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I have also ordered and new Ergo-mouse thingy…

Friday, November 14th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

As a follow up to yesterdays Vertical Split Keyboard post I will also say that I am ordering a new mouse from ‘The Human Solution’ which is also basically vertical as well. I had to choose between the Aerobic Quill Mouse and the Evoulent Vertical Mouse. In the end I chose the left-handed Quill Mouse for the lower hand support and hooking to make it easier to move without having to grasp the mouse.

Also as a side note I am also starting to work on using the Dvorak Layout.

I also found this interesting keyboard and mouse replacement: the Orbitouch Keyless Keyboard.

Category: Computer, Health, Life, Technology  Tags: , , ,  Leave a Comment

I am ordering a Split Vertical Keyboard…

Thursday, November 13th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

I have not posted about this before, but quite a while ago I have been diagnosed with overuse syndrome which is a precursor to carpal tunnel syndrome. I had some annoying symptoms like a slight burning senesation in my wrist and near my elbow. At that time part of how I combatted that was to mouse using my left hand and the use of a Microsoft split ergonomic keyboard, which I will say that I love and would never go back to a conventional keyboard… evah. This combo took me about a month to get used to and then it rocked. =)

So, now a few years have passed and now some symtoms are starting to manifest again and I am cranking my response up a notch. Work will be buying for me a split vertical keyboard (SVK) from Safe Type so that I can combat this problem. I am excited, yet afraid. This keyboard is so strange and it will really force me to touch type all-of-the-time. I can basically touch type, but I definitely do look at the keyboard on occasion. I know, I know. – “Cheater, cheater, pumpkin eater!”. This will be a good moment to improve my typing skills as well as save my hands from a horrible fate.

Perhaps this is also a good time to move to the Dvorak keyboard layout as well. =) I am also looking for a suitable ergonomic replacement for my mouse since that significantly contributes to my issues as well.

I will let you know how it turns out.

Category: Computer, Health, Life, Technology  Tags: , ,  Leave a Comment

Free The Airwaves

Thursday, October 23rd, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

Let us all take the time to Free the Airwaves

FreeTheAirwaves.com

Category: Internet, Web  Leave a Comment

Another Reason to Vote Obama….

Friday, September 05th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

Obama GOOD!

McCain BAD!

If you care about civil rights here is another reason to “Vote for Obama“:

Ultra-conservative Puritanical Religionist Republicans of Dooooom!

Civil Rights has a history, (especially under Bush politics) of suffering and being violated horribly under a Republican regime – I am talking to you Patriot Act, to which the ACLU has had to fight hard to try and fix. Who knows how many innocent people’s lives have been wrecked with these horrible laws in effect. Will these people whose rights have been violated ever be compensated for their governments enforcement of these broken laws? No. They will receive a “My bad!” and then be left tot recover from having their life destroyed by an illegal law.

The next president will most likely have the chance to nominate 2 or 3 Supreme Court Judges. The McCain camp is against Gay Rights which is very strongly a civil rights issue which he is against from a puritanical and ultra-conservative (save me some votes) standpoint. This way of thinking is one of the greatest problems with the Republican Party – Conservative Christian Religionism is their hidden mantra.

McCain will appoint judges that will enforce a close-minded backwards-traditional mindset and in an attempt to crush all of cultural progress out of fear, as well as crushing our civil rights in the process.

Category: Civil-Rights, Civil-Unions, Computer, Gay-Rights, Politics, Poly  Leave a Comment

Moving this BLog to a Permanent Home

Tuesday, September 02nd, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

Finally I will be moving Arion’s Home to a more permanent home. I have had the domain www.ArionsHome.com for a very, very long time and it has been forwarding itself to this BLog. I will be setting up the domain to permanent webspace and we will have nothing more of this forwarding shenanigans. I will let you know when all of that is done. =)

Category: Arions-Home, Website  One Comment

500GB Maxtor One Touch External Drive Crash…

Tuesday, September 02nd, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

Well, this weekend our 500GB Maxtor External Drive, which is less than 6 months old crashed in such a way as I was getting an error when accessing certain 2nd or 3rd level directories. The error was something like The directory is either corrupted or missing. I ran a check disk on it and it found all of the links to files and directories OK but the data behind it is gone. We have lost a lot of pictures, music and website work. =( This was a sad, sad weekend. I am hoping that I can recover some of what was lost.

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This the Future that I am Looking Forward to

Friday, April 04th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

Intel’s Mobile and Internet Linux Project is exactly the sort of thing that we need. In my ‘Class 2i‘ short story thing, this is exactly what I am alluding to with the Personal Communication Device (PCD). This really excites me and I wish that I could throw a lot of money at them so that they develop this faster.

