Finger info for dolson@icculus.org...


--------------------Chunky-Kibbles-Measure-Line-------------------------

Current Projects and Websites
-----------------------------
> http://www.rivironline.com/ (This is music I create myself as RIVIR)
> http://www.ubuntustudio.com/ (This is my wiki for Ubuntu musicians)
> http://icculus.org/~dolson/wishlist (my wishlist)
> http://www.scapegoatsoftware.com/ (This is my programming site)
> http://gimpdesk.tk/ (This is gimps by me and my ex-co-workers)
> http://aslan.homelinux.com/dana/movies/ (My mini movie review site)


2006-05-14
----------

For once, I will do what Sony and Microsoft want me to do. And that is
NOT to buy their products, but instead to buy Nintendo's product.

http://today.reuters.com/news/NewsArticle.aspx?type=technologyNews&storyID=2006-05-11T132519Z_01_N10243836_RTRUKOC_0_US-EXPO-MICROSOFT.xml
http://www.thewiire.com/news/312/1/Sony_Executive_Recommends_Wii_As_Second_Console

Hey, if I can't decide which console to buy, I'll just look at what all
three companies are saying to decide.

<Microsot> Buy the Wii! It's cool!
<Sony> We recommend you get a Wii!
<Nintendo> What they said!
<Me> Wii it is!


2006-05-09
----------

$500 for a lite PS3? WTF are they smoking? I know for sure now that I
won't be getting one for a long, long time.

Let's hope Nintendo's conference reports the launch date and price, and
that the price is low... $200 or under would have me in the lineups on
release day.


2006-05-05
----------

Well, I just finished my first full work week in my new position as a
Perl programmer. After five days, I went from knowing nothing about Perl
outside of what it does, to being able to code some applications, use
modules, read and write to PostgreSQL databases (which I have also never
previously dealt with), and send email. I learned a lot of it on my own
by reading and experimenting, but a large credit goes to the simple,
to-the-point help that I have been given by my fellow programmer who
sits a few feet away from me. I'm well on the road to becoming a real
Perl programmer.

And let me just say that I have been blessed with an awesome work place,
awesome co-workers, and an awesome company. My friends who have moved on
from our last place of employment also claim their new companies are
great, so I am thinking that my previous employer was the exception
rather than the rule, when it comes to employee treatment, business
practices, and employee hiring standards.

There is a cut in pay compared to my last position of around $8600,
which sucks, but I am much happier here, I am not tethered to a
company-issued cell phone, forced to be on-call 24/7, I am not in shift
work, I don't work weekends, etc. I can bring my bike right into the
office and put it into the back room during the day, and the ride there
is only about 10 minutes, 15 if I pedal very leisurely.

A brand new 64-bit system is sitting at my desk - oh yes, it's a desk,
not a cubicle - with an LCD monitor. On top of that, today a co-worker
any I took a trip to Staples and picked out a nice keyboard with more
features than I needed, and a new pointing device - a Logitech optical
trackball, because I prefer to not use mice, as they tend to be too
small for my hands and my pinky and ring fingers cramp.

This morning I got to work, and there was a large Tim Horton's coffee
sitting on my desk, with my name on it. That sort of thing just didn't
happen before, but here this is an almost daily phenomenon - and there
is a stack of paper coffee cup trays in the corner of the room that
reaches the ceiling to prove it.

To top it off, I was informed that at the end of every month, the
company buys pizza for us. So that is awesome, as pizza is my favorite
food. My last place did buy us pizza occasionally, but once they were
bought by that company in Pakistan, those rare occasions seemed to have
stopped. For us in Canada, anyhow.

This new place I am working at is everything that I'm about. They do
webhosting, they are an ISP, a CLEC, they do VoIP with Asterisk, and a
big portion of it is running on Linux, which is fantastic. I don't think
there are any SCO UNIX boxes kicking around either, something I hated at
the last place. I'm even allowed - forced, actually - to run Linux on my
workstation; whichever distro I want. Of course, I put Ubuntu, but
would've been happy even with the company standard of debian.

I've been accepted and welcomed to the company with open arms by
everyone, and it's much less hostile an environment, but things still
seem to get done! The developers actually do come into the office, and
they actually do work. Fathom that! Everyone in the company, which spans
numerous cities, is accessible by 4-digit extensions, so I can quickly
memorize these, as opposed to memorizing many 10-digit numbers over
multiple cities in multiple countries. Yes, everything seems to be much
improved over the previous job.

So, as my previous supervisor, on my final day with the company, had
mentioned it might be, being laid off was definitely a blessing in
disguise. Even after four and a half months of sitting on my couch with
no clue what the future held, collecting government money to attempt to
make ends meet.

Now I don't have to move to another city, I don't have to keep sending
out or delivering resumes and hoping for callbacks, nor do I have to
worry about stress from feeling like a worthless non-contributor to our
household. Now I can stay here where I have a doctor, friends, family,
and a good church. Thank God!

To get onto another topic, E3 starts very soon, and I'm excited as all
getup to see what Nintendo has in store!

That is all for now. :)


2006-04-28
----------

So, just over a month after being rejected by the job I said I wanted as
a Perl developer, I got an unexpected call back, with an offer for the
job. So I start on Monday. I also have been having some weird feelings
in my left side of my throat, so hopefully my doctor listens to me.

I'm excited to get my hands on my Wii! The games that are coming out
will be awesome, and I read an interview with someone from EA, and it
was very interesting to hear about the new Madden. I'm not one for
football, but I think I might try it this time around. EA has a studio
dedicated to the Wii, so that's pretty cool. I am really excited about a
Fight Night game, especially if the attachment also has gyros to detect
motion. That would ROCK.


2006-04-09
----------

Well, yesterday I figured out how to cross-compile again in Linux, for
Windows. So that's good, because there is a new project I'm working on
and it will need to run on Windows as well. I'll put more details here
when something is ready for release.


2006-03-19
----------

So, I got an email from Mark Shuttleworth, and there will be a new
Ubuntu derivative distro for multimedia use. He said he'll give me more
details this week. I really hope that it is all in the repos and is
official, and can be installed with apt-get install mubuntu (I assume it
will be called Mubuntu, based on the domain registration).


2006-03-16
----------

I had a job interview today at an ISP/host/CLEC/VoIP/everything company.
The position is for a Jr. Perl developer. I don't know Perl, but I
started looking at it, and it doesn't look like it would take me long to
pick it up. I'm pretty good at that sort of thing, and if I can do PHP
and some C/C++ stuff, I'm sure Perl can't be that hard.

I really want that job. The guys seem really nice, the company seems
stable, and best of all, the programmers use Debian!

I am ashamed that I messed up though. I didn't have my references on me
because I asked a few people for advice, and they said to not bring
anything with me. So I sent them my references through email, but I had
an error on the page. One of my references' job title and employer were
wrong... So I corrected it and sent it in. I hope they don't disqualify
me because of that error. I only corrected it because I am honest and
would not want to get a job by lying. For instance, some of my friends
suggested I just not correct it - they'll never notice! they say. It
would be easy enough to call up my reference and tell him of my error,
and ask him to play it up. But dishonesty isn't the best policy, I
think. So I really, really hope they realize this.

I'll post another update when I find out if I got the job or not... Time
to go read some Perl docs. :)


2006-01-31
----------

Still no job. And ZERO sales of my CD. That's great. Life is so awesome.

