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March 31, 2006

Make Your Own SUV Commercial

Apparently, Chevy decided to allow people to make their own Tahoe ads. Some of them are pretty funny. I drive a Tahoe, and I hate tree-huggers, but it's funny that Chevy didn't see this coming. Here's the video that I made. Here's some spoof videos by some others:

http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=42019b68-10ac-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=f59475a4-116c-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7
http://www.chevyapprentice.com/view.php?country=us&uniqueid=f70a70be-1225-1029-98eb-0013724ff5a7

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 31, 2006 at 2:13 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 29, 2006

Unmanned Aerial Drones to Spy on US Citizens

Slashdot mentioned the following CNET article:

"Unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) have been flying over Iraq and Afghanistan, but now the Bush administration wants to use them for domestic surveillance. A top Homeland Security official told Congress today, according to this CNET News.com article, that: "We need additional technology to supplement manned aircraft surveillance and current ground assets to ensure more effective monitoring of United States territory." One county in North Carolina is already using UAVs to monitor public gatherings. But what happens when lots of relatively dumb drones have to share airspace with aircraft carrying passengers? A pilot's association is worried."

Uh...the Pilots Association? Fark the pilots and commercial craft. Where's the outrage against spying on innocent citizens? Hello? Anyone?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 29, 2006 at 11:57 PM : Comments (4) | Permalink

The Great Robot Race

If you didn't watch The Great Robot Race on PBS's Nova last night, you missed a cool show. The DARPA Grand Challenge 2005 was an ambitious competition - a 130 mile race between unmanned vehicles through the Mojave desert, with the winner getting two million dollars. They had a similar competition a year ago, and no one got close. This time, the competition was successful though. It's really a very entertaining show. If you missed it, you can download the show from Nova's Great Robot Race website.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 29, 2006 at 3:56 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The Long Road to Burning Man

Carol: "What do you want me to get you for the trip?"

Me: "A bottle of Patron Reposado Tequila and a box of Smore-flavored Pop Tarts."

Carol: "That's it? We're camping in the Black Rock Desert for 4 days, and that's all you want?"

Me: "Yeah...and don't fark it up, woman. I don't want generic Pop Tarts and Cuervo."

Carol: "You're going to die out there you idiot."

Me: "Don't you worry about me, woman. I'm the man here and I'm telling you how the cabbage gets chewed. You need to focus your thoughts on doing as you're told. If you fark this up, the buzzards will be fighting over your rotting carcass on the playa."

Carol: "Whatever."

Me: "You know why a woman doesn't need a watch?"

Carol: "Why?"

Me: "There's a clock on the stove."

Carol: "I hate you."

Me: "I'll call you when I get off the plane. You'd better not be late, woman..."


Previous posts on Burning Man.

More humiliating photos of me in the fashionable Florabama T-shirt in the extended entry. Thanks, Carol. ;)

Continue reading "The Long Road to Burning Man"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 29, 2006 at 10:46 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 28, 2006

J3nn1f3r

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 28, 2006 at 10:16 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Microsoft hangs people out to dry with Zero Day exploit

There's another reported security flaw in IE, and a wave of Zero Day Attacks underway. Predictably, Microsoft won't ship a patch any time soon, so I'm installing a temporary fix created by eEye Digital Security.

“This is a critical vulnerability that needs to be addressed immediately and, in the interests of our customers, we made the decision to release a temporary patch..." [snip] Maiffret continued, “eEye’s patch is not meant to replace the forthcoming Microsoft patch, but to provide immediate protection in lieu of an available fix. In fact, eEye has engineered the patch to automatically remove itself when Microsoft’s official patch comes through.�

Continue reading "Microsoft hangs people out to dry with Zero Day exploit"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 28, 2006 at 9:43 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Morrison, Colorado

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 28, 2006 at 3:03 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

God I love the smell of gunpowder in the morning

Last Sunday, some genius busts into a house armed with a .30/.30 rifle. As he breaks in, the homeowner shoots the attacker in the chest with a .410 shotgun which, of course, just makes him madder. Homeowner then retreats with son to bedroom while attacker fires through the door at him and his son with the .30/.30 rifle. Homeowner then loads the big gun and returns fire with a 30.06 rifle, killing the intruder through the door. Police arrive just in time to mop up all the blood, as usual. I love a story with a happy ending. :)

What's the lesson for our tree-hugger pacifist-nihlist friends? Don't let the police fool you into thinking you can outsource your self defense. A gun is something that, if you need it and don't have it, you won't need it again. A gun in the hand is better than a cop on the phone. Real men don't dial 911.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/8287436/detail.html
http://www.craigdailypress.com/section/frontpage_lead/story/21183

Update: My buddy emailed me this article from Mississippi today: Governor signs bill expanding self-defense laws. Har! Har! This is great. This bill is GUARANTEED to reduce crime. I'd love to see someone interviewing people at the state "pen" in Parchman. This is going to put the criminals out of business. :)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 28, 2006 at 10:35 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 27, 2006

Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page

With Firefox 1.5.0.1, when I go to this site, I keep getting a nag screen saying "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page". So, I click on "Install Missing Plugins", it the Plugin Finder Server - Available Plugin Downloads shows "The following plugins are available - Apple Quicktime". So, I click on "Next", but then it says "No plugins were installed - Apple Quicktime not available." So, I click manual install, and it claims it installed successfully, but I still get the nag screen.

