Havard Havard Havard Havard-Havard von Havard

A Big Cardboard Box

2008-07-01T03:35:14Z

So I roll up to the house tonight, and notice a rather large cardboard box, about 18x24x8 inches. As far as I recall, I hadn't ordered anything. Then I remembered my birthday was a couple of weeks ago. I looked on top of the box, it came from A.C.C., which is Adorama, one of the big New York photo retailers. I had a good idea what was inside. So I opened the box, and sure enough, it was a set of three 16x20" processing trays, ordered by my mother. My mom rocks.

awesomest spell ever: anvil

2008-07-01T00:44:23Z

As a long time player of Spider Web Software's Avernum and even the earlier Exile series of games, I couldn't help but want to implement an Anvil spell. Anvil drops an anvil on the target's head. It's an instant kill spell. The target would need some Really Good armor to protect from the massive max_hp * 172 + max_hp + hp damage this spell inflicts. Naturally, this will be a Very Rare spell that will only be handed out upon a long and complex quest. Also implemented a few silly socials...

working on a mud

2008-06-29T05:46:39Z

I'm working on a mud. After finding a mostly-decent codebase, I manged to convince rsayers to join in on the fun of creating 100% all-new content. He's thinking along the lines of steampunk, I'm not sure if that's 100% the direction I want to go. There's not much to look at right now, and I've actually disabled new players until I can recreate all the starter weapons and other items.

Dear Thunderbird developers:

2008-06-20T00:31:08Z

You are all a bunch of idiots. Please learn how to use the IMAP protocol. You do not need to fetch and cache 79,000 headers when a mailbox is first opened.

edit: It's fetching less than 100 headers per second when I have a full 100Mbit connection to the imap server. No, the imap server isn't overloaded. Thunderbird just plain sucks. Seriously, I had nothing better to do with my life than wait 15 minutes to open a mailbox.

New prelog screen

2008-06-19T00:32:15Z

Did another Diesel Sweeties rip. Being constrained by 80 characters necessitated some changes.

And the source:

Why I hate Java Developers

2008-06-18T23:40:41Z

They consider anything that isn't written in Java as legacy code as if it that were a derogatory phrase.

Mission Accomplished

2008-06-10T04:14:17Z

I shoved around all the junk on my floor to rotate my corner desk so that it's actually in a corner. Unfortunately while moving it one of the leg panels broke. As I fumed about the money wasted on this desk I remembered I had broken down an older desk and had a few panels from it sitting around that just happened to be the right size to have one piece almost as large as the panel, and one that was just shallow enough to fit on the inside up to the back panel. Then there's the air compressor purchased a few months ago and a brad nailer. Within in minutes I had the compressor inside, the nailer loaded, and the panels in place. Shortly thereafter, the desk was stronger than ever.

Also, I'll have rsayers's and sleepiekaren's wedding photos up shortly.

Done Today

2008-06-06T02:41:49Z

Managed to get a working module in the lightweight CMS I'm hacking on: the basic page.
Also cleaned up the base template used for most everything other than containers and the home page
Purchased a 24-port linksys switch to replace my stack of several small crappy switches which will eventually be placed in various spots around the house.
Bought a suit so that I'll actually look like a decent human being at the wedding this weekend.
Now that google has made Postini easily accessible for even the smallest of budgets, purchased service for a year for one of my personal domains and got that setup. Even on the "not even close to aggressive" minimal setting, their filter made a few false positives. On the other hand, my inbox was spam free.

While on the topic of suits, I must say that I have always considered suits to be uncomfortable beasts. Turns out I've been wrong all along. A poor-fitting suit is uncomfortable. The salesmen at the store are there for a reason. Use them.

Seriously, I may start wearing a suit every single day.

MORE BREKING NEWS

2008-06-03T22:00:17Z

BREAKING NEWS

Actually, this will look better and is a direct rip of what Big Media Organization used to use at one time.

BREAKING NEWS

2008-06-03T21:50:22Z

BREAKING NEWS

I HAVEN'T DONE ONE OF THESE IN A WHILE. SO HERE YOU GO.

Dear spammers:

2008-06-03T17:41:46Z

It's not a wise move to send spam to abuse@somedomain.com.

Yay.

