TomBecker.net

An Open Letter to the Annoying Guy on the Plane

Hi,

You prolly didn't notice me that much since you were absorbed in your conversation and what not but I was the guy sitting one row back and one row over from you on the plane from Minneapolis to Richmond this weekend. I just wanted to let you know that the other people around you, excluding maybe the person who you were talking to, do not care how great you think you are.

I know you worked on the Obama campaign here in Richmond and that you are supposedly at the top of your Ecology class (a point you made several times), but truthfully I really don't care. I am also a little confused on why you feel the need to announce the fact to the whole back half of the plane.

I first saw you in the actual airport when you pulled out your uber-trendy laptop for all to see. And I could tell, just by looking at you, that we prolly wouldn't get along. So imagine my surprise when you proved me right, by constantly telling the person sitting in front of me how great you were. And the comment that really sealed the deal for me not liking you was "2nd graders do not have any 'political self-awareness'." What the heck kinda jacka$$ed comment is that. They are in second grade, setting aside the the whole 'self-awareness' part of the comment. Second graders are just learning how to tell time (according to the VA Standards of Learning) do you really expect them to understand the complexities that is the American government?

So I just wanted to let you know that while you think you're great and all your pseudo-intellectual comments may impress some, I was not impressed.

I am glad that you made a personal connection with someone on the plane, and that the two and a half hours flew by for you while talking to her. My having to listen to you over my headphones made that flight feel longer than the time my sister dragged me to see the movie Titanic.

Thanks for understanding,
~tom

Labels: rant

posted by Tom Becker at 7/07/2008 | 1 Comments

OS woes

So its kinda a slow day here, so I've spent the better part of the day working on getting Ubuntu installed on the home computer. For those of you who are unfamiliar with Ubuntu it is a linux based Operating System that is supposed to be one of the best out there.

I've installed it before on other machines and have had little problems. But today I seem to be running into all sorts of problems.

The first thing I ran into was support for my Radeon 9200 video card. Its not exactly top of the line here, I didn't think it would be any sort of problem. But apparently it is. So I take that out dig out the video card that came with the computer and installed that one....ok moving on now.

Takes a while to install, no surprises here. It installs successfully and then it proceeds to install a plethora of updates. Ok, so all those are done.

I should have mentioned earlier that I am trying to dual boot XP and Ubuntu on two different hard drives. I have my XP hard drive sitting next to me. So, after Ubuntu is done with everything, I attempt to slave the XP hard drive. I only have one jumper so, I put it on the Ubuntu drive to make it the master, in order to slave the other I need another jumper. I don't know why both hard drives don't have a jumper, but whatever. So I plug both of them in, and hit the power button. and then i just get a black screen....nothing happens. This is cause of the only one jumper and both drives apparently thinking that they are the master.

Ok, so I unplug the XP drive, and just figure I'll run out to CompUSA or something and pick up another jumper and I'll be set.

So I remove the XP drive and just left the Ubuntu one in as master/single drive. So you'd think it just boot up like it did last time, and everything would be fine. Well you'd be wrong, much like I was.

I can't get the graphics card to work anymore. I don't know what the difference is. So I'm sitting here watching the install all over again. And I just thought that I'd let the blogosphere know.

Labels: rant, Ubuntu

posted by Tom Becker at 3/20/2008 | 0 Comments

Mild Rant on Housing

Ok, so yesterday I get a letter from my apartment complex stating my renewal is coming up in June and since they need at least 60 days notice if I'm going to be moving out that the need to know by the middle of next month. Ok cool, no problem. So i go to the second page of this letter and they proceed to tell me that they are planning on jacking my rent up a good $100 a month.

Well I was planning on staying in that apt for a while, if the rent was still reasonable. But that was just crazy. Its not like they added anything to the services they are providing me. Shouldn't I be grandfathered in to my current rate or something? Its nuts.

So now instead of re-newing my lease I am starting to look at buying a house. A big big step, but well at least I'd be actually putting money toward something instead of essentially throwing it away. I'll keep ya'll posted on my house buying process. Going to talk to some loan officers this weekend I think.

I'm also planning on tuning up the bike and start riding again this weekend. Take that high gas prices. WHOOHOO

Labels: house search, rant

posted by Tom Becker at 3/12/2008 | 0 Comments

Postal Piracy

So I may be a little late to the whole buying things off the internet thing, I prefer to talk to people once in a while, especially when making a purchase. Call me old fashioned.

But today I had to buy something off line as the item isn't carried in stores, I also received a gift card to Amazon.com a while back (two posts in one day, both having something to do with Amazon....weird. I promise I really don't hate those guys) and I noticed something. The post office is making a killing.

For example today I had to order a little infrared sensor for a Tivo box. The little light attached to a wire cost me 6.99 pre tax. Not to shabby at all. So I go to the order page, and they are charging me 4.47 to ship the 4 oz item. So they are charging me ~63% of the cost of the item just to ship it. And it is just the basic shipping. It isn't like i chose to overnight the damn thing.

Is it me or is that a bit high. And that isn't even the worst one. I bought off of Amazon a set of guitar picks for $0.62, thats right less than a dollar. And those swindlers charged me 3 bucks for shipping and handling. Its not like they even packed it with care. The envelope came with the packing slip sloppily stuffed all wrinkled with the picks.

I dunno, the post office claims they are having hard times and they keep upping the cost of stamps in order to make ends meet and all that. But it seems to me that their coffers are pretty full if they are charging 206% of cost of item in order to ship.

I'm going back to buying everything at the store...

Labels: rant

posted by Tom Becker at 1/30/2008 | 0 Comments