define('DISALLOW_FILE_EDIT', true); define('DISALLOW_FILE_MODS', true); No Runny Eggs » Miscellaneous

No Runny Eggs

The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.

Archive for the 'Miscellaneous' Category

July 26, 2006

The hits just keep on coming from Dennis York

by @ 8:03. Filed under Miscellaneous.

If you’re not reading his stuff on a regular basis, shame on you. Here’s what you missed the last few days (and I’m just including the seriously-funny stuff; there’s also some very serious stuff included):

– Dennis’ bachelor habits (damn but they look familiar)
– Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) hoping that the first thing embryonic stem cell research saves is his job
– The unfortunate deportation of the Milwaukee Brewers’ newest racing sausage, Chorizo

I bow down to the Cheddarsphere’s King Comic. We’re not worthy, we’re not worthy!

July 15, 2006

TCF Bank Air Show

by @ 17:53. Filed under Miscellaneous.

One word describes it, especially the Thunderbirds – AWESOME!

If you missed it, Fred has some stock video of the Thunderbirds, and Patrick has at least 1 shot and possibly some video from today’s performance. Of course, I never did run into either of them, though I did run into The Asian Badger.

Now, don’t miss it tomorrow, even if it will be hotter tomorrow.

Revisions/extensions (12:30 pm 7/16) – Patrick was way too far north (he was about at the North Point snack bar), Aaron was only slightly too far west (though he has some rather extensive video), and both Fred and Dad29 were too far south (in addition to his pics, Fred has some live video of the Thunderbirds).

If you didn’t go yesterday, and you can dig up some sunscreen and a lot of water (trust me or at least the back of my neck and knees, you’ll need both), it’s not too late to go today. The US Army Golden Knights parachute team will be going about 1:50, and the Thunderbirds start up about 3:30. In between, there’s also an F-15 (I suspect it’s the -E Strike Eagle model because the narrator said it could handle 9 G’s, and they did have a crew of 2) that duets with a P-51D at the end of its run (that’s on one of Aaron’s videos), and an F/A-18F Super Hornet that duets with a F-6F Hellcat (though it looked a lot more like a F-4U Corsair to both the Asian Badger and me) at the end of its run.

July 13, 2006

Just helping out Josh

by @ 23:09. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Let’s see if this activates the trackback/pingback to his WordPress sandbox. Seems he’s ready to bail (will the last blogger off of BlogSpot, please turn off the lights).

It’s too late in the night to get all the way back into blogging tonight, so I’ll do some tomorrow, I promise.

Revisions/extensions (11:11 pm 7/13) – stuck the trackback URL in the “Trackbacks” box.

July 12, 2006

I’m still alive (barely)

by @ 19:27. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Just haven’t had the energy to do much blogging, especially when everybody else has been saying pretty much what I have been.

June 21, 2006

The Cheddarsphere rises up where the “R”PW failed

by @ 9:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

After a bad couple of weeks in the “R”PW’s attempt to find somebody not named Lorge to take on Nobody’s Senator (hint; the ‘Rats didn’t let a simple thing called “death” stop them from unseating John Ashcroft), culminating with Rick’s, James’s announcements that they won’t run, the right side of the Cheddarsphere stepped up with not one, but two potential candidates. Aaron and Mary have both announced that they’re willing and able to challenge Nobody’s Senator.

Let’s see what all is involved in running a Senate campaign:

