v.raicovi.net

Risk Wars Invite: 2009

2009-06-01T10:43:00.006-04:00

Risk Wars IV: Those Damn Dirty Apes

Astronaut Craig Markson crash lands on a distant planet ruled by apes who use a primitive race of humans for experimentation and sport. Soon Markson finds himself among the hunted, his life in the hands of a benevolent chimpanzee scientist. Escaping with little more than his clothes, he finds that he has landed on a planet where men are pre-lingual and uncivilized, while apes have learned speech and technology. Markson is captured again and taken to the city of the apes after damaging his throat so that he is silent and cannot communicate with the apes.

Beware the beast Markson, for he is the Devil's pawn. Alone among God's primates, he kills for sport or lust or greed. Yea, he will murder his brother to possess his brother's land. Let him not breed in great numbers, for he will make a desert of his home and yours. Shun him; drive him back into his jungle lair, for he is the harbinger of death ---The Lost Scrolls of the Apes

You are invited to come enjoy some good food, drink and, most importantly, friends. If you stay long enough, you'll also get to play in some of the most spirited and blood-boiling games of Risk known to man and ape. There will be plenty of food and drinks, but you're welcome to bring anything you like. For those with little ones (and Craig), the pool will be open and we have plenty of swimmies and tubes.

Concerts I've Been To...

2008-11-10T15:31:00.004-05:00

I have Nancy to thank for the loss of the last two hours of my life. After reading a post of hers the other day title "Music to My Ears", I've had this nagging feeling to find the old ticket stubs and compile a list of all the shows I've been to.

Believe it or not, I actually found my baggy of stubs and I'm only missing ones for the shows where the dates have a day of '00'. The only place where this isn't applicable is with the EPCOT shows, where I'm sure I have my room key/park ticket laying around somewhere.

An interesting fact is that I attended the vast majority of these shows with my buddy Ken, who carries on the tradition today in the San Francisco area.

I'll try and clean this up over the next couple of days, cleaning up the shows that are missing information...

The ? column has an F for festivals, H for headliners and O for opening acts.

DATE	?	BAND/OPENING ACT	THEATER
04/00/1987	H	Bon Jovi	Nassau Coliseum
08/16/1988	H	Aerosmith	Nassau Coliseum
08/16/1988	O	Guns & Roses	Nassau Coliseum
12/00/1991	H	Guns & Roses	Madison Square Garden
12/00/1991	O	Soundgarden	Madison Square Garden
08/09/1992	F	Lollapalooza	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Ministry	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Ice Cube	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Soundgarden	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	The Jesus and Mary Chain	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Pearl Jam	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1992	H	Lush	Jones Beach Theater
08/11/1992	H	U2	Giants Stadium
08/11/1992	O	Primus	Giants Stadium
04/24/1993	H	Phish	Cheel Arena, Clarkson U.
09/04/1993	H	Aerosmith	Jones Beach
09/04/1993	O	4 Non Blondes	Jones Beach
08/29/1994	H	Aerosmith	Jones Beach
08/29/1994	O	Collective Soul	Jones Beach
09/01/1994	F	H.O.R.D.E Tour	Jones Beach Theater
09/01/1994	H	Allman Brothers Band	Jones Beach Theater
09/01/1994	H	The Black Crowes	Jones Beach Theater
09/01/1994	S	Blues Traveler	Jones Beach Theater
09/01/1994	S	Dave Mathews Band	Jones Beach Theater
09/01/1994	H	Big Head Todd & The Monsters	Jones Beach Theater
08/09/1995	H	Allman Brothers Band	Jones Beach Theater
09/19/1995	H	Eric Clapton	Nassau Coliseum
09/19/1995	O	Clarence Gatemouth Brown	Nassau Coliseum
10/27/1995	H	Page & Plant	Madison Square Garden
10/27/1995	O	Tragically Hip	Madison Square Garden
11/15/1995	H	Jethro Tull	Beacon Theater
12/15/1995	H	Red Hot Chili Peppers	Nassau Coliseum
12/15/1995	O	Silverchair	Nassau Coliseum
07/21/1996	H	Allman Brothers Band	Jones Beach Theater
07/21/1996	O	God Street Wine	Jones Beach Theater
07/25/1996	H	KISS	Madison Square Garden
07/25/1996	O	D Generation	Madison Square Garden
08/30/1996	H	Jethro Tull	Jones Beach Theate
08/30/1996	O	Emerson, Lake & Palmer	Jones Beach Theate
12/29/1996	H	KISS	Nassau Coliseum
04/06/1997	F	Spring Blues Festival	Westbury Music Fair
04/06/1997	H	B.B. King	Westbury Music Fair
06/21/1997	H	Allman Brothers Band	Jones Beach Theater
06/21/1997	O	Ronnie Earl	Jones Beach Theater
10/16/1997	H	Rolling Stones	Giants Stadium
01/29/1998	H	Billy Joel	Nassau Coliseum
03/15/1998	H	Allman Brothers Band	Beacon Theater
03/16/1999	H	Allman Brothers Band	Beacon Theater
06/15/1999	H	Shania Twain	Madison Square Garden
06/16/1999	O	Leahy	Madison Square Garden
05/00/2000	H	The Byrds	EPCOT
05/00/2000	H	Gary Puckett	EPCOT
06/10/2000	H	KISS	Jones Beach
06/10/2000	O	Ted Nugent	Jones Beach
04/00/2006	H	The Marshall Tucker Band	EPCOT
03/00/2008	H	The Guess Who	EPCOT

The Right Immigration Policy...

2008-10-19T12:54:00.005-04:00

I'm taking a course titled 'Public Policy and Labor Markets' for my masters, which I'll happily be done with in two weeks (the class and my masters!). There was an interesting set of readings this week, all dealing with immigration and whether or not our system needs reform. Reform from what you ask?

Well, it turns out that in the 1960s, we (JFK) "de-regulated" immigration because we didn't want to offend anyone but not allowing certain groups. In the process, the quality of immigrants quickly dropped and you get the situation we have today. Before you jump to conclusions, I'm not passing judgement on our most populous immigrants, Mexicans. I think that their labor fits into our economic system, particularly the service industry. Without them, the quality of life for the middle class of our country wouldn't be where it is today (Listen, I know that there are problems with the economy, but the only ones affecting me are high gas prices and maybe higher grocery prices. I'll get into this in another post, down the road though. I did offer up my quick fix here though). However, there exist certain issues that crop up, particulary their drain on our social welfare system, for which the illegals don't contribute a dime to. That is my problem. Period.

If Obama insists that we all have to contribute to our social collective, then I think immigrants, illegal or not, need to contribute as well. Of course, I also feel that we should all be contributing at the same rate, but I'm getting off topic. I'll leave you with one of the readings from this week.

The Right Immigration Policy by Steven Malanga
http://www.city-journal.org/html/16_4_immigration_policy.html

What do you think? Should we be selective regarding what type of immigrant we legally let in or should it be first come, first serve?

Lets Suspend Federal Income Taxes

2008-10-08T23:54:00.004-04:00

Here's a thought... Instead of throwing money at these failing lenders (who all knew what they were doing was going to be disastrous one day), let's temporarily suspend federal income taxes for those making sub $200k. Whether these people use the money wisely or not, it will get pumped into the economy and, it won't be in the hands of failed lenders.

I have to go to bed right now, but I'll think this through a little more thorougly in the days ahead. This is the article from the Wall Street Journal that gave me the idea: http://tinyurl.com/43w5m3

One of the better Mac install screens...

2008-09-04T11:31:00.002-04:00

Screen capture used without permission, but I'll include a link to their website: http://www.adiumx.com/

Emma Update...

2008-08-10T21:13:00.000-04:00

Sorry about the cryptic Twitter/IM away message I left earlier today. I haven't had a chance to update those I was in contact today, so I'll do it for everyone here.

Yes, we did spend almost three hours in the ER with Emma today. She was partaking in her patented couch diving, where she takes all the pillows and cushions from the living room couch and then dives on to them. Somehow this time, she missed the soft landing zones.

Emma landed square on her face. Because we weren't in the living room to witness it, she came upstairs with a bloody nose and got the story second hand from her and Anna. Emma didn't look too bad, but she was babbling incoherently and was holding both sides of her head. With the chance of her having a broken nose or even a concussion, the emergency room was our only option.

When she relaized were we were, she was ready to go home and nothing was wrong with her. Of course, this was the most crowded that we've seen St. Charles' emergency room. So, after a few hours waiting, Emma was free of any marks, except for some scratches on the end of her nose. The doctor said that it looks like she only got the cartilage at the end of her nose and that otherwise, she looked fine. I think that he may have been more worried about the scratches on her arm from a spill yesterday.

