Movies watched this past weekend

We always have a moving going at the house. A few of our "regular" favorites have been added to the Apple TV for easy portability and so forth but we also have Netflix and will watch new movies. Weather at the beach this past weekend was cold and windy, perfect for watching a movie or three. Aside from the regulars we watched here is a list of "other" movies we squeezed in:


The Quiet Earth

This was an odd one! An indy movie out of Australia about a man who wakes and find himself the only person left on Earth. Or are there more? There are some great scenes in this movie. One especially comes to mind of the movie's lead character destroying a gas station with a gigantic piece of heavy machinery. Why? Heck, why not? He was probably bored!

Before you watch this movie with the kids I should note there is a bit of nudity both female and full-frontal male. Great stuff for the sci-fi fan.

*** 1/2 out of *****



No County for Old Men

This movie was just shy of perfect. There Will Be Blood must be perfect if that movie beat this one for Best Picture of the Year. I'll find that out when I get to see Blood in the coming months. Anyway, back to the subject at hand. I love Coen Brothers movies. Fargo, Miller's Crossing, Raising Arizona, you name it, I probably love it (with the notable exception of O Brother Where Art Thou, it seems that everyone except me loved that movie).

No Country represents the Coen Brothers at the height of their creative potential. Everything about this movie clicks. The writing is exceptional and the production aspects are spot-on. The cast delivers as well. Tommy Lee Jones, Javier Bardem, Josh Brolin, Barry Corbin, Stephen Root and Kelly Macdonald all swung for the fences in their performances and all delivered.

I can't say enough positives about this movie. I'm going to purchase the DVD and add this movie to my Apple TV as a new "regular". It's that good. I don't think I'll tire of this movie like I would so many others.

Good job to everyone involved with this movie and especially Joel and Ethan Coen. A great job indeed. One "it probably is only interesting to me" note about this movie was the desert scenes were filmed on a giant Texas ranch where There Will Be Blood was also filmed.

*UPDATE*

I neglected to mention this movie was also filmed in part in Las Vegas, New Mexico. The 1969 iconic movie Easy Rider was also shot in part in Las Vegas, New Mexico (Wyatt and Capt. America are thrown in jail in Las Vegas, NM after "parading without a license". They also meet Jack Nicholson there as well).

**** 3/4 out of *****


The Fantastic Four

This movie was an absolute crap fest beginning to end. Who green lighted this train wreck? Even Jessica Alba couldn't save this movie, and I would happily watch her do her nails or read a phone book aloud for 90 minutes. This movie had potential but it just fell apart, all the way apart somewhere along the way.

One bright spot was casting Michael Chiklis as The Thing. He played a great human that would become The Thing. That said, when The Thing was actually on the screen he somehow looked "squatty". I thought as The Thing he'd be taller. Granted Michael Chiklis is just short of 5' 9" so he's not a skyscraper but if the thing could grow sideways would he not grow taller as well? Maybe I was fed too much 5' 9" Bill Bixby turning into 6' 5" Lou Ferrigno during my younger years. I suppose The Thing could just grow exponentially in size in every direction except height. Heck, Barry Bonds did.

1/2 out of *****

Top o' the mornin' to you

Good morning everyone. I mentioned before that I was writing a short story around 2000 worlds called "The Reals". The story is finished and has been for a while. I've decided that it turned out "no so bad" and I'm going to submit it consideration for publication to a few coffee house rags. If it manages to make it to print I'll be shocked but you never know, and you can't win if you don't play.
I got to thinking about a couple other stories I started back in the day. Perhaps I should finish one? Story "A" is a Sci-Fi story of sorts with the working title of Kuiper Adrift. So far the story is about a manned exploration ship called the Kuiper that was sent into what was then deep space about 100 years before the time line of the story. The Kuiper disappeared without a trace but has since reappeared in orbit around Neptune. Past that I'm not sure what happens other than Colonel Whats-his-name is sent to investigate with a small group of Marines and scientists. If this all sounds too predictable, and it kind of does to me, please let me know before I waste any more time writing it.

Story "B" is somewhat different. A doctor from New England loses his family to divorce and his practice and license thanks to a disastrous mistake made in the ER that claimed the life of a small child. Distraught he moves around and finally settles in Western North Carolina outside of Murphy where he meets a former Army Medic who is the sole source of healthcare for a community of Mulengeons who are very distrustful of outsiders. Together they hatch a plan to amputate the lower leg of the community's most detested member so they may partake in the most forbidden of activities: cannibalism (the medic ate human flesh once before on a small island following service in Viet Nam and the doctor admits to sampling the forbidden menu once himself while in medical school).

