Yesterday, I came across something interesting.

See, Terra and I were friends for a long time before we became fully romantically involved. Our lives intersected in December of 2007 when she and Wesley moved in with my mom and I so we could all help each other
after dad’s death and Terra’s divorce. After a year or so together, we had grown very close. But the best it ever got was when I would refer to her as my “girlish friend” rather than girlfriend, and comment that ours was just a “proximity infatuation”, and that I was really unsure where our relationship was heading.
I remember the incident that caused me to realize how much she meant to me but, until digging around my site yesterday, didn’t have exact dates.

So, firstly, I see on my lifestream for February 4, 2009, that I referred to her as my “statistically significant other”. I doubt that’s the only time I’d publicly said something similar but this one is interesting because of the date. Just a couple days later, there was the incident that made me so fearful she was dead or something almost as bad that I had to concede that she was more to me than the descriptions above. You can read that here (the last three status updates). I called the hospital, police, paced back and forth – the whole bit – then couldn’t stop crying when I found out she was ok.

I remember that it was within the next day or so that I sat down and talked with Terra and acknowledged that I had been in some kind of denial for quite some time but the incident had really opened my eyes. We have been truly a couple ever since that day.
See the difference in my birthday tweet for her in 2010 and 2011, for instance.

And now, of course, we are marrying on January 14, 2012 :)

Related posts:

1. John Hevener from the 3rd St. ministry
2. Lifestream for December 13th, 2011
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*t…Raising Arizona
t&…A Scanner Darkly
mt…The Family Stone
t*…Better Off Dead
&*t…Mixed Nuts
t&#…Millions
t&#*…Christmas Vacation
: : : : : : : : : : : : : DECEMBER : : : : : : : : : : : :
t&…Planes, Trains and Automobiles
twm…Pieces of April
#t…The Family Stone
#tw…Bring It On
twm…Up
t&…The Godfather, Part II
t&w…The Godfather
&*t…This Is Spinal Tap
#t&…Away We Go
&*t…Tron
t&w…What’s Up, Doc?
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : NOVEMBER : : : : : : : : : : : : :
t*#…Jeepers Creepers (psn)
t&…Poltergeist (bluray)
tw…The Nightmare Before Christmas (bluray)
t…Alien (2003 Dir Cut)
t&w…The ‘Burbs
t…Event Horizon (bluray)
t&*…The Boogens
tw…The Addams Family
#&t(w)(*)…most of TftDarkside s01
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : OCTOBER : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
t&…Strictly Ballroom
#&tw…Sky Captain and the World of Tomorrow (bluray)
#t…My Fair Lady
t…Requiem for a Dream (bluray)
#@…Annie Hall
t…Barefoot in the Park
#t…Someone Like You
t@&*…Waxwork 2: Lost In Time
t@&*…Waxwork
t&…Leap of Faith
#@…The Player
#*t…The Grudge
#t…Return To Me
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : JULY : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
#&t…The Testament of Dr. Mabuse
&*t…TAo Buckaroo Banzai At8D (with chris dunn)
?#&t…Låt Den Rätte Komma In (bluray)
&t…Testament
tmw…August Rush
&*t…The Ice Pirates
#&t…Master and Commander: The Far Side of the World (bluray)
&@t…Get Shorty
#&*t…Psycho
#&tw…Up (cinema)
#*t…Gothika
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : JUNE : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
t#&*…The Invasion
t&*…Caddyshack (started new spn here)
t#&…Battlestar Galactica Season One
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : MAY : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
#@…BSG 1×01-04
t…Vanilla Sky
t&…Almost Famous (theatrical)
t&…JFK (dir cut)
t#&…Iron Man (bluray)
t&…L.A. Story
t&…Fletch
t…The Matrix (bluray)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : APRIL : : : : : : : : : : : : :
t…Magnolia
#&t…Breakfast At Tiffany’s
&*t…Ed Wood
#@…The Terminal
*t#…Ringu
t&…Tristan + Isolde
*t&…The Night of the Comet
*t&…The Night of the Living Dead
@…Matrix Revolutions
&#t…Delicatessen
@…Matrix Reloaded
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : MARCH : : : : : : : : : : : : :
#t&…LOST WEEKEND (finished s1, started 2)
#t*…What Lies Beneath
#tm…Wit
#@…Primer
#t*…Mirrors
#t&…August Rush
t&…Barefoot In The Park
t…The Dark Knight (bluray)
t&#…Dollhouse 1×01
t&…Rushmore
@…Rushmore
t&#…Being There
t&…Mr. Hobbs Takes A Vacation
t#…The Virgin Suicides
t&*…Rear Window
t&…Searching For Bobby Fischer
#t&…Capote
#@…The Warriors
*t…Garden State
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : FEBRUARY : : : : : : : : : : : : :
&/#/t/*…Lexx 2×03-10
#*t…The Haunting
&t#…Lexx 2×02 – Terminal
&t#…Lexx 2×01 – Mantrid
t…Punch-Drunk Love
&t#…Lexx 1×04 – Giga-Shadow
&t#…Lexx 1×03 – Eating Pattern
*t&…Lost In Translation
*t&#…Lexx 1×02 – Supernova
t&…Lexx 1×01 – I Worship His Shadow
t&…The Stand
t&…The Incredibles
#t&…Burn After Reading
t&…Oscar
*t&…shanghai noon
#t*&…the happening
#@…the darjeeling limited
*t&…fear and loathing in las vegas
t…fargo
t&…unforgiven
t*…the big lebowski
 

