While the new house was wired for satellite, the old house wasn't.  Instead, the former occupants had put up a small VHF antenna and wired it into the east bedroom (which became my SO's).  The antenna worked adequately until the switch to digital TV, when nearly all the local stations switched from VHF to UHF.  The old antenna became utterly ( Read more... )

(These instructions also apply to the Droid X and probably several other phones)

1.  Insert the USB plug into the jack on the bottom of the phone.
2.. Realize you're trying to insert the plug upside-down and flip it over.
3.  Insert the USB plug into the jack on the bottom of the phone.
4.  Realize you've been trying to plug into the HDMI jack.
5.  ( Read more... )

I spent about 10 hours last night upgrading my netbook to the latest version of Ubuntu, Lusty Lucid Lynx.  The download for the update is nearly 900 Megs.  I think that's bigger than the last service pack I installed on Vista.  Naturally, such a large download meant that my ISP decided to utterly suck so it took well into the early morning before ( Read more... )

I was expecting a package from UPS today.  They didn't deliver until 6:15, well after dark, and the driver left the package all the way down at the end of the driveway.  So I had to walk a half mile in the dark to go get it.  Thanks a lot.  At least it wasn't too horrifically cold (just below freezing) or windy and the snow and sleet won't start ( Read more... )

I preordered a copy of Scribblenauts and Amazon shipped it last week via extra-slow snail mail.  I kept visiting their site to track the package, and it finally said that it had arrived at the local post office this morning.

So I get in my car and drive allllllll the way over there (it's about 15 minutes away), but my box was empty.  I wait in line ( Read more... )

The inner slide rule bezel just came off my Citizen Skyhawk watch.  Figures, the warranty just expired, too.

EDIT:  And naturally, the battery is dead on my old Casio.

I was in the middle of doing my first load of laundry when the water stopped again.  At first I thought there was something wrong with the washing machine because it just sat there, making a funny noise.  Fortunately the water ran out just before it would have normally switched off, so I was able to trick the machine into continuing with the rinse ( Read more... )

I was wondering why every so often all the web sites I normally visit, like LJ and FA, would lose all my custom settings.  Apparently when AVG 8 detects a "tracking cookie", it helpfully DELETES THE ENTIRE COOKIES.TXT FILE!  That means every single cookie in Firefox gets wiped out, not just the tracking cookie.  Thanks, Grisoft!

I finished my taxes nearly 6 weeks ago, but I hadn't mailed them out yet because I owe money.  Good thing, since today I received some new paperwork.  Apparently there was some "long-term capital loss carryover" from my inheritance that I have to account for.  I'm not sure, but I think that means a possible reduction in my taxes.  That's a good ( Read more... )

It's rather annoying, I go to the supermarket and about 2/3rds of the "juice" they have for sale isn't pure juice, it's a little bit of juice mixed with water and sugar high fructose corn syrup.  Some brands are as low as 1% juice!

And even when you do find something that's 100% juice, chances are it's not 100% of the kind of juice on the front ( Read more... )