Note

Another late night note to say I'll be busy this weekend. The phone is still shutting down at random, just turned it back on again for the 4th time today. I just HATE to give that damnable AT&T any more money, but it's getting to the point that there is no choice. In the meantime email is the most secure way to contact me. Many things to do and I am sleepy. Everyone enjoy their weekend. Later.

"Drag your thoughts away from your troubles... by the ears, by the heels, or any other way you can manage it."
~Mark Twain

It's All Good

Just a short note to let everyone know that it's been busy this week. Many projects in progress and trying to keep them 'pro' instead of 'de' or nongress. The cell phone is cutting off at random and the ringer shuts down when it gets good and ready. Probably been dropped one too many times. Meds are still not perfect and sleep still overwhelms me, but that is getting better. Please don't give up on me. All this will be handled and life will go back to the sub/ab normal routine at the beach house, the Good Lord willing. Will try and post tomorrow. Stay casual my sistas n bruthas.

"Don't be afraid to give your best to what seemingly are small jobs. Every time you conquer one it makes you that much stronger. If you do the little jobs well, the big ones will tend to take care of themselves."
~Dale Carnegie

Back to the Sub or Ab Normal Routine

Sorry about missing the past two days as far as posts. The beach house has several projects churning and building a server is not like taking a new PC out of the box. Time was spent on location and it was busy. Thankfully the transition on that network is running at a smooth pace presently.

Tip for techs: Find some PCI parallel cards for the older style printer connections when installing the newer Vista machines. Many do not have parallel ports for the DB25/Centronics interface cable. They also make the USB to Centronics cables and I haven't had good luck with these devices - generic ones anyway.

Wow, weather has cooled down to the high 90s and we may have a great Labor Day weekend.

"The last function of reason is to recognize that there are an infinity of things which surpass it."
~Blaise Pascal

ROFLMAO

A seventeen year old, George Hotz who is headed to college no doubt, has cracked the iPhone and made it available to carriers other than horrible AT&T. It took him 500 hours to do the hardware/software crack and it delights me to no end. This news clip is over seven minutes, but John Dvorak's comment about AT&T at the end makes it worth watching the whole video. The ChicagoTribune.com has a related story. Seems to be a nice kid. The Uber Nerds of America will welcome his membership.

"The bathtub was invented in 1850 and the telephone in 1875. In other words, if you had been living in 1850, you could have sat in the bathtub for 25 years without having to answer the phone."
~DeWitt

Umbrella the Heat

Busy time at the beach house, oh yes. Trying to download updates for a server with the horrid heat causing outages at my ISP's head end has made for extended frustration. VistaIIIMedia has been a great provider of high speed internet and they are very diligent about their signal staying operative. But hey, this time of year the scorching weather can create havoc on many things. So an exercise in patience is due on my part.

If you have a few minutes and want to see and hear something great click on the video. This is Lisa Kelly of Celtic Woman and she sure sets the water on fire.

"I just hate it when it's sticky!"
~Scarlett O'Hara

And His Hair Was Perfect

It's late, the SCSI drives of a server being built are creating a lot of background noise which is making the constant ringing in my ears drive me nuts so I found a pleasant diversion in old music. After watching several videos, while checking on drivers for the new server, this played and filled my head and heart with memories. It contains a classic rock n roll line, you know, the thing about Trader Vic's. We miss ya, Warren.

"What passion cannot music raise and quell!"
~John Dryden

View From the Top

Google has added another great feature in one of their free downloads, Google Earth. Here is a tutorial that will tell you all about Google Sky. This a user friendly astronomy program that is included in the 4.2 version download of Google Earth (there's download buttons on both links). I've used it and like it. Some of the shots are amazing. Hubble has done a great job looking into deep space.

Hope this helps.

“Astronomy compels the soul to look upwards and leads us from this world to another.”
~Plato

Supermarket Blues

You think you have problems? Check out this product that Beagle found on EBay. Be sure and read the description. It's hilarious. Now my question; why six? They should have shot the stork. She has sold many items with 100% positive feedback. This auction is over in about a day. Will watch to see the end result.

It's late and tomorrow will be a very busy day. Thanks Beagle for a great late night laugh. Laundry must be done and then time to sleep.

