Jeremiah Oeltjen

It's Cold Out

It's cold out

The weather report from the Rochester International Airport on my Home Page says it's -8° F out and it's correct. It's actually been cold out for the past few days. We may finally have a proper Christmas this year. A few days ago we got some snow and it looks like we'll be having a white Christmas this year.

I'm loving it.

Jeep Work Weekend

This weekend I decided to replace the rotors and brake pads in the front of my Jeep in an attempt to correct a shimmy that's been bothering me for a week or two. While I'm not sure if the brake job may not have fixed the problem, I did learn a few things. First of all, the previous set of brake pads were not installed correctly. They were on the wrong side which made the removal of the calipers a confusing mess. Second, I learned how easy it really is to replace disc brakes. Finally, I found out that I do not, in fact, have anti-lock brakes.

While the shimmy hasn't completely vanished, it seems to have been reduced. I've driven it a little bit today and I can say that I notice that it feels smoother when I apply the brakes, especially around curves. I will be paying very close attention to this over the next couple of days.

I also took some pictures and added them to my Jeep Album.

Unpublished Entries Reminder for MT

Here's a thought. I just published a blog entry that I initially wrote two weeks ago. Then I thought of this: An occasional (once weekly or perhaps even daily) of the entries in Movable Type that have been drafted, but not published that arrives as a simple list in my e-mail. This should be a fairly simple task using a little Perl querying the MySQL database that MT uses. One more thing for my ever expanding todo list.

Impressions of My New Apple Purchases

I've had my PowerBook G4 and my iPod for over a week now and I've decided to put down my impressions of each

• I was disappointed in the backlit keyboard on the PowerBook at first. At some point I figured out that the F9 and F10 keys are the brightness controls for that feature and have now adjusted the brightness of the keyboard backlight to my satisfaction and it is everything that I thought it would be. Cool.
• The iPod detects headphone plug-in and unplug events. This allows it to turn on when you plug the headphones in. Even better, if the headphones get unplugged while a song is playing the music is put on pause. You literally don't have to miss a beat.
• I got a free digital subscription to MacWorld Magazine. This uses the (already installed) Zinio reader software which has really cool page turning effects. Much more elaborate than Acrobat Reader, but also much more proprietary.
• I was able to get the MySQL and Firebird databases installed on MacOS X. My database professor at school recommends Interbase, so Firebird is the closest thing I can come to a reliable substitute. Not bad since Firebird is based upon the Interbase source.
• The iPod sounds good
• The iPod looks good
• Everybody says: "Ooooooh, an iPod."
• Migrating from Linux to MacOS X is simple. SSH and tar make life easy in this area
• I feel like I'm cool now.

Register to Vote

Enter the Registered Voter Sweepstakes at VOTEorNOT.org and be eligible to win an award of $100,000. All you have to do is register to vote. You can enter if you are already a registered voter. Better yet, if you click on the above link and win, I win too.

Happy/Sad Day

It's a happy and sad day today:

• It's my 0x1B^th birthday (Happy)
• I received the payment book for my Jeep in the mail today (Sad)
• I received my new Powerbook (Happy)
• I don't have time to play with it (Sad)

Partially arrived

As mentioned in my previous post I ordered a 15 in. PowerBook G4 and an iPod. It's been difficult to wait; I'm impatiently awaiting its arrival.

Yesterday, however, the sky turned from dark to grey. when I arrived at work my iPod was sitting there waiting for me. I now had something to play with. A couple of hours later my USB floppy disk drive arrived. I now have two of the three individual shipments of which my order is comprised.

According to the FedEx tracking page this morning my PowerBook is in Indianapolis. Hopefully my new computer will be in my possession before the weekend.

Buyer's Remorse

Quite often when a person makes major purchases they experience what is known as buyer's remorse. This term describes the feelings of guilt and regret that often associated with purchasing large ticket items (e.g. cars, computers, assorted luxery items). THis is a big deal to me right now as I've made two significant purchases in the past two weeks.

On Friday, September 17 I called Apple Computer to order a new 15" PowerBook G4. I was very proud of myself in the fact that I did not go overboard ordering lots of expensive options. I opted for the video RAM and the 5400 RPM hard disk drive. I also included an external 3.5 inch floppy disk drive. THe best part, of course, is the $200 mail in rebate on the 20 GB iPod that I can get because I am a student via their "Cram and Jam" promotion. (This is in addition to the student discount that was already applied to the price of the PowerBook.)

The second major item came on the following Monday when I took home a 1999 Jeep Cherokee Sport (see the gallery). It was pretty much everything I had been looking for, with the exception a factory towing package of which I would rarely make any use. It has the SelecTrac transfer case (with full time 4-wheel drive), 4.0 litre inline-6 engine (the good one), a CD player, power windows and doors, and air conditioning. The price was also reasonable.

