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Below are the 20 most recent journal entries recorded in Ch'marr's LiveJournal:

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    Wednesday, April 16th, 2008
    9:28 am
    Rant: Sandisk's "U3 Smart". Worst thing since Clippy.
    Actually, i think it's worse than Clippy. You can turn clippy off.

    I got these reasonably priced Sandisk USB flash drives from Costco. I'd been mostly using it on my Mac, and hadn't really noticed anything terribly amiss until I plugged it into a Windows box, and then all this made sense:

    Sasndisk put this special software onto the drive to give you these "features" like encryption and portable software for windows boxes. How it works is that there's a uneraseable "partition" on the drive that runs software when you insert into a windows box. It's not really a partition: you can't erase it using normal software. It's actually a separate subdevice. Of course, there's an "autorun.inf" to have windows run stuff. You can't actually use the drive under windows for about 30 seconds, and there's a ton of popups and "useful" information while that happens.

    On a Mac, it comes up as a drive, plus a CDROM, and you have to unmount BOTH of them or the OS bitches.

    To return the drive to a normal drive, you have to run a windows program. So, Mac and Linux users are out of luck. At least on Linux you're not bugged by a CDROM device popping up too (don't know why, there).

    Anyway, take the warning: Sandisk's U3 = World of Irritation.
    Monday, April 14th, 2008
    11:18 pm
    The most well known and least popular diet.
    I'm making this post on advice of my guidance councellor (otherwise known as "friend more grounded in reality than I am")

    I've been on the "Eat less and exercise diet" for about 3 weeks now, eating NO junk food, avoiding starch and cutting down on other carbohydrates, plus actually maintaining going to the gym and spending 30 minutes on the elliptical.

    Results: lost 9 pounds* and so far burning 450 kcal on the elliptical.

    Woo! Celebrate!


    *A combination of aviation and spending 8 years in the US has all but killed my fanaticism in the metric system :)
    Monday, November 26th, 2007
    8:49 pm
    New Job!
    Since a few friends have been asking, I thought I'd share, here, what's been happening with my live over the past couple of months.

    ( Read on about job stuff... )
    Thursday, April 26th, 2007
    10:52 pm
    Meme ahoy!
    Okay, I don't usually take internet quizzes, but this one was very nicely presented, and has this cool "do you agree with me" feature. So... what the hey:

    ( Flash thing behind the cut )
    Friday, April 13th, 2007
    6:31 pm
    An extension to a traditional puzzle.
    When I was a kid, I was a real smartass. Yes, okay, perhaps I haven't changed much :)

    Anyway... one of my math teachers in high school gave us this puzzle:

    "Assume the Earth is a nice, smooth globe. If you were to walk one kilometer South, then one kilometer West, then one kilometer North, and you finished where you started, where are you now?"

    You can imagine miles instead of kilometers if you really like; it doesn't matter.

    The answer, of course is "the North Pole". Sometimes the puzzle ask "what colour are the bears?" instead, to which the answer is "white" :)

    Me, being my smartassy self, thought about it for a bit, and posed a counter-question:

    "Okay, name one other location on the Earth where that is also true."

    Can you? There's no trick to this; there really is at least one other location :) See if you can figure it out before clicking through, in case someone posts the answer as a reply.
    Monday, April 9th, 2007
    12:09 pm
    You're stuck with me another 3 years, at least.
    I got my H1B extension approved. This means I can continue working in the US until 2010. Yay! The company is still working on a greencard for me, which is, like "any day now", but this takes a lot of stress off, and does mean I can go back home and visit the family in Australia in June (and come back ;) ).
    Friday, April 6th, 2007
    2:44 pm
    A lunchtime story.
    Wow, it's been almost one year since I used this thing...

    Here's an interesting lunchtime story I want to share!

    Took my car to the Speedee Oil Change near work during lunchbreak. I asked for the oil change, and also to check and top-off the brake fluid since the brake light was intermittently coming on. They said "okay" to the oil change (of course), but said they don't do top-offs, but will check the fluid as part of an over-all break inspection.

    Well, okay, this is all part of the usual "up sell" you get from anywhere, and I've long since given up getting annoyed over that. I said "okay, go ahead and do that."

    About 90 minutes and Quiznos later, they called my name and said "Chris? Oil change and tyre rotation, right?"

    "Nope. It was a brake check."

    "Oh... well then, you just got a free tyre rotation... and we'll top off that brake fluid for you... and we'll give you a $5 discount... and you can have a free brake check next time you're in."

    So! Not only did I get what I originally asked for, I got a free tyre rotation, free fluid top-off, free brake check (next time), and a $5 off :) Woo!
    Friday, April 7th, 2006
    3:21 am
    Boing!
    Oh man, I am so drunk!

