tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-35895162024-03-06T21:48:14.160-08:00A Mind Forever VoyagingThe ramblings of a person who once had a loud life, but now lives within a whisper.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.comBlogger219125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-61698458457506670382020-04-14T06:52:00.003-07:002020-04-14T06:52:57.481-07:00MIKE'S *SPOILER* WASTELANDER TIPS<div style="text-align: center;">
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<span style="font-family: "Helvetica Neue", Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ARMS, ARMOR, QUESTS, ALLYS, FACTIONS AND RANDOM OTHER CRAP</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">If you want to start a new toon, go ahead, but I did that and found no huge benefit for doing so. There's a few new quests for a new toon but not tons and tons of them. They're entertaining and you get to see a very few new things, so it might be worth it to you.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You will get to go to the robot repair shop and while you're there, make sure to check out the attic. There's no secret things up there, but it's a nice attic of junk.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Okay, there's really only ONE main quest. That's to run around with the Overseer, doing a bunch of mundane minor quests, which sets you up for THE BIG QUEST.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can't start this until you are level 20.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Overseer lives in Sutton. You will be visiting her home more than once.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At a certain point you are going to have to decide between the Raiders or the Settlers to side with to raid a vault filled with gold bullion and A LOT OF ROBOTS. A lot. Like in many. As in a whole bunch.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">IT DOESN'T MAKE ANY DIFFERENCE WHO YOU SIDE WITH. The way each faction gets into the vault is different, but the end result is the same.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER SPOILER</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the end of the main quest, you get to a variety of choices about how to split up the gold bullion.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">KEEP IT ALL FOR YOURSELF BECAUSE YOU WILL NEED IT FOR NEW ARMOR AND WEAPON CONSTRUCTION.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">KEEPING IT ALL MAKES NO DIFFERENCE. When this big quest is over, you will earn gold bullion by doing daily quests with the Settlers and the Raiders. Yes you are still okay with both factions.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Bullion prices for armor and weapons aren't cheap.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You're also going to have to buy parts from your favorite trader, the Purveyor who has now moved to that bar just south of the Charleston Fire Station.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">BLOOD EAGLES, CULTISTS and other odd balls</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">Killing blood eagles doesn't impact your faction with the raiders who live in The Crater. However, they LOVE energy weapons, so keeping your Refractor perk card active is a good idea. They are camped at the NW Lumberyard, Rollins Work camp and various other areas.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can kill random raiders and settlers that you encounter without any faction impact. I once saw a 3 star Legendary level 65 Raider in the north end of Huntersville, but I didn't attack him, as I was just not feeling that I could win.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I've seen one level 65 cultist. All the others are pretty easy to kill and they're camped all over at spots you might be familiar with.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">ALLIES and The Watoga Underground Parking garage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">You can only have one ally active at a time and they are like furniture in your camp.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">I think there's about 7 allies and you can own them all.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">At the start, you get a big noise to do ALLY: CRASH LANDING. Good luck. That quest was always buggy so I never did all of it.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The one you absolutely want to do is that one from the bar where you rescue a guy in a jail cell in the Rollins Work camp. If you continue to do all of his quests, eventually you will get to the second biggest quest in this DLC which takes you to the Watoga Underground Parking garage.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">The Watoga Underground Parking garage is one ot the largest areas you will ever see in Fallout 76. HOWEVER, YOU ONLY GET TO ENTER IT ONE TIME. So when you're done with the quest bit in there, take everything you want because you will never get to return (unless Bethesda changes this).</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">THE DEEP</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There's an obvious front door. It's not fun.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Helvetica Neue, Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; font-size: large;">There's a back door, east of the front door and nw of a tower. It is a trapdoor in the ground. It is MUCH nicer to enter The Deep there. Just saying.</span></div>