"There are only two things a child will share willingly - communicable diseases and his mother's age."
~Benjamin Spock, Dr. Spock's Baby and Child Care, 1945

It's an Animal Kinda' Sunday

The BeHoBODY awards will be announced Thanksgiving. Why? Just seems like a good time. It is right in the middle of the holiday shopping season and may help folks make decisions about gifts. It also gives us a little more time to watch the leading buffoons in our country. Above you'll see a rare photo of the two leaders of the race holding a conference about Zune and iPod. Definitely creatures of their environment. Who's the favorite? Clown Prince Ballmer or Darth Jobs?

Arnold, opossumus germanicus austriabodicus, made his rounds last night. He's finally found a way to turn over the green dumpster and I had to run him off. He sat across the side street glaring and I think I saw him point at the 'Mom' tattoo on his arm. About two hours later the feral cat, Hateful, that I feed on occasion was screaming like a banshee. Arnold took out his frustration on old Hateful. I found a way to secure the dumpster thangy. No doubt I'll find his favorite grill turned over again. It's NOT the one I use for cooking.

Nightlife at the beach house is definitely affected by this hot, humid summer. Enjoy Sunday and please stay out of the heat.

"I like pigs. Dogs look up to us. Cats look down on us. Pigs treat us as equals."
~Winston Churchill

Nannah Nannah Boo Boo!

Yes oh yes it is so good when the the bad guys get their asses kicked. Nate Anderson has a super article at ArsTechnica about a forthcoming class action suit against the RIAA. It's time for these music Nazis to be put away forever. Maybe this will speed up the inevitable. These criminals need to be disbanded, and should serve jail time. I vote for life sentences without parole.

With the advent of iTunes, new Napster, Walmart and other legal download services pirating is just not as attractive anymore. We don't need a Gestapo organization like the boogereaters at RIAA making our lives miserable. Great to see ArsTechnica keep us informed down through the years about this much hated group. Slashdot has been a great source of information too. Hats off to the good guys and worst of luck to the RIAA baboons.

"The only thing needed for evil to prosper is for good men to do nothing."
~Burke

Firefox Rocks!

Isn't it great when good things work? There's a site that is trying to get people to block Firefox because if its ability to block ads through an addon called AdBlockPlus. Read about it over at Slashdot. Then go take a look at the horses' asses that are big enough fools to propagate such trash, Why FireFox is Blocked. For those that are Firefox users be sure and click on the 'Firefox Myths' link at the top and have a good laugh.



Here's the deal, IMHO. If you go to a page using the Firefox browser and are blocked then you are using smart computer habits. Face it. If an advertiser tries to force you to use IE7 or one of its many lieutenants you absolutely don't need to do business with the jerks anyway. Nothing infuriates me more than to be diligently surfing the web for info and ads start popping up. Immediately the site is left and I never return.




There are measures used on my computer that brings this to a minimum. Firefox is my #1 browser and #2 Sea Monkey is Firefox/Mozilla based. Only on VERY rare occasions is IE7 used. IE7 is a much improved browser and should be used instead of IE6. But, Firefox is better because of less intrusions and the interface is friendlier. They work to keep the bad guys out and I am not so sure that Microsoft is trying that hard. Rave on Windows Nazis. Yes, the truth does hurt at times.



Click on any of the four logos in this post and download Firefox then have fun knowing that the bad guys are fuming. If adventurous, click on the first link in the first paragraph and install AdBlockPlus to further ban these creeps. Remember you download at your own risk. Stuff works great on all the beach PCs so don't whine if YOU screw something up.

"In cyberspace, the First Amendment is a local ordinance."
~John Perry Barlow

Shoes

Sometimes we just have to stop and be thankful. As I mowed another 1/4 of the backyard this morning my thoughts wandered. I stopped and realized that my push mower was relatively new and a good one. When it was purchased I felt like $300.00 was too much for a push mower that didn't even have the automatic wheely thangy pully aroundy device. Didn't want that because they go too slow. The riding lawn mower was in fine working order at that time. But now it's realized that God looked down and said something like 'let me help lardbutt (don't think God would call someone a lardass, but if he does that's certainly fine by me) make the right decision here since he'll really need this mower in a few years.'