The PowerBook hasn't been delivered yet and I've been driving the Jeep for a week now. Yet I still haven't had that "I shouldn't have done that" feeling in my gut which normally comes with other purchases (even those that cost significantly less). The primary thing that comes to mind is that I have been intending on buying both for quite some time now. I've been looking at used Jeeps all summer. I also decided sometime last spring that I wanted a PowerBook. Even after pondering this all summer, I still wanted them. It only took some initiative to actually get off my chair and part with some of my money.

This Wheelchair Goes Really Fast

Via Jeremy Zawodny's linkblog:

I read the article about the jet-powered wheelchair and just about died laughing. Everyone knows what happened to the Coyote, right?

Reverse Telemarketing

With the advent of "Do Not Call" lists direct marketing companies have had to come up with inventive ways to contact potential customers (or shall we say victims). The other day I recieved a plain white postcard from ARC, Inc, 5175 Perfomance Dr., Cumming, GA 30040-9656 mailed presorted first-class from Fort Meyers, FL. The front of the card has a couple of "peanut people" drawn on it with a slogan that reads "We're going nuts trying to reach you!!" Yeah, right.

I immediately suspected this as being some sort of scam. Anyone that would legitimately need to contact me would:

1. Contact me by phone (as they are permitted).
2. Would most likely been successful at option 1
3. Or, if option 1 failed, contact me by form letter, not a stupid post card.

I googled arc inc cumming ga to see if there was any info on this company. The results were a little disappointing, but not useless. I found Wisely Said's archive of weblog entries devoted to the topic which in turn links to a post at Mark's Realm that includes some research on the subject.

They do this to get around the Do Not Call restrictions. If you contact them you are initiating a business relationship (whether you buy anything or not) and as a result give them permission to add you to their call list and start bugging you. Great.

School Began Yesterday

Yay!

I started school yesterday. RCTC starts a week before WSU. That gives me time to start into my English and Calculus classes at RCTC before my C.S. classes from WSU begin. It makes the transistion a little less painful.

For reference, here's my complete schedule for the semester:

Blog Update

I've updated Movable Type to version 3.01D for my blog. I considered switching to WordPress and still may do that someday, but the free version of MT is still good enough for me. Also I really don't want to try to migrate to a new blogging system right now.

Along with this upgrade I added an Atom 0.3 feed using the template I found on Mark Pilgrim's site. I modified it slightly to use MT's UTC date features (utc="1" option in any date tag) instead of the UTCDate plugin. This really shouldn't matter for the moment because both my web server and my blog have their timezones set to UTC.

I think the next step will be to phase out most, if not all, of the other feeds. I found it rather confusing to be using Bloglines and find 3 or more feeds for the same blog. There is no way to tell the difference from the search page. One must preview it, click on the subscribe link, then look at the feed's URL to determine the feed to which you are subscribing.

A site redesign is also in the works. This includes a consistent look for the homepage, blog, wiki, and photo gallery. I would like that to be completed before school starts (in two weeks, uff-da).

Logo Look-alike

I installed Microsoft Lookout on my PC at work last week. Today this popup appeared and I noticed the logo looks quite similar to a popular web search company's logo. (Can anyone guess which?)

New Domain Name

Hoorah!

I just registered the domain oeltjen.us for my web site. I've set a 301 Permanent Redirect for all URLs under the hostname I formerly used (kb0off.sheddwellers.org) to my new one (jeremiah.oeltjen.us). What really suprised me is that it took quite literally MINUTES for my host name to become available on the name servers here at work from the time I registered it.

My new official e-mail will be my first name at oeltjen.us.

Pictures of Radio Installation

As promised, I have uploaded some picures of my 2 meter mobile radio installation.

Finally Operational

I finally got my Icom IC-281H installed in my car this morning. It only took three years. I put the antenna mount in the roof and ran the power lead from the cabin to the engine compartment almost immediately after I got the car. Then I decided that I would require a custom bracket to mount the radio under the dash and that's the way it sat until this morning. I built my custom bracket out of a piece of angle-iron and it turned out to be one of the most beautiful installations that I've done to date. This configuration, of course, is subject to change as I intend on installing my IC-706 and Screwdriver Antenna sometime in the next week if I can acquire the necessary cables and connectors.

I'm finally back on the air with something other than a handheld radio, if only 2-meter FM, and it feels good.

P.S. I will try to take some pictures either tomorrow or the next day.

The Movie Meme

I don't normally do this sort of thing, but I really like watching movies.

Via Liz. Bold the ones you've seen, and add three to the end.