I am working on a website for Ubuntu users, namely musicians, who want
to use Ubuntu as a recording studio. You could check it out and
contribute at www.ubuntustudio.com. I've spent one full week on it so
far, and have had very little help.

I've also been talking with some guys from Canonical/Ubuntu and I have
contacted Free from DeMuDi, with regards to getting Ubuntu to the point
where it should be for musicians. This means we need an experimental
kernel patch (obviously not in the main kernel tree for Ubuntu) as an
option, as well as some software that is missing. Any real progress with
this will be notated on my site.


2005-12-05
----------

I have finally put together my demo CD. It's called, "The Demo" and you
can get it for $6.99 Real Money from www.cafepress.com/rivir - also, get
yourself a thong while you're at it!

Only 11 more days left of my current job. Because I was laid off. Along
with 5 others. Basically, our company is being offshored to Pakistan,
the Philippines, Brazil or something like that, and France. Great.

In other news, I've recorded a Christmas song for a compilation that
will also be sold through CafePress shortly.
http://www.cafepress.com/xmascomp will be the URL to buy it if you like.


2005-11-16
----------

It appears that the new Xbox 360's power supply is housed in an original
Xbox. I was gonna get an Xbox 360, but I need to build an addition onto
my house just for the power supply:

http://images.anandtech.com/reviews/system/microsoft/xbox360/bundle.jpg


2005-05-08
----------

I went to Toronto yesterday and ended up coming home with a new Roland
TD-3KV electronic drum kit. Pretty cool stuff.


2005-04-16
----------

Here are most of the remaining mini-reviews. There are one or two that I
haven't got to yet though. I'll add them later on.

Wyrick - Mental Floss
Travis Wyrick is pretty cool, from everything I've heard to date. He did
some good work on Gretchen's disc too. But, I can't help but wonder if
his blatant rip offs of Trent Reznor go unnoticed... Have a listen to
Sacrifice and compare to NIN's The Perfect Drug. I see similarities. But
even worse, is a track that's not on Mental Floss, called More of You.
If you can check that out, compare it to NIN's song Wish, and tell me
that it's not lifted material... Anyhow, all that aside, I really like
Wyrick, and even like those songs too. And hey, maybe I'm wrong. Maybe
Travis came up with those melodys and chord progressions on his own
without ever hearing the NIN songs. But somehow I doubt it, as even the
other material reminds me of other bands/songs, but I can't place them
all.

Grammatrain - Lonely House
I knew most of the songs on this disc from MP3s I had from AudioGalaxy's
free days. The main difference is that these are not live versions, so
they sound a lot better. Some songs remind me of bands like Silverchair
(specifically the track Execution). I don't mind these guys, but they
aren't going to get tons of play in my CD player, at least not when I
have CDs from bands like [null factor] and Oil.

Oil - Refine
Wow! Awesome metal band. After hearing only the first track, I knew that
they were closing in on Megadeth for my favorite metal band, and my wife
said ealy on in the disc that she liked them more than Metallica (I keep
telling her Metallica blows, but she doesn't listen). Anyhow, if you
like metal, check out Oil. Sadly they've disbanded, but this disc is
still worth getting. Global Warning is great too.

Ultimatum - Puppet of Destruction
I'm not sure why I ordered this. I guess I was hoping for some great
metal, but I should've checked out some samples or something first,
because I can't stand the vocals. The drums and bass could use a lot of
low-end boost. Maybe they'll grow on me, I dunno.

Torn Skin - Violence and Technology
I love the guitars in this disc. They just sound really cool. Same goes
with samples, a soft spot. Some of this reminded me of NIN. I have to
listen to it a lot more for it to grow on me totally, but I like the
Remote Control tracks the best so far. The unlisted track is kinda
strange, but nice.

Autovoice - A Living Death
I was not real impressed with some of the vocals on this disc. The
second track has a real loud and obnoxious sound, which would appear to
be a snare drum sound. It reappears on other tracks, such as Fallout.
I'm sorry, but snare drums should not overpower the entire mix like
this, no matter how radical a sound you're trying to go for. I try to
like it, but in the end, it just causes me to skip the remainder of the
track. The distorted-sounding vocals that appear throughout the album
sound too quiet to me. I bought this because someone likened them to
Skinny Puppy. It's maybe more like Skinny Puppy if they had the guy from
Cybershadow or something guest singing, and if they used a rapid-fire
shotgun for a snare drum. If it weren't for the mis-matched sound
levels, I could probably get past the vocals and really get into this
disc, but as it is, it's not real fun to listen to for me.

Feezel - Life Moves On
Described as a "nastier-edged Megadeth," if you've heard this disc, you
could understand my frustration and disappointment with that
description. They're more like a heavy rock band, and not so much metal.
The vocals sound pretty good, and the disc is mostly enjoyable, as long
as you skip over the Church as Usual track. For some reason, I think
that people who like Pillar may like these guys.

[null factor] - Purity
I figured I'd love this disc right from the first moments of the opening
track. I was right. Pretty much every track has a great underlying beat,
great vocals, and overall, it's very danceable music (not that I dance,
heh, nobody wants to see that). The Jagged Doctrine mix of Critical is a
treat that has a very different sound compared to the rest of the disc.
My favorite track so far is the opening cut, but this is becoming a
favorite disc of mine quickly.

Symbiotica
Very relaxing, female vocals on a bed of soft synth sounds with assorted
other sounds and percussion. I like the sound of Wilderness Call, with
that singing and percussive beat the best, but some songs are a bit too
happy-sounding for my tastes. In fact, the entire CD is kinda out of my
range, but if I ever need to fall asleep, and fast, I'll pop this disc
in.

The Way Sect Bloom - Effloresce
I knew of these guys from the Electro Shock Therapy comp, and I'm glad I
finally ordered their disc. The song Washed reminds me highly of Circle
of Dust, and this is no shock, considering Klayton worked on this disc,
and I think this song in particular.

Elder - Plagues, Woes
I bought this, and now, not even a week after it arrived, the price was
cut in half! This just burns me up! I'm outraged! I could've paid only
50 cents for this disc, but no, they ripped me! Oh well, at least it's
almost decent for a grunge band. Some songs feel out of place, like
River, and lyrics like those on Down the Stairs seem kinda silly. Some
of the disc sounds repetitive, but hey, it's grunge. Some songs stand
out, unlike Wish for Eden's Pet the Fish disc, but still, they're few
and far between.


2005-04-12
----------

More CDs came in today.

Sometime Sunday - Drain
Very cool grungy type stuff. Sounds similar to Soundgarden and the like.
I like this album so far.

Wish for Eden - Pet the Fish
This album is comprised of 10 identical tracks. Or at least that was
what I thought... Upon further examination, apparently the songs have
different lyrics.

Fell Venus - @
Some pretty strange singing on this album. I don't really know why I got
rid of the first copy of it that I owned, but some songs can get on your
nerves. Nevermind the weird track numbering.

Mortal - Nu En Jin
This is much better vocals than the previous Mortal albums I've
heard, even though I didn't mind some of their older stuff, in
moderation. This is a great change, and totally different than Wake,
which was kinda sore-thumbish for them.


