Category: Uncategorized

I finally got my DVD audio working in XP yesterday. Forget drivers and the useless Microsoft Help forums, downloading a trialware copy of WinDVD rewrote over something that wasn’t working and made the OEM version work. Sweet Cthulhu, but I hate this DRM nonsense.

Unfortunately, XINE hasn’t been an option yet, since the issue there isn’t the DVD audio, but an apparent Fedora Core 2 problem supporting the Intel 82801EB/ER (ICH5/ICH5R) AC’97 audio controller. Also, despite an apparent fix in XORG.CONF, I haven’t gotten my screen to work at 1680×1050 yet. 1400×1050 and a display that calls itself the 1680×1050 option is as much as I’ve managed so far. It’s pretty annoying since everything is slightly stretched; not so much as to be unusable, just a little vaguely unsettling to the eyes.

Ideas, as always, are appreciated. And no, I’m not switching to SUSE, Mandrake, Ubuntu or anything else until after I get these issues figured out… unless it’s just impossible.

Space Bunny and I watched an interesting show the other night. They were testing the idea that women have a more powerful response to fame than looks, which they did by measuring a woman’s pupil dilation and heart rate. Now, the good-looking guy was only marginally handsome and the famous guy was barely a third-rate celebrity, but the test certainly seemed to work out.

The woman had no reaction whatsoever to the first two guys, the “good-looking” guy and the normal guy. But when the “famous” guy came in, (it wasn’t even him, it was a double and he was easily the least handsome of the men), the woman’s pulse rate went from a resting 68 up to 112 and her pupils dilated significantly.

So, gentlemen, don’t bother working out, dressing well and showering, just do something to get your name out there!

We finished up our regular season this weekend and despite a sub-optimal performance by Mr. Culpepper and the receiving corps, the Piranha coasted to a 29-22 victory over the White Buffalo courtesy of Mr. Smith, Mr. Jones and the Carolina defense. That swept the series and brought the season to a close with a three-game winnning streak that coincided rather nicely with two, four, and three game losing streaks on the part of other playoff contenders for a comfortable 8-5-1 third-place finish with a game-and-a-half to spare.

Not bad for a team that started 1-4. The path to the championship is a daunting one through a 12-2 juggernaut and a solid 10-3-1 squad, but at least I’m still in the hunt.

I wanted Mike Tice to succeed. Not just because he was coaching my favorite team, but because he’s a bit of a throwback. You don’t expect to see him wearing expensive suits and writing self-important books, he’s not annoyingly arrogant and he clearly works hard.

But a genius, he isn’t. Indeed, one gets the impression that he’s sub-par when in comparison with the league average. His decision not to run the ball down the throats of two teams with trouble defending the run, (13 and 14 carries for Onterrio Smith against teams giving up 4.3 and 4.4 yards per carry) cost the Vikings the opportunity to gain two games on the reeling Packers, and the pass attempt by Randy Moss with two minutes left on the verge of the Red Zone bordered on lunacy.

There is a time and a place to take risks; first-and-ten with two minutes left on the opponent’s twenty when you’re trailing by four is not one of them. You’ve got one of the league’s best rushing teams, you’ve got three solid backs, run twice off-tackle then take two cracks with roll-out passes that give Daunte the chance to run for the first. Just a terrible call.

It’s too bad Charlie Weis is headed for Notre Dame. It would have been interesting to see what he could have done with Minnesota’s offensive talent.

One of the interesting things about the Amazon reviews for Tom Wolfe’s latest, I AM CHARLOTTE SIMMONS, is the way that different people interpret the accuracy with which it presents college life at Dupont, the fictional university. Typical is the criticism of one young man, who argues that everyone at his (presumably) big state university is too busy working two jobs in order to pay tuition to have much time for the sex and partying that so occupies Miss Simmons at Dupont.

Of course, this is precisely the ironic point that Wolfe is making. It is at the elite schools with the best academic reputations where the commitment to the intellectual life has been most completely destroyed. The seed planted in the Sixties, when it became fashionable to be more concerned with passing political fads than any search for the truth, has flowered and found deep root.

That Wolfe is describing a different world than the one in which some of his critics should be obvious. No one works two jobs to pay a $40,000 annual tuition. Wolfe is not criticizing every university, he is slamming the rot that is festering at the head. But if the head dies, the body will soon follow and already one can arguably get a better education at a technical school supplimented by personal study than by going to an Ivy League university.