  • Circulate a nomination paper for partisan office and return it filled with 2,000-4,000 signatures (wish I could be more specific, but the State Elections Board isn’t any more specific in its online checklist), as well as a statement of candidacy to the State Elections Board no later than 5:00 pm 7/11.
  • Read and understand the federal Campaign Guide for Congressional Candidates and Committees and its 2006 supplement
  • Once you have either raised or spent $5,000, you become a candidate under federal law and have a whole host of other requirements, all of which must be filed with the Secretary of the Senate in paper form (the electronic filing requirements with the Federal Elections Commission don’t apply to Senate campaigns):
    • First, there’s the public financial disclosure report
    • Next, within 15 days of hitting $5,000 (unlike your taxes, the deadlines are never extended for a weekend or federal holiday), you have to a statement of candidacy (instructions) with the Secretary of the Senate, the FEC, and all the opposing candidates.
    • Within 10 days of that, you have to have your campaign committee organized and have that information filed with the Secretary of the Senate in the form of the statement of organization (instructions), complete with a designated treasurer.
    • Your treasurer has to start filing the report of receipts and disbursements (instructions). If you had any reportable activity before 7/1, your first quarterly report will be due at the Secretary of the Senate’s office by 7/15 (it can be postmarked by that date if sent by registered, certified, Express, Priority, or overnight mail). Your next (or first) report will be the pre-primary one, with the books closed 8/23, mailed no later than 8/28 and received no later than 8/31. After that, it’s the 3rd-quarter report (books closed 9/30, due 10/15), the pre-general report (books closed 10/18, postmarked 10/23 and due 10/26) and the year-end report (books closed 12/31, due 1/31, and see the note below if you didn’t make it to the general election). If you do run in the general election, the post-election version is due 12/7 (books closed 11/27); if not, the post-election version is your year-end report. In any case, until your campaign is officially shut down, it will continue to be required to file quarterly reports.
    • Since Nobody’s Senator is almost certain to trigger the “Millionaire’s Amendment”, you’ll want to take a look at this page from the FEC, which details what happens at what level of Kohl’s personal spending and your expanded fundraising abilities and responsibilities.
  • If your campaign hits $25,000 in gross receipts, it has additional filing requirements with the IRS.

June 12, 2006

Time to re-enact the Federalist/Anti-Federalist papers, part 1

by @ 18:14. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – Nick)

The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel editorial board takes on a new plan to neuter the Electoral College from an outfit called the National Popular Vote by having a number of states join in a compact to have their electors cast their ballots for whoever wins the national popular vote instead of whoever wins that particular state’s popular vote. Unlike editorial boards across the country, which have unfailingly endorsed this idea, the Journal Sentinel would like to serve the roles of both the Independent Journal and The Kentucky Gazette, which, respectively, published the pro-EC Federalist #68 by Alexander Hamilton/”Publius” and the anti-EC Anti-Federalist #72 by “Republicus”.

Nick points out that the method being pushed by National Popular Vote is both not the method necessary to amend the Constitution and explicitly un-Constitutional by having those states that agree to this plan enter a compact. However, let’s look past those Constitutional deficiencies at the underlying goal; neutering the Electoral College. While I read the relevant Federalist and Anti-Federalist Papers (linked above) in order to get the arguments back when the Constitution was in the ratification process, those specific arguments have been rendered moot by the rise of nationwide instant communication, universal adoption by the states of a Presidential popular vote with the party winning that vote choosing the electors and the widespread adoption of anti-“faithless-elector” laws.

June 11, 2006

Say Hola! to Tropical Storm Alberto

by @ 10:12. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Despite all of Alberto’s convection being well to the east of the center of circulation, and despite it encountering some wicked shear, the National Hurricane Center has declared Lemon Juice, and we have our first named tropical storm of the season. It is anticipated that Alberto will attempt to take advantage of amnesty-lite being pushed by everybody except House Republicans, with supporters claiming that it will drop the rain that American tropical storms refuse to drop for a third of the wind damage.

Revisions/extensions (11:38 pm 6/12) – Alberto survived some serious sheer to damn near become a hurricane earlier today, and he’s dropping tornadoes across Florida like they’re candy. Guess just bringing 4-8 inches of rain to a state that needed it wasn’t exciting enough.

June 10, 2006

Random weather blogging

by @ 17:49. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Mudder Nature doesn’t seem to know what month it is:

  • There is a freeze warning for UpNorth, Wisconsin
  • Tropical Depression #1 is still mulling whether to become Alberto and take advantage of amnesty-“lite”.

All that’s missing is Algore making his global-warming pitch in Rhinelander.

May 24, 2006

Caption contest at Jenna’s

by @ 19:02. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Mash to enter

May 14, 2006

The light; it burns!

by @ 12:59. Filed under Miscellaneous.

For those of you confused by that yellow ball of fire in the sky, it is the sun. Seeing we haven’t had sun for a while (though it didn’t break the gloom-and-doom record set this past winter), it’s time to once again give some basic warnings:

  • Don’t look directly into the sun.
  • Use sunglasses that block ultraviolet light.
  • If outside for extended periods of time, wear sunscreen on your face.

Enjoy it while you can. There’s more rain coming in from the east (yeah, you heard me right, EAST).

