Been ages since I last posted, but on Friday, January 15 2009 I passed my Vmware VCP version 4 exam. This means I am a certified VCP on versions 3 and 4. I am also considering getting my Sun Solaris 10 System Administrators certification as I have been working with various flavours of Unix for so long I might as well put that one under my belt.

THIS from the globe and mail is unacceptable. I had issues with his nomination to the post given his employment history, but the fact that he won’t come clear on his position on evolution, when that is the central tenant of biology says enough.

Gary Goodyear must step down. He is not competent to fill the role of science minister and must be removed immediately.

I shall be writing a dead-tree letter to Parliament as soon as I find the appropriate people to write to (aside from my MP).

When I was in grade 8 biology we were shown the scientific method. It really fascinated me. I thought about it constantly after learning it. In fact, it took me a full week to really understand it. Once I did, I felt a little stupid. After all, it is such a simple idea. There are a few basic rules, and you can expand these rules into critical thinking which is basically the same process.

This stuck with me, and always seemed to me to be obvious.

Now, that I am older and I use critical thinking all the time I am still shocked at how many people around are incapable of this basic skill. In fact, I only know a few people who I would consider to be extremely skilled at using critical thinking.

This does not mean that my critical thinking skills are always correct. You can get things wrong of course. Still, that goes right back to the scientific method again. If you get something wrong, that is good! And people don’t understand that. It is as if they are afraid to fail. Yet, the entire scientific method is bolstered by failure. Each failure is recorded and remembered. The things that work are the things that don’t fail. These are the things that remain, and science advances.

I published this back in 2006, and I knew at the time it was total BS. How did I know? Critical thinking and a basic understanding of thermodynamics. Could I have been wrong? Sure, but I would put the odds of thermodynamics being wrong being much greater than winning 10 different lotteries at once. And now, 2 years on? It turns out that I was right. It was a hoax.

Still, it is not the only one. There are so many others around, and people just don’t see them. I think it is because they don’t want to. They are afraid of being wrong, afraid of feeling stupid. 24 years ago I felt stupid in biology class because it took me a week to learn the scientific method. Others in the class had memorized that material in minutes. Yet, now I feel like I was one of the few who still remembers how it works after the test was over. Don’t be afraid to be wrong, or feel stupid because you don’t understand something, it will work in the long run.

I responded to a Craigslist posting for the following:

Athlon 3500+ 2.2GHZ CPU
GigaByte K8NSC-939 motherboard
1 GB pc3200 DDR RAM
250 GB western Digital HDD
256 MB Nvidea vid card
Sound Blaster Audigy sound card
ACEPOWER 400 WATT PSU
LINKSYS Wireless pci card/Wireless router
dvd player/cd burner
Windows XP home with C.O.A.
17 inch crt monitor.

$250

Not a bad deal, I was looking at a brand new Dell Core 2 Duo for $300 including shipping, but I chose the above system for the following reasons:

Dell refused to sell the system with either a Ubuntu operating system or no OS. I knew I would not be using Vista, so I had no desire to pay for that, but moreso, I have no desire to contribute to Microsofts sales numbers in this regard for an OS I have no intention of using.

Also, the GigaByte motherboard has more PCI slots, and the system comes with a 400 watt power supply. The Dell has 1 PCI slot, and a 250 Watt power supply. Since I need to install add in cards for the PVR features of MythBuntu, I need more power and more room. In fact, this system is perfect for MythBuntu other than I don’t much care for the case. Still, I can always put the contents into a new case for MythBuntu.

I am currently running through the MythBuntu install, and I am impressed that the installer includes Memtest X86 version 1.70.

Wordpress upgrade seems to have broken my categories on the right, replaced them with numbers. *groan* As if I don’t do enough computer stuff on my own. Update, it appears I am not alone:

Solution 1 Solution 2
Using the Google cache I have pulled my categories up (I could have used my MySQL backup, but the Google cache is faster).

Looks like solution 2 will be easiest for me.