Then, I found this web site which seems to be somewhat related.

I went to the address bar and put "about:plugins" and it showed me all of the plugins for Firefox 1.5.0.1. The "QuickTime Plug-in 7.0.4" is listed 5 times. And they're all enabled. From npqtplugin.dll to npqtplugin5.dll. Apparently, each entry works for different file types. Anyhoo, the plugin seems to be installed and enabled. But, when I go to this site, I still get the nag. Possibly their code to detect the plugin is written incorrectly? Dunno.

(Continued in extended entry...)

Continue reading "Additional plugins are required to display all the media on this page"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 27, 2006 at 9:26 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Time Killing Game

3-D Ping Pong game.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 27, 2006 at 8:39 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 26, 2006

Sometimes An Island

Yet another pointless slideshow. This one has some shots of Lake Dillon's Silver Dollar Island, which is sometimes an island. When the water gets low, it's connected to land by a thin isthmus. Even if the lake is full, you can walk across the ice to the island nine months out of the year. But I digress...

These are some images I shot over the last few weeks with the Canon EOS 20D, Canon 17-85mm lens, a circular polarizing filter, and a Bogen tripod with a pistol grip. There's no real meaning to the presentation, so don't read too much into it. I'm experimenting with shooting some winter landscape photography, so a lot of the images are in black and white because there's not much color to begin with, and the black/white effect makes them a little more stark, IMHO.

This slideshow is an 29 Meg self-playing executable named bandwitch.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE. Soundtrack is Bandwitch by Broken Social Scene, a loose association of freaks up in Canada.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, or if you're nervous about running a .exe file from my site, then click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. The resolution is not quite as good on the Macromedia Flash version, and you can't pause and go backward and forward, but it loads faster, and it's a fairly decent presention. Click here if you need help.

Lyrics in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Sometimes An Island"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 26, 2006 at 7:55 PM : Comments (6) | Permalink

Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0 with XP Pro SP2 32 bit

I've had a problem with Adobe Photoshope Elements 2.0 that been bugging me some, and finally bothered me enough that I solved it. The problem was that, if I righ-clicked on a .jpg file and selected "Open With", Photoshop Elements 2.0 wasn't in the list. Also, if you went further and said "Choose Program", it wasn't listed under "Recommended Programs" or "Other Programs". So, if you went further still and clicked on "Browse", found the program, and selected it, it wouldn' t work. Wouldn't add Photoshop Elements to the list. Wouldn't open the .jpg. Wouldn't do Jack.

So, finally, it bothered me enough that I uninstalled all of my adobe applications, and then reinstalled just Photoshop Elements 2.0. Still no dice. Then, I found this web site. Their solution solved my problem. The solution is to open Adobe Photoshop Elements 2.0, select Edit - File Association, and check the box next to the .jpg file extension. The result is a little odd in that now, all .jpg's show the little Photoshop Elements sunflower icon, but open with Windows Picture and Fax Viewer, which is what I wanted. However, with I right-click and select "open with", Photoshop Elements 2.0 is now at the top of the list. :)

Update: Now that it's working correctly, this explains how to add a border in Photoshop Elements 2.0.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 26, 2006 at 4:39 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

March 25, 2006

Isuzu Gemini Stunt Driver Commercials

This video is a montage of some commercials shot for the Isuzu Gemini back in the 80's. Some of the tricks the stunt drivers pull in these commercials are pretty awesome.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 25, 2006 at 9:37 AM : Comments (3) | Permalink

March 24, 2006

Two Contact Folders in MS Outlook 2003

I hate the address book/name-lookup/contact folder/.pst file organization piece of MS Outlook. Now, Outlook is nice in theory, but, in practice, it's abysmal. Right now, I'm struggling because, for some unknown reason, I have two Contact folders in MS Outlook. I see them if I go to Tools - Address Book - "Show Names from the:" and click on the drop down list. On the drop down list, it says "Outlook Address Book", "Contacts", and "Contacts". If I select "Outlook Address Book", it says "No entries in this Address Book". Which, sounds like a problem, but, according to this post, that's how it's supposed to function.

The Outlook Address Book is just an empty shell containing any
Contact Folders that you have enabled as email address books. It will always
appear empty if you select it. No need ever to select it from that dropdown.

Nice, Microsoft. Brilliant. Let's move past that. I have 2 contact folders. And neither one of them is corrupt. They both have similar data in them. So, this is mind-numbingly confusing.

(Continued in extended entry...)

Continue reading "Two Contact Folders in MS Outlook 2003"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 24, 2006 at 3:25 PM : Comments (8) | Permalink

Man Shoots Down Remote Controlled Airplane with Shotgun

Some kid was allegedly terrorizing this man's farm animals with a remote controlled airplane, so he shot it down with a 12 gauge. Har. Har. Hee. Hee. Sounds like fun.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 24, 2006 at 12:18 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

March 23, 2006

Golden, Colorado

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 23, 2006 at 8:50 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 22, 2006

Man Stabbed to Death with Salad Fork

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/news/8183962/detail.html

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 8:01 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Kingdom of Fear

Sploid is reporting on the Rise of the American Death Squads.