Then I thought about the horrible way I've been feeling and after a lengthy open discussion with one of my doctors last week my strength is returning and things are being accomplished. My yard is too large to mow in one fell swoop with a push mower, but at least it's being accomplished. Lot of other projects abound, but with the aid of a few good friends that have come forth and volunteered to help, the beach house is returning to its former state of casualness. God is good to me. And weight is being lost too.

Yep, I can hear Elvis (or Malcolm Reynolds) saying, "Be glad for what you have instead of wishing for that which will do you no good." Nice to start a day with a sense of accomplishment. Nice to start a day...

“Don't criticize what you don't understand, son. You never walked in that man's shoes.”
~E. Presley

Load of Barnyard Material

Best customer satisfaction in computers and internet portals? Apple and Yahoo? Don't believe this garbage folks. It's not true. Here's the article reporting such trash. Let's take a real look at the situation.

Apple uses their own operating system and a proprietary build of hardware. They have no competition within their OS based platform. They are also only 3% of the market. Users are Apple Nazis. Sorry, but that is the way of the true world. Steve Jobs could sell them a pile of dog poo and 98% of the iUsers would say it was leading edge technology. They build an overpriced, very limited, slower than average computer. Improvements have been made, but best customer satisfaction?

The majority of market share is dominated by the PC users, translated Windows OS based machines. There are manufacturers galore and they all compete for this huge chunk of business. Naturally there will be more complaints because many many more companies and computers are involved. VNUNET has distorted these facts in the above linked article. Probably did it on their iMacs while listening to their iPods and talking on their iPhones. Remember folks, Apple only has 3% of the overall market and no one else competes for that measly 3%. This should be clear to anyone capable of using a PC.


What more can I say about the HORRIBLE, HORRIBLE Yahoo? It's trash and if I ever become Emperor of the Known Universe they will be shut down forever during the first hours of the BeachHouse Empire. Just Google the words, "Yahoo and spyware." Read a few of these posts and if you continue to use Yahoo then don't be suprised when the dudes in the white coats show up and take you away. DON'T, and this is NOT a request, bring me a computer that needs repair with that damned Yahoo as homepage. Find another tech. If you have no more respect for your machine and self then I certainly can't help you. Grow up and change to something decent that is not raping your machine. Try your local ISP portal. Use Google. Use a college web site. Hell, use the Weather Channel. Use Cybersouth. Guaranteed no spyware here.

Needless to say anything at VNUNET will be read with caution in the future. Hope this helps!

"Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
~Edmund Burke

BeHoBODY, Rockers and Deep South News

Received an email saying I should apologize for hurting everyone's eyes yesterday with the picture of Ballmer. There was a comment as well. I'll do my best not to post but one more picture of him this year since he's a front runner and has a great chance to win the prestigious BeHoBODY award. It's rumored that Bill Gates has even told his clown prince he must take his billions and retire sometime this year. Please remember, this is the man that has turned Microsoft into one of the largest spyware users in the world. Chances are while you are reading this Microsoft is browsing your computer and you agreed to let them do it. Read the EULA.



Looking a bit older Eddie Van Halen and David Lee Roth announced a joint tour. The long awaited Van Halen reunion will launch on September 27th. This will be sans Michael Anthony on bass. Eddie's 16 year old son, Wolfgang, will fill that position. Dream come true for a teenager or what? You go, Dad. I am a Sammy Hagar fan from way way back, but I always liked Van Halen better than Van Hagar. Besides, the Red Rocker is doin' just fine and still bringing the house down. Read more about the upcoming tour at Reuters.

104F is predicted for the local high. No doubts it'll reach that and probably exceed it. At 6:30AM it wasn't too bad. The front yard and about 1/4
of the back yard has been mowed with the trusty Craftsman push mower. Ha! And that was without taking a break too! Two months ago I couldn't have mowed 1/4 of the front yard without whining. The change in meds is working! Anyway, stay inside under air conditioning and make today cool and casual.

