Month: December 2008

Categories
uncategorized

comments

Comments are generally closed here due to the WordPress plugin that i use (ljxp), which, when connecting to LJ to update a post, basically deletes the entire post and recreates it as an entirely new post. I’ve known about this for a while, and i’m not real happy about it, but either the LJ API is not well understood over there, or it’s not easy or possible to update a post without destroying it.

So if you’ve commented on anything i’ve crossposted here from my blog, and i’ve updated that post and lost your comment(s), sorry.

That is all.

Categories
internets uncategorized

Cool and Useful Stuffs

Here’s a list of some cool and useful stuff i’ve compiled for Holly’s brother. I thought i’d share it here.

You never have to worry about spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, worms, or other malware, because i’ve already used this stuff, plus i only use apps and sites that are already well-known to be pretty friggin’ excellent. Every one of these sites and apps come with a solid reputation.

All of this stuff is 100% free, except for a few that you can optionally pay for, like Reaper (audio recording). Naturally, i do not recommend downloading pirated software or media content.

Awesome free stuff you have to have, or at least need to know about:

System utilities and just plain excellent basics

Cool, useful stuff for your desktop

Audio, video, media

  • Audacity (audio)
  • Reaper (audio)
  • foobar2000 (music)
  • VLC (media player)
    • http://www.videolan.org/vlc/
    • Great video player. Looks daunting, but all you have to do is play video or audio files. It’s one of the few that can open almost any file type. Can also convert, stream, save, etc.
  • GIMP (images)
    • http://www.gimp.org/
    • Like Photoshop, but a little scarier-looking. A couple of hours playing with it and you’ll get the hang of it. Powerful.
  • Irfanview (images)
  • DVDFlick (DVD authoring)
    • http://www.dvdflick.net/
    • Put your legally questionable downloaded movies on DVD with menus and everything! Not the best, but really easy to use.
  • uTorrent (downloading)
    • http://www.utorrent.com/
    • Download anything you want with this.
    • Best sites for searching are:
      • Obviously, use at your own risk. Read comments, look at details, and install anti-malware apps first. BTjunkie even has icons for # of ‘good/bad’ reports per torrent, so make sure to check them out.
        • You can use Peer Guardian to hide your IP address while you’re downloading legally questionable content. Not perfect, but better than nothing.
          • http://phoenixlabs.org/pg2/
  • TVersity (media center)
    • http://tversity.com/
    • Like Windows Media Center, but free and better. Download podcasts and videocasts and share your video across your home network.
    • If you have an Xbox or some other device for your TV, you can even watch your hard-drive movies/music/photos on TV. Super awesome.

Web sites that you will presently become completely, slobber-mouth addicted to, because they are awesome and will make you WIN.

  • Google Calendar
    • http://www.google.com/calendar/
    • You can even remind yourself of appointments via email or SMS to your mobile phone! You can also share calendar events and add other people’s events to yours.
  • Lifehacker
    • http://lifehacker.com/
    • Learn how to make life easier, cooler, better, and awesomer. Comes in many flavors, from real-world DIY projects to digital shortcuts
    • I really cannot say enough good about this site. Some of the best tips, tricks, and suggestions i’ve ever found for all areas of life, both digital and in meatspace.
    • Seriously. Wicked awesome.
  • Facebook
    • http://facebook.com/
    • Find old friends. Avoid others. Lots of dumb widgets, and you can “poke” people until their brains bleed. Annoying, but awesome too.
  • Picasa
  • Flickr
  • Gmail
  • Google Reader
  • Twitter
    • http://twitter.com/
    • Like a micro-sized blog. Send “tweets” from your cell phone or via web.
  • WordPress
  • Indeed
  • LinkedIn
  • Craigslist
  • BoingBoing
    • http://boingboing.net/
    • “A directory of wonderful things” – weird, cool stuff, plus news you might not hear about elsewhere.
  • Digg
    • http://digg.com/
    • Social news site. Most popular submitted stories rise to the top. Addictive, interesting, and easy.
  • last.fm
    • http://last.fm/
    • Social networking, music-style. Also download their desktop player. With that you can play music tagged with descriptive keywords. For fun, try typing in “unlistenable.”

If you’re ever looking for killer software (or a web site) that does ‘X, Y, and/or Z,’ just let me know and i’ll point you to something good, safe, fun, and useful.

