Happy game playing! → Frogger |
More about Cthulhu here and here. Here is a photo of Cthulhu sitting on some rocks. |
|
Most people have heard about the dog & cat food recall, and one of the most important questions is, "Which brands are affected?" In short, "most of them", including the fancy brands Iams, Eukanuba, and Science Diet. The problem is that a large manufacturer of dog & cat food - Menu Foods - managed to produce millions of pet food products with rat poison. Actually, what they found was aminopterin, a chemical can cause kidney failure in animals and humans (reference). In addition to the ample news coverage, Menu Foods has posted information on their website: www.menufoods.com/recall. After reading several stories that claimed different brands were affected, I decided to do a little digging. Here's what I found out... Who the hell is Menu Foods? They're a contract manufacturer of wet pet food products sold under dozens of different brand names across the country. Menu Foods manufactures food for 17 of the top 20 North American retailers (PetSmart, Wal-Mart, Safeway, etc.) (reference). Even though you think you're making choices as a consumer, you're basically being sold the same dog & cat food with different packaging and different prices. But inside, it's all the same stuff. Here is a full list of cat food brand names that are actually made by Menu Foods and part of the cat food recall (reference):
Here is the full list of dog food brand names that are actually made by Menu Foods and part of the dog food recall (reference):
|
|
I wrote a blog post last November one week after the Zune player went on the market showing some data about iPods vs. Zune on Amazon.com. I thought it was an interesting comparison, so I'm doing another one as a 4-month follow-up. Here are the current Top 100 Bestsellers at Amazon.com right now, edited to show only iPods and the Zune: 5. Apple 30 GB iPod video Black (5.5 Generation) Oh no! Zune is not in the Top 100 list! Well, we could all see that one coming, right? I wonder which one is selling better right now: the Zune, or Windows Vista. Microsoft has yet to release any actual sales numbers for the Zune, opting instead to make vague statements about sales goals. If I recall correctly, Microsoft said they were trying to sell 1 million Zunes in 2007. Apple sells 10+ million iPods every few months. |
|
My E36 M3 has recently had problems with the Climate Control system (intermittent shut down, settings get stuck, etc.). A little online research turned up this excellent page: BMW E36: Repairing the Climate Control Computer. The basic idea is that a capacitor fails inside and the computer has problems getting enough power, so it freaks out, doesn't respond, and generally annoys you. If the Climate Control system in your E36 is having problems, you've got three options:
I chose option #3, with option #2 as my backup plan. After a little bit of struggling to get the CC computer removed my car, I took it over to the work bench. I found a replacement 0.47uF capacitor (tantalum) at Fry's for $1.29, and did a poor job of soldering it onto the board. It was so poor, in fact, that I was nervous I hadn't made the original problem any better, perhaps making things worse. Who knows? To my suprise, when I reassembled everything and re-installed inside the car, the Climate Control system worked beautifully! Total time spent: about 2 hours. If you go with option #2 (either because you just want to swap the units, or you tried to repair it without success) you can order a replacement Climate Control system (OEM part made by BMW) from Pelican Parts for $368 (part # 64-11-8-378-466-M9) or a rebuilt unit (rebuilt by Programa) for $221 (part # 64-11-8-378-466-M250). I have no idea what your dealer would charge for the 10-20 minutes it takes to remove the old unit and put a new one in, but my guess is "a lot", so it's probably a good idea to try to swap the units yourself. I've heard it's around $400 to $600, but who knows, your dealer might be higher or lower than that. Note #1: From what I can see, the fix originated from "hoanboy" on bimmerforums. First here, and then later here. hoanboy, where- and whoever the hell you are, I owe ya one... :) Note #2: If you decide to tackle the fix yourself, be aware that your car may turn the heater on automatically if you drive around without a Climate Control system installed (say, if you started working on it, but wanted to drive before you were finished). Once the engine warms up, you'd better hope you've reached your destination, because the heater will be HOT. |
So how do you turn that off? Front Row isn't a regular app, so where do you look? Where's the "Preferences" menu? How the heck is it invoked? It turns out there's a setting (buried under System Preferences > Keyboard & Mouse > Keyboard Shortcuts) that will let you disable (or change) the "hide/show Front Row" setting. I'm fine to disable it because the remote still works and that's plenty good for me. |
44th Annual Birthday Party You can get to the park by taking a free shuttle (shuttle bus info here) or drive/bike/walk - here's a map to the south end of the park, that's where most of the activities will be. If the weather is bad on the 28th, listen to KLBJ (FM) or check eeyores.sexton.com. If it ends up being cancelled because of rain, it will be moved to the following Saturday (May 5th). Bring something to bang on and find the big drum circle. I'll be there with my 5-gallon water jug. |
More pictures here: |
