Dirkus Maximus

Sorry, to anyone who checks this page on a regular basis for family news.  I have been staying pretty busy lately and in case anyone is wondering why Dirk has not posted anything recently it’s because he is busier than me.  We are both still working two jobs and Dirk is busy going to school right now.  He is doing awesome so far, all A’s for now.  He even ended up having to teach his class on Monday night.  The instructor was having a hard time explaining Trigonometry to the class.  After about 4 hours, Dirk asked if the teacher if he could give it a shot.  Got up there and sorted the class out in about 40 min.    As most of you also know by now, Dirk is not working as a trainer for Canon any longer.  He had to go back to doing tech support on the phones so that he can make it to school on time each day.  That new schedule started Monday and so far he hates the hours.  He’s not a big fan of getting up at 6am and not coming home till 1am.

As for the kids they are all doing well, the biggest thing going for them is we have Birthday’s coming up for Andy and Dirk.  I’m try to decide now what we will be doing for them, not real sure yet though.  If anyone has idea throw it out there for me.  I’ll consider it.

Lastly, I had a follow up yesterday with the Doctor after my surgery.  Everything is looking good and I have been given the all clear to lift weights again.  I’ll be starting back on that at the YMCA this evening.   Haven’t been allowed to do that for two weeks now.   Well I will end this here.  I’ll try to get Dirk to post something, if I ever see him again. 

Well I had my surgery today, so far everything is good.  I am hurting pretty bad right now but I’m hoping that will let up in the next day or so.  The doctor told me that they didn’t see anything to worry to much about, the tumor they removed was the size of a golf ball.  I should know more in about a week when they get the test results back from the lab about it.  In the meantime I am just trying to stay in one place and not move to much.  Moving hurts a lot right now!  Not an easy thing to do when you have 3 kids running around the house though.

Dj started school on Monday, so far things are going well for him there too.  He was out today at Hampton Roads Executive Airport, they where letting the class taxi airplanes around the strip there.  I am pretty sure Dj is gonna come home asking can he have an airplane now.  I haven’t had a chance to talk to him yet, but from his posts on Facebook I would say he probably enjoyed himself.

The kids are doing well also.  It’s hard to believe that we are half way through the 3rd nine weeks already.  Addy and Andy both have some work to do on their grades.  Everyone has been keeping real busy though, the girls have been going to Enrichment Club every Thursday at the YMCA.  They get to swim, learn about healthy eating, climb the rock wall and other fun activities.  We are dropping them off on Saturday for Parents Night out as well.  The sad part is since I have to work tomorrow overnight and Dj probably needs to study, we will spend out parents night out with me sleeping and Dj buried in a book somewhere.  Oh well, gonna get off of here for now.  I need a pain killer and some sleep!  I’ll keep everyone posted on Dj’s schooling.

OK, now that I’ve got just about everything on the site put back together, let’s have an update on that nasty AT&T business, shall we?

So, I finally received my iPhone, three weeks after I ordered it. Wes’s phone rolled in 3 days after that. My iPhone case rolled in about 3 days more after that.

AT&T did make some concessions after all the crap and misinformation that we received. They’re giving us 2 months free, plus 1000 rollover minutes, plus that $24 back that I was overcharged.

The ECO iPhone case that AT&T sells does NOT fit the iPhone. It’s WAY too tight. Also, don’t be fooled, there’s no belt loop on the back. It’s just a slip cover. I ended up giving it to Wes for her iPod touch instead. Trying to squeeze the iPhone in and out of there was a hell of a chore, but the iPod Touch fits just right.

Wes is “Okay” with her phone overall. I need to get a microSD card so I can save some custome ringtones to it for her, but overall she seems to like it well enough. She really hasn’t said much about it. I think she’s just still steamed at AT&T for their bullshit.

So how about that iPhone? I’d give it 4 stars out of 5. The flexibility is awesome. The apps are great. The user interface is the standard by which all other phones should be judged. There’s just some nagging things that kinda irk me.

The compass in the 3Gs is pretty much useless in a car, or near anything made of metal. When it’s working, it’s GREAT. When it’s not, it’ll do strange things like show you going the opposite direction of reality on a street, or show the map skewed by 90 degrees.

The phone has frozen up on me a few times. Two or three times while “sleeping”, and occasionally after running a app that uses a lot of graphics or a “heavy” web page.

There are some odd compatibility bugs with some apps. Palringo, for instance. Palringo works just fine on Wes’s 1st gen touch, but refused to pop up push notifications on my iPhone and would scramble conversations from multiple users.

