It was actually a bit of a shock. He called to say that he proposed to his childhood sweetheart at a company picnic. At the end of the month they came down to get grand ma's ring to mark the engagement. His mom and I were not fooled. At lunch we both guessed they eloped. Since we both knew they had to tell her parents early. The next night, when the were planning to announce it we had a nice party.
I cannot say how happy I am for them or how proud I am of him. Way to go Joe!!
Wednesday, September 10, 2008
Sunday, August 17, 2008
Yahoo sports is better
yahoo sports is close to what I am looking for.For instance, here is the Barbados team. You can click on the athletes and go to a bio page that includes races they competed in. If they are going on you can get to the scheduled races also.
The best part is my browser never bottoms out like on the NBC Olympics site.
The best part is my browser never bottoms out like on the NBC Olympics site.
nbcolympics.com is top heavy
It might be because I am not using a Microsoft (Macrosplat??) browser or OS, but nbcolympics.com just does not do it for me.
First off is the behind the scenes data transfer that keeps going on. Yeah, AJAX is a great thing, but when there is so much background activity that it takes five minutes to get a TV listing something is wrong. In Firefox under Linux when the browser is waiting the window goes gray. I sat for five minutes not touching the mouse after clicking on a tv listing. The window went in and out of gray. Of course this was a busy time, Sunday morning at 10:00, so the site was busy.
The way I have to get a tv listing is pretty dumb. They have this grid with times across the top and stations on the side. So you have to click on a box that corresponds to a time and a channel. Eventually I got my tv listing for the local NBC affiliate for the whole day. Wonderful, totally worth waiting five minutes for :-P. It was hard to see it because it kept going in and out of gray. When it is gray there is no scrolling or clicking or anything that works. Why is there data transfer taking place?? I am not doing anything, just trying to look at what I called up.
besides that, why do I have to click on this time grid to get the whole day for one lousy channel. Why not have all the channels in a list folded up. If they are going to give you the whole day, you might as well be able to choose the channel you want unfolded, more than one to scroll back and forth to see what you are going to watch.
This is just carping,of course. What I am really upset about is the fact that designed the sight to show off Flash and AJAX. As usual, NBC forgot that the Olympic games are about the GAMES. I don't want eye candy, I want information about the athletes and the competitions they are signed up for or already competed in. It is next to impossible to trace an athlete through an event.
You would think You could click on a country and get a list of athletes, at minimum. Go ahead, click on a minor country like Barbados. Not much there except that they are not expected to medal in any events. Yeah? So? They are HERE are they not??? Show us who is here under their flag and what they are competing again. It would not take much to add a list to the bio page.
How about events? You have to know what days an event is to see the results. Why??? You should be able to click on an event and follow it through the heats and semifinals to the finals. That is not how it is. Click on Sports. Somewhere there after all the little videos you might find results and schedule. Then, after waiting for all the stuff to load on the next page you have to unfold the days and try to figure out where the event you are tracing is. Go ahead, Figure out what events Bradly Ally from Barbados was in and what happened. I watched him come in 3rd in his heat and qualify for the semifinals. I lost it there.
I have an idea for NBC. Hire some athletes to help you with the website for the next games you cover. Figure out what the games are about. Give people the ability to choose between eye candy and information. NBC has gotten better at broadcasting the games. Well, a little better. The website sucks
whatever. Like I expect NBC to do anything that makes sense.
Enjoy the games
First off is the behind the scenes data transfer that keeps going on. Yeah, AJAX is a great thing, but when there is so much background activity that it takes five minutes to get a TV listing something is wrong. In Firefox under Linux when the browser is waiting the window goes gray. I sat for five minutes not touching the mouse after clicking on a tv listing. The window went in and out of gray. Of course this was a busy time, Sunday morning at 10:00, so the site was busy.
The way I have to get a tv listing is pretty dumb. They have this grid with times across the top and stations on the side. So you have to click on a box that corresponds to a time and a channel. Eventually I got my tv listing for the local NBC affiliate for the whole day. Wonderful, totally worth waiting five minutes for :-P. It was hard to see it because it kept going in and out of gray. When it is gray there is no scrolling or clicking or anything that works. Why is there data transfer taking place?? I am not doing anything, just trying to look at what I called up.
besides that, why do I have to click on this time grid to get the whole day for one lousy channel. Why not have all the channels in a list folded up. If they are going to give you the whole day, you might as well be able to choose the channel you want unfolded, more than one to scroll back and forth to see what you are going to watch.
