Search *this*, asshat
Thanks to DT for pointing out this article on retailers searching *your* property after you've made a purchase and before you've left *their* store. Well worth the read, especially around this time of year. As the great Nancy Reagan once said..."Just Say No". Oh, and don't shop at Wal-Mart. They're truly evil.
http://www.bwcitypaper.com/bw.digg.page.final.html
The author is man after my own heart. I've said the same things they say in the article time and time again.
Friday, November 03, 2006
VA Voting Shenanigans
This freaked me out a little. And it doesn't seem to be getting too much press (at least that I've seen). Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive.
An article in the Online Journal says:
"What is being called a "glitch" by Hart InterCivic spokespersons, three cities in Virginia -- Alexandria (my note: population 128,283 in 2000), Falls Church (pop. 10,377 in 2000) and Charlottesville (pop. 45,049 in 2000)-- will not properly display (~Democrat) Jim Webb's name on the November ballot summary screen. Voters will only see 'James H. "Jim"' on the ballot, instead of 'James H. "Jim" Webb'.
To make matters worse, the candidates will have "their party affiliations . . . cut off". To put some perspective and clarity to this, in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, Virginia, voters will not be able to recognize Jim Webb by his full name OR by his party's affiliation!"
Those of us who live in VA know that those 6-year-old census numbers have done nothing but skyrocket since they were recorded. So the number of voters seeing incorrect (or incomplete) information on their ballots is going to be significantly higher than the 183,709 recorded in '00. Nice. The last couple of elections have been won and lost by what...27...maybe 30 votes? 100k shouldn't matter at all...right?
While on the subject, did anybody happen to catch HBO's "Hacking Democracy" last night about the ultra creepyness of the Diebold voting machines? Scary stuff. I only watched a few minutes of it (but I recorded it for later viewing pleasure), but I have to say the ease with which they were tampered was startling.
---
Edited to change my population data. Evidently I used the total population of VA (7+ million). Duh. The data has been corrected. However, my point still stands. With a race that came down to 6,000 votes (as of last night), that 100k+ still could make or break somebody. I guess we'll see after all of the the recounts and lawsuits are done.
This freaked me out a little. And it doesn't seem to be getting too much press (at least that I've seen). Perhaps I'm just overly sensitive.
An article in the Online Journal says:
"What is being called a "glitch" by Hart InterCivic spokespersons, three cities in Virginia -- Alexandria (my note: population 128,283 in 2000), Falls Church (pop. 10,377 in 2000) and Charlottesville (pop. 45,049 in 2000)-- will not properly display (~Democrat) Jim Webb's name on the November ballot summary screen. Voters will only see 'James H. "Jim"' on the ballot, instead of 'James H. "Jim" Webb'.
To make matters worse, the candidates will have "their party affiliations . . . cut off". To put some perspective and clarity to this, in Alexandria, Falls Church and Charlottesville, Virginia, voters will not be able to recognize Jim Webb by his full name OR by his party's affiliation!"
Those of us who live in VA know that those 6-year-old census numbers have done nothing but skyrocket since they were recorded. So the number of voters seeing incorrect (or incomplete) information on their ballots is going to be significantly higher than the 183,709 recorded in '00. Nice. The last couple of elections have been won and lost by what...27...maybe 30 votes? 100k shouldn't matter at all...right?
While on the subject, did anybody happen to catch HBO's "Hacking Democracy" last night about the ultra creepyness of the Diebold voting machines? Scary stuff. I only watched a few minutes of it (but I recorded it for later viewing pleasure), but I have to say the ease with which they were tampered was startling.
---
Edited to change my population data. Evidently I used the total population of VA (7+ million). Duh. The data has been corrected. However, my point still stands. With a race that came down to 6,000 votes (as of last night), that 100k+ still could make or break somebody. I guess we'll see after all of the the recounts and lawsuits are done.
Wednesday, November 01, 2006
Canon 20d: The autopsy
The autopsy is complete.
All of the photos (and any clever comments I could muster) can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/20d-dissection&page=all
I have to say, I agree with Canon's diagnosis. There was no saving this patient. It's amazing. The camera didn't get all that wet in the accident, but that didn't stop death and destruction from raining down on all the little internal bits.