So... we're back home and just finished a nice, late, sushi dinner, after a very filling Campus Heros lunch this afternoon. All is well.

Sorry for the lack of updates...

2008-04-22T12:44:00.002-04:00

It's been a busy month since I last posted and I just wanted to write something today. Here's an update of what I have been up to:

The new machine really hauls and as I Twittered, I actually upgraded to Hardy Heron already and I haven't looked back. The sound still isn't 100% and I could never really get Wine to work properly, but I guess that's why I can either dual-boot it or bring up the XP partition in VMWare Server under Ubuntu. Overall, I'm realy impressed with the strides that Ubuntu has made.
The Wii should be back today and I'm anxious to check out all the games that I borrowed from a friend. The girls have actually missed it and it's flashing blue light, next to the den television.
Believe it or not, the outside cleanup is almost done and it 's not even May yet! Traditionally, we don't do it until the middle of May, but with the nice weather, I couldn't resist - particularly after being recharged after our trip to Florida over Easter break. Today I have a bunch of plantings to take care of in the yard and some trees to trim. After that, it's mulch time!

Well, that's about it for now. I'll write more later and expand on some of my updates above...

How I loaded up my new Gutsy Gibbon box...

2008-03-26T21:44:00.011-04:00

For those of you that don't know, Gutsy Gibbon is the name for Ubuntu's latest, non-beta release of their distribution of Linux. The following is a work in progress and I will be modifying this post in the coming days...

Hardware...
I treated myself on this one. The only thing that I reused was the case from my old machine.

Mobo: ASUS P5N-E
Processor: Intel Core 2 Quad Q6600 2.4GHz (Kentsfield)
Cooling: Rosewill RCX-Z4
Memory: 2 x 2GB DDR2 (PC2 6400)
Video Card: EVGA GeForce 9600GT 512MB
HDD: 2 x 320GB SATA2 (Mirrored by Mobo)
Optical: LITE-ON 16X DVD±R DVD Burner
Power: Antec Neopower 550W
Monitor: 2 x Acer 22"AL2215WBD Widescreen LCD with HDCP
Input: Microsoft Wireless Ergonomic Natural Desktop 7000

OS and Software Configuration...

Workstation Install of Ubuntu Gutsy Gibbon, using most of HDD
Install of Windows XP Professional to remainder of HDD
VMware Server
Google Firefox Extensions
Running Your XP Partition Directly in Ubuntu Using VMware
Automatically mounting SMB shares
VMWare server using HD partitions
Use your existing Windows Installation & Apps in Ubuntu
VMware running native XP on SATA disk | part 2
Change the GRUB Menu Timeout
Firefox Tweak Guide
Mounting SMB File Shares Using Cifs
Mounting SMB Shares
Installing LAMP Using TASKEL
Network Printing from Windows XP
Fix sound in VMware Server
Installing MediaWiki via GUI and Synaptic
Switching to Ubuntu from Windows
Microsoft LifeCam NX-6000 Install
VMware How To
Schedule tasks using gnome-schedule
Make your extensions work in Firefox Beta 3
Image preview extension for Firefox
Turn your PC into a DVD Ripping Monster

Lingering Problems...

Sound management in Linux overall and within VMware
/etc/X11/xorg.conf craps out every now and then, requiring me to restore a good copy
Can't get a picture from my Microsoft Lifecan NX-6000 in Skype

Cisco? We don't need no stinkin' Cisco!

2008-03-03T02:04:00.012-05:00

I came across this email today as I was transferring the last of some old PST files up to Gmail. I still get a kick out of this today and since I created the Franken-Network, I can vouch for it's authenticity. My only regret was not putting the Linksys routers up inside the 4006 chassis for the pictures...

From: Vincent Raicovi
Sent: Monday, August 15, 2005 11:22 AM
To: *Names Removed to Protect the Innocent*
Cc: *Names Removed to Protect the Innocent*
Subject: A tailor made Linksys commercial. Too bad Cisco will never let you see it!

How does *Name removed* route VLANs when their Cisco 4006 goes on the fritz?
Linksys routers, that’s how!
Yes, what you’re seeing is really true. I’m currently routing 3 VLANs (if I don’t get parts fast enough, I’ll be going to five!), using $50, Linksys routers! While trying to re-cable a rack late Friday night, my 4000 decided to go out on me. Upon learning that Cisco SmartNet had expired back in September, there was only one thing that I could do to get administrative staff up and running; rely on Linksys!
You’re looking at 2 Linksys BEFSR11’s and 1 Linksys Network Everywhere router,
doing the job of a $10,000+ router. Of course, they don’t handle fiber, but with a little creative wiring, everyone is happier and if I didn’t tell anyone, they wouldn’t even know!

