The Tobic Muse

oil change

2009-03-16T16:34:00.001-05:00

Mostly just marking the time. Performed the 5000 mile oil change today on Big Blue. Such low mileage is shameful.

Hmm... Still here...

2008-10-08T20:39:00.002-05:00

Lots of things going on, nothing to report here. I know you are just here for the pictures. Go, go there already!

Maker Faire Austin 2007

2007-10-22T23:34:00.001-05:00

Just to let you know that the pictures from Maker Faire are posted at
http://www.tobic.com/gallery/MakerFaire07

It was great! What is Maker Faire you ask? It’s the first time the Faire has been held in Texas. It is a celebration of backyard inventors. Normal people who invent or reuse everyday objects for a better purpose. Some of it is art, some of it is bonified products. Its an free exchange of ideas and visions. No retail is allowed - except at the store. There are no vendors present, just the "Makers" and their ideas. Everything is freely available - you want to see how they wired it up - just ask! You want the plans and parts list - no problem!

The phrase we used the most throughout the day was "That’s a great idea!". Everywhere you looked, there was a fantastic exchange of ideas.

There are a lot of pictures, please take some time to go through them.

The Faire's website can be found at:
http://makerfaire.com/

State Fair of Texas 2007 - Round up!

2007-10-14T23:14:00.000-05:00

Lots of fun, lots of pictures. Thanks to all who came - really enjoyed seeing everyone.
Pictures are here.

State Fair of Texas!

2007-09-27T00:05:00.000-05:00

Its BIG! It Coming! I can't wait! Here is a picture from the Dallas Morning News from 2004. It was an innocent shot of a worker setting up Big Tex. Suggested captions are below.

The only tossed salad you'll find at the State fair.
The State Fair gears up for the first annual Jagger Day!
Just a pinch between your cheek and gums.
Two Texas State Fair Tickets: $22

Two corn dogs & a funnel cake: $16

See Big Tex giving a rim job: Priceless

Attack of the Fifty Foot Homo!!!
Finally Proof That Not All Texans Are Bush Fans
Big Tex Turns 69!
Employees work hard to ERECT Big Tex.
"Okay, now suck the poison out..."
Big Tex likes the teabagging too!

Oh yea, The home page can be found here.

MakerFaire

2007-09-25T17:52:00.001-05:00

Star Wars!

2007-07-29T01:44:00.000-05:00

Fort Worth Museum of Science and History is currently having an exhibition titled “Where Science Meets Imagination”. The exhibit is crammed full of props, costumes and models from the Star Wars movies. Absolutely fantastic! You can see my pictures here (I uploaded them in full resolution)

Also, while waiting in line, I was joking around with the staff. I asked one if he could bust out some rhymes on the exhibit. Here is what he did. He raps about the audio tour!

Read A Book

2007-07-12T11:34:00.000-05:00

Not work safe. Its School House Rock after a bender on crack. Originally appeared on BET.

Kwik-E-Mart

2007-07-08T21:38:00.000-05:00

In preparation for the up coming release of the Simpon's movie, 7-Eleven stores have converted 12 of their stores to Kwik-E-Marts. I was able to visit the Kwik-E-Mart in the Dallas area today (only one in Texas).

Turns out, they did a GREAT job! All the normal corporate logos were converted and store looked just like the TV show. The people behind the counter were dressed like Apu and were actually really friendly. The store was packed. the line for the Squishee machine was wrapped around the inside perimeter of the store. The gas prices were a tad higher than other stores - but that didn't seem to slow people down. The pumps were full of people.

Good job 7-Eleven!

More pictures

Texoma Dam

2007-07-08T12:21:00.000-05:00

We went to see the historical cresting of the Texoma Dam this weekend. Only, it wasn't cresting. It was close, trickling, but not cresting. With all the rain we have had here in North Texas in the last few weeks, there is a lot of water built up behind this dam. The Dam officials have opened one of the gates to release water into the Red River. Here are two short video snippits I took of the lake draining into the river.

Youtube classic

2007-07-08T01:25:00.000-05:00

Its the hint of a smile that makes this one. He looks like a character from Sopranos...

Stronger, Faster, Harder

2007-07-08T00:29:00.000-05:00

Stay with this video - the hands bob around for 52 seconds (boring). Then the lyrics start, it gets cool.

TRAAAAAAAIIIIIIIINNN!!

2007-06-21T01:11:00.000-05:00

Norwegian Kids Mess With Train - Watch more free videos

Global Climate Argument

2007-06-17T00:30:00.000-05:00

I tend not to push my views onto others, but this little video really makes a good argument. Watch it all the way through. He doesn't discuss specifics, he just re-frames the question. should we act or take a wait and see attitude?

http://view.break.com/311805 - Watch more free videos

Guess Who...

2007-06-14T23:19:00.000-05:00

So, I was on a flight back from Orange County, CA this week. I was on American Airlines in cattle class. Look who I got to sit next to.

Just proves that American Airlines does not care about their customers.

Null Printer!

2007-04-29T23:29:00.000-05:00

A Null what…? Printer? Why?

I had a problem. I needed to measure the print spooler speed when printing to a remote location. My tests required that I be able to send actual documents from a Windows desktop to a printer in the remote office, and see how long it takes to spool.

My first idea was to get a cheap printer and locate it in the remote location. But, after doing some quick calculations, I would kill the printer by printing a page every 5 minutes for a year. Esp since I had nearly zero budget. The consumables (paper, toner/ink) would have made the costs prohibitive. I looked into using a dot matrix printer w/o a ribbon – but still, that is a lot of moving pieces subject to jams and breaks.

