[ ] YES!
[ ] NO.
(Check one.)
- Z
Zobar's Journal
My Podcast Link
10/07/2009 09:38 #49953
pollIs this awesome?
[ ] YES!
[ ] NO.
(Check one.)
- Z
[ ] YES!
[ ] NO.
(Check one.)
- Z
10/01/2009 16:20 #49897
free souvenirCategory: geeky
The thing about living in Buffalo is that you always need to take visitors to Niagara Falls. Now I actually like going to Niagara Falls, but this past summer we ended up taking two sets of people there on two consecutive weekends. When you get that much Niagara Falls, the eye tends to wander. And it doesn't have to wander far before it starts to see how much schlock you can get.
One of the things they'll try to sell you is a green-screen photo of you in front of Niagara Falls. You could just walk across the street and take as many pictures as you want of the real thing - for free - but I guess some people would rather pay cash for a dorky simulation. Now, thanks to technology,* you can get a dorky simulation for free!
0. If the Flash app isn't directly above this, go here
1. Allow camera access, if necessary.
2. Get out of the camera frame.
3. Click 'Background.'
4. Use the slider to move the background, and adjust the threshold if necessary.
5. Say cheese, and click 'Save.'
6. There you go, you just saved eight bucks.
- Z
_______________
One of the things they'll try to sell you is a green-screen photo of you in front of Niagara Falls. You could just walk across the street and take as many pictures as you want of the real thing - for free - but I guess some people would rather pay cash for a dorky simulation. Now, thanks to technology,* you can get a dorky simulation for free!
0. If the Flash app isn't directly above this, go here
1. Allow camera access, if necessary.
2. Get out of the camera frame.
3. Click 'Background.'
4. Use the slider to move the background, and adjust the threshold if necessary.
5. Say cheese, and click 'Save.'
6. There you go, you just saved eight bucks.
- Z
_______________
- Adobe Pixel Bender
tinypliny - 10/01/09 17:37
Wait, where is the free souvenir? I see only a link to that blender thingy. Is that it? Can you elaborate for the clueless amongst us (that would be me, btw)?
Wait, where is the free souvenir? I see only a link to that blender thingy. Is that it? Can you elaborate for the clueless amongst us (that would be me, btw)?
09/29/2009 09:05 #49883
wtfTwo items.
1: Brian May is an astrophysicist. How did I miss this?
2: Somebody screwed up a little:
- Z
1: Brian May is an astrophysicist. How did I miss this?
2: Somebody screwed up a little:
- Z
tinypliny - 09/30/09 10:43
1. Brian studied Astrophysics at Imperial College, London and gained his BSc before progressing to a PhD. He put his academic career on hold to concentrate on his musical ambitions and more than 30 years later, in October 2007, Brian completed his PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud and was awarded his doctorate.
WOW. I had no idea as well. That is phenomenal.
Lead guitarist. Professor. Chancellor.
2. That someone has fixed the map.
1. Brian studied Astrophysics at Imperial College, London and gained his BSc before progressing to a PhD. He put his academic career on hold to concentrate on his musical ambitions and more than 30 years later, in October 2007, Brian completed his PhD thesis A Survey of Radial Velocities in the Zodiacal Dust Cloud and was awarded his doctorate.
WOW. I had no idea as well. That is phenomenal.
Lead guitarist. Professor. Chancellor.
2. That someone has fixed the map.
jason - 09/29/09 22:43
Pssshhh!!! Man!! You didn't know that! I thought FOR SURE some other nerd other than me knew that.
Pssshhh!!! Man!! You didn't know that! I thought FOR SURE some other nerd other than me knew that.
james - 09/29/09 10:47
Somehow, I knew Brian May was an astrophysicist. Garbage brain syndrome.
Somehow, I knew Brian May was an astrophysicist. Garbage brain syndrome.
09/27/2009 10:31 #49865
jibba jabbaI've had a number of visitors from out-of-town ask me: 'Why is it that you call your highways The 33, The 198, The 90, The 190, The 290 ... when everywhere else in the world they would simply call them 33, 198, 90, 190, 290?' To which I respond: 'fuck if I know.'