May 12, 2006

The freeway of doom

by @ 17:01. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/T – JSOnline’s DayWatch)

Today’s accidents on I-43/94 between the Mitchell Interchange and the Plainfield curve:

– A semi jackknifed in the northern lanes at the north end of the Plainfield curve (which is a decreasing-radius curve northbound) mid-morning.
– A southbound box truck ran wide and into the median wall at about the same spot the semi jackknifed around 1.
– A semi ran off the ramp from eastbound I-894 to southbound (eastbound officially) I-94 and ended up in the median between that ramp and southbound I-94 a short while ago.

Earlier this week, another semi fell off that same ramp and crashed through the southbound I-94 lanes. There is a reason why the speed limit is only 50 mph there.

May 6, 2006

Condolances to Gov. Doyle and the Doyle family

by @ 20:10. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/Ts – Peter and JSOnline’s Daywatch)

Ruth Bachhuber Doyle, mother of Gov. Jim Doyle, passed away this morning after a long battle with Parkinson’s Disease at the age of 89.

My prayers go out to Gov. Doyle and his sisters.

April 28, 2006

More catching-up

by @ 8:02. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Let’s see what else happened the 2+ weeks I semi-voluntatily took off:

  • All 3 cops charged in the beating of Frank Jude got off scot-free. There goes E. Michael McCan’t’s perfect record in jury trials. Guess he overestimated the intelligence of the jury in bringing up cop after cop who obeyed the police version of “No Snitchin'”. US Attorney Steve “Hang’em” Biskupic quickly convened a federal investigation. Who wants to bet that if Tom Schneider were the US Attorney instead of Biskupic, half of Milwaukee would have been a charred ruin by now?
  • Despite a recommendation from McCan’t’s office that the Milwaukee 4 get only probation for willfully attempting to fix the 2004 Presidential election, the judge gave all 4 moderate Huber law sentences. Predictably, the black “leaders” cried racism, despite the fact that 1 of the 4 is white.
  • Speaking of racism, don’t you dare accuse Barbara Boxer (the local one, not the one from Kalifornica) of it, despite the fact her group barred 2 men, one of them black, from a womens-only conference on racism, and her defense that she’s allowed to do that because she’s a caring lieberal broad.
  • Matt Kenseth got the points lead in NASCAR Nextel Cup, lost it, and got it back again. Beware the Bees this year.
  • After a nice, hot start, the Brew Crew fell apart. UNNNNGGGGHHH!!!!!!
  • Incredibly, the emasculated Milwaukee County “Ethics” Board found a new special prosecutor to pursue a slimmed-down case against the ethically-challenged County Board chair Lee “Thug” Holloway.
  • Aaron got halfway off the oft-derailed Blogger train. He’s still using the Blogger software, but he does have his own site (the link’s fixed over on the right). Come on, Aaron. WordPress is a LOT more flexible, and it is as easy to use as Blogger.
  • The invaders continue to make a lot of noise even as they get closer to getting amnesty without border controls.

I’m sure there’s more, but I can’t think of it.

Favre is back, brings Woodson with him

by @ 7:40. Filed under Miscellaneous, Sports.

As a public service for those of you living in a cave the last few days, Brett Favre announced that he will be back in the Green and Gold for one last season (deeply-saddening Wile E. Thompson, mud, and causing sports programming execs at Fox, NBC, Disney and the NFL to say, “Hallelujah!”). Not coincidentally, the following day, Charles Woodson, the best cornerback on the free-agent market, agreed to come to Green Bay for 7 years. Now all eyes are on the draft tomorrow, where the Packers are scheduled to pick 5th.

If Thompson doesn’t screw this up royally (either by now trading Favre trying to recreate Hersheal Walker or taking somebody other than the likes of AJ Hawk or Vernon Davis), I can actually see the Packers threatening to hit .500 and be in contention for the NFC North crown. If that’s the case, I’ll stop the Wile E. Coyote references.

April 7, 2006

Time to shake the dust off

by @ 12:42. Filed under Miscellaneous.

