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Already?

Well, I was sitting here watching Erin Brochovich and realized it’s that time again. So here I am.

I realized a few days ago how screwy the circuits in this house are. If I turn my fluorescent desk lamp on or off, it sends enough EM interference out to fuzz up my TV. Thing is they are in outlets on opposite sides of the room and are both in surge suppressors, that should be filtering the interference. Maybe I just need better strips?

I am pissed at both Apple and Belkin. First the good stuff though. Apple had a big announcement earlier this week. They released the second version of the iTunes music store, and iTunes 4.1 to take advantage of it. They also released iTunes for windows, including access to the music store. I encourage all you who use windows to at least try iTunes. They also announced two big deals. The first is a with AOL to send users to the iTunes music store when looking at music in AOL’s music section. The second is with Pepsi, to give away ONE HUNDRED MILLION free songs from February 1st to March 31st. At $.99 a song, thats $99,000,000 in music, with one in 3 being winners.

But the bad news. Belkin announced a new voice recorder and media card reader that connect to gen3 iPods. I own a gen2 iPod, so I can’t use these. Now yes, I bought it refurbished well after it was discontinued, so I knew something like this would happen. But there is no reason the voice recorder can’t be used on gen2 iPods. The media card reader does require the new dock connector as a means to pass data to the ipods HD, but the voice recorder uses the headphone port and a software update, meaning it could easily work on the older iPods. I blame both Apple and Belkin for this. Which brings me to my second problem, why no more software updates for gen2s? They haven’t been updated since iPod software 1.3, while gen3s are up to 2.1. There is no reason Apple can’t put the extra games and faster functionality on the older iPods.

Anyway, there’s my ranting. Been a long time since I did a good ranting, and it felt good. I will need to get pissed off more often.

Next week I get rebate check, and Panther, WOOHOO!

I did some website updating last night. A page on my computer and entertainment system, and added link to my mostly blank library page(yes Scott, just for you) Both are on the “Everything Else” page.

I went to the casino Thursday night. Ended up about even, slightly ahead. If I had left after 15 minutes though, would have been much more ahead. Got triple 7s twice in a row, then again 5 pulls later. Had single coin first time, 2 second, and 1 third. That’s 50, 100, and 50 coins, 200 x $.50 = $100 Oh well.

See you all Tuesday, when I’m $1250 richer.

later,
nick

“Hard Work Often Pays Off After Time, but Laziness Always Pays Off Now”

Money in, Money out

Hello world, and how are you?

I just got back from IBEW interview. Turns out this was just the residential interview, so I should be receiving another letter in the mail for the lineman interview. Went well though. They started 20 minutes late, which didn’t help nervousness, but was fine.

Only about a week till Panther. Can’t wait. My iBook is becoming rather bit-rotted after almost a year, and I need to re-install anyway. All those programs I tried and then deleted have little fragments laying around that need to be removed. That alone should bring a fairly nice speed boost.

I also have learned that financial aid rebates come out next week. I think Jason said Monday the 21st though, which confuses me, being Monday is the 20th. I think will be 21st though, as I remember last year it was a Tuesday because I picked it up during break in Environmental Biology. Problem is, I owe most of it to my mom, plus I just found out I need new breaks. Life is so nice.

I did some work on website. Added a Dangers of Dihydrogen Monoxide page. Is on the “Everything Else” page in side bar of website. Scott sent me a link to another DHMO danger site, which I have a link to on the bottom of the page. I have given up on CSS and #include, as they don’t want to work like I want. That and Apple’s server doesn’t fully support some of what I want them to do. So I guess I will just need to do copy – paste for the repetitive stuff. No biggie.

Ok, thats all for now. Close the door on your way out.

bye,
nick

Bow before me, for I am root!

Anniversaries!!!!!!!

Happy Anniversaries!

Today we have 3 special anniversaries:

1. Post 50
2. Day 128
3. Visitor 200

With the combined blogger re-posts, test iblog posts, and general posts, this is my 50th blog entry. That should mean 150 days, but I posted rather erratically at the beginning, so I wound up ahead.