2008-05-28T04:40:39Z

I just fixed a minor annoyance with Vesta. The vadvance(1) command would only work in the base session working directory. Any subdirectories off of that and the command would give you the wonderful error Not in a session working directory. The fix was rather simple. Replace that if with a while, duplicate the initial setup at the end sans declarations after chdir("..") and it's all good.

Project Wonderful

2008-05-12T20:59:31Z

The best way to find new comics these days is searching publishers on the Project Wonderful site.

New Toy: BlackBerry Curve

2008-05-12T18:17:49Z

The scrollwheel on my BlackBerry 8700c jammed up a few weeks ago, making the thing rather annoying to use. I've threatened to buy a replacement for about the same period. Friday I finally made good on that threat and purchased a Curve.

I'd like to state that the average person that goes to buy a cell phone is fucking annoying. For some reason, buying a new cell phone is apparently as big of a decision as getting married or having children or something. Even with the arcane ceremony required for new contracts, it shouldn't take 45 minutes to get things moving. No, it's going to be a 45 minute wait with every single phone available on display, then 20 minutes talking to the sales associate about which phone best matches your lifestyle, ten minutes filling out the paper work for the contract, ten minutes waiting for a response on the credit check, three minutes for the associate to find your phone in the stock room, five minutes activating the sim card, a minute to get the phone active and tested on the network, 20 minutes pondering which accessories to purchase, fifteen minutes learning how to use the phone, and then two minutes to finally make a payment. I just wanted to buy a phone, and oh yeah, get a replacement sim card since mine keeps flaking out. It takes less than ten minutes. I don't want to sit in queue for 90 minutes while five sales critters handle the seven idiots in front of me.

My first impressions with the Curve are overwhelmingly positive. It's smaller and lighter than the 8700. It has two "convenience keys" which can be used to launch any installed app, as opposed to a single button on the 8800 series. Just like the 8800 series, the phone has an integrated GPS receiver. As is standard with the BlackBerry line, the retail kit includes a nice slip case for the phone, a charger, a usb cable, and the desktop software on cd. What really sold me on the phone was the discovery that it used the same battery as the 8700. Spare batteries are always good. On the down side, the keyboard is a bit smaller and one particular app, HanDBase, doesn't work on the phone. Also, AT&T has decided to load the phone with a dozen different launchers, which are basically apps that launch the browser with a particular URL, all for various AT&T-run web shops. Fortunately the OS on the new generation of phones allows one to create folders, move the offending apps to a folder, and then hide the folder so that even when 'Show All' is enabled, the icons won't litter the screen. Then there's the price. The Curve is $150 cheaper than the 8800. For that difference, I can learn to deal with the smaller keyboard. In fact, I already have.

Finally found a satellite dish

2008-04-28T02:24:12Z

I've been on the lookout for a cheap used satellite dish for some time now. My needs were rather specific... 10' or larger mesh, or an 8' or larger solid-body dish. Today I finally found one. I spent about 2.5 hours cracking bolts older than me. About half of theme sheared off rather than turning, and I'm still less than half-way through. The rest will need to wait until next weekend when I can spend a whole day working the thing. Even then I'll need to borrow a pickup to get it to my house. Worst of all, I'll need to do a little fiberglass repair.

It's 3am...

2008-04-22T08:06:16Z

It's 3am and I'm at the colo babysitting a customer.

~~AS/400~~ ~~iSeries~~ i5 machines from IBM rarely breakdown, but when they do it's an hours-long affair. They've been at it for 11 hours...

Bums are all liars

2008-04-02T18:04:28Z

So this bum hits me up while at a fast food place the other day. He says, "Man can ya gimme a dolla? I be honest wit ya. I just wanna get me some malt liquor." What could I do? I gave him a dollar.

He went into taco bell and bought food.

Day 1 Review: ITAC Systems mouse-trak

2008-03-05T01:00:58Z

My current trackballs, a Microsoft monstrosity that's actually quite comfortable to use, and a Logitech Trackman Wheel, are starting to wear out in various annoying ways. I've searched high and low for replacements, but it turns out most folks don't care for trackballs. What the market doesn't want, the market doesn't get. Microsoft no longer produces trackballs, and Logitech's remaining trackball isn't all that comfortable. For nearly 20 years I've known about the ITAC Systems MOUSE-TRAK trackball, but never felt it was worth spending $150 to $300 on the thing. Additionally, they don't even have scroll wheels, which are apparently a necessity in this day and age. Despite the fact that the MOUSE-TRAK does not have a scroll wheel and despite the fact that it looks like it was designed in the mid-1980s, I decided to give it try. I was torn between the Professional and Industrial models. While the black case of the Industrial model is rather sexy, it's not worth doubling the price. So I dropped $150 on the ugly gray Professional model.

