Hero Inc.

There’s a new member of my computer family. The new bundle of joy arrived on Wednesday afternoon and has amazed all of those that have seen it in person.  That’s right peeps.  I’m the proud owner of a netbook.

My original intent was not to get a netbook, but to possibly purchase a new mp3 player.  However, most of the ones I found were not better than my current Creative Zen Vision W.  I wanted my new player to be able to play music and videos as well as provide the basic ability to surf the web.  After looking at my options, it seemed that a netbook could produce the same results.  Therefore, I purchased the ASUS Eee PC. For those unable to click the previous link, here are the basic stats on it.

• 40GB Solid State Drive (No moving parts and less weight)
• 1.6 GHz Intel Atom N270 Processor
• 2 GB RAM (I upgraded during the purchase and installed myself)
• 6 Cell Battery (long life)
• Linux (Xandros or Debian variant)

Now before we go any farther, this technological wonder needs a name.  For those that are truly unfortunate to know me, understand that I name my pieces of tech based on, what else, but super heroes (Inventory =>  Old Desktop: Lantern1, Old Laptop: Gray Ghost, New Desktop: Black Panther/Lantern, Media Hard Drive: Cerebro).  The netbook’s name is so perfect that I love to share it.  Based on the color and processor mentioned above, I dub thee Black Atom. It is a combination name based on both Black Adam and The Atom. Bring on the geek jokes.

For those living in fear of Linux because you heard it is “difficult,” then this netbook is perfect for you.  Out of the box and fully charged, Black Atom runs like a charm.  It comes with all of the necessary software already installed and configured for your daily use, such as a browser (Firefox), Office Suite (StarOffice), Music Player (Amarok), Instant Messenger (Pidgin and Skype with web cam ability), Photo Organizer (Picasa) and Video Player (Kaffeine).  The interface is trimmed to not pose as a full desktop.  Some people may hate that, but I think for those non-techies it is perfect for what a netbook is used to do and it gives those techies the perfect ability to make the needed changes through back channels.

Now on to tweaking Black Atom to my liking (opening the Linux up more for my use, adding my music, installing extra software, etc.). I will leave you with a quick video I made of the machine starting up (notice the speed that comes with a solid state drive) and walking through the interface.

For future reference, here are a few great links that are helping me make Black Atom into the machine I want it to be.

• Tweaking for Beginners
• Icons, Icons, and More Icons (In French)
• Install Filezilla

I’m still doing the Linux thing at home and will be doing it in a mobile way soon (more to come later), but I figured I’d park my latest information concerning Linux for those interested as well as my own personal journal of my linux journey (A Penguin And Me Lives!). At least this way if I screw it all up in the future, I’ll remember what to go back and do.

• Databases – Due to work at my job and other online related work, I’ve come to join the simplest most powerful tool I know, the database. In my eyes a database should be created for anything and everything. It can be as disposable as a piece of paper but as powerful as the information contained within it. It holds my music habits as well as posts for this site. At work if I get frustrated by the more powerful Excel commands, I’ll offer to throw everything into a quick database to run queries against. I’m lazy and don’t feel like giving more of my mind to Microsoft at the moment.

  Overall, I’ve found that the best GUI tool available, for me at least, is DBVisualizer. It works on Windows for those interested and is free. Yay, free. Most repositories should have it available for quick install. I did encounter an issue when trying to start the program initially after the install. It would fail every time. Thanks to the internet, yet again, I found that I needed to modify the “my.cnf” file and comment out the “skip-networking” line. With that simple change, I was up and running with ease.

• Application List – From the beginning of my work installing Linux at home, I’ve kept a application list document that helps me keep track of what I use daily and what I need to install to keep everything running smoothly. This application list is not distro specific.

  I’ll continue to update it as I go for those, other than me, who are interested.

• Amarok Scripts – In a previous post, I mentioned writing a simple script to turn Amarok into my own personal alarm clock. Maybe I should have saved time and performed more research because someone built it before me and a billion times better. I feel so small now. WeekAlarm has a better interface than my script (mine had none) and the configuration parameters make it much easier to setup and control.