I have been blogging since May 27th. That means today is the 128th day I have had a blog, which is a special number in computing (notice memory comes in 32, 64, 128, 256? It’s because computers are binary) (128 is 2^7). Not extremely special, but better than nothing.

And the 200th visit. Obtained by Lauren Anna Exora Somalski at 10:29:47 pm. You may be saying “but the counter wasn’t always up, you blogged for a while before you started counting, I could be the 200th!” Well, I am here to say that “You’re talking to yourself, and we don’t care what you say!”

And most important, I didn’t miss this one! Remember last anniversary, when I forgot to post? Yeah, we’ll avoid that.

Anyway, thats that. I was in the middle of Java homework when I remembered it was 3 days. IBEW interview Wednesday, will let you know…

See ya,
nick

I want to open a mexican restaurant, “los pantalones del perro”
(the dog pants)

Something Different

Hi all, hope you had a good weekend. What do you say we start with news.

Mac OS X 10.3 may be out this month. Rumors point to between the 24th and the 30th. Every day they seem to become more reliable, and the date becomes more likely on the 30th.

I downloaded the demo of Dreamweaver MX 2004. Supposed to have really good CSS support, will play with it for a while. Also want to try GoLive CS, the successor to my current app GoLive 6.0. Yes, I do know HTML, but you should see website code. Not too horrible using tables, but going to CSS will make hand coding very ugly.

Because some have asked, there are 2 main reasons I removed counter details. First is it shows most of your IP address, which isnt nice. Granted, its not all, but it brings it from near infinite possibilities to 256, which I don’t like. Second (and really the only, main, and most important) is that it was only a 60 day trial to list on website. Unless you want to pay $10 a month to see your IP, it’s over. I can still see it though, and I have thus far had visitors from: Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, the UK, and the US.

Pretty good for a little blog in Bay City.

Uhm, what else. I guess thats it, so here is the “Something Different.” In 10th grade, I had to re-write a fairy tale as an English assignment. I did so, got a good grade, and didn’t think about it again. While cleaning my room this weekend (which isn’t done) I came across this story and a poem. Today, you get the fairy tale, and Thursday, you will get the poem. Is just copied and pasted from word doc, which was scanned in from the old printout, so all spelling is only up to my 10th grade skills (which are probably higher than now). Formatting and font will likely get screwed up.

Enjoy,
nick

My Beauty and the Beast short story was originally posted here, but has since been moved to the Portfolio Section.

Hi

Hey! I’m glad to see some of you are taking advantage of the comment system. Only 3 of you (well technically 2) but there are only 3 or maybe 4 that regularly read, so thats pretty good I guess. I have removed access to the counter details, for a couple reasons. I doubt many of you ever really used it anyway.

I am enjoying ipod more each day. I want to get some new headphones though, Looking at Sennheiser’s PX200s. Sennheiser is the same company that makes most Aircraft radio headsets and studio mics, so they already seem like a good choice. This model also has great reviews, as does the very similar 100 model. Plus, unlike the other higher end models I had looked at, they fold up nice and tiny, and are only like $40 -$50!

Also enjoying Airport card, using it right now! And now that 10.2.8 v.2 is out, my battery life is back to normal. My 6 hr battery that will generally give me about 4 hours in OS9 and 5 in X, was down to about 2 hours in X with the first 10.2.8 update. Maybe when Panther arrives (Oct 24th?) I will see even better time.

I am cleaning my room, very slowly. Moved bed, cleaned up computer table, filed some papers. Problem is brother’s stuff is skattered about too. Doubt will get much further tonight, and work tomorrow. Maybe finish Sunday?

Want to redo website again. According to counter, nobody goes there really, but what the hey, its something to do. Granted, that will mean beginning v.3 when v.2 isn’t even finished (or v.1 for that matter) but I always knew it was going to be a work under constant progress (hoped there would be progress anyway). Will decide before next update weather I will attempt it or not.

