$80 Refuel

Got super unleaded gas last night at $4.43/gallon. Trip computer showed 0 miles of range left but I had ~2 gallons of fuel left.



Should have bought a 4 cylinder car.

Megaupload Files

Megaupload is still down, or at least unaccessible from the US. I had dropped a few files on there, mainly some Korean TV shows that I recorded but also some files that I wanted to access from different places. I ended up having to upload a few files to Mediafire since they're still around and allow uploading/sharing.

Is this the future of the Internet with SOPA/PIPA? Whatever caused the USDOJ to go after MU, how about all the user files that are not infringing on copyrights? I know some people use it for file storage; is all that data gone? How am I to trust cloud storage services if other users abuse the service and cause it to be shut down like MU?

Dead Hard Drive

My 500GB external HDD on my Mac mini failed today suddenly. It was working intermittently and very hot so I unplugged it and open the enclosure to let it cool. Now when I turn it on, I hear the motor trying to spin up following by a faint clicking sound, but no steady whine of a spinning motor. This is the 2nd Seagate drive that failed on me; the first was a 32MB HDD I had on my Mac Plus. This one is a 500GB Barracuda 7200.10 drive that I got a few years ago.

Unfortunately, if it doesn't spin up later, I will have lost ~350GB of MP3s. Luckily I moved all my MVs to my PC a few months ago and most of my current MP3s are on my Mac mini, though only ~30GB.

Sigh... I'm never buying a Seagate drive ever again.

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To be fair, the Seagate drive still works. For kicks, I decided to plug the drive into my PC (power only) and it spun up. Since Windows can't read Mac formatted volumes, I had to run a long FireWire cable from my Mac to my PC and all my files are back! To be safe, I'm backing up all the file (33,000+ MP3s) to an external drive on my PC.



External drive is getting power from an internal power connector in the PC but the data connector is still plugged into the external Mac enclosure. Data is going back to the Mac mini via a long FireWire cable, and files are being copied over the network (both wired thankfully!) to the black WD external drive next to the PC. Still deciding what to do with the 500GB drive after everything is copied. :(

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Dang it. It take forever to copy files. I am copying 33,036 items (155 GB) at 10.4 MB/second... it that ~100 Mbits/sec? It's been copying for almost 5 hours... 10 MB/sec = 36 GB/hour so something is slowing it down; probably the 33k file count.

Time remaining: About 5 Minutes and 30 Seconds

Zzzz...

Beijing Bus Jam

Saw this article on Ministry of Tofu:

At about 5:30 p.m. on February , a No. 815 public bus arriving at a stop near Beijing’s Guomao area was packed like a sardine can. Seeing that the front and the rear bus doors were blocked by passengers, those eager to get a ride home jostled with one another to climb into the bus through the windows. Fifteen minutes later, the overloaded public bus finally set off. According to the traffic police there trying to maintain the order, this area is always congested to the extent that “even a drop of water can’t trickle through” during the evening rush hours. February 13 was a Monday, which made the matter even worse.

The photos show people climbing over each other to try and get into the bus through the windows. I've been on buses in China a few times are there is no concept of lining up. Whenever a bus/subway/taxi shows up, people would shove each other out of the way to claim a spot. In the article, it says that it took 15 minutes to load the bus. If everyone lined up, it wouldn't take more than 3 minutes to fully load a bus. Much like the traffic congestion on Chinese roads... if people were more polite and courteous, traffic would flow better and everyone would get to their destination faster.

Wishful thinking I know.

Chevy Volt Subsidies

Why is Obama taking money from me to give to rich people so they can buy another car?

The Daily Caller

The White House intends to boost government subsidies for wealthy buyers of the Chevy Volt and other new-technology vehicles — to $10,000 per buyer.

That mammoth subsidy would cost taxpayers $100 million each year if it is approved by Congress, presuming only 10,000 new-technology autos are sold each year.

But the administration wants to get 1 million new-tech autos on the road by 2015. The subsidy cost of that goal could reach $10 billion.

The planned giveaway will likely prompt populist protests from GOP legislators, but it will likely also will be welcomed by auto-industry workers in the critical swing state of Michigan.

It's an election year and Obama needs votes!

I guess Elon will be happy since the Tesla cars will probably qualify for the $10k credit.

Global Warming Fashion

I heard the most retarded comment about global warming this morning driving to work. My radio is usually tuned to KPCC which airs NPR programs. On Morning Edition, there was a brief story about fashion and how coats were making a comeback.

"Already we see a proliferation of great coats," Singer says. "That might seem like an obvious choice for fall/winter, but just a few years ago there was a trend against that, in part because of the reality of global warming — nobody needed a warm coat. It seems now designers are going back to that as a staple."

How stupid. From a citation in the Wikipedia article on Global Warming, we read:

The average temperature of the Earth’s surface increased by about 1.4 °F (0.8 °C) over the past 100 years, with about 1.0 °F (0.6 °C) of this warming occurring over just the past three decades.

