October 2010
1 post
1 tag
Identifying hard drives
I’ve had a Linux server at home with a lot of hard drives in it for many years. One of the most frustrating things about this has been when a drive eventually fails, it’s a pain to identify exactly which drive it is that has failed. This seems obviously in hindsight, but I recently realized that “hdparm -i /dev/sdx” will give you the serial number of a drive. So since I...
September 2010
3 posts
Rails 3.0.0 and rubygems 1.3.5 issue
If you’re running into a problem like this:
coneill@test:~/buildbot# bundle install /sw/lib/ruby/vendor_ruby/1.8/rubygems/dependency.rb:52:in `initialize’: Valid types are [:developmen t, :runtime], not nil (ArgumentError)
Then your problem might be that you’re running rubygems 1.3.5. I ran into this yesterday, and couldn’t find any good leads on what the problem might...
Canon SpeedLite 430EX II Manual →
I wanted to throw away a copy of my manual for this, but it appears Canon has never made it available online. I cut the binding off mine and scanned it. Click the title for a link to the PDF.
Now at tumblr
Migrated posts from Wordpress to Tumblr, but didn’t seem worth the effort involved to move comments also.
This doesn’t meant I’ll post more often, but at least I won’t have to deal with Wordpress security issues.
May 2009
1 post
2 tags
Aerogarden Labels
I bought a three pod Aerogarden a while back, and I’ve been experimenting with growing my own seeds in it. I came up with an Omnigraffle template for the labels to go on the top of the seed pods. It’s a double sided template where one side is a label for you to write on and the other side is a cutting template. You can run it through in duplex mode if you have a printer that...
April 2009
2 posts
1 tag
Canceling should be as easy as signing up.
I’ve been a Quicken Bill Pay customer for 5 years, probably closer 10. Their product generally works pretty well, but it hasn’t changed much in the last 5 years, and the generally crummy UI led me to look around for something better. This morning I signed up for Paytrust hoping it might be better since the web page looked slightly better and people seemed to give it decent reviews. ...
2 tags
Better Metacritic RSS feeds
So I think Metacritic’s game reviews are a great idea, but their RSS feeds only have the title of the game, and a very short sentence. That’s a not great, but the bigger problem is that they publish games to their RSS feed immediately, but don’t score games until there are at least 5 reviews.
To work around that, I’ve put together Atom feeds that you can use instead of...
March 2009
1 post
1 tag
Metacritic RSS
So I think Metacritic’s game reviews are a great idea, but their RSS feeds only have the title of the game, and a very short sentence. That’s a not great, but the bigger problem is that they publish games to their RSS feed immediately, but don’t score games until there are at least 5 reviews.
To work around that, I’ve put together Atom feeds that you can use instead of...
January 2009
1 post
1 tag
CAP Theorem
We’ve been doing architecture for geographically disperse, highly available systems at work for a few years now. We have mostly been coming up with “things that work” without spending a lot of time on research. I ran across Werner Vogel’s post on this sort of thing a month or two ago and thought it would be worth mentioning. It really crystalized for me some ideas that...
August 2008
1 post
2 tags
Paul's first 3d movie
I took Paul to see Journey to the Center of the Earth this afternoon. I had forgotten it was in 3d until we were walking in and they handed us polarized 3d glasses. He seemed to really enjoy it, although I didn’t notice until the credits that he was dodging things coming out of the screen :)
May 2008
1 post
1 tag
Flat tires
The odd thing is that the tire didn’t actually lose pressure after I ran over this. I only noticed because of the noise of it hitting the fender each time it went around. This was a brand new tube too, and the first front flat I’ve had on this bike in a year. I patched it, but looks like the patch isn’t holding. The tire was only at 20ish PSI this morning, and was soft...
