Archive for April, 2008
need for speed
Sunday, April 27th, 2008If you are finding your Ubuntu upgrade slow, I found it worth changing my default download server. Under System -> Administration -> Software Sources you can choose a new server. It has a Choose Best Server test, which pings all 185 Ubuntu download servers and picks the best one for you.
The default Canadian server is swamped at the moment, but the good people at Rochester Institute of Technology are the fastest for me.
this is what I’m talkin’ about, yeah
Thursday, April 24th, 2008i could do that
Wednesday, April 23rd, 2008They are demolishing the show home at the corner of Nelson and Simcoe. They are bashing at it with a big excavator, trying to smoosh down the pile of drywall and plywood.
smalle fowles maken melodye
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
SQLite Manager
Sunday, April 20th, 2008
I like SQLite Manager for Firefox.
goes up to 13, at least
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Got a mailing from The War Amps yesterday. Isn’t war loud enough for them already?
banjo nails from the axis of evil
Saturday, April 19th, 2008I tried taping pistachio shells to my fingers to get those perfect frailing nails. It was, at best, a partial success.
But why axis of evil? Well, these were very fine Iranian pistachios from Rafsanjan. If we lived in the USA, we couldn’t buy them. We’d have to make do with the tasteless little California pistachios. Go Canada!
let it all hang out
Saturday, April 19th, 2008Ontarians free to hang clothes in yards. Yeah, I couldn’t believe that it was illegal to hang out the washing in some areas either.
wind turbine raccoon sees you
Friday, April 18th, 2008… and is unimpressed.
We encountered a raccoon last night. It was somewhat surprised to see us. Almost as much as we were to find it on top of the steps to a wind turbine.
tat, too
Thursday, April 17th, 2008Props to the older gent in the Tim’s at New Hamburg. “What’s the tattoo on your arm? I can’t make it out”, asks the server. “It’s supposed to be a panther’s head, but it’s not finished”, he replied. “I was meant to go back the next day, but I sobered up.”
snoozing squirrel
Sunday, April 13th, 2008On our fence just now:
new and improved
Sunday, April 13th, 2008uh …. Calgary?
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Look, I know the Flames won last night, but that’s no excuse for all the snow we’re getting today. C’mon, it’s spring!
coast plaza = dodgy dns
Thursday, April 10th, 2008Coast Plaza hotel has a broken(ish) DNS — most web sites won’t resolve unless you hit reload about 8 million times (or use a shell loop to ping many many times). Aargh!
But it does completely block my office’s Citrix connections, so no work e-mail for me!
the cure for hockey
Thursday, April 10th, 2008• • • •
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The above is a pictorial representation of the 11 additional pucks required so that they wouldn’t need to fight over one. Please donate generously, and you can help Canada become a world-class country with a proper sport …
someplace no place
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008In Calgary, and walked (likely illegal here) from the hotel up to a restaurant that Kenn had recommended. It’s called Oriental Phoenix, and it’s just off Barlow by Sunridge mall. (It’s really good, incidentally.)
Walking through the colossal mall parking lots, I had a real sense of ‘no place’ - this could be Lebovic Dr in Scarborough, or Liberty, MO, or Richmond, BC, or Napierville (a town with better backs of necks). What makes is what to create identical beige industrial buildings with colossal setbacks? I’ll leave this to smarter folks like Byrne or Kunstler; me, I’ve got my pho to walk off.
Sandro Perri gives you Double Suicide
Tuesday, April 8th, 2008Sandro Perri sings Double Suicide [mp3].
(recorded live at Tranzac, 3 April 2008. Colin Fisher plays bouzouki and Brandon Valdivia is on snare and cymbals).
first butterfly
Monday, April 7th, 2008Definitely summer now … Even as ice chunks float down to the Niagara Falls.
I’m slipping
Sunday, April 6th, 2008The B-52s have had a new album out for nearly two weeks, and I don’t have it.