David Ernst chats with the World

Thursday, 2005-09-29

Touchpads vs. trackballs: trackballs win!

Filed under: what I did today, geek — David @ 10:02 pm

I’ve never liked the “touchpads” that are the norm on laptops these days. I’m always accidentally clicking somewhere with them while I’m typing, or accidentally moving the mouse, or something. On my old thinkpad, I had one of the little nipples, and I liked it quite well. But when that laptop died, I gave in and got one with a touchpad. I’ve been dealing ok, thinking it wasn’t that bad, and I was very glad that with only a normal about of linux-user trouble (meaning, I had to do a web search and edit a config file) I was able to turn off the “click by tapping” feature that causes me so much trouble while I’m typing. So, I was dealing.

But I had trouble. In particular, there’s some feature on there that allows one to go “back” in a web browser window by dragging to the left along the bottom of the touchpad. Well, I activated this a lot of times accidentally, and it caused me a good deal of frustration. Most notably, several times while I was making some of my gmap pedometer maps, I lost all of my work because “forward” didn’t take me back to the correct link. Ugh.

So, I thought, I should get myself an “external” trackball. So, while I was out shopping tonight, I looked for them. The one I really like was still $30, which is about the same as what I paid for it like 8 years ago. And then I got to thinking… I already have a trackball that I like! Why not buy the cheapest mouse they have, put that on my “server” machine (at which I rarely sit anymore) and move the trackball to my laptop (at which I sit a lot anymore).

So, now I’ve got the trackball on my laptop and… oh… why did I wait so long? It’s already brightened my entire experience of working on this computer! I had totally underestimated how much I was being frustrated by the touchpad. Now it’s so easy to point, to wheel, to center click, and so on… Such a simple move… But, yeah. Wow.

I know a number of people who don’t like trackballs. They are so used to physically moving a mouse that they can’t get used to rolling the ball with their thumb. I can understand that, it’s hard to change habits. But, wow, I really prefer the trackball. I barely have to move, and I’ve got excellent accuracy. So, there’s my publicly viewable opinion for the day. :)

I also bought a suit and a magnetic knife holder. Isn’t that nice?

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Tuesday, 2005-09-27

Shelves installed at last

Filed under: what I did today — David @ 9:38 pm

I came home from work feeling tired and lazy. Thought of a couple of errands I might run, but I didn’t feel like it. This is somewhat common for me, and my favorite way out of it is to keep thinking of things I’d like to get done until one of them sounds ok. And, tonight, it worked! Installing my shelves sounded ok!

So, they are up there. Curiously, my initial reaction to the big shelves was a lot like I’d feared (and that fear kept me from installing shelves for nine years): It feels like less open space! I feel more clostrophic in my (inescapably small) kitchen! But, the shelf sure can hold a lot of stuff! I’m not sure I’ll keep these flour tins up there, but having done that I put all of my mason jars (which had been competing with the framed photos on the “hutch” thing for space) on the rolling shelves and… yeah, I feel like it’s a lot more space. And I consoled myself by reminding myself that I could take them down if I find that I don’t like them. No harm done.

I didn’t feel like putting up the spice rack, but I made myself. So, that’s good. Curiously, it’s pretty level, but it accentuates the fact that the shelf above it really isn’t. Ah well. Such is the nature of my house.

By the way, my paypal payment for these shelves was rejected, after I had already received them in the mail. I don’t understand it! I’ve emailed them and asked what I should do, but I haven’t heard back. I think I’ll have to call them tomorrow. While there’s certainly a temptation to take the goods and run, I like the company that made them and I have no problem paying for a nice product. Having said that, I sure hope it doesn’t take too much work to get them to take the money I’m trying to send them!

That’s all for today. I have to get back into the habit of frequent, short blog entries. Spending all night blogging (like last night) is ok occassionally, but I don’t want that to be the norm…

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Ten Days Since the last post??

Filed under: metablog — David @ 1:53 am

Woah! Ten days roll by without a blog entry! Crazy!

