Patrick’s Rants

I’ve spent the weekend cleaning up a failed upgrade on that old IBM laptop that I’m using for the kids’ mp3 players. The players are Sansa e250s
from Sandisk. With the exception of Sandisk’s preference to completely ignore my question regarding Linux support, customer service has been completely responsive. I managed to brick out the player that I was trying to upgrade and I was able to return the player with the only hassle being that someone dropped the ball and my return paperwork was slower than it’s supposed to be. If they had instructions on upgrading using Linux, I might not have had to return the previous player. Their software is built around Windows XP though, so getting this company to move on this is a Don Quixote move. I am able to use Amarok to manage the music lists and edit tags in the mp3 files. Sadly, so far, it does not appear to be able to actually write the mp3s themselves so I continue to use lame from a script to create the files. The other mildly annoying behavior is that the Sansa e250 doesn’t seem to allow changing ownership of the files on it so Amarok has to be run from either root or a sudo command.

For those interested in hooking up this player make sure to set your USB mode to MSC. The laptop has hotplug and automount running so that all I have to do is plug the thing in. The settings in Amarok allow me to set it as a Generic Player and set a mount point. Clicking the connect icon in the Devices menu brings up the player and allows copying files from the laptop to player and vice versa. So far, I have not found where Amarok allows one to create mp3s - or any other sound file - that can then be copied to the player. Instead Amarok appears to be a feature rich sound file manager. I haven’t tried to hook up any other players to this machine, but so far it seems to work quite well for copying files between the “Generic” Sansa and the hard drive.

Despite the laundry list of high crimes and misdemeanors, Dick Cheney will not be impeached. Dennis Kucinich has tried repeatedly to bring articles of impeachment against Cheney for his clearly anti-American behaviors. This time, the Republicans voted to bring the measure up for a vote presumably to “embarrass” the Democratic party. The Dems then voted to lock the measure up in committee. ¹
It’s disgusting. Nancy Pelosi clearly has her priorities mixed up. Here’s what they should be:

1. Bring the troops home. Iraq is a miserable failure, it’s George Bush’s sandbox fight
2. Impeach. If Clinton’s zipper action is impeachable then going to war under false pretenses absolutely is.
3. Kill the illegal wiretap protection bill. Telephone companies who collect information on US citizens violating due process should be prosecuted.

We sent you there to make changes. You can’t even override a veto on children’s health care.

1. Cheney impeachment locked up.

CQ Politics | FBI Hoped to Follow Falafel Trail to Iranian Terrorists Here
Hmmm… maybe I shouldn’t have used my debit card when I went to Haji Baba’s for lunch in Tempe.

I mentioned that I was attempting to make #3’s life easier against my better judgment. She grouses and whines and can’t seem to figure things out without complaining (oh, the irony ). Not that she needs to figure anything out - she already knows everything and tells me how to do my job (I’ve been at this for several months more than her).

It is an attempt to reduce the kvetching that causes me to want to make some changes to the database (and the hope that she’ll be gone soon and I will need/want to be more efficient). The problem is twofold. First, if I actually make it more efficient, it will look like she’s the one who is more productive. This of course leaves her more time to complain to her other employer that they paid her the wrong rate, look up her other work schedule online, try to win radio contests, etc. Second, I can’t make changes when someone else has the flipping database open. And that’s the really unfortunate part; she whines the most when she’s in the database and if I get her to close her connection that leaves her free to read the newspaper online and tell me how things really should be, because she knows everything and has done everything, just like that SNL character who gave birth to her own cats.

Now, about her radio voice. Normally she sounds like Fran Drescher on helium, but get her flustered and it’s like a banshee being fed backwards through a wood chipper while trying to hang on to a slate blackboard with her fingernails.

Access is stupid.

I can run a query in MySQL that allows me to “group” results by any field that I want. Access only allows me to do that based upon integer fields. Stupid. The other thing that is stupid is if I run a query in Access and tell it to sort, I will get an ordered result, but only in the “dataset” view. Take the sorted data and create a report from it and it will be in whatever order the program decides is best. In order to create a sorted report the data has to be resorted in the reports section of the program. And the aforementioned grouping does work in the sorting and grouping functions in the reports.

The next thing that doesn’t work is page numbering by group. I’m trying to make my life and the life of #3 easier (against my better judgment) by creating a report that will do group by a field name, give totals for a dollar field by the group and restart numbering for the next group. Well, this isn’t built in and one has to learn to code just to put a page number on the page. I’m not saying that you can’t put a page number on the report, just that you can’t put a group page number on the page. Page numbers are fine, but when I’m printing 30 plus pages, but only between one and three for each group, why can’t I get a group page number? Because apparently nobody would ever want to do that. Now there is a supposed way to do it according to: this document. I guess I have to pound on it again later today - while it’s quiet.

There’s an idea:
Killing the RIAA: Is “stealing” music the same as supporting music? - TECH.BLORGE.com

I just finished my upgrade of Wordpress to the latest version. I set up a little script that copies files and makes all the links that are necessary to keep the script working properly. It seems to work well. The main reason that I started working on the script was a little job that I had where I was setting up multiple blogs, trying to get things to work with a single set of files - or at least a minimal amount of duplication. I’m not doing that anymore, but what I learned makes this easier for me to do

Oh, the irony of complaining about someone else’s “self-centered-ness” on a blog, the epitome of “self-centered-ness”, but I just gotta.

#3 has been whining about a flat screen (monitor) since before she even started working there. Now, she’s got one of those giant “teacher desks”. It’s gotta be 3 feet deep. She has it covered in “crap”. Her monitor is too “big”. You know the kind, it’s an older CRT type screen and from her chair she can’t reach the controls on the danged thing - that’s how far away it is on the corner of the desk. I have a similar screen on my workspace an 18″ deep desk. The monitor takes up 10% ~ 15% of the desktop space, it hangs over the front of the desk even though it’s pushed all the way back towards the wall. This is the desk to monitor ratio, monitor: huge, desk: tiny. (more…)

In a blatant attempt to draw a little cash from this meandering, rambling journey that is this blog I present the following:

• Open a new Capital One credit or online banking account and get $25.00 credited to your account.
• I get a matching amount in my credit card account (slightly less in my online banking account)

All you have to do is click the more link and follow the instructions –>
(more…)