2005-04-09
----------

Ever
Wow! Amazing stuff here. I got goosebumps listening to some of it...
Also, they sent me two copies of the CD - one of them was signed too.
I'm not sure if the second copy was a mistake or what, so I'm gonna
email them about it.

Virgin Black - Elegant... and Dying
Very nice. I've always loved them since the first time I heard their
stuff, way before AudioGalaxy was turned into a pay service. I own
Sombre Romantic and Trance discs, and now this. All are masterpieces. I
really love listening to their music. I did notice that the track times
listed on the back are sometimes shorter than the tracks on the disc.
That's kinda strange.

Generation - Brutal Reality
Very cool sounding industrial metal hybrid. I like the samples they use,
and the vocals are cool. I am glad I gambled on this one.


2005-04-08
----------

Some CDs are in. Below are the first few reviews.

Global Warning - Enemy Within
A great metal album... The singer has a good sound for his vocals...
Kinda reminds me a bit of Jon from Korn crossed with James from
Metallica, with a touch of Dale from Bride for vocals, coupled with a
cross between Titanic, Virgin Black, Metallica for the music. Others
might compare them to Disturbed or Godsmack or POD, based on what I've
read. Anyhow, great band, they have clips on their site. If you like
metal at all, check out the clips at least.

Judean Radiostatic - Flux
Nice sound. I like the samples used in the first track... Something I
really miss in a lot of the Christian music I listen to. Sometimes the
vocals reminded me of Skinny Puppy and sometimes a bit of Marilyn
Manson. The occasional female vocals are nice too.

dead turns alive - Salvation and Despair
Some more samples, which are great, and some really good tracks. Some of
them I didn't like as much, as they sounded too technoy. My favorite
track is definitely Influence, which you can get a live video of on
their website. I have to listen to it more for it to grow on me, because
a few of the songs were disappointing, but I'm sure that'll change.

Gretchen - In the Mean Time
I was pleasantly surprised that I liked most of the songs on this album,
as I was expecting it to be like No Doubt. The CD has tons of extras
too, such as the entire album pre-ripped to 128Kbps MP3s, wallpapers,
icons, videos, lyrics... Very cool batch of extras, and thankfully it's
not all embedded into a single file... So then I can view it all in
Linux. Anyhow, it's a good female-fronted rock band, and a song or to
reminds me a tiny bit of Evanescence, but more rockish. No piano.

Fatal Blast Whip - Constellation
The soothing sounds of this album put me to sleep. I'll have to listen
to it again. I like the sound of the vocals for sure. Very nice. I'll
give it another listen when I'm more awake.

I love them all so far, but my favorites are Global Warning and
Gretchen. Well... Each album has a few tracks that are awesome... I
guess I just like them all.


2005-03-31
----------

Well, I just decided that I'm sick of crappily-named MP3 files. So I did
a quick search of my APT repositories, and I discovered EasyTAG. Wow! I
sure wish I didn't procrastinate in searching for a decent MP3 file
renamer/ID3 tag editor. It's sweet. If you're looking for one, check it
out. No, I'm not with them. I can't hardly code yet.


2005-03-27
----------

I modded an Xbox yesterday and upgraded hard drives in two Xboxes. This
means I had cash to spend. And I decided to buy me a whole new musical
library. Here are the two dozen discs I am expecting in the coming
weeks. I'll try posting a review here of each album as I listen to them,
if I remember.

Autovoice - Living Death
Dead Turns Alive - Salvation and Despair
Elder - Plagues and Woes
Ever
Feezel - Life Moves On
Fell Venus - @
Generation - Brutal Reality
Global Warning - Enemy Within
Grammatrain - Lonely House
Gretchen - In the Mean Time
Jagged Doctrine - Absolution
Judean Radio Static - Flux
Mortal - Nu En Jin
Null Factor - Purity
Oil - Refine
Sometime Sunday - Drain
Symbiotica
Torn Skin - Violence & Technology
Ultimatum - Puppet Of Destruction
Virgin Black - Elegant and Dying
Way Sect Bloom - Effloresce
Wish For Eden - Pet the Fish
Wyrick - Mental Floss
Yonderboy - Mission Of Mercy


2005-03-05
----------

Well, so far on this new job I haven't really used Asterisk yet.

I've been learning a lot of stuff about SIP and general telecom. Well,
not so much learning new telecom stuff as remembering stuff from
college. Anyhow, I've been using iptel.org's SER software on Debian,
which is great. Who ever thought that I'd get to set up Linux at this
company, and get paid to do it?

Well, nothing really new. I did put Ubuntu on my laptop and my desktop.
So far I'm impressed with it. It's user-friendly, but not in the same
way that Mandrake et al are. Ubuntu does things nicely, whereas
Mandrake's tools, or whoever else you want to compare to, tend to get in
the way. Moving from Debian to Ubuntu, was it a good change? I can't
tell you that yet, but so far it seems great. I'd like to see this
distro raise to the top of the pack. There are a lot of names working on
it - Jeff Waugh, Daniel Stone, etc. It's impressive so far, anyhow.


2005-01-31
----------

Today marks the beginning of the second week of my new job as a Jr.
Telecom Technician. That's a fancy title for "Asterisk/Linux Research
and Development." This is supposed to last 6 months, but might run
longer/permanently if the company decides to move this into production.


2005-01-12
----------

This Christmas I got money, plus I sold a bunch of old gear. Now I have
spent close to $900-$1000 on music gear. This is insane! Oh yeah, and my
RM1x came in and it was severely beaten.
http://icculus.org/~dolson/rm1x.html


2004-12-20
----------

Jim Gaffigan is a funny comic. Check him out if you're interested and
haven't heard of him yet. I wouldn't plug his website
(jimgaffigan.com) in my .plan or anything like that, because that's not
me. Besides, I'm sure you could find his website (jimgaffigan.com) on a
search engine if you wanted to go to his website (jimgaffigan.com).


2004-12-09
----------

Darrell Abbott, aka Dimebag Darrell, is dead. It is a sad, sad day.

Just yesterday I was in the mall, holding a Damageplan CD in my hands,
wondering what the ex-Pantera members were up to these days... And then
last night, this happened.

He, along with four others were murdered before a lone police officer
showed up and took down the killer with a shotgun blast to the face.

Darrell was an amazing guitarist. I was glad to see the tributes on
Megadeth.com, Anthrax.com, ZakkWylde.com, and Sepultura.com.br. Very
classy for these musicians to show their respect for this loss.

I sure hope that a rash of copy-cat murders do not break out, but
wouldn't be surprised.


2004-12-08
----------

I just discovered jbidwatcher. Sweet, open-source goodness. For a Java
program, it sure isn't bad. It could be worse.

Hopefully this will help me win a Groovebox for cheap.


2004-12-04
----------

If anyone has any used Grooveboxes, let me know... I'm this -| |- close
to buying one off eBay.

http://icculus.org/~dolson/wishlist (I'll be adding to this soon)


2004-11-17
----------

Holy crap, Megadeth rocked! That is all.


2004-11-11
----------

I am SOOO hooked on getting a Groovebox. If anyone has one or knows a
good cheap place to get one, LET ME KNOW! I'll probably get a Roland
MC-303 to start, but right now I've got a MC-505 on loan for a week...
Trying to not get too stuck to it, but it's gonna be hard.

I didn't get to go to Skinny Puppy yesterday. That sucked. But I'm
counting on them touring again... Here's hoping.

