OK as much as I love the damn thing, I simultaneously hate the hell out of it. I just got it back from warranty service Friday. Yesterday when I went out to take pictures of my hella-cool new rearview mirror camera, I find that it’s making this horrible, juddering noise when I turn it on/off and the lens opens/retracts. Horrible noise, can’t be good.

Needless to say, this is getting old. TOO old.

I really hope that some sort of lemon law applies here. I’ll be calling Canon on Tuesday to let them know that their camera is GREAT! When it’s working. Not so much all the other times. Cuz I will keep sending it back until they get it right or get me a new one that is right.

Seriously. Don’t believe me? F*ck, I did it with a damn new truck, fools! A camera ain’t nothin’.

Tags: hate, Photography

Well in my mind, those were the deal-breakers. Turns out though, there were other features that until I played with them, I had no idea they were actually the deal-breakers. One in particular, though. Rear Backup Camera. Oh. My. God. I cussed when I played with it. We went to test drive the truck this time before we signed the paperwork (good idea!), and the first thing we did was pop it in reverse and try out the rear backup camera. I was curious where the hell the monitor was, as the dash radio was not one of those DVD-navigation thingies that I figured would be responsible. Any guesses? I am looking over the dash, trying to figure out where the monitor’s going to be, and I glance up (out of habit) and lo-and-behold, the monitor for the backup camera… is in the rearview mirror. It was too cool for me to restrain myself, and the next thing I know I’m laying down an explicative-laced hoorah that seemed to make everyone giddy with laughter.

But it was cool to me! It was that cool. Still is. It’s so amazing, because I’ve owned a pickup before and I know that it’s hard as hell to judge where your butt actually is. When you’re trying to back up as much as possible (parallel parking, anyone?), it’s awesome in that it gives you the confidence you otherwise couldn’t have without constantly getting out to check first-person.

How cool is it? Here, I took pictures. This first one, shows the rearview before I put it in reverse. Just your average rearview mirror (click for large):

But wait! Put that thing into “R,” and now we’re flying all cool-like and sh!t (click for large):

You’re jealous. And I don’t blame you. :-)



The Sought-After New Features of the NEW New Truck
So about those alphabet-soups above. They have meaning. Shall we? Let’s.

DAC, or Downhill Assist Control, is pretty much just awesome. What it does is to take control of your throttle & braking and do what you can’t do with your pedals. It assists your descent down steep slopes by activating the ABS on each wheel, independently to keep your rig facing the right direction. That direction being face-down, because if you’re sideways on a steep decline, you’re probably about 5 seconds from rolling. It’s a little thing I like to call physics. So. You activate it, you take your foot of the pedals, and just steer. It handles the braking & everything for you, at each wheel, independently. It’s freaking awesome.

HAC, or Hill-Start Assist Control, is a feature by which you don’t have to worry about rolling backwards when you start uphill from a dead-stop. You know how in your car, when you release the brake you start sliding backwards? Yeah, well. Not me. Not anymore. My truck will automagically keep the brake engaged until the gas is actually applied. Think of it as power braking, but without the effort.

A-TRAC, or Active Traction Control, is a system only available in 4x4 Lo mode that uses the braking system similar to the DAC function, but in order to give you power where you need it. See typically, your tires will spin when they hit no resistance, and the drivetrain sort of (quite against intuition) sends the power to those wheels. And the real problem is that the ones that are spinning free are the ones that you want spinning least. Well A-TRAC uses the braking system like DAC, applying the brakes to the wheels that are spinning free, diverting the power instead to the wheels that are still in contact with the ground, propelling you forward instead. It’s also – like DAC – freaking awesome.

Remember back at the beginning of the year? When the 4Runner (without any such assistance or even a rear diff lock –something else the Taco has that I wanted) got stuck in a rut by the side of the road? With one wheel spinning free, in 4WD? Had I had the Tacoma, probably would’ve been able to make it out without the tow.

VSC uses the same principles of A-TRAC & DAC, but during normal driving instead. It’s there to compensate for out-of-control maneuvers, such as during emergency swerves & such. It also uses the brakes and it’s “brain” to calculate what wheels need to be braked in order to point the car in the direction you’re really pointing it. It’s kind of cool after reading about it and how it works, as well as watching a video or two about it. I was on the fence originally, but now I’m sold.



Last Word
So. Yeah. That’s the truck in a nutshell. I look forward to taking it out for a spin in the rough, but that won’t be for a couple of weeks. We have a camper shell on order, and the dogs aren’t allowed in the bed until that’s on properly. I’m not going to have doggy splattered all over some road somewhere. Well, at least mine.

And since we don’t go out anywhere without them, well, the 4Runner will still be gainfully employed for at least that long.

Tags: Vehicles, Animals

There are other cool upsides, as well. Noise pollution would almost disappear. No more “VROOOM!” right by your ears. Also, no more need to warm an engine. You go out, you put your key in (to turn it on: also, NO IGNITION!), and press the pedal. Since it doesn’t have an operating temperature to reach, there’s no fear of premature wear – press the pedal and go.

And did I mention no more ignition? Yes, yes I did. May not sound like much, but think about how cool that really is. Right now, you rely on a battery to start a gasoline/mechanical motor, that then needs time to properly warm up in order to get you somewhere. Now, however, you would just hop in & go. The battery is the motor, and it’s not an old rusty one, either: It’s the latest technology, Lithium-Ion. No more Coke & toothbrush, y’all.