"It is better to wear out than to rust out."
~Cumberland

Beach House Intranetting

It's Monday. Let's catch up on current beach house projects. The new address is in place and there is a "coming soon" marker identifying it. The address is http://www.cybersouth.us. We are aligning the FTP clients for different members of this project and making a decision on hosting. There is a new server on the way and it should be in place very soon. The beach house itself looks like a hurricane hit it since the computer room is being completely revamped. The new build mentioned last week is still underway and that computer should be featured soon in an upcoming post. This machine should suffice needs for several years concerning pushing up info and being a fine gaming machine as well. There is a monowall server going online, one of the main servers will be converted to a non-Windows operating system, better ranging wifi equipment will go in place and an overall effort to neaten up is the present attitude.

It has been suggested to change the BeHoBOTY award title from Beach House Buffoon of the Year to Beach House Buffoon of da Year, hence the contraction BeHoBODY. As always your input is valued and considered as long as it doesn't involve blowing something up. Well, that's other than our own computers. My opinion? This is a bit more clever than the original. What do you think? Yes, yes, I know we must face global warming, fossil fuels and world hunger which are far more important issues, but having some fun on occasion is good for the soul. Let me know what you think. Oh yeah, that's chief voodoo witchdoctor and clown prince at Microsoft, Bozo Ballmer, with his tongue hanging out. Darth Jobs definitely presents a more stable silhouette.

"It's never too late to have a happy childhood."
~Berke Breathed

NOTE: Felecia, prayers and support from the beach house for your Dad as he undergoes surgery in the morning. Prayers for the family in this time of crisis and positive thoughts abound! Keep me posted.

Mr. Gershwin and Heyward Forgive Me, But the Summertime Aria Ain't Gettin' It Done Today

Mercy and My, My! If you put eggs in the water bucket on the veranda, they'd at least poach n might even hard boil. Wanted to put some beast on the grill this morning, but that's an idea for another day. Just hope I don't pass out as I run to the truck to make a trip to the grocer. There will be no ice cream bought today. It'd melt before you got it in the truck. Wait, an ice chest may be a good idea. Nah the ice will just evaporate. Shoes are mandatory if traveling today. If you have a flat and remember there may be a walk on asphalt...

Hope the truck air conditioning holds out. If I am not here rambling on tomorrow, just look for the red truck on the side of the road with old lardgut laid out hammer dead from heat stroke. Anyone picking up on the idea that it's summertime in the Deep South? Yes, where the livin' ain't easy and the chicken is greasy. Catfish aren't jumpin', they're stompin' up and down levees everywhere wanting an ice supplement in their ponds. The cotton might have been high yesterday, but it's for damn sure wilted today. And hush little baby don't you cry. Lord does Ms. Ella move me. She's about as awesome as it gets.

Gotta go. Time to sprint for the truck. Later...I hope.

"If there ain't no sunshine when she's gone, I wish she'd took her ass on outta here yesterday."
Ashby Rhett Culpepper, III, Esq., Jr. (when asked about today's weather)

Lapse and More Lapse, but It's All Good!

After a whirlwind trip to the doctor this morning, it's nice to be home in the cool and quiet. There's a nap featured this afternoon that should help a medication transition. This changing meds can be irritable. Yet, change is sometimes necessary and I thank the Good Lord that medical technology is available to help me stick around. Somebody has to keep an eye on the Nazi Possum (Arnold, opossumus germanicus austriabodicus) terrorizing my neighborhood.



Now for the post nap report: The Teamspeak server was down for a short period this afternoon. An auto-boot rule is written, but it is not working due to a faulty battery backup. This will be replaced ASAP. Major changes are underway concerning the beachhouse network and Teamspeak will be moved to a non-Windows server in order to maximize speed. Will keep everyone posted.

"In a disordered mind, as in a disordered body, soundness of health is impossible."
~Cicero

James Taylor, Saturday Night

Tomorrow evening at 9:00PM CDT there will be a two hour special on PBS that is a tribute to James Taylor. This is loaded with stars such as Carole King, India Arie, the "Boss", Sting, Taj Mahal and many more. Regrettably those female jerks the Chixie Dicks, uh uh, make that Dixie Chicks will make an appearance. I will definitely NOT watch them. There's just something about traitors that piss me off in a big way. Hard to believe people will still buy their music. Well, I guess Osama and his bunch of suiciders listen to music too. BTW, if you disagree that's your problem. You can comment, but my opinion won't change. Other than this one major downside music should abound.