Received letter from IBEW, I am accepted for interview, what did I tell you. Interview will be next Wednesday (the 15th).

Ok, thats all for now. Want to try and get back to old blog, where I would just complain and you would read it and laugh. I guess thats a complaint, so I am doing well toward goal.

Ok, TTYL,
nick

There are 10 types of people in the world.
Those who know binary, and those who don’t.

The 46th Post

Lets see. I just upgraded from iblog 1.2.6 to 1.3.1. Apparently it has been available for a while, I just wasn’t aware of it. Has these rulers and stuff, is weird. Allows text alignment though, which is nice.

Last night I added comments to the blog, by request. Leave a comment if you want something else, I will try to accommodate.

Hmm. River of Time was ok. If your not going for the root beer and kettle corn though, you minds as well not go. Oh well.

Apple refurb. list is still rather bare, not that I care, I have what I want.

I got ipod working in car. Have it connected to the FM modulator for the CD changer in trunk. Works well, though I need to have volume on both ipod and stereo maxed for it to work. Modulator expects a line-level input but ipod just can’t do it. I get my debts payed off maybe I will buy an itrip…

Went wandering with ibook. No wifi at Delta that I can find. My Linksys works to almost the end of the block, about 60ft short. Thats approximately 210ft radius!

The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King trailer came out today. Is on QuickTime website here. ipodlaughs.com has some interesting photoshops here.

Unix class is still boring. Unix is cool and all, but the teacher just cant make it. I am starting to get back into C++. Java is easy, I am preferring it over C++. Granted, Java sucks to run; its slow, can be quite buggy, and ssslllooowww. But, it will run on almost anything without re-write, and is easier to program in the beginning.

January 24th will be 20 years since the Macintosh was released. Perhaps we should expect something from Apple? When the 20th anniversary mac was released to celebrate 20 years since Apple’s founding, it was near cutting edge with leather palm rest, Bose designed audio, and an LCD display. Today though, LCDs are commonplace and G5s come standard with 5.1 optical out. What will Apple come out with next?

Ok, thats enough for now. More friday. Go away now.

nick

Geek: the guy who buys a new G5 so his atari emulator will run faster.

I got prizes!

Friday morning, I received a brand new airport card, so I can go online wirelessly. It’s very cool. And, I got a refurbished 10GB ipod, also very cool. Next, I need headphones. The earbuds bug me.

Just yesterday I received more hits than normally in 2 weeks. MacRumors had a poll as to whether or not visitors have a blog, I responded yes and posted address. The result was 17 new visitors from 3 countries.

Haven’t made it to River of Time yet. Busy with new stuff. Definitely going tomorrow though. Havent missed one yet.

Ok, I guess thats all. See you on Tuesday, will try for a post bigger than this and previous.

See ya,
nick

Johnny 5: “KO Derf.”
Fred: “That’s Fred.”
Johnny 5: “That’s what I said, Derf.

Can I write for 3 days before the post?

This is my first try at writing stuff as I think of it, for 3 days, then posting it all as normal. If it works out, I may stick with it.

HUGE news: I’m on Google!
I fixed the counter so it counts both the website and the blog, and when looking at the visits, I noticed it was listing google searches as the referring URL. Sure enough, if you type “nslyax” on google, you get my blog! (along with some macrumors forum posts and my completely unused geocities page) the search terms I have been found by include:

“airport card” ser*al number: google.com
people counters: google.com
site:homepage.mac.com unpack G5: google.com
iblog ser*al: google.com
s*mc*ty 4 ser*al number: search.yahoo.com
number s*m c*ty 4: google.fr
isync motorola v120: google.com

Awesome, huh? You can check them out yourself. Just click the counter, click “details” on the next page, then click the number before the domain (i.e. chartermi.net, etc…). You can also click “Who’s On” to see who’s been on in the last 20 minutes, including you!

