This past weekend, I sat down with my 6 year old daughter and watched Star Wars.  It was her first time, certainly not mine.  She really likes the Clone Wars series on Cartoon Network, so I thought it was time.  It was an interesting experience.

Star Wars came out when I was 7.  I never saw it in the theaters in its original release; my parents seldom took us to a theater, and then only for "kids" movies.  I did see it years later, but never the original cut.  My first exposure was a VHS tape that our uncle gave my father.  I watched that tape over and over until it wore out, literally.  I bought the trilogy on VHS when it was released as a boxed set later on, and again when it was remastered with THX sound.  And I got a copy when the whole set was reworked with new CGI content.  Oh, I have seen Star Wars a few times...

The version I showed my daughter was in HD.  Obviously the latest remastered, cleaned, reedited, Greedo shot first, equatorial shock wave edition.  It was beautiful.  After the attack on Leia's ship, I remarked to my wife, "I don't believe I have ever seen this movie look so good!".  Funny, the version I always remember was grainy and almost smoky; it was thick with atmosphere.  This version was crisp and clean, clear and sharp; it looked great, yet somehow lacked something.  She loved it. 

It's funny how 32 years has changed so much.  The impact the film had on me was dramatic, even life changing (OK, I was only 7).  Not so much for her.  That old tape was a treasure to be handled carefully and saved for the future.  The copy from this past weekend was just so many bits on our DVR.  It is marvelous to see the world through her new eyes, yet make my own feel that much older.

Why are Unicorns hollow?

He was one of the greatest people of our time.  More than just an author.  More than a great scientist.  More than an engineer, physicist, humanitarian, advisor, prophet, philosopher, and more.  He helped define the world we live in from the positive side.  He helped define who I am today through his stories.  He had his hands in most of the great information technologies we enjoy today.  We all owe him more than we can know.  And now he is gone.  Goodbye, we will miss you.

From the BBC:  Writer Arthur C Clarke dies at 90

Not that there was any doubt, and of course, answered honestly:

Respect the score.

Ok, no amazing technology or code hints here.  But when I get a good idea, I want to share.  Take Quick and Good, add some Lazy, and I have a post.

I love hot dogs.  I hate cleaning up or firing up the grill for just myself.  And have you ever tried microwaving a hot dog?  ugh.  But in a eureka moment, I found the answer:  Take a dog, or two, and drop into a glass.  Fill the glass with water, preferably higher than the dogs (yes, they will float a bit).  Pop it all in the microwave, and if you have it, hit the button for 1 cup of hot water (otherwise, 90 seconds?).  Let sit another minute or so, then pour out the water, some, all, doesn't matter.  Throw in buns, add mustard, and Viola, you have hot hot dogs ready to eat!  Don't you dare put ketchup on them puppies.  That's just wrong.

The water protects the dogs from the microwaves so they don't burst during the heating.  Also the water gets hot which helps warm them too.  You can actually see the difference where the dogs float out of the water.  In three minutes, you have a good ballpark style dog from fridge to bun.  Not perfect, but easy, quick and lazy.

My home server finally died this week.  Even my daughter was inconvenienced.  The old PII on a SE440BX-2 has been a faithful, long lived servant these many years, but finally passed on.  I bought this board a long long time ago and have been running it 24x7 as my home server for over 5 years now.  I don't remember exactly how long, as it was 3 major upgrades ago.  BTW, you can still run a nice server on 256MB RAM for file, print, Web, and FTP with Win2003.  I believe the failure was with some component of the BX2 finally wearing out.

On to newer hardware!  I purchased a 35W Celeron to run the server on now.  Going to put it in a quiet Antec case with a Hi-Eff PSU.  Should be a simple and low-cost build.  Only spent $200 so far including the case (most expensive part), PSU, CPU, motherboard and optical (SATA).  I happen to have 1GB of DDR2 from a mistake purchase last year that I will use.

