TV on the Net

Where do I watch Saving Grace on TNT? Try TNT-Saving Grace. They have full versions of this year's episodes which are free for viewing. Today's pix is Earl, an angel, and the cool dog that lives with Grace. His name is Gus. One episode last year was based on Gus and his decision to get lost for a while.

This show is different. You occasionally hear profane language, there is some nudity - not a lot, morality in general is the background of a "cop" show and there is a definite spirituality link. Holly Hunter is perfect casting as the lead character, Grace Hanadarko. Laura San Giacomo plays a forensic type person named Rhetta. Heck, this is a really good ensemble period. But my favorite character is Leon Rippy as Earl, the last chance angel (yes, one of God's messengers). He randomly pops up to brighten the show or help with some profound problem that is tearing at someone's soul.

Like I said, this show is different. Not everyone will like it. It takes place in Oklahoma City which I find refreshing. If you are sensitive about the above mentioned language, nudity and content it's probably best to stay away. The linked site gives a lot of information about plot-line, characters, etc. Might want to take a look at these items first before viewing the show. BTW, very well developed website. This show is escapism at its best. Takes me away for a few minutes. It airs on Monday, 9:00PM locally. Sure beats reality shows or Jerry Springer.

Tech news is slow today. Google is thinking about buying Twitter. Ars Technica has an article about Google servers. Browse the geek sites, you may find something. Have a casual Friday!

"It is not because angels are holier than men or devils that makes them angels, but because they do not expect holiness from one another, but from God alone."
~William Blake

Slight Mist in the Air at Dark-Thirty

It's evening. The weather has passed. After a mad dash around North Mississippi it was nice to get home and drop on the sofa for a long nap. Did miss Supernatural on TV except for the last 15 minutes so things are crazier than ever concerning that show. Intensity of the weather was not as bad as some predicted so I had the windows opened and enjoyed a very sound sleep. Tomorrow is supposed to be awesome weatherwise. Verdana, sorry I didn't call back, but the cell phone went crazy for a while (weather related?). Apologies to anyone that had a call unanswered. Will be in touch tomorrow.

Everyone enjoy the evening and the calm after the storm.

Rain is grace; Rain is the sky condescending to the earth; without Rain, there would be no life.
~John Updike

The BPMJ Bank

All geeks, nerds, techies, gamers, etc., are forever in pursuit of the ideal desktop. With the swift advance of CPUs, motherboards, memory, hard drives, monitors, and the rest of the hardware it's hard to keep pace unless you make mega bucks. Instead of living the lifestyle of the rich and famous the beach house basks in the lifestyle of the poor and poverty level. Yet, dreams are free and hope inspires. I really want one of these:




Intel Core i7 920 Nehalem 2.66GHz 4 x 256KB L2 Cache 8MB L3 Cache LGA 1366 130W Quad-Core Processor

I really, really, really, want one. After much meandering about the web and reading many articles, benchmarks and reviews, this looks like the ultimate bang for the buck. This $300.00 CPU has a fair variety of motherboards ranging from $200.00 and up. Of course the one I want costs slightly more than the processor. To see more info about this new CPU technology try the ever faithful Wikipedia. In an effort to acquire funds for this project a new bank will open today. The Blue Plate Mayonnaise Jar Bank is located in the swing on the beach house veranda. Business hours for the BPMJ bank are 24/7 and it is open 365 days a year. Deposits only please. Withdrawals are not negotiable. Just slip your money through the opening in the top. Don't you think today as opening day is apropos?

"Some colors exist in dreams that are not present in the waking spectrum."
~The Quote Garden

Wiki Warnings

Guildwiki will put spyware on you PC. Don't argue with me about this matter. You cannot win. They are using junk like doubleclick, adclick, tribalfusion, etc. So is Pvxwiki. I really don't want anyone defending these sites. It really disappoints me that they have resorted to such a low-life form of gaining money. BTW, they have been doing this for quite some time. If you need to use them at all costs then I highly recommend major scans after each visit. Yes, I know it's hard to get away from the "builds." I am seeking other avenues for info and support. Will keep you posted.

