Brian Knoblauch

That pretty much covers it right there.  Why do "they" (not sure who "they" are though) keep deprecating all the slick useful things and sticking us with "replacements" that take 10 times the code to make them do what you want?  Seems like the goal is to take away simple classes with lots of useful methods and stick us with massively complex (internally) classes that only have a couple ways to interface (which of course are done exactly the way you DON'T want it to be done).  Argh.

 OK, I'm better now.  Rant mode OFF!  :)

2008 School Flyer.doc (34.50 kb)

Installing Windows Vista has proven to be more challenging than XP. It seems to fail a lot easier and gives less information on why. Here's a couple things I've run across that are issues and how to work around:

If you get an error referring to the disk being unusable due to having a GPT partition, that disk as at some point probably been in a Mac... To get rid of the GPT partition and make it usable by Vista (note that the following will destroy all data on the disk!):

1. At the disk selection screen, press Shift+F10 to get a command prompt
2. Run "diskpart"
3. "list disk" (see what's available)
4. select the current disk (example: "select disk 0")
5. "clean" (wipes out the GPT partition)
6. "exit" (to quit diskpart)
7. "exit" (second time closes the command prompt)
8.  Now you can refresh the disk selection in the GUI and continue.

If you get more generic errors having to do with the disk not being compatible, compliant, or unsupported, check to make sure that the boot order setup in the BIOS is configured in the following order:

1. Drive containing the installation media
2. The hard drive that you want Vista to install onto

If you have ANYTHING (even removeable media) configured above either of those two items, the installation will fail. Vista appears to attempt to write the boot loader onto the first writeable media in the list, even if it's a memory stick or a floppy drive! Obviously, that's a bad thing... :)

Hope these tips can help prevent the hour of frustration and googling that I had the other day!

Tired of receiving messages like the following every 8 minutes?

Mar  3 15:37:06 WARNING[11697] res_musiconhold.c: Found no files in '/var/lib/asterisk/mohmp3'
Mar  3 15:37:06 WARNING[11697] res_musiconhold.c: Unable to spawn mp3player

Despite not having MOH (Music On Hold) setup, for some reason Asterisk insists on looking for mp3 files.  Why it does so, I have no idea.  Seems pretty silly to go looking for them if you're not even using that feature...  Oh well...

The solution is VERY simple though.  Just touch anything.mp3 in the listed directory and Asterisk will quit bugging you.  Doesn't matter that you just created a completely empty file without a proper mp3 header.  Asterisk only seems to care that something (anything) exist in that directory with the extension of ".mp3"!

While we sit here and wait for Gran Turismo 5 to be released for the PlayStation 3 (which I may never get anyways because the PS3 is priced a bit more than I care to pay for what would be a "1 game console" for me)...  I've been playing the previous GTs and noted a few things that I missed not having done direct comparisons before:

• What ever happened to the "Red Rock Valley" track from GT2?  That was my absolute favorite track from any of the GT series, but disappeared as of GT3.  Of course they kept some of the horrible tracks...  :(  Searching the Internet to see if there's anything else missing lead me to notice that Grindelwald (I don't even remember that one now) and the Pikes Peak tracks are also missing from GT4 (not so sure if they made GT3 or not, wasn't looking for them at the time).
• Time penalties in rally mode on GT4 are VERY annoying at times.  <sarcasm mode on>  I just love being in a nice drift around a corner, having the computer car come flying into the corner (way faster than it could ever hope to make the corner) and run right smack into the side of me, and then I get stuck with a penalty.  <sarcasm mode off>  HELLO, the computer car hit ME, I was on my line, the computer car was the one that caused the crash!
• GT3 game play is better than GT4.  The cars feel better/more realistic.  The power is much more controllable with the stock controller.  Perhaps GT4 is better with a wheel and pedals, but it's very hard to control power delivery on the faster cars in GT4.  Especially in rally mode.  GT3 is very fun and playable.  Rally mode in GT4 with a fast car is as bad as when I rallycrossed the Eclipse when it had the VPC.  You have a choice of no power or wheelspin.  Downright frustrating.  If I want to play rally mode (or have fun with the 1000hp Lotus Esprit), I pop in GT3...  Otherwise I pick GT4 (and suffer through the control issues) since it has a better selection of tracks and cars...
• B-Spec mode (which I scoffed at when I first encountered it) in GT4 is quite handy for those insanely long events.  Also handy for high speed cars on Sarthe (which is so bumpy that it serves to exaggerate the above control issues to the point of going beyond simple annoyance)...  Also handy for events where wheelspin tends to tear up tires in A-Spec mode.  The B-Spec "driver" is very good at perfectly controlling wheelspin and not destroying the tires.  Of course, the B-Spec driver's overtaking & passing skills are, well, terrible...  You can't have everything I guess.  :)

Straight from:

Mike Bennett
GLD Road Rally Steward

is the attached schedule (note that it has been revised as of 2-28-2008).

GLD Schedule 2008 Draft rev6.xls (30.00 kb)

Only had a few short weeks to live with the ol' RAZR.  Unfortunately it appears to have died a most untimely death.  Not sure why it happened, but it would no longer charge the battery.  The phone would work just fine while connected to power, but as soon as it was disconnected it would drop from 3 battery bars to just 1.  And that remaining 1 wouldn't last very long at all.

