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- When installing software, usually the topmost link on a download page? Is the default option. Don’t scroll down unless you know exactly what you’re looking for.
- After you install the wrong software, do not blame the operating system. Also, take notes when other people fix things for you.
- Read error messages. They are descriptive.
- Google the error messages. Other people have had the problem before. You aren’t a special snowflake.
- If you get a compiler error, it is most likely NOT a problem with your virtual machine. Do not screw with the VM settings.
- When you do screw with your VM settings, make sure that you don’t click through any red flashing dialogs. Especially ones that warn of system instability if you assign this much RAM to the VM.
- When finally asking for help, be descriptive. Telling someone else that your machine ‘keeps going’ is not as helpful as saying, “my machine is stuck in a never-ending reboot loop”.
- When people are trying to help you, and asking what chain of events led to the current mayhem, speak clearly. Mumbling does not help.
- It is usually not necessary to uninstall the VM host software. Simply recreating a new virtual machine handles it most of the time.
- Keep in mind that you didn’t know how to install the software in the first place, and that someone else had to handhold you through the niggly setup. Which you… didn’t take notes for. So SOMEONE will have to set everything back up for you. Take notes this time?
- Wait. Why the fuck did you uninstall the VM software, anyway? Speak clearly!
- You reinstalled because you got an error message. Something about the fact that you can’t have two VM hard drives of the same name. Did you… read the error message? Did you try either removing or renaming one of the hard drives? No? No? Fuck it, I’m going home.
February 8th, 2010
Tonight is maintenance night on the computer cluster. The desktop needed a new power supply, and the UPS had to be changed for a better one.
Bubba, the wordpress server, had to go offline for the UPS swap just now. It had been up for over 245 days. I always feel bad when I lose that much uptime.
December 18th, 2009
Rhiannon is coughing. I reach into my inner jacket pocket, grab a tube of cough drops, and hand it to her without looking.
“Take one of these,” I say, as suavely as I can manage.
“Why do I need a towel?” she asks.
I look down. I’ve actually handed her a tube of compressed travel towels.
“Shit,” I say helpfully, as I dig around for the tube of Hall’s I bought at Gas & Go.
I’d forgotten that I had those towels.
November 19th, 2009
me: Somehow we did a scene that crossed ‘Song of the South’ with ‘The Flintstones’. Think Barney and Fred picking cotton in blackface. We got there after exploring a scene where they make Flintstones chewable black tar heroin.
Dan: Oh, awkward. Leno did that same bit Monday night.
me: Oh, yeah. I remember. That was right after the bit where he asks people on the street questions about the sky’s color.
Dan: yeah, he usually opens with the edgy stuff
November 11th, 2009
I have a new feed on twitter: @too_thinky
This feed mirrors my away messages, and stray thoughts throughout the day. The goal of the project is to babble all day long, while still producing interesting posts, all in under 140 characters. Think of it as part improv calisthenics, part pandering to @mgrdcm
Why is this a new feed, instead of the old one? Because there’s a chance that it will become a TL/DR fest, and nobody needs that dumped in their lap without warning. For more well thought out, slower updates, feel free to follow @imlerdr
November 9th, 2009
Life is really all about the good moments you remember. The NOLA improv festival was last weekend, and it had a lot of good moments.
During a workshop, John and I did this scene about having to kill all the rabbits in a pet store because the pet store was closing. Instead of killing the rabbits, John ‘accidentally’ killed my character, and let all the rabbits go, to the cheers of an audience made entirely of improvisers.
Jay Suko called me Gary all weekend, because we were doing a bit, and neither one of us wanted to break character.
We hung out with Clint and Buck from TwinProv, which was awesome. They’re awesome freestyle rappers. Also, because they’re twins, they can finish each other’s puns, rhymes, ect.
The troupe told ghost stories to each other during a late-night thunderstorm until we ran out of stories. Then, we started telling each other the plots of 1980’s movies and tv shows as though they were ghost stories.
“So my uncle gives me this furry pet for Christmas, and there’s all weird these rules for taking care of it… like three of them.”
“No! That is a lie. That is the movie Gremlins. You were NOT IN THAT.”
“Okay. Well, there was this one time that I was working in a New York skyscraper…”
“You were not in Gremlins Two EITHER!”
October 20th, 2009
Cell phones allow us to do all sorts of unwise things, like continuing a conversation with someone while you’re sitting down to relieve yourself. Bad form, so people try and hide it. They mute the phone when flushing, and when running water, hoping that the person on the other end won’t figure it out. Icky, but not really a problem.
So, what do you do when somone else is on the phone, in a public restroom? Are you allowed to make your normal bathroom noises, or is that considered rude? Are you forced to help them maintain the illusion?
Should you warn them before flushing?
This bothers me.
(edit: Need to proofread)
October 13th, 2009
Saturday is getting really, really busy.
There are three things I want to get done Saturday between 5:00 and 11:00: there’s a Rosh Hashanah dinner, a Jonathan Coulton concert, as well as the public debut of the ride a light-cycle project I’ve been working on (at the Atomic Cowboy. Should be fun!). I don’t see how it’s all going to fit together, time wise.
Still, having too much choice beats the alternative, right?
September 17th, 2009
Borlaug Fantasies: The belief that, if properly motivated, each and every human has the potential to become the kind of scientist that keeps hundreds of millions of people from starving to death due to resource scarcity.
September 14th, 2009
I’m having a particularly graceless week. I feel stressed, overextended, my allergies are kicking in, and I’m not sleeping well. My sleep is restless and shallow.
The practical upshot of this is that I’m having lots of vivid, semi-lucid dreams that I remember when I wake up.
For example: I’m dreaming about a sniper team lying in wait for a high value target. I’m not a member of the team; I’m an observer. Specifically, I’m the cameraman for the COPS: Marine Sniper show, who is giving away their position by meandering around with a shoulder mounted camera, attempting to interview people who are doing their best to look like bushes. “Is it normal for them to run away from your position like that?”
Another example: I’m stuck in a musical, and I’m the only one who is aware of the fact that everyone around me periodically launches into song. Everyone else enters into a trance state while they sing, and they pop back out of song with no awareness of the fact that they launched into choreography. During the song, I seem to be the only one left with critical faculties. This wouldn’t be so bad, except they sing about the stupidest shit. “I want” songs about washing your hands after using an airport restroom[0]. So, my role in the dream is to attempt to stop the songs by physically disabling the lead singers before the choreography kicks in.
On the one hand, I’m worried that I’m going insane. On the other hand, maybe being insane is fun.
[0]: Man starts to sing in front of sink, in airport restroom. Music swells, stall doors open in unison, people shuffle out with pants around ankles, and toilet paper streamers in their hands. Dance routine involves a lot of shuffling, due to lowered pants.
September 10th, 2009
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