April 2008
2 posts
1 tag
I think Plaxo thinks they're funny
So I don’t use full screen Expose on my Mac very often, but I was looking for my Time Machine progress bar, and found this:
At first, I thought that the “Trust me…it’s super legit” was some value in the certificate, but it’s not. The cert is apparently from the blue socket wifi gateway we have here from work. I was puzzled as to where this came from, until I...
1 tag
Things you don't expect to see in traffic:...
I was driving home on Wednesday and pulled up to the head of the line at the corner of Route 7100 and Foxmill Road near Herndon. As I’m sitting there, I see this guy filter forward through traffic, and dismount off of his unicycle:
I was a little surprised to say the least. However, I wasn’t completely shocked, as I’m pretty sure I’ve seen this same guy commuting on...
March 2008
3 posts
1 tag
Geeky License Plates
When I see license plates like this, I always wonder if they were thinking of the same acronym I am.
1 tag
Keen Cycling Sandals
I’m a big fan of the Shimano bike sandals, and I’ve been wanting to get a pair of normal Keen sandals for a while. So I was pretty pleased when someone on the PPTC mailing list mentioned this morning that Keen is now making a bike sandal:
REI is selling them for $115.
Update: I picked up a pair of these, but haven’t had a chance to mount cleats on them yet. Once it’s...
1 tag
In Verizon Land 40% = 100%
So, I checked my FIOS order status late Friday night, and it was around 80%. I also checked the “Reschedule Installation” option, and surprise they had a slot open for today, 8am to 5pm. I spent a few hours cleaning out the basement Saturday, and then rescheduled. I sat around all day playing Lost Odyssey and finally around 5:10, I called Verizon to find out if the guy was going to...
February 2008
3 posts
1 tag
FIOS order status, Part 2
So my order status has moved to 59%. I’m not real sure how this is supposed to work. Perhaps it is keyed to the time left, or maybe the number of customers waiting for install?
1 tag
My gift to Steve Jobs...
I have a simple suggestion: put a single mouse button on your laptops but put two switches under it, one on each side. Have the OS ship configured to treat both sides as the same. Give me the option to tell the OS to treat each side of the single mouse button as left and right mouse button. PS: I’d rather have dedicated page up/page down keys than a two enter keys and a dedicated eject...
1 tag
FIOS Ordered!
Verizon’s provisioning system is impressive:
Somehow my order is now 58% complete, even though I’m 5 days into the 30 day waiting period for my install! At this rate I expect it’ll be installed by the end of the coming week. FWIW, I’m getting the 15/15 package, for $70/mo. While this means going back to having a dynamic IP at home, it also means I’ll have...
January 2008
1 post
1 tag
Great quote from "PeopleWare"
Lately I’ve been reading more software engineering/development books, especially those with more of a project management slant. I got a copy of Peopleware: Productive Projects and Teams in the mail today and I’m about 30 pages into it and so far I’m really digging it. I particularly liked this quote which was mentioned in a section about Parkinson’s Law:
In a healthy work...
October 2007
1 post
1 tag
Premature Walruses
While the whole article is interesting, this bit from Joel Spolsky’s recent article in for Inc really rang true:
Think of it in these terms: Mama walruses deliver their calves at the end of a 15- to 16-month pregnancy. You might ask the mother to commit to 15 months and she might say, “No problem!” Or you might say, “Fifteen months? Are you crazy? We need this in eight...
September 2007
2 posts
1 tag
New Toy: Macbook Pro
So after a year or so of nagging on and off, work agreed to buy Macbooks for the people in our group that wanted one. As a result, I’ve ended up with a 15” Pro. So far there are some things I like and don’t like.
The screen is beautiful. I wish it were a little higher DPI, but the resolution is better than I was expecting. The LED backlighting should also mean that I...
1 tag
C&O Canal Trip
So, if everything goes well, next Wednesday I’ll be leaving to from Cumberland, MD to ride the length of the C&O Canal. It’s 184 miles, fairly flat, and should be mostly downhill to the end point in Georgetown. I’m planning to do the trip self supported over 4 days or so, although Caitlin will be staying in the area for the first day or so, if something comes up and I need...