1. Trainspotting
2. Shrek
3. M
4. Dogma
5. Strictly Ballroom
6. The Princess Bride
7. Love Actually
8. The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring
9. The Lord of the Rings: The Two Towers
10. The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King
11. Reservoir Dogs
12. Desperado
13. Swordfish
14. Kill Bill Vol. 1
15. Donnie Darko
16. Spirited Away
17. Better Than Sex
18. Sleepy Hollow
19. Pirates of the Caribbean
20. The Eye
21. Requiem for a Dream
22. Dawn of the Dead The original.
23. The Pillow Book
24. The Italian Job
25. The Goonies
26. Baseketball
27. The Spice Girls Movie (Spice World)
28. Army of Darkness
29. The Color Purple
30. The Safety of Objects
31. Can't Hardly Wait
32. Mystic Pizza
33. Finding Nemo
34. Monsters Inc.
35. Circle of Friends
36. Mary Poppins
37. The Bourne Identity (both!)
38. Forrest Gump
39. A Clockwork Orange
40. Kindergarten Cop
41. On The Line
42. My Big Fat Greek Wedding
43. Final Destination
44. Sorority Boys
45. Urban Legend
46. Cheaper by the Dozen The original
47. Fierce Creatures
48. Dude, Where's My Car
49. Ladyhawke
50. Ghostbusters
51. Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade
52. Back to the Future
53. An Affair To Remember
54. Somewhere In Time
55. North By Northwest
56. Moulin Rouge
57. Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets
58. The Wizard of Oz
59. Zoolander
60. A Walk to Remember
61. Chicago
62. Vanilla Sky
63. The Sweetest Thing
64. Don't Tell Mom the Babysitter's Dead
65. The Nightmare Before Christmas
66. Chasing Amy
67. Edward Scissorhands
68. Adventures of Priscilla: Queen of the Desert
69. Muriel's Wedding
70. Croupier
71. Blade Runner
72. Cruel Intentions
73. Ocean's Eleven
74. Magnolia
75. Fight Club
76. Beauty and The Beast
77. Much Ado About Nothing
78. Dirty Dancing
79. Gladiator
80. Ever After
81. Braveheart
82. What Lies Beneath
83. Regarding Henry
84. The Dark Crystal
85. Star Wars
86. The Birds
87. Beaches
88. Cujo
89. Maid In Manhattan
90. Labyrinth
91. Thoroughly Modern Millie
92. His Girl Friday
93. Chocolat
94. Independence Day
95. Singing in the Rain
96. Big Fish
97. The Thomas Crown Affair
98. The Matrix
99. Stargate
100. A Hard Day's Night
101. About A Boy
102. Jurassic Park.
103. Life of Brian
104. Dune
105. Help!
106. Grease
107. Newsies
108. Gone With The Wind
109. School of Rock
110. TOMMY
111. Yellow Submarine
112. From Hell
113. Benny & Joon
114. Amelie
115. Bridget Jones' Diary
116. Monty Python and the Holy Grail
117. Heavenly Creatures
118. All About Eve
119. The Outsiders
120. Airplane!
121. The Sorcerer
122. The Crying Game
123. Hedwig and the Angry Inch
124. Slap Her, She's French
125. Amadeus
126. Tommy Boy
127. Aladdin
128. How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days
129. Snatch
130. American History X
131. Jack and Sarah
132. Monkey Bone
133. Rocky Horror Picture Show
134. Kate and Leopold
135. Interview with the Vampire
136. Underworld
137. Truly, Madly, Deeply
138. Tank Girl
139. Boondock Saints
140. Blow Dry
141. Titanic
142. Good Morning Vietnam
143. Save the Last Dance
144. Lost in Translation
145. Willow
146. Legend
147. Van Helsing
148. Troy
149. Nine Girls and a Ghost
150. A Knight's Tale
151. Bill & Ted's Bogus Journey
152. Beetlejuice
153. E.T.
154. Harry Potter and the Sorceror's Stone
155. Spaceballs
156. Young Frankenstein
157. Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless Mind
158. American President
159. Bad Boys
160. Pecker
161. Pink Floyd: The Wall
162. X-Men
163. Sidewalks of New York
164. The Children of Dune
165. Beyond Borders
166. Life Is Beautiful
167. Good Will Hunting
168. Run Lola Run
169. Blazing Saddles
170. Caligula
171. The Transporter
172. Better Off Dead
173. The Abyss
174. Almost Famous
175. The Red Violin
176. Contact
177. Stand and Deliver
178. Clueless
179. William Shakespeare's Romeo Juliet
180. Dangerous Laisions
181. I Am Sam
182. The Usual Suspects
183. U-571
184. Capricorn One
185. The Little Shop of Horrors (the one with Jack Nicholson)
186. Die Hard
187. The Flamingo Kid
188. Night of the Comet
189. Point Break
190. Chatterbox
191. Secretary
192. Breakfast at Tiffany's
193. American Beauty
194. Pulp Fiction
195. What About Bob
196. Roger and Me
197. Fahrenheit 9/11
198. Bowling for Columbine
199. The Professional (aka Leon)
200. The Fifth Element
201. La Femme Nikita
202. Heathers
203. Bull Durham
204. The Scorpion King
205. Clerks
206. Hook
207. Office Space

An Even Better Google

You have not truly enjoyed Google until you've read it in its original Klingon.

The Blog is Back

Yay! My blog is back. Most of my web site is back, as a matter of fact. There were a few issues in the migration of the new server, but I think everything (except for the photo gallery) is in working order.