Thanks to this place for hosting the PDF parts catalog with exploded 20D which I used as a step by step deconstruction manual:
www.customslr.com/technical/EOS_20D_Parts%20Catalog.pdf
The autopsy is complete.
All of the photos (and any clever comments I could muster) can be seen here:
http://www.pbase.com/gmr2048/20d-dissection&page=all
I have to say, I agree with Canon's diagnosis. There was no saving this patient. It's amazing. The camera didn't get all that wet in the accident, but that didn't stop death and destruction from raining down on all the little internal bits.
Thanks to this place for hosting the PDF parts catalog with exploded 20D which I used as a step by step deconstruction manual:
www.customslr.com/technical/EOS_20D_Parts%20Catalog.pdf
Tuesday, October 31, 2006
Canon 20D; The obituary.
After dunking my faithful 20D in the ocean a few weeks back, I decided to send it to Canon and see if it was fixable. At first they quoted me $300 for the repair, based on (I guess) my description of the problem.
So I sent the camera in, hopeful. After receiving it and actually looking at the guts, they determined there was "Severe liquid damage to the internal parts. Cost
of repair is equal to replacement value. Unit is beyond economical
repair. We are, therefore, returning your equipment to you un-repaired". I received the dead unit back today.
Bummer. Good thing there I had "Idiot Insurance".
So, on to "Plan B", I suppose. Dissection of the 20D as described here (note: it's a PDF):
www.customslr.com/technical/EOS_20D_Parts%20Catalog.pdf
It probably won't accomplish much besides satisfying my curiosity of what lies inside the little magic black box. But there's not much else to do with it at this point. An who knows, maybe with some rinsing in tap water, something will revive. I know, doubtful. It's far more likely I'll end up with a dozen little zip-lock bags of parts. (I plan on putting one PDF-page-worth of dissected parts per zip-lock bag, so reassembly is at least theoretically possible. Theoretically.
After dunking my faithful 20D in the ocean a few weeks back, I decided to send it to Canon and see if it was fixable. At first they quoted me $300 for the repair, based on (I guess) my description of the problem.
So I sent the camera in, hopeful. After receiving it and actually looking at the guts, they determined there was "Severe liquid damage to the internal parts. Cost
of repair is equal to replacement value. Unit is beyond economical
repair. We are, therefore, returning your equipment to you un-repaired". I received the dead unit back today.
Bummer. Good thing there I had "Idiot Insurance".
So, on to "Plan B", I suppose. Dissection of the 20D as described here (note: it's a PDF):
www.customslr.com/technical/EOS_20D_Parts%20Catalog.pdf
It probably won't accomplish much besides satisfying my curiosity of what lies inside the little magic black box. But there's not much else to do with it at this point. An who knows, maybe with some rinsing in tap water, something will revive. I know, doubtful. It's far more likely I'll end up with a dozen little zip-lock bags of parts. (I plan on putting one PDF-page-worth of dissected parts per zip-lock bag, so reassembly is at least theoretically possible. Theoretically.
Monday, October 23, 2006
Ready?...GO!
This post is like one of those episodes of "Lost" where they summarize the whole season in a single hour...
Aiight, many weeks (months?) since my last post. Busy beyond reason. Here's my "season summary":
--Finished the planning of, and participated in, the perfect wedding to the perfect girl (awww). Complete with slideshow.
--Went on a 10 day honeymoon to Maui. Vacation...fantastic. 12 hours in the airplane each way...not so much. But it was a good enough reason for me to buy a fancy new iPod. Welcome to 2001. I love the bleeding edge.
--Biked down a volcano on a too-small 60lb beachcomber while wearing a bigass motorcycle helmet.
--Snorkled with sea turtles
--Watched the sunset (and sunrise...different days) from the top of a 10,000' volcano.
--Saw a sugarcane harvest, where they flash-burn acres of sugarcane fields creating mushroom clouds (and tons of smoke and soot all over the island).
--Saw the grave of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh on the absolute ass-end of Maui (but oh, what a scenic ass-end it is!).
--Snorkeled at Molokini...extra cool, half-eroded volcanic crater just off of Maui.
