Barnson.org

Now that the election has passed, let’s get back to the important stuff, namely, helping Sammy G with his tech needs.

I need to know how to create an exact replica of an install DVD. I have a 100% legal copy of a popular office software program that was bought with legal tender. I then had to send the DVD on to another office. To have a working backup copy of the original DVD on-hand, I tried ripping an .iso file and then burning the .iso file using MagicIso but it didn’t work.

Help?

I wrote this over on Facebook, thought I’d share it here, too. You have it sir

You should know we’re scared. Many of us who voted for you, most of us who voted against you. We’re scared.

We’re scared because a lot of us are pro-life. We’re scared because a lot of us are Republican. We’re scared because a lot of us have said to our friends and family that you could be another Lincoln, sir.. and if you’re not.. if you go against the ideals of “The Audacity of hope”, if you fail to unite, if you swing major abortion legislation, if you fail to extricate us from our wars with honor and victory, if you fail to fix our economy – IF YOU FAIL TO BE PRESIDENT FIRST AND PARTY MEMBER SECOND.. then we’re lost.

Some are praying tonight they were right about you, and some are praying they were wrong. Hope always accompanies Fear, and you sir embody both to a lot of us.

God Bless you, Sir. God Bless the historicity of your position. God bless the people for whom you are a beacon. We see in you the potential for greatness.

Don’t let us down, America

I receive a lot of questions as to what someone should choose for their first plane. My first recommendation is always use a simulator if at all possible so you can find out if you enjoy flying a model plane, and to teach you how to fly without crashing right away. My second recommendation is to find an experienced flyer through your local club who is willing to mentor you in how to fly model aircraft. They are no less complicated or difficult to fly than full-scale; in fact, in many ways they are much harder than full-scale due to parallax shift, eyesight limitations, and control reversal. Here’s my response to a friend with this same question.

On Mon, November 3, 2008 14:33, Richard wrote: > What would you recommend I consider for a good starter plane setup and > vendor(s)? I would prefer something that I could still use after I advanced > beyond a beginner stage. I appreciate any input.

I get this question a lot. I still fly my trainers for fun; although it’s challenging to do certain aerobatics with them (notably inverted flight), even after five years of flying I love whipping out a trainer and surprising people with what they can do. If you have enough power, though, you’d be amazed at what a well-built trainer can do!

Basically, it all depends on your budget and transportation. Any good moderately-aerobatic trainer will continue to be a lot of fun for years to come. If you can’t put together $200, though, I really strongly recommend saving your money a bit longer to buy something nice and be able to afford spare parts. Investing a bit more money ($500-$600) will afford you a good starter radio.

If you can, buy a *used* aircraft. Bring them to a club meeting to help get a look over the aircraft, or even mention that you’d like to buy a ready-to-fly trainer. Often, club-mates have a spare trainer sitting in the garage that they haven’t flown for a few years and would be willing to part with. Sure, it’s going to have battle scars and repairs, but you’re going to inflict your share of them by the time you finish learning!

Small/park-flyer (electric “400” or nitro “.049” size): HobbyZone Super Cub. $160 RTF, buy a spare battery or two and a spare charger or two (figure an all-up cost of around $250 once you figure in spare parts). Slow, stable, fun to putt around with. The 8-cell battery upgrade (or going to a 3-cell Lithium Polymer batteries) is REALLY worth it due to our altitude. It can handle a little bit of wind, but really the wind should be less than 5MPH for learning. Downside: it’s only three channels (throttle, elevator, rudder) so the aerobatic potential is limited.

The Super Cub is the only one of these that I’d advise teaching yourself on. Even with that, time spent on a simulator or with an instructor is totally worth it in money saved on spare parts on an entirely new airplane.

Larger (“.15” size): A superb choice is the “Apprentice 15e RTF with DX5e Radio”. The radio can be used with multiple receivers (though it’s not a computer radio) and is 2.4GHz DSM2, so you can fly just about anywhere without worrying about radio interference. The plane is EPP foam so it’s really durable for the “oops” moments, and easy to fix with a little bit of epoxy or hot glue. Downside: it only comes with one battery, and Lithium Polymer batteries require an hour to recharge. Additional batteries are quite expensive. But it’s an excellent, quiet, large-park or flying-field capable aircraft and I’ve been really impressed with it (I’d like to buy one myself). $300, plus the cost of extra batteries and possibly a dedicated second charger. At 12 oz/sq ft, the wing loading isn’t light (it’s a little fast for a rank beginner), but moderately aerobatic, tough, and fun. Awesome on a buddy-box.