Category: Computer, Globalization, Links, Technology, Website  Leave a Comment

College Humor Videos

Friday, February 01st, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

I found this link to College Humor which has loads of videos. It is not humor for everyone. With a little taste here is a link to their Dramatic Lemur as a follow up to the Dramatic Chipmunk post I made earlier. Not all are work friendly due to language. I do not know about anything else to be concerned about for work.

Category: Humor, Links, Video  Leave a Comment

The Dramtic Chipmunk

Thursday, January 10th, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

I promise you that I will not be posting a lot of this sort of stuff, but here is a 5 second video full of intense drama called ‘The Dramatic Chipmunk‘.

Category: Humor, Video  Leave a Comment

Significant Browser News (IE and Netscape)

Wednesday, January 02nd, 2008 | Author: James O'Neill

For those of my readers who care, and I know that you do, there is some significant news in the internet web browser world. For many of you most of this will make absolutely no sense or you will not care in the slightest and this text will be a complete waste of space. For those of you who are technophiles or internet phreaks you may find the following an interesting and telling turn of events.

AOL is discontinuing development of their Netscape browser, and Microsoft’s new browser to be, Internet Explorer 8 (IE 8), passes the Acid 2 test. What does this mean to you?

AOL is stopping development and suggests that its users move over to using the Firefox browser. I have been using Firefox since when it was in beta stages and known as Phoenix. Firefox is the browser of choice for serious web developers because it is standards compliant, and a lean and mean little browsers. Internet Explorer has been universally reviled by the developer community and some savvy users for many years and because of this Firefox has gained great traction and due to disaffected Internet Explorer users. With Netscape no longer there to split up developers and user base Firefox should gain more popularity and developers. Yea! This is good news all around I am thinking. If you do not have Firefox, then Get It!

I am going to bitch about Internet Explorer for a little bit so you can get some perspective on why the Internet Explorer news may be so significant. I am a web developer and I hate Internet Explorer with a passion. I am surprised that I have any hair left and that I have not killed someone yet. I can develop a page that is semantically correct, valid, and using proper design techniques and it will not work in Internet Explorer. Gaaahhhh!!! When I am doing web work I design something right, test it in Firefox, Opera, and then Safari, and then I wince when I look at it in Internet Explorer (IE). It takes hours and hours or hacking and coding – sometimes it even requires some scripting to correct the horrible mess that IE renders. IE is the worst part of designing web pages.

Ok, so you got it. IE sucks and web developers hate it. There are more reasons for their hate but I am not going to go into it. What is this Acid 2 test and why do I care? The Acid 2 test is a test created by the Web Standards Project that when rendered by a browser correctly will show compliance with some very important web standards. It is more complicated than this, but that is the gist of it. For many years IE has not been even close to this. IE 7 which is fairly new is close and is a great step. With IE 8, which is not out yet, compliant the developer community will rejoice, especially when all of their userbase upgrades.

Please do you self a favor, as well as the developers of your favorite sites, upgrade to IE 7 now if you are a IE user, and even if you are download Firefox and take that for a spin. If you are at work you may want to talk to your MIS peeps or your computer person to be sure that it is OK.

Category: Browsers, Internet, Web  Leave a Comment

Catching up…

Tuesday, November 20th, 2007 | Author: James O'Neill

Belarus

So life has been busy. Tanya was back in Belarus for 3 months to finish the first half of the last year of her degree in Economics (or something like that). It was a long three months and several people have said I was lost while she was gone. I was in many ways. =) I really missed her and I am soooo very glad to have her back.

Real Estate License

I have been studying for my Real Estate Sales License. That has been a slow and painful process. There was a lot more to it than I expected, but it has been very good information to know. I really look forward to having this done and so does Tanya, that way I can move forward with life’s plans.

Vacation

Tanya and I bound for Cancun for the first week in December, which will be a lot of fun. We will be alone with the sun and the water at an all inclusive resort. This is kind of our birthday/New Years/Christmas presents to each other.

New Digital Camera

In preparation for the trip we have bought a digital camera: a Canon CAPSSX100B PowerShot SX100 IS (8 Megapixel, 10x optical zoom). The camera that I bought in St. Martin N.A. (Canon EOS 5000) in like 1994 has seen its better days and has been dropped way to many times. If you know me you will know how unfortunate this camera was to have me as its owner. It has served me well but it is not working so well, plus it is a pain in the but to have the film developed and them make a CD of it.

New Computer

We are also going to be looking at getting a new computer for Christmas as well. This is an expensive Christmas for us, but we really need a new one. The girls are going bonkers because of how slow mine is. =(

Computer Work

I spent a bit of time doing a full reinstall and update of Windows XP for my mother’s work computer. That was fun as all full reinstalls are. I also replaces the Bios Battery thingy for the mother board in another.

Thanksgiving

For Thanksgiving we will be going to my sisters house up North and then on Friday we will have another Thanksgiving with my Wife and grandmother as Tanya has to work all day on Thanksgiving. My poor hardworking and wonderful wife. I love her so very much.

