My view of the world

Here’s a cute little keyboard for you. It will survive quit nicely at +194 degrees Fahrenheit and if you happen to live in the antarctic it is designed to handle -40 with a certain aplomb.
This however does beg the two part question; First, will my computer survive these conditions and secondly, WTF would I be doing in the antarctic? –I don’t even like penguins.

Here’s a nice little monitor/TV. For a mere $42,000 you can have a Barco LC-5621 56″ lcd to watch not one, but as many as 4 1080p video feeds. –Now that’s the way to play Doom 3.

These and other incredibly expensive high tech toys are over at PC-World

Who are you? What do you do? What are you talking about? What will you be talking about? What gives you the right to talk about anything? What are you doing here? Why are you doing it here? Who the hell are you?

This is from a blog written in 2005 on Lorelle on Wordpress.

The author maintains that you need an about me page to tell people something about you and to set the tone for the blog.
My favorite statement; “You got a blog because you had something you wanted people to read.” –No I didn’t. At least I don’t think I did, the mind plays tricks, and I cannot for the life of me, remember why I started this.

I find I don’t care if people read this or not. –Odd, when I look at the number of posts I’ve made.

This blog has no particular agenda, no message. I occasionally post information that I think somebody else is interested in. But, on the whole it’s just a place to vent, make observations on the human condition and occasionally pass on a link or a site that I find interesting.

A friend who has a great deal more knowledge on the subject of blogs and blogging than myself, tells me that I have perhaps as many as 200 dedicated readers.
This data is available if you know where and how to look. Whether this data is presorted and analyzed or you have to do this yourself I don’t know.
All I know for certain, is that a couple of hundred people, out of the millions that are online don’t even make the proverbial drop in the bucket.
This does however give me a certain comfort, knowing that I’m not the only one who’s so easily amused.

Perhaps an About Me page is a good thing. It tends to humanize the author and give people something to identify with.
This is something for me to consider. Especially since the person looking over my shoulder is starting to become rather insistent on the subject. I told her I’d do it if she’d write for me. –Sure got quiet around here.

A final question; Why in the world would I want my “vast number of readers” to know just how boring I really am?

BBC NEWS | Health | Out-of-body experience recreated
The researchers say their findings could have practical applications, such as helping take video games to the next level of virtuality so the players feel as if they are actually inside the game.

This begs the question.
Who’s responsible if a person gets killed in the game and it causes them to have a heart attack in real life?

Just a thought.

It’s been over 10 months since a proof of concept was issued for a Java exploit and everybody but Apple has patched it.
This comment to a blog on the subject is the apparent attitude of most Mac users:
We’ll be just fine…. Thank you!

If you watch the commercials you’ll see that a Mac never gets sick.
The first worm / virus aimed specifically at Mac OSX was found in the wild somewhere around February ‘06.
Now there are a number of them and nobody counts the browser specific problems.

If Macs are so secure, why has Apple patched in the neighborhood of 100 vulnerabilities in the last year?

This is not intended to be an attack on OSX, I happen to like BSD, but a warning.
Apple, with the incessant bragging about being untouchable, has made themselves a target.

I worry a little about Mac, after all, their loudest non-advertising brag is that you can install windows.

My account is straightened out as are most accounts, but there are still problems here and there.
All Wells Fargo is saying is that it’s a “computer glitch.”
Probable translation:
We updated our software without sufficient beta testing, but, we’re certainly not going to admit it.

If you suspect problems with online banking, ATMs or other bank operations, contact:

– Your bank.
– The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency at (800) 613-6743 or www.occ.gov for more information or to lodge a complaint.

This advice is from the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency

I stopped at Albertson’s a few minutes ago and deposited my paycheck in the Wells Fargo atm.
While I was standing there waiting for my receipt, I overheard one of the bank tellers telling a woman that all the branches in town were down.
The handwritten sign said that $200 was the max you could get in cash with a check deposit. I didn’t bother to read the rest.
I only pulled $100 with my deposit, so I don’t know if the limit applies to atms or just to teller assisted deposits.

A woman was talking to her friend and swearing that the bank was out of money and that it was all because of bad mortgage loans.

When I got my groceries, and paid with a debit card, there was no problem. The checker said that the bank had been down since sometime yesterday afternoon and she thought that the system had been set to approve any atm card.

I just went online and checked my account. The site seemed to be working fine, but it showed no recent atm activity on my account.
Whether this indicates that the problem is strictly local, or simply that the site feeds off whatever is in it’s database regardless of the status of the rest of the network, I can’t say. But I’d bet on the database approach.

I tried to call the bank, but I got a fast busy signal. This indicates that a machine is overloaded, not just that a single line is busy.

This is the problem with relying exclusively on computers for business.

I just found this online:
San Francisco Business Times article.
But no answers yet.

I’m trying an experiment at Galactic Poolhall, I’m attempting to build a tumblelog type site, using Wordpress.

I’m using Wordpress’ press-it because the quickpost plugin gave me errors on a number of sites.

From the quickpost plugin site:
WARNING
Quick Post does not work with the most recent versions of WordPress due to a change in how the post.php page functions.