This morning a FedEx driver showed up with a package. I quickly ripped into the package, unfurled the cord, ripped out my old Trackman Wheel, and plugged in the new toy. As one would expect in this day and age, it worked just like any other standard USB mouse, which means it Just Plain Worked™. At first, the layout of the buttons felt foreign, and with no scroll wheel I was certainly in a panic. Within minutes, the buttons felt natural and weren't a concern. It didn't really take long to unlearn the habits of using a scroll wheel.

After one day of use, I'm certainly considering purchasing another for permanent use at the office. While it's an incredibly ugly chunk of plastic, it's a comfortable and sturdy chunk of plastic. Is it worth the price? It could be. My current trackballs weighed in at $60 and $70 each and wore out in less than five years.

RetroGrade BBS is back

2008-02-26T00:51:46Z

The BBS is back. Feel free to telnet in. I should have the dialup line back in service Real Soon Now.

Also, I've killed off TradeWars because the players annoy me and assume the BBS is strictly for their favored game.

Obsolete Skills: Let me show you them

2008-02-21T05:23:52Z

A

* Adjusting a television's horizontal and vertical holds
* Adjusting a television's color and hue adjustments?
* Adjusting the dwell angle on the spark distributor of an engine
* Adjusting the levels and song layout for recording to audio tape
* Adjusting the tracking on a VCR
* Adjusting a clock's pendulum
* Aiming C-band satellite dish?
* Aligning the heads on a 9 track tape drive
* Aligning the heads on a five and a quarter inch floppy drive
* ALGOL programming?
* Amiga 500 - Making it boot in PAL mode instead of NTSC?
* Analogue radio listening and tuning in?
* AS 400?
* AT commands for dial-up modems?
* Attaching nose-guard and rails to your skateboard
* Autoexec.bat editing?

B

* Balancing the tonearm on a turntable
* Banyan Vines?
* BASIC
* BBS administration
* Be Kind - Rewind?
* Bleeding patients
* Blowing the dust out of a Nintendo cartridge
* BSOD
* Booting off a floppy disk
* Bootloading with binary switches
* Burning and Erasing EPROMs
* Building a computer from individual components (note: I interpret this as something requiring a soldering iron)
* Building a log cabin as your primary residence?
* Burnishing a cartridge connector with a pencil eraser to ensure a solid connection
* Bust apart a long computer printout

C

* Calculating THAC0
* Calculating a square root using pencil and paper
* Calculating sales tax?
* Calligraphy
* Calling collect on a payphone
* Carving a nib into a quill or pen?
* Cash Register used manually entering the prices
* Cast Lead Miniatures
* Cast Lead bullets?
* Caulking your wagon to ford the river
* Cel Painting
* Changing the ball or ribbon on your Selectric Typewriter
* Changing the battery of a Sega Dreamcast VMU
* Changing the C120 Film Cartridge in your Instamatic camera
* Changing the gas mixture on your car's carburetor
* Changing the ribbon on a typewriter?
* Changing the wheel on a daisy wheel printer?
* Changing tracks on an eight-track tape
* Changing vacuum tubes
* Character codes: Baudot?
* Character codes: EBCDIC?
* Chipping flint or obsidian tools
* Churn butter
* Cleaning head of a VCR
* Cleaning the balls inside a computer mouse for better traction
* Clicking on the up and down arrows of a vertical scrollbar
* COBOL
* Compiling source code by hand
* Compiling the nucleus of a VM/370 mainframe?
* Compressing a HDD to make vital space
* Configuring Trumpet Winsock
* Connecting to a BBS through an acoustic coupler at 300 baud
* Converting a single-sided floppy disk to double-sided, using a ~~drill~~ hole punch
* Converting your albums from vinyl to cassette tape?
* Cooking your own meal from scratch
* Counting back change
* Corset - unlace before taking on the dress,gown,frock?
* CP/M?
* Cranking a telephone
* Cranking the engine on a Ford Model T
* Cranking up or down a car-window
* Crew a muzzle loading cannon
* Cursive handwriting
* Cutting and setting parquet?
* Cuff links - you needed them then to a party
* Cycle Counting

D

* Darkroom photography skills
* Darning a sock
* dBase III?
* Decollating 6-Part printer paper?
* Debug g=c800:5
* Debugging hexadecimal dumps
* Defrosting the Icebox
* Degaussing a 9-Track tape?
* Degaussing a CRT monitor
* Deice a refrigerator
* Developing photographic film?
* Dewey decimal system
* Dialing a rotary phone
* Double-speed Tape-to-Tape copying
* Double de-clutching
* Drafting with pencils and T-square?

