Yin can be a real bitch

[ehowton]

A confluence of events (as is usually the case when we step back and take an 80,000 foot view) contrived to both create, and, in a mighty heave of chi at work, also destroy. I don't strive for balance, though I often encourage others to. On the contrary, neither is it a matter of 'do as I say, not as I do' as I tend to lean toward a more optimistic lifestyle. It wasn't always as such. For example, I wasn't patriotic when I joined the service. It wasn't out of some misplaced sense of duty, or wanting to serve my country. It was more out of a mixture of boredom and necessity. And a desire of tradition; to walk in my father's footsteps. What on this earth is just black and white? No, I became patriotic when I discovered what we had as Americans by spending time overseas. Its so easy to take it for granted when you never leave your mother's teat. And its these reminders that I am but the sum of my parts. So when I say that betwix MySQL & USB this weekend, Windows & linux, hardware & software...I've wanted to swear off computers forever and become a monk.

Perhaps one of those ale-making Monks in Belgium?

There are pro's and con's to everything. And nothing is ever as simple as just writing it all down. And these activities go back months. Years maybe. And its not a lateral timeline either. As I mentioned above, it was more a conflux of diverse and numerous pressures all bubbling to the surface which allowed for both the creation of my knowledge-sharing weekend activities bringing technologies together, and the unleashing of an avalanche of difficulties which resulted because of it. Suffice it to say, we're moving the right direction with things, and I will continue to unveil the master plan as it solidifies.

World Domination starts at home.

Part of this endeavor replaced my 22" NEC CRT with a 19" Widescreen Monitor. The NEC is in Maximum PC's Best Technology Items Ever. It was at the pinnacle of CRT technology (right before LCD's were actually able to start supporting decent gaming Frames Per Second that drax0r and I purchased these items. Massive, impressive boxes. I've used mine everyday since I purchased it in 2005, and couldn't imagine living without it. I usually keep it at 1600x1200, but its capable of much higher. In another example of disparate, simultaneous events, both the...unusual size & layout of my office coupled with the glass-top desk had me at a disadvantage with my behemoth monitor, and my boss gave me an HP 19" flat panel monitor for my laptop. I was impressed with the picture of the monitor, and its small footprint and announced that I would trade my $500 CRT for a 19" FP (lehah got one of these baby's a while back so I know he's familiar with the output of these monitors). drax0r was immediately interested, as he wanted side-by-side 22" monitors extending his desktop to an incredible 3200x1200! He bought me a 19" Widescreen Samsung SyncMaster 920nw at Sam's Club yesterday, and dragged The Beast home.


It's so far away!

At first, the FP looked funny sitting there. Unimpressive. And it took quite a bit of tweaking with my xorg.conf to get my resolution and fonts playing nice with each other. I'm also so very used to spreading windows and apps equally side-by-side and top to bottom (1600x1200 is a lot of real estate). Learning to utilize only the width is awkward, and scrolling is increased 10-fold due to the narrow nature of widescreen. On the plus side, its a very nice picture and very light.

I'm hoping drax0r posts a picture of his new "Command Center."

mr_dowg and glowdowg had a gathering at their house as well this weekend. Through all the difficulties every day brings by simply having children in your house, we made it - and perhaps it was just me, but it seemed to be the most sober of any number of parties I've been to in quite some time. The host had browned five pounds of ground beef and when they opened the kitchen, like vultures we swooped in for the kill. Yes, I killed myself some tacos. Those taco's needed killin.

And what better place to gather for a feeling of family, than in the kitchen?

Then mr_dowg pulled a rabbit out of his hat. He palmed me a Monster sticker! I saw it, I saw him - but words, they didn't come. I was speechless! So many questions...How? I'll let him tell you the story, but suffice it to say, it ended up on my car. (He also provided me with a Monster temporary tattoo, which I wanted to immediately put on my forehead for the duration of the party, but when I nodded toward him and demanded, "Lick my forehead!" so I could apply it, sadly, he refused :(


Monster-powered!

