Eli's Stop - Thoughts, Ramblings, and Assorted Bits

Last Post Here

2006-10-31T10:47:00.000-05:00

Hello all. I'm just wanting to say: Stop reading this ;) More specifically, please head over to http://eliw.wordpress.com/ to read my blog from now on.

There are a number of reasons for the switch, if you'd like to read them, head over to that blog. They will be posted there.

Sorry for any inconvience.

Conference Update, Website Update, Blog soon

2006-10-20T13:43:00.000-05:00

Hey folks. Just wanted to say that the DCPHP conference is going well. In the end I'm ending up giving 2 presentations and sitting on a final closing panel discussion. The panel sounds like it will be fun.

I'll probably post some pictures soon from the conference. Pretty boring, but of a few key PHP folks.

The presentationsfrom the conference are already posted, and since I knew I was sending even MORE people to my website, I went ahead and updated the design 'some', nothing major, just tweaked the CSS to make it a little more visually appealing.

I hope to SOON switch my blog software as well. I'm looking at various solutions, and leaning towards wordpress, so that I can tag/categorize my posts as being about PHP/Digg/SCA/Personal and so on. Various friends & contacts therefore could subscribe/read only the parts they find interesting.

Anyway, more on that soon. Going to have to give my next presentation soon.

(Currently listening to David Recordon give his talk about OpenID)

Off to DCPHP Conference

2006-10-18T19:37:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm off to the DCPHP conference for the new two days.

Really looking forward to it, it will be the first conference (not counting tradeshows like FOSE) that I will be able to actually drive to, instead of fly. That's rather nice. Also nice knowing I'll only be a couple of hours away if my wife/son need me.

Anyway, I hope to meet some old friends and make some new ones there. As well as spread the wonders of PHP.

Oh, at this point in time I'm actually giving TWO presentations instead of one, because one of the presenters backed out at the last minute.

So I will be giving 'High Performance PHP & MySQL Scaling Techniques', as well as 'Top PHP Features You Didn't Know Existed'.

Looking forward to it. Perhaps see some of you there!

Current Music: Heavy Traffic Ahead - Earl Scruggs

Help me choose ... Wii vs. Xbox 360

2006-10-03T20:38:00.000-05:00

Ok, so yes, I'm putting this out there to get input from the loving masses that read my blog. Please leave me comments here. I'm curious in other's thoughts.

I'm torn. I've decided that this Christmas I wanna 'ask Santa' for either an Xbox 360, or a Wii. And everytime I think I make a decision, I see something else and change my mind.

For those that don't know me 'as a gamer' as well, let me explain ...

I'm a 30-something low-core gamer (0-10 hours a week). I also have for a long time now, followed a 'scheme' of always buying a gaming system after it's been out a few years, when not only is it cheaper, but all the games for it are cheaper. I also decided a while back that I was tired of dealing with the upgrade cycle to get PC games to play, so stopped playing them.

I went from my Nintendo NES (kept it for a long time while doing PC games), to buying a Dreamcast, just a few months before they stopped making them. It was great, because all the accessories/games/etc dropped down really cheap. I was buying a couple games a week at $5 a pop.

I then, now a year or two ago, bought a Gamecube at a yardsale for $50 (including games/controllers). I've really enjoyed it, and I still find good 'cheap games' for it. There are still a few 'killer games' I wanna get for it, so it's not a dead console in my mind, in fact, with the release of the Wii, games for the Cube will start dropping in price more probably.

(Oh, and I do still have my NES, and an Atari 2600 hooked up as well)

So, Why am I looking at an Xbox 360, or a Wii?

A few reasons. First of all, I actually tried to get a 'free Xbox' a while back, just before the Xbox 360 came out. I figured that it was about time for the Xbox games to start getting cheaper. Well, I never ended up getting it. But I was choosing Xbox over PS2 because of it having some great games that I really wanted to play ... also because of it's graphics 'on the average game' being better.

Once the 360 was out, and I started seeing it in stores, and seeing demos online/etc ... I was floored. The graphics are absolutely AMAZING. I mean AMAZING ... and I've got this HDTV sitting there running DVDs and crappy ReplayTV video right now. The idea of getting an 'old Xbox' stopped appealing to me. Plus hey, I could still buy 'old games' (some of them at least) and play them on the 360. I liked that idea.

Then, here comes the Wii. The Wii has alot going for it (unfortunately not the name). I think that the controller, if it works, is amazing. I can't wait for sword fighting games, for 3rd person shooters where you point and click, etc. I think it will be fun. On top of that, I think my wife would enjoy playing alot of the Wii games, for the 'simple interface' aspect. On top of that, I think my ~2 year old son, would probably get a kick out of some of the games, even while he is a bit young to understand how to use an Xbox/GameCube/etc controller, if he can hold a Wiimote in his hands and move it around, and see that the screen is doing something in response. He 'might' have a blast.

