MrGadgets Almanac of Techie Wizardry & Travel Compendium

A rambling mix of things that interest me (In no particuar order): Technology,Science,Art,Commerce (Much more than just the interchange of money. What exactly is money anyway?) Politics,Weight-Loss - Specifically Low-Carb, Spiritual Paths as Oppossed Organized Religion,Music,Celtic Music,Bluegrass,Cowboy Music,The latest book I am reading. (Usually Sci-Fi/Fantasy) The lastest book I am writing. (Same) Grail Lore,My latest travels & tips,WiFI access,Coffee,&Everything else...

Saturday, October 22, 2005

Word Malware

Halloween is coming, so here is a little tale. A REAL horror story that could just happen to YOU!

Word Malware

Beware!

Sunday, October 16, 2005

Road Runner While Traveling[::: Dial Access :::]

Until the full-line hotels have to come to their senses and begin offering free High-Speed like their 'inferior' siblings, this is a reasonable alternative:

Road Runner While Traveling[::: Dial Access :::]

Saturday, October 15, 2005

051015 Linux Daily Reads

"Reader":https://www.google.com/reader/lens/

"Jeff Duntemann's ContraPositive Diary":http://www.duntemann.com/Diary.htm

"WCBSTV.com: Your Source For New York News, Weather, Sports & Traffic: Weather":http://weather.wcbstv.com/US/NY/New_York.html

"ZOOM PS-04":http://www.zoom.co.jp/english/models/ps04/pdmodel.html

"mixcast live free - Google Search":http://www.google.com/search?q=mixcast+live+free&sourceid=mozilla-search&start=0&start=0&ie=utf-8&oe=utf-8&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official

"MixCast Live Demo Screencast - TinyScience Blog":http://tinyscience.com/blog/index.php?itemid=39

"Podcasting with Winpodcast":http://podcast.scon.de/

"Podcasting News":http://www.podcastingnews.com/

"podcasting tools free - Google Search":http://www.google.com/search?q=podcasting+tools+free&hl=en&hs=d7C&lr=lang_en&newwindow=1&client=firefox-a&rls=org.mozilla:en-GB:official&start=10&sa=N

"Search - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia":http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:Search?search=weather+rod&go=Go

"Tools for Podcasting":http://www.feedforall.com/tools-for-podcasting.htm

"MP3 Insider: The new podcasting tools - CNET reviews":http://reviews.cnet.com/4520-6450_7-6212319-1.html

"Propaganda - Reviews and free downloads at Download.com":http://www.download.com/Propaganda/3000-9227_4-10381207.html?tag=txt

"GarageBand.com tunes up podcasting tool | CNET News.com":http://news.com.com/GarageBand.com+tunes+up+podcasting+tool/2100-1027_3-5716700.html

"MrGadgets Almanac of Techie Wizardry & Travel Compendium":http://mrgadgets.blogspot.com/

"Current View":http://www.jerrypournelle.com/view/view383.html#IQ

"Chapter 3: Functions":http://www.ibiblio.org/obp/thinkCSpy/chap03.htm

"Bruce Eckel's MindView, Inc: Thinking in Python":http://www.mindview.net/Books/Python/ThinkingInPython.html

"---- The GATOR Java Users Group ----":http://www.mycgiserver.com/~gatorjug/

"Michael Levin's Weblog : Weblog":http://www.jroller.com/page/Sandymountster?catname=Java

"Why Python? | Linux Journal":http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/3882

"Learning to program":http://www.freenetpages.co.uk/hp/alan.gauld/

"Daily Python-URL":http://www.pythonware.com/daily/

"Lifehacker, the Productivity and Software Guide":http://www.lifehacker.com/

Playing W) Kanotix and found these LifeHacks N Stuff

Wednesday, October 12, 2005

Vet's obit: "send acerbic letters to Republicans"

Vet's obit: "send acerbic letters to Republicans": "Cory Doctorow:
This Chicago Tribune obit for a veteran called Theodore Roosevelt Heller contains the best admonition to mourners I've ever seen: 'In lieu of flowers, please send acerbic letters to Republicans.' Link (via Santheo)"

Sooo, as I suspected, I don't agree with some of Cory's political views.

Assuming it is true AND it accruatly reflects the wishes of the deceased: you have to give the old man credit...

