This is a blog.

Why must they always ask for a reason?

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Fri, 17 Jul 2009 10:21:21 -0700

It seems I can't unsubscribe from a mailing list without giving the company a reason, these days. While I'm pretty sure those messages never get read by a human being after the 23472398742th unsubscribe form I can't help but get a little creative with the messaging.

To a recent political mailing list I somehow got subscribed to:

I appreciate what you do. I really do, but it's just that I never really have time to read all the emails I get. It's not you, [company name], you're a good person. It's me. I'm just not able to handle this level of commitment right now and need some time to sort things out for myself.
I'm so sorry. It's been fun though, right?
Let's get coffee sometime?
.. bye

Am I the only one who does this?

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Honda Insight = Toyota Prius

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Wed, 08 Apr 2009 13:11:38 -0700

I try not to nerd rage TOO often but this is unbelievable. Honda took an otherwise interesting hybrid and just turned it into a Prius clone.

New Honda Insight:

<strike>Toyota Prius</strike> Honda Insight

The 2008 Toyota Prius:

2008_toyota_prius

Really? Come on Honda.

For reference, here was the old Honda Insight:

Honda_insight

Maybe the "Prius Look" is important enough where Honda felt this was the only way to compete? I can't figure it out.

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Trendnet TEW-424UB in Windows XP x64

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Sun, 08 Mar 2009 15:54:58 -0700

So I bought a Trendnet TEW-424UB wireless USB card off the internet but realized (too late) that the default driver set that comes with the card doesn't support Windows XP x64.

However, the Trendnet card is just a repackaged Realtek 8187B chipset.

And, of course, Realtek has released drivers for this chipset that work just fine in Windows x64.

If you happen to be in the same spot as I was, here's the name (and link) to the file you want:

win_8187B_6.1063_RtlWlan_402.zip

Hope that helps someone :)

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Remapping Capslock to Escape in Windows 2000 / XP / x64 / Vista

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Fri, 02 Jan 2009 15:57:20 -0800

So a while back I posted on how to remap Capslock to function as hitting the Escape key in OSX.

Well, now I'm using a Windows machine and I'm confronted with the same problem.

Here's the solution:

http://www.usnetizen.com/fix_capslock.php

Or, more specifically, just create a new text file and paste this in it:

Windows Registry Editor Version 5.00

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\SYSTEM\CurrentControlSet\Control\Keyboard Layout]
"Scancode Map"=hex:00,00,00,00,00,00,00,00,02,00,00,00,01,00,3a,00,00,00,00,00

Save it as whatever.reg, run it, reboot, and enjoy!

Hope this helps someone besides myself.

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Oakland is so pretty.

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:13:45 -0800

Look at all these gorgeous leaves. Oakland is such a pretty place... Oh wait.

photo.jpg

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Remapping Capslock to Escape in OSX

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Sat, 06 Dec 2008 21:54:14 -0800

Ok, I'm really lazy. Lazy enough where the fact that I had to move my left pinky up to the Escape key to exit insert mode in VIM bothered me tremendously. So, using the google, I've stumbled across the most amazing application known to man.

Namely:

PC Keyboard Hack
http://www.pqrs.org/tekezo/macosx/keyremap4macbook/extra.html

It's a really simple application that installs itself into the System Prefs and gives you the option to remap Capslock to whatever you want. I remapped it to Escape and it works exactly as advertised.

Now I don't need to move my hands to exit insert mode in VIM. Happy day :)

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Biking Across America: I'm doing it!

nobody@vox.com(Alex) — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 14:02:57 -0800

While I've been mumbling about this for a while I've finally gotten around to setting up the blawgh about my cross country cycling trip I'm planning in June 2009.

Read all about my trip, follow my research, and tell me how insane I am here: http://www.bikingacrossamerica.com

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