Traditional size (“.40” size): The Hangar 9 Alpha 40 DSM2 includes the same radio as the Apprentice, but is built-up balsa with a lighter wing loading, slower flight, and similar maneuverability. It’s also glow-powered, so plan on adding another $150 to the $400 purchase price for a flight box, fuel, glow starter, etc. However, the advantage of glow is that you can usually get in 4-7 flights before the receiver pack battery is exhausted, which is generally a full flying session. And if you recharge for 15 minutes after each flight, you can basically fly the plane all day if you have the fuel. Over the long term (200 flights or so), glow and electric have similar costs, but over the short term, glow is much cheaper than electric in these larger sizes. This size and larger pretty much should only be flown at a dedicated flying field.

Slightly larger than traditional size (“.60” size): Hangar 9 Alpha 60 ARF, or the Hobby Lobby Telemaster Senior. You will need to buy servos, engine, radio, etc. and that drives the cost up (plan to spend close to $700-$800), but a lot of flyers say they love the larger size of this class of airplane because it’s easy to see in the air, response time is much slower (nice for newbies), and they really “float” well.

Planes I recommend against: * Hangar 9 PTS planes. Unless your first several dozen flights are on a buddy box with an experienced trainer, these are not really good for “training” on. They look cool, but you really need an experienced buddy on the trainer cord or you’ll end up with an expensive pile of balsa wood. If you have a patient trainer willing to spend a lot of time with you, though, they are great.

* ParkZone J-3 Cub. Just say no. Horrible flyer. Even with the recent brushless upgrade.

* FlyZone planes. They fly… barely. Our altitude kills their performance.

Let me know if this helps!

–Matt

This song is over 2 years old, but I wonder how many of you saw the video. I keep watching it every so often just because of its wonderful homage to Spinal Tap. It’s hilarious.

For today’s Blast From The Past, I give you the video to Korn’s Twisted Transistor.

Note: Sysadmins may free to embed YouTube link directly into post if possible

I will always remember from Orwell’s 1984 the point about the massive propaganda machine put into motion by the state, and how as soon as a new story broke, the entire machine was made to forget the past.

Does anyone remember the war in Iraq? It’s absurd, over this past month, how all political speech has moved off Iraq and onto tax policy, the domestic economy, and general candidate character issues without mentioning Iraq. It’s as though the entire issue has been forgotten. Meanwhile, I’m a single-issue voter on this issue alone. It’s pretty disgusting.

The following is heavily paraphrased. I also wish I could imitate the accent in writing, because apparently “room” and “robe” sound exactly the same from the other fellow’s mouth and to his ear.

Phone. Dialing. Ringing. Huge phone tree. Then, in a thickly accented voice, I heard:

“Hello, thank you for contacting Squigglesoft Hardware technical support. My name is Ramachandran, but you may call me Randy. How can I help you today?”

I replied in my American accent: “Uh, hi, my name is Matt Barnson. I have a problem with my laptop. I was in my bathrobe, and had my laptop, and the laptop shocked me when I set it on my lap.”

“I’m sorry, sir, did you say you were in the bathroom?”

“No. In my bathROBE.”

“You were in your bathroom when your computer shocked you?”

“No. I was in my bedroom, in my bathrobe, using my computer. I set it on my lap, and the computer shocked me.”

“Oh, sir, you should not be using your Squigglesoft notebook computer in the bathroom. Electricity and water is very dangerous, sir.”

“No, buddy, you got it wrong. I was in my bath ROBE. As in a ROBE that you wear TO the bath. I was not in the bath.”

“You were in your bath using your computer, sir?”

“No, I just said I wasn’t in the bath.”

“OK, sir, I am not interested in where you weren’t; where exactly were you when you were using the computer?”

“In my bedroom.”

“In the bathroom in your bedroom?”

“In a chair. In my bedroom. A regular chair. And when I set the computer on my lap, it shocked me on my bare leg.”

