The Ramblings of Ken

Where did 2005 go? It got away way too quickly.

Since I haven't posted very much this month, I figured that I needed to at least post one last time in 2005.

2006 will be a good year. I am getting back into college and going to finally get straightened out so I can finish up my degree. I feel like 2006 is going to be a life changing year for me. Something very big is going to happen to me. I just feel that way. Don't ask for a bigger explanation because you won't get one.

Let's all do better in 2006! Let's be the best people that we can be!

For all of you who have been patiently waiting for my blog to come back online, today is your lucky day. It has been down for one week because I cancelled my Comcast High Speed Internet to get Qwest DSL. Comcast's service has degraded too much in my area since it got cold and snowy. It has also become too expensive. Qwest DSL is much cheaper and has a higher upload speed. That will be nice for me.

For all of you who have been impatient, I'm sorry. You need to learn more patience. You know who I'm talking about :P

Well, I am now a quarter of a century old. I have met a lot of good people during my 25 years of life. I have passed through very many special experiences. I have also passed through very many horrible experiences. Life has been a good learning experience for me.

I look forward to the, hopefully, 75 years of life that I have yet ahead of me. There will be many ups and downs. There will be many hard times; there will also be many wonderful and exciting times. We all pass through the experiences and challenges that we need to pass through for our own benefit. I look forward to those experiences that will strengthen me and mold me into a better person.

I thank all of you who have touched my life for the past 25 years. Thank you for your examples to me. Thank you for your support. Thank you for your patience with me. Thank you for your kindness. Thank you for your helping hand. Thank you for your friendship.

I won't name any names in particular except for my parents. Thank you mom and dad for helping me to become the person that I am!

The best webmail service out there just got better! Gmail now has virus protection integrated into their email service. Maybe I should uninstall my virus scanner now and let other people's computers use their resources to scan all of my viruses. I bet this works with Gmail Drive! That would be awesome...

(Image courtesy of Google)

Microsoft has just announced the release of their OneCare Beta. OneCare will integrate a firewall, virus scanner, and backup utility into one package. Read more at this InformationWeek story.

I'm confused here. Why doesn't Microsoft work on closing the holes in their operating system and not allowing viruses to exist on their operating system in the first place? Instead they buy up software security companies and use their hard work to patch up the problem instead of fixing it at the source. I would have to say that I don't agree with this move.

(Image courtesy of Microsoft)

For all of you Firefox fans out there (if you don't think you are a Firefox fan, YOU ARE!), Mozilla Firefox 1.5 was just released! Get it while its hot! Get it at http://www.mozilla.com/

(Image courtesy of the Mozilla Coporation)

Okay, guys, I have over done it. I don't need an MSN Messenger account for each computer that I am on. I am going back to having ONE MSN Messenger account. You can delete all of them off of your contact lists besides kennypoo <at> gmail.com. That is the one I will be using. If you need to know where I am at and which computer I am using at the time, it will be reflected in the display picture that I am using at the time.

I am on TV guys! Well, at least in Utah, on Comcast viewers' televisions. I am in the Comcast Cares Day commercial. Look for me in a black Comcast Cares Day t-shirt (like everyone else) and a Denver Broncos cap. I don't think this commercial plays anywhere else except for here in Utah, so I won't be that famous.

(Image courtesy of Comcast)

Linux is awesome! It can run on anything that has some kind of a processor in it. I love it! I was way excited when I found out about six months ago that you can install a version of Linux on the WRT54G family of routers!

Well, I am using a version called OpenWRT (http://openwrt.org). OpenWRT opens up your router to a whole new world of possiblities. For example, I was able to turn one of my routers into a wireless card for my computer! I pretty much reversed the functionality! OpenWRT is also what allowed me to have a statistics page on my site. You can install a variety of Linux programs on the router and run them.

The latest version of OpenWRT (Whiterussian RC4) just came out. It now, finally, includes a web interface so that even newbies can run it. It is way easy to use the web interface to change the router's basic settings. However, you have so much more power and control over the router's functions than you do with the firmware that comes installed on it from the factory.