This is just carping,of course. What I am really upset about is the fact that designed the sight to show off Flash and AJAX. As usual, NBC forgot that the Olympic games are about the GAMES. I don't want eye candy, I want information about the athletes and the competitions they are signed up for or already competed in. It is next to impossible to trace an athlete through an event.
You would think You could click on a country and get a list of athletes, at minimum. Go ahead, click on a minor country like Barbados. Not much there except that they are not expected to medal in any events. Yeah? So? They are HERE are they not??? Show us who is here under their flag and what they are competing again. It would not take much to add a list to the bio page.
How about events? You have to know what days an event is to see the results. Why??? You should be able to click on an event and follow it through the heats and semifinals to the finals. That is not how it is. Click on Sports. Somewhere there after all the little videos you might find results and schedule. Then, after waiting for all the stuff to load on the next page you have to unfold the days and try to figure out where the event you are tracing is. Go ahead, Figure out what events Bradly Ally from Barbados was in and what happened. I watched him come in 3rd in his heat and qualify for the semifinals. I lost it there.
I have an idea for NBC. Hire some athletes to help you with the website for the next games you cover. Figure out what the games are about. Give people the ability to choose between eye candy and information. NBC has gotten better at broadcasting the games. Well, a little better. The website sucks
whatever. Like I expect NBC to do anything that makes sense.
Enjoy the games
Saturday, July 12, 2008
I finally got it!!
When i first posted about loading Ubuntu Hardy Heron I said that one problem I had was connecting my Netgear SC101 to my new linux box. This is where I store all my important files like a million mp3's, videos, old files from various PC's, resumes, whatever. I really wanted to have a connection.
One thing I noticed was that it was dirt simple to use windows networking from my linux box, much easier than when it was an all windows network, go figure.
It finally occurred to me that the SC101 drives look just like regular hdd's to windows. They even have a sharing item on the right click menu. I shared the network drives and looked from my linux box and there they are!!!
All my problems are solved ;-)
Next I have to get my webcam working.
One thing I noticed was that it was dirt simple to use windows networking from my linux box, much easier than when it was an all windows network, go figure.
It finally occurred to me that the SC101 drives look just like regular hdd's to windows. They even have a sharing item on the right click menu. I shared the network drives and looked from my linux box and there they are!!!
All my problems are solved ;-)
Next I have to get my webcam working.
Tuesday, June 17, 2008
25 years? I can do that standing on my head ;-)
June 18th, 1983, a day that will live in infamy! No, wait, wasn't that Dec. 7th, 1941??
Yeah, that is right; June 18th was a nice day! :-)
I remember standing up front, feeling a little dizzy and confused, looking back, waaaay back to the back of the hallway, seeing this really beautiful girl in white, wondering who the heck she was, then figuring out "Oh Man!That is my Julie!! Never saw her all dressed up nice. That is definitely not a Denny's uniform."
The music started and people started moving and Dr Jimmy came up and said some stuff. I had rehearsed it a couple days before so I knew what to say and did not screw it up and then i got to kiss her (Do NOT mess up her makeup!! There are pictures to take!!!!) and we went outside and inside everywhere and took pics and finally the food came.
We had a reception in the church and I found out that tons of people knew who I was and my name and all (Who was that? Does she go to church here??) The cake was neat: Julie's little brother's fiance's father had known Julie forever, so he gave us a WWII Japanese bayonet to cut the cake. I heard some comments about it being in bad taste, but the did not hear my mom every Pearl Harbor Day - "Beware the wily Japanese!!!!! Never forget what they did!!!!!" I just thought it was kind of fitting, using a spoil of the Big War to get started with our marriage. We got a whole lot of great gifts. One, a needlepoint from Carol Werner that is hanging on my wall upstairs. Another was a plunger, with the handle painted white with little hearts on it and a little corset hanging on it for decoration might be around somewhere, or it might have been lost in one of the last 2 moves. I still had it in Margate and I remember it at the apt before this one. That was from one of the people that new my name but I did not know her. I guess Julie knew her.
