Random thoughts, organized and categorized for your consumption.
mstroud
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Posts by mstroud
When Malware Attacks, I Should Listen
Nov 25th
When your computer begins to slow down and then do strange things, you really do need to pay close attention because it is trying to tell you something. In my case Vista was attempting to communicate in a very inept way that it had been attacked by some malware and was in the process of going down the drain.
First I noticed the hard drive LED flashing rapidly all the time. Next I found that the machine wouldn’t stay in sleep mode any longer. Browser windows would pop open for no good reason. It was time to make a trip to More >
Last.fm integration for streaming radio sites
Oct 20th
I was in a mood today to make my music listening habits a bit more social, but I found that my two current music services, Pandora and Slacker, don’t naively support sending data to Last.fm. No problem, I thought, some enterprising hacker out there has solved this problem already. Right I was, and now you too can have the scrobble ability if you use these two services AND also use Firefox with them:
- Pandora plug-in for Firefox: get it here
- Slacker script for Greasemonkey: copy from here
So long as Firefox continues to be friendly with these plug-ins I’ll be using them to share the More >
Another Track Day Hits the Books
Oct 9th
October is here and that means another trip to Thunderhill to track the C6. This year was no exception, and although I’m tired and a bit sore the car and I are no worse for wear, so far as I can tell. The stats of note for this round of driving are as follows:
- Average gas mileage: 8 MPG
- Top speed achieved: 121 MPH (when I managed to look)
- New things learned: Skipping the cool down lap means cooked brake fluid (and no brakes)
- Sad fact: The gas gauge read empty at just 124 miles… while lapping another car, thus ending my driving for More >
CA DMV SMOG boondoggle
Sep 15th
For those of us living in the republic of California and owning older vehicles, we have to put up with an annual mandatory visit to a “certified” SMOG test station to see if our vehicle is still “legal” to drive on the road. Unlike safety inspections found in other states, however, this test is nothing more than a way to extract additional money from your pocket if you wish to keep driving on the roads. It works like this:
- You first pay about $90-ish for the registration and license fees
- Instructions tell you to go and SMOG test your vehicle for “a More >
The Continuing Sadness that is the HR20
Aug 3rd
It has been almost a year since I was forced to give up my wonderful HD-Tivo box for the “improved” DirecTV version called the HR20. Since I’ve had the box I’ve needed to make a lot of adjustments, but one new adjustment just isn’t sitting well with me: lock ups and reboots once per week.
You see, DirecTV doesn’t seem to understand the concept of QA or beta testing. Whenever they get a new update for the software inside the HR20 they just push it out the door to millions of customers. For anyone that has ever gotten a bad update More >
It's All About the Guns in "Wanted"
Jul 14th
This weekend on the recommendation of a friend I went to see “Wanted” with another friend. I was promised that this would be an exciting summer movie and that did turn out to be the case. This is this director’s first time creating an English language film and it worked well. His visual style is similar to what you’ve seen if you recall the “Matrix” or BMW “Driver” but with some still unique flair.
In typical movie fashion, the gun-play is completely unrealistic and defies the laws of physics, but that doesn’t make the film any less enjoyable to watch. It certainly More >
On Flying, Firefights and Fleeing
Jul 6th
Just over a week has passed since I was RIF’d from my most recent job at AMD. It is taking some getting used to waking up in the morning with no structured day or firm place to go. On the plus side, I am using substantially less fuel than I was just a few weeks ago, so that must be good I guess. In the meantime I continue to look around for what my next gig will be.
Next on the list of things to be worried about is my flying or lack thereof. I’m at a point in my training More >
Two Cross Country Flights in the Books
May 18th
I have now completed two-thirds (or 2 out of 3) of the FAA required cross country flights and am closing in on my private pilot’s license (properly known as a Private Ticket). This flight was a bit more difficult than the previous in one in that I had to fly somewhere I’d never been; I had to deal with a very busy flight corridor around SJC airport; I had light and variable chop coming over the mountain ridges; The crosswinds at the airports were very challenging; And it was over 90 F in the cockpit the entire time. I did however More >