Way to go OpenWRT team!

(Image couresty of Linksys)

Yay! Daemon Tools for Windows XP x64 Edition has been released! The 64-bit computing community is now happy! I've been waiting for this for a long, long time. I can now play my unplayable games on Windows XP x64 Edition!!!

It sure is nice to see this icon in my system tray again... ahhhh... sigh of relief.




Daemon Tools can be obtained at http://www.daemon-tools.cc

Well, guys, I gave in. I got a cell phone. Here is a picture of the phone I currently have. It is an LG VX-3300.

I had a different phone to begin with. The guys at Alert Cellular sold me a crap phone that really sucks. It was an Audiovox CDM-8910. I brought it to work and plugged it in to my computer and it shut off and wouldn't turn back on! I went back and they tried to exchange the phone for the same one, but I wouldn't let them. The reviews on the Audiovox phone are horrible!

The LG VX-3300 is simply a phone. There are no fancy features, no camera, no online capabilities. All I wanted was a phone, and that is what I got.

Now my friends and family are happy because they can get a hold of me when they need to. I suppose it was a good decision. I am really liking my "mobile abilities" so far.

(Image couresty of Verizon Wireless)

Some of you are going to think that I am totally clueless and that I must live on some other planet. I've never played Dance Dance Revolution until last night. I went out and bought it so that I could have the dance pad that comes with it. I recently purchased Karaoke Revolution Party, which supports the dance pad. That's why I bought the game at all.

I hated it at first, but after keeping at it a little until I was able to do some more difficult songs, it turned into great fun! My favorite song to dance to so far is "I Just Wanna Live" by Good Charlotte. I am going to have to practice a lot, though, to get really good at it. Anybody want to have a DDR party???



(Image courtesty of amazon.com)

If you search for "Ken's Ramblings" my site comes up as the very last hit. Here is a better search... I come up as the only result...

Google Search for my site

I finally found a fix to this annoying problem!!! Windows has had a bug in it where the tool tips in the system tray on the taskbar would hide behind the taskbar, like this:




I would get so annoyed by it! I like to put my mouse over the clock and have the date pop up as a tool tip. I also like to be able to put my mouse over any icon in the system tray and see what program it is running there.

This is the fix... The registry key HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Control Panel\Desktop\UserPreferencesMask needs to be changed from hex:9e,3e,07,80 to hex:90,32,07,80.

Now my tool tips all come up like they should!

"In the end, it seems the only real winner after a hybrid purchase is the environment."

An in depth analysis of the cost savings (or loss) from purchasing a hybrid vehicle can be found here: Is Hybrid Worth It?

So far it just isn't worth it at all to purchase a hybrid vehicle. The cost savings associated with fuel just does not come out to be what one would expect. The cost of monthly payments on the vehicle outweighs any fuel cost savings. Hybrid just is not worth it at all yet.

I decided to put my parent's $350 digital camcorder to use and I implemented a webcam feature for my site. It just sits around and never gets put to use, so I will give it some usage! I don't know if it will stay up forever, but it is online for now. If you click on the picture it will take you to a full-featured webcam page.

Mom: When you read this let me know if this is going to be a problem... :)

Check out the cool new statistics page! Just click on the link on the right that says stats. I have a new graphical traffic monitoring system that runs 24/7. Now I can see at what time everyone is visiting and/or using up my bandwidth.

Two NASA scientists are proposing an idea in which a 20-ton vehicle would tow asteroids away from Earth, should one ever be on a path to strike Earth. Do the movies Deep Impact or Armageddon ring a bell?





From the article:

[blockquote]Now, two NASA astronauts have presented a plan for an “asteroid tractor”—an unmanned, 20-ton spacecraft that uses the invisible bond of gravity to gently pull an asteroid into a new, non-threatening orbit.

“You can think of it like a big elastic band between the two pulling them together,” said Edward Lu, who presents the concept for the spacecraft with fellow astronaut Stanley Love in the Nov. 10 issue of the journal Nature.