My username is “transmothra” on most sites – if you run into me online be sure to say hello!

Find me on: jeremy jarratt.com | FaceBook | MySpace | MySpace music | LiveJournal | Flickr | Last.fm | LinkedIn | Jobster | Digg | Google Reader | Netflix | Twitter | YouTube | FriendFeed
Categories
uncategorized

Cool and Useful Stuffs

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. Please leave any comments there.

Here’s a list of some cool and useful stuff i’ve compiled for Holly’s brother. I thought i’d share it here.

You never have to worry about spyware, adware, viruses, trojans, worms, or other malware, because i’ve already used this stuff, plus i only use apps and sites that are already well-known to be pretty friggin’ excellent. Every one of these sites and apps come with a solid reputation.

All of this stuff is 100% free, except for a few that you can optionally pay for, like Reaper (audio recording). Naturally, i do not recommend downloading pirated software or media content.

Awesome free stuff you have to have, or at least need to know about:

System utilities and just plain excellent basics

Cool, useful stuff for your desktop

Audio, video, media

  • Audacity (audio)

  • Reaper (audio)

  • foobar2000 (music)

  • VLC (media player)

    • http://www.videolan.org/vlc/

    • Great video player. Looks daunting, but all you have to do is play video or audio files. It’s one of the few that can open almost any file type. Can also convert, stream, save, etc.

  • GIMP (images)

    • http://www.gimp.org/

    • Like Photoshop, but a little scarier-looking. A couple of hours playing with it and you’ll get the hang of it. Powerful.

  • Irfanview (images)

  • DVDFlick (DVD authoring)

    • http://www.dvdflick.net/

    • Put your legally questionable downloaded movies on DVD with menus and everything! Not the best, but really easy to use.

  • uTorrent (downloading)

    • http://www.utorrent.com/

    • Download anything you want with this.

    • Best sites for searching are:

      • Obviously, use at your own risk. Read comments, look at details, and install anti-malware apps first. BTjunkie even has icons for # of ‘good/bad’ reports per torrent, so make sure to check them out.

        • You can use Peer Guardian to hide your IP address while you’re downloading legally questionable content. Not perfect, but better than nothing.

  • TVersity (media center)

    • http://tversity.com/

    • Like Windows Media Center, but free and better. Download podcasts and videocasts and share your video across your home network.

    • If you have an Xbox or some other device for your TV, you can even watch your hard-drive movies/music/photos on TV. Super awesome.

Web sites that you will presently become completely, slobber-mouth addicted to, because they are awesome and will make you WIN.

  • Google Calendar

    • http://www.google.com/calendar/

    • You can even remind yourself of appointments via email or SMS to your mobile phone! You can also share calendar events and add other people’s events to yours.

  • Lifehacker

    • http://lifehacker.com/

    • Learn how to make life easier, cooler, better, and awesomer. Comes in many flavors, from real-world DIY projects to digital shortcuts

    • I really cannot say enough good about this site. Some of the best tips, tricks, and suggestions i’ve ever found for all areas of life, both digital and in meatspace.

    • Seriously. Wicked awesome.

  • Facebook

    • http://facebook.com/

    • Find old friends. Avoid others. Lots of dumb widgets, and you can “poke” people until their brains bleed. Annoying, but awesome too.

  • Picasa

  • Flickr

  • Gmail

  • Google Reader

  • Twitter

    • http://twitter.com/

    • Like a micro-sized blog. Send “tweets” from your cell phone or via web.

  • WordPress

  • Indeed

  • LinkedIn

  • Craigslist

  • BoingBoing

    • http://boingboing.net/

    • “A directory of wonderful things” – weird, cool stuff, plus news you might not hear about elsewhere.

  • Digg

    • http://digg.com/

    • Social news site. Most popular submitted stories rise to the top. Addictive, interesting, and easy.

  • last.fm

    • http://last.fm/

    • Social networking, music-style. Also download their desktop player. With that you can play music tagged with descriptive keywords. For fun, try typing in “unlistenable.”

If you’re ever looking for killer software (or a web site) that does ‘X, Y, and/or Z,’ just let me know and i’ll point you to something good, safe, fun, and useful.

My username is “transmothra” on most sites – if you run into me online be sure to say hello!