Eh, they both sound kind of stupid. Maybe I'll try to write up something new.

The Drawing of the Three by Stephen King

I managed to finish book 2 of 7 in Stephen King's Dark Tower series. If there's one thing I can say about King is you never know where his stories are going or where they are going to end up. Great stuff.

Where is the series going? I have no idea. From the afterward of the book installment number 3 seems to be a continuance of book number 2. I'll find that out when I start reading that book and that will be after The Bachman Books (I started that last night, I think I got all of four pages in before I needed a nap).

Speaking of naps... my finger aches. Typing isn't helping. What I want to do is take this damn bandage off but the good doctor says I need to keep the bandage on until Sunday but I want to take the damn thing off and take a look.

first three pics from surgery yesterday

They wouldn't let me photograph the actual surgery but I have a before, almost during and after pics online for your viewing pleasure. There aren't many more, at least until the bandages come off Sunday night and we get out first look at the cut itself.

The middle of the three pictures was the best I could do with Photoshop Elements (one handed).

I'm *ouch* alive

It wasn't bad at all. The worst part of the surgery was, well, there was not really a worst part. The good people at Duke Raleigh Hospital where terrific, really wonderful people. The Bier Block wasn't nearly as bad as I remembered either. The only minor discomfort was having both my IV (left arm) and hep lock (right hand) done at the same time. The nurse who did my IV went through the vein the first time so I had to have that done twice but even that was no big deal.

I've got some bruising on my left arm where I had the IV and my right middle finger hurts like hell but otherwise I'm fine. I have some before and after pics that I'll post later.

I can't say enough good things about Duke Raleigh Hospital. The staff was wonderful. Everyone had a smile and put me 100% at ease from the moment I walked through the front doors until I was wheeled out 3.5 hours or so later. If I ever have same-day surgery performed again for any reason my vote is to return to Duke Raleigh Hospital again.

I'm going back to bed for a while. I think the pain meds are kicking back in. Off to la-la land.

I've been meaning to post this

Notice something missing? Well first off I'm assuming that you can figure out what you're looking at. You are looking at The Blue Monster in the outfield of the Durham Bulls Athletic Park behind which Diamond View II is being constructed. Of further note you might notice that the Durham Bull that has presided over right field has been removed leaving only a bull-shaped body minus the face. A sad sight indeed.

In coming months the Durham Bulls are going to install some kind of "3d new bull" will be installed to appease those who can see the bull from the former back side.

Goodbye, Bull. I shall miss thee.

Surgery this week. Thursday in fact.

Ok, it's getting to feel more real now that I've only got a couple of days to go before I head back under the knife. I was going to blog about this a while back but didn't for reasons that are somewhat unclear to me. On one hand once something has been "Googleized" it never really goes away. So if you're going to say something on your blog you'd better be prepared for have that same thing hang around for quite some time. I've told the story to so many people at work I figured what the heck, why not just tell everyone? And here it is.

I've got a tumor in my right middle finger. It is NOT cancerous! Let me be clear: I do not have cancer. But I've got a tumor. Weird huh? It's more common then you might think. Most people, when I say that, ask "is it a cyst?" No, it is not a cyst. A cyst is a sack or sorts. There is a clear boundary between what is inside the cyst and the surrounding tissue.

A benign tumor is not a cyst but does not invade surrounding tissues, does not metastasize and does not grow uncontrollably. What I have is mostly like that only if my tumor doesn't get removed it will continue to grow in size. However, that said, it can only get so big because it's hemmed in by my finger. The real problem here is the tumor most likely didn't "come back from nowhere as if magic"; it was likely never fully removed the first or second time.

See, the thing isn't like a little ball growing in there. Oh no, it's got root-like (or octopus-like if that makes the visual any better) growths that go all over the damn place; surrounding veins, hiding under muscles, wrapping around bone. The damn thing gets everywhere. A tiny piece was likely left after the first and second extraction attempts and it regrew over the last decade into the force that must be dealt with today, or Thursday the 27th more accurately.

