Latest Comments

Laurie Jordan

In response to: Chilliwack's "Fly At Night"

Laurie Jordan [Visitor]

I thought it was Neil Young in an earlier day too!

 Permalink 06/14/20 @ 22:53

In response to: Ten year hiatus, over

Nimble [Member]

Howdy, Adam!

Yeah, upgrading is probably a good idea. Especially if you’re fixin’ to spend more time here!

 Permalink 01/15/20 @ 12:05
yeyereverluvinunclebert

In response to: Just because...

yeyereverluvinunclebert [Visitor]

It should be:
“Political reform is COMING, to South Africa”

 Permalink 04/28/18 @ 07:13
Adam

In response to: Review: Dock-N-Talk

Adam [Member]

I would doubt that very much as no landline phone that I’m aware of supports displaying text messages.

 Permalink 04/17/18 @ 18:54
Gerry Haliburton

In response to: "Ready, Aye, Ready"

Gerry Haliburton [Visitor]

One of the mottos of the Royal Regiment of Canada, from its ancestor, the 10th Battalion, Royal Grenadiers.

 Permalink 03/12/17 @ 22:31
David Whyte

In response to: Review: Dock-N-Talk

David Whyte [Visitor]

Very helpful. thank you
One question if you receive a text do you get any interaction on your landline phone

 Permalink 09/09/16 @ 00:05
Eric Brown

In response to: "Ready, Aye, Ready"

Eric Brown [Visitor]

The first time I saw “READY AYE READY” was at Leadership School in HMCS Cornwallis over 40 years ago. It was inspiring then and it’s inspiring now.
AYE
ERIC

 Permalink 02/18/16 @ 14:53
Sean

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Sean [Visitor]

Apple has a System Image Utility as part of the Server Admin Tools package (a free download) for each version of OSX that allows you to add updates, programs, etc, to an install image.

10.5: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL831
10.6: http://support.apple.com/kb/DL1032

 Permalink 05/20/11 @ 16:18
Rance

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Rance [Visitor]

I agree about the need to slipstream. I have a Mac Pro that originally came with 10.4.x, I purchased Leopard when it came out, so that would be 10.5.0. I’ve since upgraded the video card in my Mac Pro, however, drivers only appeared in 10.5.6. As I sit right now, if I had to reinstall from scratch, I would be using a 10.5.0 disc, thus, I probably wouldn’t have any display. It’s speculation, as I haven’t gone down that path yet (hopefully ever), but I’d rather have a slipstreamed Leopard disc ready to go.

(Yeahyeah, having a 10.6. disc would cure my woes, but due to software, i’m stuck at 10.5.x…)

 Permalink 08/18/10 @ 16:59
Yvonne

In response to: Cake mistakes

Yvonne [Visitor]

I was making a 12′ widw round cake and it kept not being done in the middle. what should I do to prevent this going forward?

 Permalink 06/29/09 @ 02:06
Anonymous

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Anonymous [Visitor]

Bill,

For your situation, it would have made MORE sense for you to build a slipstreamed XP disc! In your corporate training center, I’ll assume that you have ump-teen Dells that are all similar. You just build a single, slipstreamed disc with drivers, software, etc. for your environment and your done. Yes, I’ll agree that M$ didn’t do very well with the reinstallation approach but think about it…they have THOUSANDS of devices that integrate into their OS whereas MAC OS X is limited to Apple-specified hardware.

I’ve built a slipstreamed XP disc for my company and it took about a day or two but you can’t imagine how much time and effort it has saved me down the road. I even went so far as to suppling drivers for roughly 5 or 6 Dell models on the single disc before running out of room.

My next XP slipstream will most likely upgrade to SP3 with AV software and the same driver set for those models. All it takes, Bill, is a single licensed copy of UltraISO or something similar for PC and some reading to achieve this, although it’s not light reading.

OS X, I wished it was as easy but apparently it isn’t. Taking 10.5 to 10.5.6 would be really nice but oh well.

 Permalink 04/29/09 @ 16:31
Joe Anonymous

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Joe Anonymous [Visitor]

Yes, it is a minor inconvenience, but since I can’t remember the last time I had to reinstall Mac OS X, it’s an inconvenience that just doesn’t matter much. If I had to reinstall my OS as much as my Windows-using friends do, it might be more of an issue.

However, if you’re going to present the positives of slip-streaming, you need to present the negatives, as well. Why would a user bother when it takes just as long to do it as it would take to reinstall the OS and add the updates on the target machine, anyway? Then, there’s the risk of error (leaving something important out) or making a mistake in setting it up.

And what happens when someone messes it up and calls Apple support? The customer says they did a clean installation and Apple works on that basis without realizing that the ‘clean’ installation is actually a modified, incomplete installation - and wastes time trying to fix a problem that wouldn’t have occurred if the customer had done it Apple’s way.

It’s a lot of bother for no real benefit. But if you want to chalk it up as a plus for Windows, go ahead - they need something to crow about, I guess. Maybe Lauren will want to create a slip-stream disk to go with her $799 cheapo POS hardware.

 Permalink 04/19/09 @ 09:42
Alec

In response to: Why I dislike rebates #59

Alec [Visitor]

Here you are onto something.

The time and trouble involved in making a rebate and then tracking it is never worth the rebate itself.

Many rebate offers are booby-trapped (you can’t possibly send them the correct documentation within the correct dates).

Basically, any rebate offers beyond instant rebate at the till should be ignored. They don’t really exist. Usually you can get within 5% of the best rebate price from a straight over the counter dealer in any case.

 Permalink 04/19/09 @ 06:47
Alec

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Alec [Visitor]

This is really silly.

All you need to do is take the original OS on one disk and the latest combined updater on the other disk.

You don’t need to bother with slipstreaming at all on a Mac. It’s built in.

 Permalink 04/19/09 @ 06:43
Czar

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Czar [Visitor]

Would completely disagree. Slipstreaming for Mac users is a complete pain. I left Windows long ago for the simplicity of the Mac OS, since then I decided to put XP on my Mac. I can’t stand it because it is far too complex. That is why I purchased a Mac. Sorry, but have to disagree with you here.

 Permalink 04/18/09 @ 23:43
huxley

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

huxley [Visitor]

One of the other comments might have mentioned it, but you could just download and save a copy of Apple’s combo updaters, that will cover most patches and updates in one fell swoop. The Combo updater for 10.5.6 will update you all the way from 10.5.0!

 Permalink 04/18/09 @ 18:22
Robert Douglass

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

Robert Douglass [Visitor]

Allow me to enlighten the readers-

There is a VERY SIMPLE solution to the backup issue-
1) After creating a pristine Boot Camp partition on a Mac, and after properly loading WindowsXP (or Vista), and all the patches and updates, then just back the WHOLE BOOT CAMP PARTITION up using either Apple’s Disk Utility (image); or download and use Winclone, a free Mac program that will also back up the whole partition.

2) If you then load the backup onto your main Mac partition, it will get backed up as part of Time Machine.
Quite simple, ‘eh?

 Permalink 04/18/09 @ 17:39
DD

In response to: Slipstreaming OSX install discs

DD [Visitor]
 Permalink 04/18/09 @ 17:27
dena

In response to: Best item from April Fools 2009

dena [Member]

!!! And the ThinkGeek site itself!
(http://www.thinkgeek.com/stuff/41/tauntaun.html)

ATTN Tauntaun Fanatics! Due to an overwhelming tsunami of requests from YOU THE PEOPLE, we have decided to TRY and bring this to life. We have no clue if the suits at Lucasfilms will grant little ThinkGeek a license, nor do we know how much it would ultimately retail for. But if you are interested in ever owning one of these, click the link below and we’ll try!

C’mon people! Click! :)

 Permalink 04/02/09 @ 03:59
dena

In response to: Best item from April Fools 2009

dena [Member]

We loved this! And even better news…

“Update: It seems the response to what was supposed to be a bit of April Fool’s fun has been so overwhelmingly positive that Think Geek is going to try and make these a reality. Stop by the site and show your interest as well!”

Source: http://blog.wired.com/geekdad/2009/04/tauntaun-sleepi.html

Woohoo! :D

 Permalink 04/02/09 @ 03:44
Adam

In response to: The joy of upgrading a MacBook harddrive

Adam [Member]

Glad to be of help!

 Permalink 03/20/09 @ 13:40
shupie

In response to: The joy of upgrading a MacBook harddrive

shupie [Visitor]

Thank You for your article!!
I solved this problem just now- (about 20hrs takes..)
Thank You, Thank You very much again!

 Permalink 03/20/09 @ 12:25

In response to: TomTom One

Nimble [Member]

No idea what trouble you’re having, clunga. Not too many people pop by here with TomTom issues. There’s one person I’ve seen on the ‘net have troubles through TomTom Home 2.5 because of files in their extensions folder:

C:\Documents and Settings\"user name"\Application Data\TomTom\Home\Profiles\"*.default"\extensions

They deleted them and all was fine.

I would highly recommend searching through TomTom Forums (http://www.tomtomforums.com) and then posting if you have troubles finding anything on your topic.

 Permalink 02/07/09 @ 01:41
clunga

In response to: TomTom One

clunga [Visitor]

I have problems with tomtom one. It works perfectly, but… my pc is not capable to see it when I connect it ( properly ), using last version of TomTom home 2.5

However if I look at the drive F ( Tomtom one ) the opc can read all files

Can anybody give me some suggestions?

 Permalink 01/24/09 @ 13:20
dena

In response to: Redecorating a basement with a Sharpie

dena [Member]

Your link has shifted slightly…

http://www.kentucky.com/147/story/532854.html

Very cool effects achieved! I have an overhead projector you can borrow if you feel inspired! :D

 Permalink 09/25/08 @ 11:54
D

In response to: Application focus under OSX

D [Visitor]

:(

 Permalink 09/19/08 @ 00:00

In response to: The Hubble Telescope's "Pillars of Creation"

Nimble [Member]

The particular article you linked to isn’t the clearest about what they mean.

What’s happening there is that there is a shockwave that we can observe traveling towards the Pillars, and we will see it hit them in an estimated 1,000 years, presuming we haven’t gone all MORLOCK+ELOI in the interim.

Since the nebula is about 7,000 light years away, the actual destruction of the Pillars would have already taken place 6,000 years ago.

I can whip up something with light cones and such, but they just went for an over-cute analogy that confuses the “whens” of things happening :)

 Permalink 07/05/08 @ 05:18

In response to: The end of the commercial banana

Nimble [Member]

There aren’t too many strains of Musa (banana) that are particularly tasty. So many are starchy.

The bananas in Uganda - I never even saw any of them ripen. They were present in nearly every front yard when we were there. They were always taken green to make matoke - which is very starchy but does actually have a decent banana aroma to it which comes out when used with the thin peanut sauce they seem to eat with it.

The bananas in Thailand are pretty decent, though small. If Cavendish dies, we may still have some different stock to go from.

Hopefully it doesn’t end up in the same sort of situation as the elm, or worse.

Never pays to have a monoculture, but that tends to happen when you get a good hybrid variety. Hybrids don’t breed true, so you need to vegetatively propagate them to get their good qualities, and that means a lot of clones - nasty when disease strikes.

As amusing as they are, I don’t think North Americans would be pleased to have to fall back on the likes of Musa velutina

(I’d still like to grow them, though, dagnabbit, even just for all the fuzzy pink banana jokes)

 Permalink 07/01/08 @ 03:17
D

In response to: The end of the commercial banana

D [Visitor]

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOQ!!!!

 Permalink 06/29/08 @ 00:48
Adam

In response to: Hm, shipping's a little high

Adam [Member]

Turbine has made The Lord Of The Rings Online music available for free:

Excellent! Thanks for the reference, Bryan!

 Permalink 06/16/08 @ 11:03
Antigone

In response to: Some bad ideas never die

Antigone [Visitor]

For example, library materials can be distributed in electronic form, but must not extend beyond five days. In other words, it turns librarians into locksmiths.

Bah is all I can say. Also, the lawsuits against librarians are going to be jolly embarrassing for the government.

 Permalink 06/14/08 @ 00:20
Adam

In response to: Skewed views of relationships

Adam [Member]

It looks like the worst offenders have been deleted from the site, but there are a few left:

Stop crying, grow a pair, be a man… what a lame article. I’d throw away stuff that she loves and see how she likes it. Start with the make-up collection and move on to the jewerly. Take that wifey.

or

you married your mommy. this wasn’t a compromise and it wasn’t a “couple” doing something together. it was mommy not liking something of yours and removing it, no matter what you thought. you must have an office job.

or

Your wife and her crap takes up way more space then your dvds. I say keep the collection and recycle her.

 Permalink 06/05/08 @ 18:28
Adam

In response to: The rumours of the recent death of "Common Sense" have been greatly overstated

Adam [Member]

In a way.

 Permalink 05/07/08 @ 14:36
Adam

In response to: Why, oh why?

Adam [Member]

Well, that does more or less answer the question up at the top. I don’t know why “download and reset” is the default though. It’d make far more sense to me to use that little notification icon to say “I need to reboot to finish installing this” rather than doing it without any intervention.

 Permalink 04/11/08 @ 12:22

In response to: Why, oh why?

Nimble [Member]

It’s not quite that bad. The default, of course, is annoying for those who run things overnight, but good for amateurs. I’ve been caught out a few times after rebuilding a machine (or having a machine rebuilt) with some un-saved temporary changes open in an editor where I had left off in my thoughts at end-of-day, and coming back the next day to find it gone due to the automatic update reset.

There are four options, though, and you can get at them via Control Panel/Security Center/Automatic Updates. They are:

1) Automatic (which includes resetting the machine)
2) Download updates for me, but let me choose when to install them
3) Notify me but don’t automatically download or install them
4) Turn off Automatic Updates

Number two is my favourite, and I do think it will be yours as well :)

Automatic Updates

 Permalink 04/11/08 @ 11:35
Adam

In response to: The Red Army Chorus sings "Sweet Home Alabama"

Adam [Member]

I prefer the other version of “Dschingis Khan":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQAKRw6mToA&feature=related

 Permalink 04/03/08 @ 18:56
D

In response to: This space intentionally left blank

D [Visitor]

Dork!

 Permalink 04/01/08 @ 20:18
Adam

In response to: Logo evolution

Adam [Member]

Nifty; thanks, Bryan!

 Permalink 03/02/08 @ 17:09
Adam

In response to: Indoors composter

Adam [Member]

Only if you’re expecting it to write music.

 Permalink 03/01/08 @ 10:03
dena

In response to: Logo evolution

dena [Member]

Interesting how for virtually all of them I feel I know half of the logo incarnations! ;)

 Permalink 02/24/08 @ 10:13
dena

In response to: It'd go well with the hidden room

dena [Member]

ohmigosh! I am so right there with you, Adam…

Eight Rooms, Well, Nine, but That’s Their Secret

The Hidden Door Company

:D

 Permalink 02/24/08 @ 10:06
Adam

In response to: Bic biro reviews on Amazon

Adam [Member]

About fifteen seconds of Googling gave this:

To increase sales, BiC created a televised advertising campaign, with the slogan, ‘Writes First Time, Every Time!’ The pen retailed for only 29 cents. Within a year, competition forced prices down to less than 10 cents each.

(http://www.bbc.co.uk/dna/h2g2/A993378)

 Permalink 02/03/08 @ 11:04
tony michael

In response to: Bic biro reviews on Amazon

tony michael [Visitor]

i need to know the payoff line or slogan for the famous bic biro

 Permalink 02/03/08 @ 06:12
dena

In response to: Phoo

dena [Member]

Students frequently use the initials “CHONS” as a memory device for remembering the basic building blocks of life at the cellular level… carbon, hydrogen, oxygen, nitrogen and sulfur.

(I still want to spell it with a ‘ph’ myself, but have gone to the ‘dark side’ simply because it is spelled “sulfur” in the periodic tables used in schools now.)

There’s not lots of sulfur present– you find it in the proteins as I think almost a third of amino acids contain this element.

And speaking of nauseating compounds… it is the sulfur in our diet that gives us the ‘oomph’ in our SBDs… all hail hydrogen sulfide and mercaptans!

Phew!

 Permalink 01/27/08 @ 10:26
dena

In response to: Scrabulous' days are numbered

dena [Member]

BA$TARD$!

:(

…clicketyclickety…

 Permalink 01/23/08 @ 14:44
dena

In response to: And you thought a 14 oz steak was filling...

dena [Member]

Oh dear! And I thought the bathroom run at the end of the video of the “Cold Sweat” ice cream eating attempt was to avoid vomiting…

I was wrong!

Blech! :P

 Permalink 01/21/08 @ 01:27
dena

In response to: BFA in Programming

dena [Member]

I deny that it’s another manifestation of my love for code for a very good reason: my love for languages precedes any of my coding by about four years :) So if anything, it would be the other way around, but they use different-enough skill sets that I wouldn’t even imply that connection.

