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I just had to troubleshoot a small problem in my Windows 7 installation, one that had been driving me bonkers. You see, for some reason, Whenever I pinned iTunes to my Start menu, it would show up on the list as “iTunes (2).” This would make sense if there were another iTunes shortcut (or any file named “iTunes”) pinned to the Start menu, but there wasn’t. I tried simply renaming the file, and while it would “let” me do it, it just changed the filename back to “iTunes (2)” when I hit Return. The obvious answer was that there was another file with the same name in the folder where this link was stored. But, where was this file stored?
The exciting conclusion follows, after a word from our sponsors…
Continue reading Phantom Pinned Files in Windows 7
So, today, I washed both of the cars in our driveway. After finishing, I noticed that a hornet (or wasp, I’m not quite sure—it was a dark brownish-red color) was trying to get into the house. The exterior door was closed, but it landed at the doors edge and just slipped right through the crack of the door frame. Now, to frame this, we’ve had three such insects find their way into our house, downstairs in our den, already. This was the door to the den. So, I opened the door immediately, hoping to scare it off. It did fly back out, but I happened to see that it wasn’t going into the house, but into an opening in the frame of the door itself. The door is metal, and there was a small opening at the corner, through which the hornet (I’ m just going to call it a hornet) was accessing the hollow frame. This made me worry that they are nesting in there. Well, the damned thing flew erratically for a few seconds, but then went right back toward the door. I shooed it away with my foot—more of the same. So, I decided that I was going to have to kill it if I wanted to keep it out of my door. I didn’t happen to have a fly swatter, or any adequate stand-in, immediately handy. My only option was to attempt to stamp it with my feet, which seemed appropriate, since it was flying close to the ground. He was a shifty bastard, though. I couldn’t seem to get a good stomp in without him flying out from underneath my foot.
Continue reading Damn Flying Wasp/Hornet Things
Okay, I know that there’s a bunch of oil spewing into my favorite ocean at this very moment, and I really care about that, but why isn’t anybody talking about the fact that humanity just created life?
 Bald, but sexier than you Seriously, modern-day historical figures at the J. Craig Venter Institute have just created the first self-replicating synthetic bacterial cell. That literally means that people–other human beings, creatures with brains roughly very similar to yours and mine–have synthesized DNA (with computer software!) and successfully inserted it into a bacterial cell. The deposited DNA then replaced the DNA of the host cell, creating an entirely new, man-made organism. Then, that cell, a synthetic organism, began to reproduce.
Continue reading Synthetic Genomics
Yesterday, in honor of Halloween, I posted a new story. It’s actually based on a story I wrote in seventh grade titled Aaronville, one that earned me a lot of attention. I don’t have that story any more, so I should say that this one is only loosely based on that one, as my memory of it is weakened by time. Now, if you please, do please enjoy A Night in Magnolia Springs.
No one ever calls them birthday parties anymore. It’s always “Birthday Bash” or “Birthday Blowout” or “Birthday Extravaganza!” Come on, it’s just a birthday party. That’s what we had last Saturday, even though my actual birthday was eight days prior. I worked nearly half of all the hours between midnight and midnight on my real birthday, so we postponed the festivities.
Saturday was chosen because, by then, my coworkers would be back in town from their vacations, and also because Extemporaneous Theatre Co. had a show at eight o’clock. I love ETC shows, and as such attend every new show at least once.
Continue reading Birthday Party
I’ve recently taken to doing Google Image Searches to entertain myself. I’ll think up some generic expression, sometimes one with humorous connotations, type into Google, and enjoy the funny images*. Today, I’ve decided I’d share some. What follows are selected results from a GIS for “oh shit”. I hope you enjoy!
Continue reading Oh shit. A GIS gallery.
A few weeks ago, I decided to make a visit to Wal-Mart. I didn’t have any purpose in the visit, and I didn’t even bother to check the grocery list before leaving the house. This is something that I do from time to time, and it is never a good idea. The inevitable result is my purchasing something that I don’t need, and, in many cases, don’t really even want, but which I feel I must buy, only to justify my trip, which I knowingly initiated without justification.
Now, I can’t deny that such outings don’t typically follow the ingestion of the smoke of cannabinoids. In fact, that is very much the typical circumstance. This is likely the reason that, on the specific instance of which I am presently telling, I forgot to look at the grocery list before leaving the house. Actually, I did think of the grocery list after I locked the door, but it was too late at that point. I had to catch the traffic light, and the lock on that damned door always sticks, slowing me down.
That fucking traffic light. If you don’t catch it, you’ll wait there for seventeen years, and that’s God’s truth. Of course, as the Bible clearly illustrates, God has a really screwed up sense of time, so that explains that. It’s probably more like two minutes, and that is way too long. It wouldn’t be so bad if there was traffic there, but there isn’t. You just sit there and stare at a desolate road, and feel like a dunce because the only thing keeping you from moving is a light that holds no real power over you. It’s not like red light has the ability to arrest your engine’s power. Not at all. Police have the ability to arrest me, though, if I run a traffic light. Well, I’m sure that isn’t true, but they can write me a ticket. Goddamn tickets can break you fast.
Continue reading Nothing that follows is factual…
Jennifer and I went to Six Flags Over Georgia in Atlanta last Sunday, along with my younger sister Katie. I was really excited about the trip, and we all succeeded in having a lot of fun. Yes, we enjoyed ourselves, in spite of the apparent efforts of the staff to keep us from doing so.
Let me start, however, with the nice things that I have to say. The tickets were very fair; only $29.99 at the gate. We got ours at a discount through the UAB ticket office, a perk of Jennifer’s employment, saving us a cool $4 per ticket. That’s a total savings of $12 on three tickets, which was almost enough to cover the souvenir cup that allowed us free refills all day ($12.99). Oh, that souvenir cup—more on that later.
The crowd was not at all bad. We may have had to wait an hour at the new and improved (sarcasm intended) Monster Mansion (previously Monster Plantation), but I don’t think it was even quite that long there. I think we waited an half hour at Batman: The Ride, fifteen minutes at Mindbender, and ten at Goliath, which we rode twice (we needed to ride that one multiple times out of principle—again, more that later). The longest wait was, by far, Superman. We were there for something in the vicinity of ninety minutes. If I could have picked a line to be in for ninety minutes, Superman would not have been it. You’re going to find out why.
Continue reading Six Flags Over Georgia in 2009 – A Horror Story
I recently searched for a good, simple tutorial for using DVD Shrink for a friend. Given the ubiquity of the program for its purpose, I expected to have a wide array of tutorials to choose from. Well, there were a few, but they were, to be generous, lacking. So, naturally, my solution was to write one myself. The results are what follows.
Of course, the first thing you’ll want to do is download the program. It’s freeware, but the legality of its purposes are questionable, and so I won’t provide any links here. A simple Google search will almost certainly be fruitful, however.
Once you have located and downloaded the file, install the program. It’s a single file installation, so you can run it from within the .zip archive, if you want.
After the installation has completed, launch the program. You can use the desktop shortcut or Start menu shortcut, the latter of which is located in a top-level folder within your Start menu’s Programs folder, labeled “DVD Shrink.”
Okay, now we’re ready to copy a DVD.
Continue reading DVD Shrink Tutorial
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