My computer came today. It is as beautiful as I expected it would be. And more.
More relevant to your interests, my payment went through to the server space company. I am now the proud owner of mustardhamsters.com.
I am working on developing my own WordPress theme as we speak. I had one made, but it was lost in the shuffle of changing computers... I am also planning to post most, if not all of my photograph library. Somewhere aroung 4000 pictures.
Things are looking good.
I've officially moved into college. My order status on my new iMac is "Not Yet Shipped", but as soon as it arrives you can expect more frequent updates. I'm working on some new comics, and I'm going to post my latest electronics projects.
The future is bright.
Archive.org is one of my favorite websites. Really, this is what the internet is about. You can download pretty much anything that is not copyrighted, or has become public domain. They have sweet movies (try Nosferatu), books, educational resources (try this AP Calc AB lesson), and most notable a massive audio archive.
The audio archive is amazing. They have so much Grateful Dead that the band has its own section.
The best part of the audio archive is the Live Music Archive. All sorts of bands and music groups post their concerts in this section, available for download for free. Naturally, since there's so much and anyone can upload, there's a lot of crud to wade through. This is my list of the best of the Live Music Archive.
Béla Fleck and the Flecktones
These guys have over 200 concerts available on the site. They're really a top notch jazz fusion band. Béla Fleck is making new moves in the world of banjo, Victor Wooten is pushing the limits of bass, Futureman is evading taxes. They're a blast. Check out Live at the Irving Plaza.
Aquarium Rescue Unit
Awesome. Oteil Burbridge on bass makes for some serious grooves. Tight band, wailing guitar. They've been around for a while, you can find concerts from 1989 or later in the archive. Check out Live at the Astoria Lounge.
Buckethead
Our favorite masked shredder has 35 concerts available on the archive. Some serious grunge and rock going on there. Check out "Meta-Matic", "Stick Pit" and "Nottingham Lace" on Live at Southgate House. Be warned: too much Buckethead is a bad thing. It gets repetitive real fast.
Disco Biscuits
More funk and jazz to fill your soul. Disco Biscuits has over 700 concerts on the archive, and they're rarely repetitive. Try "Humuhumunukunukukupuaua" on Live at The Palace Theatre or "Liquid Lazer" on Live at Cervantes Masterpiece Ballroom.
Umphrey's McGee
These guys are a pretty serious staple of the jam band genre. Not one of their almost 900 concerts is the same, and they're all amazing. I highly recommend "The Triple Wide", so much so that I found you a concert with a preview. Really awesome all around.
Way of the Groove
I'm going to finish up with a band that only has a few concerts available, but still rocks my socks. Way of the Groove has some serious... groove. That may have something to do with the fact that TWO of the band members are the sons of the legendart Jaco Pastorius. They put down some serious tracks, mostly at the Alligator Alley. It's a shame they don't have any recent concerts to go to, I'd love to hear them play some of their dad's old songs. Check out "The Chicken" for a reminder of ol' Jaco.
Note: I believe Felix Pastorius is now working with Jeff Coffin of the Flecktones on Coffin's solo album. That's going to be major.
Enjoy the wealth the internet brings you.
I found some interesting videos searching YouTube for "world records". Whether these are actual world records or not is debatable, but they're still interesting. Here are the highlights:
Skateboarding Grind
Fastest Expert-Level Minesweeper Game
Probably the most fun had while breaking a world record:
Largest Scalextric Track
This one is seriously made of win. The looks on their faces as they race, and how excited the racer girls are is priceless.
Skateboard Slalom
15 years of training. Awesome.
A world record for... human grocery store ride?
Most 90 Degree Push Ups
And most badass.
Most T-Shirt Worn At One Time
Fastest Banjo
Welp. My iMac is getting replaced. I got a call yesterday shortly after Apple's debut of the new iMac to set up the replacement. I got another call today confirming that I will receive the model Apple released yesterday. AppleCare is upgrading me almost 5 versions: from a 17 to a 20 inch screen, from PowerPC to a dual-core Intel chip, from a 160 to a 250 gig hard drive and from no iSight to a bitchin' built in one. Oh, and the super awesome new case design.
AppleCare protection plan: totally worth the money.
As I have explained before my computer is messed up.
I just did an erase and install, and the computer froze during the setup procedure. Unprecedented. It even has the same problem.
We'll see if anything improves when they replace my logic board, RAM, and hard drive tomorrow.
My computer isn't working properly, and nobody knows why. I'm pretty good with Macs (I've been using them since the old SE 30), so there's rarely a problem that I can't fix myself. Recently though, my iMac has been running its fans up really high, and the noise was getting really annoying.
I opened Activity Monitor to try to find out what the issue was. Apple's Mail program was reporting back as using between 80 and 90% of my CPU. And it stayed that way. For hours. The CPU percentage would even go over 100%, usually to about 140%, at least once to 2000%.
For the first time in years I called Applecare. I have the extended warranty, and their tech support was very helpful at first. To sum it up, we tried these steps:
I archived my hard drive and reinstalled Mac OS X.
I erased my hard drive and reinstalled Mac OS X. (Unfortunately I lost a lot of stuff....)
Now Apple's Finder causes the problem, Mail is OK.
I drove two hours each way to drop my computer off at an Apple Store.
They replaced my RAM.
My parents drove two hours each way to get my computer back.
Apple sent a technician to my house to replace the logic board (aka motherboard).
I was given my own specialist, who sent my info to the developers and said he would call me back in two days.
A week later he hadn't called. I got a new specialist who said he'd call me back the next day.
My computer starts crashing regularly.
Two days later he hadn't called. I spoke with a person from the corporate level of Apple who labeled my case as a high priority.
My computer crashes every time I attempt to work on it.
I got a call from the second technician apologizing for not calling back the next day. His kid was sick. He instructed me to erase my hard drive and reinstall Mac OS X again. Apple is also sending a technician to my house to replace my RAM, logic board, and hard drive.
I got a call from Apple's corporate supervisor making sure that I was contacted by their specialist.
I just finished work at the middle school. I was too efficient for my own good, and burned through everything they had for me to do.
I did walk away with two badly broken and scrapped iBooks, worthless for almost anything. I really enjoy taking computers apart, which was probably the best part of the whole job. I just shredded laptops to pieces all day. It was amazing.
I'm working on finding good uses for the iBooks, but it's a little harder than I expected. One has a bad, barely operable, screen and a broken hinge. I've made a picture frame from it, but I'm not satisfied with just that. The other has no screen, but I have adapters to allow it to be plugged into a TV.
They're slow, and they're very broken, but I love them anyway. I'll post pictures soon.