The YouTube upload function of the camera has two stupid bugs; 1) if the phone goes to sleep while uploading, it kills the upload. 2) it always defaults to categorizing videos as “comedy”. This doesn’t even make sense. It *should* remember whatever the last selected category is, and use that. It would be understandable if it defaulted to the first item in the list. Comedy is the second item on the list though, why the hell does it default to that?

There should be a way to actually hide icons you don’t plan on using, aside from just banishing them to the last page of app icons.

The antenna in the 3Gs sucks. Lance has a 3G, and he regularly gets 4 bars and 3G at his desk, right next to mine. I get 2 bars, maybe, and edge. Sometimes shutting down and restarting the phone helps, but most of the time it’s just got crap for reception.

The camera lacks any kind of controls. Even my wife’s old Virgin Mobile phone AND her new Motorola free-phone have neat functions like exposure compensation and preset white balance settings. Not having that in this phone is STUPID, especially seeing as those are strictly software driven items. You put hundreds of thousands of manhours into designing the best touch-based UI man has ever seen, but you forget to add an exposure slider and a simple pull down for daylight/incandescent/fluorescent white balance? WTF?

Lastly, the headphone jack placement. I can understand that there’s not much room for it, but the bottom would be a much better place for the cord to be jutting out. Seriously. I hate the jack being at the top.

All of that said though, I don’t think I’d trade this thing for the world right now. It does so many damn things that I never knew I was missing. The ability to have what basically amounts to a location-aware, always-connected computer in the palm of your hand is incredible. Not to mention I’ve taken up posting to my flickr photostream and youtube much more since I have a camera in my pocket at all times. I’ve even opened a twitter account because of this damn thing.

So, what apps am I using? Lots of free ones. Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a card-carrying charter member of the Cheap Bastards Association. Some of the apps I’m using the most are…

• Echofon – free twitter app that includes automated insertion of Google maps links, photos, and videos. Also automatically shortens URLs. Pretty damn sweet for something that’s free.
• Bump – Contact/image/video transfer between iPhone OS devices. Think old-school palmOS “beam” functionality, but without the hassle of IR transmissions and with the addition of fist bumping. This should be standard software on every iPhone OS device. Apple needs to buy this company, and make this part of the iPhone OS. Seriously.
• AT&T myWireless – AT&T account monitoring and management. Pretty much a no-duh thing to have for an iPhone.
• fring – the all-in-one IM/Skype/video conferenceing app. My only gripe is that you can’t get rid of the damn “Fring Test Call” buddy listing.
• Pandora Radio – This is the most awesome thing ever. Screw both terrestrial and satellite radio.
• I Can Has Cheezburger – You’ve gotta have LOLcats. This is not optional.
• Flickr – The Flickr app is another no-brainer. Honestly, this should be part of the camera app, the same way that Youtube is in the camera app for video.
• PS Mobile – Photoshop… ON YOUR PHONE.
• Naturespace – …zzzZZZzzz… …zzzZZZzzz… *drool* *snort* Oh hey, was I supposed to write something here?
• Pic2Shop – Barcode scanner, with amazon and froogle integration. Pretty damn cool.
• 3D Camera Lite – Makes AWESOME stereographic images, either anaglyphs or cross/parallel image pairs.
• Ping Lite – Awesome little network scanning tool.
• Words With Friends Free – Scrabble, over the Internet. A¹W⁴E¹S¹O¹M⁴E¹.
• Fandango – Finds theaters near you, and displays showtimes. Pretty cool.

I also have a home screen link to Wunderground’s iPhone optimized site on my main screen, the url is http://i.wund.com and the fullscreen wundermap on that page is great.

In conclusion, I still hate AT&T’s customer service, but I’m willing to suffer their idiodicy for this phone.

I’ve been a bit slow on the draw lately, and haven’t been blogging lately. Sorry ’bout that.

Last weekend, Lance, Je’aime, Eric, Saad and myself headed up to Chippokes Plantation State Park for the weekend. Originally, we had intended to go hit the “primitive camping” end of the park and really rough it. Thankfully, my parents didn’t have any freebie primitive camping on their volunteer account, and we were “forced” to use one of the rental cabins instead. I say “thankfully”, because I don’t think any of us realized just how hard we were going to push ourselves after years of sitting behind desks. Well, that, plus it’s hard to set up Xbox 360’s and projectors inside a tent.

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Alright, I’m just a bit closer to driving my little black go-kart of a car again. I just stopped by Tubb’s Used Auto Parts in Norfolk to get a “gently pre-loved” alternator out of a smashed up ‘08 Yaris. They were pretty quick about going out there and yanking it for me on my lunch break, and I’d recommend them to anyone who’s looking for parts on the cheap. Toyota wanted $605 for an alternator, Tubbs had it for $75. That’s $530 that stayed in my wallet, thank you very farking much. I’ll yank the old one out of the car and toss the new one in tonight, maybe I’ll even drag the laptop out and let the world watch me throw wrenches and cuss in my backyard.