There's too many sites about Taylor to list. Just Google. Many rumors are put to sleep and lotsa goodies to be found. Take a look.

"Natalie what's her name? She doesn't need to step in barnyard material to smell like it because her head is full of it."
~Billy Wobblynife

Email and a Kudo!

Upon arising there was an email in the GMail inbox and it puzzles me. A question has come up, "Why doesn't the Beach House post a glossary?" Is this serious, a pretty good joke, or have I been cyberslapped? This inquiry must be inspired by last night's BeHoBOTY post or does Arnold, opossumus germanicus austriabodicus, need a permanent spot and explanation on the site? No doubt you have to have some knowledge of Southernese to read here on a regular basis, but a glossary? Wow, something to mull over in the mind or am I taking myself too seriously? Methinketh the latter.




Congrats out to NASA and their awesome crew of astronauts on the successful launching of Endeavor. You go, for real rocket scientists! Nice job.

"There is just one thing I can promise you about the outer-space program - your tax-dollar will go further."
~Wernher von Braun

BeHoBOTY Quandary and Pondering

For the life of me, trying to figure out the winner of the Beach House Buffoon of the Year (aka BeHoBOTY) in 2007 is a hard job. Two years running it was hands down Steve Jobs, Lord of Sith at Apple. Then last year goofball Steve Ballmer, Microsoft's answer to Crusty the Clown, snatched victory from the jaws of defeat. Man all this guy has to do is talk to the press and he embarrasses everyone from his family to mankind. Now Darth Jobs is back in the running. Go to Internet.com and check out why Apple doesn't boast Intel Inside.

Sometime early spring iJobs appeared onstage with Bill Gates for a press conference. Bill has had his moments, but is far more polished and presentable than Darth. He was his normal reserve intelligent self, but iJobs surprised everyone and was actually a pretty decent human being for around thirty minutes. He joked almost amicably with Bill. Then a few weeks later iJobs dissed the record industry and thumbed his nose at them embracing opensource in a weird sort of way as far as downloading music. This actually endeared him to many of us.

If you are a regular reader here then you've probably noticed my attitude towards Apple has changed some over the past years. They are still slow, overblown, and extremely overpriced. But hey, someone held Darth's feet to the fire and made him change two very important features of their computer line that were just not making it - the operating system and the CPU. The beach house water cooler was almost knocked over when Jobs made a statement a few years ago about Apple being the fastest computer. Standing around it saying nothing still will bring tears to the eyes due to laughter if we look at each other just the right way. What a windbag! Or was old iJobs trying to make a joke?

After Apple ripped off the wonderful opensource platform called FreeBSD, reworked it, made it proprietary and called it Apple OSX they finally had a great operating system. Then they switched to Intel CPUs. Low and behold the birth of a pretty decent little graphics and music assist computer. Riding the success of the very average sounding iPod and their multimillion dollar iTunes store, this actually indicated very good thinking on someone's part. But, alas, it is just not enough.

Apple has two enormous problems. Do inquiring minds wanna know? I'll tell you. Absurd cost and constant form factor change. They are so overpriced any PC user is justified in calling the Apple user groups iSuckers. Now for the second problem. Why won't they stop fooling around with their package? C'mon people at the orchard, do you really think people will embrace the throw away computer concept at your prices? Look at the picture above. Would you want to work on that? Now look at the nice case in yesterday's post. Is there some clarity? HP, Dell, Gateway, etc., went through a phase several years ago trying to make stuff more compact with spaceage looks. Today they still shudder when remembering the bitching and nightmares created by service. Apple, take a hint. Quit goofing around and give folks a computer to which they can add memory or change other component parts. Sheesh! This is not rocket science.

One more thing and then I'll retire for the evening. Apple, when are you going to truly embrace mouse technology?

“Inflamed by greed, incensed by hate, confused by delusion, overcome by them, obsessed by mind, a man chooses for his own affliction, for others' affliction, for the affliction of both and experiences pain and grief.”
~Gautama Siddharta Buddha