I thought the fashion industry was fast moving. Trends go in/out of favor on a quarterly cycle. Did someone really think that people won't need a jacket because of a 0.02°C/year trend in temperature increases?! Ooh, it was -10°C last week... let's not buy a jacket because it will be -9.98°C next winter.

Regardless of what you believe about AGW, the fashion comment is just idiotic. If you don't know something, just say you don't know... don't make sh*t up.

Jane Zhang at 2011 MAMA in Singapore

I saw Jane in concert in Pasadena several years ago.

MAMA = Mnet Asian Music Awards. Lots of Koreans since Mnet is a Korean network. Jane won in the Best Asian Artist - China category. On her bio page, Mnet screws up twice:


- Jane was born in Chengdu, China
- Taiwan is not a province of China

Miryo Banned

Soompi

Miryo’s solo debut track, “Dirty,” has been ruled “inappropriate for broadcasting” by MBC and KBS, it was reported on February 3. According to local reports, the Brown Eyed Girls’ rapper received a notice from the two broadcasters for the lyrics of the song, containing the word, “cross-eyed.” They said the word “cross-eyed” has negative connotations and could be perceived as a derogatory term for the disabled.

“We’ve decided to accept the rulings from broadcasters and change the lyrics of the song. But it will take some time to replace the word, so Miryo will sing a different song on KBS ‘Music Bank’ on February 3,” a representative for Miryo said. Miryo gave a performance of “Leggo” instead on “Music Bank.”

The controversial verse from “Dirty” reads, “Oh my, all these young girls, pretty girls are here…I see your eyes rolling, you might become ‘cross-eyed,’ watch out boy.”

Cross-eyed?! Wow, those Koreans are sensitive... almost as sensitive as the Chinese, who are "offended" and have their "feelings hurt" all the time. Interesting that SBS wasn't mentioned in the article.

If you watch the MV, Miryo says (in English) "What the fff..." and gives everyone two middle fingers. I hear lots of English swear words on music show performances. I guess ignorance (can't understand English) is bliss.

Kindle Fire

After my ASUS Transformer fiasco, I went and bought a Kindle Fire. I guess I didn't do that much research other than the fact it cost more to make than what Amazon is selling it for... the cheap Chinese guy syndrome got me again.


Kindle Fire next to my iPad 2

I messed around with it for a few hours trying to set it up so my mom can watch K-dramas. You quickly find out that it's not a "normal" Android pad. Amazon, like Apple, has locked the system down so you have to get apps/content from Amazon. It won't let you install Android Market so I can't set up the Kindle Fire like my Samsung GalaxyS. Also, the hardware is slow. Not sure if it's the funky browser or a crappy CPU. The 7" form factor is easier to hold but small for browsing.

Well, you get what you pay for... it was sold as a Kindle (media player) instead of a full tablet. But since it was only $200, I guess I'll keep it. My powerstrip next to my bed is now full: table lamp, charger for Samsung phone, charger for iPhone 4, charger for iPad 2, and now charger for Kindle Fire. :)

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So you can install Android Market after all, but you have to root the Kindle Fire by installing the Android SDK, then install a whole bunch of stuff. I haven't even rooted by Samsung GalaxyS after 18 months so I'm not sure if I will do this.

Waterless Urinals

We have these at work... definitely not odorless.

Daily Mail Online

Students at a high school in Boca Raton, Florida, must step over rivers of urine and endure the stench of rancid waste after a plan to bring 'green' waterless urinals into bathrooms backfired.

School officials at Spanish River High School thought they had found an environmentally-friendly, cost-saving solution for their bathrooms when they installed Falcon Waterfree urinals in their boys bathrooms.

But with no water moving through the school's copper pipes to flush the urine into the sewer system, the waste produced noxious gases that ate through the metal, leaving leaky pipes that allowed urine to drip into walls and flow onto floors.

Our solution? We have a guy that fill plastic jugs with water and pour it in the urinal each night.

SNSD Inside!

Get into my core?! All my computers have Intel CPU's... none of that AMD stuff for me.


New desktop wallpaper! Probably not appropriate for work computer, even though it has an Intel i5 processor.

Dictator Supporters

Once again, China is on the wrong side of history, supporting dictators who murder their own citizens rather than share power.

Los Angeles Times

A United Nations resolution that Washington and its allies called the best chance to stop Syria from sliding into full-fledged civil war went down to defeat, dashing hopes for a political settlement as death tolls soar in the strategically situated Arab nation.

Security Council vetoes by superpowers Russia and China on Saturday doomed the measure, which condemned a Syrian crackdown on dissent and backed an Arab League plan calling on President Bashar Assad to cede power.

Of course, this was expected from China. After all, the CCP supported Ghaddafi and they continue to support the crazy Kim's in North Korea. Dictators have to stick together in times of crisis.