The tractor would hover above the surface of the asteroid, without touching it, and use gravity as a towline. If the spacecraft maintains a consistent distance between it and the asteroid, and always tows in the same direction, this method won’t disturb the asteroid’s rotation or composition.[/blockquote]

Interesting idea you say? I think it would really work. It might take a long time to actually alter the asteroid's orbit, but it would work...

(Image courtesy of space.com)

http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/051109_asteroid_tractor.html

Garbage doesn't belong on a webserver. I finally figured that out. I put an .iso image for a friend in the /images directory on my server so that he could download it. Well, I forgot about it and left it there. Everytime that someone wanted to leave a comment the php scripts would analyze the .iso file in the /images folder and try to figure out what kind of image it was. Well, needless to say, it couldn't figure it out and it took forever to generate the comments page. Sorry about that guys.

Moral of the story: If it doesn't belong on your server, don't put it there!

Wow!!! It really worked!!! I followed http://www.jeffpatch.com/?postid=98 and it worked!!! At first I tried rubbing really hard and I actually caused a noticeable darker spot in the LCD. Hopefully I can get that to go away. But, the stuck pixel is now working exactly as it should!!! Yay!!! For those of you that didn't know, I had a stuck red pixel toward the upper right hand corner of the screen. It is gone now!

The Catholic Church announced today that they reject the idea of "intelligent design." They say that the theory of evolution is perfectly compatible with the teachings in Genesis.

See Evolution in the bible, says Vatican

I'd just like to share some of my thoughts concerning this matter. I believe that evolution is real. It has been shown and proven beyond any reasonable doubt that species do evolve. Genetic mutations do, in fact, occur very randomly in nature. Sometimes these mutations are advantageous to the species and the genetic mutation remains with the species and becomes a prominent dominating characteristic of the species.

However, just because of the fact that I believe in evolution it should not be implied that I think that the human race evolved from any other species. I believe that we are on an entirely different level. We were created in the image of God by Him. God did create the universe and organized it in a perfect manner. There is a Supreme Being who is in control over all of this "chaos."

So... I believe in evolution AND in intelligent design. Can't they co-exist?

It is about time! President Bush visited Brazil for the first time today. He gave the only speech that he will give on his three-nation Latin America trip.

We need to improve our relations with Brazil. We need to be good friends. The Brazilian people are awesome! They have a lot to contribute to the world and to us as citizens of the United States of America. I hope that we can have good relations with them and help each other to become better countries.

(Image courtesy of voanews.com)

Here are some pictures of my new LCD screen along with my computer... enjoy

It is starting to get cold here now. The snow level is also slowly creeping down the mountains. Soon it will be here in the valley floor. Are you guys all ready for winter? I am. I love the winter. I love the snow. I love the sports and various activities that you can only do in the winter time. Sledding, tubing, skiing, snowmobiling, making snow angels, and making snowmen are all things that I miss in the summer time. I am getting excited now! When it gets really freezing cold it can get a little annoying, but it is all a sacrifice that makes it worth it. Bring on the winter! I'm ready!

[url=http://www.skithebeav.com]Ski the Beav![/url]

(Image courtesy of Beaver Mountain)

My apologies to those of you who may have tried to use the "Contact Me" function in the menu on the right. It was not working and I couldn't figure out why. I finally figured it out today. My virus scanner has a port blocking feature which "prevents mass-mailing worms" from sending e-mail. This was blocking communications on port 25, which is required to make a connection to an SMTP server to send e-mail. It is now working correctly. If you want to use the "Contact Me" feature in the menu, feel free to do so.

IBM has slowed light down to 1/300th of its speed using materials that are commonly available. This could be the breakthrough that allows computers to run using optical technology rather than electroncs. An optical based computer could run much faster and use far less power than the energy hogging CPUs that we have today. This is exciting news to me!

