Give the People What They Want...

...and I want another season of Enterprise. Mirror-style.

Wii Have A Problem

Redmond, Wii have a Problem.

No, I mean the other company headquartered in Redmond, WA - Nintendo USA. Check the link above. It appears people don't realize that they are supposed to hang onto their Wiimotes while playing. Damage to Televisions, Laptop Computers, and Innocent Bystanders has heightened in recent weeks as more and more people get their hands on the Nintendo Wii.

To be fair, Nintendo isn't all to blame. To their credit, they include a Wiimote Strap to keep it from flying away. However, they didn't anticipate how "excited" Wii players would get.

Most normal people shouldn't have a problem. But, be cautious: Always use protection (the included strap) when playing with your Wii. Follow this rule, and you won't wii all over your TiiVii.

Oh, and anyone who thinks you play Wii Bowling by throwing the Wiimote deserves to have their 70" plasma destroyed by a $30 accessory.

-Kal

(Photo Courtesy of AFP)

Today's Moment of Zen

Delilah longs for the good old summer days...



She's also adopted a new spelling for her nickname. She's now "Diidle."

Wii Want Nintendo

Nintendo Wii sells 372,000 units in the first two days of the Japan launch.

Pretty sweet. We're happy to report that TheMario finally got his hands on a Wii. Look forward to a Special Report from him on the Kal in Space blog - with a review of Wii Sports!

Stay Tuned.
-Kal

Lump of Coal? Or Something Else...

If I had new Windows PC, I wouldn't mind a Zune for Christmas, even the brown one. Has a nice big screen, but I suppose that's where it ends. Enjoy the video.

-Kal

Labels

I updated some labels since I've switched to the new Blogger Beta. Enjoy.

Kubuntu Jammin'

So I've managed to successfully install Kubuntu 6.10 onto an External FireWire drive connected to my iBook. One of the amusing things I've discovered is that while I cannot "extend my desktop" from the laptop screen to an external monitor using OSX...I can in fact do so with Kubuntu. Way to go, me. *pats back*

-Kal

The John Kerry Syndrome

While reading this article found on Yahoo! News: Granholm's Lead Now Double-Digits, I am coining a term that I'll call The John Kerry Syndrome.

Realize that I'm seeing the picture from afar, but I don't believe that Granholm has done anything of real significant value during office. The Michigan economy continues to tank. What has she done besides that?

Enter Dick DeVos, Republican Challenger. I really know nothing about him, but after 4 years of nothing much, I'd expect Michigan would be ready for a change, and I thought DeVos would do pretty well. Looks like I was wrong.

Take a step back to the 2004 Presidential Election. The country was moving toward a referendum on Dubya. Plenty of people thought it was time for a change. Enter challenger John Kerry. Who'd heard of him? I hadn't, but most people were pretty excited that he might have a chance to knock off Dubya.

The more we learned about Senator Kerry, the more we didn't like what we were finding. It's my view that Dubya's reelection was not so much an affirmation of his first 4 years, but an act of desperation -- I felt, and maybe the American People felt, that no matter what our opinion of Bush, we couldn't afford a John Kerry presidency. I'm not going to debate anyone on that.

Is that what's happening in Michigan with Dick DeVos? Does my vast Michigan readership have any comments and insights?

-Kal

(P.S. No offense, Mr. Senator...but I still don't want you as my President.)

IE7 Released Wednesday

Friendly reminder to all of you who use Windows at home, go to Microsoft.com and pull down IE7. And if you wait just another week or two you can upgrade again to Firefox 2.0! Firefox is recommended by TheMario and by Kal (2 of 2 Geeks agree). But, if you refuse to become a Firefox switcher, do yourself a favor and grab IE7.

Now, if I can only convince IT to update us to IE7 at work...

-Kal

Check out this Blog

As I was contemplating the need for an update - after all it's been 27 days since my last post - I stumbled across this great blog. It's called "Limits Are For Calculus". Based on the description it looks to be an insightful read. Unfortunately, it hasn't been updated in 260 days.

So as I add the link to my list on the right, I invite my vast readership to post a comment on the February 1st entry and tell the author how much you want to hear from him.