Everyone keeps talking about the plugin hybrid. But seriously, if we could get the stations going, get the power sources mostly standardized*, then yeah, you could plug it in overnight and not worry, but you could also stop along the way and change it for a fresh one when yours is out of juice. Which is way more convenient, and even if they abandoned home charging (or relegated it to 220v or something so it was less prevalent), everyone could still be properly serviced.

And has anyone bothered to think what this would do to our ties to Oil? Seriously? Buh-bye, Saudi Arabia: hope you like your desert, cuz that’s all you gonna have no mo’, fools! America would finally be free (FREE!) of the tyranny of big oil and OPEC. A truly free nation. Finally.

Go electric, huh?


*Note that there would need to be different classes. A battery powering a commuter car isn’t going to power a pickup truck for long, I don’t think nor is either of those going to work well for a Big Rig. Also, things like ATV’s and motorcycles would need a small source for the couple hundred pounds they are. This could be gotten around to some extent by running sort of a parallel system with the smaller batteries, wherein the big rig uses the same ones, but just more of them. However, that would really limit the convenience of fast changeouts if you had to change 4 or 5 for a regular car, and 9 or 10 for a truck, etc.

Tags: earth conditions, Vehicles

Last night I watched a PBS special having something to do with how scientists are trying to get the automobile to be more efficient. Typical gasoline engines are at most about 30% efficient, you see. That’s right, of the 100% of the energy you put in, 65-70% of that is lost in the form of heat, leaving only about 30% of that to push you forward (or backwards).

One of the talking points was Tesla Motors. You heard of them? They’ve got this all-electric roadster that does 0-60 in 3.9 seconds. That’s pretty fast. And there’s lots of other cool upsides to it as well. Since it’s an electric motor, there’s full-torque immediately. No matter where you are speed-wise. Imagine that: No hesitation. Ever. And did I mention the lack of pollution? Or how about the lack of motor oil, air filters, timing belts, camshafts... and so on.

Downside is though, that it only gets about 250 miles per charge. And it takes 3.5 hours to charge it. And in thinking about this, it seems to be the one true problem electric vehicles have to overcome to become mainstream: the convenience factor. Because yeah gas sucks, but even if you could go only the same 250 miles on a tank, you could stop about anywhere and fill ‘er up. Takes 5 minutes, gets you another 250 miles, you know? But with the electric car, you go those 250 miles, then you have to rent a hotel room that lets you plug into the wall, then wait 3.5 hours… As you see, it’s not terribly convenient. I do however, have a solution.

Tesla, guys, give me a call. We have to talk. The answer to your problems is to standardize the power source. That’s what the auto industry did. Fuel is fuel is fuel, you get me? I can fill up in Kansas or California, and the car runs. 87 octane, baby. Well you gotta get with that program. What needs to happen is that you need to standardize the batteries/fuel cells into different groups or sizes. Then you make them replaceable. Then you turn gas stations into Charging Stations, or more appropriately, Battery Changing Stations. Now what happens, is the electric cars go into the station, their batteries are tested to see how low they are, the customer is charged for the costs to recharge it from its current state to full, and – now here’s the genius – instead of having the battery charged, it’s exchanged for a full one. And the station keeps all the uncharged/discharged batteries and charges them to full capacity for other customers.

Is this making sense? You’re making the electric car as convenient as the gas car. All the benefits, none of the hassle that currently exists. Seriously guys, I want to see this implemented.

And, of course, I want a cut. It’s a Great Idea®, dammit, and seriously? I should get a cut.

EDIT:
Apparently, I’ve been beaten to the punch. Still a good idea though, guys. And hey, here’s another one: Solar roof panels. Imagine that: a 4x4 vehicle out in the country, never needs to fill up. Runs out of juice/gas/power, it just sits and charges for a minute. How cool?

Way cool.

Tags: Vehicles, earth conditions

How sweet.



DPReview.com: Negativity is frowned upon? Way to keep it honest, guys
After my recent tirade about our horrible experiences with Canon Elphs, I went to this site to write my reviews/experiences on both the SD870 model & the SD1000 model. I wrote the reviews, but they never showed up on the site.

Apparently, you’re not allowed to create a truthful review pointing out actual issues with real hardware. Which I think is horrible. How the hell do you have a site composed of user reviews, but censor/delete/not post reviews by those users? It’s doubly as bad, having read their ‘rules’ on reviews, first of which is “don’t write reviews about hardware you have not used,” and one of the first reviews I saw that day was a review by someone about a just-announced (and not released) camera that so much as said “I haven’t used this camera, but there others are good so I’m sure this one will be too.”

Anyway… The Girl got hers back yesterday, and all seems dandy. They replaced the whole optical unit and it seems to be working flawlessly anymore. Mine was sent away, and if Canon can fix the issues and make them not come back, then I’ll be satisfied.

We went and looked at other brands of cameras, just in case. Truthfully, none of the others are anywhere in the neighborhood of Canon’s equipment. So I’m still pulling for them.



Holy f*ck, Canada’s becoming America
Found this sad news on another blog I stop by occasionally. Holy cow, is it not totally horrible? I linked it to a friend of mine over IM, and his response was to “never send me anything like that in the future.”

So, having just read that, why don’t you go ahead and hop on over and read it? And then you, too, can wonder: “no one bothered to – I don’t know – help?”

