Michael's Weblog: May 2006 Archives

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May 30, 2006

Trivial Tuesday #21

1. It was a busy Memorial Weekend for celebs to give birth. Name two of the celeb moms that delivered babies over the weekend.

2. Taylor Hicks was voted this year's American Idol. Who was the first Top 12 idol contender to be voted off this season?

3. A large plume of ash and smoke was launched 16,000 to 20,000 feet into the air at Mt St Helen's Monday. When did the last documented eruption occur?

4. Microsoft has been in the news lately with rumors of buying out what large internet-based company?

5. The Indianapolis 500 was held Sunday. Who won? (Bonus: which long-time Indy family held 2 of the top three spots?)

Posted by mhader at 6:57 PM | Comments (2)

May 26, 2006

Picture Friday

aka: Which Way Did I Go? Part 2

So this weekend I went swimming with the biggest fish in the world without getting wet. Ok, I Unfortunately wasn't actually able to go in the water and they aren't yet the biggest fish in the sea, but I did get to see them close up (with no glass in between even).

With the day on my own, I spent Friday at the largest aquarium in the world, the Georgia Aquarium. If you plan to go, make sure you buy your tickets online ahead of time. There was a ton of people and they brought the kids in by the bus load (literally). Also, if you can afford it, go on the Behind the Scenes tour. I found it very cool and you get a cool lanyard.

The aquarium has just about every kind of marine life you can think of. Well, I can think of [quite] a few they don't have. There are actually five different areas: Cold Water Quest (Beluga whales/sea lions/sea otters/penguins), Ocean Voyager (Whale sharks/golden trevally/grouper/stingrays), Georgia Explorer (mostly an awesome play area for kids with many touch tanks), River Scout (piranha/otters), Tropical Diver (seahorses/juvenile black tip sharks/live coral/yellow tangs/jellyfish). If you've been to the South Carolina Aquarium you've seen most of the Georgia Explorer fish because we have the same coast line. The river scout had a lot of fish from the Amazon, which we also have right now at the SCA.

The coolest thing to see, imho, was the whale sharks. They had two (Ralph and Norton), which are the only two in captivity. I've been a fan of this species for a long time. Ralph and Norton are currently around 16 feet long. They'll grow to be about twice that, making them the largest known fish (they are the size of whales but in the family of the shark) in the sea. Absolutely enormous. In the picture above, golden trevally are being pushed along by Norton. They have a bit of a symbiotic relationship. If anyone wants to take me diving where I can swim with whale sharks let me know! Now that I've gotten to see them, it's time to dive with them. The Beluga whales were also very cool to see. I believe there is a total of 5, but one is very sick and is quarantined from the other 4. The Belugas are very playful so it's quite easy to just stand in front of the tank memorized.

Things I was disappointed by:
-I didn't really care much for the layout because when you walk in, you are dumped into a big room with no good starting point. There is no flow outside of the 5 exhibit areas and if you go into the wrong area at the wrong time there are too many people to contend with.
-No changing exhibits. This is more of a complaint for the annual pass holders. Everything they had was very permanent (although with enough money and sponsorships I guess anything is possible). I like how the SCA has a small area that can change. The GA is big, but they don't really have everything. The flip side is that they can always add new species to the tanks they have now, and most of the fish are juvenile so it could be fun to watch them grow.
-Not enough sharks. Whale sharks are awesome I'll admit. Other than that they had very few..black tip/bonnet head/hammerhead/whitetip. Of these they appeared to be juvenile and very few and far between.

I've written an awful lot for a picture day so I'll move on. I'll tell you about the weekend later.

Posted by mhader at 9:47 AM | Comments (2)

May 25, 2006

Which Way Did I Go? Part 1

Although we talked about going for a couple months, the decision to actually go was very last minute. The 5+ hour drive was supposed to start last Thursday around noon, but my work day went from 2 to 5 cases and a 4 hour workday turned into 10. So we left around 7 pm from Charleston headed to Atlanta for the AUA (the American Urological Association yearly meeting, that is). There really isn't a lot for me to do at one of these conferences except for walking around the exhibits, eating the free food, and drinking the free drinks. Work-wise, I went to see the new LASER (put out by the same company that made the one I use now) that is very nice, although it could just about put me out of a job. I think it'd be a few years before we buy one, so I think I'm safe for now. My mother had some classes to attend on Fri/Sat so I had to come up with stuff to do while she was gone. Whatever could I do with my free time on my trip to Atlanta? Find out on the next entry..

