Some More Random Pictures
2006
Nov
30
Good Guys, Bad Guys, and Explosions
Remember when Abraham Lincoln died by being hit with a Care Bear Stare after colliding in the air with Jackie Chan while attempting to pole-vault onto Optimus Prime?
I was reminded today of one of the greatest geek songs ever written, “Ultimate Showdown of Ultimate Destiny“.
Extremely catchy. I’ll have it in my head for the rest of the day for sure. But it’s worth it.
Don’t mess with Mr. Rogers.
~~~~~
2006
Nov
24
It’s Not Christmas ‘Till There’s Egg Nog On The Table!
Let me be perfectly clear on this issue.
It is NOT “Christmas season” until December.
Screw your “Christmas Creep“, your “Black Friday” in the States, your “Oh my God it’s not even Halloween yet you insane greedy bastards!!” up here in Canada…
Screw your Santa Claus Parade’s in mid-November (Mommy why is Santa wearing a T-shirt?).
Maybe I’m biased, maybe growing up in the far frozen north (relatively speaking) has ingrained in me a certain expectation of what the holiday season entails. Certain associations I have with different times of the year.
Christmas:
Snow.
Cold.
December.
LATE December.
These are good things to me. Images I want to hang on to. Skating. Hot chocolate. Snowmen. Sleigh rides. All the wonderful cliche’s.
I’m not the most spiritual guy in the world, and this isn’t intended to be some big anti-capitalist rant against the retailers. This is just me taking my own little personal stand for when I will acknowledge the start of the happiest time of year. Once December 1st hits, I’m all in baby. Lights, decorations, trees, music, parties, you name it, I’m in. And I actually have a home nice enough to decorate this year!
2006
Nov
16
The Following Post Is Completely Untrue, I Would Never Install Any Unapproved Applications On My Work Computer
One of the pleasures of a fresh new computer (or hard drive at least) is the blank slate, just waiting to be filled with your own personal mix of “colourful” applications.
As I said previously, I managed to melt the HD of my work laptop, so I got a brand new drive, fully loaded with the standard corporate suite (and explicit instructions to not install ANYTHING else…). So of course the first thing I do is go out and get the real apps that any true digital warrior needs to be productive.
Yes I realize that this post is most likely grounds for termination (if it were true), but hey, do I really want to work in a job without any flexibility for technological diversions? Besides, I end up using most of these to honestly help me with my job, just in ways that are a little outside the box.
Obviously being a corporate computer in a very restrictive corporate environment, there are many limitations to what I can actually use (almost nothing that needs to access the internet other than a browser… no P2P, no chatting (except Skype for some reason), no widgets or gadgets that need to be connected online).
Anyway, after doing the standard updating of drivers, patches, and updates, here’s the list of programs I grabbed, along with whatever options/extensions/add ons:
- Azureus
- Foxit Reader
- GIMP
- Google Desktop
- Google Earth
- iTunes
- jEdit
- Picasa
- Skype
- VLC
- WinDirStat
- Firefox
- Powertoys
- Alt-Tab Replacement
- HTML Slide Show Wizard
- Image Resizer
- Open Command Window Here
- Power Calculator
- TweakUI
- Virtual Desktop Manager
None of these cost a dime… it’s a great world isn’t it? So what’s on your list?
~~~~~
Jack Palance Obit – Sad news for fans of a truly iconic gentleman
Jack Palance Obit, by Harry Knowles
Matrix for Real – Some dude in Toronto getting all flippy
Funniest Images on the Net
Prettiest Images on the Net
Cutest Images on the Net – check these every day
2006
Nov
13
Linux Liason
I’m exhausted.
Been a crazy couple weeks. Back-to-back out of town conferences, then coming home to a completely b0rked work laptop. Total mess, couldn’t even get past the “do you want to boot into Safe Mode” screen. Not so much a work concern, I was sure they could replace the stock system fairly quickly, it was more recovering my files that I was anxious about. Nothing too incriminating, just a lot of project work that I didn’t want to redo.
Fortunately, I had purchased a monster backup drive a couple months ago, and did a complete back up of my docs, e-mails, bookmarks, etc.. Still, don’t want to lose those last few months worth of work. You know, this is the perfect time to give my old buddy Tux a try…
Linux. Ubuntu, specifically. Love it.
Burned a Live CD off my Mac, crossed my fingers and gave it a shot. Loaded up like magic. Looks pretty slick too! Pretty intuitive layout, no big surprises. Had to look up some command-line 101 to figure out how to mount my NTFS drives, and was a tad dismayed to find I could only access them on a read-only basis. I had hoped to delete a few of my personal docs before sending the computer off to the techies, but no luck (remember, I was running it off the CD, so I couldn’t install any additional drivers or other software).
So be it, my external drive was detected automatically, so I was able to copy everything over that I wanted to keep. And, since our tech support took it’s sweet-arse time getting to me, I had a few days to play around with Ubuntu. I’m impressed. I think I may even give it a dual-boot shot on my mac, since poor Susie’s been really acting her age lately (might be time for a full wipe-reinstall… yes it still does happen on Apples, once in a while).
~~~~~
