2004-09-20 22:46:00

by

2004-09-20 22:46:00
Random Tip From Ben
Do not microwave hamburger meat with the intent of defrosting. The microwave has an effect of making the meat impossible to stick back together into patties. I think I’ll stick to cooking bacon and eggs.

2004-09-16 02:51:00

by

2004-09-16 02:51:00

Ten Days of Bachelorhood
Only four more days to go without DSL then I’ll be back home. In retrospect:

Day 1: Wake up at 6:00 AM, go for jog, try to cook breakfast but can’t figure out how to light stove. Tried for a few minuutes in vain. …found out its electric (it was too early that morning). 

Day 3: Go to grocery store…walk up and down the aisles many many times looking for things. Get in longest line (as usual). Make Hamburgers with hamburger meat…. hamburger tastes horrible…and I should probably think of something to keep the pattie from disintegrating

Day 5: After raiding the fridge discovered worchestershire sauce. Hamburger tastes good this time but still can’t figure out how to keep grease from exploding all over the place making little dots in a three foot radius around the pan… lots of cleanup after hambugers. 

Stay tuned to see if Ben can master cooking hamburgers before his ten days are up… 

2004-08-27 07:44:00

by

2004-08-27 07:44:00
Laptop MP3 Player for Car

I have started a new project of converting an old IBM 600E Notebook computer into an automobile jukebox. I will keep updates on the project on the MP3 Player Project journal.

2004-08-25 20:22:00

by

2004-08-25 20:22:00
Cheney for Homosexual Marriage

“People ought to be free to enter into any kind of relationship they want to.” 
— Dick Cheney

Note that he uses the word “any” type of relationship… I want all my blog readers to pay special attention to the following because it will not stop there. After homesoxual marriage comes bestiality and pedophilic marriage. How about group sex? Why not give marriage benefits to a group of people that all want to have one marriage? After all, shouldn’t you be allowed to enter into “any kind of relationship [you] want to?” 

Latest developments at DrudgeReport

2004-08-25 20:02:00

by

2004-08-25 20:02:00

Airplane Down in Russia
One Russian airliner crashed and another is missing at about the same time. Read the latest developments at FOXNews.com
Update @ 21:10: Just in. The second plane that went missing activated its “hijacking” signal before going down. It has also crashed. 

2004-08-22 23:26:00

by

2004-08-22 23:26:00
Didn’t see that one coming
I found a bug in my anti-scrambler software after Jason called to inform me of a connection problem.

There is a chance equal to the percentage of packetloss that the ping will not return and cause the DSL modem to reset prematurely. The bug can be reproduced when pinging against a host where there is packet loss between you and the host. Since there are a small number of people (only Meredith and mmself) using the anti-scrambler I will write the fix later this week.

2004-08-18 19:44:00

by

2004-08-18 19:44:00
SEC Notified
Open Notice to All Retail Stores:
$200 worth of unpaid mail-in rebates moved from Accounts Receivable to Bad Debt Expense. I’m not a bank, I don’t lend money. From now on I will consider your mail-in rebates malarkey.

2004-08-13 09:17:00

by

2004-08-13 09:17:00
System Alert
Update: Storm calmed. Everything back to normal.

Lightning storm near our West Coast servers. I’m getting additional backup battery systems ready to run but hopefully we won’t need them. If we lose power we can stay up no longer than 2 hours. 

Update @ 11:12 PDT: we are experiencing frequent power spikes. UPS systems are holding.
Update @ 11:27 PDT: on a plus side I am enjoying the rain. |:-)
Update @ 12:03 PDT: Spotted Firefighters patrolling our streets after some massive lightning strikes. Most of the storm has passed. Power spikes occuring less frequently.
Update @ 12:37 PDT: Storm has calmed. Power spikes have ceased. All systems normal.

2004-08-07 21:44:00

by

2004-08-07 21:44:00
Beta One

DSL modem anti-scrambler is here! Jointly developed by b3n.org (software) and killer-server (hardware).

Operation: cron job calls script every minute. Script sends ping to router. If ping returned assume everything is fine and abort. If ping not returned assume DSL modem is down. Activate pin one on parallel port which is connected to the box. The pin triggers a relay switch which cuts power to the outlets for five seconds resetting the DSL modem. Program repeats until ping is returned.