Month: August 2005

Harvard’s The Top University in the World

At least according to this site’s methodology. Their methods seem a bit off to me and seem to focus more on awards and articles published than more useful things like how well the students learned, etc… . I’m not discounting the value of winning great awards like the Nobel prize and such, but I’m willing to bet many the folks who helped these various universities rank high in these rankings are probably horrible teachers. And what good is knowledge if you’re no good at sharing it?

Out of the Oregon schools, Oregon State and OHSU both made the Top 100 North American schools. University of Oregon, my alma-mater, just missed the top 100, according to the Full List.

August 28, 2005

There’s Smoke In The Air

I’m at the office right now, and it’s a bit smokey in the air right now. Apparently there’s a 150-acre fire south of here in LaPine. Several of my co-workers here live close to the fire, so they’re a bit on edge right now. Jack can see it from his house, so hopefully he’ll be posting some more updates as he sees them. I don’t know how close the fire is to Simone, but she probably doesn’t care (or even know about it) as she’s probably on her way to Burning Man.

For more fire updates, head over to the NWCC site.

Update on 8/29: Looks like everybody’s going home and they were able to save the homes in the area.

August 28, 2005

If You Get As Many Stupid Urban Legend Forwards As I Do…

…you’ll appreciate this funny one (thanks Emily for this).

I must add my thanks to whoever sent me the one about rat crap in the glue on envelopes cause I now have to get a wet towel with every envelope that needs sealing.

Also, I scrub the top of every can I open for the same reason.

I want to thank you who have taken the time and trouble to send me your chain letters over the past 12 months. Thank you for making me feel safe, secure, blessed, and wealthy.

Because of your concern I no longer drink Coca Cola because it can remove toilet stains.

I no longer drink Pepsi or Dr Pepper since the people who make these products are atheists who refuse to put “Under God” on their cans.

I no longer use Saran wrap in the microwave because it causes cancer.

I no longer check the coin return on pay phones because I could be pricked with a needle infected with AIDS.

I no longer use cancer-causing deodorants even though I smell like a water buffalo on a hot day.

I no longer go to shopping malls because someone will drug me with a perfume sample and rob me.

I no longer receive packages from UPS or FedEx since they are actually Al Qaeda in disguise.

I no longer shop at Target since they are French and don’t support our American troops or the Salvation Army.

I no longer answer the phone because someone will ask me to dial a number for which I will get a phone bill with calls to Jamaica, Uganda, Singapore, and Uzbekistan.

I no longer eat KFC because their chickens are actually horrible mutant freaks with no eyes or feathers.

I no longer have any sneakers — but that will change once I receive my free replacement pair from Nike.

I no longer buy expensive cookies from Neiman Marcus since I now have their recipe.

I no longer worry about my soul because I have 363,214 angels looking out for me and St. Theresa’s novena has granted my every wish.

Thanks to you, I have learned that God only answers my prayers if I forward an email to seven of my friends and make a wish within five minutes.

I no longer have any savings because I gave it to a sick girl who is about to die in the hospital (for the 1,387,258th time).

I no longer have any money at all, but that will change once I receive the $15,000 that Microsoft and AOL are sending me for participating in their special e-mail program.

Yes, I want to thank you so much for looking out for me that I will now return the favor!

If you don’t send this e-mail to at least 144,000 people in the next 70 minutes, a large dove with diarrhea will land on your head at 5:00 PM(EDT) this afternoon and the fleas from 12 camels will infest your back, causing you to grow a hairy hump. I know this will occur because it actually happened to a friend of my next door neighbor’s ex-mother-in-law’s second husband’s cousin’s beautician. Have a wonderful day!

August 28, 2005

That Would Explain That

I mentioned before about my idiotic car troubles, one of the issues being its knack for overheating. I crawled underneath the car, the radiotor house was a bit loose, but it was still overheating. Took it to the Subaru Guru, and the radiator was cracked (saw the split after he removed it — a nice little five-inch crack). So $230 later (which wasn’t too bad, actually), I’ve got a new radiator, and a much cooler running car.

Now just have to make sure the rest of the car holds up.

August 27, 2005

Google Maps Ain’t Got Nothing on The City of Bend

These satellite images, published by the City of Bend, are far superior to the ones that Google has (though it only works in Internet Explorer, which sucks). Link via Chuggnutt.

August 25, 2005

Cracking Windows “Genuine Advantage”

Yes, I know this is old news (I’m behind in my reading, give me a break), but if you’re running a pirated version of Windows XP and still want to get downloads from Microsoft that are protected by their anti-piracy “Genuine Advantage” program, this one line of JavaScript will be very handy to you:

Before pressing ‘Custom’ or ‘Express’ buttons paste this text to the address bar and press enter:

javascript:void(window.g_sDisableWGACheck=’all’)

It turns off the trigger for the key check.

Update on 8/28: Apparently if you run the Geniune Advantage program in Windows 2000 Compatibility Mode, it will work as well.

August 25, 2005

Air Traffic Patterns Over The US

This is a neat little video, showing a simulation of the air-traffic patterns over the US. Obviously, there’s a lot more air-traffic over the Eastern half of the US then there is over this side of the Mississippi. Link via BB.