Comments

[mr-dowg.livejournal.com]

Well, last nights gathering was a very good time indeed! I am glad that you liked the Monster products, maybe at some time I can get us all some more. It is a very interesting story ow i came about having those Monster products. I got the idea of temporary tattoos to show off our love of all things MONSTER. So, I went searching on the internet and in the process I ended up on Ebay looking for auctions of Monster things. I found lots of fun, interesting things that I would like to have but what caught my eye was one for 10 Monster temp tattoos and 5 good size Monster stickers! I put in a bid and for a couple days I was the only bidder on that auction. Then one day we checked and 4 other people had bid on it and I was now losing the auction. So....I told Glo that I would up my high bid to $10.00 and that I would not go any higher than that. A day or so later, Glo got the confirmation email that I had indeed WON the auction and was now the proud owner of the Monster products listed above. It was great and hilarious at the same time! I never thought that I would win it, I just bid on it to see what would happen. Well, I waited all week hoping that they would come in the mail before our little get together this weekend so I could surprise my fellow Monster addicts with them! I am glad that they all liked them.....someone got out of the house without theirs though because they are sitting on our organ in the entryway!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

The other day, my car was running sluggish, so I pulled over on the side of the road, popped the gas cap, and poured 16oz. of Monster into the tank. She ran as if she were supercharged!

[glodowg.livejournal.com]

I would like precise directions for getting the M sticker in the middle of the rear window. How many measurements were taken? How many remeasures were involved?

It was a good time! I do agree though that everyone stayed very sober and everyone was gone by 10:30 - that was a shocker. I blame all the offspring. I do believe that is the crankiest I have ever seen all our children... next time we'll have to plan a bit of young entertainment.

Also, we forgot to toast the passing of the wall. Perhaps a quick get together with toasts all around.... sad day at the Dowg home...

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

You never cease to amaze me ma'am - and I would've loved to have spent more time in your presence, but you were wildly popular last night...I ended up instead trying to get mr_dowg to lick my forehead, but I digress. You never cease to amaze me, whether its your awfully effective ultimatum (you should've seen all 12 of them there, on the floor watching movies quietly - it was downright spooky) or pointing out that the sticker was amazingly center on my car, which in actuality, its a little to the left of center, and I manipulated it in Photoshop to get it be dead on balls accurate to borrow a quote from Mona Lisa Vito.

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

Perhaps this is a difference between sysadmins and programmers... at this point in my career, I would be lost on a single 1600x1200 display, much less a single 1680x1050 one. I've relied on multiple monitors to get work done for the last 7-8 years, whether it meant having multiple whole computers with one monitor apiece (at one point I wrote software to share my clipboard between two computers because I read email on one machine, and surfed the web on the other), or using synergy to let me pretend I was using one computer, or (finally!) having multiple displays hooked up to the same beast.

Now, at work I have two 21" CRTs at that oh-so-perfect 1600x1200 resolution. Every inch of both displays is constantly in use, whether I'm goofing off or working. At home I've got one 17" 1280x1024 display and one 20" 1680x1050 display, for (effectively) 2960x1024. It's not as big as what I have at work, but it's generally acceptable for the stuff I do at home.

I am contemplating buying a couple of big LCD displays for the office, though. I'm sick and tired of dealing with Dell CRTs: they don't seem to last more than a year before they start fuzzing out, getting jittery, or doing other things that make my eyes bleed. I've been at this company almost three years, and I've seen at least half a dozen CRTs die (and try to take my eyes with them!). A few of my co-workers have gone to further extremes: one has three 20" LCDs on one stand, one has a couple 22" LCDs (one of which is pivoted to be 1050x1680, and is devoted entirely to database queries), and then there is the one guy who has two 30" monsters (mostly for reading email).