From the article at ZDNet:

[blockquote]The chip, called a photonic silicon waveguide, is a piece of silicon dotted with arrays of tiny holes. Scattered systematically by the holes, light shown on the chip slows down to 1/300th of its ordinary speed of 186,000 miles per second. In a computer system, slower light pulses could carry data rapidly, but in an orderly fashion. The light can be further slowed by applying an electric field to the waveguide.[/blockquote]

Could we see the first optical computers within the next five years?

Once in a while I will listen to Coast to Coast AM late at night. I find a lot of things discussed on the program to be quite interesting, especially when it does not have to do with aliens, ghosts, and the paranormal, which, unfortunately, is not all that often.

Last Wednesday evening Jerome Corsi and Craig Smith, authors of "Black Gold Stranglehold" were on the program. They talk about the conditions of the world's oil supply. I've always felt that there was some kind of conspiracy going on in the world with respect to oil. In the program the tell how the earth has been proven to produce oil in a natural cycle. They say that we aren't rapidly using up some finite supply of oil that will be depleted in 10, 20, 50, or even 100 years.

From the book's description:

[blockquote]Experts estimate that Americans consume more than 25 percent of the world's oil but have control over less than 3 percent of its proven oil supply. This unbalanced pattern of consumption makes it possible for foreign governments, corrupt political leaders, terrorist organizations, and oil conglomerates to hold the economy and the citizens of the United States in a virtual stranglehold. There is no greater proof of this than the direct relationship between skyrocketing gas prices and the explosion of wealth among those who control the world's supply of oil.

In Black Gold Stranglehold, Jerome Corsi and Craig Smith expose the fraudulent science that has made America so vulnerable: the belief that oil is a fossil fuel and that it is a finite resource. This book reveals the conclusions reached by Dr. Thomas Gold, a professor at Cornell University, in his seminal book The Deep Hot Biosphere: The Myth of Fossil Fuels (Copernicus Books, 1998) and accepted by many in the scientific community that oil is not a product of fossils and prehistoric forests but rather the bio-product of a continuing biochemical reaction below the earth's surface that is brought to attainable depths by the centrifugal forces of the earth's rotation.

Jerome Corsi explores the international and domestic politics of oil production and consumption, including the wealth and power of major oil conglomerates, the manipulation of world economies by oil-producing nations and rogue terrorist regimes, and the shortsightedness of those who endorse expensive conservation efforts while rejecting the use of the oil reserves currently controlled by the U.S. government.

As an expert in tangible assets, Craig Smith provides an understanding of the history of America's dangerous dissociation of the dollar with precious—and truly scarce—metals such as gold and the devastation that would be inflicted on the U.S. economy if Middle Eastern countries are able to follow through with current plans to make the euro the standard currency for oil instead of U.S. dollars.

Black Gold Stranglehold is a thoughtful work that is certain to dramatically change the debate on oil consumption, oil dependence, and oil availability.[/blockquote]

It is time that the US freed itself from dependency on foreign oil. It is time that we use our own resources in our own country. There is an abundance of oil in this country in places like Alaska, the Gulf Coast, and others. We need to take advantage of this and get out of the trap that the middle eastern countries and oil companies have set for us.

(Image courtesy of Amazon.com)

Over this last weekend we had a LAN party in my basement. It was a total blast and I absolutely loved it. However, after it was all over I was too lazy to setup my computer upstairs where it belongs again. I simply took all of the components up there and threw them down somewhere near the computer. I then plugged in the power cord and network cord to the computer and turned it on. So, basically it is serving this website, it is a terminal server, and it is a streaming music server for me to listen to my music at work. Hmmm... maybe when the new LCD comes it will have to become a normal desktop computer again.

I'm looking at a steal of a deal on a 19 inch LCD on newegg.com. I am having a hard time deciding on whether or not I really should buy it. I am leaning toward buying it because LCDs are so convenient when moving your computer around and taking it places. They also save on valuable desk space. Hmmm... unless someone has a good argument on why I should not buy it, I think I will.

This is the one I am thinking of buying: http://www.newegg.com/Product/Product.asp?Item=24-168-005

EDIT: Too late. I did it. I bought the thing. Another impulse purchase that I could have lived without.... oh well... it will be nice to have.