Gotta run. Rebuilding a server from scratch and hoping that the backup will restore properly. Efficient group of people where this occurred so it may be just a matter of time formatting SCSI, waiting on parts, etc. No doubt my day is full. Everyone stay casual and if you are local, drive carefully in the rain today. Peace out!

"Sometimes the littlest things in life are hard to take. You can sit on a mountain top more comfortably than on a nail."
~D.N Jennings

Do I Touch This Doo-Dad to My Tongue?

Sometimes the internet is a great place to seek information. Sometimes...not so much. Usually I find more junk than gems. Tech help on the web can be very evasive at times. Some sites are hard to navigate, become bogged down in techno-jargon, and leave loose ends. Check out the Microsoft Knowledge Base if you like clutter and site search engines that are frustrating. Hey, I do admit the MKB has saved me a few times. That still does not justify the horrible navigation. Bet Lardbutt Goofball Steve Ballmer has something to do with it.

Every once in a while downright astounding articles show up. If you have been thinking about changing a motherboard please browse over to ExtremeTech. This is well written, precise, easy to navigate, and not overbearing. They have gathered very good guidelines for changing most any workstation or desktop motherboard. Nice to see good flow and definite order concerning how to proceed in what can be a delicate installation. Their tips about what to do before uninstalling the old motherboard are super.

Of course we are all human and have the right to create our own opinions. One of my favorite sites, How-To Geek, recently ran an article about anti-virus programs and recommended McAfee's Stinger. I wouldn't run anything McAfee offers on my toaster. Yet there's a massive amount of knowledge at this site. Just finished one of the Geek's posts on why svchost.exe is a process that runs, most of the time in more than one instance. Uber article that helped me gain clarity why this is needed. Go take a look at How-To Geek. Just please stay away from McAfee products. Unless you like garbage.

As always these are my humble opinions. If you attempt anything recommended here, please remember my hands were NOT on your keyboard. It's your own risk. Try to have a casual Monday. If you have time and are of a mind please pray for the poor folks being pounded by weather across the country. Shucks, just say a prayer for our country period.

"No one is a firmer believer in the power of prayer than the devil; not that he practices it, but he suffers from it."
~King

NERD ALERT! It's a Guild Wars Thangy

Here's one of the hidden areas for cartography on the continent Tyria. The light green circle crosshair indicator is my character standing just outside the entrance to Ice Caves of Sorrow. Of course the red dots indicate the appropriate path. The area boxed in yellow is the hidden area that goes to the, "edge of the world." The blue circle indicates the first ice island in the frozen stream you should follow. It eventually leads to the Ice Dome rezone. The darker green arrow indicates the large boulder that is just before the path that will put you in the "yellow" area. Don't get frustrated. It's there. May take some time to find it. But, it's there. Crisscross the whole area and ignore what Guildwiki says about it being 0.1%. It's more than that. Fellow GW players please let me know if this is a good post. Click on the map for an enlarged view.



Hope this helps. If you are having trouble please email me. Even though Maskull Tor made Legendary Grandmaster Cartographer about 1.5 years ago, he can still retrace steps to aid and abet your efforts. Good hunting!

"We give up leisure in order that we may have leisure, just as we go to war in order that we may have peace."
~Aristotle

Great Battlestar

If you did not see the 2 hour final episode of Battlestar Galactica and are a fan, be sure and don't miss it. You can register or login at Hulu, which is a free online TV & movie site. There you can watch all the episodes of the final season. The picture quality and sound are great! The SciFi Channel website has also made the episodes available, but I haven't seen this set. Therefore, have no idea about the pix and sound quality. It almost has to be great too.

There are some interesting twists. Some things are predictable. Kara Thrace is neither human or cylon. Think about that. Gaius Baltar may be the most interesting character in this episode. The ending is moving, spiritual and well written. The cynics will be cynical, but I really enjoyed the great acting, the plot and the finality. Many things ended as I had hoped. Some surprised me. Don't miss any of it. Pause if you have to leave the Tivo or computer. This is not just great scifi, it's great television. That's not a phrase used much these days. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. Now we can look forward to the spin off, Caprica. It is scheduled to air early next year, but the two hour pilot episode will be available next month in DVD format on the 21st. The storyline takes place 50 years before the latest BSG series and involves the Adama family and proto-cylons.