Other site/blog updates include a link back to the homepage, and I posted the new website, which is frame-less. I hate frames, but at the time it seamed like the best choice. They are gone now though and I am glad. let me know if you prefer it or not. I don’t know why I say that though. Nobody has ever said if they like a change or not, or answered any question I post. There not rhetorical people, I really want to know (I give credit to jason for applauding the new post summaries though). Also, I have accepted that the website doesn’t matter, and that I might as well post everything on it as a blog entry and leave a link on the front page of the blog. But what would be the fun in that? Another question is weather I should gizmate the website (yes, that is a word, because I say so). I could add a comment system, or a poll, or whatever. Let me know.

For some reason I need to have an internet obsession. There really isn’t that much to do online unless you do a lot of the same thing. Just this year I have obsessed over:

S*mC*ty 4
Rare Apple items
Any new Apple product
Mountain Bikes
Bike Trails
Delta Classes
more…

Currently, its getting a $169 refurbished ipod from Apple (more on that below). Most of last year was based on wanting a new computer. And btw, still no SC4cd2.

“Fox News, Fair and Balanced Hurricane Coverage.” Yeah, we don’t want to be prejudiced against an ACT OF NATURE! I like Fox news, more than the other news channels, but come on.

I wanted to buy the refurbished 10GB ipod on the Apple Online Store. It was only $169, which is $230 less than when new. But, I hesitated and they got sold out. So I was waiting for some more to come in, and I was going to order one ASAP along with a $51 airport card, at $28 off. It sold out too. So I was considering, since I have an MBNA rebate that expires on 9/28 that I would buy the 15GB which is the newer model, but costs a whopping $279. Hey, I get $25 off though, and its a 15 and the newer model. It sold out too. So, just to put a final test to my powers, I am going to publicly announce right now, that unless one of my previous goal models becomes available by 9/28, I will buy the 20GB previous model for $269. Now, lets see how many hours until it sells out.

Have you heard about them wanting to crash Galileo into Jupiter? Well, they do, it’s almost out of fuel and to prevent the slim chance that stowaway microbes may inhabit Europa, NASA plans to turn Galileo into Jupiter and let it burn up on entry. Thats crazy enough, I mean what are the chances of microbes surviving 14 years in space, and then making it to Europa. It gets better though. A group believes that since Galileo is Plutonium powered, the heat of entering Jupiter’s atmosphere will set off an atomic explosion. Then, since Jupiter is mostly hydrogen, it will go into nuclear fusion, creating a new star, or simply exploding.

NO!

Heres why:

  1. The plutonium of Galileo is the wrong isotope, it is incapable of fission.
  2. The arrangement of the Pu on Galileo is wrong. It is in linear tubes, and would need to be in a sphere to enter fission.
  3. The hydrogen on Jupiter is the wrong isotope. For fusion to take place, you need Deuterium or Tritium (hydrogen with 1 or 2 neutrons, regular hydrogen has 0).
  4. To maintain fusion, you need “critical mass”. Jupiter is WAY under critical mass, which means the heat from any fusion that takes place would push away all the other hydrogen, stopping the reaction.

And there were a few more. A better description is available here. I just found it amusing.

What else.

My cousin Tim is in town. Arrived Thursday, leaves Monday. Came for his parents surprise party.

I think thats it. I’ve been writing crap for 3 days, and see I have quite a buildup. I can’t think of much else to add, so I guess I just need to post it all. If I try this again, I will need to work on organization though, because its just kinda here-and-there.

Ok, ttyl,
nick

Every cloud has a silver lining,
And each year millions die of lightning strikes trying to reach it.

Hello World!

Hi, and welcome to another action-packed episode of Nick’s Rants.

I spent about 3 hours copy-pasting and formating the HTML from old blog into new posts on this blog. They have original formating, original links, and original typos. I titled the ones I posted on blogger’s site, and left the Kung-Log entries with their original title. The only real modification is I fixed the first link I made, to Vervante’s website (I guess that means my contest is over). They are listed as being posted on their original date, and contain the original post date and time in the summary. By the way, ALL posts now have a summary, should make it easier to figure out what your in store for.

Also, almost done with the new website. Essentially the same as current, but no frames (which annoy me) and is easier for me to play with. Expect it to be up within a week or so.

