Thursday Potpourri

Some quick highlights:

From Gizmodo, quite possibly one of the most retarded things I’ve come across in awhile:

The Scarf for Techno-Addict Dorks - “Advertise to the world that you’re alone and want to stay that way with a privacy scarf developed by Joe Malia, a grad student who apparently can’t do without his portable media.” In the last frame, I don’t even see how it would work….isn’t the angle all wrong, so that would wouldn’t even see the whole screen because the material would billow and get in the way??? Wow.

Also, courtesy of Gizmodo, is a priceless picture:

Yeah, yeah, homelessness isn’t funny. But that’s a mighty fine sign. From a posting about the Internet connectedness of the downtrodden.

And on a final note, both WordPress and the Regulus theme I use have had updates, which I proceeded to install in the past couple of days. Both have caused various problems. I think the WP update is settled now - I think it was problems with my FTP program not uploading all the files or something. The theme I’ve reverted back to the old version. The new one is nicer, but it breaks the formatting of some of my posts, and just is weird. I’ll have to dig into it sometime if I get a chance. Woe is he who isn’t content with not having the latest and greatest, right? I guess if it ain’t broke, don’t fix it.

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Well, it’s been a heck of a week. For a better part of the past 4 days I have harbored an intense hatred for Comcast cable internet. Starting around two weeks ago, we would have spotty slowness around 5-7pm. This wouldn’t happen each day, and even though “everybody’s getting on at this time” is an excuse, in this day and age it shouldn’t be. Plus, it hadn’t been an issue for the past 10 months or so. Even the past 4 months with my own modem hasn’t been a problem.

The final straw came Tuesday, where it was beyond the unreliable slower than dialup speeds that it had been. The status of the cable modem was just out. TV worked, but the HD channels would stutter every so often and the skip maybe every 10 minutes or so. I called the tech support, who know absolutely nothing (I know how to fucking reset the damn modem. You don’t need to reset your computer to refresh the networking in XP. I know what I’m doing with my router. When I say pings and traceroutes aren’t working, listen to me!). They tell me that the signal to our modem is too weak, and they’ll need to send out a technician to test things before they can understand what’s going on. So we deal with it for the next couple of days, until yesterday, when it is OUT COMPLETELY.

The best part of the whole thing is, it’s just the internet. TV works fine, outside of the HD problems. Yesterday, when the internet was out the whole day, the HD was even worse - pixellation almost constantly, like we were watching streaming video or something. The cable modem wouldn’t even establish a signal.

When we took Sam for her walk, though, we saw a Comcast utility truck pull on (around 8:30), and right about 9 things came back up. I’m not complaining, but it figures that the night before the tech comes they fix whatever problem that they refused to admit was happening. Anyway, the tech came this morning, tested things, and said everything’s good to go. Ah well. I still think I might look into what getting DSL would involve. I think we’d need a basic local phone service at least, then we could get the DSL plan. It would be more reliable than cable for sure, and if the cost is the same (or less?) overall, then I might think about it. Most likely, if Comcast is working now, I’ll just sit on it and call it good until I blow up next time it stops working.

Meanwhile, I’ve been keeping a list of things I wanted to write about. Some random thoughts and such:

I’ve heard of, but never caught that show “Deal or No Deal”. Apparently I’ve been living under a rock - Howie Mandel is the host for the show?!? Who remembers “Bobby’s World“? Man, he’s come a long way.

The other day I was thinking about the show from freshman year, “Sifl & Olly“. Now that was some crazy stuff. I think I want to see if I can find and download all the episodes…throw them on a DVD or something. That’d be a blast. Grab some beers, throw in that and “Meet the Feebles“, and you’ve got the night set.

The other day I was remembering back to junior high school for some reason. Anyone else ever catch “Bill Nye the Science Guy“? I remember watching it at lunch in one of the classrooms. Or maybe it was a sketch comedy show. Hmmmmmm, who knows.

Then there were the computer games, Crystal Caves and McMurphy’s Mansion. This was like 8th grade computers class, and was basically a typing class. I think the “high-end” computers were 386s, but most were old 286s or 8088s. Anyway, after work was done, we could play those games. My friends and I beat both of them, and I remember McMurphy’s Mansion being a text adventure game where you could edit the files and change the text of the game. I redownloaded Crystal Caves the other day and played some of it. Horrible graphics and sound, but its a fun little side scrolling game. Ahhh, the good ol’ days of Duke Nukem’, Commander Keen, and other Apogee and 3DRealms games.

Finally, Slashdot is having a contest to redesign their CSS style for their pages. Unfortunately, this week is pretty much lost, but I think it’d be fun to play around with. Maybe I’ll fit it in next week sometime!

While driving home
Do FIP’s (Fucking Illinois People) know that they are FIP’s? I’m coming to realize what people mean when they talk about them down here. I94 and I80/90 were both packed with them, driving their fancy cars, zooming through traffic, driving 20mph over the speed limit. Bah!

On BW3
While pondering the differences in BW3s around the area, the topic of different Buffalo Zoo’s was brought up. For instance, the ‘Zoo in South Bend comes in a smaller glass, but word on the street is that it is much stronger. Apparently you can ask one of their kindly waitstaff, and they will give you a printout of their Buffalo Zoo recipe:
1/2 Well Vodka
1/2 Sloe Gin
1/2 Razz
1/2 Jim Beam
1/2 Well Rum
1/2 Triple Sec
Pineapple, OJ, Cranberry Juice - all equal parts of juices
So now anyone can make one just like an unnamed Detroit area B-dubs!

Sonic, why must you tempt me with your clever commercials (”Isn’t it great when you find #1?”) and tasty looking desserts, and not be anywhere near me. Your geographic marketing team sucks. And why does it cost so much money to own a franchise? If I had that kind of dough, I wouldn’t need to open a business that would be wildly successful, now would I? If one opened around here (heck, it could open pretty much anywhere in Northern Indiana or Mid-to-South Michigan) it would sell like hotcakes.

Ryan Van Dyke is now playing for the Grand Rapids Rampage.

Those ampdMobile commercials are awesome, and I just saw a new one. I have no interest in buying their product, but kudos to their marketing team. “You, shake your junk.” It’s priceless.