On top of that, I just realized (I'm sure it's been out for a while, but it was news to me), that the Wii is completely GameCube backwards compatible. It will play all of the games, it has a side panel that opens and accepts a GameCube memory card, and GameCube controllers. This is great, since it means I could actually retire the GameCube (ie, not need to keep it hooked up as well, which I will want to do if I get the 360). Also, my GameCube's laser focus is starting to go, and I've already had to adjust the power level up twice on it. It might eventually totally go. At which point I'd need a replacement anyway.

Oh, and I love that the Wii uses regular SD cards for memory, that's brilliant, especially since I'm an SD card house ... We have 2 digital cameras that use SD cards, MP3 players that use them, SD card readers for the computers, GPS devices that use them, etc.

So, as I think you can see, I'm torn. Really torn.

Basically:

Xbox 360:

AMAZING Graphics.
Well 'burned in' by now.
Lots of great games, and more coming.
Prices on games dropping.
Can play 'some' Xbox games.
$400 or cheaper (sales) to get going.

Wii:

Innovative interface.
Potentially fun for whole family.
SD cards for memory.
GameCube Compatible.
$250 to get going
Con: Brand New, Completely Untested

So, what do you think? Given my situation, what would you do? Get 360? Get Wii? Heck, or wait even longer and just keep enjoying my GameCube as I currently am?

Please leave me comments for advice and your own thoughts.

Todo lists & Weekends

2006-10-01T20:09:00.000-05:00

Well, in the spirit of this blog just including anything/everything ... I wanted to rant a little bit about something that seems to regularly happen to me.

You see, I have a big todo list that I keep for myself and I'm always behind getting to anything on it it seems nowadays. In fact, it got so big and complicated, that I spent like 5 hours Friday night writing myself some software to actually handle managing it.

And that's a good lead-in to the entire weekend. Since in the end I got very little (if anything) done on my todo list ... however at the same time, I got LOTS done.

After Friday's nights 'reorganizing', I proceeded to wake up Saturday and suddenly remembered that I had logs meant to be turned into lumber sitting in my shed, and when I last pulled one out for an SCA demo recently I discovered it had termites in it. Great, in the wooden shed. So I went out in the morning to clean up the shed and check out the damage. Pulled out a bunch of logs (and some old lumber), and discovered that in the back corner of the shed where there termites where in the log, that a squirrel had made a nest, and that was holding moisture, which is what invited the termites. So, I cleaned all that out.

Then I didn't want to put all those logs back in there, to potentially become food again. So I decided that I needed to turn them into lumber, now. But, I needed a way to cut them (they were big), so a phone call later, I was on my way down to Harbor Freight to buy a $25 attachment to my chainsaw that would let me make straight cuts on the log.

We made it back home and I managed to get two of them done (out of 3), and it got dark on me. I was dead tired, so my wife and I crashed on the couch and watched a movie (Mr & Mrs Smith). Oh, I should mention, at one point during the evening, I was walking up the steps to my deck, and went through one of them to my thigh. Lovely.

Sunday morning, I realize I need to finish the other log. So back out I go, finish it up, cut some firewood, stack it all, etc. Then we make a trip out for lunch, to drop off some donated clothing, and to buy lumber to fix the deck. We get back, and I fix the deck. (At one point in the day I took a break to clean up my shop some, in expectation of working on the REAL project I was supposed to be doing this weekend ... making some neat 'popup' archery targets.)

It's now late again. I end up cleaning everything up, doing some basic preparations for the archery shoot in a few weeks, and then deciding that I don't have the time to make the archery targets (nor the storage space). Now tonight I'm going to do some 'computer house cleaning'.

So in the end I got TONS of stuff done. But not a single thing marked off my todo list, except for something that I decided NOT to do.

*sigh*

Digg.com is hiring PHP Programmers

2006-09-29T19:32:00.000-05:00

Hey, digg.com (where I work) is looking to hire some high-quality PHP programmers. We are growing fast, have great ideas we want to implement, and need some more hands to do it quickly.

Basic requirements would be:

5+ years of Web Programming
3+ years of PHP programming with EXCELLENT demonstrated skill
Ability to pick up and run with something on your own without needing hand-holding, as well as ability to work within a team on bigger projects
Experience with version control software (such as CVS/SVN)
Strong database/SQL experience (MySQL specific a plus)
Good Javascript (with AJAX) skills
Willing to work in San Francisco.

If you are interested, go ahead and send your application/resume to: jobs @ digg.com ... Oh, and tell them that you heard about it from Eli ;)

BTW, folks from the conference ...

2006-09-19T20:32:00.000-05:00

Oh, I meant to add this before and didn't. While at the conference I met many really nice people and had great conversations, but two specifically stand out. One was Clint Thayer who was a fellow computer gamer, and works for the University of Wisconsin as a Lead Developer.

Second was Wez Furlong one of the core developers of PHP, who also works now for OmniTI which happens to be in Columbia, MD. So by pure luck of the draw, we ended up on the same flight out, so got to the waiting area at almost the same time, sat and chatted, and then fate ended up giving us seats next to each other on the flight over.

Anyway, not much more to say other than these are two nice guys I ran into in my travel, and had some good conversations with.