My doctor, the same one who removed my tumor the last time, said he's not taking any chances this time and he's "going digging". I told him I really don't care about scarring on my finger; my second surgery was performed through the same scar left from the first to minimize scarring but you can't really see the original scar unless you know it's there and are looking for it. This time I'm getting a new one across the side of my middle finger right over top of the mass. From there it's time to peel it back like a banana and go hunting.

What am I going to be doing during all this? Well I can't really say. I'll be good and stoned no doubt. This proceedure is being preformed under a regional anesthesia called a Bier Block. Having had this done, twice now, I can say this is the worst part of the ordeal. I'll tell you about it now.

First you are given two IV lines, one on your hand to be operated on and one in your other arm. The "other" arm gets a standard IV, saline drip bag, the whole nine yards. No big deal. The IV in each arm is placed in veins on the top of your hands. The arm to be operated on gets a cap on the IV and it just sits there for now. Then the fun begins.

Next comes The World's Strongest Blood Pressure Cuff. There's no velcro on this one; it just slides over your hand and up your arm. Then it puffs up... and crushes your arm. Well not really, but it is a tourniquet that stops the blood flow to the arm. Then out comes The Crippler. I don't know what it is but it looks like a long strip of black rubber, two inches or so across and maybe 1/8" thick. They start on your fingers and they squeeze, as tight as they can, all the way up your arm to the pressure cuff. This pushes all the blood in your arm through the cuff and when the rubber comes off your strong Manly Arm looks like it has magically been affected with Polio. Literally - it looks like a twig attached to your shoulder. Freaky man. Boom - out of nowhere comes THE F*$#!#%$ LARGEST SHOT you've ever seen, but thank God, they hook it up to the IV that is already in your twig-arm. They shoot you up with stuff to numb your arm and all feeling goes bye-bye, in a hurry. The anesthesiologist is, at the same time, shooting your other arm full of happy juice so you really don't care much about what's happing any longer.

Being as your arm is no longer receiving oxygen things start to happen fast. The already cold surgery room (the coldness kills bacteria, I asked last time) is pumped way cold and your torso is covered in the warmest towels that you'll ever have the pleasure of encountering. A sheet of sorts is dropped and you can no longer see your arm and the good doctor goes to work.

They only have 1-2 hours to work with so they work quickly. Both the last surgeries I feel asleep during most of the proceedure. I think I'm going to stay awake this time around. Nearing the end of the surgery, about the time you are getting stitched up the drugs are starting to wear off (the ones that sent you to happy land injected in your "good" arm), you can sort of feel it's all over with. Once the sutures are in the cuff is released and your arm puffs back up and turns pink with happiness thanks to it's good friend Mr. Red Blood Cell and his band of merry friends.

Now, that said, once they let that cuff go all that pain killer in your shoots back into your body... so you're off to la-la land again as they wheel you out of the room to the recovery area where you lay in your bed. Forever it seems. Then a nice nurse comes around and gives you the ok to leave. They dress you back up (modesty has long been thrown out the window this day) and plop you in a wheel chair where you are taken outside for the best breath of fresh air you'll ever have in your life. And then it's in to your friend's or loved one's car to home where you'll spend the day higher than the collective student body of San Diego State. Maybe even ECU.

And then you're all better. Or in another ten years you get to do it all over again! I'm hoping my good surgeon gets it all out this time. I think he will.

The real good news is my wife is a Pharmacist and, believe it or not, they do quite a bit more than count tablets and such. She's in charge of the meds, and the Global Warmer, because we are going to get home and move me from her car to mine and then we're heading East to the beach. Could there be a better place to recover? I think not.

So if I blog about some rambling nonsense Thursday night just ignore it, I'll be toasted.

Question of the day

Who would you cast as which character in a live action Simpsons Movie?

A milestone has been reached

On the way back from the Outer Banks while traveling through Columbia, NC I spotted the before now unthinkable: $4/gallon diesel. I am not kidding. Four dollars per gallon. $4 per gallon. No matter how you write it doing so hurts. Will a gallon of regular reach this level? With the current administration in office I'd say it could be very possible. In my life I've never seen such a mismanaged economy. Not only could gas get to $4/gallon that same $4 can't purchase what it could before thanks to the spiraling death roll known as the national debt.

Don't get me started. In fact I'd better just get back to work.

Time Capsule is finally working! More or less.

The setup was incredibly complicated and far from intuitive but despite the aforementioned design issues I was able to get my Time Capsule attached to my network as an Ethernet backup disk; a Time Machine server if you will.

