planetkris

Sit back, relax, and enjoy the crash…

New England is a funny place for winter. It seems to be the only place on the planet that gets snow every winter and where people forget how to drive every winter. Even though we usually can get snow for half the year. Compared to North Carolina, we have no excuses. Our towns own plows, we know what winter tires look like, most of us have driven in it, and I’ve seen it snow in May.

Yesterday, in parts of North Carolina it was snowing 2 inches an hour. These people have no idea what to do with it. It’s as if a landslide came down the hills of Worcester and a 6.9 earthquake opened up on downtown Boston. Game over, close the doors, go home.

Christine was headed to UNC Chapel Hill for a grad school interview. They cancelled the 5:00PM flight, she was unable to fit on the 7:00, and had to wait around Logan until 10:00. Bowl of suck.

I think it’s not as bad as it could be, because people in the South don’t even bother to drive. Here in New England however, we do drive. We drive our 10,000Lb Lincoln SUV with bald “all seasons” down 93 at 75MPH. Then we blame the “freak” patch of black ice for flipping the boat 4 times, throwing headrest mounted LCD panels everywhere, and the resulting 14 car pile-up.

I was thinking about GUI’s the other night while doodling on my OhioArt PDA.

The megacorp that owns the desktop is like any other. They start out small, lie, cheat, steal, become the only option, and move right to the top. Then after a while complacent thinking takes over. “Well, we’re your ONLY option, so - DEAL…” Then down the road, they get kicked - hard. Remember when big blue was your ONLY hardware option?

Well, Micro$oft has taken this path. “Borrowed” some stuff from IBM, “evaluated” some Xerox hardware, flat out stole some file compression software, bundled all of that together in order to push out some Internet browsers. You write code for their OS, while praying that you don’t get stepped on, and dreaming that one day they will buy your little software company.

It’s clear that complacent thinking has taken over in Redmond. With the recent code leak they are scrambling the FBI on contractors, while downplaying the vulnerability. The time is right for an open source kick.

RedHat is a fine example of a company that can make money giving away it’s products and letting everyone look at their code. You can load RedHat, or called by it’s free-ware name Fedora, on just about anything, including the KitchenAid blender. (Okay you may need FreeBSD for the blender.) The point is - you can get any personal computer to run a UNIX based OS. Darwin is Apple’s open source UNIX based OS. The Darwin X86 project is running Darwin on Intel PC’s right now.

So, Apple - here’s what you do: Compile your GUI for Darwin x86. Now every PC on the planet can run MacOSX. Setup a support structure for paying customers and let go of being able to dictate hardware requirements. You will still have the fastest PC’s on the planet and we can now do a true side by side compare of Intel vs. Motorola. Who cares who’s faster - in the long run they will be running your operating system. You will at this point go into competition with RedHat, but I think they’ll survive. Give them free iPods or something.

I’m not a real proponent of astrology. A system of symbols and logic developed when we only knew about 7 planets. Believing in it today is like believing in the great turtle that carries the Earth on it’s back. It’s fun to wonder, but with it’s vague predictions of the past, present, and future - one has to realize that it’s more of a window to ourselves, and our desires, then the actual prediction of events in our lives.

So, am I stubborn? Yes. Does the prediction that, I will be a strong group leader, always faithful, and passionate about my work, hold true? I would like to think so. Do I think that spelling my name with a K makes me unique? Yes. So, if I think these things - Am I changing conformity with will? Is this my own will or the written book of the universe?
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I often find it funny when I am unable to solve my own computer problems. I equate it to the carpenters unfinished house.

I got a sweet DVD burner for Christmas, and it’s been hooked up for a month now. I have successfully made 1 DVD. The $20 pile of crashed DVD-R’s in the trash was starting to pile up. You see - the system would write about 20% of the data, the system would blue-screen, and then reboot.

Updated the BIOS, the drivers, the software, the DVD firmware, the VIA main board drivers, and then went to SP4. Click… Burn… Crash.

