Interesting links and notes on updates to my main website.



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numbers

In case you're wondering why I'm still on "old" blogger, they won't let me migrate yet.

One of the reasons is the size of my blog.

So here are all the numbers for the year (total lifetime unless yearly is indicated)

Manifesto 6228 posts
Paper Vote 473
Blogger profile views 1478

hits
Manifesto Unique Visitors 108983 (2000 days)
Manifesto Visits incl. Reloads 130747 (2000 days)

Paper Vote Unique Visitors 7671 (969 days)
Paper Vote Visits incl. Reloads 10020 (969 days)

feeds
Manifesto 19 FeedBurner readers
Paper Vote 5 FeedBurner readers

Flickr 332 photos / 9,108 views
most popular by views
SL Virt Sci Conf http://flickr.com/photos/rakerman/310973578/ 1076 views

PBase
Galleries: 29
Images: 410
Total Usage: 33 MB
Gallery Page Views: 59253
Image Page Views: 64696
Total Page Views: 123949

more to come...

UPDATE 2006-12-24:

LibraryThing
Books cataloged 1,078
Books reviewed 139

UPDATE 2006-12-26:

people will watch anything

YouTube
188 views (according to search results)
252 views (according to video page) posted by Richard at 08:26 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

The Globe is reading my blog?

In an odd bit of synchronicity, yesterday's Globe highlighted the Helsinki Complaints Choir, which is my new favorite thing.

A Finnish-German artist couple has formed The Complaints Choir of Helsinki, reports The Guardian. Tellervo Kalleinen and her husband Oliver Kochta-Kalleinen asked visitors to an arts festival to submit their complaints about life, then set the idea to music. "Why is the cord of the vacuum cleaner always too short?" the choir sings. "You can't get rich by working and love doesn't last forever . . . going to work every morning and coming home every night, eventually you lose your mind . . . the employment agency only needs Java programmers . . . tramline three smells of pee . . ." and then a rousing chorus of "It's not fair! It's not fair!"

(or the Guardian is reading my blog)
No link to YouTube? Bad Globe, no choir for you.

Globe and Mail - Social Studies - December 18, 2006

My favorite complaints from the choir? "My dreams are boring" followed by "Reference numbers are too long". posted by Richard at 10:01 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Dell Dimension 8200: added USB 2.0

Added a Belkin "Hi-Speed USB 2.0 3-Port PCI card".
Works fine.
WinXP automatically detected and installed drivers.

Note some Windows hassles: I had to reinstall my camera driver, and if you move a wireless card (I had an 802.11b internal wireless card in a PCI slot) it thinks it is a completely different wireless interface - had to reconfigure the network access all over again.

Since I also have a FireWire (400) card, my 8200's slots are now completely full. posted by Richard at 07:41 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Bush legacy

George Bush's amazing legacy of unity:

* civil war in Iraq
* civil war in Palestine
* invasion, chaos, and possible civil war in Lebanon
* tribal war (could be considered civil war) in Afghanistan
* tribal war (could be considered civil war) in Darfur region
* nuclear Pakistan vs nuclear India (could be consider civil cold war)
* nuclear North Korea
* a sort of civil war (using most anything BUT weapons) in the United States

The only thing he has managed to unite is that, other than about 60 million people, the vast majority of whom are insane Americans, the rest of the world's 6 billion population is united in their belief that he is one of the worst presidents ever posted by Richard at 06:22 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

over that bridge

So because my PowerBook G4 built-in wireless SUCKS, I got a Linksys WET54GS5 bridge.
Although the net reported some issues (mostly with WPA, which I don't use), there were also very positive words for its powerful reception capabilities.

It appears to be working well.

It is reporting Link Quality 100% which I guess is a signal strength measure.

I'm getting great speeds, near my theoretical max of 6000/800



That being said, I was going mad for quite a while, as the Mac wasn't getting any DHCP through the WET. I don't know whether it was me plugging and unplugging, or me briefly hitting reset on the WET, but it appears to be working fine now.

I'm running the latest firmware, v.4.92, September 22, 2005.

