Thanks to Michael Ebeling for pointing out Listal – a free on-line listing for DVDs and other stuff.
Listal is a web based collection manager application which supports DVDs (region 1 and 2), books, games and music.
I signed up and my listings will be here.
I was using DVD Profiler, which is also free, but is an application you have to install. Listal is entirely web based, so I may just move all my stuff over here.
A group of guys that I hang out with (The Saint Paul Irregulars) are going up to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area this weekend.
We are leaving this evening and will be coming back Sunday. I’m all packed and have some single malt scotch and some cigars.
Should be a real hoot, and I’m bringing my camera, so look for pictures next week.
It’s finally time to talk about New Orleans and what our government is NOT doing.
First off, here is the headline from a New York Times article:
White House Enacts a Plan to Ease Political Damage
WASHINGTON, Sept. 4 – Under the command of President Bush’s two senior political advisers, the White House rolled out a plan this weekend to contain the political damage from the administration’s response to Hurricane Katrina.
So they are pretty much admitting that they FUCKED UP. But what are they doing about it? Trying to shift the blame to the Democrats. Of course.
Then there is this wonderful blog entry:
Look, it’s really very simple. On Saturday, August 27, 2005 — two days before Hurricane Katrina made landfall — President George W. Bush assumed responsibility for the coordination of “all disaster relief efforts” in the State of Louisiana. This is the specific, undisputed language of Bush’s declaration of a State of Emergency, issued that day by the White House, and still available for viewing on the White House website. The responsibility for coordinating all disaster relief efforts in New Orleans clearly rested with the White House. Despite all the post-disaster spin by the Bush Faction and its sycophants, despite all the earnest media analyses, the lines of authority are clear and indisputable.
Then there is this headline from the Salt Lake Tribune:
Frustrated: Fire crews to hand out fliers for FEMA
ATLANTA – Not long after some 1,000 firefighters sat down for eight hours of training, the whispering began: “What are we doing here?”
As New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin pleaded on national television for firefighters – his own are exhausted after working around the clock for a week – a battalion of highly trained men and women sat idle Sunday in a muggy Sheraton Hotel conference room in Atlanta.
Many of the firefighters, assembled from Utah and throughout the United States by the Federal Emergency Management Agency, thought they were going to be deployed as emergency workers.
Instead, they have learned they are going to be community-relations officers for FEMA, shuffled throughout the Gulf Coast region to disseminate fliers and a phone number: 1-800-621-FEMA.
Lovely. What a mess. And there are still people in New Orleans that need rescuing.
I can’t stand it.
Thanks to JWZ for pointing out these articles.
This is a great story about a guy who figured out how to beat the “random” pattern on a game show.
We use RSA SecurID where I work. We just bought some software token seeds to use with some Blackberry devices.
When you buy these seed records, you don’t get the software to load on the Blackberries. You have to download that from RSA’s website.
Fair enough.
The seed records came with a letter enclosed that told me I could download the software at a certain URL. This URL is no longer valid!
So I sent the following email to the RSA Security Webmaster:
Subject: Color Me Unimpressed
I just received a set of software token seed records. In the package is a letter telling me that I can download the client software at this URL:
http://www.rsasecurity.com/products/securid/software_token.html
When I visit this URL, I get a page that says this:
—- Begin Text —-
We’re sorry, but due to a recent renovation of the RSA Security site, many of our page URLs have changed. In a few seconds, you will be redirected to the new URL for the page you requested. If you have arrived at this page via a bookmark in your web browser, please take a moment to update it to the new URL.
We’re sorry for any inconvenience this may have caused.
We could not find a record of this URL. You might find what you’re looking for here: RSA Home
—- End Text —-
Not very useful. Now I have to go digging around on the web site to try and figure out where the client software is.
It is not obvious (to me at least) where to download this software. I finally found it, but it’s not in a very intuitive location. I don’t want to “Evaluate” this software (which is where I found it), I want to use it with seed records I have already purchased.