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*T…It’s A Wonderful Life
tB…Fargo
tB…Boogie Nights
…Primer (my new dvd)
*t…Christmas Vacation
VxWt…Edward Scissorhands (first Vudu)
t…The Royal Tenenbaums
t…The Family Stone
Nt*…Funny Farm
NCT*…Black Christmas (1974)
Bt…Crash
W…Scrooged
TB…Eyes Wide Shut
t*…Mixed Nuts
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : DECEMBER : : : : : : : : : : : : :
tW…Pieces of April (for thanksgiving)
TW…Martian Child
The Darjeeling Limited
tB…Apollo 13
tB…Gattaca
Garden State
%…Primer
C%…Martian Child
NC…The Pianist
tW…Withnail & I
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : NOVEMBER : : : : : : : : : : : : :
tW…The Addams Family
t…The Others
NCT…Lexx 3.06-07
tB…Moulin Rouge
(((Got new Netflix PS3 app here – Oct18)))
CT…Lexx 3.03-05 (in her room)
CT*…Lexx 3.01-02 (in her room)
NCTW…Seventh Moon
NWt…Labyrinth
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : OCTOBER : : : : : : : : : : : : :
tw…Little Shop of Horrors
*B…Time Bandits
T…Jaws
N*TC…Space Mutiny (in her room)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : SEPTEMBER : : : : : : : : : : : :
Tc…Murder by Death
(TCW…John Cleese’s Wine for the Confused)
*TC…Saturn 5 (in her room)
tWB…The Dark Knight
TWB…The Cowboys
T*…Ladyhawke (her room)
tB…Fight Club
*Ct…Friday the 13th (her room)
Wt…Star Wars
tB…The Notebook
t…Lost In Translation
TC…The Invention of Lying
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : AUGUST : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
N?TcW…Father Goose
BTcW…Sphere
BCTW…Cirque du Soleil – Corteo
ct…The Three Amigos
cT…The Dreamers (in her room)
CtW…Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban
CtW…Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
CtW…Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone
CT…A Serious Man
BTC…The Fourth Kind
BWCT…Tim Burton’s Alice in Wonderland
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : JULY : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
TC*…Robin Hood: Men in Tights (her room)
BTWC…Avatar
BTw…Toy Story 2
BwTC…9
Bt…Magnolia
N?TC*…Josie and the Pussycats (her room)
N?T…Fail-Safe
tW…A.I. Artificial Intelligence
N?TC*…Drag Me To Hell (in her room)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : JUNE : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
TC*…Repo! The Genetic Opera
N?WT*…Beavis And Butt-Head Do America
tw*…Dr. Horrible’s Sing-Along Blog
C…Au Revoir Les Enfants
NC…The Cutting Edge: The Magic of Movie Editing (docu)
tC…The Cutting Edge
%…In Bruges
%…One Hour Photo
Bt…Event Horizon
C%…12 Angry Men
%…Slacker
Bt…The Fountain
NC…The Seventh Seal
T…Jesus Christ Superstar
NCT…Fall from Grace (docu)
TW…Throw Momma From The Train
TC*…The Lovely Bones (in her room)
BtW…Batman Begins
N?tC*…The Devil’s Rejects (1st spn in her new room)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : MAY : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
N?T…Arthur
tC*…House of 1,000 Corpses (Netflix IW HD)
BtC…Full Metal Jacket
TWC…Whip It
Btw…Toy Story
T*…UHF
NC…Tarnation (docu)
%…Glengarry Glen Ross
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : APRIL : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
t…Withnail & I
N?WT*…HhGttG eps 1-3
NT…Who’s Afraid of Virgina Woolf?
NT*…Dreamscape
T*…Logan’s Run
TCW…The City of Ember
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : MARCH : : : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
N*TC…Ink
NTC…Neverwas
NTC…Super High Me (docu)
tC…Deeply
NT*…Spice World
NT*…The Serpent and the Rainbow
NC…Skid Row (docu) (first PS3 Netflix)
: : : : : : : : : : : : : : : FEBRUARY : : : : : : : : : : : : : :
T…Adaptation
TC…District 9
*t…A Fish Called Wanda
t%…Le Fabuleux Destin d’Amelie Poulain
TC…Paranormal Activity
: : : : : : : : : : : : : JANUARY : : : : : : : : : : : :

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And then, here is what I followed up with on Facebook…

It’s what I’ve seen happen to Alien.
The franchise lessened the cultural significance and artistic legacy of the original and ended up *obscuring* it from the mainstream, in a sense. The “It gets more people to see it that otherwise wouldn’t have.” argument becomes meaningless at some point when the work is caused to be compared to what are essentially just derivative works that in no way reflect – let alone deepen – the artist’s original intent and therefore the original ends up a “see also” and gets buried under stale popcorn.
My ex-wife and I went to the theatrical re-release of Alien in ’03 and were stunned when we were two of only four people in the theater. Yet, the vapid comedy/action/horror/whatever no one remembers now was packed. I had an urge to go into the lobby, shouting “What the hell is WRONG with you people??!!!”. But, I already knew, even then, what the most common answer would be. Something like “Alien? Yeah, it’s ok. The fourth one was really cool! The first was tame compared to the rest, though.” The amusement park drew them in and they may have had fun, but amusement park crowds care little for much beyond “Yeah, that one part that had that naked chick that got impaled by that alien’s tail? Huh huh, yeah, that was cool.” And an artist who made the mistake of signing a contract many years ago ends up screaming “But you are missing my point!!” and a masterpiece of atmosphere, suspense and design only exists in popular mainstream consciousness because it’s part of a canon that you’ll find under “Action, horror, sci-fi”.
In this – as in so many other cases – it would be better off a forgotten classic that the uninitiated could then be introduced to with no pre-conceived (and ill-fitting) expectations.
…
Whoa. I think I’ve had a liiiittle too much coffee ;P

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first i want to point out that this is on a 42" lcd hdtv in the living room and i use a wireless kb and mouse…

second, pretty much everything you see is Yahoo! Widgets, Rainmeter, ObjectDock, and Stickies… if you want your desktop like mine, just google those names…

on the left is our budget for the month using Stickies, but, if you look, it is a bit transparent and you will see it is actually the top sticky atop a few others, but this is the only open one – they roll up… (i hide windows desktop icons under my sticky notes…) you can see i have another little note in the middle of the screen, at the top…
beneath the budget are a couple icons of stuff i need to do – check out the PlayOn app, put Iron Man on my mom’s psp, etc…. it’s sorta’ my to-do stack… and the bottom left hand corner – that little blue thing – i can drag a file onto that and it will auto-magically upload it to the ‘stuff’ directory on my website…

ok, at the bottom edge is ObjectDock – ya’ know, like the dock on a mac… it is hidden until i hover my mouse at the bottom of the screen and, as my mouse moves, the icons under it enlarge… in this pic, i clicked on ‘APPS’ and it opened the assortment of apps i keep handy… not pictured is the other ObjectDock, which i have set up as the system tray/task bar – it’s hidden on the left… i have used ObjectDock (paid version) for years and can’t live without it… it does many more tricks i won’t get into here…

ok, the news headlines are Rainmeter – which is like a widget engine, but not for the faint-of-heart – it is very complex to customize and you need to have some coding knowledge… as you see, i have rss feeds from home-barista for coffee geek discussions, playstation lifestyle for ps3/psp stuff and google for "real" news…

in the middle, since i love love love photography, a Yahoo Widget showing recent popular photos posted on DeviantArt on the left and another Yahoo Widget on the right with recent popular photos posted to Flickr… they are set to change every few minutes… i leave room since the photos come in all shapes and sizes… both have very impressive customization settings as far as what kind of content to show… for instance, the deviantart widget, of course, has tons more types of art than photography and the flickr widget can show your own stream, favorites, photos from groups and/or contacts, and you can even use it to upload to flickr…

at the top, pretty obvious, Yahoo Widgets for date/time, cpu usage, and upload/download speed…

which brings us to the right edge… i have been a webcam junkie for years and this is a Yahoo Widget called WebImages – several instances of it, of course… i have used several methods for desktop webcam monitoring and this one blows all the others away… the depth of options and customization can be intimidating at first and there is a bit of a learning curve, but it is SOOOO worth it… the radar is the local weather radar, of course… the rest are cams that update once a minute… i have each set up to sort of a theme and each contains more than one cam – when it updates, it switches to the next cam that one monitors… for instance, the top is local – alternating between a cam in cloudcroft and one in las cruces… the next down is home – albuquerque – four different cams and once a minute, it shows a different view… the next three are assorted cool/interesting places – cams in las vegas, italy, california, and others – all three contain a list of all my favorite cams around the world and, once a minute (or whatever i choose to set it to from once a second to once a day) it cycles to the next cam in its list… or, if one of them has something really interesting going on, i stop the cycling and set it to update in near-real-time and each one has a button when you mouse over it to enlarge it as big as you like… you can hit another button to save the current image, even…
but, now i’m gushing ;P
oh, and the very bottom one is NASATV – the widget can stream the video, but, i just have it set to show a still every 15 seconds…

anyway… that’s my desktop…

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for the record, at that time, i was in the early stages of my techie journey with a TI-99/4A (with the 128k (?) memory expansion, disk drive, voice synthesizer, 300 baud modem, printer – ah, what i wouldn’t do for a pic of my old desk), i remember reading computer magazines back then and hand-typing basic programs they had in there (they did NOT come with disks, though, you could order cassette tapes with that month’s programs on them, as i recall)… some progs were so big, they would publish them in parts, so, you had a month to type in all that stuff and then wait for the next issue… i guess i was eleven years old when dad bought me a book called something like “Beginning BASIC For Kids”, which taught me about strings, variables, boolean – i still remember some of the little visual aides and such from that book… after that book, my fate was sealed… for years to come, my notebook full of programs and notes was my best friend… i remember many junior high lunches spent with a mile-long print out of some program i had written, scrutinizing every line, command, subroutine, trying to debug the thing, comparing my original notes, looking for typos, looking for incorrect goto line numbers, any clue as to why it isn’t working…

a misspent youth, to be sure…

i spent most of my non-programming time playing scott adams text adventure games, but, i did my bbs time, as well… on one local bss – i wish i could remember the name – i had been caught cheating at tradewars… selling secrets back and forth – had three accounts, one for each opposing faction and one to collect my hush money payments :) neither team ever figured out who their rat was, but, the sysop did… somehow it all worked out that he gave me co-sysop access and i eventually worked for him at the computer shop he ran… dick scheffler was his name…

on a bbs called “the twilight zone”, there was this little game where you could win more access time (you see, folks, you connected to a bbs using a phone line, so, they limited access to users, usually starting at a few minutes a day for new accounts, and there were things you could do to earn access minutes), this was a “guess the number” game… so, i had, say, 30 mins access time per day… so, i would log on and go straight to that game and try to win more time… but, in 30 mins, i could only guess so many numbers and may guess the same one more than once (it was a three digit number), writing down each number i tried ate up even more of my precious time… sooooooo, i wrote a little prog that could try out numbers WAY faster than i, a mere human, could punch them in, read the results, try again, etc., and would never repeat the number it had tried since i started it…
as i recall, i got busted using that, too…

and, you know, bbs’es live on, both dial-up and via telnet… when i got my psion 3c here just 3 or 4 years ago, i didn’t have any internet software for it, but, i did have a modem and a comms program, so, i got some bbs phone numbers, dialled them up, searched their files sections, and, after trying several bbs’es, eventually found an ftp client that i downloaded, then used it to get the rest of what i needed from the ‘net…

annnyway, fun article… the “oh, let’s make fun of 80s tech” joke gets a bit tired, but, this one is not too offensive…

btw, my brother got a “petster” for christmas one year, more like ’87…

oh, and, before i go, it would be a crime to bring up bbs’es and not mention textfiles.com and the bbs documentary… which bbs documentary? well, THE bbs documentary, of course :P

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how cool is that?

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i just couldn’t stand it anymore, it was too catchy, i’ve thought about it long enough, and domain names are cheap…
it will point here and all email sent to it will forward to my regular account…

it will be a couple days until that link works, btw – these things take time…

and people will no doubt rejoice that i finally have a website address that EVERYONE can actually spell :P

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the security screen had my website address, so, there is a chance you are reading this… the screen also has my cell number, so, call me and arrange a meeting, a drop place, tell me what you did with it, whatever…
i have years of info, email, notes, and more on that device and i need it back… it is worth nothing to you, it is a very old device, no one uses them anymore, you cannot pawn it, no one will buy it, if you want a pda there are many out there that will do what you want, you don’t want my outdated machine that they stopped making in the mid-90s…

it is valueless to you and priceless to me…

you left the contents of my wallet; photographs, notes, id, maybe because you understand and sympathize with the value of them, and i appreciate that… but, what is on that handheld computer is worth far more than the contents you left behind…

so, just call me and let’s work this out, seriously, no questions asked, i just need it back…

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WHAT: craigslist CEO Jim Buckmaster won an eBay auction for the first private communication transmission light years into deep space, with the idea of offering this opportunity to craigslist users.

HOW: The friendly folks at Deep Space Communications Network (DSCN) will beam the postings trillions of miles into space using redundant klystron transmitters and a satellite dish.

HOW MUCH: The winning bid was $1225, but craigslist is negotiating with DSCN for extra capacity to accomodate the anticipated volume of craigslist postings to be transmitted – 10,000 ads were designated by users for transmission during the first 24 hours!

WHEN: The transmission is currently scheduled for May 15th, 2005, directly following the launch of the space shuttle Discovery.

WHERE: Cape Canaveral, FL

WHY: It seemed fitting for craigslist users to be the first to beam internet postings and classified ads into deep space.

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Rio Rancho’s plan for a citywide high-speed wireless communication system is
back on line.
The city has reached an agreement with a wireless service provider, Azulstar.
Rio Rancho city administrator Jim Palenick plans to ask the Rio Rancho City
Council to approve the agreement next week.
Azulstar would begin deployment of the wireless network on November 15th. The
project would be completed by May 15th.
The city had contracted with Usurf America for the wireless network earlier
this year.
The company says it terminated its contract with the city in August because
the financial terms didn’t fit its new financial model.
The city says it terminated the contract after it became clear that Usurf
couldn’t meet the deployment deadline.
 
(Copyright 2004 by The Associated Press.  All Rights Reserved.)

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Waxy.org: Links Miniblog

Pioneer CLD-D704 notorious for streaking problems???(!!)

Bartender Magazine
Webtender.com – “In My Bar” – “Tell The Webtender what you have in your bar, and get a list of all the drinks you can make.”

Earth and Moon Viewer: Expert Request

the following links come from my LiveJournal Friends page, which i use as a simple online aggregator of site feeds…

boingboing: Deaf children in Nicaragua create new language
boingboing: D&D rarities sold off by terminally ill TSR illustrator
boingboing: Remembering

fark: VIDEO – Reporter covers dangerous intersection – huge crash happens behind him, live

Engadget: The Godfather horse head pillow

RefDesk’s SotD: MapMachine
   ”National Geographic’s redesigned online atlas gives you the world – your way. Find nearly any place on Earth, and view it by population, climate, and much more. Plus, browse antique maps, find country facts, or plan your next outdoor adventure with our trail maps”

and i finally bumped into a website with someone using the .name domain… i really wanted one of these for a long time, before i decided to just get a .com…

http://grant.henninger.name/

btw, it is just some guy’s blog, so no telling if it will be of any interest to anyone, it is just the domain name that caught my attention…

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AnyBrowser.com – Your Source for Browser Compatibility Verification
WDG Copy/Paste HTML Validator
Cynthia Says – Accessibility Validator
Doctor HTML Quality Assessment Validator

Web Pages That Suck — Daily Sucker
HTMlite tutorials
extended ASCII – Webopedia.com

TL/2 – “a FileManager specially designed for thin-client browsers and a sturdy [webspace tool kit]“.
Draac.com – Web Page Tools
MAiP Developer Tools
Domania Directory Mover
net2ftp