Clad in black, grunting weirdly and trained in terror, America's police-state death squads are slaughtering innocent people as they replace the normal cops who once served U.S. towns.

SWAT teams and their paramilitary cousins have turned the United States into a kingdom of fear where murderous unaccountable goons can and will show up at any time to deliver their particular brand of horror.

The bloodthirsty psychotics are so dangerous that their nervous supervisors send them to slaughter deer when human "suspects" are in short supply.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 3:35 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Changes to mt.cfg in Movable Type

I decided to add an mt-static directory after upgrading to Apache. Reason is that, after I got my security all set up, Apache was trying to execute my styles.css cascadidng style sheet. So, I went into my mt.cfg file and changed it to point to a mt-static directory.

StaticWebPath ../mt-static/

But, for some reason, it wasn't working correctly. I made a mod to the App.pm program that forced it to work. Finally, though, I figured out that I needed to update the mt-config.cgi program instead of the mt.cfg file. Not sure why this is. But, It's working now. (UPdate: Apparently, the mt.cfg file has been replaced by the new mt-config.cgi file.)

(Continued in extended entry...)

Continue reading "Changes to mt.cfg in Movable Type"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 2:21 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep

The Politically Correct are at it again. This time, it's the nursery rhyme "Baa Baa Black Sheep" that has been officially changed to "Baa Baa Rainbow Sheep".

Teachers at nursery schools in Oxfordshire, England, have asked children to change the words of "Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" to "Baa, Baa, Rainbow Sheep" to avoid the possibility of offending anyone.

Of course, not that it matters, but black is just a color, much like any other color.

"Baa, Baa, Black Sheep" has nothing to do with race. The nursery rhyme dates back to the mid-1700s and is related to a tax imposed on wool by the king, which divided receipts equally between the local lord (the master), the church (the dame), and the farmer (the little boy). Black wool was apparently taxed at a lower rate than white wool.

Cue the gay angst at making the sheep "rainbow colored" in 3...2....1....

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 10:38 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

AK Miller Auction

This is a cool story. And it's true also. I checked it out. Snopes has no clue, but I found different articles describing the serial numbers of the cars sold, prices, etc. Seems fairly well documented. According to The AK Miller Auction:

Consider the strange story of Alex and Imogene Miller of East Orange, VT.

They eked out an existence on a small farm. Alex would scrounge rusty nails from burnt buildings to repair his roof. He drove a ratty VW Beetle, and when it died, he found another even more ratty, and another the rusting carcasses littered his yard.

Alex died in 1993, and Imogene died in 1996. The local church took up a collection so they could be buried in the churchyard, and the state began the process of taking the farm for taxes. That would have been the end of a sad story, except While preparing the estate for auction, the sheriff discovered a cache of bearer bonds taped to the back of a mirror. That triggered a comprehensive search of the house and outbuildings. The estate auction would eventually be handled by Christies, and it would bring out collectors from all over the world.

According to The Tightwad’s Reward:

Let’s face it. A.K. Miller was a skinflint, a tightwad, a finagler, a miser, a person cast from the mold of Ebenezer Scrooge.

Even those who characterize themselves as his friends, who tried to help him and his wife, Imogene, eke small comfort from A.K.’s chosen lifestyle in squalor, say he was devious, deceitful and deserves, despite dispensing pages of religious tracts, to toil the remainder of time in the furnaces below.

He also appreciated fine machinery, coveted it, and attempted, within the perimeter of his peculiar personality, to procure, protect and preserve the finest examples of the Stutz marque and the pieces, parts and literature others would need to do the same.

On September 7 and 8, 1996 Christie’s sold off the A.K. Miller collection to an assembly of committed Stutz enthusiasts and before a throng of curious car folks and Vermonters who’d heard the legend and assembled in East Orange, Vermont to see it in person.

It was an experience that may never happen again, was too good to miss and worth every minute of the three days spent on the fringes of Barre, Vermont.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 10:26 AM : Comments (4) | Permalink

Of Botnets and ShadowServers

This is an interesting story about the wars raging on the internet where hackers compromise thousands of computers and string them together into vast "botnets" - networks of compromised computers. Apparently, there are some small groups of people fighting back against these shadowy criminal masterminds.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 22, 2006 at 12:39 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 20, 2006

Hotlinkers Beware

http://altlab.com/htaccess_tutorial.html

Doh! I got an error message:

Internal Server Error
The server encountered an internal error or misconfiguration and was unable to complete your request.
Please contact the server administrator, peeniewallie@wispertel.net and inform them of the time the error occurred, and anything you might have done that may have caused the error.
More information about this error may be available in the server error log.

