Archive of 2003 | PolarLava::Blog

December 2003

The Jesus Tree

Well, that's what I call it! I found this image today while researching profanity filters for a webmail system at work. I can't remember exactly what the page was about that I found this on or even how it related to what I was searching for at the time. But it's being used as an avatar by someone who calls themselves Fjori on a site called That Forum. Now surely some will be offended by such an image. Me, well…I actually laughed when I saw it. Is that disrespectful? Sure is. Is it blasphemous? I'd say so. But what you really have to ask yourself is "Is there not some truth here?" I mean, at least here in the United States one has to admit that Christmas has become largely an orgy of commercialism. Sure it's still about family and friends, but it's also a whole lot about "What'd ya get?" For how many people is it all about the man on the cross? Think about it…

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Otto Graham…

I was sad to hear the news today that Cleveland Brown's great Otto Graham had died yesterday. Graham played well before my time in 1946-1955, but I remember distinctly writing a book report on a book about his career when I was in about 4th or 5th grade. I don't remember much about that report, but I do remember I pick the book for two reasons. I was a big football fan, as I still am and flipping through the book I learned he was born in Waukegan, Illinois (December. 6, 1921 to be exact). And I remember thinking that was pretty neat because that was the small city near where I grew up, Gurnee, Illinois. In that book I learned Otto was one of the greatest to every play the game. A man I knew little about until that time, I learned that somebody from a nowhere place like my backyard could achieve greatness.

Permanent link to “Otto Graham :: December 6, 1921 - December 17, 2003”
Permanent link to “THRAK Homepage”
What to do during a…

Why overclock your PC! And anyone who knows anything about overclocking, knows that CPU and GPU overheating is your biggest enemy. Thus you need a cooling solution. And here's one that's certainly bigger and better than anything I've ever seen. At the very least, make sure you checkout the picture on page 5 to see this thing fully assembled. Apparently the author thought it was worth it: "Overall this was one great project. It required a lot work and took couple weeks to get everything up and running but I feel that it was worth it."

Permanent link to “What to do during a long Finnish winter?”
PolarLava Gallery

I've added a photo gallery to the site. Probably of little interest to anyone other than me at this point! I've had a number of photos that I've been saving to put online for sometime now, but hadn't been happy with anything I came up with. Originally I had started to roll my own mostly to get the wedding photos up for the family. It worked, but not a good long-term solution. I then tried to a number of different web photo albums before finding Gallery, one that was quick, easy and suitable for my needs.

Permanent link to “PolarLava Gallery”
A Year of Blogging

December 14th marked the one year anniversary for the PolarLava Blog. Yeah, rah. And what was that first post about? The completion of entering my backlog of cycling data. This was followed closely by the acquisition of a Christmas Tree. An event that past uneventfully over a week ago (12/7) for this season. Although I must say, this year's tree is bigger and better.

Permanent link to “A Year of Blogging”

November 2003

Governor/Drudge

What? What do you mean you don't understand the title of this entry? Would it help you if you knew the definitions of governor and drudge? Does that help? What if it were "Master/Slave" instead? Would you then understand? And further, what if I were to put it into context for you? Better? Good. Now you can go read about the boneheaded, political correctness zealots in LA that don't understand what it means. At least not in terms of the computer industry. Idiots. Who's putting who in shackles now? Apparently I'm not alone in my amusement as illustrated by this past Sunday's User Friendly.

Permanent link to “Governor/Drudge”
Argh! It's a…

Yes, it's true. I've succumbed to the pressure of my growing family. I'm abandoning the crowded and uncomfortably tight family travel accomodations provided by our 1997 Ford Escort and have joinde the minivan throng. And in true middle class fashion it's used, not new. But damn nearly new! It's a 2002 Toyota Sienna with only 18,500 miles on it and is very clean as you can see: It was a little more money than the 2000 model year ones we were looking at, but was a far better value. So much better that we couldn't pass it up. Surely it's only a matter of time before I'm back in diapers and soiling myself. Hell, I already talk (babble?) to myself so I'm well on my way. Wait a minute! I'm okay because this is my wife's ride, not mine. I'm still driving a sporty bright red, two-door Honda Civic EX! She's the one who's in this sad state, not me! Right? Yeah, that's the ticket...

Permanent link to “Argh! It's a Minivan!”

