SS,DD

Oops. Misplaced comma. Should be SSD,D : Solid State Drive, Damn!

This weekend, I swapped out my PC’s boot drive for a solid state drive (Samsung 980 Pro, 256G). Used the software included with the drive to clone the existing drive, then pulled the HDD and dropped in the SSD. Took a while to do the clone, and took almost as long just to find a way to hook up the SSD to do the clone (my crappy little Dell only has a single internal SATA connection, so I had to repurpose my external SATA drive’s enclosure – lots of those little drive mounting screws rolling around on the floor, which attracted our new floor cleaning robot). But it went pretty smoothly otherwise.

And, the results: well, I forgot to time the HDD boot, so I can’t give actual numbers. But, it really does boot almost instantly. The PC is up and ready to go a couple of seconds before my wireless mouse connects to the transceiver. It comes back from hibernation instantly. Programs launch super-fast, now.

Very cool!

Makes me with I had the cash to buy one for all my PCs!

Interference Filter

Let’s listen to … me !

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

This is a very old song of mine, which I recently re-recorded (offending 100% of the zero people who knew the original version).

Aaiiieee!

Even listen to Solsbury Hill through headphones?

Holy crap. There’s this quickly spinning, shimmering stereo effect that’s almost unbearable. Makes me nervous!

Hopping Mad

Adrienne So, at Slate, writes:

That’s when I realized that I had a problem. In fact, everyone I know in the craft beer industry has a problem: We’re so addicted to hops that we don’t even notice them anymore.

Damn straight. And, enough is enough.

Whenever I go looking for beer to buy, it seems that all I see are IPAs, beers with “hops” somewhere in their name, fruit- (or vegetable! .gag.) flavored monstrosities, the old standbys that I got sick of (and on) back in college, or the Belgian-style stuff. But the ultra-hoppy stuff seems to dominate, and increasingly so. And that’s fine once in a while, but it’s far from what I want in an everyday beer. So, I’ve been drinking a lot of the Belgian stuff, which can be hoppy, but doesn’t use hops the way Emeril uses garlic. It’s also expensive, if it’s actually Belgian. And it’s usually got a big load of alcohol in it. Which makes it less than ideal for an everyday beer.

I hop (hah. err… hope) that brewers get off their hop kick soon. Bring back malt! Bring back sweetness! Bring back every day drinkability! Viva la balance! Don’t make me go back to Rolling Rock and Newcastle!

BJ Pie Filter Update

I’ve updated the BJ Pie Filter to work with the new new BJ layout.

… as of 12:00pm Wednesday (May 15, 2013). If things change over there and it stops working, let me know.

Huzzah.

To use this, you’ll need Greasemonkey:

I’m not sure if other browsers have GM support or not. Consult your local geek.

You can download the pie filter, here.

Usage:
Install it.

Then, whenever you load a BJ article page, you will see two buttons below the comment text box: “Add Selected” and “Remove Selected”. To filter a user, select the text of the user’s name, and click “Add Selected”. From then on, comments from that user, and any other user you’ve added, will be pie’d. To remove a user from your list of filtered users, select the user’s name and click “Remove Selected”.

Update:
If you have the latest version, you should see “Balloon Juice Disemvoweller 3.0.1″ in your Greasemonkey “Manage User Scripts” list. If you see “Balloon Juice Disemvoweller null”, you have an older version. If the pie controls appear beneath the BJ comment box, but the text on the buttons is dark, you have the old version, which will not work. The text on the buttons needs to be white.