poltr1 | Recent Entries

As previously promised, here is last night's special comment by MSNBC's Keith Olbermann, in which he addresses the 9/11 "tribute" video shown at last week's Republican National Convention. A transcript is also available under a cut tag on the page.

Current Mood: fired up!
Current Music: Late Night with David Letterman

For the past several years, I had a home network. It worked fine under Windows 95 and 98, but not so good under XP.

Here's what I'm trying to do tonight: I want to set up a peer-to-peer network between orac (a desktop running Windows XP Home) and tardis (a laptop running Windows XP Pro). I have a crossover LAN cable connecting the two. (I can use either the LAN card or a docking station for the laptop.) Both have static IP addresses in the 192.168.0.* range. tardis can see orac but can't get to anything I have shared on orac -- the data drive, printers, etc. orac can't see tardis at all. What do I need to do on orac to correct this?

I'm also trying to set up orac so that I can use it to send and recive faxes. I'd like to save myself some trips to FedExKinko's (soon to be FedExOffice). I think I have that all set, thanks to the built-in wizard. I just need someone willing to help me with testing.

Shout-outs: Happy birthday

cigfran_cg!

Current Mood: frustrated

Just finished checking the course syllabus and first week's assignments for my object-oriented programming course.

This week, I need to read chapters 1 and 2 from the book that hasn't arrived yet (it shipped today), and do some homework assignments based on those readings. The assignments are due midnight Monday, which I'll assume is one minute before 00:01 on Monday morning and not one minute after 23:59 on Monday evening. That means that Sunday night may become my crunch night. But I have all week to finish the readings, and I don't want to fall into the "wait until the 11th hour" trap.

Once I get the notice about access to ELMS, which should include my username and password, I should be able to get my copy of Visio 2003 from the CIS lab. I can only borrow one title at a time, but I would like to see what else I can get. Office 2003 would be nice to have. I've been making do with Office 2007 on the desktop, and I have OpenOffice 2.4 on the laptop.

From the Daily Kos, specifically, here:

Watch on YouTube

Bet your bottom dollar that there will be a Special Report from him on this topic Real Soon Now.

Current Mood: anxious

Back when the original Battlestar Galactica series aired, I thought about doing a parody of Simon and Garfunkel's "The Sounds Of Silence" to reflect the show. (This was back before I even discovered filk.) But alas, the words never came, and the only thing I could come up with was that the words "of Cylons" would be sung in a Cylon voice.

One Google search later, and I'm proud to say that someone else had the same idea, picked up the ball, and ran with it. The words are here: http://www.amiright.com/parody/60s/simonandgarfunkel108.shtml

I am so adding this to my covers book.

.....and I wasn't moved by it. I was too busy playing "Spot the Person of Color in the Audience". It took the camera crews at C-SPAN about 30 minutes to find one.

Yes, McCain delivers a good speech, and there were some good ideas presented, but I still was making comments back at the screen a la MST3K. Did he say that Roosevelt was a Republican? I don't remember Teddy's party affiliation, but FDR was a Democrat.

Thankfully, I missed the 9/11 highlight reel which was shown before his speech.

filkertom has a link to a copy posted on YouTube, with some choice commentary. I'm told that the Keith apologized to his audience for that clip. Yes, we should Never Forget, and say Never Again, but is there a need to bring up past hurts, other than to further the advance of American fascism?

My take: If there is to be change in America, people are going to have to want it bad enough in order for it to happen. If it's curbing our addiction to petroleum, or changing the regime, it has to come from We The People. I remember the Metric System and the Susan B. Anthony dollar coin. These were changes foisted upon us by the Government. Where are they now?

Current Mood: grumpy

Yesterday, I signed up for an Object-Oriented Programming Concepts course (CIS 112) at Sinclair Community College. ( But it wasn't as straightforward as I hoped. )

Today, based on a tip from

athenawindsong, I ordered my 2 books through amazon.com. One was new, the other was used. We'll be using a language called Alice and doing OO diagramming in UML using Visio. So I downloaded Alice and installed it on the laptop.

The next thing to do is to obtain a copy of Microsoft Visio from the campus library or whoever handles the software distribution for students. I'll probably take care of that tomorrow morning, unless I have to wait until the quarter starts before I can acces the ELMS system.

I'm surprised no one has picked up on this already. The name "Barack Obama" scans well to "La Bamba". The problem is, I haven't been able to come up with any more words, other than his name.

