Monday, June 21, 2004
The Flea at MIT was yesterday again, and I got goodies! Yay, Linksys 4 port router for $5! Yay ATA/100 card for the myth machine! YAY for BEOS PREVIEW COPY FROM 1997 FOR PPC! I've got old macs, now I've got BE to run on them. Got a SCSI enclosure, looks like I'll finally have a working sgi machine now. Oy, here comes the IRIX I've been waiting for. Yum. Got an interview (USB video campture for OSX) but I think mark's going to end up with that, because the iBook can't seem to handle the speed requirements. I'm not getting a new laptop so I can watch tv, damnit! Oh and I got another trackball, Kensington ADB old school baby! I got one the time before, but the rollers were rusted over. I sanded 'em to clean 'em up, but the ball seems to be from another unit, as it doesn't fit so good. Now I've got another one, and it's spiffy. I may just sand the rollers to have piece of mind and smoothness (and because I like taking things apart) but it seems like it's going to get the job done. Having troubles with the bastard, it seems to have a hard on for using the onboard SCSI controller for everything, even when nothing's plugged into it. Grrr I even yanked the 12GB drive out of the beige G3 that wasn't being used, and Mandrake still goes for SCSI. Don't even mention windows, freaking thing has become more useless than... I don't know... my brain, because I can't think of what it's more useless than.
HelicopterHelicopter, Slow Dying Flashlight
Tuesday, June 15, 2004
So for Christmas this year, along with everything else, my father gave me a JMTEK Melodistik 4in1 usb keychain/mp3 player. 128MB, small, portable. Looked like a cool toy, wanted to use it. Opened it up as soon as I got back to Boston, and tried it on my iBook. It wouldn't mount, so it was pretty useless to me. Got it to mount under Windows, but without a Windows machine, it was just another non-working gadget. After contacting JMTEK's tech support and following their advice, I borrowed the use of a Windows machine to reformat the unit. I put some music on it with a Windows machine, and it worked. Sort of. The odd thing about it, other than short battery life, was that when I put it in the pocket of my parka, it would shut off within 30 seconds. Now that is just plain weird. I'm figuring it's got to be some sort of static thing, as it would play in any heat range I could put out with my body, and in my hand or open palm it was fine, but even if I put it in my pocket and immediately removed it it would shut down within 30 seconds. I wrote back to tech support, and never heard from them again. I didn't care enough to spend the time to track them down again, and forgot about it for a while. Recently I contacted them again, and described the symptoms to them in the repair ticket online. I recieved an email saying that a solution had been found, but the solution page said a response would be sent to me shortly. That was two weeks ago. I'm not one to be ignored, so I sent an email again just a minute ago. Here is the content of that letter:
Well, lets face it, you people havent exactly been very helpful with my problem, now have you? Can I just exchange the thing instead of waiting for your tech support to chisel its way out of whatever fossil it may be resting permanently in? I hardly think this is unfair, as its been approximately 6 months since my first writing, and in the two weeks since my most recent ticket was opened I have inherited no further help from the support crew on your end. Its hardly my fault, I spent no money on this device, it doesnt seem fair that I should be given a defective gift, then have defective tech support to go with it. I can always spread the word about how helpful you have been. Not to brag about my pull in the tech community, but there are an awful lot of review sites online, requiring minimal registration. Im sure you understand my being well within my right to voice my complaints about how uncooperative you have been, and Im sure a simple RMA on one drive will be much easier than any potential loss of revenue you may incur. Please, keep me updated on the status of my request for help. I shall take any lack of communication from you to mean that I am not worth the time of day to help out, and that I by all means should make my meager voice heard in the most public, annonymous method possible to me.
Stay tuned, more updates as they present themselves. Mighty Mighty Bosstones, Royal Oil
Monday, June 14, 2004
Not much to tell right now, just bored so I figured I'd post. Haven't been able to sleep these past few days, and it's going to catch up to me in a big was in the next few days. Yay. Listening to Smashing Pumpkins, no idea what song it is, but they rock anyway.
Sunday, June 13, 2004
I don't know exactly why I stopped, other than the fact that nobody was reading the blog... I guess what I realize is that I wasn't doing this for everyone else in the universe. Not that I'm doing it for myself exactly either. Maybe I'm just killing time, or maybe time's just killing me. I like that, I'll have to use it again sometime. Anyway, a whole lot of not a whole hell of a lot has happened since I stopped writing. I got an iBook, I sold off my Wallstreets. I got a beige G3 266. I've gone through a Linux box upgrade, (and am still no closer to having a decent working knowledge of Linux) Hm. I made a new internet friend who was a friend of Brian's previously. Made contact with Amy and she doesn't hate me. Got a job working in South Boston, got fired from it 5 months later. Started working at Stevie's again. All of this is minor except for the Amy thing, but that's ok, you don't need to know about that right now. I guess I'm just catching up on lost time right now, there will be no excuses made for my absence other than I felt like it, and eat it, because that's ok for me. Oh, Mark moved out of JP and into Waltham with me and the rest of the house here. The Caddy is parked here too now, though the permanence of it's resting place remains to be seen.
Rush, Working Man
Saturday, October 25, 2003
Hehehe well, after about 1/2 an hour of running Linux I hosed it up. Seems the video card that was in the machine required a fan to keep it cool. I had no way of knowing this, and may have cooked the card. So in the meantime I swapped in an old AGP card I had laying around, but I must have done something wrong, because now KDE won't launch. I'll call Justin in a few hours, or maybe later today and see what he has to say about it. Big smile, I saw something like this coming a mile away.... No tunes, it's too early for the house.