Yes, the comic feeds are down and will be for a few days.  Sorry.  I will get them up first thing.  *Heavy Sigh*

Delivery for the Beast was delayed until Monday.  So no glory for me.  Heavy sigh.

Then on Saturday, the SCSI subsys on my server went south, knocking out the system volume.  Everything is backed up, but I had to spend the weekend rebuilding.  The machine is almost 10 years old, so I'm not complaining, but all of my feed builders were interrupted.  I will get them re-initialized tonight, so there will only be a day or two missing from them.  Sorry.

Maybe I will get to buy some new server hardware this spring....

Finally, after dreaming of the Core2 series of processors, I am upgrading my system.  Well, I have been since August, anyway.  I finally bought the CPU/MB/Memory combo this week.  They should be here today!

Here is the plan (in the order purchased):

Last will be the video card.  I am leaning toward the ATI HD3870 in a Saphire or Diamond Viper configuration.

The case is excellent!  The P182 is the finest case I have ever worked with.  The walls are thick, heavy and absorb vibrations very well as they were designed to quiet the system.  Rubber gromitts for drive mounts, very nice airflow and great cable management technique make this a joy to work on.

I chose the Corsair PSU because of its efficiency and noise ratings.  It is based on the Seasonic designs and should be very quiet.  Also, my choice of size is controversial, but on metering my Prescott at full load, I never saw it cross 280Watts*.  If I bought a kilowatt PSU, I would waste a lot of energy and heat from the inefficiency at the low end of usage.

I wanted to get a SATA optical, but don't care about Lightscribe.  I may get a second later....

The Maximus Formula is an expensive drop.  I did not intend to spend $270 on a motherboard.  But the X38 chipset is the only one to support PCI-E 2.0 and it is supposed to be compatible with Penryn when it comes out.  I don't anticipate replacing this board for a very long time.  And the 2.0 spec has shown some dramatic gains for the HD3870 cards in reviews.  So, ouch, but I think a good buy.

The Core2Duo E6600 is considered the best over-clocker in years.  It's price is $229.  The Quad core Q6600 is very similar and is only $50 more.  It was not a difficult decision.

Memory is memory, from what I hear.  I still went ahead and spent the extra $20 for 1066 for the lower latencies and OC ability.

I will post more as the system specs out and I have a chance to play more.  But I am very excited.  Should be a fun weekend!  Total spent so far (including the anticipated $200 for video):  Under $1000.  Great time to build PCs.

*EDIT:  Updated to 280 from 250.  Mistake at time of post.

I heard a brilliant reason clever generalization for why Socialism, and by extension Communism, will always be doomed to failure:

Have you ever rented a car?  Did you wash it?

Edit:  Commenter inadvertantly reminds me that this is not a reason, but a gross simplification.  I don't discount the hundreds of other reasons and historical proofs for the failure of Marxist states.

Here's your reminder that DST is ending again this weekend and you will be losing your free hour everyday.  But Wait!!  Congress moved it this year:  It's actually next week!  Yay!  Another week of free hours.  It a good thing Congress is saving us Time and Money, and more than ever before!

StandardTime.com

I had to hunt down my ICQ number the other day, which I seem to do occasionally over the years.  I use it for a few weeks, then delete it as useless.  I used to use it a lot, but email is much more useful, generally.  I even have an early number:  529564.  It is becoming more difficult to find it, so here it is.  Preserved until this fad wears thin too.  Of course, the client really stinks, since AOL bought them out, but the new Trillian client is pretty nice.  And it integrates Yahoo and MSN IMs too, which I have by default of possessing accounts there.   Let's see how long I use it this time...

Today I was watching "Star Wars Tech" on the History Channel.  They were examining different technologies in Star Wars and parallelling them with today's.  Following the show, was the "Legacy of Star Wars" which looked at the philosophies in the series.

I just thought to myself:  "It's just a movie."  It slipped, didn't even know it was there.  I guess now I will have to turn in my Nerd membership card.  Oops.

