Tuesday, April 10, 2007
Friday, April 06, 2007
Wednesday, April 04, 2007
mother fucking WOMBAT
what a fucking surprise
i wasted how much time to try and get our servers ready for this adjusted daylight savings time?
The Daylight Saving change: no savings, no point
By Ken Fisher | Published: April 03, 2007 - 11:41AM CT
The US government's plan to boost energy savings by moving Daylight Saving Time forward by three weeks was apparently a waste of time and effort, as the technological foibles Americans experienced failed to give way to any measurable energy savings.
While the change caused no major infrastructure problems in the country, plenty of electronics and computer systems that were designed with the original DST switchover date (first Sunday in April) failed to update. The inconvenience was minor, and the potential savings were great. Or so we were told by the politicians behind the move.
As it turns out, the US Department of Energy (and almost everyone else except members of Congress) was correct when they predicted that there would be little energy savings. This echoed concerns voiced after a similar experiment was attempted in Australia. Critics pointed out a basic fact: the gains in the morning will be offset by the losses at night, and vice-versa, at both ends of the switch. That appears to be exactly what happened.
Reuters spoke with Jason Cuevas, spokesman for Southern Co. power, who said it plainly: "We haven't seen any measurable impact." New Jersey's Public Service Enterprise Group said the same thing: "no impact" on their business.
So while the US government pats itself on the back for at least looking busy, know that the main goal—energy conservation—has not been met. We can still argue over other supposed benefits, like the supposed reduction in crime (which returns in November?) and the fact that many people seem to simply like the change. As far as the purpose of the move is concerned, that appears to be a total flop.
Congress is tasked with reviewing the change and its effectiveness. With little to recommend it, the future of this latest DST change may ultimately hinge on Americans' preference for when we all get out of bed in the morning. Isn't arbitrary, mostly meaningless change great?
Oh, and if you're wondering why some of your colleagues showed up late for work yesterday, it's because many devices-even patched devices-shifted an hour ahead Sunday, when the change would have normally taken place.
Monday, April 02, 2007
doesn't it just figure
this weekend was a bitch in terms of work - all day saturday we had to update our clinical laptops to a new version, so it makes for a long day. usually we can get started by 7am, but because this was a bigger upgrade, we had to wait for MT to plug stuff in so in the end, it was nearly 11am when we finally were able to get started.
i left here just before 6pm, but when i left, all was well, at least to my knowledge. fast forward to sunday (april fools day) and just after 6pm (so 24 hours after i left), i get a call from my boss saying we have to run an update on all of the MN laptops (SW will have to wait until monday). there were "issues" with things on the back end, so it wasn't anything that we did on saturday that blew things up - at least those of us updating the laptops. MT continued to work on things into saturday evening, and that's when things went south.
so, we all showed up and managed to finish updating the laptops here (C from McK did a bunch before we got it) so i was home by 9pm.
fast forward to today. i was asked to be in for 7am and the first thing i'm told when i get in is that we have to do it again. things are STILL fucked up, so i crank thru getting the update ready and we even get a few done and start testing only to be told to stop.
so here i waiting to be told to do it all again. and just a moment ago as i was hopeful that i could get started, i'm told that we are now having issues on the server side of things.
and here's a lovely shot of the beautiful skyline from my office.
Friday, March 30, 2007
Tuesday, March 27, 2007
*drool*
hardware pr0n
Samsung Announces 64 GB Solid State Drive
Tuesday, March 27th 2007 @ 10:15 AM CDT
Samsung is upping the ante in the solid state drive market, announcing it plans to ship a 64 GB, 1.8-inch model in the second quarter of 2007.
The market for flash-based solid state disk drives which act as drop-in replacements for traditional hard drives used in mobile and portable devices is heating up: Samsung announced today that it plans to ship a 64 GB solid state drive in the second quarter of this year. The announcement comes on the heels of SanDisk announcing a 32 GB flash drive only a couple weeks ago, and Fujitsu announcing solid state drives as an option in selected LifeBook portable computers.
Not only does Samsung's new offering increase the capacity available in solid state drives, it increases the performance as well. Samsung claims the respective read and write performance on the drive have been increased by 20 and 60 percent: the 64 GB unit can read 64 MB/S, write 45 MB/s, and consumes just half a Watt when operating (one tenth of a Watt when idle). In comparison, an 80 GB 1.8-inch hard drive reads at 15 MB/s, writes at 7 MB/s, and eats 1.5 Watts either operating or when idle.
Samsung plans to start mass production of the 64 GB solid state drive in the second quarter of 2007, although the company didn't release any estimates on the unit's price to OEMs or consumers.