August 25, 2005

Do They Really Come In Threes?

I’m kind of hoping Shannon wasn’t right (though she’s not the only one that’s told me these things come in threes, so I’m due for something else wrong with my car). So what’s happened so far?

  1. Wasted Money On A New Car Battery: Late Monday night I couldn’t get my car started. I was able to jump it, so I figured the battery cables and connection OK, but when I tried to start it without the jumper cables, it wouldn’t start. So I made the assumption that the battery was dead (unfortunately I didn’t have an electrical tester to prove this — something I’m now going to buy). So Wal-Mart was the only place open at 11:30, so I ran down there, bought one of their cheap batteries, brought it back, went to bed. Next morning, put it in, car still wouldn’t start. After going to work late that morning (my wife had to drive me with all the kids out there), I got my dad’s electrical tester, and tested the battery from Wal-Mart. It was fine. Tested the battery I had in there before, and it was fine. Tested all the connections, they all appeared to be fine. So I traced the cables back to where the battery cable ground connection runs to the car — it’s in an awkward place behind the engine block. Popped it off, cleaned off a little bit of gunk, screwed it on, car started right up.

    So I’ve got a perfectly functional Kirkland/Costco battery if anybody needs one.

  2. Radiator Leak: So I’m sitting there thinking I’m OK with the car, my wife is driving it home last night after painting her mom’s bathroom, and the car overheats. She manages to get it pulled into the Black Bear Diner on 3rd Street, which is a couple miles from my house. My wife, covered in paint and wearing her nastiest clothes, didn’t want to go and find a phone to call me, instead decided to walk home (I really need to get that girl a cell phone). So she gets home about 10:00, explains to me what happened, so I call my parents to see if anybody can give me a ride down there. I get a hold of my sister, we go out there, fill the thing up the best we could with 50/50 antifreeze, and her mechanic friend that was with her gets the radiator hose clamp on there a bit better to get me home. I woke up this morning, all the radiator fluid we put in last night had drained out, so I’ve obviously got something else wrong with the thing.
  3. I really hope things don’t come in threes, as my brakes are starting to get squeaky in that car, too…

I’m kind of hoping the law of threes does take place, as then, in theory, something good will come to take their place. So maybe my car will break down entirely, and then I’ll win a new one in a contest? Yeah, that’s the ticket.

On other personal news that seems to be bogging down this site lately (I’m sorry), I still haven’t heard from the school, and I’m still having issues with a client, but hopefully those will wrap up soon and put a little less on my mind so I can focus on some other projects and start putting more entertaining content on this site.

August 25, 2005

I Now Have More IM Handles

Everybody and their dog is talking about the new Google Talk instant messaging and VoIP service. You can download Google’s client here, but if you’re a Trillian Pro user, as I am, you can just use Trillian Pro to connect to the network as they use the open source Jabber protocol (though you can’t use Trillian Pro to use their VoIP server, though I’m sure somebody will find a hack for that).

So if you’re interested in playing with it, and I’m not stupidly busy (don’t expect in-depth chatting here), you can find me at utterlyboring [at] gmail [dot] com on the jabber/GoogleTalk network. So that brings the number of connections I’m managing in Trillian Pro up to 9: One ICQ account, one AIM account, a Yahoo! Messenger account, two MSN messenger accounts (long story there), and three Jabber accounts (two Google Talk, and one Jabber.org). Now I just need to find a good IRC channel to hang out in and I’ll have double digits (I’m not counting my Rendezvous connection as I don’t know anybody who uses it).

August 24, 2005

School Starts In Two Weeks

And I don’t even know where my daughter’s going to school.

As I briefly mentioned last week, I’m trying to get my daughter transferred into the Ensworth Elementary school district. We’re technically closer to the school (note that Google maps doesn’t have complete road data for that area, so it’s off a slight tad — here’s Ensworth’s address) that we are to Juniper, which is what district we’ve been assigned (we’re about a block away from the Ensworth district). After calling and calling and sending e-mails back and forth, I finally got to talk to the Ensworth principal today (really nice guy), and he still couldn’t tell me anything other than “the numbers are still coming in” and “we’re at the top of the list if we let anybody in” (as we got our application in long before anybody else did) and that there’s about a “50/50 chance.”

I would think that two weeks before school starts that they’d have more of an idea as to what’s going on. Our daughter is already convinced she’s going to the new school, so she’ll be terribly disappointed if she’s not going there and will have to go to Juniper or get home schooled (which my wife isn’t ready for, but said she’ll do it if she has to go to Juniper).

So right now, I have no idea where she’s going to school, she’s not registered anywhere because I’ve been told to wait until I get confirmation before registering (though now they’re telling me otherwise). This isn’t like I’m trying to move to a district across town like some folks are — I’m trying to move our daughter to a school that’s closer to where I live. Ugh….you wouldn’t think it would be this difficult, would you? Being hung up in the air like this is stressful — which the principal acknowledged, too — but I don’t have much of a choice.

</rant>

August 23, 2005