Church Website

I am also taking over the maintenance of my churches website :The Free Congregation of Sauk County. I have started with that and eventually we will go through a complete redesign.

Category: Belarus, Camera, Cancun, Canon, Church, Computer, Digital-Camera, Life, Mexico, Real-Estate, Redesign, Thanksgiving, Trip, Update, Vacation, Website  Leave a Comment

So We’ve Been Busy

Wednesday, January 18th, 2006 | Author: James O'Neill

Tanya and I have been quite busy over the last few weeks. We have been looking at houses and mortgages; preparing documents for our INS interview on February 1; preparing for eventual problems that Tanya may have with immigration/customs as we leave from Moscow. I have also done 2 full reinstalls: one for Katia’s laptop, and one for my mother’s insurance business – Freedom Insurance; and of course, working on mom’s website.

House Hunting

We have been looking for houses in the Baraboo, Dells, Delton, Delonna areas primarily. We have been looking in Reedsburg as well even though it is not our preferred city to live in. I work in and have friends in Baraboo and Tanya works in Lake Delton. My family lives in Lake Delton. Reedsburg is really out of the way for both of us. Ughh!

Property prices and property taxes are higher in Baraboo and lower in Reedsburg. We have 2 or 3 potentials in Reedsburg – 2 for about $100k and one for about $85k. We have found one in Baraboo for about $100k that we really like. Now the only problem that we have is that after Taxes, Title, License, and small furry animals I do not want more than a $80-90K mortgage. Any more than that and we will be living tight. I have tried to budget everything so that I can pay for pretty much everything and Tanya can concentrate on school and what ever else she needs to do, and still have some free money to save and to fix up the house. Finding a house that is not a shit-hole for about $80k seems to be almost impossible. So our search continues and so does the impending fear that we will have to get a house that is going to be too much work for us to have any chance to enjoy.

Other Stuff

We are definitely stressing over the possibility of having problems leaving Russia/Belarus. We will be calling the Moscow Airport (Sheremetyevo II) to see what they think we should do and hopefully we can fix the real issue here via the consulate later in the US instead of in Belarus. We really do not want to correct the problems in Belarus as we would have to deal with the corrupt and taciturn bureaucracy there. Not a good prospect. Here is better.

I really do not enjoy doing full reinstalls as they take forever. Installing Windows is not so bad. Downloading and installing the service packs and security fixes takes over half of the time. I have one more to do and then I will be done for quite a while. Ugh!!

I have been quiet because we have been busy! Nothing personal! =) I have even cancelled one of my gaming groups until we get back from Belarus to ensure that we have enough time for everything. Oi! They were not happy, but it had to be done!

Category: Belarus, Computer, House, INS, Life, Travel, Trip, Vacation  Leave a Comment

"Chinese Backstreet Boys"

Wednesday, January 04th, 2006 | Author: James O'Neill

Ok… So maybe I have too much time on my hands. Maybe I need help. Maybe Google Base is cool and interesting especially when you can search for videos. Especially when you can look for loathed Backstreet Boys videos. I do not know! Maybe my therapist does?

Ok, maybe not Backstreet Boys videos, but after some searching I did find an amusing video of Two Chinese Students lip synching to the BSB‘s “As Long As You Love Me” and “I Want It That Way“. I am curious as to who the guy is in the back and what he is playing. I am assuming it is Counter Strike? I also happend to find an opposing video Chinese Backstreet Boys Get Served by Funky Munkyz. Not as interesting, but shows the “Chinese Backstreet Boys’ are a little bit popular. Hell these Chinese Guys are everywhere.

The following are basically links to the same videos. The resolution or something might be different. I have not had the time to take a close look! The original link that I found no longer works, so I have collected a few more incase the first few vanish for you.

The Rest of the Story

The rest of the story can be found on What Tian Has Learned with 3 more videos. They go by the name of The Back Dormitory Boys.

Just for fun I will throw in a couple of Danish Guys that were inspired by them with bloopers at the end.

Category: Humor, Music, Video  Leave a Comment

Hello!

Sunday, December 11th, 2005 | Author: James O'Neill

I have just downloaded Hello! for Picasa and Blogger that allows me to upload pictures to my BLogger account and am giving it a try.

I am finding that it is not so intuitive to use. Settings in one do not transfer or affect the other and I am not sure how to get the Hello settings to affect the image displayed on BLogger! I am working with it.

Category: Technology, Web, Website  Leave a Comment

Pachebel Cannon in D (Guitar)

Saturday, November 26th, 2005 | Author: James O'Neill

Pachabel Cannon to a rock’n guitar. Reminds me of Trans Siberian Orchestra’s work. Very Cool! Take a look…or listen rather! Weddings may never be the same again.

Visit Jerry C’s Official Website

Category: Music, Video  Leave a Comment
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