I'm going through all the crap I have and trying to find stuff to sell.
I'll list some things here and on eBay.


2004-10-27
----------

I'm totally against it and offended by it. I'm going out to let my real
talent show, not to just stand there and dance around. Personally, I'd
never lip-synch. It's just not me. -- Ashlee Simpson, Lucky Magazine


2004-10-26
----------

Just bought tickets to Megadeth today. I can't wait to go! Still looking
for a ride to Skinny Puppy too.

I move to a house in 3 days, so this is pretty sweet. We're packing and
stuff, and it's coming along.


2004-10-19
----------

I packed my Xbox away. Moving in two weeks and I haven't touched it
since I got Zelda anyhow.

I got a USB CF card reader today. Read about it here:
http://icculus.org/~dolson/centrioscfreader.html

Nothing else really new. I'm about to eat my 6th Big Mac of the day.


2004-10-10
----------

A little while back, at the end of September, I got a Gamecube. I didn't
have to pay a dime for it either. I simply traded some old Windows games
for it. Who do you think got the better deal?

I got: Gamecube, cables, controller, MadCatz controller, Super Mario
Sunshine, Memory Card 59, Super Smash Bros. Melee, and Memory Card 16x.

He got: Gettysburg, Populous 3, Starsiege, GTA2, Red Alert, Sanitarium,
Summoner, Nox, Clue (from a cereal box), Fallout, and Aquanox (tossed in
as a freebie as I had two copies anyhow).

The verdict? I think considering I don't run Windows, I got a fantastic
deal. Even if I did run Windows, it's hard to beat this swap.

So now I've forgotten all about Fable and my Xbox in general... I've
been playing Zelda on the 'cube whenever I've had time away from working
on osCommerce and osTickets for my business site that I'm starting up.

If you haven't taken our quick survey, please do.

I'm not very far in Zelda yet. I'm just on my way to Dragon's Roost or
whatever it's called. My wife is playing it right now, and she was stuck
at the three statues, so she asked me to catch up and figure it out, so
I did, then I saved and passed the controller over to her for her to
play. Heh. She didn't realize she could grab the statue and pull it
forward. :)


2004-10-03
----------

http://www.clickycart.com/survey/ <-- please do that if you haven't
already. I'm going to start up an online store, and I wanna know what
sorts of things people buy and what they use to pay with. Thanks!

23:54 < mousematt> whats the weather like where u are today?
23:55 < dolson> according to my Gnome applet, it's 9 Celcius and cloudy


2004-09-18
----------

I'm about to try out Fable. I wonder if it'll be good or if it'll
suck...

Well, if it sucks, I can always go listen to the Megadeth album.


2004-09-14
----------

Megadeth's new album rules.


2004-09-12
----------

I just downloaded a video from Megadeth's new album, which was shown on
MTV2, and I was confused... I thought my sound card was dying. Then I
thought that the video was a bad quality TV rip. Then I realized that
MTV bleeps out the words "death" and "high." I could almost, ALMOST,
understand bleeping "high" if the verse referred to drugs, but it
doesn't - the verse is "I can't kick high enough."

This is truly stupid.


2004-08-22
----------
The house is ours.

Someone ported my BattlePong to Xbox! Haha. Here's a link:
http://xhomebrew.netfirms.com/battlepong.shtml I found out by accident
while checking out an FTP server for a new dashboard. Crazy.


2004-08-20
----------
So today was the inspection for the house we are most likely buying.
Insurance said they would insure the house, our mortgage was approved,
and nothing super major showed up in the inspection report. We'll be
moving in on Nov. 1st, assuming we decide to go ahead and the lawyer
doesn't find any legal issues.

Yesterday the inspector sent over the contract to me in Word .doc
format, and I had asked if he had an alternative format, even a PDF so I
could print it out and he said he didn't. Well, today he came to my
apartment to get his check, and he said "so, you run Linux then?" and
just totally opened himself up for me to lay the smack down. He asked a
couple more questions, and I mentioned that I don't generally worry
about security, viruses, spyware, and so on and explained why. He asked
if it was hard to use, and I asked if he had seen it before. He hadn't.
And now he has... I sat him down in front of my PC and showed him what
his contract looked like in OpenOffice.org, as the formatting is
slightly off. I showed him Evolution. I showed him FireFox and mentioned
that CERT recommended ditching IE for the time being, and that FireFox
works on Windows too. I showed him some different themes for Gnome, and
he seemed impressed. He asked how hard it was to set up. I started
explaining that some hardware might not work, his handheld, printer, and
proprietary software might not work, and so on. I was just being honest
about it. He said "that's alright, I could probably run Linux on my home
network and it'd be fine." So, who knows? Maybe it's the start of
something. :) I just emailed him the links to Gnoppix and Knoppix as he
requested when I mentioned these distros, and I also included a lot of
other info, and offered assistance if he wanted it.

This really does feel like a religion and like I just got someone saved.
It's sorta scary.


2004-07-10
----------
I just had to write a note here about how I am feeling right now...
Megadeth is such a great band. Dave Mustaine is one of the coolest
musicians when it comes to being cool with his fans. He posts on the
Megadeth forums, he releases MP3s occasionally, and everything. If
you're a fan, and you didn't know, he's releasing a new album in
September, called The System Has Failed, and he's also releasing all of
the previous records (except KIMB, since it's done already), remixed and
remastered, with bonus tracks, at the end of this month. I feel pretty
sorry that I didn't like Megadeth instantly upon hearing them, but I was
blind at the time, and thought that Metallica were a superior band. It
isn't so - listen to the musical detail and the vocals. James is a great
singer, but Dave is just better. At least that's my opinion.

Oh, and I recorded a new track too. I'll be releasing it on the RiviR
website soon, once my wife is done recording her vocals, and I give the
song a title.


2004-06-27
----------

So my co-workers and I like gimping each other's faces onto pictures.
Well, now we have a website to allow easy access to these things. Check
it out at www.gimpdesk.tk and leave some comments if you like. Trust me,
the pictures are funnier when you know these guys... So you might not
even wanna bother.

Time to go play Showdown for the first time.


2004-06-22
----------

So I call my ISP (Sympatico) when I get home from work, because their
DNS servers were not working. I couldn't ping even yahoo.ca, but I did
have an IP address on my ppp0. Well, I call them up, and I ask if their
DNS servers are down. Apparently they were not aware of any problems. I
told him that I couldn't ping yahoo.ca, but I was assigned an IP
address, and there is traffic on the ppp interface. He confirmed with
me, "So you can't browse a webpage, right?" I said "right." Because I
couldn't. So he's like "okay, let me pull up the info for Can't Browse a
Website." I tried pinging again, and it started to work. I said "oh,
nevermind, it's working now. But just for reference, can I confirm that
I have the correct DNS IP addresses?" And he says "I can tell you how to
get your email...?? Will that help?"

...

......

"No, it's working. I just want to know if I have the proper DNS
addresses or not," I replied.
"I don't know what you mean," he argued.
"I just need to know the IP address for your DNS servers."
"Okay, just a minute."

Then he puts me on hold for a bit. When he gets back, he says, "okay,
it's 192 dot 168 dot 2 dot 1."
"Really?" I exclaimed, puzzled at how he would guess me internal LAN's
DNS server address, which was incorrect, but oh, so close.
"That's what they tell me," was his reply.

