Month: January 2005

Jess at Apropros of Something has been rewriting old comics. I cannot stress this enough: DO NOT DRINK ANYTHING BEFORE READING THESE. Seriously, this is some of the funniest stuff I’ve ever read.

What happened to all the cute philosophical snippets that came with links to cheap v|@ge rA? Where are the random quotes that pointed me to online gambling sites? Lately the spammers have just gotten lazy, and are posting comments with 20-30 links and no real text to try to hide it. I don’t really understand that, as I have a low limit on the links allowed so not a single one has made it past the moderation queue.

More and more this comment spam is becoming like e-mail spam. Aside from the “Night of a Thousand Comments” at the beginning of December, I tend to get a couple every other day. They trickle into my moderation queue (much like a junk folder), I double check for anything legitimate, and then delete them all. Annoying, but as long as it stays at this level I don’t really care that much. Although it bugs me that I’m writing about it again.

I’m sorting through a lot of my old computer crap that has followed me through the years in an effort to clean up the home office front. While rebuilding my server and dumping old cases will help a great deal, there’s still tons of old CDs and floppies lying around for no particular reason. This clutter is just killing my desk, and it’s got to go. And we’re talking a lot of unredeemable crap, too. These aren’t backups of old projects and creative endeavors (ok, maybe a few are). Instead, this is a repository of outdated programs and irrelevant drivers. I mean, do I really still need the installation disk for my original 2x DVD drive that required a separate decoder card? What about the 8 disks that comprised Adobe PhotoShop 3.05? Perhaps it is time that I moved the few remaining backups from those days onto CD.

In the meantime, I thought I might share some of the gems that have been found scattered throughout this mess. While there are many interesting bootleg copies of outdated software (hey, PFS: First Choice was an awesome wordprocessing program for its time), there’s a bizarre assortment of honest-to-goodness original disks that have cropped up, including the following drivers:

• Gateway Solo 5100 – my first laptop from a college internship
• Multiple Adaptec cards, as well as several versions of MaxBlast Plus (from Maxtor)
• Lexmark 5700 – my first inkjet (back when the cheap ones were a couple hundred dollars)
• Diamond Stealth64 (DRAM) – one of the first video cards I ever bought that listed how much memory it included.
• Three different Sound Blaster cards and the above mentioned Dxr2 DVD drive
• Various joysticks and mouses for Windows 3.11
• EtherDisk versions 3.1, 4.1, and 5.3, not to mention a disk for the Netgear FA310TX (famous for the fact that Windows NT 4.0 actually detected it during installation)

Speaking of Windows NT 4.0, I also found the ever-elusive 3 startup disks. Beyond that we have a paper airplane program from who-knows-when, and a photo library on 4 floppies (that’s right – 200 pictures in about 4 megs). The greatest find, however, is a tossup between an AOL 3.0 Program Disk, and all 8 disks (1 startup and 7 game) for the 256 color version of King’s Quest V.

Okay, so obviously I’m not getting rid of some of those prizes, but I think I can finally let go of the 4 year old ABIT drivers. Next up is going through the pirated copies of such treasures as Print Shop Deluxe and WordPerfect (version 5.1, of course).

P.S.(If you recognized half of what I was talking about, you should probably add a good 15-20 points to your nerd score.)

Not very surprising. As much of a nerd/geek I’ve been most of my life, I break a lot of the stereotypes.

(thanks to Sandy)

So I told you that things got all fudged up on Tuesday, but gave nary a detail. Now I’ll try to recount my stupidity.

For starters, I absolutely LOVE the way WordPress has been progressing. And due to my impatience, I became a fairly early adopter of using the more “cutting edge” builds. I just couldn’t wait to sink my teeth into static pages (see the “About” page), themes (ok, I’m still using Kubrick, but at least it’s handled as a bundled theme), and the various admin improvements. Now that the Dashboard is a truly functional page (it displays the 5 latest posts and comments, as well as drafts, stats, and the latest from the Dev Blog)… well I’m just giddy. The point of all this is that I’m running the beta version here and often lose my head in the “excitement” of upgrades.
Continue reading “Wha’ppen?”

Apparently I’m suing Apple. That’s right, I’ve grown tired of not being able to use other stores with my iPod… Wait a second, I don’t own an iPod. And I’m not from California. Is this some sort of evil twin? With the same name? Who probably doesn’t even look like me?!?!

I found it amusing. Especially since I hate Apple. So I like the idea that somewhere there will be a court case against them with my name on it.

If you happened to be poking around the site the last few hours, I’m sure you noticed that it… well, it wasn’t there. A simple upgrade and permalink adjustment turned into a huge fiasco that brought the whole site offline. That’s what you get for insisting on running off nightly builds. I’m too tired to talk about it now, or clear up the remaining issues. That will all have to wait until the morning.

Does any song come even close to rockin’ as hard as The Edgar Winter Group’s “Frankenstein”? The radio can tune in at any point during that song, and I can’t help but smile. Why are today’s listeners so obsessed with lyrics?

Nuclear Moose has a message for spammers. Personally, I’m just growing bored. The other week I got hit with about 800+ in a matter of a couple hours. About 95% of them were caught by the basic comment moderation that’s built into WP. Not even a challenge. And now the new 1.5 beta I’m running makes it even easier. I now get spam comments the way I used to get spam e-mail – a couple a day. And just as quickly as they appear, they are removed.

Easy enough, but I still concur with Craig.

New Years was another typical wonderful day spent with my family (sans Kathleen and Curtis, who weren’t about to make the trek up from ‘Bama). I tend to be a tad awkward around kids (being the only one in my family who never dealt with any), but I’m getting better with my nieces and nephews – especially the “newer” ones. Paige is adorable with that infectious laugh, and I thoroughly enjoy letting her eat my nose. Lucas has become such a ham that he’s quickly filling up my photo collection. And Caleb is so wide-eyed you just know something special is in there.

I feel bad about the older ones because I was still in high school, or away at college when Jack, Conner, and Kelly came along. As much as I loved them I could never figure out how to connect when I was just a teenager. I definitely lost time there, but hopefully I can make that up in the coming years – now that Jack is slowly closing in on the teenage years himself. At least he’s got a decent mindset:

Life is short, you’ve got to go with the pleasures.

That’s right, my little nephew said that. Of course he and his little sister also once described how best to marry for money. They sure do grow up quickly.

My brother-in-law Matt wanted to use part of the evening to remember his late wife, my sister Lisa. He had found a journal of sorts she had used to keep some of her favorite quotes. Apparantly she had written in it since high school. So he picked out a very appropriate selection to start off our New Year:

To laugh often and much; to win the respect of intelligent people and the affection of children; to earn the appreciation of honest critics and endure the betrayal of false friends; to appreciate beauty; to find the best in others; to leave the world a bit better, whether by a healthy child, a garden patch or a redeemed social condition; to know even one life has breathed easier because you have lived. This is to have succeeded.

– Ralph Waldo Emerson