What is this place? It seems familiar. It looks like a blog, but not. Kinda resembles an abandoned warehouse. Oh yes! … it’s my blog! I’ve been away too long, but sadly, I cannot stay. You see, there is this thing called Twitter. You might have heard of it.
… instead of trying to be clever and try to write something that fills up more than a few lines, I can be a smartass over Twitter. I don’t need to watch my language or my grammar or care about what I post. Not that I did any of that here anyway. I honestly can’t be bothered to form anything more than 140 characters, which is what Twitter limits me to. So yes, I know I have a blog. No, I won’t post here as often. If I can’t fit a single thought into 140 characters, then I might post here. My blogging comes in spurts and this is one of those lulls. Except this time I have an excuse. If there is a need to get in touch with me, you can find me at Twitter. If you wanted to get in touch with me through my blog, you probably would have signed up on Twitter anyway.
Who doesn’t like inside jokes? Who doesn’t like song parodies ala Weird Al Yankovic. Putting the two together are songs over at Palette Swap Ninja.
I decided to do a quick post about this since the songs have been giving me smiles every time they are played at the end of the OXM podcast. Check ‘em out. It’s great how it relates to any respectable gamer.
This year’s semifinal playoffs have been a total blast, yet I can’t help thinking a couple things that would make the NBA more accurate when officiating. Technology … the proper use of technology would go a long way in making the game fairer. Technology shouldn’t hinder the game. Technology shouldn’t slow the pace of the game … that is what is so exciting about basketball. With that said, there are two technologies in particular that I would like to see implemented.
Instant replays. Yes I know they already use instant replays in some instances such as game winning shots or to check if a foot was on the three point line. However, it is not used enough. Potentially dangerous plays are not called on the spot and have been missed many times. Some game changing fouls and no-calls have been made that on a close game can mean the difference between winning and losing. However, replays should be used at the discretion of the officiating crew. The NBA does not need American football style challenges. Remember, we don’t want to change the way the game is played, just make calls more accurate and the players safer. There are many times during a game that the officials consult each other on a given call … why not consult the sidelines as they would do on a potential game winning shot?
Accelerometers. They have it on the iPhone and pretty much every modern smartphone. It is not too far fetched for Spalding to stick a secure wireless accelerometer in their ball to tell the sideline crew the position of the ball. It would be great on goaltending calls. Two points here and there may not sound much, but when games are decided by one or two points, it makes all the difference.
Officials and their calls wrong or right are a big part of any basketball game. That shouldn’t change … but officials shouldn’t decide the outcome of games. // end rant
After weeks of trying to sell an item on eBay, I have given up and I don’t think I’ll ever try to sell anything on eBay ever again. Three times my auction was won and not paid for. Three times I did not get back my seller fees which I’m supposed to receive if there are issues with my auction.
The first auction, the buyer never paid for. The second, the buyer used an apparently hijacked account. The third time, the buyer was unregistered when I came back after seven days of no payment. Isn’t eBay supposed to inform users of events like this? I paid eBay in seller fees so I could waste my time.
Yes I know there are evil people on eBay, but not being able to sell a single item is just ridiculous. Where is the security? Why can’t users choose what kind of people can bid on their item? I will never again list on eBay unless I can choose how much reputation a bidder has to bid and how recently they have used their account.
I am not a big seller. I do not have the resources or patience to deal with all this fraud without even a valid bite. eBay, you fail.
On the bright side, one can still participate and enjoy bidding on items at eBay providing they are buying from reputable sellers. That is easier to figure out than when you are actually selling items.
Linux and Windows dual booting has always been a hassle. Linux likes to do it it’s way and Windows likes to do the same. Installing one after the other, one usually gets a nice friendly boot up screen that allows you to choose which operating system to boot. Windows 7 in it’s current form for some reason seems to despise other operating systems and does not to put an option to boot other operating systems after a fresh install when you installed Linux first.
While there are many ways to get the Windows bootloader to give you options, I find the best way to get the option to boot into Linux back is to re-install GRUB. I happen to use Kubuntu, so following the instructions step by step on any variation of Ubuntu should work while some other distributions might require some tweaking to the steps.
First you will need the live CD you used to install Linux. Boot into the live CD and open a terminal.
In the terminal, enter the following commands …
sudo grub
find/boot/grub/stage1
root (hd?,?)# replace ? with the information you got from the previous command.
setup (hd0)
quit
That’s it! Reboot and you should get your grub menu back.
For sale, this website, only $8,784. Well, no, not really. But check out Stimator, a pretty slick tool to place value on your website. I wouldn’t put any stock on the value it gives though.