--3 or 4 days into the trip, I dunked my 20D in the Pacific right about here, killing it. Worst part about it is that I had to spend the remaining week of our trip with an extra-crappy semi-underwater point-and-shoot. The resulting shots were not pretty. Anyway, here's the final shot (at least it was a nice one). My girl, in the rain, in front of a rainbow while stopped along the Hana Highway in NE Maui. Shot number 16,932. Only two years old. Last frame of the 20D. Farewell, friend.
--Filed an insurance claim for my soggy camera.
--Bought a new 30D. Hello, new friend!
--Did tons of other fantastic, touristy things on Maui, but I can't remember any more. Besides, my eyes are going crossed from looking at this computer screen all day.
--Came back to an office moving in two weeks (that was two weeks ago).
--Moved the office this past weekend. Including new phone system, new phone service, new network hardware, and countless glitches. Today was the first day back for the users. Oh man. I need a vacation.
This post is like one of those episodes of "Lost" where they summarize the whole season in a single hour...
Aiight, many weeks (months?) since my last post. Busy beyond reason. Here's my "season summary":
--Finished the planning of, and participated in, the perfect wedding to the perfect girl (awww). Complete with slideshow.
--Went on a 10 day honeymoon to Maui. Vacation...fantastic. 12 hours in the airplane each way...not so much. But it was a good enough reason for me to buy a fancy new iPod. Welcome to 2001. I love the bleeding edge.
--Biked down a volcano on a too-small 60lb beachcomber while wearing a bigass motorcycle helmet.
--Snorkled with sea turtles
--Watched the sunset (and sunrise...different days) from the top of a 10,000' volcano.
--Saw a sugarcane harvest, where they flash-burn acres of sugarcane fields creating mushroom clouds (and tons of smoke and soot all over the island).
--Saw the grave of famed aviator Charles Lindbergh on the absolute ass-end of Maui (but oh, what a scenic ass-end it is!).
--Snorkeled at Molokini...extra cool, half-eroded volcanic crater just off of Maui.
--3 or 4 days into the trip, I dunked my 20D in the Pacific right about here, killing it. Worst part about it is that I had to spend the remaining week of our trip with an extra-crappy semi-underwater point-and-shoot. The resulting shots were not pretty. Anyway, here's the final shot (at least it was a nice one). My girl, in the rain, in front of a rainbow while stopped along the Hana Highway in NE Maui. Shot number 16,932. Only two years old. Last frame of the 20D. Farewell, friend.
--Filed an insurance claim for my soggy camera.
--Bought a new 30D. Hello, new friend!
--Did tons of other fantastic, touristy things on Maui, but I can't remember any more. Besides, my eyes are going crossed from looking at this computer screen all day.
--Came back to an office moving in two weeks (that was two weeks ago).
--Moved the office this past weekend. Including new phone system, new phone service, new network hardware, and countless glitches. Today was the first day back for the users. Oh man. I need a vacation.
Monday, September 04, 2006
Weak!
'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin dead.
I guess if you gotta check out, doing what you love while snorkling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is an OK way to go.
I was never a huge fan, but if I was bored lying on the couch on a rainy Saturday afternoon and I happened across "The Crocodile Hunter", I'd watch for a bit. He definitely did a lot for the conservation movement, and his help in that field will be greatly missed, I fear.
The Crocodile Hunter was the second (as far as I know) of the "Hey, there's something creepy and slimy in that dark hole in the rock-face, I'm gonna jam my arm in there and pull whatever it is out!" naturalists, and I like that (as, obviously, did a great many fans around the world). It was much more interesting to me than the "We're sitting in our Land Rover with our cameras and 800mm zoom lenses shooting video of a lion a mile away taking down a zebra" style.
The first and foremost "creepy thing in the hole...let's grab it" naturalists was (is?) the great Aussie Harry Butler. Harry hosted a show in the 70s called "In the Wild with Harry Butler". I caught it two decades later in re-runs, but it hadn't lost any of it's charm. Harry looked like an outback hermit,
and he would do the creepiest shit (for example, swim in a water hole with a bigass croc and a decomposing kangaroo corpse...cuz it was the only water for 100 miles, and he was hot). Since the first day I had internet access, I've searched for tidbits of info on Harry and "In the Wild" with no luck (literally, zero results). It's probably been a year or two since I last looked, and in looking again, it's nice to see there is a bit more info on him now (thanks to Wikipedia and everything2). There was an entry on Harry on Wikipedia, but nothing for "In The Wild" specifically, so I created a brief blurb. Hopefully I, or someone else, will be able to flesh [thanks Ben] out the article in the future.
