Bryce Yehl

fin

Bryce — Tue, 08 Jul 2008 04:30:16 +0000

For months I’ve been trying to write the final chapter of this ‘blog. Tonight I decided, fuck it.

I’ll be back. Anonymously.

One of the reasons why I keep a gun in my car

Bryce — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 23:49:45 +0000

Driver Killed In Road-Rage Confrontation:

According to witnesses, the Chrysler rear-ended ~~Figueroa’s~~ [Thompson’s] van. Figueroa then attacked Thompson. Witnesses said Figueroa was pummeling Thompson even as he retreated to his van.

Once he got to his vehicle, Thompson reached for his handgun and shot Figueroa, who later died at the hospital.

One local TV reporter had the gall to refer to Figueroa as the victim.

Thoughts on the MacBook Pro

Bryce — Sun, 06 Jul 2008 13:32:25 +0000

I’m surprised at how big a difference the jump from a 1.8Ghz Core Duo to a 2.5GHz Core 2 Duo made. It still feels sluggish at times but my XP install is admittedly quite crufty.

I am thrilled beyond words to no longer have to suffer with a Glossy screen. Stupidest. Invention. EVER!

This thing is less easily serviceable than the regular MacBook. According to iFixIt there are 23 screws to be removed in order to separate the hard drive from the case. On the regular MacBook there are 3 captive screws. On my old Dell there were two.

The light-up keyboard is awesome. Why has nobody copied this?

It’s fucking hot. My fucking palms are sweating. I’ll get some IR readings from it at the office next week.

I don’t care for the feel of metal on skin. Even if it weren’t trying to cook me.

The trackpad button is also metal. For as long as Apple has been selling laptops of this same basic design, you’d think that by now somebody would have rounded the edges on that button. It’s not quite slice-your-finger-open sharp but it is decidedly unpleasant.

I like that the two USB ports are on opposite sides. A third or fourth would have been nice.

My stupid proprietary mini-DVI adapter is rendered useless thanks to the full-size DVI port. The extra space it’s taking up would have been perfect for another USB port.

I harp about USB ports because I travel with a USB keyboard and mouse, which means I have to travel with a hub so that there is a port available to plug in a camera, external hard drive, or other random peripheral.

And I travel with the keyboard and mouse because Apple hasn’t made a decent one since the Apple Extended Keyboard II. The regular MacBook’s keyboard is, in my opinion, the worst keyboard since the IBM PCjr chiclet. The MBP’s keyboard is better but still not very good.

But it sure is pretty…

WHS saves the day, again

Bryce — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:44:24 +0000

Put the MacBook back together yesterday afternoon, it was a bit flaky but ran. My last backup was from 6/19 so I VPN’d home and started a fresh one. Unfortunately the Macbook died somewhere around the halfway point — turned out that it was running on battery. Would not run on A/C at all.

So I pulled the drive and took it home along with my shiny new MacBook Pro. Ghetto-rigged the MacBook’s drive on my desktop PC, did a backup to WHS and then fired off a restore to the MBP. It took an eternity but when I woke up this morning it had finally finished.

Booted to Windows. No keyboard or mouse, gotta love Apple hardware. Plugged in the last set that Dell sent me, logged in, and kicked off an install of the latest Boot Camp drivers. Everything seems to be working except for the keyboard backlight…

Again

Bryce — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 04:44:24 +0000

Our daily thunderstorms were perfectly timed this afternoon to bring comfortable evening temperatures so I took the bike out for a 10PM ride. This time I manned up and rode down Sunrise Blvd out to Motorola and back. More lanes, more speed, and much more traffic. Cars are scary. Especially the one driven by the jackass that decided to pass on my right in the middle of the curve and drifted a foot or so into my lane.

Two rides without a crash. Woot!

Went Riding

Bryce — Tue, 01 Jul 2008 04:20:55 +0000

Finally took the FJR out for a second ride this evening, just a couple of laps around the neighborhood. Cruising down 56th Ave I leaned forward and wound ‘er up to about 30 over the speed limit when I suddenly remembered that I was carrying expired registration and had never gotten around to putting the 2009 sticker on the plate. Whoooops.

It was a fun little ride. Next time I’ll try to go a bit further…

Mondays and I are not on good terms

Bryce — Mon, 30 Jun 2008 20:38:55 +0000

Walked into my office this morning to find water everywhere.

All of the electronics were left on over the weekend and are presumed drowned.

On the plus side this is an excellent excuse to work from home for a few days and an order for a new Macbook Pro has been placed…

Damn you, Steve Jobs

Bryce — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 05:21:44 +0000

Just last week I swore that my shiny new GPS would be my last purchase in the gadgets, gizmos, and guns categories for the next six months. It would have been easy to resist a spiffy new $500 iPhone, but Noooooooooo, you had to go and make it One fucking Ninety Nine!

And I just shelled out for a stupid headphone adapter last month.

Fuck you, Steve. Fuck you.

I’m totally buying one on the first day.

Stimulating

Bryce — Mon, 09 Jun 2008 14:35:04 +0000

Quote of the Day

Bryce — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 03:02:52 +0000

Who gives an 85-year old man a 15 or 30 year mortgage? 85 year olds shouldn’t even be buying green bananas.

— Comment on a thread about Ed McMahon’s default on a $4.8 Million mortgage.