The Major

Blog

  • Truly Off His Rocker

    The worst of the worst…here is a recent installment of the daily comic Marmaduke:

    Really. This truly makes no sense whatsoever. The comics are almost never funny but they usually at least aren’t completely absurd.

    Thanks to Joe Mathlete for bringing this and all the other Marmaduke comics to my attention in all their awful glory. As Joe Mathlete points out, Marmaduke is hopping up and down on two legs for some unexplained reason. The dog catchers, who are in their truck which is floating in mid-air, somehow confuse this with the moonwalk.

  • Amy Goodman, Get Better

    Watching Democracy Now last night, I could tell something was up with Amy Goodman. Sure enough, she has Bell’s Palsy, a temporary paralysis of the face.

    Just want to give a shout out to my favorite journalist – Amy, hope you get better soon!

  • Dial-A-Fix

    Through some Google searching, I have discovered the strangely-named Dial-a-fix. It fixed some Windows Update problems I was having, and can evidently fix other problems as well. I am happy that I got it fixed, but if that program can fix it, why can’t Microsoft? Nothing on the MS knowledgebase helped me at all.

    Also, never again will I reinstall Windows XP due to borked hardware. Borked software? – then yes, maybe an OS reinstall. But if your hardware is borked and you have to replace some or all of the components, give the following a try:
    1) Make a Ghost image of the machine.
    2) Transfer Ghost image to new machine. The first two steps here are only if you’re also using a different hard drive, obviously.
    3) Insert WinXP install disc and boot from it.
    4) Run the repair utility (not the recovery console). You’ll be asked if you want to run this rather than installing from scratch. This will take about the same amount of time as a fresh install takes you, and the machine will reboot a couple of times.
    5) Talking about borked, all of your drivers will be borked. That’s OK. Just download and install all drivers that you need.
    6) Your Windows Update may also be borked. Use the Dial-a-fix as suggested above. You will have to run Windows Update, by the way, because during the repair process it overwrites all of your Windows files and hence any updates you have done that aren’t on the install disc.

    Voila! All of your programs, files, and settings are now intact on your new hardware. Isn’t exactly fast, but it sure is a lot faster than getting all of your programs and settings, etc., back how you wanted them.

  • Trusty Little Webserver

    I love my trusty little web server that could. It lives in my closet and is a Pentium M (the same type you find in some laptops – low power, can run under high heat)…

    root@pub0|log 12:15pm uptime
    12:15:38 up 107 days, 16:21, 4 users, load average: 0.33, 0.10, 0.02

  • Anti-war Action

    It’s a Saturday morning. What better thing is there to do than to participate in some anti-war action? Go ANSWER.

    Update: I had a great time doing this. We put up posters on 24th Street and under the BART tracks along MLK in Oakland. The posters were mainly for the October 27 anti-war protest in San Francisco.

  • 2.33 Terabytes

    My personal computer storage is now up to 2.33 Terabytes. Sweet…

    But I could totally use about another 3 drives.

  • Yay For Mornings

    One of the few good things about the morning is when I wake up I can almost always count on having new email to read. Wheee how fun!

  • More On Iran

    I didn’t have time to find the full text of the bill, but here is another probably scary bill that just passed the House of Representatives 397-16, with 19 not voting:
    H R 1400 – Iran Counter-Proliferation Act of 2007 – To enhance United States diplomatic efforts with respect to Iran by imposing additional economic sanctions against Iran, and for other purposes.

    I call it scary because of the short description and because of who were among those who voted against it: John Conyers, Barbara Lee, and Ron Paul. Kucinich was a no-show, but I am guessing he would have voted no as well.

    Update: Well, at least they threw this part in there: “Nothing in this Act shall be construed as authorizing the use of force or the use of the United States Armed Forces against Iran.” And here’s the full text.

  • And We Move Closer To Another War

    This article was on the front page of the New York Times today: Iran’s President Vows to Ignore U.N. Measures

    The drums of war are being beaten louder and louder every day.

    Update: And not shortly thereafter, the Lieberman Kyl Iran Amendment passes.

  • WordPress Upgrade Party

    As if you hadn’t guessed from the last post, I am a nerd. And hence…this event on Wednesday is something that I would really like to go to:

    WordPress 2.3 is coming out on Monday, so come out Wednesday evening and upgrade your blog with the pros. How badly can you screw it up when the developers are right there? If you upgrade your blog before Wednesday come and help out others and make feature requests.

    Super-chill event, just bring your laptop, yourself, and your WordPress blog. I’ll provide booze, soft drinks, and wifi.

    Topics of discussion will include Trackback Etiquette: Ping on the First Date?, Join the Conspiracy to Relabel All Websites Blogs, and Putting the Friend in XFN.

    Unfortunately, there is another event that I would rather go to that night. Naomi Klein is coming to San Francisco to talk about her book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism.