Category: tech

Update Request

If you link here in any fashion, please take a moment to update your link for me if you haven’t already done so.  I have decided to fold my main domain and my blog into one site.  I will keep the old .name link active but only as an archive in the event the export/import of my existing posts fails.  Once I switch over completely, no new entries will show under the old domain(s). 

The new link is http://www.sfmoby.us 

While I’m at it, I am working with a fresh installation of WordPress.  My current DB has become quite cluttered with old tables left behind by deleted and unused plug-ins.  With the advent of v2.7, this will become obsolete as they are incorporating an option to “uninstall” a plug-in vs just deleting its operating files. 

I will attempt to import all of my existing database however, if that doesn’t work I will simply keep the old link alive as an archive. 1  

  1. I’ve also made a backup just in case all hell breaks loose.  heehee

New Look?

I’m tinkering with a new theme. Whaddya think? Yes, I know the links on the side are dead at the moment. If I can add the header images back and update the sidepage tabs I might just keep it.

OH, and if you use an openid login, please try it and see if it works.

*update – people seem to be having trouble with the comments AND the design so back to the old one for now.*

Netflix on Tivo

The marriage of convenience and technology in my household is now complete.  I got a nice surprise the last time my Tivo downloaded a system update.  Netflix!  It has only taken 3 years to finally come to fruition but it is finally here!  While the selection is currently a bit limited for downloads, [1]you can still have movies unavailable for download mailed to you but that is so 90’s. the quality is on par with standard def. TV broadcasts.  Surprisingly, when they say “watch instantly“, they mean it.  I’ve watched about 10 movies so far and every single one started within minutes and played thru to completion w/o pausing or hanging on the download.  Fast forwarding is a bit slow to start and stop but not unexpected for on-demand content. 

Of course, I’ve been able to stream Amazon movies thru the Tivo for about a year now.  The Amazon service is quite different though. For one, Amazon charges by the movie vs a flat monthly fee for unlimited downloads.  Amazon’s downloads also take quite a bit longer as the content is uncompressed and not optimized for streaming.  Usually, for a 2 hour movie, I have to wait 30-45 mins before I can begin watching if I wanna watch all the way thru w/o the movie pausing.  To be fair, Amazon does have a much larger selection of movies for download.  However, if they hope to compete, they’d better get their act in gear because I can easily see Netflix kicking their ass soon. 

I have yet to try HD content as I’m still streaming over a 54g wifi router.  You need a hard line connection or the newer N speed wifi routers to really stream HD content seamlessly.  I’m sure as the availability of movies increases, I’ll spring for faster wifi.

Once the selection improves, it will also give cable companies a run for their money.  Seriously, imagine having almost any movie or TV show ever made available to watch instantly for a low monthly fee.  No more exorbitant cable bundling fees to worry about.  No more getting stuck with 100’s of channels you don’t watch just to get a few you do watch.  If I were the cable companies, I’d be shitting in my pants about now.  Of course, they’d still make money on primetime channels, first-run content, and broadband so their money stream isn’t totally screwed just yet.  That said, I’ll quickly dump all of my movie packages once Netflix boosts their downloadable content. 

Yes, I know, I’m a geek.  But you knew that already.

References

References
↑1 you can still have movies unavailable for download mailed to you but that is so 90’s.

Twitter me this

I got the opportunity to make a new friend this weekend.  Slickdome aka JJ from twitter was in town for a conference.  He currently lives in frosty Chicago.  I didn’t realize at the time this was his first trip to San Francisco.  Anyway, I was more than impressed and came away wishing we lived closer as I really enjoyed hanging out with him and definitely feel like I made a new friend.

We met up Friday night at Firewood for dinner and some good conversation.  He had a lot to say as I grilled him on every aspect of his life.  What?  I couldn’t help it.  Having only interacted with him in a limited capacity on twitter, I didn’t know much about him and let’s fact it, I’m nosey. *giggle*  Seriously though, I didn’t have any real expectations about our meeting but I had a blast.  I will say his twitter pics do not do him justice.  He was much more handsome in person.  He was also very nice and came across in a very unaffected genuine manner. 

After the inquisition, I decided to take him by Daddies, aka 440 Castro.  We hung out talking and oggling menz.  I think he really liked it.  Not being fed up with me by closing time, we hopped over to Orphan Andy’s for a late night fatty snack.

Saturday, Adam joined us for a late dinner and a movie.  They talked shop a lot as they work in somewhat related fields while I gorged myself on food.  Afterwards, we watched the new James Bond flick, which I loved.  I thought it was just as good as the first. 

He leaves tomorrow but my weekend is over so he was left to wander the City on his own today.  He finally made it over to the Golden Gate bridge and I’m gathering from his tweets he enjoyed it.

Other than hanging out with JJ, there wasn’t much to my weekend.  I hung out with the roomie a bit and got a few chores done.  That pretty much sums it up. 

Oh and one of my regular readers sent me a box of homemade cookies for Christmas.  That was very sweet (literally).  The roomie and I have all but polished off the lot of’em. lol 

Weekend “Stuff”

This past weekend was rather fun.  I went for a 150 mile ride two days in a row.  The first day I went solo and the 2nd day I rode with a friend from the sports bike group.  The 2nd day was the most fun as we drove down to Big Basin park.  The views were awesome and the windy roads even better!  There was a moment when we were taking a break where this very friendly guy came over to chat with us.  I first pegged him as gay…well until his wife sauntered over.  He was very friendly.  One might say too friendly for your average straight guy.  My friend and I both thought there might have been a ‘story’ there. lol  Anyway, the rides were awesome.  I’m loving the new bike more and more every day. I am kicking myself for waiting so long to upgrade.  As for the shoulder, it is healed up nicely.  I still have some numbness around the wound from nerve damage but it is better every week. 

Friday night I also had dinner with Adam & Brad.  I hadn’t seen them in ages and it was nice to catch up.  They seem very acclimated to life in the big city now. heehee  Brad is looking rather hot as he has been hitting the gym pretty hard.

*

I finished Gears of War on the first 2 difficulty settings. The hardcore mode is proving rather difficult.  I can only imagine what “insane” mode is going to be like. lol  The online mode for this one is way ahead of the previous version.  I have to admit the game has consumed a lot of my free time as of late. 

*

TFA was in town this past week as well.  We had an awesome time, as usual.  He gave me the nicest compliment w/o even realizing it.  While I was undressing (get your mind out of my gutter), he casually mentioned, “someone’s been working out“.  It was so unrehearsed and off-the-cuff I knew he meant it vs just trying to flatter me. hehehe  So…he got it extra hard just for that, twice! 

Ho-hum

I haven’t really been inspired to blog much lately.  Even my twittering has waned.  After getting yet another round of emails asking “are you ok?”  I figured I should at least post an update.

Nothing is really wrong, [1]well other than being a 2nd class citizen in the eyes of the law again. I’ve just been busy.  Work has been crazy.  My union duties are extremely busy right now.  The other day I had so much union related stuff going on, I only sat on channel for about 45mins the whole day.  I’m not complaining as I usually get results.  Plus, I am actively working to make my place of employment better. 

I’ve also been heavily involved in playing Gears of War 2.  I freaking love that game.  I beat the campaign level once already and am really enjoying the online play.  If you have an 360, you should try it even if you don’t normally go for FPS (first person shooter) games. 

*

The Prop 8 scandal still smarts.  I will admit to being rather sad lately over the whole ordeal.  I’ve attended several rallies and sit-ins.  And while it feels good, I just feel like rallies don’t accomplish much after the fact.  Where were all these people when our rights got taken away?  I’ve also donated all I can at this point.  I’ve pushed my finances as far as I’m willing.  I’ve already forgone riding gear, my holiday overtime pay and money for personal holiday gifts this year.  I can’t afford to give anymore right now.  I know I sound pissy but I’ve done my part.  I’m certainly not giving up but we all have limits. 

I’m curious about the whole “amendment process”.  I’d love to start an amendment to ban divorce in California.  Or maybe we could ban marriage all-together.  Or how about we ban Mormons?  How very “christian” of you to force your beliefs on others. Don’t like the idea of marrying a gay person?  Well then don’t do it you ignorant hate-mongering fuckers!  That’s ok, you’ll get yours in the end.  I have no doubts in that. 

*

I’ve been hitting the gym consistently.  I’m back up to a full routine.  Still haven’t hit my original limits but slow and steady.  I’ve been good at incorporating cardio into my routines and I’m getting used to it now. 

*

I had a date last week.  It was a medic who was doing his Medic cert back when I was doing my EMT cert.  We used to run into each other at the hospitals and chatted often.  Anyway, long boring story short, it did not go well.  One, he was clearly husband shopping.  Two, he had some internalized homophobia.  Neither of which I am inclined to put up with.  The final straw was when he indicated the whole Prop 8 scandal had very little to do with him.

I think he was more disappointed than I was. heehee  His face fell several times in the course of our conversations.  It was clear he expected me to be of a similar mind-set since we worked in related fields.  I almost felt sorry for him.  Almost. 

*

I’ve taken my daily journals private again as they aren’t very nice right now. 

References

References
↑1 well other than being a 2nd class citizen in the eyes of the law again.

Almost There

I fixed a few of the last remaining annoyances with WordPress upgrade. he Cocomment thing almost never worked right so it was first to go. And since they still haven’t upgraded it to work with Firefox 3, I just figured it is no longer worth it.

I also nixed the poll. I really like the poll and it will come back at some point. However, I need to find one that works w/my version of WP.

Lastly, I fixed the email link. Switching to a widgetized version of sidebars on my blog caused some unexpected errors w/link routing hence, the old email call function not working. It was actually pretty easy to correct and still protect my email from being harvested by bots. You’ll notice the link (lower left) is an image file of my actual email addy and clicking it auto-fills the To field on your email form.

Of course, for some odd reason the Title for the recent comments widget has gone bonkers. I am wondering if there is an errant piece of code throwing it off or just poorly written. Either way, it is a mild annoyance and I will fix it in time.

That is all. We now return you to your regularly schedule blog surfing…

Self Portrait

Rooster + Pork?

Recently, not one but two of my blog buddies sent me T-shirts in the mail.  This pic was sent by Large Tony.  I absolutely love it!  He was worried if I would wear it.  Hell, I’ve already worn it 3 times. lol  *Thanks T, I greatly appreciate it!*

Oddly enough, the 2nd shirt is also black and was sent by an anonymous source.  When I get time to wear it, I’ll snap off a pic. 

My weekend is fast coming to a close.  Friday, I spent about 3 hours doing continuing education for my Fire training.  I’ve mentioned before I’m a training Officer for the Fire civilianization project.  I previously went down to SFO to see Fire operations at the airport.  This time I got to drive all over the bay in one of the 2 fireboats owned by the Fire department.  It was awesome of course! 

The Phoenix - Full Shot

This trip is normally reserved for Supervisors and Managers.  There were a couple of snarky comments made in the background questioning whether I should be there.  I was happy to hear the Fire training manager silence them with a curt explanation. [1]Forgetting for a moment, I have more fire/medical training than most of them combined.  I don’t understand petty power trips at all . Anyway, you can click over to flickr for a full rundown on the pics.  I tried to take a few more this time even though some are pretty much the same picture. 

*

Saturday was pretty low key.  The Latin came into town and we spent a good chunk of the day just hanging out.  I hadn’t seem him lately, we had fun.  We also decided to go see the Batman flick.  I’d been wanting to see it and he hadn’t seen it either so it worked out great.  The movie was exceptional!  Much better than I ever expected and way better than part I.  Keith Ledger turned in one of the best performances of his career.  Not to mention, the plot was very complex and constantly evolving. 

Latin & Moby

He took off to go bar hopping with some coworkers and I met up with Adam for Sushi for dinner.  Brad is at a conference so it was just the two of us.  We were caddy as usual.  Afterwards, we hung out at 440 Castro (aka the old Daddies bar) with Dan.  Ironically, we spent a good chunk of time watching the Olympics while there. lol  We watched this one chick slaughter the entire competition in a long distance run.  Even if we kept laughing at how emaciated and hungry she looked. 

I didn’t stay more than a couple hours. [2]I get bored in bars easily these days w/o some sort of carnal distraction.  hehehe.  I left the boys and came on home.   

So now, I’m just finished uploading pics to flickr, made myself a yummy egg/bacon bagle, caught up on Tivo, and replaying thru Gears of War.  GoW 2 is due out in November and I can’t wait! 

Not a bad weekend.  Not too terribly busy but still managed to be preoccupied. 

References

References
↑1 Forgetting for a moment, I have more fire/medical training than most of them combined.
↑2 I get bored in bars easily these days w/o some sort of carnal distraction.  hehehe.

Problem Solved

I can no longer recommend http://1and1.com as a good ISP.  While their services are cheap and easy their tech support is some of the worst I’ve ever encountered.  The (overseas) techs are often completely ignorant of anything but the most basic problems. 

After spending almost a week and half going round and round w/them, I fixed the problem myself.  They kept blaming WordPress and WordPress says it was  a standard they were ignoring.  Blah blah blah. 

Anyway, I wrote a script and then found an even simpler one that solved all the issues (so far).

The sub-domains

http://blog.mobius.name

Http://calendar.mobius.name

http://www.sfmoby.us

are all functioning correctly once again. 

i-whatever

Is anyone else tired of hearing about the iphone?  Whoopee, so what you are buying a 2nd generation phone that should have been a 1st generation phone.  I’ll grant you it’s ‘purdy.  It still only does half the shit my Wing does. [1]Shhhh, don’t tell Adam, they went out and got one each today.  I was absolutely shocked (read tickled pink) when I read today Apple deliberately limited sales thru shitty Cingular  ‘the new AT&T’ stores.  For a company that totes their iphone as "the best new invention of the millennium", they sure are going to a lot of effort.  One would think a product that good would sell itself.  I’m just sayin’.

*

The 4-day weekend is coming to a close.  I didn’t do a thing.  Probably a good thing as I wasn’t overly chipper at wasting a long weekend.  Surprisingly, all of my other friends were busy. (Doesn’t it always work out that way? lol)

Friday was a blur.  I did get a few chores done.  Beyond that, most of the day was spent catching up on Tivo and playing Darkness on the 360. 

Saturday, I drug myself out of the house to go see Hellboy II.  Overall, I enjoyed it.  The CGI and cinematography was excellent.  I ended up running into roblog, Chuck and their friend Jeff.  They, like fools, sat with me.  The movie started late so we amused ourselves by geeking out and torturing Chuck in the process.  Anyway, if you liked the first one you’ll like this one.  The only part I didn’t like was the comedic banter.  They added a tad too much in my opinion.  It took away from the plot development. 

Today, I expected to wait around most of the day waiting on Comcast again. [2]They had to come back out to fix the problem they were supposed to fix last time. Imagine my surprise when they showed up on time.  I made it to the gym and got a good arm workout in.  The only other noteworthy occurrence was a hottie who normally ignores me said hello.  It was kinda odd.  The guy almost always seems to avoid me.  Of course, afterwards I wondered what exactly had changed.  Drove me nuts. 

Tomorrow, I’m supposed to meet w/the tattoo guy to talk about my new tattoo.  I’m almost finished with the design.  I need some ideas from him for filler hence, the meeting.  This guy is probably fed up with me by now but he hides it well. lol 

How was your weekend?

References

References
↑1 Shhhh, don’t tell Adam, they went out and got one each today.
↑2 They had to come back out to fix the problem they were supposed to fix last time.