Apache/2.0.55 (Win32) PHP/5.1.2 Server at www.peeniewallie.com Port 80
[Mon Mar 20 23:25:09 2006] [alert] [client 192.168.1.1] C:/Inetpub/wwwroot/.htaccess: Invalid command 'RewriteEngine', perhaps mis-spelled or defined by a module not included in the server configuration

As it turns out, I just needed to uncomment this loadmodule line::

LoadModule rewrite_module modules/mod_rewrite.so

(Continued in extended entry...)

Continue reading "Hotlinkers Beware"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 20, 2006 at 11:23 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Apache and Awstats 6.5

I made some changes to my Awstats.conf and httpd.conf file last night per Uzi's instructions. One of the changes Uzi mentioned I found explained in detail on this web site:

One of the Windows worms currently running amok is annoying in that it uses a buffer overrun exploit via a very long URL. Not a problem for a Linux system, but this makes the web server logs balloon in size and makes them a pain to browse manually.

Fortunately, it can be mitigated a bit. Changing the “%r� in any LogFormat lines in Apache’s httpd.conf to “%!414r� completely trims out any URLs which are considered too long.

Now, if I can just get the .htaccess files figured out I can stop the hot-linkers.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 20, 2006 at 8:46 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 18, 2006

Snopes Lays An Egg

This is an interesting image, but clearly photoshopped. The moon and the sun, as viewed from earth, are each exactly the same size. Think about a solar eclipse when the moon moves in front of the sun. They're almost exactly the same size. Snopes, however, isn't so sure:

Claim: Photograph shows the North Pole at sunset.

Status: Undetermined.

Undetermined? Are they on crack? The moon is at least 10 times larger than the sun in this image. That wouldn't happen unless the moon crashed into the earth.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 18, 2006 at 12:46 PM : Comments (3) | Permalink

When Knives Are Outlawed...

When knives are outlawed, only outlaws will have knives. Fresh on the heels of their remarkably unsuccessful gun ban, the Aussies are now looking very closely at the sale and possession of....wait for it....knives. That's right. Did you know that children of any age can legally buy and posess machetes? No background check. No serial numbers. No age restrictions.

In the wake of a string of attacks in the Brisbane area involving knives, The Sunday Mail has uncovered a wide selection of weapons being sold in camping and outdoors stores.

Hunting knives with names such as the Outlaw, the Excalibur, the Fury Muerta and the Deer Hunter are being sold from as little as $25. Machetes can be bought for just over $15.

When is this country going to adopt some common sense "knife control" laws? Why not sue the knife manufactures? Institute a "cooling off" period for knife purchases? Can't we at least stop the importation of "assualt knives"? Why on earth would a child need a machete anyway? To open coconuts?

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 18, 2006 at 12:22 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 17, 2006

Moab Is Calling

The Easter Jeep Safari in Moab, Utah, is right around the corner. Looks like April 16th is the big weekend. Moab is famous for it's 4wd trails like "Helldorado" and "Steel Bender". If you have no clue what Moab is like, here's some videos to get you up to speed:

Moab Meltdown
Little Moab
Moab Calls

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 17, 2006 at 9:39 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

My Resignation Letter

Here's my official letter of resignation that ends the dull throbbing pain of my own private h3ll:

xxxxxxx.

I wanted to speak to you in person this afternoon, but I missed you. I just wanted to say that I really do appreciate how you handled [snip]. I feel you like listened to me, researched the problems, and gave me some realistic alternatives. [snip]. Unfortunately, I was unable to bring my ten years of PeopleSoft consulting experience in the HRMS module to bear in the [snip] in the manner I had anticipated. Therefore, I am resigning [snip] two weeks from today, effective March 31.

Again, many thanks for your support.

xxxxxxxxxx

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 17, 2006 at 8:43 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Bike Messengers Are On Crack

This video on You Tube named Bike Messengers Are On Crack will make you hold your breath. Apparently, it's a video of an illegal unofficial "Bike Messenger Race" from 2004. These guys break every law ever made relating to moving vehicles. Looks kinda fun. Insane, but fun :) Audio track is Bandwitch by Broken Social Scene.

Update: Apparently, these races are fairly common. They're called Alleycats.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 17, 2006 at 8:26 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Enforcement of illegal SF Gun Ban delayed

Latest news on San Francisco's illegal gun ban.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 17, 2006 at 4:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

TSA Securocrats Fail To Detect Explosives

In a test of the TSA's airport screening effectiveness, the TSA failed to detect explosives 21 times out of 21 times at airports across the United States.

In all 21 airports tested, no machine, no swab, no screener anywhere stopped the bomb materials from getting through. Even when investigators deliberately triggered extra screening of bags, no one discovered the materials.

The TSA can not make you safer. They can only violate your rights and slow you down.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 17, 2006 at 8:16 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

March 15, 2006

LowFat Image Viewer

This guy is developing a product called "LowFat", which appears to be a new application for viewing still images. He has a slick video here that shows off the capabilities of the product he's developing.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 15, 2006 at 9:32 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Pentagon Developing Spying Robotic Insects

The pentagon is trying to implant chips into insects to that flies can be turned into remote controlled drones. Last week, the Pentagon called for proposals to turn insects into "insect cyborgs":

Last week the Pentagon's Defence Advanced Research Projects Agency (Darpa) called for bids on the project. "Darpa seeks innovative proposals to develop technology to create insect-cyborgs, possibly enabled by intimately integrating microsystems within insects, during their early stages of metamorphoses," its advertisement says.

