Memory Sticks

Maybe you know maybe you don't, just in case it's the latter here is a little tip I just found out about using Memory sticks.  This is any type USB, SD what ever...

I bought one of the digital photo frames and purchased a 2GB SD Memory, I started copying photos from my PC to the SD chip and after a few folders and error message that could not copy files with some big long number as a reason behind this pop up error.  When I checked the properties I found only 87MB of 2 gig was in use, but no matter what I did it would not copy over any further photos.

After some research I found that you will fill up the root of a memory stick very fast and then your done!  You "MUST" create at least 1 folder on the device and then you can fill it full (well nearly full).  Has to do that memory is formatted in FAT32 which falls back to the old HD formatting methodology.

So if your having problems and getting errors when trying to use your memory sticks give that a try...

January Ends

Here we are, the final day of January 2009...to sum up this month in 2 simple words, "It Sucked!" This has been one of the longest, coldest and expensive January's that I can remember in a long time.  The temperatures have been below zero for the most part of the month and if they were above zero, it wasn't by much!  Around here all we've gotten is what I call 'nuisance' snow, that is 1-2" at a time, not enough to shovel but now it's all built up to driving on a snow pack.  To top it all off it has been damp and dreary for the most part as well with the wind blowing, making it feel even colder...as if being near or below zero isn't cold enough already!  I just got the 'Xcel' bill for January, had to sit down, have a couple of drinks and look at it 3 times...and I still can't believe it!  Add to that, I've had to replace 2 garage door springs and an opener due to the cold weather.  January is property tax month, starting from scratch on medical insurance deductibles and prescription deductibles...WOW!  Where do I sign up for the "bail-out"???  A couple million would do me just fine!

We now have a new President...(TBD)?  The economy is in the shitter and it's getting 'fuller' by the day.  I can hardly stand to read or turn on the news as it just gets more and more depressing every day.  The month of January finds 275,000 people in just the US without jobs and the number keeps growing every day.  Prices sure as hell are not coming down any, every state, city, township is "cutting back" in a budget deficit, "tighten your belts" "hold on to your hats"...you might want to re-think relocating those squirrels from your yard...they make a mighty tasty stew!  Once again, Thank You to the financial institutions and corporate America for the "next" 'Great Depression'!  I'm not sure whether to be depressed or pissed off?

Topping things off...I'm going to give quitting smoking another try!  I started on the "Chantix" yesterday, today is day 2 of 30 well I should not say that as for the first week you can still smoke and then you quit completely on day 7.  I've got to say even though I'm still smoking, I have cut down and don't feel the anxiety that I have in the past so this may just work this time.  The cost of cigs has just gone nuts and the no smoking bans and from what I can see it is only going to get more and more expensive with more restrictions coming all the time.  If they want everyone to quit so badly why don't they just make cigarettes illegal then?  Alcohol, fast food are next!  Have a Joy, Joy Day!

I guess I've said my piece on the subject of 'January 2009' tomorrow comes the first of February, hopefully Spring is coming just around the corner and early would be real nice!

Sci-Fi Tips

Tip #60

If you open a door to another dimension...

...Make sure you know how to close it!

Tip #61

If it only feeds every 23 years...

...Make sure your not around when it wakes up!

Tip #62 

If you hear it growling a mile away...

...don't wait around to see what it is!

Tip #63

In the event of a nuclear winter...

...don't eat the snow!

Global Warming?

Yeah right...another weekend of well below zero temps and wind chills.  Much more inclined to believe the 100 year weather pattern than global warming crap!  

It's been a couple of weeks since my last post, one thing or another going on.  Even now that the days are 'slowly' getting longer, with the cold and work just don't have the energy come the end of the day.  Today has been a busy day working on the "Little Tarparosa" web site edited a couple of pages content and added a couple of more new pages to the site.  Along with that also made some updates to the GNO web site adding links to the "LT".  Even though the weather outside sucked, I was able to get a few things done inside today.

Had to replace the spring and gargage door opener on the rental side of my duplex that was all in all a two day job after work.  Replacing the spring went off with out much problem, some what easier as I had just replaced the same spring on my own garage door a couple of months ago.  The Garage door opener was a whole different animal...Yes replace would be the correct addage to use, however it is more like installing a new one, as none of the old brackets could be used everything had to be changed and redone to install the new opener.  Including buttons, sensors, motor bracket and the like.  And of course these things all have to fail in the dead of winter, can't happen in the spring or fall under comfortable temps and conditions.  Noooo, has to be -20 or 110 in the shade when stuff breaks down.  Well in any case the job is completed.

One of these weekends before the snow melts I have a couple of large brush piles that are in need of burning.  More so to get them out of the way to make room for all of the branches that have fallen off the trees during the winter thus far.  If I don't get the other two burned there will be 3 large piles of brush to burn come spring and the snow all melts away.

Work, well what can one say about work.  Given the present economy...everyone says just be glad you have a job.  Yes, that's about all one can say about the shit hole.  The worst part is the incompetent, worthless biotch that I must put up with on a day to day basis.  The job I like, however working for a clueless psycho makes for a loooong day and a long week!

This pretty much brings me up to speed from the past couple of weeks.  Winters are cold and slow.  I'm hoping for an early spring!  But now that I've said that I'm sure it will last until Memorial Day now...

TGIF

Friday at last...the week went fast, still glad however that it's Friday.  Nice to have a couple of days off now.  By the looks of things going to be cold.  But hey, good as any for relaxing and watching the playoffs and just doing what ever.

Done some work on the "Little Tarparosa" web site, no rush a little here and a little there.  As it will be always in one form or another, work in progress.  Last night added a 'comments' page that can be used for anything.  Making announcements, comments, web site blog of sorts, questions and answers.  Pretty much what ever the reader want to make it to be for them at the time.  Most likely will do a bit of work tonight, not sure just what at this point.  But there will be something new added.