I have a hypothesis, but it's pretty weak. The highways used to have names [I guess technically they still do]: The Kensington Expressway, The Scajaquada Expressway, The Thruway, The Niagara Extension, The Youngmann Highway, which naturally got shortened to The Kensington, The Scajaquada, The Youngmann. But there's hardly any signs that say their names, which only geezers know anyway. So they went to being the... the, you know, 290, which is only a short trip to 'The 290.'
But that doesn't really explain The 219 and The 400, especially when there's Route 5 and Route 20, but only 990 and 20A. It also doesn't explain why Canada has 'The QEW' and 'The 401.'
The only other idea I've got is that the Great Lakes chapter of the Illuminati, convinced by the success of their 'pop' campaign, are teaming up with the Newfoundland division to come up with new and innovative ways to make us all sound like yokels.
- Z
I have a hypothesis, but it's pretty weak. The highways used to have names [I guess technically they still do]: The Kensington Expressway, The Scajaquada Expressway, The Thruway, The Niagara Extension, The Youngmann Highway, which naturally got shortened to The Kensington, The Scajaquada, The Youngmann. But there's hardly any signs that say their names, which only geezers know anyway. So they went to being the... the, you know, 290, which is only a short trip to 'The 290.'
But that doesn't really explain The 219 and The 400, especially when there's Route 5 and Route 20, but only 990 and 20A. It also doesn't explain why Canada has 'The QEW' and 'The 401.'
The only other idea I've got is that the Great Lakes chapter of the Illuminati, convinced by the success of their 'pop' campaign, are teaming up with the Newfoundland division to come up with new and innovative ways to make us all sound like yokels.
- Z
jenks - 09/27/09 19:19
illuminati. definitely.
illuminati. definitely.
metalpeter - 09/27/09 12:13
I have a guess but it is only a guess.
You have roads and interstates interstates have and i in front of them. If lets say you had and i99 and a 99 (not that you do just an example) and you said 99 how would you know what one you where talking about so The is used for just normal ones so there is no confusion. Also lets say someone asks for direction and you say go to 99 no one would get what you are saying but you say go to 99 and they get it and the a name stuck. also route 5 is a Route I think the sign says that. I also do like your Idea (e:zobar)
I have a guess but it is only a guess.
You have roads and interstates interstates have and i in front of them. If lets say you had and i99 and a 99 (not that you do just an example) and you said 99 how would you know what one you where talking about so The is used for just normal ones so there is no confusion. Also lets say someone asks for direction and you say go to 99 no one would get what you are saying but you say go to 99 and they get it and the a name stuck. also route 5 is a Route I think the sign says that. I also do like your Idea (e:zobar)
james - 09/27/09 11:36
I grew up an hour north of NYC. We referred to numbered roads all the time as 'the #'.
I grew up an hour north of NYC. We referred to numbered roads all the time as 'the #'.
lauren - 09/27/09 11:35
Being an "out-of-towner," I too have wondered of this. When I first came to Buffalo I simply refused to participate and every time someone said this, I laughed a little to myself. Now, alas, I have given in. Funny though, that habit does not carry beyond Buffalo, as I do not call 81 "the 81" or 87 "the 87" when I am going to my other homes. Course I too am fascinated by the use of "pop" in Buffalo, which I always assumed to be a southern thing, not a New York thing. What I have come to accept is that Western New York is a horse of a different color.
Being an "out-of-towner," I too have wondered of this. When I first came to Buffalo I simply refused to participate and every time someone said this, I laughed a little to myself. Now, alas, I have given in. Funny though, that habit does not carry beyond Buffalo, as I do not call 81 "the 81" or 87 "the 87" when I am going to my other homes. Course I too am fascinated by the use of "pop" in Buffalo, which I always assumed to be a southern thing, not a New York thing. What I have come to accept is that Western New York is a horse of a different color.