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Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-37465343365170762015-02-03T03:28:00.001-08:002015-02-03T03:29:05.994-08:00French Fact #2 - SchooldaysFrench schoolchildren go to school on Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday, plus Saturday morning.<br />
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So they're off on Wednesday. I have no idea how this tradition came to pass, but there has been resistance to the idea of them attending "normal" schooldays of Monday through Friday.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-88622740720954323562015-02-03T03:25:00.002-08:002015-02-03T03:28:47.171-08:00French Fact #1 - KindergartenFrench children attend kindergarten from age 3 to 6.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-32853530576261805792015-02-02T03:38:00.000-08:002015-02-02T03:38:09.268-08:00A return to blogging after a 5 year hiatusToo much has happened since I last posted in 2010, so let's just take the time machine forward and we now find me ... LIVING IN FRANCE!!<br />
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Yes, I met someone and rather than keep living the same day in my life over and over, I jumped into the abyss.<br />
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So currently I am working in Luxembourg (at least until the end of February 2015) and living in Montpellier France.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-70522834215209367212010-06-19T20:13:00.000-07:002010-06-19T20:16:05.940-07:00Android 2.1 on the G1 – My Day in the Upgrade Barrel<div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Android 2.1 makes your G1 phone faster than it has ever been even since the first day you owned it! Simply put the speed is amazing! Rooting your G1 and upgrading it only takes 15 to 20 minutes. <o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Researching every step so that you end up with a working phone instead of a brick, priceless! Uh, I mean well that takes at least a day or two, because there are multiple steps documented on multiple sites and the authors don’t keep in sync with each other.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">For example at one point in the process I had to do a backup and one site gave the correct command to do so EXCEPT that the author had updated the program and it now required a “#” in front of the command line to execute.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Simply put, that was one of those “Oh shit!” moments in the process.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">In addition, the authors of these upgrade sites make a lot of assumptions that you know and understand their terminology.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">UNDOCUMENTED SECRET that truly makes it all worthwhile: Before you begin this entire process, buy yourself a Class 6 Micro SD card. Why? Because Android 2.1 has an app called “App2SD” which (duh!) moves your apps out of the very limited system RAM to the SD card where they are stored and executed.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">You want Class 6 because that’s high speed, so don’t buy a Class 4 or any other lower speeds. I bought an 8GB card for $20. 4GB cards sell for $12-$15 so why not double the capacity for a few more dollars? If you are truly feeling flush, you can purchase a 16GB card for around $60. As most Android apps are less than 1MB in size, even a 4GB would take a long time to fill. However you can also store music, photos and video on the SD card so that will add to using up space.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Go here: </span><a href="http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/01/23/a-week-with-the-android-g1-smartphone/"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://the-gadgeteer.com/2009/01/23/a-week-with-the-android-g1-smartphone/</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"> to see a photo of where the SD card slot is located. The good news is that you don’t have to disassemble your G1 to replace the SD card. It’s about as simple as possible.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TERMINOLOGY LESSON #1: The G1 is referred to by its model name, DREAM.