Bryan Strawser

You are here: Home / Archives for 2004

Archives for 2004

Multiple Computers

by ·

I am struggling with trying to keep my filesystems straight across my computers – this is something I really have to sit down and figure out how I want to proceed.

Short version of a very long story…

At work I have a directory stored on a networked file system – I also have files on the local drive of my work laptop.

At home I have a directory of files on my Powerbook – and another directory of files on my Powermac Desktop. I also have a home server that handles printing and other stuff in the house – and I store files on it as well. I also rent a webserver for this weblog and those of my friends.

I have to find a way to keep all of this stuff in sync – and have a backup system (for the home computers anyways) that makes sense and is reliable.

Anyone doing anything like this? How do you do it?

This is probably a good Slashdot story – I need to reword this and submit… hmm… perhaps I’ll finally get posted!

NYT: Bar Harbor, Maine

by ·

Last October, in the midst of one of the more stressful periods in my life, we departed north for a four day weekend in Bar Harbor and Bangor, Maine. It was one of the best vacations in my lifetime. I was relaxed by noon on the first full day at Acadia National Park – to this day, one of the most beautiful places that I had ever been.

Today’s New York Times has an outstanding article about some of the great things to do in and around Bar Harbor.

Formerly named Eden, Bar Harbor may well be the perfect New England tourist town. There are the requisite T-shirt emporiums and fudge shops and multiple quality homemade-ice cream joints. There are the tasteful and schlocky art galleries and free chamber music concerts on Friday nights. The architecture consists mainly of “cottages” built in the early 20th century by titans of pre-income-tax industry, but they are not about Newportesque excess as much as bygone elegance. Meanwhile, the honky-tonk water slides, go-karts and minigolf are just far enough away, in nearby Trenton, to make them accessible but invisible. Above all else, though, Bar Harbor is special because a few of those early visitors donated their land and pulled the strings to get 40 percent of the incomparably dramatic and beautiful Mount Desert Island, on which Bar Harbor sits, designated as Acadia National Park. Bike, hike, amble, kayak, rock-climb, horseback ride, lobster tour, whatever — it’s a day tripper’s paradise, at least until the leaf peeping ends around the second week of October.

Bar Harbor is nearly a six hour drive from my home – but it was like flying into a different world.

As I was there in October, it was cold – but not too cold – around 50 degrees. A t-shirt with sweatshirt and jeans seemed to fit the bills without any problem. The fog and other scenery near the ocean was simply fabulous. Tea at Jordan Pond and driving down to Brunswick to walk through Bowdoin College and pay my respects to Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain – a personal hero of mine – are among the many highlights of that trip.

I had hoped to go back this year – or at least up to some area of Maine – but unfortunately the $2,000 I had to drop on termite baiting put an end to that idea.

I have many pictures of this vacation – and some previous blog entries, but I am offline at the moment and cannot link to them. I’ll try to remember to come back and add these in at a later time.

527s: Food for Thought

by ·

With the 527 controversy raging on – and the realization that most of these are left-wing Democratic supporting organizations – perhaps its time for some of us to band together and start our own 527 fund.

Hmm..

CraigsList Facts

by ·

JoHo the Blog has a post up with some interesting facts about CraigsList:

Fun facts from the article: CraigsList’s 45 regional sites get a billion page views monthly and 5 million unique visitors. Classifieds account for 40-45% of a newspaper’s advertising revenues, or $15.8 billion dollars per year in the US. Craigslist’s annual revenues are guessed to be $7-$12 million/year. Craigslist does not advertise, relying on word-of-mouth.

One Billion Monthly Pageviews! Unbelieveable.

Lyris ListManager now supports RSS

by ·

Lyris announced version 8.0 of their ListManager software earlier this week.

I used Lyris for awhile for some newsletters. It’s a great – but incredibly expensive – piece of software.

The exciting thing though is that Lyris now has RSS support – which many folks are already using to get around the spam filled inbox problem with newsletters. This is a huge win for Lyris and its users.

John Kerry Sold Out his Team

by ·

Tammi, over at Road Warrior Survival has written a great piece today about John Kerry’s 1970’s testimony against the Vietnam War:

Son. Of. A. Bitch.

Bottom line. He Sold Out His Team. He Sold Out His Brothers. He Sold Out America. Yep, that’s my opinion and you aren’t going to change it.

I’ll put it in simple real world terms. If he were interviewing me for a job, I’d turn it down. I would NOT work for someone like that. I’d never trust them. Ever. So you can bet, given the fact that he is asking Us to hire Him I’m going to do my part in making sure he doesn’t get that position. I thought that way before, but hearing his testimony and re-reading it later sealed the deal for me. I DON’T want him to be the person that has this country’s future in his hands. I don’t want to have to trust HIM to keep me safe.

Unfortunately, I missed this, so am going to have to try to catch it on CSPAN re-runs.

It’s too bad there isn’t CSPAN on Demand like I have for HBO, Starz, and other channels.

I’m Bill Clinton, and I’m reporting for Booty!

by ·

Clearly, James Lileks writes one of the best blogs on the web. A sample from this week:

My life today would have been much easier if I hadn’t been struck with the vision of a former president taking the podium in Boston to announce “I’m Bill Clinton, and I’m reporting for booty!” I loved that line, which of course is usually a bad sign, but I tried to work it into the weekly column anyway. Hence my grief this morning, retooling the column I wrote last night. I also sketched ‘Fence last night; both were due at noon. I met my deadlines, but it took much Gnat pacification along the way. I hate Tuesdays. I’d say more, but it would sound like whiny mewling, and it’s not as if my day consists of hoisting barrels or disarming improvised roadside bombs. All in all it’s pretty good. Life is a shining jewel of inestimable value.

He just needs a RSS Feed!