Do yourself a big favor and just avoid the Canon SD1000 and the like. You know, as much as I enjoyed my old Canon Digital Rebel DSLR, I cannot say it’s been all fun & games with their Elph-Series Cameras. Let’s see, what’s the toll been?

First I got my Canon SD870. It had issues with it not selecting the right ISO & Shutter speeds when zoomed at or above about 70%. Sent it back.

Then I got a Canon SD1000 for myself, similar (except in color) to the one I had gotten for The Girl for her birthday. Peachy, right? I wish! No, not long after I had it, it developed a “Lens Error” that prevented it from opening. As I was contemplating sending it back a few days later, the problem seemed to self-alleviate. OK fine, I can deal with a strange anomaly, right?

Well, then The Girl’s camera did the same thing. It also self-rectified, but it did it too. So now we’re cautious about it...

Last week The Girl had to send hers in for warranty service. Because the camera had forgotten how to focus. It just wouldn’t do it unless it was zoomed in. Like, I wasn’t even a false focus, where the camera says “OK we’re good” but we’re not; no, the camera would look at the scene, then beep at us like “yeah, sorry, you know, I just can’t see it.”

Great.

Well now yesterday, mine developed another Lens Error. Except that this time, the thing’s not going IN. It’s stuck out, and it’s not even trying to budge.

Seriously, I think I’ll try to get Amazon to take it back and pick up a Panasonic or something else. Something. This has been utter bullsh!t.

So really, if you’re considering a Canon SD1000 or one of its siblings… don’t. Do yourself a huge favor, and stay away. I hear Casio makes some good pocket cameras. Didn’t they used to make watches or something? Yeah. Anyway, don’t. You’ll be sorely disappointed.

Tags: hate, Photography

Anyway, Quicken for the Mac has always been sort of the redheaded stepchild in Intuit’s collection, and by this time you can imagine that it hasn’t dated all that well. We do keep good financial tabs on ourselves, but anything that can make the process more seamless & easier can only help us to keep finer control over the budget, you know with trying to find a more up-to-date program, preferrably one that makes good use of the Mac’s built-in tools. And recently, I thought I had found it in iBank from igg Software.

“Thought” being the key operative, there. It’s definitely more of “the look” I wanted in a product, but there’s too many usability shortcomings as compared to even Quicken 2005 for me to ignore. The budgeting tool is pretty, but also pretty useless, giving me just a bar graph for each category. In Quicken, I don’t get a graph, just the totals, but I can click down on that to see the list of what makes up those totals; something iBank cannot do. Yes, the graphs are pretty in iBank, but the same usability flaws remain: I cannot click all the way to the transaction! In Quicken, I can click on a graph to get a list of the transactions (to its credit, iBank DOES show a listing of the transactions in its graphs, unlike its budget tool), and then I can go even futher and click on the transactions themselves to see the actual occurrence in the account where it took place. So say I see that my spending has shown that perhaps I mislabeled a transaction (“what the hell did I spend $100 on in ‘Tax Annuities?’”), I can click all the way down to the transaction and see the memo, and discover I meant to put the category as “Taxable income” and fix it on the spot, as well as have all the graphs & reports I was looking at to get there auto update immediately. In iBank, it looks good, and yeah, I can even show the transactions that make up that part of the graph, but I cannot click all the way to the actual transaction like I can in Quicken. Which means if I were to notice an anomaly, I’d have to find it, then leave the graph, then try and find that transaction, and then fix it. See how much easier it is in Quicken, even if it’s not as pretty? Click, click, click, done. iBank? Click, “what the f*ck?”, click, “how the hell?”, back up back up back up, click, “OK where are you you little bugger,” click, “ah, there you are,” click, click click click click (it takes more clicks for each transaction too) and we’re done.

I really really want to like iBank. Hell, I do like iBank, but I cannot seem to find it easy enough to drill down from report to transaction. I’m always backing up out of the damn graphs to get where I need to be. Not in Quicken, though.

Quicken’s like that homely girl your mom always tried to set you up with when you were a teenager; yeah she sure it ugly, but damn can she cook, you know?

Anyway, yeah, chew on that whilst I continue to play around some.

Some may ask why I would bother writing such a diatribe. I mean, it seems mean, no? Well yes and no. I really want to like iBank, but I’m not going to buy it because it looks pretty; it needs to outperform my current tool in pretty much every fashion. Any shortcomings, and I’m not going to pull the trigger. Period. Which means, they won’t get my money. So in essence, I’m actually being pretty nice. If someone who cared were to stumble upon this rant, they would have a window into the minds of potential customers who aren’t really interested in becoming actual customers; they learn what’s important and what could make us pull that trigger and deliver funds to their coffers. It may seem mean, but in actuality, “yes men” rarely do much to further any particular product.

I’m trying to help them fix the things that need fixing. Things they may not have even known needed fixing. I’m ultimately being helpful. Yes it’s in a rant pointing out the flaws. But it can be helpful nonetheless.

Sometimes, you need to see through your own Marketing, and just tackle what’s really at the core.

We just sort of wanted to make sure that it still looked good. It’s definitely the biggest set that Sears has on their floor, and we just wanted to make absolutely sure before we spent that kind of dime, you know?

