Explain This

(March 27, 2012)

The seam just doesn’t seem to be functional.

Springtime

(March 24, 2012)

 A decade ago I decided to buy lots of plants. I don’t know what this is… I’d always had a couple of plants, but they’d always die on me.  Since I’m basically enthusiasm-driven, I realized that the only way I’d ever be able to have any non-dead plants on my windows was to buy lots … Continue reading Springtime

They Live!

(March 24, 2012)

I wrapped up my rose bushes for the winter, but I didn’t really expect them to survive.  And I just unwrapped them now. But look!  New leaves! This has been a kinda warm winter, though.  And it’s the hottest March ever, according to…  somebody… Anyway.  Exciting!

Hair Today

(March 23, 2012)

According to experts, apparently long hair can get trapped in pipes leading to a less than optimal drainage situation. The solution here, according to the same experts, is to pour a liquid called “Mudin” down the drains twice a year.  Or, as the experts said,  “or, for you, every three months”. I’m just reporting what … Continue reading Hair Today

Computers Can Remember Things

(March 20, 2012)

One feature that I’ve been missing from mplayer for years and years is the ability to remember how far you’ve watched a movie.  Like, if I’ve been watching a movie, but then I stop the movie because I want to watch a TV show, then mplayer doesn’t helpfully remember where you left off. So I’ve … Continue reading Computers Can Remember Things

Lighting Out for the Territories

(March 17, 2012)

I’m pretty sure there’s no air raid going on.

Plastic Bags Considered Arty

(March 17, 2012)

The Floor What is that lovely expressionistic piece of art on the right, you say? Let me tell you a story. I went shopping for groceries at ICA today.  I left the bags on the floor in the kitchen. The kitchen floor has heating cables.  The cables switched themselves on. The red text on the … Continue reading Plastic Bags Considered Arty

Compositing Text Over Images

(March 17, 2012)

8 Inch USB Screen With Composited Text I have a number of small USB-powered screens scattered across the apartment that displays various stuff that I find myself wanting to know.  In particular, I always want to know what music is playing. And I sometimes want to know what temperature it is outside.  (And I can … Continue reading Compositing Text Over Images

March 9th, 2012

(March 9, 2012)

Dear Diary, I’ve switched the SSD disks back to the LSI MegaRAID SAS 9260-8i controller again, and did some final benchmarks. I’m comparing reading bits of the Gmane spool in semi-random (i.e. ext4 directory) order, name order (which is also the same order as the files were created), and finally, just reading a big hunking … Continue reading March 9th, 2012

March 7th, 2012

(March 7, 2012)

Brace yourselves.Winter is coming back Dear Diary, I’ve now found some time to do further speed testing of the SSD machine that’s going to replace the Gmane news server.  I know that you remember everything, Diary, but let me give you a brief recap. I got a bunch of 512GB Samsung 830 SATA3 SSDs that … Continue reading March 7th, 2012