This news comes close on the heels of their remote-controlled cyborg shark program.

I, for one, welcome our new fly-shark-cyborg overlords.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 15, 2006 at 7:53 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Search Engine Censorship

There's a website that compares the censored results of various search engines called CenSEARCHip. Go there and compare the results of a Google Search in China vs. U.S. of "tiananmen square massacre". 294 results in China vs. 417,000 results in the U.S. Interestingly, the results are also filtered in Germany and France.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 15, 2006 at 7:39 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 14, 2006

The People's Progressive Truth Generator

From The People's Cube:

The People's Research Institute (PRI) has found a way of stopping right-wing ideology in America and ending our losses at the ballot box: we need to face our opponent's "facts" and "logic" by learning how to frame the debate. The Progressive Truth Generatorâ„¢ will help you to set the terms of debate on issues in your favor and quickly terminate all discussion!

http://www.thepeoplescube.com/Rhetoric/Random_Truth.php

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 14, 2006 at 12:50 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

March 13, 2006

Upgrading PHP422 to PHP512 under XP

To upgrade from PHP422 to PHP512, I went and downloaded the PHP 5.1.2 windows binaries (.zip version). Note: When you download PHP for Windows, make sure you get the .zip file instead of the executable installation file, or you won't get the Apache dll files. I extracted them to a folder named c:\php_512.

Then, I deleted all of my version 4 php*.dll files from the c:\windows\system folder. I copied in my new version 512 copy of the GD2 extension (php_gd2.dll) to the c:\windows\system folder. (Alternately, you could use c:\windows\system32. Either folder works for me.)

I replaced my old PHP.INI in the C:\windows with my new and improved version 5 PHP.INI file. These are the only changes I made to it:
register_globals = On
extension=php_gd2.dll
SMTP = mail.wispertel.net
smtp_port = 25
sendmail_from = peeniewallie@wispertel.net

I edited my Apache httpd.conf configuration file to load the new PHP module:

LoadModule php5_module "c:/php512/php5apache2.dll" *
#LoadModule php4_module "c:/php442/sapi/php4apache2.dll"

DocumentRoot "C:/Inetpub/wwwroot"

DirectoryIndex index.php index.html index.html.var index.cgi

* Note: Be sure to use the php5apache2.dll. Not the php5apache.dll.
** Note: Slashes always have to go forwards, even though it's Windows. I know. It looks stupid. But trust me. It's right.

And then I restarted the server. (God, I love Apache!)

Created phpinfo.php as:
phpinfo();
?>

Then open the file with a browser: http://www.peeniewallie.com/phpinfo.php


Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 13, 2006 at 9:40 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Cannot delete file : Access is denied

I love this. Like. It's my farking computer. And I'm TELLING YOU to delete the file. It's not up for debate. I'm not asking permission. I'm saying "DO IT. Do It Now." But the computer thinks it's smarter than I am and the world will come to a screeching halt if the file goes away. If you want to take control of your computer, then look no further than Pocket Killbox Pocket KillBox is a program that can be used to get rid of files that stubbornly refuse to allow you to delete them. Normally, when I use the Killbox, I have to add the files one at a time, and then, it usually makes me reboot to delete them, but at least they're gone when windows rears its ugly head again.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 13, 2006 at 9:14 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

If you're gonna be dumb, you gotta be tough!

http://www.collegehumor.com/movies/ouch/1661008/

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 13, 2006 at 8:48 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 12, 2006

Learning PHP

I spent all weekend screwing around with some simple PHP scripts. I finally got some of the statetments working correctly, but I'm far short of being able to do what I want to do with it. So, I decided, what the h3ll...I'll actually study the language some isntead of just guess at it. I'm using this free PHP tutorial.

The problem with PHP, is that some bithead wrote it in his basement. By that, I mean that no one with any sense was involved in it's development. It is a geek's language that allows for all these little cryptic shortcuts, so that you have to be a genius to read anyone else's code. For instance:

"x++" is a shortcut that adds 1 to x. This is absurd. Correct format should be "Let x = x + 1".
"x++" is a shortcut that subtracts 1 from x. This is absurd. Correct format should be "Let x = x - 1".
"x+=y" is geek for "Let x = x + y".
"x*=y" is geek for "Let x = x * y"
"If x == 3" this is ridiculuous. For some reason, they use 2 equal signs instead of 1 for comparisons.
"if x ===y" this is just bizarre. They use 3 equal signs to compare values and type. Stupid.

Funny how the languages actually seem to be regressing. I'd rather code in assembly language with a hex editor than wade through someone's indecipherable PHP scripts.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 12, 2006 at 9:46 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Time Killing Game: Flow

Try this link first. If that link is not working, you can download the program and run it on your computer locally from this mirror.

Directions for playing Flow can be found in the extended entry.