But really, come on.  Star Wars was great, it was fun, it defined our childhood.  I might even go as far as suggesting it got alot of us into SciFi in a big way.  But let's not try to put more into it than just entertainment.  Brace yourself:  George Lucas is NOT a visionary.  He was just a great moviemaker.  Well, until the last 3 movies, anyway.

Today is Memorial Day.  Today is the most important holiday, we, as Americans, celebrate.  Today is the day we should remember the sacrifice of so many that make so many things possible.  Even the ingrates that protest against the military should recognize that they would not even have that ability if not for the men who have died to make it possible.

So fly your flag high today, remember the brave servicemen who gave up everything so that we might, and see today as much more than a day off from work.

Now here's a holiday I can appreciate.  Armed Forces Day is celebrated on the 3rd Saturday of May to honor all those in our military.  And you know what?  THEY DESERVE IT! 

So why is this 60 year old holiday almost completely obscured, but we all get pounded by "Administrative Assistants" Day?  Shows a profound disconnect in American priorities.

So, Happy Armed Forces Day!  I personally thank all of you in the service of our country.  I couldn't do it, so am doubly grateful that you do!  Stop by, the first round's on me.

I learned a few things about the human condition when I was in Vegas.  Mostly the level of man's greed.  The real motto for Vegas is "MORE".  I saw more excess than I thought possible, from sheer luxury to an incredible array of women.

It wasn't that long ago that the Luxor and Mandalay Bay Casinos were open, but now they are passé.  The Bellagio, with it's enormous fountains, is overshadowed by newer, more extravagant hotels.  The Wynn Casino, the newest $3Billion project, projected to recoup its cost with 9 months (!) is already expanding.  Did I mention it has a rain forrest in the lobby?  A real one, in the middle of the Nevada desert.  Amazing.

We decided that the owners of these places just enjoy saying "Nah, not big enough, make it bigger."  Because as crazy as it gets, they make their money back in record time.  For example, we witnessed one guy casually lose $1900 on a craps roll.  I'd have freaked!  He then dropped $1100 more before we walked away.  He saw him later lose another $1500 at the same table!  $4500 in 15 minutes or so!  And he didn't even flinch.

Me, I couldn't take the stress.  I played the $3 Craps table as the Casino Royale, and was amused, but lost $20 in a short amount of time.  I was sitting down at a Blackjack table when they raised the minimum bet from $5 to $10.  Couldn't do it.  I did do pretty good at the slots.  I believe I ended ahead, if only by a few dollars.  My first $5 round turned into $7.50.  I played that voucher for a couple days, getting it as high as $27 before cashing it out along with a couple other smalls for $33.  I blew that at the craps table and other slots.  But it was essentially boring to play the slots.  But you can't appreciate the scale and numbers until you see it for yourself.  Foxwoods was impressive, but nothing like Vegas.

Just returned from a conference in Las Vegas.  There is only one word to describe Vegas:  "DAMN!"

More later.

Came across this freaky site today.  http://imminst.org/  I wonder if TC is a member?

Here's a fun thing to do at work, but only if you sit close enough to the microwave with the numbers that don't work so good:

When you finish zapping your stuff.  Discreetly hit the '1' button as you close the door.  The next person to use it may not clear the keypad before entering their time and be surprised when their lunch goes for 12 minutes instead of 2.

Ha!

I heard from a reputable program this morning that up to 83% of Americans believe that Christianity, including Creationism and the Resurrection, is true.

Yet, strangely, as many as 40% believe that astrology is also true, despite the fact that it is entirely contrary to Christianity.

I know what I believe:  Sometimes it is embarrassing to be an American.

From an email chain my CIO forwarded to everyone:

"Life should NOT be a journey to the grave with the intention of arriving safely in an attractive and well preserved body, but rather to skid in sideways - Chardonnay in one hand - chocolate in the other - body thoroughly used up, totally worn out and screaming : Woo Hoo, what a ride!"

