Incredible hail storm. It gets really intense around 1:30, the pool looks like it's boiling.

A Moment in Time - Interactive Feature

May 12, 2010

via nytimes.com

Amazing. Follow the link to get it full size.

My latest speedtest results

May 11, 2010

My ISP recently upgraded my connection at home to 3Mbps. I'm surprised it's so accurate :-)

The Evolution of Privacy on Facebook and why I'm dropping off

May 11, 2010

via mattmckeon.com

This is a very good analysis, and is why my Facebook account is currently deactivated, and probably will be deleted. Contrary to Matt, I don't find Facebook very useful. Mostly it's served me to be found by people by whom I wasn't all that interested in being found, to see relatives' photos (which I can also receive through other means), to be endlessly spammed by people playing Farmville and, most usefully, to contact people whose email addresses I don't have or can't bother to remember. None of these are indispensable or irreplaceable to me.

Cory Doctorow: Persistence Pays Parasites

May 7, 2010

I don’t have a solution, but at least I have a better understanding of the problem. Falling victim to a scam isn’t just a matter of not being wise to the ways of the world: it’s a matter of being caught out in a moment of distraction and of unlikely circumstance.

via locusmag.com

Good lesson to stay always alert, even if you think you know better.

The Zomboni

May 6, 2010

Behold, the Zomboni from PvZ on my iPod.

Avatar Blu-Ray DVD on LG BD370 player

May 5, 2010

Just for the record, the Avatar Blu-Ray DVD plays correctly on my LG BD370 player, with the latest firmware (V7.170.00.26, upgraded from the device). I get a message saying "your player may need an upgrade", then the screen goes black, but after about 45 seconds, the DVD menu appears and you can play the movie correctly.

The first time I watched it, the black screen freaked me out, I didn't wait too long, and ended up watching the movie from the regular DVD. I haven't yet watched the whole movie in Blu-Ray, but from the few scenes I watched, the difference is noticeable and the quality is amazing.

Starting VirtualCenter automatically when it fails to start

May 3, 2010

Create a .bat file with following script:
net start MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM
ping 127.0.0.1 -n 120 -w 1000 > null
net start vpxd

Note: for SQL Server substitute MSSQLSERVER in the above batch file instead of MSSQL$SQLEXP_VIM.

Set script to run on boot.

via communities.vmware.com

In one of my VirtualCenter servers, a Windows XP machine, the VirtualCenter Server service often fails to start because it tries to run before the MSSQL server is fully initialized. This happens even when the dependencies are set correctly between the services (which is the official solution provided by VMware). The workaround is to create a startup script as shown above. I remove the redirection to nul (which means the script window shows the ping output) as a reminder of what is happening.