The Weblog With No Name

Edward Kennedy

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Sat, 29 Aug 2009 18:36:00 +0000

He's being laid to rest at Arlington today.

The Commonwealth has lost a great legislator and a good friend.

Mac OS X

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 27 Aug 2009 16:57:00 +0000

Time Machine FTW!

Time Machine just saved me a few hours or so of re-downloading an old public domain movie from Archive.org.

I inadvertently trashed the folder the film was in, and then emptied the trash.

"Ah, bugger. Oh, wait. Right. Time Machine!"

Opened Time Machine, went back a few hours, and there was the file. Select. Restore. Done.

Not dead yet

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 16:53:00 +0000

The G4 died, 6 weeks later, I have (thanks to the generosity of friends) a "new" Mac. a dual processor G5.

So, just had some fun with it. I changed out the Nvidia video card for the Radeon 9600 Pro video card in the G4. I also installed the old Sonnet USB/FireWire PCI card I had in the G4.

Now, the video card has its own slot at the bottom of the stack of slots. The card also has a metal shield that was dangerously close to some solder joints on the underside of the USB/FireWire card.

I slapped some duct tape over the solder joints, trimmed off the excess and installed the card.

(Yes, I could have installed the Sonnet card in another slot. I still would have had a slot I couldn't use, due to the potential of a short between the video card and whatever card was installed in the neighboring slot.)

REBOOT!

Startup chime and then... nothing. Crap! Change out the card for the Nvidia. Reboot. Chime. Nothing. Hell! I KNOW I observed all safety precautions.

OK, work the problem. The computer booted WITH the Nvidia card. What changed? Aha! The USB/FireWire card. Pull the card. Reboot. Chime and boot to desktop.

As I'm setting the Sonnet card aside, I noticed that some of the tape is covering some contacts on the other side of the edge connector. The side I never looked at when I was trimming the tape.

Oooops!

Trimmed that little bit of tape. Installed the card. Reboot to desktop.

AHA! Install Radeon card. Reboot to desktop. USB/FireWire card works. Video card works. Heart starts working.

Really, I am getting too old for this sort of thing.

It Just Won't Stay Dead!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 04:26:00 +0000

2010. Comedy Central.

26 NEW Futurama episodes.

"Hey, Cancellation! Bite My Shiny Metal Ass!"

Speaking of pathetic weenies.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 07:02:00 +0000

One of the stupidest trolls on the Internet has decided to post some comments on this mediocre little weblog of mine. It showed up on the Eschaton blog a few years ago, and immediately began a campaign of vulgar and obscene postings.

I discovered how to get under its skin, to the point where it was begging me to lay off.

Of course, if it had come to Eschaton, seeking a reasonable discussion, couched in civilized language, it would have been welcomed, despite its political leanings.

But no, it decided to be a pest. As ye sow, so shall ye reap!

I shall leave its pathetic little comments on my mediocre little blog, as they amuse me. Its cries of impotent outrage are as the very music of the Angels unto my ears, and I drink deep of its tears!

Texaschilibean: Stumpbroke & Steercotted, say "hi" to your mother, sister and older brother for me, OK?

Go for it, guys and gal!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 06:26:00 +0000

So, some pathetic weenies have complained about this ad campaign With Sally Ride, "Buzz" Aldrin and Jim Lovell.

All you pathetic weenies, listen up!

Your negative comments are understandable.

You realize that you will never be as cool and as competent as those three people in that image.

You will never do anything with your lives even 1% as amazing & exciting & history making as those three people.

You go to work, and the worst that happens is the office coffee sucks.

Jim Lovell went to work one day and made death in space his very own personal little bitch.

Ed Aldrin went to work one day, and discovered that his ride home was broken. The LM was incapable of lifting off from the Moon. A critical circuit breaker was munged.

So, in true MIT Ph.D fashion, he hacked that LM circuit breaker...

With. A. Ballpoint. Pen.

So, what did YOU do at work today?

Sally Ride, oh yeah! The Shuttle has so many critical points of unrecoverable fatal to the crew failure that Chinese bottle rockets have a better safety record.

She has more balls than a Jeff Stryker movie.

