Greg In The Desert

In early May I spotted the first scorpion of the year in the house. In the last few years I have been living here, this is the earliest I have seen on in the house. In previous years I didn’t start to see them until July.

I was sure they were coming in from the garage so I put diatomaceous earth throughout the garage and around the entrances to the house. Diatomaceous earth works good on insects because it’s very itchy to insects and it will suck the moisture out of their bodies. In the case of scorpions I’ve read that they will just avoid it.

Tonight I came home and found Saturn playing with something. The good news is Saturn found a scorpion the bad news is the scorpion made it past my defenses. That means that it either went around the diatomaceous earth or it came in another way.

I will start going around the perimeter of the house sealing up cracks. I’m not sure what else to do.

• I’m glad the intel 3D glasses tell me which eye is which. #
• @fivezerofive you were saying? in reply to fivezerofive #
• @fivezerofive wait. Nevermind in reply to fivezerofive #
• I hope I look that good at 60 #
• It’s not worth my time to stand in line for a free crappy breakfast. #
• @fbihop that’s not breaking. He’s always been an idiot. #
• @fbihop you mean pointing out the obvious? Yes I got that but couldn’t help but respond. in reply to fbihop #
• @bsailer I love spaces. A lot of people don’t get it though. in reply to bsailer #
• What a surprise, Denny’s has been overwhelmed with it’s free breakfast promo. #
• OK all you people finishing your taxes. I just started up TurboTax. #
• BLAH! OMG diet coke is really quite terrible! #
• Ack! Even with whisky it’s still terrible. #
• Yay! Life is finally back. #
• @claystorm I’m no where near retirement age and the send me junk too. in reply to claystorm #
• 66 degrees in Rio Rancho #
• It’s going to be tough to work on the house with Dr. No ( Sean Connery as 007) on. #
• @claystorm Someday, it will be somewhere… in reply to claystorm #
• @bsailer Nice. in reply to bsailer #
• Sirens down Tulip road in Rio Rancho. Twice in the last 30 minutes. #
• What the hell? MobileMe hasn’t synced since 1/10? #

Rapid Weaver 3.6 has some great features. Enough to make me switch. I soon found out it had so bugs, specifically it would publish the enitre site instead of just the changes, even when I select “publish changes.” 3.6.1 & 3.6.2 were suppose to address this, I think. For me no dice. 3.6.2 was worse, it would crash while trying to publish anything.

Rapid Weaver 3.6.3 Beta seemed to finally fix both of these issues. I used it for a while and now it started crashing again. What the hell

I submitted bug reports and I hope they help, but I’ve had to switch back to 3.6.0.

Grrrrrrr…

I’ve been playing around with the new iMovie with iLife ‘08 and I just don’t get it. Why did Apple mess with it so much. They didn’t just update iMovie they completely rewrote it and totally screwed it up.

The one thing I liked about the old iMovie is that it was pretty obvious how to use it. This new version is far more complicated to figure out.

All I wanted from the old iMovie interface was a finder style movie clip interface so I could sort items by date. This whole rewrite was unnecessary.

On the other hand, iPhoto ‘08 is a great improvement.

The Pentagon has contracted Northrup Grumman to develop a travel booking system, (like Orbitz). If congress doesn’t kill it, it will end up costing nearly $474 million dollars. thats MILLION DOLLARS. Even if it cost $1 Million I would say it was excessive.

“It will take 200 years to ever pay back the cost of this contract in terms of that savings,” Sen. Tom Coburn, R-Okla., told ABC News, “especially when you consider they’re not getting the best price.” Four years ago, the Pentagon’s inspector general recommended killing the defense travel system altogether, but it survived. Investigators say 70 percent of Pentagon travelers refuse to use DTS because of faulty software or because they believe they can get a better price elsewhere.

I love the way Northrup Grumman tries to make it sound all good and rosy. My first question at reading this article is why the hell did they contract Northrup Grumman? If they really needed their own booking system, which I’m not convinced they do, why didn’t they contract a company that does this sort of thing. Like Expedia or Orbitz. My company uses American Express. Hell even IBM could have done it.

Why the hell would somebody need this? at $32 for 5 sheets, it’s not cheap. Looks like regular duct tape to me. At least they could have made it white.

Technical Details

• Totally Printable Duct Tape. Any Desktop Inkjet Printer or Dye Based Inkjet will print it.
• 5 sheets for Duct Tape Fashion or any Duct Tape Use Practical or Impractical
• Made from real Duct Tape
• Prints on Glossy Label Setting in Inkjet Printer Driver
• Needs Overlaminate to be Waterproof

Via Toolmonger.

What the hell? New Mexico Might Declare Pluto a Planet (Via Slashdot.)

“Wired and others are reporting that for New Mexico, the fight for Pluto is not over. Seven months after the International Astronomical Union downgraded the distant heavenly body to a ‘dwarf planet,’ a state representative in New Mexico aims to give the snubbed world back some of its respect. State lawmakers will vote Tuesday on a bill that proposes that ‘as Pluto passes overhead through New Mexico’s excellent night skies, it be declared a planet.’ The lawmaker who introduced the measure represents the county in which Clyde Tombaugh, Pluto’s discoverer, was born. For many of us old timers, and those who had the honor of meeting Clyde, this just causes a belly laugh and is pure fun. Not to mention a bit of poking a stick in the eye.”

Who the hell voted for this religious whack-o?

U.S. Rep. Katherine Harris told a religious journal that separation of church and state is “a lie” and God and the nation’s founding fathers did not intend the country be “a nation of secular laws.” The Republican candidate for U.S. Senate also said that if Christians are not elected, politicians will “legislate sin,” including abortion and gay marriage.

Harris made the comments – which she clarified Saturday – in the Florida Baptist Witness, the weekly journal of the Florida Baptist State Convention, which interviewed political candidates and asked them about religion and their positions on issues. Separation of church and state is “a lie we have been told,” Harris said in the interview, published Thursday, saying separating religion and politics is “wrong because God is the one who chooses our rulers.”

“If you’re not electing Christians, then in essence you are going to legislate sin,” Harris said.

I bought one of those M3Power razors, because as a gadget guy, I had to see for myself. And I quickly learned that it’s complete and utter bulshit. Since then I switched to the Schick 4 blade whatever-the-hell-there-called razors and find that they are cheaper and work as good if not better.

Anyways, Schick thought that the ads for the M3Power were bullshit too, and won in court. Good for them. You always expect the loosing side to put a positive spin on things, but Gillete’s spokeman should also be sued for this idioic statement:

But Szynal said the computer-generated image of the razor lifting hair away from the skin was never meant to be taken literally.

WTF? Do you think if I show a car driving down the road, then you buy it and it will not “drive down the road” that I can say, “well you shouldn’t really believe it should do that”? I’m so offended by their arrogance that I will never buy any of their products again.