Just when I thought I was heading towards a brick wall with a $500 doorstop under my arm I found the right "trick" to get this thing to work as intended. The only problem is I'm not 100% certain how I did it. Essentially I told the Time Capsule to "Replace an existing device on my network" and then I attached an network Ethernet port into the "WAN" port on the Time Capsule. After that I went back into the setup and after ditzing around and two reboots later the Setup Assistance said something like "it appears you are using double NAT, would you like to place Time Capsule into Bridge Mode?" THANK YOU! It's all I've been trying to get you to do for the last week. It even turns off the internal DHCP server, something you CAN'T do using the "Advanced" setup options. Go figure.

So fear not, Apple fans. This device will work as intended. Eventually. And if Apple continues to make setup this complicated I could have a second career as a Time Capsule Consultant. That is only 1/2 tongue in cheek. Patience is required in this case. In waves.

The only thing left for me to do is shut off the wireless, and I have, at least b/g/n. Time Capsule is, right now anyway, serving as a 802.11n wireless AP over 5 Ghz. Trouble is I don't have any 802.11n devices. Except my Apple TV. And that is already plugged in via Gig-E.

Over and out. I'm going to get a strong beer to celebrate (out of the garage fridge). On an unrelated note I saw another new species on the way back from the outer banks today: some kind of otter. And even better I managed to fill up the Chevrolet Valdez (Suburban) for $3.07/gallon where Highway 12 splits from Highway 64. You can't beat that. Sadly.

Time Capsule: a disappointment?

Apple's new Time Capsule is a disappointment. So far. Mine was on the porch yesterday when Kelly got home and awaiting my arrival from work. Excitedly I tore into the package and admired the white case with the gleaming silver Apple logo on the top. After plugging the unit in all I got was grief.

What I want to do is take the Time Capsule and place it on my LAN via one of the three Ethernet LAN ports. I don't need to know or care what IP address is assigned to the unit as the services are advertised to my Macs via Bonjour (and if I wanted I could assign an IP address via DHCP by mapping the MAC address but I really don't care about that). Apple doesn't seem to want you to be able to set up your Time Capsule in this way, or, at the very least, they will fight you tooth and nail to make you set it up another way.

Apple seems to want the Time Capsule to act as an Internet router thus displacing whatever device you have currently doing that job. This just isn't acceptable. I have been using M0n0wall on a Soekris board for years and I'm not changing now. End of story. The Time Capsule freaks out if you do not have an address assigned for the WAN port and there seems to be no way to turn off the LAN port DHCP server. Pathetic!

Tonight I'm going back into battle. I'm going to tell the Time Capsule to create a new wireless network with the hopes that doing so will shut down the WAN port (as logic would somewhat dictate that creating a new wireless network means I'll be placing the unit on an existing LAN). If that doesn't work I'll try "replace existing wireless device" and see how that goes. But there is a problem with both of these options: I don't want to use the 802.11n interface built into the Time Capsule! With any luck I can get the unit set up on the LAN and then turn off the wireless interface via the "Advanced" commands.

Oh, and about the "advanced commands"? They are anything but. Yes, I can selected from a *PREDETERMINED* set of DHCP ranges but I can't turn the DHCP sever off? Why? And why can't I disable the WAN interface and tell the three port LAN switch to broadcast for a DHCP address? Why? WHY? WHY? WHY?

Apple, I'll withhold final judgment as I have not fully exhausted every single possible option to set this thing up in a most logical manner. But, I have to tell you, you didn't just swing and miss here, Apple. You went three up, three down with this offering. But there's still hope, it's not game over, at least not get.

If I end up having to use the Time Capsule as The World's Most Expensive Internet Router at the beach condo because I can't get the device to do what I need I'll be kind of pissed. I'm not replacing my home firewall. No (how will I do site-to-site VPNs?). This device was purchased to be an Ethernet connected backup server. It appears you will allow to same device to be a 802.11 connected backup server. Why can't I do the same with Ethernet? Who wants to have a device as a wireless backup server when you have access to Gig-E?

Why would a $500.00 Time Capsule be less configurable than a $99 Airport Express? I'm really confused here, Apple.

jst bac frm the ER

I managed to fillet open my right middle finger pretty good. D'oh. I had made a salad and I heard something tumble into the sink while eating. I took notice then forgot. Whoops. That something was a very sharp Heinkle knife that landed, you guessed it, upside down. I remembered when I placed my bowl into the sink. YOWZA!!