Back from Conference

2006-09-18T10:18:00.000-05:00

Made it back fine from the php|works conference this last week. It was a really good conference. Lots of top notch presenters and really good presentations. Also lots of good folks to meet, chat with, brainstorm, and so on.

Looking forward to the next conference DCphp, although I get a bit of a break inbetween now. That's good. I've just spent 2 of the last 3 weeks away from home.

Off to Toronto

2006-09-10T22:09:00.000-05:00

Well, I'm off in the morning to the php|works conference in Toronto ... Perhaps will see some of you blog readers there!

Book & Conferences

2006-09-07T07:55:00.000-05:00

Well, my book got added to diggtheblog, and then subsequently someone posted it to digg.com ... Sales on Amazon took off, and at one point it was ranked #6000 of book sales. Not bad for a technical book on PHP!

Also, I wanted to let people know about my conference schedule ... I'm presenting at 3 conferences in the next few months ... they are:

PHP|works - Toronto
Sept 12th-15th
http://www.phparch.com/works

DCPHP - Washington DC
Oct 18th-20th
http://dcphpconference.com/

Zend/PHP Con - San Jose
Oct 30th-Nov 2nd
http://zendcon06.kbconferences.com/

So, Life ...

2006-08-02T21:34:00.000-05:00

Thought it was worth a mini-post just to update.

Let's see:

My book is out. Go Buy It: PHP 5 in Practice

I'm getting ready to leave for my yearly 2 week vacation into the Medieval world. Pennsic War. Looking forward to it this year, however, at the same time I'm not. Why? Because my wife and son won't be with me. My wife suddenly got not one, but TWO Business trips back to back during Pennsic this year.

So, we are all heading up to Pennsic together, then Heather&Ramsey are going to stay a couple days, then leave and head down to Camp Grandma where my son will stay. Heather then flies out of West Virginia to California, then to Florida, then back to West Virginia to pick up Ramsey and come home.

I would have considered keeping Ramsey with me at war. It would be fun to just have father/son. But I have some commitments while there, and on top of that I just don't think that I would want to play the role of single-parent, while camping for 2 weeks, in 98+ degree heat, with a 19 month old.

He will have more fun at Camp Grandma. I'm glad that he and Heather are spending a few days with me at Pennsic though. That will help ease the pain a bit :)

Oh, Also I wanted to mention that I'm presenting at the upcoming PHP|works conference in Toronto. If you happen to be heading out that way.

And work (at Digg.com) is great. Well, that's about it for now.

Over-And-Out.

Flickr Photos

2006-06-21T08:30:00.000-05:00

Ok, not much time for a full post.

But just wanted to say that I've stopped using my old photo album software, and decided to start using flickr ... here is my URL for what's up there so far:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/86095634@N00/

Rambling at 1:15am

2006-04-20T00:16:00.000-05:00

Ok, so here I am, not able to get to sleep, even though I'm running low on sleep.

Just too much on my mind.

So you, my blog readers will be treated to a random stream of conciousness that only a 1:15am blog post, after getting 5 hours sleep the night before, and while drinking 20 year old scotch can create.

(Ledaig if anyone is interested)

* Ramsey is doing fine in daycare now since Heather is working. He loves it there, it's like 'camp'. Until just recently it was only him. Now he has a 17 month old little girlfriend there as well. 'Daycare Tina' as we call her is great.

* I bought myself an IBM 'clicky' keyboard off of eBay, the 'compact' model which doesn't have the number pad. I had to look hard to find one of those at a decent price. They are more rare than the ones with keypad. I prefer without the keypad though so that my trackball is closer at hand. Less arm movement, less tendonitis. I'm typing with it right now and I LOVE it. It really brings me back to being in high school and using the 8088's there. I do wish it had the function keys along the left like those keyboards did though. Anyway, this one is actually a 1999 model! Who knew they were making them that late! I have a friend at work, Steve, who is using a 1984 model. So I expect at least another 15 years out of this guy. In fact, I really expect more like 50. These things are tanks.

* Speaking of work, my job with digg, Inc. is great. The staff is great, and they definately respect everyone's thoughts and want input from everyone. Good times.

* Dealing with business laws, licenses, taxes, getting reseller accounts, dealer accounts, etc. Blech.

* Mmmmmmmmm 20 year old scotch good. Better be for the price per bottle.

* On May 4th my wife and I will hit our 10 year anniversary. I have a secret planned that I hope she will enjoy. Oh, BTW, Hi Honey if you are reading this!

* Kinda gonna suck this year. My wife's new job ends up having a conference, every year, right in the same timeframe as Pennsic. Hopefully it won't always conflict with it, but this year it does. So she has to be at a conference during the 'main week' of Pennsic. Of course, I'm planning on being there for the full two weeks as I always have done since I can remember. So the current plan is: I go up for land grab the first weekend. She and Ramsey arrive that Wednesday evening, and stay for Thursday/Friday. So we get a couple days together as a family at Pennsic. Then on the middle Saturday she takes off, and drops Ramsey off at 'Camp Grandma'. Sunday she flies out. On the next Friday she gets back. And on Saturday she drives back into West Virginia to retrieve Ramsey, while I'm driving home from Pennsic. Uggg. Guess I'm going to be playing bachelor at Pennsic for most of this year (*sigh*). But, I need to be there as Kingdom Target Archery Marshal to make sure that everything runs smoothly for my archers. At least, to yell at people when/if it doesn't.

