Thursday, November 29, 2007

help! D.A.N.C.E. stuck in head for 4 days

This is more than just like a nuisance: more like a neurosis!  Have you ever heard D.A.N.C.E. by Justice?  It’s infectious like mmm-bop.  Stay away from it, seriously.

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

shame... 911 audio, "You're dead," BOOM

There are so many things wrong here (911 audio tape of man saying, "you're dead," before shooting and killing two suspected burglers) that I don't know where to start. For now, let us completely disregard the absurd self/property-defense argument given, taking into consideration the fact that the voice on the phone was in direct contact with a law enforcement officer who was clearly and repeatedly ordering him to not leave his house and not shoot anyone.

And to give the voice on the phone the benefit of the doubt, we will assume he was drunk or perhaps has served time in prison, which could explain why he's acting more like an animal than the moral beings we purport to be.

Wise men have said to always ask, "why we fight." Unfortunately this incident supports my long-term suspicion. For some people, the answer to "why we fight," is simply, "because deep-down inside, I'm itching to hurt someone." In other words, because WE WANT TO.

I'm really disgusted. Let's save this kind of crap for the football stadium, television, and other opt-in, legal recreation, and not make a habit of destroying one another.

Thanks, Drew, for sending me this.

Sunday, November 18, 2007

internet-connected treadmill workstation, beta2

[unless you are some sort of treadmill historian or Crockett-stalker, skip to the latest version, here: http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/2008/03/exercise-plan-active-lifestyle-for.html]

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checking in re: the latest revision of the treadmill computing environment. All is will with the Gyration brand mouse & keyboard plugged into the throwaway laptop/webcam server. The only thing close to a problem I've experienced is one time I think I shorted out the battery on the mouse by putting it in sweat. But since I got the pro pack with the backup battery, I just switched it out with the other with no downtime.

The display is some HD thing I got on clearance at Best Buy. The important thing to share here is that I opted for a giant, wall-mountable display + wireless HID devices, rather than trying to find an adequate, "close-up" display on one windows mobile device or another.

Last thing I would say about the treadmill thing (besides don't try this at home and use your kill-switch-clip if you do) is that it makes the workout time really fly by much better than the not-on-demand stuff on cable TV. Seems to make the brain work a lot better, too.

Oooh, and as if on queue, a family member just walked in and said, "did you lose weight?"

"Why yes, I did. Thanks to the new Internet Treadmill Workstation 2007!"

Thursday, November 15, 2007

THE MOST IMPORTANT AAA BATTERIES EVER!

I opened this package from Plow and Hearth, which seemed to be nothing more than a bunch of catalogs. I thought, "why did they send me these 3 catalogs and all this promo stuff when I just ordered from them very recently?"

Then I found it: I have taken delivery of two extremely urgent AAA batteries.



All the crock-o-pottomi in crock-town are tired (it's late), so I stared for at least 100 seconds, two tiny batteries in my left hand, huge wad of packing materials and catalog in the right. And my mind became sort of stuck in a loop, going back and forth: "do I laugh at this or have I just been very slightly cheated?"

I need Lewis Black or Demetri Martin or someone like that Maddox guy with a real chip on his shoulder to help me make funny with this!

Thoughts come to mind such as the common bank practice of processing checks in order of highest amount to lowest, to maximize overdraft fees. Or banks delaying online bill payments 5 days to hang on to the money longer.

THESE ARE THE MOST IMPORTANT AAA BATTERIES EVER!

g'night.

Thursday, November 08, 2007

time machine for your website content management system (CMS)

There has been a lot of talk about "time machine" backup that's built into the new Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, so I figured it would be negligent of me not to plug my new web business....

The CMS we install for clients has built in backup archiving (versions sans branching), so the possibility to revert to any single version of any backup is intrinsic to the content management system and therefore already part of your website.

"but wait, there's more..."

Time machine for your CMS is not just for administrators anymore. Install a special widget on your page and allow visitors to time travel, too!

>>> Time machine for your desktop Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard workstation ....
>>> Time machine for your website content management system!

Monday, November 05, 2007

treadmill computing platform, beta1

[Note, 12/8/2008: due to popular demand, all internet treadmill walkstation/workstation/deskstation posts have been moved the the following blog, http://internet-treadmill-workstation.blogspot.com/. ]


[unless you are some sort of treadmill historian or Crockett-stalker, skip to the latest version, here: http://crockettdunn.blogspot.com/2008/03/exercise-plan-active-lifestyle-for.html] ########################################

There has been consistent progress, but also minor setbacks, in the ongoing quest for the ultimate treadmill computing platform. As I type/ride treadmill, I am forced to use my 2nd tier backup throw-away laptop, which doubles as the doggy pillow-cam server.

Yes, pour out a little liquor for my HTC Athena Advantage x7501 battery, and maybe the ROM, too. After much tinkering, this last ROM flash left it unresponsive, and possibly kaput, el-bricko, gebricked. There is a replacement battery en route, so we're hoping for the best.

Although the loss of expensive hardware drives me nuts, after a little thought, I am able to view my destructive testing and experimentation as a positive sign of the aquisition of new capability. (Don't EVEN ask my wife how many Win3.1 machines I killed on my way to mastering 95 :).) This bodes well for the inclusion of WM6 on the CD LLC capabilities list (will work for replacement hardware).

More good news: the Gyrate wireless compact keyboard and air-mouse are sheduled for arrival today, so the problem of the laptop HDD shielding blocking treadmill wireless heartrate monitor will be shortly eliminated.

And that's just a recently discovered problem that happens to be solved by the wireless peripherals set. The original and primary benefit is to separate input from display, which greatly increases the set of possible solutions, because the processing and storage don't have to be compact anymore. Plus, the display doesn't have to be tiny and in-my-face. Instead it can be giant and on-the-wall.

Summary:
1) Goodbye, Athena.
2) Hello wireless peripherals
3) Seeking: thin (not too thin) client

TiVo: i'm impressed

I emailed TiVo yesterday (a Sunday) at 4:30 PM, and I received a voicemail with solution only 50 minutes later!

Hooray convergence... Hooray TiVo!

Sunday, November 04, 2007

webcam: back by popular demand

webcam is back (original post here), mainly so princess buttercup can keep in touch with her fans. This is her pillow, where she spends most mornings watching me check emails:


I figure the live feed is also good for family. I think my mom has figured out that if my animals are OK, it is most likely that her son is, too.

Saturday, November 03, 2007

pocket power... turn your handheld/pda/wm6 phone into a wifi access point

Check this out. No more USB cable needed between my HTC phone and laptop computer.

"EDGE/3G/HSDPA for everybody.... THE PEOPLE DEMAND SHARED GPRS!!!"

http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=341398