It seems a few “interesting” things happened while I was taking an unplanned/unannounced “break”. Let’s see if I can come up with coherent, semi-fresh thoughts on a couple of them:

  • The Russians have been VERY bad actors on the world stage of late. They’ve sealed a deal to send helicopters to Venezuela, and it appears they gave Iran the Shkval underwater rocket. Leftists everywhere are wondering when Comrade Vladimir Putin announces the return of the name “Soviet Union”, and they’re hoping it is soon.
  • The DOT announced that it has a funding “crisis”. This is despite some of the highest gas taxes in the country, and a surplus so high that Jim “Craps” Doyle (WEAC/Potawatomi-For Sale) and the RepublicRATs in the Legislature raided the fund to the tune of $485 million. The Journtinel, predictably, called on less spending on roads and more and more taxes before lamely saying that the fund shouldn’t be raided any more. I humbly suggest that if one stopped raiding the transportation fund (and others) for the benefit of WEAC and stopped subsidizing the tranportation of air via bus in this state, we’ll have more than enough money to keep on building 4-lane divided bypasses of every UpNorth hamlet.
  • Hurray Beer! The Brew Crew is 3-0. It may have been 3 ugly victories against a subpar team, but it’s the best start in a decade. 9 more, and we’ve got free burgers from Webb’s. I just hope it isn’t raining like the day they gave the burgers away in 1987.
  • Speaking of the Brew Crew, I took advantage of the fact that the Brewers are giving those of us suckers in the 5-county taxing area a break on ticket prices, and made my first visit to Miller Park since 2001 Wednesday night. Talk about sticker shock; $6 for a beer? $4 for a brat? Damn but that’s expensive. The panini available at the stand by Friday’s is a decent buy at $6.75 though.
  • The Lieberals had a big day Tuesday. They (barely) kept Dick Bolender in office as mayor, scored an upset in Waukesha as conservatives stayed home, and got their headline as 24 of 32 mostly-cherry-picked communities approved anti-war referrenda. Of course, if you removed the lieberal bastions of Madistan, La Crosse and Shorewood, as many people voted against the pull-out refferenda as voted for it.
  • Some UWM students want to change the name of the university to Wisconsin State University. No word on whether the owners of Wisconsin Skate University will sue for copyright infringement.

There’s a few more items that warrant their own posts, so I’ll be doing that.

March 23, 2006

Ramjac7 is back, I think

by @ 16:54. Filed under Miscellaneous, The Blog.

He’s now The Asian Badger, and over on WordPress’s free host (not to mention my unwieldy blogroll). He hopes to be able to afford to come back to Wisconsin after his Asian stint.

March 20, 2006

Monday from Hell

by @ 23:59. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Took the war machine in to Frank Gentile Subaru for its 15,000-mile checkup with the check-engine light on first thing this morning. The good news-they got the scheduled work done nice and quick. The bad-they didn’t have the part to cure the light (an air-fuel mixture sensor). The ugly-$225 plunked down. So, they sent me on my way until they could get the part from the dealer not 5 minutes from my house. I got that out of the way this afternoon and came back home to find my new memory waiting.

That’s when things got REAL ugly. First, old reliable wouldn’t boot up with the new memory, so I put the old back in. At first it refused to boot up with that as well; then it did boot up only without the USB ports working (which is a bad thing because I have a USB keyboard/mouse combo). Then, right after that started working again, poof! I went down to Milwaukee PC to pick up a new power supply (and a new DVD writer; when I finally put the old one I got as a gift in, it didn’t work), only to find that my bank didn’t like the idea of putting that on my debit card. I went and got some boku cash from the bank, then got the bright idea of doing a full upgrade to the Athlon64/PCI-E standard (since the new memory is DDR instead of DDR2, I’m sort of “stuck” in the AMD camp). Being a gamer at heart, I went a “bit” overboard on the video card at Best Buy (where I also picked up my new DVD writer, which also does laser etching :-), then went back to Milwaukee PC to pick up the board (one of the original SLIs) and a “slow” 3200+ processor, along with my new modular power supply (no excess power cords).

I finally got home about 7, and started the long process (because I can’t really handle those tiny screws, not because the rest of it is hard) of rebuilding. I was actrually surprised when WIndows booted up instead of dumping me into reinstallation hell, though I did have to reactivate both Windows and Office. After a few reboots as I updated the drivers, I’m finally rocking again, but now I’m wiped out.

Total carnage weekend (Slaughter Saturday and Suicide Sunday)

by @ 1:26. Filed under Miscellaneous.

The East regional (I steadfastly refuse to use the politically-correct NCAA city designations because those change from year to year) went to hell in a hurry. After a 7-1 first round there, I went 1-3 and lost both my participants in the regional final, including my national runner-up. I had a similar performance in my perennial regional-of-doom, the South, but fortunately my national champ survived to play another weekend. Elsewhere, I lost my West champ while going 2-2 in each of the other 2 regionals. 6-10 in round 2 (4-4 Saturday, a dead-man-buried 2-6 Sunday), 5 of my Elite Eight teams gone, and half my Final Four and National Championship game (fortunately, the losing half) blown up. On the basis of my first-round and play-in 22-12, I’m now 28-22 with a shot at still finishing above .500 on the tourney.

