Category: *heh*

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“I do these silly things…

…so you don’t have to.” That may be Jerry Pournelle’s well-known comment from his days writing for Byte, but I’ve kinda adopted it here at twc.

Recent “silly things” @ twc central.

1. Lesson learned: attempting to install a peripheral/software combo intended for a Win98 environment in compatibility mode on a Win7 machine is… not recommended. That Win7 install is now well and truly FUBAR. Unbootable. Unrepairable. Dead. Toast. On the last train to its final reward. Gone. Kaput.

*heh* (“I love it when a plan comes together”)

Oh. Well. I’ll reinstall the OS later, but right now I need to screw things up on this Ubuntu intall. Now, how can I manage that….. Oh! I know!

2. Running alphas (alphas!?!) of Opera 10 on my “mission critical” Ubuntu install. Two of them. One is the Opera 10a build 4166 for Linux, and the other is Opera 10a build 1285 for Windows. Each of the builds is the latest for its OS. So, any “issues”?

Ya think?

On the Windows build, not such a biggie so far on this, my third Opera 10 alpha for Windows, build. Fired up quickly and… “*huh*?!? Can’t read the toolbars or menus! Need a microscope to see the teeny tiny print. OK, Tools>Preferences>Advanced>Fonts and change the font and font sizes. Now it’s readable. So far, that’s the only issue on this build of the Windows alpha (running under WINE). Why this “upgrade” of the previous alpha decided to change the fonts/sizes is beyond me. I’ll have to check the Desktop Team site later and see if others experienced this. Could be a regression that now has a fix.

On the Linux version. *sigh* I can reliably crash the thing by simply CLICKing in the compose field to write a post in WordPress. Every. Single. Time. That’s a non starter.

Oh, well. “I do these silly things… ” etc.

OTOH, doing something as silly as running Ubuntu 9.04 in a VM hosted on Ubuntu 8.10 hasn’t wreaked havoc on my machine. Yet. *heh* Still kinda silly, but no negative impact yet.

On the gripping hand, finally a FIrefox upgrade that didin’t force me to reinstall/reconfigure VMWare Server! Yipee! My need to join The Hairclub for Men is averted (just barely)! At least this time I’m not tearing my hair out by the roots over another Firefox/VMWare tiff. Now, if only installing VMWare’s VM Tools in an Ubuntu client would go as smoothly, but no. The open-vm-tools alternative is almost as good, but just not quite.

Oh, well. It’s a silly thing to do anyway–Ubuntu client hosted on Ubuntu. At least it’s not a Wubi install of Ubuntu on a Win2K or XP client hosted on Ubuntu… *heh* Now that was really silly.

Non-compgeeky silly: got some whole, raw milk at a Mennonite dairy near America’s Third World County (over the state line in America’s Third World State. No, not that one. The other one. ;-)) and had to freeze the stuff to get the cream to separate out. *sigh* Why separate the cream out? Silly. Want to make cottage cheese from the almost-skim that resulted. For my amusement. (And enjoyment–I like cottage cheese). Then, see how much ricotta I can make from the whey. Then make bread using what whey is left from that. (I really just wanted to hear “what whey” in my mind’s ear.) Shouldn’t take too much time away from brewing another batch of beer. I hope.

Meanwhile, enjoying real cream in my coffee. Not going to waste the stuff making butter, although I do have fond childhood memories of “churning” the butter. (Didn’t use a churn. We made such small batches, my task, when I was assigned to the butter-making chore, was simply to shake the cream in a jar until I had some butter. Mom would salt it to her taste and we’d all enjoy.)

On second thought, maybe I will make some butter.

Notice no curmudgeonly griping about politics or society in this post? That’s cos I’m weighing whether to move to Norstrilia when the U.S. sinks under a load of political B.S. Sure, Norstrilia is a fictional place, but at least it makes some sort of sense.

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One to See

I rarely come across a movie I’m willing to go see in a theater. This one might make the cut, though.

From the trailer, it appears to be a reality-based fantasy about a world that ought to be. *heh*

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Pitchin’ a concept…

Off-the-wall

For all the folks missing their “Harry Potter” fix cos Rowling’s not doing that gig any more, hows about someone comes up with a series about a Canine Witch… with a crab family for her “familiar”.

Yep, a Canine Witch with crabs. Hey! I can see the first movie already! Bitchin’! (As Sherry M. wrote in my first high school yearbook, many, many, many decades of moons ago… Hey! I earned that by letting her copy my tests in biology. *heh*.)

Be hard to come up with a catchy name for the central character, though, since NOW has a lock on all the really good ones.

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fo’ shizzle…

Seen at American Digest:



You saw it here (probably last *heh*)

Check out more “news” that beats the socks off the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind faux news for accuracy… even though it’s deliberately fictional humor at The Onion. One of the few “news” (that’s not news) outlets worth paying any attention to, IMO.

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The Bell Curve

No, not that one (although there are strong corelations); I’m talking about the reality bell curve, where the left-hand side indicates propensity toward fantasy unrelated to reality (or “reality-based fantasy” among its most rational inhabitants) and the right-hand side indicates a propensity toward a connection with “real” reality in ones thinking. Or think of such a bell curve as left-hand side: arational; right-hand side: rational.

In such a model, the political Left/Right divide begins to make sense…

Those of us stuck in the middle can only fantasize about politics driven by reason.

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Hmmm… Harvey has another take on the issue.

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What to do about the “War on drugs”?