09/23/2009 19:34 #49842
i'm not a person who gets annoyedbut I'm just going to put this out there: the QA on my MacBook was horrible, and my customer service experience at the Walden Galleria branch of the Apple Store near Buffalo, NY was not significantly better. Probably next time it's worth the drive out to MacSolutions Plus.*
Within the span of my three-year warranty, I had three hard drives, two AirPort cards, a faulty temperature sensor, a glitchy mouse button, and a case that chipped so bad they would have fixed it out of warranty. So when I brought it in today, with another dead AirPort card and a dead Ethernet port, I was not really in the mood to have my appointment quietly canceled after I got there - on time - because I didn't check in, and to not have anyone tell me until 45 minutes later when I had to ask why my name wasn't on the list anymore. So when the geek behind the counter explained their total lack of common sense like some computer glitch [Did you check in? No. Well then. Well then what? The person before me was a no-show and even she got the courtesy of being called at least a dozen times. I didn't even get called once times!] I didn't really agree that it was a big favor that he would reschedule me for two hours later. He did say that if I continued to hang around like an asshole like I had been that maybe they could edge me in somewhere. Well what else am I going to do, go home and get back to work?
Right, work. We'll get to that. Anyway, it turns out that an Ethernet card on a MacBook is actually a $700 logic board. Which oddly enough is not the problem, because the only thing they ever do for out-of-warranty repairs is 'factory-refurbish' them for a low, low fixed price of $280. But they don't do that on-site, they mail it off to God-knows-where, and it's 5-7 days before I'll see it again. Which brings me back to work. I double-checked: 5-7 days, right? Five to seven days, so you can't freak out on us before that. What?? Some people get all kinds of anxiety when they drop their computer off. Well this is kind of my work computer, and I can't really do anything without it... We'll give you a call as soon as it's ready. I know it's a bummer... especially since I bill hourly. OH. I'll see if I can put a rush on it. Thanks. I don't have a project right now and I understand there really isn't anything they can do, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. But yeah, I could potentially be out a lot of money for that.
I don't think I was a dick about it. Maybe I was. I only really got annoyed just now when I wrote it all down in one place. Thanks, (e:strip), for making me aggravated six hours after it would have made a difference!
- Z
_______________
Within the span of my three-year warranty, I had three hard drives, two AirPort cards, a faulty temperature sensor, a glitchy mouse button, and a case that chipped so bad they would have fixed it out of warranty. So when I brought it in today, with another dead AirPort card and a dead Ethernet port, I was not really in the mood to have my appointment quietly canceled after I got there - on time - because I didn't check in, and to not have anyone tell me until 45 minutes later when I had to ask why my name wasn't on the list anymore. So when the geek behind the counter explained their total lack of common sense like some computer glitch [Did you check in? No. Well then. Well then what? The person before me was a no-show and even she got the courtesy of being called at least a dozen times. I didn't even get called once times!] I didn't really agree that it was a big favor that he would reschedule me for two hours later. He did say that if I continued to hang around like an asshole like I had been that maybe they could edge me in somewhere. Well what else am I going to do, go home and get back to work?
Right, work. We'll get to that. Anyway, it turns out that an Ethernet card on a MacBook is actually a $700 logic board. Which oddly enough is not the problem, because the only thing they ever do for out-of-warranty repairs is 'factory-refurbish' them for a low, low fixed price of $280. But they don't do that on-site, they mail it off to God-knows-where, and it's 5-7 days before I'll see it again. Which brings me back to work. I double-checked: 5-7 days, right? Five to seven days, so you can't freak out on us before that. What?? Some people get all kinds of anxiety when they drop their computer off. Well this is kind of my work computer, and I can't really do anything without it... We'll give you a call as soon as it's ready. I know it's a bummer... especially since I bill hourly. OH. I'll see if I can put a rush on it. Thanks. I don't have a project right now and I understand there really isn't anything they can do, so I didn't make a big deal out of it. But yeah, I could potentially be out a lot of money for that.
I don't think I was a dick about it. Maybe I was. I only really got annoyed just now when I wrote it all down in one place. Thanks, (e:strip), for making me aggravated six hours after it would have made a difference!