Luckily, no stitches. Before anyone goes and throws the wimp card let me tell you that I am having minor outpatient surgery on this very same finger in just eight day's time. So I had to have the wound properly cleaned to ensure there was no chance of infection, blah blah. Plus the triage nurse really thought that I was going to get at least two stitches (and I did as well) but, like James Goodfellow, I clot well (I think only ex-Oculan will get that reference, and then only maybe). :)

I do, however, have a very big splint on my finger that reminds me of someone who suffers from mallet finger. I should get my splint off just a couple days ahead of the next one following my surgery.

Night all.

The spending spree has ended

I'm working away here in Durham while Kelly and some friends at at the Outer Banks. Kelly gets a month more vacation than I (really) so this kind of thing isn't uncommon. What transpired with the heat pump on the condo is, at least I hope. The heat pump has looked to be in sad shape and we knew that it would give up the ghost in the next 24-36 months. Turns out the heat pump had other ideas, it wanted to die within the next 12 months, and, brother, did it ever.

Turns out our HVAC was slapped together by the previous owner somewhat on the cheap. Normally a heat pump provides both heat and air conditioning but our was rigged up poorly. Heat in our condo was provided only by a few failing heat strips located in the central blower: i.e. cheap to install and very expensive to operate. This didn't phase the previous owner as this unit was a rental and was occupied, generally speaking, only in the summer months. We have noticed, one more than one occasion it gets quite cold in the unit even with the "heat on". Now we know why.

In fact during the depths of winter when the nighttime temperature would dip below freezing we talked about the need for a larger bed (queen at the beach, king at home) specifically so the dogs could sleep with us and keep us warm. Given the small size of the bedroom we opted for a couple electric oil heaters which are very efficient. Truth be told, the electric heaters work great and are very inexpensive to operate. All the same, if we are replacing the heat pump I want the heat strips removed.

In just a few hours all this will be a memory. The heat strips will gone, a new (correct) thermostat will be on the wall, new duct work will replace the patched up nightmare that exists today and a new Trane heat pump will reside on the raised pad below the condo.

Let's hope this thing runs for at least 10 years now that it's all being corrected.

rain over the weekend helped a lot

The lake is much more full than last week. It certainly isn't full but it no longer resembles a grassy field with a river running through the middle either.

my ipod

my ipod.  I am blogging from it.

Today I'd rather be in

Paris. Brussels. Seoul. Tokyo. Amsterdam. The Haag. Rome. Moscow.

Anywhere, but for some reason I wish I were abroad today. Perhaps sitting at a cafe, sipping a glass wine and enjoying fresh baked bread on the banks of the Seine. That sounds nice. Or walking along the canals of Amsterdam. Or in City Square in Brussels. You get the idea.

**** UPDATE ****

Nope, I figured it out. West Coast of Puerto Rico. Parador Villa Antonio in Rincon. That place was great. Either there or Quadulan Island.

Hour #2 with Kelly's iPod Touch

It is possible to lock the screen to keep your data private. The lock is under System Preferences -> General -> Security (I think). You can also dump the history and cookies out of Safari but you have to do this manually. I would greatly prefer a setting that would do the same each time you ht the Home key or each time the unit was powered up after going to sleep. Not having this setting will ensure that once Firefox is ported to the iPod Touch that application will be installed in favor of Safari. Otherwise Safari is a fine browser for this hand-held.

After using the unit for hour #2 I'm further addicted, more so than yesterday. The only problem is I don't think there is anything I can do about being addicted unless... no, even the thought is just too painful. Unless I volunteer to be primary on-call during the next data center shut-down. Doing so would practically ensure I would make enough call-out pay to cover the cost of the device but it would require at least 36 hours straight of listening to people bitch and moan (not to mention running around like a chicken with your head cut off trying to restore services to different applications, each determined to be "the most critical business app" by people very high up the food chain).

I'll have to decide how baldly I want this thing.

one hour with Kelly's iPod touch

Wow. This is THE MOST AMAZING iPod I've ever seen. I wish I had bought the darn thing for myself now. Grr. I'll just keep telling myself my last gen iPod nano is good enough (and it is). But, wow, what a great feature set on this little device!

First we unboxed the unit (duh) then marveled at how small and sleek it was. We then plugged it into Kelly's computer and synched the songs, photos, movies and TV shows. That took about one hour or so. Not bad. We played around with the settings, rotated movies and so forth, used coverflow, it was all very cool.

