Brain-Buckets are back in fashion!
Brain-Buckets are back in fashion!
3 weeks ago I got into an accident with my electric bike. I got hit by a driver who was not paying attention to his driving close enough. According to the police report, i was “ejected from the scooter”. i ended up sliding about 10-15 feet on the pavement, my right knee and left ankle taking most of the action.
THIS is why you ALWAYS wear a helmet!
Its B-R-O-K-E-N!!
\i called AAA today (hey that rhymes!) and started the process for gettign my battered bike fixed.
As a boy I HAD to go to the fair every year whether I liked it or not. Having grown up on a dairy farm, I participated in 4-H every year, as well as FFA (Future Farmers of America). I showed a Holstein Heifer I named Sherri, and together we won a lot of ribbons and trophy’s, including the Idaho Statesman Award a couple of times, which is the top award given to showmen for demonstrating superior showmanship with their animal.
Below is a photo i found of this years’ Dairy Days FFA Competition.
Fierce Competition.
I always had to go to at least 3 different fairs every year. The Meridian Dairy Days, in Meridian Idaho (June 17-19), followed by the Owyhee County Fair & Rodeo, in Homedale Idaho, (August 11 – 14) and the Western Idaho Fair, in Boise Idaho (August 20 – 29). My memories of the fair include long grueling hours of sitting doing nothing but watching “city folk” walking by making stupid comments about cows. For a week. 3 times a year.
Yesterday my room mate and I had tickets to the San Diego County Fair. We left at 2:30pm, promptly on time, but then I had to go and say “Oh we should take the Coaster”. LOL and so we did.
We ended up waiting an hour and a half at the Old Town Trolley Station for the Coaster. It took about 20 minutes to get to Solana Beach, where we then waited another 30 minutes for the shuttle bus that took us to the west gate of the fair. If you have ever been to the Del Mar Fair you will know this is the back gate.
By now its 5:00pm!
We left the house at 2:30pm
Once there, however, we saw some pretty cool looking rabbits and guinea pigs. (see below)
Later on we left the fair at around 7pm – and did not get home until around 10:30pm. i got to see a freight train come down the tracks, i could hardly believe it was practically highballing through the Solana Beach station! Check out this video I got!
Back the F:\ Up!!!
Check it out!
- Image by James Glover via Flickr
“Do you backup your computer?”
I tend to ask this question of lots of people. And every person, it seems, asks “Why should I choose remote backup? ” I am also told about how a person is currently backuing up their system using anything from a USB Flash drive, an external hard drive, even floppy disks. Lets face it, floppy disks have gone the way of the dodo bird….. long extinct.
Computers are everywhere. We use them for email, for storing our most important documents, for storing precious memories, for everything that has to be recorded and created relating to our businesses.
But few of us realize how quickly this information could be lost forever. I have seen instances where a person has just finished backing everything up to their USB drive, only to have it fail 5 minutes later. I have had customers backup their hard drives in preperation for upgrading the computer to a new hard drive or a new OS, and then when they are ready to restore their backup, the drive has failed. Many things can contribute to this kind of situation. But one thing is certain. If they had an online backup their data would have been safe and secure, and then they would not have had that problem. And usually, when a hard drive fails, it’s impossible (or very expensive) to get any data off of them.
“I Do My Own Backups”
One of the most common rebuttals to my question is the standard “But I do my own backups.”
The first problem with traditional backups like tapes or external drives is the startup costs. You have to buy and install a drive, you have to buy software to do the backups(the free software included with the drives is usually not very good), and then you have to buy a set of tapes to store your data. Quite often, you’ve spent over $1000 dollars before you’ve done your first backup.
The second problem with traditional backups is that they are on-site backups. If there is a fire, flood, tornado, hurricane, or theft, your on-site backups are probably lost at the same time as your computer.
The third problem with traditional backups is that they are complicated to setup and difficult to maintain. If you’ve ever asked yourself, “Should I be using Weekly Tape 2 or 4 today?” then you know what a distraction this can be.
When is the last time that you actually tested your backup, ie restored the data to a new hard drive to make sure you know what to do when the need arises? this si something that i can help you with should you need to complete this step.
“I Don’t Need a Backup”
I hear this from a lot of people. My answer to this is “Can you afford to lose everything you own right now?” If you are like me, ABSOLUTELY NOT!
Backups can protect you from Viruses
Backups can protect you from hardware failures.
Backups can protect you from theft.
Backups can protect you from fires, floods, and other natural disasters.
“I Don’t Want to Put My Data Out There. It’s not Secure!”
I hear this from A lot of peoplle I talk to. The backup system that i sell and support, MozyHome, gives you the ability to select your data’s encryption method: a MozyHome key with 448-bit Blowfish encryption or your own personal key with 256-bit AES encryption. Your files are encrypted on your computer using the key of your choice and then transferred to the Mozy servers using 128-bit SSL encryption, the industry standard for safe and secure data transfer.
So How do i get started?
