Lee.org

The Google Toolbar is available for Firefox now, complete with Pagerank info.

I’m still shopping around for helpdesk software. I came across an article that mentions Magic Service Desk. I found that BMC software just bought the company… interestingly, I used to work for BGS Systems, which was bought up by BMC.

So, I go looking for this helpdesk app on the BMC site. The amount of Powerpoint generated, gold plated crap I had to wade through to see what the product was about was astounding.

Then again, if they are really getting the $5,000 per seat they are asking when free software is available that does it just as well…

Misdirection is alive and well, and living on the interweb!

PS. I never ever, not even once for a moment beliveved that any of those 23 year old babes in suits that they get from the stock-web-image catalog were going to come to my house if I bought their crummy software. Well, maybe just for a second.

Dear Lazyweb,

I’m looking for a good helpdesk application. Mostly what I’m looking for is tracking email trouble-tickets from thousands of customers. Can you recommend an app?

I’ve browsed Sourceforge.net, Freshmeat.net and Helpdesks.com and found a whole lotta apps that might fit the bill. But I just want one that works.

Any suggestions?

Update 1-24-10: Ok, if you thought the “300 things” list below was good, here’s
1575 things Mr. Welch can no longer do during an RPG!!!

CAUTION: If your sides begin to hurt while reading this, stop immediately! and come back tomorrow!

I stole this list.

(thanks to Dave for pointing it out to me)
Continue reading ‘300 things Mr. Welch can no longer do during an RPG’ »

[I installed this a couple weeks ago but forgot to blog it.]
Here’s a little something to make writing pretty comments a little easier.
I took it from Scriptygoddess, who took it from Alex King.

The tags I use in my lineup are:
bold, italics, blockquote, link close tags

You should see these buttons just above the Comments field when you write your comments to me. They make it a little easier for you to add HTML tags to your comments.

From Jennifer’s site (this was written for WP 1.2. The instructions are a bit different for newer versions. I’ve installed it for WP 1.5 just fine)

To use the “mini” version I made:

1) Download the js file and upload it to the root of your domain.

2) Open up your wp-comments.php page [in WP 1.5, comments.php in your theme] … Look for the beginning of the comments form – (search for “<form” in the file) and put this just above it:

<script src="/js_quicktags-mini.js" type="text/javascript"></script></form>

Look for the text area field for comments which looks like this

<textarea name="comment" id="comment" cols="40" rows="6" tabindex="4"></textarea>

and add this directly above it:
<script type="text/javascript">edToolbar();</script>

And add this BELOW the textarea field:
<script type="text/javascript">var edCanvas = document.getElementById('comment');</script>

This is the method I’m using on this site – although I added the “h3” tag just for the one I use, since that’s what I use to stylize code on this site. You can easily add more… or start from scratch using Alex’s.

[written 5-7-02, updated 2-14-03, put into my blog 8-15-05]

Stop saying “God Bless America” in response to September 11th! That is what got us in trouble in the first place.

Insert rant here. Discussion points:

• Other, positive things that can be said
• Religious separatism is extremely counter-productive for: our society,
  world productivity, burning personal hatred, long term personal recovery 

  example webring text: source
  Christians all over the world, please pray for America and for all
  those involved in the terrifying and horrible tragedy that took place there in
  the USA. Pray also for the service men and women who are in Afghanistan! We
  know that Jesus Christ, the Son of God, is the only one that can give everyone
  the strength and support…

• Vengeful god vs. merciful god. Relate that to why we say "God Bless
  America"
• Separation between church and state
• Relate my personal internal pain. We’ve got to redirect the energy
  positively
• They take their religion very seriously and literally (IE 72 virgins in
  heaven). We do well not taking ours as seriously. So let’s keep it that way.
• How do you think it makes them feel when we say it?
• sidebar: "Ground Zero" as unfortunate terminology for gestalt.
  Suggest "The Pile", "The Site".
• Discuss the power that words and terminology have.
• Conclusion: It’s bad for everyone involved. So cut it out!