And it’s a terribly good thing we went back. We got there and looked, and looked, and accidentally saw…. The Samsung LN-52A650 about two TV’s down. This TV is a bit smaller than we want – it’s actually the same 52” that we currently have – but… I almost can’t describe it. I did say almost, so hey, here’s the thing(s):

This TV had a depth to it that I have not seen anywhere else. The blacks… One of the sorer spots of LCDs has always been that they have typically poor black reproduction; it’s more like “dark grey.” but this set was not like that. Blacks were black, and the screen was so ‘deep’ that thus, all the colors seemed so much punchier than any other set (even after I fiddled with the settings), and made the Rear-Projection model look like complete ass. Seriously, ass. Hairy ass.

Anyway, it was so good that we just ended up looking at it the whole time. It seemed 3-dimensional, it looked like you could reach inside the screen and pick things up. I did not try this, but yes, I was tempted.

And now, we can’t pull the trigger on the RPTV. We just can’t. We want a Large Samsung LCD. We want that Series 6 set we saw (but in a larger size), or maybe a Series 7, 58” set (though we’d still like bigger, and cheaper). So we’ll just have to wait, I guess. Wait until the Samsung LCDs get to 60+ inches, and within an affordable range.

And wait we shall.



The Things you Learn about HD when you go to buy a TV
There’s three basic competing technologies right now: Plasma, LCD, and Rear-Projection. RP is what we have now, Plasma’s the Old Dog, and LCD’s the never-quitter. Each has strengths and weaknesses, so it’s not as simple as “This is better than That” and to get the best you just pay more, it’s just not that simple (apparently).

For instance: Plasmas I guess generally have deeper, more detailed blacks, and not suffer from motion blur as older LCDs were prone to. However, their whites are not as bright as LCD sets (though better than RPTVs).

LCDs tend to have washed-out blacks as compared to Plasmas, but their whites are second-to-none. However, they also tend to suffer from motion blur. All this, however, was before the recent Samsung Series 6, 7, and above panels with their “Ultra Clear Panel” that brings out the vivid blacks about on par w/ the top-of-the-line Plasmas, and their skimpy 4ms response times & 120hz refresh rates which all but obliterate motion blur, as well. To me, this makes them “The Buy,” as their typical weaknesses have almost been erased, and yet they retain their typical strengths.

Where do the RPTVs fit into this? Well, they’re the “bang for the buck” sets. You can’t get a bigger picture for anywhere as low a price as the RPTVs offer. I mean, the 67” set we looked at, the current top of the line, is still 3x cheaper than the 58” Samsung LCD. Yikes. But there’s just no real strengths other than price. The picture’s not as bright, the colors aren’t as good, and the viewing angles tend to suck, as well.

So yeah, we’re going to wait. We figure (mostly me, I guess) that in another year, Samsung will have these series sets in the sizes we want (65”+), and hopefully the prices will come down. All this, and while we the let the techs sort themselves out, it should only get better. What am I looking forward to, then? Well, another year & a half with our current set, and then hopefully a Series 6 or Series 7 65” LCD.

Peace.

I am not a Nicolas Coppola fan by any stretch. In fact, I would go so far as to say that I will automatically rate any movie starring him lower just because he’s in it, even if I haven’t seen it. Because, I’ve seen enough of him to know that watching him is like listening to paint peel, alright? So yeah, onto this movie.

I can safely say that Nicolas Coppola has managed to further cement his stance in my eyes. He sucks. His acting is like listening to paint peel. It’s worse than that. It’s like listening to paint peel with your eyes. I could dress up my mini-me (if you’re mind’s in the gutter you’re on the right path) and do the ol’ ventriloquist thing and pull off a better performance than this prick. HOWEVER, the movie isn’t that terrible. It’s a little slow at parts, but the issues are important and worth watching. It’s not like Syriana in that it’s important enough to watch but mind-numbing enough to never enjoy; no, you can be entertained by this flick, but it’s in spurts is the thing.

Here’s a good way of putting how I feel about this movie: If they had shortened it by cutting out some of the slower portions and it starred a cardboard box instead of Nic Cage, then I’d probably see fit it grace it with an A-. But since those slow parts are there & too prevalent, & indeed Nic Cage does do a craptacular job yet again, I can’t give it above a B-. In fact I think that since he acts and narrates, I have to lean towards a C+.

Nicolas Cage/Coppola sucks that much. Really truly.



More Entertainment
Before the movie began we took the dogs out to the beach. It was slightly overcast but not cold, and I wanted to go for a nice walk and get the dogs out having some fun & exercising. Anyway. We got a lesson in currents while we were there!

I took a big ol’ buoy toy I have made for them that I toss out into the waves for Miles to fetch for me. At one point along the beach, he managed to lose sight of the buoy as it was flying out into the surf. This is a problem, because (and this is why I don’t use tennis balls anymore: hard to see) if he doesn’t see the thing he’s fetching actually go out there, he won’t follow.

I know what you’re saying, “doesn’t tide usually bring things in to shore?” Yes. But not always. This particular area apparently had a pretty strong undertow, and it was also high-tide abating – meaning low tide was taking over. Meaning the beach waters were receding.

So yeah. I got to watch the buoy float out from the shore some 400 yards. At one point I considered going out there myself to get it. Then I thought, is swimming 400 yards in cold water, then having to walk back all soaking wet worth the $12 the toy costs? And didn’t do that.