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">OK, this isn’t a “pure” version of Android 2.1, it’s the CyanogenMod. If you want to wait on T-Mobile to provide an upgrade to 2.1, fine, but I have to say it appears to be a highly improbable scenario unless they sell the upgrade program on a CD. It would take an insane amount of bandwidth to do it over their network and frankly having gone through the process, I am pretty cynical about it ever happening for the G1.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Here is the site for the step by step instructions to root your G1 and then upgrade it. This site will take you off to other sites to get all the bits and pieces done.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>STOP</b>! This install guide is generally fine BUT it skips the entire important parts of correctly formatting and partitioning your new Class 6 Micro SD card! Go here first:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Apps2SD_On_CM5#Apps2SD_on_CM5"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Apps2SD_On_CM5#Apps2SD_on_CM5</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Once you understand the IMPORTANCE of having an “ext” partition on your SD card, THEN you can go to this site for the step by step instructions:<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Full_Update_Guide_-_G1/Dream_Firmware_to_CyanogenMod"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/Full_Update_Guide_-_G1/Dream_Firmware_to_CyanogenMod</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">On this site, down under “Custom Recovery Image”, step 4; THAT line HAS to begin with a “#”! That was my “Oh Shit!” moment during installation.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TERMINOLOGY LESSON #2: Booting into “Recovery mode” means restarting your powered off phone by holding down the power button AND the HOME button.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">TERMINOLOGY LESSON #3: Booting into “Fastboot mode” means restarting your powered off phone by holding down the power button AND the CAMERA button.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Part of the process will involve the installation of DangerSPL which you can find here: </span><a href="http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/DangerSPL_and_CM_5_for_Dream"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">http://wiki.cyanogenmod.com/index.php/DangerSPL_and_CM_5_for_Dream</span></a><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><b>Carefully </b>read the notes on installing the proper radio.<o:p></o:p></span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;"><br />
</span></div><div class="MsoNormal"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: Verdana, sans-serif;">Following the steps on the above DangerSPL page will get you through the process.</span><o:p></o:p></div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-51858022118416593632010-06-06T13:23:00.000-07:002010-06-19T20:33:23.501-07:00Peace"Peace. It does not mean to be in a place where there is no noise, trouble or hard work. It means to be in the midst of those things and still be calm in your heart."<br />
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We have a fridge magnet with this printed on it, and I always find it to be inspiring.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-60236391330873437292010-05-14T12:58:00.000-07:002010-05-14T12:58:43.798-07:00The Girl with the Dragon TattooWow! Finally caught the film version of this excellent book last night and it was great! Totally faithful to the book! I can only hope the other 2 books in the series are made into films of this caliber as well.<br />
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By the way, the actual title of this book in the original Swedish is: Men Who Hate Women.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-65682858115110021382010-04-30T09:30:00.000-07:002010-04-30T09:30:08.898-07:00More Federal Government Idiocy<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">A provision in the health care reform bill (H.R. 3590, Sect. 9006) requires any business that purchases more than $600 of goods or services from another business to provide that business and the IRS with a 1099 tax form. Goods and services purchased by a small business – ranging from internet and phone services, shipping services, travel, lodging, and food expenses – will now give rise to a new paperwork burden at tax time.</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;"><span style="font-family: "Arial","sans-serif"; font-size: 10.0pt; mso-ansi-language: EN-US; mso-bidi-language: AR-SA; mso-fareast-font-family: Calibri; mso-fareast-language: EN-US; mso-fareast-theme-font: minor-latin;">Obviously, this provision in the health care bill has nothing to do with health care. The provision was added in order to claim another revenue source to fund the health care bill. Regardless of what one’s view is with respect to the health care bill, it is my hope that we will all be able to agree that enlisting businesses as an enforcement arm of the IRS to snitch on companies with which they do business is the wrong way to proceed.