—-For the short, “here’s something interesting,” type blog I think it is essential to use something like this.

I’m also using the ultimate tag warrior, the tumblefeed and the howtogeek spam filter plugins.

I think my next step will be to style the categories individually. Just enough styling to change bg color or maybe create an outline effect.

The NYT and up to the minute news.
Have you ever noticed how the mainstream press suddenly discovers a news worthy story after they decide it fits their agenda.
This story about a Stevens tit for tat shows as an Aug. 17 story.
That’s nice.. I blogged about it in early June and I found it on A Cracker Boy Looks at Florida.

On closer examination it turns out that the NYT had already published this article on 06/07/07, with a headline of Alaskan Gets Campaign Cash; Florida Road Gets U.S. Funds.

They didn’t miss the story, they simply chose to take the low road.
Instead of publishing something new, they have decided to rehash an old story.

There’s no new content in this version, which indicates that there was no new research.
This tells us, either it was a slow news day, –not likely, or has someone’s got it in for Representative Stevens.
The Republicans have fallen from grace so I guess it’s time for the New York Times to engage in a little “kick ‘em while they’re down.”
Not that I disapprove, but it shouldn’t be the job of the press to play politics.

It was a friends birthday yesterday and we decided on diner at the Circus Circus Steakhouse. This was my first trip to Circus Circus in at least 10 years.
In spite of knowing about and having seen a great deal of the remodeling, my mental file still says that the Flying Farfans should be working the trapeze and Peanuts the elephant should still be walking around.

I made it a point to come in off Industrial Rd, in order to avoid even a short stretch of the strip.
When I arrived I had to park on the top level of garage one. Next time I’ll just valet the car and let someone else get the exercise.

In spite of it being a Thursday, the place was crowded. I think this is because, in most places, school is not yet in session, and the tourists with children were taking an end of summer vacation.

I deliberately arrived early so I could play tourist and just wander around and gawk.
Two things struck me as being odd. The first was the difficulty in finding a bar, I found one, and a bottle of Corona was $4.25, a shot of Patron was also $4.25, but at least it was a full ounce, not one of the short shots you get in most joints.
The other was the Greeter? in front of the steakhouse. This man was standing out in front of the Steakhouse and talking to people, telling them that this was the best steakhouse in the city, and maybe the country.
He was definitely the right person for the job. I’m sort of curious what his official title is, but I got sidetracked and never asked him.
The real question is, who ever heard of a world class steakhouse needing a shill?

The entrance to the Steakhouse if exactly the same as I remember it. As you walk in they still have the glassed-in aging room, with it’s slabs of beef and a lobster you could put a saddle on. I wonder if anything in there is real or if it’s all just display.
The steakhouse proper looks just like I remember it, from more than thirty years ago..
The service was excellent, I ordered a porterhouse medium rare, everyone else ordered fillet mignon, medium or medium rare. One person ordered their fillet Cajun blackened, rare, and the waiter only did a split second’s hesitation before continuing on with the soup or salad questions.

Everyone agreed that the food was excellent, and my steak was as good as any I’ve eaten a Joe’s or Boa.

The Steakhouse in Circus Circus isn’t as fancy as some of the newer places. It’s an old school steakhouse, with dark wood, and lighting that is dim enough to feel intimate and bright enough to comfortably read the menu.
This is not a place to try some new and unpronounceable drink, or to see and be seen.
This is a place for people like me, who just want to enjoy a good steak and good conversation.

Remember when our fearless leaders said it would take just a few months to get us out of Viet N… oops, sorry, I mean Iraq, and how the security farces were going to jump right in and take over.

Now, in case you haven’t heard, they can’t account for 110,000 AKs and 80,000 pistols. Not to mention 135,000 sets of body armor and 115,000 helmets. It makes you wonder how many tons ammunition they’ve “misplaced.”
These items were to be given to the Iraqi security farces.

From the beginning of this latest cluster fuck, there has been a huge amount of desertion, and tribal and religious tension, in the security farces.

According to the BBC: There remain question marks over the reliability of elements of the Iraqi security forces, especially the police.
I love this statement, because to this day the security farces have entire units that refuse to show up for duty.

On the other hand, the government’s brilliant plan to arm the locals is working out just fine. The security farces are now able to arm their fellow tribesmen or religious sects. Additionally they improve the country’s economy by creating jobs in a thriving black market.

When George the First did his thing in that part of the world, he sent troops in, got someplace, and declared a victory and left. Some people were unhappy be cause we didn’t hunt down Hussein, but on the whole, most people were just glad to have our troops home.

George II took us in there, after almost a year of telling Hussein we were coming, and then, looked confused when everything didn’t automatically fall into place.
Everything in that part of the world is divided along religious or tribal lines, including the government of Iraq, that the US put in place.
(Don’t ever let the word elections confuse you, it does not mean there is any real choice.)
And yet King George and his court Jesters failed to see any possibility of having to occupy and run a country that we took over by force of arms.
In fact they look confused because the people they thought would be instant allies, haven’t changed.