* Crossbow business. Starting to get back into it in full, although with reasonable prices, instead of undercharging as I was before.

* Speaking of which, I'm making new ammo for myself as I am trying, hard, to reach the rank of 'Ludicrous Bowman' in the SCA ... and I am just a few points shy. And I've realized that MAN arrow shaft prices have gone through the roof lately! It turns out that not only is this directly because of the general rise in lumber prices, but 2 years ago an excise tax was placed on arrow shafts to help directly support public hunting lands, hunter/shooting education, etc. It's the same set of tax rules that apply to bows, guns, etc. My only real problem with it, is that placing the tax on shafts unfairly puts the burden on target archers, and not hunters. All bow hunters that I know buy 6 arrows, that's it. That lasts them maybe 10 years. Really. What need do they have for more? Whereas target archers who are constantly shooting and trying to get tight groupings, have a tendancy to destroy their own ammo once they get good. ESPECIALLY if using wooden shafts. Oh well, at least I found a great local supplier in Pennsylvania: Allegheny Mountain Arrow Woods. I was able to get ash shafts by the 100 for only $125. That's a really good deal when you see that traditional cedar shafting is going for $2 a shaft now. And hey, I got ASH shafting! It's period!

* iSight - I got an iSight for work purposes to video conference in. It's actually a very nice product, but it could use some configuration settings for brightness/etc. As it stands I had to put a lamp near it, and it's still barely enough light. I understand now why they sell the LED rings that surround them to provide extra light, you need it.

* Dr. Who - I love the new Dr. Who series, and I'm even looking forward to seeing the next Doctor (since the current guy quit at the end of the currently showing on SciFi series). Although in a conversation my wife and I were having ... we think that Michael Gambon , the actor currently playing Dumbledore in the Harry Potter series would be a GREAT Dr. Who. I think it's time to go back to an older Dr. Who like the original 3 were. I have most of those episodes on DVD, and they are great stuff.

* Bought a new Digital camera although it's not here yet. Canon a700 ... time to stick the old MVC CS500 on eBay.

* Hrmmm, my scotch glass is empty, time to refresh it and retire to the couch to watch some TV in hopes of making myself sleepy. Perhaps I can find something good and boring. Nope, what am I thinking. Since I have a ReplayTV I always have good stuff. Perhaps I should start playing a computer game. That usually knocks me right out if it's late at night. Anyway, thanks for reading this and I hope it made some sense after 25 minutes of typing and 2 hefty portions of scotch.

Life is good

2006-03-10T22:41:00.000-05:00

Well, Life is certainly doing well for me right now, even if a bit hectic.

I've now officially spent the first 2 weeks at my new job working for digg.com It's certainly a blast! Things are very fast paced and there are so many exciting things going on. Can't say anymore really.

My book is slowly coming to a close. At this point in time I'm essentially done writing the bulk of it. I still need to write the Introduction (saved for last on purpose), and some minor edits will still be needed on a few of the last chapters. After that it's just down to the author review process. In general, I can start to get some of my free time back!

I'm looking forward to that, I want to spend more time with my family. I also want to start re-engaging in some of my hobbies that I loved, such as crossbow making/woodworking and video games! I must say, if it wasn't for my wonderful wife supporting me during this I wouldn't have been able to write this book at all. Thank you dear!

And good timing on getting the book done as well, since the SCA event season is going to be starting back into full swing soon! In fact, I've got an event coming up next weekend that I'm running the archery at.

On that note (wow this is a long post). I want to sing the praises of Lancaster Archery. Long story made short ... I back in early January ordered some target faces from them for this event coming up in March. I figured might as well order them early.

Well long story, but my credit card information ended up being compromised. I instantly got a phone call from them right after that letting me know what had happened, the FBI were on the case, etc. The spurious charges were dropped, etc. Everything was copacetic. They even gave me the email address for the CEO and told me to contact him with any questions or issues I had.

Until about 3 weeks ago, when I realized that I still didn't have my order, and kinda needed it soon. I wrote to them asking about this. They responded promptly that one item was on backorder but that they would be getting it very soon and have it right out to me.

Fast forward to this Monday. Still didn't have them, and I wrote them back asking. No response, until today. This morning I write them again, CC'ing the CEO. I then proceeded within a 3 hour period to receive no less than three phone calls, from two sales managers and the CEO himself. The CEO apologized profusely for the issues, and said that he packed my order personally and that it was shipping out to me today.

Overall very well handled on their part. They are a very good company that I have done a fair bit of business with in the past, and will continue to do so in the future.

Current Music: The sound of my son crying upstairs -- either Nightmare or Diaper ... either way, I'm off to find out.

FRICKEN FRACKER!