The few winning plays from round 2 are underlined, dead current picks struck out, “replacement” teams in italics and my dim hopes bolded.

Second round Midwest: "˜Nova 82 over Arizona 78, BC 69 over Montana 56, UWM 60 over Florida 82 (that’s right, the Panthers are Sweet-16 dancing again), Ohio State 52 over Georgetown 70

Second round East: UConn 87 over Kentucky 83, Illinois 64 over Washington 67, UNC 60 over George Mason 65, Tennessee 73 over Wichita State 80

Second round South: Duke 74 over George Washington 61, Texas A&M 58 over LSU 58, West Virginia 67 vs.Northwestern State 54 (dead game), Texas 75 vs NC State 54 (dead game)

Second round West: Memphis 72 vs. Bucknell 56 (dead game), Pittsburgh 66 over Bradley72, Gonzaga over Indiana 80, UCLA 62 over Alabama 59

Midwest Semis: "˜Nova over BC, Ohio State over UWM (too much inside from the Buckeyes) Florida vs Georgetown (dead game)

East Semis: Illinios over UConn vs Washington (dead game), Tennessee over UNC George Mason vs Wichita State (dead game)

South Semis: Duke over A&M LSU, SIU over California West Virginia vs Texas (dead game)

West Semis: Pittsburgh over Arkansas Memphis vs Bradley (dead game), UCLA over Gonzaga

Final Four: "˜Nova, Tennessee TBD from the East, Duke, Pittsburgh, TBD from the West

Champion: Duke over Tennessee, Bruce Pearl still gets hoisted off the court on his players’ shoulders TBD

March 19, 2006

In memoriam

by @ 20:18. Filed under Miscellaneous.

How appropriate is it that Dennis Pork, who accepted WisOpinion’s blogger of the year on behalf of Dennis York, and my NCAA bracket both died horrible deaths yesterday. Oh well; I had a great time drowning my sorrows at Pork’s funeral, and the procession is following Jib’s top-secret map of it.

March 18, 2006

Massacre Friday

by @ 2:25. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Editor’s note; this will be updated throughout the day. Times updated will be noted (last update 2:25 am 3/18)

2:00 pm 3/17 – It is not a good day to be from the Big 10 – Wisconsin and Iowa both lose, Wisconsin blown out, Iowa upset on a last-second shot 64-63. Throw in Bucknell with a 59-55 skinning of the Razorbacks and there goes my first Sweet 16 team out of the West. At least Ohio State is still alive after getting a scare from the smartest team in the tourney.

6:53 pm 3/17 – The carnage continues. I lose my first Elite Eight team in SIU (in guess what bracket – South) and another game. At least I’m guaranteed of going .500 in the first round as I hit 16 wins.

8:45 pm 3/17 – There’s just no stopping the South carnage. I lose my 3rd Sweet 16 team, and my 2nd in the South. At least the other 3 teams won, with UConn waking up late to put away Albany to avoid being the first #1 to lose since the NCAA went to at least 64 teams, to pull me back to .500 on the day and 20-9 going into the final 4 games of round 1. My Final Four remains intact.

2:25 am 3/18 (last update) – Owie, stingie. I should’ve known that Conference USA would screw my only perfect regional. Throw in the Kansas Chokehawks and I ended up 21-11 on the round and 22-11 overall. At least I didn’t lose any more Sweet 16 teams.

Winning calls from the prediction post underlined, losers and losing calls struck out, future picks still alive in bold, and substitute teams for early eliminations in italics:

Play-in – Monmouth 71 over Hampton 49

First round, Midwest: Villanova (1) 58 over Monmouth 45, Wisconsin (9) 75 over Arizona 94 (in the battle of fading programs, the Mildcats have fallen further than Bucky), Montana (12) 87 over Nevada 79 (your historic 12-5 upset split, plus a Milwaukee connection with Montana coach Larry Krystowiak, a former Buck), Boston College (4) 88 over Pacific 66, UW-Milwaukee (11) 82 over Oklahoma 74 (too much offense from Rob Jeter’s group), Florida (3) 76 over South Alabama 50, Northern Iowa (10) 49 over Georgetown 54 (no, there’s no anti-Thompson bias here :-) and Ohio State 70 (2) over Davidson 62

