Satya's blog - 2005/12/
Yetsrday I was wandering around Target looking for a LEGO Star Destroyer
(no one in this state has it, no Target in the US has it,
Amazon does not have it,
it's even backordered on lego.com)
when I found 3 B-Wing sets.
The label under them said about $15, but I decided to wait and get home
and see if there was a resale value for them on eBay or wherever.
They're sweet, and I've always wanted a B-Wing, but it's not a big set
and I don't want it that much. Build once, take pictures, re-sell.
I found it goes for anything from $20 to $50 on the auction site. I went back to Target today... looked closely at the price tag, which was for something else. Scanned the barcode, it turned out to be $35. I don't want it *that* much. There are 3 LEGO B-Wings and an A-wing or two sitting in the West Ashley Target. And loads of Bionicles; apparently no one wants those.
(This article is ROT-13-encrypted due to potentially offensive content.)
Fb V'z urnevat gung ybgf bs crbcyr (v.r. arjf ercbegref) ner natel nobhg bhgfbhepvat bs wbof. Fb nz V. Jul ner wbof gung fubhyq tb gb crbcyr va zl fgngr tbvat gb crbcyr va bgure fgngrf? Urpx, jung nobhg zl pvgl, jul ner wbof urer orvat bhgfbheprq gb bgure gbjaf? Naq juvyr jr'er ng vg, jul ner vyyrtny vzzvtenagf nyybjrq gb ebnz serr va gur HF creznaragyl juvyr rirel fpenc bs cncrejbex sebz zr vf fpehgvavmrq sbe lrnef ba raq? Last updated: Dec 28 2005 18:31
I wish I had a LEGO Star Destroyer model 10030, that thing is awesome!
Anyone have one for sale?
(Not the Mini!! Do NOT send me messages about the Mini, I already have it!)
The blog software I use
has been taking too long to generate my blog. So I optimised it a little.
Background: Each entry is kept as a text file. The files are kept in directories. The software runs through each directory and processes each file and produces HTML pages. At the end it also produces a database from which the tag directory works and the dynamic tag-based RSS feeds can be generated on demand. Each file processed opens an HTML::Template instance which opens and processes a template from disk. This is resource-intensive. Reading the docs, I found several cache options one of which is blind_cache. Setting this option caches the parsed template in memory, so the template module doesn't re-open and re-parse the file for each blog entry. At the end, the program creates a new SQLite database file and runs SQL INSERT statements -- a new query for each blog entry. Of course the statement handle is re-used but it still takes time. Googling (well, I used Amazon's A9 this time) for sqlite optimizations got me a recommendation to use BEGIN TRANSACTION and END TRANSACTION before and after my flurry of SQL. Without transactions and blind_cache: 15 wallclock secs ( 6.25 usr + 0.21 sys = 6.46 CPU) With transactions and HTML::Template's blind_cache: 3 wallclock secs ( 2.03 usr + 0.16 sys = 2.19 CPU)
Snail mail spam = Snam
Or snamam? Snamalam? Snama lama ding dong? Or how about "cram"? Credit card spam.
I have a wattmeter. Fear.
So here's some data:
(Determined by turning stuff on and off and subtracting in my head.) Maximum current draw: under 4 amps. Usually less than 3, 2 if quiescent. That is good. Last updated: Dec 14 2005 12:44
I've had a Capital One Visa credit card
account for a while now, and I hardly ever use it.
They keep sending me sleazy stuff like cash advance checks, but that's not why I closed the account -- I closed it because I don't use it.
Unexpectedly, it was relatively easy to close -- called the number, got through a couple of straightforward phone menus, talked to customer service who only bugged me a little bit about why I want to close it, which is reasonable. Then they read me my rights (too fast and mumbled) and said the account would be closed in two billing cycles. Cool.
A few months ago I had ranted about how XP sits there waiting for a keypress to
*cancel* the automatic disk check on a bad boot. There's not keypress to skip
the timeout and just run the check already. Well, according to
http://www.tweakxp.com/article36972.aspx there's a workaround:
chkntfs /?
(I won't tell you how to do that; if you don't know you shouldn't be doing it.)
More pictures, these are from Mount Pleasant. The pictures link to my on-line
albums which have such details as date, etc. and of course more pictures:
They're both on the same lake next to my front door. The first is a reflection on a still night. The second is the fog on a cold morning. After I did the USS Enterprise model pictures, and these two, I realised the Imagemagick options have changed, so these pictures have no captions as part of the image. The command was: convert -density 100 -pointsize 12 -background '#00000066' -fill white \ label:"$1" \ miff:-|\ composite -gravity northwest -quality $qual - $2 $3but now I use: convert -density 100 -pointsize 12 -background '#00000066' -fill white \ label:"$1" \ miff:-|\ composite -compose atop -quality $qual - $2 $3 Update (2010-04-10): I use this now: convert -density 100 -pointsize 12 -background '#00000066' -fill white \ label:" $1 " \ -strokewidth 8 \ -geometry "+10""+10" \ miff:-|\ composite -compose atop -geometry "+10""+10" - "$2" $3 Last updated: Apr 20 2010 16:25 |
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