Time for a different bike. I sold the zx-10 for a more comfortable bike I could use for road trips. I opted for a Yamaha FJR 1300. I had the chance to get to know this bike right off the bat on a 5hr ride home after I picked it up in Austin, TX. The 7am flight was not my favorite part of the day, but once I arrived, picked up the bike, and hit the road everything was good once again.

Here are some pictures I took at a rest stop in the Hill Country.

Yes, Hulu is awesome.

I tried it and I liiike it.

www.hulu.com

I found an article a few months ago in the Fall issue of Make about Google Sketchup. I downloaded it and played around, but didn’t put much time or thought into it… until today.

I tried to model my home theater sub design. It’s a design called the “housewrecker” by a company called Decware. I was able to make something that vaguely resembles the design. You can tell the measurements of the shelfs are off, but this was my first time so cut me some slack.

Here is how the design looks from the outside. It is 20″ W x 20″D x 48″H (yes that says 48″ tall). The one I built in real life is actually scaled down from their original plans. Mine accommodates 12″ drivers, and the original plan uses 15″. I plan to build a 15″ version soon enough though.

This is how the shelfs fit in the middle

Here is how it looked once I added wood texture, and some drivers. This is where the measuring is off, the center chamber is actually supposed to accommodate drivers magnet to magnet. The whole enclosure can be loaded with 4 drivers if needed. My real one has two drivers magnet to magnet. When I build the 15, it will have 4.

Recently I have been putting thought into replacing my bombed out cell phone. I am getting to the point of frustration with all the problems I am experiencing with my current cell phone. That, along with taking heat every time I see someone and they scold me for “not answering my phone”. I promise, it’s not me, it’s the bombed out phone. They won’t listen. I fear a revolt if I don’t do something soon. Being as hugely popular as I am it is important that the fans, or as I call them in public “friends”, be able to reach me on occasion.

So in my phone search I ran across tryphone.com. This is a site that allows users to interact with cell phones online. You can push all the buttons and see how they work, and you don’t even have to deal with the snot-nosed $5/hr workers at the cell phone store (that’s hatred in my heart).

tryphone.com

I’m not sure how much more school headaches I could take this semester. I am glad it is finally coming to a close, and the research paper I have been dreading all semester is finally complete. Now I have a couple of weeks off before I get to do it all over again! Joy!

I have been rolling with the Crystal Reports v9 now for a while. I was always under the assumption since it didn’t include a Mysql connector by default, it just wasn’t in the cards. Not so true!

I found this little guy on the dev site

http://dev.mysql.com/downloads/connector/odbc/3.51.html

Install that guy and create the ODBC DSN like you normally would. Then you will have access to your Mysql database in Crystal. Don’t forget to setup your port information if you aren’t using the default. I am using a SSH tunnel to get to mine, so I had to be sure to modify the port number.

The DRM walls are crumbling. Music CD sales continue to plummet rather alarmingly. Artists like Prince and Nine Inch Nails are flouting their labels and either giving music away or telling their fans to steal it.

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