Tuesday, October 11, 2005

Release Date

Well, it is now OH-Fishle.

I am, as of today, an OLD FART(tm).

Yes, boys and girls, MrGadgets has survived to an auspicious annual anniversary:
1577923200 Seconds(I have no idea when exactly today the precise second will pass when all these figures are accurate. Thusly, I didn't account for leap-seconds), 26298720 Minutes, 438312 Hours, 18263 Days (yes, I accounted for leap-years), 600 Months, .5 Centuries, five precent of a Millineum.

I have long since given up any concern at enumerating this annual event, but this particular one has presented a "Golden" opportunity to spend four days lording over my oldest friend the fact that HE was an old fart, where-as I was NOT. YET...

Ah Well. It has been a good run so far. Here's to the next... what?
Half? Third?

Maybe I can even stick it out long enough and, if we are all lucky, you and I and everybody else can last out this whole Millineum.

Gotta get in shape.

Monday, October 10, 2005

TweakGuides.com - Firefox Tweak Guide

Use FireFox? You should.
Now that that's settled, you need this:
TweakGuides.com - Firefox Tweak Guide

Friday, October 07, 2005

Collected Quotes from Albert Einstein

"Any intelligent fool can make things bigger, more complex, and more
violent. It takes a touch of genius -- and a lot of courage -- to move
in the opposite direction."
"Imagination is more important than knowledge."
"Gravitation is not responsible for people falling in love."
"I want to know God's thoughts; the rest are details."
"The hardest thing in the world to understand is the income tax."
"Reality is merely an illusion, albeit a very persistent one."
"The only real valuable thing is intuition."
"A person starts to live when he can live outside himself."
"I am convinced that He (God) does not play dice."
"God is subtle but he is not malicious."
"Weakness of attitude becomes weakness of character."
"I never think of the future. It comes soon enough."
"The eternal mystery of the world is its comprehensibility."
"Sometimes one pays most for the things one gets for nothing."
"Science without religion is lame. Religion without science is blind."
"Anyone who has never made a mistake has never tried anything new."
"Great spirits have often encountered violent opposition from weak minds."
"Everything should be made as simple as possible, but not simpler."
"Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by age eighteen."
"Science is a wonderful thing if one does not have to earn one's living at
it."
"The secret to creativity is knowing how to hide your sources."
"The only thing that interferes with my learning is my education."
"God does not care about our mathematical difficulties. He integrates
empirically."
"The whole of science is nothing more than a refinement of everyday thinking."
"Technological progress is like an axe in the hands of a pathological
criminal."
"Peace cannot be kept by force. It can only be achieved by understanding."
"The most incomprehensible thing about the world is that it is
comprehensible."
"We can't solve problems by using the same kind of thinking we used when we
created them."
"Education is what remains after one has forgotten everything he learned in
school."
"The important thing is not to stop questioning. Curiosity has its own
reason for existing."
"Do not worry about your difficulties in Mathematics. I can assure you mine
are still greater."
"Equations are more important to me, because politics is for the present,
but an equation is something for eternity."
"If A is a success in life, then A equals x plus y plus z.
Work is x; y is play; and z is keeping your mouth shut."
"Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure
about the the universe."
"As far as the laws of mathematics refer to reality, they are not certain, as
far as they are certain, they do not refer to reality."
"Whoever undertakes to set himself up as a judge of Truth and Knowledge
is shipwrecked by the laughter of the gods."
"I know not with what weapons World War III will be fought, but World War IV
will be fought with sticks and stones."
"In order to form an immaculate member of a flock of sheep one must, above
all, be a sheep."
"The fear of death is the most unjustified of all fears, for there's no risk
of accident for
someone who's dead."
"Too many of us look upon Americans as dollar chasers. This is a cruel
libel, even if it is reiterated thoughtlessly by the Americans themselves."
"Heroism on command, senseless violence, and all the loathsome nonsense that
goes by the name of patriotism -- how passionately I hate them!"
"No, this trick won't work...How on earth are you ever going to
explain in terms of chemistry and physics so important a biological
phenomenon as first love?"
"My religion consists of a humble admiration of the illimitable
superior spirit who reveals himself in the slight details we are able
to perceive with our frail and feeble mind."
"Yes, we have to divide up our time like that, between our politics and our
equations. But to me our equations are far more important, for politics are
only a matter of present concern. A mathematical equation stands forever."
"The release of atom power has changed everything except our way of
thinking...the solution to this problem lies in the heart of mankind. If
only I had known, I should have become a watchmaker."
"Great spirits have always found violent opposition from
mediocrities. The latter cannot understand it when a man does not
thoughtlessly submit to hereditary prejudices but honestly and
courageously uses his intelligence."
"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the
source of all true art and all science. He to whom this emotion is a
stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as
good as dead: his eyes are closed."
"A man's ethical behavior should be based effectually on sympathy, education,
and social ties; no religious basis is necessary. Man would indeeded be in a
poor way if he had to be restrained by fear of punishment and hope of reward
after death."
"The further the spiritual evolution of mankind advances, the more certain it
seems to me that the path to genuine religiosity does not lie through the
fear of life, and the fear of death, and blind faith, but through striving
after rational knowledge."
"Now he has departed from this strange world a little ahead of me.
That means nothing. People like us, who believe in physics, know
that the distinction between past, present, and future is only a
stubbornly persistent illusion."
"You see, wire telegraph is a kind of a very, very long cat. You pull his
tail in New York and his head is meowing in Los Angeles. Do you understand
this? And radio operates exactly the same way: you send signals here, they
receive them there. The only difference is that there is no cat."
"One had to cram all this stuff into one's mind for the
examinations, whether one liked it or not. This coercion had
such a deterring effect on me that, after I had passed the
final examination, I found the consideration of any scientific
problems distasteful to me for an entire year."
"...one of the strongest motives that lead men to art and science is
escape from everyday life with its painful crudity and hopeless dreariness,
from the fetters of one's own ever-shifting desires. A finely tempered
nature longs to escape from the personal life into the world of objective
perception and thought."
"He who joyfully marches to music rank and file, has already
earned my contempt. He has been given a large brain by mistake,
since for him the spinal cord would surely suffice. This disgrace
to civilization should be done away with at once. Heroism at
command, how violently I hate all this, how despicable and ignoble
war is; I would rather be torn to shreds than be a part of so base
an action. It is my conviction that killing under the cloak of war
is nothing but an act of murder."
"A human being is a part of a whole, called by us _universe_, a part
limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and
feelings as something separated from the rest... a kind of optical
delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for
us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few
persons nearest to us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this
prison by widening our circle of compassion to embrace all living
creatures and the whole of nature in its beauty."
"Not everything that counts can be counted, and not everything that can
be counted counts." (Sign hanging in Einstein's office at Princeton)

