The Blacksmith’s Meatloaf is famous thanks to an article on the AP wire (my guess is somebody down there knew a reporter who owed them a favor). I’ve never been to the place and have no motivation to after hearing from several people I know that it’s totally overrated.
Something I’d Do If I Had More Time
That, and a bunch of tools, but I’d certainly build myself a MAME cabinet using the well-done plans and instructions here.
The FTC Is Smoking Crack
I have a hard time believe that these idiots truly believe that the Can-Spam act is actually working. They obviously don’t live in the real world with the rest of us. Thanks computerwolf for the tip.
It’s About Stinking Time
The next version of windows (aka Windows Vista) will not only have system-wide volume control, but you can now set it on a per-application basis. That’s something that I’m immensely looking forward to, as there are some players (**cough**cough**Quicktime**cough**cough) that make it a point to jack the volume all the way up every time you open it, no matter what it’s been set at before.
Thanks Barn for the link.
Obligatory Post-Christmas Post
I’m stupidly busy at the office today dealing with getting all our homes ready for the onslaught of folks we have coming in this afternoon. Meanwhile, here’s a list of some of the things I received for Christmas (and you’re welcome to post what you got in the comments below). I’m putting this in an extended entry for those who really don’t give a rip what the family and I got or how I spent my weekend.
Merry Christmas!
Tomorrow is the one day during the year where our office is closed, so I actually get a paid day off (I usually work on Sundays). That being said, I’ll be back at the office on Monday, the 26th, as it’s one of out busiest days of the year with a crapload of check-ins.
Have a happy and safe holiday, everybody, and be sure to post all the goodies you got (or you gave your kids. I’ll post one of those obligitory posts at some point, but always like to hear what everybody else got/gave. And I already know about Jon’s birthday cat, so let’s just not discuss that as it seems to be a touchy subject in the household (just joking Jon/Wife — I love ya both and hope you have a safe holiday).
That’s One Way To Go About It
If you’ve got a gripe with a company, buy stock in the company so you can attend stockholder meetings and wreak a little havoc. That’s exactly what Jack Thompson did:
No, your eyes are not deceiving you. Jack Thompson has purchased shares in Take-Two interactive – otherwise known as the publisher behind the Grand Theft Auto series of games. So has JT suddenly become a financial supporter of the company he’s long campaigned against? Not a chance. JT has purchased stock in the company in order that he might attend Take-Two’s shareholder meetings and face up to the company’s CEO, Paul Eibeler.
I guess if you’ve got money to blow, this is one way to make your point. I’d love to be at that stock holder meeting — the guy’s going to get beaten senseless.
Happy Festivus!
If you want to be totally completely politically correct this holiday season, you should be celebrating Festivus, and you can now buy A Festivus Pole. And don’t worry — you won’t be alone in your celebration.
Search And Replace in MySQL
This is just mostly for my reference so I don’t have to keep digging in the Google cache to get this site:
update tablename set field = replace(field,’search_for_this’,’replace_with_this’);
I’ve probably used this bit of SQL a dozen times in the last week while doing some pruning/cleanup in a work database, I just kept forgetting the exact syntax.
A 4.8-Terabyte Home Brew Server
This home brew project, with its 12 400 gig drives, is frickin’ sweet (read the full thread on the story on how this thing started as a 1.2TB server, it blew up, and he’s rebuilding it — I’m linking to page ten in the first link above as it’s where the action starts again). I think the thing that impresses me the most about the build is the super-clean wiring and the nicely done homemade modifications.