Chatter

GPS Stuff

Something to look into later.
http://www.gpsu.co.uk/index.html
http://forums.groundspeak.com/GC/index.php?showtopic=93344&st=100
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/eXplorist/

Canada on Fire, Entire Continents Missing

I was looking for Tokyo, Japan to see how detailed the maps were. I was thinking of creating a mapped journal of an upcoming vacation there. According to Google maps, Japan has sunk into the ocean. I can understand not having detailed roadmaps for some countries just yet, but there should at least be a very general place holder there for the continent. Mexico has a place holder.

I looked around some more to see what countries outside of America are included so far, and I found that the UK has a very nice looking map. As does Canada. I think. Zooming in on the British Columbia area, it looks like roads are few and far between. Somehow, I think this is the way it actually is rather than a lack of detail on Google's part. To make sure, I checked the satellite image of the area.

I saw this interesting shot northwest of Prince George in British Columbia. Dang, that's a big fire...

Log Entry

1 mile - 11min pace
bench press - 10 @ 90#, 10 @ 110#, 6 @ 130#, 4 @ 150#
crunches - 3 x 25
curls - 3 x 10 @ 20#

man, it took me about a week to quit hurting from last week's workout... i'm eating a banana today.

Upcoming Must See Movies

Saw these on Penny Arcade. Serenity looks like it might have some good fight scenes. Not expecting anything else from it. Night Watch just looks plain awesome. Out and out awesome.

Log Entry

1 mile - 11min pace
bench press - 10 @ 130#, 90#, 110#
curls - 3 x 10 @ 15#
decline situps - 2 x 25

so weak.

Word, quit snapping

Dragging around an oval to highlight an area of a picture in a Word document can be annoying. The durn thing snaps to an invisible grid (for both movement and sizing) and there isn't an obvious way to make it go to exactly where you want it. Curse you, MS usability people who thought that a magical, not-to-be-found-in-the-menu key combination was the way to go for this functionality! The Great Google Genie told me that holding down Alt while you resize/move the shape lets you move it anywhere. Thank you, oh Great Google Genie.

Things don't go as planned

The new power supply came. None of my power adapters fit, so I went out and got a 12v one that looked like it'd fit. It didn't. I don't even know why. The diameter looks right, the inner diameter looks big enough to fit the pin. It just won't go. I chopped the adapter head off. I was a little frustrated. Maybe I'll find a use for that 12v plug later. Gotta stop by Radio Shack with the power supply and try out adapters until I find one that fits.

Koko won't work now anyway. Her memory has been pilfered for the benefit of Betty until Betty's new memory comes in. Betty had some kickass memory (first time I ever bought name-brand memory), but one of the sticks was bad and I had to RMA the whole set for an exchange.

Koko's also picked up the bad habit of blue screening all the time for no apparent reason. I suspect the bit tornado client. It didn't happen before I installed that.

Interesting things

Having just encountered the first work-related issue that required any thought in the last couple of weeks, he folded his arms against his chest. The crunching in his chest pocket was neither expected nor surprising -- surprisingly. It was kind of satisfying so he squeezed a little harder knowing that he was making it harder to clean. Inspecting the damage, he saw a pulverized potato chip. Salt and vinegar. Hawaiian-style. Somehow, it made sense that there was a salt and vinegar chip there. A little brain cell chimed in, "yeah, don't you remember? We were getting low on chips and that one was there to be eaten in case of a no-more-chips emergency."

The past view days have been full of interesting things. I saw a little black bird hop into the front passenger-side wheel of my car and come out with something in his mouth. I didn't realize there were bird goodies there, but that's good to know.

After a vitamin-grease filled meal at Kentucky Fried Chicken, I saw this. I've been by this area at least a couple of dozen times over the last year, and I never noticed the Wonderbread/Hostess Outlet before. A loaf of Wonderbread is $0.69, and 30 Twinkies are $5.99. Yeah, I got 30 Twinkies. And a bag of hot dog buns, and some special hot dog chili (Texas Pete, or something. don't ever get it. it was kinda gross.). KFC lunch, followed by a hot dog lunch and a chilli dog dinner the next day. I'm totally going to have a heart attack before 30. But not before I eat my 30 Twinkies.

There was also a plastic Twinkie the Kid Twinkie holder. Took me a second to figure out what that was for. Twinkies are already individually wrapped, so it's not to keep dirt off it. The cellophane doesn't do much in the way of squish protection, though.

I also discovered how to make my wrist guard angry.

Flowers are in bloom everywhere. Too bad I only see these when I'm all grumpy and on my way to work.

Narutrix

For some reason, I think I've heard of this before, but saw it on boingboing and thought it sounded like it had great potential. Waiting to go home to watch it. Tap, tap, tap. Tapping my feet in the mean time.

She lives!

Koko has been resurrected. Sort of. I got a cheapo power supply from Fry's, but it's super duper loud, so I just ordered a 'real' mini-itx power supply that will be silent. The software's been reinstalled. Her guts are spread out all over the floor. May put her into a new body since the new power supply is much smaller. Not looking forward to cutting out new holes and a smaller case might run hotter with all of the components right next to each other.

Programming

Better programming through process. (courtesy joclin)

Interesting article on processes and structures to increase software development productivity and quality. Going to read some of the branching articles now.

Office Move

I've been moved from one office building to another on the same campus. Where I used to have my own office, I now have a cube. It's not all bad, though.

• I have a window now. +2


• The window sill is a super reflective, blinding white. -1


• I don't have a door, and people can sneak up on me. -1


• No more jet engine noise from the air system. +1


• Keyboard clatter, phones, and talking noises from a floor full of neighbors. -1


• Smaller area. 0 (I didn't use much space in the office either)


• More desk space. +1


• My optical mouse doesn't like the new white desk. -1


• The entire building is better lit. +1


• The bathroom is almost twice as big. +1


• The bathroom is laid out such that the only difference is one extra urinal and a lot more room to stand and wait. When designing a bathroom, why would you put a higher priority on the waiting area than the do-your-business area? -1


• The bathroom soap dispensers are not broken. +1


• Duplex printer. +1


• The printer's far, far away. -1


• No office chair. -1 (hopefully this will get fixed soon)


• The previous occupant left me a No Doubt poster on the wall. +1


• The parking area by this building is covered. +1


• My desk is not level. -1

subversion

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