16th
December
2008
A quiet afternoon and two identical laptop computers. What to do? In the geek world, the answer is simple; compare and contrast your two “favourite” operating systems. After all, subjectivity isn’t scientific, so a dual-boot machine leaves you convinced that A is better than B, but the doubt persists. What if I’m suffering from a discontinuity in my benchmarking memory?
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posted in computing |
12th
December
2008
By an odd set of coincidences, I came into contact with bridges today. Not the historical variety, carrying the world across a stream, but the newfangled, telecommunicational kind that link faces across a distance. One bridge worked. The other never got a chance. I didn’t expect either when the day started, but that’s what gives form to coincidental moments.
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posted in computing, education |
5th
December
2008
I’m living the open source adventure these days. The most recent upgrade to WordPress wiped out the toolbars from the text editor, leaving an empty grid where the different buttons used to be. I’ve consulted the support forum, where others are faced with the same disfunction, but none of the advice offered by others fixes the problem.
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posted in computing |
13th
November
2008
My kids laugh at me, because I’ve got the music in me. Put on headphones, some tunes, and the groove oozes from between my joints. Maybe it’s time for a visit to one of their places, where people slam or skank or whatever it is that they do; I can laugh louder and longer. For now, I’m just going to listen to Bob Sinclar and let the rhythm take me.
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posted in computing, economy, education |
7th
November
2008
After six days in the doldrums, the breeze has returned. Oddest thing; I installed the new weather station hardware last Saturday morning, and the world around me went to calm. Until this evening, I wondered if I’d even tightened the set screw properly. Maybe the whirlygig wasn’t anything more than an ornament. Oh well, if controlling the climate was that simple, someone else would have already created a commercial system.
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posted in computing |
3rd
November
2008
When you don’t know whether you should laugh or cry, follow the lead of American television, and show an evening of political satire. After all, if even one more person is scared enough to go and vote then the goal has been met. These are tense times; somebody crack another joke, please!
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posted in computing, history, pets |
23rd
October
2008
Time to apply a little imagery to the current economic conditions. First of all, for those of us who have had our incomes fixed by decree, the average day is grey, with hints of rain. There’s little change in view, so we take our delight in the details. Consider the trend in the price of gas.
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posted in computing, economy |
22nd
October
2008
Once in a while, my involvement with the anonymous world of eBay goes awry. Not too often, two or three times in a hundred. Just enough to remind me that this is still the “real world” and there are those who would take advantage of perfect strangers.
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posted in computing |
8th
October
2008
How much time should a person waste in the quest for information that they need to do their job? The attitude of some institutions concerning things like access codes is bewildering. Not so much where I work (although there are moments…) but other members of my family have come head to head with the beast known as system security.
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posted in computing |
26th
September
2008
Forget Top Gun. There’s a dogfight going on over my living room, and I’m ready to take my Gravol now. Since sometime yesterday, the tactical comms channel reminds me that the enemy is ready to lock on and blow me out of the sky. My gaming children are deep in the game/movie called Ace Combat 6, and I’m impressed.
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posted in computing |