February 28th, 2010 by Assorter
It’s become a bit of a tradition for me to blog about the Olympics closing ceremony. Despite feeling particularly incensed by NBC’s coverage of these Olympics, I definitely still feel a sense of melancholy to see the Olympics go away after having their company for the past two weeks. These Olympics were particularly memorable and poignant for me because I had the great fortune to actually attend three events – my first Olympics experience ever! I saw ski jump, short track speed skating, and ice hockey, in an incredible 4 day weekend in Vancouver. Being surrounded by thousands of people, from all over the world, and sharing a common bond of friendship and passion for the games, was unlike anything I’ve ever experienced. Interestingly enough, it’s also one of the few times that I’ve blatantly displayed USA flare non-stop; and it was a blast. I (finally) saw Whistler for the first time, I soaked up lots of fun and excitement in Vancouver, I received plenty of good-natured ribbing from lots of friendly Canadians (which I tried to return in kind!) and I got out of it a once-in-a-lifetime experience. So, with that, adieu Vancouver Winter Olympics – you’ll be missed!
But most assuredly not forgotten. 
I took about 500 photos from my Olympics experience, and I’m slowly uploading some of those pictures in different batches. There’s a total of four sets, and I’ve already uploaded one (“pregame”). Look for the remaining sets over the next couple weeks!
Next stop, London?
February 13th, 2010 by Assorter
Almost time…
February 7th, 2010 by Assorter
Haven’t updated the blog in a while, and the Super Bowl is as good a topic as any! So, this was definitely one of the most exciting and action-packed Super Bowls for me in recent history, right up there with and likely exceeding the 2008 Giants-Patriots game. I was actually rooting for the Colts going into the game, but when the Saints stumbled to a ten-point deficit in the first quarter, I found myself starting to root for the underdog. There were just so many reasons to root for the Saints; first Super Bowl appearance in franchise history; the spirit of New Orleans, Drew Brees actually being a likable quarterback; and of course, the spectacle of Bourbon Street partying like its 1999 with a Saints’ victory. I am a big Peyton Manning fan, and I have a lot of respect for him and the Colts, so I wouldn’t have minded seeing them win. But by the fourth quarter, it seemed like the come-from-behind victory for the Saints was in the stars, and it was just so much more fun to root for that. The first half felt like a bit of a snoozer, but things really picked up in the second half. I was impressed with Sean Peyton’s gutsy display of trickery and strategery; the onside kick to open the second half was a real stunner. What a way to write yourself into Super Bowl history! And the fourth-quarter Manning interception had us all screaming. All in all, I’d say this was a very satisfying Super Bowl. I think the only part that didn’t live up to the hype was the commercials, which I’ve frankly already forgotten about. I guess even the Super Bowl isn’t immune to the effects of a down economy.
Hmm, anything else? In a bit of geeky news, I ditched Microsoft Security Essentials and moved to avast! antivirus. Security Essentials was okay, but it lacked some pretty basic things (like a frickin’ pause button) and it doesn’t have as many realtime scanners as avast!. So, avast! it is. I think it’s a superior solution and so far I like it, but staying virus free is ultimately dependent on the actions of the user, don’t you think?
Oh, and one last thing. I’m going to be in Vancouver in two weeks for the 2010 Winter Olympics. Huzzah!
January 4th, 2010 by Assorter
I’m pleased to report I’ve solved the odd database issue I was experiencing. Sadly, I don’t think I can go into much detail about what exactly I did; I am just no MySQL wizard, and I placed complete trust and confidence in the expertise of others. I do know it had something to do with my database’s charset and various differences between MySQL 4.0 and MySQL 5.0, but I honestly couldn’t explain anything beyond that.
For those who are experiencing the same problem and are looking for a solution, I followed the instructions at this blog.
And now, back to our regularly scheduled programming…
December 23rd, 2009 by Assorter
As you can see, there’s an oddity with various of my Wordpress posts. This is due to an apparent incompatibility or bug when upgrading from a MySQL 4 database to a MySQL 5 database.
All of this hooplah was precipitated when I attempted to upgrade to the latest version of Wordpress. Wordpress told me, as it did to many, many others, that my version of MySQL was outdated and that I had to update. When I contacted my host about this, they basically told me that my only hope was to update to a new hosting package that supported a later version of MySQL. Fortunately, I was able to do this without incurring any additional hosting costs (and actually the package I switched to is rather feature rich). In any event, I exported my MySQL 4 database into a newly-created MySQL 5 database, made some configuration changes, and was able to successfully update Wordpress. However, upon viewing my newly-updated Wordpress blog, I discovered the odd “junk” that you now see.