Edit:

Looks like solution one, or rather a hybrid of it worked best. I took my wordpress backup from before the upgrade, and ran the SQL statements to recreate the wp_categories table, and then populate it with the original data. Then I ran the SQL statements to copy over the data from wp_categories to wp_term_taxonomy. Really painful that I had to do it that way, but attempting to manually insert data into the wp_term_taxonomy table was giving me very bizzare SQL errors that should NOT have been cropping up.

And I am going to test something here:

I was surprised to find a wreckers in Victoria BC that specializes in Toyota 4Runners. I had been heading up to Nanaimo and South Island Auto for all my parts. It made sense, as I used to live in Nanaimo. But now I know of “Corvette Holdings” 1063 Dunford Avenue, Victoria, BC V9B 2S4, Telephone : 250-474-6051.

Don’t ask me why it is called Corvette when they have tons of 4Runner parts.

On my birthday I decided to buy myself a Toyota Clinometer off of Ebay for my 4Runner. It was originally in a Toyota Surf - the diesel Japanese version of the 4Runner. I had wanted one for some time for off-road use. After it arrived, I disassembled it to see how it worked as seen here.

I took my dashboard apart:

Then I removed the metal mounting hardware from the Clinometer to measure it for the dash:

After figuring out the fit, I began drilling the dashboard (The hole for the wiring is not drilled in this image):

And finally, reattaching the dashboard to see how it looks:

Not bad, although it appears crooked. This is because the Clinometer is from a Toyota Surf, and thus was not meant to attach to a First Gen 4Runner dash, especially a left hand drive like mine. Toyota Surf’s are right hand drive, thus the Clinometer mounts differently.

I just need to finish off the wiring now so that it lights up when my dash lights come on. I verified that the Altimeter works well, both for altitude and predicting the weather. The tilt to the left and the right is handy, although the forward and back tilt is rather pointless.

This was recorded about a year ago, but I never linked it off of my blog.

It is a video of me surfing on Tarp and Play on the Puntledge river. I am in my Super Ego. This is before I owned my Bliss-Stick boats - which I have not even had the chance to try on the Puntledge due to a broken collarbone.

I am going to brag and post this little image here:

Why post it? Well, because I am now legally allowed to associate myself with this logo, that is why.

On March 7th, I stopped by Future Shop to purchase a game controller for Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas. As I did so, I absent-mindedly left my wallet on the counter. Afterwards, I quickly noticed my wallet was missing. I first checked my truck, then my place, and saw no sign of it. I knew the last time I had seen it for certain.

I phoned Future Shop, and they said that they did not have the wallet. So, I searched my truck again, and my place again… nothing. This was getting alarming. Concerned that my wallet had been stolen, I started the annoying process of getting my cards replaced. Then, a few days ago, I received a blog post from Kelly McCaig of Sims Recycling, checking to see if I was the George Walford who had lost a wallet.

I replied that I was, and immediately got a phone call. Speaking with Kelly, I immediately asked him if he had found my wallet in Future Shop. He informed me that the story was stranger than that. Much stranger.

It seems that I left my wallet at Future Shop as I had thought, and a thoughtful cashier left it in the register to be picked up… And this is where things went awry. The register was recycled and sent to Toronto for disassembly. Where Kelly found it. Kelly then had to secure permission from IBM who actually owned the till to send me my wallet, because technically, any items in the till belonged to them. Fortunately, I quickly got a call back, and he had secured permission to send me my wallet.

Getting my wallet today at Purolator was a bit amusing however. The woman behind the counter asked to see my drivers license, so she could hand me the package. I told her that she had it, and that it was actually IN the package that she was holding. This created a bit of a recursive problem in that she needed my ID to be allowed to open the package, and my ID was IN the package.

Fortunately, I had a new Costco card that I obtained using my passport, and I was able to use that to get enough confirmation to open the package, and then use my drivers license, which was in the package to finally accept… well, the license itself and the rest of the wallet!

At least I have my wallet back, now I need to find a way to thank Kelly as the Beer Store in Toronto does not accept remote payment.