the IDIOT

so much fun to have databases integrated with this piddly site. moving to a new blog location left thousands of stale pages needing redirects to their new versions. years ago, using blogger, i would’ve used an offline database to create manual redirects, uploading thousands of replacement HTML files. but with wordpress (or any DB-based system controlled by user) those redirects simply became a local table, and i can get rid of the vast blogger folder structure while keeping unbroken whatever links go to the old blog — including when i linked to a post in another post, as in the first one linked below, with three links to old blog posts.

though complicated — because links sometimes deviated from a simple pattern — it was still a batch process except for roughly 200 records requiring manual cut and paste (in excel, data from which was easy as hell to import via phpMyAdmin).

here, test it out: (more…)

my years of being a SQL geek have carried over to correcting, via database commands, myriad posts on this new version of my blog. fun to not have to learn something else new along with everything that’s hit me during the conversion from blogger to wordpress. (more…)

funny.

while window-shopping netbooks last month i commented that i’d love to see them add a phone to the package. the sales guy groaned a bit, almost like i was nuts. looking at the apple iPad though, my opinion’s even stronger. of course phones will eventually be added to computers usable by more than scrunched thumbs or fingers. most of what i do on a computer and smartphone would work well on a phoned netbook or similar. i want one gizmo instead of the 5 trailing from my pockets.

at a bike race in the early 90s i asserted that, naturally, bike computers would eventually incorporate GPS with cadence, heart rate, and barometric altimeter for detailed 3D analysis later on home computer. the old fogy ref nearby gave me a similar “what the fuck are you talking about” groan, since GPS was barely alive even in airplanes then.

was a happy user of free AVG antivirus for years. crazy how a company can with a single horrible “upgrade” piss away a reputation. AVG 9 sucks. error flags from nowhere. multiple pointless reboots that solve nothing. two separate utility downloads to try to unscrew program-created errors. (more…)

i have a problem; i can’t take most “tests”. good example of a question written by a fool (or, more likely, a group of similarly motorized douches):

“Are you or any of your close friends, relatives or business associates a member of an organization or association, formal or informal, that believes, advocates or advances the belief that the internet should be completely unregulated?”

bad enough in isolation, but two more strikes against the context where i found it:

• it’s on a questionnaire given potential jurors in the fedgoon bullshit case against lori drew.
• it’s prefaced in this article by, “Several questions seem designed to spot libertarian-leaning internet users.”

notice to all tools who want to use words like “libertarian” (or “voluntarist”, the only true liberty position, whatever you label it) at least semi-coherently: such anti-state types are inherently the most lawful of the world. so when you ask about “regulation” without specifying who’s doing the regulating, the question is not answerable yes or no by any moral man. it must be modified for clarity and logic. (more…)

if you’d any doubt that there’s no boundary on US federal overreach, consider the indictment of scumbag lori drew, the “adult” neighbor who stalked and manipulated teen megan meier (now dead, via suicide) mercilessly via MySpace. (more…)

ever stop to think of the probable result if your source drive were to fail during a backup that overwrites or appends the previous backup file? in one nutsack shriveling moment your original data and its prior safety copy have been corrupted or trashed — during the same process initiated with the intention of preventing data loss. it’s a weakness of many a backup plan. (more…)

having decided to edit video regularly, i soon ran into the brick wall of my laptop’s hard drive. i love my laptop. couldn’t believe how well it edits video, but after all my other stuff, including a 12GB partition dedicated solely to system recovery (used it once, and was glad to have it), i only had about 20GB for video. considering one of my projects has 12–13 hours of raw tape, i found myself just avoiding. my network storage server and two spare 80GB drives i’d swap in and out of my desktop are mostly full of music and backups. using ethernet/wireless connections, they aren’t reliable for capturing or editing video — only for backups (slow). (more…)