Apple released new 12, 15, and 17 inch PowerBooks Tuesday morning at 4 AM EST. I was actually going to post that right away, but held off. Also, the Bluetooth Keyboards and Mice debuted. Overall very exciting. See Apple’s site for the details.

Found a major annoyance. Junk mail advertising Spam filters. Seriously, what the hell? Someone sends you spam about preventing spam? Thats like a guy breaking into your house to sell you a security system. Well, maybe not that bad, but still. It’s rediculous.

Uhmmmm………….

“Stand back, theres a hurricane a-brewwin.” Nevermind, WWE thing. Seriously though, Isabel is on it’s way, looks like we might get quite a bit of rain. Time will tell.

Also on the way is my cousin, Tim. Actually, he should have landed over an hour ago. He’s in town for his parents 50th birthdays, celebrating both now, about half way between.

The Logitech wireless keyboard I got my mom is working well, except there is no Caps Lock light. If anyone knows of a menu bar or dock item that would indicate this, let me know. I know of some for OS 9, but can’t find any for X.

Is that it? Hmm. Ohh, in going through old posts, came up with the following stats:

May 236 words
June 3280 words
July 3350 words
August 4309 words

Impressive yes? (except the formatting. All fonts should be monospace, its so much easier) Actually, that includes HTML tags, so its a good bit less, I think. Oh well, you can see which months are longer and shorter anyway. So thats something.

This is number 42, and counter on site says 93, I am feeling better about this whole thing. Apparently people are reading. Counter stats list Austin, TX, Great Britain, North Dakota, and Chicago ISPs, and more. Most are CharterMI.net and CMich.edu though, which is expected.

Ok, that IS all.

Til Sunday,
nick

If I wanted your opinion, I would give it to you.

Uhh, 40? My sad story :(

Here I sit, the first friday after my 21st birthday, at home with my ibook. How sad. Worse still, a female friend of mine, known to be rather promiscuous when drinking, is in town and home alone as well. But no, I sit here online. I need a life.

Anyway, it’s friday night (and the moon is bright, gonna have some fun, show you how it’s done, TGIF. before your time? Nobody remembers, it’s ok.)

Classes are all going well. Have some homework to do over the weekend, but nothing too bad. Mom went to casino earlier this week, nothing big though. Glad to see we all made it through another September 11th safely. Wonder what it will be called in the future? Will it always be “9 – 11” or will we call it “Liberty Day” or something? Or maybe move Labor Day onto 9-11 and name it “Respect-those-killed-by-terrorists-and-those-who-labor Day.” Or not.

I am bored (I’m sure you can tell, more parenthesis than normal, which means more side thoughts, which means I’m rambling and am clearly bored.) I have a headache too. Maybe I have a headache, and thus I am bored, because if I avoid thinking about my head, it wont hurt and so I am thinking about uselessness and making myself bored by not being able to think of things that I could be doing, which would be useful, and thus not of a uselessness nature. Then again, reading that back makes my head hurt worse.

Uhm, zip disks are cool by the way, they got those little crystals in them. Don’t understand how that works, but power to em.

Ok, I don’t want to freak all 2 of my regular readers out and scare them off with crazy rantings, so I am going to lay down.

Website is being worked on, and I mean it. I just don’t want to put up 1 or 2 modified pages and leave the rest, so waiting to get it all done. And at the end of this month I am replacing my HTML archives of old blog with PDFs. Is easier on me, until I can reformat them to iblog style. And besides, you can still read them at blogger anyway. I don’t even know if that will ever go away. Who knows. Also, I will have the 100th hit on my website soon. Thats what the counters stat page says. I guess that includes from when on the blogger page, and on website now.

Ok, bye now, seriously. And I was kidding about the promiscuous girl, she probably not at home by now. SHE has a life.

nick

“I hate that lake, it killed my granpappy. He was sittin there, and he saw his reflection in the water, and he jumped in for him. Drowned try’in to save himself. Damned lake, I hate you.”