I was three miles from a Shuttle launch, STS-4. The exhaust from the SRBs, if the wind changed, well, we were told to get under shelter ASAP. You don't want to be exposed to the exhaust of the SRBs. Not at all.

Just watching a Shuttle launch from the press site can be dangerous. There's 14 names on the Wall at KSC that are testimony that the Shuttle can kill you in horrible ways.

If Ride, Aldrin and Lovell can make a little coin by being in the same picture with some LUGGAGE, what the hell does it say about them, their history and their iconic status that Louis Vuitton is paying them a bundle to be in the same picture with some LUGGAGE?

You pathetic weenies WISH someone would pay you that kind of money, just because of who you are and what you accomplished in your life.

Louis Vuitton wants a little of their fame and status to rub off on its luggage.

Can't say I blame them for wanting that.

Bob Ruzzo

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Sun, 03 May 2009 05:20:00 +0000

I've known this guy for YEARS!

Artist, musician, all around creative fellow.

This is his music website. Really, you should go there and listen to some of his music.

And if he'd get off his duff and start selling his CDs online already...

Wild Turkeys

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Tue, 07 Apr 2009 00:19:00 +0000

Seen around 5:30 PM, April 5th, 2009, at the beginning of the Neponset River pedestrian trail near the Central Avenue MBTA trolley stop in Milton, MA.

Hey, Glen Beck, try THESE principles!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Mon, 16 Mar 2009 20:12:00 +0000

"The principles by which Buckaroo Banzai, M.D., Ph.D lives are known as the Five Stresses, the Four Beauties and the Three Loves. Things to be stressed are decorum, courtesy, public health, discipline and morals. The Four Beauties are the beauties of mind, language, behavior and environment. The Three Loves are love of others, love of justice and love of freedom."

Dr. Banzai can AND HAS kicked Chuck Norris' butt on several occasions.

The 'Impact' rally in Boston.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Mon, 17 Nov 2008 06:12:00 +0000

I was there, along with over 2000 of my closest friends.

Helped some sweet dykes get their rainbow flag hoisted. (Lovely women, but couldn't tie a knot to save their lives!) took a bunch of pictures.

This is my favorite:

To see things like this, fills me with hope and optimism. Seeing these two older, distinguished gentlemen, having a conversation with a teenaged Asian girl, speaks so much about what we can be as a society and have become as a society. That these people, who some would think were separated by the gulfs of race and age were engaged in a conversation, the one, learning from and about her elders, the other two, encouraged and energized by this child.

Yes. This IS what hope looks like, what it feels like.

November 15th. 1:30 PM. Boston. City Hall Plaza.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 13 Nov 2008 20:30:00 +0000

Protest against Prop 8 in California. Rally for full equality for citizens.

Both the Massachusetts and U.S. Constitutions guarantee all citizens the full and equal protection of and under the law.

I'm straight. I support marriage equality.

I'll be there.

(edit) crossposting my comment from the Facebook Boston Rally page:

"These are the times that try men's souls: The summer soldier and the sunshine patriot will, in this crisis, shrink from the service of his country; but he that stands it Now, deserves the love and thanks of man and woman. Tyranny, like hell, is not easily conquered; yet we have this consolation with us, that the harder the conflict the more glorious the triumph."

Thomas Paine, The Crisis -- December 1776

Have fun at your "riding lessons and 'American Girl stuff", your "plays", your "other plans".

Sorry that you won't be there in Boston because of the icky rain. Wouldn't want you to be the least bit uncomfortable.

I'm 56 years old. I am badly afflicted with arthritis. Standing in the cold and the rain will hurt like HELL for me. I'm also straight. But I'll BE THERE for my gay brothers and sisters. No matter what.

I can't really say that I'll miss seeing you 'sunshine soldiers' there.

If you look long enough, you can find anything on the Internet.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Mon, 10 Nov 2008 11:10:00 +0000

For example:
Bertrand R. Brinley's 'Rocket Manual For Amateurs'. Published in 1960, it has long been something of the Holy Grail for modern amateur rocketeers.

Chock full of technical details, design specs, and rocket fuel recipes. And that's the reason why it's been out of print for decades.

