Tracy V's Randomness! C'mon Download the Songs I Have Made, Be Adventurous!! Let me know what you think: You can email me here!Slow Loading ... please be patient!
Sunday, February 29, 2004
Back after a small computer problem...
Back after a small computer problem...
Back after a small computer problem...
My laptop had a microsoft problem, so I needed to copy off all of my important data (this is my work laptop!) and then reload, get it back on the Cisco Network, reload all of my work apps, and VPN stuff, etc.!! What a pain in the ass!!
40 gig isn't enough anymore, and the IBM T30 is kinda slow now, XP wouldn't run fast enough, so I stayed with Windows 2000. I know, I know what you are asking, why don't you use Linux? Well alot of the apps I use for personal stuff are windows based and there aren't any Linux versions of the music software I use.
At least I am back up and in connection with the Internet again, and I can work again!!
Today we are going to a memorial service for my wife's sister-in-law's sister's boyfriend has passed away right before Valentine's day. Of course he was way to young to pass away, but he had a congenitial heart problem. (not unlike the rest of us Humans!!)
So we will be driving to Sunnyvale and be there for the day. The weather is nice so that is good!!
My wife and I worked from home today as the weather was terrible in the Bay Area!! Way to many accidents by 8:30 AM so we contacted the bosses and WFH (Worked From Home).
Just a day of testing, verifying, and reading!! Fun stuff!
I ordered the best guitar book and DVD I think I have ever seen from Musician's Friend called Guitar Grimoire - Scales and Modes. I had been having a hell of a time understanding the modes part and the other ways that I was reading just weren't clicking, but this book makes total sense to me!! The DVD is good in supporting the book, once you get past the guy in the monk outfit (in keeping with the Grimoire theme!!)!! 8^)
Random Question:
Does anyone think the Brats toys are designed to acclimatize kids to accept the features of the described aliens that people say abduct them?
A nice relaxing day ...
Not much got done today...just relaxing.
Then I figured "what the hell!" I will get ordained as a minister!!
So I went online to the Universal Life Church and filled out the form and POW! I am a minister!! I actually did get order the actual credential to be legal, tho!!
To see the credential take a look at it under tracy vierra's randomness!
The Planetary Society: Largest Planetoid Discovered in Kuiper Belt
The Planetary Society: Largest Planetoid Discovered in Kuiper Belt
The Planetary Society: Largest Planetoid Discovered in Kuiper Belt: "February 20, 2004:
A giant object was discovered last Monday, February 17, lurking in the far reaches of the solar system. If preliminary estimates prove true, the object, known as 2004DW, is a full 1400 kilometers in diameter. This would make it the largest body found in the solar system since Clyde Tombaugh discovered Pluto 74 years ago."
Here is some more good space news, we are mapping the outer solar system!! Hopefully we can develop a way for humans to travel there: past the Van Allen Belts.
Wired News: Hungry Black Hole Rips Star Apart: "Astronomers said a star about the size of our sun neared the black hole after veering off course following a close encounter with another star. The tremendous gravity of the black hole, estimated to have a mass 100 million times that of our sun, then stretched the star to the point of breaking. "
This is trippy, my friend Myk and I were just talking about things like stars going nova and other problems from space and then this comes along....something else to think about!!
Yahoo dumps Google search technology | CNET News.com
Yahoo dumps Google search technology | CNET News.com
Yahoo dumps Google search technology | CNET News.com: "update Yahoo dropped Google as the default search technology provider for its U.S.-based sites late Tuesday, signaling the beginning of the end for the Web's most high-profile marriage of convenience.
The change occurred at 9:30 p.m. PST Tuesday when Yahoo relaunched the search properties for its U.S.-based sites, including its Yahoo.com flagship home page. Yahoo replaced Google's results with its own Yahoo Search Technology, which combines an array of recently acquired search technologies, such as Inktomi and commercial search provider Overture Services. Yahoo also owns AltaVista and the Web search technology of Fast Search and Transfer.
Despite the publicity fanfare, Yahoo already started using its own search technology this week, as previously reported by CNET News.com. "
Hmmm...Google is the sh*t when it comes to web searching!! For all types of searches, also check out Google's other services.
Wow the drive home sucked, it was pouring rain the whole way, luckily we didn't need to put on chains even though we had them handy.
We left Reno at 9:00 am and got home, to Antioch, at 2:00!! There are a lot of nice neighborhoods in Reno and the surrounding areas and the people were all very nice!!
People kind of drive a liitle slow, which is ok, but at stoplights people were leaving 2 or 3 car lengths between!! If they close it up a little they would have half the traffic.
Other then that we had a great time over Valentine's Weekend!
We always end up forgetting to take pictures, dammit!! Hopefully we will get better at this in the future...he he!
We had a great Valentine's Day (and night!) here in Reno!!