  I even found a good Amarok script that works with my IM client, Pidgin (see below).

• Pidgin Plugins – There are many different IM clients available (Google Talk, Skype, MSN, Yahoo, etc.) and I’m certain many people have accounts on all of them. Having 4 applications open that perform the same task is just annoying in my eyes. That’s why I use Pidgin. Not only does it work across multiple clients, but it is extensible in the same way that FireFox and Amarok are, via scripts or plugins. As mentioned above, I have a Pidgin plugin, called MusicTracker, that will update my IM status with whatever is currently playing from Amarok. Since music is huge to me, this is kind of nice and easy for me to share. However, the best plugin for Pidgin is one that comes by default. This plugin, Text Replacement, is my biggest tool in my ultimate goal of scripting my life away. Out of the box, it helps with the general everyday corrections that one commonly needs while sending messages online. By adding on top of that, you can basically turn four letter word into a complete sentence that you type 20 times a day. As an example, I use Pidgin at work and have the following text replacement scenarios setup (Text:What To Replace Text With).

  ATL:Atlanta, SFO:San Francisco, LAX:Los Angeles, FWD:Forward, FWDD:Forwarded, PLS:Please,HA3:Ha ha ha.

  I usually add a few more each day because I can’t stand typing all of these out every time. It may be my OCD taking over but I’d say it helps to speed up my typing.

Oh yeah, for those also interested, Waldo has been found.

…To Zambia.

As the press release states, my good buddy David is leaving the country. I’m not truly sure why since it is in such perfect shape now, but that’s a different story for a different day on a different site.

In order to aid in the extradition transfer of this wonderful American and great guy, he is calling on the help of as many people his voice, his brother’s voice, and any one else’s voice can reach. You could even get a cool t-shirt out of the whole deal.

If you have the time, if you have the funds, if you have anything you can do to help, take the time and effort to help however you can. Please use the information contained on the press release for donations or best wishes.

Feel free to join the Facebook group as well.

Thanks in advance and did I mention the press release that you should read?

Eye of the Tiger I do not have.

Late last year, a few people noticed that I had a raised bump located on my left eye. After much prodding from the girlfriend, I finally made an appointment to see what the issue was. Here‘s a quick photo of what I looked like during this period. You can easily notice that something is up with my eyes. Of course, this was only after a second bump appeared under my right eye. It turned out that the bumps were styes. These can be ordinary for some people, but mine were not in ordinary locations (on my left eyelid and under my right eye). After countless drugs and steroids (I’m a user and abuser), I chose to undergo a minor procedure to have them removed because they were irritating my eyes and killed my “beautiful face.”

I’m not going to lie. The procedure hurt. A needle is used to inject the substance to numb the area around my eye. It’s an intense burning pain that lasts about 5 seconds. Normally I can just make a tight grip to get beyond most pain, but this was a different type altogether. Anyway, all other aspects of the procedure were quick and painless and I was on my way. Now, on my way meant I was Pirate Ben for the day and looked like I had just lost a fight to my girlfriend.

For those interested in the gross and disgusting, here is a quick link to some youtube videos showing the procedure being performed. I highly recommend the squeamish turn away (this means you Will). Even I was disgusted and I had already gone through the procedure.

Check out the Pictures section for the after shots of my eyes.

Overall moral of the story? Take Care Of Your Eyes!

Here’s the next set of reviews from my Netflix queue.

