I hate computers. (2003/07/11)
In late May, the hard drive in my Thinkpad failed. So, I ran out and immediately bought a slightly smaller drive, and started copying data around and so on. The old drive could still be used, just only for about 20 minutes at a time, then it would overheat and stop working.
[read more...]I guess it <em>is</em> genetic. (2003/07/08)
So, I’ve always wondered which of my many traits are hereditary, and which are learned. I got a chance to explore these boundaries a bit over the last week, because my mom was in town. A few curious points:
[read more...]It's good to be known. (2003/07/03)
So, one of the points a lot of people miss in evaluating or choosing presents is that the point of a present is largely to express awareness of who, or what, someone is. Any idiot can buy you something expensive; the hard part is buying you something that makes you happy because of who you are.
[read more...]More Cranky User (2003/07/02)
It’s just a first draft, but there’s a book there now. The first Cranky User book is starting to look like an actual book; people have read it. There are gaps, there’s all sorts of revision needed, but it’s a book.
[read more...]I don't understand large numbers. (2003/06/29)
I’m a bit of a math geek by nature, so I use large numbers all the time. Just by squinting a bit and thinking, I was able to estimate the size of the sun within a factor of 2 the other day… Not that this is especially useful. But I’m comfortable with the way numbers stack and interact and modify each other.
[read more...]Mac is back! (2003/06/27)
Well, I can’t prove that all is well, because I’ve had one crash since it came back, but I think that was my own stupid fault. :)
[read more...]My Mac is dead. Again. (2003/06/17)
Every so often, this happens to me. My Mac will enter a state where it is unreliable, and I will be unable to use it for production work, but the reliability will be sporadic enough that it’s hard to diagnose. Yesterday, I brought my G4 tower in to a local repair place in the hopes that they can fix it up for me. I sure hope they can. The crashes it has are exceptionally strange, and I really don’t know what to make of them. All the normal steps have been taken; were it up to me, the next thing I’d do would be to swap the processor module out (it’s a dual-processor Mac, but there’s just a single “processor module”), and the thing after that would be swapping the motherboard.
[read more...]Dark Falls Early (2003/06/13)
Well, it’s not a full issue, but the the cover for the first issue of Metanoia is scanned in now. The first couple of pages are coming along. The web site (not accessible, sorry) is starting to look like a web site.
[read more...]It's sort of depressing, really. (2003/06/09)
Intuit was, for a long time, the valiant little company, standing up to big bad Microsoft. But it’s been going downhill, for a long time. First came the spam problem; they started spamming registration addresses. Then came the dubious Mac support. Then Quicken 2002 turned out to be prone to crashes and occasional data corruption. Then I found out they were NEVER going to fix those bugs, and that 2003 simply added flashy features. Then I finally got data corruption that I positively could not get rid of.
[read more...]My new Zaurus (2003/06/07)
I am typing on the tiniest keyboard. Actually, the C700 has a pertty big keyboard, but it’s still tiny compared to a real computer.
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