2.27.2006
8:26pm

When you make stupid mistakes, it's better to do so with inexpensive things than expensive things:

That is my iPod after getting run over by a car. When I was leaving work today I set my bag containing the iPod, earbuds, and USB cable on the roof so that I could grab something out of my back seat. Then I drove off with the iPod and company still on top of the car. I realized this halfway home, then drove back to Harris to look for the white and silver roadkill. I found it on the side road next to Harris where it had slid from its precarious perch. At first I was disappointed to see that someone had actually ran over it, considering it was in the middle of the lane and should have been straddled by any cars. Then I plugged it into my stereo and found out it would play music even though the screen was a garbled mess of blue, red, green, white, and black. Then I turned it off and it wouldn't come back on again. The area near the top of the casing was getting warm so I figured something had finally short-circuited. The hard drive looked remarkably intact when I popped the casing off so I'm going to sell that with as-is condition. If I had a laptop around here that used 1.8" drives I could have tested it myself.

2.23.2006
1:29am

This is just so great it needed its own post.

2.15.2006
8:57pm

The car wheel saga is drawn to a close, but not yet resolved completely. I no longer have a squeaking noise, thanks to the new rim, but my old hubcap does not quite fit the new wheel so it makes a rattling noise when I go over small bumps in the road. Fortunately it is held securely to the wheel by the four lug nuts, so I don't have to worry about it falling off.

I had a test yesterday in Microcomputer Systems 1, and there is a test tomorrow for Digital Electronics. What am I doing posting to my blog then? Who knows.

Prostitutes call for ban on GTA (Grand Theft Auto, PC game)
All in all, a hooker has better pay scale, less hours, and a chance to negotiate a better working environment. Also less likely to be outsourced.

2.6.2006
8:22pm

So my car has been having a problem over the last 3 weeks. The front left wheel has been making a chirping noise when rotating that has gotten progressively worse. On Saturday I took my car to Gattos but they couldn't diagnose the chirp since it was raining outside and they couldn't hear any noise, even when they tried raising in on the pneumatic lift. So I went back there this morning, when it wasn't raining, so that they could fix what I supposed was a bearing problem. Turns out they took the wheel off the car and realized it was cracked! There was a triangular crack along the edge that they presumed was causing the problem and they were also surprised that a steel wheel would somehow get cracked... apparently it's pretty rare except for cars that get into accidents and sustain damage. I didn't even hit any big potholes. There's some great Korean quality for you. Note to self: next car will be American or Japanese. So they put the cracked wheel back on and tell me to go to a place called Hubcap Depot on US1 by the waterfront. It's one of those run-down places that looks like crap from the outside but when you go inside you see all these nice rims in metal alloy and chrome. The guy didn't have my model of wheel in stock (13" is on the small side for a pimp-your-ride kinda shop) but he was able to order it for $58 plus shipping. Now I get to wait a couple days until it arrives, then switch out the wheels and hope the chirping goes away.

And that's my story for the week. I just want a car that doesn't break. Maybe my mom will decide to give me her Honda Accord instead of giving it to Dad... wishful thinking can't hurt :)

2.2.2006
4:40pm

Sitting here waiting for Computer Communications class to start and realized it was February now. This web site is still in need of an overhaul but no time to dedicate to it for now. Plus my plans for a fancy mySQL database and search feature and all of that are on hold until I learn more about web security from Whittaker. Today he told us there are 8 common ways to bypass a password prompt using things like SQL injection and string escape characters. Even though our class is supposed to focus on proper means for writing software I think we are going to end up digressing into security concerns and breaking software toward the end of the semester. In fact he said today that if some of the students in our class get interviews at Google he will be diverting the curriculum to focus more on software testing. That's fine by me, I'm sure anything he teaches is interesting and valuable.

This weekend I've got more homework to do (surprise) and maybe a trip to Margaritaville with some of the Student Ambassador alumni. Melissa is in town from Seattle and Bec is also around Melbourne. Should be lots of fun, especially if we can get some of the new members to tag along.