These are exciting times here at the family web site! Now I can post semi-permanent features on the page links! Check out the videos posted on the Gators page (hint: look up… towards the top of this window).
Please hold your applause until the end of this entry.
Here we are! All of my entries have been moved to a new home.
Let it be known that this is the beginning of the WordPress experiment.
Truth be told, I was getting a wee bit tired of the speed of my in-home blog setup. The old database was really, really slow; and my efforts to migrate to an upgraded database was a complete disaster. So… here I am. Welcome to the new location.
Following a bit of whimsy, I was pricing used G3 iMacs yesterday afternoon. For the 99.99999999999% of you who have insufficient background information on the G3 family of iMacs to sufficiently appreciate this entry… the G3 family of iMacs were fazed out by Apple in 2001, and were the original form factor for the iMac that was introduced in 1998. Anyhoo, I thought a used computer that sold for $799 new in mid-2001 might be pretty cheap these days… some six years later.
I couldn’t find one cheaper than $400.
Just in case you were wondering, that does not qualify as “pretty cheap.”
I’m not afraid to admit it; I’m in love with my PowerBook. I’m stuck in court with a Dell that does double duty as a piece of masonry and I can’t help but yearn for my magnificent Mac. Perhaps I was hasty comparing it to a rock… there’s enough plastic here to cause a spike in oil prices. The thing creaks more than my knees… to the point where I’m afraid to pick it up anymore. And did I mention that it’s two years old, but has only seen a year of duty… and part-time duty at that?
Caveat emptor: (like this is for sale, or you’ve paid me for anything before) I am extremely prejudiced against the Dark Knight of personal computing.
The MySQL / Perl / UNIX / blog software tinker project has officially been abandoned. You may have noticed that the site was down one day last week… an unanticipated byproduct of my life shortening battle with my own inadequacies. Upholding the fine tradition of manhood the world over – after two weeks of futility I decided to go back and read the directions to the blog software update I was attempting to install – whereby I discovered that my makeshift server did not meet the minimum requirements.
No doubt you are sitting in the comfort of your own home, saying one of two things to yourself or your loved ones:
“Oh that’s gotta hurt!”
“Jeez what an idiot.”
Don’t worry – you won’t hurt my feelings. I’ve thought the same… and worse… all by myself. The real victim in this is Adam. The poor boy has me as a role model… he’s surely doomed to repeat the folly of his father.
So I’ve abandoned that whole catastrophe, in favor of a similarly doomed project… a recon mission for cost savings around the house. I’ve downloaded Skype, a free alternative for the phone, with visions of using my computers as speakerphones. A Skype bonus, the possibility of video conference calls with my non-Mac family members (you know who you are), is intriguing. I’ve done hours of research looking into tools to help abandon the landline phone service to our home… in favor of our wireless service. I’ve installed a filter on our water supply to help reduce our grocery bill (no more bottled water for these Kauffmans!). I’ve studied our itemized cable bill and our provider’s advertised package deals for possible savings. After two days of work I’ve come up with almost fifty dollars in monthly savings.
Maybe this second project wasn’t such a bad idea after all. We’ll just have to see how the landline termination project goes. Stay on the lookout for a phone number update in the near future.
The more elements of the unknown a given project contains, the more your brain is begging for a bruising. I have a passing acquaintance with the Movable Type publishing platform – whose software powers this blog. I have less experience with MySQL, an open source database environment. I have even less experience with Perl, the programming language utilized by the Movable Type publishing platform. DBD and DBI, which are necessary modules for Perl (and the Movable Type publishing platform) to interface with a MySQL database, might as well be written in an early Incan dialect. Of those things I mentioned above, only Perl comes as a standard install on Mac OS X, and it requires a special install from the Developer’s Tools CD in order to get add-on modules to properly install (with the particular flavor of OS X installed on my makeshift, home server). All of the above requires tinkering with a text editor and the command line (don’t get me started on UNIX).
Why do I mention any of this? I thought it would be a good idea to convert my blog database to MySQL.
How many of you have a burning desire to dive into some UNIX, Perl, MySQL, and database interfaces for web based applications? Those in the know (myself not included) are out there scoffing at the notion. “Piece of cake,” they’re thinking. For me… it’s a bitter pill washed down with vinegar. I am nowhere near the geek I aspire to be.
Don’t pity me though, dear reader. The real victim in all of this, as always, is my wife. And don’t get her started on Halo…
As a public service to Mac leaning – Bay Area hockey fans, and readers of this site, I’ve attempted to convert the Excel spreadsheet (provided by the Lightning, via their web site) into an iCal calendar file. Armed with a text editor, Excel, and Applescript… I went to town.
Without further ado… here it is:
Download the 2006-2007 Tampa Bay Lightning Schedule
It has come to my attention that someone has purchased a computer. What is odd about this otherwise mundane purchase? Apparently the computer was purchased for the sole purpose of playing online poker. In my humble opinion “online poker” has no business being in a completely serious statement. Florida Statutes should require that the words “online poker” only appear in a punch line or witty comeback… such as, “It’s not like I bought the thing just to play online poker.”
Isn’t there some other use for a computer? If nothing else, aren’t there other online gambling opportunities; like maybe: craps, blackjack, slots, or virtual cockfighting?
Take a week and a half away from the office and things will be exactly the same – and eerily out of place all at once. Work for state government and come back from said absence to find that your barely broken-in, one year old PC has been replaced with a new flat panel model… and it may be time to schedule time with your local medical or religious professional.
Either I’m suffering from acute, idiopathic hallucinations or something has run afoul of the natural order; but either way, I’ve got serious problems.
You know what’s worst of all friends? I walked into my office, saw the flat panel, and was excited to see something with the word “Dell” printed on it.
Dear Lord, forgive us our sins and deliver us from evil.
(Do two Hail Marys, four Our Fathers, and five hours work on the Mac at home; and all is forgiven my son.)
The other day I decided to determine the age of this web site. In the grand tradition of Florida’s universities (does the East Florida Seminary in Ocala ring any bells… how about The Florida Institute… or the Florida State College for Women?) I decided to allow the loosest possible connection to obtain the oldest possible date. That date is December 1, 1998. That’s the date my first web page went live. My ISP (at the time) hosted it, good old internet lite… AOL. I put it together with Adobe Pagemill (since discontinued) on my original, Bondi Blue iMac (since retired). The entire site took up a whopping 300K (or there abouts), took five minutes to upload with my lightning quick 56 kbps modem (give or give a minute or two), and consisted of three pictures of Beth and one picture of my sisters in New England (in the snow).
And you know what? Having my own web page in 1998 made me about as cool as a frozen penguin in orbit around Pluto. (Trust me, that’s pretty damn cool.)
Although the cool quotient for a homemade web site has dropped precipitously since then, take it from me… I’m still cool.
Dude, don’t laugh. That’s not funny.