By the way, there is a world out there beyond Monster. Have you ever tried a Mana Potion Energy Shot? Holy hell, that stuff rides you like a pony, no shotgunning required.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

In a perfect world, I would be Mr. Universe from Serenity. But I've tried to downsize - really I have. Getting rid of boxes, keyboards, monitors...to the bare minimum. But that's only at home. At work, I have three monitors and two computers. And people wonder why I don't see them on AIM.

If I recall correctly, your buddy purchased those monitors himself for work. My place of work has moved away from CRT's which has been a very nice upgrade indeed (we had the same Dell 21's you speak of).

I even have one of those Sun flat panels for my SPARC ubuntu box. Now that's spoiled!

And the emergence of tabs has also helped unclutter the workspaces. First tabbed browsing, now tabbed terminal windows. I love them!

That is the second time you've sent me a link to the Mana drinks - but I can't find them in North Dallas! I shared it with my WoW-playing, Monster-drinking hetero-lifemate, and he's been looking for them as well.

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

Yeah, parts of our company are 100% LCD, but many other parts (including everywhere I've worked) is a bit more circumspect in the official purchase of displays. Judging from how many CRTs whose death I've personally witnessed, this nonsense can't last much longer, but I intend to switch to LCDs well before the company supports that decision (I'll take them home, and enjoy them there, when the time comes).

As for the Mana Potions - my mistake. I was trying to remember whether I'd posted them before or not, and a quick perusal of recent posts made me believe I hadn't. In any event, I finally had one on Friday, and it made for a fun-filled day that left cow-orkers and squirrels alike fleeing my presence. I acquired them online, and ThinkGeek now stocks them, so there are many more payment options than just PayPal.

Having seen some in the flesh, I can attest to how nice the glass bottles look, how reasonable the packing is to preserve same, and to the... unique flavor they provide. As I already have a flask funnel, I am considering repurposing the empty bottles as shot glasses - that could be a really neat visual effect with the right liquer.

Incidentally, I'm experimenting with 5-Hour Energy today - if I seem a bit wordier than usual (!), that might be why.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

That 5-Hour Energy scares me (though I must admit I've been tempted to pour it straight into my wide-mouth can of Monster some mornings.

Those Mana bottle do look very fancy and would be worth the price alone just for those (I like your 'shot glass' idea). I just spent two hours looking for some wallpaper I know I downloaded (probably at work since I exhausted all online, and local resources) of a guy sitting at a desk writing, sipping on health potion as an energy drink.

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

Update on the 5-Hour Energy, about 4 hours in: ugh. I've been jittery for a few hours now, and I feel like I had a few cups of coffee. I'm not very thrilled with this stuff, even though it seems like it shouldn't be much different than the Mana Potion (and contains probably less caffeine).

YMMV, of course, but now I definitely prefer the Mana Potion, and I'm glad that I have another dozen on the way. ;-)

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

You would have had tabbed browsing years ago had you stuck to the world's fastes browser.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Lets qualify that, my Opera-only using friend. As you know I've been using it on-again, off-again on a variety of platforms, and can now say, with bit more authority than you, that the 'worlds fastest browser' is not a true statement across the board.

It may 'launch' faster - but I wouldn't dare browse slower during the 30-days in between the times I close the browser and re-open it.

When I'm using Opera on x86 linux, I notice my Gallery runs much, much slower, and I can't respond to some people on xanga.

I guess it really is true - no one browser is perfect. But pound-for-pound, more stuff opens and I'm able to be more productive (and faster) in Firefox over any other browser.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

I will grant that Opera doesn't render the themes correctly on Xanga. I will also point out that the AJAX on Google Notebook doesn't work in either Opera or Safari. The software that they wrote at work has a problem rendering the Javascript menus in Opera (though I think it's something they fucked up in the code as this wouldn't work in Safari 2.)

I can't speak to how Opera runs on SPARC, but I've used Opera on OS X, Wintel and Ubuntu x86 and have found that it is extremely fast. I know that Mozilla has always been slower in Ubuntu/Knoppix for instance. In the few months that I've been reading Coding Horror he as posted some numbers (link 1, link 2) and wrote about a feature that I have always used but didn't know that Opera went out of it's way to provide nor knew how to put into words.