I was busy last week, I guess. Biking/camping on the weekend, calling on Wednesday night, and having a lot of personal email to deal with during other times. Then Friday started Lotus Fest, which I attended a great deal of. I thought I’d have time to write over the weekend, but I ended up doing lots of errands and cleaning my house instead. That was in preparation for the “cooking group” that met last night and made ethiopian food at my house. And, if all goes well this quiet Monday evening, by the time I go to bed you’ll be able to read as much detail as you could sanely desire about some of the time-consumers mentioned above.

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Musings of a Lotus Curmudgeon

Filed under: music & dance, what I did today, journalism, philosophizing — David @ 1:39 am

If you don’t live around here (or if you live here but never leave your bomb shelter) then you might not know that the Lotus World Music & Arts Festival is this big deal music festival in Bloomington. Definitely the biggest event anything like it in town, they close off streets and get about six venues to all open their doors to whatever music gets scheduled by the Lotus organizers. The town starts buzzing. Everyone in my circle of friends gets really really excited.

Well, almost everyone…

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Monday, 2005-09-26

Biking to/Camping in Brown County State Park

Filed under: cycling, what I did today — David @ 8:20 pm

Yup, I loaded up the bike and headed out towards Brown County State Park. This was my first major ride since the bike to Indy, and I had such a good time writing up a plain-text log of that trip that I thought I’d do it again for this one. Could be a regular feature here on my blog. But whether that’s true or not, here’s this one…

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Friday, 2005-09-16

Another mixed box

Filed under: cycling, what I did today, geek — David @ 1:13 am

Got home from work today and there was another box on my porch. This was my new (used) turntable! Sadly, my old turntable, which was awfully cool when my brother Allen bought it ~1980, started having serious trouble. I eventually took it apart and discovered a broken piece of plastic. Dang. I didn’t want to mess with it, I have enough projects going on. So, I found one on eBay and bought it. The seller was fast, it was here surprisingly quickly!

I opened it up, the whole thing was wrapped in bubble wrap. It was hard to get through it all, but I did it! But what I found was that the needle was totally broken off!! Ugh. I wrote to the seller, and he wrote back amazingly quickly and took responsibility and said he’d send me a new needle. Kudos to him. So, I’ll be waiting on that.

Meanwhile, though, still playing with the last shipment, I found a list of stuff to take bike touring online, written by the same guy that wrote the book I liked! I put that onto my Palm (using a nifty little palm app that converts memos to todo lists, via a nifty little basic implementation for PalmOS), and packed up my panniers with just about everything I’ll need for an overnight. It’s a bit heavier that the simple test from Tuesday, I think I’ll still be under 30 pounds, doing pretty well, I think. I then put some directions onto my palm… I’m pretty much all set for that adventure!!

Now I have to convince myself to go to bed. I’ve sure been staying up late this week…

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Wednesday, 2005-09-14

Gear inspires thoughts of biking/camping

Filed under: cycling, what I did today — David @ 12:53 am

Well, as I was hoping, my order from Campmor arrived today, featuring a variety of stuff, but mostly bike related gear… most notably panniers and a new sleeping bag. I’m quite pleased with the sleeping bag, lightweight, compresses well, and seems comfortable. The panniers are smaller than I expected, which is disappointing. Still, I was able to stuff the sleeping bag into one of them, strap my new tent (a very generous gift from Sue, who had a very lightweight tent she wasn’t using) and a thermarest onto the rack, and still have one whole pannier free. I threw some stuff into it: a liter of water, a “double” sized can of beans, a bunch of random camping/biking/other stuff, mostly just looking to add some weight. There was still plenty of room available.

I went for a ride around town with what I believe to be fair simulation of a reasonable load for an overnight (ie, one night) biking/camping trip. I went about 4 miles, and was quite pleased. Although I wish those panniers were bigger, they still hold quite a bit and they are safely out of the way of my feet, and they hold their weight well, apparently.

