Posts from — April 2002

From TechTV: “On May 1, 2002, a large number of Internet radio stations are going to suspend normal programming. As mentioned on today’s show, some Internet radio stations are going silent for the day and others are going to run looped messages. This is in protest to the royalty fee recommendations proposed by CARP (the Copyright Arbitration Royalty Panel).”

This blows. I really, really enjoy listening to Internet radio - all the time. Visit SaveInternetRadio.org to show your support. I wrote a letter to my congressman. The site has links that show you how to do this.

According to Leo LaPorte, this new fee will be applied ONLY to Internet radio. On-air radio stations will be exempt. Right now, both pay license fees. CARP will charge Internet radio stations again for something they already paid for. You can bet this is another stupid attempt by the Music Industry to control what music we listen to. Greedy Bastard Wankers.

I decided today to get back into creating “to do lists” for myself. They help me stay focused on what needs to get done. Of course I’ll use my Pocket PC to maintain them.

Website Things To Do:
1. Create image gallery using Gallery from Sourceforge. I hear its hard to install and configure. That’s OK, I’ll learn along the way.
2. Use Ikonboard to create a discussion board. I started with YABB but I had trouble. IB is much better anyway.
3. Redo all the templates for the pages other than the main weblog. The comments pages look like crap. I just haven’t gotten around to it.
4. Update the links to my favorite sites. I have a few new ones.
5. Publish the second part of my Fractured Quotes. Did you read the first ones yet? Better go over there now to check them out.

Anita commented on Douglas Coupland today. Yes I did read one of his books, Microserfs. Thanks for reminding me about it, Anita. I completely enjoyed reading it a few years back. If you don’t know, Microserfs are the workers at Microsoft and Coupland’s book tells of their exploits and the inner workings there.

My fantasy Jeopardy! categories would be:
Star Trek
Computers
Fast Food
How to look busy at work
Whining
Palmpilots and Pocket PC’s

There is something wrong with this guy. I love Star Wars too but, hey.

Something is going on today. This morning a co-worker asked me for coffee. I met him at his desk and as we were getting ready to leave, he starts reading his email. I said “Let’s go” and he acted like he didn’t hear me. So I left.

Later I was talking to someone else who needed my help and they start reading an instant message that popped up. He totally ignored me. So I left.

Next I was in someone’s office helping them with their computer. Another person comes in - twice to interrupt us and ask for my help. She was extremely desperate. I stop with the first person and go over to her desk. Before she can tell me what’s wrong, someone comes up and they start talking about their personal business. Was I supposed to just stand there and wait for their conversation to finish? No way. So I left.

Then we go to the sundry shop for a coffee and the cashier is on the phone blabbing away with one of her friends. I stand there waiting to pay but she continues to ignore me. I said to her “I’m sorry.” When she asked why, I told her I was sorry that I interrupted her conversation. She didn’t like my comment. So I left.

I hate being ignored. It happens all the time and it pisses me off. These people will really need me sometime and I will remember their disrespect for me.

The meaning to Life, the Universe, and Everything is…42. Have you read any of Douglas Adams’ books? Well, you should. They are extremely entertaining.

The Modern World by Tom Tomorrow is a fun blog to read.

So I take Pam’s PT Crusier in on Wednesday for an oil change and to have them check the brakes, they’re squeaking. I arrive right on time, check the car in and wait for the shuttle to work. 45 minutes later, I’m on my way.

Later, I get a call just before its time to catch the return shuttle “Mr. Feeeldstin, you car isn’t quite ready, we didn’t have a part, but it’s on the way.” I get on the 4 o’clock shuttle (it arrives 30 mins late), and go to the dealership and wait, and wait. Finally the tech tells me the part came but its the wrong one. “We’ll get a car for you, the rental car place will send one over momentarily.” I wait again. 30 minutes later they decide to take me to the car rental office. Once there I check in at the desk and then I…wait. Sheeeit! 40 minutes later I’m finally on the road with a smelly, dirty piece of crap car. But I didn’t care, I wanted to get home.