Updated on 09/06/05: I got a response to my email today:
Hi,
Sorry about that! Thank you so much for taking the time to notify us about this issue so that we can fix it for people in the future. You can find the link to the software authenticator downloads here: http://www.rsasecurity.com/node.asp?id=1081
I have created a redirect for the old URL which will bring folks to the new page.
Again, our apologies…
Regards,
Alex.
This is way too cool. I have some old hard drives, I may have to see if I can figure this out.
We went to the State Fair on Tuesday and I just had to bring my camera along. I didn’t take nearly enough photos though. 🙁
The photos that I did take are in this album here.
All The Gear All The Time
I’ve been reading the Adv Rider Forums recently and one of the mantras that I see a lot is ATGATT.
I used to feel this way, and I do have an Aerostich Roadcrafter, Sidi boots, a Shoei Syncrotec helmet and multiple pairs of gloves.
Recently though I’ve been slacking off. Mainly when I drive the sidecar rig. I really know better, but I’ve been wearing my old, but still nice, leather jacket and tennis shoes.
I have to admit that I have even driven the hack in shorts and a tee shirt, with no helmet.
This is really stupid.
I need to read the forums more often to remind me why ATGATT is really what I should do. The descriptions of people’s accidents, and what the gear saved them from, is sobering.
What amazes me the most is when I do hop on the bike or the hack and go for a quick jaunt to the store or somewhere else in the neighborhood, and I don’t wear the gear, that’s when someone in a cage (car) tries to kill me.
Considering that most accidents occur within 5 miles of your home, riding around the neighborhood with no gear on is extra stupid.
So it’s time to start working harder on ATGATT. Period.
I don’t know what to do (as usual.)
My BMW K1100RS is up for sale. I’m not really promoting this fact too hard, I posted it on the IBMWR Marketplace, I put it on Adv Rider, etc.
I’ve gotten a few scammers pretending to buy it and one serious looker who stopped sending emails.
I had been driving my new sidecar rig for the past month or so, but yesterday and today I drove the K1100RS to work.
Man that bike is nice to drive. Every time I drive it after being off it for a while, I wonder why I want to sell it.
My main issues with the bike are these:
So, what to do.
For number 1: For a while I had made the modification to stiffen up the rubber mounts for the handlebars. Then I removed it. I’m not sure why now. I think I will try that again (it only takes about 15 minutes.) This changes the frequency of vibration in the bars and may help with my hands falling asleep. I’ll probably make this change this weekend.
For number 2: I’m not sure what to do. I already have bar-backs installed on the bike. I may try rotating the bars up a little bit this weekend when I do the change above, but I’m not sure how much that will help. I might have to swap on taller bars… this means getting longer cables (clutch, choke, throttle) and a longer brake line. That’s not going to be cheap. It also would appear that Heli does not make bars for BMWs. Wonder why that is?
For number 3: I suppose all I need to do is send in the shock and get it re-sprung. That’s more money…
For number 4: There is nothing to do about that. It’s the nature of the beast. Update: Apparently, this is not true. I spent some time at the K1100 Owners Group Forums today and found some things to try to abate some of the heat. Also, something to try to get rid of the gas fumes that it produces when it’s hot.
It’s not like it’s all bad either. There are Pros to this bike:
So I have mixed feelings about selling it. If I can sell it, then I can afford to get the carbs on my R100RS dynoed in so I can ride it some more. And maybe buy a different bike. What bike? Who knows?
I am running an ad in the next issue of the BMW Owners of America magazine, so we’ll see if that gets any bites.
I guess we will see what happens.
From Michael Ebeling’s blog:
If you go through the same routine that I do when my Windows drives start to become full, which consists of right-clicking and viewing the properties of the folders in the root directory to find the largest ones, then navigating into those directories and repeating the process, you’ll get good use out of this little freeware program called Space Monger. It gives you a visual representation of where the space on your Windows drives is being consumed, and it allows you to easily zoom in and out of subdirectories. Best of all, no installation is required; the program consists of only one executable, so all you have to do is download it, unzip it, and run it.
Here is the program: SpaceMonger
The interface looks a little clunky, but it does the job.