Sing it with me!

Ba-ba-ba-rack Obama
Ba-ba-ba-rack Obama
(more words here)

Chorus:
Ba-rack Obama
Ba-rack Obama
Ba-rack Obama
Ba-rack Obama

This is typical for me. I come up with an embryo of an idea, and it never develops into a full-fledged song. I tend to hoard these ideas, lest someone steal them. I have enough ideas to fill a notebook or two. Sometimes, by the time I develop a song, it's dated and obsolete. For example, I want to rework "Me And Mrs. Jones" from the POV of one Bill Clinton regarding one Paula Jones, completre with saxophone solo. But by now, it's old news.

Current Mood: creative
Current Music: Los obos, "La Bamba" with alternative lyrics

I'm enjoying this "new" radio I got a couple of days ago at my friend's garage sale. I still have my late uncle's old Hallicrafters shortwave radio, but the 4 shortwave bands on it are a lot more narrow than the "new" radio. It even marked key stations by location on the panel, although I'm sure they're obsolete by now.

( Listening to faraway stations was an old hobby of mine. More radio geekery behind the cut. )

So, what stations near you should I try to listen for? And has amateur radio been supplanted by the Internet?

Current Mood: geeky
Current Music: Queen, "Radio Gaga"

So I woke up early this morning and my eyes still hurt. I thought I'd play with the "new" radio. I found WWV (the US atomic clock time) at 5 and 10 MHz, and CHU (Canada's atomic clock time) at 3.33 MHz. But I can't find the BBC World Service. After some time searching online, I found out that the BBC no longer broadcasts via shortwave to the US. I guess I'll have to get my British news fix through my local NPR station, between midnight and 5 am.

Current Mood: awake

Today I was helping a friend with posting signs and pricing items for a garage sale. As a way of saying thank you, he had me pick out an item. I picked out a Montgomery Ward portable multi-band radio, which picks up AM, FM, shortwave, CB, and a few other bands I wasn't familiar with. (The radio labeled them MB, AIR, PB1, and PB2.) I got home, cleaned the exterior with a baby wipe, sprayed compressed air on the innards, and the radio works quite well. I wish I had a spray that could eliminate corrosion on electronics parts -- WD-40 won't do -- so I can eliminate the static when I switch bands or turn the dial or move the antenna around.

After cleaning up the radio, I went online to look at the radio frequency spectrum chart, and looked at the bands in question. MB (Marine Band?) has from 1.6-4.5 MHz, i.e. high-end AM to lower-end shortwave. The shortwave band goes from 4.5-12 MHz, encompassing the time signals at 5 and 10 MHz. PB1 goes from 30-50 MHz, which convers land and mobile radio. The AIR (Aircraft) band goes from 108-137 MHz, i.e. aeronautical transmissions. PB2 goes from 146-175 MHz, which covers more land and mobile radio, as well as the weather radio frequencies and the audio for TV channel 7.

I am now wondering if the radios that can pick up the audio from the VHF band -- TV channels 2-13 -- will be rendered obsolete when TV broadcasting goes digital early next year. My radio doesn't have a TV band, so as far as I know, I'm not affected.

I wonder if it's too late for me to get into amateur radio. I could be my own DJ, playing electronica, space music, and filk for the entire world.

Current Music: WWV time signal

Had an interview with a solutions provider in Blue Ash today. The drive there was uneventful. The interview went well. After the interview, I went to Micro Center in Sharonville to try and pick up a 320 Gb EIDE drive. I have an empty hard drive enclosure that takes an EIDE drive. But alas, they were out of them, and I don't think there's a SATA-to-EIDE adapter that would fit. Then I went to Red Robin in West Chester for an early supper or late lunch.

As soon as I left the restaurant (around 4:30 pm), the trouble began. I got on to I-75 northbound, which was backed up. I called up ARTIMIS, which told me there was an accident up ahead; it was north of route 129 and the highway was closed at that point. It took me about an hour to move from Union Center Blvd. to Tylersville Rd, where I exited the highway. Tylersville was backed up, but not as bad as I-75. I wanted to take US 42 into Lebanon, but that intersection was also backed up with detoured traffic. I stopped at the Culver's near the WLW tower in Mason, used the restroom, and had some frozen custard. I got back on Tylersville and headed eastbound toward I-71, passing by Kings Island in the process. I didn't get home until 7 PM.

