Edward Kennedy

He's being laid to rest at Arlington today.

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

Mac OS X

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

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!

2010. Comedy Central.

26 NEW Futurama episodes.

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

Speaking of pathetic weenies.

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!

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

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

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!

"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.