Remember how I said comment spamming was way down? Looks like someone’s working on that. I’ve seen an increase in spam comments that appear to be coming from random PC’s around the US, but none of them actually contain any links. They’re all the same, with a commenter address in the form of [some common first name]@gmail.com with a comment consisting of a dozen or so random upper and lower case letters. It looks like someone’s test firing their bots with garbage to see if they work before they get down to business. Hooray for Akismet! It’s already stopped over 52 THOUSAND spam comments to my blog from last July to the middle of last October when the spampocolypse hit, and it looks like it’s vacation is going to be over soon.

I’ve lost about $3000 from my 401K since the month began. There are people in the office who have lost 5 digits in the same time period. I seem to remember saying a while back that we were in for a financial crash because of the idiocy in the mortgage market, among other things. Oh yeah, I did… BACK IN JANUARY.

I think I’ll start publishing my own stock predictions, and make a mint that way.

AWESOME SMILEY GUY APPROVES!

I finaly picked up another i415 from someone here at CITS (Thanks Kendra!) and got it all worked over today. The firmware had to be updated to get the GPS working right, but after that it’s been smooth sailing. I’ve thrown a few custom wallpapers and ringtones on it, along with the Mologogo app. It’s awesome.

THURSDAY is the last day to RSVP for the party on the 8th! If you don’t RSVP, we won’t have burgers, ribs and beer for you! Go check out the details, get the map, and sign up right now!

So, if you stretch your mind a bit or go digging through last month’s archive, you might remember the Gakken steam car kit I ordered. Well, the folks at verycoolthings.com tried and tried to find one, but they just couldn’t. Instead, they’re sending me the Gakken Low Temperature Difference (LTD) Stirling engine kit you see above. It can run off the warmth rising off of a cup of coffee, and it’ll be in my hands on Monday.

A Stirling cycle engine uses the thermal expansion and contraction of a “working fluid”, in this case air, to move a piston and a “displacer” and keep itself running. You can read more about Stirling engines and how they work over at the mighty, mighty wiki.

There’s a video of the same kit I’ll be getting after the jump. (more…)

Lance is calling for an official change of time and venue, and I wholeheartedly agree. We will not be watching Iron Man at the scuzzy Greenbrier Regal 13 at 1:30 on the 3rd, but at the (in)famous Commodore Theater in Old Town Portsmouth at 2pm on the 3rd. (directions) This will be epic. What makes this even better is that the theater isn’t the standard pack-’em-in-like-sardines arrangement of rows and rows of filthy broken folding seats with bubblegum and coke all over them. No, it’s a restaurant, with good food and beer on tap. Oh yeah. Screw going somewhere afterwards to eat and get a beer, we’re gonna do it right there in the theater. Check out the menu here. (PDF link)

Oh, but tickets there have to be astronomical, right? No. Same price as the craptank Regal 13. Seven bucks. The only trick is that you have to get the tickets that day, which means someone has to camp out the boxoffice at 1pm when it opens to buy tickets for the 2pm showing. Lance is prepared to go the distance for anyone who wants to meet us up there, just drop him an email at lance AT butteredpopcorn DAWT net and he’ll pick up a ticket for you. Serious inquiries only, those who make Lance spend money and then bail out will be tracked down and have their kneecaps shattered with a tire iron.

Sorry, I kept getting sidetracked and haven’t written about the trip yet. I hop online and go all ADD, I swear. ANYHOW… as some of you may have noticed, I’ve already posted some of the pics from the trip in my Flickr Photostream in the sidebar. Catch a gallery of images and my take on the experience after the break… (more…)

After a few rough days of recovery, my mom is back up and running… er… shuffling rapidly! They sent her home this morning, and I’m going to go visit her at home tonight when I get out of here. (which is right about… NOW) Thanks again to everyone who sent flowers, cards, and wishes for a speedy recovery!

Thanks to everyone who sent something or even just put her in your thoughts. My mom’s doing great and recovering faster than expected. She had a bit of an allergic reaction to some antibiotics immediately after the surgery, but that’s mostly cleared up and she was up and walking up and down the hall today with the nurse’s help. She’s very upbeat. Her body is still trying to recover a bit, but she’s ready to get the heck out of the hospital bed and head on home. She’s basically going to be on light duty for the next three months, but I’ve got a feeling we’ll have to tie her down to keep her from running out and trying to do everything for herself in a week. Thanks again, everyone! I’ll try to get another updated picture up here Real Soon Now, as soon as I remember to take my camera with me again.

