On my old site we had a cool litltle black-and-white Connectix Quickcam hooked up to a Mac in the engineering department. It was known as the Geekcam. This hasn't worked for a very long time. And now that I've set up the new site, I'm thinking about bringing it back from the dead. I think you can get a cheap webcam for $20 these days. Does anyone think this is worthwhile? Can anyone recommend a linux friendly webcam and software?
Wednesday, I had a chance to talk to a relative of mine for the first time. Donna Fleser up in Montague, MI helped me out with a little genealogical mystery I've been stuck on. She's my first cousin, once removed... I think I have that right. With the info she provided, I've been able to trace my Fleser line back to my great-great-great-great-great-grandfather. Thanks Donna!
Yesterday, my wife, bless her, gave me my birthday present a week early. Metroid Prime. If you have a 'Cube, you need this game. Easily my favorite game yet. It's like a real time Myst combined with first person shooter plus a bit more. It's really good... now if I can find that stinking heat suit...
My Metroid Prime playing was pleasantly interrupted last night by a phone call from an old friend; Danny PichŽ. He and his brother Doug were (and still are) my very good friends, though I don't talk to them, or any of the other "Forbes Guys" often enough anymore. Danny gave me some audio tapes some time ago, of some, er... skits, that we did when we were kids. I finally got around to digitizing and converting some of this to mp3s. It's very funny (and somewhat embarrassing) stuff. If anyone is interested in copies, let me know
For one reason or another, I've decided that researching my family history is interesting and so, I've just started researching multiple lines. I have a ton of stuff to compile from the interenet, but if you are a member of the following lines (or just know something about them) and can provide me with any information, birth, marriage and death dates, children, height, width, whatever, I would be really grateful. The lines in question are:
- Adam Fleser of Altsimten, Pirmsens, Rheinland-Pfalzm Germany b 17 August 1793
- Darius Bogart of Ohio b 1833
- John Layne (Lain) Sr. of Sequatchie Valley, Tennessee b c1768
- Robert Tate Sr. of Russell County, Virginia b c1725
If you have any information, please email me. I really appreciate your help.
Before I get started. Yeah, I'm a Lord of the Rings geek. It's no use telling me it's only a book/movie. It will do no good. I am seeking help.
I got an early birthday present in the form of the new Lord of the Rings:Fellowship of the Ring: Extended Edition (the title's nearly as long as the movie) last night. And the extra half hour is really worth while. Still, every time I watch it there are a few little details that really bother me. Now I understand that many changes were made from the book in order to shoe-horn this movie into it's svelte 3 and 1/2 hour running time, but several changes were made for no discernible reason. For example:
- Why didn't Gandalf add the flash of smoke when Bilbo dissapears?
- Arwen didn't cause the flood at Rivendale. Elrond and Gandalf did. I don't mind the broadening of her role and sort of combining her with Glorfindel, but does every elf get super-magic-powers? Bleh.
- Why wasn't it Aragorn that didn't want to go through the Mines of Moria instead of Gandalf?
- I don't recall orcs having the ability to crawl on walls and ceilings in the books.
- And finally in this extended version, they added the scene with Galadriel giving gifts, but not the correct ones. I understand changing Sam's gift from soil to rope, but not the others. Perhaps Aragorn couldn't get his scabbard since the sword is still in Rivendale as far as we know. They did get Frodo and Gimli's gifts correct though.
Ah well, still a really good show. I'm looking forward to The Two Towers.
Three sir!
Three things then:
- The new site is really coming along. I'm nearly there, but I need to slow down and get some other work done, and then I get some images up.
- Can someone explain to me why so many defensive coordinators are so enamored with the prevent defense??!! If it's so great, why not play it all game. I was at the Titans - Texans game this afternoon and watched the Titans nearly blow it after pretty much having their way with the Texans defensively all afternoon.
- And finally, Sue's birthday is Tuesday. She will have reached the staggeringly old age of 28. You can add a birthday greeting through the Comment link below. How's that for comment pimping Mark?
A tiny update on tonight's progress. I converted some more of the MovableType pages to the pr3d4t0r.com style. I also added my About page which contains a reference the Hitchhiker's method of flying. If you've never read The Hittchikers Guide to the Galaxy, this will give you a hint on the sort of thing you're missing out on. Funniest books ever.
For a very long time now, I've had an entry in my Visor: Update web page. It's been long overdue, and I'm only just getting started. We'll see if I finish anytime soon, or if it's like many of my other projects, I begin, but never quite finish.
This site will be a little different from the old in several areas:
- First, I'm incorporating a blog in hopes that it'll make it easier to update and hence a little more dynamic. I haven't updated Bits in nearly a year!
- Second, the name is changing to pr3d4t0r. Why? The short answer is the domain is available and it's my user name in several places, like Slashdot, Yahoo!, Battle.net, etc. So it's a little tricky to type. Type once. Bookmark. Voila! No more trying to remember my weird web site name.
- Third the geekcam link is no more. Though it may make a comeback if the demand is there.
- Fourth; on the right are the books I'm reading, music I'm listening too, etc. If you click on and then buy these items I'll get rich beyond my wildest dreams. Which is nice.
- Fifth. Hey maybe I'll add a web counter... ooooh.
Uh... there's other stuff I'm thinking about, but can't think of right now. Anyway. Play around with the blog, leave a comment, or not. Oh, and fans of Wil Wheaton Dot Net may notice a tiny bit of similarity between our sites. Wil seems like a nice guy. I don't think he'll mind.
And finally, I really haven't done much more than this front page just yet, so if you wander very far, you may, in fact, get a tiny bit lost.