I am not arguing “chicken and egg” with you, buddy. And while there are of course differences in the skill sets, there are similarities as well!

As a counterexample, I would point to the very low incidence of multilingual capability in the programmers, including very good ones, that I have met over the years ;)

Yeesh! I am not talking about all programmers/software architects, I am talking specifically about *you*!

…but we’d better not get into generalizations vs specific case studies, or we’ll just go ’round and ’round…

(And I don’t want to start up another Ritchie soapbox issue.) ;)

<3

 Permalink 01/12/08 @ 22:49

In response to: BFA in Programming

Nimble [Member]

I suppose I could, but now it just seems awkward :)

On a side note, Slashdot just popped up with a link on “How To Recognize a Good Programmer": http://www.inter-sections.net/2007/11/13/how-to-recognise-a-good-programmer/

 Permalink 01/11/08 @ 16:22
Adam

In response to: BFA in Programming

Adam [Member]

Anyhow, sorry, soapbox issue :)

You do know that you could make a nice post of your own with that rather than just hiding it away as a comment. I would :)

 Permalink 01/11/08 @ 14:46

In response to: BFA in Programming

Nimble [Member]

Well, I got to take Microbiology, but not Genetics (would have loved to, though! Got a Genetics textbook from UBC on a visit to the bookstore out there). I didn’t end up having the prerequisite biology due to missing the midterm - silly me thinking that it would be, like all other courses, on the same day as the class (!). I was too shy to protest and I suppose considered myself lucky to have avoided the large time overhead (5-6 hours including transit) involved in attending labs.

I deny that it’s another manifestation of my love for code for a very good reason: my love for languages precedes any of my coding by about four years :) So if anything, it would be the other way around, but they use different-enough skill sets that I wouldn’t even imply that connection.

As a counterexample, I would point to the very low incidence of multilingual capability in the programmers, including very good ones, that I have met over the years ;)

Good programming is an art and a craft. There is a lot that can be done to improve the way “regular” programmers program. There are also things that you just can’t impart to people if they don’t have some natural talent, like debugging intuition and coming up with the best way to solve problems.

I sure haven’t met any really good programmers who didn’t like programming.

One thing that was really tough back in the day was that with the programming experience I had from ages 12-17, once I got to university, it was going to be mid-way through year three before a challenging course would appear. I even took the “philosophy of logic” prerequisite course, and it was so incredibly Mickey-Mouse that I couldn’t stand it. Group projects because “everyone gets the same answers anyhow", etc.

Should I have just tried to challenge all the courses and gotten a CS degree? Well, perhaps. I wouldn’t have been able to challenge them outright, but I didn’t actually like the prospect of a month of courses and three months of nothing each semester.

I swear it wasn’t because there were no girls in the courses :)

I read that article by Joel and I’ve got to say that I agree. Working in a group is fairly desirable in this industry, but you do have the problems of uneven contribution that plagues most group projects in educational settings.

I’m still pretty uncomfortable with the Software Engineering moniker that has been attached to a lot of these courses. There is such a potential thing as Software Engineering, but in order to have it have the same sorts of qualifications as an engineering discipline would have, we would be talking programmatic cogs in a wheel - the programmers that take part in 10,000-person strong projects with really tight specifications. Banking and aerospace projects come to mind.

All other software development is an exercise in compromise. You can’t do Clean Room development with a small budget and a tight time-to-market.

Steve McConnell’s After the Gold Rush book is an example of the worrisome implications of the moniker “Software Engineering". I disagree most strongly with his conclusions. That’s perhaps not what Joel is talking about, and I hope it’s not what Waterloo is talking about, but I’m not sure.

A good rebuttal to Steve’s book and ideas of software engineering is found in a book by Pete McBreen - who I believe is a native of Cochrane. It’s “Software Craftsmanship: The New Imperative". The book itself is not all that great in spots, but most of the ideas are absolutely spot-on.

Anyhow, sorry, soapbox issue :)

 Permalink 01/11/08 @ 14:30
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"Ready, Aye, Ready" was a slogan used by Canadian politicians to indicate Canada's willingness to assist the British Empire in any conflict. It remains in use as a motto for some of the Canadian military. It has almost nothing to do with the content of this blog.

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