Tech

Backyard Blues

Well, my Uncle is back, arrived this morning, and he isn’t happy. The back entrance has not gone as well as it should, so today we tore off the week old roof and are fixing all the problems we have had. Scott, Todd G, Tim, My Uncle, and I were all on it, then my Dad came and we got ready to do fencing tomorrow. Oh, it will be fun.

For whatever reason, over the past few weeks one of my pages has become WAY too popular. It is titled “I am Bored”, and has moved up to #4 on a Yahoo search for that phrase, out of over 37,500,000 pages. The strangest thing is, it’s a post from January 2004, but wasn’t popular at all till about a month ago. I am considering changing the name, but maybe not.

I reformatted and reinstalled OS X Thursday night. It had bugs in it from some things I had been doing, so I felt it needed it. I was backing up everything to CDs anyway, so I had most of the hard part done (I backup less often than I should, but more than I used to, before my 7600 died).

Check out this Wikipedia article on .coms, including the list of 75 oldest still operating ones. I really like Wikipedia, you should browse around.

So, after contemplation, I have come up with September 1st as a likely moving date, for 3 reasons:

1) It is over 3 weeks away, plenty of time to work stuff out, and let everyone know.

2) It means 300th entry goes in new blog, presuming my normal schedule and 1 new poll before then.

3) You may remember my last move, 2 years ago Sept 3rd, hence repeating the saga of moving at the onset of September (hopefully I not moving again in 2 more years).

Also, yes, I have decided, and the new site is already on it’s way. Link will be in next post.

nick

You don’t have any mail! Our servers are feeling unloved.

Decisions Decisions

Well, let’s see.

I have been thinking about moving. No, not my person, but my blog / site. I have reasons for staying, reasons for leaving, reasons against what I have now, and reasons for what I want to have. I even have a poll for you to help me decide. So, let’s get started, shall we?

First and foremost, is cost. My .Mac subscription is nice, I get an email address, 250MB of space, a cool automatic web page builder, free copy of Virex, Back-Up space and software, and some other stuff. Problem is it costs me $99 a year. Other problem is it’s a mac, there are no viruses to protect against, and I make my own web pages. So we are down to backup, server space, and email. Well, free email accounts are easy to get, I have a Yahoo, Hotmail, GMail, Excite, Netscape, Delta, and probably more somewhere, and can get another in about 2 minutes. Backup is nice, but I seldom take anything from the server, just put backups to it. I use my iPod as a hard drive, and CDs all the time to back stuff up, and that’s what I actually retrieve from. The one thing I would miss most, is that I can access my bookmarks anywhere, just go to the site, click a link, and I have a window with all my bookmarks right there, on any computer. Yahoo is making something like this available though, so I might be OK.

So, Server space. I found Nearly Free Speech.net. They charge $1 per gigabyte of data stored per month, and $0.01 per megabyte of data transfered. That means my 5.4MB of monthly transfer (an estimate, but I think is pretty close), and 25MB of data will cost me about $0.26/month, or $3.06 per year. Thats almost 97% off! Even if I went WAY up, from 300 to 3000 visits a month, I would only be at $3.63 a year. Or, if my site grew (which it always does, but this is extreme) from about 25MB to 250MB, it would take me to $30.06. Now, as you can see, space will be my concern, but thats still only about a 3rd of what I pay now, and for the same amount of space. I would need to put 700MB on the server to match what I pay now. Sounds like a deal, huh?

So, next issue is iBlog. Yeah, it was better than Blogger, but it has it’s issues. For one, I kinda settled for iBlog. My .Mac account doesn’t allow php, which is what most blogware uses. That’s why I need a FreeFind search bar, a SiteMeter counter, and a Haloscan comment system. Good php blogware has this either built in, or available as php apps that I can add to the server, rather than relying on some other guys server. (By the way, php is a scripting language for servers, it’s similar HTML or JavaScript, just different, and more powerful.) Next, is the fact that since I started with iBlog, what, almost 2 years ago now (Sept 1, 2003), I have been promised a version 2, with all these new features. Yet, here I am with v. 1.4.3, because 1.4.4 is too buggy. Nice.

Over the time I have had iBlog, I have looked at alternatives, like BlogWaveStudio, Tangelo, and RapidWeaver, but they are all still .Mac, no php, need other companies and more usernames and more reliance on other servers for comments and counters type Blogware. But now, no, if I am going to save myself a heapload of money and move to a server, and it supports php, why not look at GOOD Blogware, POWERFUL Blogware. Yes, that’s what I shall do.

