Ok. Today was cold but otherwise it was sunny and no rain. A good day to change the brakes on the van. However, I cannot for the life of me find instructions or torque specifications for a 2005 Dodge Grand Caravan! The Haynes manual doesn’t come out until February 2007. This has almost frustrated me into letting the shop do the job for the estimated $260 which they said will last 6 months then need to be done again. I can do the job for between $75 and $150.
Month: November 2006
Inspired by Cathy and Tommy
A writer writes…always.
A blogger blogs…always.
…even when we do not feel like it.
AtomicTumor site overwhelmed
A flood of traffic seems to have brought down the Tumor. I am sure it will be back soon.
Service Temporarily Unavailable
The server is temporarily unable to service your request due to maintenance downtime or capacity problems. Please try again later.
Jeep Covered
With much grunting and muttered curses, I got the top back on the Jeep. It was shrunken from lack of use and severely dry rotted so in some places the zippers tore right off. It is by no means water tight but holds enough heat and will keep enough weather off of us that I think we can use it to get to the Smokeys and back. In the worse case I hit cruising speed and the top shreds. I put Noah in someone else’s car and drive the Jeep by myself.
A Blogger Has Passed
GoldenAppleCorp has been declared brain dead. I assume that means this is her last offical day. May she rest in peace. May those she leaves behind be at peace.
Take a moment to hug a loved one. Forgive that person you have fought. Resist the urge to rage on that stranger. Make a random act of kindness. Never part company angry. Reach out. Love.
Toys my child will never play with!
What the hell were they thinking
There is also a SpongeBob version so your son can play with his own
One Cold Jeep
So an eon ago the top blew off the Jeep. Mind you, it’s the same top I’ve had on the Jeep since I bought it November of 2004. And, yes, it is held together by bare threads and duct tape. The zipper on the drivers window is shot so the window is held in with wireties. Now, when I say it blew off, I mean the metal strip that is attached to the windshield had a structural failure and half the screws came out at once leaving some bent and torn metal.
This morning I managed to repair the metal and now I’m off to get new sheet metal screws and lock tight. I know. I should redrill and tap but I don’t own a tap set and don’t have the commodity of time to redrill right now. The body shop would eat me alive on a job like this.
The remaining wildcard will be the top. Has is dry rotted to the point of being completely useless? I don’t have time to ebay one and spending the small fortune that a local 4WD shop wants for an OEM top isn’t in the budget right now. Last time I asked at the salvage yards they laughed said, "ebay."
The Return Of Habeas Corpus!
Senator Chris Dodd has introduced a bill to bring back Habeas Corpus and compliance with the Geneva Conventions! Didn’t know Habeas Corpus died? Read these.
The Effective Terrorists Prosecution Act:
- Restores Habeas Corpus protections to detainees
- Narrows the definition of unlawful enemy combatant to individuals who directly participate in hostilities against the United States who are not lawful combatants
- Bars information gained through coercion from being introduced as evidence in trials
- Empowers military judges to exclude hearsay evidence they deem to be unreliable
- Authorizes the US Court of Appeals for the Armed Forces to review decisions by the Military commissions
- Limits the authority of the President to interpret the meaning and application of the Geneva Conventions and makes that authority subject to congressional and judicial oversight
- Provides for expedited judicial review of the Military Commissions Act of 2006 to determine the constitutionally of its provisions
Pacman them resources!
Apparently our websites have been eating enourmous resources on the shared server that does our hosting. The end result is we were flagged to "go away" or buy a dedicated server. It could be the live plugin that I enjoyed so much or it could be my experiments with this website or a combination of both. The idea of jumping from $20 per month to $100 per month to host a bunch of websites that don’t a dime really disconcerned me so, bye bye, live plugin. And that image manipulation stuff has to get gone too.
Gawd its cold
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Woot Off!
We have a confirmed Woot-Off! I explain woot off here. And thanks to Single Dads we have a site that will sound an alarm whenever the product changes! Good shopping!
Wednesdays are harder than mondays
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Kids bounce
Evan just slyly sneaked halfway up the stairs (wood, no carpet), smiled big and laughed at himself. Then as I said, "you are making me nervous" he rotated and in slow motion fell to his side and rolled down the stairs like a log. There is no more helpless feeling than watching your child have an accident that you can’t stop. I think he is ok. Where was Hiro!
Principle 30 – Follow The Lemmings With Care
Excerpt from Alan M. Davis’ excellent book "201 Principles of Software Development
If 50 million people say a foolish thing, it is still a foolish thing. -Anatole France
Just because everybody is doing something does not make it right for you. It may be right, but you need to carefully assess its applicability to your environment (Principles 142, 143, 149, 150, and 151), software reuse (Principle 84), process maturity (Principle 163), computer-aided software engineering (CASE, Principles 22 through 25), and prototyping (Principles 11, 12, 13, and 42). In all cases, these offer very positive opportunities for increased quality, decreased cost, or increased user satisfaction. However, the advantages are available only to those organizations in which it makes sense. Although the rewards are significant, their potentials are often oversold and are by no means guaranteed or universal.
When you learn about a "new" technology, don’t readily accept the inevitable hype associated with it (Principle 129). Read carefully. Be realistic with respect to payoffs and risks. Run experiments before making major commitments. But by no means can you afford to ignore "new" technologies (see related Principle 31).
Ref: Davis, A., "Software Lemmingineering," IEEE Software, 10, 6 (September 1993), pp. 79-81, 84.
The index points object oriented programming to Principle 30 calling OO a "fad" (see Priniciple 31) since object oriented programming is really one implementation of the principle of encapsulation (Principle 65). This is by no means to berate object oriented program, which I enjoy very much, but simply to point out that OO is not always the best solution to a particular problem.
Cool Pool
- Water: 2.500.000 liters of spring water at 30°C, visbility >33m, without chlorine smell
- Ferment: 2 pools, 3 pits (5, 10 and 33m)
- Decoration: Caves at -10m, possibility of fixing of new decorations.
- Never seen before: Three permanent bells of air under pressure (-9m, -7m, air renewed permanently), they avoid ceaseless return tickets bottom-surface of the student and his instructor.
- Technic: 250 anchoring points distributed in the tank to:
- changer the aspect of the swimming pool (for the amateurs)
- adapt it to the need for a film making
- to adapt it to the need for the scientists and technicians
- Changing rooms : Heated, separated man-woman, showers separated, toilets separated.
- Lightning : Natural & artificial