Man it was packed here as well, today we are going to drive around and explore the Reno area some.
the weather has been great, but still cold!!! Nice and clear and not alot of wind. The mountains have snow at the tops, but some green is still visible.
We made it and all is well!! (unfortunately they gave us 2 queen beds instead of a king...but that is ok!)
It is cold, and no snow in Reno, but there was snow in the mountains that we came through, a.k.a. Donner Summit!
Right now Nicole is getting ready for us to go downstairs and get some food!! Then we will walk around and check things out. Tomorrow night we will go out to dinner and then have champagne back in the room, Woo Hoo!
Might take some pictures, but they will not be able to be posted until Monday night as I forgot that cable, damn!!
Heading downstairs at the Atlantis for some food and fun!!
She even got an earlier flight so she was home by 7:30 PM, we got back to Antioch around 8:30!!
Now it is Friday, and we have slept in late adn now are just getting around to gathering up stuff for going to Reno! I might need to Run to Oakland first, we will see...
The weather there looks good, meaning it shouldn't be snowing for the drive!!
Unfortunately we will most likely get caught up in all of the traffic going to Reno since we are not leaving prior to noon, DAMN!
Oh well, we will get there when we get there...and the room will be waiting!!
Online radio is booming thanks to iPods, cheap audio software and weblogs, reports Ben Hammersley
Thursday February 12, 2004
The Guardian
With the benefit of hindsight, it all seems quite obvious. MP3 players, like Apple's iPod, in many pockets, audio production software cheap or free, and weblogging an established part of the internet; all the ingredients are there for a new boom in amateur radio.
But what to call it? Audioblogging? Podcasting? GuerillaMedia?
'It's an experiment, really,' says Christopher Lydon, the ex-New York Times and National Public Radio journalist, and now a pioneer in the field. 'Everything is inexpensive. The tools are available. Everyone has been saying anyone can be a publisher, anyone can be a broadcaster,' he says, 'Let's see if that works.' "
All Right!!
More exposure for regular people putting out what they want to hear as opposed to Clear Channell telling us what to listen to!!
This is a great article to check out if you like independent media!!
Google spurns RSS for rising blog format - News - ZDNet
Google spurns RSS for rising blog format - News - ZDNet
Google spurns RSS for rising blog format - News - ZDNet: "Google's Blogger service is bypassing Really Simple Syndication in favor of an alternative technology, a move that has sparked more discord in a bitter dispute over Web log syndication formats.
The search giant, which acquired Blogger.com last year, began allowing the service's million-plus members to syndicate their online diaries to other Web sites last month. To implement the feature, it chose the new Atom format instead of the widely used, older RSS.
The battle between RSS and Atom has divided the blogging world since the summer, when critics of RSS came together to create an alternative format. Since then, a raft of blog sites and individuals have lined up behind Atom, while Yahoo has thrown its considerable weight behind RSS."
To be honest Atom feeds rock!! That is what I am using with Blogger, and I am using the standard Blogger account!!
All I had to do was click on a few settings and create a link on each of my blogs and BAM, each blog can be syndicated and/or read in a news reader that can get the updates when you want, it really works well!
I tried RSS and it was very hard to get going and the posts never looked as good as the Atom Feeds formatting!!
I really love how easy Blogger makes online-publishing. So what are you waiting for, create a blog and get going!
The company's announcement Monday that it will exchange stock worth about $3.4 billion for security hardware maker NetScreen Technologies gives Juniper clout in network protection technologies, an area that's been a relative bright spot recently amid anemic network gear sales. The move has its risks, however, bringing the company into markets it has avoided in the past, where it faces tough competition from chief rival Cisco Systems."
I still don't think it will help them, Juniper is good, they have been around for a few years, not half as long as Cisco Systems!!! Cisco also has quite a few Security products, as oppsed to just what Juniper gets from NetScreen.
Good publicity though, both companies stock will be rising!!
Well I am just a little sad, my wife is away to Texas for a class from Monday until Thursday. But when she comes back we are heading to Reno for Valentine's weekend and staying at the Atlantis!
No matter what the reason it is just a little depressing when you have to take your wife to the airport and you are not going somewhere together.
Nicole called after heading out from the airport, but the directions were all screwed up and in Texas everything is just a long road!! Damn! But she got a map at a gas station and called the hotel to get some help and she made it there by 11:00 and called me after that.
The only good thing about her going away is that it gives me some time to go to the jewlerey store and look around for awhile without having to make up an excuse!! Ha!
Well it is late, and I need to finish up with my other laptop then hit the sack.
Today was fun, my wife Nicole and I went to our friend John's place in Oakland and hung out for a bit!! we had some Pizza from Zachary's on College Ave, great chicago style pizza!!
