John's Random Review » General http://blog.my-is300.com A totally random collection of stuff. Though now that facebook exists, its mostly guns and video games... Sat, 02 Jul 2011 06:54:00 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.1 I would buy this thing instantly. http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/09/i-would-buy-this-thing-instantly/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/09/i-would-buy-this-thing-instantly/#comments Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:33:44 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=157 I would buy this thing instantly. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I’m going to need to start emailing around Microsoft Research now that i work at Microsoft…because i’m intrigued by this thing:


microsoft courier? image snagged from gizmodo.
Microsoft Research’s Courier

This new device, called “Courier” showed up on Gizmodo today, and i don’t know why it hasn’t gotten more press. Maybe because its still in a “late prototype” phase and everyone assumes there’s an apple iTablet thing due any time now?

I’ve never been a fan of the ebook reader things because they just don’t look right. my laptop, for how small it is, isn’t the right form factor either. My iphone is just too small to read on. I think this thing is about perfect! I had a Vadem Clio years ago, and it was the closest thing to the right size device for what i’d like to carry around, but it was underpowered and the touchscreen wasn’t anywhere near the size or quality as they are now.


vadem clio
Vadem Clio. now ancient technology!

But this Courier device looks like it would work great with the right ebook reader software, and a coworker already said it would be a great machine to fold over, with a screen facing each way to play battleship on :) . It would be a great meeting computer, surf the web on one side, take notes on the other. I’d never need another paper notebook ever!

I would buy this thing instantly. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/09/i-would-buy-this-thing-instantly/feed/ 0 Hardware pain! http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/08/hardware-pain/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/08/hardware-pain/#comments Tue, 01 Sep 2009 06:32:25 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=151 Hardware pain! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I’ve spent a couple weeks now trying to get this server back running and have had the wierdest problems…The network keeps disappearing! After a few hours, the NIC just stops working. Device manager still shows it, but the link light is gone, and the activity light stays off. I’ve updated bios, drivers, tried another NIC, same problem.

If i uninstall the driver, and reinstall the driver, sometimes it just magically comes back…looks like i might need to get Win2k8 server R2 when it comes out, see if it fixes some of these things… We’ll see how long the machine stays on the network tonight!

Hardware pain! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/08/hardware-pain/feed/ 0 Can it be? http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/04/can-it-be/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/04/can-it-be/#comments Sun, 05 Apr 2009 03:26:19 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=136 Can it be? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I was browsing random crap on ebay today…and on my profile, saw this:
Member since: Feb-16-99 in United States

Holycrap, really? I’ve been buying stuff off ebay for a decade? I thought that ebay would die a quick death, like some of the other auction sites that we bought computer stuff from in college….

Can it be? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/04/can-it-be/feed/ 0 The president is not supposed to be your friend. http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/03/the-president-is-not-supposed-to-be-your-friend/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/03/the-president-is-not-supposed-to-be-your-friend/#comments Thu, 19 Mar 2009 23:34:44 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=134 The president is not supposed to be your friend. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I’m sorry, but the President is not supposed to be your friend. Going on TV with a NCAA bracket? Going on Jay Leno while being President? Neither of these things is Presidential. The former is a thing that a 23 year old high school teacher right out of college would do to be friends with high school girls. The latter is something you do on the campaign trail. We get it, you’re cool. Now get over yourself and get to work.

The president is not supposed to be your friend. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2009/03/the-president-is-not-supposed-to-be-your-friend/feed/ 0 Hey mom! I’m famous! http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/11/hey-mom-im-famous/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/11/hey-mom-im-famous/#comments Fri, 07 Nov 2008 06:56:34 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=123 Hey mom! I’m famous! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> hey mom, i'm famous!

See for yourself!. Click + to zoom in.

I’m doing rock fingers, jay is doing the robot. We just barely saw him going by on our way to lunch. That was like 6 months ago? It was cold enough to wear a jacket…

Here’s another view that pete found:

another view!

We were just coming out the ping-pong-plaza door.

Hey mom! I’m famous! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/11/hey-mom-im-famous/feed/ 0 Would nature sort things out? http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/07/would-nature-sort-things-out/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/07/would-nature-sort-things-out/#comments Wed, 09 Jul 2008 04:49:03 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=109 Would nature sort things out? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I came across these two videos at the bottom of a story at kirotv.com, a local tv channel’s news website.

If we could combine these two stories into one, which problem would be solved?

The hunt is on for a cougar seen prowling the city streets of Olympia.
More Details

 +

A graffiti spree over the holiday weekend is prompting the Seattle Parks Department to try a new approach to stop the vandals.
More Details

= ?

