Dollar Store Dementia

See this?  Yes, of course you do. It's a solar-powered 3-LED lamp I got at Dollar Tree. For... $1. Plus tax. So here, $1.10. Cheap, Chinese crap, right?

Well, sure -- what isn't, these days?  Amazingly, they actually work!  For now. At $1/ea., I splurged, and bought six.

At 5 a.m., they were still providing enough light in the bathroom to at least conduct a necessary transaction in there, if need be. And they were on from ~8:30, last night?  Yeah -- they automagically come on at dark if you leave the switch on (and shut off when there's enough light to charge by), which is a lot to ask from something that cost a buck, I think.

But I want MOAR.

Six more ought to do for the bathroom. I'm going to affix them to a strip of clear acrylic plastic, and put a nylon rope handle on each end, so that I can hang it/them in a window, and then elsewhere where a little illumination could be handy at night.
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Because You Can't Smell Me

... I have a confession to make. I started smoking again, some time ago. I won't make excuses, other than to say that I was having difficulty resisting the addiction when spending so much time with my two co-workers -- who are literally the last two smokers I know IRL. Well, that's not strictly  true... I guess I do  know more smokers than that, but I spend very little time with them.

However, the two co-workers have recently quit (one for almost a month; the other starting just this past weekend), and I'm all in for making our workplace completely smoker-free.  :)  Competition is good. Plus, I can use the extra $37 per pay period for being tobacco-free, right?  So!

I bought another e-cig kit about a month ago; this one is a much more substantial system, and cost even less than the first SafeCig kit I bought back in 2011.

It's larger than a cigarette, which has two advantages. First, the battery lasts a stupid-long time (at least a full workday, and generally beyond), and it holds more nicotine-infused "juice," so messing with replacement/replenishment issues is a complete non-issue. Set it up once a day, and Good To Go.

Secondly, you don't get dirty looks from people who think you're sneaking a smoke inside, as nowhere civilized allows smoking indoors, these days.

Commonly known as an eGo-T or 510 system

Anyway, one of the guys at work has had a similar system since the day I started, and one co-worker asked his advice (he's been "vaping" -- yeah, that's what it's called -- for years) and bought a system based on that advice. I followed suit, but I kept forgetting to bring the extra battery, or the charger, or the juice... derp. Then, my "clearomizer" tank started leaking. Despite my intentions to order new shit to supplement/replace these items, it was just easier to go grab a pack of Devil Sticks at Any Goddamned Store On Earth, and continue the undeniable self-destruction.

Lo And Behold!  The vaping co-worker-newly-quit alerted me to the fact that a new vapor shop had opened in my neighborhood recently, and tonight, I got what I needed, and have no more excuses. As easy as running to the corner store, it's literally closer than the nearest Kroger. And their prices RAWK.

So, good luck to me.  :)
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"Play Free(dom Pro Key)board!"

Now armed and dangerous, with a largish keyboard for the Android. Will test @ Blue vs. Grey, tonight.
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Waste Not

$2.99. And some of the multimedia stuff works with Ubuntu!
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Mythbuntu

 Carts, horses.

But oh hell yes replace XP with Ubuntu. And now, I'm replacing Mythbuntu with Ubuntu. At this stage, it only makes sense.

All this is happening on the Dell Dimension 3000 that Kim gave me. Did I need another computer?  Well, not really... I just hate to see working PCs get tossed out, and she was surely going to do that. So!  Here we are.

Years ago, when it first became feasible, I dreamed of turning a PC into a DVR, but I never had a spare one to dick around with to make it happen. Now, I do. So, I got it in my head that Mythbuntu was the way to go (and really, this still sounds like a fine idea, but...), given my comfort and high regard for Ubuntu as an OS.

However, this PC has no DVD drive, neither reader nor writer. It also has no TV tuner card. It currently has only a 40GB hard drive. Only 512MB/RAM. In short, it has great potential  to be a Mythbuntu system DVR and media center, but it's not quite there, yet.

So, this is my hobby box, and a way to dip my toe (probably my leg) into Unix, again. Mythbuntu is not exactly a "install-it-and-use-it" OS, but it's not far from it. There are lots of tweaks that can be done to it, but a lot of that tweaking has to be done through the shell interface, and not Ubuntu's lovely GUI. I call this my plan to keep my brain from prematurely wilting.

I have some RAM around here, somewhere... we'll see if it's PC3200 of a usable size. If not, will have to buy enough to max it out (2GB). I have oodles of IDE HDDs here, and most of them are bigger than 40GB. The Dimension 3000 can take a Pentium 4 Prescott 3.2/800, and I can get one with free shipping for $10.

This is gonna be fun. For geeks.
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Aww, For Damn!