Sometime last night, my wireless router went south.  Weirdest thing, too.  Just suddenly went dark, no blinky lights, nothing.  It was a great little router; a D-Link DI-624, the early model.  Very reliable, fast, worked well with mixed b/g networking and 100BT wired and a second hub strung off the side for my server.  It will be missed. 

Oh, and I don't know if the router puked or its power supply.  It uses a 5V 2.5A DC adapter, and I don't have anything close to it.  I could go get a universal adapter and try it out, but this is my opportunity to finally upgrade to something better.  So for now I am on my old backup router, sans wireless, until the new one gets here.

And oh what a treat it will be!  Presenting the new D-Link DIR-655 Xtreme N Gigabit router!  802.11b/g/pre-n (no I do not have n capability yet, what's your point?), GIGABIT! (1000Base-T) for great speed from my primary to my server (yes 100BT is not saturated yet, but it might...), MIMO for better distance and such, and its cooler looking.  Can't wait!

BTW, saw a great idea on Lifehacker the other day for cable/device management:  Get a cheap pegboard, stash it behind your desk and attach everything to it.  Voilà, no clutter, and REAL cheap!  Gonna try it.

Where do they find the instructors for IT?  I am attending a respected local university in their IT program currently.  The reasons why range from my wife is a teacher, to I never finished my degree 15 years ago.  IT is an easy course load for me since I have been doing it for nearly 18 years now.

However, the instructors I have experienced are wildly variable.  My personal advisor doesn't like to have a computer, or even a phone, on his desk.  It messes with his Phung Shui.  And his information filing system consists of a desk drawer filled with scraps of paper.  My general IT class instructor may have been current once, but never within my career span.  Not to mention the vast hero worship issues she has with women and fringe industry individuals.  Wow, I can't imagine life without Grace Hopper, who is single-handedly responsible for computer usage!  Forget Thomas Edison, "he had a lab full of assistants", so his contributions are negligable to modern technology.

I wouldn't care, but the other students drink it up like gospel.  AND she keeps giving advice about IT jobs and the industry in general that is just wrong.  Ah well, my future competition will be light...

This is the new home of using.  It is hosted on my own server at home that I have ultimate control over.  However, it is getting old and may be a touch slow.  Also, Cox is kind enough to block port 80 so I have to run in on port 22.  Of course, this will block all of my friends at AGP, sorry guys, but is just fine at SFI.  The URL is:

http://www.hagennet.homeip.net:22/Blog/

I am terribly behind on book reviews.  I finished Forever Peace a couple days before Christmas and am almost done with Inside Delta Force.  I also will post Forever War, the not-a-series forerunner of Peace that I read before Red Mars.  Mars took so long to read that I got out of the habit.  For reference, Mars took 5 months, where Peace took 3 weeks and IDF will only be 5 weeks.

Saturday, my wife and I decided to get a new TV.  We have been looking and researching for nearly a year.  We started out settling on a Vizio 37" LCD, but after the Christmas gifting season, and the generous contributions from our family, we splurged on a 42" plasma from Panasonic.  It's very pretty.  I bought the cables last month in anticipation of the purchase and saved $100s.  I can't believe that anyone would sell an $8 digital cable for $90!  DIGITAL!  "But I need gold plated connectors so the 1s will look more 1ish."

Anyway, I may have to start watching football again.  It really looks good.  Too bad Cox Cable only broadcasts one of the local networks in HD...

I did watch the 1st part of "Saving Private Ryan" on Sunday on our upconverting DVD player.  Wow.

I don't usually like to post about other peoples' posts, but Coding Horror frequently causes exception.  If you're not reading it yet, but are me, then there must be something wrong with you!  Today Jeff posted another great article on two books I've never heard of:  The Secret Guide to Compters and CODE, both about the glorious life of the computer.  The first compares the computer experience to drugs and sex:

Computers are like drugs: you begin by spending just a little on them but soon get so excited by the experience - and so hooked - that you wind up spending more and more to feed your habit.