</span></span>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-68973872723427900722010-04-29T07:32:00.000-07:002010-04-29T07:32:38.658-07:00Question The Rules - Yet another "send us your money" ploy<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">The above link takes you to yet another $97 "Get Rich" course from the usual boring blogger crowd that offers the same tired advice over and over in new packages. Tossing the "magic advice" of other A or B or in this case even C list bloggers is yet another old tactic. I especially am irked by the Internet marketing belief that if the price ends in a 7, people will subconsciously associate that with luck. Well luck is what you will need if you keep tossing cash into these courses.</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">Even more annoying is how all of these bloggers refer to each other as "friends", which is a whole new meaning for "if I plug your bullshit, make sure you plug my bullshit".</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;"><br />
</span><br />
<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif; font-size: 13px;">I still admire and agree with the wag who refers to these Internet books and courses on "changing your life and becoming rich" as "a vast Ponzi scheme".</span>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-75492393909863408902010-04-13T08:52:00.001-07:002010-04-13T08:52:48.937-07:00Me on the Paris Metro<img src="http://hphotos-sjc1.fbcdn.net/hs048.snc3/13536_192327726638_501331638_3811057_2909083_n.jpg" />Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-59182360942686166182010-04-07T08:28:00.000-07:002010-04-07T08:28:52.890-07:00The Mask of the GuruAs one wag put it, "the Internet is turning into a giant Ponzi scheme". His perspective was that we get hooked into someone else's success and think that by purchasing their ebook, that we will also be purchasing their success.<br />
<br />
I got involved with one of the very well known blogger/writers out there and found that behind the "mask of the guru" was a person that was really just out to suck as much cash out of your pocket as possible while giving you a big smile and encouraging you on "your journey to success". The reality is that your money is keeping <i>them </i>on their "journey to success".<br />
<br />
While many of the people marketing self-help are sincere, the creeping majority seem to feel a need to tell you about the "A-list" bloggers that they know and to assure you that their next $97 ebook "is really important and relevant to anyone wanting change in their life".Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-91558813152913256282010-03-10T08:21:00.001-08:002010-03-10T08:21:26.604-08:00FOXNews.com - Ryan O'Neal 'Disappointed' That Farrah Fawcett Was Excluded From Oscars Tribute<a href=http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2010/03/09/ryan-oneal-disappointed-farrah-fawcett-excluded-oscars-tribute/?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed: foxnews/entertainment (Text - Entertainment)>FOXNews.com - Ryan O'Neal 'Disappointed' That Farrah Fawcett Was Excluded From Oscars Tribute</a><br /><br />Posted using <a href="http://sharethis.com">ShareThis</a>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-30388686724781799692010-03-10T08:16:00.000-08:002010-03-10T08:18:23.080-08:00Politics in America - March 2010I totally agree with this blogger that our country is in deep trouble regarding our elitist political system: <a href="http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/no-end-in-sight/">http://riverdaughter.wordpress.com/2010/03/10/no-end-in-sight/</a>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-12260560806774156732010-02-23T05:00:00.000-08:002010-02-23T05:04:09.968-08:00Bermuda lacks a StarbucksYes, there are Starbucks coffee shops in Africa, former Soviet bloc countries and other third world areas.<div><br /></div><div>Bermuda does NOT have a Starbucks (or for that matter any other coffee shop chain).</div><div><br /></div><div>You see, this is why they REALLY had the Boston Tea Party where they threw all the tea into Boston Harbor. The citizens were fed up with drinking tea and wanted coffee.</div><div><br /></div><div>Bermuda, being on the side of the tea drinking sore losers of the Revolutionary War lacks decent coffee anyway.</div><div><br /></div><div>Sigh.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-18407772169736230632010-02-19T09:47:00.000-08:002010-03-10T08:24:45.985-08:00Microsoft BizSpark Support SUCKS!I had an Avanade MSDN subscription (expired) and a BizSpark MSDN subscription.<br /><br />In a moment of not paying attention, I deleted the unusable Avanade MSDN subscription.<br /><br />Unfortunately it was the "default' MSDN account.<br /><br />Now without a "default" MSDN account, I was locked out of my BizSpark MSDN subscription.<br /><br />So, I called Microsoft support which is based in India and spoke at (not with as that would imply some modicrum of communication) a representative regarding what had happened.