Rocket Fuel. There are some seriously dangerous formulas in this book. You could easily kill yourself if you did something stupid.

And of course, in this post 9/11, "BE AFRAID!" day and age, as well as the irrational fear of anything that might possibly hurt someone, no one is going to take on the potential liability for republishing this book.

However, getting back to the subject of this posting.

The book is on the Net as a PDF scan of the pages. I just downloaded it myself. Not that I'm planning to brew up rocket fuel in my apartment or launch rockets from the roof of the building.

No, I downloaded it because I'm now one more person that has the PDF, making it just slightly more difficult for this book to be lost and forgotten.

While I'd love to have a genuine hardcopy of the book, the cheapest version I have seen recently was US$50.00 via eBay. Maybe someday I'll be able to spend that kind of money on a 40+ year old paperback book.

Oh, the URL?

Sure. Here you go: http://www.filestube.com/1144a11ae0e8381203ea/details.html

You'll have to download three seperate files, though, via Rapidshare, which will take you about 45 minutes to get all of them, and then use some manner of file decompression utility to expand the .rar files.

Oh, and then there's the matter of the file password.

It's Brinley.

DISCLAIMER!!! I am not responsible for ANYTHING that YOU DO with this book. Don't be stupid! If you have a "Here, hold my beer" moment and wind up getting a Darwin Award, that's not MY FAULT. No way, no how.

Got that? Good.

Ain't that America!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 23:52:00 +0000

Has it been that long?

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Wed, 01 Oct 2008 04:07:00 +0000

Apparently so.

Save for two trips to NYC, multiple X-Rays and MRIs of my right shoulder, plucking a very nice Macintosh Beige G3 Desktop (with Sonnet 500 Mhz G4 drop in CPU installed) off a Cambridge street corner, said Mac to become my graphics workstation, avoiding early jury service AGAIN, and emailing my Congressman and both Senators, as well as sending actual papermail to their offices, concerning the Wall Street Meltdown and potential bailout, there's not been much writing about.

So, here's the "new" computer:

Yes, that is the "My Life as a Teenage Robot" logo. Gotta love a cartoon where the aforementioned Teenage Robot says things like, "Thank Jobs!" (as in Steve Jobs)

Time for my nighttime pills.

"And so to bed!"

If it wasn't for Alan, you wouldn't be reading this!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Tue, 24 Jun 2008 13:37:00 +0000

ALAN MATHISON TURING
23 June, 1912 - 7 June, 1954

Simply put, Turing is the father of the digital computer.

Dumb Little Thug

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Wed, 18 Jun 2008 21:55:00 +0000

The person holding the camera is myself.

The older gentleman is homeless and lives in his car in the parking lot of a supermarket.

The dumb little thug was arrested shortly after he fled from the scene. He plead guilty last week, thanks to the video evidence.

18 months supervised probation, on top of his current probation (I said he was dumb!) and random drug and alcohol testing.

When you're out thugging, if someone is videoing you, you don't look right at the camera and make threats, make threatening gestures, throw stuff and otherwise MAKE IT WORSE FOR YOURSELF!

You run like hell AWAY from the camera.

Well, THERE'S your problem!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 12 Jun 2008 02:22:00 +0000

A little parking problem on Alpine Street, just around the corner.

The Latest and Greatest!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Wed, 28 May 2008 20:48:00 +0000

UPDATE/EDIT

Mac OS X - 10.5.5

What we can do if we try.

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Tue, 27 May 2008 06:28:00 +0000

The Phoenix Lander and Parachute, photographed as it descends to Mars.

Article here.

Phil Plait says it better than I ever could:

Humanity can do whatever we can imagine. We have only but to decide to do it.

Thank you, Mr. Buckles!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Tue, 27 May 2008 05:51:00 +0000

Last known surviving U.S. WWI veteran.

And thank you, too, Mr. Babcock!

Best. Keyboard. EVAR!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Sun, 25 May 2008 05:13:00 +0000

There's this podcast, "The Talk Show", and these two guys sit around and talk about computers.

They both use Macs and this episode (download MP3) (iTunes) is an hour and 2 minutes of nothing but the Apple Extended Keyboard and Apple Extended Keyboard II.