October 2003

Permanent link to “There's no place gnome!”
Cycling Section…

I've updated the Cycling section of the site so it now has the same look and feel and the rest of the site. It's not using the new XHTML and CSS compliant layout at this time, but rather the new templating engine while still incorporating some of the old table based layout elements. This was the quickest way to get there in the short term, which was the goal. As such this section is HTML 4.01 compliant rather than XHTML. I've been slowly working on a new search page that will meets my new design requirements as well as addresses a number of short comings in the current system. This change will bring XHTML compliance, full templating and a complete object oriented design to the underpinnings. Once the search section is complete, it should require less effort to update the rest of the application.

Permanent link to “Cycling Section Updated”
Blog Calendar

I've spent some time adding an optional calendar function to Personal Weblog, the software that drives this blog. Although I didn't originally write it I have made small contributions in the past to this project and I guess I can now say I've made a reasonably significant contribution. These code changes have been submitted to the developer for inclusion in a future release, but I've gotten no response thus far. It appears from his site that he has not been actively developing on PWL for quite some time. I've also been contemplating taking on adding a comment system, but that will have to wait a bit. The next thing on the agenda is completing the update of my Cycling section with the site's new look. UPDATE: 11/10/03 Okay, so I guess my efforts were not completely in vain or at the very least not completely self-centered. A couple of others who use PWL have written to thank me for this addition and have indicated they will be using it on their sites. Jorge Paulo sent along a nice…

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New! New! New!

A significant addition regarding the PolarLava Weather section and my involvement with Geo::Weather has been added to the end of this post.-klp 12/11/2003 A number of changes have been made here at PolarLava.com over the past few weeks. Starting with this new Blog category to record the happenings around here. Second would be the new, hopefully fresher look and feel than the old dark theme previously used. One notable exception to this is the "Cycling" section which not only needs the new face lift, but also a reworking of its underpinnings. That's going to take a bit of work, thus it is still running with the old look. After nearly two years it was time for an updated look. It was also time to move with the technology curve...the old layout was all table based and (almost all) HTML 4.01 Transitional compliant. The new layout is much lighter as it uses Cascading Style Sheets and is fully compliant. This should not only make page loads faster, but also makes it much…

Permanent link to “New! New! New!”
Permanent link to “Clusters of PocketPC's”

September 2003

Europa's Polar Lava

Ok, so the infamous polar lava picture in the upper left of this page comes from Jupiter's moon, Io. It's not alone though, as more evidence has been found that Europa also may have a very active and flowing underbelly. Europa was originally discovered in 1610. So, being that it took centuries to come up with any clues as to what its composition might be, I guess it's acceptable that it took nearly a year for me to stumble upon this article!

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That's a whole…

Just think if this thing had survived! Kids all across the globe would surely want one. That would have to be one big aquarium/guinea pig tank that's for sure! Then again, maybe these things would be better suited to a pen in the backyard or possibly a corral. Either way there would be a lot of cedar shavings to be shoveled and disposed of. Some how I see Mom & Dad taking care of it after just a few short weeks. And to think those kids had promised to take care of it!

Permanent link to “That's a whole lotta guinea pig!”

August 2003

Permanent link to “What if you had to make a choice...”
Bring On The Night

For most of my life I have lived in rural suburban areas. A few years back I moved into a more urban environment that brought a couple of things I could live without; noise and bright lights at night. I miss the dark quiet nights of the outlying areas. I guess I expected the noise, but I hadn't considered the glowing sky I now see instead of stars. My view of the night sky isn't completely obliterated, but it is unfortunately diminished. And now we learn that not only is it unfortunate, it's downright lethal...

Permanent link to “Bring On The Night”

June 2003

Permanent link to “CycleLog Bug Fix”

May 2003

CycleLog completely…

All data for 1995 has been entered. 6.56 miles indoors and 1126.44 miles outdoors for a yearly total of 1133.00 miles. That completes the entry of all of the old data that I have recorded. There are thousands of miles that will remain unacounted for from my childhood (1964-1985) and my first attempt at being a somewhat serious cyclist (1986-1988). The time from 1989-1994 I rode very little if at all. This was during the time which I relocated from Illinois to New York and was traveling extensively for my new job. 1995 marks the beginning of when I began to ride again and start to take my riding seriously. So, being I have no data from before then, I consider 1995 the beginning of my CycleLog "lifetime".