Of the three bicycle touring books that I picked up at the public library (all about 15 years old and all relatively randomly selected (thanks to Kynthia for prompting me with the search!)) my favorite said that in the author’s experience, everyone who ever mounted a loaded touring bike for the first time said “I can’t believe how different it is!” I was afraid of that experience as I lifted my bike out of my back yard, because it felt heavy! But, once I got on it and started pedaling, I was surprised by how similar it was! Basically, I could tell I was pushing more weight… I don’t think there’s any getting around that. But I was expected to have some concerns about staying steady on the bike or something, but… nope. It rode just great. Woohoo! I weighed it and I had just about 20 pounds loaded on there… I think I’ve read that people suggest sticking to under 40 pounds. I’d have to pack a lot more stuff to go on a long tour, but still, the heaviest and most essential items are all there, I felt the excitement of possibility!

When I got home from my ride, I started thinking about where I might go camping this weekend. I had already thought some about this, considering the Martin State Forest (East of Bedford) and McCormick’s Creek State park (near Spencer). When I was back home, I started looking at maps, and pretty well decided that if I go I should try Brown County State Park, near Nashville. A very nice place that’s a bit touristy, but definitely deserving of more attention than I’ve given it. I plotted out an adventurous, ~35 mile route there and a 20 mile, much more direct route back. I’m not settled on this plan by any means. So far the weather prediction is good, but I’m not going to go if the weather is bad. And regardless, I might just change my mind. But, that’s where my mind is about it right now. I’ll probably try to reserve a campsite there if I do it, because I don’t want to go there just to find out that I have to bike back. We’ll see….

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Tuesday, 2005-09-13

A deck of cards in the same order twice?

Filed under: geek, philosophizing — David @ 1:16 am

Jeremy recently passed along to me a conjecture that he’d heard:

if you shuffle a deck of cards well, then it’s likely that never in history has a deck of cards been in that exact order.

I mentioned this to Sue, Michael and Megan in Portland, and there was general disbelief. I hadn’t done the math, but was inclined to believe it, because I knew 52 factorial was a really big number. Well, here’s the math, I believe the conjecture.

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Monday, 2005-09-12

The effects of TV on poker

Filed under: philosophizing — David @ 11:33 pm

Last Friday I was invited on short notice to a game of poker, hosted by some of Kynthia’s friends from the IU School of Informatics. It’s hard for me to ever turn down a game of cards. I accepted happily. Playing cards is a deep experience for me. I’m going to take this opportunity to expound profusely on the role that cards played in my upbringing.
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Sunday, 2005-09-11

Around Lake Lemon

Filed under: cycling, what I did today — David @ 6:11 pm

Jeff G and I, both planning on doing the hilly hundred in five weeks, decided to go on a bike ride today. I failed him on picking out a ride of “20-30 miles” as he requested. We went around Lake Lemon, which totaled 38.5 miles. It’s a nice ride, and features one of the steepest hills I am aware of (someone at the Hilly Hundred two years ago claimed that his bike computer said it was 23.5% grade at its steepest point. He pointed out that this was very slightly steeper than anything on the Tour de France of the same year. Impressive. Of course, they probably rode for miles at that slant in France, here’s it’s not even a quarter mile, I bet.) I almost made it up the hill, but hit a patch of gravel near the top, and since I was going about 2mph, I couldn’t keep the bike moving. Once I’d stopped, I walked the rest of the way. One day I’ll lick that hill…

I gotta get serious about food when I bike for that long… 20 miles without any substantial food is ok, but… yeah, woah, by the end I was really beat. Once back, we went to Dagwood’s where I quickly downed a whole vegetarian sub, and didn’t feel full (I’ve eaten enough of those to know that that’s weird). Jeff agreed, so we got some ice cream on top of that. that was two hours ago, and I feel just about ready to eat again. I’ve heard that strenuous biking burns about 500 calories per hour, in which case I should be due for an extra 1800 calories today, above my normally recommended 2800 calories. So, I should get eating! :) Some people see exercising as a good way to lose weight, and I suppose I think about that. But maybe I should just think about it as a license to eat more! :)

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