We went from there to my mom's townhouse. She had moved like two day's before to a new apartment but she left the furniture downstairs for the party. There was lots of food and family and all that. My Aunt made the Champagne Punch mom usually made for parties. I don't know what she did too it, but I was tripping on that stuff. It was a bit tense for a party: my mom and Julie's mom did not get along very well, yeah, that's right, they did not get along very well. We were talking about leaving soon, so Julie's sibs and friends went out and decorated the Cadillac that was sitting in the driveway. Ooops, I drove a Toyota Starlet. The stuck a few things on it and we bugged out for Parts North!
That was Fort Pierce at the Holiday Inn just off the turnpike. Julie was upset that I just signed my name to the receipt instead of Mr and Mrs blah blah. Sorry, it was not a hotel register, just a credit card receipt, oh well. I did carry her over the threshold. She did not like the fireman's carry I used. Sorry. I did not want to drop her or smack her head. I think we went to Red Lobster for dinner.
The next day we headed up to Disney World!! We stayed at the Howard Johnson's on the property so we could park and use the buses to get to parks. It was a great honeymoon. We are heading out tomorrow for a few days in Orlando. Not at Mouse World, this time it is at Fish World. I can't wait!!
It has been a long run. There were 5 couples married that summer in our church. We know 2 split, but the other 2 could still be together, though we have not heard from them in like 10 years. I did not hear it but Julie said the pastor that married up told her we would not last a year. It has not been easy, but we beat his prediction by quite a margin. We have a wonderful son in the army that will joining us this weekend.
Twenty Five more years? We will try, but Jesus will probably get back before then. We will see...
bt
Yeah, that is right; June 18th was a nice day! :-)
I remember standing up front, feeling a little dizzy and confused, looking back, waaaay back to the back of the hallway, seeing this really beautiful girl in white, wondering who the heck she was, then figuring out "Oh Man!That is my Julie!! Never saw her all dressed up nice. That is definitely not a Denny's uniform."
The music started and people started moving and Dr Jimmy came up and said some stuff. I had rehearsed it a couple days before so I knew what to say and did not screw it up and then i got to kiss her (Do NOT mess up her makeup!! There are pictures to take!!!!) and we went outside and inside everywhere and took pics and finally the food came.
We had a reception in the church and I found out that tons of people knew who I was and my name and all (Who was that? Does she go to church here??) The cake was neat: Julie's little brother's fiance's father had known Julie forever, so he gave us a WWII Japanese bayonet to cut the cake. I heard some comments about it being in bad taste, but the did not hear my mom every Pearl Harbor Day - "Beware the wily Japanese!!!!! Never forget what they did!!!!!" I just thought it was kind of fitting, using a spoil of the Big War to get started with our marriage. We got a whole lot of great gifts. One, a needlepoint from Carol Werner that is hanging on my wall upstairs. Another was a plunger, with the handle painted white with little hearts on it and a little corset hanging on it for decoration might be around somewhere, or it might have been lost in one of the last 2 moves. I still had it in Margate and I remember it at the apt before this one. That was from one of the people that new my name but I did not know her. I guess Julie knew her.
We went from there to my mom's townhouse. She had moved like two day's before to a new apartment but she left the furniture downstairs for the party. There was lots of food and family and all that. My Aunt made the Champagne Punch mom usually made for parties. I don't know what she did too it, but I was tripping on that stuff. It was a bit tense for a party: my mom and Julie's mom did not get along very well, yeah, that's right, they did not get along very well. We were talking about leaving soon, so Julie's sibs and friends went out and decorated the Cadillac that was sitting in the driveway. Ooops, I drove a Toyota Starlet. The stuck a few things on it and we bugged out for Parts North!
That was Fort Pierce at the Holiday Inn just off the turnpike. Julie was upset that I just signed my name to the receipt instead of Mr and Mrs blah blah. Sorry, it was not a hotel register, just a credit card receipt, oh well. I did carry her over the threshold. She did not like the fireman's carry I used. Sorry. I did not want to drop her or smack her head. I think we went to Red Lobster for dinner.
The next day we headed up to Disney World!! We stayed at the Howard Johnson's on the property so we could park and use the buses to get to parks. It was a great honeymoon. We are heading out tomorrow for a few days in Orlando. Not at Mouse World, this time it is at Fish World. I can't wait!!
It has been a long run. There were 5 couples married that summer in our church. We know 2 split, but the other 2 could still be together, though we have not heard from them in like 10 years. I did not hear it but Julie said the pastor that married up told her we would not last a year. It has not been easy, but we beat his prediction by quite a margin. We have a wonderful son in the army that will joining us this weekend.
