Eengstro on May 5th, 2008

I stopped by the local BMW dealer to take a look at the new 1 Series yesterday. (Yes, I fit! I don’t think I can bring myself to pay $35k for one though.) I was also curious about any certified pre-owned E46s on the lot (since that’s about the only BMW I’d actually buy at [...]

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Eengstro on February 13th, 2008

There was a congressional hearing being carried live on all the news stations this morning. The Congress must be tackling some incredibly grave and important issue to warrant that kind of news coverage.
Subject of the hearing: Steroids in baseball.
As a country, we must be in pretty good shape if the Congress has nothing [...]

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Eengstro on January 19th, 2008

Recently my Kenmore “Evenheat” dryer refused to start: it wouldn’t keep running after releasing the Start button. After a rather frustrating conversation with someone at 1-800-4-MY-HOME who spoke very little English, a Sears tech dutifully came out, installed a new controller board, and left with a bunch of my money.
A few days later, the timer [...]

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Eengstro on October 25th, 2007

I’m not much of a morning person, and I have a very difficult time getting up if there’s no light outside. That said, I generally exercise in the mornings before work, so on most mornings my alarm goes off at 6:20am. Usually 6:20am isn’t too bad, since it’s around dawn or sunrise.
This morning, sunrise was [...]

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Eengstro on October 15th, 2007

All I can say about Al Gore and the Peace Prize is this: The Nobel Peace Prize has Jumped the Shark. What does climate change hysteria even have to do with peace? The Nobel Peace Prize was on its way out when it was given to a Palestinian terrorist. Now, it has fully entered the [...]

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Eengstro on October 8th, 2007

Last month saw a significant drop in casualties in Iraq (reflecting a downward trend since the summer). Obviously, this is very good news. Yet, you wouldn’t know it by the mainstream media’s reporting. Of course, they’ll report any uptick in casualties on the front pages without hesitation. But the mainstream press is “unbiased”, right? They [...]

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Eengstro on October 5th, 2007

At work, I’m experimenting with a code profiling tool called DevPartner Performance Analysis Community Edition from Compuware.
The user manual — a 410 page PDF file, yuck — contains this nugget of wisdom on page 228:

When you have finished reviewing performace data you can save the session file.
1. Close the session file window in [...]

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Eengstro on September 15th, 2007

Today I would like to discuss a pet peeve of mine: the confusion of the words loose and lose. I see this all the time on the Internet, and it drives me crazy.
First, the definitions:

Loose
Adj:

Free from restraint. A loose dog roaming the street.
Not fitting tightly. Loose clothing.
Not bundled together. Wearing your hair loose. Loose computer [...]

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Eengstro on September 7th, 2007

I’m standing in the local Apple store, typing this entry on a MacBook. Next to me is a new “classic” iPod. The new iPods have a “clock” feature, where you can enter multiple locations, and it will display the time at each location, side-by-side.
This is a nifty feature, except for one problem: during Daylight Saving [...]

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Eengstro on September 6th, 2007

Opera n. A form of noise pollution that requires more talent than rap.

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