Upgrades complete...check out the specs...

I've finished migrating junk from the old server to the new, and have taken some storage space and moved it to the new system. I moved 2 120gb drives.

It has added some needed space for nightly backups etc.

Have a look at the complete system specs here

The Hog: My new Ride... (OMX-600)

I bought some new wheels. Check them out, in all their glory.

Behold the Omni OMX-600

It is so choice. If you have the means, I highly recommend picking one up.

After a few weeks riding it, I can say that it's fun and cheap. I filled up the 1.3 Gallon tank yesterday and did some calculations. So far, I'm getting about 102 miles per gallon. That's about 5 times what I get car or truck. A few more calculations later, I figure we'll save about $40-$50 per month by driving the scooter to and from work.

I usually go anywhere between 30 and 40 miles per hour, with an occasional 45 if I'm going straight down a 90 degree cliff. I'd say my average speed is probably 35. I take the back roads (mostly) to work, so I don't have to deal with much traffic.

I wear a helmet and a reflect/day-glow orange vest for safety. People seem to respect that.

Here are a few more pictures, as well as some specs from the dealers website:











A profile shot.


The boy and the hog.











The Helm. (I added the clock. Ya...Pimp my scooter material. )

Model # OMX-600
Colors: Candy Apple Red, Raven Black
Engine: 49.5cc 2 stroke
Economy: Up to 125 mpg
Starter: Electric with Kick Lever Backup
Top Speed: 45 mph (75 Kmph)
Safety: Mirrors, Reflectors, Brake lights, Turn Signal Lights, Head Lights
Anti Theft: Keyed Ignition, Steering Lock, VIN, 2 Locked Storage Compartments
Fuel Tank: 5.0 liters
Gauges: Speedometer, Odometer, and Fuel Level
Weight: 180 lbs. (82 kg)
Maximum Load: 250 lbs. (113 kg)
Tires: 10 x 3.50 front and rear 4 Ply Rated
Brakes: Drum brakes front and rear
Wheelbase: 47.25 inches (1200 mm)
Suspension: Telescopic Front Forks / Rear Mono Shock

Anyone else drive a scooter? Drop me a line.

Tiny Fuse...Huge Problem.

Installing this fuse took me 20 hours.

Last night around 8pm, I tried to install a new thermostat. Every time I think I know what I'm doing...I realize that I have a lot to learn.

After the first few hours, my wife finally found an obscure blurb in the troubleshooting section of the thermostat companies website that told us that our particular AC unit might not be supported by this digital thermostat.

So, I tried to put on the old one. No good. No power and no cold air coming out. :(

The next day, I went to buy the "supported" thermostat. After following the install instructions, I found that it didn't work either. I spend the rest of the next day talking to service guys, guying fuses and replacing peices. In the end, it was this tiny fuse. It took me 5 stores to find someone to sold these little fuses.

I can't tell you how awesome it was to hear that fan kick on once I got this thin installed, and the new thermostat wired correctly.

Phew.

New Machine...New Weblog... and RIP TAC

So, themdg.org is now on better hardware. Huzzah. It as upgraded from the old PII 450 (Or was it a PIII?) gateway compy with 256MB ram to the PIII 750 with nearly 1GB of ram. The new system is really a solid peice of work. It's been our main desktop for about 6 years. I purchased it from Totally Awesome Computers in Salt Lake City, UT and it's been the best computer I've ever owned. A few upgrades here and there (started with a 15gb hdd and 128MB ram), but the core system is the same.

We welcome the TAC to it's new home hosting all the sites that themdg has to offer.




Edit: Sadly, it looks like Totally Awesome Computer of Salt Lake City, UT is now out of business. It's a bit sordid actually, but you can read the tale by following these links:

http://deseretnews.com/dn/view/0,1249,635189251,00.html
http://www.ksl.com/?nid=148&sid=171274
http://www.slweekly.com/editorial/2005/feature_2005-08-04.cfm

Too bad he let his gun-nuttiness get out of control. He had a great thing going. Just look at my system! 6 years running, and now reborn.

RIP TAC.

MBNA Credit Card Security?

Today I called MBNA to ask why my credit card no longer works. I use it for online purchases because it has one of those services that lets you generate a new card number with a small limit...just enough for your purchase.

They told me that they disabled the card because I made a purchase through google.com checkout service, and they wanted to make sure it was actually me using the card. I told them it was, and the promised to "turn my card back on" within 15 minutes.