Tuesday, October 04, 2005

MenuetOS

MenuetOS

This Boys and Girls, is the kind of thing that warms Mr. Gadgets heart and reminds him of the good old days, when men were men and universal assembly language (C) was barely a gleam in the eye of Messrs. Kernighan
and Ritchie.

Want to know why your 3000GiGaPslax IntelMD with 17TerraBytes of Optical Ram will run so slow in 2036?

Cuz' MicroGoogSuNix programmers program WinNetLinSolOSIXIXXXIX in languages so high-level that they have no idea what the code looks like that runs on the bare metal.

Sunday, October 02, 2005

10 Super Foods You Should NEVER Eat!

10 Super Foods You Should NEVER Eat!

Actually, except for No. 8 (specifically Tomato soup) and No.10 once in a blue moon, I never come close to having a problem with this list...

Saturday, October 01, 2005

WindowsXP Tips

Lost the Docs? Try looking here...

Default Passwords

Just the ticket when you need to reset/administrate that box you never bothered with up until now.

Time to change that SSID on the WiFI router to something besides the default.

Oh, don't forget to write down the password when you change it...

Fat People need not Apply... errr... Buy

Apple blames iPod nano screen defects on obese Americans/tight pants.

While I am not 'proud' I am certainly un-apologetic about my size.

It is my business, not yours, or anybody else's.

I am, in point of fact, an Old Fat Guy(tm)

It is shit like this that really pisses me off.

In fact it pisses all of us 'fat' people off.

You might be able to out-run us, but Creator help you if we catch up.

I would have no compunction 'Pressing' my advantage with an arrogant ass-hole like this moron.

Like I said, shit like this really pisses me/us off.

Consider yourself warned.