    Actually, I'm not anywhere near as drunk as I was half-an hour ago... the drunkedness suddently washed off as I was dozing.... I was like "whee! whee! whee! Whoa... where did that sensation go." Now, I just have a mild headache from dehydration, which I'm attacking with some Staminade, which I must again thank [info]wolphin for brining for me, and also remember to convince this mob to stock.

    So... what's this all about, and how did it go?
    ( Read more... )
    Thursday, March 30th, 2006
    11:49 pm
    We don't need no steekin' cheetahs!
    Sometime late in 2005 I had my iPod stolen. Very annoying. What made it doubly annoying was that the burglars smashed my car window to get to the iPod. So, not only am I short an iPod (one that did firewire, to boot), but I had to fork over $150 to have the window replaced. Bleah.

    One thing good did come out of it. For one, the responding officer was an absolute honey. Oh my :) Unfortunately, that didn't lead to anything saucy. However, in the course of the conversation, while she was doing all the forensic stuff on my car and us talking abotu what our favourite TV cop shows were, she suggested I look into the municipalitie's Community Police Acadamy. This is precisely where I was this evening.
    ( Read more... )
    Monday, March 27th, 2006
    6:10 pm
    From USPS, with love.
    I received a letter today. It was totally mangled and somewhat grass-stained. Lord only knows what it went through :)

    But, when that happens, it arrives in a plastic bag with a nicely crafted apology printed on it.
    ( read the apology )
    Tuesday, March 21st, 2006
    3:41 am
    Bye bye ICQ
    Well, I've been an ICQ user, on and off, for about 8 years... perhaps longer, I'm not sure. I've got a 7 digit ICQ number. (Yes, I have a few friends with 6 digit numbers, but that's not the point of this piece).

    Spam over ICQ has been an occasional problem, but it's easy enough to just 'ignore' the user, and that's that. However, in the past week i've been getting an increasing number of "Authorize Me" requests from spammers, and setting "ignore" on those users doesn't help; the requests keep coming through. I even said "accept" once thinking that I really didn't care if they knew I was on-line, I'd just block the spam anyway, but... that doesn't help at all.

    I no longer run ICQ because of this. Apparently, lots of others are having this problem as well; the boards are filled with complaints about spam. And, very recently, their boards, and their trouble-ticket system, is broken. You can't post, nor submit any new tickets. Totally borked.

    And not a peep from the ICQ staff. One might be tempted to think that they're just "giving up", letting ICQ rot, and hoping people move over to AIM. (ICQ got bought by AOL some time ago).

    I think a moment of silence for ICQ, once a really great (if totally insecure and badly coded) messaging service, is appropriate.

    ...
    ...
    ...
    Monday, March 20th, 2006
    10:27 am
    My theory of why spam continues.
    So, unless you have one of those awesome spam filters, and perhaps even then, you get tons of spam in your inbox, selling things from ED drugs, to weight-loss drugs, to software, money and stock scams. Excluding those last two for the moment, we've all wondered "Who buys this stuff?" We'll, we're all told that very very few do, but for those that do respond to the ads, enough money changes hands to make it worthwhile.

    Well, really? Don't you think that anyone that would be suckered into buying would already have bought by now?

    ( My theory of what is really happening )
    Sunday, February 19th, 2006
    4:09 pm
    Shopping in downtown Crooklyn
    Random update, because this story is too funny to be left untold.

    I decided that my current pocket digital camera, a Pentax Optio S, is getting a little long in the tooth (and, besides, I can't find it), so I decide that I really want that Optio S6 that Costco had. So, I got one today. $300 plus tax, but includes the belt pouch and a memory card. I decided to see what kind of deals were to be had on-line.
    ( interesting story follows )
    Friday, September 9th, 2005
    11:06 pm
    Review: Transporter 2
    Was over at a friend's place a few days ago, who's a bit of a movie buff. Actually, a "spend lots of money on DVDs buff" would be more accurate :) The latest addition was "Transporter" and I was offered to stay and watch it. Wasn't a particually deep movie, but it was enjoyable, and the characters were very likable. So... good value.

    Transporter 2 came out recently, and a bunch of us went to see it. To put it succinctly, it was bad. Really bad. So bad that it's got me off my butt to create a journal entry about it, just so I can share how really bad it was on the hope that it will make it less bad.

    But first, the good bits:

    The fight scenes were okay, and interesting. Two of the likable characters from the first movie returned. Had some nice car chases. Umm... well, that was pretty short.