Wal-Mart: The High Cost Of Low Price Yeah, this movie pretty much killed any chance that I will go back to Wal-Mart. Shame on the Waltons. Shame. [Rating: 4/5]	Little Britain – Season 1 Disc 1 Not as good as the episode I saw on HBO while I was on the road but it was your typical British comedy. [Rating: 3/5]
Appaloosa Best Western I’ve seen since 3:10 To Yuma. Of course, it is the only Western I’ve seen since then. Ended well though. [Rating: 2.5/5]	A Streetcar Named Desire “Can’t you hear me yella. You’re putting me through hella. Stella. Stella!” Damn you Simpsons. Ruined my ability to…to… [Rating: 3.5/5]
Heat I felt like I was watching TDK’s bank heist but a long drawn out version of it. And was I the only person not to be in this movie? [Rating: 4/5]	How to Lose Friends & Alienate People Simon Pegg is great even in not so great movies. “Orlando, you used to be English.” [Rating: 3/5]

This past Saturday, May and I headed to midtown Atlanta to take a mutal friend out to eat for her birthday.  During our sushi/birthday adventure we enountered a moral dilema/karma moment.

As we headed back to my car, Erin spotted a set of keys sitting on top of a car that was parked behind mine.  We lightly joked that these keys might belong to one of the cars in the area.  I picked them up and pushed the “lock” button.  Sure enough, the keys locked the vehicle that were located under the keys.  Oops.  At this point in time, we had three basic theories on why the keys were here.

1. Due to the current recession someone was actually looking for the car to be stolen in order to cash in on the insurance because the current payments could not be made for the car.
2. This was a pay it forward moment.  I mean, it was a Lexus.
3. Stupid moments happen from time to time and this was one of those REALLY stupid moments.

Basically at this point we chose to go with option 3.  In order to produce good karma for all three of us, we chose to do something about it.  We wrote a short note stating that we locked the keys in the car for “safety.”  The owner might not have liked this option because they would have to pay for a locksmith, but at least this way they would still have a car (barring that option 1 wasn’t the correct one).  The note was left on the driver’s seat folded so that the words “Read Me!” were plain to see.

As we drove away, we all encountered a great sense of moral victory.  Go us!  We are good Samaritans without the need for a reward.  My only regret is not leaving a phone number to ensure that the car’s owner made it home safely that night from downtown.

Besides this interesting encounter, I visited the High Museum for the first time in order to view the Terracotta army.  Sorry for no pictures of them but no cameras allowed in the exhibit.

The unfilmable graphic novel is finally filmed.

Watchmen was written by Alan Moore (V For Vendetta) and he hates you for going to see this movie.  Really, he does.  He’s a purist and believes that his creation should never be reproduced in a different medium other than it’s original.  The Watchmen was a story based on a set of characters DC had bought and had no real avenue to use them until Moore decided to use them for his ultimate tale.  According to the wiki, the Watchmen is “set in an alternate reality which closely mirrors the contemporary world of the 1980s. The primary point of divergence is the presence of superheroes. Their existence in this iteration of America is shown to have dramatically affected and altered the outcomes of real-world events such as the Vietnam War and the presidency of Richard Nixon. In keeping with the realism of the series, although the costumed crime fighters of Watchmen are commonly called “superheroes”, the only character who possesses obvious superhuman powers is Doctor Manhattan. The existence of Doctor Manhattan has given the U.S. a strategic advantage over the Soviet Union, which has increased tensions between the two nations. Additionally, superheroes have become unpopular among the public, which has led to the passage of legislation in 1977 to outlaw them. While many of the heroes retired, Doctor Manhattan and the Comedian operate as government-sanctioned agents, and Rorschach continues to operate outside the law.”

I was quite worried that this story truly was unfilmable, but it seems that Zack Snyder (300) did the best that he could and the story came together quite well.  Better than expected in some cases.  Both the Comedian and Rorschach were brilliantly cast and I could not ask for better characters.  It almost feels that they were truly lifted off the pages of the graphic novel.

Now the downfall of making this movie great occur in 2 areas for me.  The first is a combination of gratuitous violence and sex.  I don’t normally mind both of these items in a film as long as they are truly used to move a story forward.  On both accounts, I felt that neither helped the film.  It was just over the top and I didn’t need it.  The second area was the music.  A real soundtrack (actual songs) were used and at time it made the film feel campy and underrated the “seriousness” of certain scenes.  Simon & Garfunkel during the funeral as well as Cole’s Unforgettable worked well, but many of the songs later used (during Vietnam scene, horrible “Hallelujah” cover, and final few songs) made me lose interest in actually listening to what was going on.