Twenty Five more years? We will try, but Jesus will probably get back before then. We will see...
bt
Gizmo was great but his big brother was a bit stressed
Yeah, that was fun but it is now over. We have had Buzzy for about 14 years and I don't think he was ever as playful as Gizmo. We live in a townhouse and lucky for Buzz, Gizmo never figured out how to make it past the fourth step. Whenever Buzz came downstairs Gizmo was all over him. In the last few days they were together BUzzy would growl at him, then nip and finally chomp. Then he would runupstairs because Gizmo never got it. He was having fun and buzz was looking like a heart attack was possible, sooooo....
When we first got Gizmo my wife took him to Pet Supermarket to get shots and supplies. The manager fell in love with him and kept asking if she was ready to give him up. It turns out he has a female chihuahua a bit older than Gizmo (1/2 chihuahua, 1/2 boston terrier) so he is planning on breeding them in about two years.
Buzzy is getting old, so maybe the pick of the litter will not have a big brother to contend with. We will see how it works out....
When we first got Gizmo my wife took him to Pet Supermarket to get shots and supplies. The manager fell in love with him and kept asking if she was ready to give him up. It turns out he has a female chihuahua a bit older than Gizmo (1/2 chihuahua, 1/2 boston terrier) so he is planning on breeding them in about two years.
Buzzy is getting old, so maybe the pick of the litter will not have a big brother to contend with. We will see how it works out....
Wednesday, May 28, 2008
ubuntu update
I love Ubuntu Hardy Heron. It is so stable it amazes me. Occasionally I have to reboot because an update requires it. More often I have rebooted because I did not know how to do something and my stupidity requires it.
One of the things I wanted to do was be able to use my Netgear SC101 server with it. The workaround was to put the files I want on a windows partition and then copy it to the linux machine. Surprise! Windows networking works so easily with linux, so much better than it ever did as a windoze box. Amazing!
I found a package on the net to let me attach the sc101 to Linux. I can see the device and the drives. I can't mount it yet because it is not a vfat partition. I am going to mess around and try some others. One note says it will not work with it when the device is setup for windows use. I hope that is not true because that would kind of defeat the file transfer purpose. We will see. Oh well, windows file sharing is working better now so that is easier. Workarounds are fun to come up with.
I spent the weekend figuring out how to write some AVI movies onto a DVD. I never did manage to do it with windoze; Ubuntu hack #36 tells about a system of scripts and a gui interface called tovid. The menu looks crummy but the vids play. Now I can watch Burn Notice anywhere on my portable dvd player. Yeehaw!
I still need to hook up my vpn client so I can get on the network at my job. That is not a high priority since they hate it when anyone needs to work from home. Oh well, who cares. I am working with linux servers more on my job so I have more reason to mess with linux at home. Like another thing I did last weekend was to set up apache, mysql, python and django.
I still have not found anything like Dreamweaver so I will have to install Studio 8. If I cannot get it to work on virtualbox I will have to pay $40 for CrossOver Linux. I miss Dreamweaver much more than i miss windoze freezing up and puking.
I have a feeling I will be using Ubuntu for a long time - and loving it!
bt
One of the things I wanted to do was be able to use my Netgear SC101 server with it. The workaround was to put the files I want on a windows partition and then copy it to the linux machine. Surprise! Windows networking works so easily with linux, so much better than it ever did as a windoze box. Amazing!
I found a package on the net to let me attach the sc101 to Linux. I can see the device and the drives. I can't mount it yet because it is not a vfat partition. I am going to mess around and try some others. One note says it will not work with it when the device is setup for windows use. I hope that is not true because that would kind of defeat the file transfer purpose. We will see. Oh well, windows file sharing is working better now so that is easier. Workarounds are fun to come up with.
I spent the weekend figuring out how to write some AVI movies onto a DVD. I never did manage to do it with windoze; Ubuntu hack #36 tells about a system of scripts and a gui interface called tovid. The menu looks crummy but the vids play. Now I can watch Burn Notice anywhere on my portable dvd player. Yeehaw!
I still need to hook up my vpn client so I can get on the network at my job. That is not a high priority since they hate it when anyone needs to work from home. Oh well, who cares. I am working with linux servers more on my job so I have more reason to mess with linux at home. Like another thing I did last weekend was to set up apache, mysql, python and django.
