January 26, 2005
It does what?
I found an interesting article linked off www.engadget.com today from the Denver Post. I wonder what I else I can convince people that a sticker can do...
January 25, 2005
Walgreens
I needed to buy some deoderant on the way home tonight. Since there are really 2 ways I can take to get home, i had the choice of going to either CVS or Walgreens to get some. I chose the way that took me past Walgreens. Now, being a pharmacy, you would think they would have a decent section of thier store dedicated to health related products. This was not the case. They had more space for Valentine's chocolate and home audio/video accessories than shampoo/soap. After walking around the store for 5 minutes, up and down every aisle that didn't have toys/office supplies/etc. I gave up and went over to Kroger to get the goods. That only took me 5 minutes, 3 of which were spent standing in line. How many people go to get a prescription filled and think, "While I'm here, I should get that composite video cable I've been needing!" While all-in-one stores are handy, ala Walmart and Meijers. Every small store doesn't need to stock a bunch of stuff that has no relation to what their main business is. Chocolate, I can accept. Home audio stuff, I can't
January 24, 2005
Expensive things that broke this last week
1) Car brakes (pads and rotors!)
I'd been hearing/feeling a rubbing sound that did not belong on my car when I would brake for the last week. It turns out that some how just one of the pads on the frong left had worn/came apart, I'm not really sure which, and then proceded to muck up the rotor. Since I took it to the local Mercury dealer(they had awsome pastries to eat while I waited from the Italian Grocery next door!) to get it fixed, they also checked the other one which was just out of spec. I had them change that one also. ~97,000 miles isn't too bad for one set of brakes though.
2) Computer Monitor--(at least I'm hopeing its this and not my graphics card...)
Sunday, after using my computer for about 20 minutes all the color except for Blue went away. Needless to say, this makes it hard to play games. It comes back if I shut off the computer for a bit, then goes Blue Shift on me. The monitor itself is fine (the On Screen Display(aka set up menu)) still has red blue and green showing, so I'm thinking its in the video cable to it, or the decodeing circuitry. Now I've got a new 17" LCD on the way!
January 20, 2005
Beer fights cancer...or does it?
Here's a link from the Registerwhich describes an article by New Scientist which describes a study done by a Japanese University in which they found"DNA damage to their liver, lungs and kidneys was reduced by up to 85% if the mice drank non-alcoholic beer instead of water."
Of course, the mice were given non-alcoholic beer, so no one knows if normal good beer has the same effect.
NAIAS 2005
This last weekend two friends came up and we went to the North American International Auto Show (or Detroit Auto show). It was a lot of fun, and there were some very cool cars there.
I know I didn't take as many pictures as Jeff, but here are the ones I did.
January 18, 2005
Die MS Word Die!
So, I found a very strange bug in MS word today, but I've got no idea how to reproduce it with out the 1 document I've been copying pasting from.
It seems that if you copy something from a document that had track changes running on it into another document that you have track changes enabled for, you can actually get it to paste stuff that had been deleted or changed. Since I was copying and pasting a lot of stuff from one file to the other, this sucks.
Here's an (ficitonal) example of what I made happen:
I've got document X that's been edited by people A, B and C.
Theres a line of Text in it which was like this in one of the drafts:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy cat dog."
Say person B changed it to something that made more sense by deleting cat, leaving you with:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog. ---then word adds that cat was deleted by person B.
Person C finishes editing document X, turns off track changes, and saves it.
Now Person D (that's me) needs to take information out of document X to create document Z. If I've got track changes turned on in the document Z, and paste the line "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." which I copied out of document X. This is what I get:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy cat dog." Cat magically reappears.
If I turn off track changes and paste the same line I get:
"The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dog." Which is what I really wanted to paste in the first place.
Apparently it only works with different authors, since I can't force it to work with something I change and edit myself.
Now I have to go back and actually read all the stuff i was copying and pasting to make sure the right thing actually was put in there. ARGH!
January 15, 2005
Clint Eastwood
From AG:
http://entertainment.iafrica.com/news/403531.htm
Eastwood threatens Michael Moore
Staff reporter
Posted Thu, 13 Jan 2005
'Dirty Harry' star Clint Eastwood told an awards ceremony in New York that he would "kill" 'Fahrenheit 9/11' filmmaker Michael Moore if he ever showed up at his front door with a camera, according to a report on Ananova.com.
With Moore sitting in the audience, the Eastwood said: "Michael Moore and I actually have a lot in common - we both appreciate living in a country where there's free expression.
"But, Michael, if you ever show up at my front door with a camera — I'll kill you. I mean it."
Eastwood, a Republican, made the comments at the National Board of Review awards held in New York where he picked up a Special Filmmaking Achievement prize for 'Million Dollar Baby'.
A report in the New York Daily News, said Moore, who received a special "Freedom of Expression" award for his anti-Bush documentary, appeared to laugh off Eastwood's comments.
January 10, 2005
I'm way to "country" for up here
Driving back from work, the DJ was doing the usual traffic report when the way he said something struck me as very wrong. He was going on as usual..."and at some street and some other street which I don't know where they are, a car is blocking the right hand lane where it hit a *deer*" Now, everything was normal, until he said deer which was empasized like it was very strange.
I suppose it is strange for up here, but I couldn't help but think, so what? And then, I wonder if they're going to take it home with them.
Also, Kroger should not be selling furniature.
January 07, 2005
Wolverines
Well, as of today, I'm a wolverine. Went to the Secretary of State's office, and I should get my new drivers license in 2-4 weeks..... Hello, Michigan? This is the 21st Century. They have these cool machines that will print out Drivers Licenses instantly now. Maybe you should think about getting some?
Also, I now have a box of beer in my fridge. It's suppose to be good for 4 months(not that it'll last that long). I got some Black River Stout from The Big Buck Brewery.
And, my DVDs from amazon arrived today. They are having a sale on Fox TV show DVDs. I got 24 season 1, 1st season of X-Files, and the 1st season of Futurama. If you want any of these, go get them now, since they're all about 60% off.