Mostly Harmless

Mostly about my amusement

Author: Jan Dembowski (page 52 of 96)

December 13, 2008

Cold called by FindToto.org?

I don’t like getting calls from strangers.  I’m on the national do not call list for that reason, and whenever the “We’re taking a survey” creeps call I give them the short spiel:

Them: Hello, we’re taking a survey and not soliciting anything –

Me: Remove my number from your list and never call me again. Goodbye and have a nice day.

And then I hang up.  I don’t know if it really works but I get less and less calls.

Robo-calling is pathetic.  When you get a call from a system, they intentionally leave out anyway to get off their list. Politicians use robo-calling and I think that is the worst thing I can say about that.

I just got a call from FindToto.org.  Apparently one of my neighbors lost a beige chihuahua and is using this service to find their dog.  I’ve had pets so I can sympathize but I don’t have to like it.

FindToto.org uses a service called Call-em-All. While tracking down lost pets is admirable, FindToto.org does not do that; they annoy neighbors. I went to that web site and opt-ed out.

Call-em-All’s name sounds like a problem right there.  If people don’t like getting calls from strangers, how exactly will they feel about getting an automated call without an easy non-Internet connected way to make it stop? It’s all automated so how is this not a problem for people like me who are registered with the DNC list?

Sigh, I’m in the technology business but some business ideas should have been put down in it’s infancy.

December 7, 2008

The Christmas tree is up

2008-xmas-tree

We used the old tree; no one really liked the 2007 tree. Last year’s tree was pre-lit and many of the lights went out.  This one has about 20 strings of lights on it! When it gets cold it can heat up as room 🙂

I put up the branches and the lights.  Mom and the kids started putting on the decorations and then Alek came and helped finish off the tree. It’s good and the whole house is nice and in the Christmas spirit.

Naturally I took lots of pictures. You can see the set of photos on Flickr.

December 4, 2008

WordPress 2.7 is shaping up nicely

I’ve had this blog on WordPress 2.7-beta using SVN for a while. So when it went release candidate, all I had to do was another just run another “svn up”.

The comment enhancements are cool and Otto provided a good write up for modifying the files to take advantage of it. Implementing it and staying XHTML valid was not a problem.

My problem was that without styling it, the new comments looked like crap.

Lucky on the WordPress support forums I found that Chris Harrison mapped out all the CSS for the comment list. Adding the elements that he provided let me easily make changes and get the comments close to the original look.

I still need to play around with it but so far I’m satisfied with the results.

December 3, 2008

Speed Grade Wing Gundam

My son completed another model. This time the 1/200 Speed Grade Wing Gundam.

speed-grade-wing-gundam

I have to slow him down or we’ll run out of models for him to work on. This one is his third model this week.

It’s great seeing him concentrate on the parts and following directions. He gets very focused on what he’s doing and so far has not run into any problems.  I’ve broken pieces before and even cut myself so I keep an eye on him.  He’s only 6 1/2 and I don’t want him to get frustrated.

You can see more pictures on my Flickr! set.

November 30, 2008

Dead Xbox 360 MTU issue

For months my Xbox 360 has been complaining about the MTU being too small on my Internet gateway. This meant no updates and Xbox Live stopped working. I’ve been busy so I did not give it much thought.

My brother Alek bought a new one  for his apartment and hooked it up at my house.  I figured that the MTU problem was an issue with my old Xbox 360. Naturally it wasn’t.  His had the same problem so I looked at my Linux gateway.  Running ifconfig on my server showed me that the MTU on the external interface was set to 576.

How did that happen? I thought it defaulted to 1500. I ran the command “ifconfig eth1 mtu 1500” and that fixed the problem right away.  On my openSUSE server I edited the file /etc/sysconfig/network/ifcfg-eth1 and made the MTU line read MTU=’1500′. This way when my box reboots the MTU setting should go to 1500.

After that was done, Alek was able to download the “new Xbox Experience”.  The irony is that Friday night my Xbox 360 finally gave up the ghost and died.  It’s out of warranty so I’ll be heading to Best Buy to get the holiday bundle.

November 29, 2008

First model my son built

The set of First Grade 1/144 models from Hobby Search came today and my son wanted to get started.  After dinner we sat down and he got to work. I think he did pretty well for someone almost 7 years old.

fg-ms-06s1

All I had to do was show him how to clip the pieces off the plastic mold and make sure he followed the instructions in order.  Except for helping him with the torso, he assembled the whole thing himself.

As he got closer to completing the model he wanted to skip ahead but I was able to convince him to keep to the instructions. I know how he feels; I like to jump around too.

In the middle of assembling his model, he realized that he was working on Char’s Zaku II.  I’m working on the MG version and that got him excited. He completed his model and wants to do more.

We’ll work on a few more FG models before trying the speed grade models. He’s very proud of his work and so am I.

November 29, 2008

“Let’s go to a different cemetery”

Today we observed the anniversary of a close relative’s death by visiting the cemetery and leaving offerings (Chinese family members).  It’s very respectful and Lily and I want our children to understand the reasons for this.

But my five year old girl is sick and the place we were going to is very cold.  She would have gotten much worse so we left her at home.  After the visit the whole family went to Flushing to eat, did some shopping and we came home around 4 P.M.

She was still upset about it.  I once again explained that where we went was very cold and she would have been miserable.  I promised that next time we go, she will come too (if she is not sick again).

She: It was very cold?

Me: Yes, windy and freezing.

She: Let’s go to a different cemetery. Once that has heating.

What could I say to that?

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Jan Dembowski

Jan Dembowski

I am a software enthusiast who is easily amused and definitely mostly harmless.

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