Then I set up the Wi-Fi connection. Oh my. The little gizmo came alive I tell you. ALIVE! Soon I had Safari surfing different sites, my stocks were updating over the web and I had gmail's IMAP interface working like a charm. How sweet this thing is! Then I watched Wynon'a Big Brown Beaver (calm down, it's a Primus song) over YouTube. Oh lord. I'm hooked! HOOKED I TELL YOU!

I love the "Internetconnectedness" of this thing. It's great! Now, my only question is do I wait for an iPhone of my own on a different carrier or do I get my own iPod touch. My aforementioned iPod nano is a fine little device and there is no real reason to cast it aside. Plus I think two $499.00 iPods is more than a bit over the top (thank you yearly bonus!). I probably will not get an iPod Touch of my own, but, damn, I want one.

Now, one gripe (so far, I'm sure there will be more). I could surf to FoodTV.com and look at a PDF recipe but I had no way to print said recipe even though my printer is Bonjour discoverable. That was a disappointing limitation. It would have also been nice to be able to save that same PDF to the internal drive then "grab" it using the Mac. I'm not sure if I can do that or not.

Oh, another gripe. I want a way to reset Safari just like you can on the Mac. I want to clear out all cookies, history, etc. In fact I'd like to have that setting be automatic each time the browser is closed. After only one hour with the iPod I could quickly see just how much personal information could be stolen if the unit were to be misplaced. Some kind of biometric "awakening", such as fingerprint recognition or even a simple four-eight digit unlock code, rather than just sliding the bar would be preferable as well. Perhaps some kind of lock is possible. I would hope so. I'll find out tonight.

Allow me to introduce..

The South Pacific Coconut Crab.

vision and loss of the same

Today I had my first full eye exam. Ever. At age 37. I've always been blessed with 20/20 eyesight but lately I've started to question if my eyes were changing (right now my pupils are very dialated and I can't see very well, in fact I can't really read what I"m trying so I'm assuming I'm not making any mistakes). Sometiems I'd find myself leaving int towards my monitor at work, squinting at the small characters.

Turns out I still have 20/20 vision. I'm happy about that. The last time I had that checked was in 2004 when I received my medcial clearance for flight school. But, dman, the stuff they put in your eyes to dialate your pupils? That stuff is brutal! Now, for the first time, I can't really seem that well. It's really frustrating, actually.

But I hear my vision will return to mormal in a couple of hours. I hope so.

Movie watched this weekend

Schultze Gets the Blues is a fine little movie about a man named Schultze who lives in East Germany. He works in a salt mine and one day he, along with two friends, are abruptly "retired" from the company. They are given a block of salt with a light inside and sent on their way. Schultze plays the accordion for a local band but aside from his music he is having difficulty filling all the extra spare time on his hands.

Late one night Schultze hears a Zydeco song on the radio and this moves him to pick up his accordion and play the song he just heard on the radio. Undeterred by the fact he can't speak English Schultze decides to pack up and head to Louisiana to fully immerse himself in Cajun music and life.

There is nothing really "wrong" with this movie but I feel it could have used some more editing. In the end it was a very good 120 minute movie that would have made an excellent 90 minute movie. You wouldn't have even had to edit out a lot of major scenes, just trimmed some of the existing scenes and maybe lose one or two scenes that failed to progress the story.

Still, though, this is a good movie. Anyone with even a passing interest in Cajun music, or Polka for that matter, should watch this movie.

*** out of *****

Leopard Household

I finally upgraded the last Mac in the house to Leopard yesterday. The old 1.5 Ghz Mac mini took the upgrade rather well, though more slowly than the dual-core Intel Macbooks. A slowdown was to be expected and overall the process took about two hours. Upgrading the mini was a bit more complicated as I had a MySQL database on the primary disk as well as some shared applications. Oddly once the machine was upgraded the web server was turned off when it had been on prior to the upgrade. Weird. The fix was easy enough, just go into System Preferences -> Sharing and click the button for "Web Sharing". For the record every other service that had been used prior to the upgrade was still up and running, even Bonjour Printer Sharing worked without having to be tweaked.

After hearing about the problems people encountered "upgrading" to Vista I am left to wonder why these same people just don't switch to the Mac platform. Try performing an upgrade from XP to Vista on a machine as old as my mini then catalog everything that won't work under Vista that did under XP. All my USB and 1394 peripherals worked, did yours? Aside from my web server mysteriously decided to be "off" rather than "on" I had no problems. I'm willing to bet your XP to Vista upgrade was more challenging.