Email Address Encoder
Adobe Acrobat – Adobe PDF Conversion by Simple Form

“JSMFeed is a Perl script that converts RSS XML feeds into standard browser side Javascript in JSMsg convention.” – “Display RSS Feeds on your site- Convert your RSS feeds to JSMsg feeds for easy web-page display”
“phpMyChat is an easy-to-install, easy-to-use multi-room chat based on PHP and a database, supporting MySQL, PostgreSQL, and ODBC.”

and, behold The World’s Largest Cylidrical Aquarium…

AquaDom Aquarium [via BoingBoing.net]

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   ”Dreamcast will set a new standard for entertainment and will achieve huge success in this industry.”
   Bill Gates – May 22, 1998

Howstuffworks – How Dreamcast Works
CyberiaPC.com Video Game Gallery – Sega Dreamcast
DreamcastHistory.com
DCArchive

DCKnowledgeBase Wiki

DreamCast Online Gaming Community
Re-volt Dreamcast Fan Page where u can upload and download custom tracks

Paulokhm’s DreamEye MoBlog

DC Zip extractor [i hope this is only gone temporarily]
[LCD Maker]
DCToolsWeb
Webtools 4 Dreamcast
Index of /fayewong/bank/
Kagura’s Performance Products uploader

DCEmulation :: View Forum – Bleem!cast
[permanently archived for historical purposes (FAQ)]

Sega Slayer’s Anti-Sega Website – Awful Sega Sites

DCSLINKS.com

UPDATE Sept 11, 2004

i got this email…

Original Message:
—————–
From: ze3@*** ze3@***
Date: Sat, 11 Sep 2004 16:29:39 -0400
To: him@ip.com
Subject: Some of your dc links and tools.

I read your page about couple day ago and i saw some dead links.
I try to write a comment on that blogger page of your but need create first
so i email instead.

You know the Dc zip extractor, i dont think that tool of mine ever coming
back again :(
But you can still use the japanese tool instead, that just a form, why dont
transload this page and host it.?
http://angelfire.com/ult/dc/zipex.txt
I even have this big bookmarklet just for it.
There also a zip file to test it on that page.
It some kind of dc disc swap trick tutorial.

Also that link domania directory mover link on your page.
It will not work if someone click on that link because
your page doesnt have domania cookie, domania.net wont allow people use it
You need to put this javasript below on your page first. Or else you’ll see
alert window saying you cant use this tool.

<script language=javascript>
<!–
document.cookie=”Freeloader=Supporter;path=/;domain=domania.net”;
document.cookie=”ACCESS=ALLOWED;path=/;domain=domania.net”;
//–>

Also check out this random midi player. I dont have midis so i test at your
site and it work perfectly
http://angelfire.com/ult/dc/index1.txt (hit reload to change random)
I have a bookmarklet for this tool. It will scan for midi and create that
page.
and try index2.txt is another midi page.
It you interest that bookmarket, let me know. i will try to write a little
bit instruction how to use it.

Later
dcbrowzer

i think this is the site he has in mind for japanese tools…

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Why I hate Microsoft

DTS Online – Consumer – Home Theatre – DVD Title Search

Chicago Sun-Times – Roger Ebert – Movie Answer Man

Museum of Hoaxes – Time Travel Spam
Wired News: Turn Back the Spam of Time

Achaea – Dreams of Divine Lands
IRC Roleplaying – Dungeons and Dragons Games Looking for Players

The Morning News – Tricks of the Trade

SpamTown :: Current Spam-Blocking News And Information
Welcome to Spam Town. We don’t make spam, we learn to live with it.

i may do this more often…

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some of the best are..

Social Engineering Specialist
because there is no patch for human stupidity

stop laughing.
computers are cool now.

talk nerdy to me

this is NOT my boyfriend’s computer

it is pitch black.
you are likely to be eaten by a grue

i was young, i needed the gold pieces

that last one reminds me of something i have been saying for years: “you can’t buy love, happiness, or experience points”

and i saw a t-shirt the other day that says “it is now safe to turn off your computer”…

personally, i would like a dreamcast sticker, a pso t-shirt, and i have had this idea recently that i want a t-shirt with the last words of final fantasy ix on it, white words on black just like they appear on the screen… maybe a pic of zidane and garnet on the back or the game logo or something…

of course, the problem is that i don’t wear t-shirts, but, i could hang it on my wall or something…

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there is much to agree with in both the article and the comments thread…

as an added bonus, there is a great anti-microsoft rant in a user comment…

among the highlights:

If you told a stranger to Earth what they get away with on the desktop, they’d think their babelfish was broken.

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the article the thread is about strangely declares jane fonda’s barbarella the honor…

personally, my first choice would have to be milla jovovich as leeloo in the fifth element…
also on my list would definitely be zev (and xev) from lexx and padme, the star wars inamorata for this generation…
and, not that i have exactly sat and watched an episode of the show all the way through, but, as an honorable mention, gabriella from xena is cute…
and, though a video game, not only is space channel 5 unquestionably sci-fi (imdb agrees), ulala is unquestionably a sci-fi babe…

/haven’t seen nicole kidman in anything sci-fi yet

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_________FIRST MOBILE PHONE VIRUS_________
http://snipurl.com/77lq

The first ever computer virus that can infect mobile phones has been discovered. The virus – called Cabir – is a proof-of-concept worm that replicates on Symbian phones. This worm repeatedly sends itself to the first Bluetooth-enabled device that it can find, regardless of the type of device. For example, even a Bluetooth-enabled printer will be attacked if it is within range. The worm spreads as a .SIS file, which is installed into the APPS directory.