The network change over at work went good this week.  Everything is up and running on the new system, which is a very good thing.   New test starting on Monday so there was some prep for that, but should be all set for 5:00am Monday morning.

That's about all for now..."Keep your stick on the ice"

Over half-way

Here it is Wednesday night, the week is now over half-way done (work week that is) all in all not such a bad week.  Replacing the current 'Split T1" line with a modem/VPN and wireless capabilities.  With that and the every day processes still happening it's been and interesting and fast paced week thus far, with only 2 days left.

Creating a new web site on "Google sites" that is in some ways a mirror site of the GNO in other ways not.  The new site that is in the construction phase at this point is called the "Little Tarparosa"  Why that, you ask?  Well then you will need to visit the new site to get all the details.  Should be interesting, the GNO site only allows a total of 20MB of space compared to 100mb of space on "Google sites" so that gives me a lot more room to play and be creative.  Combine that with the use of "Picasa Web Albums" and "Roxio Photoshow" gives me a lot of room for creativity on the Little Tarparosa.   All I can say at this point is 'Stay tuned'...

Received my entire order from TigerDirect that I'd placed on Sunday night, which came as quite the surprise, seeing as there was 2 items that at the time I ordered were out of stock.  However when the order arrived today it was complete.  Keyboard, trackball, memory stick and SD chip and the real cool thing was photo frames from Hanspree 7" frame but was only $40 and then the 2 GB chip for $8, I'm impressed very easy to set up and use currently setting on my desk running a slide show of about 400 photos that using about 10% of the chip with photos in JPEG format resized to 800x600 for display I can put about 1200 more photos in rotation.  For the price, not bad at all!

What can I say about the weather, it's January in Wisconsin...pretty much covers it.  That about covers all the excitement over the past few days.  Time now to do a little more work on the Little Tarparosa and then it's bed time...4:00am comes quick.

January in Wisconsin

The first Sunday morning in January 09...once again mother nature has raised her ugly head.  Saturday afternoon/night not much snow, however we were blessed with freezing rain & snow mixed together into an icy mess!  Clear as a bell today, cold and windy...typical weather for January in the upper mid-west.  No matter how you slice it...it sucks!

Did some running about yesterday, groceries, Wal-mart before the roads and such started to get crappy.  Watched the wild card playoff games and made a big kettle of beef soup. Not much different for today....lay around and watching playoffs and eating soup.  That will be pretty much the whole of my first Sunday in January 2009.

Customer Service what a joke

New years eve day, I get home from work around 2:00pm to find there is no cable, the TV, Internet nothing working...it was working when I left.  Kat was on the phone with 'customer service' which seems should be "Customer no-service" Oh we'll reset the box and it should be back on in an hour or so...yeah well that would be fine if it were the box, but all 4 boxes, analog channels with no box...snow, no Internet connection...resetting the box wasn't going to do dick.  There were tracks from the road to the main box in the corner of the back yard.  So most apparently someone from Charter had already been out doing something earlier in the morning (to find out later it was an audit) as they call it.  Well we went to the store came back and still nothing, called the morons at CS back and again explained the entire situation....problem is you don't speak with someone local, talk to some one in Idaho the first time then Massachusetts the next time.  By the time we called back it was...Oh Sorry everyone has gone home for the Holiday and we won't be able to get some one out until Friday!!!  Well I was to say the least "fit to be tied" the rest of NYE, and NYD no cable or Internet.

This morning at 10:30 a Tech from Charter comes to the house, explain the situation he walks out to the box in the yard 90 seconds later everything is back working again!!!  As it came to be the "Audit" on Wednesday morning the cable was disconnected because the cable had been miss-labeled by Charter in the first place 1351 vs. 1353, 1351 does not have service but we do, the person doing the audit disconnected the cable.  THE PROBLEM IS SOMEONE SHOULD HAVE CAME OUT WEDNESDAY AFTERNOON AND RECTIFIED THE SITUATION!  Oh and how wonderful...they are going to credit $10.43 to our next bill...well big f*@# whoop-de-doo!

With Charter on the verge of bankruptcy filing as they moved ahead to fast and that there was just a post in the newspaper that survey had been done over the past few months Charter ranked last in Customer Service...Wonder why????  This has not been the first negative experience for me.  We had Charter Phone for over a year, one day there's a message that a mistake had been made and we can no longer have Charter Phone and have 14 days to find another Phone company????  Oh yes, and the phone number we'd had for 13 years can't be ported back with us!  Then charges for services we did not have showed up on the bill...well that took 3 months to clear up.  Enough is enough!  I've had it with their crap!

Something else to do next week...make some calls to Dish network, Direct TV and check on prices and services available in our area!

Happy New Year

Happy New Year...well 2008 is behind and 2009 just starting.  This is going to be a tough year for everyone.  The economy sucks right now and it's going to get worse before it gets better.  Good news is this is yet another 4 day weekend.  Going to be tough next week going back to a full 5 day work week again and back to going in at 5:00am.  The last two weeks have been nice going in at 10:00am or so and then only being 3 day weeks with no 'LF'.  Still have a piss poor attitude with the news of no raises/401k match.  Monday will indeed be a a 'very long day'.

New Years Day was also Einsteins 1st birthday.  He had quite the fist birthday for a dog, frosty paws, sandwiches, dog biscuits...Hey what a day if your a dog.  So he's now 1 year old, about 100lbs and still a goofy golden retriever.

Other than that not much else happened on New Years Day, just sat around watched some movies eat some munchies and played my PS2 James Bond game.  Went out and had BK for New Years dinner and went to bed.