Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/02/sunday-afternoon/
Somewhere I read recently that just because you are content and satisfied with your life, doesn’t mean that there aren’t things you ought to be re-considering and working on. (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/03/nerdtv-library-alexandria/
I just finished watching the most recent episode of NerdTV, which, if you are a nerd, especially a Silicon Valley type nerd, you ought to check out. You don’t need cable to watch, you can download from the Internet. Using BitTorrent. Truth in distribution!
NerdTV is a blast because they basically take all-star nerds, people who are often not far removed from myself, and interview them, 1:1 for an hour, about, whatever, and while you have to be in the right mood to watch a one-hour interview with a Nerd, well . . . insightful. “Charlie Rose with Nerds,” I think is the tagline. (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/03/ups-heat-dissipation/
Last Thursday I was picking up Yayoi when I got a page from one of my UPSes that it had switched to battery power. That’s never a page you want to get, unless there is shortly afterward a subsequent page about switching back to AC. (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/04/shaddup-firefox/
If you’re like me, you run Firefox on FreeBSD, or maybe Linux. And you use a classy nice window environment like fvwm2. And every time you start Firefox it asks can it be the default browser, and you say yes … like you use anything else? (MSIE4-Solaris, anyone?) And every time you start, it asks again . . . stupid!
I just saw this solution posted to FreeBSD-questions: (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/06/xfig-export-error/
I have been frustrated lately by an inability to export my XFig diagrams. I kept running portupdate in hopes that it was a recently-updated dependency that would be fixed, but finally, I took this error code shopping on the Google:
Unrecoverable error: limitcheck in .putdeviceprops (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/07/negative-reader-feedback/
(I tried Google Reader today. It sucked. Then I went back to my other “Google Reader” and saw they had posted about Reader to the blog . . . I tried to keep it civil . . . but I failed.) (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/07/salesmanship/
Terms not to use:
“I’ll be honest with you . . .”
“It would be in your best interest to . . .”
“I think I can get you . . . at an unheard of price point.”
I first contacted the sales person in question about a technology solution that cost $6something. I got him down to $4.5something. I looked around, and found a competitor with a more appropriate solution for $3something. I suppose he could have beat that, possibly even with a superior solution, but I can only play “the NetApp game” for so long before I actually go buy something else.
Ah, well, it is a big world.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/09/car-insurance-general-vs-geico/
Well, I was earlier excited about Geico giving me a deal on auto insurance, and pretty quick they sent me a letter saying my policy was revoked because Daniel Howard had his license suspended for two months back in 2003. (“Kid, have you ever been . . . arrested?”)
So . . . back to Google, ask for car insurance, click two of the top banner ads. One for Progressive, one for The General, and skip Geico, for being policy-cancelling bastards. (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/10/carp-goldfish-lunch/
It is the little things . . . like goldfish!
So, that is a good checkpoint for my morning’s work. Time to eat . . .
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/10/darpa-ulterior-motives/
For those less dorky than I, the DARPA Grand Challenge was a held last Saturday to see which autonomous vehicle could drive itself on a challenging 125-mile obstacle course through the desert first. Stanford’s Touareg, named “Stanley” came in first, just ahead of a Hummer and a Humvee from CMU, followed by a Ford Escape hybrid, and five hours later, Frankenstein.
I had of course, been rooting for Team Underdawg, but after some accidents and bugs, they did not make it through the Qualifier. So, I rooted for Cajunbot, a cute little six-wheel ORV from Louisiana, but that vehicle did not get so far either . . . in the end, at least, the Hummer didn’t win, so there’s one less reason for assh!les with small penises to buy ginormous SUVs. Yay Stanley! (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/11/weak/
My thought process this morning:
“Hrmmm, this coffee . . . not so great . . . hrmm, this coffee, tastes weak. I made the coffee, did I put enough grounds in . . ? Funny, I don’t remember scooping the grounds this morning. I didn’t scoop grounds this morning? I didn’t scoop grounds this morning! Oh . . . *check the trash* nope, no used filter from yesterday . . . hey, that looks like tan-tinted water!! Ewwwwwwwww!!”
Washed out my cup, re-started the process.
My mental effort has been on . . . well, work, I guess, except for this little diverting update to entertain the masses.
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/11/pretty-tree/
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/12/notes-on-medieval-agriculture/
Okay . . . so, a long-term maybe-goal of mine would be to build and enjoy playing a massively-multiplayer online “God Game” . . . somewhere, I think, between SimCity and Civilization, with a bit of Trade Wars / Railroad Tycoon thrown in. I have been thinking that if I ever were to pull this off, it would need to be focused, quite a bit, on something simpler than modern times . . . and I’ve been thinking a good place to go would be the medieval period. Feudalism especially could be an important part of the game play . . . you develop small regions, that trade together, you can build a modest army and send them off to attack things, and a lot of the time you’d probably be swearing allegiance to the greater lord / king, sending in, or receiving tributes to keep the peace. Feudalism had its run from 1066, with the Norman Conquest of England, until 1789, when it was formally abolished. The stretch in there was fairly static, up until about the enlightenment, which followed the printing press about halfway through. Figure about 500 years of fairly “stable” technology, a great place to have a long-running, persistent, online god game!
Anyway, what interests me is, collaborative / combative politics, supply-chain and market aspects of economy, trade, and, well, the whole enchantment of maps, and moving things around . . . assigning lands to vassals, I suppose, sinking wells, founding / razing towns . . . feedback loops . . . noticing patterns and anticipating changes, and dealing with disasters like bad harvests, invasion, and plague. (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/12/intelligently-designing-teeth/
<dogmeat-> i think if intelligent design were true, we’d have self-cleaning teeth
<saul> we do =)
<saul> it’s just not perfect
<saul> also, some people claim that our dental problems are made much worse by consuming simple sugars and processed foods
<SmooveB> plus, most long term dental problems occur after what would have been a normal lifespan.
<saul> concur
<dannyman> AND (more…)
Link: https://dannyman.toldme.com/2005/10/13/workin-hard/
Hardly workin.
Well, this guy . . . different story: (more…)
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