Kelly Adams

The big question: iPhone or Blackberry

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:May 9, 2009
Post category:Gear
Post comments:11 Comments

Recently I’ve started to feel the limitations of my long-term cellphone, a Motorola Razr. I’ve had it now for five years, which means it is “ancient” by cell phone standards. Yet it has served me very well for most purposes. However, a couple of years ago I started configuring various server monitors at work to send me email messages when they ran into trouble. These messages are generally too long for the SMS service provided with my Razr, and my latest round of updates has resulted in these messages becoming largely unreadable: the emails are too long and complex.

And so I begin to consider an upgrade…

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CSI Cloverdale: Nutkin is down

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:May 9, 2009
Post category:Critters Life
Post comments:0 Comments

Case Number: 20090504.23734.19
CSI ID: 4393 (Adams K)
Case open date: 2009-05-04 14 AM Pacific
Location: Geek house, Cloverdale, B.C.

Victim particulars

Complexion: black, wearing fur coat
Gender: indeterminate
Size: approximately 15 cm excluding 10-12 cm tail
Weight: less than 250 gm
Gang membership: Sciurus carolinensis (non-native; see also 1914 Stanley Park transplantation)
Rigor fixed
Lividity indeterminate due to affixed fur coat
Liver temp indeterminate due to absence of test equipment re: recent budget cutbacks

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If the study is from Nemertes, it is Telco astroturf

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 30, 2009
Post category:Geek Miscellany Rants
Post comments:10 Comments

Once again the media is full of reports of the impending collapse of the internet. Apparently we users are to blame, as we are using too much bandwidth watching movies and so forth- thus says yet another study by “respected” think tank, Nemertes Research. They tried to push this line of bull on us in 2007, again in 2008, and now in 2009. Only the dates of the “impending” collapse have changed: always a year or two in the future. But anyone who knows much of about the internet and infrastructure behind it knows this “impending doom” is a fallacy. So why is Nemertes repeating it over and over and over?

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eBay…

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 26, 2009
Post category:Gear Life
Post comments:4 Comments

I had never placed a bid on eBay (or listed anything for that matter) up until a couple of weeks ago. My first bid was on a mantle clock made in the 19th century. I like old-style mechanical clocks, particularly ones that are somewhat ornate, and this one appealed to me. But why did I go to eBay in the first place after years of basically ignoring the service?

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Spirit photos…

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 18, 2009
Post category:Critters
Post comments:2 Comments

I was cleaning through some old CDs and came across a batch of photos of Irene's horse Spirit that a friend of Irene's had taken. I had forgotten how much…

Clean Air = Reduced sulfates = Arctic warming?

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 12, 2009
Post category:Geek Miscellany
Post comments:9 Comments

Recent NASA research suggests that warming trends in the Arctic during the past 40 years aren’t due to CO2 emission increases. Instead, the spike in Arctic temperatures during the past forty years appears to be due to reduced aerosol particulates, specifically to reduced sulfates in the atmosphere. The sulfate reduction is believed to be the result of improved emission standards that were implemented to, ironically, improve the environment through reductions in acid rain. Aerosol sulfates reflect heat back into space, reducing temperatures, whereas different aerosols, termed “black carbon aerosols” and produced largely by burning coal, have the opposite effect: holding heat in.

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Office Reno 2009- Update #2 (finished)

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 10, 2009
Post category:Gear Life
Post comments:6 Comments

The reconstruction of my home office is essentially complete. I still have a computer or two to move in, some wiring to re-organize, and a few other bits and pieces. But the flooring is done and all the new furniture is in place. Here is how it looks now:

Click the above photo to see more images from the reno

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Conficker worm fizzles… for now

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:April 1, 2009
Post category:Gear
Post comments:4 Comments

The news has been full lately with hyperbole regarding the Conficker series of worms. If you believed some pundits, the Internet should have ground to a halt today as millions of infected computers picked up their new instructions for the coming armageddon. What really happened was… not much of anything. But that doesn’t mean the risk is gone…

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Sometimes evil makes me laugh…

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:March 18, 2009
Post category:Geek Miscellany
Post comments:0 Comments

I have been reading Looking For Group for several months now. It is a webcomic from the same minds that bring us Least I Could Do, Ryan Sohmer and Lar deSouza, and is an ongoing saga involving some rather unusual fantasy characters. Initially, these characters were loosely based on races and professions found in games such as World of Warcraft, but the connection is rather tenuous. Mostly it is about the “good” guy, Cale’Anon, and his twirl-your-mustache evil friend, the undead Warlock Richard.

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Sci Fi channel renames itself SyFy, insults all current customers

Post author:Kelly Adams
Post published:March 18, 2009
Post category:Geek Miscellany
Post comments:2 Comments

The cable content provider formerly known as the Sci Fi channel has renamed itself “SyFy”. Here is their reasoning for this rather bizarre change:

The name Sci Fi has been associated with geeks and dysfunctional, antisocial boys in their basements with video games and stuff like that, as opposed to the general public and the female audience in particular. We spent a lot of time in the ’90s trying to distance the network from science fiction, which is largely why it’s called Sci Fi. It’s somewhat cooler and better than the name ‘Science Fiction.’ But even the name Sci Fi is limiting. … (Changing the name to Syfy) gives us a unique word and it gives us the opportunities to imbue it with the values and the perception that we want it to have.

So in one giant leap, the SyFy channel has both insulted their entire existing client base and devised a new name that sounds like a sexually transmitted disease. It also means nasty things in Polish, apparently.

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