The good – Spam is only marginally okay as a food product

The bad – Spam & spammers are ruining the Internet

The ugly – Laws need to be enacted & enforced to stop all spam

I may shut down this blog site due to spam. I’m growing tired of it being bombarded with spam. Thank goodness I have Akismet & Spam Karma 2 installed. They have stopped all attempted spam comments.

I suppose I could go back to using a CAPTCHA anti-spam solution. This would stop the automatic spam bots. But I always hate it when I run into a CAPTCHA on the web. It’s such a hassle. I normally just quickly exit the site and move on. So why would I want to subject nice people, who only want to post legitimate comments on my blog, to such nonsense?

…jf…

The good – It boots and runs

The bad – More kernel panics & freezes

The ugly – It’s got to be one of the “BIG 3“

I’ve thoroughly tested my Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) Mac, trying to resolve its kernel panic & freeze problems. (See Part 1 & Part 2 of this story.)

It’s not the hard drive(s). It’s not the RAM. It’s not the Mac OS X installation. That means the problem is, most likely, one (or more) of the “BIG 3” — the motherboard, the processor card, and/or the power supply.

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The good – It boots and runs

The bad – One kernel panic, one freeze

The ugly – Difficult to isolate the problem

Yesterday, I started the process of evaluating and fixing My Troubled Mac. It’s an Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) model that has been prone to frequent kernel panics and freezes. My goal is to isolate the source of these problems, then decide on a course of action.

I started by removing all the hard drives, a USB 2.0 PCI card, and the Apple Internal Modem card. I installed a single hard drive, which is known to be good. I then reset the PMU. I left the DVD drive, video card, and RAM installed. So I now have a basic hardware configuration for testing.

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The good – My other Macs work perfectly

The bad – Repeating kernel panics

The ugly – Appears to be a major hardware issue

On July 4, 2006, I purchased a used Apple G4 1.42 GHz Dual Processor FW800 MDD (Mirror Drive Doors) Mac on ebay. The total cost, including shipping, was just under $900. I thought this was a pretty good deal, since it was a 2nd generation version, with quieter fans, updated power supply, and copper CPU heatsink. It came with 2 GB (4×512)of RAM, two 80 GB hard drives, Pioneer DVR-105 SuperDrive, Iomega Zip 750 drive, ATi Radeon 9000 Pro 64 MB video card, Apple internal modem, Apple Extended USB keyboard, Apple Optical USB mouse, and system restore disc.

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The good – Improvements?

The bad – Their updates break my theme

The ugly – I’ll waste time updating my theme

I just upgraded this blog’s WordPress software to version 2.7.1 two weeks ago. Unfortunately, it broke parts of my custom theme I worked so hard to create. To fix it will require several hours of work. It seems to be a php and code words issue.

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The good – I’m not sure

The bad – A timesink

The ugly – A waste of time?

Well, I’m now on Twitter. I resisted doing it for a long time. What finally pushed me over the edge? It may be a way for me to find new revenue streams. We’ll see.

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Austro-Daimler Pacifica

Click image to see the complete gallery of images.

The good – A well-made vintage road bike, worth restoring

The bad – Same-era vintage parts are rare and expensive

The ugly – It needs a complete overhaul

I have a nice road bike that I bought new in the mid-1980s. It’s an Austro-Daimler Pacifica, made by Steyr-Daimler-Puch in Austria. I would estimate my Pacifica as being a 1983 model.

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The good – You don’t have to provide an email address to post a comment

The bad – But you still have to type in the reCAPTCHA message code

The ugly – If I receive too many “inappropriate” comments—spam, profanity, etc.—I will revert back to requiring an email address

Exactly one week ago, I installed WordPress, set up this blog site, and posted my first message, “Welcome to my blog.” Since then I have posted a few more messages, and done a lot of research about WordPress in general, and WordPress themes in specific. Although I know enough HTML and CSS to be dangerous, I am a total beginner with WordPress and PHP.

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The good – Hopefully, this will be the event that “shatters the Plexiglas”

The bad – His self-destructive behavior may put his NFL career in jeopardy, and land him in prison

The ugly – Unfortunately, children, teens, and young adults look up to him, and other professional athletes and entertainers, as role models

In the latest edition of “How to destroy a very lucrative, multi-million dollar a year career,” New York Giants wide receiver Plaxico (“Plexiglas”) Burress stated that he “accidently shot himself in the leg” at a nightclub in midtown Manhattan. Why was he carrying a gun?

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The good – She seemed like a reasonably intelligent, well-spoken young woman

The bad – Until she repeatedly said “And I was like…” “And he was like…”

The ugly – I must be getting old

Several months ago, I sat in the reception area at the corporate headquarters of an international company. I arrived early for a scheduled meeting, had checked in with the receptionist, and was instructed to sit and wait until the person with whom I was to meet was ready for me.

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