Best. Night. EVAR. At PartyPoker.com... up 110,500 play chips on the night (never sat at a table with more than 100K, before -- you have to start with 2K maximum on the 5/10 NL Texas Hold 'Em tables, which I do). They sent a system message -- "rebooting servers." The bitch of it is, when I log back in, I'll just have 250K -- the limit! Dammit, Janet.
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Eee!

UPDATE: To provide a sense of scale...


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Rain, Rain, Go Away

Dreary Sunday. Rain will end after dark, though. Then I can get out for a while.

Sorry about FortyToo. Looks like the link between the app and the database is hosed (as dirk's site seems to be up... just has no comments, like mine), and has been all day. I'm sure dirk will be along when it gets set right to let us know what happened, if he can find out from the hosting folx.
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My Famous Cat

Recognize anyone on this Google search for tapetum lucidum? :)
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New Commenting System

My pal, dirk gently is working on a new commenting system for blogs, called Forty, Too, and he's getting close to a beta release. So, I volunteered to be a tester. I've been using his pre-alpha release in a controlled environment since late last year, and have been very impressed with it. I hope you like using it.

Some tips: The "PREFS" button on the left will allow you to control the font size and face, and to set it so that my blog will remember who you are via a cookie. The "END" button will take you to the bottom of a long comments thread (not likely to happen here, but...), and the auto-refresh is also something that you will not likely need here, but would be handy on blogs where people use the comments as a sort of "chat" function.

Anyway, please leave your feedback in the comments!
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Play-Money Poker

Would anyone like to play some play-money hold 'em on a regular basis?

I can recommend PartyPoker. Their application, though dependent on Internet Explorer, is clean, and has presented no security issues in the 4+ years I have used it.

If interested in setting up a semi-regular game, let me know at my gmail address (jprestonian, which is also my PartyPoker handle, btw... look me up if you sign on, and say HEY on the chat!).
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Staples Brings The Cheep Notebooks

This week, it was an Acer for $299 -- next week, a Compaq for $349. Dunno what they're doin', but this should surely turn heads of those looking at teensy li'l netbooks.
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50-Cent/Pack Cigarettes?

Well, here, with 9.25% sales tax, more like $0.55/pack, but hey. The cheapest smokes here go for about $40/carton, so we're looking at a 87.5% savings. Dang, that's cheap!

Git you some buttbacco (get the butts from your rich friends who still smoke, or go to a bar, and empty all their butts into a can -- they'll appreciate your helping out, I'm sure), and all you have to pay for is the cigarette tubes (w/filters attached), and this nifty li'l machine: A manual cigarette injector.

The injector. This one cost me $10, but you can buy nicer ones, or you can find these for a bit less, online. I figured with shipping, it would be a wash.

The injector, opened, and ready for tobacco.

Tobacco loaded. This takes some practice, judging the proper amount. Your first cigarette will not have as much tobacco as a store-bought smoke; just keep adding more on subsequent tries until you find the right "density." The amount above, using fresh tobacco, is just about perfect.

Use the tamper to jam the tobacco down into the receiver. The feel of the resistance should be a lot like pressing on a store-bought smoke.

Put a cigarette tubes on the end of the nozzle, and flush it up against the body of the injector. The tubes are about $5 for 200 (a carton's worth).

Close the top of the injector. Using the thumb and middle finger on the sides, and the index finger on the end, and gripping the base with your other hand, pull the slide. This injects the tobacco into the tube.

If there isn't a pretty firm resistance, you probably used too little tobacco.

Then, push the slide back to its original position.

Gently pull the cig off the nozzle, and tap it on a solid surface. Place in a sturdy box, or stick in your stupid smoker's face, and light.

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Morning Light Hack Photos

... and I mean barely light.

Look at those pupils!  That's the clue as to how low the lighting was. Big aperture, slow shutter, tripod.

Loving this camera hack, but I gotta go to bed, and get up for an interview this afternoon.

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Hacked LarryElvis

So KEWL. Using CHDK Allbest, which is a completely-reversible firmware hack to many Canon point-n-shoot cameras, and the script, "Ultra Intervalometer," I was able to set the camera to continually shoot at an interval I set, and at a shutter speed I chose. 

One simply has to go here, and follow the links in that article to get instructions on installing the firmware for your Canon camera.

This is gonna be fun, putting this through its paces!

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Tweet

I love Twitter.

I love it even more when it's running. :)

I love it when I use TweetDeck, 'cause I can group my peeps.

Join me.
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$14 Steadycam

Special thanks to Noble Machine Company, Inc. for drilling the end caps for me. They rewl.

Footage to come!
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GoogScope™

Here's where I normally turn in to get home.

Remember this video? The yellow ovoid marks where the tripod was set up for that.

We live in interesting times.
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For Realz, Yo

Gonna go shoot some scooty video while picking up a 4-to-4-pin Firewire cable (not included!).
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Another Google #1

inside jokes

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