Dumping Grounds

Ever have one of those [days|weeks|months] that makes you truly feel that God has nothing better to do than piss on your head?

I’m living that month.

I know that later in their career they became a punch line (especially for their outfits, and those of their fans) but the BeeGees are under-appreciated for the music they made.

So there.

TextMate is a wicked cool text editor that can be expanded with macros written in just about any language known to man or machine. Some guy actually wrote a set of macros that will post text entries directly to your blog. Seriously cool.

But, it is now time to speak of serious things. Important things. Things that are of national, if not world, import…

Namely… anyone know where I can get a machine to make Sonic Ice for my home? I know the following:

• It’s called chewblet ice, chunklet ice, or nugget ice. Rarely it’s called rabbit turd ice.
• There are numerous manufacturers of machines for hospitals, training rooms, and restaurants.
• While I am willing to spend a pretty penny on a device that will bring me such pleasure, I’d prefer not to spend $2,000 on such a beast. And as far as commercial applications, $2,000 is a CHEAP one.

So, all of you willing to try out your Google, Ebay, and Craigslist searching skills… find me an ice machine, because I sure have not had any luck.

There’s actual news!

First of all, I’m seriously going to try to post some more.

Second of all, I’d like to announce MatthewCave.com. This is going to be the location for my photos and things that pertain to my photos. Dumping Grounds will continue to be the place for controversial talk, rants about politics, religion or work, and the place where I can curse.

Off to a Little League game (yes, I’m coaching a Little League team). I’ll try to post about how the Mavericks ROCK later.

But several things have been going on:

• I’m quite busy at work, although that situation is improving.
• I’ve picked up World of Warcraft again, which was a HUGE mistake.
• I’m coaching a Little League Baseball team.
• I’m working on a book.
• I’m moving DumpingGrounds to a different hosting provider, and I expect some pretty substantial changes to the way it works.
• I’ve been taking a photography class.
• On top of all that, I have some freelance work.

I expect my schedule to lighten up, but it’ll likely stay slow until the end of May.

Unfortunately, only a few days later, Tully lost his favorite ball (the one in the picture) by throwing it in the creek. It’s been raining here a bit lately, so with about two feet of water (especially after he stirred up the riverbed by stomping around looking for the ball) it was impossible for either him or me to find. I’ll have to get him another one (that ball was really nice in that it was completely indestructible)

Of course Delaney never loses her favorite chew toy… Tully.

About the spam I receive

Filtered Mail
611 Good Messages
691 Spam Messages (53%)
21 Spam Messages Per Day

SpamSieve Accuracy
0 False Positives
32 False Negatives
97.5% Correct

Corpus
262 Good Messages
427 Spam Messages (62%)
30245 Total Words

Rules
95 Blocklist Rules
275 Whitelist Rules

Showing Statistics Since
1/14/06 10:23 PM

Given that I think it missed 10-12 messages in the first week I had it installed, the accuracy is quite good. I just loved JunkMatcher, but as far as I can tell, it’s a dead project. The bug that causes Python to grab 100% of the processor is a killer. So, SpamSieve is my solution of choice. SS gets bonus points for the line that reads: 0 False Positives.

Coolest NEW programs released on OS X

• Yojimbo
• QuickSilver (OK, it’s been out a while, but it’s still in beta, and it’s new to me)
• TextMate 1.5
• MythFrontEnd (would link to it, but it seems they are having domain issues at the moment)
• I don’t know if Lightroom Beta 2 is cool or not. I’m about to go try it out. But they did remember to add a crop tool this time.

Silly joke

A group of kindergartners were trying very hard to become accustomed to the first grade. The biggest hurdle they faced was that the teacher insisted on NO baby talk! “You need to use ‘Big People’words,” she was always reminding them.

She asked Chris what he had done over the weekend. “I went to visit my Nana.” “No, you went to visit your GRANDMOTHER. Use ‘Big People’ words!”

She then asked Mitchell what he had done. “I took a ride on a choo-choo.” She said “No, you took a ride on a TRAIN. You must remember to use ‘Big People’ words.”

She then asked little Alec what he had done. “I read a book,” he replied. “That’s WONDERFUL!” the teacher said. “What book did you read?”

Alec thought real hard about it, then puffed out his chest with great pride, and said, “Winnie the SHIT.”

courtesy of my mother

• Ruby, and more specifically, Ruby on Rails. More on this when I get around to writing it.
• The NHL shootout. I was certain I would hate it, and think it was a bastardization of the game (which it is). But the fact that it eliminated all ties more than makes up for it. And it’s damned fun to watch. It doesn’t hurt that the Stars are the best team in the NHL when it gets to the shootout.
• The $189 PC I picked up at Fry’s. No, it’s not cutting edge. No, it’s not terribly fast, but heck, it was $189. (and I am ashamed to admit, even at $189… it’s faster than my 2 year old Powerbook when running benchmarks in Ruby)
• MythTV. I’ve written about this before, but now I have my own personal PVR that can play back video anyplace in my house, as well as simultaneously rendering versions for my iPod. Which brings me to the next entry…
• Video iPod. I didn’t want one, I didn’t see the point in looking at a 2â?? (and that’s being generous) TV. Until I saw one. The picture is surprisingly good. The convenience of being able to take whatever I want to watch while I work out is truly amazing.
• Bruce Feiler’s book on Abraham: A Journey into the Heart of Three Faiths. A great treatment of one of my pet subjects.

Courtesy of Moebius we have Mac OS X icons of everybody’s favorite Firefly class freighter. Click the image for your very own copy.

No, I don’t know how to make them work on Windows. If you convert them, I’ll post them.

Well, I finally got around to watching the premiere of season 5 of 24. I was lucky enough to extend the recording one one of my PVRs (yes, I had two recording it, just in case ) since Fox managed to screw up the timing by cutting it too close behind the Panthers vs. Bears football game. At least they didn’t join it in progress.

My first impression? Well, let’s be clear here… in the battle of ultimate badasses, Jack Bauer would SOOOO kick John Rambo’s ass. Would not even be close. As a matter of fact, I think Jack Bauer would kick Batman’s and Superman’s ass. At the same time. Even if Batman was prepared.

Enough silliness.

Did anyone notice that President Palmer uses a shiny new iMac? The man has taste. At least once he got rid of Sherry he did, at least.

And what is with the new, sexy, Chloe? She always struck me as rather mousy. But not now. Whoa.