Answers to the Trivial Tuesday #20:

1. Clerks II
2. Pearl Jam
3. Hurricane Alicia
4. Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open)
5. 714

Posted by mhader at 8:38 AM

May 23, 2006

Trivial Tuesday # 20

1. The Cannes Film Festival is currently taking place. Which film (opening nationwide July 21), by a former Cannes winner, is premiering at the festival Friday?

2. Pearl Jam released their new video, Life Wasted, under the creative commons license (though May 24th). What album is this song from?

3. Today Louisiana began a two-day evacuation drill after tracking the fictitious hurricane by what name?

4. The first public beta for Windows Vista (beta 2) was released today. What is the name of the new graphics intensive GUI for Vista?

5. Barry Bonds is tied with Babe Ruth for career home runs. How many do each have?

Last weeks answers:

1. "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives," and "Lost"
2. Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal"
3. Of 27 tropical/subtropical storms, 15 became hurricanes (Bonus answer: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale)
4. Yahoo!
5. Boston College

Posted by mhader at 2:04 PM | Comments (2)

A Trojan For Me?

No updates in a week! I've actually been out of town since Thursday with very little internet access. Before I left I found a couple programs on my computer doing some naughty things. I didn't get around to looking at it until last night. One was a program called firedaemon which starts and runs programs as a service. The other was DarkMailer, which is used to send spam. Oh, and there was an ftp server installed as well. I think I've gotten rid of most of this, but have yet to find out what actually caused the problem so the computer is staying offline, for the most part, until I get it all figured out (something is still randomly turning off part of my virus/internet security software). Hopefully, if I need to format, it will be the last time before I buy a new computer (formatting will have to wait until after the season finale of Lost, btw. I will do my best to get some trivia up soon. I'll tell you about my trip soon as well.

pre-trivia trivia: Where do you think I went?

Posted by mhader at 10:31 AM | Comments (1)

May 16, 2006

Trivial Tuesday #19

1. With the season coming to an end, TV lineups for the Fall are starting to come out. Thursday nights still seem to be the magical night that all the good series moves to. I might have to buy a new tv card before then. What were the three most popular shows on ABC this past year, helping it to be the only major network to increase ratings?

2. Alien Ant Farm will be releasing their first album in 4 years this summer. What song got them to the #1 spot on the Billboard's airplay-based Modern Rock chart?

3. A forecaster from AccuWeather predicted yesterday that 3 major (winds over 110-cat 3+)hurricanes (and 2 not so bad) would hit the US this year. How many hurricanes were named last season? (Bonus: What is the name of the scale that ranks the category of hurricanes?)

4. Which web portal released a new frontpage design today?

5. Doug Flutie retired from pro (American) football this week. For which college did he play when he won the Heisman trophy in 1984?

Answers for last weeks triva:

1. Eric McCormack (Will Truman), Debra Messing (Grace Adler), Megan Mullally (Karen Walker), Sean Hayes (Jack McFarland)
2. 1968 by The Beatles
3. He is a General in the US Air Force
4. Electronic Entertainment Expo
5. Sacramento Kings

Posted by mhader at 3:42 PM | Comments (5)

May 9, 2006

Trivial Tuesday # 18

1. The series finale of "Will & Grace" is this Thursday night. Can you name two of the four actors from the sitcom

2. The judge in the Apple vs Apple case ruled Monday that Apple Computer Inc. could continue to use their logo on the iTunes website. When was Apple Corps formed and by whom?

3. (insert rank here) Michael Hayden was nominated by Bush to become the director of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency after the sudden stepping down of Porter J. Goss last Friday. What branch of the military does Hayden actively serve?

4. E3, a very large computer and video game trade show, started this week in LA. What does E3 stand for?

5. Coach Rick Adelman was fired by what team Tuesday?

Veronica Mars season (and hopefully just that) finale is tonight! Watch it!

Posted by mhader at 7:41 PM | Comments (6)

May 3, 2006

Look Out!

This week I took the leap and upgraded to SageTV 5. I was having issues with what I was using previously and found the work arounds to be too much trouble. This biggest reason for the jump however was the new placeshifter feature. I can now access my tv/media from anywhere in the world (not that I'd go global--but it could be nice while I'm sitting around hospitals) with a broadband connection. It also means I can use my laptop to watch tv, rather than the valuable screen real estate on my desktop. I also started installing plugins, like a sleep timer. I'm obviously in the minority of people who use this software to actually watch tv on the computer. Most output it to a tv (at least the open developers)

Kira comes home for the summer this weekend, so watch out Mt Pleasant!