-Kal

Duel of the Barts

Funniest clip on TV yesterday.
-Kal

UPDATE: Looks like Rupert made YooToob take down the clip. Darn Newscorp...would he force it down from a MySpace page?

This One's For You, Still!

This one's for you, Hugo Chavez: Your speech was interesting, to say the least. If only our President would move forward real initiatives for making America independent of foreign oil, we could care even less what you have to say. Devil indeed.

This one's for you, Sony: Do you think that PS3 price drop to $410 in Japan will help you? Your market is the US! You're already going to get killed by Nintendo in Japan, even it the console price was equal. I hope you fall on your face.

This one's for you, Apple: My new battery works great -- 2 weeks and no problems. Even Deedle liked it when it came in:


-Kal

This One's for You, Again!

This one's for you, Bethesda Pedestrians: Hey, dumbass - yeah you, the one crossing Old Georgetown Road when the sign says don't walk. I don't care if you do that when nobody's around, but when I'm turning the corner from Wisconsin Avenue, don't start running so I have to stop and wait for you in the middle of the intersection!

This one's for you, Ernesto: You may have come ashore in Florida, but go back to Cuba where you belong. Uncle Castro will take good care of you, but we'll let you spend a day or two at Disneyworld so you know how cool the USA is. And quit raining on me.

This one's for you, Tom at MySpace: While the monster you've created is indeed evil, I congratulate you on drawing the ire of tens of millions of whiney people when your site goes down for 10 minutes. Don't you feel good about yourself?

-Kal

New Car!!

Yesterday was an exciting day. And it wore our hands out with signing things. Our current apartment lease expires on September 30, so we went in to sign our renewal for next year. We like our apartment by the way. However, it didn't end there...

We have been kicking around getting a second car for some time now. Especially in earnest when our beloved Trailblazer had to go into the shop for a few days in June. We'd settled on this fall, and most likely a Ford Focus due to our budget. Rachel's brother-in-law works for Ford, so we get that nice family discount. :-)

However, on the discovery that Thursday began 0% Financing for up to 72 months on all 2006 models in stock, we decided that yesterday would be a good day to go have a look. So after the lease signing, we went to Jerry's Ford. While almost nobody had 2006 Focuses (Foci?) in stock, the 0% dropped the Ford Fusion into our price range. Which, to be honest, I really wanted anyway. When we got there, we found it almost right away. I took it for a test drive...and then a couple hours later, we went home with a new car. How exciting. :-)

This one's for Jerry (our Brother-in-Law):


-Kal

This One's For You, Too!

This one's for you, VDOT: Thanks for putting the President in his Place. The HOV halts for no one.

This one's for you, Apple: Thanks for my new iBook battery. But please, don't let it take 4-6 Weeks to get here. I bought a notebook for portability.

This one's for you, SciFi: Thanks for ruining my week. You Suck.

Farewell, Stargate Command

I'll miss you. *snif*

-Kal

R.I.P. Dr. Pepper

Rest in Peace, Dr. Pepper. Diet Dew could never take your place in my heart...

(Though it did take the spot in the office Pop machine...)

Yours Forever,
-Kal

Router slowing me down?

My internet connection and download speeds in particular have been noticably slow as of late. Pages load slowly, streaming video starts buffering after 2-4 seconds, downloads are like molassess. Part of me worried that it was my iBook. It's pretty well established that while a Mac makes a decent internet machine, the page rendering really just doesn't match up to IE6 or Firefox for Windows. I didn't think it would make this much difference though.

Fortunately (or unfortunately) I put it to the test. I went to the CNET Bandwidth Meter Speed Test. My connection rated a whopping 280kbps. I checked it a couple more times with different browsers and got a range of about 260-400kbps. This was not cool! My first thought was that Comcast was pulling the switcheroo! My service is supposed to have speeds up to 6000kbps!

On a whim, I decided to connect my iBook directly to the Cable Modem and test again. While I can do this with my Mac and remain reasonably secure, you Windows folks may want to avoid doing this. If you're running XP SP2 with your Windows firewall on, you're probably ok too, but don't say I didn't warn you. Disclaimer over.