Anyway. I've gotten off-topic. The point of this post was mainly to say "Farewell, Steve". Your acting was a bit over-the-top, but your contributions to the conservation movement will be missed.
'Crocodile Hunter' Steve Irwin dead.
I guess if you gotta check out, doing what you love while snorkling the Great Barrier Reef in Australia is an OK way to go.
I was never a huge fan, but if I was bored lying on the couch on a rainy Saturday afternoon and I happened across "The Crocodile Hunter", I'd watch for a bit. He definitely did a lot for the conservation movement, and his help in that field will be greatly missed, I fear.
The Crocodile Hunter was the second (as far as I know) of the "Hey, there's something creepy and slimy in that dark hole in the rock-face, I'm gonna jam my arm in there and pull whatever it is out!" naturalists, and I like that (as, obviously, did a great many fans around the world). It was much more interesting to me than the "We're sitting in our Land Rover with our cameras and 800mm zoom lenses shooting video of a lion a mile away taking down a zebra" style.
The first and foremost "creepy thing in the hole...let's grab it" naturalists was (is?) the great Aussie Harry Butler. Harry hosted a show in the 70s called "In the Wild with Harry Butler". I caught it two decades later in re-runs, but it hadn't lost any of it's charm. Harry looked like an outback hermit,
and he would do the creepiest shit (for example, swim in a water hole with a bigass croc and a decomposing kangaroo corpse...cuz it was the only water for 100 miles, and he was hot). Since the first day I had internet access, I've searched for tidbits of info on Harry and "In the Wild" with no luck (literally, zero results). It's probably been a year or two since I last looked, and in looking again, it's nice to see there is a bit more info on him now (thanks to Wikipedia and everything2). There was an entry on Harry on Wikipedia, but nothing for "In The Wild" specifically, so I created a brief blurb. Hopefully I, or someone else, will be able to flesh [thanks Ben] out the article in the future.
Anyway. I've gotten off-topic. The point of this post was mainly to say "Farewell, Steve". Your acting was a bit over-the-top, but your contributions to the conservation movement will be missed.
Thursday, August 31, 2006
The saga ends
For the last week or two, I've been fighting with my truck, trying to get it to pass an emissions test so I could re-register it (due today, naturally). (I won't even get into how much of a scam the emissions testing process is for modern vehicles. Let's just say that they no longer sniff your exhaust and get an actual check of the output of your truck, they just read your computer and get a theoretical check of what the output of your truck *may be*. So when my truck was throwing error codes that probably had nothing to do with it's actual output, they failed me. But anyway...I said I wasn't going to get into it). Last night, with DT's help, I finally got the last bits fixed and got the error codes cleared. Today, I took it back and had it re-tested. It passed. *Whew*.
So I went to the DMV website to re-register and decided to treat myself to some license plate fun. I registered a fancy plate with a personalized message...
Basically it says "Dead F*ckin' Last singlespeed" baby! Which is where I typically finish every ride. No sense setting your sights too high. You might let yourself down.
For the last week or two, I've been fighting with my truck, trying to get it to pass an emissions test so I could re-register it (due today, naturally). (I won't even get into how much of a scam the emissions testing process is for modern vehicles. Let's just say that they no longer sniff your exhaust and get an actual check of the output of your truck, they just read your computer and get a theoretical check of what the output of your truck *may be*. So when my truck was throwing error codes that probably had nothing to do with it's actual output, they failed me. But anyway...I said I wasn't going to get into it). Last night, with DT's help, I finally got the last bits fixed and got the error codes cleared. Today, I took it back and had it re-tested. It passed. *Whew*.
So I went to the DMV website to re-register and decided to treat myself to some license plate fun. I registered a fancy plate with a personalized message...
Basically it says "Dead F*ckin' Last singlespeed" baby! Which is where I typically finish every ride. No sense setting your sights too high. You might let yourself down.
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