Saturday, March 24, 2007
Bastard Gas (according to Bobby Hill)
something tells me that they should be called Corn McNuggets, flavored with a little chicken and TBHQ "The ingredients listed in the flyer suggest a lot of thought goes into a nugget, that and a lot of corn. Of the thirty-eight ingredients it takes to make a McNugget, I counted thirteen that can be derived from corn: the corn-fed chicken itself; modified cornstarch (to bind the pulverized chicken meat); mono-, tri-, and diglycerides (emulsifiers, which keep the fats and water from separating); dextrose; lecithin (another emulsifier); chicken broth (to restore some of the flavor that processing leeches out); yellow corn flour and more modified cornstarch (for the batter); cornstarch (a filler); vegetable shortening; partially hydrogenated corn oil; and citric acid as a preservative. A couple of other plants take part in the nugget: There's some wheat in the batter, and on any given day the hydrogenated oil could come from soybeans, canola, or cotton rather than corn, depending on the market price and availability. According to the handout, McNuggets also contain several completely synthetic ingredients, quasiedible substances that ultimately come not from a corn or soybean field but form a petroleum refinery or chemical plant. These chemicals are what make modern processed food possible, by keeping the organic materials in them from going bad or looking strange after months in the freezer or on the road. Listed first are the "leavening agents": sodium aluminum phosphate, mono-calcium phosphate, sodium acid pyrophosphate, and calcium lactate. These are antioxidants added to keep the various animal and vegetable fats involved in a nugget from turning rancid. Then there are "anti-foaming agents" like dimethylpolysiloxene, added to the cooking oil to keep the starches from binding to air molecules, so as to produce foam during the fry. The problem is evidently grave enough to warrant adding a toxic chemical to the food: According to the Handbook of Food Additives, dimethylpolysiloxene is a suspected carcinogen and an established mutagen, tumorigen, and reproductive effector; it's also flammable. But perhaps the most alarming ingredient in a Chicken McNugget is tertiary butylhydroquinone, or TBHQ, an antioxidant derived from petroleum that is either sprayed directly on the nugget or the inside of the box it comes in to "help preserve freshness." According to A Consumer's Dictionary of Food Additives, TBHQ is a form of butane (i.e. lighter fluid) the FDA allows processors to use sparingly in our food: It can comprise no more than 0.02 percent of the oil in a nugget. Which is probably just as well, considering that ingesting a single gram of TBHQ can cause "nausea, vomiting, ringing in the ears, delirium, a sense of suffocation, and collapse." Ingesting five grams of TBHQ can kill."
YUMMY!
So What Really Is In A McDonald's Chicken McNugget?
The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan is a fascinating book that details the changing eating habits of Americans. I can't recommend it highly enough. It explains how, over the last 30 years, we have become a nation that eats vast quantities of corn – much more so than Mexicans, the original "corn people."
Most folks assume that a chicken nugget is just a piece of fried chicken, right? Wrong! Did you know, for example, that a McDonald’s Chicken McNugget is 56% corn?
What else is in a McDonald's Chicken McNugget? Besides corn, and to a lesser extent, chicken, The Omnivore's Dilemma describes all of the thirty-eight ingredients that make up a McNugget – one of which I'll bet you'll never guess. During this part of the book, the author has just ordered a meal from McDonald’s with his family and taken one of the flyers available at McDonald’s called "A Full Serving of Nutrition Facts: Choose the Best Meal for You." These two paragraphs are taken directly from The Omnivore’s Dilemma:
Bet you never thought that was in your chicken McNuggets!
Friday, March 23, 2007
snap, crackle and pot
talk about your non-sequitors. at lunch today, i was telling R & D about how when i was coming to work this morning, i was behind a car on the off-ramp that let out a large cloud of smoke. as i had my sunroof open, i was able to smell it, and it didn't smell like something i would expect, esp for 830am.
so as i'm telling my story, LO walks in to wash her glad bowl, and i notice she's listening to our conversation. she certainly heard enuff to know that i was talking about pot and she starts to wash her bowl. then out of nowhere (and i mean way beyond left field), she says "oh, a snap, crackle & pop bowl". the three of us look at each other wondering what the hell she is talking about. D hears 'snap, crackle & pot' (based on our conversation) but R and i see her holding her gladware bowl and we both wonder what the hell is she talking about.
LO: you know, snap, crackle & pop.
R: what?
obviously, we know the reference, but still have no clue what she's talking about and so she picks up a cereal bowl someone put in the sink that has snap, crackle & pop on it.
modified post template, 3 before, 4 after
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Wednesday, March 21, 2007
Love In A Mental Hospital
Jim and Edna were both patients in a mental hospital. One day while they were walking past the hospital swimming pool, Jim suddenly jumped into the deep end. He sank to the bottom of the pool and stayed there. Edna promptly jumped in to save him. She swam to the bottom and pulled Jim out. When the Head Nurse Director became aware of Edna's heroic act, she immediately ordered her to be discharged from the hospital, as she now considered her to be mentally stable.
When she went to tell Edna the news she said, "Edna, I have good news and bad news. The good news is you're being discharged; since you were able to rationally respond to a crisis by jumping in and saving the life of another patient, I have concluded that your act displays sound mindedness. The bad news is, Jim, the patient you saved, hung himself in the bathroom with his bathrobe belt right after you saved him. I am so sorry, but he's dead."
Edna replied, "He didn't hang himself, I put him there to dry. How soon can I go home?"