Anyway, I switched over to a wired connection to my cable modem and tried the bandwidth test again. BAM! 3000kbps on the first shot! I ran it a few more times and got a range between 1180-3100kbps. Still, this is not the 6000kbps that Comcast promised, but it is a lot closer and has provided a more enjoyable page-loading experience in the last hour or so.

What does this all mean? I think my MR814 router is finally on its way out. I'll be making a trip to CompUSA this weekend to search out a replacement. Dear Lord, please help me to stay away from 802.11n just long enough to run out with a cheap 802.11g. Oh, and keep me from buying "speedboost," "Super-G," or any of the other gimmicky router "features" that my Airport Extreme card doesn't utilize. Amen.

-Kal

This One's for You!

This one's for you, Bethesda (Wisconsin Ave) Subway workers:

If I wanted my sub toasted, I'd go to Quiznos! When I go to Subway, I want one thing - a nice and cool (or at least room temp) Italian BMT on white bread.

This one's for you, Bethesda drivers:

When I'm waiting for the car in front of you to pass so I can cross the street, I'm going to wait for you too. I've committed to waiting, so you don't need to stop, get all hot and bothered and wave me across. Just drive, I'll wait! I don't trust you crazy Marylanders anyway!

And finally, this one's for you, Mikey:

U.S.S. Google

-Kal

Changes Afoot

Ryan has been pestering me about posting for a while now, so it's time. I've been contemplating a move away from blogger to Wordpress, but I just couldn't get into the full move. I've been enticed to stay by the flexibility of being able to change my template however I want and by the new features coming down the pike - See the recently announced Blogger Beta in the Blogger Buzz.

Look for more on a (hopefully) consistant basis...and subscribe to my RSS feed, Powered by Feedburner.

-Kal

E3: Wil Wright is my Hero

I wasn't going to post about E3, much...but this I cannot help but comment on.

WATCH THIS VIDEO provided by IGN. It's a 20 minute demo of Wil Wright's new Spore game. In the infamous words of another Will, "I've got to get me one of these!"

Also check out the Spore website. Not much there now, but I'd bet it's coming.

-Kal

"Wii"-bbles Wobble...

...but they don't fall down!

This Just In: Kal breaks Scoop before TheMario!

According to this Reuters story via Yahoo! News, Nintendo's next console, codenamed "Revolution" is now known as the "Wii" (pronounced "we"). Personally, I thought the "Revolution" was a great name, and that "Wii" pretty well sucks.

Regardless of it's name, this writer will "Wii Wii Wii" all the way to the store for a "Wii" before he drops a dime on Sony's new POS3. Blu-Ray, indeed!

-Kal

Kal in (My)Space!

As if Kal in Space wasn't enough, now you can enjoy Kal in (My)Space! While not as cool as blogger, I have found a number of former High School friends, etc... on the site that I've not spoken to in, well, years.

But, it's all Rachel's fault. She told me to create a profile one day when I was bored. So I did. Check it Out.

-Kal

Ryan in DC?

It could happen. I just did a phone interview as his "Education Reference" for the DHS investigators. He might be here sooner than he thinks!

-Kal

No More Laughing

As Mike noted as a comment on this post... I'm not laughing at Dvorak anymore.

Here's to you, Kaz!

...I hope your adventure in DC (once it comes to pass) doesn't turn out like this guy's...

-Kal

Delilah's World

"Gimme low heat, 5 minutes ...no dryer sheet."

Dvorak.org/looney

So I am a fan of This Week in Tech, a podcast led by Leo Laporte and frequented by one of the "leading" tech journalists, John C. Dvorak. This cartooon from The Joy of Tech pretty much sums it up.

Apple adopting Windows and dropping OSX. Right. Funny. I'd be laughing even harder if they hadn't just switched to Intel processors.

-Kal

Apple's Grade in English: A-

This Article on Yahoo! News details what hackers find when they attempt to put OSX on a generic x86 box:

The maker of Macintosh computers had anticipated that hackers would try to crack its new OS X operating system built to work on Intel Corp.'s chips and run pirated versions on non-Apple computers. So, Apple developers embedded a warning deep in the software — in the form of a poem.

...