The husband and wife team cleaned up with yesterday's trivia. I'm not too surprised..looking over the questions before I posted I knew that they'd know most of them.

1. Rosie O'Donnell, coming this September to an ABC affiliate near you.
2. RHCP formed in 1983 and became quite popular in 1991, with the release of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik"
3. Steven Colbert
4. $0.99
5. San Diego Chargers

Posted by mhader at 8:34 PM

May 2, 2006

Trivial Tuesday # 17

1. So we already know that Merideth Viera is replacing Katie Couric, who is the permanent replacement for Dan Rather. Who is replacing Meredeth Viera on one of the scariest shows on tv, 'The View'?

2. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released their North American Tour Dates to promote their new album, "Stadium Arcadium" (May 9 release). What year did the RHCP breakthrough to become a mainstream megastar band?

3. Which comedian gave a keynote speech, with a "very respectful silence" from the audience, at the White house Correspondents Association Dinner this past weekend?

4. Apple renewed their flat-rate price for songs on iTunes today against the wishes of the music company's tiered pricing scheme. What is the price for one song?

5. Clemson graduate Charlie Whitehurst was picked in the 3rd round of the NFL draft over the weekend by what team?

Posted by mhader at 3:38 PM | Comments (3)

May 1, 2006

The Almighty Loft

The loft keeps giving..

The Sunday project this week involved getting the kayak off of the sawhorse style stands and up out of the way. This made a huge difference in the garage (it didn't hurt that we took 8 or 9 old computers, 2 monitors and a heap of cardboard to be recycled, and a bunch of stuff to Goodwill) and used up a little more of the loft in the process (basically all the remaining rungs).

The process of creating the new kayak storage system was a bit of a fly by the seat of your pants operation. I used only the tools and hardware I had in the garage. The wood from the loft, random screws, half a fun-noodle (leftover from the sawhorses), and leftover carpet scraps I found in my carpentry days. Nice, simple, and it seems to work quite well. Only a couple more years and the garage will actually look like one (although if you drive down my street, it looks better than most already).

Posted by mhader at 7:27 PM | Comments (1)