We got the ball back though. The current was pulling it out and southward, and I figured that if we walked back (southward), we’d probably meet up with it at the shore eventually. Figured it’d hit some waves and wind up close enough for Miles to retrieve. And it was true, minus about 5 minutes that we had to park ourselves and wait for it. But it happened.

Funniest thing about the whole episode was watching Miles get so anxious as to start shivering nonstop. He has to have something to do. And when water is present, that something is swimming to retrieve. And he couldn’t stand not knowing where the ball was and being able to retrieve it. Silly Boy!



Trying to ignore the Hype
I have had Wall•E on my list of movies to see since I first saw the Trailer. Now this. Apparently, it’s the hottest thing since – well, since fire.

I fear I know where this is headed: Unnaturally heightened expectations. The kind that cannot be reached.

I really want to like this movie. But I fear that all the positive reviews I keep hearing are going to really make it no more than a mediocre film by the time I get around to watching it on Blu-Ray.

Ho-hum.



Speaking of Hi-Def
Here’s another reason The Girl is awesome. We got on the subject of getting a new TV. I wasn’t serious, I just like to josh her about things like that from time-to-time. Don’t get me wrong, I want a bigger TV with full 1080p support. But it’s not like our 52” TV is falling apart, either.

Anyway, We damn-near pulled the trigger on a 67” 1080p behemoth from Samsung. That close. Seriously. And the funny thing? I had to talk her out of it. The man had to talk the woman out of spending $$$ on new tech toys. Believe that.

Peace.

Tags: women

A few days ago I mentioned that I was going to be changing my driving habits a little bit. Well today @ work, I learned that I will get to feel the full effect of this come July 8th. You see, currently I live a whopping 1-½ miles from work. Come July 8th – when I transfer stores – I will be about 17 miles from door-to-door. Yikes. Let’s put that in perspective:

Say I average 10 mi/gal right now. Let’s round up and say the trip is currently 2 miles (I like easy math!). OK, so that’s 5 trips on a gallon. So if gas is $4/gal, that means that every 5 days back & forth to work, it costs me $8 in gas. Not bad!

OK so I get better gas mileage going the 17 miles down the freeway. Now let’s say that driving the new route, I’ll average 17mi/gal. WOW. OK so now we’re looking at $8 a day for gas. Holy f*ck, that’s a 500% increase in gas expenses, people. Now these numbers aren’t quite exact. For instance, I’ll probably average between 20-25 miles a gallon in reality, but up here, whereas the rest of the US is averaging $4/gallon, I haven’t seen it less than $4.60/gallon. Yes, it’s that much more than what you’re paying (unless of course you’re reading this from Europe, in which case… I feel your pain).

This is going to put a dent in my pocketbook for the next 6 months or so before I rotate back to town. Sh!t I’d say we should move if it weren’t for the fact that in 6 months I’ll probably be right back in here… it’s hard as hell finding a place for the pups too, so since we have a place, we’ll probably keep that place, you know? It’s secure at least. What if we move and the landlords there suck? What if in 6 months we can’t find another place in town? Yeah, I think we’ll have to stick it out. Especially since if we move, that just means The Girl would be driving back into town for work the same distance.



Apple WWDC 2008 Notes of Interest
Apple today did a few interesting things: One, they introduced the next-generation iPhone, which will have massive price cuts associated with it (at&t is subsidizing apparently). Sorta makes the iPod Touch look… well, overpriced. I hope they drop that a few pennies. Maybe I’d get one if they did. I’m in the market for a new iPod anyway, sh!t. C’mon, Apple!

They also announced that they will be distributing a new version of Leopard next year, dubbed “Snow Leopard.” The similarities in name are signal that there are no major feature changes between the two. No, Snow Leopard is supposed to be a stability release more than anything, and all signs point to them dropping support for PPC chips with this release as well.

I’m looking forward to it. We could use a stability release. I’m cool with that.



Funny moment of the day
It was beautiful day when I left for work this morning, and indeed stayed that way pretty much all day, until about an hour before I got off of work. I got outside, and it was misting a bit, and really it was kind of a cool atmosphere outside; the mist was coming in sideways and it almost looked like a heavy fog but you could see far. It looked like the ground was steaming, and though it was coming off sideways, there wasn’t really a breeze that I could feel. I can’t really explain it.

Anyway, when I got home, I opened the back gate and saw a bucket and sponge. Which means… The Girl washed her truck today.

That is… just too damn funny. HA HA!

Peace.

Tags: Apple, women

I was trying to decide between two different site designs recently. I build & maintain my site with RapidWeaver (as you May recall from a post or two about it), which is theme-based to make my life easier.

Anyway, I was looking at some for-pay theme designs from RapidWeaver Themes and having trouble deciding between two close-calls. I emailed him and explained my indecision, and asked if he could give me some specific information on one of them so I could compare mo’ better, and be happy with my decision. His response was short and very much more than necessary; he sent me links to the themes for free so I could try them both out and decide!

I know places don’t stay in business by giving the store away, but I cannot stress enough how cool I think that was of him. I played with both, modding them to do about what I wanted out of them more-or-less, and really had trouble deciding, but eventually went with the theme you see on the site now. The other option was almost as good and almost the same, really, minus a few small touches.

It’s really nice and in fact I prefer some things about it still and find that visually I’m quite drawn to it. Who knows, maybe in the near future I’ll switch it over? I can’t tell the future! But hey I’m indecisive, so it’s a possibility, right?