    ( Bad stuff, and spoilers, under the cut. )
    Saturday, August 13th, 2005
    9:03 am
    On vacation!
    Well, I'm going on vacation for a few days. A flying trip + flight training down to Austin, TX for 4 days. So... no updates until I get back.
    Thursday, August 11th, 2005
    11:48 pm
    Not much work done today.
    Just a few things tonight:

    * Handled two new applications
    * Responded to a report on a upload that slipped my attention. Sonic fanart. Zappage. (Thanks to all those that send in reports!)
    * Ate too much candied ginger... way too much.... mmm... if I barf, it will be delicious!
    * Starting to set up a replacement server for home. Actually, just a replacement OS. I need this for VCL so I can run test code on a non-live system. What I'm running is so old it wont run the VCL code. Setting up the server is easy. Getting all the settings for networks, firewalls, domains, mail, mailing lists, and so on is hard. I'm thinking I might drop the new OS in place and fix things as I go along. My home server's not that critical.... well... except for mail.
    Sunday, August 7th, 2005
    11:23 pm
    VCL Turns 10 in November. Are there older art sites out there?
    Firstly, I'm telling the world that the VCL turns 10 on Thanksgiving this year. Yay! I'm sure we'll do something or another. At the very least, I'll have a commemorative button to give away :)

    10 years ago, Brian Antoine turned on his FTP server to publish a bunch of furry art that he'd collected over the years. Since then we've grown a bit, and added some new features (certainly not as many as people would like), but goddammit we've been stable (both the site, and the administration). Even the Sweden Shutdown didn't affect us that badly. Hooray!

    We're certainly the longest-running furry-art archive/gallery there is. The closest contender, Avatar, would have beaten us if they were still around (no, re-starting it now doesn't count ;) ). Elfwood was founded in May 1996, and Yerf (nee Squeaky Clean Furry Archive) was later that year.

    But... it makes me wonder... are we the longest-running art archive/gallery of any kind? That would be a little much to hope for, but the oldest non-furry gallery I can think of is Epilogue which was created in December 1998.

    Know of any other contenders?

    Update: The fan-art section of lionking.org has me beat by at least 6 months :)
    Saturday, July 30th, 2005
    4:29 pm
    Open Letter to Arcturus regarding artfu.net
    This is an open letter to Arcturus n, the owner/administrator of the upcoming artwork community site artfu.net

    Given that I have a lot of work on my plate already, I usually do not involve myself with events on other artwork sites. Certainly, I wish every site well, even if it 'competes' in any way with the VCL. After all, every attractive feature on other sites is a good incentive to analyze and implement features on the VCL, and every site is certainly welcome to analyze and implement features from the VCL in return. All this is a boon to artists and visitors who get more features, and more options.

    However, recent events surrounding the administrative split on FurAffinity has caused me concern. Not for the collection of art sites itself, since such splits have happened before and things will eventually settle out, but for how the "furry community" is regarded by other, 'nearby' communities.

    As has been discussed on your forum, the selection of the name "artfu.net" has conflicted with another on-line artwork community artfu.com. While not specifically catering to the furry community, it serves much the same purpose in a related community, and has made it clear they intend to grow into many of the same features that your own site intends to supply, too. In addition, your site purports to want to serve many artistic communities, and not just the furry community.

    Put simply, "artfu.com" were here first. It is a small, but active site, and you are stomping on their name, making us all look bad.

    On your forum, it was pointed out that If the artfu.com people did not want a name-collision to occur, they should have snapped up all the variations on "artfu", lest 'some bastard' snap up the name. However, this does not mean that you have to be the bastard that does so.

    Inkninja's (the administrator of artfu.com) reasoning for not registering all the combinations, allowing non-related sites to use a name, was admirable, if a little naive. This does not diminish the behaviour of the person that takes advantage of that.

    So, I implore that you reconsider your decision to refuse Inkninja's request to discontinue using artfu.net. If you do not, you will always have this shame above your head, the confusion and resentment will always be there, and I think this is not something you want hindering the growth of your site.

    And, by this public letter, I hope to show that at least one member of the furry community thinks your insistence on using "artfu.net" is both disrespectful, and wrong.

    -- Ch'marr, aka Chris Cogdon. Lead administrator / owner of VCL.

    UPDATE: Arcturus has graciously offered to choose a different name for the site.

    2nd Update: ArtPlz!. Much better.
    Tuesday, April 26th, 2005
    2:41 pm
    yet another idea for spam-handling.
    No, this isn't some mighty comeback to using my journal again, so you can go back to sleep now :) but, I wanted to write down somewhere a little idea I had to reduce the amount of incoming spam, in a public place, so it can't be patented later on by someone else. Of course, I don't guarantee that this isn't ALREADY patented.

    ( Read the idea )
    Wednesday, February 9th, 2005
    9:23 am
    VCL-specific Journal.
    If you're interested in finding out what I'm doing 'behind the scenes' for the VCL, I've created a new journal/community for it, rather than cluttering up this one: [info]vcl_admin_diary
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