Sorry about the error messages before. I didn't have things configured correctly on my end. You may now post comments to entries without any error messages.

I have a lot of friends and family that have cell phones. Sometimes it feels like they are trying to pressure me into getting one. I suppose I am basically the last one to not have one. I feel like I have some good reasons for not getting one. I'll list them for you:

1. Cell phones are too expensive. From what I have seen, the lowest monthly bill is about $40, and that's if I don't go over on my minutes! That's just too much for me. I currently have a Vonage VoIP phone and I only pay $24.99 a month no matter how many minutes I use and no matter what time of the day it is. I can call anywhere in the Unites States and Canada without any additional charges on my bill. The only way I would ever pay more than $24.99 is if I made international calls to say, Brazil, or somewhere outside of the US and Canada.

2. Peak and off-peak times are just stupid. Why should I have to wait until 9:00 pm to make calls that don't count against my minutes? Why can't I have a cell phone account that is like my Vonage account where I don't have to worry about what time of the day it is to make calls? Give me an unlimited account for $40 a month where I don't have to think about overage charges and I will reconsider...

3. Text messaging... I don't get it. Why would you type a message to someone that takes you two minutes to type when you can just call them and say the same message in 20 seconds? Okay, text messaging does have its benefits. Like, when you are in class you can text message people without being disruptive. My real problem with text messaging is that I am charged for RECEIVING messages from people. Why should I pay 5 cents per message that my cousin keeps sending me, even though I tell her not to? Ridiculous. Yes, I know I can block her from sending me messages, but what if it turns out to be something that is actually important? Plus, I can't block every single number out there from sending me messages...

Those are my main reasons why I don't have a cell phone. Yes, I do have reasons for getting one too, but they don't outweigh my gripes with them. Here are some...

1. Emergencies. What if I get stranded in my car somewhere? What if I get kidnapped? Hasn't happened yet... If either of these scenarios did happen I probably wouldn't be in cell range anyway.

2. Finding people in crowds. Have you ever gone to a sporting event, concert, or amusement park and had a hard time finding the people you were supposed to meet there? I have, but I've always eventually ended up finding them without a cell phone. A cell phone would have made it a little more convenient, though.

3. People can conveniently get a hold of me wherever I am. Well, usually I go places so that people CAN'T get a hold of me. I like to get away from everyone sometimes...

Those are my reasons both for and against cell phones. Anyone else have any opinions to share to convince me to get one or to keep me strong in resisting and not getting one?

OpenOffice.org 2.0 has just been released. It was a very anticipated release, as a product that could possibly give Microsoft Office a run for its money. I tell you now... don't bother with it.

It has not been thoroughly polished and has a few bugs that I have noticed already. For example, try to open an office document from a webpage. OpenOffice.org will crash.

OpenOffice.org also feels VERY slow compared to Microsoft Office. OOo runs on top of the Java runtime environment. Java is slow, end of story. Here are some number comparisons on the actual performance of OOo compared to Microsoft Office:

	Calc 2.0 ODS	Calc 2.0 SXC	Excel 2003 XLS	Excel 2003 XML	Excel 2003 ZIP XML
Create	179 sec	184 sec	1 sec	13 sec	18 sec
Load	141 sec	161 sec	2 sec	38 sec	47 sec
RAM used	234,496 KB	232,932 KB	89,164 KB	41,980 KB	NA

OpenOffice.org takes up more system resources than Microsoft Office, by a long shot. Here are some numbers to back me up:

Application	Memory footprint	Processes measured
Write	37,660 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Calc	37,544 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Impress	44,788 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Base	36,036 KB	soffice.bin & soffice.exe
Word	9,812 KB	WinWord.exe
Excel	7,102 KB	Excel.exe
PowerPoint	6,884 KB	PowerPNT.exe
Access	7,302 KB	MSAccess.exe

Maybe someday we will have a product that can perform on par with Microsoft Office, but that time has not come.

