Animeontap.com

I recently realized that my Creative SoundBlaster X-Fi doesn't seem to have any 3D sound support. So I started searching the web and found that if you have 4GB or more RAM, you won't get 3D sounds in XP64 (apparently it affect Vista also but since I don't use it I don't know). Later I found that Creative was actually actively blocking access to features of some cards in Vista and actually lying about the support. They say it's not possible but then some dude who called himself Daniel_K (no relation to me, the guy's in Brazil) actually enabled a bunch of the features. And what does this company do? They threaten him with legal actions - http://www.xbitlabs.com/news/multimedia/display/20080331221922_Creative_Technology_Threatens_SoundBlaster_Driver_Developer.html

That just means Creative has just lost another customer. You should read their forums, it's a flame fest there The Creative moderators are even deleting and editing threads. How fun

Went to the Tulip Festival recently up at Skagit Valley. Unfortunately we went up towards the end of the season so most of the pretty tulips have been topped. You can check out the pics here - Tulip Festival

And some taken by my friends who went with me - Shirlene/Jeremy's pics

Got a real good deal on a Canon Rebel XTi last week when I noticed someone making a pricing error on Meritline marketplace. I made sure it's being charged by a reputable billing company which in this case is Amazon, so lucky me! Ordered the entire kit for $599+shipping=$604.99! From all the places I can find, the cheapest is $677 for the kit and $596 for the body alone. So I placed an order knowing I'm not exactly being ripped off on the price if it was just the body but since Amazon is charging, I could still complain and get the lens if something goes wrong.

Today the package arrived and I saw only 1 box. I was disappointed thinking only the body came until I read the small print on the box - "EF-S 18-55mm kit". YAY!!! The lens is inside!

Here's a pic of the box -

Obviously I can't take pics of the camera itself since my old SD110 can't take clear pictures in the dark and my condo is fairly dark

This weekend if it doesn't rain (no rain??? fat chance!) it's photo day at the Arboretum and the Olympic Sculpture Park! I can't wait!!!!!!!

I read this in a forum today and I thought it was hillarious!