If the virus succeeds in penetrating the phone, it writes the inscription ‘Caribe’ on the screen and is then activated every time that the phone is turned on. There is no payload, apart from the vastly shortened battery life caused by the constant scanning for Bluetooth-enabled devices.

as far as symbian devices go, i don’t see how this could ever become much of a problem… the Symbian OS started life as the EPOC OS, which is what the psion model 5 and up used, and, unless symbian has changed it drastically for the worse, it should simply be a matter of deleting the errant files…
i have had more than a couple applications i installed wreak varying degrees of havoc on my 5 and all i had to do was hit my System/Apps folder, get rid of the application’s subfolder, then go to Apps/Install and get rid of the .sis installation file… worst case scenario might involve searching for any files the app tries to hide (can’t really hide things very well with such a transparent directory structure) and/or running a spy prog to find all running apps… hell, just popping up the list of openly running apps should be enough…
given that these are the sorts of tasks any user should know how to do, plus the fact that this new app running and draining battery power should be very noticable, i just don’t see how this could ever be a real problem…

maybe i am missing something…

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i dug this up since it covers the whole original aspect ratio vs. pan&scan thing covered the previous post…

some damn good info and pretty much covers all one needs to know, though, as usual, i am not sure it adequetly explains the point of anamorphic video…

in a nutshell, your tv only has a certain number of scan lines to display the image… and those scan lines cannot come anywhere close to matching the resolution of a frame of film…
widescreen films on video have black bars at the top and bottom, taking up sometimes as much as half of your screen and thus half of those precious scan lines that weren’t enough to properly show film even when you were using all of them…
now, you COULD ditch the bars and use all the scan lines, but, then you lose the shape of the image… in other words, you basically zoom in on the image, but then, of course, you either have to cut off the sides or distort the image, stretching it vertcally…
hence widescreen tv’s and “anamorphic squeeze” buttons on standard tv’s… the proper shape is kept, with little to no scan lines wasted on nothing but black bars…

meh, it might make more sense if you read it again after you read the article at the link… it is not the easiest thing to explain without examples…

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for those not familiar with the concept of feeds, it is a way to gather
content from a site, without going there… this blog of mine has an atom xml
feed, so, you could get my posts in your favorite “feed aggregator” (along
side feeds from other sites), rather than stopping by to see if i’ve posted
anything new or signing up for the email notification…
at livejournal, people set up xml/rss/etc. feeds for various sites, or use
feeds already offered and you can add those feeds to your lj friends page for
a public online aggregator… there are hundreds of choices, everything from
daily comics like garfield and dilbert, to news, weather, movie reviews, all
sorts of stuff…
you just have to see it to appreciate the sheer coolness of it…
since i have few lj friends, i fill it up with these feeds and then i get
stuff from sites i would not otherwise go to everyday, in one convenient
trip… so, you can see the stuff i am interested in and, if you share those
interests, it can make for a good daily visit…

here are the feeds i have on there currently…

some post several items a day, some once a day, some once a week or once a
month, some post rarely, which makes it even handier to have it appear on my
feeds page… and some may be broken, so, i am still waiting for them to post
something…

firstly, i get posts at “syn_promo”, where people publicize cool feeds they
have found or have made…

astronomy photo of the day

ask yahoo
answering trivia and imponderables, using yahoo

blog of death
sort of a big, far-reaching obits page

boingboing blog

coming soon
a movie news site

dictionary.com’s word of the day

engadget
gadget news, reviews, etc.

filmadd
news of movies added to the Internet Archive

filmtease
an unusual movie trailer review site

found magazine’s find of the week
unusual objects people find

aaron swartz’s googleblog
a blog about google

googleblog
the official blog of google.com

penniphile
the writings of penn jillette, mostly new entries to “road penn”

word spy
dealing with new terms, slang, etc. as they enter the language

quote of the day
not as good as refdesk.com’s quotes of the day, but, they have more than one
per day, so it sort of balances out

snopesrecentadd
one of my favorites, posting urban legends as they are added to snopes.com

thinkgeek
various merchandise of interest to those involved in modern technology

and wordsmith’s word of the day

oh, and almost forgot, i also get “ljnifty” where people post various fun
things you can do with livejournal, such as adding feeds to your friends
page…

and i add cool new ones as i find them… and occasionally remove the ones
that get annoying or boring…

anyway, if that sounds interesting to you, as i said, the link is on the menu
on the left side of this page… “My LJ Feeds”
i stop by at least once a day and it is a pretty good collection at this
point, after some tweaking…

now if only i could get scifi.com’s “today in sci-fi history” on there, which
is almost always interesting to sci-fi buffs… (there is a link to this, as
well, over there on the left…)
i would add the fark.com feed, but, it does not have comments links and the
comments threads are at least half the fun of fark…

btw, geez, it seems today is list day on my blog…
admittedly, i am trying to come up with posts to make so i can knock that huge
“april pics” post off the front page…

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well, i am not going to type up a whole report here, but, to save some stuff i will have to explain to people, here are all the notes and screenshots i have taken, with a few comments here and there…

and it is going to be long…

firstly, here is what must be the root of the problem, as described at a PDAStreet forum…

Using a network packet generator and a bit of patience, I have found that:

- when using a modem, any connection attempt to a closed port will freeze the psion. No special nasty SYN packets are needed for that

- when the psion is listening to the port, the freezing doesn’t occur

- when using a direct ppp link, no freezes ever happen, so it is not a problem in just the TCP/IP stack.