Here are some pics:
My wife Nicole and I:
John taking in his view:
Sunset:
Now we are just kicking back and Nicole is getting her stuff ready for flying to Texas tomorrow for a class from Monday through Thursday.
When she gets back we are going to Reno for Valentine's weekend, we are staying at the Atlantis!
So that will be a lot of fun, I will get to play craps and blackjack, right on!! Gambling in Reno is a little slower paced, which I like, it is a little like Downtown Las Vegas, slower paced and laid back.
1) Being a drug addict is a moral failing and a crime, unless you are millionaire conservative radio jock, which makes it an "illness" and needs our prayers for your "recovery".
2) You have to believe that those privileged from birth achieve success all on their own.
3) You have to believe that the US should get out of the UN, and that our highest national priority is enforcing UN resolutions against Iraq.
4) You have to believe that government should stay out of people's lives but it needs to punish anyone caught having private sex with the "wrong" gender.
5) You have to believe that pollution is ok, so long as it makes a profit.
6) You have to believe in prayer in schools, as long as you don't pray to Allah or Buddha.
7) "Standing Tall for America" means firing your workers and moving their jobs to India.
8) You have to believe that a woman cannot be trusted with decisions about her own body, but that large multi-national corporations can make decisions affecting all mankind with no regulation whatsoever.
9) You have to believe that you love Jesus and Jesus loves you, and that Jesus shares your hatred of AIDS victims, homosexuals, and Hillary Clinton.
10) You hate the ACLU for representing convicted felons, but they owed it to the country to bail out Oliver North.
11) You have to believe that the best way to encourage military morale is to praise the troops overseas whilecutting their VA benefits.
12) You believe that group sex and drug use are degenerate sins that can only be purged by running for governor of California as a Republican.
13) You have to believe it is wise to keep condoms out of schools, because we all know if teenagers don't have condoms they won't have sex.
14) You have to believe that the best way to fight terrorism is to alienate our allies and then demand their cooperation and money.
15) You have to believe that government medicine is wrong and that HMO's and insurance companies only have your best interests at heart.
16) You have to believe that providing health care to all Iraqis is sound government policy but providing health care to all Americans is socialism personified.
17) You believe that tobacco's link to cancer and global warming are "junk science", but Creationism should be taught in schools.
18) You have to believe that waging war with no exit strategy was wrong in Vietnam but right in Iraq.
19) You have to believe that Saddam was a good guy when Reagan armed him, a bad guy when Bush's daddy made war on him, a good guy when Cheney was doing business with him, and a bad guy when Bush needed a "we can't find Bin Laden" diversion.
20) You believe that government should restrict itself to just the powers named in the Constitution, which includes banning gay marriages and censoring the internet.
21) You have to believe that the public has a right to know about the adulterous affairs of Democrats, while those of Republicans are a "private matter".
22) You have to believe that the public has a right to know about Hillary's cattle trades but that Bush was right to censor those 28 pages from the Congressional 9/11 report because you just can't handle the truth.
23) You support state rights, which means Ashcroft telling states what locally passed voter initiatives he will allow them to have.
24) You have to believe that what Clinton did in the 1960's is of vital national interest but what Bush did decades later is "stale news" and "irrelevant".
25) You have to believe that trade with Cuba is wrong because it is communist, but trading with China and Vietnam is just dandy.
The funny thing is that these rules seem to be right on!!
My wife was sick this morning...that wasn't good....then the long drive to San Jose from Antioch, finished up my crap had a meeting postponed so I took off early to beat the traffic!! Trying to head East on Friday sux!! Everyone is trying to head out to the snow.
My wife is going to be heading to Texas for a training class for work, so I will be driving by myself for the week. Dang!
So we are going to have a good day tomorrow in Oakland, our friend John B. lives there and we will all go check out the stuff on College Ave. Hopefully the day will be clear and I can take a few pics from John's awesome balcony from his Penthouse apartment...eewwww!!!
New Scientist - 'Mindsight' could explain sixth sense'
New Scientist - 'Mindsight' could explain sixth sense'
New Scientist: "Some people may be aware that a scene they are looking at has changed without being able to identify what that change is. This could be a newly discovered mode of conscious visual perception, according to the psychologist who discovered it. He has dubbed the phenomenon 'mindsight'."
Interesting...I wouldn't say I have what they describe here per se, but I think most people have the capacity to use their brains as a sensory organ; or using your feelings.
How much we are able to use it depends on how much time we spend honing that ability, with meditation, yoga, etc.
We had quite a problem today with the SVLUG meeting (the meeting finally got started!!) check this out:
First: They switched the room to the other side (No Biggie, except I walked in to where it was supposed to be and the room was TRASHED!! Then I found the AV Guys and they told me that they had my meeting in this room (The one they were setting up!!) whew!!