However, the card has been "off" for more than a week, and I haven't heard one word from them. When I asked if they plan on alerting their users, she replied that they "Sometimes mail out a notification." No...they wait for you to call.

Give me a break.

M$ Planning IPod Killer - allowing free download of itunes songs.

An interesting article about rumors of the "Ipod Killer" by microsoft.  I love the idea of them allowing us to download songs that only work on the ipod...but I bet they have their OWN version of DRM.  No way they'll be free and clear audio files.

Microsoft planning WiFi-enabled portable media player, working on MVNO for next year - Engadget:

"But it gets better. To attract current iPod users Microsoft is going to let you download for free any songs you've already bought from the iTunes Music Store. They'll actually scan iTunes for purchased tracks and then automatically add those to your account. Microsoft will still have to pay the rights-holders for the songs, but they believe it'll be worth it to acquire converts to their new player."    

DCI on the Big Screen - Summer 2006

You can watch DCI quarter finals live in the movie theater.

Check to find a theater near you.

Drum Corps International (DCI) -- The World's Top Drum and Bugle Corps - 95

New Post on New Weblog

See...now, I didn't know you could get these things to publish straight to my own website. That's perfect. Seems that there are a lot of way to get blogger content in. Maybe I can migrate the junk from my current site into blogger.

I wonder how I get pictures in here.

Okay, I see how to get pictures here. With this "Add Image" button.

This might be more fun than my current system.

We found this snake in my sisters house. Check out the link for more in-house pictures. A true and thrilling story!



http://old.themdg.org/gallery/snake

New brakes for everyone...

We're driving both cars from Kansas to Maryland in the next month. I've been doing some car updates before we go, to make sure we make it in one peice.

One thing that needed doing on both the car (93 Nissan Maxima) and the truck (96 Mazda B2300) was a break check. The breakes in the max were verrrry loud, but they've always been that way.

So, over a few weeks, I removed, inspected, replaced, or repaired the brakes on all 8 wheels. Here is the rundown of the work:

Maxima:
Turned Rotors
Turned Drums
Replaced Pads
Replaced Shoes
Adjustments

B2300
Turned Rotors
Replaced Drums
Repacked Bearings
Adjustments.

Man...they both drive like new cars. The Rotors in the truck were pretty warped. Now that they're newly turned, it stops perfectly. I think for the whole project I spent around $100. Not bad for a do-it-myself job. :)

Make a list, before your brain explodes...

Our country is just over two centuries old. That's pretty young compred to other countries in the world. Will our country make it to twice this age? Three time? Thirty times?

It's easy to think that...Yes...our country, even with it's problems, is doing pretty well. That's until you watch a few hours of Television. Watch one hour of anything marketed as "Reality Television" and you'll see what I mean. We're being fed a constant stream of mind-numbing trash! You can pick any "real" television show and watch it for an hour. You have just shortened your life by 14 hours. In my research, I found a story of a boy who watched SO much reality-television that he suddenly died of intelligence deficiency. Very sad.

What do you avoid, you ask? How can you reclaim you brain cells, you wonder? Here is a small list of criteria that you should avoid at ALL costs. A phrase which here means that when any of these scenarios comes on the television, you should act as if fire, spears, terrorists and strangers offering candy are pouring out of your television, into you living room.

1) Anything that involves any type of "Elimination." It's the show that should be eliminated, not the printer and fax machine repair man from Detroit.

2) Anything staring anyone that is famous for something other than starting in TV shows. This includes singers, rappers, artists, ex-convicts, business men, strippers, models, people who are famous for nothing, people who are not famous, people who murder other people, people who dare to eat rediculous things, or athletes.

3) Anything where people cry for "real."

4) Any show where there is a panel of judges.

5) Anything that will help choose Americas Next _anything_.

Also, I suggest making a list of people that you simply will not tolerate seeing in your home, or in your life. Act as if these peoples image causes you pain and burns your eyes. Because guess what? They do! When these people come on the television, RUN! For your life! Grab the remove and change it. Cover your ears and eyes and do that "La la la la" thing so you can't hear. Run from the room while screaming at the top of your lungs. If you don't, your brain will eventually explode.

I'm not going to list any actual names because that's JUST what they want. In fact, if I had listed names, and you had read them in this context, you'd be dumber than when you started. I just saved you 12.3 minutes of your life. You're welcome.

