Geeky Ramblings
Random Ramblings of a Neo-Post-Modern Geek (I have no idea what that means)
Drainage
Jul 25th
For many years we’ve had a serious drainage problem in our back yard …. every time it rained, we would get a big puddle in the back yard that would stick around for at least a week. The picture to the left is the back yard 3 or 4 days after a heavy rain.
At one point, Ginny was thinking about having a rain garden put in the back corner, but I wasn’t a big fan of that idea. We ended up dropping the idea because it would have taken a fair amount of maintenance.
In addition, our sump pump outlet was really close to the house and was not at all protected from freezing. More than once the sump pump pipe would freeze in the winter, after we had a thaw, and the pump would get close to burning out because it couldn’t pump water. Luckily I’ve always been home when this has happened … so I was able to remove the frozen section of PVC pipe and have it just dump out on to the lawn.
(If you haven’t noticed, we’ve had our fair share of water related house problems)
For years I kept saying I was going to get these two problems resolved. Well, I finally got off my butt and had it taken care of.
Popularity: 4%
AT&T Microcell
Jul 24th
We’ve never had good cell phone coverage at home … even when we had Verizon service.
The coverage with AT&T is even worse … but, we do like the iPhones.
I was pretty interested when AT&T announced they were rolling out 3G Microcell devices.
Basically, a Microcell is a tiny 3G cell site. It provides 3G service to up to 10 authorized cell phones. The 3G service is provided using VoIP like service (if not exactly VoIP). The range is about 40 feet in all directions.
The Microcell has a built in GPS unit so that it can verify it’s in the correct location … for E911 service and, I assume, so the AT&T systems can tell which cell towers to hand the call off to when you leave the devices range.
Popularity: 6%
eBooks Readers
Jul 20th
I just finished the 12th book in Jim Butcher’s Harry Dresden series … Changes.
The book was quite good … very intense … and a shocker of an ending.
I thought this was the last book of the series … but I’ve read somewhere else that there are eight more books planned for the series.
I got hooked on the Dresden series when SciFi (currently known as SyFy) was showing the Dresden TV series. I was quite disappointed to see the series end. It had a lot of potential, in my opinion.
One significant thing about this book was not the book itself … but how I read the book. I purchased it as an eBook from the Apple bookstore and read it on my iPhone.
I have to say … I was surprised how easy reading the book on my iPhone was.
Popularity: 4%
Utility Conundrum
Jul 7th
I’ve got a bit of a conundrum about utilities … specifically, the Cable TV utility.
In the last few days Ginny and I had a major drainage issue in our back yard fixed. We hired a landscaper to install drain tiles and pipe to collect water that was pooling in the back yard and route it into the storm sewer (they connected the sump pump to the same pipe).
Before the landscapers started, they called the J.U.L.I.E. service to mark all the utility wires to avoid interrupting service.
Late last week, J.U.L.I.E. came out and marked all the necessary parts of the lawn and the landscapers started their work.
Yesterday they finished the work and the lawn looks great.
Last night Ginny and I settled down to watch the premier of Warehouse 13 and were presented with a black screen with a message box floating around indicating that TiVo was searching for a signal on the cable.
Popularity: 4%
w00tstock Chicago
Jun 7th
Last sunday Ginny and I went to w00tstock Chicago at the Park West … it was an incredibly fun time.
W00tstock is the brain child of Wil Wheaton, Paul and Storm, and Adam Savage. It’s billed as “Three hours of geeks and music”.
Sadly, it wasn’t quite as advertised … the show lasted four and a half hours … and was absolutely laugh out loud funny.
They frequently have local guest stars … and this show had Peter Sagel, Bill Amend, and a few other folks.
Popularity: 5%
To Blog, or not to Blog, that is the question
May 31st
This post started out as something very different … many months ago. In fact, the original post still sits in my ‘draft’ list … but will never be posted.
Most of those who know me well understand that I have a lot of opinions (who doesn’t) … and I’m sometimes not afraid to express them.
The original blog post started out as a discussion of religion, politics, and how my views differed drastically from those of my co-workers, friends, and colleagues in the IBM i industry.
But, as I started to write the post (which, I might add, had an incredibly clever title that Ginny helped me come up with), I realized that the content of the post would probably offend a lot of people that I have to work with on a day to day basis, and others that I interact with quite frequently.
“What is said on the internet, stays on the internet … forever” (source unknown, but I doubt I came up with it).
Popularity: 5%
On The Bleeding Edge Again
May 28th
I’ve updated to release candidate 1 of WordPress.
Hopefully there won’t be any problems.
So far it seems to work fine.
Popularity: 4%
Where Did “All Users” Go?
May 23rd
Recently I was having a problem getting some software installed on my laptop running Windows 7.
The software (IBM’s Rational Developer for Power Systems) has a custom installer. When I tried to run the installer, it was complaining about some internal version number. Problem was, I couldn’t find any trace of the installer or it’s data.
Popularity: 4%
Bad Travel Karma
May 7th
It seems that I’ve got really bad travel karma (see Mauipocolypse and Mauipocolypse 2.0) .
I’m currently sitting at the gate in Orlando airport because my original flight (scheduled for 7:15am) was canceled due to weather in Chicago. The worst part was the fact I had to wake up at 3:30am for the airport shuttle bus.
After they announced that the flight was canceled, they sent everyone back to get their luggage and then to the ticket counter to get re-booked.
So I got rebooked for a later flight … with a connection through DFW.
Luckily, when I told Ginny about my flight change … she was able to find an earlier direct flight, so I’ll be home in the early afternoon.
Hopefully the weather in Chicago clears up and this flight doesn’t have problems.
Keep your fingers crossed.
Popularity: 4%
Spam Observations
Jun 5th
Posted by david in Spam
3 comments
I’ve noticed an interesting trend in the comment spam I’ve been getting (luckily few of it gets through).
There seems to be three basic categories …
More >
Popularity: 6%
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