Find me on: jeremy jarratt.com | FaceBook | MySpace | MySpace music | LiveJournal | Flickr | Last.fm | LinkedIn | Jobster | Digg | Google Reader | Netflix | Twitter | YouTube | FriendFeed
Categories
life local uncategorized

Frisch’s Big Boy sucks

Tonight, after i’d picked up Holly from her car pool in Bellbrook, we went to the Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant there on Wilmington Pike to grab a bite to eat.

Wow, was it icy out! Unfortunately, the worst ice we’d have to deal with was in their parking lot.

Have you ever seen one of those science videos explaining black holes, or gravity, by showing you a marble spinning around a drain? That’s exactly what it was like.

Their parking lot is so uneven. Iced over, it is absolute hell on earth. Naturally, there was not one speck of rock salt to be witnessed anywhere. Wet glass, indeed.

When we first pulled in, we started sliding immediately. We slid to a stop after a good 30 feet, narrowly missing other parked cars and the concrete-lined edge of the lot, which could have done a real number on my wheels and undercarriage. Mind you, i had been doing less than10mph!

Spinning my wheels was the only way to get any traction at all. But no sooner than i would start moving, but the car would start descending down the hill, sideways. We very scarcely managed to avoid hitting curbs and suchlike, but i don’t know how.

This lasted for around twenty minutes.

Did the manager come out to offer to help? Nope. Did i feel like risking life and limb to walk uphill in that unholy, slick, uphill mess of solid, wet ice to ask for help, or tell them off for not salting their Mt. Fuji-like parking lot? Well, yes, but i knew that i’d absolutely certainly slip and hit my head and kill myself at the exact moment the next motorist suffered a similar fate and ran over my still-warm corpse.

Helpfully, the drivethrough window offered employees a hilarious view, which they took in turns, laughing and pointing.

So if you ever see me at a Big Boy restaurant, especially a Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant, please shoot me in the face for it, because i declare unequivocally, right here, that my money will never again come into contact with their filthy, greasy (and very likely cockroach-infested) registers.

Categories
uncategorized

Frisch’s Big Boy sucks

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. Please leave any comments there.

Tonight, after i’d picked up Holly from her car pool in Bellbrook, we went to the Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant there on Wilmington Pike to grab a bite to eat.

Wow, was it icy out! Unfortunately, the worst ice we’d have to deal with was in their parking lot.

Have you ever seen one of those science videos explaining black holes, or gravity, by showing you a marble spinning around a drain? That’s exactly what it was like.

Their parking lot is so uneven. Iced over, it is absolute hell on earth. Naturally, there was not one speck of rock salt to be witnessed anywhere. Wet glass, indeed.

When we first pulled in, we started sliding immediately. We slid to a stop after a good 30 feet, narrowly missing other parked cars and the concrete-lined edge of the lot, which could have done a real number on my wheels and undercarriage. Mind you, i had been doing less than10mph!

Spinning my wheels was the only way to get any traction at all. But no sooner than i would start moving, but the car would start descending down the hill, sideways. We very scarcely managed to avoid hitting curbs and suchlike, but i don’t know how.

This lasted for around twenty minutes.

Did the manager come out to offer to help? Nope. Did i feel like risking life and limb to walk uphill in that unholy, slick, uphill mess of solid, wet ice to ask for help, or tell them off for not salting their Mt. Fuji-like parking lot? Well, yes, but i knew that i’d absolutely certainly slip and hit my head and kill myself at the exact moment the next motorist suffered a similar fate and ran over my still-warm corpse.

Helpfully, the drivethrough window offered employees a hilarious view, which they took in turns, laughing and pointing.

So if you ever see me at a Big Boy restaurant, especially a Frisch’s Big Boy restaurant, please shoot me in the face for it, because i declare unequivocally, right here, that my money will never again come into contact with their filthy, greasy (and very likely cockroach-infested) registers.

Categories
creative uncategorized

Cincinnati, 2309

Here’s a new desktop wallpaper i made. You can use it.

In the year 2309, Earth's moon has been terraformed; New Cincinnati is depicted here as Earth looms large overhead. Sources: NASA, Wikimedia Commons: Derek Jensen (Tysto)
In the year 2309, Earth's moon has been terraformed; New Cincinnati is depicted here as Earth looms large overhead. Sources: NASA, Wikimedia Commons: Derek Jensen (Tysto)
Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.
Categories
uncategorized

Cincinnati, 2309

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

Here’s a new desktop wallpaper i made. You can use it.

