Well, my attempt to update to SP2 ended in it freezing part way through. So I had to kill the update process and I’m going to try it again. In the meantime, I randomly decided add my latest Twitter status to the sidebar.
You’re welcome.
So I’m finally upgrading to Windows XP SP2. Now, I’m of the opinion that XP SP 1 was the last decent operating system the Microsoft made. Vista (in all its many variants) sucks in a multitude of ways. SP 2, well, I haven’t ever really used it extensively because the past two times I’ve tried to upgrade, it has broken my computer. Once it broke it as in “none of your applications will work and your sound card is now broken.” The second time it broke as in “booting? Why would you actually want your computer to run?”.
But alas, increasingly there are libraries, software, and features that I need for which SP 1 is, for some bizarre reason, insufficient. So here goes: once again trying to upgrade. If I disappear from the internet, all my geek homies can pour a 40 of Bawls on my proverbial grave and exact bloody revenge from the Microsoft goons who forced me to my upgrade-driven doom.
(P.S: How awesome would it be if they actually did make 40s of Bawls? I don’t think I’d ever sleep again.)
So yesterday was my birthday and I was once again reminded that I have the most awesome friends in the entire world. Seriously, I’m a very fortunate guy. And while not all of my favorite people could be there (what with their living in far-flung parts of the world), the people who were there are all amazing, and I’m luck to know them.
We had a great time, ate good food, drank some good whiskey, and enjoyed excellent company and conversation. All in all, an awesome way to usher to a close my 24th year on the planet. Thank you all.
I’m geekily proud of these results.
Created by OnePlusYou
Now, I usually don’t fret over-much about money. In fact, it most instances, it would probably do me good to worry a little about it a little more than I do. But there’s nothing quite like forking over a significant chunk of cash to a particularly soulless corporation to really get my goat. Now repeat that process three-fold and, well, Ticketmaster’s not on my good list right now.
Seriously, this year, they only sold Sasquatch three-day passes until March 9th. After that? You have to buy a ticket for each of the three days separately. Now, Ticketmaster sticks it to you with a “Convenience Fee” on each purchase. Three day pass? One “convenience fee”. Three one-day tickets? Three convenience fees. And they don’t scale directly with the price, either, so I just wound up giving TicketMaster a fair chunk of change (something a little over $30 in fees). $30 of my hard-earned money going to involuntary corporate charity.
But here’s the thing that really galls me. Last I checked, TicketMaster ALREADY gets a cut of the ticket cost. They’re skimming on the tickets and then charging the customer for the great good honor of doing business with the Masters of the Tickets. They then refuse to back their tickets with refunds, don’t give anything even resembling “customer service”, and run competition out of the business so effectively that I dare anyone to name a single competitor to TicketMaster and its subsidiaries. If you’re buying tickets to any kind of major gig, it’s either TM or nothing. I mean, it used to be that if you bought them at the venue itself you could actually get them for the list price, but that’s usually not the case anymore, since TicketMaster’s staffing most of the ticket booths these days.
*Sigh* At least I’ve got my tickets, I guess.
(P.S: For those of you capital-C-Capitalists in the audience: yes, I know that I’m entering into a contract and I shouldn’t complain since I agreed to it yadda yadda yadda. Fine. Yes. But I only bought from TicketMaster because there’s no other option. If your only option is a poor deal or to go with out, there’s nothing incongruous about taking the poor deal and bitching about it. But that’s another post for another time.)
Today was amazing. Definitely the first day of truly beautiful weather for the spring. Upper sixties, clear skies. I walked downtown and met my friend Paul for lunch. Afterwards we ran into Ann and sat around talking in the Rocket Bakery. Then Kenlyn and I went and toured some apartments. Topped off the light part of the day by jamming with Trevor and Becky, followed by a nice walk along the river with Becky. An unmitigatedly great way to spend a Saturday.
So the Army’s premier combat robotics system is being recalled from the field after it started to get all uppity. Turns out that the robot’s weapon “started moving when it was not intended to move.” Remember, the four rules even apply to robots. Especially number 2.
Also, it probably says a lot about me that I looked at that picture and my first thought was “w00t ROBOT!” and my second thought was “huh, that gun’s sporting the same muzzle brake as my Sig!”
I present you with, the Aldrin Cycler. A way to use primarily use the gravity of Earth and Mars to create cyclic orbiting craft that would essentially function as a ferry service between Earth and Mars:
Basically, you get a craft of useful size and capacity, boost it onto a certain trajectory towards Mars, and which point it gets flung AROUND Mars by Mars’ gravity and heads back towards Earth. There it gets snared by Earth’s gravity, flung around earth, and heads back out towards Mars. All of this includes compensation for the changing orbits of Earth and Mars.
Pretty cool, eh? The inventor? None other than astronaut and all-around badass Buzz Aldrin. To see how it works, check out this simulation over at Damn Interesting.
(Found via Neatorama).
Looks like McCain’s gonna get Nadered.
Funny, now we’ll get to hear the same whining from the Republicans (”We woulda won if it weren’t for that evil Bob Barr and his vote stealing ways!) as we did from the Democrats a few years ago. Admittedly, I think the Democrats had a better reason to whine. Nader actually DID get a good portion of the vote (more than I think anyone expected a 3rd party candidate to get) in some contentious states. I can’t imagine Barr doing that well.
(Hat tip: The Bitch Girls)