<br /><br />His response was that since I could no longer access my BizSpark MSDN account that I must no longer be in the program, although my BizSpark membership doesn't expire until August 2012!!<br /><br />Today I went to see if anything had been done, and sure enough the IDIOT in India had totally removed my BizSpark account!<br /><br />So now I am truly screwed over once again by the incompetents at Microsoft.<br /><br />(Microsoft fixed this, but I am still kind of pissed off about it.)Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-36475856559853672522010-02-15T06:32:00.000-08:002010-02-15T06:41:02.295-08:00JetBlue flight attendants<span id="SPELLING_ERROR_0" class="blsp-spelling-error">Bleh</span>! I was on the <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_1" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">red eye</span> from Sacramento to JFK, and I found it difficult to sleep.<br /><br />So, seeing that there was an empty exit row, I moved there, stretched out and went to sleep.<br /><br />About 2 hours later, 2 flight <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_2" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">attendants</span> woke me up and told me that because the exit rows have more room there's a $25 upgrade fee to sit there. They wanted me to either pay them $25 (you can bet there would be NO <span id="SPELLING_ERROR_3" class="blsp-spelling-corrected">receipt</span>) or move.<br /><br />Then they walked away. So, while risking being sent to Gitmo, I stayed in my seat (OK, I had the whole row) and they didn't return and ask for money or threaten me so I suppose it all worked out. They also hustled a woman who was sitting there with her infant, and she moved back to her original seat.<br /><br />However, they never made any announcements about "upgrading" to that row and frankly they had sold 2 of the rows to a couple of less than 100 pound ballerinas. The emergency exit doors weigh 33 pounds so try to imagine one of those young girls attempting to lift one third of her body weight.<br /><br />Anyway that incident soured the flight for me.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-88363939247462307832010-02-14T14:36:00.001-08:002010-02-14T14:40:28.708-08:00The Engineering GapThe Economist in their January 30th, 2010 issue, published a report on Aspiring Minds, a company in India who tested thousands of IT workers who had graduated from schools in India. <div><br /></div><div>Their results:</div><div><br /></div><div>4.2% of India's engineers are fit to work in a software product firm and just 17.8% are employable by an IT services company, regardless of how much training and education they have had.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-82620638593843335782009-12-29T20:17:00.000-08:002009-12-29T20:25:57.241-08:00Amazon parks their Kindle up their ass again!<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">One of my favorite authors, </span></span><b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Jasper Fforde</span></span></b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"> has a new book out today, </span></span><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Shades of Grey: A Novel.</span></span></i><span class="Apple-style-span" style=" ;font-family:verdana, arial, helvetica, sans-serif;font-size:11px;"><h1 class="parseasinTitle" style="margin-bottom: 0px; margin-top: 0px; "><i><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;"><br /></span></span></i></h1><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">I pre-ordered the book for my Kindle, knowing that if the price dropped that Amazon would refund the difference.</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Not so!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">The price dropped $1.67, not a princely sum, but to my personal amazement, Amazon is incapable of refunding the difference on Kindle titles! Their solution is to ask for a complete refund and then repurchase the title!</span></span></div><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family:'trebuchet ms';"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-size: medium;">Just plain very weird in my humble opinion.</span></span></div></span>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-70817527153246847872009-12-03T13:37:00.000-08:002009-12-03T13:38:53.328-08:00My bookGah! Another day fighting the Great White Bull also known as the Empty Page, in the course of writing my book. Sometimes it's more like wrestling the book out of your mind instead of writing it based on an outline or a stray visit by a muse.Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-87187523316234429642009-11-10T11:18:00.000-08:002009-11-10T11:23:00.492-08:00Kindle for PCI own 75 Kindle books plus the original Kindle.<div>A month ago I bought a bargain basement netbook from Fry's for $199.</div><div>So, having read about the new Kindle for PC program from Amazon, I thought I would try it out.