The Black Hole, by Jackson, age 5

Here is an artists depiction of the 1979 Disney movie, The Black Hole. Drawn by my 5 year old son.

::Things to notice::
--Bottom left corner: U.S.S. Cygnus
--At about 7-O-Clock: Old Bob, the robot
--At about 9-O-Clock: Another spaceship being sucked in
--At about 2-O-Clock: That other spaceships engine
--Dead center: The middle of the black whole which "Sucks the spaceship and the stuff in"

Bro gets Mission call...

My bro Andy received an LDS mission call this week. He's going to Wisconsin and will learn the Mong language.

I'm happy that he's going. He'll be a great asset in the work there. He's a good man. Hooray for Wisconsin.

Edit: Woa, I just realized the Madison Scouts are from Wisconsin. That makes Wisconsin one of the top places in the country to be.






















The Madison Scouts

Words of the day...

Here are the words I'd use to describe my day at work today:

Hoodwinked
Bamboozled
Horn Swoggled
Pummelled

Gotta love big corporations.

The other day Jack told my wife he wanted to write a Christmas song. She wrote some simple accompanyment, and Jack (who has just turned 5) composed and performed this song.

http://themdg.org/music/JackChristmasSong.mp3

In case you can't tell at first, the words main words are:

"I like Christmas"
"I like getting the toys" (which oftentimes comes out like "...getting the toyeeYooeeeYoooees")

Listen for the cute little-boy-type laugh at the very end.

It's pretty great. Have a listen, and leave a comment about what you think.

Narrowly Avoided Trouble...

It seem as though we have narrowly avoided trouble here at THEmdg.org. You see, our budget is small. As a result, our infrastructure is not what it should be. Rarely are backups done on data, and there are NO full backups done...ever. So, if a drive goes down, we curl and cry.

Well, it happened today.

Went to pull a few mp3's out for a slideshow and found 0 files. "Oh yeah, maybe the drive just needs to be remounted," We thought. No dice. Upon further investigation, we found that the drive that holds about 80GB's of MP3's was unaccessable. Scary I/O Error stuff. The actual error had something to do with a bad superblock. A superblock a bit like the card catalogue of a partition. Without it, the data is still there, but ou can't find any of it.

After mourning the loss of an 8 year collection of music and after scheming how to replace them (a daunting task!), We had the idea to put a little more faith in linux to see if the data was recoverable.

Check out this magic:

Step 1 - Find out where the backup superblocks are stored.
-------------------
avast:/tmp# mke2fs -n /dev/hdb1
mke2fs 1.35 (28-Feb-2004)
Filesystem label=
OS type: Linux
Block size=4096 (log=2)
Fragment size=4096 (log=2)
14663680 inodes, 29304560 blocks
1465228 blocks (5.00%) reserved for the super user
First data block=0
895 block groups
32768 blocks per group, 32768 fragments per group
16384 inodes per group
Superblock backups stored on blocks:
32768, 98304, 163840, 229376, 294912, 819200, 884736, 1605632, 2654208,
4096000, 7962624, 11239424, 20480000, 23887872
----------------

Step 2 - Rebuild the jounral with a new (not corrupted) superblock
-------------------
fsck.ext3 -b 98304 /dev/hdb1
-------------------

After some bad block fixes etc etc
-------------------
/dev/hdb1: ***** FILE SYSTEM WAS MODIFIED *****
/dev/hdb1: 13333/14663680 files (21.3% non-contiguous), 15266103/29304560 blocks
------------------

What? That did it? We quickly remounted the drive:

avast:/mnt# mount butters

Woa...no errors...what now? It worked? Checking the mounted file system we were shocked to see all files intact! The MP3's are alive and well. Three cheers for linux magic.

The moral of the story? If you want to keep stuff you put on themdg.org...back it up. Chances are, we don't.

Staples for the boy...

My 5 years old son fell of the swings at the park today...perhaps because I pushed him too hard? (sigh.) 3 staples in the head later, he's back home. He was extremely brave during the ordeal. I've never seen a better patient.

May I suggest Winkys

A treat suggestion. I picked a 12 pack of Winky Brand Sugar Free Gelatin snack cups at the Wal-Marts the other day. They may be one of the best tasting thing on the whole dang planet. Go and get some. $2.50 for a 12 pack. 3 flavors.

Pictures from a life changing day....