I’m sure a person more skilled in the ways of MySQL could fix this problem in their sleep, but unfortunately I am not that person. So, if you have any thoughts on how to fix this problem, feel free to let me know in a comment.
November 15th, 2009 by Assorter
I’m now running two freshly installed copies of Windows 7 Professional 64-bit! As promised, here is an entry on my upgrade experience.
Continue reading ‘Windows 7: Installation’
October 25th, 2009 by Assorter
Windows 7 has been released into the wild, and I cannot wait to get my copies. I have an upgrade to Windows 7 Professional making its way through the mail that will be replacing Windows XP Professional on my desktop, and I will be upgrading my laptop to Windows 7 Home Premium (a free upgrade that came with my laptop, and which will happily remove all traces of Vista). Of course, they’ll both be clean installs. I’m so pumped about these OSes that I might even shell out a few bucks to get Windows 7 badges to stick onto my computers (at the very least, I’ll need one to replace the Windows Vista badge on my laptop… yeesh).
Continue reading ‘Windows 7′
October 18th, 2009 by Assorter
I’ve been a holdout on the iRiver ifp-790 for a while now. It’s a durable little guy with 256MB of flash memory, support for a wide variety of audio formats, a built-in microphone, and an FM tuner (which is a requirement for me). But, it’s about 5 years old, and its age has been showing for a while now, particularly in the memory department. With all the hubbub over the new Zune HD and the 5th generation iPod nano, I’m starting to think it’s time to update my digital music player.
Now, before you burst a vein pointing out that I’ve repeatedly said I’d never purchase an iPod, you’re absolutely right. I’m not thinking about the iPod nano now, nor will I ever in the future. I do think it’s impressive that Apple finally bothered to give a crap and add an FM tuner to one of its iPods (a feature which has been on the market for years now, but which Apple was apparently to cool to bother to acknowledge) but I still just can’t stomach these things. So, the iPod is out.
The Zune HD is intriguing. In fact, I can safely say I’d probably buy this device, if it supported Ogg Vorbis. I know there are many out there who consider this a dead or dying audio format, but the truth is that it’s still technologically a superior codec to MP3 and, most importantly, a lot of my music library is in vorbis! Yes, I could undertake the monumental task of re-digitizing my collection, but that would be a huge headache and not worth the effort, because there are many other players on the market which are just as sleek as the Zune HD that do support vorbis. So, Microsoft, I wanted to give you a try, really I did, but you’re missing that one last intangible, immeasurable quality of “chemistry.” Don’t fret though; you’re getting my money on Windows 7.
So, where does that leave me? Well, certainly visiting Anything but iPod a lot, for sure. I am intrigued by the Cowon i9. It seems seems slim and light, supports a lot of audio formats (including vorbis!) and looks kind of neat. I can’t tell whether it’s actually going to be released in this country though, or how much it might cost. There are those who swear by Samsung; the M1 and R1 look interesting, but it’s not clear whether the US will ever see the M1, and the R1 hasn’t even been released yet. This is going to be tricky.
October 17th, 2009 by Assorter
Man, Dell’s Adamo is intriguing me again.
I like thin laptops and all, but this is crazy!
UPDATE: Whoa.
September 30th, 2009 by Assorter
Haven’t made many substantive updates here for a while. Here are some random ramblings riddled with rigorous reasoning. Or not.
- The other day, I downloaded Security Essentials, Microsoft’s new free antivirus program. Surprisingly, I’m rather impressed with it; it actually detected a virus (!!) that AVG was missing. Needless to say, I’m now using it instead of AVG. There are a ton of really basic user interface enhancements it desperately needs (c’mon Microsoft, there should at least be a button to pause scans) but I guess there’s something about having the might of Microsoft behind an antivirus program that makes me feel more protected than I would with AVG. Plus, the price is right.
- I’m currently engrossed in The Informant by Kurt Eichenwald. Inherent bias aside, this is an absolutely riveting page turner, filled with so many plot twists and surprises that I frankly cannot believe it is non-fiction. I also really like Eichenwald’s writing; he’s not flashy or overly descriptive at all, and he’s very good at getting straight to the point. I highly recommend this book!
- I’m also reading the Harry Potter series. Every dark and boding tale of corporate greed needs its dose of fantasy for balance, right?
- Where did the summer go?
Cheerio!
