| Looking for work |
[Feb. 12th, 2009|01:30 pm] |
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Buh. So, Accenture is giving me the option of relocating back to Bloomington or getting laid off. If anyone catches word of a programming job in Chicago, let me know.
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| Didn't I tell you? I'm Batman! Well, I would be if... |
[Jul. 18th, 2008|10:23 am] |
There's an article on slashdot claiming that I could be Batman in 10-12 years. It got me thinking about all the gear that Batman uses and I have to say that I think if I went in to buy some gear, the conversation would go something like this...
*beeeeboooo*
proprietor: "Hi. Welcome to gap-jumping unlimited. What can I help you with today?"
Me: "Yes, I need a gap jumping cape. Something bat-themed, if you've got it."
proprietor: "No problem, we can certainly help you with that today. What's your size?"
Me: "I've a 15in neck and a 37in arm."
proprietor: "Hm. I've 16in by 36in. Do you think that'd work for you?"
Me: "No, that wouldn't really fit right. It'd be awkward looking at work."
proprietor: "Hmmmm. OH! It looks like I can order a goat-themed one for you. Would that work?"
Me: "I don't think goats really fly very well. They really do more of a, well, kinda' plummet."
proprietor: "Well, there's down. I mean, "down" is a kind of a gap, too." |
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| The Books |
[Jul. 8th, 2008|02:24 pm] |
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...and here I was all excited and confused about a new Books album from 2004‽ Turns out it's some other band with the same name from Brazil. |
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| GAH. |
[Jun. 18th, 2008|12:19 pm] |
In the past 4 weeks:
- Car broken into and stereo taken
- Rear-ended and 3 wonderful days of whiplash
- My $500 bike stolen along with my wife's $100 bike.
One begins to think about (and by "begin to think about", I mean "done thinking about it and have already decided to") moving out of Chicago.
Don't get me wrong, I love Chicago and everything good it has to offer, I've just arrived at the realization that I don't care to live in Chicago anymore. "Nice place to visit, but I wouldn't want to live there." to cliché things up. |
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| LAN Party |
[Jun. 7th, 2008|12:38 am] |
Copy/Paste of Dream_Of_Crows. Comments disabled here in the hopes that you comment in the right place.
LAN party plans
Alastair and I are looking to plan a LAN party in June or July. It will not be your regular LAN party - it shall be themed (the theme will remain a surprise until invitations go out).
If you're reading this, and you're interested in attending, please leave a comment letting me know which weekends in June and July you're free as well as your email address (or you can send me an email if you don't want potential spammers nabbing yours - rachel.drong@gmail.com) |
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| LUG |
[Jun. 6th, 2008|06:40 am] |
So, I've collected enough people who are actively using Linux that I want to start a Linux User's Group where we can all share what we've done, problems we had (e.g. "My tablet pen doesn't work!" "Schedules Direct doesn't have TV listings for Digital TV without the cable box!) success stories ("Manually reconfigured GRUB after swapping out my hard drives.") and see if anyone can offer help for problems we might be facing.
Anyway, if this is something you think you might be interested in, ask around and see if you know of anyone else who might want to contribute. If they're interested, post their name (First L.) here. I don't want to start one with anything less than 10 people because I don't think anything smaller would be enough to really make such a thing useful to each other. |
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| Ahha! WinAmp replacement |
[May. 1st, 2008|10:03 am] |
Found my WinAmp replacement ... I hope. So far so good, anyway. I'm using MusikCube with the CubeScrobbler plugin. Running at at a bit over 7,000K, it's using at least 5,000K less RAM than WinAmp 5.x and 2.95 which makes it very possibly the leanest audio player out there.
I've actually tried MusikCube once before back when Digg linked it ages ago. I completely forgot it exsisted partly because there were a lot of details that still needed ironing out in v0.92.5.
If you don't mind an app with high memory usage and you want to steer clear of iTunes, then you might want to check out Songbird with Last.fm support with the aptly named Audioscrobbler Add-on. I periodically give it a shot and I was happy to find huge improvements over the last version I tried, but holy crap it is a memory hog. Weighing in at 128,000K it uses almost as much memory as Firefox 3b5 (11 tabs open) and Thunderbird combined. |
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| Scrobbles and Scruples |
[Apr. 24th, 2008|09:26 pm] |
So, I'm guessing I'm going to get 2 replies, tops, but here it goes...
So, I've been using WinAmp 2.95 for a really long time, but I got a little fed up with the Audioscrobbler plugin (for Last.FM) reporting that I'm playing songs that I've actually just skipped over. So, after a little research, I find out that WinAmp 5.x isn't so bad as long as you deselect all the bloat that comes with it. I did that, and I've tried many different versions of the Audioscrobbler plugin from betas to alphas to the most recent full release but always with the same (annoying) results.
So, the question is, what are you using to listen to your tunes? |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 12th, 2008|01:12 pm] |
"Knowledge transfer" and "synergy" are my top 2 hated corporate jargon terms.
