Posts from — July 2008

Speaking of silly YouTube videos that make me pee myself.

Have you met Charlie and his not-too-bright-brother?

This one really snuck up on me!  My sister-in-law sent me the link and the first time I watched it I thought, "What? That’s not that funny…"   I watched it again just to make sure.  Then I started to chuckle.  Later that night, I kept saying "OWCH, CHARLIE!" (UK accent intact, of course..) and I was LMAO.

I showed it to H, and she just looked at me like I was sick.  Maybe I am, but at least I’m in good company!    41 million views and counting!  The original post seems to not work in my page here (keeps giving me a no longer available listing) so I put up a squatter version.

This was just too funny to not post.

My friend Linoge took some footage of Lawnmower Races and I nearly pee’d myself.  Why? I don’t know.  I found it extremely funny.

I particularly like this one:

Poor little guy!    See, I’m laughing again.

Have you heard about the new search engine created by ex-Googlers?

Its called Cuil – pronouced Cool – from the old Irish word, meaning Knowledge.

Its – well, its a search engine.  Has some neat features – I very much like the layout of search results and the tabs that help merge search with navigation.  Will all this be enough to pull me away from Google?  I don’t know.

I have such a love / hate relationship with Google, so it is hard to tell.  They have great stuff, but they are also extremely liberal in nature.  How liberal?  The last reported numbers that I could find had 98% of all political donations going to the Democrats.

Do I really want to use / enrich / endorse a company that is so blatantly anti-conservative?  Not really.

I guess I will try Cuil for a while and see how it goes…

I don’t eat fast food as much as I’d like to.

I probably eat it more than I should.

Anyway, when my wife decided that she was going to take herself, my daughter and two nieces out to lunch, the kids wanted to go to McDonalds.

My wife asked me what I wanted them to bring me back for lunch.  I went to McDonald’s website, and for 10 minutes tried to find their stinking menu.  I could find out how many calories are in a McNugget, but not what their menu is.

I sent them this letter.  I’ll let you know if they respond.

Hello,

I think your marketing or web design team has forgotten that McDonald’s is actually a restaurant.  Where the heck is the MENU listing on your site??

I know that nutritional information, all of your public works, scholarships, donations, and keeping people up to date on sports and exercise is important.  Given the flack that you’ve received lately, I can understand you addressing it all on your site.

But, honestly – you guys are a restaurant chain, first and foremost.  I know every restaurant doesn’t have each item available, but you really should have your MENU as a top level choice at the top of your page.

Given how big you guys are, you may not care about this, but my wife took herself and three kids to Carl’s Jr. instead of McDonalds, because I could look up their menu and tell her what to pick me up for lunch.

Anyway, thanks for listening.

The sad part is that they just came through the door holding…you guessed it.  McDonalds bags.

Oh well.  So much for voting with my dollars!

Here’s another esoteric tech tip that may help a soul or two who are currently ripping their hair out and cursing Asus with a fury.

If you have Asus’s P5N-D Motherboard, which is based on NVIDIA’s 750i chipset, and are getting a Blue Screen of Death referencing an NVGT.sys error on Windows XP, dispair not!  There is hope!

The problem is a crappy driver for the SATA drive controller, and as of yet, Asus (in their Heart Touching wisdom) has not fixed the problem.  The cure is simple though.

Surf on over to NVIDIA.com and select Download Drivers.  Under Option 1 select:

Product Type: nForce
Product Series: 7 Series
Product: nForce 790i  (yes, the 790, NOT the 750)

and, the rest of the stuff that fits your needs.

For quick reference, the English XP version of the above download is here.

The long and the short of it is that you need to install the “Media Shield” portion of the 790i drivers on top of your 750 board.  DO NOT INSTALL EVERYTHING!  Just the Media Shield portion.

After doing that with my own P5N-D, I haven’t experienced a single BSOD.

Maybe Asus will fix this eventually, but I wasn’t going to suffer through the headache while they take their sweet time.  With the advent of the 790 chipset, I don’t expect them to be rushing to fix things on the older/cheaper set.

You can read more about this topic on the NVIDIA forums here.

Good luck!

