I got this old computer from the office. A 1.7gHz, 40 GB HD , 256 MB RAM, computer that we are updating in anticipation of eventually migrating to Vista.

I want to make it a PVR. So, I replace the CD-ROM with a dual layer DVD burner, put in a wireless card, and a TV tuner. I added a 250 GB hard drive as a slave, but I can't get Windows to see it. So I make the big hard drive the master, and leave the 40GB unconnected. I try to install Ubuntu. When it comes time to reboot, I get an error 18. WTF? Turns out, the BIOS won't support the big hard drive.

Cursing, I shut down, reconnect the Windoze HD, and run Belarc Advisor to get the motherboard info. I go to Intel (on my computer in the house, I do this sort of stuff in the work shop out back) to get a bios update, make a bootable floppy, and go back out to reboot the computer. It updates the BIOS. I unplug the Windows HD, reconnect the big hard drive and reboot.

UBUNTU FINISHES THE INSTALL, AND IT SHOWS 215 GB FREE!!

The next step: Try to configure MythTV and actually get it to work. Before I do that, I need to make sure the wireless card can get to the Internet and find a place to put it.

I, for one, Welcome our Stingray Overlords!

A New Zealand man was fishing when he was hit in the arm by a stingray barb off Kaiaua Beach, north of Tolaga Bay, on January 20. His aunt flagged down an ambulance, and the man was taken to a nearby hospital where he was treated and released.

Recently, the City of Bangor, Maine banned smoking in a car with people under 18 in the car. This despite the fact that the effects of second hand smoke are dubious at best. And, yes, I know about the WHO study. The study said there was no correlation between second hand smoke and cancer. The news reports about the study said it was about the correlation between second hand smoke and cancer, and no one read any further. If you think smoking is bad, ban it. Quit this pussyfooting around. Have your elected representatives ban the growth of tobacco, ban the sale of tobacco leaf, band the processing of tobacco and the sale of tobacco products! Make your congress enact legislation requiring the tobacco plant become extinct.

In the United Kingdom, we are seeing the ultimate end of the nanny state we are rapidly becoming. Fat children are being taken from their parents and placed in foster care because they are abused. Any parent who doesn't make their kid exercise is considered abusive. The English are already considering obese pets animal cruelty. It was only a matter of time. On the flip side, this could be the only case where a parent is responsible for their kid's behavior. Fat kid? Mom's fault for spoiling the monster. Kid spray bullets around the inside of his school? Rockstar Games is at fault because of their vid-yuh games.

Fortress Amerika - Day 259!

In Gainesville, Georgia, a display of international flags is being moved indoors. The donated flags represent countries doing business in the Gainesville area or nations to which the students have connections, according to the PTA newsletter that appears on the high school's Web site.

Why are they doing this, you ask?

So as not to attract the attention of anti-immigration groups.

Good thing they don't know about the United Nations building in New York. They'd be really pissed off!

Let me know when the first Leftie demands Feinstein's resignation for corruption. Personally, I believe that the Left thinks by definition, Democrats aren't capable of corruption.

The Union of Concerned Scientists (UCS) constantly criticizes other scientific groups for taking donations from right-wing political groups. In a stunning case of "Do as I say, not as I do" or even a case of "Pot calling the Kettle black," UCS has been taking donations from left-wing political groups for doing the research they endorse, including Global Warming ("Praise Gaia and her annointed prophet Al Gore!"©™ Hahhh-Men!").

So when a right wing organization funds a group opposed to Global Warming, that a subversion of Science, but it's not when a left-wing organization funds groups in favor of Global Warming?