In the year 2309, Earth's moon has been terraformed; New Cincinnati is depicted here as Earth looms large overhead. Sources: NASA, Wikimedia Commons: Derek Jensen (Tysto)

In the year 2309, Earth's moon has been terraformed; New Cincinnati is depicted here as Earth looms large overhead. Sources: NASA, Wikimedia Commons: Derek Jensen (Tysto)

Some rights reserved. This work is licensed under a

Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 License.

Categories
media memories uncategorized

You Are Here/Pale Blue Dot

I put together this YouTube playlist of Carl Sagan’s “You Are Here”/”Pale Blue Dot” speech. I highly recommend checking it out.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ‘superstar,’ every ‘supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

“Ann Druyan suggest an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”

– Carl Sagan

Categories
uncategorized

You Are Here/Pale Blue Dot

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

I put together this YouTube playlist of Carl Sagan’s “You Are Here”/”Pale Blue Dot” speech. I highly recommend checking it out.

“Look again at that dot. That’s here. That’s home. That’s us. On it everyone you love, everyone you know, everyone you ever heard of, every human being who ever was, lived out their lives. The aggregate of our joy and suffering, thousands of confident religions, ideologies, and economic doctrines, every hunter and forager, every hero and coward, every creator and destroyer of civilization, every king and peasant, every young couple in love, every mother and father, hopeful child, inventor and explorer, every teacher of morals, every corrupt politician, every ’superstar,’ every ’supreme leader,’ every saint and sinner in the history of our species lived there – on a mote of dust suspended in a sunbeam.

“The Earth is a very small stage in a vast cosmic arena. Think of the rivers of blood spilled by all those generals and emperors so that, in glory and triumph, they could become the momentary masters of a fraction of a dot. Think of the endless cruelties visited by the inhabitants of one corner of this pixel on the scarcely distinguishable inhabitants of some other corner, how frequent their misunderstandings, how eager they are to kill one another, how fervent their hatreds.

“Our posturings, our imagined self-importance, the delusion that we have some privileged position in the Universe, are challenged by this point of pale light. Our planet is a lonely speck in the great enveloping cosmic dark. In our obscurity, in all this vastness, there is no hint that help will come from elsewhere to save us from ourselves.

“The Earth is the only world known so far to harbor life. There is nowhere else, at least in the near future, to which our species could migrate. Visit, yes. Settle, not yet. Like it or not, for the moment the Earth is where we make our stand.

“It has been said that astronomy is a humbling and character-building experience. There is perhaps no better demonstration of the folly of human conceits than this distant image of our tiny world. To me, it underscores our responsibility to deal more kindly with one another, and to preserve and cherish the pale blue dot, the only home we’ve ever known.

“Ann Druyan suggest an experiment: Look back again at the pale blue dot of the preceding chapter. Take a good long look at it. Stare at the dot for any length of time and then try to convince yourself that God created the whole Universe for one of the 10 million or so species of life that inhabit that speck of dust. Now take it a step further: Imagine that everything was made just for a single shade of that species, or gender, or ethnic or religious subdivision. If this doesn’t strike you as unlikely, pick another dot. Imagine it to be inhabited by a different form of intelligent life. They, too, cherish the notion of a God who has created everything for their benefit. How seriously do you take their claim?”

– Carl Sagan

Categories
family life Speck

New Dogs

Holly adopted two new chihuahuas, named John and Zooey. They’re three years old. They were rescued from abuse, which is always the best way to get a dog. Never, ever get one from a puppy mill, or even a pet store (which are usually supplied by puppy mills). Always rescue, and always get them fixed.

Until i get my Flickr stream integrated here, you can click on over to see them.

So far, Speck has been pretty kind, and puts up no fuss when they share his food. John, on the other hand, guards the community food dish zealously. The big fatass.

Categories
uncategorized

New Dogs

Originally published at jeremyjarratt.com. You can comment here or there.

Holly adopted two new chihuahuas, named John and Zooey. They’re three years old. They were rescued from abuse, which is always the best way to get a dog. Never, ever get one from a puppy mill, or even a pet store (which are usually supplied by puppy mills). Always rescue, and always get them fixed.

Until i get my Flickr stream integrated here, you can click on over to see them.

So far, Speck has been pretty kind, and puts up no fuss when they share his food. John, on the other hand, guards the community food dish zealously. The big fatass.