Continue reading "Time Killing Game: Flow"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 12, 2006 at 8:05 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 11, 2006

PHP

I found a slick random image generator that I want to use, but it requires the Hypertext Preprocessor PHP. PHP is a server-side HTML embedded scripting language for building dynamic websites. So, I figured I could probably find a Perl random image generator, or a java script random image generator, but it won't hurt to install PHP, so I figured I'd do that first.

Continue reading "PHP"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 11, 2006 at 9:42 AM | Permalink

Error: 404

Note to self. Must set up my website to display 404 errors like this web page:
http://www.1800getryan.com/News_From_Home.html

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 11, 2006 at 9:18 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

March 10, 2006

Problems with web site?

If you notice any problems with this web site, please post them here. I recently changed my static ip address, upgraded to Movable TYpe 3.2, and kicked IIS for Apache. So, if you see any problems, please post in the comments section. :)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 10, 2006 at 9:57 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Apache Error Messages

I'm running Apache 2.0.55 now instead of IIS 5.1. (Hold the applause.)

But now, I'm getting the following error messages in my log file:

[Fri Mar 10 18:22:53 2006] [warn] (OS 64)The specified network name is no longer available. : winnt_accept: Asynchronous AcceptEx failed.
[Fri Mar 10 18:22:53 2006] [warn] (OS 64)The specified network name is no longer available. : winnt_accept: Asynchronous AcceptEx failed.

My best gues at this point is Message #3 at this url:

#
# EnableMMAP: Control whether memory-mapping is used to deliver
# files (assuming that the underlying OS supports it).
# The default is on; turn this off if you serve from NFS-mounted
# filesystems. On some systems, turning it off (regardless of
# filesystem) can improve performance; for details, please see
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/core.html#enablemmap
#
EnableMMAP Off

# Also added this one as per Apache directions
# http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/#xpbug

Win32DisableAcceptEx

#
# EnableSendfile: Control whether the sendfile kernel support is
# used to deliver files (assuming that the OS supports it).
# The default is on; turn this off if you serve from NFS-mounted
# filesystems. Please see
# http://httpd.apache.org/docs-2.0/mod/core.html#enablesendfile
#
EnableSendfile Off

http://support.microsoft.com/default.aspx?scid=kb;EN-US;q317949
http://www.apache.org/dist/httpd/binaries/win32/README.html

Continue reading "Apache Error Messages"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 10, 2006 at 9:30 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Installing Apache on XP

OK. I'm sick of IIS. IIS sucks so hard. Could suck chrome off a trailer ball. Suck a golf ball through a garden hose. And I, for one, am through with it. So, I'm installing Apache under XP. OK. Maybe I should be running Linux. We'll deal with that later. I don't feel like changing the OS unless I asbolutely have to. So I'm going to try running Apache under XP. It can't be any worse than IIS. That much is certain.

I found a website dated 29 February 2004 that has directions on Installing Apache on XP (Apache version 2.0.48). But, this information is about two years old.

So, I went to the Apache Website and downloaded the latest version from a mirror.


Continue reading "Installing Apache on XP"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 10, 2006 at 1:02 PM | Permalink

Frozen Dead Guy Days in Nederland

Some guy has been keeping his dead grandfather out back in a shed on ice since his demise many years back. Somehow, they turned this into a Grade-A freak show called Frozen Dead Guy Days, complete with Coffin Races, a Salmon Toss, Polar Bear Plunge, and a Rocky Mountain Oyster eating competition.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 10, 2006 at 10:22 AM : Comments (2) | Permalink

March 9, 2006

Upgrading to Movable Type 3.2

OK. I've postponed this for long enough. I'm upgrading from Movable Type 3.17 to 3.2. Reasons are that I want to start installing some plugins, start displaying my categories, stop people from hotlinking to my images, and then switch from IIS to Apache. So, without further ado...

(Detailed directions continue in Extended Entry.)

Continue reading "Upgrading to Movable Type 3.2"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 9, 2006 at 8:23 PM | Permalink

Life on Saturn's moon Enceladus

Scientists on the Cassini mission are claiming they have found liquid water on Saturn's moon Enceladus. The resurfaced appearance of Enceladus suggests that an internal mechanism, perhaps driven by tidal pumping, generates heat and supplies liquid water to geysers or water volcanos.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 9, 2006 at 7:47 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Man Feeds Live Rabbit to Alligators at Zoo

This is pretty funny. Three kids went into a zoo in Wales. They noticed that the alligators looked hungry. So, they walked over to the "petting zoo" are and grabbed up a rabbit by the ears, and tossed it to the alligators, that promptly killed it. I think it's pretty funny, actually. It's just a rabbit, after all.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 9, 2006 at 5:18 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Ron Barharham's 194? CJ-2A Jeep

From Otha Barham's article about the end of Winchester's production of the 1894 rifle, the closing of Winchester's New Haven, Connecticut plant, and the end of an era.

Faithful Rifle — Herman Barham is holding his Model 94 Winchester 30-30 as he poses with a buck he took with the rifle in East Mississippi. The 94 was the most popular deer rifle across the country last century even though it was originally considered a western saddle gun.
Photo by Otha Barham

Otha Barham, Ron's brother, is author of The Hunt, a book about human relationships centered around the hunting experience.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 9, 2006 at 1:46 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

DNS Propagation

Unfortunately, my ISP lost the lease on my static IP address. So, they gave me a new one. My IP address has changed from 66.250.22.136 to 66.109.210.3. So, I updated my IP address with NetworkSolutions, and reconfigured my router, but it takes some time for the changes to propagate to all of the DNS servers across the internet.