In any regard, I just wanted to put an official “thank you” out in public for this guy. And also perhaps recommend him to you, if you’re in the market for a new site theme. Sweet.



My Thanks to Yourhead Software
I was also looking for a way to make navigating my photo galleries much smoother. I had been keeping the list small, mostly due to the fact that before theme it was hard to navigate the submenus to each of the galleries, and a long list becomes daunting.

Well the theme change helped, but I still wanted a unified “home” for the photo galleries that gave them thumbnails so you could easily see a sample pic, and put the navigation right in your face, without a huge, long, daunting (there’s that word again) list to try and scroll through.

Plus, you navigate pictures by looking at them, not them, right? So gallery thumbnails seemed like a good idea.

I stumbled across a plugin that seemed like a good start, but it wasn’t as automated as I had wanted, or so I thought. I emailed the makers – YourHead – to see if what I wanted could be done with their program, and they said rather plainly that no, it could not be done like I wanted, but that a free alternative existed that would do at least 90% of what I was after.

It turns out that I already had that free page plugin installed, as it was the same “rapidalbum” plugin that I had decided to use to make my slick new photo pages, as you May or May not recall.

So even though it meant that I would not be buying software from them, they went ahead and candidly told me that there was free software that I could get to do what I wanted. And while it did mean no sale now, I definitely remember them, and already have my eye on some of their other goodies that look interesting to me.



Lesson to be learnt?
Doing things like this wins you customers. Doing business like it’s a hold-up is not the way to endear friends, family, or strangers even. These guys (and maybe girls?) went out of their way to help me, and for that not only will they get my gratitude, but I am actively looking for ways to become their customers.



Except for RapidWeaver Themes
That one’s easy; I will be going back to pay for the theme I actually used later tonight.
:-)



So yeah, if you read to here…. THERE’S NEW PHOTOS UP!
Traipse on over to my new photo pages home, and see for yourself; now you can see thumbnails of the galleries, of which there are already more (thanks to slicker navigation), and the number will only grow, I hope. And thanks to Mr. Byrd over @ RWT, it’s all wrapped up inside a nice little theme.. :-)

Peace.

Tonight I have two BRD’s in my possession from Netflix. Can’t watch either one of them.

Yeah.

First choice was V for Vendetta. Popped it in, it started, then started “loading” for like 3 minutes before the movie began. Then, it begins. Then, my Sony BDP-S300 restarts. And it begins the loop. This was decidedly not fun.

Second choice for the night? BBC’s Planet Earth, Disc One. I had issues with this disc once before with it coming up with a “Wrong Region Code” error. Wanna take a guess at today’s fun? If you guessed “you had the same issue with it this time, too” then you get the prize (there is no prize, but pretend there is and act excited).

I never had any such issues with my DVD players. Ever. Not from day one. DVD, the guys who brought us HD-DVD. Why did I root against them? Damn I am thinking I backed the wrong horse here. Despite BRD’s technical superiority, I’m wishing for the reliability & interoperability I had with DVD. Dammit.



But wait! There’s hope on the horizon!
These BRD players from Sony have upgradeable firmwares. You go to Sony’s support website, download the firmware, burn it to disc, and load the disc into the player, and it does it’s thing. Cool!



...unless you don’t use Windows
Screeching halt: if you don’t have a windows computer this is not possible. Because they couldn’t just post the actual file that needs ot be burned to disc now could they? Oh no, they had to hide it inside a “.exe” file, a Windows-Only, completely unnecessary container for the real file.

Bonus insult? The instructions call for you to open the .exe file and extract the real file so you can burn it to disc. Yeah. Totally useless anyway.

Peace.

Tags: hate

So the states’ delates were thrown out for holding runnings too early, but since Clinton won in those states, she would like to have those state’s delegates seated.

Does that about cover it?

Talk about desperate. I’m willing to bet my liberalness that if the shoe was on the other foot, Cinderella would not be trying to get them seated. She should just say it: “I want to have these state’s delegates seated even though I am a part of the party that agreed to not seat them because without them I’m going to lose my campaign. Er, earlier than I’m going to lose without them.”

Obama-Clinton 2008 for the win!



Yahoo titles: Like reading Us Weekly
I open Yahoo this morning, and I see an Article Headline something like this: Is it Worth it to Buy a Hybrid?

Let’s see, gas well above $4 a gallon, times ~15 gallons to fill up, times how many fill-ups a month, times 12, times years… Yeah, it’s worth the extra $3,000-$4,000 to get the hybrid model if you’re shopping anyway.

It’s seriously like reading those damn variety mags in the supermarket line: “Angelina & Brad having twins! Did they do it?”

I’m thinking yeah, they probably ‘did it’ a few times.



Except maybe for these Hybrids
GM apparently only sold one-twelfth of the amount of Hybrid, Large SUV’s they had hoped. Looking at their stats, though, they’re hardly hybrids in performance. 20mpg? Get real.

I think GM is missing the point: People want hybrids not for the nameplate, not for the badge, but for the real-world savings. 20mpg? They can get better than that from a non-hybrid Toyota.

Let me throw my hat in the ring on this one: When Toyo makes available a Hybrid version of the 4Runner (I love my 4Runner), I will be severly interested. Mind you, hybrid or no, if you’re not in the market to buy a new vehicle then no matter what shopping for one is dumb… But if I’m in the market & one is available? Like stink on sh!t, mang, like stink on sh!t.