Overall, as you can already tell, the movie was good, but not great.  This is another film that proves the book was better than the movie.  However, the changed ending from the film, does work better in some ways than the one in the graphic novel.

[Rating: 3/5]

Many of you who see me on a regular basis have already heard the argument that is about to be presented.  This will be an argument I will make every year until I can eat them no more.  Here we go.

Reese’s Easter Eggs are the greatest candy.  Period.

I’ll give you a moment to take that one in, again.

…

…

Yeah I said it.  Sure there are other good candies, but the Reese’s Easter Egg is just so perfect.  I’m a believer that it has something to do with the new shape that calls for a new ratio of peanut butter to chocolate.  Maybe there is a math equation to prove it. Don’t even try to bring up those mini versions because those are not the same. It’s the large ones I’m discussing here today.

In college, I remember joining some friends home one night from downtown as we forced May, our driver, to take us to a store that would have them.  To our horror, all shops were closed.  Noooooo!!! Forgive the random story. It was a fun night.

Besides that horror story, every year I stock up like a bear preparing for winter.  If I can’t get girl scout cookies, then I have to get my number one fix.  You can point and laugh all you want, but I’ve already purchased 4 bags.  My roommate will vouch for me.  I plan to purchase more and more until I can buy and sell them like stocks (except these will have some kind of value).  And if Will was in town, I’d probably end up in the hospital due to Reese’s Easter Egg poisoning.

Here’s a nice advertisement for all that love the eggs as much as I do.

One of the latest WordPress plugins I have found is one used for Facebook. Facebook Comments will pull comments left on Facebook within the Notes application and import them into one’s WordPress blog. I’ve started using the Notes application lately and found it quite annoying that I could not keep my comments synced up in a single location. Well thanks to this plugin I can.

Except that now it is broken. Facebook Comments relies heavily on regular expressions to find the comments within the HTML of the Facebook page. Whenever the HTML is updated (which seems to happen often lately), a change to the Facebook Comments plugin is needed. The guy that originally wrote the plugin seems to be quite busy and wasn’t able to get around to a fix so I took a quick stab at it. Not only did I fix it (I think), I also added an additional feature that allows one to give a default url for all Facebook comment posters.

I haven’t been able to reach the original creator yet to offer my solution so I’ll post it here until he responds. Please enjoy it and let me know if you find any additional errors in it. I must state that my regular expression skills are nonexistent and I had to do the best that I could with my limited knowledge.

Change Log:

• 0.36 – March 21 2009 – Due to the latest changes from Facebook, a few changes were needed for the plugin. I’m now posting my 0.36 version that I’ve tested locally. This will remove the extra link Facebook adds when a comment is too long. I did notice a new bug that deals with how Facebook changes links within comments, but that’s a fix for another day and time.
• 0.35 – March 13 2009 – Due to the latest changes from Facebook, a few changes were needed for the plugin. I’m now posting my 0.35 version that I’ve tested locally.
• 0.34 – March 01 2009

Update for April 30, 2010: I have decided to end all development and future development related to this plugin. The reasoning for this change can be found here. I have closed the ability to post comments to this post and hope any further comments will be directed at my reasoning post.

I heard the rumors late this week that snow was headed for Atlanta, but I didn’t believe it.  Well, I woke up this morning and it was…raining.  However, when I started playing Snow Patrol’s Chasing Cars by Vitamin String Quartet, all of that changed.  I’ve uploaded a horrible video (in quality) to showcase the snow for those that are not seeing it in Georgia or are not currently located in Georgia.

The forecast calls for about 1-4 inches of snow, which is a large amount for Georgia, but I don’t really see it sticking around. Yay for the snow we have!