ErkkilaDotOrg

You know what day it is!

Aaaaaarrrrrrrrrrr

News came out this week that EA intends to release spore for the PC with DRM that needs to checkin with the mothership every 10 or so days in order to stay operational. (it will work again once you re-connect no matter how long it’s been). This isn’t the kind of setup I can get behind. There are numerous problems that can creep up with this type of setup not the least of which is what happens to the game in a few years when the “magic servers” go away? Didn’t we just go through this mess with the MSN DRM music fiasco?

Anyway, shame on you EA. Someday you’ll realize that this type DRM only fucks the people doing the right thing in the first place =/. I’ve canceled our two pre-orders from amazon. If they decide to stop doing dumb things we’ll consider picking them up again. If not then we’ll uh.. do something else :).

-pee

102 years old ;p…

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…sniffles…

New coop project is finally of the ground. Had the neighbor from San Diego up to do the foundation and brick work. (Yes he’s a neighbor and yes he lives in San Diego… <(^.^)> )

Pictures so far are here:

http://erkkila.org/gallery2/v/Projects/ChickenCoop2/

Make sure you check out the cement truck :)

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We are going to miss your magic…

1. When a distinguished but elderly scientist states that something is possible, he is almost certainly right. When he states that something is impossible, he is very probably wrong.
2. The only way of discovering the limits of the possible is to venture a little way past them into the impossible.
3. Any sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic.
4. For every expert there is an equal and opposite expert.

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 I’m back from IETF 71 in Philadelphia. It was pretty good not an extreme amount of progress that didn’t amount to “take it to the list” in the groups I attend for work though. PEPPERMINT had a second BOF, and we discussed some DNS blasphemy in ENUM.

There was an our w/o IPv4 at the plenary and also an IPv6 only wireless setup going I did a bit of testing. The only thing that responded for me was erkkila.org ;p. I guess I need better bookmarks.

I need a nap!

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Had to cull Charlie the silky rooster today.

I won’t really miss the cranky little bastard but I’m still a bit sad. I’ve done that particular deed a few times now and it hasn’t gotten any easier.

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multi groin bread

Happy New Year !

Mythical creatures I would probably eat.

1. Tribble
2. Dragon
3. Easter Bunny
4. Pokemon
5. that cow in the restaurant at the end of the universe
6. Dupey (worlds best pizza topping)

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(edit: forgot the dupey)

We re-watched “From the Earth to the Moon” today. Epe and I tend to pay the most attention to the episodes that show the engineers working which shouldn’t be a big surprise to anyone ;). I generally feel the same way after we finish watching it. A little sad, a little depressed, but mostly I feel disappointed that we have let so much time slip by between then and now with no repeat of these great journeys.

To be clear I’m not discounting the incredible work and science that has gone on with the probes, landers, gritty raw science!!, hubble, and ISS work that has gone on in the interim (including the massive earth side parts of those projects), I love it and hit the NASA sites regularly for updates. Partly because the nerd/sci-fi in me needs to keep up with the technology, and partly because it feels so good to see progress in building the door to the rest of the universe.

(we should be in outerspace, eff the non believers, teleport me off this rock rant deleted)

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1. Wookie
2. Sleestack
3. Mogwai
4. Cerebus
5. Balrog
6. Muppet (stolen)
7. Elf
8. Curious George
9. Jabberwocky
10. Zombie

(Updated with links to the mighty wikipedia)

Just want to confirm that the new car handles really well in moderate snow.

(Subaru Forester with whatever package junk was required to get the limited slip real differential).

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Upgraded wordpress to 2.3.x this morning. Seems to be working. (weee)

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Almost done with the initial burning of all the piles of brush and trees that Mike the “Nature terminator” left on the property with his amazing machines. We did have some folks up to extract what logs they could for their woodstoves (maybe 20+ pickup trucks worth in total) so it won’t all be going up in smoke just to spew ash and warm up the hillsides ;). Once the initial fires are done the harder work starts, getting the leftovers re-racked and then burned again, repeat till only ash is left. About 1/2 the piles have had at least a second run so we’re getting there. The next step is to have Mike back up with his bulldozer to push the remaining stumps into as few piles as possible for a final burn, and also to do a bit of root raking, hole filling, and grading. I’ve taken the precaution of doing a bit of seeding on the hill in case we don’t get it all done in time for winter but I would prefer we finish and get a real seed bed started before spring thaw =).

I’ll be leaving the piles that he made out in the western property up for the winter. Foxes use that type of habitat for mousing and along with giving them something to eat besides my damn birds, it will give the people hunting them an aggregation point.  If you have any friends who are foxed please point them at the new dining area ;).

Long term we hope to counter the burning and clearing evilness a few ways. The first way is that we didn’t actually “clear” the property. We intentionally had quite a few trees per acre left standing, a few more then we really want in the long run to deal with any that might not handle the change. These trees will be there to provide some stability and shade. The second is that we are looking to establish a meadow in most of the area north of the house, we’d like it to be a mixed grouping of deep rooted drought resistant grasses/flowering plants, as well as any other native plants that might want to come up. All poison ivy  and rose bushes will be clobbered on sight.

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Glad the clouds are breaking up for you two (even in Seattle!).  We’ll try and update more ;). (LIAR)

Parents were up weekend before last. We watched the birds and had mexican for dinner. Yummy!!. One of the new pullets made a mad dash for freedom while they were here, we chased it into the spruce out front, then up to the house, and then it bolted into the woods ;p. Once a chicken is spooked they tend to just shutdown and not move so we did the best thing and ignored it until dusk and sure enough it came out looking for her friends.

Chopped and burned a ton of wood and brush (damn ninja epe update).

Hung out with Willy!