I turned off the “reboot automatically feature” and was able to see the offending command. NTFS_FILE_SYSTEM was causing the boat to run aground. I googled the dump and the responding Microsquash tech article said in so many words:

Of course it worked. It’s always the simple stuff screwing up the complicated stuff. It’s always the complicated stuff screwing up the easy stuff. I was able to backup some files on the single remaining DVD-R I had.
groan

- Kris

I’ve been thinking about buying a new PDA for about a year now. I cut my teeth on a Handspring Visor back in 2000, and have been a PalmOS PDA user ever since. Last year I upgraded to a refurbished Visor Prism. I was worried about battery life, and evils of backlit color. The Prism is still working great, but I’m wanting more.

This search started when the sleek new PalmOne Tungsten caught my eye. I have some basic requirements for a PDA.

1. It can fit in my pocket and take said abuse. The Prism is a bit on the bulky side. It’s the limit of what I will cram in my front pocket. So anything thinner / shorter would be an improvement.
2. It runs PalmOS and stores; Phone numbers, to-do lists, journal entries, email drafts, alarms, and some random astronomy applications. The “camera-phone-cappuccino-maker-mini-keyboard” option does nothing for me. A high res color screen would be nice - but that just leads to palm pr0n.
3. Some sort of upgradeability. Springboard, SD, MemoryStick, etc. Even if no company ever makes 3rd party stuff for the gameboy sized slot on the back of your PDA. It’s there and it makes me THINK that I have options.

… and finally
4. WiFi. No, not Bluetooth. I mean 802.11B. This is where we hit our big stumbling block for PDA’s. Even PocketPC’s have this problem. “That’s not true Kris! My iPaq is on teh int@rw3b!” Well, it’s a hack at best. Pull the giant PCMCIA WiFi card out of the ass of your PDA, and ask yourself if it’s an “integrated solution”.
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Christine tells me on a regular basis how much of a renaissance man I am. I realize I haven’t produced any work for a while. This conversation started shortly after going to the MFA’s open house a couple of weeks ago.

Last week while I was cleaning - I organized (found) my old acrylic panting supplies. I need to get some more paint and brushes bad. I was able to sketch and color a quick still-life.

The inspiration came on suddenly, and I think I enjoy painting a lot more now that I’m a little older. This also reminded me of some Steely Dan lyrics:

- Kris

I have 2 comments to make about the Super Bowl:

1. The thought of millions of PVR owners - going back and forth over the halftime show. Like a goddamn Zapruder film. Back… and to the left. Wait for it! Wait for the boob. Does America have anything better to talk about? Apparently not…

TiVo: Jackson stunt most replayed moment ever

2. I enjoyed the game and I’m glad they won. Had they lost - I would not want to go to work in Boston this morning.
buzzkill++

Violence mars celebrations as fans cheer Super Bowl win.
Being a Boston sports fan.

- Kris

A co-worker and I got to talking the other day about Atkins, diets, etc. It seems that fast food resturants are now taking a more carb friendly approach to these new trends, instead of trying to figure out how to make bread and sugar more exciting.

Morgan Spurlock decided to test his own mortality, and the nutritional effects of a McDiet on himself for a film documentary. Morgan ate McD’s for 30 days. Breakfast, lunch and dinner. Entertainment News reported that:

Back in 2000 I broke my McD’s habit. No more “#2 with Coke (no ice)”. No more McNugmeat. I would only occasionally visit for some “happy food” (Hey - I grew up on the stuff). After reading this - you should see me in there even less.

- Kris

Ever wonder what you’d look like if they took a picture of you every month for the last few years? Ever wonder what it’s be like to be arrested every week since 1992 for public intoxication?

Thanks to the Freedom of Information Act. We can peer into the records of the Kentucky ‘Lexington-Fayette’ Urban County Division of Community Corrections. Where a Mr. Henry Earl has spent some time sobering up.

It seems that he’s currently detained.
Free beer at the Superbowl party!

- Kris