My first instinct was for the Blogware I wanted 2 years ago, MovableType. Now, back then, MT was free, and was a good choice. But since then, WordPress has come along and matured. It’s open source, free (yes, I know, I can get MT free, but I get no support, and I may need it), and very customizable IF I learn php, which I probably will.

So, I can move to a server that will cost me less, and lets me keep iBlog or move to a more powerful Blogware, add my own service apps like a wicked cool tracker that kicks what I have now’s ass, and yet I am hesitating? I have my reasons.

First of all, it means a new address. That means I need to let all of you, and all those that used to read the blog know that I moved, meaning a big top-entry post, and emails, and such and such. Then, I come to the hard part. If I switch Blogware, I loose my old posts until I redo them all. I did this once, when I moved from Blogger, but I only had 4 months worth then, now I have 26 months to convert. Plus, all comments would be lost. This means paying $10 to Haloscan for Premium membership, exporting all my old comments, and retyping them as you into the newly transfered post, making sure they all go to the right post etc… Is it worth saving $97 a year? Yeah, probably.

Then, though, that new address thing hit me. Yeay, I would have a cool address like nslyax.nfshost.com or something equally no better than what I have now. What if I wanted something actually cool though? Not just sarcastically cool, but actually geek cool, my own domain. Yes, at $3ish a year, I could afford a domain, and it would only be another $15.75 a year for registration and hosting. That means you could go to blog.hooji.net (hooji.com was taken, but has expired, but was then bought by advertisers that just have redirects on it, and will be available late 2006, but I don’t want to wait) and view the blog. Now that’s cool.

So, I have till October 1st to decide (I think) as that is when my .Mac expires. It would certainly but a lot of work. I may just move iblog to the new server, but that still means comment transferring, and whenever I moved to WordPress I would need to retransfer. I may switch to WP and leave the domain alone for a while. I don’t know. Leave me your opinion, and i will think it all over.

Addendum:

In the 2 days I have thought it over (it was really wracking my brain Wednesday afternoon, I couldn’t wait) I think I have came to the conclusion that with a $5 minimum, I wouldn’t loose much by at least trying it out. No domain or anything for a while, just a trial run. Still though, let me know in the poll, comments, whatever.

nick

It’s conjugal visit day, and you know how I like doing a chick in the can.

Blog-Digidy-Blog

Is this anything special? I don’t think so, so it shall be general. This is 205th general, and 265th overall. That means over 77% are general posts. Wow.

One of the coolest features of OS X 10.4 is a new program called Dashboard, which allows you to put “widgets” on your desktop, mini apps that you can bring up and hide away with the touch of a key. Now, you can also get widgets buy buying Konfabulator, but that costs $$, and you can’t use all the new Dashboard widgets. Well, a new app called Amnesty is now out, and it’s free, and it uses Dashboard widgets. I have an issue with it though, you can’t press F12 to hide the widgets, and you don’t get the Apple OS X widgets, which are some of the best. Oh well, it’s not $20 for Konfabulator, and it’s not $69 for Tiger.

I have a new toy now, got it a few hours ago. I nice new Leatherman tool. The Kick. It came with the leather sheath though, and I want the nylon combo sheath, which also holds my Mini Mag Lite, which makes it cooler. Oh well, later.

My Uncle John is in town for my Aunt Jane’s funeral (my other Uncle John’s wife).

We laid our concrete yesterday morning, and lifted the shed up onto some 6x6s so we can slide is onto the slab on Thursday. We are still unsure of the patio, since the back entrance is so screwed up. I don’t know what’s going on half the time.

OK, that seems like it.

See you Wednesday.

nick

I don’t care if you’re the queen of England.
I am the Queen of England!
And I said I don’t care!

Cat Envy

Tiger is officially available tomorrow, and I will not have it. No, even at $69 with my student discount I can’t justify buying it, especially since if I ever get a job I plan to buy a new computer that would come with it within the next 6 – 12 months. Ah well.

I threw out the old template. I decided I didn’t like it. I don’t know why, just didn’t.

I am now on book 4 of HHGG. Movie opens tomorrow. I doubt I will be done with all 5 before I see the movie, just don’t have the will to do much right now for whatever reason. (On a side note I just butchered the word “what”, but you can’t tell cause I fixed it. Was going along the lines of “wahahet”.)

I downloaded my 21 free iTunes songs yesterday. I decided I should get them downloaded before I forget about them and loose the freebies. I will still gladly accept codes though.