E

* Extracting square roots
* Extending The Antenna On The Cellphone
* Edit with edlin
* Editing dates and time source code for Y2K?
* Editing AUTOEXEC-BAT and CONFIG-SYS to get as close as possible to 640K of free memory
* Extensions: managing them on Mac OS 9 and earlier

F

* Faxing a document
* fdisk /mbr
* Finding channels on UHF
* Fixing a Disk using a hex editor
* Flipping 'front panel' machine-code toggles?
* Focusing a camera
* Formatting a floppy
* FORTRAN programming - though the logic is still good
* Freethinking
* FTP from a command line

G

* Gathering medicinal herbs and plants in the field?
* Getting off the couch to change channels on your TV set?
* Getting TSRs and CD device drivers to load into DOS?
* Grinding grain with a millstone?

H

* Hand crank a car to start it
* Hand lettering large signs?
* Handwriting
* Harness a team of oxen?
* Having Cash
* Hayes Command Set
* Hercules Graphics Card Programming
* Hewing wood with an adze?
* Hexadecimal arithmetic in your head
* Himem.sys?
* Hunting a woolly mammoth
* Hypercard and Hyperscript

I

* IDDQD & IDKFA
* Illumination?
* Inserting a game cartridge at just the right angle to make it work
* Installing a vampire tap on a thick coax Ethernet LAN cable?
* Installing Linux from floppy disks
* Interpreting punch cards
* Interpolating logarithms?
* ISDN?

J
* Jumpers on a Motherboard

K

* Kermit to transfer files
* Kids playing outside ?
* Killing all the megafauna on a continent
* Knowing the alphabet by heart - see also citation under "S"
* Knowing what part of town someone lives in by their phone exchange?
* Knapping flint

L

* Laying out magazines using wax and bromides
* Licking stamps or envelopes?
* Lighting a carbide miner's lamp
* Lighting a kerosene lamp?
* Lining up paper on a dot matrix or line printer
* LISP in AutoCAD?
* Loading a 9-Track tape drive?
* Loading a disk platter?
* Loading a reel to reel tape drive
* Loading data from a cassette tape
* Loading film into a 35 mm camera
* Loading film into a 60 mm camera
* Loading the OS2 module for Netware 3.12 to get 64 character length file names?
* Local Grocery Store?
* Long-Distance Phone Calling
* Long division
* Longbow - training
* Look for a job in the classifieds
* Looking up a business on the yellow pages
* Low level Format a Harddrive

M

* Mailing in the order form of a catalog?
* Making a deer fat poultice?
* Making a home movie with a cine camera
* Making a nail art picture
* 4" floppy double-sided?
* Making apothecaries from recipes?
* Making change in shillings and pence (implemented this for a game)
* Making chain-mail and amory?
* Making electronic tubes
* Making Ice-Cream with a hand-crank freezer?
* Making ink?
* Making paint?
* Making oil-cloth?
* Manage a MVS mainframe?
* Manually loading ink on a fountain pen from an bottle?
* Map Reading?
* Memorizing Multiplication Tables?
* Memory Management
* Modem to Modem Computer Gaming
* Morse-coding messages
* Mounting a Computer Tape by hand?
* Mounting photographic slides in slide mounts?
* Morse-coding messages
* M?
* Mailing in the order form of a catalog?
* Multiplication using a Sliderule?
* Munge parchement for re-use?

N

* Navigate by the stars?
* Navigate using a LORAN
* Navigate using a sextant?
* Navigating using a compass?
* Nested table web design?
* Netware
* Numbering your punch cards with a pencil, in case you drop your program

O

* Open and Administrate a Blog
* Operating an agitator washing machine and clothes ringer
* Operating an IBM 010 manual key punch?
* Operating an IBM 026 electric key punch?
* Operating an IBM 029 key punch?
* Operating an Overhead Projector
* OS2?