now, i have an app called Sink2, made for just this problem and it has always worked perfectly… it listens on certain ports (default is 80, 135, 445, 4444) and, when a connection is made, it accepts it, and then drops it…
but now, ever since Sasser started, i have not been able to get a solid connection… it can listen on up to seven ports, and i have set it to every port i have seen recommended to block, yet, i still have the problem…

the following will have lots of what sink2 said was happening as well as screenshots, once it occured to me to do that, rather than trying to copy them down… the screenshots do not show what the text describes, btw…

for the record, i am using a Psion 5 (not mx) and the pcmcia adaptor with an ActionTec DataLink 56k card fax modem…
it has always worked perfectly, except when i first got it, it froze a lot because of the reasons he gave up there and those problems vanished when i got sink2…

from may 2nd…

most times, when it happens, sound comes from my modem, like a hissing that sounds different from the carrier one normally hears when the modem connects…
it does not sound like the modem pissed off… it sounds like the speaker coming back on for some reason and that hiss is on the line…

and, it doesn’t seem to know it is dc’d… i have to disconnnect and hard reset my modem…

sink2 listening on ports 80, 135, 445, 4444

20:21:28 Connection on port 445 from 4.228.201.193

same thing, same ip at 20:22:46

d/c and was not able to re-connect

when it switches from “initialize” to “recieving data” is when it drops… so, my browser comes online and when it tries to load a page is when it happens… and on my email client, i can download headers, but, when i try to open an email, it drops connection…

interestingly, i just sent an email (so far i cannot here on dc)…

ok, so, i close my mailbox and see if it is there…

hmm…

and now i just got disconnected… and sink2 says…

20:33:16 Connection on port 445 from 4.240.114.249

it just dc’d before it got all the email headers, though, there was one more than before… my modem light is flashing, yet, the client says “getting headers”… now i have to tell it to disconnect from internet, hard reset modem, try again…

mm-hmm… it almost had all the headers, then that odd hiss and i see the modem light is flashing again…

oh, and there is this from sink2…

20:34:57 connection on port 4445 from 4.240.114.249
grrr…

hmmm… now it won’t even connect…

also the 2nd…

connection on port 135 from 4.240.162.216
connection on port 445 from 4.46.152.229

both icq and telnet were working, then, after a few minutes…

21:57:49 connection on port 135 from 0.0.0.0
and then
21:58:15 connection on port 135 from 4.240.18.137

and i heard that hiss again and was disconnected, though both apps think they are connected…
reconnect to icq, no prob, connect telnet, it works for a moment, then the hissing and disconnect…

sink2 says…
22:03:03 port 135 from same as last time, 4.240.18.137
and then 22:03:28 on port 4444 from the same ip…

from the 3rd…

connected to telnet for a minute or two and then all this, yet, i did not get disconnected until the very end…

22:36:25 port 445 from 4.240.42.10
22:37:08 port 445 from 4.240.42.10
22:37:26 port 445 from 4.240.42.10
22:37:38 port 445 from 4.240.42.10
22:38:44 port 135 from 4.240.63.82
22:38:49 port 4444 from 4.240.63.82
22:39:17 port 445 from 4.33.115.54
22:39:18 port 445 from 4.33.115.54
22:39:26 port 445 from 4.33.115.54
22:39:31 port 445 from 4.241.42.139

and then disconnected…

from the 4th…

today it is acting different…

for one, sometimes when i get dc’d, it tells me i have been disconnected and asks if i want to reconnect…

also, something just happened that was like my connection freezing or something, the modem light was on, but, i could not transfer data, such as when i would send cgaracters in telnet (i have been using telnet to try connecting, juts letting it idle once connected) and i opened icq and it would not connect…

this is sink2 on the 7th…

and now i have made a very confusing discovery…

i can use the old 14.4k modem that i used to use on my psion 3, and it works just fine, all those connection attempts are made, yet, it stays connected… when i try my 56k, it does all the above…
this means nothing to me…
one IS a pc card modem and therefore requires the adaptor, while the other is specifically made for this unit and plugs right in…

but, i don’t see why that would make a difference…

any theories are welcome…

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heros of mine, they are…
so, i thought of the link in our little orrl thing…

the writings of Penn Jillette
(yes, the big one of Penn & Teller)
Philosopher Warrior Extraordinaire… from his articles for PC-Computing, dating back to 1990, his Excite articles of the late 90′s, plenty of various writings, articles, columns, on a wide variety of subjects, and his wonderful “Road Penn” journal, beginning in april, 2000 and continuing to this day… also has interviews, chat scripts, and more….
jan30,03 – they lost their domain name, so, for now, this link goes to the wayback machine’s archive of the page…

and it still does as their new site seems to no longer have their writings…
(btw, the most recent link there on web archive is to a copy made AFTER a porn site got their domain name, so, go for second most recent or older…)

one of my favorites, of course, is one he did in ’92, i believe, for pc computing, called “We’re All Going to Hell”…

ok, i was wrong…
his writings ARE on the new site…
well, good…

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“One strategy that major record companies have been employing lately to deter downloading is adding bonus computer content to new CD releases. I recently discovered that this technique is not unique to CD’s, but had in fact been practiced in the vinyl era as well. That’s right: there were a handful of records released in the late 70′s and early 80′s that contained computer programs as part of the audio. This is totally insane, and totally great.”

alas, no mention of the TI-99/4A…

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Current Mood: amused
Current Music: Space Channel 5 Remix Soundtrack

i read this one long, long ago and tought it was perfect, and i was relating it to the folks a little while back, so, just had to get the full text for any and all to see…

stop me if you’ve heard this one…

Ed finally decides to take a vacation. He books himself on a Caribbean cruise and proceeds to have the time of his life –until the boat sank. He found himself swept up on the shore of an island with no other people, no supplies…nothing… only bananas and coconuts.

