(nerd alert)
Ugh. I clicked the shiny “upgrade” button trying to upgrade from Mediawiki 1.16.something to 1.19.something on one of my private wikis. Now I’m stuck because apparently the <Poem> tag has broken, I can’t fix the problem, I can’t go back to Mediawiki 1.16 and… ARRRGH.
There is probably some stupid setting in the stupidly lengthy and cryptic LocalSettings.php that isn’t compatible with something. All I have to do is learn up on all the changes to Mediawiki in the last 3 years to find out what settings have changed, figure out how to integrate that into my setup and… did I mention arrrgh?
This is why (insert witty defeatist linux truism here)
At XFF I donned video goggles and was asked to walk a maze. The camera was above our heads so it felt like I was playing Pac-Man with my body. Very cool.
I was riding down a foggy, dark Berkeley hill over the summer thinking, “I can’t see the road! I’m going to get killed!” So I got a bright bike light. I only ended up paying $50 on Amazon and I’m quite happy with it.
It is literally as bright as a car headlight! I’ve pulled up at stop lights and the light it cast is comparable to the low beams of the cars next to me. I can see the road!
It took a full month to arrive from Hong Kong. But it looks like they are shipping from the US now.
You definitely want to get the wide angle lens, otherwise one spot is lit brilliantly and you can’t much see the rest of the road.
The battery lasts something like 1.5 to 3 hours.
The ONLY problem I have is that it runs full strength until it runs out… which means it could die unexpectedly on the road. So I carry my old 1 watt light when I’m travelling a long distance at night.
I tried to take photos of the light at night but they didn’t come out well. I’ll just say that the hard-to-believe-bright images on Amazon and elsewhere are real
It isn’t perfectly balanced on my handlebar so when I hit a bump, it jiggles. But it’s pretty good… and just $50! Wait… they lowered the price, looks like it’s $30 + $10 for the lens… total $40!
$40, wow! REI sells similarly bright headlamps for around $200. I hope this one isn’t going to give me cancer or something
Here are the products:
4 Mode 1200 Lumen CREE XML T6 Bulb LED Bicycle bike HeadLight Lamp Flashlight Light Headlamp (Amazon link)
Wide Angle Lens for MagicShine, Gemini, and many other Bike Lights / Headlight (Amazon link)
I just logged on for the first time to my entirely online Sociology class. This is one of the first things I saw:
So which browser should I use? How far back should I go?
Ah, I found mention that it won’t work with Firefox 10. But Firefox 9 was last built December 2011. Gulp.
Moving on…
I was looking for someone’s phone number today. I had the hardest time finding residential 411 service, you know, where they ask “What city and listing please”. I finally found my number. You might find these services useful. None are perfect but here we go:
I taught a Real Bread in 10 Minutes class at a friend’s house yesterday. The dynamic was quite different in a home than in a classroom. The feedback was pretty terrific. Victor G writes:
Lee,
Thank you so much for the fabulous time yesterday. It’s wonderful to learn new things and to do so while shared with friends is quite awesome. I am imagining many days Jill and I will spend making delicious and imaginative bread in the future.
Thank you again for the gift that will last a lifetime.
-Vic
Oop, I did it again. I hired a company to clean my fictitious rugs!
I’ve gotten about 5 robocall telemarketing calls from Carpet Care, 510-699-6152. I tried “press 9 to be removed from our list” a few times to no avail.
So I said “Yes, come clean my rugs!” They should be here tomorrow between 1 and 4.
I should be getting an angry human calling me tomorrow at 4:30 or so. At which point I believe I will be able to remove myself from their list.