[Updated 26-Aug 01:05] There was no TV news coverage of the crash, but this brief article sums it up.

I hate sitting still in traffic. I think of the gas I and everyone else around me is wasting as we essentially idle. I'd rather be moving, which is why I often end up on these convoluted detours which take longer than staying in the traffic jam. I don't know the extent of the accident -- and I probably won't until the 11 o'clock news -- but it must have been serious if the highway was closed. The section of highway in question is currently being widedned from 3 lanes to 4, so it's a construction zone. My guess -- and I hope I'm wrong on this -- is someone failed to slow down to the posted speed limit and hit one of the workers. Don't people realize that haste is the number one cause of accidents? I want to have a bumper sticker with the words "What's your hurry?" on the back of my car. Meanwhile, an entire community of commuters are inconvenienced. I'm just glad I didn't have to pick up M today.

Current Mood: tired
Current Music: Supertramp, "Take The Long Way Home"

While going through Box 62, I found a few message threads which dealt with my voracious appetite for netnews, aka the Usenet. I read a lot of rec.* groups in college, and probably to my detrement. I even got into trouble with the system administrators because I'd either send batches of news articles to a person who was temporarily off the net, or I'd receive news articles from someone whose site didn't cut them off, thus running up our site's phone bills. (The way Usenet worked in the 1980s is that the machines would call each other and send both the mail messages and news articles in a store-and-forward fashion.)

As I re-read these messages from John and Gretchen, our system administrators, threatening to take away my Usenet access, I felt anger, and then sadness. What I didn't know at the time -- or even admit to -- was that I was addicted to Usenet. I even referred to myself as "The Usenet Junkie". My OCD, hoarder syndrome, and addctive personality aspects ganged up on me. But now that I'm aware of these aspects in my life, I can no longer cry victim. If I was in their position, would I have done the same thing? Perhaps, but I wouldn't have been as punitive.

I kept reading netnews until graduation. Then I had to quit cold turkey, since I no longer had access. That wasn't easy.

I guess I had Internet addiction before it was fashionable, or even recognized as a legitimate addiction.

Now I look back on my college days and think what an idiot I was back then. If I could have spent less time reading the rec.* groups, and maybe some more time reading the comp.* groups, I probably would have had a better grade point average than what I earned. I haven't gone back to Usenet, now known as Google Groups. There's so much information out there on Usenet that it's impossible to keep up. I wish I would have learned that lesson 20 years ago.

Current Mood: okay
Current Music: Tangerine Dream, "Tangram Set 1"

I found another box of 20-year-old printouts in the storage unit. It was mostly mail I received from 1984-86 on the Unix systems at college.

It reminded me of the good times and the bad times; the good people and not-so-good people I knew.

Going through things goes much faster when I tell myself I don't need to keep any of it. But I still wanted to go through it in case there are "gems" I want to keep, like the line-printer printout of Spock holding a model of the Enterprise. Or the light-bulb joke involving the members of the original Enterprise.

This box has been marked "Go Thru" fore a few years. I'm glad I'm finally tackling it. This should have been done a long time ago.

Current Mood: accomplished

I've been watching the Olympics on NBC this past week. I've been somewhat satisfied with their coverage, but not overly impressed. ABC Sports still holds the gold standard, in my opinion. I realize that TV is a numbers game, and they're trying to deliver the maximum amount of viewers for their coverage.

( If I were in charge of programming, what would I be doing differently? )

Who else has been watching? What are your opinions of the coverage? Is the coverage different in other countries?

Current Mood: curious
Current Music: The Psychedelic Furs, "President Gas"

It's rare for me to spend a Saturday night in the summertime home alone. But I did.

Last night, I worked on an old Gateway computer, trying to fix it up for someone in one of the clubs I'm in. (AFAIK, he doesn't know he's receiving it.) I installed Windows 98 First Edition on it (which is what I was given), along with some device drivers I downloaded from gateway.com. This afternoon, I finished installing Adobe Reader 5 and OpenOffice 1.1.5 on it. (I happened to have a copy of Adobe Reader 5 on an old downloads DVD. Adobe apparently doesn't offer previous versions of Adobe Reader for unsupported systems.) In the process, I came across oldversion.com, a repository of older versions of freely-downloadable software. Their slogan: "Because newer isn't always better."