After about four months, he is lying on the beach one day when the most gorgeous woman he has ever seen rows up to him. In disbelief, he asks her, “Where did you come from? How did you get here?”

“I rowed from the other side of the island,” she says. “I landed here when my cruise ship sank.”

“Amazing,’ he says. “You were really lucky to have a rowboat wash up with you.”

“Oh, this?’ replies the woman. “I made the rowboat out of raw material I found on the island. The oars were whittled from gum tree branches. I wove the bottom from palm branches. And the sides and stern came from a Eucalyptus tree.”

“But, but, that’s impossible,’ stutters Ed. “You had no tools or hardware. How did you manage?”

“Oh, that was no problem,” replies the woman. “On the south side of the island, there is a very unusual strata of alluvial rock exposed. I found if I fired it to a certain temperature in my kiln, it melted into forgeable ductile iron. I used that for tools and used the tools to make the hardware.” Ed is stunned. “Let’s row over to my place,” she says.

After a few minutes of rowing, she docks the boat at a small wharf. As Ed looks onto shore, he nearly falls out of the boat. Before him is a stone walk leading to an exquisite bungalow painted in blue and white. While the woman ties up the rowboat with an expertly woven hemp rope, he could only stare ahead, dumb struck. As they walk into the house, she says casually, “It’s not much, but I call it home. Sit down please. Would you like to have a drink?”

“No, no, thank you.’ he says, still dazed. “Can’t take any more coconut juice.” “It’s not coconut juice,” the woman replies. “How about a Pina Colada?”

Trying to hide his continued amazement, he accepts, and they sit down on her couch to talk. After they have exchanged their stories, the woman announces,
“I’m going to slip into something more comfortable. Would you like to take a shower and shave? There is a razor upstairs in the cabinet in the bathroom.”

No longer questioning anything, Ed goes into the bathroom. There, in the cabinet, is a razor made from a bone handle. Two shells honed to a hollow ground edge are fastened on to its end inside of a swivel mechanism. “Wow! This woman is amazing!” he muses, “What next?”

When he returns, she greets him wearing nothing but vines, strategically positioned, and smelling faintly of gardenias. She beckons for him to sit down next to her.
“Tell me,” she begins suggestively, slithering closer to him, “We’ve been out here for a really long time. You’ve been lonely. There’s something I’m sure you really feel like doing right now, something you’ve been longing for all these months. You know…” She stares into his eyes.

He can’t believe what he’s hearing:
“You mean—”, he swallows excitedly, “I can check my email?!”

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Psion 5mx vs Palm Pilot and Pocket PC

a couple years old, but, still great info…

my psion 5 is in the mail right now :)

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101 Ways to Save the Internet [wired.com]

Where’s a superhero when you need one? The Net, which once seemed so invincible, is under attack by the forces of evil. Viruses knock servers to their knees.. Spammers hijack our inboxes. Hackers and identity thieves menace our collective security and personal privacy.
Desperate solutions range from abandoning email to requiring a license to log on. Halt, fools! The Internet’s problems stem from the same virtues that make it great: open architecture, the free flow of information, peer-to-peer cooperation, and a bias for linking strangers, not disconnecting them. Take those away and the Net might cease to infuriate us – but it will also cease to amaze us.

Here’s a smarter approach: 101 proposals that harness the Net’s own superpowers to defeat its foes. Up, up, and away!

a few examples…

Build a .sex red-light district – Icann, the committee that assigns top-level Internet domains, refuses to create an adult zone that can easily be kept from kids’ eyes. Porn won’t disappear, so deal with it.

from the “Microsoft To-Do” section of the list…

Hey Steve, fire someone – Somebody’s not living up to the company’s tough talk on fixing bugs. Developers, developers, developers should be accountable, accountable, accountable.

Give away a good spam filter

Ship antivirus wizard – Why can’t the paper clip guy tell us something important, like “This message is infected with Sobig”?

Take the blame – Software license agreements that absolve you of, oh, deleting three years’ worth of email are irresponsible. Bugs are negligence, and negligence should cost you, not us.

from the “Google To-Do List”

Crawl the Internet Archive

Let us link to a page we hate without boosting its ranking

from the “Your To-Do List” section…

Switch your ISP – Some offer anti-spam and anti-virus tools and support. If your current provider won’t help you defend yourself, find another that will.

Death to fax machines – Send us an attachment instead.
Stop with the jokes – If we get the one about French military victories one more time, we’re going to come over and unplug you personally.

people who continuously forward junk to me get treated like any other spammer…
people, please, just repeat the mantra from the Earthlink Internet Hour radio show:

I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email

Turn off your HTML email – It makes you vulnerable to viruses – and bugs us.

Tell Kelly on Geocities to take down her Macarena tribute page It’s over, Kel.

damn straight! i have written much on this subject in the past and i am sure i will write more in the future…

Celebrate diversity – With nearly every computer on the planet running Windows, Outlook, and Explorer, it’s too easy for a single virus to spread everywhere.

and, finally…

Add a “Skip All Flash Intros” option to Macromedia players

in the words of Sam Steele, “Flash is evil.”…

I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email
I will not forward forwarded email

go and do likewise…

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