I see signs all over spouting about how great God is. There is this truck that’s been sitting just off the highway in Mount Olive for several months. It has a sign draped over it with a large flag and it says “God Bless Us All”. Another volunteered sign is on Rt. 519. It’s an 8′ x 4′ piece of plywood leaned up against a telephone pole crudely spray painted with the message:

That sign really freaks me out. Everyone is free to voice their opinion but
it really worries me to the core how caught up people are about their gods. And
I worry what terrible things my neighbors are capable of doing if someone or
something offends their sense of the infallibility of their god.

Look at that sign again… Look at the order he put things in.
"God" is first, "Country" last! So when the author refers to
Duty and Honor, that’s to his god and not to his country. It’s true that the
First Amendment of the Constitution refers to the freedom of religion, but he’s
forgotten that it’s an amendment. The Constitution itself (dry as the
text may be) and the country founded by it comes before all of the
amendments!

I suppose the author of this sign is angry at my critical commentary. I’ve
probably offended his Honor and his God. What do you suppose Duty requires him
to do to me?

Bibliography:

• God Bless America webring
  with 400 sites.
• news agencies, CNN, NBC, CBS, etc

I went to NIMBY to work on Colossus 2 nights ago. I got there about 7:30… worked a while grinding overly large welds made between the column and gussets. And then on to grinding the upper arms of the beast. I stopped for pizza and beer with the guys… for chatting with Elysia (who I will now call Shwa because that’s what her name starts with ;-) and her uncle… chatting with the woman making the 20 foot tall Ganesh (which, I just found out, will have an ancient stone finish) and…… I stopped to watch robots battle!!!

A woman came in at midnight or so and said the we should come out and see two robots fighting each other down the street. About 10 of us started out walking down the street. When we got there we found that the robots were fighting each other, they were fighting television! More precisely, they were about five televisions and computer monitors in a vacant lot; the two robots were bashing and smashing the televisions until they were nothing more but piles of plastic and smashed glass! The smaller robot was particularly good at spinning around and whacking things while the larger robot, with its propane fueled beacon on the top, it’s heavy steel armor plating, and larger frame would just hit things head-on repeatedly until it would roll over the smashed remains.

It was wonderful! After the robots had laid waste to all of the televisions the designer and pilot of the larger one was quoted on the way back to the laboratory as saying, “It’s cheaper than therapy.”

(Image courtesy it’s designer at THERM.)

Recently, my google search results have been more and more diluted with web spam. :-(

To the tune of “Kill da wabbit”, “Kill the spammers, Kill the spammers, Kill the spammers!”

[written 9-25-02 updated 1-24-03]

I wrote to Governor James McGreevey on 8-29-02 about this. I wrote:

Please do not rename Newark International Airport “Liberty International Airport at Newark”.

– Newark Airport had nothing to do with the attack. They’ll name the new World Trade Center after the attack, that is enough of a scar for it to leave.
– It’s a bland name that doesn’t identify the purpose for it’s naming.
– The reason for it’s naming will be completely moot (and mocked) the next time a terrorist attacks the US. And that will happen, sooner or later.
– It’s an ungainly name that doesn’t indicate where it is. The word “Newark” got tagged on at the end like the name of a shopping mall…. “The Mall at Short Hills”.

“Newark Liberty International Airport” is a slightly better choice but it still sucks.

Please don’t.

As you may know, the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey recently approved changing the name of the facility from Newark Airport to Newark Liberty International Airport. Through the new name, Newark Liberty International honors the memory of the heroes of September 11, 2001, and reminds us all of the principles upon which our nation is founded.

Great, let’s go on a renaming spree… Jersey Truth City, Hudson Freedom River, New Liberty York City, The Empire Justice State Building….

Also, after I thought about this a while, I really really don’t want to use an airport named after an airline disaster! Would you want to sail on Norwegian Cruise Line’s Iceberg Princess? Or how about working in the Towering Inferno Towers? Or working in the McVey Towers office complex? This is so sick, it’s funny! No, it’s just sick.

