fall into the extremes). In a nutshell, you answered enough questions correctly supporting a geek philosophy to be considered a more potent geek than 60% of the population.
My final score? 83% Geekiness. Beat that!
Honestly...
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:03
This is one of the funniest blog entries I've ever read.
One to beam up
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:02
James Montgomery Doohan, who played Scotty on Star Trek, died at 5:30 AM this morning from complications due to Alzheimer's disease. For inspiring two generations of kids to become engineers, for inspiring a nation to work toward a better future, and for fighting for that future in WWII with all he had to give, he will be missed.
New marketing idea for the flooring biz
Posted on 2005-07-20 at 08:01
Print out a newsletter with interesting bits of stuff in it, wherein MF is advertised. Possibly better than a simple flyer? I think it's worth a shot.
You figure it out
Posted on 2005-07-19 at 08:01
Tumbling down down down. The world still spins around. Like the sequins on an evening gown say nothing of the dancer's frown.
Multimedia in Ubuntu
Posted on 2005-07-18 at 08:02
To fix many of the problems I had with Ubuntu's multimedia, I did the following:
- Install totem-xine. This will uninstall totem-gstreamer. Fine by me. The out of sync AV sucks. Xine is a better back end for now.
- Install mozplugger. This will let me set up totem to handle embedded multimedia content.
- Add "stream noisy ignore_errors: totem "$file" </dev/null" in /etc/mozpluggerrc everywhere that the MPlayer command is currently referenced. This means changing all the defined variables at the top.
- delete ~/.mozilla/firefox/pluginreg.dat
- Restart firefox.
- In Firefox, go to "about:config" to see the mozplugger plugin shown.
- Go to http://www.movie-list.com and watch a trailer to test the setup. It worked for me! :)
- Sit back and enjoy your new system hotness!
Something to think about
Posted on 2005-07-18 at 08:01
The Stone Age did not end because humans ran out of stones. It ended because it was time for a re-think about how we live.
No sound in games in Ubuntu?
Posted on 2005-07-17 at 08:04
Then make sure you install libsdl1.2debian-esd. By default it installs libsdl1.2debian-oss, which is not correct. This is more a note to myself than a general warning, but if you need the help, there it is. :)
Serenity
Posted on 2005-07-17 at 08:03
You can't stop the signal! Spread the word!
Now Playing
Posted on 2005-07-17 at 08:02
London Booted: Dunproofin': Bubba's Got a Brand New Cadillac
I have been admonished
Posted on 2005-07-17 at 08:01
So, I've been told that my blog is not updated often enough. This is, of course, because in the last few weeks I've wiped-n-reinstalled my main system at least 6 to 7 times. I can safely say, now, that my system is just how I want it to be, so you can expect greater blog volume going forward.