- Z
_______________
- The owner was totally out back grilling hot dogs for their Leopard 'release party.' Man, Steve Jobs starts grilling me hot dogs maybe then we can talk.
jenks - 09/25/09 17:19
The last two times I've needed help from apple, they sent a guy to my house, which was awesome. But, I was still under warranty (well, applecare).
The last two times I've needed help from apple, they sent a guy to my house, which was awesome. But, I was still under warranty (well, applecare).
jason - 09/25/09 16:25
If I didn't have access to my computer for that amount of time I'd be pretty damned irritable. I think you are handling it quite well Z.
If I didn't have access to my computer for that amount of time I'd be pretty damned irritable. I think you are handling it quite well Z.
joshua - 09/25/09 09:42
(e:paul) - we generally buy Dells for our office and we use the gold plan. It really is an awesome service that they provide - we've had them here a few times to fix our laptops.
The bar is a nice thing for Macs, I will say.
(e:paul) - we generally buy Dells for our office and we use the gold plan. It really is an awesome service that they provide - we've had them here a few times to fix our laptops.
The bar is a nice thing for Macs, I will say.
dragonlady7 - 09/25/09 09:04
Yeah, I was gonna chime in but (e:zobar)'s told my story. My Macbook has been a dream-- I've had precisely two issues, neither one major.
One is that the power cords eventually fray (we bought two new ones before we found out the warranty covers those, so I brought one of the old ones and traded it in and now we have three cords, which is awesome because Z tends to hide them and my battery life, after several years of hard use, is down around 40 minutes with sudden stops at the end where I need to plug in NOW hey where's the cord?). I asked about the battery life and the guy looked at the stats the battery keeps on itself and said Holy cow, you use this thing a lot, it's at twice its expected life. Oh, I said. I could replace it. I might. One of these days. It still works though. I just keep cords plugged in in my usual roosting spots.
The second issue is that cracks developed along the edges of the top case and I wore the letters off the keys. Z got that fixed when he brought his in, and so I took mine in, and they fixed it while we went up to the bar and had beers. New topcase, new keyboard, new mouse, free. It's holding up better this time.
And this is the second Mac I've owned, and the previous one, a Luxo Jr iMac, is still whirring away like the day I bought it. Z's using it for work right now while his laptop's in the shop.
Not to say that they weren't toolbags at the Apple store, and maybe we shoulda gone to MacSolutions Pro this time instead, but the brand itself isn't bad. Just like anything-- sometimes you get a lemon.
Yeah, I was gonna chime in but (e:zobar)'s told my story. My Macbook has been a dream-- I've had precisely two issues, neither one major.
One is that the power cords eventually fray (we bought two new ones before we found out the warranty covers those, so I brought one of the old ones and traded it in and now we have three cords, which is awesome because Z tends to hide them and my battery life, after several years of hard use, is down around 40 minutes with sudden stops at the end where I need to plug in NOW hey where's the cord?). I asked about the battery life and the guy looked at the stats the battery keeps on itself and said Holy cow, you use this thing a lot, it's at twice its expected life. Oh, I said. I could replace it. I might. One of these days. It still works though. I just keep cords plugged in in my usual roosting spots.
The second issue is that cracks developed along the edges of the top case and I wore the letters off the keys. Z got that fixed when he brought his in, and so I took mine in, and they fixed it while we went up to the bar and had beers. New topcase, new keyboard, new mouse, free. It's holding up better this time.
And this is the second Mac I've owned, and the previous one, a Luxo Jr iMac, is still whirring away like the day I bought it. Z's using it for work right now while his laptop's in the shop.
Not to say that they weren't toolbags at the Apple store, and maybe we shoulda gone to MacSolutions Pro this time instead, but the brand itself isn't bad. Just like anything-- sometimes you get a lemon.
zobar - 09/25/09 08:52
All hardware fails, naturally, though (e:dragonlady7) has an identical laptop which is only a couple months newer than mine but she hasn't had half the problems I have. If you're under warranty, the repairs are done on-site for free, and you can't beat that. My drives were both replaced right at the bar, the top-case and mouse were replaced in under two hours [while we went to another bar], I think the temperature sensor was an overnight, and the airport card was over a long weekend. By comparison, (e:fi) got a Vaio laptop from Best Buy with the Geek Squad warranty and the dudes are basically worthless.