...oh, and I'm not your "resource." I'm a person and I have skills. |
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| (no subject) |
[Mar. 3rd, 2008|05:16 pm] |
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Madam Pomfrey: Thorough nurse or dirty old woman? Discuss. |
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| (no subject) |
[Feb. 6th, 2008|05:03 pm] |
Had another hard drive die on me today. *Sigh*
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| 128kbps "...it stinks!" |
[Feb. 4th, 2008|09:51 am] |
| [ | Tunes / Film |
| | Jets to Brazil - Sweet Avenue | ] |
I just listed to an older file on my computer and I have an important message... PSA: Please PLEASE kill the 128kbps MP3. Would you drink mud? Then why listen to it? - Minimum: Rip to a Variable Bit Rate MP3 format. You'll usually be asked minimum and maximum encode levels. Minimum should be 192kbps. The format is supported by any device that has MP3 playback correctly implemented.
- Better: OGG Vorbis is gaining more and more ground and sounds MUCH better than any MP3. There's many portable players that support the format these days, including the highly regarded (and reviewed) Meizu M6 miniPlayer (available in the U.S. under the Dane-Elec brand).
- Best: FLAC (Free Lossless Audio Codec). Not as well supported as OGG Vorbis, but most players that have the sense to support that format will also support FLAC. The only problem the average person will have with it is that it's not a lossy format. That's to say that it sounds best because it doesn't lose anything to make the resulting audio file smaller, but that also means that the file is much larger than a lossy format. Because of this, most people find OGG Vorbis the preferred format as loss of audio quality is out weighed by the compression.
Part of all of this is to say that that iPods really kinda suck. They don't support many formats, the formats they do support aren't the best for the job, and they don't really have much oomph to push sound to a decent pair of headphones. However, there is a way to get a little more out of that old iPod* than what it currently does.
* I take no responsibility if you screw up the directions provided by RockBox and end up breaking your portable media player. |
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| Poo |
[Jan. 22nd, 2008|08:37 pm] |
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So, poop has pretty much preoccupied the lives of my wife and I ... We're toilet training the cats. Like anything else that preoccupies ones life, it needs a blog. Therefore, I present to you, Poo Kittens. |
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| vote or die |
[Jan. 9th, 2008|09:55 am] |
*phew* Hillary isn't on top.
85% Barack Obama
84% Hillary Clinton
83% John Edwards
79% Bill Richardson
75% Joe Biden
73% Dennis Kucinich
73% Chris Dodd
73% Mike Gravel
58% Rudy Giuliani
50% John McCain
46% Mike Huckabee
39% Mitt Romney
28% Tom Tancredo
28% Fred Thompson
16% Ron Paul
2008 Presidential Candidate Matching Quiz
Just thought I'd add that I'm glad Bush Jr. will be now be relying 100% on the alsheimer's vote (George Bush? Iraq War? those sound familiar).
I REALLY really hope that voting machines on election day 2008 start taking in ballots and spitting out Bush vs. Kerry results. Oh, the wonderful chaos and media-frenzy that would ensue. |
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| Chicago! |
[Jan. 3rd, 2008|09:36 pm] |
Arrived'd! I need to get a new desk now, but Rachel and I made it here and we're starting to get settled. Living room is pretty well in order, although not 100% and the kitchen is pretty close to how it'll stay for a while. The bedroom is decent but the office ... yea, that'll be a day or two of heads in boxes holding up random items and asking, "What do we want to do with this?" which will subsequently be followed by shoulder shrugging.
Internet arrives tomorrow. Sadly, we were forced to go Comcast (buh, that's a post in itself). We tried really hard to go with someone else and even protested to RCN saying, "But we're just barely inside your service area according to your map!" (okay, maybe a little less whiny than that). Needless to say it was a lot of work only to get stuck with the ass holes of ISPs. In the meanwhile, we've been nabbing the wireless from the coffee shop up the block.
So, anyone going through Chicago should drop by. First lucky visitor gets a tasty free prize. |
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| Goin' to... |
[Dec. 14th, 2007|10:05 pm] |
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...Chicago ("sorry, but I can't take you")! FINALLY got transferred! Rachel and I have been making extensive use of Craigslist looking around online for apartments and found a few really eye catching places that have either been gutted and redone or are brand new with granite countertops, hardwood floors, brand new stainless steel appliances and Rachel and I are both committed to finding a place that has in-unit laundry. To hell with going outside into the basement to use a coin operated machine that people use too much bleach in. Not that I dislike the current place, mind you, I think it's great place and Miller Properties is likely the best place to rent from in town. It's just that it's too small for us anymore and the laundry is a pain in the ass to do here. |
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| Cake or Death? |
[Oct. 29th, 2007|05:24 pm] |
So, Rachel and I got a rice cooker. It's one of the very well known Zojirushi models from Japan. I'll start off by saying that the English in it is startlingly good, but I was, nevertheless, amused by the following...
"HOW TO COOK RICE (COOKING PREE-WASHED RICE): see P13."
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"See 'HOW TO COOK TASTY RICE' on P19."
We're totally going to make the tasty kind. Screw the normal stuff. |
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| Update and Rebel! |
[Sep. 28th, 2007|08:28 pm] |
| [ | I'm Feeling |
| |  hungry | ] |
So, Rachel (my wife!) and her mom surprised me yesterday with a Canon Digital Rebel XTi 8-0 right before we leave for San Francisco. So, yay lots of pictures. I went out earlier today to try and buy a circular polarizer as I anticipate I'll be taking a lot of pictures of buildings and framed art, but sadly the local camera store was out and they were either unwilling or not knowledgeable about where to buy one elsewhere in town.
On entirely another front, we've a second kitty! We renamed him from Eddy, to Eddie after the computer on the Heart of Gold. It's fitting because they're equally erratic.
foodtimesnow. |
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