Quick Post

Firstly, this will be my last post at thepeon.wordpress.com, but don’t fret, it’s only because I am moving.  My new home will be at thepeon.homelinux.net.  If you follow my blog by RSS, please update your records.  This is a big step for me, as it is a self hosted server.

The next bit of news, Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich was arrested today by the FBI on Federal Corruption charges.  What charge you ask?  Selling Obama’s Senate seat. Impressive Rod. You know you and your staff are under an active investigation, but you decide to sell a Senate seat over the phone. My applause on your stupidity.

Really hating my systems analysis class. Decided that is not an IT career in my future.

New Computer

So, after doing a little research and money moving, I ended up getting a new laptop after the milk incident last week.  The wife and I picked up an acer for 499.  Not too bad for a AMD dual core processor and 2 gigs of ram.  I’ve been busy getting the crap off and putting on the programs that I need.  My only problem, the speed of Microsoft.  I’m currently downloading a Service Pack for Visual Studio 2005 at a ice burg pace of 88KB.  Time till down load is still over an hour…  Why can’t the biggest software company in the world with the richest CEO in the US get a little more bandwidth???

Still have a few more updates to get before VS will be 100% compatible with Vista (how I loath Vista’s compatiblility).   I was wondering who has used Vista and what their thoughts or problems were.  After having used if for a week, I will post my thoughts.

How to survive driving in the snow

I have had to drive in a snow storm three times since last night.  Had to go to school for a quiz last night, which was canceled by the way, then had to fight home so I could get some sleep before battling the snow on my way into work this morning.  I had to remember many driving techniques I hadn’t had to use  in a while.  Just as a reminder for anyone who has to drive in the snow today.

1. SLOW DOWN.  This seems obvious enough, right?  But too many people don’t.

2.  Follow from a distance.  Again,  obvious.  4 wheel drive doesn’t help you stop, and ABS only can do so much.

3.  Don’t slam your breaks.  In the snow, your wheels stop very well, but if they stop, your car won’t.  Come to a stop slowly.  If you feel your car starting to slide, instead of hitting the breaks harder, let off of them.

4. Don’t make sharp maneuvers.   If you prevent your wheels from locking up, you will have traction, but only so much.  That traction has to be spread out to your turning and acceleration or breaking.  If you request more traction than you have available, you are going to slide.  Just the basic laws of physics here.

5.  Don’t drive unless you have to.  The middle of a snow storm is not the time to go to the movies or go grocery shopping.  That can wait until the plows have cleared the road.

6.  Avoid stopping in deep snow.  Last winter I saw a car in the ditch.  I pulled onto the shoulder, which hadn’t been plowed.  She was OK, but when I went to pull out, my car didn’t want to go anywhere.   Learn from my mistake, don’t pull over to help unless you are sure you won’t get stuck too.

Have any tips of your own?  Please share them in the comments.

DVD Drive Access via a Network

So, I ran into a little problem while I was trying to install some software onto my Windows box.  You see, I don’t have a DVD drive on my Windows box.  I have one on both my Linux box and my laptop, though.  So, my options were to try and access the drive via the network, rip the DVD to CD’s, or uninstall the drive from the Linux box and pop it into the windows box.  Accessing the drive via the network sounded complicated, especially because I am running two different OS’s, so that was out.  The software I was trying to install was a MS product, so without even trying, I knew ripping was out of the question.  And moving the drive was out of the question because I’m lazy, and it would have taken me half the night just to get the two computers out and open.  So, I was back to trying to get the drive shared over the network.   I use SAMBA on my Linux box to do file sharing with all my other computers.  Samba makes it really easy to share folders over the network, just a right click.  I tried a right click on the optical drive, but didn’t find the share icon in the list.  Oh well, time to head to Google.  With a little searching, I found the 7 lines of code I had to add to a Samba configure file.  Two tries latter after tweeking for specifics for my computer, and the drive was shared.  Much easier than moving the drive over, as I would have had to pull out both computers every time I ran into this problem.  But no more.

My Mini City

If you have time, please check outmy mini city. I have created a town and want it to grow into a fine city.

More proof that crime doesn’t pay

It’s too bad the blade wasn’t pointing down. He obviously doesn’t need to reproduce.

link

I shouldn’t have gotten out of bed today

I had one of those days where I should have just stayed in bed today. I woke up and felt a little more groggy than normal. That have should have been my first clue. I was on my way to work, driving behind a semi as we went to hit an exit ramp when I realized my brakes weren’t slowing me down at all. I quickly down shifted, and was able to slow down just in time not to rear end the semi. I pushed on to work (as I was almost there). The roads were empty (I start at 4:00 am), so I made sure just to leave plenty of room in front of me. I got about a mile away from work when the stop lights were all out. I got a few blocks closer when the entire street was shut down. I later found out that a microburst had hit the area. Power lines had went down like dominoes for almost a mile. I had to take a detour and ended up being late for work.

On the up side, Nick designed a new header for me. I should have it up shortly (if not later today).

I’ve been Taged!!!

So, I have been tagged by Nick and have been charged with telling you 8 tings about myself. So, here it goes:

1. I have the smallest Italian family in history. My family consists of my parents, my brother, and two sets of aunts and uncles (one on my dad’s side and one on my mother’s).

2. I enjoy driving and can’t stand being a passenger. I assume this goes back to my basic need to be in control of situations.

3. I have been playing drums since I was in fourth grade. I have met some of my best friends through both drums and bands. (Nick was a friend of another drummer when I met him)

4. I love the outdoors, although I don’t get out there enough. At one time, when I was in high school, I wanted to become a white water rafting guide.

5. I used to live in Las Vegas and became pretty good at poker. One of my last weeks that I lived out there, I sat down at a table with $100 and walked away 3 hours later with $410. It’s too bad I can’t always make $100 an hour.

6. I only had 3 girl friends before I met my wife.

7. I have received two speeding tickets for going in excess of 90 miles per hour.

8. My dad has come to me asking for computer help even though he works in the computer industry and has since the Vietnam War.

So, there it is, 8 things you all know about me that you didn’t before. I now have to tag someone else. Unfortunately, I don’t know many other bloggers, yet, so I only have my wife to tag. If anyone else wants to be tagged, feel free to tag your self in the comments.

Hannah was found!!

Hannah was found today. At about 11:10 she came walking out of the woods and found the fire fighters that were looking for her.

Her grandfather was not so lucky. He was pulled out of the water at about 10:30.