Work to restore Kelly's laptop continues. We were able to recover most of the purchased content from her video iPod including some, but not all, of the TV shows and The Royal Tenenbaums, her only movie. The playlists on her iPod are gone and cannot be recovered, as far as I can tell. Restoring iTunes was, by far, the most troublesome activity following Kelly's disk crash. The only reason it was troublesome was we did not have a good backup plan in place. Leopard and Time Machine fixes that and once the Time Capsule arrives I'll have the mini backed up as well. I only wish Time Machine had been a part of 10.4 but at least we a great backup solution in 10.5.

Two things

I just used speedtest.net and found the results for NC Road Runner in the 5m download/512k upload. That matches the speeds I get at the Outer Banks through Comcast.

Now, here's the weird thing. We have a Road Runner connection at work that we use to test external services such as VPN and servers that reside in the DMZ that can't be accessed from the company LAN. Using the work RR connection I get 5m/1m upload. My office is in Durham and my home is in Youngsville. I can't imagine why I'm getting twice the upload speeds in Durham than I am in Youngsville unless the SLA is different (and I'm sure about that... I don't receive the bill so I have no way to check and see what kind of contact we have with Time Warner).

spending the bonus money

This week was bonus week at work. Happily we managed to hit our targets so we all got a bit extra in the old paycheck. Coming soon I'll be reviewing Apple's Time Capsule, once it arrives of course. I ordered Kelly a 32 gig iPod touch as well. I really wanted to put a down payment on a V-Strom 1000 but I have yet to hit my goal weight so no motorcycle for me. Yet.




This is a Honda Big Ruckus clone and soon it will be mine. The discontinued Honda Big Ruckus was a 250cc scooter while this is a 150cc. Why on Earth am I getting a scooter? Kelly has one, a 50cc "little" Ruckus, and she gets lonely riding alone. I angled for a used motorcycle between 500cc and 750cc but she wasn't going for that. No way. In order for me to get a motorcycle I have to hit my agreed upon target weight and I'm not there yet. I suppose it's only fair and I have to live up to my end of the bargain, but you know I still tried to get the motorcycle.

Besides, this scooter looks like a hell of a lot of fun. It should be here this week sometime. It's being delivered by truck from Florida and will have to be present to sign for delivery. I'll have to perform some very minor assembly, fill it with oil and gas the I'm off to the races. I'll keep everyone posted.

SSSSSSSSSSHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!

It's yearly bonus time at work. Time to order me an Apple Time Capsule and Kelly the coolest product this side of Mars (not an iPhone; AT&T won't work for us as a carrier. Had Apple gone with Verizon for a carrier..........)

Actually I'm going to take a drive to the Apple Store. Why not. Today's Lunch-n-Learn has been canceled. Maybe, just maybe, they have the Time Capsules at the Apple Store (they did not earlier in the week but they are shipping from Apple to customers who order on-line).

UPDATE

Well I'm not going to the Apple Store. I carpooled with Kelly today and I have no way to actually get to the Apple Store as the work van is in Richmond, VA. Darn.

NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well at least I become Darth Vader and am ultimately saved.

Goodbye, beer

North Carolina recently passed a law that allowed beers of greater than 6% alcohol to be sold in the state. I was a big fan of this raising the limit as doing so would and did allow craft brews from small microbreweries to be sold in North Carolina that were previously off-limits.

The law was passed last year and a flood of new, wonderful beers started to appear in North Carolina. My favorites, in particular, have been the IPAs, or India Pale Ales. Excellent barley and malt, not to mention heavy hops that give the IPAs their distinctive bite, creates a tasteful explosion across the palate that just can't be beat. Most good IPAs are in the 7% to 10% range with some going to extremes. An extreme example would be Dogfish Head 120 Minute IPA that clocks in at a whopping 20% alcohol! I have tried this particular beer both in the bottle (imported from PA) and on tap at the Dogfish Head restaurant in Delaware and, let me tell you, it packs a whallop. It actually drinks more like a brandy than a beer. But I digress.

Beer is considered by many to the be drink of the "common man", and more usually the "redneck man". Attitudes towards beer are changing, and that is a good thing. Beer is as complex as wine and as a person who makes wine I can say that making a good beer is more difficult than making a good wine, at least in my opinion.