This traceroute tool seems to recognized the new IP address.

This DNS Report tool seems to indicate that things are kosher.

And my router seems to be working correctly at the static IP address of http://66.109.210.3.

Lots of neat DNS tools at DNS Stuff.


Unfortunately, it takes some time for this data to progagate to the 13 international root name servers, and then more time for all the ISP's of the world to update their own DNS servers from the root servers.

Where are all of the DNS records kept?

This is slightly more complicated, but for the purpose of this overview, we'll try to keep it as general as possible. There are 2 basic places DNS records reside:

International Root name servers (13 exist throughout the world)
Your domain register, where your current DNS settings reside.

When you register/purchase your domain name on a particular "registers name server", your DNS settings are kept on their server, and in most cases point your domain to the Name Server of your hosting provider. This Name Server is where the IP number (currently associated with your domain name) resides.

The entire hierarchy is somewhat involved, but in short, the world Root Name Servers can be considered the master listing of all DNS records, and there are currently 13 of them in the world. These name servers are where all the master DNS records are kept. The DNS server of your ISP will typically query the Root Name Servers once every 24-hours. This is how they update all of their DNS tables, which in turn, resolve www requests to the IP number of the server they reside on.

Update: I tested my web site from anonymizer.com, which is a recommended test since it uses the local dns cache files on their server, and it's working now.

Because the only change that I made was to the IP address, and I didn't change domain name servers, my transaction was processed very quickly. My web site seems to be working correctly now. The transaction took less than an hour and a half. Closer to an hour, actually.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 9, 2006 at 4:58 AM : Comments (1) | Permalink

March 8, 2006

Yet Another Jennifer Slideshow

These are some images I shot over the last few weeks with the Canon EOS 20D, Canon 17-85mm lens, and a circular polarizing filter. You may notice in the slideshow that Jennifer tricked me into buying her a rabbit by writing a note and leaving it in the basement where I would find it.

This slideshow is an 18 Meg self-playing executable named techno.exe created using Imagematics StillMotion PE Plus. I have no clue what the soundtrack is. I ripped it from a CD Carol "CQ" Rizzo had in San Francisco last year, and she had no clue what it was at that time. Some crack addict walked up to her in Seattle and handed her a CD with no label and said "check this out" and promptly dropped off the face of the earth. If you recognize the music, please post in the comments.

Click here to download the presentation. If you have an Apple, click here to download the Macromedia Flash version. Click here if you need help.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 8, 2006 at 10:09 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Why Windows Vista Will Suck

As a rebuttal to Why Windows Vista Won't Suck, we now have Why Windows Vista Will Suck.

From the article:

First, let me say, I've been running Vista myself for quite some time. Next to me at this very moment is a Gateway 835GM. Under the hood, it has an Intel Pentium D 2.8GHz dual-core processor, an Intel 945G chipset, 1GB DDR2 (double data rate) DRAM, a 250GB SATA hard drive, and built-in Intel GMA (graphics media accelerator) 950 graphics. That's a fairly powerful machine. Which is a good thing, because it's the only PC in my office of 20 PCs that's got enough oomph to run the Windows Vista February CTP (Community Technology Preview) build 5308 without driving me into fits of rage.

Mind you, it's not enough machine for Vista. [snip]...even though this system meets Intel's recommendations for a Vista-capable Intel Professional Business Platform, it still doesn't have the graphics horsepower needed to carry off Vista's much ballyhooed three-dimensional Aero Glass interface.

Ouch. Sounds like we'll all be getting new PC's when Vista is released. Of course, not that that's a bad thing. :)

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 8, 2006 at 8:39 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Tree Climbing Robots

I, for one, welcome our new tree-climbing robot overlords. More on these robots here.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 8, 2006 at 4:50 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Peril on Peak 7

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 8, 2006 at 1:21 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

The EcoEnquirer

The EcoEnquirer site is funny. "Where Mankind Meets Mother Nature." Polar Bears suffering heat exhaustion. EPA to mandate reduction of emissions from volcanos. California town bans tsunamis. Bush signs Animal Rights Act.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 8, 2006 at 8:10 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 7, 2006

A Spot Meter for the EOS 20D?

I finally got tired of battling with the light meter on Canon's EOS 20D. The problem is that, with the default setting of "Evaluative Metering", the EOS 20D looks at the light hitting the entire CMOS sensor, and takes at stab at what the correct exposure should be. Of course, you can change the exposure by adjusting the aperture or the shutter speed, but the problem is, it's hard to know how much to compensate, because the EOS 20D doesn't have a true spot meter.

The EOS 20D has three different settings for light metering.

What the EOS 20D really needs is a "spot meter". A "spot meter" looks at a very small section of the sensor. A true spot meter should cover an angle of only approx 1 degree. Unfortunately, the EOS 20D is widely panned for not having one. (See here, here , here, and here. It was such an issue, that they included it in the newly released EOS 30D.