The End.


2004-06-07
----------

So I sit here waiting for the Calgary Flames to get their act together
and win the Stanley Cup. It ain't gonna happen. So close, yet so far
away. I'm used to let-downs. I work on HelpDesk for TeleSpectrum.


2004-06-05
----------

So I sit here waiting for the Calgary Flames to start off this game 6 of
the Stanley Cup final versus the Tampa Bay Lightning. My prediction is
that Calgary will pull it off tonight, but it will be a great game. So
sad for Tampa, but I don't care! I just want Canada to get a Cup again.
It's been many years since we did... And Montreal doesn't count. Don
Cherry rules, and this might be the last time I see him on Hockey Night
in Canada... And he's going out with style - a huge-ass hat with the
Canadian flag on it... C'mon Calgary, do it for our country.

I've been playing Thief: Deadly Shadows lately, and I'm so glad that I
have an Xbox. It's the only real first-person game that I can stand to
play without a keyboard and mouse combo. It's got some subtle
improvements over the older PC-only predecessors that make for a much
smoother game... I love it.

I've been working on Battle Tic Tac Toe again now that I have a laptop.
Progress reports are up on www.scapegoatsoftware.com in the Developer
Journal section (look under Projects).

Still no donations for my plastic surgery...


2004-05-15
----------

I have now watched An Evening With Kevin Smith four times. I just love
it... I don't... know... why.

Also, if you feel like donating money to my Make Dana Look Like Mr. Bean
Fund, I accept PayPal payments at dana@mandrakeusers.org and I'd also
accept cash, check, or money order.


2004-04-08
----------

I may be recording some new material this weekend, inspired by Skinny
Puppy's reformation. Until it is released, check this out:

(18:15:19) rad89: man do you know where i can get the cd key
for microsfot works 7.0
(18:15:29) DOlson: www.openoffice.org

I learned today that the only thing better than my Burger King Whopper
is someone else's.


2004-04-05
----------

New Skinny Puppy album makes me really happy... It opens the doors to
possibilites that I had only dreamed about... I hope they come to
Canada, so I know when to book my vacation.


2004-03-26
----------

Just got off the phone with a cool chick from Nintendo. Here's a tip to
all you foreigners: selling pirated and hacked GameBoy Advance games on
eBay is NOT COOL. You rip me off, you leave me with no choice...


2004-03-17
----------

And back to Debian I go. SmoothWall decided it doesn't want to see my
NICs anymore, and the day before, it decided to turn off my Internet
conenction just because it can. Well, screw that.


2004-03-14
----------

So the power went out for an hour and a half in a good portion of the
city today, killing my 212-day uptime... So I tried out a SmoothWall
install, and it's working well, except the IP spoof protection... I'll
have to set up a DMZ. It's all good.


2004-03-09
----------

I decided I will write Unreal 3 in VBscript. Transgaming will probably
get the vbscript.exe stuff working great in Linux by the time I'm done.


2004-02-23
----------

I don't know why I am admitting this, but I really love That 70s Show...


2004-01-11
----------

Well, I have accepted a position on XboxAddict.com as an
interviewer/reviewer/previewer. I'm working on my first review, which
will be of The Hobbit. A game that nobody liked except for me... I will
get free games once my trial membership is over, so that's good - the
less stuff I gotta pay for, the better. It's fun doing reviews and
interviews, and if I can get free games or free previews of games, all
the better.

In other news, I did actually complete The Hobbit, and this weekend I
played through Baldur's Gate: Dark Alliance again, in preparation for
the sequel's release later this month.


2004-01-02
----------

There's always something good goin' down at Mr. Sub.


2003-12-28
----------

So I got some money for Christmas, and bought a nice 27" Sanyo TV with
S-Video and component inputs, as well as the standard composite inputs.
I also got a high-definition pack for the Xbox, so now I need an optical
audio receiver!! :) Been mostly watching movies lately, such as LOTR and
stuff. Picked up Jurrasic Park for $4.66 at Wal-Mart too. Oh yeah, my TV
was regular $379, but we got $100 off on Boxing Day... Gotta love that
Boxing Day. :)

Maybe next year I'll buy a real bed!


2003-11-23
----------

Perogies + Deep Fryer = Dynamite Idea.

Try it!

Oh, and onion rings are Hard To Make. At least the recipe I tried didn't
work out well at all...


2003-11-13
----------

Just when I get Star Choice hooked up and working, something has to rip
my attention away from it... I figured that would happen.

I got The Hobbit for Xbox today, as an early Christmas gift... I only
got it new because that way I got the free copy of The Hobbit novel too,
for preordering. Well, this game is quite good. It's cartoony, not as
bad as Zelda: The Wind Wanker or that new Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles
game, but certainly not realistic. It doesn't matter. It's still good.
Some elements in it remind me a LOT of The Simpsons Hit & Run game, such
as the picking up of the coins and whatnot without necessarily touching
them. That's a nice feature, IMHO. So far, I haven't gotten far in the
game, as I wanna take my time. I have until January to play this, at
which point I will (hopefully) have a new game to play - Baldur's Gate:
Dark Alliance 2. But until then, playing as Biblo will likely take up a
lot of what little free time I have these days.

My new-ish job is going well. I'm taking calls all day long, I'm
learning new things, getting more comfortable. On top of that, today was
pizza day - the head of IT, who happens to work just feet away from our
division (as opposed to in a different country with some of the other
divisions) whipped out a credit card (the company's card, I hope) and
ordered 7 pizzas, like 24 cans of pop, plates, napkins, dipping sauce...
It was good. I wish I could have eaten more though. I should have
brought a couple slices home, except that I had my mind on other things
when I was walking out the door... Namely, The Hobbit.


2003-10-31
----------

"Now Fox has a new rule that we can't do those little fake news crawls
on the bottom of the screen in a cartoon because it might confuse the
viewers into thinking it's real news."
  -- Matt Groening

Uhh... The Simpsons is a CARTOON. Fox doesn't think much of their
viewers, if they think that we will confuse a cartoon with an actual
news feed...

Oh yeah, so I ordered Star Choice (satellite TV) yesterday... Yay.


2003-10-28
----------

"WOW THAT WAS FAST SHIPPING! ATTTTTTTTTTTTT"
  -- Feedback left on eBay

My question is: are Ts better than pluses?


2003-10-26
----------

"See, you people say you have enough consoles, and a powerful PC, but
whenever a new console comes out, you people always buy it."
  -- Robert Shambro, Infinium Labs

That is all.


2003-10-18
----------

Okay, so I went and got my CPIC for job #2 today, and my interview is
scheduled for Monday... I go to work today, and find out that job #1
decides that they want me (yay! I got the position I wanted) so now I
have a useless CPIC that cost me $10 but I had to get it else Murphy
would have laid the smack down on me and cost me both job #1 and job #2,
and then job #3 likely wouldn't have panned out either because I haven't
called them back in over a week... But, since I have job #1, that means
I get to start Monday and make a salary, and I don't have to telemarket
anymore! I'm working in my field as a help desk technician, with options
for future specialization in different areas such as NT admin and so
forth. I'll update you all sometime to let you know how I like it.
:D <-- that's me!


