Fedora Core 5 Install Failures

I made several attempts to install FC5 on my main linux system, with no luck. I kept getting the same error:
  BUG: spinlock bad magic on CPU#0, anaconda/466 (Not tainted)
  lock: c040d32c, .magic: 00000000, .owner: /-1, .owner_cpu:0
The machine (Gateway E3200, PIII 550mhz) was running FC4, so I was surprised it wouldn't run FC5. I've had problems with memory on this machine before, so I swapped chips, swapped the order of the chips, tried the chips one at a time, but still no go. Another factor is the fact that this one is a dual head system, so I pulled the second video card. Even the old standby failed:
  linux text
  linux noprobe
All generated the same error. I finally found a messages where someone was having trouble with FC5 under VMware. Their solution was to disable acpi and usb at install time:
  linux acpi=off nousb
I figured what the heck... And it worked! Turns out it was the acpi=off option that made it work. That makes sense, as FC4 always tossed up an error about ACPI: BIOS age (1999) fails cutoff date (2001).

So.. I guess I can put off buying another computer until spring 2007. Maybe Vista will be ready by then.

BBC NEWS | Americas | Pentagon plans cyber-insect army

Normally I wouldn't beleive something like this, but there a three reasons why I do. There are reports of the Pentagon plans cyber-insect army. The basic plan is to insert microchips into caterpillar cacoons. When the caterpillar morphs into a butterfly, it can be controlled by soldiers, like a remote control airplane.

Pretty strange, huh? Well, I believe it for three reasons:
1. I trust the BBC. They haven't succumb to the liberal bias of the American media, and haven't been seduced by the New World Order.
2. I believe everything I read on the Internet. Why would the it lie to me?
3. I once met a guy that told me the CIA had put a microchip in his brain and could read his thoughts.

Isn't technology great!

The Army's Robot Sherpa - Popular Science

I need one of these The Big Dog robots to carry my cell phone and PDA.

Dilbert Ultimate House

I've gotta say, the Dilbert Ultimate House has it all. It's almost like it was designed for me! Not that I'm a nerd like Dilbert, or any thing...

I Fixed Froogle

Last year, I liked Froogle. Starting around January, Froogle broke, rendering it pretty musc useless to anyone that wanted to price comparison shopping. Considering this was the site purpose, the introduction of this new feature was not a wise choice.

The problem was Froogle's decision to list eBay auctions. Thousands of "eBay merchants" have embraced the policy of listing an item with a $25.00 retail value for a price of $.01 (one cent). This would be a good deal, except the shipping and handeling is $28.00! It's just a scam to beat the search engines.

This means that any attempt to search for something by price on Froogle results in 50 hits on eBay. Here are results if you search by price:
    usb bluetooth adapter
    First 199 hits are eBay, most under $1.00
Here's how to prevent this from happening:
    usb bluetooth adapter -ebay
    First hit is uBid for $6.00

CNN.com - CEV vs. Apollo - Mar 3, 2006

This a great recap of NASA's new moon initative built around the CEV spacecraft. I especially like point number four, where they say "...enabling all four astronauts to descend to the moon's surface while their spaceship orbits in autopilot mode." Oh, good idea. What if they lock the keys in the mother ship and can't get back in? Leave somebody to baby sit the orbiter! It didn't hurt Collins-- it won't hurt future generations of astronauts. As a matter of fact, I'll volunteer.

I can see it now:

Doug Bunger: Space Valet!

Out Of Phase

The other night, on Stargate SG-1, Carter and Mitchell were messing with an Ancient machine, and got zapped out of phase. They could see and hear everything around them, but no one could see or hear them. Furthermore, they could pass through other people and objects, because they spanning ours and an alternate dimension.

As it turns out, my MythTv box had captured a Star Trek: The Next Generation episode where virtually the same thing happened to Ro and LaForge. While assisting a stricken Romulan vessel, a transporter malfunction caused them to be out of phase with our dimension. Similar effects. Turns out, the Romulan were up to no good (imagine that) and one of the Romulan crew was condition as our heroes. Where as the good guys simply wanted to get back to normal the Romulan wanted to kill them.

In one scene, Ro is running through walls to avoid the Romulan (who would simply run through the same wall. Eventually, the Romulan catches her, and is trying to strangle her. LaForge storms in at just the right moment, and body checks the Romulan baddie, knocking him through an outside bulkhead. Unfortunately, the Romulan is out of phase with that too, and goes careening out into space. Yeah for the good guys.

Now the big question about being out of phase: Why weren't they out of phase with the floor?

The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed

A reverse analysis of sci-fi films, The Top Ten Sci-Fi Films That Never Existed is a clever way to engage your philosophical side.

Thunderbird Default Account

I've been playing with Thunderbird this week. For the last year, I've been aggregating all my mail account onto a Sidekick mobile Messaging Device, but I had to get rid of it because of the T-Mobile's horrible coverage. I've moved to one of Sprint's new EVO phones, which isn't going to work as well for reading mail. Thus, I'm working on using Thunderbird as my mail aggregator.

My goal is to move Thunderbird's config files to a USB Thumb drive. When on the road, I'll use my laptop, when home I'll use my workstation. Which ever machine has the thumb drive, will have all the Thunderbird information.

The first step was getting Thunderbird to recognize which account should be the default account. This is important because the default account is expanded and all the other accounts are collapsed on the display. The normal behavior is that the first account configured on the system is the default.

I found that I could change the behavior by editing the defaultaccount setting in the prefs.js file. By looking at the account list in the Thunderbird account pane, I counted down the list, found the account I wanted, assigned it to this setting, and restarted. First problem solved.

More to follow.

The Space Review: Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident

Here's an interesting article from "The Space Review", Astronauts and Area 51: the Skylab Incident. It tells of a Skylab crew that accidentally snapped a picture of the Groom Lake test facility, near Tonapah, NV. Groom Lak is better known by Area 51. Good analysis of policy and national security.