2006-02-11T22:26:00.000-05:00

ARG! So I got another chapter done on the book, kay?

So I decided to reward myself with goofing off with this GUI scripting language that I found for my PocketPC for an hour, kay?

I wanted to make a silly little 'archery speed round timer' that would automatically be able to handle different length shoots, and adjust the 'call outs' (verbal notes of the time), kay?

So 1 hour into it ... just about to stop ... I try one more thing. It works. Then I click a button, and the program crashes. .... CRASHES!, kay?

Guess what. I didn't save. Yes, I know. Always save. I do always save. I swore that I saved. It wasn't saved.

SMEG!

*sigh* ... back to working on the book.

PS. Dialect Pro appears to be an amazingly useful scripting tool for Pocket PC. So much that I obviously got so interested in 'tweak this tweak that', that I never saved. If you are using Dialect Pro ... Please save every 15 seconds. You'll thank me.

More pictures

2006-02-05T17:01:00.000-05:00

Oh, what the heck ... I threw some extra pictures of Ramsey, and of Heather and one of our cats online ...

Just head to the photo gallery and look at them all

Digg Telecommuting Room Setup

2006-02-05T16:37:00.000-05:00

Ok, since I'm going to be telecommuting, I had to make sure that my office/computer room was perfectly setup. The last year of no telecommuting at all, made for a room that went downhill, and computer setup that went downhill as well.

Well, it's all done now ... so I took a few pictures while it stays pretty.

Head to my photo album to see it.

Chaos Theory

2006-01-26T15:39:00.000-05:00

Ok, when it rains ... it POURS.

Haven't blogged in a while because life has been hectic, and far too much has been changing.

First of all, the big news. I've been offered a job by Digg.com, and accepted it. Won't start working for them for a month or so while I finish out my current job. But I am very excited about the opportunity to work for them. It will definately be exciting, and fun!

Now, that said. Chaos Theory. The part where one 'small thing happens' that somehow causes other things to happen. It happens ALL the time to me. ALL the time. And it happened recently. With computers, and things dying.

Let's see, working backwards:

Last night, I was home working on my book, and the power supply to my computer (only a month old) started smelling 'hot'. I shut down, checked it out, blew some air into it, started back up and it was fine. For 30 minutes. Then my computer instantly powered down. As if it wasn't plugged in. Bye-Bye power supply.

The night before that, my wireless router that I had been using for 3 years, suddenly died. (Just the wireless side of it)

Before that, I was fighting my 'spare box' to get linux re-installed on it ... after going through 6 different linux distributions (plus FreeBSD), all getting different wierd errors ... different errors, each time. So I boot the Ultimate Boot CD and run memory checks, no errors, run CPU checks, get one, once, then it seems fine. After then replacing/checking/etc everything I possibly could. I realize that the Motherboard, and/or CPU are going. Going to have to replace those.

Before THAT, I had replaced the power supply on this computer, because it had died (perhaps, it took the motherboard/CPU with it?)

Before THAT, I had just finished a week long reinstall/rebuild of my primary computer. It was randomly rebooting. Was doing it more frequently. Finally got to where I had to do something about it (read: a couple times an evening). So I figured it might be a power supply issue (have had that before). So I put a new one in it (The one that above, died). That didn't work. So I figured it must be software. I cleaned the registry, I uninstalled stuff, etc. Didn't help. So, I decided I needed to do a repair install (Windows XP). I try, half-way through it FAILS, and messed up the system. I try again (and again). It gets wierd errors when trying to write to the hard drives, can't copy files, it changes every time. Eventually I search around online, and find someone else who was having my exact same 'reboot' issues originally. Guess what, it was memory. So I pull one of the 512 sticks out of it, and whamm, it's fine. and I didn't need to do the whole reinstall I finally ended up doing. Had I just pulled RAM originally, it would have solved it all. Bad RAM *sigh*

Before THAT, well ... ok, that was the beginning of the process I think. However a 'little while' before that our DVD player died. I swear those things only last 1 year.

Oh well ... Just amazing how everything will work fine for years and years, and suddenly all go bad at once.

Writing book & Xbox

2005-11-12T21:32:00.000-05:00

Taking a brief break right now from working on a book that I am writing. It's a PHP programming reference book.

And man it takes some time to write a book. My wife offered to leave for this weekend and the rest of next week taking our son with her so that I could have some good uninteruppted book time to try to get ahead. Hopefully it's working. I did get 2 entire chapters written today, but they were short chapters. Oh well.

Oh, and I have a free Xbox coming to me as of today.

I used trialclix.com, and signed up for enough offers to get a free Xbox. It wasn't a bad process, except for the fact I had to have a 2 month long argument with them about one offer. Not really their fault though, the other company was refusing to pay them, so they weren't going to credit me.

Eventually I just said 'fine' (ok, that's the PG appropriate version), and signed up for a couple more offers ... within a few weeks had the points I needed and tadaaaa.

[Current Music: AC/DC - Hells Bells]

Ugg

2005-10-24T08:25:00.000-05:00

Bacterial Throat Infection ...