No Need for Words - 20080302

2008-03-02T18:29:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of My New Hotrod

Neil Patrick Harris: The Shoe Fairy!

2008-02-18T12:03:00.000-05:00

Adam Curry Interview...

2008-02-17T20:18:00.004-05:00

Here's a quick video of Adam Curry talking about society, civility and his role in each with PodShow...

No Need For Words - 20080214

2008-02-14T23:10:00.002-05:00

Courtesy of AP

No Need For Words - 20080214

2008-02-14T10:53:00.007-05:00

Courtesy of Daily News

No Need For Words - 20080209

2008-02-09T22:38:00.007-05:00

Courtesy of Jonathan Ferrey / Getty Images

Great Moment between Eli & Peyton

2008-02-04T11:29:00.000-05:00

Here's a clip from the locker room after the Giants won the Superbowl. I saw parts of this on SportsCenter last night, but it seems that SNY had better audio.

Anyone else heading in for the Ticker Tape? Let me know...

I'm a slacker...

2008-02-03T08:36:00.000-05:00

I've been a real slacker lately when it comes to blogging/writing. With nearly a month and a half off between semesters, I completely went into lazy mode. Now, with week one of nine complete this semester, I'm going to force myself to be better, particularly after this semester is over March 30th.

Writing eases my mind, as I'm able to put into words everything that is normally bouncing around inside my head. It doesn't matter what I choose to write about, it just seems to work.

So, I'll be back soon enough. It's budget time at work and once the dust settles on that and the new semester, I'll get into a comfortable rhythm and start to write on a more regular schedule.

Until then, hang tight...

MacWorld 2008 Starts Today...

2008-01-15T10:34:00.000-05:00

I'm excited to see what goodies Steve Jobs is going to unveil today. I'll be following the action from Engadget's Live Feed...

Join Me Goofing Off Online...

2008-01-12T14:35:00.000-05:00

I added some links down on the right-hand column that will help you find me online at various gaming services. These are the only ones that I'm really using right now, but I'll update the list should I branch out.

I hope to catch you online!

Google Reader Update: January 2008

2008-01-03T23:06:00.000-05:00

From your 59 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 10,620 items, starred 140 items, shared 187 items, and emailed 45 items.

Wow! In a month, I've gone crazy with Google Reader. Here are my numbers from exactly one month ago today:

From your 29 subscriptions, over the last 30 days you read 2,506 items, starred 23 items, shared 76 items, and emailed 20 items.

In thirty days, I've more than doubled my reading list and more than quadrupled the overall amount of articles that I'm reading. I've actually been pairing down the feed list over the past few days as well. I'm finding a lot of replication between sites, particularly tech sites and with my current batch of feeds, I'll sometimes come across the same article three or more times.

Parenting...

2008-01-03T14:38:00.000-05:00

I watched a disturbing episode of Supernanny on ABC last night. I was completely out of gas last night, after returning to work after nearly two weeks off. The commercial advertising the new episode caught my eye because they mentioned the fact that this was the first show that the parents didn't call for help on, the children did; in particular, the two older daughters, ages 17 & 14.

Without going into disgustingly laborious detail, here's a quick breakdown on the important facts of the episode:

Father worked full-time and mother had her own photography business, for which she was gone all day
Besides the two older daughters, there were three boys, two of which were twins. I don't recall their exact ages, but they couldn't have been over three years old.
Both parents leave for work while all the kids are in bed
The two older girls attend an online, charter school
The two older girls were expected to entertain the younger kids, take care of the younger kids and clean the house during the day

These two girls were nothing short of slaves for the parents. I have never seen or heard of a set of parents that were any more selfish and self-centered than these two parents. They knew that there was a problem, but they did nothing to try and fix it until the girls called in Supernanny.

What really hit home were some of the comments that Joe Frost (Supernanny) made to the father concerning his role as role model for his two daughters. This really hit home with regards to the book that I'm about a third of the way through at the moment, Strong Fathers, Strong Daughters. If you have a daughter and haven't read it, I highly recommend it. It's linked to in the right-hand column of this page under 'Books I'm Reading'. Clicking on the book cover will bring you directly to Amazon or you can click here. I'll write more about it when I finish it and get around to transcribing all the underlined passages and scribbles I've made in the margins.