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mhader.com blog gallery jeep the list hrc shots links about	Michael's Weblog « April 2006 \| Main \| June 2006 » May 30, 2006 Trivial Tuesday #21 1. It was a busy Memorial Weekend for celebs to give birth. Name two of the celeb moms that delivered babies over the weekend. 2. Taylor Hicks was voted this year's American Idol. Who was the first Top 12 idol contender to be voted off this season? 3. A large plume of ash and smoke was launched 16,000 to 20,000 feet into the air at Mt St Helen's Monday. When did the last documented eruption occur? 4. Microsoft has been in the news lately with rumors of buying out what large internet-based company? 5. The Indianapolis 500 was held Sunday. Who won? (Bonus: which long-time Indy family held 2 of the top three spots?) Posted by mhader at 6:57 PM \| Comments (2) May 26, 2006 Picture Friday aka: Which Way Did I Go? Part 2 So this weekend I went swimming with the biggest fish in the world without getting wet. Ok, I Unfortunately wasn't actually able to go in the water and they aren't yet the biggest fish in the sea, but I did get to see them close up (with no glass in between even). With the day on my own, I spent Friday at the largest aquarium in the world, the Georgia Aquarium. If you plan to go, make sure you buy your tickets online ahead of time. There was a ton of people and they brought the kids in by the bus load (literally). Also, if you can afford it, go on the Behind the Scenes tour. I found it very cool and you get a cool lanyard. The aquarium has just about every kind of marine life you can think of. Well, I can think of [quite] a few they don't have. There are actually five different areas: Cold Water Quest (Beluga whales/sea lions/sea otters/penguins), Ocean Voyager (Whale sharks/golden trevally/grouper/stingrays), Georgia Explorer (mostly an awesome play area for kids with many touch tanks), River Scout (piranha/otters), Tropical Diver (seahorses/juvenile black tip sharks/live coral/yellow tangs/jellyfish). If you've been to the South Carolina Aquarium you've seen most of the Georgia Explorer fish because we have the same coast line. The river scout had a lot of fish from the Amazon, which we also have right now at the SCA. The coolest thing to see, imho, was the whale sharks. They had two (Ralph and Norton), which are the only two in captivity. I've been a fan of this species for a long time. Ralph and Norton are currently around 16 feet long. They'll grow to be about twice that, making them the largest known fish (they are the size of whales but in the family of the shark) in the sea. Absolutely enormous. In the picture above, golden trevally are being pushed along by Norton. They have a bit of a symbiotic relationship. If anyone wants to take me diving where I can swim with whale sharks let me know! Now that I've gotten to see them, it's time to dive with them. The Beluga whales were also very cool to see. I believe there is a total of 5, but one is very sick and is quarantined from the other 4. The Belugas are very playful so it's quite easy to just stand in front of the tank memorized. Things I was disappointed by: -I didn't really care much for the layout because when you walk in, you are dumped into a big room with no good starting point. There is no flow outside of the 5 exhibit areas and if you go into the wrong area at the wrong time there are too many people to contend with. -No changing exhibits. This is more of a complaint for the annual pass holders. Everything they had was very permanent (although with enough money and sponsorships I guess anything is possible). I like how the SCA has a small area that can change. The GA is big, but they don't really have everything. The flip side is that they can always add new species to the tanks they have now, and most of the fish are juvenile so it could be fun to watch them grow. -Not enough sharks. Whale sharks are awesome I'll admit. Other than that they had very few..black tip/bonnet head/hammerhead/whitetip. Of these they appeared to be juvenile and very few and far between. I've written an awful lot for a picture day so I'll move on. I'll tell you about the weekend later. Posted by mhader at 9:47 AM \| Comments (2) May 25, 2006 Which Way Did I Go? Part 1 Although we talked about going for a couple months, the decision to actually go was very last minute. The 5+ hour drive was supposed to start last Thursday around noon, but my work day went from 2 to 5 cases and a 4 hour workday turned into 10. So we left around 7 pm from Charleston headed to Atlanta for the AUA (the American Urological Association yearly meeting, that is). There really isn't a lot for me to do at one of these conferences except for walking around the exhibits, eating the free food, and drinking the free drinks. Work-wise, I went to see the new LASER (put out by the same company that made the one I use now) that is very nice, although it could just about put me out of a job. I think it'd be a few years before we buy one, so I think I'm safe for now. My mother had some classes to attend on Fri/Sat so I had to come up with stuff to do while she was gone. Whatever could I do with my free time on my trip to Atlanta? Find out on the next entry.. Answers to the Trivial Tuesday #20: 1. Clerks II 2. Pearl Jam 3. Hurricane Alicia 4. Windows Aero (Authentic, Energetic, Reflective and Open) 5. 714 Posted by mhader at 8:38 AM May 23, 2006 Trivial Tuesday # 20 1. The Cannes Film Festival is currently taking place. Which film (opening nationwide July 21), by a former Cannes winner, is premiering at the festival Friday? 2. Pearl Jam released their new video, Life Wasted, under the creative commons license (though May 24th). What album is this song from? 3. Today Louisiana began a two-day evacuation drill after tracking the fictitious hurricane by what name? 4. The first public beta for Windows Vista (beta 2) was released today. What is the name of the new graphics intensive GUI for Vista? 5. Barry Bonds is tied with Babe Ruth for career home runs. How many do each have? Last weeks answers: 1. "Grey's Anatomy," "Desperate Housewives," and "Lost" 2. Michael Jackson's "Smooth Criminal" 3. Of 27 tropical/subtropical storms, 15 became hurricanes (Bonus answer: Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Scale) 4. Yahoo! 