First round East, er, DC: UConn (1) 72 over Albany 59, UA-Birmingham (9) 64 over an over-seeded Kentucky 69, Washington 75 (5) over Utah State 61, Illinois (4) 78 over Air Force 69, George Mason (11) 75 over Michigan State 65, North Carolina (3) 69 over Murray State 65, Wichita State (7) 86 over Seton Hall 66, Tennessee (2) 63 over Winthrop 61

First round South, er, Atlanta: Duke (1) 70 over Southern 54, UNC-Wilmington 85 (9) over George Washington 88, Texas A&M (12) 66 over Syracuse 58 (this 12-5 upset’s for you, Owen), Iona (13) 64 over Louisiana State 80, Southern Illinois (11) 46 over West Virginia 64, Iowa 63 (3) over Northwestern State 64, California (7) 52 over North Carolina State 58, Texas (2) 60 over Pennsylvania 52

First round West, er, Oakland: Memphis (1) 94 over Oral Roberts 78, Arkansas (8) 55 over no-longer-a-surprise Bucknell 59, Pittsburgh (5) 79 over Kent State 64, Kansas (4) 73 over Bradley 77, San Diego State (11) 83 over Indiana 87, Gonzaga (3) 79 over Xavier 75, Alabama (10) 90 over Marquette 85 (sorry CareBears, Novak and a bunch of freshmen can’t get it done), UCLA (2) 78 over Belmont 44 in the battle of the Bruins

Second round Midwest: "˜Nova over Bucky (if one Wildcat doesn’t beat you, the other one will) Arizona, BC over Montana, UWM over Florida (that’s right, the Panthers are Sweet-16 dancing again), Ohio State over Northern Iowa Georgetown

Second round East: UConn over UAB Kentucky, Illinois over Washington, UNC over George Mason, Tennessee over Wichita State

Second round South: Duke over UNC-Wilmington George Washington, Texas A&M over Iona LSU, SIU over Iowa West Virginia vs.Northwestern State (dead game), California over Texas vs NC State (dead game)

Second round West: Arkansas over Memphis vs. Bucknell (dead game), Pittsburgh over Kansas Bradley, Gonzaga over San Diego State Indiana, UCLA over Alabama

Midwest Semis: "˜Nova over BC, Ohio State over UWM (too much inside from the Buckeyes)

East Semis: Illinios over UConn, Tennessee over UNC

South Semis: Duke over A&M, SIU over California TBD vs TBD (dead game)

West Semis: Pittsburgh over Arkansas TBD, UCLA over Gonzaga

Final Four: "˜Nova, Tennessee, Duke, Pittsburgh

Champion: Duke over Tennessee, Bruce Pearl still gets hoisted off the court on his players’ shoulders

March 17, 2006

Ask Me Later tries to do what Dennis York couldn’t

by @ 21:52. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(H/Ts – Dennis and Elliot)

After Dennis got screwed by MU Cerebellum in MKEOnline’s Blog of the Week contest, somebody nominated Ask Me Later for this week’s version. Let’s not have happen to Casper and Cantankerous what happened to Dennis.

Slow blogging, and a price rant on computer memory

by @ 9:08. Filed under Miscellaneous.

I’ve been having some memory problems, which has been leading to the infamous BSOD and numerous program crashes. Hopefully my new memory arrives tomorrow so I can get back in the flow of things. Sorry about the lack of posts; I definitely owe the Blogfather my take on the gay marriage amendment sometime today.

That gets me to the topic du jour this morning – the price of memory, and the general lack of availability of high-quality, high-speed memory in Milwaukee. First, you have to recognize that not all memory is created equal, even beyond the difference between DDR memory (used in most modern AMD systems, including my own, and thus my focus) and DDR2 memory (used in most modern Intel systems), and between memory speeds (in the DDR world, the main ones are DDR333/2700 and DDR400/3200). Low-quality memory will have a preset high CAS (2.5-3 clock cycles in the DDR world, higher in the DDR2) setting and correspondingly-high RAS and pre-charge settings, which produces a noticeable drop in system performance. High-quality memory will have low CAS/RAS settings (the optimal in the DDR world is 2.0 CAS/2 RAS-to-CAS/2 RAS pre-charge/5 active pre-charge), and a correspondingly-high price tag. Side note; I recommend you do NOT root around your BIOS to mess with memory timings because timings that are too aggressive will result in system failures right out of the box.

