Western Digital stock price higher than Seagate's today

Bricks, not ceramic tiles

Ceramic tiles?!?!?!? Don't these folks know anything? If you're gonna put some thing in a disk drive box other than a disk drive it's tradition to use a brick not ceramic tiles. I saw an article called, "Best Buy Customer Gets Box Full of Bathroom Tiles Instead of Hard Drive", on slashdot where a consumer claims to have bought a disk drive box with ceramic tiles in it. Here we go again...

Laptop vs. Desktop Computers

I used to think that a good desktop computer was the way to go. They're cheaper, more powerful, more easily expanded if desired, and have way cooler peripherals. But I think I'm changing my mind and may start replacing my desktop PCs with laptops. The Santiago Canyon fire is close to us, very close. Close enough that we've packed the cars just in case. So, when you're preparing to evacuate what do you grab? The important papers, the jewelry, the pictures, the wedding album, and the really expensive stuff - at least until your car is full. But wait a second, the hard drive is full of pictures that were never printed and all sorts of important paperwork that never got backed up. What about that stuff? Well, I got most of the My Documents folders onto a portable hard drive but did I get everything? One computer was copying files for several hours and was only half done. We wound up disconnecting it and throwing it into the car as well. A laptop would've been so much easier. Couple that with a networked hard drive running regular backups and you got something that is a lot easier for the grab and go. Time to upgrade...

New Goals

I was cruising the Internet wasting time and I found these two ideas in the How To Wiki that I must try out. They'll be added to my 43 things.
The first is carbque-ing. I hafta do that some day just to try it out. My engine runs nice and hot in the Expidition so I'm sure it'll cook fast, if I can get to stay on the engine.
The second is a lasagne in the dishwasher. I have to try that out as well. It just sounds like too much fun to do. Let's do dinner, lasagne, at my place.

Woot!

I really don't like it when this:

becomes this:

I think I have a Woot addiction. I got a few things in the Woot Off! tonight. I was really hoping for a Big Orange Creamsicle but I didn't see one. :-(

Fishing

A few weeks back G. and I and some other folks went fishing out at Irvine Lake to try to catch some catfish. We never did catch a catfish but we did convince a few blue gills to get stuck on our hooks. I think this is G.'s first fish - I'm not really sure. This one came home and got eaten. A few weeks later we were out with Dana Wharf Sport Fishing in Dana Point for a twilight trip and got a few more fish. We just bought some deep sea gear to go out again.

SleepTracker?

This headline came across my PC from Crave: 'SleepTracker' watch knows when to wake you so I just had to track this down. The website for the company that makes the watch is at http://www.sleeptracker.com/. It's an interesting concept, give the watch a 90 minute period window in which to wake you and it will go off at the optimal time. You're supposed to wake up refreshed instead of groggy. If this really worked it'd be pretty cool. Do you have any personal experience with one of these things? Should I get one?

How 'bout them Rockies?

Colorado Rockies baseball team that is. Playing the San Diego Padres in a an extended season one game playoff for the National League Wildcard. They played 162 games in the regular season and now they've played another 9 innings and none of it counts. Extra innings for game #163. It's down to a sudden death overtime situation and a single inning, the 13th inning. Wow! Yea Rockies! The Padres played a good game, gotta give them an appreciative shout as well. Yea, Padres!

The Rockies are heading to Philly.

I would've liked to see this be a 2/3 series as any team can win any game on any day and a three game series would've really settled the idea of who is better.

Funny Algebra

I found this image on the net in the extended entry of May 5, 2007 on some one else's blog:

It really made me laugh. The innocence of those learning algebra...

First earthquake today

This morning I felt my first earthquake, a magnitude 3.4 near Lake Elsinore, about 15 miles away. It was a single bump. I was sitting at my desk at work when it happened. My first thought was that someone had bumped into the cube wall pretty hard. Then I realized that the ceiling tiles fluttered at the same time and I thought that someone had run into the side of the building. Finally, I realized it was an earthquake. It seems it was just a little aftershock, nbd. All of the latest quakes that I might feel can be found here.

10 Tagged Cars

CNN Money tagged 10 cars with bad or unfortunate reputions. The picked on my beloved Vega, my mom's Chevette, and several others. Many of the cars got a reputation worse than they deserved but you can't control public opinion, can you? I'll have to defend the Vega some other time.

TV Quote (words to live by)

Just heard this on some TV show:

"If I'm gonna sleep in a rental car I'm not gonna do it sober."

Aerogel, Frozen Smoke

Very cool. NASA has created a company that has created a new material. It's called aerogel and it's nick name is frozen smoke. I first read about it here. I do believe that it has the ability to change the world. It seems that this was on CNN.com in May 2002. I'm a little behind.

Can't Delete Files?

DragonHawk wrote an article on SlashDot that got my attention. The title is "DMCA Means You Can't Delete Files On Your PC?". It's worth a read. It seems that some of the things we agree to means we can't delete files off of our PC. Amazing.

When is two equal to three?

From the quote of the day:

2 is not equal to 3, not even for large values of 2.
- Grabel's Law

Somethings that make me go, hmmmm....

Millions long for immortality who don't know what to do with themselves on a rainy Sunday afternoon.

- Susan Ertz

I'm not so sure I'd know what to do with myself on a rainy Sunday afternoon. Do you?

Secret Virtues

I saw this quote on the quote of the day gadget on my Google home page the other day:

No one gossips about other people's secret virtues.
- Bertrand Russell

Wouldn't this world be a better place if folks DID gossip about other people's secret virtues.

Fish ‘n Flush?

Fish in the toilet? This article makes me want to claim that now I've seen it all. Past experience though, says that I'll say this again soon. The internet is an amazing place...

This is such a stoopid idea that I think I want one except that it doubles the cleaning time of the toilet - once for the "stuff" that I've made and another for the "stuff" that the fish have made. Would my aim be less accurate because I was watching the fish? I'll let you know if I ever get one of these things.

The truth about the Federal Reserve Banks?

In an article on Bloomerg.com by William Pesek titled "Subprime Mess Finds Central Banks in Their Prime" there is a paragraph that really caught my attention:

"William Greider's concerns about central banks are as potent in 2007 as they were in 1989, when he published "Secrets of the Temple: How the Federal Reserve Runs the Country.'' Concentrating so much power in the hands of a few unelected officials is a dangerous situation."

How very interesting. I've longed maintained that creating the Federal Reserve Bank system was a huge mistake for the United States. Personally, I'd like to see the Federal Reserve Bank system abolished and go back to either a gold or silver standard and give our money intrinsic value.