Last month, my friend Trav and I were hired to photograph a wedding for an Indian friend of mine. Travis flew out from Salt Lake City, and we traveled to Pleasanton, Kansas to take the pictures. For 14 hours we snapped more than 2500 pictures.

It was an amazing experience from a photography point of view, but a life changing experience from a personal point of view. So much so in fact, that it's hard to portray in words.

But...the pictures turned out great. We narrowed them down quite a bit. Have a look:

http://amitandkalagee.themdg.org/main.php

Review: McCartneys Latest - Chaos and Creation in the Backyard

I gave this a bunch of listens, and have come to the conclusion that (no disrespect intended) you're wrong. You DO like this album.

I read a nice article about it in Time magazine about this album. On the advise of George Martin, Paul hired Nigel Godrich to produce this album. Nigel has produced groups like Beck and Radiohead. The first thing he did was tell Paul that most of his solo stuff is garbage. He also told Paul he needed to ditch his regular band for this album, and refused to do any 50's type rock and roll songs. Two words Nigel: Thank you! You've got to admit that the absence of the same-old-rock-and-roll we've been hearing from paul for a long time is a nice change.

Here is the bottom line. There are no Elvis songs. There are no songs about cows, or about how much you suck for wearing fur or leather. There are lots of background vocals that have been missing from Pauls songs for 20 years. Nice to hear them returning, finally.

1) Fine Line
Being the single, this is one of the most catchy tunes on the album. The sentiment is nice too. A sort of prodigal son story. Easy to relate the emotions to a wayward friend of family member.

2) How Kind of You
I like this song, but a bit less than the others. I can't place why. I guess any song that is based on " You... Me" is too simple. Nice ethereal feel near the end. But overall sub-par.

3) Jenny Wren
This is a cool balled that carries hints of songs such as Blackbird and albums such as Wings - Wild Life. We also get to hear that Pauls falsetto voice is still very much intact and pleasant. One more plus is the interesting sounds and instrumentation that's been missing from the last few albums which have been mostly simple rock. Like a good book, it's easy to get lost in the story of this song.

4) At The Mercy
Not much to love about this song at beginning. However, at around 1:10, paul brings in some strings (which have also been missing from his latest albums.) Your attention peaked, paul switches the song entirely with "If you take me up... I won't say no..." It's a nice bridge and saves the song, in my view.

5) Friends To Go
This is a nice sounding song. Starting simple, Paul brings some of his old tricks into the tune with nice harmonies during "Slowly burning rope...but the flame is getting low." Also, at around 2:15 we get some linda-style background "the other side the other side the other side....friends to go frienda to go friends to go..." Haven't heard that in a long time.

6) English Tea
String Quartet? Not since Give My Regards, I think. Clearly some sounds of "For No One" in this song. He paints a nice mental picture with this song, which is something we haven't had in a while. For that reason, this song might have been on Wings - London Town.

7) Too Much Rain
This is my favorite track on the album. The sentiment in it is touching. "It's not right. In one life. Too much rain." Sometimes I feel like there is too much rain. It's nice to be able to relate to a McCartney song again. I could see using this song on a compilation tape for someone I love. In short...it's a sad song that is indeed sad.

8) A Certain Softness
Not my favorite. Too much like elevator music. This should have been a B-side. I suspect this is about Pauls new child.

9) Riding to Vanity Fair
Is Paul mad here? Nice to hear a departure from the guitar-bass-drums-piano combo. Some eiry sounds in there that might have appreaed on Pink Floyds Dark Side of the Moon. However, too much "Friendship" in this one.

10) Follow Me
Paul wants to be best friends with everyone. NIce harmonies around 1:40. This sounds sounds a bit like a not-so-successful attempt at something like "Put it there" from Flowers in the Dirt.

11) Promise To You Girl
Nice harmonies at the beginning sounding a bit like "Flying to my home." A bit too optimistic and 50's-ish though. Pass.

12) This Never Happened Before
Another one you might have heard on Wild Life. I hear anthem type melodies like the Long And Winding Road or Hey Jude, but it never quite gets there. Almost seems like paul is writing about retirement?

13) Anyway
Sounds like something from the musical Rent. I like this some though. I could easilly see this fitting somewhere on a girlfriend tape, or in a movie soundtrack. You even hear some "Ooo Ooo Ooo Ooo" that makes you think of Pipes of Peace.

13.5) Hidden jam?
Starts out crappy. Ends up nice.