Check It Out

Links to cool places or things.

There are 1,530 posts filed in Check It Out (this is page 123 of 153).

My webpage from 1995

I’m probably going to regret this, but I put my old homepage from 1995 online again. Surprisingly it renders very well on modern browsers. As for me, I don’t render as well as I used to!

The pic above shows my brother Jeff and my friend Scott (with, uh, me in the middle). We were roommates at the time and working as roadies for Soundgarden. Ok, not really, but we sure do look like it!

The account name “buddha” was the one my roommate Scott picked out. I’m not sure where the “Flea Forum” came from, but there it is. You can see what my life on the Internet was like in 1995 here.

There weren’t many webpages back in those days, kiddies.

Don’t bring a gun to a snowball fight

This weekend’s blizzard dumped over a foot of snow on Washington, D.C. and folks were out Saturday having a good-natured snowball fight. Suddenly a Hummer gets hit with a snowball rolls to a stop. A plainsclothes police officer pulls out his weapon and goes after the crowd. Later the D.C. police claim the officer, Detective Baylor, never unholstered his weapon, in spite of what the video and pictures clearly show.

What’s worse, ABC affiliate WJLA’s horrible reporting pins the blame on “antiwar protesters” dressed in “archist” garb, which from the video appears completely baseless. I suppose anyone who covers his face during a bone-chilling blizzard must be an anti-war anarchist.

I respect the work that police officers do, but Det. Baylor is in obvious need of a long vacation. No one should pull a gun on a snowball fight. Get real.

I feel for the uniformed cop that responded to this call. You can see him pleading with the crowd at 2:28 in the video to just shake it off and keep playing, all but admitting the detective has lost his cool. The guy is stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Winter solstice

Today is the winter solstice: the first day of winter and the start of the sun’s long climb back up the sky. Not only that, it’s a beautiful, sunny (if cold), peaceful day. It’s the kind of day that makes me glad to be alive.

NCDOT cleans up

I was concerned last Monday when I drove past a huge pile of garbage scattered near the Davis Drive exit of NC 540. Multiple bags of trash were now all over the road and shoulder. It was a real mess.

Fortunately I have the number for the Wake County division of the North Carolina Department of Transportation and brought it to their attention. By the next afternoon there were a dozen bright orange garbage bags where the scattered trash had been. Not only that, but other parts of NC 540 were cleaned as well.

Kudos to the NCDOT for its prompt response!

Lock your screensaver using your phone

blueproximity_conlogo

I’ve often wondered what it would take to have my PC know who I am without having to type in my password every time. Typing passwords is so second millennium! There should be a better way.

Today I found that there is. My friend Tarus mentioned a Mac app called AirLock that will activate and deactivate your screensaver using a Bluetooth-equipped phone. I thought that was pretty cool, so I went searching for a Linux app that does the same.

I found it, and it’s called BlueProximity. The good news is that it’s been in Ubuntu for over a year. Simply type

sudo apt-get install blueproximity

…and you’re all set.

This of course made me wonder if my $WORK could replace all the proximity card readers at the entrances with Bluetooth sensors. Why should I carry a badge if I’m always carrying my mobile phone? And why couldn’t this take the place of my car keys or door keys, for that matter?

In a nice coincidence, I got a Bluetooth headset from woot.com last week for a net price of $0. It’s only been a few days since I turned on Bluetooth on my phone. Now I have two cool things to use with it!

Snow this weekend?

Looks like snow is a possibility this weekend. This came from today’s NWS forecast discussion (emphasis mine):

THE FORECAST BEGINS TO GET REALLY INTERESTING LATE SATURDAY AFTERNOON AND SATURDAY EVENING WHEN MID-LEVEL CAA ASSOCIATED WITH THE UPPER WAVE STARTS TO SPREAD INTO THE AREA FROM THE WEST…WITH CAA IN THE LOW-LEVELS KICKING IN AT THE SAME TIME AS LIFTING OFFSHORE LOW REINFORCES THE LOW-LEVEL NELY FLOW. A NARROW BAND OF HEAVIER PRECIP IS POSSIBLE AS THE 850 LOW LIFTS ACROSS THE AREA…WITH MODELS SHOWING STRONG 850-500MB FRONTOGENESIS ACROSS THE AREA. PROXIMITY OF THE FRONT AND LOW TO THE COAST WILL BE A DETERMINING FACTOR IN BOTH THE WESTWARD EXTENT OF PRECIP AND THE STRENGTH OF THE LOW-LEVEL CAA SURGE…BUT MODELS ARE IN REMARKABLE AGREEMENT WITH SHOWING THE ENTIRE COLUMN COOLING BELOW FREEZING ACROSS THE NORTHERN/NORTHWEST PIEDMONT SATURDAY EVENING BETWEEN 21 TO 00Z…TRANSLATING EAST ACROSS THE AREA THROUGH DAYBREAK SUNDAY. BUT AS IS ALWAYS THE CASE…IT WILL BE A FINE LINE/NARROW WINDOW BEFORE THE INVADING COLD/DRY AIR SURGE COMPLETELY DRYS THE DENDRITIC GROWTH ZONE. GFS IS VERY QUICK TO DRY OUT THE COLUMN…WHILE THE NAM IS A LITTLE SLOWER…MAINTAINING DEEP MOISTURE AND LIFT WELL ABOVE THE -15 TO -18C LAYER. THIS FITS WELL WITH P-TYPE TRENDS AS WELL. IN SHORT…AREAS ACROSS THE NORTHERN PIEDMONT AND NORTHERN COASTAL PLAIN COULD SEE SOME MEASURABLE SNOWFALL SATURDAY EVENING AND SATURDAY NIGHT.
 Continue reading →

Bobby Bowden retires

Bobby Bowden

Bobby Bowden

The news is all over the sports world that Florida State University head football coach Bobby Bowden has coached his last season. It was inevitable (and made moreso by the team’s recent foundering) but it’s still a sad day for college football.

I grew up a Florida State fan and have always thought Bowden was the epitome of a college football coach. There will certainly never be another one like him. As Birmingham News sports columnist Kevin Scarbinsky pointed out:

Bear Bryant didn’t build Ala­bama from next to nothing. Joe Pa­terno didn’t start Penn State from virtual scratch. Bobby Bowden turned Florida State from a former girls’ school into a national football power.

Thank you, Bobby Bowden.