(Numbers taken from George Ou's blog at ZDNet)

Image courtesy of mlb.com

The White Sox just won the World Series. Yay. I actually stopped caring about baseball a long time ago. It is way too boring to watch. Although, I forced myself to watch the last out of the bottom of the ninth inning just so I could tell people that I saw the White Sox win. I sometimes wish that we could associate "America's Pastime" with something else more entertaining.... no offense intended to all of you baseball fans out there.

Not too long ago it seemed like whenever I got on a computer there was always at least one person on MSN that talked to me. Today everytime I get on everyone is away. Where is everyone? I guess I need to go and find some new MSN buddies. :P

So, I have had three girlfriends in my very long life. I have tried to remain friends with two of them over time. I am currently pretty good friends with one of them.

Should you have a friendship with your ex boyfriend or girlfriend? Is it a good thing? I don't see the problems with it. Maybe I haven't seen it the way that others see it, though.

I have stopped being friends with my last girlfriend because, uh, well, things just didn't go right. We were engaged and it didn't work out. It is a little more complicated in that situation, I think.

Does anyone else out there have an opinion on this matter?

I don't know if I've ever really focused on making true friendships before things become more physical in relationships that I've had. Maybe with my first girlfriend it was that way, but that was only because I was too chicken to make things physical. Things haven't quite worked out in my past relationships, otherwise I would probably be married right now. I'm trying things differently this time...

If your relationship with a member of the opposite sex starts to become more physically involved rather than more emotially, mentally, and friendship based then I think you start to get into trouble. After that initial spark and excitement from all of the hugging, kissing, and cuddling wears off, then what?

This time around and with all future relationships I think I've finally learned to do things the right way. There is nothing wrong with putting off the first kiss in a relationship until the 100th date if that is what it takes until you really feel like you've built a true foundation of friendship and caring for one another. The things that you like to do together, the conversations that you have, and just enjoying one another's company without touching are the things that are going to keep you together.

So, if you are a woman who is reading this and are hoping to get in a physical type of relationship with me.... I'm sorry, you are going to have to be my friend first, and prove over time that you are truly my friend. I have been through too many break ups in the past. Things are different now. I am going to marry my very best friend, not the person that likes to kiss me the most.

Image courtesy of NASA

From How we'll get back to the moon (nasa.gov):

Before the end of the next decade, NASA astronauts will again explore the surface of the moon. And this time, we're going to stay, building outposts and paving the way for eventual journeys to Mars and beyond. There are echoes of the iconic images of the past, but it won't be your grandfather's moon shot.

This journey begins soon, with development of a new spaceship. Building on the best of Apollo and shuttle technology, NASA's creating a 21st century exploration system that will be affordable, reliable, versatile, and safe.

The centerpiece of this system is a new spacecraft designed to carry four astronauts to and from the moon, support up to six crewmembers on future missions to Mars, and deliver crew and supplies to the International Space Station.

The new crew vehicle will be shaped like an Apollo capsule, but it will be three times larger, allowing four astronauts to travel to the moon at a time.

Read the full story here: http://www.nasa.gov/missions/solarsystem/cev.html

I am way excited for NASA to be getting back to the moon and beyond. This is going to be so awesome! We need to explore our universe and seek to understand it better... way to go NASA!!!

Okay, some of you just aren't going to care about this at all. Others of you out there might. I have been going crazy trying to figure out a problem at work for the last month! The problem was that the domain controller had a really flaky network connection. About 50% of all packets going out were lost. I had no clue what was going on. I thought that it was the DNS server on the domain controller going out. It turns out that that wasn't the problem. IT IS AMAZING what you can figure out if you actually put your mind to something and quit putting it off!!! I will explain...

For some reason the router gets the wrong MAC address in its ARP table for the domain controller.

On the router:

[CODE]
arp 192.168.0.2
Address HWtype HWaddress Flags Mask Iface
192.168.0.2 ether 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BB C eth0
[/CODE]

It has 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BB listed as the MAC address for 192.168.0.2, but the MAC address on the domain controller is 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BA.