Ugg

Amoxicillin good.

'nuff said.

Laptop go BOOM

2005-10-14T21:49:00.000-05:00

What is it about me and computer Hard Drives?

I owned the only HD model ever made with a firmware bug in it. Then I've proceeded to burn out at least 3 hard drives at home, and one at my last job.

Well, yesterday, the HD on my work laptop just went boom. Never had a laptop HD do that before. My machine locked, and after a hard boot I started getting blue screen of death:
UNMOUNTABLE_BOOT_PARTITION

Well it turns out according to HP, that this is a 'known problem' with their laptop and XP. However, their answers for how to fix it ... didn't work. Nothing could write to the drive, nothing could modify it. Any access would end up causing a 'Cannot write to Sector 0' error.

Not good.

Luckily I went home armed with some various boot recovery disks from work, and managed to get one configuration working where I could boot from the CD, get on the net, and then run this lovely program: Winternals Disk Commander, which was the ONLY program that could actually read the files.

So I was able to transfer the contents of my HD, over 100mbps network, to my primary home machine. 40 GB's of data takes a while doing that. :) Oh, and of course I had to baby it, because it would every now and then hit a file it couldn't read, lock up, and I'd have to restart it selecting only the directories/files it hadn't gotten to yet.

Eventually, I had it all over, and was able to burn important bits to DVD

The drive was really toast though. I kept trying to just wipe it at that point, and nothing could even touch the partition table or MBR.

Wow. Oh well, new HD is ordered as this was under warranty. And I got all my data.

Yay!

Unfortunately, I was up until 3am to do that ... Ugg ... You know you are getting old when the idea of being up at 3am fills you with dread, and not joy.

Over-And-Out

Yet Another New Car

2005-09-29T16:56:00.000-05:00

So, last we talked (Hey, I'm writing again after only 2 weeks!) ... last we talked the Lincoln was going in for repair.

Well, days later, we get a phonecall telling us that after they took a few panels off/etc, they realized that there was MORE damage they couldn't see. Now, it's totaled. It can still drive, but it's totaled.

So yesterday we get the 'final call' telling us how much we will get. This was Wednesday.

I'm also told then that I can only keep my rental until Friday!!!! Plus I am very busy this Friday-Sunday with running an SCA event!

Yikes!

So we have to make a decision. Either Wed/Thurs go buy a car, or end up paying for rental ourselves. (Or leave Heather without a car while I'm at work for a while).

Since we had been spending the last 5 days or so before that car shopping anyway, knowing it was coming ... and since we had narrowed it down to 2 cars, we said screw it ... and I left work a little early and we picked up our check, and went shopping.

We decided that all we really needed was a little commuter with good gas mileage. Well, the long story short was that I made a spreadsheet comparing all the 'cheap cars', for 'full price of ownership' (taking gas mileage into account, etc).

We found that there were about 3-4 cars that were cheapest once configured. However, at only a few thousand more, there was suddenly quite a jump in 'quality' and features. We looked at the big list, and decided that the extra money was worth it in a 'bang for your buck' sense.

And we decided on a Scion xB ... it just seemed to fit perfectly, being a good commuter, but being multi-purpose with having good cargo room,etc. It could be a 'trip without much gear' vehicle as well as commuter. Cool!

Well, that was just 2 days ago.

On Tuesday, we took a step back. We said: Ok, wait a minute, we were comparing 'cheap cars', and ones that might cost a little more. Now that we have decided on a car (without having even test drove it) ... let's look at things that compare with IT.

We did. We found a handful that compared with it, and after some research, threw them all back out. Except for one. The Suzuki Aerio SX.

So yesterday, we went and drove the xB & Aerio.

We drove home in the Aerio SX.

The drawback to the Aerio SX, was that it was actually a few thousand more than the Scion. However, it had alot going for it that the Scion didn't. It had side airbags, it had a 6-cd/MP3 player, it had cruise control, it had a bigger engine. Biggest of all, it was AWD!

In fact, it only had 3 'cons' ... they were:

* Space. The Scion appears to be a big box and have lots of cargo space. The thing is, that while it IS ... when you really look at it, it's not that much. Lots of the space is up in the driver area which isn't useful for cargo. And if you lay both the back seats down it's got tons of space; however, in my case there is probably going to be a permanently mounted carseat back there. With the backseat up, there isn't much cargo room at all.
So in the end, it lost this comparison.

* Gas Mileage - The scion got better gas mileage. However, the AWD of the Aerio makes up for that. Also, we were told by the salesman (yeah, yeah, I know, we will see how right he was), that Suzuki always underquotes it's gas mileage so that you aren't upset when you buy it and the gas mileage is sub-par. So he claimed that the slight difference (29 vs 34), would really not be all that different, and that we should get 30+

* Cost. The Scion was cheaper. No question about it. This was a big sticking point.

Except for one thing.

Scion is a no haggle dealership. So we knew exactly what we were going to pay there. After making a decision that we liked the Aerio, we talked with the guy, told him that we were comparing it to a Scion, and were leaning to the Scion.

