» 2007 » April

Article posted on Apr 30

Happy 10-year anniversary, finnie.org!

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 30, 2007, 5:23 pm

Domain Name:FINNIE.ORG
Created On:27-Apr-1997 04:00:00 UTC

Damn thing cost $70 to register back then. Now, $70 could get you another 10 years or so.

Also, highersource.org was launched sometime in April 1997 (judging from the media coverage still available on the internets). Good times...

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Article posted on Apr 28

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 28, 2007, 8:31 pm

No-Bake Chocolate Oatmeal Cookies, originally uploaded by fo0bar.

My mom used to make these when I was a kid. She sent me the recipe a few months ago and I finally got around to it today. Major sugar rush.

Ingredients:
2 C. Sugar
½ C. Margarine
3 Tbs. Cooking Cocoa
1/3 C. Milk
½ C. Peanut Butter
3 C. Uncooked Rolled Oats
1 teas. Vanilla
Directions:
1) Combine sugar, cocoa, margarine and milk in saucepan. Bring to a
boil over medium heat.
2) Remove from heat and add peanut butter, vanilla and rolled oats.
Stir well.
3) Drop by teaspoon on waxed paper.
4) Cool

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Article posted on Apr 27

Dead TV status update: ready to ship

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 27, 2007, 1:43 am

Broken 37" TV, ready to ship, originally uploaded by fo0bar.

I had to buy special "strapping tape" for this, because those pieces of plastic at the bottom are actually all that's keeping the whole thing together, and they're not completely load-bearing. It originally came with those plastic strap binding things looping around the box several times.

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Article posted on Apr 26

Dead TV status update: ugh

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 26, 2007, 7:21 pm

I called the local CompUSA repair department. They referred me to the nationwide TAP number. TAP told me to call the manufacturer for their warranty. (Like all other "extended warranties" out there, "4 year extended warranty" means "we'll only honor it the last 3 years". I anticipated this, but still doesn't make it suck any less.) Called the manufacturer, they filed an RMA and want me to ship it back to them.

They want me to ship a 37" TV back to them.

I must remember to call my CompUSA sales rep tomorrow and verbally abuse him.

Update: It looks like it'll only be about $50 to ship it. Still, annoying.

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Article posted on Apr 22

Oh yeah. I can print.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 22, 2007, 3:30 pm

I now have 3 printers on my desk at home. 6 years ago, I bought an HP LaserJet 1200 b/w printer second-hand (actually it was the display model at an Office Depmax-type place). The print counter was about 300 when I bought it, and I've put another 1000 pages on it. This is the printer I use when I need to print instructions/directions/etc. I have yet to replace the toner drum, and it still prints perfectly. This printer is, as they say, from the "good old days".

A little over a year ago I bought an Epson Photo R220. I use it primarily for printing photos and CDs. It sucks through ink jet cartridges like you wouldn't believe (almost 1/4 of the cartridges are used to "prime" it), but like I said, I don't use it for everyday printing.

Yesterday I bought a Epson Stylus CX5000 all-in-one printer/scanner/copier/print-directly-from-digital-camera thingy. You know why? I needed a scanner, and TODAY'S SCANNERS COST MORE THAN THE MULTIFUNCTION UNITS. Seriously, the scanning function is decent so it doesn't seem to be a quality issue, but a comparable standalone scanner is going to cost just as much. I bought it to start scanning in all the bills and whatnot from the last few years that have been gathering space, and it comes with a handy utility to scan directly into PDFs.

(I also have a 15-year-old Panasonic KX-P2023 dot-matrix printer in storage. Where it will remain for all time.)

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Article posted on Apr 18

I can't have nice things.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 18, 2007, 2:29 am

I was going to post about getting my finances under control (I may still), but the cosmos must have sensed too much satisfaction from me, so they broke my new damn TV. It won't power on, the power light just blinks slowly.

This must happen enough that it's in their FAQ:

Q: The power light on my LCD TV is blinking and the screen won't go on

A: The Power Light on a Olevia LCD TV typically blinks several times after you have pushed the on button, but stops blinking once the screen lights up and goes on. If the Power Light blinks continuously and the screen does not come on, you need to get your TV serviced. To arrange a service appointment, call Tech Support at 1-866-9OLEVIA (965-3842). Have the model number and serial number of your TV on hand when you call.

*sigh*

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Article posted on Apr 11

On the other hand, my renewal fee is the lowest ever.

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 11, 2007, 7:29 pm

Dear Nevada DMV,

For 4 years I did not have to get my vehicle smog checked. Last year you made me. This year's renewal notice arrived, and it too requires a smog check. Do you not understand, my car is NUCLEAR POWERED!

Love,
Ryan

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Article posted on Apr 8

Etch released

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 8, 2007, 3:44 pm

Debian 4.0 (etch) has been released this morning. Woo!

Unfortunately, this move breaks installation of (now-)older sarge media. While I don't see any reason to do new sarge installations anymore (we're running about 40/60% sarge/etch at work, with plans in place to upgrade all sarge installations to etch), I imagine I'll need to do it once or twice in the future. Here's the entry I wrote for the company wiki, hopefully it'll help other people:

--

Now that etch has been released, etch is now listed on the mirrors as "stable", while sarge is "oldstable". This causes problems for installing sarge, which expects sarge to be listed as "stable" in a few places. If you need to install sarge, here is what you must do:

1. Use the 3.1r5 netinst CD. The businesscard CD will not work without modification.

2. Install the first stage from the CD as normal.

3. In the second stage install, when asked "Add another apt source?", select "yes". Then, for the "Archive access method for apt", instead of "http", you must select "edit sources list by hand".

4. Add the following lines by hand:

deb http://your.favorite.mirror/debian/ sarge main contrib
deb http://security.debian.org/ sarge/updates main contrib

5. Save and exit the editor. Continue installation as normal.

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Article posted on Apr 3

"Yes, those are my previous employers. No, none of them exist anymore."

• Posted by Ryan Finnie on April 3, 2007, 12:19 pm

I read today that a previous company of mine (when I was working in San Francisco) has been acquired. They're not releasing many details, but I'm willing to guess the company name will not stay around (they will be integrated into the buyer). After looking at my resume, here are the results of my post-fast-food professional career:

* Rolled into parent company
* Acquired
* Went out of business

Which of course brings me to my current company, of which I am still gainfully employed. That's a lot of "dead links" on the ol' resume.

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