2003-10-14
----------

So last night a friend of mine who works for a hosting company convinced
me to register a domain. So, www.scapegoatsoftware.com is now online. :)

I gotta go get my CPIC done soon, else I can't get that other job.


2003-10-11
----------

Well, it's been a while since I've updated this thing. Still waiting to
hear about that Help Desk job. I have another interview for a Business
Desk Analyst on the 20th, and I think I'm going to take it, even though
it's only part-time, because it's more in-line with my field than
telefrickinmarketing...

Anyhow, onto the good stuff...

Scapegoat Software is now working on Battle Tic Tac Toe. I'm the
programmer (*ack* *cough* *hack*), and all the graphics are pretty much
ready. Emmett is set to do the sound track, and if we think we can sell
16 copies+ of this game, then we're probably gonna go for it... This way
we can pay Emmett and start making a bit of cash. But we aren't entirely
sure yet. Anyhow, information, developer journal, screenshots, etc are
all up on our site: http://sgoats.cjb.net/

If you'd be interested in purchasing this game for $10 (download) or $15
(on CD, shipped to your home), then please PLEASE let me know. You can
email me at dolson@icculus.org, and that way we can judge if this game
should go commercial or not. Thanks in advance.


2003-09-21
----------

I had an interview for Help Desk Technician, and it went well. I want
that job. Or any job. As long as I can stop telemarketing. Bring it on,
I'm ready. I can take it. PLEASE!

So, here's my Linux-related prediction: Transgaming will stop supporting
Linux and switch business plans to become competition for MacSoft...
Yeah, that's my prediction. So, if it happens, remember, you heard it
here first. :)


2003-09-13
----------

< me> Hi, this is Dana Olson calling on behalf of SBC, how are you
today?
< dude> Hi, I'm on that Do Not Call list.
< me> You're on our Do Not Call list?
< dude> No, I'm on the National Do Not Call list.
< me> Oh, the one that takes effect on October 1st.
< dude> ...
< me> ... It's September right now...
< dude> ...
< me> So we are allowed to call you until October...
< dude> ... Okay, send me the info in the mail.
< me> I will do that, and you have a great night. Thanks for speaking
with SBC.

Yes, that conversation actually took place tonight. I just thought I'd
share, even if no one sees any humor value in it. :)

Anyhow, I've got an interview for an inbound call center on Tuesday. If
I'm offered the position there, I'm about 99% sure that I'm going to
take it. The pay is better, and I can finally get out of calling people
during their dinner. And just in time for the National Do Not Call list
to take effect. :)

Today I had an information session at a consulting firm, and I all but
have the position for supply business desk analyst... I'd be doing
password resets mostly to start, and that's FINE by me. I hope that I
can work it all out around my schedule, whatever it will be then, so
that I can do it on the side (it's a supply position, so no guaranteed
hours at all) of a regular job for a while. I think I have some
decisions to make soon. It's exciting, while unsettling at the same
time, since I don't want to alienate any of my opportunities...
Decisions, decisions...


2003-09-10
----------

07:16 < LordHavoc> I just love knowledge, I try to absorb everything
07:17 <+sibn> knowledge is kind of a pain in the ass to maintain, though.
07:17 <+warthawg> I have some catlitter like that

Heh. Joe Barr has his moments (none of which appear on LinuxWorld.com).

In other news, I had a test at a different call center, and they know
that I want a tech position. Hopefully something comes of that. Also, I
have an information session at a consulting company, the one that I
really wanted to work at when I first moved here, and they are hiring
someone for part-time. Hopefully they want me. Also, my current place of
employment is hiring a help desk technician, but unfortunately, they
require a driver's license and a vehicle, which I don't have/can't
afford. Well, here's hoping they don't care so much about that.


2003-08-25
----------

God, do I hate my job. Not only does the job suck, but the company
decided that my Monday off will now become a MANDATORY work day. To top
that off, I was in the top 18 in my group, so I gotta go in at 2PM and
stay until 10PM. I signed up to work from 5PM to 12AM. This is a rip, I
want my money back-- erm... Fooey. Someone hook me up with a better job.

I was playing Morrowind a bit today too. I'm not very far into the game,
even though it's the only Xbox game I own, but yeah, I do plan on
finishing it someday, if such a thing is possible... I haven't finished
a game since... Oh gee, what was it... Return to Krondor, I think. Boy,
that was a great game... I would love a third one in that series, as
long as it was like RTK, and not like the first one. Oh, and as long as
it was on Linux or Xbox.


2003-08-18
----------

So it's been one year since I deleted my Windows 98 partition. Yay me.

I'm trying to get time to record more music, but until then, there will
be two songs on my mp3.com page, once the second one gets approved.

Time to get ready for work. And I thought today was going well...


2003-08-12
----------

03:07 <+Mongoose> it's pretty damn sad I've read more stories in
morrowind than r/l

So, my weekend was alright. Other than my wife getting glass in her
foot, and thereby we were forced to buy crutches. Geez.

Anyhow, I finally finished recording "Again" and most of "So Perfect"
which will be on my album "hopefear" someday... Someday soon.


2003-08-06
----------

23:51 < lgp-michael|svrm> coool a cat just wandered into the house
23:51 <+dolson> < lgp-michael|svrm> mmm.. I can eat today

23:59 < floam> i can see lgp-michael|svrm sitting in the living room
dressing up his linux games and having them talk to each other
00:00 < lgp-michael|svrm> I cant dress them up, I cant afford to, they
have imaginary clothes

MUST... PLAY... MOHAA... BUT... CAN'T...


2003-08-03
----------

Okay, here are some tips for you irritable Americans:

- When a Telemarketer calls your home, they are not doing so to be
assholes about it.
- If you don't want the service at the present time, and this is what
you tell them, they WILL call you back.
- Chances are good that these Telemarketers are people like me:
desperate to make money to pay bills and rent. These people are not
trying to upset you, but rather they are trying to do their job.
- They most likely work for a call center, which is contracted to call
on behalf of other companies... You probably don't get the relevance of
this fact, but I will get to this...
- If you don't want to be bothered anymore, ask NICELY to be put onto
the DO NOT CALL list. Here is an example of how you would do so: in a
nice voice, say "Can you put me on your do not call list?" and the
Telemarketer will gladly oblige. This is required by law. If another
Telemarketer calls you, it MIGHT NOT BE FROM THE SAME COMPANY! So there
is no sense getting all pissed off at them. Also, it usually takes about
4 to 6 weeks to have your name fully removed from any given company's
calling lists.
- If you don't want any more calls from a given telemarketing firm, ASK
the Telemarketer on the phone what company they are employed by. Many
times, the Telemarketer will give you a different name than the company
they are representing, because that's just how this business works. Tell
them to put your name on THEIR do not call list, and then you won't get
any calls from that firm for a full five years, as required by law.
- The trick is to be nice about it, and MAKE SURE that they do take you
off the list. Don't hang up until you have your name off the list.
- Do NOT lie to Telemarketers. They do not hold anything personally
against you. There is no need to lie to them. If you don't want to be
bothered, you know what your options are, so DO NOT TELL THEM TO CALL
BACK AT A LATER TIME.
- Telemarketers call people randomly, from lists given by the company
they represent. Just because you don't like the service or product
being offered, doesn't mean that the next call won't become a sale. If
you aren't interested, don't waste the Telemarketer's time and your
time, just put your name on the DO NOT CALL list, and be done with it.
- Don't say you are not interested before you have heard what the offer
is. I could call someone randomly one day, offering $1 Million dollars
FOR FREE, and probably 9 out of 10 Americans would hang up on me before
I even told them what I was offering them. The point is, YOU CAN'T KNOW
IF YOU ARE INTERESTED OR NOT UNTIL YOU'VE HEAR WHAT WE'RE OFFERING.
TARD.
- Last, but not least, NEVER ask for a a Telemarketer's HOME phone
number. Honestly, you just look like a moron when you do. Do you really
think that a Telemarketer has access to the internal systems required to
set you up with whatever service they are offering from whatever company
they are representing FROM THEIR OWN HOME? No, this would be a very
suspicious thing, allowing people to work from home like that... In a
professional company, the Telemarketers should be required to fully
comply with the full security measures and confidentiality
regulations... By asking for a Telemarketer's home phone number, you
appear as someone who hasn't got a clue how a reputable business should
be run, and you obviously thought you were being a smart ass, when you
really were just a dumb ass.