The possibilities! And being seattle, it would be an environmentally friendly way to solve the tagging problem…

Would nature sort things out? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/07/would-nature-sort-things-out/feed/ 0 This should be a SAD FACE! http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/03/this-should-be-a-sad-face/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/03/this-should-be-a-sad-face/#comments Tue, 04 Mar 2008 04:51:51 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=96 This should be a SAD FACE! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> this tivo should have a sad face

This should be a sad face, not a happy face, you TiVo jerkface.
And you thought it took a long time for a TiVo to restart on a normal day.

We’re watching live TV through the 360 via media center. Thanks a lot, TiVo.

This should be a SAD FACE! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2008/03/this-should-be-a-sad-face/feed/ 1 “I was tied up at the time…” http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-was-tied-up-at-the-time/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-was-tied-up-at-the-time/#comments Mon, 22 Oct 2007 00:56:50 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=85 “I was tied up at the time…” was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> During tonight’s republican debate, McCain actually just said that he had voted against a 1 million dollar package to fund a “Woodstock museum”. He claimed that, woodstock might have been an important cultural moment, but:

…I wasn’t there…I was tied up at the time.

That’s good stuff. If you don’t get it, i can’t really explain it to you. I wonder how long he’s been saving up that quote? :)
Updated: here is a youtube clip of it.

“I was tied up at the time…” was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-was-tied-up-at-the-time/feed/ 0 I agree: “Vista isn’t that bad” http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-agree-vista-isnt-that-bad/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-agree-vista-isnt-that-bad/#comments Sun, 07 Oct 2007 19:24:11 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=82 I agree: “Vista isn’t that bad” was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I found this article at TechReport via a post at Daring Fireball, and i agree completely. I’m not sure who all these people are who are using vista that say it sucks. I recently upgraded my computer to a new HP, and i had the choice between a Dell with most of what i wanted and a choice of XP or Vista, or the HP, with everthing i wanted and Vista Ultimate. I got the HP.

I haven’t had any real issues so far, aside from trying to find where they moved some things or what they changed the names of things to. The new Mobile Device Center is way better than Activesync, Media Center is awesome, and everything’s much prettier.

The only real problem i’ve had was that Asheron’s Call would not update with Norton Protection Center installed. Uninstalled that and everything works. I’m currently running the trial of Live OneCare because that anti-virus stuff works with AC.

The security prompts in Vista are a nightmare, true, and i’ve had to disable that because i can’t stand being asked if i want to run a program every time i run it. At least OSX only asks you if it needs to do something as admin, and it only asks once. Apparently nobody at microsoft uses vista with the feature turned on, or they would have changed it already.

I agree: “Vista isn’t that bad” was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/10/i-agree-vista-isnt-that-bad/feed/ 0 The BEST picture from our wedding! http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/09/the-best-picture-from-our-wedding/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/09/the-best-picture-from-our-wedding/#comments Tue, 11 Sep 2007 02:06:36 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=78 The BEST picture from our wedding! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> Just got emailed this today from my uncle perry:
The best picture from our wedding
Go to flickr for the full size image, and see if you notice something…. strange! Stranger than your initial reaction!!

The BEST picture from our wedding! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/09/the-best-picture-from-our-wedding/feed/ 1 The Inn at Discovery Coast http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/07/the-inn-at-discovery-coast/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/07/the-inn-at-discovery-coast/#comments Sun, 22 Jul 2007 04:01:29 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=72 The Inn at Discovery Coast was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> Currently in Long Beach, WA. It’s windy and raining. But isn’t that a given here? :) anyway, we came over to the LB-WA to see the sandcastle building competition and have a weekend to ourselves before Laura jets off to Australia. We’re in “The Loft” room of the Inn at Discovery Coast, and its pretty sweet. Its more like a one bedroom apartment with a huge bathroom and euro style kitchen than a loft! And having a restaurant 43 steps (literally!) away is awesome! The Inn is 2 buildings, one with 9 rooms closer to the beach, and another building with the office and restaurant downstairs and our loft upstairs. We ate at the “Beach House” both nights, getting different things each time. Laura wants to stay for like 4 more days so she can try everything. When we went in tonight, the waitress asked us if we wanted “our usual” table, and we said “sure!”. that was pretty cool. Laura recommends the salmon, i recommend the rib-eye. I barely ate much of it, though, as i ate too much bread and salad beforehand… We’ll put some pictures up on flickr later, when i find a chance! The whole trip has been good, aside from the 2 hours it took us to get from Seattle through Tacoma. ick. we didn’t get up to the posted speed limits until we actually got to the 101. Now its time to lay down and enjoy the movie that we snagged from the office, “Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind”. We also got Stratego at the office, and i beat laura 3 times, and now we’re never, ever, ever going to play Stratego ever again. I need SOMETHING that i’ve beaten Laura at to stay that way!

