got a haircut...

now dad says i have to get a real job...

x-mas photos

computer vs. me: i won!

well, it took giving in and doing a complete wipe of my machine, but i've finally fixed the damn laptop. naturally, during the systematic reinstallation of all the applications i use, the problem came back and i was actually able to find the root cause. AND IT COULD HAPPEN TO YOU!!!

dramatic overtones aside, this was a pain in the ass and the fix is easy. sure, it turns out i didn't have to wipe the machine, but from my pain i pass on my knowledge. the short and dirty is this: on vista and win7 (at the least) zone alarm (freebie version) and norton anti-virus 2010 do not play nicely together. the symptoms are random encoding errors in any browser and all downloaded files erroring out as corrupted (or "not a win32 program"). neither norton nor malwarebytes ever found a virus and the errors did not surface running in safe mode.

anyway, long story short, the problem reared its head as soon as i reinstalled zone alarm. a quick (and more finely tuned than my prior) google search found the same symptoms noted in the zone alarm support forums. i gave the latest beta for zone alarm a try, but it doesn't fix the issue, so it had to go.

i feel manly! oh so manly!

okay, perhaps show tunes are not the best way to express that.

new garbage disposal installed! hooray! sure, the only reason i had to install a new one is cause i personally burned out the motor on the old one (should have cut that potato up). but that is beside the point. the point is, i have successfully completed a home repair task that was only slightly more difficult than changing a light fixture. go me! go basic plumbing and electrical skills!

being on call sucks

yes it's 2:30 in the morning. yes, i'm working. meh.

ominous portents

system restore...that'll fix my problem(s)! yeah!

oh, wait, the restore failed...that cannot be a good thing.

looks like it's time to dig out the vista disks and reinstall the fucking OS. joy.

dear garmin mapupdater

you suck. you may well be the shittiest piece of software i've had to use in a long, long time. here are a few tips:

1. if i select "download to computer only", then you should continue to function after i've unplugged the fucking GPS from the USB cable. one would think the entire purpose of this option is to allow the download to proceed without the device attached. otherwise, why offer it?
2. did you implement the windows file copy status bar for your download progress? newsflash, IT'S NOT SUPPOSED TO GO BACKWARDS
3. is your server actually a decrepit laptop running a pentium 2 chip in some admin's basement in taiwan? seriously, i just ran a network speed test and my current download speed is 21 Mbps. why is my download speed from your server ranging from 24 Kbps to a max of 2 Mbps?
4. related, are you just not telling me the file size because you know i'll be wondering why it is taking more than a few minutes to download?

really, this is awful. i left the fucking thing running all night, and of course it errored out. this is painful and makes me hate those who created it. i had no idea it was possible to complicate a fucking file download this much.

EDIT: okay, so maybe it's not all your fault, map updater. a big fuck you to vista as well. and possibly my network adapters. at least at work i get paid to try and figure this shit out.

resurrection

well, my other place seems to be irretrievably broken. at least, without bugging people to fix it. which i don't want to do. so, since this place is still around, i'm reviving it.


in celebration, here's wee macduff looking at daddy's webcam:

*note: for some reason the sound and picture are out of sync. i'll see if i can fix that.

relocating

howdy folks. this blog is moving to fancy new digs. if you have links, please update them with my new address: http://blankpage.quiblit.com/

thanks for stopping by. see ya at the new place.

death comes in threes

yesterday, luciano pavarotti.

today, madeleine l'engle, author of "a wrinkle in time".

so, who's next? place your bets! perse nominates peter o'toole as a likely canidate for tomorrow's unfortunate loss. hard drinking, hard smoking and 75. granted, the irish can subsist solely on alcohol and tobacco (as can the french, tough i think they need coffee too), so he may have a few years left.

we are legion

the nation grows stronger, one child at a time. the coup is imminent. soon, we shall rule the world! though i'd settle for another series win.

mwahahahaha!!!

victory will be ours!

back at work

man, that went fast.

am i evil

for thinking this is really funny?

[grin]

how on earth...

did a texas pitcher earn a save in a 30-3 win? really. it's baffling. i guess the sabrmetric contention that saves are a wildly overrated stat has some teeth.

another psa

i'm temporarily removing forum comments. not that many of you used the feature anyway. but, it seems there has been a spat (the origins of which ellude me and are likely remarkably stupid anyway) between some users and he-who-hosted-the-forum (aka schad). so, until schad sets up shop somewhere else, you'll have only blogger comments as an option. which is what most of you were doing anyway.

so, carry on.

and, cause i can't help myself...