Of course I fully expect Toyota’s Hybrid SUV’s will probably get 40mpg. You know, like a hybrid is supposed to. Silly GM.

Peace.

Tags: Vehicles

I’ve been creating & posting my website in RapidWeaver Version 4 for the last week or so.

For those of you stuck at version 3.6 or abouts, there’s some good reason to come up to the latest & greatest:

• A generally much-sleeker interface throughout. It’s easier to find your way around now.

• Redesigned page info inspector. Most of the tabs are the same, but now it’s easier to pick out what they are!

• If you’re using .Mac to host like me (what’s wrong with us?) and using the personal domain feature, RW4 allows you to post directly there. No moving it back and forth to the Homepage folder, no slow-as-dirt Folder exports & syncing, just straight to the .mac personal domain folder (the same that iWeb uses to host).

• There’s now a real, honest-to-goodness toolbar across the top that has buttons for often-called features, such as the snippets window!

• If you actually use RW to compose your pages’ text (I write in Pages and then drag the text to RW myself), you’ll be glad to know that they put actual font controls across the bottom! Yep, bold, italic, underline, font, color… all the basics are there now! No menu-hunting!

Tags: Apple

The major stability enhancements were to be with Time Machine & Time Capsule, Apple’s backup software, and the feature I wanted was also related to that: The ability to have the system backup automatically while on battery power.

See before, Time Machine would only initiate backups automatically while you were plugged in. That’s fine for desktop machines that are always plugged in, but a laptop user? I wrote in on Apple’s support forums that I thought they needed to make it so that Time Machine would back up even on battery Power, because it’s conceivable that a laptop user could have the right stuff, but their work habits preclude backups from ever happening.

For instance, let’s say that a user always uses their laptop unplugged away from a power source, and they only plug it in while they have it closed and off. Well, they unplug it, open it up, and Time Machine never runs. Then they close the lid, plug it back in, and of course Time Machine isn’t running. This user NEVER gets a backup.

A lot of people read that and want to scream “Just run it manually” or “Don’t turn it off when you plug it in,” but the problem is that’s not what Time Machine is about; it’s billed as the everyman’s backup solution; automatic backups that you don’t have to think about, the computer takes care of it. Well, if I have to change my habits to accommodate it, then it’s not very effective at its task, now is it? Sort of defeats its own purpose then, and I might as well just use some different backup utility if I am going to have to remember to do it and do it on its terms, eh?

Well I’m happy to say that now indeed, Time Machine will back up on battery power. They created an option in the Time Machine System Preferences Options Tab, that allows you to select whether or not you want to back up under battery power or not. I selected yes of course, and I would say that unless your hourly backups take 4 hours apiece, it’s wise for everyone to have it selected.

In fact, mine’s selected by default.

The only unfortunate thing about the new update? It doesn’t automatically seek out and destroy any windows boxes within a 5-mile radius. Guess I’ll have to pay for 3rd party software that does it. Damn.

Peace.


UPDATE:
Being a MacBook user, I had noticed that when video chatting with other MacBook Leopard users, there was a recurring, high-pitched echo that royally sucked. Well according to the release notes, that’s one of the specific issues that they tackled in this release: echoing in iChats on certain mobile Macintosh Computers.

So if that’s you, really, 10.5.3 is your baby.

Tags: Apple

I own this movie on DVD and in fact recently watched then blogged about it. Well I’m not here to do that again, so don’t worry. But this time was a little different. Again Netflix was involved, even though I own it, because I had them ship me the Blu-Ray version.

I of course wanted to test the difference between the HD version and the SD version. I have an up-converting DVD player as well (because it’s attached to my TV tuner), so it was easy, I just popped both in and switched between inputs on the TV to judge. The verdict was good, but different than I expected, too.

Up-converting DVD players are supposed to do a decent job of faking the HD thing. And I can tell you that yeah, up-converted DVD’s do look pretty sharp even compared to an actual HD source. The first thing I noticed that surprised me – though it makes sense once you think about it – was that the scenes that the extra detail was the most dramatic wasn’t the up-close, clear shots, but the less-focal shots and the backgrounds; they’re so much deeper in HD and actually there instead of just colored splotches.

The other thing that got me was the colors. I fully expected better clarity, but the difference in colors was dramatic. The DVD version was so far & away muted compared to the HD version that I for a moment thought something was wrong with the setup. It's so much so that after viewing a scene in HD, the DVD version seemed like it didn’t even contain the color red. Yeah really, it's that dramatic.

So HD wins, for sure. And this was a decade-old film mind you, I imagine that a newer title that was shot with newer, better lenses (and HD in mind) would show off even better. so if you have an HD TV, even just a 720p set (which I currently have), it does make a difference. You can probably get by with an up-converted DVD player… but why? You already got the HDTV, get the full experience, man!



I had no idea
You heard of Megan Fox? Apparently she’s the new ‘foxiest’ lady in Hollywood (I am in no way sorry for that pun). I checked out the pics, she is pretty hot. Well OK, where am I going with this, right? Remember Beverly Hills, 90210? Well you might remember Brain Austin Green, that “kid” who was always trying to hard to be cool. He lived the part, we all thought. At least we thought.
Apparently, this new ‘foxy’ lady is his fiancé. What’s he got going on that we don’t know about?