I'm also freecycling my first laptop, an NCR 3180, with its docking station. It's going to a computer engineer who's going to fix it up for his children. Several other people wanted it for school, but they probably don't realize (or care) how old and decrepit it is. No built-in CD-ROM, no USB port, the battery doesn't hold a charge, and the most recent OS it can run is Windows 95 B. It's probably good for text processing only, via Edit or Notepad.

Now that two of my outstanding computer projects have been completed, there's not a lot I want to get done. There's the decluttering, but I don't feel like doing that tonight. Saturday nights are for socializing.

And so I spent my evening watching the Olympics, and falling asleep before Michael Phelps swam his way towards Olympic history.

Current Mood: bored

Fri 8/8: Was mostly a recharge day as I spent most of it in bed. I don't know why, but I was just tired. Watched the second half of the opening ceremonies for the Olympics. Wow.

Sat 8/9: Went to Philip's BASEFILK party at Bass Lake. The guest list: Ann, Juanita,

jinny_e and son, Pat,

infobits, and

ladysoapmaker and kids. I introduced

athenawindsong to the filk community, who felt welcomed there. We also played a few hands of Fluxx.

athenawindsong and I left around 7:30pm to attend the annual Skinner party. Skinner and Yvonne are friends of mine who host an anniversary party of sorts. Lots of interesting guests, good conversation, and yummy food.

Sun 8/10: M didn't go to UU services with me. Afterward, I picked her up. We went to Adventure Golf, but left quickly after she saw a yellowjacket. We then went to the Dayton Mall to walk around and play. We then went back to my house for computer games. We had dinner at McDonalds and went shopping at Target before dropping her back home with R.

Current Music: The Olympics on NBC

In the past couple of weeks, I've seen a TV ad for a website called finallyfast.com. It advertises a free computer scanning service which is supposed to enhance one's PC's performance.

Naturally, I'm somewhat skeptical of the claims, remembering that There Ain't No Such Thing As A Free Lunch (TANSTAAFL). I'm also leery of any online service or program going through my PC and reporting its findings back to whoever is at the other end. ( But I thought I'd check them out. )

Current Mood: skeptical
Current Music: The Thompson Twins, "Into The Gap"

Earlier this week, Forbes magazine had a list of 10 cities that, in their estimation, were dying. The list includes my home town of Buffalo, New York, and my current city of residence: Dayton, Ohio. Their rankings were based on population decline, unemployment, and annualized GDP growth.

I'd have to agree with Forbes. The local GM plant in Moraine is scheduled to close in two years, and last week, they announced that they were getting rid of all 2nd shift workers. Tech Town, a high-tech business incubator project just east of downtown Dayton, hasn't visibly progressed beyond the initial groundbreaking.

Dayton is the home to NCR (once known as National Cash Register), their spin-off Teradata, Lexis-Nexis, Reynolds and Reynolds, their spin-off Workflow One, Standard Register, and Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, to name a few of the major IT players in town. Despite the rich history of innovation here, it's tough to get a job in the area. That's one of the reasons why I'm considering relocating to either Cincinnati or Columbus.

Today's shout-outs: Happy belated birthday

zencuppa!

Current Mood: hurm.
Current Music: Dar Williams, "Mortal City"

Every so often, while channel surfing, I occasionally come across one of a small handful of people that I have no desire to listen to. I'll either press the mute button while saying "Shut up!" or hurriedly switch the channel while saying "Get off my TV!"

( Right now, the list is rather short: Pat Robertson, Bill O'Reilly, and Nancy Grace. )

Current Mood: snarky
Current Music: The Vapors, "Turning Japanese"

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Daily Doings at the Line of Death Bar & Grill

(A Virtual Tavern)

Recent Entries

The Keith rips the GOP a new one.....

Trying to network two PCs running XP....

And we're off and running.....

The Keith denounces the 9/11 Highlight Reel....

The Sounds Of Cylons......

So I saw McCain's speech.....

I'm a student again.....

Yet another germ of a song idea....

DX'ing for fun.....

Where's the Beeb?

I got a new radio.....

I hate it when traffic arteries get clogged....

Confessions of an early Internet addict......

Box 62....

My thoughts on NBC's Olympic coverage.....

Another Saturday night, and I ain't got nobody....

TW-3 for August 8-10, 2008......

Anyone else see the ad for finallyfast.com?

Is Dayton a dying city? Forbes says yes.

"Get off my TV!"