I've been discussing the book in dribs and drabs with my wife. To me, the book seems very anti-feminist and against a lot of the things that would be considered norms in today's society. From my vantage point however, it all just seems to make sense. It's amazing to see the relationship between a father and daughter broken down to see all the little things that go into molding and shaping a young girl into a woman. It has caused me, someone who thought that they were involved nothing but positively in my daughters life, to rethink things that I may say or do that have been identified in the book as being a negative influence on a young girl.

Perhaps this book should wind up on this father's reading list. He may be able to save his relationship with his daughters and his daughters, before it's too late!

BestBuy.com (Best Buy) in store pickup...

2007-12-24T20:41:00.000-05:00

A few days ago, I tried the in store pickup option offered at BestBuy.com for the first time. In a nutshell, the process is:

add items to your cart
choose a preferred store
check inventory at that store
place an order with the intent of the order being picked by an associate and ready to pickup at the customer service counter by you

I've used a similar system at CircuitCity.com in the past and it was trouble free. This is not the case after my interactions with Best Buy.

I had a handful of items that were last minute gifts for Christmas. Best Buy has a great website that has a boat load of product on it, and it just so happens that they allegedly had all the items in stock that I was looking for. I ran through the order process, selected one of the three stores that are within 20 minutes of me and submitted.

According to BestBuy.com, there were two emails that I was waiting for: an order confirmation email and a stock confirmation email. At this point, the stock confirmation email worried me. I realized that there is a retail/corporate/web database issue here and that more than likely, BestBuy.com was not running a realtime inventory database system ala WalMart. I trudged on though, thinking that the little items that I was ordering weren't on the 'Top Gifts of Christmas 2007 list'.

I used my Gmail address for the order, as I have for almost all important things lately (another post for another day), as email generally arrives to it nearly instantaneously. I wasn't disappointed this time either, as the order confirmation arrived before I even left the BestBuy.com site. However, things went differently with the second of two stock confirmation emails. The first listed two of the items as being in stock in the store; they were ready, come pick them up. The second listed two of the items as not being in stock.

Because I wanted to grab all the items in one shot, I called the 800 number from the website and cancelled my order. This was a completely pain-free operation.

Now, I'm not blasting Best BuyorBestBuy.com for this. I just think that they need to improve the process a bit. There are a few suggestions that would have made me a happier comsumer:

Don't dish out multiple emails for the stock confirmation. After receiving the first email, my first assumption was that they were just scanning the items as they picked them and that the other items were going to be in an email to follow. This turned out to be true, but in my case, they didn't have the items in stock
After receiving one email with all the stock statuses, there should be a cancellation option linked right from the email. If all the items are in stock, I'm alright with not including it. If even one item is not in stock, add the link.
Fix the inventory tracking system that links with BestBuy.com. This drives me crazy with banks too, but it's nearly 2008! There is no reason that checks need 5 days to clear and there is certainly no reason that inventory updates should not be nearly real time. Walmart has been doing this for years, so there's no excuse!

v.raicovi.net:quotes

2007-12-21T01:29:00.000-05:00

You may have noticed my new quote blog. Check it out. Instead of trying to generate a decent amount of quality content like I do here, I will solely be re-posting the words of others that I like. Enjoy!

http://vrquotes.blogspot.com

Need an RSS feed?

2007-12-08T22:18:00.001-05:00

Here's quick fix for those sites that don't have an RSS feed. There were a few sites that I check in on frequently, that don't have a feed for one reason or another. If you've been reading about how I'm hooked on Google Reader(here and here), you know that browsing outside of Reader just doesn't cut it.

Enter Feed43. Feed43 can take an html page and with a little help from you, can create an RSS feed for you. Check it out!

Procrastination...

2007-12-06T00:18:00.001-05:00

If there's one bad habit that I developed in high school, it's procrastination. Bad habit you ask? You meant art form, right?

Someone on Wikipedia defined procrastination as follows:

-the deferment or avoidance of an action or task to a later time and is often linked to perfectionism. (en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Procrastination)

The only problem is that I'm usually not trying to be a perfectionist. I'm not saying that I'm sloppy and not a perfectionist to some degree, but I have a little calculator/clock combo in my head that continually tells me that there's enough time to goof off and finish later. This is why this is a much better definition for me:

-to put off intentionally and habitually (thelifeprescription.com/glossary.html)

I'll explain all this on another night...