2 tags
Sometimes you get more than you paid for
Either I’m insanely lucky, or Etymotic ER6’s are incredibly well made. I ran mine through the washing machine and then through the dryer (on high heat, for about an hour). I had a horrible sinking feeling when I saw them fall on the floor when I was taking clothes out. However, the net effect appears to be that the foam ear tips are cleaner.
I’m listening to Pandora through...
August 2006
3 posts
2 tags
Biked 1000 miles.
I noticed this morning when I uploaded 8 tracks to Motionbased that I’ve apparently passed the 1000 miles ridden point, almost 1100 miles. If I ride in 4 times a week on average, then I’ll come pretty close to 1500 miles for the first year of bike commuting to work. I’ve also lost around 40-45 lb over those miles, although dieting had a lot to do with it. I’m...
1 tag
Bike store suckage
I’ve been fairly disappointed with the bike stores in Fairfax. Occasionally I’ll merely get mediocre customer service, but usually worse. On top of that they generally treat me like an idiot, when I it’s not unusual for me to know more than they do about the topic I’m asking about. Perhaps this will get better when the weather gets worse, and all the college students go...
1 tag
First weight loss goal met
So I’ve finally managed to get under, and stay under 180lb for a period of time. Back a few months ago, I managed to weigh in under 180 once or twice, but never could stay under. So I guess it’s official that I’ve lost about 40-45lb now. I think I still need to lose another 5-10lb, but I’m pretty close to where I’d like to be now after about a year of on and off...
July 2006
3 posts
2 tags
Re: Intellectual Bargain Shopping
Jeffery Veen quoted Nietzsche:
To predict the behavior of ordinary people in advance, you only have to assume that they will always try to escape a disagreeable situation with the smallest possible expenditure of intelligence. - Friedrich Nietzsche
And he goes on to argue that this is another way of looking at the old “users are stupid” adage. He says “Users aren’t stupid,...
1 tag
Log and Pics from W&OD ride
I forgot to mention that I posted the log of my W&OD ride on Motionbased. I also took some pictures of the Lucky Stone Quarry on my way through.
1 tag
Cycling on the W&OD
I took my first ride out on the W&OD this weekend and I managed to do 40 miles, which is about double what I’ve done in a single ride before. I started out in Herndon, around the 20 mile marker, and rode out to Paeonian Springs. I stopped at a small grocery there and had lunch, mostly because they have the only marked bathrooms between Leesburg and Purceville.
I really enjoyed the...
April 2006
1 post
1 tag
Mmm...Steak
I think I need to visit Argentina
February 2006
4 posts
1 tag
Mario Mashups
Parkour set to Super Mario Brothers sound effects
Kill Bill meets SMB music - There aren’t really enough sound effects to do the fight scenes justice, but a few parts were pretty great.
2 tags
Nintendo DS Stylus Leash
I picked up this on Ebay last week. Overall I’m fairly happy with it. It clips on to the existing hook for the leash that comes with the DS, and the small slot at the top of the standard stylus. The hook that attaches to the DS end of the leash isn’t the highest quality in the world, but I don’t think there is any danger that it’s going to break or fall off either. The...
1 tag
Update on Gamespot leaking email addresses
The VP of Corporate Communications (Who I’ve mailed about this twice before) got back to me shortly after my Digg post hit the front page. I’m sure those two things have nothing to do with each other though…
To answer the people on the Digg thread, yes, I have opted out of all of Gamespot’s partner spam and I have my email address marked private in my profile.
Also,...
1 tag
Are Gamespot spammers?
So, I use the Spamgourmet service to generate temporary email addresses that look like examplewebsite.20.coneill@xoxy.net. This means that I can give www.examplewebsite.com this email address, and they can send me 20 emails and then the email address automatically expires if I don’t say otherwise. As a result, I can generally tell exactly what web site sold my email address to spammers,...