Eh, perhaps We don’t want to know. You know? You know.

Peace.

Tags: women

So I made it through the “marathon workout” session I had planned. It wasn’t that bad once I got going actually, not as bad as I had imagined it might be. Sh!t I might actually try to incorporate it into my regular routine; sure it takes an extra hour of actual workout labor, but it frees up a little bit of “frictional” time it takes to get ready and then get “un-ready” after I finish for the second of the two workouts, so it actually saves me time if I can get away with it.

Problem is, there’s not really any I can combine except for the ones I combined for this. So it would save me a day. But still, even if I don’t do it often, it’s nice to know that I can schedule it and get away with it.



Almost didn’t Attempt it
I almost didn’t even attempt the “marathon workout.” I didn’t feel too good when I got home. Felt that maybe afer all I would have to push it all back; perhaps I was still too sick to get into it this hard this fast. Well I took a small nap outside in the sun, and then decided to go ahead and try. What the hey, I figured, I could quit if I started feeling worse.

Luckily I started feeling better instead. Yes!



Note on being sick
I have been not 100% since I started feeling crap-tastic® last week around this time, but the last few days have been kinda weird: my sinuses are draining, and suddenly I notice that one of my top-right teeth kind of hurts me when I run/jog/bounce. I am not sure what’s going on, I think it could be related to the cold… I think the sinus cavity drains over the roots of the top row of teeth, right? I think that maybe I’m just backed up right around there. Hopefully it drains OK and everything is Jake.

Because I really don’t want to go to the dentist for jack sh!t. Really.



I was actually without internet @ The Girl’s work
It was a rare occasion, but I sat so far away from the source of their “free wi-fi” that I simply didn’t get a strong-enough signal to get online.

Which meant no “mobile porn.” Damn.



People-watching doesn’t seem to be working for me
Every time I think that I’m beginning to be something worthwhile physically, I look around and see tons of guys far beyond me. This is frustrating. Especially seeing as how I just got through with a “marathon workout” session (see above, and see yesterday’s post). Dang it, it just seems that after so much hard work, I’d be further along than this. Not that I’m a nothin’ mind you, but I’m definitely not quite a something either. I’m in this funky in-betwixt area, where I’m so glad I’m not what I was, yet not really much closer to what I want.

What do I want? The body on the front of the product packaging for "The Perfect Pushup." Which I see daily. And am irritated by daily.



Sign of the Apocalypse
OK Reno, NV has been rocked by over 100 “aftershocks” over the course of a two-month period. Or since Friday. Hard to tell for sure as the editorial staff at the end of that link sorta sucks.

And furthermore, some of the “aftershocks” have been more powerful than the original quake. So the officials are warning Reno to brace for the worst, because contrary to everything they know – much like every related occurrence thus far – they think that maybe these are “preshocks” or something.

What’s kind of amusing is that is everyone’s fear when they feel an earthquake: everyone is then wide-eyed and bushy-tailed, waiting with their luggage packed so that they can flee when the next, larger, earth-destroying quake comes in a few minutes. Which hasn’t happened thus far that we know of in history, but yet which the officials are warning Reno to do. And hey, I agree – crap guys, this May be the beginning of the apocalypse. Duck.

Peace.

Tags: earth conditions

My luck with Canon Digital Cameras has been less than stellar recently, I would say.

Last time – not all that long ago, either – it was a Canon SD870 that saw fit to severely underexpose all images when at 80% zoom or more, regardless of actual lighting conditions (like, say, outdoors on a bright sunny day). This time it’s at least not a software problem, but a mechanical problem: the lens seems to be “stuck shut.” When I try to turn it on, the lens tries to extend out, and fails.

I say “at least” in reference to the hardware failure because that’s easier to troubleshoot; the software failure leaves the “techs” on the other end to question whether you are ‘doing it right,’ with ‘it’ ranging from “turning on the power” to “do you even know what the hell a camera is?” Yes I do, dumbass, probably better with them than you. But I digress. This makes it a simple “oh ok well the mechanism appears to be broken, please send in for warranty repair.” OK I can do that.

What’s really weird about it is that I had the camera out, took some pics, put it away and walked around for a bit, maybe a whole 2 minutes, before a chance for a ‘Miles Movie’ presented itself and I pulled it back out. I am not sure if I by chance had anything to do with its demise, as I pulled it out and hit the on button, then was holding the zoom function down as it was starting up. Could that have confused it or jammed the mechanical mechanism? I don’t think so, but maybe if two gears are fighting to go different directions when they shouldn’t be…

Anyway, a call is to be placed on Monday. Wish me luck.



Tomorrow’s Workout: A marathon affair
It’s going to be some 3 hours. Really. See I had planned to do my shoulders today and my biceps & triceps tomorrow with a day off on Sunday, but I’m so sore today from my chest & back workout yesterday, that the whole shoulder thing was not close to a possibility this evening. Clearly. I could not even feint the appearance of a full range of motion today.

One option was to move everything back a day, but that binds other things from Sunday on forward, and moving them back further means more than two days for some stuff, making my workout routine far too spaced for my liking. So the other option was to combine things that I could get away with, and just lengthen the hell out of the schedule. I opted for this as tomorrow I have nothing going on after work, save for dinner @ The Girl’s work, so even though I never ever do it, I’m going to go the marathon workout route.

I expect it will run anywhere from 2-½ hours to 3 hours long. Wish m