Why am I droning on about beer? Well, I'm going to give it up for a while. All forms of alcohol in fact. Wine too (the good news there is we are out of red wine; we sent many bottles out as Christmas presents and went through the least of our red, my favorite wine type. We have six gallons bulk aging right now, but that same stuff will have to bottle age for another four month at least so I'm temptation-free there).

But giving up IPA, that's tough. Granted, I don't drink much of it but with strong IPAs you don't need a lot of beer to consume a lot of calories. Looking back at the Dogfish Head 120 that particular beer measures 362 calories - per PINT! Dogfish Head 90 Minute (9%) isn't far behind on the calorie count. This is a greater amount of calories than an equivalent amount of Coke. It doesn't take a mathematician to see how these can add up to extra pounds.

So, goodbye, IPAs. Goodbye Spanish Riojas, Pinot Noir, and other reds. We'll meet again when the waistline is where it should be. *SNIFF*.. I have *SNIFF* something.. *SNIFF* in.. my eye.. excuse me, I have to run to the restroom. *SNIFF*

Yesterday's rain served us well

I'm happy to announce following my drive over Falls Lake on I-85 the rain replenished quite a bit of water in the lake. We are far from "out of the woods" and there is still more mud and dirt to be seen when crossing the river than water but water is flowing into the lake at a nice clip. In short, it's just what we needed (only we need a lot more of it).

One of the happier moments of today's commute was driving over the small bridge on North Side Road very close to Highway 15 and the I-85 exit. A small "bay" exists here that, at times, has been completely dry and most of the time the bay had a thin, spotty veneer of water atop glistening mud. Today, however, there was quite a bit of water in the "bay" and a stick poking through the water revealed ripples! Yes, rippling water meant flowing water and, dammit all, that's a good thing.

We'll see how the lake looks through the rest of the week. I'll try to snap some pictures Thursday and Friday.

You dropped the bomb on me..

No, I'm not thinking about The Gap Band. Looks like the proverbial bomb dropped at Motricity today. From what I understand, or hear via rumor, the Motricity HQ will be moved to Washington State and the Durham office will be shut down. Dang. I wish Bill and Sean the best through this transition.

More thoughts on the V-Strom

Yeah, this is the future bike for me, I think. After going back to look at some of the proposed upgrades I think I might opt for side cases rather than a top case. The top case, especially if the side cases were not installed, looks a bit bulbous to me. Still, it offers a lot of storage for the money.

Ah, who knows. I've got to stick with "The Plan" and I need to keep dropping weight. As I've stated before, the only thing keeping me off this bike is me. I got myself into this situtation and I can get myself out. For the record, the other upgrades consisting of a tall windshield, heated grips and a center stand are all bolt-on accessories I can install myself. These will most likely be the first, second and third accessories installed, but not necessarily in that particular order.

I'm writing all this because I don't want to write about that puppy-throwing Marine. Young man, blatant cruelty to animals and killing of six-to-eight week old puppies are NOT among your General Orders.

Changing OS X global file permissions

If you want to change a global file permission in OS X, say a .xls file from Excel to Numbers, select a .xls file in Finder then hit Command-I to bring up file information. From there look under the "Open With" section and change from the app you want to the app you want (also click "Change All"). That's it.

Dead Animals Seen This Weekend

Dolphin. See on the Outer Banks on the beach around ramp number 27. Damn thing stunk to high heavens too. He'd been dead for a while.

Black Bear. Seen on the side of Highway 64 between Mann's Harbor and East Lake.

White tailed deer. Franklin County. Seen on the side of Highway 96.

Turtle. Blended. On highway 64.

Opossum. Numerous, on the road in different counties.

Unknown. Filed under "Road Protein". Many.

Normally I talk about the wonderful wildlife seen alive in NC. We do have a wealth of biodiversity between the borders of this wonderful state. This weekend I didn't see anything remotely interesting. The six to seven foot alligator was not in his or her ditch; truth be told I haven't seen the gator in quite some time. Normally I see plenty of dolphin frolicking in the waters but I scored a goose egg spotting them his past weekend.

While on the beach proper I saw another cargo ship using the binoculars. Those damn ships are HUGE. No private planes buzzed the beach, that was also unusual and we normally see at least one Coast Guard plane or helicopter but they remained unseen as well.

Maybe I'll have better luck next trip.