It’s clear that all too many fathers have failed to pass on a masculine ethic to their sons. The “greatest generation” might not have been afraid of German and Japanese troops, but they were afraid of their wives and daughters. And while it’s not possible to boil down the age-old question of what makes a man to a few simple paragraphs, there are a few things every man should attempt to impart to his son:

1. When you have to do something to the car in inclement weather, you must always get out of the car with the driver. Even if your assistance is not needed, and especially if it’s freezing cold. No one knows why this is necessary, but it is nevertheless.

2. Never threaten and then fail to follow through. Even if you end up getting your butt kicked, it will be a salutary lesson to watch your mouth in the future. Bluffing is for poker, not the real world.

3. Even if you don’t like football, baseball or basketball, know the teams and a few relevant facts about each. If you do, you will always have something to talk about with other men while the girls are chatting.

4. Know how to throw a ball, shoot a gun, change a tire and throw a punch. This will allow you to avoid 75 percent of all humiliating circumstances.

5. Learn how to leave a room in anger without stomping. It just looks stupid.

6. Ask for permission once. If the answer is no and you’re going to do it anyway, just keep your mouth shut and do it.

Last week: 11-5. Overall: 122-68. Fantasy: 7-5-1 (3rd place)

W-Philadelphia Eagles over Washington Redskins

W-Baltimore Ravens over New York Giants

W-New England Patriots over Cincinnati Bengals

W-Indianapolis Colts over Houston Texans

L-Minnesota Vikings over Seattle Seahawks

W-Pittsburgh Steelers over New York Jets

W-Denver Broncos over Miami Dolphins

W-Jacksonville Jaguars over Chicago Bears

L-Dallas Cowboys over New Orleans Saints

W-Buffalo Bills over Cleveland Browns

W-Carolina Panthers over St. Louis Rams

W-Kansas City Chiefs over Tennessee Titans

W-Atlanta Falcons over Oakland Raiders

L-Arizona Cardinals over San Francisco 49ers

W-Green Bay Packers over Detroit Lions

W-San Diego Chargers over Tampa Bay Buccaneers

Make that 8-5-1 fantasy… and a berth in the playoffs! Picking up that Carolina defense and starting them over the Jets D was the difference maker today.

Okay, I finally got FC2 up and running. Two problems, one of which I know is solvable, one of which worries me a little.

1. The Anaconda installer does something stupid with the wireless install for WPC11 cards and fixing it requires making a simple change to a text file or two. Unfortunately, I can neither remember where I saved the information nor find it on Google. Anyone know where I can find this info?

2. FC2 won’t recognize my sound card. What’s slightly worrisome is although I have sound in XP, I have no DVD audio. I can even play music off a CD in that drive, but DVDs play silently in Windows Media Player, InterAudio and Xine (Linux). Anyone have any idea what’s going on?

UPDATE – okay, got the wireless going. Delete Network and run Internet Configuration again, it doesn’t get much simpler than that. But I’d still like to figure out the sound deal. Oh, and also, it doesn’t seem to recognize my 1680×1050 resolution either. Everything is slightly squished. Have to poke around on that one too.

Over the next few months, I have to make my way through a lot of left-liberal books. But there are some pleasant surprises and even some excellent points made. Michael Moore makes one in his STUPID WHITE MEN when he calls Fred Barnes, the Beltway Boy, and asks him what the Iliad and the Odyssey are. (Previously, Barnes had thundered that some unacceptably high percentage of American high schoolers didn’t know.)

According to Moore, Barnes hems and haws before finally admitting “you got me there.” Unbelievable.

UPDATE – literally unbelievable, it appears.

JW brings this to our attention

Striking a blow for rebellious teenagers, the Washington Supreme Court ruled Thursday that state law prohibits parents from eavesdropping on a child’s phone conversations. The case reached the high court because of a purse-snatching. A 17-year-old boy was convicted of the robbery, in part on testimony from his girlfriend’s mother, who overhead him discussing the crime on the phone with her daughter.

The daughter had taken a cordless phone into her bedroom and closed the door. In another room, her mother pressed the speakerphone button on an extension, listened in and took notes. The court ruled that the daughter and her boyfriend had a reasonable expectation of privacy on the phone. Washington state law prohibits intercepting or recording conversations without the consent of all participants.

Of course, all that a parent has to do to remain legal is to require their child to sign a form consenting to intercepted recordings in order to use the parents’ telephone. Interestingly enough, the US government sees fit to eavesdrop on everyone inside and outside the United States with its Echelon system, but unlike a parent trying to raise a child, that level of oversight is necessary. Terrorists, don’t you know. Why, without it, we wouldn’t have caught bin Laden and prevented the 9/11 attacks….