5. Boston College Posted by mhader at 2:04 PM \| Comments (2) A Trojan For Me? No updates in a week! I've actually been out of town since Thursday with very little internet access. Before I left I found a couple programs on my computer doing some naughty things. I didn't get around to looking at it until last night. One was a program called firedaemon which starts and runs programs as a service. The other was DarkMailer, which is used to send spam. Oh, and there was an ftp server installed as well. I think I've gotten rid of most of this, but have yet to find out what actually caused the problem so the computer is staying offline, for the most part, until I get it all figured out (something is still randomly turning off part of my virus/internet security software). Hopefully, if I need to format, it will be the last time before I buy a new computer (formatting will have to wait until after the season finale of Lost, btw. I will do my best to get some trivia up soon. I'll tell you about my trip soon as well. pre-trivia trivia: Where do you think I went? Posted by mhader at 10:31 AM \| Comments (1) May 16, 2006 Trivial Tuesday #19 1. With the season coming to an end, TV lineups for the Fall are starting to come out. Thursday nights still seem to be the magical night that all the good series moves to. I might have to buy a new tv card before then. What were the three most popular shows on ABC this past year, helping it to be the only major network to increase ratings? 2. Alien Ant Farm will be releasing their first album in 4 years this summer. What song got them to the #1 spot on the Billboard's airplay-based Modern Rock chart? 3. A forecaster from AccuWeather predicted yesterday that 3 major (winds over 110-cat 3+)hurricanes (and 2 not so bad) would hit the US this year. How many hurricanes were named last season? (Bonus: What is the name of the scale that ranks the category of hurricanes?) 4. Which web portal released a new frontpage design today? 5. Doug Flutie retired from pro (American) football this week. For which college did he play when he won the Heisman trophy in 1984? Answers for last weeks triva: 1. Eric McCormack (Will Truman), Debra Messing (Grace Adler), Megan Mullally (Karen Walker), Sean Hayes (Jack McFarland) 2. 1968 by The Beatles 3. He is a General in the US Air Force 4. Electronic Entertainment Expo 5. Sacramento Kings Posted by mhader at 3:42 PM \| Comments (5) May 9, 2006 Trivial Tuesday # 18 1. The series finale of "Will & Grace" is this Thursday night. Can you name two of the four actors from the sitcom 2. The judge in the Apple vs Apple case ruled Monday that Apple Computer Inc. could continue to use their logo on the iTunes website. When was Apple Corps formed and by whom? 3. (insert rank here) Michael Hayden was nominated by Bush to become the director of the civilian Central Intelligence Agency after the sudden stepping down of Porter J. Goss last Friday. What branch of the military does Hayden actively serve? 4. E3, a very large computer and video game trade show, started this week in LA. What does E3 stand for? 5. Coach Rick Adelman was fired by what team Tuesday? Veronica Mars season (and hopefully just that) finale is tonight! Watch it! Posted by mhader at 7:41 PM \| Comments (6) May 3, 2006 Look Out! This week I took the leap and upgraded to SageTV 5. I was having issues with what I was using previously and found the work arounds to be too much trouble. This biggest reason for the jump however was the new placeshifter feature. I can now access my tv/media from anywhere in the world (not that I'd go global--but it could be nice while I'm sitting around hospitals) with a broadband connection. It also means I can use my laptop to watch tv, rather than the valuable screen real estate on my desktop. I also started installing plugins, like a sleep timer. I'm obviously in the minority of people who use this software to actually watch tv on the computer. Most output it to a tv (at least the open developers) Kira comes home for the summer this weekend, so watch out Mt Pleasant! The husband and wife team cleaned up with yesterday's trivia. I'm not too surprised..looking over the questions before I posted I knew that they'd know most of them. 1. Rosie O'Donnell, coming this September to an ABC affiliate near you. 2. RHCP formed in 1983 and became quite popular in 1991, with the release of "Blood Sugar Sex Magik" 3. Steven Colbert 4. $0.99 5. San Diego Chargers Posted by mhader at 8:34 PM May 2, 2006 Trivial Tuesday # 17 1. So we already know that Merideth Viera is replacing Katie Couric, who is the permanent replacement for Dan Rather. Who is replacing Meredeth Viera on one of the scariest shows on tv, 'The View'? 2. The Red Hot Chili Peppers released their North American Tour Dates to promote their new album, "Stadium Arcadium" (May 9 release). What year did the RHCP breakthrough to become a mainstream megastar band? 3. Which comedian gave a keynote speech, with a "very respectful silence" from the audience, at the White house Correspondents Association Dinner this past weekend? 4. Apple renewed their flat-rate price for songs on iTunes today against the wishes of the music company's tiered pricing scheme. What is the price for one song? 5. Clemson graduate Charlie Whitehurst was picked in the 3rd round of the NFL draft over the weekend by what team? Posted by mhader at 3:38 PM \| Comments (3) May 1, 2006 The Almighty Loft The loft keeps giving.. The Sunday project this week involved getting the kayak off of the sawhorse style stands and up out of the way. This made a huge difference in the garage (it didn't hurt that we took 8 or 9 old computers, 2 monitors and a heap of cardboard to be recycled, and a bunch of stuff to Goodwill) and used up a little more of the loft in the process (basically all the remaining rungs). The process of creating the new kayak storage system was a bit of a fly by the seat of your pants operation. I used only the tools and hardware I had in the garage. The wood from the loft, random screws, half a fun-noodle (leftover from the sawhorses), and leftover carpet scraps I found in my carpentry days. Nice, simple, and it seems to work quite well. Only a couple more years and the garage will actually look like one (although if you drive down my street, it looks better than most already). Posted by mhader at 7:27 PM \| Comments (1)