Their non-warranty service is totally bogus though, and I blame Corporate. They were prepared to do an on-site antenna replacement for me the last time my AirPort bit it, but now that it's out of warranty, it's $280 and a week. This is where I think an independent shop would be able to help me out. The customer service was just individual boneheadedness that starts to add up.
- Z
All hardware fails, naturally, though (e:dragonlady7) has an identical laptop which is only a couple months newer than mine but she hasn't had half the problems I have. If you're under warranty, the repairs are done on-site for free, and you can't beat that. My drives were both replaced right at the bar, the top-case and mouse were replaced in under two hours [while we went to another bar], I think the temperature sensor was an overnight, and the airport card was over a long weekend. By comparison, (e:fi) got a Vaio laptop from Best Buy with the Geek Squad warranty and the dudes are basically worthless.
Their non-warranty service is totally bogus though, and I blame Corporate. They were prepared to do an on-site antenna replacement for me the last time my AirPort bit it, but now that it's out of warranty, it's $280 and a week. This is where I think an independent shop would be able to help me out. The customer service was just individual boneheadedness that starts to add up.
- Z
paul - 09/25/09 01:40
Every brand of every laptop has failures. I have had everything from high end sony vaios to dell workstation style latops to macbooks and ibooks, powerbooks and macbook pros and they all fail because I think I use computers harder than you average joe. I have to say the dell warranty I got on the m60 was the best. It still had a failed graphics card in it and some other random problem, but unlike apple, they sent the tech to my house. Though, I did have the gold plan business warranty at the time.
Any mac problem I had, has gotten repaired but I do hate waiting for them to come back. Its mostly better now that they have a store here where they can fix stuff. Back in my powerbook days they just would send you a box, and then you would send it to texas and then they would send it back. That process took forever.
Every brand of every laptop has failures. I have had everything from high end sony vaios to dell workstation style latops to macbooks and ibooks, powerbooks and macbook pros and they all fail because I think I use computers harder than you average joe. I have to say the dell warranty I got on the m60 was the best. It still had a failed graphics card in it and some other random problem, but unlike apple, they sent the tech to my house. Though, I did have the gold plan business warranty at the time.
Any mac problem I had, has gotten repaired but I do hate waiting for them to come back. Its mostly better now that they have a store here where they can fix stuff. Back in my powerbook days they just would send you a box, and then you would send it to texas and then they would send it back. That process took forever.
joshua - 09/24/09 21:14
I thought Macs were problem free? lol? (I type this as I plot the receipt of my new iPhone)
I thought Macs were problem free? lol? (I type this as I plot the receipt of my new iPhone)
tinypliny - 09/23/09 20:07
At the risk of raking up mac fanboy ire and whatnot, the 8 people I know who have been mac fanboys for life have ALWAYS had some hardware problem or the other in their macs.
I know that 8 not a representative sample and this is not a scientific conclusion but I am very heavily inclined to believe that Mac hardware is some seriously flawed and inferior trash with lax quality control.
I don't care how "intuitive" and glitch-free the software is. If my hard-drive and other component parts had a high rate of going belly-up, I would be raving mad and desist from placing the mac on a pedestal all the time. (not that you do, just sayin.)
At the risk of raking up mac fanboy ire and whatnot, the 8 people I know who have been mac fanboys for life have ALWAYS had some hardware problem or the other in their macs.
I know that 8 not a representative sample and this is not a scientific conclusion but I am very heavily inclined to believe that Mac hardware is some seriously flawed and inferior trash with lax quality control.
I don't care how "intuitive" and glitch-free the software is. If my hard-drive and other component parts had a high rate of going belly-up, I would be raving mad and desist from placing the mac on a pedestal all the time. (not that you do, just sayin.)
[X] WTF
I'm at a loss!
What I want to know is WHERE IS THE REAL CUKI, DAMMIT?
yes awesome. But what do they sound like, and why are they wearing jackets.
Does zobar mean something?
This is not an essay question!
- Z
Is.... is... is the house photoshopped in?