October 2007

There were 50 posts published in October 2007 (this is page 2 of 5).

hhgregg opens today

I read with interest in today’s paper that hhgregg is opening up two stores in Raleigh today. Being a geek, the more electronics stores the better. Then I read further in today’s article that the salespeople work on commission.

Whoopsie.

That’s the very reason I don’t go into Circuit City anymore (well, that and their disastrous backing of Divx): no one wants a salesperson hanging on you like a cheap suit. While you may sometimes have trouble finding a salesperson in Best Buy, if you’re clueful about what you need you can save yourself a bunch of hassle.

I’ll give hhgregg a try but the minute I get hassled in the store I’m switching back to Best Buy.

Thunder!

I’m listening to the glorious sound of thunder this morning. It’s mesmerizing! The forecast calls for widespread rain for the next few days: just what this area needs!

I may bring the laptop out to the porch and enjoy the show.

Woman narrowly escapes as car gets hit by train

The kids were asking to see a train video tonight, so I searched YouTube for ‘train’ and came up with a remarkable video of an incident one week ago in Greer, SC. A woman got lost driving at night and got her car stuck on the track. A policeman gets her out seconds before an Amtrak train turns her car into a fireball. Amazingly, no one was seriously hurt.

Watch the video filmed from the patrol car here.

Your laser printer may be killing you

A study by an Australian scientist shows that laser printers pollute the air with microscopic particles potentially as harmful as cigarette smoke. Lidia Morawska, a Queensland University of Technology professor, made the discovery when studying office air filtration and ventilation systems.

A study led by the physics professor found many laser printers emit clouds of ultra-fine particles that she compared with cigarette smoke and motor vehicle emissions. “They are so small you can’t see them.”

Although her team has yet to analyse their chemistry, she warned that such small particles “can get deep into the lungs”, leading to respiratory and cardiovascular problems. Some particles were potential carcinogens.

Printer manufacturer HP disputes the findings. In the meantime, y’all might want to move that printer away from your desk (after you print out the study, of course).

The dishwasher lullaby

A few circumstances tonight made me recall a happy scene from my childhood. Kelly and I took the kids to Durant Nature Park’s annual Halloween Trail festivies, which we all loved. The kids were sacked out afterwards, with Travis not even lifting his head off the pillow as I read him his bedtime story. Also, the dishwasher is currently humming along in the kitchen.
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Found the cause of mysterious load average

[Warning: extreme geekiness ahead! Non-geeks might want to skip over this post and look at the pretty ponies instead.]

I figured out what was causing my home Linux server to think it was busy. It turns out my server has an automounted nfs share from another server, a server which happened to be down. I’d done a few df commands to check disk space before I downloaded the new Ubuntu release and these commands hung in uninterruptible sleep while they waited for the drive share that would never be found.
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Zoinks! Zombies to walk the streets of Raleigh!

Looks like Raleigh’s downtown is set to be invaded by the undead. The group Scientists Targeting Undead Preservation, Intelligence and Domestication reports that a gaggle of zombies will appear in Moore Square at sunset (6:26 PM) the night of Saturday, October 27th. The brain-eating zombies will make a circuit around downtown, turning willing participants into zombies along the way, then gather to wash their brains down with a tasty malt beverage or two.
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My mind is the *only* thing on the water

There’s been a change in plans. As much as it kills me to see the wind picking up we’re staying close to home.

The big downside to working from home is the rapid onset of cabin fever. I’ve got the strong desire to be out of the house but my sailing crew has mutinied. Perhaps I can talk everyone into a nice long day in the park as a substitute. Anything but these four walls!