January 2006
1 post
1 tag
Xmas
Well, due to being sick with a cold pretty much the entire holidays, I did manage to not gain 10lb while visiting relatives. In fact at one point I was 195, but I think that’s mostly due to me being sick. I’ve managed to stay under 200 though.
Also, since I’d been sick and out of town, it’s been about 2.5 weeks since I last did any real exercising. So I got on the...
December 2005
1 post
1 tag
Weight Loss?
I’ve been dieting for a bit over a month now, and managed to lose ~20lb or so. So I’m now down under 200lb again, finally. Now I just need to not gain 10lb at my parents house.
September 2005
4 posts
1 tag
Vacation starts!
This morning we started our first real vacation. Caitlin put together a huge road trip for us that she says is about 3,000 miles. I don’t know much about where we’re going other than we’ll be in Canada at some point, and we’re supposed to do a lot of geocaching. Should be fun seeing a lot of places I’ve never been though
1 tag
Biking to work and Motionbased
So I biked to work twice this week, and the second time I tried going from 7100 to Sunrise via Fox Mill road, which seems to cut around 1mile of my commute. I also seem to be getting a bit faster, and not having to exert myself so much, so that’s good. The bad news is that my knees are sore again, after the second trip in.
I’ve also been playing with MotionBased. It lets you...
1 tag
Biking to work (for real)
So I got everything ready last night to bike in today. I ended up leaving around 8am, and got in around 9:20. The first 3.5 miles were pretty rough, and by the time I managed to get up to the intersection of 7100 and 50, I wasn’t sure at all that I’d manage to make it the whole way. However, once I actually got going on the flatter parts of 7100, things went really smoothly. I...
1 tag
Biking to work
So, I managed to bike to work one way (around 11mi) this afternoon after work. Took a bit over an hour, so that’s about 10mph or so. I felt pretty slow and it’s pretty hilly, so I feel like there is a lot of room for improvement in that time. Andrew gave me a ride home from work since I didn’t feel up for doing the whole commute back to back yet. It’s nice to see after...
August 2005
1 post
1 tag
Cheap Drives
Compusa has the Maxtor 250gb PATA drives with 16mb of cache on sale until Friday. They’re only $99 and if you buy two you get free ground shipping. I ordered two and I think it was ~$210 with tax.
July 2005
1 post
1 tag
Feedlounge Alpha
So I managed to get into the Feedlounge alpha. I saw a reference to them a while back and signed up for the beta and yesterday they sent out email asking for the first 100 responders to be alpha testers. Apparently they got over 175 responses in 10 minutes. I think it took me about 11 min before I noticed the email and responded, so I guess I got lucky.
So far notable features include:
...
February 2005
3 posts
1 tag
Geico vs Progressive, Fight!
I’ve been a Geico customer for about 8 years now. I originally picked them because I was in the dealership trying to lease an Acura Integra (my first new car) and was informed that I had to have car insurance before I could leave. This was new to me, so I chose Geico because I could remember their phone number at the time.
Caitlin and I have been talking about getting her a new car for a...
1 tag
Treo 650 wifi
There have been a few reports about this guy finding the wifi drivers in the 650’s firmware image. He says the first character of all the filenames are missing, which reminds me a lot of what MSDOS used to do when it deleted filenames off of FAT filesystems. It sounds like someone deleted the drivers out of the firmware filesystem and didn’t think about the fact that it...
1 tag
Sichuan Village in Chantilly
Since Andrew was out sick today, I was on my own for lunch today and decided to go try out Sichuan Village in Chantilly. I’ve recently seen both good and bad things about it on chowhound, but I figured it had to be better than your average Chinese takeout. The guys on chowhound that are big China Star fans seem to dislike anything that’s not insanely hot, so I figured even if they thought it was...