Since I have a nVidia nForce2 system board that supports dual-channel memory, I also like to take advantage of the performance increase that offers. That requires two identically-sized memory modules; and for optimal performance, those 2 modules should be from the same batch of the same manufacturer (often refered to as a “matched pair”).

With that and the fact I’m looking for 1 GB of memory in mind, let’s see what 2 modules of 512 MB of PC3200 memory goes for in Milwaukee. I could go to Circuit City, take my 1-module-only rebate and a temporary price break on both, and end up paying a net of $85 (with $130 coming out of my pocket and $45 coming back in rebates) for a high-latency set (3-3-3-8). I could go to Milwaukee PC and pay either $120 up-front for some cheap memory (presumably high-latency), $150 for “certified” memory (presumably high-latency; I don’t know if the “certified” is equivalent to “matched-pair”) or $180 for some almost-high-test (2-3-3-6) memory. While the almost-high-test memory can probably run at the optimal 2-2-2-5 settings, there appears to be nobody in Milwaukee that carries memory that will run at those settings by default, and nobody appears to offer “matched-pair” memory (with the MPC caveat)

OR, I could go on-line and pay $66 (including basic shipping) for some low-grade “matched-pair” memory, $91 (including basic shipping and a $15 rebate) for some almost-high-test (2-3-3-6) “matched-pair” memory, or $135 (again including shipping) for “matched-pair” memory that will by default run at the optimal 2-2-2-5 settings and can be overclocked at will. What do you suppose I did?

NCAA update through 3/16 – 14-3 and the Sweet 16 intact so far

by @ 6:50. Filed under Miscellaneous.

We had an exciting day yesterday. My national runner-ups survived a heck of a scare; even before the CareBears laid a bomb, we had a bomb scare in their arena; and what double overtime giveth me, single overtime taketh away. My bracket survived Upset Thursday with a couple of scratches, but everything after the weekend is intact so far. I never could figure out the South bracket though.

Winning calls from the prediction post underlined, losers and losing calls struck out, future picks still alive in bold, and substitute teams for early eliminations in italics:

Play-in – Monmouth 71 over Hampton 49

First round, Midwest: Villanova (1) over Monmouth, Wisconsin (9) over Arizona (in the battle of fading programs, the Mildcats have fallen further than Bucky), Montana (12) 87 over Nevada 79 (your historic 12-5 upset split, plus a Milwaukee connection with Montana coach Larry Krystowiak, a former Buck), Boston College (4) 88 over Pacific 66, UW-Milwaukee (11) 82 over Oklahoma 74 (too much offense from Rob Jeter’s group), Florida (3) 76 over South Alabama 50, Northern Iowa (10) over Georgetown (no, there’s no anti-Thompson bias here :-) and Ohio State (2) over Davidson

First round East, er, DC: UConn (1) over Albany, UA-Birmingham (9) over an over-seeded Kentucky, Washington 75 (5) over Utah State 61, Illinois (4) 78 over Air Force 69, George Mason (11) over Michigan State, North Carolina (3) over Murray State, Wichita State (7) 86 over Seton Hall 66, Tennessee (2) 63 over Winthrop 61

First round South, er, Atlanta: Duke (1) 70 over Southern 54, UNC-Wilmington 85 (9) over George Washington 88, Texas A&M (12) 66 over Syracuse 58 (this 12-5 upset’s for you, Owen), Iona (13) 64 over Louisiana State 80, Southern Illinois (11) over West Virginia, Iowa (3) over Northwestern State, California (7) over North Carolina State, Texas (2) over Pennsylvania

First round West, er, Oakland: Memphis (1) over Oral Roberts, Arkansas (8) over no-longer-a-surprise Bucknell, Pittsburgh (5) over Kent State, Kansas (4) over Bradley, San Diego State (11) 83 over Indiana 87, Gonzaga (3) 79 over Xavier 75, Alabama (10) 90 over Marquette 85 (sorry CareBears, Novak and a bunch of freshmen can’t get it done), UCLA (2) 78 over Belmont 44 in the battle of the Bruins

Second round Midwest: "˜Nova over Bucky (if one Wildcat doesn’t beat you, the other one will), BC over Montana, UWM over Florida (that’s right, the Panthers are Sweet-16 dancing again), Ohio State over Northern Iowa

Second round East: UConn over UAB, Illinois over Washington, UNC over George Mason, Tennessee over Wichita State