Or, “If I Were Emperor” *heh*

“From the US we can see that strict laws on personal possession don’t work… “

Were I Emperor for a Week, among the silly (stupid and downright evil–in effect if not intent) things I’d repeal would be ALL laws regulating what adults could put into their bodies… along with implementing stringent punishments for harm done to others because stupid, irresponsible adults put things they ought not into their bodies and ended up doing harmful things as a result. Drunk drivers cause a wreck? Lose all their worldly goods–no dunning the insurance past a minimal amount–become the slaves of those they harmed until their monetary assessment’s paid off, then set free or executed–those who killed someone because of their drunkeness–by dropping their own wrecked car on them… until dead. (NOT “cruel and unusual”–see the numbers of people killed by drunk drivers per year by essentially “dropping” a car on ’em. Definitely “usual” and certainly not particularly “cruel” otherwise, why would so many drunks feel it’s perfectly fine to drive a couple of tons of metal into another human at 65mph?) In public. With pre-emptive natiowide broadcasts of the executions on all available channels, including The Cartoon Network. (Never too young to learn that being drunk is stupid.)

No prison for possession or use of any drug. Only for doing things that harm others directly.

Oh, and what to do with all that $$ saved by ending the “War on drugs”? Provide all the lotus eaters all the drugs they want for free in hopes that Darwin will cleanse the gene pool. No other benefits (no food stamps, unemployment, health care), just all the drugs that druggies want, free. After all, the only cure for stupidity is reality.

Gee, as long as I were Emperor for a Week,

–chain gangs for career politicians, educrats, Mass Media Podpeople, Hollyweirdites, Academia Nut Fruitcakes and Prisons for Kids (AKA, “public schools”) administrators.

–abolish the IRS (and add its minions to the aforesaid chain gangs)

–set up a “Greenie Preserve” where Algore and his idiot followers can be one with nature. No electricity, no modern drugs or preserved foods, no modern sanitation, just greenies, nature and… all the weeping and wailing and gnashing of teeth they want

Well, a guy can dream, can’t he?

Next? Well, with the stupid “War on drugs” out of the way, maybe the DEA can focus on something else, like, I dunno, persecuting, urm, prosecuting a “War on feddle gummint anarcho-tyranny” starting with the TSA, BATF and… Congress?

*heh*

Trackposted to Faultline USA, The World According to Carl, Shadowscope, The Pink Flamingo, , Leaning Straight Up, Dumb Ox Daily News, Democrat=Socialist, and Gone Hollywood, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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“*heh*” of the day

Speaking of our options in presidential candidates,

“I know the temptation: Write in Cthulhu. Why Settle for a Lesser Evil?”–Jerry Pournelle

*heh* indeed…

Of course, he does go on to point out one of the (very, very few–like, maybe two? Three?) positive things Juan Mexicain brings to the table that Barry Hussein Obama-Winfrey lacks.

Put on your hazmat gear before you approach the voting booth come November and go ahead and pull the lever (or hang the chad) for the lesser evil, I suppose…

Trackposted to Perri Nelson’s Website, The Pink Flamingo, Rosemary’s Thoughts, The Random Yak, The World According to Carl, and Right Voices, thanks to Linkfest Haven Deluxe.

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Amen Corner

For Hugh, who invoked the tune in comments yesterday:

Amen

(For reference, see yesterday’s rambling post, “DWUC” for what Hugh was “Amening”)

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Monday, Monday… and Monday

Arose this A.M. to the sounds of more rain. OK, I like rain, but really. We’ve had enough, thank you. I see the animals are lining up two-by-two…(At least it’s cooler than normal.)

OK, so it’s raining. And… left my driver’s side window down last night. *sigh* So I get wet as I drive this A.M. So?

So… I go out to roll window up anyway and… the horn on my car’s blowing and will NOT shut off. *sigh* Pull battery cable, cos can’t find fuse puller and fingers too fat to pull fuse.

Drop cable nut.

It’s one of those days already.

Need. More. Coffee.

*heh*

[UPDATE: Of course, once I had early A.M. out of the way and could get back to third world county central, I was able to a.) Locate the cable nut, b.) determine that it was actually the switch in the steering column–shorted out from rain– and c.) detach the horn from the circuit then d.) connect the charger to the battery *sigh*, all in the continuing rain, of course. Car now starts and horn doesn’t “blow (although the tinny thing always did “blow”–*heh*), but now I need to get a hair dryer on my steering column to see if I can effect a “repair” that way, cos I really, really do NOT want to have to disassemble the steering column… All’s well, though. Lotsa stuff canceled cos I didn’t know how long the horn “repair” would take, so… twc central projects and “remote support” the rest of today.]

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A Quote for a Friday

Well, this quote won’t be exact, because I’m substituting one word. Another “light reading” book (I must go through four or five of those a week or be stupified by my other reading *heh*), Hell’s gate, by David Weber and Linda Evans.

“[English] doesn’t borrow from other languages. It follows other languages down dark alleys, knocks them on the head, and goes through their pockets for loose grammar.”

And that’s one reason I love the rapscallion language. And a reason why it’s the ONLY language worthy of being the official tongue of Americans. *heh* Well, at least of the Americans that once made this “the land of the free and the home of the brave.”

As another Voice once said,

“In the first place we should insist that if the immigrant who comes here in good faith becomes an American and assimilates himself to us, he shall be treated on an exact equality with everyone else, for it is an outrage to discriminate against any such man because of creed, or birthplace, or origin. But this is predicated upon the man’s becoming in very fact an American, and nothing but an American…There can be no divided allegiance here. Any man who says he is an American, but something else also, isn’t an American at all. We have room for but one flag, the American flag, and this excludes the red flag, which symbolizes all wars against liberty and civilization, just as much as it excludes any foreign flag of a nation to which we are hostile…We have room for but one language here, and that is the English language…and we have room for but one sole loyalty and that is a loyalty to the American people.”

Theodore Roosevelt 1907

Yes, I added the emphasis. And I mean it.