And

The computer will fascinate you. It'll seduce you to spend more time with it. You'll fall in love with it. You'll start buying it presents:  exotic foods (expensive programs to munch on), new clothes (a pretty little cloth cover to keep dust off), and expensive jewels (a printer and extra disks).

Sex or marriage, you decide.  Anyway Jeff Atwood does a much better write-up than I, so read his article.  I may have to get these books...

And his previous article on PC Clocks was geek chic for me too.

Wishing you good fortune for the coming year significantly labeled 2007.  Oops, that's pretty much an arbitrarily selected value too.

Congrats to GP for his new change of status.  Sorry I missed the party, I bet it was memorable.

While I'd like to believe that I know at least the general principles of stock market investing, two events have happened in the last couple weeks that leave me stymied.

First, when I decided to leave Amerigroup, I sold off all of my stock.  I did so for many reasons, not the least of which was capital for the disruption of cash flow due to the job switch.  Also, I had planned to sell last year at 45 but eventually only got 32.  Then a couple weeks ago, AGP gets hit with a $144M verdict for fraud in IL, which, of course, I never heard anything about.  The stock price dropped ~$7 to $28.  But within 3 trading days, the price is back up to $32, which it had been hovering around for months.  Every analyst I've read says that AGP was foolish to allow the case to go to court, speculates that the top end damages could reach $500M+, and the devalued the price to mid $20s.  What's going on?

Second, last month, Airbus lost the contract with FedEx for 10 of their new A380 super-jumbo jets, because Airbus keeps delaying the delivery of the finalized airframe.  Several of their other customers have also expressed concern and threaten to pull their contracts.  This comes after a few CEO changes and an enormous loss statement for the last fiscal quarter.  And what happens to the stock price?  Nothing. 

So I obviously know less about the market than I though I did, which wasn't much beyond the fundamentals of buy low - sell high.  The DotCom VC games confused me too, but I was right in the end there.  The housing market is bizarro, but is correcting the way I thought too.  But these two examples are beyond my understanding.  Personally, I would have jumped ship immediately on both, but I would have been wrong.

Go Figure...

During a discussion about why PC Game journalists cannot hold there own in online games, they posit that there is no way anyone with a normal life could compete with someone who spends 24x7 on one specific game.  Then came the quote:

"How do you kill that which has no life?"

Genius.

You might think that I dislike Daylight Saving Time.  You would be mistaken.

You might think that I liked Daylight Saving Time.  You would be wrong.

You might think that I hated Daylight Saving Time like a plague on society.  Now we're getting somewhere. 

The truth is, I find DST to be a blight on the intellectual accomplishments of modern man. 

To plan and execute something so incredibly ignorant and disruptive and then blame it on an innocent profession that probably couldn't care less about it, is an embarrassment to my intelligence.  It is right up there with prohibition. 

Time is probably the fundamental abstract measure of the universe.  Only size may be argued to be more so.  But even distance is a measure of "how long does it take...".  And as an abstract, does it matter if its 12:00, 3:00, 27:00 when the sun does something irrelavant?  Of course not.  So we take our fundamental unit of time and screw with it twice a year because why?  Maybe the American public is too damn ignorant to make their own decisions!  Maybe we can force the sun to stay out longer!  Maybe the day will be longer by an hour!  Ha!  Take that nature!

It's so depressing....

http://www.standardtime.com/

Go.  Now!

Well, last week was the last week at my old job.  The ironies lined up, the Traffic Gods spoke and "I believe"; that I made the right choice, that is.

Tuesday, on my way to work, a semi I was following kicked up a large piece of plywood which slammed into the nose of my Thunderbird.  $600+ in damages, and an insurance claim.  Additionally, I was nearly 3 hours late.

Wednesday, traffic on the way home was so bad, it took well over an hour to get home.  I was late getting home so Ang could go to work.  No reasons I could see, just normal VB stupid people.