Suzuki likes to haggle. They made us an offer at exactly what the Scion was going to cost us, and got us a better interest rate than Scion would have. Meaning that for the same price, we got a better car all around.

So we drove home in a bright blue Aerio SX, to sit beside the dark blue Dodge Ram

BIG vs. SMALL

I'll have to post pictures eventually.

over-and-out

Long time, no update + 2 car wrecks + snake

2005-09-15T22:04:00.000-05:00

Ok, I guess that if this is the regular case, that there will just be 'every month or so' updates here.

Anyway, alot has happened. Let's see, I went to Pennsic, and it wasn't the best Pennsic ever. First of all, I totalled my truck on the way to Pennsic. Had trouble therefore getting everything to Pennsic, and dealing with the fact that I was SUPPOSED to be there the first Friday/Saturday because I am a land grab agent.

Luckily that worked out; however, I had to spend part of Pennsic dealing with insurance agents by Cell Phone. Also had to deal with a whole BUNCH of archery politics, and a misunderstanding that sent me making 3 complete trips around Pennsic, on already bad feet, and killed me. I spent the next few days with my feet taped, wearing multiple layers of socks, and in fluffy slippers.

Ended up going home a few days early, which we never do. Next year ... next year will be better.

Anyway, got home, bought a new truck (Dodge Ram), and that worked out nicely with the amazing deals that they have now with the Employee pricing.

Then proceeded a few days later to get run off the road while driving to work in the Lincoln ... then had to deal with the insurance company not wanting to pay, because it was the other guys fault, but he drove off. sigh*. That is all sorted out though, and tomorrow I get a loaner car to last me the 13 (yes I said 13) days that my car will be in the shop for repairs.

Last night, was interesting as well, as I got a phone call on my way home with my wife telling me that there was a huge snake in the house. She had locked it in the basement. When I got home I equipped myself with leather gloves, a wooden stick and a pair of grill tongs, and we proceeded to try to find it. We didn't want to kill the snake, Heather knew from seeing it that it was a harmless black snake, but she did NOT want it in the house.

We couldn't. However we found it's molted skin ... and yes, we could tell it was big. Well we tore the basement apart, and couldn't find the guy. Heather had to go put Ramsey to bed, and I logged on to start reading up on how to catch/find a snake in your house.

Interestingly enough, there is a 'good way', which is to buy a whole bunch of those 'mouse stick paper traps', and cover a 2'x2' board with them. Then set the out overnight and the snake will get caught on it. You can then pour vegetable oil on it and it will dissolve the glue and let him free.

The main things I kept reading about though, were:

A) If you found the skin, chances are that the snake just came in to molt, given they are vulnerable at that time, and then left again afterwards.

B) That while catchin 'small snakes' yourself is ok, that under no circumstances should you attempt to play Crocodile Dundee, and catch a large snake by yourself, even a 'harmless' black snake. As, you see, they can strike from 1/2 their body length away, and even though they aren't venonous, they have long fangs that can cause deep damage, and will most likely have nasty bacteria that will get the bite very infected. So do NOT do it.

Well, Heather came downstairs after getting Ramsey asleep, and I told her what I had found out, and was ready to head to Lowe's for mouse paper. She said that she was ok, and that yes, the snake probably left, and we should just put the basement back together.

I convinced her that we would both feel better, if we finished tearing the basement apart. There were a few corners we had not dug behind/into because they were so full of storage boxes. And we had not opened any boxes.

I said, if we spend another hour and search EVERYTHING, then we can feel safe he left. Well, just a few minutes into searching, we found him. Under the washer.

When I moved it he stuck his head out. I grabbed my tools and tried to pin him down with the wooden rod, so I could grab him with the tongs. Well, trying to pin him down wasn't working ... he kept wrigging out from under it because he was QUITE strong, and I soon realized, as the rest of him came out from under the washer, that he was 5 foot long, and a good 1.5" diameter thick in the middle. This was a big snake.

Worse, he was starting to get mad, and was about to run into a different corner, where we would NOT be able to get to him. I had to make a split second decision, and having just read all those websites, I decided that I couldn't try to capture him, and do it safely, without getting hurt, quickly enough. I had to decide to kill him, even though I (and even Heather), really really didn't want to.

So I called to Heather to grab me the spear from the workshop (ok, nice thing about being a Medieval Reinactor ... having a spear handy), and I stabbed him quickly so that there wouldn't be much pain.

We wrapped him up and took him out into the farmers corn field next door to leave him, where hopefully at least he can do some good by feeding the carrion birds.

Sorry Mr. Snake ... We didn't want to do it, but you didn't leave us much choice.

Mr. Black Snake ... R.I.P. 9/14/2005

Life

2005-07-26T16:30:00.000-05:00

Ick ... felt nasty sick yesterday. And dunno why.

Anyway, been a while since I wrote in here. Guess the initial 'wow factor' and the need therefore to blog every day wore off. I still want to write here though, if nothing else, sorta as a documentation of my own life. So, on to random things:

Kingdom Archery Championship was bloody HOT. So bad in fact that the archery went rather slowly, and we had to cancel half of the shooting. The heat index was 106 and the chirgueon (person in charge of firstaid/safety/etc) was about to strangle my neck if we didn't call it quits. At least 5 people had to be treated for heat exhaustion. It was rough.