P

* Painting cave walls?
* Palm OS programming?
* Parking a hardisk
* PASCAL-TurboPASCAL
* Paying for something with a check
* PEEK and POKE
* Peeling the developer layer off a Polaroid?
* Peeling back a lid from an sardine can with a key?
* Percolating coffee
* Phrenology?
* Pickle ?
* Placing a coin on a tonearm to prevent skipping?
* Playing marbles?
* Playing mumblety-peg
* Playing solitaire with playing cards?
* Poker games other than Texas Hold 'Em?
* Polaroid photography?
* Popping corn in a pot with oil
* Preparing a galena crystal for radio-detection?
* Preparing a goose quill for writing with an inkwell?
* Pressing CR then LF on a computer keyboard? (on a real teletype!)
* Programming an analogue car radio
* Programming in dBase or Clipper?
* Programming in MS Visual Basic?
* Programming in machine language in your head and then loading the code by flipping front panel switches?
* Propping an airplane to start the engine?
* Punching a drum card for a keypunch machine
* Punching a hole in the shell of a single-sided 5.25" floppy disc to make it double-sided
* Putting a needle on a vinyl record

Q

* QBASIC
* Performing a Quirkafleeg?
* Questing for Treasure?

R

* Raising an antenna?
* Reading a dictionary or encyclopedia?
* Reading a paper map
* Reading a Sundial?
* Reading a Vernier Scale
* Reading Guru Meditation error codes?
* Reading Gothic letters in newspapers and enclopædias
* Reading Hollerith punch codes on an unlabelled IBM punchcard?
* Reading Moon Tables or Tide Tables?
* Reading printed newspaper?
* Reckoning arithmetic without aid?
* Recording television with a VCR?
* Reinking a type writer or dot matrix printer ribbon?
* Remembering keystroke commands in Visicalc?
* Remembering telephone numbers
* Removing perforations off fanfold paper so it looks like normal typing paper?
* Repairing an 8-track tape cartridge
* Repairing small appliances?
* Repairing wooden cart wheels?
* Replacing Shoe Sole and Heels
* Replacing the glass in the photocamera after each photo?
* Replaying a Telex message by feeding back the tape?
* hectograph ?
* Resaccing a fountain pen?
* Resoling shoes?
* Resolving IRQ conflicts on a mother board
* Respooling a chewed-up VCR tape or audio cassette?
* Rewind VCR tapes
* Rewinding an audio cassette using a Bic pen*
* Riding a skateboard with wooden wheels?
* Ride a penny-farthing bicycle
* Ride an actual bicycle of any type
* Ripping the little holes off the sides of the computer paper
* Running a mimeograph machine?

S

* Saving tin for The War
* Saving your programs to a cassette tape?
* Salting cod as a preservative?
* S100 Bus
* Searching a card catalog
* Selling something in the Classified Ads?
* Sending a letter
* Setting a baud rate, parity and stop-bits
* Setting up a modem using AT commands?
* Setting up a screen saver to avoid burned in image on the CRT?
* Setting the timer on a VCR?
* Setting type for printing?
* Setting the choke or pumping the accelerator to start a car
* Shave with a straight razor
* Shift+F7
* Shorthand
* Silverlight?
* Slaughtering Small Mammals and Birds
* SmallTalk programming?
* Starching a removable collar?
* Spelling?
* Splicing audio recording tape
* Splicing out damaged portions of a VHS Cassette tape
* Stacking a quarter on an arcade game to indicate you have next
* Starting a car that has a manual choke
* Starting a fire by drilling a stick into another piece of wood?
* Starting a fire by striking flint onto flint-steel?
* Steam locomotive - how to run and maintain it?
* Stenography?
* Stickball?
* Stirring the yellow dye tablet into white margarine to make it look like butter
* Sucking tokens from a subway turnstile?
* Swapping floppy disks
* Swapping plates in a hard drive?
* Sword fighting?

T

* Taking the tape out of an answering machine?
* Tape to Tape Video Editing
* Telegraph Operator?
* Testing radio and TV tubes
* Thinking for oneself
* Threading a needle
* Throwing lawn darts
* Throwing with an atlatl
* Ticket Conductors on Buses?
* Tinning copper cookware
* Operating a Treadle Sewing Machine
* Trim the wick on an oil lamp?
* Trimming a quill pen?
* TSRs
* Tune the tape head on a Commodore 64?
* Tuning a radio
* Tying shoes with hook laces?
* Tweaking your AUTOEXECBAT and CONFIGSYS files?
* Typesetting
* Typing "open door" and "Ken sent me"
* Typing and sending a telex?