</div><div><br /></div><div>IT ROCKS!!</div><div><br /></div><div>Wow! Much better to read with (accepting the form factor differences) and viewing illustrations and drawings is now actually acceptable.</div><div><br /></div><div>If you own a Kindle and you own any kind of PC, my advice is to go out and install this program right now. It is simply wonderful.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-75197891392676242112009-11-03T09:21:00.000-08:002009-11-03T09:24:02.309-08:00BizTalk 2009 the end of the product?<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif, 'Arial Unicode MS'; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; ">I got the word from a MSFT insider that BizTalk 2009 is the final version.</span><div><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: arial, sans-serif, 'Arial Unicode MS'; font-size: 13px; border-collapse: collapse; "><div><br /></div><div>It has been handed off to 100 guys in India for support and will be incorporated into .net 4.</div><div><br /></div><div>The BizTalk adapters will possibly be marketed as a separate product add-on.</div><div><br /></div><div>Another source yesterday told me that whatever code runs BizTalk will be given to the SQL group at Microsoft.<div><br /></div><div>Curiouser and curiouser!</div><div><br /></div></div></span><br /></div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-55577644727342804692009-11-02T10:54:00.000-08:002009-11-02T10:57:07.152-08:00BeretsWhat I learned about wearing a beret while in Paris:<div><br /></div><div>1. They don't blow off of your head because they are round and hence aerodynamic.</div><div>2. They keep your head warm. (Very important when one has lost a lot of hair over time.)</div><div>3. Only young woman and old guys (holds up hand) wear berets in Paris.</div><div>4. You can buy them cheap in Paris. I paid like $6 for a wool beret.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-29877790079685557952009-11-02T10:41:00.001-08:002009-11-02T10:44:36.411-08:00Create a Windows 7 USB installerThere are many articles on how to create a USB installation drive for putting Windows 7 on netbooks.<div><br /></div><div>Here is a free program from Microsoft that does the entire thing for you:</div><div><br /></div><div><a href="http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool?err=t2#at2">http://store.microsoft.com/Help/ISO-Tool?err=t2#at2</a></div><div><br /></div><div>I used it to put Windows 7 on my netbook and it worked flawlessly.</div><div><br /></div><div>You need to have a .iso file of Windows 7 and a USB drive of a least 4GB.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-44197537068814558092009-10-23T07:07:00.000-07:002009-10-24T07:34:32.807-07:00What I got out of ParisI found a few nice French people but on the whole they were haughty, aloof and rude. I spoke with British, Finnish, Dutch and other tourists who felt the same way. The attitude seems to be that either one is French or one isn't French and if you are the latter you will be treated as a second class person.<div><br /></div><div>If you eat at McDonald's in France and have wholesome natural beef hamburgers, fresh bread buns, fresh cheese, fresh French pastries and BEER you will NEVER enjoy an American McDonald's again!</div><div><br /></div><div>Things that were closed: The Picasso Museum, the Egyptian wing at the Louvre, the catacombs.</div><div><br /></div><div>There's a LOT of walking, which we expected, but to successfully traverse the Montmartre area you need to be part mountain goat. We did eat at the "Amelie" cafe in Montmartre and had creme brulee for dessert. It was cool that people can bring their dogs into restaurants.</div><div><br /></div><div>The view from the top of the Arc D'Triomphe is absolutely stunning. The stairs to reach the top will kill you.</div><div><br /></div><div>The value of whether or not to buy a Paris Museum Pass is up in the air. I guess I would say to go for it just to avoid having to stand in line at each museum to buy Yet Another Ticket.</div><div><br /></div><div>I love cinema, but didn't feel the Cinema Museum was worthwhile.</div><div><br /></div><div>Napoleon's apartment in the Louvre is a must see, but oddly several guidebooks fail to mention that it exists. The Louvre cafe is pricey but good. It cost 7.5 Euros for a slice of pizza which is ten dollars! We also discovered a British potato chip there that came in flavors such as Stinky Cheese with Onions, Roast Ox and Ham with Mustard.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-3589516.post-44575045849165186492009-10-23T05:52:00.000-07:002009-10-23T05:56:24.786-07:00Paris 2009 photosMy daughter is a better photographer than I am.<div>These are the few photos I took in Paris.</div><div><br /></div><div>Just click "Paris 2009 photos" to be taken to my Picasa album.</div><div><br /></div><div>I left my camera in our hotel room more often than I took it along.</div>Michael Dripshttp://www.blogger.com/profile/05105884165268259759noreply@blogger.com0