Category: General

  • CPA / tax jockey needed

    To get my small business (sole proprietorship) off the ground and…er, buzzing. Or just provide good answers to a few home-business tax questions. Anyone? …Bueller? * * * I spoke to a lawyer yesterday (relax, not due to an unsolicited FedEx…this time ;) about starting that shindig up using a “least-cost least-risk” approach. (I’m not…

  • Drmn’ Vibe netdemo at Intro.Inter.Tech

    First off, there is a [Big Photo Album] with pics and videos of many of the pieces. (Audio-centric ones didn’t document well since my camera seems to assume the microphone(s) are just there for the photographer to talk to it, and any sound that occurs in front of the camera is just noise.) Also, the…

  • A stitch in the time domain saves nine

    So, there I was contemplating the easiest way to decode (as a non-keyer) the single-frequency pattern, reminiscent of Morse Code, hiding from time to time in the background noise of the Evanescence song My Immortal. (Yeah yeah, formally admitting that I listen to that stuff.) As an afterthought while thinking of the changes I’d need…

  • IEEE Sez: Open Source == Terrorism!

    No, that’s not a typo, and not (much) of an exaggeration*. For a limited time, you can read the full article here in IEEE Spectrum of all places (IEEE is the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers). But basically, it exists to draw none-too-subtle comparisons between Iraqi insurgence and the Open Source movement, drawing heavily…

  • PQI Update

    My rant on PQI has been updated; they have made good on their warranty (actually as of last month, but I hadn’t gotten around to updating it).

  • DorkbotBoston haunted mansion at Willoughby & Baltic

    [Pictures! The world needs Pictures!] So after some late nights hurriedly hacking some stuff together, HAL and I got our stuff together for the haunted mansion. Between work and girlfriend schedules, there wasn’t much time to really polish anything. On the short notice we did a snowy owl that wigs out (eyes fade from green…

  • _CircRef

    After posting the previous post and image, with link to turbulence.org where the show in which the project depicted in the image is being shown is being promoted*, server logs indicate the image was picked up from LJ and used by the automated script of another turbulence.org-hosted art project that same day. Coincidental and eerie.…

  • intercommunicate

    Quick ‘n dirty, but my demo for the intro.inter.tech show is almost finished. Powered by maraschino cherries and vodka ;-) The show will be this weekend, Sat. 11/03/2007, 2-7pm. ULA Cafe / The Brewery Complex 284 Amory St. Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 It’s aaaart! Bring your friends! Figure 1: "oh, beep me again!"

  • Not Dead

    Just crazy busy getting stuff together for the Dorkbot haunted mansion and Introvert Intercommunicate…will post some updates soon. In the meanwhile, digging up my potatoes in the backyard I came across this rusty old buried canister, marked only with a weird symbol and a string of numbers. So I cranked it open with a pipe…

  • Warning to Verizon cuss-tomers

    In about 30 days, Verizon will begin selling your calling records to marketing companies, unless you call their opt-out number. (Yeah, this does sound like some kind of bad chain letter, except not.) This information (CPNI, or customer proprietary network information) includes the numbers you call, how long, how often, and how much it cost…

  • Computers Internet Blog (welcome to my access.log)

    Welcome! You can probably guess what three things this entry is about. When you already know about computers, the Internet and blogs, this is of course the first thing you’d feel a desperate need to Google for, of course! Err…wait, Magic 2^16 Ball is telling me you just found this phrase in your serverlogs and…

  • Goatse.cx is for sale…

    Want to own one of the hottest Web properties? Be prepared to pry your wallet wiiiide open and dig deep however – the bidding starts at 10,000 EUR (about 14 kilobucks).

  • Long-overdue vacation pictures!

    OK, finally cleared some space on the ol’ computermachine, dumped the pics and deleted the really crappy ones. This trip started in Vegas, then onto Zion Nat’l Park, Bryce Canyon, Glen Canyon/Lake Powell area, a quick excursion to the Grand Canyon, then back to Vegas, with some random desert stops along the way. I’m not…

  • The answer to the question

    The flag for my house is done and installed! Actually, Kr* did most of the work. I had to relearn how to use a sewing machine and did a few of the easy parts. The house number is 42, so the Hitchhiker’s Guide theme was a no-brainer. :-) Also, the clear-bubbly knob on the end…

  • Let'(s) talk Sex Offenders!

    A Xerox of a crudely hand-written note appeared in front of my door* the other night, along with the doors of every other house on my block. It reads: ATENTION SEX OFFENDER ##-A ##### ST. 1st FLOOR (Spelling is as on the original.) Currently, all states are required to maintain a registry of sex offenders,…

  • Big e-manufacturing knowledge dump coming “someday”

    I haven’t really talked about the Trancevibe project in a while. With the whole moving and vacation thing it kind of got shuffled onto the back burner a couple months ago (have I really lived here that long?) and never revived. There’s also this huge uncanny valley between making and selling a couple of something…

  • Done with people

    This feeling has been steadily building, but really reached boilover this weekend or so. I kind of don’t want to see or hear any other humans, at least for a while. Nothing personal; just being around people, friends etc. – too many, too frequently and for too long – causes them in general to become…

  • PQI Sucks

    UPDATE 2007/10/12: PQI have now replaced the card with a brand new one which appears to be in perfect working condition. In an apologetic note, PQI’s warranty department mention that Eddie (the guy who handled my original RMA) “is not longer working with PQI.” So, the issue ranted on below is most likely a fluke…

  • Bulk update

    Lastlastlast week JR, Matt, HAL and I went rock climbing at MetroRock in Everett, kind of like a meta-birthday party. This was fun. I haven’t done any serious climbing since high school, and had to relearn all the knots, etc. Here at least they believed in actual fabricated harnesses; we didn’t have to go all…

  • Secret Incantations for correctly configuring Ubuntu

    Yeah, I made that mistake the other day setting up a temporary machine to compile dslinux on. I guess it’s not all bad… just not at all what I expected from everyone else’s ranting and raving. Anyway, if you already have no idea what I’m talking about, it might be a good idea to skip…