EDIT (19 aug 2007 @ 4:17pm): for bacon. see? nothing to hide. [grin]

my VP is an asshole

so, despite being on FMLA leave, i find myself, once more, working. apparently, one of the projects i'm on decided to start having issues right after i started leave. and, it seems my boss got chewed out by our VP because i'm out of the office. what was i thinking? obvivously, i should have scheduled my son's birth after the production release date (i'm sure perse would have been happy to carry the little guy for another month and a half). didn't i know the project was in danger of going red?

the end result though, is the shit hit the fan and i get to clean it up. since much of my time is currently allocated to shit cleaning anyway, i suppose i'm best qualified for the task. i mean, i still have to test, but it took me (sleep-deprived and all) a whole, maybe, 3 hours to analyze the problems and fix them. obviously, my expertise was needed.

so, what happened? well, i got two defect tickets to tackle. one was an oversight: a derived field in the host extract module that was left alone because calcs would, well, calc the correct value. alas, there is a particular output that is pre-calcs and thus needs the correct value straight from the host. took a whole ten minutes to analyze and fix.

the second defect resulted from the fact that a drunken monkey designed the structure of the test environments. basically, the host has one more test environment than the server world. not only do they not match, but while the server progression is linear, the host code promotion is, well, a zig-zag. basically, i did't realize they were moving code to the next level, and that lower levels don't pick up all the higher levels. apparently, this is supposed support parallel development, but i'll be damned if i can see how it does. it's supposed to allow them to run QA and INT cycles concurrently, with out INT being affected by the changes in QA. but, QA is going to hit PROD first, so why the fuck would you not want those changes picked up? seriously? what the fuck? so, basically, by moving my code to QA, INT stopped working, because it was defaulting to running the production code. i cannot emphasis how fucking stupid this is.

assholes. i might have been able to do this a bit faster, but seriously, anyone else on the host team could have figured it out. but, they weren't specifically assigned to it, so why should they look? better to interrupt my leave time, obviously. i'm particularly pissed off about the last problem because the people running the test job should have known what was happening.

other news from this week:

• wow, how can something so small shit so much?
• who ever invented the pacifier damn well better have been sainted
• damn he's cute
• really, he's damn cute, even if he's still got night and day reversed

hi

deadline dealing

looks like the sox have landed gagne as a setup man. initial reports have them sending kason gabbard and 2 outfield prospects (David Murphy and Engel Beltre) to texas.

this tells me they are trusting the schilling has enough gas left in the tank for the remainder of the season (also, he'll be back in time for his spot in the rotation). also that timlin is likely done and they want to take pressure off delcarmen.

i'm not complaining. it'll prevent okajima from being overworked, and give another viable closer option if papbelbon is unavailable. certainly an upgrade in what is already one of, if not the, best bullpens in the majors.

looks like any deal for dye is dead. not a problem for me; despite drew having an off year, dye isn't playing any better. he'd be an improvement over pena, as a 4th outfielder. but that's about it.

EDIT: 7/31, 5:11PM: apparently donnelly needs tommy john surgery. makes the gagne deal all the better.

trying to understand sports announcers

so, i was watching the rays vs. sox game yesterday, and (for some reason) extra innings decided to show the florida broadcast (despite having shown the NESN broadcast for the prior three games). anyway, during one of youkilis's at bats, the color commentator remarks that "one of the reasons youkilis is batting after ramirez is that ortiz has had problems against kazmir".

uh, what the fuck?

now, i suppose i shouldn't expect them to know that francona has lately been sitting drew against lefties, and when drew (the usual 5-spot) sits, youk is usually slotted to bat 5th. even so, um, the 5 spot is supposed to protect the 4 spot, not whomever is batting 3rd. regardless of the players, this statement makes no sense. unless we assume that if ortiz didn't have problems against kazmir, the rays would try to pitch around manny? huh? it's giving me a headache trying to figure this guy's logic out.

sometimes i wonder how these people keep their jobs.

hawking the forum, again

hey kids! i've mentioned this before, but i'm going for it again...why not comment in the forum? you have the option, and there are some fun and interesting conversations going on in there. check it out. registration is easy and painless. honest.