I needed a device that would appear as a standalone printer (no printing to files – long reason, not important to this discussion) that would not produce any physical output.

My solution? The Null Printer.

See the build page!

Gaylord!

2007-04-29T01:09:00.000-05:00

Um, yea. Same toys Abido from yesteryear.

Behold: Our future!

2007-04-26T22:21:00.000-05:00

In case you missed it, this week European scientists had declared they found a planet they think is very similar to Earth. They think it has liquid water, rocks and possibly an atmosphere.

This is huge. For all the particular traits needed for life to survive on a planet, they think this one has all the elements (pun intended). Its larger than Earth by about 1.5 times. But am sure Boeing / Airbus will have us covered by then for cross country flights.

No word yet on its name.

The catch? It’s a mere 20 light years off. Practically in our backyard cosmicly speaking. Granted we don’t have the technology yet to travel that distance. Traversing 118 TRILLION miles is still a bit of an undertaking. A few more hundred years of development, I am sure that Toyota will introduce a dark matter / solar hybrid and it will not be an issue.

But, now all the technology development for the next few generations will have a goal to work towards. We have a target to head to. Previously, it was (wave of the hand) out there. Now, we know where to go look. As we advance, we will learn more about the potential planet, probably find more as well.

Good stuff guys. Carry on!

Zenoss

2007-04-26T22:20:00.000-05:00

I have been messing around with Zenoss over the last few days. It looks pretty cool, lots of great potential. I just can not get the ZenWin agent to work. Several problems: 1) the documentation is pretty scare on details. A lot of questions go unanswered. Searching the forums and wiki, it looks like I’m not the only one. 2) The agents are not logging enough information for me to debug. Sure, they burp out a few bits, but nothing I can use.

Gahh! I a about to give up and go try another monitoring system and let this one mature a bit more.

2007-04-26T22:19:00.000-05:00

What? You missed me? Phhbbt.

Three Sisters Gobbler Run

2006-11-29T22:38:00.000-06:00

Today is when I was going to get to ride the Three Sisters Run in the Texas Hill Country. This is a series of Farm to Market highways that are _superb_ for motorcycles. They wind around the hill country, up and down steep hills, tight turns, blind corners – heaven on asphalt!

We load up and left from San Antonio. It’s a scant 45 minute warm up ride to Bandera. We stop for eggs and coffee at the Old Spanish Trail. A eatery in downtown Bandera that has not lost its small town charm. The OST is filled with three types of people – other bikers, deer hunters still dressed in camo who are coming in from the field, and the omnipresent locals. The locals seem used to the intrusion of outsiders. No one gives us a second glance. The service was prompt and the food was excellent.

At about 10:00am, everyone is accounted for, we head out to Leakey, TX. Leakey is the jumping off point for the Three Sisters run. The Three Sisters is a loop of highways 335, 336, 337. the highways wind their way through the hill country.

The weather was perfect, very little traffic. I’ll let the pictures speak for them selves.

Needless to say, it was an absolutely great ride.

I'm not sorry...

2006-10-24T00:00:00.000-05:00

Spoon - I only showed you the path, you walked it all by yourself.

April 19, 1995 - 9:02am

2006-10-22T22:38:00.000-05:00

“The Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building was a United States Government complex located in Oklahoma City, Oklahoma and the target of the Oklahoma City bombing.

The federal building was constructed in 1977 at a cost of $14.5 million, and was named for federal judge Alfred P. Murrah, an Oklahoma native. By the 1990s the building contained regional offices for the Secret Service, the Drug Enforcement Agency (D.E.A.), and the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives (ATF), and other agencies.

On the morning of April 19, 1995, Timothy McVeigh parked a rented Ryder truck with explosives in front of the complex and, at 9:02am, a massive explosion occurred which sheared the entire north side of the building, killing 168 people. In the aftermath, a total of 16 building surrounding the Murrah Federal Building were damaged beyond repair and had to be brought down.

More than 800 names are listed on the Survivors' Wall. The granite panels on which the Survivors' names are etched were salvaged from the Murrah Building and are mounted on the only surviving wall of the Murrah Building on the east side of the footprint.”

The above description does not do the memorial justice. I was lucky enough to be passing through Oklahoma City this past weekend and was able to see the memorial first hand. It is very impressive. The Memorial is divided into two parts – the museum and the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial. The National Parks Services operates the Outdoor Symbolic Memorial. There is a Park Ranger there everyday from 9:00am to 5:00pm to answer questions. There is so much symbolism in the Memorial. Every line, every shadow, every tree is placed with care. Here are some of the pictures I took during my visit.

Holy Restocking Fee, Dr. Z!

2006-07-14T09:25:00.000-05:00

(ripped 100% in whole from Cars! Cars! Cars!)

We're glad someone took the time to look into this 30-day guarantee that Chrysler is touting: The Detroit News reports: Chrysler's '30-day, money back guarantee: What's the catch. Check out this arithmetic:

Let's start with a restocking fee of 5 percent of the stickerprice (ouch!), add in the 50-cents per mile usage fee (yikes!), all the sales tax (what!?) plus finance fees, title, tag and registration (grrr!).
Total it up on a premium ride like a Jeep Grand Cherokee Overland, and returning a car you just purchased for about $34,000 could easily cost about 14 percent of the total purchase price -- more than $4,600.

That's a lot of bratwurst, beers, and hookers.

Aw, forget the bratwurst and beers.

one more

2006-07-11T13:57:00.000-05:00

Adventures of Mr. Fancy Pants
I have wasted too much time on this game....
http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/301341