Second: Since January 1st, 2004 we have had to have Security at the SVLUG meeting, and they want to have all attendees fill out a temp badge and have a picture ID. DAMN! Well that slowed everything up; there was one guy doing the badges and he wouldn't let the individuals fill out their own badges, so that created a big bottleneck at the door! So we started 30 minutes late!!
Third: The Speaker Coordinator was quite upset at the security problems and stormed out in a fuss, so that kinda sucked.
Fourth: The svlug.org server is down, DAMN!
But the speaker Bruce Moxon (from Panasas) is speaking on:
Cluster Computing Data Management: Experiences and Best Practices
Now that the meeting has finally started the speaker, Bruce, rocks!! Check Panasas' website to read on their cluster solution.
More after the presentation is done.
Here is a picture of me before the meeting: (Notice I am smiling, this is right before the disaster!)
1st Wednesday of the month...and the moon is full!
1st Wednesday of the month...and the moon is full!
I know....who cares if it is the first wednesday of the month? Well I do, as it is the scheduled SVLUG (Silicon Valley Linux Users Group) in San Jose and I set up the room for us to hold the meeting at Cisco Systems.
There are usually good speakers relating to Linux, and a good question and answer session afterwards!!
Here is what is happening tonight:
Bruce Moxon, Manager, Vertical Markets, Panasas
Topic: Cluster Computing Data Management: Experiences and Best Practices
I made a MOSIX Cluster 2 years ago, and it was fun...I just didn't have anything for it to do other then encoding MP3s.
I love linux, since the first time I used it over 10 years ago, it has come along way...and is still gaining!! So give it a try on an older computer and see how it works for you!
Busy Day!!
Automating Testcases, loading BDM machines, verifying software bugs (I am a Software Test Engineer at Cisco Systems) All I need to do is get my expected data to work correctly and I am set!!
Then tonight before the SVLUG meeting I have an interview with a Grad Student at SFSU who is doing a research paper on Open Source Software so I am happy to help with that!
But I will be here in San Jose until about 9:30 PM then the 75 mile drive back to Antioch!! At lease at that time the morons are mostly off the road, People just don't understand "Slower Traffic Keep Right" !!!! That is the code of the road....he he!
Well more later, I am in a meeting and need to get back to it!
Finally made it home after a long day, but I was able to stop at Targetmasters (in Milpitas, CA) and put some .38 Special and .357 Magnum rounds through the Taurus Model 66, and it shoots perfect!!
Really smooth and the 6 inch barrel makes the groups smaller at 25 yards!!
So now I need to clean it for Thursday when I take Nicole shooting, we will bring the .45 and the .357 see what fun we can have. The only bummer is these indoor places always have so many rules: no rapid fire, no double-tap, no head-shots, etc. Why can I not practice head shots? I always let a headshot in there every 20 or so. He He!
But for the most part Targetmasters will be a good place to waste some time after work, and to teach my wife to shoot!
What a drive!! Peaople seem to get stupider and stupider with the commute, when it seems to open up, people want to go slow in the left lane, or drive right next to someone else without leaving any room for cars to go!!
Keep the flow moving....use the force....or hang up the cell phone and try to at least think about driving when you are in the driver's seat!
As usual all of the stuff I let go needs to be completed by Tuesday night/Wednesday morning, so that is my busiest time at work Tuesday and Wednesday!! No Biggie!!
On a good note, the .357 Magnum Taurus Model 66 came in and I picked it up today! Wow it looks and feels great in the hand, I am going to stop by Targetmasters in Milpitas tonight on the way home and put a few rounds through it so I can see how it feels, then maybe on thursday night I can take my wife to targetmasters to let her fire it, since it will basically be hers!!
Well I am busy reloading machines,and testing recovery Cds as well as reloading machines to go out to the Cisco Sales Engineers, so more after I get home tonight!
Monday, and I still feel like crap, this is a tough flu!! Well last night was fun, good to see everyone!!! I will have to link to Dave's Pictures (Nicole's Brother!!) since the camera never left the jacket pocket, damn!
Aida, Nicole's grandmother was looking good good after her trip to New York to see some operas! She mentioned liking the one done by Elton John (I don't remember the name right now! oops!)
Little George was having a good time playing catch with everyone, and chasing Molly (the smallest dog!) around the room! Everyone liked that except Molly of course, who came and sat on my foot for protection. Good dog.
Nicole just ran to Starbucks (yes we are addicted!!) and to grab some lunch for us as well. I am going to try and get some work done this afternoon, hopefully this headache will clear up.
Today is Super-Bowl Sunday!!!! So What!? The 2 teams this year are not very interesting to watch, my wife and I will be a t my wife's mother's Birthday party today!!
The game will be on in the background so we can see how much money was wasted on the commercials this year!!
Blind Faith and Envy Remix