The chair I am sitting on is dieing (It says that isn’t the correct spelling, but I don’t think dyeing it right either, hmmm…). I had 2 chairs like it, but one died, then the other, so now I am on a frankenstein of what’s left.

The poll seems to have gone over well. Sarah informs me I forgot root beer. Really though, of all the Faygos, why root beer? Why cola for that matter? More to the point though, I happen to know for a fact I have AT LEAST 1 double and 1 triple voter. I don’t mind though, cause it makes it look like I have 11 readers, rather than the 3 – 5 that I actually have.

I did a check on Amazon today and found that the Canon MiniDV camera I wanted is no longer available, has received a price jump, and I presume is discontinued. Oh well, I knew it was happening anyway, new models came out in January and thats why it was so cheap in the first place. I can’t afford it anyway.

All right, that’s all for now.
See you all again on Sunday.

nick

The trick to flying is to jump, and miss the ground.

251

I am now up to 21 free songs, thanks to mostly Jenn, but also Scott and my Mom. I have all the songs picked out, and have till May 23rd or something to buy them.

Jenn and I were bored Sunday, so we bought a pair of kites at a dollar store and flew them in a field behind her building. It was much fun, though mine wouldn’t stay up.

I have rode my bike quite a bit in last two days. I would be sad that its rainy tomorrow, but my ass is starting to get sore.

We went to ABC Warehouse today and got her a new TV. Err, she got it, I just stood there, then drove it home in the truck. She got cable hooked up today too, so she can now go online, and watch more than just WNEM/CBS.

And now for the techie part of the entry…

I’m sure most of you know who Adobe and Macromedia are (Photoshop and Acrobat/PDF for Adobe, Dreamweaver and Flash/Shockwave for Macromedia). Well, apparently they are merging. This is big news, especially since I can’t remember hearing a peep about this. There are 2 possible outcomes.

The first is the fear that Adobe will improperly utilize this new acquisition and end up killing Macromedia’s great products, much like it wound up doing with GoLive and others. It really isn’t Adobe’s fault, it is just that they began as a print media company, and that’s where many of their customers still are. So, web media, though still a focus, can not be their primary focus without alienating loyal customers. Hence, though Adobe knows there is money to be made in the web, and they have tapped into it on several occasions, they tend to end up with alot of misses for every hit, and this record may prove bad for Macromedia.

The second possibility is that Adobe leave’s well enough alone, and lets Macromedia continue on much as they have, but as a sort of web division. Let the current Adobe work on print media, and Macromedia work on web media, with collaboration between as needed. Drop Adobe GoLive, but keep Macromedia Dreamweaver. Drop Macromedia Freehand, but keep Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. Keep the best of each, drop the weaknesses, and let each group do what they do best. It seems like common sense, but in the business world it is far harder to achieve, and easier to loose, than you can imagine.

But, I digress. Nobody knows what will happen, and the shareholders and SEC haven’t even approved it yet, so all we can do is wait.

And as a last note, Apple claims “Over 200 new features” in OS X 10.4 Tiger, that ships later this month. Well, they finally released a list with them all. Check it out here.

OK folks,
Friday,

nick

If you find handcuffs in the girls night stand, be mildly concerned.
If you find saw marks in the handcuffs, be very concerned.

General 193

Nobody has an opinion? I mean, yeah, Scott already gave his opinion on the poll before I had posted it, but still, nothing? Geesh.

Family Guy returns to Fox with new episodes on Sunday, May 1st. Also, American Dad starts the same night, but I didn’t much care for it.

Want to see how new HDs will hold 10x more data? OK, how about a funny ass flash cartoon? Maybe you like stuff that is informative yet incredibly stupid at the same time? Well your in luck, all three are available from Hitachi in this cartoon.

I bought a fishing license. When jenn and I go camping we want to fish some, and I want to do some fishing around here too. It was $7 a day, or $15 for a year, plus another $13 if I want a trout/salmon stamp, but I’m not getting that yet.

OK, thats all for now I think. If you people would voice your opinion in the poll, you will get the new version sooner, and will get a new poll too.

Til Wednesday,

nick

1-800-QUIT-AOL
– Former EarthLink sign-up number

April Fools

Well, since this is April Fools Day, I wanted to fool you all with a crazy update. However, I am not creative enough to come up with anything, so screw it.

Thinkgeek had some cool April Fools sales though. Like $799 wireless pong paddles, and a sleeping pill with time release caffeine to wake you back up.