Second round South: Duke over UNC-Wilmington George Washington, Texas A&M over Iona LSU, SIU over Iowa, California over Texas

Second round West: Arkansas over Memphis, Pittsburgh over Kansas, Gonzaga over San Diego State Indiana, UCLA over Alabama

Midwest Semis: "˜Nova over BC, Ohio State over UWM (too much inside from the Buckeyes)

East Semis: Illinios over UConn, Tennessee over UNC

South Semis: Duke over A&M, SIU over California

West Semis: Pittsburgh over Arkansas, UCLA over Gonzaga

Final Four: "˜Nova, Tennessee, Duke, Pittsburgh

Champion: Duke over Tennessee, Bruce Pearl still gets hoisted off the court on his players’ shoulders

March 14, 2006

1 down, 63 to go

by @ 22:28. Filed under Miscellaneous.

Monmouth 71, Hampton 49

Attention gambling degenerates!

by @ 8:16. Filed under Miscellaneous.

(Cross posted at TheWisconsinSportsBar)

The NCAA tournament starts tonight, with Hampton (16-15, won the Mid-Eastern tourney) and Monmouth (18-14, won the Northeast tourney) playing for the right to get destroyed by nominal #1 overall seed Villanova (24-4, 2nd in the Big East) in the Midwes…er, Minneapolis regional. Take Monmouth to win their first NCAA tourney game. Morever, the Marquette CareBears got their wish; the only way they’ll run into the Milwaukee Panthers is if they both make it to the championship game, which isn’t happening.

As for the rest of the tourney for you moderate degenerates, remember – gambling is illegal except in Nevada and off-shore havens, so if you get busted for using these nose picks in your pool, don’t come crying to me.

First round, Midwest: Villanova (1) over Monmouth, Wisconsin (9) over Arizona (in the battle of fading programs, the Mildcats have fallen further than Bucky), Montana (12) over Nevada (your historic 12-5 upset split, plus a Milwaukee connection with Montana coach Larry Krystowiak, a former Buck), Boston College (4) over Pacific, UW-Milwaukee (11) over Oklahoma (too much offense from Rob Jeter’s group), Florida (3) over South Alabama, Northern Iowa (10) over Georgetown (no, there’s no anti-Thompson bias here :-) and Ohio State (2) over Davidson

First round East, er, DC: UConn (1) over Albany, UA-Birmingham (9) over an over-seeded Kentucky, Washington (5) over Utah State, Illinois (4) over Air Force, George Mason (11) over Michigan State, North Carolina (3) over Murray State, Wichita State (7) over Seton Hall, Tennessee (2) over Winthrop

First round South, er, Atlanta: Duke (1) over Southern, UNC-Wilmington (9) over George Washington, Texas A&M (12) over Syracuse (this 12-5 upset’s for you, Owen), Iona (13) over Louisiana State, Southern Illinois (11) over West Virginia, Iowa (3) over Northwestern State California (7) over North Carolina State, Texas (2) over Pennsylvania

First round West, er, Oakland: Memphis (1) over Oral Roberts, Arkansas (8) over no-longer-a-surprise Bucknell, Pittsburgh (5) over Kent State, Kansas (4) over Bradley, San Diego State (11) over Indiana, Gonzaga (3) over Xavier, Alabama (10) over Marquette (sorry CareBears, Novak and a bunch of freshmen can’t get it done), UCLA (2) over Belmont in the battle of the Bruins

Second round Midwest: ‘Nova over Bucky (if one Wildcat doesn’t beat you, the other one will), BC over Montana, UWM over Florida (that’s right, the Panthers are Sweet-16 dancing again), Ohio State over Northern Iowa

Second round East: UConn over UAB, Illinois over Washington, UNC over George Mason, Tennessee over Wichita State

Second round South: Duke over UNC-Wilminton, Texas A&M over Iona, SIU over Iowa, California over Texas

Second round West: Arkansas over Memphis, Pittsburgh over Kansas, Gonzaga over San Diego State, UCLA over Alabama

Midwest Semis: ‘Nova over BC, Ohio State over UWM (too much inside from the Buckeyes)

East Semis: Illinios over UConn, Tennessee over UNC

South Semis: Duke over A&M, SIU over California

West Semis: Pittsburgh over Arkansas, UCLA over Gonzaga

Final Four: ‘Nova, Tennessee, Duke, Pittsburgh

Champion: Duke over Tennessee, Bruce Pearl still gets hoisted off the court on his players’ shoulders

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