Tom’s occasional rambling thoughts
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Logitech Harmony Remote
The Logitech Harmony Remote (mine is model 700) is really a nice piece of technology. Unfortunately in order to make it usable it requires the Harmony software which is to be generous, not very good. When it works then it all is well but there many times when it is slow, kludgy, confusing or simply…
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An interesting take on some statistics
So here is the first line from a statement I saw today: Blogger is now the most popular content management system Sounds pretty good for BLogger I bet they are happy about this assessment. Now when the rest of the statement is seen it does not sound so good for Blogger. Blogger is now the…
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Comments
First of all watch what you mouse over when checking comments. I was just moving the mouse over to the Empty Spam button and a popup came up, the homepage link had javascript in it which brought up a small window. Be careful here, you never know what that popup will lead you to. And…
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Speedylube ripoff
Badly needed to get the oil changed so I went to the Speedylube that is associated with the dealer. I am given two choices, about 43 for just a change or 50 for the Eco option. I am told Eco means that they will recycle the oil. These places have been recycling oil for years,…
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Thanks Microsoft
It is nice when a company recognizes that decisions they made many years ago no longer make sense. Reinstalled XP this evening with the retail disk I have laying around but could not activate since the key is OEM. Such a bother they ever set this up. Well there is a tool for fixing this,…
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T-Mobile Fail
Went to check on the cell account and was informed that my password did not meet their requirements. So, using lastpass I generated a very strong password but when I tried to use it I informed of the follwing, the password: Must be at least 8 characters long. Must contain both letters and numbers. Must…
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eMusic update
Checked back earlier this week and they have finally gotten the link for downloading the track fixed, only took a 6 weeks. If I did not keep finding more music there that I want to get I would just cancel, this almost sounds like an ad but really, they have been adding quite a lot…
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eMusic FAIL
I have been a subscriber to eMusic.com for at least a couple year now, I have always been pleased with the experience, good music, good price and downloading music was simple. They recently redesigned their website and it is now and complete disaster. I can no longer download in either Firefox or Chrome which limits…
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ABC News fail
Just posted this on Facebook: ABC news just said the satellite that is going to deorbit next week is going to “burn up when it hits the scorching hot ring that surrounds the Earth.” Wow, they should not report science topics when they don’t know something as simple as why objects falling to Earth from…
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Washington’s newest teacher!
Three long years and finally she is done, now we wait for the official papers.
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New Olympia flea market
Friend recently launched a new site. It is a for a flea market/bazaar in Olympia which he is setting up, it is called Olymarket. Have to check it out next month.
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iTunes was driving me nuts!
iTunes Playlists with podcasts in them have moved, they are now under the podcast tab and must be selected there.
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Reality is for suckers
I had started this a while and forgot to publish it, so a little old but that does not mean the idea has lost merit. Saw a reference to an interesting post over at John Dvorak’s site today. He was referring to an editorial which appeared at the The Independent, a British publication. A very…
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An interesting article
Found this BBC article today and figured others would find it interesting also. On the site I found it at I was looking at some of the comments and began to wonder, were we reading the same thing? To each their own I guess.
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Taxes update
Took a look at my T-Mobile wireless bill this weekend and the city utility tax charge is still there, bit more than bothersome that. I did a little searching and found that Olympia levies a 9% taxes on phone service. So I called them up again asking where I can send information showing that my…
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City taxes
Something for those of you out there who don’t live in a city. I was just looking at my cellular bill and noticed they are charging me a City Utility Users Tax. Well, I do not live in the city and feel that I pay enough in sales taxes which I cannot avoid to the…
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Convert .tod to mpg
Finally found a quick way to convert the .tod files which my JVC camcorder produces into the much more usable mpg format. I have tried the ffmpeg method but when I use that the resulting files cannot be opened in my editing program which does me no good. This same editing program also has a…
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SSMS Project List Sort
Please go this page https://connect.microsoft.com/SQLServer/feedback/ViewFeedback.aspx?FeedbackID=263095 and mark the suggestion as very important and perhaps even validate the problem. A workaround is available but is most certainly not ideal. Many thanks to Jasper Smith for creating this tool.
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As they say, don’t talk politics
I was chatting with a friend at work Thursday afternoon when someone who sits nearby joined in. Somehow the discussion turned to government regulations and after a short while this other guy was getting quite angry about this topic. There was no way to just discuss this with him, his viewpoint appeqrs to be the…
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Mariners game
Heading back to Tacoma on the sounder train. Very cool, free parking and an hour ride to Seattle. The only drawback is the train leaves Seattle only 35 minutes after the final out which does give much time to hang out. Perhaps next time will go north on the train and then take the bus…
Got any book recommendations?