Friday, my last day, on my way in, there was an accident in the Downtown Tunnel.  I sat in traffic for a half hour not moving at all.  I was almost late getting to my exit interview, which I found extremely amusing.

I will be very glad to not have to deal with rush hour traffic at the downtown tunnel again.  This afternoon I also realized that before I drove East in the morning and West in the evening, enjoying Sol each time, and the blindness that goes with it.  Now I am driving West/East.  Ahhh.

Finally, I finished the audiobook series of Isaac Asimov's Foundation series.  All 7 books.  I will be posting the review shortly.  Just seems fitting to end an era with the conclusion of an epic.

Don't want to leave him out, so here's a direct and personal note just for him.  Now you've been mentioned by name on 2 blogs!

Happy?

A Happy Birthday nod to one who, through some quirk of pride in arithmatic ignorance, doesn't actually know just how old he is today.  (It's 37, big guy!)  I should lend him a copy of Innumeracy to help him on his brithday.  Oh, wait, I already did!

Here's to another year of crazy.  T!

This morning starts the last week here at the job.  I started here in July 2000 as a temporary gig until I could find something more suitable.  A combination of good people and lazy, more the latter until this year, caused this to be the longest company position of my career.  Also, it was the least diversified.  In 6+ years, I was a WebMaster, WebMaster TeamLead, and Web Engineer - eCommerce.  In comparison, my last formal job ran exactly 4 years and I was a CBT programmer, Network Manager / Systems Administrator, UNIX administrator, the telcomm admin backup, and website designer.  I am moving on to a company where I can be a bit more of everything.

It is funny how free one can feel with a simple change of status.  Short-Timers Syndrome is very real.  A few people last week have commented that I seem much happier than normal, despite my efforts to keep the news on the down-low.  Equally surprising is the rapidity of the news flow.  People come up to me and comment about my departure that have no reason to know.  It's nice to know that despite my reputation, I will be missed by many people.  After all, GP swears my job title should be re-labelled:  "Frank".

After 6+ years, it has finally come time to move on.  I turned in a letter of resignation to my boss JF after lunch.  I did give the company a few days to come up with a counter, but after dwelling over the reality of the situation over the weekend, I made a judgement call.  Even if they countered at the same rate, they are still short.  I won't detail the pros and cons, but even just monetarily, old is less than new.

It is with heavy heart that I abandon my current project; it has been phenomenal.  I will especially miss the guidance, instruction and motivation of GP.  And TB has become a fixture of working life long ago.  TC, or CT, and his brand of Crazy will be missed, but he's a consultant and not long for this gig.  LE, WG, JR, JP, CF(!) will all be missed.  Damn, what a downer....

But!  On to better things.  While the timing is inconvenient, this is an opportunity that I have been waiting for a long time.  The near 25% raise don't hurt either!  And nobody said I can't come back if it doesn't work out!  I'd prefer to take the team with me though.

Yesterday we were out at lunch and stopped at the bank drive-thru.  Below is the site that greeted us:

"So what", you say.  Notice the red warning sign on the bottom left of the glass.  No, not the phone number, the international sign of No Guns! 

Does this work?  It must, because why else would it be there?  Besides, in a "Here's your sign" sort of world, some idiot probably tried to rob a bank from the drive-thru!  "Hey," the robber must have thought, "I don't have to get someone to drive the getaway car, I can do it myself using the drive-thru!"  Do you think he was surprised when the girl just walked away and called the police?  "Hey!  Come back!  I'm not finished, yet.  You haven't heard my demands!  Come on...."

I guess international symbols are useful!  I am going to make a few for myself, now that I know they are effective.  Stay tuned....

BTW, the above picture was altered in only one way:  I pixelated the name of the teller, she just works there, it's not her fault.

Finally,

I've been watching Woot! for several months now, hoping to get a good deal on... anything.  Well today was a Woot-Off and I snagged myself a 250GB SATA drive (WD, of course) for $60.   Sweet!