"Our strength and our only hope as a people, is to remain undivided."
~William Adama

Tesla is All A-Twitter about Kevin's Photos

Like it's some big deal that Kevin Rose released pictures of the Tesla $58,000 automobile:



According to Wikipedia it is due to debut in 2012. They have a picture too.



Kevin Rose is a kewl young tech guru that was on TechTV (the greatest show EVER to air on TV and the horses' asses at COMCAST killed it) and is the co-founder of Digg. Digg is also kewl. And so is Diggnation which Kevin co-hosts. It's a weekly Podcast and (vulgarity warning! vulgarity warning!) sometimes they get on the rough side concerning language. Anyway, I am a follower of Kevin on Twitter and think he needs to reinvent TechTV, get the old crew back and just do their old show called The Screensavers 24/7. He took down the Tesla S pictures at their request. Gee wonder if they will ask Wikipedia or even me to do the same? LOL. Sorry, Kevin. This is in support and not, "stealing thunder." Or is it?

"Any man who can drive safely while kissing a pretty girl is simply not giving the kiss the attention it deserves."
~Albert Einstein

Springtime, the Wisteria is Blooming

The wisteria has gone wild this year. It's inspiring to see all the plants wake up and do their thing. I've awakened...sorta'. Am working on the beach house network. Have upgraded several aspects of the Teamspeak Web Server and pursuing an elusive SCSI card for the Alienware Server. May just convert the Alienware to a 7200rpm IDE drive. Actually played Guild Wars a few nights ago and we had a good group. It was GREAT and all the laughter and joking on Teamspeak really enhance the fun. So nice to have Eli back in the game. He's recovering from surgery and was in good spirits the other night as we gamed.

Expanding my wifi coverage to include the shop. Thanks out to the Trombone Man for the AP600 as well as the AP2000 that has been working for several months. Gosh those things are hard to configure, but they certainly do a good job when working properly. I did find a backup VPN hardware firewalled router for the front end of the network. Since we are doing okay with the present config, that is a back burner job for now.

Next beach house project is the Opteron Dual Core machine. It will be the lead gaming machine and workstation running Windows Vista Ultimate. Hope to make headway this weekend. Things are coming together. The beach house is beginning to take shape slowly but surely. Next the garage and patio. Shucks it's springtime. We should be out there instead of cooped up. Love this time of year. So nice to sleep with windows open and fans circulating. My paranoia still keeps Ruger in bed with me, LOL.

So much for current trivial events. Big day tomorrow and have to remote some stuff for several hours this weekend. Note to Beagle: Am liking Twitter. Stay safe.

"Spring is nature's way of saying, 'Let's party!'"
~Robin Williams

Is This Post Wishy-Washy?

Yesterday was tough. That's it. No more whining about my trivial life. The news this morning is a world gone mad, or at least a country. Here are a few beach house takes on current events:

AIG CEO Edward Liddy should at least resign and maybe even face a firing squad. Hanging is too good for him. Put the company up for sale and let's see if investors can get a good buy and revamp this horrible mess made worse by our government. Read more at Hot Air.

This jerk Blagojevich should shut his fat foul mouth. Media people. Use your heads. Stop giving this goon air time. He was part of the MOST corrupt political community in the country and got caught doing evil things. His tirades are reminiscent of another that was heavily involved in that political machine. His name? Al Capone. BTW, this is where our President received his political training. Associated Press has further information.

The smarmy liberals are whining about detaining immigrants. Instead of spending money detaining spend money to send them back to their native country. Then bring home the troops from Iraq, post them on the southern border, the coast of California, the major airports and give immigrants three choices. Go through proper channels and become a citizen the right way, follow your route back to where it originated or be shot, especially if trying to jump ship, plane or fence. Harsh? Hell people it's time to take harsh action. There is a set procedure on immigration and it should be followed. English MUST be mandatory. Yes, I know that Mexico is a country that has its share of corruption and mistreatment of its citizens, Damn it all, stay there and change it!!! That what the United State did - remember the Civil War? Check it out at FoxBusiness.