I went to my Grandpa Jack’s service today. He wasn’t really my grandpa, but was closer to me than my real grandpa for many years. He passed away on Wednesday, and funeral will be tomorrow. People really look different in a casket. I guess I am lucky though, I have only been to 2 funerals in my life, and both were 90+ years old. You may remember my Grandpa from about a year ago when I posted a link of him receiving an award for his involvement in the Battle of Normandy. I will post a link to that entry next time, too tired to look it up now. I feel bad that we didn’t go see him in Grand Rapids, but we did see him in Munger at his family reunions. His daughter said he was coherent to the end, and knew all of what was going on. He enjoyed life, and even pinched a nurses butt now and then at the nursing home. I will miss him.

April 1st means Pepsi/iTunes is over. I am sure there are still bottles out there though. If you find codes, I still want them. Can turn in throught May.

I took my bike in for spring tune up today. It needs it, hasn’t been serviced in like 3 years.

I downloaded the FireFox browser for testing the new templates, and it’s sweet. Compared to Safari that I use, it is a bit advanced. Compared to IE, it kicks serious ass. I really like the RSS feed subscription, and the built in search. Safari should have RSS in 2.0, and has search, but only for google. FireFox you can set the search to anything. And it had tabs, pop-up blocking, and all the other things I expect from a browser, but the “leader” still doesn’t have. If you use IE, quit it, and get FireFox.

OK, thats all. See you Monday.

nick

Dude, what part of the term “Magic Oven” do you not get?

Entry #00241.00

The work on the blog is progressing. I have a lot of cool ideas and it should all be coming together soon. The website will also be returning, with a pictures section and more.

I received, a few weeks ago, an invite to a certain e-mail service provided my a certain search page. The invites were once hard to come by, but have become fairly easy to get. If you would like an invite to said e-mail, which starts with a “g” and ends with “mail”, I have 50 invites, and would be happy to provide. If you have no idea what I’m talking about, IM me. I will NOT post the actual name of the service, in fear of being attacked by search engines.

In related news, Yahoo! Mail will be raising it’s storage limit to 1GB soon. I currently use 0% of my 250MB, so am not as excited as some.

About a week or so ago I spoke with Suchyta. I thought I saw him on the blog, as it was a visitor from the Pacific time zone with no referrer, so I emailed him. A few days later I see another non-referred pacific time zone visitor, and this one searched for “Stacey Person”. OK, THAT was Suchyta. So I signed on Jenn’s MSN account and found him. SO anyway, I got to talk to Suchyta, which is quite an accomplishment.

OK, think thats all. Leaving in an hour or 2 for Alpena, will be back tomorrow evening. Have fun all, and Happy Easter.

Til Tuesday,

nick

If the minimum isn’t acceptable, it shouldn’t be called the minimum.

New Colors (again)

First up is obvious, the new colors. Let me know what you think, this or the blue and white.

I have been looking at iMacs, and realized something odd. The disk in an iMac is either 80GB or 160GB, depending on model, with a 250GB option available. I currently have a 30GB, which is a nice upgrade from the 18GB, and before that 2GB drive in my 7600 (may it rust in pieces). So, saying I get a 20″ iMac that has a 160GB drive standard, thats 130GB I pick up. Woohoo, right? Not quite. See, I only use 6GB, less than 4% of my future drive. Thats ridiculous! Here’s a break down:

1.16GB Applications
1.26GB System files
2.22GB Music
304MB Movies
204MB Pictures
46MB General Documents

Now yes, that only adds up to 5.18GB, but there is 6.06GB used on my disk, I presume for the swap file, but that just makes it worse. All you with your multi-TB RAID arrays and such are laughing at me right now. Ohh well.

Next up, is the new poll. Vote or be IP banned forever (that wouldn’t really help I guess, would it).

And in closing: Yay! Yes, I have been spelling it wrong all this time. It was tried twice to convince me the correct spelling is yeah, but that’s “ya” like yes. Turns out yay is the correct spelling for an enthusiastic outburst.

OK, thats all.

bye

nick

What’s wrong with your dog?
He’s a narcoleptic.
Your dog is an undercover drug officer?
Uhm, yeah.

Untitled 7

My computer was running kinda yucky, so I did a reformat. It has been over a year, so it needed it. Notice that I saved the blog this time though, so no 1 week downtime, yeehaw!

I need to reformat the iMac too, since I finally figured how without needing it’s broken CD-ROM.

I received my state tax refund, federal should be in my account on the 8th. Yeah for money!

OK, thats all for now, have more sorting and back-up to do.

nick

There’s no reason for fighting if it’s not on a Hockey rink, but then again I’m a figment of your imagination, so do what you have to.
– your inner frat boy