Thursday, March 15, 2007
HUZZAH! now how many trips can we make....
Dunkin' Donuts Puts Winter "On Ice" by Heralding First Day of Spring With First-Ever Nationwide "Free Iced Coffee Day"
Dunkin' Donuts Restaurants Across the Country to Offer Free Iced Coffee All Day on March 21
CANTON, MA. (March 1, 2007) - Dunkin' Donuts, the largest coffee and baked goods chain in the world, wants to help customers put winter "on ice." On Wednesday, March 21, the official first day of spring, Dunkin' Donuts will host its first-ever all day, nationwide "Free Iced Coffee Day."
For 24 hours on March 21, customers can visit any participating Dunkin' Donuts restaurant in the country and receive a free 16 oz. cup of Dunkin' Donuts' premium iced coffee, which is double-brewed to ensure full flavor with every cup.
"We look forward to treating everyone to a free cup of our delicious, freshly brewed iced coffee to celebrate the arrival of spring," said Robert Rodriguez, Dunkin' Donuts brand president. "As the category leader, Dunkin' Donuts has been brewing iced coffee for more than 25 years and we are thrilled to be kicking off another iced coffee season with this all day, nationwide event."
Iced coffee is fast becoming as "hot" as the classic cup at Dunkin' Donuts. While iced coffee sales typically spike in summer months, Dunkin' Donuts has seen rapid growth year-round, including during the winter months. Iced coffee is the second most frequently sold product after hot coffee at Dunkin' Donuts.
According to NPD CREST data, Americans drank more than 450 million servings of iced coffee in restaurants in 2006 - a 16 percent increase from 2005 -and Dunkin' Donuts sold more than 150 million servings of iced coffee last year.
Millions of iced coffee lovers turn to Dunkin' Donuts because they recognize the quality of its iced coffee. Dunkin' Donuts has been at the forefront in developing an innovative process for brewing iced coffee, which has set the standard for the industry. The unique process, called double brewing, uses twice the amount of coffee when making the beverage to achieve consistent flavor and freshness that are never compromised at the expense of serving it cold. The result is a smooth, rich taste sensation - iced coffee that is never bitter or watered down.
For more information on Dunkin' Donuts' iced coffee and other products, please visit www.DunkinDonuts.com.
Saturday, March 10, 2007
you fucking hypocrite. i love the line "there were times I have fallen short". that certainly implies that you did it more than once you lying blowhard.
Gingrich admits having an affair in Clinton era
Former speaker who led impeachment push cites ‘periods of weakness’
Associated Press
Updated: 8:30 a.m. ET March 9, 2007
WASHINGTON - Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich was having an extramarital affair even as he led the charge against President Clinton over the Monica Lewinsky affair, he acknowledged in an interview with a conservative Christian group.
"The honest answer is yes," Gingrich, a potential 2008 Republican presidential candidate, said in an interview with Focus on the Family founder James Dobson to be aired Friday, according to a transcript provided to The Associated Press. "There are times that I have fallen short of my own standards. There's certainly times when I've fallen short of God's standards."
Gingrich argued in the interview, however, that he should not be viewed as a hypocrite for pursuing Clinton's infidelity.
"The president of the United States got in trouble for committing a felony in front of a sitting federal judge," the former Georgia congressman said of Clinton's 1998 House impeachment on perjury and obstruction of justice charges. "I drew a line in my mind that said, 'Even though I run the risk of being deeply embarrassed, and even though at a purely personal level I am not rendering judgment on another human being, as a leader of the government trying to uphold the rule of law, I have no choice except to move forward and say that you cannot accept ... perjury in your highest officials."
Widely considered a mastermind of the Republican revolution that swept Congress in the 1994 elections, Gingrich remains wildly popular among many conservatives. He has repeatedly placed near the top of Republican presidential polls recently, even though he has not formed a campaign.
Gingrich has said he is waiting to see how the Republican field shapes up before deciding in the fall whether to run.
Reports of extramarital affairs have dogged him for years as a result of two messy divorces, but he has refused to discuss them publicly.
Private life in the public
Gingrich, who frequently campaigned on family values issues, divorced his second wife, Marianne, in 2000 after his attorneys acknowledged Gingrich's relationship with his current wife, Callista Bisek, a former congressional aide more than 20 years younger than he is.
His first marriage, to his former high school geometry teacher, Jackie Battley, ended in divorce in 1981. Although Gingrich has said he doesn't remember it, Battley has said Gingrich discussed divorce terms with her while she was recuperating in the hospital from cancer surgery.
Gingrich married Marianne months after the divorce.
"There were times when I was praying and when I felt I was doing things that were wrong. But I was still doing them," he said in the interview. "I look back on those as periods of weakness and periods that I'm ... not proud of."
Gingrich's congressional career ended in 1998 when he abruptly resigned from Congress after poor showings from Republicans in elections and after being reprimanded by the House ethics panel over charges that he used tax-exempt funding to advance his political goals.
Sunday, March 04, 2007
i saw this at borders this afternoon and laughed. at least someone has a sense of humor (most likely some disgruntled shopper)
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