Quotes from Will & Grace

JACK: Karen, I'm sorry, I can't! [SIGHS] I'm due on the set, and I still haven't figured out a way to access anger for my pistol whipping scene.

KAREN: You know, it is hard to stay angry when pistol whipping. I think it's because after the first couple of whacks, you get the giggles.

---

GRACE: Ugh. I hate clowns. They think they're so funny.

B-Ball dreams

Seems like I've recently had a couple dreams about basketball. It seems like in one dream, I was playing 3-on-3 and on my team was Dirk Nowitzki from the Dallas Mavericks. Seems like I was doing ok in the game although I don't remember taking any shots. Of course, with a guy like Dirk on your team, you don't need to take any shots.

Seems like I had another dream where I was taking public transportation to get somewhere, but managed to miss the stop where I should have gotten off the bus. Can't say I remember too much else, though.

Teaching my dad

I had a dream where I was teaching my dad something on the computer. He had to step out for a bit and in my dream, I was noticing that I wasn't getting as frustrated teaching him... Most likely because he already has a background knowledge of what I was trying to teach him, so that he is able to understand it easily. While my dad was out, I got a call from Steve F from work and he had some questions about our application. Funny thing though is that Steve has not been involved in our project for a long time. The place where we were was not any place I could recognize. It seemed some type of residence, though.

New phone...

Since I was disappointed that the Google phone was not available yet, I went ahead and got the Sony Ericsson w580i. It's by no means the perfect phone which I was looking for, but the main selling point is that it looks good.

Anyway, in comparison of my old phone:




You can see that the main difference in size is the thickness. It's about 1/2" thick. Also, there's no comparison functionality with my old phone:

• Java-based programs
• Internet
• Not 3G, but "2.5G"...
• 2 megapixel camera plus video
• mp3 files can be used as ringtones

The access to the Internet has already been handy because of being able to look up addresses and phone numbers on the Internet.

This phone does not come with GPS, but thanks to Google Maps, they have a My Location function which utilizes the location of cell towers to which your phone is connected in order to approximate your position. Any approximate position is better than not having any idea where you are... and also when you want to do a Google search for businesses, it can use your "My Location" position to find the businesses near you rather than you having to type in the address of your current location.

Finally, disappointingly, there's no Japanese support for this phone, but I have found websites which describe how to re-flash the software on your phone to use the Asian version... I am looking forward to trying this out!

Playing ball with "W"

I've had a wide range of dreams recently and have not been logging them. This one is worth logging though. In my dream, it seemed like I was watching a U of I basketball game. Then, it seemed like I was playing in the game... and on my team was George Bush. At one point, I passed the ball to him, but he didn't make a clean catch. Somehow, the ball ended on his head, but he didn't know where the ball was. Finally it fell off of his head, but he still didn't know where the ball was. I was either thinking or saying to him, "Just listen to where the ball is bouncing..." but poor George, he still didn't know where the ball was. Anyway, it does remind me of what happened in real life to Danny Blammy in a basketball game at Uni High where he managed to have the ball hit him on the head 3 times consecutively... and was called for traveling. And our JV coach, Mr. Ball, tried to convince the ref in vain it was not traveling. Somehow I don't think one of my dreams would be as wild as that.

Rats!

The 1.6TB storage device (over 80% used) I was using (which was a Stardom Sohotank U7-4-B2) to archive my recorded shows is not working anymore. I’ve not had a chance to verify it’s only the hardware device and not the drives themselves which is not working. (I don’t even want to think that it may be the drives.)

_{Good news, it looks like all the data on the drives is ok.}

Anyway, so I’ve now ordered a 4TB storage device which supports RAID5, which means in theory, I should have 3TB of usable storage while still having complete recovery capabilities in case of a bad hard drive (just not two at the same time).

_{OK, it’s not much for looks, but anyway…}

However, RAID5 also means if something happens to the hardware, I would have no way of recovering the data except buying another storage device which supports a 4-drive RAID5 set up…

I decided not on the Drobo as someone had a bad experience losing all data using one… so although it may have been a fluke, it’s kind of sad when the device which is supposed to automatically provide redundant storage capability fails on you. I am hopeful that with future versions of Drobo, they’ll work out this flaw.

See more progress on: set up my home theater PC

External hard drive failure

External hard drive device failed. It was a Stardom U74B2 which I bought in June 2006. This means it lasted one year and 4 months. Warranty for this device was one year.