On the domain controller:

[CODE]
ipconfig /all

Ethernet adapter Local Area Connection:

Connection-specific DNS Suffix . :
Description . . . . . . . . . . : Broadcom NetXtreme 5721 Gigabit Controller
Physical Address. . . . . . . : 00-0F-1F-F8-59-BA
IP Address. . . . . . . . . . . : 192.168.0.2
[/CODE]

I have no clue how the router picks up the wrong MAC address. Every other computer on the network picks up 00:0F:1F:F8:59:BA when I run arp 192.168.0.2. What are the chances of another computer sitting on our network with a static IP of 192.168.0.2 that has the same MAC address except for the last letter??? I don't think so. This is obviously a problem with the Linux router. I still don't know why it does this, but I set a permanent ARP table entry in the router now, that has the correct MAC address.

[CODE]
arp -s 192.168.0.2 00:0f:1f:f8:59:ba
[/CODE]

Everything works like a champ now!

I watched Moulin Rouge for the first time last night. The thing was, I watched it with four girls and I didn't feel out of place. I found myself getting excited when everything was working out for Christian and Satine. I also found myself feeling devastated when things weren't working out for them. And, whoa... the ending... um, guys aren't supposed to cry during sad movies, are they?

Anyway, I suppose that women like guys who have a sensitive side to them, but shouldn't there be a good balance between "manliness," toughness, and sensitivity?

Or... do women think that the more sensitive a guy is, the better? I'm sure that a woman wants security in knowing that her man will stand up for her and be able to protect her and her children. However, does an overly sensitive guy already imply to her that he won't have that ability?

I guess I'm a little confused on the subject and whether or not I need to work on my sensitivty and "mushiness." I *think* that having a sensitive side to me is a good thing, but at what point does it start to become a bad thing?

If you are in the Information Technology field you already know what I'm going to talk about, simply based on the subject line above. If you are not, please read on.

I am having to deal with SUE and PEBKAC more and more it seems everyday. SUE and PEBKAC cause more problems for me than anything else. Maybe you've run into error code id10t lately on your computer? I hope not.

SUE stands for Stupid User Error and PEBKAC stands for Problem Exists Between Keyboard and Chair. Did you catch on to error code id10t? I hope you get my point.

Let me give an example. Today I was asked to send out some e-mails for someone because they couldn't get them to work. It turns out that they couldn't get it to work because they weren't typing the e-mail address correctly. They were trying to send messages to briian@domain.com instead of brian@domain.com. Things like that start to really frustrate me. Especially when they think it is a problem with a misconfiguration that I have done on the e-mail server. Something like this happens everyday.

PLEASE don't be SUE or PEBKAC.

I just don't know about this one...

I quote from http://www.aquadoc.com/magsolves.htm:

Awareness of water conditioning alternatives is essential for providing good customer service.

In many situations, hard water problems cause the need to replace piping and water heaters or to use a salt ion-exchange softener. Many times the salt ion-exchange process is impractical for homeowners with heart problems or hypertension because it increases the sodium level of the drinking water to unacceptable levels.

In 1973 U.S. Government agencies identified an alternative method that has been used for over 37 years in Europe and Asia - the magnetic water conditioner.

The system works this way. Conditioned natural water is made up of chaotic randomly positioned molecules.The magnetic water polarizes the water which causes all of the water molecules and the scale forming minerals to be attracted to each other.

As the water flows through the magnetic field, the hard water minerals are polarized and remain in liquid suspension eliminating the problem of these particles clinging to water pipes and the wall of the water heater.

Essentially, scale forming minerals end up suspended in the water and all prior existing scale is magnetically attracted to the water. This is descaling period is known as the stabilization period and lasts from two to six months.

Durring this stabilization period, the scale is removed from the water heater on the tank bottom. It's recommended that two or three quarts are drained from the lower tap on the heater once each month.Manufacturers state that while scale is being removed from the system, green stains also are removed from the fixtures. This is a sign that pipes have stopped leaching (pitting internally).