I will add the PC now and see how things go (the desire to provide 802.11g to both my PC and my Mac was one reason I got the S5, since it has a 5-port switch). Also, if you're wondering why I didn't just get USB-Wireless keys, 1. I think that's hokey, 2. My PC doesn't have USB 2.0 (yet), 3. The Mac doesn't support USB-Wireless adapters

(As a final note, the "bridge" part simply means it bridges from wired Ethernet in my Mac and PC, to wireless 802.11g)

UPDATE: The PC is now added behind the bridge, and it does even better than the Mac, with 5899/790

Labels: speedtest

posted by Richard at 21:10 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

world o' Dell Dimension 8200

If I had categories, this would be automatic, but Google is leaving the beta migration to the end for large blogs. This means I have to endure this endless .gif bug that f**ks up every time I try to insert a link. Super.

Anyway

2003-08-04 My 8200 dies 4 months beyond 1-year warranty

2004-01-09 some info about the 8200 motherboard and RAM

2004-01-11 more info about the 8200 motherboard

2004-02-28 new motherboard and new (upgraded) CPU

2005-02-16 upgraded RAM

2006-12-16 upgraded video

2006-12-17 upgraded hard drive

I still have a USB 2.0 card left to do, if I can fit it without being convinced it will short against the heat sink for the new video card. posted by Richard at 19:09 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

Dell Dimension 8200: upgrading hard drive

I got a Western Digital 250GB internal drive.
WDC WD2500JB-00REA0

It replaces the original Seagate 40GB internal drive.
Seagate ST340016A

It came with some software called Data Lifeguard Tools that made everything fairly painless - reconfigured the OS to handle 250GB, copied everything from the old drive, and printed instructions on how to make the new drive the new master.

I have a hard time remembering sizes, having gone from KB to GB in a relatively short span. I'm like, 250GB, is that a lot? It's pretty good actually these days for an internal drive.

In a few years, it will be, 250TB, is that a lot?

The update is complete, I have 197GB free on my C: drive now.
Went pretty smoothly.

It's still ridiculous that I have to open the box and move jumpers and cables in order to change a drive letter and priority in this day and age, but whatever. posted by Richard at 14:40 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

i'd like a hot dog with a side of chicken satay

In case you've ever wondered why it seems like street food vendors here sell only hot dogs, whereas in other countries wide varieties of food are sold on the street,
the reason is that it is illegal to sell anything but hot dogs here

Essentially, [Ontario] provincial rules prohibit street vendors from preparing anything other than hot dogs at their carts.

Toronto Star - Hot dogs vs. the whole enchilada - December 17, 2006 posted by Richard at 14:26 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

BG 3.11

*** Some spoilers ahead ***

Another obvious unresolved plotline was Hera, so this one has opened that one up.

This whole Caprica Six-Baltar-Diana thing makes no sense. Baltar is nuts. Caprica Six saves him and then he dumps her? Plus which, there have got to be a dozen ways to test if he's a Cyclon, including
- rebuilding his own test device
- seeing if he can interface with the hybrid by sticking his hands in the cybergoo in the control room
- I would say "seeing if the Centurions recognize him" but I guess we're to assume the Centurions were programmed by the 7
- seeing if he can stick a fibre optic line in his arm like Boomer did
- seeing how he reacts to certain types of radiation

Plus which, he already didn't get the infection that was killing the rest of the Cylon.

How can it possibly be a big mystery?

Also this whole 5 by 5 Grand Religious Unification thing is a bit dubious.

Plus which, it's dead obvious that once you push the right button, the ceiling of the temple of 5 opens up (or is blasted open) and a beam of light shoots out pointing the way to Earth, probably triggering the sun to supernova (which is astrophysically dubious but anyway). And you probably activate it by either having five people, one at each of the 5 podia, or by pushing the giant obvious eye in the middle of the pillar, or some combination of those two.

"to be continued"

AUGH

Labels: battlestar galactica

posted by Richard at 14:14 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

BG 3.10

A co-worker had mentioned that BG hadn't dealt with the limited resources storyline much, so this one was a timely answer to that question.

Not a whole lot happened though, it was mainly a filler episode, various plot bits added on both the human and Cylon sides.

Labels: battlestar galactica

posted by Richard at 14:12 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)

two easy things to green your xmas

1. Switch to green power.

e.g. Bullfrog Power in Ontario

2. Carbon offset your travel

e.g. Green My Flight

You have to pay a bit more (tens of dollars) but not a huge amount.

Labels: carbon offset

posted by Richard at 08:10 / permalink (post) | permalink (numeric)