2003-07-27
----------

So I turned 22 yesterday. Yay and all that. We ordered pizza and watched
a couple movies. It was good. My dad even called me twice.

I've been working on a song a bit, trying to rekindle my love of
creating music, but I'm struggling. I've been out of it for too long.

I'm working now, doing telemarketing. Not sure how long I'll be doing
this stuff, because of many reasons... I could get fired, I might not be
able to cope with the stress, I might get a job in my field... But at
least it's money in the meantime.

My wife thinks it's amusing, but I seem to remember everyone's eye
color... Well, not everyone, but almost everyone. I guess it is kinda
weird.

Anyhow, I'm going back to write some lyrics and work on song structure
now. Until next time...


2003-07-18
----------

I don't know what to do now. I could work in telemarketing, and possibly
go mad in the process, or I could continue on my job search... I really
want to work for Sony, but as my luck goes, I won't be chosen for that
job. I need money soon. If I don't take the telemarketing job, I could
never get one there again. I don't agree with telemarketing, and I can't
see myself actually being able to do what they want you to do there. I
just don't know what to do, what to say, or what to think... I'd be
stupid to pass up a job, but what is the point of taking on a job that
you are 99% sure you can't handle?

I have to make a decision soon. Decisions suck. Life sucks.


2003-07-17
----------

Watching movies has become my new hobby. And from that, I have the new
hobby webpage, DOlson's Magical Fantastical Movie Reviews! Check it out
at http://aslan.no-ip.com/

So my 22nd birthday is rapidly approaching, only nine days away, and
I'm really hoping to be employed by then so we can go out for dinner. My
wife had an interview today, as did I, and I have to go back tomorrow
for a test and some paid training. Not sure when I'll know if I'm hired
on there, but it's telemarketing... Something I'm not sure I could deal
with for very long. I have my second interview at the Sony store on
Sunday, and boy, do I hope that works out. I'd really love to work
there.

00:10 < dolson> oh how I wish I was young again.
00:10 < dolson> I bet you feel the same
00:10 <@msphil> Can't remember what it was like.


2003-07-07
----------

I just discovered that two guys I used to jam with are living in the
same city as me. That's pretty cool, considering one of them works where
I've been applying. I'm going to contact the other guy tomorrow
probably, and see what he's been up to. He's in a cool band now called
Pinkslip, and they sound really cool. I hope I get to meet up with them
again and jam a bit. Who knows, perhaps I'll get into a band myself
again.


2003-06-24
----------

Home after another weekend visiting family... And getting an Xbox. I got a
used one for about $100 cheaper than getting it new. Also, any games I get
will be pre-owned as well, and this way, none of the stuff I buy will
count as sales for Microsoft and co. And that's advice straight from the
CEO of some Linux game publishing company too. It also saves money, since
new games are bloody expensive.

I sold my copy of Win98SE along with some hardware, including a 15GB hard
drive, a CD-ROM drive, and a USB graphics tablet, in order to pay for the
Xbox... I got the DVD remote and an extra controller (both model S) with
it, so it was a really good deal.

I've watched a few episodes of Family Guy on it, and life is good. I
opened it up last night and put in a 30GB drive, and it was easy to set up
and all that... The old 8GB is now in my PC, as secondary master, for
backing up my documents and stuff. I still have my 80GB drive for my Linux
(with 40GB partitioned for /usr/local/games).

My wife likes to play the old Super Mario games too, so it's actually won
her favor, I think. And she seemed to like the looks of a few games at EB,
such as Morrowind and stuff...

Interesting that, moreso than any other group of Windows users I can think
of, Xbox users seem to be open to the idea of trying Linux. One guy on
EFnet decided to give Debian a shot after I told him a little bit about
apt-get... Every day or two he'll message me with questions, and I answer
them to the best of my ability. He's not the only one, either. It seems to
me that a lot of Xbox users are semi-literate when it comes to Linux.
Maybe I'm dreaming, and perhaps that is the case in any IRC channel, but I
don't remember it being like that before.

Anyhow.

Apologies to those of you who may have read this and hate me now.

In better news, job prospects at EB are looking fairly good, and if I get
in, I'll see about getting some Linux games onto our shelves... Not sure
how realistic that idea is, but hey, I can always try. I went in there
today and was pimping Linux, Ryan, LGP, id, and so forth to the guy in
there... He seemed impressed at the number of OSes that I've tried, and he
himself seemed to have a bit of knowledge of Linux, BeOS, and FreeBSD
even, so I may have been preaching to the choir...

My wife gets interviewed for a management position at some store later
this week, so here's hoping that goes well... I applied to RadioShack and
The Sony Store, and hoping that one of them (preferrably the later) will
call me if EB doesn't do it first.

More job hunting to do tomorrow... Fun stuff.


2003-06-11
----------

Okay, so the trolls cleared out, yadda yadda.

Let me say, Metallica have proven to me that they do care about their
fans more than people give them credit for. Their new album is MUCH
better than their last two, comes with a free DVD, a cool case, and an
access code to their file sharing site, Metallica Vault. Right now there
are about 49 free songs to download, all of live concerts, and they will
add more soon, and possibly even videos and stuff. This new album was
well worth the $19.99 CAD I paid, and friends of mine paid only $12.99
at Best Buy (wish we had one here).

I'm thinking of getting an Xbox as soon as I can afford it. Before you
jump down my throat, realize that I don't really care as to why you think
I shouldn't get one. I know the reasons why I shouldn't get one, as far
as the rest of the world is concerned, but honestly, for the same price
as a PS2, I don't think there is any better deal than an Xbox. I want
it for playing NES, SNES, TG-16, Game Boy, and PSone games all with one
box, one controller, and one power button. On top of that, and perhaps
more importantly, I want it for media - DVD and DivX playback, coupled
with Dolby Digital 5.1 support, I don't think there is any reason NOT to
get an Xbox. Sure, tell me to go buy a PC or whatever. Just because you
can't admit that Microsoft did something right for a change, doesn't mean
I'm going to listen to you. There, I've said my peace.

So now I'm sharing a *gasp* Debian PC with my wife (she hates everything
but Mandrake) because her motherboard decided to quit functioning. Just
what we needed in the middle of a job search... Luckily, setting up her
printer in Debian was easier than I thought (thanks ashridah for the
inital help with CUPS). Our answering machine died with a message on it,
then ressurrected itself a day later, but the message was gone. I *really*
hope that wasn't a job offer...