I use the original Extended Keyboard myself, and listening to this podcast, I learned that the keyboard I use is one of the first generation of Apple Extendeds. Old School, baby!

I also learned that when these keyboards were introduced in the late 1980s, they retailed in the US$170.00 range.

I can believe it. The quality of the parts and the quality of construction is first rate.

It must be, as I'm using a 20 year old keyboard I bought for a dollar at Goodwill, and it works like it just came off the assembly line.

That's my Apple Extended Keyboard up there, by the HP-45 Calculator and Western Electric 4A SpeakerPhone microphone pedestal.

When I got the "new" Mac, it lacked an Apple Desktop Bus port, needed to use the Extended Keyboard.

I found a Griffin iMate interface on eBay for a reasonable sum. Plugged it in, plugged the keyboard into the interface, rebooted, that was it. It worked perfectly.

I was very pleased, as I was NOT going to do without my Extended Keyboard!

Well, how odd!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Fri, 23 May 2008 22:32:00 +0000

Works Progress Administration logo

The wireless connection went all wonky after I fixed a ton of errors on the boot disk with the Disk Utility application on the OS 10.5 disk.

I could not connect to the router. Tried all sorts of things with no success. The Airport Extreme card kept self-assigning an IP address and wouldn't play nice with the router.

Then I found a message on the machintsosx message boards, referencing a document on Apple.com.

I read the document, and thought that there's NO WAY this will fix things.

"Change from WEP security to WPA security." is what was suggested.

"What the hell, lets try it", I thought.

It works.

So, right now, the wireless connection is working flawlessly... right now.

I think that tomorrow I might hit MicroCenter in Cambridge and see if the Ethernet card I want is in stock. I prefer an Internet connection I can trust to stay connected.

(edit) Well, the wireless connection has stayed up and running since this post went live.

Looks like the fix works.

Go figure.

Back to normal!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Thu, 22 May 2008 14:19:00 +0000

For some reason, the new operating system, Leopard (Mac OS X 10.5.2), was VERY slow when accessing the Internet. Web pages took minutes to fully load, if at all.

Turns out it was the Ethernet card in the computer. The built in Ethernet port is dead, and the card uses a chipset that does not play well with Leopard.

So I turned on the wireless connection between the computer and the DSL modem/router as an experiment.

And that was it. The card was at fault and the wireless connection is as fast as the previous OS Ethernet connection ever was.

I'll see about getting a new Ethernet card next month, as I prefer a hardwired connection for reasons of security.

A quick update

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Mon, 19 May 2008 23:10:00 +0000

OS X 10.5 has been successfully installed!
I needed to download only ONE updated application to replace a previous version that was not compatible with Leopard.

Currently downloading the large QuickTime update and the Big Mc Large Huge 10.5.2 combo update.

If The Force and St. Vidicon are with me, I'll have a fully patched and up to date OS running on my Macintosh Real Soon Now.

Ah, eBay, from which all blessings flow!

noreply@blogger.com (Chris Tucker) — Mon, 19 May 2008 14:53:00 +0000

I have this Macintosh Mirror Door Drive (MDD) tower computer, sitting on the floor under the table I use as a computer "desk".

About two weeks ago, I had it on my workbench (aka the kitchen countertop) to install a new video card. At the same time, I had to clean out all the dust and crud that had accumulated in it.

This particular Mac model has some prodigious ventilation needs, due to the dual 1.42 Ghz. processors and massive CPU heat sink.

I had to use the vacuum cleaner to get all the dust, etc out of the inside, and you do not want to know about the mat of dust and hair that had been blocking the main air intake for the tower.

Recalling that there had been some attractive aftermarket "riser" legs for this type of Mac tower, I did a bit of Googling and found them!

However, they are no longer manufactured!

So, off to eBay!

And there they were.

Kept an eye on them for a few days, no one was bidding, I placed the minimum bid and waited.

I won them, PayPal-ed the money, and they arrived the other day.

And here they are, installed on my Macintosh:

They'll go a long way towards keeping the dust and whatnot from getting into the computer, as well as keeping that main air intake vent unclogged.