Are we eating too much meat? Well, duh! Have you been in a grocery store and priced fresh or even frozen vegetables? Or fruit? Even canned? No wonder we are opting for ground beef and bologna. Balanced diet is one of those goals that is a mere aspiration in minds of most people. WE CAN'T AFFORD IT! Read at Forbes.com. Warning: Be sure and pause that irritating Forbes Video thangy that plays automatically. With that gibberish going in the background you can't concentrate on reading the article.

Come commencement time at Notre Dame, President Obama should stay the hell away. First of all, he's not nor ever has been Catholic. Second, he endorses many things including stem cell research, abortion, etc., that the Roman Catholic Church opposes. The have a petition against his speaking in May that already has over 120,000 signatures. Read more at the NotreDameScandal site. These people are mad! I have mixed feelings about some of the issues at hand, but support their right to select the person that gives the matriculation addy! Shout out to the head dudes at Notre Dame - you better listen to the alumni. That football team of yours isn't anywhere near being the top dog as it was in the past. Take hint Mr. President, refuse this gig. This AIN'T Chicago.

This really sucks. AT&T is now in cahoots with the RIAA to persecute (notice the word is not prosecute) on any whim the RIAA bastards and bitches desire to pursue. Break the damnable monopoly that is AT&T and do it for real this time. Then take everyone that works for the RIAA and make them all bungee jump with a 100' mountain climbing rope. Folks it is time to get rid of the music mafia. It is time to use a scorched earth policy so they can never arise. This will have dire consequences on internet usage. Statements made here may be blocked in the future if these thugs keep banding together. There's more at CNet News.

These are my humble opinions. Flame away in the comments. If you agree, please comment. Am I wrong about these things? Tell me yes or no.

"Think for yourselves and let others enjoy the privilege to do so, too."
~Voltaire

Internet Browser Secure?

According to Ryan Paul at ArsTechnica the three of the most popular internet browsers (Internet Explorer, Firefox & Safari) were hacked in a competition held by CanSecWest. Only Google's new browser Chrome stood up to the test on the first day of exploits. Charlie Miller broke into the Apple Safari browser in less than 10 seconds!

This is a gathering of security types and they weren't permitted the use of any plugins during this first round of competition. They will have another go at all browsers armed with their hacking tools and I await the results. In the meantime the beach house will take another look at Google Chrome. It'll be hard to tear me away from Firefox though.

Gotta go. Headed to the clinic to find out why my back bothers me all the time instead of the usual once or twice a month. That's enough whining for Monday morning. Have a casual day!

"While you are destroying your mind watching the worthless, brain-rotting drivel on TV, we on the Internet are exchanging, freely and openly, the most uninhibited, intimate and, yes, shocking details about our config.sys settings."
~Dave Barry

Nerd Alert! Teamspeak is Running

Those that aren't familiar with Teamspeak please bear with me. Early this morning I was able to acquire our old server name and spent many hours putting it together. Certain updates were required and protection procedures were installed. After we install the Monowall unit my mind will be at ease. With the W2K Server OS too many services were running in the background thus requiring a large amount of constant memory usage. By switching to W2K Pro OS and following the advice of Black Viper concerning how to manipulate services and processes the memory usage was cut in half. I created a large swap file on the secondary drive and have a clean root drive that runs only the operating system, protection software and Teamspeak. This should make for better communication, a more stable application and less collisions. The ability to reboot when there is a power failure is now in place. A new power supply that is double the power of the one it replaced will help too. With the use of the new protection software I think these options should work glitch free. We'll see. My apologies out to fellow "cloud" members for the up and down time. Another Access Point is on the way and that will help that situation. This project has taken most of the weekend, but I think it's worth it. So, hopefully we'll talk about other things in the future.

BTW, Black Viper's site is one of my all time favorites. He has appeared on TechTV and knows PCs. This site just keeps improving. If you try any of his methods remember this post title started with nerd alert. Be sure you know what you are doing. If your computer fails just remember that Black Viper nor any beach housers were there with our hands on the keyboard. It's your risk.