The obvious "replace the battery" thing was done first.  Had to reseat the battery the very same day due to an "invalid battery" error.  From then on out, no errors, but no charging either.   Alltel then flashed the firmware to the latest version (which, BTW, solved the goofy double copies of the date problem), but didn't help the charging.  It did, however, result in a new error message while trying to charge.  "Unable to charge".  Hmmm, well, yeah, thanks.  Why would have been nice...  Today Alltel finally gave up on trying to make it work and replaced with a "HUE" for us.

The "HUE" is a neat little phone.  Comes with 2 sets of color inserts.  Mine was originally a glaringly bright red.  I immediately swapped that set of inserts for the much nicer dark blue.  It's a flip phone, just like the RAZR.  VERY much like the RAZR in shape, size, features, etc.  As a matter of fact, even the buttons look a LOT like a RAZR.  The only major difference is the outside display.  On the HUE it's oriented longitudinally (instead of laterally) and displays lit lettering (you pick a single color) on a dark background.  Not sure how the battery life is going to be.  The car charger and carrying case kit was about the same price as the extended life battery, so we went for the former.  My weekends almost always have me near a source of DC power, so it's even more useful than a longer lasting battery!

So, I can hear you asking yourself, "any negatives to the phone yet?".  Well, not yet, exactly...  It has this idiotic, flimsy little door that covers the power connector.  I give it 50/50 odds on even surviving the first month.  I don't see how this possibly passed Q&A.  It never should have even made it on the design board that way.  I use that connector 1-2 times every day.  The door's connection to the phone is exceptionally flimsy.  It's going to break, it's just a matter of how quick.  Compare that to the v265 and RAZR that had nice trim little connectors stylishly built in (and NO FLIMSY DOORS)!  That definitely goes into my "What were you thinking?  You were thinking, weren't you?" files...

To sum up, it looks like it's going to be a nice little phone, but only time will tell.  As it stands it has only one flaw that I've noticed, and once that door snaps off, well, that flaw won't exist anymore...

I mean that in a positive way!  After having occasions to deal with federal government agencies (FCC & FAA) that seem (to me anyways) a bit slow to get things done (but do seem to get them right, just takes awhile), I've been very impressed with my limited dealings with Ohio's agencies.

• I was "selected" to be part of the big random sweep to see who actually has valid car insurance.  Despite my concern that they'd be slow to process and that I'd end up with a suspension, etc, it all went very well.  I even received a nice letter back thanking me for sending everything to them in a timely manner!  Not sure exactly which department is responsible for that, but good job!
• I'm also very impressed with the responsiveness of Attorney General Marc Dann's people!  I submitted a request for the current Concealed Carry Law booklet and received it almost immediately!  I believe I submitted my request late one night, then received it just 2 days later!  Very impressive response, don't know how they could do it any faster (other than driving one up here and hand delivering)!  For those that can't wait even that long, there's a web version too.

I was walking around in Borders awhile back, with the remnants of a gift card ($3 left on it, given to me by Kate (http://kate.glmotorsports.net) after she spent the bulk, but ran out of things to buy).  Came across this book and it grabbed my eye.  A little dated (what with the Java 5 and the 2006 copyright), but thought I'd give it a try since it looked like fun.  I always enjoy the books that are more full length "project tutorials" and less guides with small individual tutorials tacked on.  Unfortunately, such books are quite hard to find nowadays (although they were quite popular back in the stone ages when I started programming).

It was a couple weeks after bringing it home before I got a chance to open it, but I blew through it's 326 pages of tutorial content in 2 days.  I haven't done that with a programming book in AGES (see above commentary on book style :)  )!  It takes one from very basic entry-level Java concepts up to some fairly powerful (yet not TOO complex) concepts.  Along the way, an entire 2-d video game is built and modified.  Starts off very simple, but functional (Atari 2600 looking) very early on in the book and then it's continually refined and upgraded and eventually reaches a fairly modern looking design for a web-based/downloadable!

All in all, very impressed with this book.  I'm not much into gaming, and not too terribly interested in writing games, but I thoroughly enjoyed the book while picking up some good design concepts and additional graphics manipulation knowledge (I do occasional non-game 2-D graphics apps).  So, I'd recommend it to anyone that is in the beginning-intermediate range on Java and wants something fun to learn more, as well as anyone starting out that would like to get into the casual game market!

It made for a good excuse to fire up the ol' Eclipse (which has been sitting dormant in the garage for a couple weeks now) and see if it would idle in this nice cold weather.  Car ran like a champ, that's always a good thing...  :)  Always get nervous about that after Son of Sno*Drift.  Even though we just ran up there for lunch and didn't enter the event, I was still concerned that the car would decide not to run today.  Moving along though...

The expo itself was a little smaller than I expected, being compressed into what I'd consider a somewhat smallish church hall in Sylvania.  Team Toledo (obviously) was there.  Their focus is triathlon events.  Others that showed up include TAB (Toledo Area Bicyclists, of which I'm a member), Dave's Performance Footwear, The Bike Route, and Reggie's bike shop.  There were also various other cycling and fitness related vendors, as well as a martial arts group!  Notably absent was any representation from Bikeworks (who have become my primary local supplier for all things cycling).  Was nice to be able to check out a range of products in one place like that.  Good job Team Toledo!  :)