“Then when were you in your bathroom, sir?”

“Uhh, probably a few minutes earlier. But when I use the toilet is irrelevant. The fact is, I was in my bathrobe and when I set the laptop on my lap, the bare inside of my leg got a terrible shock going down to my toes.”

“So you were sitting in your bathroom using your notebook computer, and it shocked you? Was it plugged in at the time?”

“Yes, it was plugged in, but no, I wasn’t using it in the bathroom. What’s this with you and the bathroom, anyway? I was in the BEDroom, in a chair.”

“Sir, the bottom of most notebook computers become quite hot during use. We do not advise using your computer while unclothed.”

“I was clothed. I was in a bathrobe.”

“I thought you were not in a bathroom, sir?”

I hung up and got a different service tech.

Ode to an Xbox Bag by Matthew P. Barnson

In a dusty, small corner Of the cubicle farm Sits a black bag with logo emblazoned.

Rather wrinkled and small, Not notable at all, She kind of looks like an oversized raisin.

The bag’s unassuming; Who would think of presuming Her age and reasonable condition?

‘Cuz I’m here to tell ya Let me hear a “hell yeah!” This bag is surprisingly bitchin’.

She was bought at a yard sale For one-hundred bucks With game console and six games attached.

I would never have thought That this bag that I bought Would have quality clearly unmatched.

You see, I’m quite hard on bags I create tears, rips, and sags, Merely by using them regularly.

Destroying stitches and trappings And specialty strappings For mercy, I leave the bags begging me.

I destroy pockets and innards, And like that old canard “Buy cheap, buy twice” so it goes.

A succession of backpacks Briefcases and lap bags With me, have violent and short death throes.

This bag has a foam liner The tag reads “Made In China” With “Genuine Stuffalon Fabric”.

I don’t know what it is, But this “Stuffalon” biz Takes abuse altogether barbaric.

It was kind of surprising The day I decided To dig this old bag out of storage.

But I was desperate for a way To carry equipment that day And this bag caught my eye while I foraged.

With microphone cables And mixers galore She came back to a different kind of duty.

She was stuffed to the gills By my mad packing skills This bag was no Wasilla beauty.

Since then, every day I’ve abused her this and that way With attempts to retire her from service.

I’ve worn her on my bike While camping, and on hikes, And she never required a reservist.

And still to this day This old bag keeps at bay The requirement to purchase another.

She’s been hardy and tough In the roughest of stuff No matter how I fling and shove her.

Will she last till I die? Will I care just to try? Will I donate it to my great-nephew’s niece?

Will she be displayed at my funeral, Fluffed up and really cleaned well, Along with my airplanes and PCs?

But I know this sad fact That this bag on my back Probably has a fate with far less honor.

The bag looks worn and dated, And even so highly-rated…

I think soon this bag is a goner.

My wife picked up a Wii Fit at a local retailer a couple of weeks ago. The kids have been playing a lot, as have my wife and I. While I don’t think it quite lives up to the name of making one “fit”, the tracking features and exercises will substitute for hard cardio when you don’t want to strap on the running shoes.

One of the features of the Wii Fit is a daily “body test”. You don’t have to do it after the first one, but it starts reminding you to do your body test, particularly if you haven’t done one for a few days. In this body test, it evaluates your weight as a function of your BMI: Body-Mass Index. Of course, it will also show you your weight… but only if you click the “Weight” button. It then stores this information and shows you a graph of your progress toward your BMI goal.

There are a few valid criticisms of the BMI, particularly for the very short and very muscular. That said, however, if your BMI says you’re “obese” and you don’t have bulging muscles and look like a body-builder, you definitely have a lot of weight to lose. Improve your diet, go for a jog, and put up some weights on a regular basis, Fatty.

I recently wrote a forum posting on a bodybuilding forum I’m a part of. A user asked about difficulty thinking during the first few days on a Cyclical Ketogenic Diet.

The overzealous rationalist returns!

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I recently went back on Atkins (very similar to the MANS/CKD diet, at least five days out of the week) after a four-year lapse, but I’d maintained it for two years before getting sick and falling off my eating plan.

