Category: General

In anticipation of Thursday’s removal of the soffit, I’ve begun to remove the cabinets.

First the base cabinets were removed. I was not happy to discover that the flooring does not continue under the originals. This might make it more difficult when we come back later to install a new floor.

You can see the lovely original kitchen color on the walls. It almost matches the almond-colored stove.

I’ve also removed the doors from the upper cabinets. Unlike the new ones, which are in 3 sections, these old cabinets are one unit and so I was not able to bring them down safely by myself. They’ll come down with the soffit tomorrow.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Construction, Remodelling

We’ve begun the kitchen remodel.

These are a couple of photos stitched together of the west side, which is the smallest side. The lower right-hand corner is really a distortion created when i uploaded the file to flickr.

We’ll be replacing these 1970’s reject cabinets with something a little more modern. We’ll also be eliminating the soffit so that we can put ceiling-height (39″) cabinets in.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Construction, Remodelling

My dad always tells me about a place in Florida called the Bottlecap Inn. It was covered floor to ceiling in bottlecaps done up in intricate designs.

It sounds like a bit of Americana that’s bound to be long gone, but, perhaps a modern day version, like this desk with every surface covered with floppies might catch on…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Computer

Space Imaging => Ancient Observatories

Google Earth can be a lot of fun. I’ve tried tracking down Easter Island, the Great Pyramids, Machu Picchu and others just to see what they look like from space, but, Google Earth doesn’t always have high resolution pictures of the interesting places (mostly because they’re in the middle of nowhere – Easter Island barely looks like a land mass.)

Spaceimaging.com has posted this series of photos of some of the more interesting ruins around the world.

Technorati Tags: Archaeology, Blog, Science, Technology

TheStar.com => Hoodwinking the censors

China has the most sophisticated and effective Internet censorship regime in the world, employing North American technology from Cisco Systems Inc. and Canada’s Nortel Networks Corp., among others, to filter out banned material.

“Banned Material” being subversive stuff like letting their people discover Taiwan isn’t part of China.

Hopefully, this merry band of freedom fighters can make a difference…

Technorati Tags: Blog, Computer, Technology

How come everytime I go to Taiwan, I never see the fun stuff like this?

BBC NEWS => Proposals to Recreate Stonehenge

I’m sure this proposal to recreate Stonehenge as it existed in its heyday is all about the science and not about the not inconsiderable tourism dollars it could generate.

Technorati Tags: Archaeology, Blog, Science

The lonelocust.com blog just hit its 300th post. Pity it was about McDonald’s, but that’s the breaks.

This is the 301st post.

Technorati Tags: Blog

BusinessWeek=> McDonald’s wants a digital-age makeover

Staring last year, all the McDonalds’ in Phoenix started getting a major makeover. As far as I can tell, most of them are done. They’ve changed the color schemes, the seats, added wi-fi and televisions displaying news… but none of them seem to have gone as far as this article suggests. (Pity the wi-fi isn’t free, but then, I’d never take my iBook close to a table with hamburgers with special sauce on them!)

I wonder if the Phoenix franchisee is one of those who did the small makeover and is now being asked to do it again?

I can’t imagine the McDonalds’ in Taiwan making these changes – the kids already spend hours there. They buy one cup of tea and sit there studying and socializing all day.

Technorati Tags: Blog, Commentary, Food, Restaurant

So here’s a question:

When I left for work Wednesday morning, my PowerMac was working normally, as was my PC laptop/docking station.

During the day, a tech from the cable company re-wired the cable modem lines coming into the house. When I returned home that night, my computers were still running, but the integrated Nic on my PowerMac was dead and the charging unit on the docking station was fried.

Only the PowerMac is wired into the network, and it has 2, count them 2 hubs between it and the cable modem. The docking station isn’t even attached by cable to the network, I use the wireless card in the laptop. Both are connected to the same surge suppressor and UPS, but there’s no evidence that there was any power fluctuation of any kind. The UPS passes all diagnostics and show no log of a problem.

How the heck did this happen?

Technorati Tags: Blog, Computer, Mac, OSX, Rant, Technology