The Inn at Discovery Coast was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/07/the-inn-at-discovery-coast/feed/ 0 Great Timing! http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/great-timing/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/great-timing/#comments Fri, 29 Jun 2007 18:16:52 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=71 Great Timing! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> So yeah, after driving through some pretty crazy rain squalls, getting to the airport at ~11:30 pm when the main road to the airport is shut down for construction, we get a flat tire. right at the airport. At least it wasn’t raining in the hourly parking garage!

yay, a flat tire There's your problem
There’s yer problem right there!

Great Timing! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/great-timing/feed/ 1 Ah, military motivators! http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/ah-military-motivators/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/ah-military-motivators/#comments Thu, 28 Jun 2007 17:02:44 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=70 Ah, military motivators! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> Man, i love some of the milblog sites that are around today. particularly the Military Motivator site.





That’s a keeper! Its about time we used the “but its for the children!” line to support the war.

Ah, military motivators! was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/ah-military-motivators/feed/ 1 I wonder if they still give these out today? http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/i-wonder-if-they-still-give-these-out-today/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/i-wonder-if-they-still-give-these-out-today/#comments Wed, 13 Jun 2007 20:35:47 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=68 I wonder if they still give these out today? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> iraq

Here’s a link to a scanned version of a little booklet that the US “War Department” gave to soldiers who were being sent to Iraq (i-RAWK, according to the book, where Iran is EE-RAHN) back during WW2.

http://digitallibrary.smu.edu/cul/gir/ww2/pdf/w0025.pdf

Its kind of interesting that for a lot of it you could just search and replace “Hitler” with “Al-Queda” and almost everything would still apply!


I found this from the Wired “Danger Room”, via www.blackfive.net. Blackfive is awesome!

I wonder if they still give these out today? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/06/i-wonder-if-they-still-give-these-out-today/feed/ 0 And you think your wife is a neat freak? http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/05/and-you-think-your-wife-is-a-neat-freak/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/05/and-you-think-your-wife-is-a-neat-freak/#comments Wed, 30 May 2007 14:24:49 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=66 And you think your wife is a neat freak? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> Her Mother's Daughter for sure... You think your wife is a neat freak?

Has yours ever vacuumed the back yard? :)

I laughed when i saw her doing it, and i needed to get an “out of context” picture for laughs. She was vacuuming up a larged amount of broken glass that was left after a patio table was inadvertently destroyed when our house was re-roofed. Good times!

And you think your wife is a neat freak? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/05/and-you-think-your-wife-is-a-neat-freak/feed/ 0 The best analysis of the VT-Massacre http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/the-best-analysis-of-the-vt-massacre/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/the-best-analysis-of-the-vt-massacre/#comments Fri, 20 Apr 2007 19:38:15 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=63 The best analysis of the VT-Massacre was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> After reading so much crap (literally, crap, everywhere) about the massacre, this post at Zen of Design is by far the best thing I’ve read. It has some very good links to videos about Jack Thompson’s anti-videogame craziness too.

…Any time I see anyone blame books, tv, music or video games for a school shooting (and based on the Tech incident, perhaps we should add Microsoft Word to the list), I always feel like people forget what it’s like to be young. You know, back when you lost all perspective. When getting a ‘B’ in Humanities might ruin your life forever, and how you’d never love again after that girl next to you in Chem blew you off in front of her friends. You can’t appreciate that, in ten years, you probably won’t remember her name (although I think it was Erika). When you’re young, the highs are high, and the lows are so low that some kids get fooled into thinking that the Cure is good music…

It sums up just about my entire feeling about these situations, and is far more eloquent than i will ever be here on my blog!

There is a lot more good stuff there, so go read the whole post.

The best analysis of the VT-Massacre was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/the-best-analysis-of-the-vt-massacre/feed/ 0 Blogger’s code of conduct? http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/bloggers-code-of-conduct/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/bloggers-code-of-conduct/#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2007 04:05:50 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=61 Blogger’s code of conduct? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> So there’s a big brouhaha on the intertubes about this whole “Blogger’s Code of Conduct”, as proposed by Tim O’Reilly, et al. Apparently they never learned from the Comics industry…

Comics Code == der ?