Thursday, October 23, 2003
Well, this is it. I'm borrowing Dave's old machine, which it turns out is Sloooooooow. It's a Dell PII 400. At least it's got 384MB ram and a decent 4x Nvidia video card. I'm installing Mandrake Linux 9.1 as I write, and I'll report back on it once it's up and running. If anyone out there is afraid of Linux, so far there's no need to be. I downloaded the ISOs, burned them, tossed disk one in, rebooted, and the GUI install is a snap so far. If using the OS is anywhere as easy as using the installer than it'll be a cakewalk.
Tonight I'm going to go see a friend of mine with whom I used to go out sing at the Kirkland Cafe. Check out Becca. I hadn't talked to Becca in a year or more, and decided on a whim to call her up to see what she'd been up to. Holy Moly this girl can sing. Well, Mandrake's asking for disk 3, so tah for now. NWA, Straight Outta Compton
I don't know, it seemes like a good headline. I haven't posted in a while, mostly because I've been a lazy piece of crap. No excuses, I just got lazy about it. Where to begin to catch up? Hmmmm. Well, the last flea of the year was this weekend. I got rid of the three SGI Indys, and I picked up an SGI Indigo. I'll see if I can find pages to link to for info on those machines, but they're just old SGI machines. The Indigo has a neat-o video card that aparently came from a third party supplier. I met a girl at Stevie's on Saturday night, and she gave me her phone number so she could get to the flea, but when I called and left a message she didn't call me back. Oh well, I'll wait a few more days and call her, but I can live with rejection. What else? Band practice last week on Wednesday, I brought the Casio CZ-1000 with me. Also this Tuesday I brought out the Encore to show off. It's not strung yet, but it's wired, and the pickguard has been cut. It looks sweet and it sounds deep and fuzzy. I can't wait to hear it strung. Let's see, iTunes for Windows has been released, and it's very cool, cheaper eMacs are out, and G4 iBooks are out and they're cheap too. Makes me think G5 Powerbooks will be out sooner than Apple lets on. I don't recall what went on last Thursday, if anything. I do know that Mark and I went out and got pretty sloppy drunk Friday night though. I was supposed to work Saturday, but the Boss put a new guy on, and didn't tell me not to come in. We had band practice twice this week, and I found out the band's name is Kettle Black. Currently I'm watching Bonfire of the Vanities. I liked the book, I think I'll try and watch the movie all the way through sometime. My fingertips are killing me, we played for hours tonight, it was nice. I'm actually getting better, practice practice practice. Oh yeah.
The other big thing is that Saturday was Amy's birthday. I was extremely depressed the entire day until I met the girl that gave me her number. One of these days I'll get around to posting a link to the entire Amy story, for now know that she's the girl I was engaged to, and the love of my life, and now we're not together. There's more to it than that, but my fingers hurt and I don't feel like depressing myself. Email me you monkees, that's what it's there for. I know some people are reading this. Would it kill you to tell me to shut up? Flame the hell out of me, I won't give a damn, I'd just like to hear from some people. Jesus that sounds pathetic. TV time, it's 4:30am, and I need to fall asleep. I'll be less lazy from now on, I swear. No music tonight, tv's on.
Tuesday, October 14, 2003
Band practice cancelled tonight, still on for tomorrow. Maybe I can find out the band name now. (not my band, which is perpetually stillborn) Looks like iTunes for Windows will be out tomorrow night, I hope it supports the Pukebox. Mark's whining that I'm not coming into town to drink, but it's a ways, and I don't want to spend the money. I did say that I wanted to go earlier in the week, but when band practice got cancelled I just didn't feel like going into town. Dave sold me his cell phone cheap today, so now I have a phone of my own again. It's ok, but I think the rotary dial is retarded. It's going to be nice to have a digital camera around all the time, and it's got a 64mb flash card in it, so it'll hold a shiteload of pix. I don't feel like typing anymore, so that's it for now. Still Better off Dead.
Does anyone actually read this? Or is it for my own entertainment purposes? If anyone's a regular reader of my pathetic life email me. Please, I just want to know what everyone else thinks of my existence. I have a working link, it's ok to use it. That's why it's there. Oh well, anyways.
I worked Saturday night, and it was the busiest night I've worked there in five years. Oh boy. I was also asked to work Sunday night, because Monday was Colombus day, and there was supposed to be a game. Well, it rained, the game got called. I listened to Little Billy's shit for a couple hours then went home. I was supposed to hang out at work with Brittonie, but I left before she got back. On Monday I cut a new pick-guard for my Encore bass, and it looks better than the first one, only now the band wants me to play synth. I hope I can cut it better on keys than on strings, what with me practicing bass for two weeks.
This Sunday is an important day for me, it's the last MIT Flea market of the year, and it's also Amy's birthday. She turns 31, and it breaks my heart that she's no longer a part of my life. It's my own fault, I suppose I deserve a life alone. Either way, I'm going to send her a card, and a note. I know she'll read the card and note, but I doubt she'd answer the phone. *sigh*
For those that don't know, Amy and I were engaged, until I turned into a boneheaded retard. No I didn't cheat on her, I just acted like a complete and total asshole. Then we got back together, and I did it again. It's been 6 months since I've seen her, and at least 4 since I've even talked to her. I know it was late June-ish the last time we talked, and she told me never to call her again. It's not the first time we've gone through this, and to be honest, it wouldn't surprise me to find out that it's not our last time, but I'm not holding my breath waiting for her to come looking for me. No music tonight, but I am watching Better Off Dead, 80's Cusack movies rule. I suppose you could say I'm listening to Everybody Wants Some, Van Halen.