1-24-03 I recently got an email from a total stranger (now I suppose he’s an “acquaintance” :-) about this Rant. He gave permission for me to repost his comments here:

I just wanted to say that I enjoyed your website. What prompts me to write, however, is your Rant about the renaming of EWK. I’m from Jersey, born in Elizabeth, lived there for 22 years. Now I’m in Northern Virginia. Down here, the GOP recently re-named Washington National Airport, Reagan National Airport in honor of the Conqueror of Genada, the Pasha of Panama, and the B’wana of Bedtime for Bonzo, his imperial excellency, Mister Nancy Reagan. (Personally, I can’t wait ’til they re-re-name it Reagan Memorial Airport.) Courageously, our Metro system refused to budget money for new signs for the airport MetroRail station, and they remained unchanged until Congress provided emergency funding money to make the alterations. No one here (except political appointees) calls it Reagan Airport. In the people’s eyes, it will always be Washington National. But I know how you feel about the issue. Actually, “Newark Liberty” isn’t half-bad. Beats “Reagan”.

Winch

And here is my response to him about this:

That stupid Reagan airport thing too! Ugh! I followed that in congress while it was happening. I had to turn off CSPAN, it made me so angry! The argument was that he was a “great” president and should be honored as such. But there is no way that anyone could tell if his legacy would be “great” until 10 or 20 years after he left office! By their reckoning, a president that printed money and gave it to the people would be “great”… until the currency devaluation catches up with everyone. Oh wait, that’s what happened.

To followup on this story just a little more… Yes, the Governor renamed Newark Airport. The question is, will anyone acknowledge the name change? A quick search on Google.com on 1-24-03 is enlightening.

After a year, no one has changed their websites to match the name change.

After 10 years, the old name is still more popular than the new one!

I had been doing some research on getting a motorized bike and the Golden Eagle Bike Engines motorized bicycles, running EHO25 25cc Robin/Subaru Mini 4 engines get about 225 miles per gallon. The similar EHO35 35cc Robin/Subaru Mini-4 gets about 200 MPG. I’ve seem this claim verified in a few places.

These are 1.1 and 1.6 horsepower 4 cycle engines made by Robin Subaru that weigh under 8 lbs… under 13 with mounting hardware. So that’s a 200 lb rider, 25 lb bike, 15 lb engine…

I’m thinking of getting a motorized bicycle because:
– You need a lot of motorcycle to go over the Bay Bridge comfortably…. 250CC, $3-5k used. A motorized bike costs $200 for the bike + $550 for the engine, new. I just saw a used bike and engine on Craigslist for $325.
– You need a lot of nerve to take a motorcycle over the Bay Bridge. Lane splitting is nerve wracking and dangerous. In the 1 month I’ve been here, I saw one bike almost get bowled over by a car that didn’t see the bike and moved into his lane (or he was being a super-duper asshole). And pretty much every lane splitting motorcycle I saw was inches away from disaster.
– I mostly want the motor so I can keep up with slow urban traffic… SF traffic peaks at about 35 mph
– It would be peachy keen if I could easily put a motorized bike on a bike rack hanging off the back of my car.
– It is convenient to combine a bike (that can be run under human power) with a vehicle with more range and speed. Electric bike batteries are too heavy and underpowered.
– A motorized bike compares favorably to a 150CC scooter:

• top speed: 30mph vs 50mph
• highway capable: no vs not really
• weight: 40lbs (can be carried up stairs) vs 200lbs
• mileage: 200mpg vs 65mpg
• safety factor in an accident: similar
• cost (new): $800 vs $2,500
• towability: bike rack vs trailer
• can be pedaled effectively: yes vs no
• passenger capacity: no vs yes
• hauling capacity: backpack & 1 panier vs backpack & 1-2 cubic foot storage space
• noise: similar volume (some scooters are very quiet, most scooters make a less annoying noise than a motorized bike)
• cool factor: novelty vs sleek
• insurance: free vs $400/year (approx)

A motorized bike wins in most of these categories. So why don’t I see more of them on the street??? Am I missing something?

Beuller? Beuller?

Potential negatives….

• When riding in traffic lanes, especially at night, cars behind me might not see my (minimal compared to scooter) lights
• Cars won’t believe a bike can keep up so they’ll want to pass me, regardless of my speed
• … ?