Category: computer

it’s truly sad that it has taken me this long to learn how to change any part of the style of this blog. it’s been over a year but i am finally beginning to make some sense of how this thing operates. i know for some of you this is no big deal, but for me this is a major victory. i’m just not as much of a computer geek as i once was. yet tonight i was able to change the background on this stupid thing (which now doesn’t match the color scheme of the rest of the page – that will change later), add a sub-title to the top-menu, and change the alignment of my title & sub-title on the top-menu. i’ll work on other changes tomorrow (or maybe the next day).

in celebration of the fact that i have moved a very small step (and i do mean a very small step) back toward the computer geek i once was i would like to announce that i am seriously considering buying a powerbook. just thinking about buying a powerbook is the most exhilarating computer thing i’ve ever done. here are the reasons for possibly buying a powerbook:

• macs are better at video editing than pcs are and i will be doing a fair amount of video editing on the new laptop.
• because of pam’s educational discount the pc and mac prices are roughly equivalent
• mac computers seem to have a longer “shelf-life” than pcs do
• i will not be using or supporting microsoft windows – this is a big plus.
• they’re cool – not a great reason but still a truthful statement concerning the powerbook.

i still haven’t made my final decision on which laptop to get but i’m getting closer. no matter what i buy, pc or mac, i will always be able to say that i once considered buying a mac. i some truly stupid way i have to admit that i feel better about myself for having at least once thought of buying a mac.

i have recently gotten involved in a internet forum for youth ministers. there’s alot of good conversation that goes on there and i am always finding new ideas within the discussions. the problem with the forum is that i have suddenly realized that i long for people’s electronic approval of my comments. i’ll make a funny comment and then come back later to see if someone has put up a LOL or ROTFL acknowledging the humor of what i have said. i’ll post a thoughtful comment and then return again and again to see if people have agreed with me and acknowledged the superior nature of my thought.

i am such an addict!

i come back again and again looking for this electronic approval. it’s reach the point that i now audibly laugh to myself when i post something funny or i’ll comment “oh, that’s good” when i know that i have made a good point within a discussion.

this is sad

please don’t post a comment. it will only encourage me to long for more.

the world wide web is a great thing for vehicle owners who don�t like to spend allot of money � or any money for that matter. i purchased fred, my 1998 explorer, last week and being as it is a used car it’s needs a small amount of work. fred is really in great shape, but he does need small things like replacing the keyless entry remote. i called my local ford dealer about replacing the keyless entry remote and they told me they would be glad to replace it and reprogram the system for the new remote for a mere $110 ($75 for the remote plus $35 for programming). they thought it was a great idea. i thought it was completely overpriced. i can buy a new non-ford system for $40. since half my genetic code has come from floyd terrell my dna has programmed me to be naturally cheap.

ebay fits right into my cellular need to not spend money. ebay is the internet home of the cheapskate. i went to the site and searched for a keyless entry remote and found one for $11. bingo. half the problem was solved but i still needed to figure out how to program the stupid thing. a remote without programming to match the vehicle doesn’t do much good. i guess i could stand outside the car in parking lots and just pretend to lock the truck with the remote hoping that any car thieves around see me and decide not to steal the explorer based on the fact that they saw my remote. i could even make the little locking beep noise with my voice. that should scare off all the criminals. if nothing else they might think “don’t mess with the crazy guy’s truck.” i think that would be an effective anti-theft device.

once again the internet saved my cheap side the grief of having the spend money. with a 15 minute search i found the instructions for setting the vehicle to recognize my $11 remote. the $35 reprogramming fee that ford was going to charge me was for turning the ignition switch on 8 times in 10 seconds and then pushing any key on the remote. that’s all it took to program the receiver to recognize the new ebay remote. i bet ford had to spend weeks training their mechanics to know how to do that.

so let me tally this again – ford wanted $100 to give me a new remote and program it – the internet only cost me $11 to do the same thing. i love the internet.

i’ve been gone for the past month working on getting our disciplenow done. it was a very busy month. it’s over now and i can start posting again.

two weeks ago my car for the past 14 years decided that it had lived a long enough and fruitfull enough life and it gave up the ghost. of course, being the car of personality that the protege was it decided that it would be better to die on the side pof the interstate rather than dying in a parking lot or some other boring place. so the little red car decided to leave me on the side of i-10 during busy saturday traffic. i had to wait three hours on the side of that road waiting for the tow truck to come pull my poor little car to safety. while i was waiting several people stopped to help me. they would stop behind my car, here me say that i had already called a tow truck, and then be trapped behind my car by the constant on coming trafic (they should have parked in front of my car but people never think these things through).

after a few hours the tow truck finally arrived. at the same time a small pick up truck pulled up behind my broken protege. i felt pretty sorry for this guy. afterall, he was trying to be a good samaritan and now he had put himself into the position of being stuck behind my car – the traffic was going to keep him on the side of the road. the driver of the truck got out and started walkig over to me. when he reached me he pulled out an atlas and asked if this was “i-10 west”. i told him that it was i-10 east and that he needed to go the other direction. he asked where the closest exit was and then left. he never offered to help or even said he hoped my car would be okay. i guess he just figured that the guy stuck on the side of the road was someone who couldn’t run away from him when he asked his questions concerning where he needed to go.

anyhow, the on coming traffic did end up sticking him behind my car. of course, i didn’t really feel that sorry for him.

i really don’t like microsoft. i’m not real sure why but i know that i don’t. i think it is the fact that software-wise microsoft owns everything. they are such a corporate giant that they simply swallow up new things as they come about. they are the roman empire of the programing world. i fairly sure that i wouldn’t have liked the romans if i had lived in the 1st century and i know that i don’t like their 21st century equivalent.

what saddens me is that i have microsoft stuff on my computer. ahhhhhh! i feel like such a hypocrit. i would swap to linux but that would confuse pam and i don’t want to do that. i have to use microsoft at the church because that what our systems guy uses. now i’ve gotten so use to microsoft junk that i have trouble doing things for other platforms. i started using mozilla as my browser as an attempt to get away from explorer and now i’ve found that i didn’t code the student ministry page right for anything other than ie. i hate microsoft. i think i am going to purposefully start avoiding everything microsoft again. this might tear down my work for awhile but i think i would feel better.