not so silent (e)

T-Mobile

I uploaded this through

I uploaded this through

I read this brief article about what appears to be a BIG problem of some missing bees in America. Tens of BILLIONS. Or, it should be said… Billion and Billions (sorry to Carl Sagan too). heh.

But the only thing that was going through my head while reading it?

“So Long and Thanks for All the …” honey.

The greatest living American has giant brass balls.

Update 4/17: Bradley, the author of mongrel_cluster, was already aware of this issue and is getting ready to release a new version with some fixes for this issue. Best practice for now is to update your config files to place the pid files in /var/run/mongrel_cluster. He mentioned it way back on February 23rd. I shoulda read closer.

If you’ve been experiencing problems with restarting your mongrel cluster through Capistrano then I have two solutions that have worked for me and I’m pretty sure will for you as well. Read rest of this entry »

While filling out an online form today, I was presented with what we in the web biz call a CAPTCHA image. It’s one of those graphics that has text you need to confirm. The text is either distorted, covered with lines, shapes, or colors, or even both. It is presented in such a way as to obscure the text enough so that a computer can’t automatically guess what it says. They’ve become quite popular and for good reason. They work. But what happens when they start fighting back, or at least letting you know how they feel about you.

I kid you not, this is what it asked me to confirm…

Read rest of this entry »

Cathy and I watched “An Inconvenient Truth” last weekend and it was really inspiring. Sure, it’s a glorified PowerPoint presentation but, with all apologies to Marshall McLuhan, in this instance the medium is not the message. So, I’ve tried to step up my looking for ways to help reduce my impact on our environment. My small steps may not make a HUGE difference but they’ll help and I can also help spread the word on my tiny little blog here. One thing that helps not just the environment but your pocketbook as well?

Stop idling the car!!

Studies have shown that idling the car for longer than 10 seconds is very wasteful. 10 SECONDS PEOPLE! That’s many stoplights out where I live, if I hit it right… wrong… umm, just as it changes to red. So, I’ve started to turn my car off when I think I can get away with it. The following link has more information and there’s a quaint, though low-budget (I love the squirrel), video that makes a good point as well.

(inspiration for this post) Homemade Hybrids - with the 10-Second Rule

Using this 10 second rule can even save you gas. The person quoted in the story I linked to above said he got an extra 30 miles in one month. That’s an extra gallon in my car. $3.45 saved. Per tank. I go through a coupla tanks a month. That’s big bucks.

What else am I doing?

• I’m starting to take lightrail more often into work
• I don’t run the water in my shower waiting for it to get hot as long as I used to. I used to shave while waiting but it gets hot enough, fast enough, that I start the shower after shaving.
• We’ve replaced standard lightbulbs with compact fluorescent bulbs in many places, though I think I know some places where we haven’t.

Little things, but things that help. You can too. So, if you find yourself idling your car, anywhere you’re going to be longer than 10 seconds?… A long stoplight… Waiting for the kids to come out of school… Tailgating… etc… Turn it off.

PS - What’s the deal with the title? If we save our world? We’ll be saving the lives of countless cheerleaders too. I, for one, am all for that!