What you’re referring to, if you’re new to low-carbohydrate eating, is “brain fog”. A lot of people experience it, particularly in the first three to five days on the diet. It’s usually a symptom of insufficient glucose to the brain. When you are low-carbing, your body relies on ketogenesis (fat to acetoacetate metabolism) and gluconeogensis (protein to glycerol metabolism) to power your body, rather than carbohydrates.

The issue is that the brain takes some time to get used to the idea of using acetoacetate for function. It takes long-term low-carbing (or starvation) of at least several days for it to reach its maximum use of acetoacetate rather than its preferred food, glucose. That said, the maximum amount of acetoacetate the brain can use is about 70% of its total energy consumption. The remainder MUST come from glucose, which if you are on a very low-carb diet will mainly come from gluconeogenesis of proteins. If you aren’t eating enough protein to support this metabolically “expensive” process, then your body will pillage other protein sources in the body (read: muscles and vital organs) to keep the brain supplied with glucose.

All that said, there are a few things you can do to improve the first-few-days brain-fog: * Take ginko biloba * Take B-complex vitamin supplements (and your multivitamin, of course!). In particular, large doses of thiamin up to 50mg enhance brain function by facilitating glucose uptake. Any thiamin above around 50mg per day passes in the urine, so once again, drink a lot of water! * Ensure you’re getting plenty of protein and healthy veggies. * If all else fails, just wait another day or two. The brain fog should pass shortly.

Now, some people’s brains don’t switch into acetoacetate consumption in substantial quantities. The rest of the body switches faster, and will begin consuming ketones in preference to glucose to save glucose for the brain. If the brain fog doesn’t resolve itself within a couple of weeks of the start of regular low-carbohydrate eating, then you may need to modify your carbohydrate consumption expectations to the higher end of the range (~60g carbs/day) rather than the lower end of the range (less than 20g carbs/day), as well as increase your protein consumption compared to fats.

The brain and central nervous system together, in an average person, consume right around 100g of glucose per day (more or less; the actual average for American males is around 104g). Acetoacetate can substitute for the brain and central nervous system nutritional requirement up to around 50-70g. But the process of the brain “turning on” its metabolism of acetoacetate takes a few days.

That said, however, once it’s made that adjustment, the brain can “turn on” its ability to use acetoacetate rather than glucose much more quickly. This, combined with the fact that glucose stores in the muscles and liver are readily given up to the needs of the brain, is part of the reason CKD works at all.

Sorry, that was probably TMI, but I spent a lot of time researching the biological pathways used in low-carbohydrate metabolism prior to getting into the diet years ago, and the intervening six years has introduced an enormous amount of research into why our bodies can work this way. Some animals can’t!

Over the past 5 years I’ve witnessed the rise of social and professional networking sites such as LinkedIn, Facebook and Myspace. I’ve also had many friends create and run their own blogs under their names. I’ve get email invitations asking to join these types of social sites and blogs almost daily.

Consistent with the rise of these types of sites has been my rampage to eliminate all traces of my traceable, personal identity from their pages. At first it was because I didn’t trust the public nature of the internet. Everyone thought I was weird. The internet has changed the way in which we present and communicate ourselves, I was told. Everyone is putting themselves online.

Perhaps I am the social-net luddite. I used to think it was because I was turning ‘intensely private’. Now I realize it’s because I’m against being ‘intensely public’. My in-laws have three kids, one with serious special needs, and they have a rotating roster of in-house nanny help. These nannies are all under twenty-five. One of them last year decided on her Facebook page to post pictures of her getting ripped at a college party. My in-laws, who were invited friends to her page, caught these pictures and then summarily dismissed her. Who wants that kind of behavior around the kids? We all know stuff like this happens. Why broadcast it to the world?

I think this is what the younger generation doesn’t realize about publicly presenting yourself onto the internet. At some point a professional or career life awaits and the internet doesn’t have an erase button. I’ve hired people only after checking out their online history, and determining if they’re the type of person I want to bring into the workplace mix. A trail as wide as the DNS registry can be harmful.

Even for the older, hip generation, there can be consequences. Without knowing much of any details, I can only imagine the personal travails of our blog-friend Pete Dunn. Intensely public can have drawbacks.

Anyway, just wondering what you all think. Is everyone but me joining the online social surge?