Semi-random neuron pulses, 0.X

Career change for my last electric coffee grinder. Due to superior performance by old technology, it is now just another spice grinder.

Looking for more like this at garage sales and flea markets:

coffee_grinder.jpg

I wonder how many politicians dressed up in costume today, wrapping themselves in the flag and pretending to be “statemen”?

Answer: 99.9999999…%

Of those seeking re-election, the number approaches muuuuch closer to 100%.

Would Congress fix Social Security if congresscritters had to rely on it when they retired? Sounds like a grass roots petition-for-amendment drive to me… Would they build a fence if they all had to live on our borders? And what would be the effect if they each and every one had to serve a tour of duty in Iraq? As E-1 grade in whatever service. OK, that last might not be such a good idea. Imagine your congresscritter serving as a private, E-1 grade in an infantry platoon. Talk about endangering the lives of fellow servicemen! OTOH, Teddy Kennedy would make a rather sunstantial shield behind which to gain cover in a firefight. If he didn’t just decide to go for a swim. (Better yet: throw the bums–all of them–out and start over.)

Isn’t Fall, after the ragweed decides to stop afflicting folks, just the best time of year? Gorgeous colors–still greens with reds and yellows and browns and blue skies? Even the gray days are easy on the eyes. And the crisp air and juuuuust slightly sharp bite of Fall breezes. Just nice, folks. I could live like this. Walnuts falling and thwacking me on the head (s’all right: thick skull); cardinals looking for a lil extra feed (keeps our cats at the front door and bay window–*heh*); freshly-fallen leaves from the sycamores in the back yard and the oaks nearby covering the deck every morning (great mulching material); even scraping light frost from a windshield: all these and more–Fall.

Well, time for another go at the Augean stables that my office evolves into every few months. The path to my desk’s becoming too restricted for comfort (*ha!*), so it’s about time to box up stray parts for storage or garage sale, remove spare computers, re-organize wandering CDs, put roaming tools back where they belong (Ah! THAT’S where that was!) and etc. S’all right. I need to move this place to a different location before Thanksgiving, anyway.

Because my parents are making noises about visiting, then. Just a fair warning to the rest of you: get off the roads. *heh* Nah. My dad’s a good driver, especially for someone in his mid-80s.

😉

Oh, what to do?!? I’ve had a “secret project” going for six months now, and it’s been stalled for three. Plans followed. Right materials used. Correct proportions. Doesn’t work right. And yeh, I’m still not saying what it is, although I will say that it’s a musical instrument of sorts. The thing keeps just sitting there, mocking me. *sigh* The thing is, it almost works right. Tweaking it has driven me crazy. (OK, it wasn’t a drive but a putt. A short one.)

Ever notice that the more ya cater to the lowest common denominator, the lower it gets? That’s the key to the “successes” of our public schools (AKA “prisons for kids”) and colleges and universities.

I was shocked to see some pubschool teachers going to school in costume today. Some of them had the audacity to dress up as… teachers. (The real teachers are just more inmates–senior ones–in our “prisons for kids”.)

*heh*

I think if everyone who’s too stupid to drive were the ONLY drivers allowed on the roads for a month, then both of us who are competent drivers could go back to driving after that month and have a muuuuuch easier time of it. Although, come to think of it, there is a slight downside: the enrichment of the blood-suckers who run funeral “homes” (who came up with the idea of calling mortuaries “homes” anyway?).

Ever notice that the number of LEOs (Law Enforcement Officers) who are traffic scofflaws approaches 100%? WTG influencing respect for the law, guys!

I think if we could find the Mothership (circling Uranus?) that houses the Hive Mother, then taking it out would deal a fatal blow to the Mass Media Podpeople Hivemind… Just a thought…

Firtting for Halloween, a gory story: You heard about the dyslexic agnostic? Wasn’t sure there was a dog—until it bit him in the a$$… (and even then, he thought for a moment he was caught on the horns of a dilemma, but he finally managed to bull his way through to the truth).

Whoever came up with the idea of Monday? Whoever it is, he’d better run and hide the next time a Monday like yesterday rolls around…

Finally, buy your own copy. Read it. James P. Hogan’s “Kicking the Sacred Cow: Heresy and Impermissible Thoughts in Science.” An agnostic engineer looks at some of modern science dogma and asks, “Where’s the beef?”

Kicking the Sacred Cow

Kicking the Sacred Cow

Getting rid of an old computer/OTP

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I just recieved another of those emails from PC Mag touting an article on what to do with an old computer. Around here, it’s mostly “scrap for parts,” but YMMV. Here’s the article if you’re interested, but I have a slightly different take.

The very last page of the article finally gets around to (mostly) dismissing Linux as an option for an old computer you may give away. But at least it does briefly mention the Linux distro I’d suggest you put on an old(er) computer I’d giving away: Ubuntu. The cavil in the PC Mag article is, “Windows is what most people already know how to use” but that’s a cop-out.

An older computer–anywhere from a 300Mhz P-II/III! to a 1.5 Ghz “old” box running Linux will run rings around a similar computer loaded with Windows. And Ubuntu is more similar to Windows than the Mac OS is, and almost completely effortless and transparent in maintenance. A link to the Ubuntu FAQ site and/or a few help sites/tutorials on their desktop, Open Office and either Firefox or Opera (my choice) for a browser, and they’re just about set. I’d add a few (FREE) multimedia add-ons, if it were me, but right “out of the box” Ubuntu is ready to just be used.

So why would I definitely load something like Ubuntu Linux on a used box I’d be giving a friend or family member?

They’ll likely never have a licensing issue come up. Their computer just almost will not crash. for example, I’ve been running a box I put together recently 24X7 ever since it first booted with nary a problem, no slowdown, no freezes, no crashes, etc. about like my Linux router and other Linux boxes I’ve built. My most stable Windows configuration is a box built to use Windows 2000 Pro. It’s pretty stable, but not in the class of the Linux boxes I’ve built.

And each and every box I’ve built and tested in Windows v. Linux configurations have been loads faster as Linux boxes, even with all the GUI stuff added on.

So, you want to give a friend or family member an old computer but don’t want them to think you’re the cheap bastard you really are? Clean it up nicely and make sure the hardware’s in the best possible shape (and do consider slapping a new hard drive in). Make it an Ubuntu Linux box, loaded with all the really good Open Source software you can find.

They’ll wonder why you don’t want it any more. And so, very likely, will you.

*heh*