"If we are facing in the right direction, all we have to do is keep on walking."
~Buddha

Few Brief Items About Progress and Dragon Surgery

It seems that Saturdays disappear. They just don't last long enough. After a morning of medication stupor for back problems I am just now waking up. The SCSI card that was to go into the Alienware is just too old and slow. The dual processor Web Server has a new power supply and I decided to format and reload. It should be online in time for the Saturday night crowd. It will only function as a Teamspeak Server for now. When I get the Alienware online then it will be the sole Teamspeak Server. Of course the Web Server will retain all TS settings in case of an emergency. Ty Roneus and I should have that dedicated electrical line finished tomorrow afternoon. A managed Intel Switch will be back in the configuration as a further safeguard against attacks (had to remember the WYSE terminal password for 'root',LOL).

Yesterday I visited with my oldest daughter, aka Verdana, her two children, the Purple Giraffe who is Beagle's daughter, my ex and ex mother-in-law. Of course Beagle is my youngest daughter. We had fun. Good to see my ex smile and laugh. Everyone was in good spirits even though Mal had a cold and ear ache. The Purple Giraffe and Mal are becoming good friends. Cousins should do that you know. The talk was non stop and Uncle Snake, Verdana's husband, made it in town late yesterday. They are looking for a house in the Collierville, TN area today. They close on their house in Baton Rogue next month. Gee, to have them 1.25 hours up the road is gonna' be great!

Enough! Must attend to business and then try to nap. I have several hours of remote work to do somewhere around the witching hour when no one is using their PCs.


NOTE: Get well wishes for Kudzu Dragons Guild Member Eli's Coming who is recovering from a successful surgery. Won't hurt to put him on the prayer list. Hope you are holding up, my brother. We need you back in the game along with your Warrior Stealth Mode Philosophy - "Kill everything that moves!"

"The most wasted of all days is one without laughter."
~e.e. cummings

Note About Teamspeak

Teamspeak will be back tomorrow on the Alienware server. Finally have the SCSI card to utilize! Everyone liked this server better and its performance has been great. Something about 1 gig of RAMBUS makes for lightning fast algomor-rthymic voodoo. Okay those words are made up but you get the jest. Doubled the power supply errr, ahh... power. Got to be mo betta'. Bear with me peeps. It's all gettin' better. BTW my uber firewall dude, Trombone Man, is gonna' help build a monowall firewall unit for this network. Is that kewl or what?

Think fellow guild member Ty Roneus will be here to help with that dedicated power line too. Is THAT kewl or what?

"Chop your own wood, and it will warm you twice."
~Henry Ford

NERD ALERT! It's Like the Good Humor Man Driving By!!!

In all fairness, this was gleaned from Kim Komando's site. This is one of the sites I visit every day. Even subscribed to her newsletter! Anyway if you want to see the next major step in technology take a few minutes to watch this video. It is a micro infomercial from Samsung (4 minutes or so). It also happens to be very funny. Love the fire extinguisher (oh yes, I soooo own one).

SSDs or RAM-drives are still expensive. Check out the some of the techno info at Wikipedia. To get an idea of variety and present day prices take a look at NewEgg offerings. Who knows, maybe by Christmas I'll be able to afford two of them.

Happy geeking everyone!

"For a successful technology, reality must take precedence over public relations, for Nature cannot be fooled."
~Richard P. Feynman

NOTE: Teamspeak is down due to hardware failure. PS is prob shot. Will do my best to have it back up tomorrow.


Another Note: Power Supply did fail and new one is in place. Bear with me to make it resurrect. The board and drives check K. Thank you and Good Day...

Forget Not the Irish, Firewalls & Family

No attacks on the web server since last Friday. They stopped when the new firewall was put in place. Am working on a Monowall unit to physically stop any further attacks. It should be online next week. Hopefully the dedicated circuit will be completed and a decent battery backup should assure Teamspeak connectivity. Currently it is taking 3 to 4 reboots a day due to power outages and brownouts. Sorry, just don't feel secure enough for an auto login at this time. Fortunately, work later this week pairs me with the best firewall tech in the area. Hope to glean further ideas as we complete a project in a nearby town. Nice to work with tech-smart people that are casual and proficient!