Also, this week I found out how to make my own one letter searching shortcuts. For instance, Opera will give you "g + SPACE search terms" by default for searching Google. i.e. When I do a Google search I do a CTL + TAB to get my new tab, then type "g + SPACE + ehowton" to Google ehowton. I now have the following shortcuts setup:

d- Dictionary.com
g- Google
i- Google Images
m- IMDB
w- Wikipedia

Though it may not sound like much, you have no idea how much time that those few shortcuts save me. My hands never have to leave the keyboard and I have a minimal amount of typing to do. (To make this customization, pull up the Search tab in the Preferences, pick what you want your shortcut to be [you can use multiple letters or phrases if you so desire] paste in the URL and where the search term goes put a %s]).

I am starting to see the wisdom that you have in always running two browsers. I'm not opposed to Firefox, but I do see it as a tee toting child. I don't care for the interface or the workflow and have seen numbers that show that the browse is slower then even IE when executing certain tasks. I know that I should be pushing Firefox because it's Open Source, but I've see enough writing in the ubuntu_users group to know that Firefox has kinks on both Ubuntu and OS X.

I will say that you have made me very happy for choosing to work with Opera as a second browser. I don't know what really possessed you to do so but I'm proud to have a friend that is open minded. I think I can finally lay this argument to rest.

Thanks.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I don't know what really possessed you to do so...
Portability.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

Is Opera more portable then Firefox these days?

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

No, but more portable than any other second browser I could find.

[schpydurx.livejournal.com]

oh.

[bsdcat.livejournal.com]

One more thing: Getting rid of boxes, keyboards, monitors...to the bare minimum.

I envy your self-restraint in this regard. I'm hoping to start reducing the number of systems I have again (and actually using the ones I want to keep), but I have zero interest in reducing the amount of monitor space I have. :-)

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

I envy your self-restraint in this regard.
There was nothing selfless about it. I was spousally-motivated to do so.

[nickdangerous.livejournal.com]

Damn you. Now I will have to buy one. Still using a 19" SuperScan Elite 751 .22 DP CRT. Its remaining days are numbered.

Agreed, Yin can be a real biotch.

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

$189 at Sam's Club ;)

[nickdangerous.livejournal.com]

La la la la la I hear nothing. Nothing I say!

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

You boys and your toys! :)
Speaking of which, I'll give you 3 guesses who just purchased the Apple TV!

I've had my Samsung 19 inch FP practically since I got the Mac. I love it!
Been using that old FP you used to use in the office here. Hate it!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

You boys and your toys!
I am man, hear me write a program to roar for me.

I'll give you 3 guesses who just purchased the Apple TV!
The Apple Pusher?

I've had my Samsung 19 inch FP practically since I got the Mac.
Yes. And now that I think about it, I wonder if I didn't first make my claim to drax0r back then, after seeing yours and how little space it took up on the desk. I bet, in all honesty, you were the reason I have one now. Widescreen is a odd bitch, though, let me tell you. Your 19" monitor is rather square making it look VERY LARGE. The widescreen aspect-ratio makes my 19" look rather tiny in comparison.

Been using that old FP you used to use in the office here. Hate it!
It sucks because it only does 1024x768.

[galinda822.livejournal.com]

The Apple Pusher?
Exactly! We got the full demo Saturday night.
It's never ending!

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

Just remember. It's not the size of the monitor it's how you use it.

Of course mine is still bigger than yours though!!!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Nice head.

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

It's a gift.... and a curse!!!

[celtmanx.livejournal.com]

You need to do a compare and contrast between this avatar pic and the one of me and Shatner!!!

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

[princessleia2.livejournal.com]

Great, I'm now officially the last nerd on the planet to use a CRT :P

[ehowton.livejournal.com]

Well, you and drax0r with his now dual-22's...I've been pressuring him to post a picture of it!