IMPORTANT UPDATE!

Melle dropped a note to say that NVIDIA has released new WHQL drivers for nForce that are compatible with the 750i.  Early reports say that this driver fixes the BSOD problem with the P5N-D.

Check out the dirvers here:  http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.23.html

I haven’t installed these on my system yet so I can’t vouch for them personally, but given NVIDIA’s common architecture I would expect them to work anyway.  This is great news!  Thanks Melle!

IMPORTANT UPDATE #2

The latest 750i drivers from NVIDIA take care of this problem entirely!  No need for the 790 chipset drivers. Just update your drivers from the NVIDIA website, and you’ll be all set.  The latest drivers as of this update are still the 15.23 drivers available here:  http://www.nvidia.com/object/nforce_winxp_15.23.html

Unretouched photos of famous political figures are extremely hard to find, BUT…

I did manage to finally get my hands on a few of the two presidential candidates.

Hmmm.   

I know, I know…  I’m a very bad man.

Seriously though, I mean no disrespect to these two gentlemen.  I just don’t want to vote for either of them and I’m taking out my political frustration on their digital effigies.

If Obama was at all conservative, had any real experience and wouldn’t tax us into being a third world country, I’d vote for him in a second.  He is a tremendously inspiring speaker.  I just don’t trust that his positions won’t change when he gets in office.

On the other hand, if McCain was at all inspiring as a candidate, I’d vote for him in a second, even though I disagree with a lot of his politics.  I respect his past tremendously, but he just makes me go "blah".

I never seriously considered using the write-in option on my voting ballot, but that choice is looking better and better the closer we get to November.

Hmm… I wonder!? Can someone vote for Reagan, even though he’s dead?

A nice reminder of history from Investors Business Daily.

No one likes war.

War is a horrific affair, bloody and expensive.  Sending our men and women into battle to perhaps die or be maimed is an unconscionable thought. 

Yet some wars need to be waged, and someone needs to lead. The citizenry and Congress are often ambivalent or largely opposed to any given war. It’s up to our leader to convince them. That’s why we call the leader "Commander-in-Chief."

George W.’s war was no different. There was lots of resistance to it. Many in Congress were vehemently against the idea. The Commander-in-Chief had to lobby for legislative approval.  Along with supporters, George W. used the force of his convictions, the power of his title and every ounce of moral suasion he could muster to rally support. He had to assure Congress and the public that the war was morally justified, winnable and affordable.

Congress eventually came around and voted overwhelmingly to wage war.  George W. then lobbied foreign governments for support. But in the end, only one European nation helped us. The rest of the world sat on its hands and watched. 

After a few quick victories, things started to go bad.  There were many dark days when all the news was discouraging. Casualties began to mount. It became obvious that our forces were too small. Congress began to drag its feet about funding the effort.  Many who had voted to support the war just a few years earlier were beginning to speak against it and accuse the Commander-in-Chief of misleading them. Many critics began to call him incompetent, an idiot and even a liar. Journalists joined the negative chorus with a vengeance.

As the war entered its fourth year, the public began to grow weary of the conflict and the casualties. George W.’s popularity plummeted. Yet through it all, he stood firm, supporting the troops and endorsing the struggle.  Without his unwavering support, the war would have surely ended, then and there, in overwhelming and total defeat. 

At this darkest of times, he began to make some changes. More troops were added and trained. Some advisers were shuffled, and new generals installed.  Then, unexpectedly and gradually, things began to improve. Now it was the enemy that appeared to be growing weary of the lengthy conflict and losing support. Victories began to come, and hope returned. 

Many critics in Congress and the press said the improvements were just George W.’s good luck. The progress, they said, would be temporary. He knew, however, that in warfare good fortune counts. 

Then, in the unlikeliest of circumstances and perhaps the most historic example of military luck, the enemy blundered and was resoundingly defeated. After six long years of war, the Commander-in-Chief basked in a most hard-fought victory.  So on that historic day, Oct. 19, 1781, in a place called Yorktown, a satisfied George Washington sat upon his beautiful white horse and accepted the surrender of Lord Cornwallis, effectively ending the Revolutionary War.