>> What am I doing wrong?
>>
>>
>> Okay, I'm tired of beating around the bush. I'm a beautiful (spectacularly
>> beautiful) 25 year old girl. I'm articulate and classy. I'm not from New
>> York. I'm looking to get married to a guy who makes at least half a million a
>> year. I know how that sounds, but keep in mind that a million a year is
>> middle class in New York City, so I don't think I'm overreaching at all..
>>
>> Are there any guys who make 500K or more on this board? Any wives?
>>
>> Could you send me some tips? I dated a business man who makes average around
>> 200 - 250. But that's where I seem to hit a roadblock. 250,000 won't get me
>> to central park west. I know a woman in my yoga class who was married to an
>> investment banker and lives in Tribeca, and she's not as pretty as I am, nor
>> is she a great genius. So what is she doing right? How do I get to her level?
>>
>> Here are my questions specifically:
>>
>> - Where do you single rich men hang out? Give me specifics- bars,
>> restaurants, gyms
>>
>> -What are you looking for in a mate? Be honest guys, you won't hurt my
>> feelings
>>
>> -Is there an age range I should be targeting (I'm 25)?
>>
>> - Why are some of the women living lavish lifestyles on the upper east side
>> so plain? I've seen really 'plain jane' boring types who have nothing to
>> offer married to incredibly wealthy guys. I've seen drop dead gorgeous girls
>> in singles bars in the east village. What's the story
>> there?
>>
>> - Jobs I should look out for? Everyone knows - lawyer, investment banker,
>> doctor. How much do those guys really make? And where do they hang out? Where
>> do the hedge fund guys hang out?
>>
>> - How you decide marriage vs. just a girlfriend? I am looking for MARRIAGE
>> ONLY
>>
>> Please hold your insults - I'm putting myself out there in an honest way..
>> Most beautiful women are superficial; at least I'm being up front about it. I
>> wouldn't be searching for these kind of guys if I wasn't able to match them -
>> in looks, culture, sophistication, and keeping a
>> nice home and hearth.
>>
>> * it's NOT ok to contact this poster with services or other
>> commercial interests
>>
>> PostingID: 432279810
>>
>>
>> THE ANSWER
>> Dear Pers-431649184:
>> I read your posting with great interest and have thought meaningfully
>> about your dilemma. I offer the following analysis of your predicament.
>> Firstly, I'm not wasting your time, I qualify as a guy who fits your
>> bill; that is I make more than $500K per year. That said here's how I
>> see it.
>>
>> Your offer, from the prospective of a guy like me, is plain and simple
>> a cr@ppy business deal. Here's why. Cutting through all the B.S., what
>> you suggest is a simple trade: you bring your looks to the party and I
>> bring my money. Fine, simple. But here's the rub, your looks will fade and my
>> money will likely continue into perpetuity...in fact, it is very likely
>> that my income increases but it is an absolute certainty that you won't
>> be getting any more beautiful!
>>
>> So, in economic terms you are a depreciating asset and I am an earning
>> asset. Not only are you a depreciating asset, your depreciation
>> accelerates! Let me explain, you're 25 now and will likely stay pretty
>> hot for the next 5 years, but less so each year. Then the fade begins
>> in earnest. By 35 stick a fork in you!
>>
>> So in Wall Street terms, we would call you a trading position, not a
>> buy and hold...hence the rub...marriage. It doesn't make good business
>> senseto "buy you" (which is what you're asking) so I'd rather lease. In case
>> you think I'm being cruel, I would say the following. If my money were
>> to go away, so would you, so when your beauty fades I need an out.. It's
>> as simple as that. So a deal that makes sense is dating, not marriage.
>>
>> Separately, I was taught early in my career about efficient markets.
>> So, I wonder why a girl as "articulate, classy and spectacularly beautiful"
>> as you has been unable to find your sugar daddy. I find it hard to
>> believe that if you are as gorgeous as you say you are that the $500K
>> hasn't found you, if not only for a tryout..
>>
>> By the way, you could always find a way to make your own money and then
>> we wouldn't need to have this difficult conversation.
>>
>> With all that said, I must say you're going about it the right way.
>> Classic "pump and dump."
>> I hope this is helpful, and if you want to enter into some sort of
>> lease, let me know.

Bought a fancy LCD TV after my last tube box died. It was not a pretty death, nice loud pop and smokes included. Anyways, here's the new TV Nice TV the LN-T4065F, best black in a LCD tv I've ever seen. The 4061F is an identical TV but with a matte screen instead of a glossy one. Best Buy has the 4066F which has a nicer looking shell but identical interior to the 4065F, down to the screen! It had a major issue in the beginning though. Unfortunately the HDMI ports had an issue where there's handshake issue with HDMI sources. One would see pink and green flashes leading to a sudden drop of picture. A call to Samsung solved it though. The nice lady on the phone sent a tech to my home 2 days later, replaced the motherboard and all is good.

Well, take a look here - http://support.microsoft.com/kb/925528/en-us

If you are having issues with Vista recognizing your USB devices install this update. I don't see either error on my nForce4 SLI motherboard, but it refuses to recognize my Kingston flash drive. Once installed it works fine.

Now, how do you install the driver if 1) USB not working and 2) no networking ? Beats the shit out of me.

Guess you'll have to waste a CD to burn the networking drivers on to then do the update. Why? Because the geniuses at MSFT made the update check for an update online before updating. Imagine that I suppose they never thought of newer hardware out there that they don't support and causing the "Chicken and Egg" conundrum.....