The embedded poem reads: "Your karma check for today: There once was a user that whined/his existing OS was so blind/he'd do better to pirate/an OS that ran great/but found his hardware declined./Please don't steal Mac OS!/Really, that's way uncool./(C) Apple Computer, Inc."

Screenshots time!

Ever find yourself wondering what my desktop looks like? Well, nowyou can stop:


Also featuring the MacOS X Expose' feature!

Enjoy...
-Kal

Spreading the Word About Skype

Okay, so it's time to plug a product I've never used. Why? Because I'd like to try it. Download Skype today and add me: MrKMiller is the name. Then we can talk.

But, for Mike and Ryan; matching avatars. :-)



-Kal

New Avatar

Time for a new Profile Avatar. I like the cowboy hat one, but I think I'd like this one...
Care of This Site...and a little GimpSHOP Editing.

Enjoy.

Why do I like DC?

Simple. I wore short sleeves home from work today and wasn't cold. It's 65 in January, People!!

Why do YOU hate DC?

I'm in a posting mood today apparently. I'm going to add a link to the right to the blog "why.i.hate.dc"...Not sure why though.

I hate DC because of all the liberal crazies around here. I think the guy who ran the blog before, and the new guy who just started need to drop the national politics and focus on local politics and DC-hating.

Can we please mention the fact that Marion Barry is a crack addict, ex-con, and also the most popular person on the DC council...WTF!?

Henry Clay is Dead...

So as some of you know, at the end of October/beginning of November...I got involved with the Kill Henry Clay (KHC) WebZine. The core group of KHC was based on a group from back in the days of Star Wars "Simming" when everyone used AOL. We were in a "Sim Universe" called Era of Rebellion (EoR).

If you've clicked the link to the right recently, you'll have noticed that all that pops up is the KHC Logo, and until the beginning of this month, it said "Returning 2006." Well friends and comrades, I can tell you that it won't be coming back. The word from one of the founding members is that the two managing Editors (he is one) don't even really talk anymore. How disappointing.

Maybe I should write a little more on my own blog to make up for it. Then again, maybe not.

For the two or three of you that read this, and I know who you are, maybe we should do a collaborative effort? We could call it "Kendall Connection" or something gay like that. What do you think?

-Kal

Wish List Time...

After fighting with Folder Permissions...I'm ready for some wishing. This is what I want to have sitting on my desk:

Shuttle SN25P Barebone System
AMD Athlon64 X2 4400+ Toledo Core Processor
2048 MB RAM
(2) 74GB 10,000RPM Western Digital "Raptor" Hard Drives
16x Dual-Layer DVD Burner
256MB NVIDIA 7800[add obligatory model letters here]

Dual-Boot MacOS 10.4.4 and Windows XP Pro...one on each Raptor.

That is, whenever I get the cash and Apple decides to sell OSX for x86 machines off the shelf.

Yuppies...

I think we're becoming Yuppies. Rachel and I have joined the Washington Sports Clubs for a year. Hopefully next time you all see me I'll be buff and trim. At least I don't frequent Spacedeer (aka Starbucks), otherwise I'd really be worried.

As it's Playoff time...I'll say it: Go Colts! Go Redskins!

-Kal

Happy Freakin' New Year!

Posting Time...

Ryan's got his new blog, "Limits are for Calculus," which you can find in the links section. He's posted twice since my last post, so I need to catch up.

We travelled back to Michigan last weekend. In lieu of our horrid flying experience in 2004, we chose to take Amtrak's Capitol Limited route to South Bend, IN. It worked out well. Superliner coach seats are roomier and more comfy than airplane seats. And we were only a couple hours late in each direction.

While I was home, I finally got to go Wardriving. It was an impromptu plan, as I was instructed to bring trusty Lappy G4 (our iBook) along out to dinner to show off our Wedding Pictures. So, I went Wardriving in St. Joe for open access points on the way to Dinner. I found a few open ones, but there were a surprising number of people who'd protected their access points. Most of them had WEP, which is breakable, but a few were using WPA, which isn't. I suspect there were a few doing MAC Address filtering as well. I didn't actually connect to someone else's network, we were just driving, but it was pretty amusing anyway.

Be sure to check out Ryan's blog, and to comment on mine.
Happy New Year.
-Kal