 

OK, so the doctors have given her the green light for surgery, and they will wheeling her out of her room EARLY tomorrow morning, around 06:30. My dad’s spending the night in the hospital with her tonight. I’m taking a day off of work tomorrow.  I’ll be sleeping at my parent’s house and heading for the hospital sometime around 04:30 to beat the morning rush and make sure I get there before they cart her off to the anesthesiologist.

She’s still pretty upset and worried about everything, but I think Mark at work described the situation best. I was talking about how they were trying to get her stronger before surgery, and I made a reference to the movie The Princess Bride where the Count’s lackey informs the protagonist that he’s patching him up because “Well, the Prince and Count always insist on everyone being healthy before they’re broken.” Mark then chipped in with “Well, following that analogy she’ll be storming the castle in a couple of days!” I’m sure he’s right, and even on a respirator I’m sure my mom will be giving the nurses in the ICU hell while she’s recovering.

In today’s update to the continuing saga…

• Mom’s actually using the laptop. I figured she’d be too scared to touch it. Rock on mom! Her temporary AIM screen name is deevdb123 if you want to try to catch her on line.
• They’ve moved her again, this time to room 8400. Apparently she was the only person in that section of the hospital, so they just shut that hall down and moved her. I’m probably going to call my brother to make sure he knows so he doesn’t flip out when he goes to see her next.

All the streets of the Manteo shopping and tourism district have flooded because of the gale force winds blowing the high tide in a few feet above normal. The USAF Heritage Band may or may not be playing tonight, and we just had to walk through several blocks to avoid the flooded streets to get back to the inn. After a change of pants, socks and shoes, we’re going to drive back up to Festival Park closer to 8 to see if they’ve really called it off or not. Dinner was a light snack at Poor Richards, just across the street from the Full Moon Cafe. Good stuff.

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I’ve had this thing for a week now, so I guess it’s time to toss together a review on it.

Overall it’s a really good laptop, though there are one or two little points I’d like to see fixed. Pro/Con bullet points after the jump.

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Wow. Talk about initial release issues. The Everex Cloudbook I wanted has had one after another after another after another after another after another. Perhaps I really should wait for version 2.0 in the third quarter of this year with the 9″ screen and all. That gives me plenty of time to save up some coin.

Then again, many of the issues are being attributed to the demo units having a pre-release version of gOS 2.0 “Rocket” installed, and after a while the unit seems to be “growing on” reviewers who only yesterday declared that the “Cloudbook Blows So Far.” I’ll at least wait for a few folks to get the final revision of the unit in their hands before I make my decision.

 

Andy got a 64 on his project. Sixty-mother-fuckin’-four. Straight up “E“. On a grade that counts for 2/3rds of his science grade for the year. Why? Because the judge didn’t bother to look at or read any of the materials he presented.

He got a “0″ for research. All the research was done, with sources cited in the bibliography of the folder, and a copy printed and included as one of the appendices.

He got a “0″ for “stating the problem”. The problem was posted on the display board, and in the folder, both in a 32 point font.

He got a “0″ for testing procedure, for not stating what the independent variable (the thing he’s changing) and the dependent variable (the thing he’s measuring) were. These were listed on the procedure page both on the display board and in the binder in a 32 point font, and on the graph on the display board.

He got a “0″ for not listing the “constants”. Last time I checked, the standard for “one inch” in the imperial measurement system was pretty goddamned static.

He got a “0″ for not having a “control” example. Umm… how are you supposed to do that in this case? “Putting no fuel in the cannon and not firing it results in the cannon not firing” sounds pretty dumb to me.

The notes REALLY killed me. “Confusing. Cannon as a projectile – I thought camera cannon.” LOL WUT? At what point in the title of this project was a camera mentioned? If I see something labeled “Film Can Cannon”, I’m going to assume it’s a cannon that shoots film cans, or a cannon made out of a film can. In this case it’s both. Nothing confusing there, unless you’ve been huffing exhaust fumes again. And what the fuck is a “camera cannon”? I’ll be damned if I’m going to let him shoot my camera down the street as a projectile, thank you very much. “Impact damage” much?

“more graphs using measurements” Gee, I knew we should have maybe done some kind of data recording, and maybe entered it into a spreadsheet program and maybe printed a couple copies for the binder and the display board. Why didn’t we think if that? Oh wait, WE DID.

So this shitbag then gives my son a 64, then writes “good job”. Yeah, you’re number one in my book too, buddy. To quote the mooninites, “I hope they can see this, because I’m doing it as hard as I can.”