Happy Fathers Day
- Image via Wikipedia
I wish i could say happy Fathers Day to my Dad. My dad is a real jerk though so i am content with wishing YOUR dad a happy Fathers Day.
I had a very interesting week though. I had a crash with my bike, some guy turned his car right into me without looking. Ruined my day. But the EMT’s were really nice, and BONUS! very very cute!
There was yet another earthquake, a 5.7 magnitude. It was pretty weird, a two part thing that at first felt kinda fast and jarring, and then 2 seconds later a sliding aftershock that caused my apartment to kinda shake from side to side.
I subscribe to a satellite Observers makiling list, called SeeSat. Today is freceived the following in my email from one of the members, Ralf Van De Bergh:
Tumbling Soyuz TMA-19
On June 17, one day after launch of the Soyuz TMA-19 with the expedition 24
crew on its way to the ISS, the 3rd stage of its rocket and the Soyuz itself
passed over the Netherlands. The apparant speed of the 2 objects was at that
time much higher then the ISS, due to its still lower orbit.
The rocket passed about 15 minutes before the Soyuz and was in a low orbit
of below 200km. When I inspected the frames of the rocket one obvious thing
I saw was a different position of the rocket over the short time during
its pass.
To be sure, this is not caused by any movement artefacts due to
the highspeed, I only used frames which show a clear elongated shape of the
rocket in the not-move direction.
About halfway the animation, we seem to look even towards the short
axis (long axis pointed to Earth)
Usually, different forces cause a rocket to tumbling after it separates
and is not longer stabilized and can free rotated in Earth orbit.
Beside magnetic field forces, especially with rockets below 200km altitude
like this one, they are influenced heavily by aerodynamic forces.
Interesting page about this matter:
http://www.satobs.org/tumble/rottheory.html
Ralf Van deBergh
http://ralfvandebergh.startje.be/vieuw.php?qid=328303
Happy B-Day Redwing Bar and Grill!!!
Tonight marks the Fourth birthday anniversary of the Redwing bar and grill. Later on when i got my drunk on, I will be sure to write more here about the RedWing.
- Image by Jocelyn Catterson via Flickr
Sometimes i just need something to DO fer krisssake!!!!
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Yesterday i went to a local Gyms in North Park to inquire about joining.
Joining a gym seems like such a momentus decision. Life changing even. I think its almost right up there with getting a face-lift. Or having a baby. My target is to look really good by Christmas time. i will keep you all updated on my progress here. Lucky you, huh? Trust me this could get really interesting. Right now i am about 181 pounds of pure geeky dork. i got a tummy on me that has been created by countless hours in front of a keyboard munching on potatoe chips and twinkies, slurping down Dr. Pepper. i am now in my 40′s (GASP!) and my body’s metabolism is FINALLY starting to slow down.
The other day i heard the following exchange while on the bus:
1st guy: “I need to join a gym. I want to look good naked.”
2nd guy: “but you already do!”
1st guy: “No, I mean the rest of me!”
Here are a couple of questions for you, dear readers:
[memedex: pollid#492258]
[memedex: pollid#492259]
2. How often do you work out? Once a week? Twice? or more?
Your answers are not going to sway me either way. I AM GOING TO JOIN!! I WILL have that body i dream of at night!
Friday morning I left San Diego with some friends to go meet some more friends at the Burnt Rancheria Campground at Mount Laguna. It was fun. It was windy and it was really really cold.
I brought my camera with me with the intention of taking a whole shit-pot full of pictures. But this was not to be because i forgot to put a memory card back into my camera the last time i had the memory card out. SO I ended up using my Blackberry’s camera instead.
Which of course reminded me of another youtube video i saw, this one involving a windy day, the inside of a tent, and the possibility of some slight blood-letting.
Cool, so i am going camping tomorrow, you can find me at Lat/Lon: 32.83°N 116.49°W Elevation:4471 ft. Burnt Rancheria Campground, in the Laguna Mountains Funny, i always thought the Laguna Mountains were at least NEAR Laguna beach, but i guess thats why they call that Laguna Beach, not Mount Laguna. Turns out Mount Laguna, some 6150 feet in elevation, is actually 53 miles EAST of San Diego. Laguna Beach is 72 miles to the NORTH of San Diego.
Here is a link to more information for Mount Laguna: http://www.wunderground.com/US/CA/Mount_Laguna.html
I am bringing a Meade DS-80 telescope, the one with the Digital Electronics package.
Meade DS-80 Telescope
Unfortunately it has had a few owners, one of which did not seem to take very good care of it. But thats OK. Its amazing what a gallon of lens cleaner can do!!
Screenshot of the software.
This piece of equipment, along with a piece of software called Stellarium, available for FREE from Stellarium.org, is gonna make for a really fine time looking at the stars in the clear crisp mountain air.
In the spirit of what could possibly go wrong on a camping trip, check out this video i found on YouTube. I laughed. I hope you will too.
V is for Voltage