At least they aren’t proposing that there’s a single authority that will patrol all these blogs and approve posts/comments. Although who knows, maybe “draft 2″ of the code will include that…

Blogger’s code of conduct? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/04/bloggers-code-of-conduct/feed/ 1 Want an overpriced Resolver? http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/want-an-overpriced-resolver/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/want-an-overpriced-resolver/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2007 05:41:37 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=58 Want an overpriced Resolver? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> I never thought that i’d see anything i worked on would show up on ebay. Well, mostly because i work on software for a living. And its very specialized software. And it isn’t really something you look for on ebay. Well, hopefully someone does… and hopefully they have a fat checkbook. And if you really want a real Rosetta Resolver®, let me know, because i can get a bonus for the sales lead (i’m not in sales, so i don’t get a commission! :) ), and i can get you a new one for probably cheaper than that!

The best part of the auction is that they didn’t post screenshots or screen captures. they posted digital photos of the monitor. classy. There’s a pdf attached to the auction that is a series of photographs of a powerpoint presentation. And they didn’t even use an lcd, its a curved CRT, so you can even see the screen refresh. Awesome!

Want an overpriced Resolver? was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/02/want-an-overpriced-resolver/feed/ 0 “E-gate”? you have to be kidding me. http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/e-gate-you-have-to-be-kidding-me/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/e-gate-you-have-to-be-kidding-me/#comments Thu, 18 Jan 2007 06:50:41 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=53 “E-gate”? you have to be kidding me. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> According to king5 news here in Seattle, some port of Seattle police officers received or sent or forwarded on some porn or “racist” emails (the “racist” email they used as an example was a video (probably a link to a video) of some guy picking up some Hispanic day laborers, and instead of taking them to a job, drove them to an INS office). According to the King 5 investigators,

Over a two-year period, 32 officers either received, saved, or passed on more than 175 inappropriate e-mails.


Lets do a little math for the king5 team: Over 730 days (we have to assume port of seattle cops work 24/7, at least one guy has to be on duty!), 32 people sent or recieved or saved 175 emails. If one cop sent the mail to another cop and he saved it, is that counted once or twice or 3 times? (and how do you define “saved”? they didn’t delete it?) If you only count it once, that’s still only one “inappropriate email” every 4 days. For 32 officers combined. My gmail account gets at least 5 times that much inappropriate mail just as spam. I probably get that amount myself in forwards from family and friends. Combine that with 32 people i know? You’d end up with 10-100 times as much inappropriate email as these cops had. i could send one offensive joke email to 32 people at king5.com and at least one of them would forward it. But now they’ve all “sent or received or passed on” an offensive email. Watch comedy central for an hour, especially Chapelle show or Mind of Mencia and you’ll see a dozen racist, sexist, or inappropriate things. Heck, if 32 people watch King 5 (NBC) for 2 years, and i bet they would find at least 175 things they think are offensive in some way.

Don’t get me wrong, these officers should not have been sending them from work. Forwarding them too, with one notable exception: when i get email at work with a link or attachment from someone i do trust, i still don’t open them at work unless i am absolutely certain they are not inappropriate in any way. if i don’t know what it is, i forward it to my personal email account and delete the one on my work email. So now I’ve received AND sent inappropriate email. So i have no problem with punishing people who were sending offensive emails during work hours. They port of Seattle police probably have rules/codes of conduct/acceptable use policies against this kind of thing, so they should be punished.

What’s even funnier is that they are calling this scandal “E-gate”. come on.

“This is a sad commentary,” said Deputy Chief Gale Evans.

Yes, this is a sad commentary. On the king 5 investigators! This would have been newsworthy in 1997. Porn and inappropriate emails on the innerweb in 2007! oh noes! Calling it “E-gate”? ick.

“E-gate”? you have to be kidding me. was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/e-gate-you-have-to-be-kidding-me/feed/ 0 Now Reading… http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/now-reading/ http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/now-reading/#comments Sun, 14 Jan 2007 05:18:49 +0000 John Gardner http://blog.my-is300.com/?p=50 Now Reading… was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> Hooked up and installed the Now Reading plug-in for WordPress. So now on the right side you can see the books i’m reading/read lately. I might go back and backfill some other books i’ve read lately as i find time. If you’re reading this via an RSS feed, you wont see any of that stuff, though, so here’s a link to the library. I’ll have to see if there’s a RSS feed plug-in for the “now reading” plug-in!

Now Reading… was originally posted at John's Random Review.

]]> http://blog.my-is300.com/2007/01/now-reading/feed/ 0