After the polarizing process, the water is still very safe to drink reports R.E. Myers, Inc. " Those scale producing minerals are exactly what people pay extra for when drinking quality mineral water, The medical community says these minerals are important to our health. Because the magnetic condition also causes de-gasification of water which naturally releases such gases as sulfur and chlorine, magnetic water conditioning often improves the taste of drinking water.

" Another effect is the shortening of the bonding between the hydrogen and oxygen atoms. This makes the water denser and softer. Soap works better, leaving clothes cleaner and softer."

The U.S. Buerau of Interior reports 3/8 inch deposits of scale in the hot water heater uses 48 percent more fuel to heat. When the scale is removed, a more efficient water heating system is created. [/blockquote]

Having an understanding of physics (although a fairly limited one), I can see that this could be possible. I understand that the hard water causing minerals will still be in the water, but that they will be attracted to the water and won't cause hard water deposits. What does everyone else think?

Here is a link to such a device being sold on the market:

http://solargoods.com/docs/efap_pt_mineralmanager.shtml

By the way, I only posted this because my parents got suckered into this one and bought one. It wasn't this model, but I couldn't find a link to the exact one that they bought.

UPDATE: This is the exact one that my parents bought:

Is it wrong to "Google" people?

When I meet someone, sometimes I find myself "Googling" them. I especially find myself doing it if they are a member of the opposite sex that I find attractive. Often I do it just to see if I can find a good picture of them somewhere. Other times I do it to try and find out as much as I can about the person.

There has been a rapid decline in my "googling" for facts on people because I have started to question the morality of it. Is it right to try and dig up "dirt" on people without their knowledge or consent? I'm not quite sure...

So, if anyone out there actually reads this pathetic excuse for a blog, I would like to start some discussion on the morality of the subject of "googling" people. Feel free to comment.

I've recently started to become very close to a certain young lady. For the first time in my life I've really started to analyze the process that occurs when a man and a woman become close to each other and start the process of dating and courtship.

I started to think to myself, "Why can't we just skip over all of this uncertainty of knowing whether or not we are going to end up together and just decide that we are together?"

Then, I got to thinking seriously... What would we have to look forward to if we just ended up together without going through the dating stage? What excitement and suprise would there be? The suspense and uncertainty of things is what makes up half of the fun in dating, even though it may not seem to be the ideal situation for us at the time. I'm definitely becomming a fan of the system of dating and courtship.

What will happen between me and this woman? I don't know! But... I vote that it stays that way!

I am finally A+ certified. It is about time that I went out and got certifications. This is the first step on my way to becoming a Microsoft Certified Systems Engineer. In May I will have my Microsoft Certified Systems Administrator certification. I'm taking it slowly, but surely. I think that's the way to get it done.

Well, I got myself a new toy. I paid $400 and bought this 1987 Suzuki Four wheeler from my brother-in-law. I was always going with him and using it anyway. Why not take advantage of the opportunity and have it with me all the time? Okay, so I gave in to his pressure...

Here are some pictures for your viewing pleasure...

So, on my way to school from work today I ran into my biggest pet peeve! I stopped at an intersection where traffic going east or west has to stop for the traffic going north or south. I was turning left to head north. A guy stopped across from me to cross the intersection and go west. I waited for him, as I should, and he flashed his lights at me. I motioned for him to go and he wouldn't. I get so upset with this scenario! Allow me to show a section from page 21 of the 2004 Edition of the Utah Driver's Handbook:



I don't know how the laws are in other states, but in Utah you ALWAYS yield to oncoming traffic when you are turning left. Don't bring 4-Way stop rules into an intersection that does not have a 4-Way stop! Learn to drive Utahns!!!

Well, this is a day to go down in history. It is the day I finally decided to start my own blog like everyone else is doing. Everyone will remember this day for many years to come.... NOT!!! This blog is going to be like every other blog in the world. I will add a few entries for awhile and then I will slowly start to forget about it and it will become one of the many lost and forgotten places on the internet. Heh... we will see...