Hrmmm, Podcasts ... found another I've got hooked on as well now. Diggnation. I've run through a few others that I just didn't end up liking. Oh well. Still surprised that there isn't an SCA one, and while interested, I've got enough stuff on my plate than to try to do a podcast.

Servers. Getting a bit tired with my webserver solution right now. I'm running with Freeshell, which is a great organization, and I still believe in what it stands for, but on the other hand I've been trying to use it as a 'solution', for handling my email, my commerical server, my home server, etc. I then get frustrated when, for example, email goes down for a day. I don't have reason to though, I'm not paying a regular fee to them to maintain it ... so I'm looking around for a low-cost but decently featured hosting solution. Found a few, have sent out queries to them to see what kind of response time I get.

Well, guess that's about it for now. Need to think about more preparations for Pennsic. We are going to have to take alot more stuff with us this year with Ramsey coming along (at 6 months old). It'll be interesting to say the least!

Current music: none

Great Lunch

2005-06-23T14:40:00.000-05:00

Well, just wanted to followup that I had a great lunch with my old work friends. To any of you who happen to be reading this (yeah, right, like anyone is reading this), I really had a good time and want to get back together again more regularly.

Anyway. Great time, Great Kvetching.

Bad Bad Bad Service. I doubt we will be trying to eat at the Bennigan's at Security Mall again anytime soon.

Yick.

(Current Music: Rush - Freewill)

Podcasts

2005-06-22T08:43:00.000-05:00

Ok, Stratis is definately 'Ebil' ... He got me hooked on podcasts, and I can't stop. I'm almost wondering if I might cancel my Audible.com membership since podcasts could end up covering my entire commute. We will see how it is after I 'catch up' on the podcasts that I'm currently listening to.

So far definately hooked on This Week in Tech (TWiT) and GeeksOn ... Also checking out some other ones ...

I'm actually surprised that there isn't a podcast on the SCA. I might have to remedy that myself. Maybe, maybe not ... not like I have time to do it.

Oh well.

Anyway, Stratis == 'Ebil'

(Currently Music: Bowling for Soup - Next Ex-Girlfriend)

Old, and Good, Friends

2005-06-21T14:23:00.000-05:00

Going to be meeting up with my friends from my old job this Thursday. Really looking forward to it ... I miss those guys. *sniff*

(Current Music: Rush - The Spirit of Radio)

Brewing

2005-06-20T08:12:00.000-05:00

*shew* ... well, on top of other stuff this weekend (such as going to the zoo), I managed to become a alcohol production facility ;) ... Bottling 6 gallons of cider, and start 15 gallons of other brew going. (5 stout, 5 hefeweizen, 5 more cider)

Zoo

2005-06-18T18:23:00.000-05:00

Well, we just got back from the Baltimore Zoo ... wait, no, that's the Maryland Zoo. I'd never been but Heather had, and it didn't matter, as the entire placed had changed according to her. They appear to be completely redoing the whole thing.

Overall though, not impressed personally. It cost $15 a head to get in the door (versus the National Zoo, which is free), and it was TINY compared to the National Zoo, and the exhibits were not setup nearly as well. Overall, I don't think we will be back. The National Zoo will be a better draw.

Life Update

2005-06-17T08:13:00.000-05:00

Well, since I'm letting people know that this blog exists, and some of the people I haven't been in touch with much, here is a quick update on what all is currently going on in life:

My son (Ramsey), is 4 months old.
I've gone back 'strict' on Atkins diet (versus my normal 'medium' level I use for hypoglycemia control) because of needing to lose weight again.
I've started doing Heavy fighting (Rattan, SCA) again regularly, since my new job is 5 minutes from a practice.
I also got whacked really hard in the shin at this week's practice and wasn't able to walk well for the next day.
I've ordered new armor as well, because I realized that I've been a fighter for 10 years, and am still wearing armor from like 8 years ago, with the stupid football helmet looking helm, and armor that doesn't really fit nice, and is awfully heavy. I ordered a bunch of hardened leather armor from Skaldic.com and while I have a 'dream helm' ordered from a local armourer, I bought a cheap, but nicer than my current one helm that came the other night and I heat blued -- will have to get pictures up soon.

Welcome

2005-06-16T21:47:00.000-05:00

Welcome to my blog. I figured it had been long enough that I had gone without one, and that I had better get around to it. I started thinking about writing my own software to do it, then realized I had no time, and that I would get sucked into writing something small, that would grow, and grow, and grow, and suck all my time. I just wanted to get blogging.

Then I thought I might just install a package, but my host I currently use doesn't give me database access, and all the flatfile versions that I tried just failed miserably. Then I said screw it and just went to use blogger. It does everything for me, and even hosts it (for now) for me so I'm not using space or bandwidth from my regular provider.

Ok, so I guess that's it for now. I've got a blog.