Working overtime

I've been asked to work some overtime to catch up but my schedule this month just wont allow it. I'm going to see if I can work early and still save some of the day in order to meet both committments. It's going to be a tough month.

Singles Box 4, 5 and 6!

Singles Box 4 is currently available on rhapsody.
RHAPSODY Link

Depeche Mode has released box 4,5 and 6 of the singles. Box 3 was released in 1991 and was the last box set to be released until this year. I can only hope that family and friends are kind enough to get me this for birthdays, christmas presents, etc. :)

Power Outages Suck

Today my PC's have gone up and down more times than Monica Lewinsky. I really need to get a UPS for these things. The linux box (which immediately does a disk check on reboot) has spent more time checking the hard disk than running.

Media Server Running Good

I just got a new media server running to my liking. Running Debian linux this box is really starting to be very productive. I've been able to move most of my multimedia files and as my DVD silently copies the last of the photo archives to the 200GB drive I can't be anything but happy. The P133 system has a new life as it is now hosting over 200GB of data up not only through a web portal but to my local network.

I'm really happy with the new setup. This allows me to use my main system without it also being the file server. The nice thing is that I have it now setup as a web host as well. It serves as a development web server too. MySQL is running on it just fine and PHP4 is also installed. I've ordered some memory for it which should resolve the remaining performance issue with it and get it up to 100%.

It's nearly 10 years

It's hard to believe that my 10th anniversary with my wife is this year. It's been a long road but I wouldn't trade it in for anything. It's wonderful to have a wife who understands your needs as well as her own and is able to make you feel you're the only one in her life.

To have someone this special is a gift. So many relationships are based on so many things but few are built on true love. I believe our relationship is built on just that.

Game Shark Media Player

Finally I should have this Game Shark Media Player working under Linux. What a mess this was. Great product but the idea of requiring someone to have X installed on a Linux box in order to set it up was just silly. The few options involved in setup could have been driven from the command line instead of the Java Swing class.

Basically, here's how you install without X windows on your machine and you have access to another Windows (WinTel) box.

First, install the Xwindows server of cygwin. Is distributed under GPL. It's got a great simple network setup simple enough for even the dumbest windows user.

Second, load up cygwin on you WinTel box and type

startx

That will get your xwindows session going. Once your in X and you have xterm running just SSH over to the Linux box.

ssh mylogin@myipaddress

Once logged in, set your display to your IP address

DISPLAY=000.000.000.000:0.0

The :0.0 is very important to have after the IP address.

From there you can run the ./jinstall.bin for GSMP and it should work just fine.

I really hope they fix this in future versions as it was a pain the ass to setup the first time.

Liz Phair Sell-Out or Change of perspective?

While Liz Phair has some really popular ear candy available now (Rock Me) it's clear her music has taken on a very drastic change. The early Liz days included some very feminist music. Today, shes putting out toe tapping happy music about life and love. The frolicy sexual overtones are still present in her music but they seem to have taken a more positive outlook on life. Has her music sold out to more popular themes or has her perspective on life changed?

Linux getting better!

It's been several years since I had a need for a linux box. I'm putting together a media server to reduce some of the space requirements on my day to day PC. Linux sure has matured. The Debian version allows you to basically create one installation disk and pull the rest right over the internet. Sweet, no more hassle of trying to figure out what to download etc. No CD's to burn. Shoot, microsoft doesnt even do that. :)

Frustrated

This whole house thing is just a ruddy pain in the butt. The refinance at the same time is helping but at some point not helping. Big $$ continues to be the issue but we're working through it. My hope is that Mike (lender) comes through on all this. I'm not really confident at this point as there's been many things that are just getting left to the back burner. It's certainly not putting me in a good mood.

Diane is really sick with morning sickness which doesn't put her in a good mood either. Things are tense and frustrating at all levels for everyone. Perhaps tomorrow will be better.

Dan Fogelberg

Here's a little interesting bit of information. Dan Fogelberg originated from Peoria IL. What's interesting is that for a small portion of my life I lived there as well.

Longer - Dan Fogelberg