I still have not found anything like Dreamweaver so I will have to install Studio 8. If I cannot get it to work on virtualbox I will have to pay $40 for CrossOver Linux. I miss Dreamweaver much more than i miss windoze freezing up and puking.
I have a feeling I will be using Ubuntu for a long time - and loving it!
bt
Tuesday, May 20, 2008
like the rabbi said, "Life begins when the kids move out and the dog dies..."
Unfortunately, life will not begin for me for quite a while it seems. Our old dog Buzz is about 14 years old. Just about ready to go. Then I get the phone call...."oh, this puppie is soooooo cute...Can I bring him home???"Oh Boy! Here goes another creature with a shelf life of fifteen years or so.
He is a boston terrier-chihuahua mix (my wife says they used a pillow) named Gizmo. He is cute but he is seriously a puppy. He can't quite hit the paper, he has needle sharp teeth and is not afraid to use them. He drives Buzzy nuts trying to play with him. Yeah he is cute. I guess it is ok. We need a creature so it might as well be Gizmo.
More Pics
Sunday, May 18, 2008
I had one nerve left...and Windows got on it!
My windows machine was moving insanely slowly. something was going on behind the scenes that was crippling the machine and I could not take it any more.
My first step was to try to reinstall windows. After getting it installed I ran the windows updater and installed several "critical updates". After installing Xp service pack 3 no other updates would install. All it would say was that "some problem on your computer is causing installation to fail". I went through this several times and finally said Enough.
Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron sounded like the way to go. I have messed around with Linux before and wanted to see what it would do on a decent machine. I have to say my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop is running better with Linux that it ever did with Windoze. I have a few things that are not working yet, but I can probably work around them.
There is a Netgear Storage Central server on my network that has no linux drivers. I tried installing it in a virtualbox vm. It looked like it installed ok, but I could not attach any network drives. I read about an app called crossover that is supposed to allow windows apps to run under linux. That will be my next try. If that does not work, maybe somebody will write an opensource app to use the server. My fall back is I hedged my bets when I wiped the HD and set up a 5 gig Windoze partition. I can dual boot into there, get the files I need from the server then go back into Linux and grab the files from that partition into Linux.
I need to learn a lot, but Linux is the future, so I need to move in that direction. I have a lot of windows apps, like Office, Project, Visio and Dreamweaver/Studio 8. Hopefully I can figure out how to make them work with Crossover or find something different to use, like OpenOffice.org suite.
We will see how it turns out.
bt
My first step was to try to reinstall windows. After getting it installed I ran the windows updater and installed several "critical updates". After installing Xp service pack 3 no other updates would install. All it would say was that "some problem on your computer is causing installation to fail". I went through this several times and finally said Enough.
Ubuntu 8.04, Hardy Heron sounded like the way to go. I have messed around with Linux before and wanted to see what it would do on a decent machine. I have to say my Dell Inspiron 9300 laptop is running better with Linux that it ever did with Windoze. I have a few things that are not working yet, but I can probably work around them.
There is a Netgear Storage Central server on my network that has no linux drivers. I tried installing it in a virtualbox vm. It looked like it installed ok, but I could not attach any network drives. I read about an app called crossover that is supposed to allow windows apps to run under linux. That will be my next try. If that does not work, maybe somebody will write an opensource app to use the server. My fall back is I hedged my bets when I wiped the HD and set up a 5 gig Windoze partition. I can dual boot into there, get the files I need from the server then go back into Linux and grab the files from that partition into Linux.
I need to learn a lot, but Linux is the future, so I need to move in that direction. I have a lot of windows apps, like Office, Project, Visio and Dreamweaver/Studio 8. Hopefully I can figure out how to make them work with Crossover or find something different to use, like OpenOffice.org suite.
We will see how it turns out.
bt
Tuesday, May 06, 2008
Whoops - forgot this was here!
Since my previous post I have finished my BS in SW Eng and MS in IT Mgmt, been really sick several times and had lots of crazy stuff going on.
God got me through it all, in spite of me. This morning Joanie reminded me of this place by sending me a link to her blog here.
maybe I will remember to write here more often
bt
God got me through it all, in spite of me. This morning Joanie reminded me of this place by sending me a link to her blog here.
maybe I will remember to write here more often
bt
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