Oh yeah, Gnome is getting better as the days go by, including Nautilus'
script folder. Mmm... So nice, so nice...


2003-05-22
----------

I've decided I don't really like hanging out in the icculus.org channel
anymore. Over the past week it has degerated into a troll breeding
ground, and it's really just annoying as hell being in there.

Sure, some got kickbanned, but some are sitting on the borderline, not
doing enough to get kicked, but enough to annoy the shit out of you.

Perhaps someday I'll check back in and see what's up. I don't know.


2003-05-10
----------

Decisions, decisions! Should I order a mod chip? Should I risk killing
my over-the-counter-replacement warranty? Where should I order from
that will ship to Canada quickly? Grr...

Oh yeah, I'm still looking for a job.


2003-05-07
----------

Ok. All settled here in North Bay now, and on the hunt for a job. If
you want to hire me, email me. :)

Anyhow, this place is infinitely larger than my old apartment, and the
air is clean and nice... The turtles needed a larger aquarium, so we got
one that is three feet long... That oughtta do it for now.

So I wiped FreeBSD and put Gentoo on top of where it was... After 7
hours of compiling everything, I had X and that's about it. Then it took
a long LONG time to compile some things that I usually use all the time,
such as Evolution, XChat, Gimp, Gaim, Quanta, and so on. And to top it
all off, it's not even faster than Debian! Sure, bootup is a lot faster,
and the fact that it compiles everything is cool, but uh, it takes way
too long to maintain it, and OpenBox takes longer to start up than in
Debian... And if you use OpenBox, you know that it *should* be hard to
notice a difference in OpenBox's startup time. I guess it's a combination
of X and OpenBox... In any case, I don't think I'll be switching to
Gentoo at this point in time... But I haven't used it enough yet to make
that decision. Stay tuned to my adventures. :)

Anyhow, yeah, did I mention I'm looking for work?


2003-04-29
----------

Well, tomorrow is my last day in Toronto. Our new apartment is much
larger, and I can't wait to get there. I hope my internet connection
comes back online quickly once I'm there.

Also, today I invented a new recipe:

Beefy Cheese Fries

Cook up one pound of ground beef in a frying pan.
Put a half a bag of fries in the oven to bake at about 450.
Drain the beef and put it on top of the fries when they are ready.
Grate a half-block of marble cheese, and load it on top while the fries
and beef are still hot.
Yummy!

Makes one serving.


2003-04-20
----------

I wrote an article for LinuxHardware.org about Linux gaming. They
would like me to write more, so hopefully I will get to do some reviews
of some cool hardware.


2003-03-26
----------

Okay, so some new stuff is going down with me.

Firstly, I got my preliminary marks back from my final semester of
college, and although they aren't so hot, I didn't fail any of my
classes, so I have no rewrites!! w00t. This means that shortly, I
shall have a second college diploma:
  * Computer Network Engineering Technician
  * Computer Network Engineering Technologist
That's a lot of good news.

Next, BioWare finally released a beta of Neverwinter Nights! It
runs pretty well on my Debian system, and I've filed 4 bug reports
so far. On my wife's Mandrake system, it was running fine. This
brings me to the third update:

Mandrake released version 9.1 of their distro. I'm sick of hearing
all the "boycott teh french! boycott teh Manbrake Lunix!!11" crap
on Slashdot and other various places... Mandrake 9.1 is easily
the best distro there is right now. Unless you like multiple-hour
installation processes (in which case, I recommend Debian or
Slackware), give Mandrake a shot. The speed amazed me, and as much
as it is tempting me to install it, I just love apt too much. I
can't ditch Debian, as it is easy to upgrade - the only thing
that Mandrake really lacks. I started to go through the 9.0 -> 9.1
upgrade process, but I hit reset halfway through. It just felt too
much like I was wasting my time.

Now, if Mandrake 9.1 would just co-operate with ravage's installer,
or if it would at least play NWN without crashing, I'd be euphoric.


2003-03-19
----------

I decided that I hate personal attacks on IRC when I'm trying to discus
something seriously.

<kodgehopper> dolson: captain of the debate team?
<chandler> alright. I said cut it out.
<kodgehopper> okokok
<kodgehopper> no more hitting below the belt :))
<wolfman8k> dude u suck
* kodgehopper takes a bow
* dolson kicks kodgehopper in the face while he's bowing
<dolson> He was gonna suck my dick, so I had to do a preemptive strike
--- ChanServ sets modes [#politics +o chandler]
--- chandler sets modes [#politics +q dolson!*@*]

Now, I have no frickin' clue what that insult was supposed to mean, but
I felt I had to respond. My silencing was worth it. That guy is an ass
and was attacking me personally every 5 seconds.


2003-03-16
----------

I started making a cool scripted drum machine, but I have a couple
problems with it... Namely, if the sound samples get played too fast,
then they end up ignoring the angle parameters of the channel that
they are to be playing in... So instead of having hihats in the left
channel, they sound centered. This is NOT good.

I'd be grateful for any help with this one.

Source code and test script is here:
http://icculus.org/~dolson/files/ddrummer.tar.gz


2003-03-15
----------

I hate how the world works. I hate people. I hate how they think. I hate
how they act. I hate the media. I hate how people allow it to influence
their every longing. I hate how they are shaped by what everyone else is
doing. I hate it.

I stumbled upon this website:
http://www.comics2film.com/StoryFrame.php?f_id=2629
Here is the opening paracrap:

"If someone had walked up to you a month ago and said
"Evanescence rules," you probably wouldn't have had the slightest
idea what they were talking about. However, with the upcoming
movie, Daredevil being fresh on everyone's minds, there is no
doubt you are at least vaguely familiar with this small "Goth-pop"
band from Little Rock."

Actually, yes, I would have known full well what they were talking
about, and I would have absolutely agreed. I think it sucks how a band I
have listened to for years - yes, that's right, years - all of a sudden
is now as popular as Avril Lavigne...

Why??? My wife is even more pissed about this. While we wish them success
and all, it's more the people that I hate... When I first heard them, I
loved them immediately. I tried getting my friends into them, but they
just shrugged it off.

If it's on MTV, it's good - if not, they don't wanna hear it. Sad, sad
time we live in.

Interesting words I found from an interview about a year or two ago with
Evanescence's Ben Moody:

"The world is filled with hateful people who parade the name of
Christ like a badge that grants them immunity to destroy anyone
who disagrees with them and they are turning more people away
from the love of Jesus than any other group of people in the
world. The #1 cause of atheism is Christians. We only hope to
offset that as much as we can. God gave human beings amazing
amounts of understanding, but they are still flawed and they
make mistakes. God understands all. He is not flawed. He does
not hate. He knows you better than you know yourself and He
understands how you feel. We hope to express in our music that
Christianity is not a rigid list of rules to follow only out of
fear of an unseen deity who will strike you down at any given
moment if you fail. I am a Christian. I still have fears, I still
have pain, I still have sorrow, I wouldn't be alive if I didn't.
The beautiful thing about My relationship with God is that he
understands all that and He has shown me what life is really for.
There are so many things in this life that are taken for granted
because they are overshadowed by all the hate. We write songs
about things that happen in lif

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