Permanent link to “CycleLog completely up to date!”
It's not a sport!

I've often railed against people who consider their weekly golf or bowling outing a "sport". I have absolutely no love of "the pointless pursuit of the little white ball", and although I haven't done so in several years, I have gone bowling in the past. And I will also admit I have enjoyed the occasional trip to the local PuttPuttTM with my family. But, at no point have I ever considered these more than what they are: recreational activities. But these are not sports people! Why? Because as I have alway said, "if you can drink beer while you're doing it, it's not a sport". And thankfully I've found I'm not alone as Patrick O'Grady shares a similar thought: "Any stunt fat people can perform while drunk is not a sport." It's just that simple. And I'm quite relieved to see someone else actually standup and say it! This insightful fact and more musings can be found in Patrick's full article over at VeloNews. This is not to say that golf and or…

Permanent link to “It's not a sport!”
Permanent link to “CycleLog Update”
Permanent link to “Open source software in government”

April 2003

March 2003

Permanent link to “CycleLog Update”
Second Set

<table align="center" border="0" width="40%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="120"><a href="https://www.emersonlakepalmer.com/" target="_blank"><img src="/image/albums/brainsalad.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="120" alt="Emerson Lake & Palmer - Brain Salad Surgery"></a></td> <td> </td> <td rowspan="2" width="120"><br><a href="https://www.tomtomclub.com/" target="_blank"><img src="/image/albums/tomtomclub.gif" border="0" width="120" height="120" alt="Tom Tom Club"></a></td> <td> </td> <td valign="top" width="120"><a href="https://www.pinkfloyd.co.uk/" target="_blank"><img src="/image/albums/wish_you_here.jpg"…

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Bug Fix!

While working on the MyClient project, I stumbled upon an oddity in my ride data. All of the indoor rides were flagged as being roller rides. Certainly not the case as nearly all of my rides this season have been on the new fluid trainer. It would seem that I had different variable names on the data collection and insertion code. Patched that up and then began the tedious process of trying to fix the the database records. Data for this year has been fixed, but I still need to review the past couple of years. I guess my procrastination on getting the old data entered has actually saved me some work!

Permanent link to “Bug Fix!”
Permanent link to “Messaging Technology”
Permanent link to “Drive Slag”

January 2003

Triplets

<table border="0" align="center" width="40%"> <tr> <td valign="top" width="120"><a href="https://www.adrianbelew.net/lrhino.htm" target="_blank"><img src="/image/albums/lone_rhino.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="120" alt="Adrian Belew - Lone Rhino"></a></td> <td> </td> <td rowspan="2" width="120"><br><a href="https://www.elephant-talk.com/discog/fripp/indexk.html#86" target="_blank"><img src="/image/albums/discipline.jpg" border="0" width="120" height="120" alt="King Crimson - Discipline"></a></td> <td> </td> <td valign="top" width="120"><a href="https://www.theavenueonline.info/site3/eyeinsky.htm" target="_blank…

Permanent link to “Triplets”
Welcome to the…

Okay, here's my new blog section topic and how it came about. Some weeks ago my coworkers were rambling on about the song "Hair Of The Dog". I interjected not only the song name because they didn't know it, but also that it's the title track from the Nazareth album circa 1975. I happen to have a collection of several hundred vinyl records which I rarely use. Some of my favorite ones I've transferred to CD for convenience, but they're just sitting around begging for attention. Hair Of The Dog happens to be one of them. I said I'd bring it in. So I did bring it in and it sat propped up on top of my reference book on my desk for a few weeks. I had an idea that I'd build a frame or a shelf and I could then display it and other records like art work! After having the disk fall on me numerous times a day a realized I needed to get this thing off my workspace. Obviously I not going to be building anything to display this thing anytime soon. It's either take it home and…

Permanent link to “Welcome to the Record Gallery”
Permanent link to “CycleLog Update”
The Detroit Project

OK, so I caught a brief blurb a couple of days ago on the news about some group linking SUV's to terrorism. I found it amusing because what the heck, everything that wants action or funding gets linked to terrorism and national security in these post 9/11 days. I think most of that is complete crap, but that is another story. So last night on Fox News I saw Arianna Huffington talking about something called The Detroit Project. …more

Permanent link to “The Detroit Project”