Only, as it turns out, the EOS 20D may actually have a true spot meter. On page 71 of the Canon EOS 20D Instruction Manual, in Chapter 4: "Setting the AF, Metering, and Drive Modes" under "Selecting Metering Mode", the Instruction Manuals says:

During manual focusing, evaluative metering is based on the Center AF point.

So, the way I read this, if you turn off your autofocus, then the evaluative metering uses only the center AF point, and it's smaller than a gnat's ass. So, that would make it a true spot meter, although I should probably do some tests on this, as it is possible I'm misinterpreting the text.

Screen print from Instruction Manual in extended entry.

Continue reading "A Spot Meter for the EOS 20D?"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 7, 2006 at 8:40 PM : Comments (2) | Permalink

Old Version of Software

If you're not happy with the latest version of a software product, check out OldVersion.com.The site's 16-year-old administrator says, 'Companies make a lot of new versions. They're not always better for the consumer.'

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 7, 2006 at 8:20 PM : Comments (1) | Permalink

Would you like mustard on your squirrel?

Woman finds dead squirrel covered in mustard in her mailbox.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 7, 2006 at 11:39 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 6, 2006

Blackstar mothballed at Groom Lake

http://www.aviationweek.com/avnow/news/channel_awst_story.jsp?id=news/030606p1.xml

http://www.abovetopsecret.com/pages/svalk.html

It's also apparently called the XB-70 Buzzard or Brilliant Buzzard.

Possibly, this spaceplane uses Pulse Detonation Wave Engines(PDWE) that produce a contrail resembling doughtnuts on a rope.

Technorati tags: , , , ,

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 6, 2006 at 10:29 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 5, 2006

Time Killing Games: Miners 4K

Miners4K

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 5, 2006 at 8:39 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Ken Caryl Canyon

Continue reading "Ken Caryl Canyon"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 5, 2006 at 7:14 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Dedisse Park

Continue reading "Dedisse Park"

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 5, 2006 at 11:15 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 4, 2006

Unsolved Summit County Murders

From the website http://www.rockymountaincoldcase.com/:

On the night of Wednesday, January 6, 1982, temperatures fell to 20 below on the snow-covered 11,500 ft. Hoosier Pass that connects the ski resort community of Breckenridge in Summit County and the bedroom communities of Alma and Fairplay in Park County, Colorado. This was the night that Barbara "Bobbie" Jo Oberholtzer and Annette Schnee were murdered under cover of darkness and desolation.

This wesbsite also shows an evidence Map.

Here's a story from the Summit Daily News from August of last year:

A photograph was found in Schnee's wallet of a young man. It was taken in 1977 in a photo booth that enables people to snap pictures of themselves. Investigators have never been able to identify that person.

Denver Westword Facing The Monster: Part 1, Part 2, and Part 3

Cached version of Murderer's Row.

DO YOU HAVE INFORMATION ABOUT THIS CASE?

Any detail, however small, may be the missing piece to this mystery.
PLEASE don't consider anything you may know as insignificant.
CONTACT ROCKY MOUNTAIN COLD CASE or call Crimestoppers anonymously at 1-866-453-STOP (7867). Crimestoppers is offering up to $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest.

Technorati tags: , ,

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 4, 2006 at 7:52 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 3, 2006

Morrison, Colorado - Speedtrap of the Rockies

Way back in 1994, the town of Morrison, Colorado decided to incorporate the land to the south of them. Why? Revenue. Why else. They gobbled up the land to the south so that they could start taxing the Cooley Gravel pit (now Aggregate Industries). But they didn't stop there. They gerrymandered their city limits to include a stretch of highway 285. Why? More revenue.

And nothing generates revenue like a cozy little speedtrap. How much revenue? For obvious reasons, Morrison doesn't break out their court fine revenue as speedtrap extortion vs. revenue from 'bail bonds' and 'dogs at large'. According to the court clerk, Morrison raked in a respectable $175,052.85 in court fines in 2005. Not too shabby for a town of less than a thousand people.

Unfortunately, setting up speedtraps in a tight mountainous canyon causes an increase in accidents, but, hey...who cares about public safety when there are people to be fleeced, right?

Morrison's Revenue by year:
2006
2004
2003

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 3, 2006 at 3:43 PM : Comments (3) | Permalink

March 2, 2006

Time Killing Games: Splash Back

Splash Back

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 2, 2006 at 11:33 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Yow! I want to mail a bronzed artichoke to Nicaragua!

spew random (and occasionally humorous) stuff. Source code here.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 2, 2006 at 1:42 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

March 1, 2006

Java 4K Game Competition

Java 4K game contest.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 1, 2006 at 6:20 PM : Comments (0) | Permalink

Remington® Turkey Gun/Ammo Coupon

Under their "Striking Up The Savings" promotion, Remington® is currently offering the following rebates:

Offer applies to guns/ammo purchased between Feb 1 - April 30 2006. Request must be received by May 15, 2006.

Posted by Peenie Wallie on March 1, 2006 at 9:37 AM : Comments (0) | Permalink