Today I call the dealer asking about my car and I’m told its still not ready. The correct part didn’t arrive but the truck is coming and it should be there. So I’m stuck driving the crapmobile home again. On the way, in a huge traffic jam, the car starts making this extremely loud screeching noise. It was loud enough to have everyone around me look over to see what the hell what happening. It did it again and again all the way home. I don’t know what the sound was, I don’t really care. I’ll leave the cursed car on the side of the road if it breaks down and have Pam come get me.

I’m a mess. First thing tomorrow, I’m calling my therapist to see if they can squeeze me in for an additional session this week.

Want to know what’s happening around the world? StratFor tells gives you intelligence reports and lists the latest “hotspots.” Select a region or country and read about their economics, politics and security. It’s a very interesting site, full of good information.

I’m still having trouble getting an image gallery going. Not that I have many images to put in there. When I see sites like, Somethinginmyeye and A Whole Lotta Nothing, I get inspired to set one up.

Here is what I watch on TV:
Sunday:Fear on MTV
Monday: Fear Factor
Tuesday: 24, Wil and Grace
Wednesday: Enterprise
Thursday: Survivor
Friday: FARSCAPE, Stargate SG-1
I’ll also watch an occasional episode of Star Trek TNG and Dark Angel.

I enjoy glancing at my referral logs every once in a while. These logs show me how people got to my site. It’s funny the combination of words sometimes used. Here are the top 10 from the last few days:
# Hits Search String
1 50 22.42% sapisvr.exe
2 18 8.07% sapisvr
3 13 5.83% joe pesci soundboards
4 8 3.59% robert de niro soundboards
5 6 2.69% walmart commericals
6 5 2.24% frontsideback
7 5 2.24% star trek communicator to make pc to phone call
8 4 1.79% brad pitt sunglasses spy game
9 3 1.35% dr.evil soundboards
10 3 1.35% moveable type template

So some schmo typed “Brad Pitt sunglasses spy game” in Google and found my site. I must have had an entry at one time with all those keywords.

Japan has invented the world’s fastest computer. here’s a snippet:

the new super-computer, put together at the earth simulator research and development centre in yokohama, uses 5,104 processors that are stored in cabinets covering the space of four tennis courts. when working at full tilt, it can carry out 35.6 trillion mathematical operations a second. the us’s fastest machine can carry out only 7 trillion operations a second.

You HAVE to go here for a burrito: Baja Fresh. I went there with a group of people at work today. It was great. And crowded. Call ahead and it will be ready when you get there. I love this place.

Don’t want to return my voicemail, pages and email? That is unfortunate.

Do’Ha’ bortaS blr jablu’DI’ reH QaQqu’ nay’ klingon)

Sorry about the incorrect link from yesterday. It was for the “gas pricing” article I read the other day. Click on it now and you’ll go to the correct page. I wouldn’t have mentioned it if the trip wasn’t worthwhile. Go there now. I’ll wait here.

Back? OK, let’s continue. It was 85 degrees today, 86 yesterday. What the hell? I hope we aren’t going to skip over spring and going straight to summer. That wouldn’t be fun. I think I did see it was going to be back to the 60’s this weekend.

Weatherbug is a cool app that runs in your system tray that tells you the outside temperature. Click on it and you’ll get the forcast. It flashes and chirps when there’s a severe weather alert. I like it.

I’ve always been a logophile. Maybe you are too.

“This site houses a collection of 250 x 250 pixel digital art on various platforms including GIF, JPEG, Flash and Shockwave.” I thought some of the work was unique.

Scary: FBI posts fake stolen credit card numbers to see how quickly they travel. First number is viewed by 74 people in 31 countries within 15 minutes. - from Fark.com

What beautiful photography I stumbled across on such a great site: Marc Escobosa. I hope to someday, take one photo that is as good as these (and to travel to these places).

I ran into Rev. Al Sharpton today at work. He was running to a meeting and didn’t have time to chat.

I placed this on my wishlist.

An interesting article about how gas pricing works is here. I read it with interest the other day.

I don’t know what got into me. You’re right. You are ALWAYS right.

After a very long time, my site is finally listed on Google. Type “Frontsideback” and I’m the first hit. Woohoo! I noticed that Googlebots have been crawling my site for the last few months but I didn’t understand why nothing showed up in their index. Then I changed my meta tags and now it’s up there. Next, I want to get “Mike Feldstein” at the top of the list of hits. Then I will really be happy.