Ok so I've slacked of for almost 3 months not updaing the blog. But who can blame me? Was working Christmas week and a short trip to Washington DC for New Year's. Other than that, it's been skiing, skiing, Chinese New Year and more skiing. Well, guess I'll write something up about the skiing and Chinese New Year events, but in the mean time don't hold your breath. However I do have a little UNIX tip for you people out there. This little AWK script (written by some guy on the web) takes 2 files. Compared the stuff in one file with the other file and remove the stuff that's already in file one and dumps the stuff not removed into a different file. In this example file one is '', file two is '' and the diff output file is ''

----
awk 'BEGIN{ \
while ((getline < " <smaller>") > 0) \
listfromfile[$1] = 1} \
!listfromfile[$1] {print}' <larger> > <newfile>
----

This was tested in Linux with Bash shell, so if you run into issues, well, install Bash

So Seattle's friggin snowing now... Dammit, I thought I left Nebraska so I don't have to deal with this shit. Not to mention waiting 45 minutes for a bus that never came. Apparently there was ice and they weren't running this morning!

Anyways, so skiing. It's great fun! Went out with a friend on Saturday to Snoqualmie Ridge and boy was the conditions good. This year I bought a pair of ski boots. The rental stuff never quite fit as well and made it harder to turn. Bought a pair of Salomon Performa Blast and it fits snuggly. So snug that my feet went numb after the first run, had to loosen it up a bit. Uh huh, much better now Man the powder was so good and soft that day it's like having hot butter knife cutting into ice!

Of course with the entire week of snow fall, we're heading out there again this weekend. Steven's pass here I come!!!

Came across this and laughed my ass off...

Damn, that was a long job. 4 hours of hard labor but all in all, it wasn't too bad. Replaced rotors and pads on all 4 corners.

Total cost of parts ~$300.

The rotors I got from www.zeckhausen.com and pads I got from www.eap4parts.com before they went out of business.

For instructions, I used this site - http://m3.madrussian.net/diy.shtml but since that was for an M3, I had to improvise some.

This is so wrong on so many levels.....

Let's say you're usually in the Windows world. You would normally name your files with a combination of Upper and Lower case characters. Also throw in some spaces for a long filename. This is all fine and dandy to make the name mean something, so you end up with something like "My first file in long filename.txt"

Now let's say you scp'ed (secure copied) the file over to your *nix box and you're tired of typing "\ " to access your filename with space, what do you do? Well, this script will allow you to convert all the files into lower case and replace spaces with _

Here's the script.

----------
for f in *; do
file=$(echo $f | tr A-Z a-z | tr ' ' _)
[ ! -f $file ] && mv "$f" $file
done
----------

Good luck and enjoy!

Ok so I finally gave up on the webhost that was hosting my site. Bit the bullet and colo'ed my own box at a datacenter to get things in order. Hopefully I got all the data transferred over with me to this server.

Colo facility is in The Westing building in Seattle. Our provider is Adtaq and they have much space available to lease out. Ask for Tony when you call and tell them Daniel sent you

Apparently they do and they're pretty darn good too. I got a set of Tech M550 A/S from Tirerack last week and got em mounted on Thursday. They weren't kidding when they say 2 day delivery. Mine came from the Nevada warehouse which is odd coz I've always though heat is not good to rubber, heh...

The Avons were fairly cheap - $104 each for 225/45/17s. $45 shipping to Seattle and $25 each for mounting. Much better tire for what I can get locally for the price. They're pretty quiet on the highway too. Grip wise it is ridiculously sticky. Even under heavy cornering it doesn't squeel or break loose (within limits of course). When at limit, it tends to break out gradually, with excellent steering response and communication. I was going to get the Summer only model - Tech M500 but they weren't in stock in Nevada and I didn't want to pay another $30 to have it shipped from Indiana, so All-Season assymetric tires I got.

Apparently there's a Windows XP patch that addresses this issue though I wonder why other laptops are not affected by it.

Microsoft KB - 917332

You need a valid Microsoft Support Contract to obtain the patch. Though some googling will reveal certain locations that has the patch for download. Most of them are for English XP, so you probably will need to contact MSFT directly for localized versions of the patch.