We are celebrating St. Paddy's tomorrow evening. Various problems arose and we feel better late than never. There will be Guinness Beef Stew, Colcannon and home baked bread. Rest assured Celtic woman will be on the home theater to help with the mood. Be great to have all the younglings at Big Daddy's house. It's been a while since the beach house has heard their banter and laughter. Plan is not to let it go this long again. Who knows, there may be a stout or two chilled. Maybe even some Killians. I feel sure at least one daughter will want her traditional Irish Pina Colada. Thinking about family makes me happy. Being with them raises me up. Thank God, we are able to gather. Thank God we have each other. Congrats out to my niece, her hubby and family on the arrival of a new baby girl born on St. Patrick's Day!

"Our most basic instinct is not for survival but for family. Most of us would give our own life for the survival of a family member, yet we lead our daily life too often as if we take our family for granted."
~Paul Pearshall

Feel Good Music on St. Paddy's Day

To hear good music and hear it performed with such finesse is a great pleasure. Beagle and Mudslingr saw this group over the weekend while in Birmingham so I checked 'em out. Wow, does this guy make a piano sing like a choir of rock n roll angels, or what?! The video is way kewl. Amazing 3 piece band. Talented bunch of cats!! Take a listen to Gabe Dixon Band and enjoy the video:

Told ya! Spirits lifted? Thought so...

"A good friend is like a four leaf clover: hard to find and lucky to have."
~H.D. Murphy

Two Ringy Dingy

After owning a Motorola Razr for several years I finally discovered how to send a text message via the computer. With fat fingers it's hard to push those tiny buttons on the phone. Shucks, it's hard enough using a PC keyboard. Texting still seems more trouble than it's worth. At least I am now armed to non-vocally communicate if that is someone's desired method. Since I am constantly on the phone at times it's easier to call and talk than text. For me, anyway. Still trying to get the knack of Twitter and am not real sure why this even exists. Need to talk to my experts and have it explained on my lowcomm level, lol. Networking, building PCs, troubleshooting, etc., are not so bad. Aren't you glad I don't work for AT&T? Talk about dropped calls! Boy Howdy!

Have a casual Monday.

"Telephone, n. An invention of the devil which abrogates some of the advantages of making a disagreeable person keep his distance."
~Ambrose Bierce

FYI, TS

Several settings on the Teamspeak Server have been changed. It is now in "stealth" mode. Please report any problems encountered in the comments and they will be addressed as soon as possible. The script kiddies are now hammering away at the Admin password with a brute force attack. The password is being changed on a daily basis and is over 20 characters long. As soon as it is affordable the primary router will be changed. The VPN firewalled one that I have in stock is on the fritz. This is taking up too much of my time, but the present firewall is relentlessly hunting down IPs so I will prosecute. There is simply no need for another human being to put someone under duress for their own evil pleasure. Yes, if given the chance I will bust their asses!

It's late, I'm tired. Good night.

Ready for St. Patrick's Day?

St. Paddy's Day approaches. This is one of my favorite holidays. There's NO gift giving, everyone Irish and non-Irish seem to embrace it, green is my favorite color and people wear a lot of green on this day. Some folks cook traditional Irish dishes. Love the green beer and WikiHow has a great article and super video about this simple process. What fun! A favorite dish is Colcannon (beach house version uses extra shallots, scallions, bacon and ham). Beef and Guinness Stew is a great alternative to Traditional Irish Stew. Be sure and have plenty of bread and butter on hand. Be festive, eat good and drink responsibly. DON'T DRIVE DRUNK! Since this is a week night, Tuesday, start early. Get with family and friends. Enjoy and embrace the Irish. Playin' a bit o' the Celtic Woman, Van Morrison, Chieftains or U2 in the backround won't hurt either!

"May luck be our companion
May friends stand by our side
May history remind us all
Of Ireland's faith and pride.
May God bless us with happiness
May love and faith abide."
~Irish Blessing