Nightmares are made of these

If you're prone to nightmares, you can have a look at this assortment of deep-sea and marine critters to see if anything looks familiar. Some of them aren't too bad -- others are the kinds of things that you'd only want to see IN a nightmare that you could wake up from...

Absentee Parenting

My Primary cat, Elf, learned quickly and easily that she wasn't allowed to go certain places -- kitchen counters, bathroom sink, dining table, my electronics workbench, and so on. Whether it's because she's more stubborn, or dumber, I'm not sure; but my emergency backup cat, Radar, isn't learning as well.

Rather than have to try and catch her in flagrante delicto to punish her (so she associates the punishment with the place/action), I'm trying something different: booby-trapping the places I need/want her to stay off of.

The booby-traps consist of multiple squares of highly adhesive tape (I'm using package strapping tape, since that's what I had handy; duct tape or similar would have done as well) along the jump-able edges of things -- sticky side up, so that they'll adhere to her foot(s) when she lands or steps on one or more of them. That way, the unhappy thing (getting something stuck to her hoof) will happen regardless of whether I'm home and/or paying attention.

This may turn into an "interesting" experiment...

UPDATE:
(11:32) Would anybody like to guess who just came wandering through the living room with tape stuck to her two back foots? Fairly radiating innocence and outraged indignation while trying to shed the tape by shaking the taped extremeties at every step?
As much as she apparently doesn't like it, I figure I'll leave her to get it off on her own -- driving the point home with a sledgehammer, as it were.

EDUP wireless lan PC card

Anyone running Linux and thinking about buying one of these cards ("popular" on eBay -- example HERE) should NOT do so -- they are Windows ONLY, and you'll only be wasting your money.

NONE of the potential work-arounds for Windows-specific wifi devices will work with these things.

Just so you know...

Computer Service

One of the things that I try to explain to people when I work on their computer is that heat is something that electronic components absolutely do not like. I go on to tell them that dust on the parts in their computers is like wrapping them in tiny little blankets, making it all but impossible for the heat to escape. Finally, I suggest to them that they pick one (or even two) days a year to remove any dust and other particles out of their computers.

It's perfectly okay to simply open the computer up and go after the insides of it with a vacuum cleaner (I recommend the crevice attachment) or a can of compressed air. Pay special attention to the processor heat sink and fan assembly, but don't forget to clean the rest of the parts as best you can. With the vacuum or compressed air, you're not likely to unplug or disconnect anything, so you don't have to worry about "breaking" the computer. In the case of a laptop, simply get yourself a can of compressed air and give the vents a few shots every couple of months.

By giving your computer a cleaning like that, you'll not only be doing yourself the favor of extending the life of the computer, but saving yourself any potential embarrassment if you DO have to have it serviced. After all, you wouldn't want it to look anything like one of these, would you? (WARNING: not for the squeamish!)

Veteran's Day

"We sleep soundly in our beds because rough men stand ready in the night to visit violence on those who would do us harm."

Find a veteran, and tell them "Thank you".

The future of our military?

Pleased with myself

A few weeks ago, the display went out on my laptop -- it's an old IBM Thinkpad, and the little fluorescent tube that makes the screen light up finally went out on it. Perfectly reasonable, and no big deal -- other than I had to order the part, disassemble the display subassembly, replace said part, and then put everything back together again.

I managed to do this (a task that involved no small number of miniscule screws of various sizes) not only successfully -- I'm using the laptop for this blog entry -- but ended up with the same number of parts as I started out with: I experienced neither a screw shortage, nor any mechanical amplification (having more parts when I finished than when I began).

Damn, I'm good.

And modest, too!

Wal*Mart spreads H1N1

Really.

"... employees of the Arkansas-based retail giant -- even its food handlers -- feel they have no choice but to work when they're sick. That's because the company gives workers demerits and deducts pay for staying home when they're sick or caring for sick children."

I think it might be a good idea to do your shopping in Real Stores for a while, folks...

Fierce is as fierce does

If I'm ever attacked by a horde of plastic or paper bags, I want my kitten Radar on my side -- the things wouldn't stand a chance.

Cruel Red Dot

The Red Dot (tm) has turned out to be an unspeakably cruel tormenter of the cats.

It has them chasing all over the apartment for as long as they're willing/able to go after it. It also torments them by going places that they can't quite reach, wandering around in front of them just out of ambush range, suddenly disappearing without warning (only to reappear somewhere else), and exhibiting some rather dramatic speed and direction changes while it's being chased.

Of course, there's no point to being a cruel Red Dot (tm) unless it runs them up and down their cat tree a dozen times or more, leaving both of them laying on the floor panting as they try to plot SOME way to catch it.

Neither of them is showing any signs of losing interest in catching it, however.