U

* Unlocking a car door using a key
* Untangling the cord of a telephone?
* Upgrading to a 16550 UART?
* Up-Up-Down-Down-Left-Right-Left-Right-B-A-Select-Start in Konami games
* Using 'sacadm' to configure serial ports?
* Using a 16 mm film projector?
* Using a beeper or pager
* Using an ink blotter
* Using a card catalog?
* Using an abacus?
* Using carbon paper to make copies
* Using correction fluid
* Using a compass?
* Using a Capt'n Crunch Secret Decoder Ring?
* Using a Dwell meter to tune your cars engine.
* Using a fax machine
* Using a filmstrip projector
* Using a flash bulb?
* Using a flash cube?
* Using a fountain pen
* Using a light pen?
* Using a Logarithm Table?
* Using a manual choke in cold weather
* Using a microfiche
* Using a newsreader
* Using paper tape for programming?
* Using a pay telephone?
* Using a pay toilet
* Using a scythe?
* Using a manual twist-drill?
* Using a slide rule
* Using a pointer stick as "mouse" on laptops
* Using a Timing Light
* Using a Typewriter?
* Using an adding machine?
* Using carbon paper to make copies
* Using correction fluid
* Using punch cards
* Using a DOS window on a computer?
* Using the Dewey Decimal System
* Using the Readers Guide to Periodical Literature
* Using an Odhner type pin-wheel calculator
* Using the toggle switches on the front of a DataGeneral Nova 1200 to enable in octal the paper tape reader?
* UUCP configuration?
* UUencode usage to transfer binary

V

* Vantive?
* VCR Programming
* Viscously Vacuuming Verily?
* Visual Basic 3 Programming?
* Voice Mail

W

* Walking long distances
* Walking stick for your Sunday stroll in the park?
* Washing clothes with a washboard?
* Watching a slide show with a slide projector?
* Whipping cream with a whisk?
* Whistling 2600Hz
* Wilderness Survival?
* Winding a watch or clock
* Winding coils for a crystal-radio set?
* Winding up loose cassette tape with a pencil eraser before putting the cassette in the deck
* Wire wrapping
* Wiring an accounting machine plugboard? (e.g., IBM 402, 407)
* Word processing with markup codes (WordPerfect 5.1)
* Writing email whilst offline and going online to send
* Writing using a dip pen and powder to dry up the ink?
* Writing a terminate-and-stay-resident DOS program (wrote one earlier this week)

X

* X25?
* Using xyzzy
* Mastery of the MS Excel XLM macro language?

Y

* YP commands?

Z

* ZIPping archives across multiple floppy disks
* Zmodem to transfer a file?
* Zone-system calculation for photographic exposures?
* ZX Spectrum and "R Tape loading error, 0:1"

WIN!

2008-02-02T03:31:32Z

So I went to hamfest, and just as I was heading out the door I was stopped by one of the ladies at front, "They're about to draw for a door prize don't leave yet you may win!"

Well, three minutes later I was the proud owner of a Yaesu FT-1820M 2M mobile radio.

New case

2008-01-08T07:35:32Z

LIAN LI PC-V2100B Plus II Black rocks. I don't really care what goes in this thing, the case alone is a masterpiece. Seriously, I'm going to buy another one of those and throw a 486 in the thing.

Happy New Year

2008-01-01T05:58:35Z

It's 2008. Yay.

no party

2008-01-01T04:59:14Z

So rather than go to the H-burg party I decided to spend half the money I would have otherwise spent on gasoline and buy explodey things instead. I've already worn out my mortar and I have over 20 shells left.

Random

2007-11-25T23:30:04Z

Dual monitors. Why haven't I tried this before? Sure I had to modify my desk to make room for the second display, but who cares?
Burning Brides! Finally bought the new album thanks to someone mentioning Guitar Hero. Unfortunately I bought it on vinyl. For the record (heh), I don't have a turntable. Fortunately sufficiently decent new turntables are available at relatively low prices... around $200
I hate Java and have switched back to AOLserver for my various personal web projects.
ripping mp3s from vinyl will be fun