The Slow Lane » Uncategorized http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog A blog about autocrossing, some geeky stuff & Philadelphia. Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:14:25 +0000 http://wordpress.org/?v=2.9.2 en hourly 1 Earth Hour is a failure. http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/106 http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/106#comments Mon, 29 Mar 2010 17:14:25 +0000 Paul http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/?p=106 This was too funny not to repost. Apparently yesterday everyone was supposed to turn off the lights for one hour as a sign of solidarity for climate change. Anthony Watts reports that out in California Earth Hour did not make a dent in the electrical demand load reported by CA-ISO, California’s eletrical system regulator. In that blog post is a quote from an outspoken global warming skeptic Ross McKitrick.

I don’t want to go back to nature. Haiti just went back to nature. For humans, living in “Nature” meant a short life span marked by violence, disease and ignorance.
…through the use of pollution control technology and advanced engineering, our air quality has dramatically improved since the 1960s despite the expansion of industry and the power supply. If, after all this, we are going to take the view that the remaining air emissions outweigh all the benefits of electricity, and that we ought to be shamed into sitting in darkness for an hour, like naughty children
…then we are setting up unspoiled nature as an absolute, transcendent ideal that obliterates all other ethical and humane obligations. No thanks. I like visiting nature but I don’t want to live there, and I refuse to accept the idea that civilization is something to be ashamed of.

This sums up a lot of how I feel about the global warming/carbon issue. McKitrick said it a bit more artfully than I would have been able to. Original credit for posting this quote and linking to McKitrick’s reaction goes to the No Frakking Consensus Blog.

]]> http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/106/feed 0 We’re in! http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/105 http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/105#comments Sun, 31 Jan 2010 16:06:44 +0000 Paul http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/105 Well all my complaining in my last post may be taken to be null and void considering what I’m about to say next. But I stand by my position. The first time homebuyer tax credit is/was creating artificial spikes in home prices. All you have to do is look at how home sales and home prices fell in December. But now we are part of the club. We are homeowners! And this is the main reason for my lack of posting for the last three months.

The homebuying experience was interesting and stressful and we learned some things to look out for next time. But we have closed! We are 75% moved. And lots of repairs and painting is under way. Hopefully I’ll be able to make smaller posts along the way as we fix some of the issues with the house and mold it into our vision. Now that I finally installed the Wordpress2 iPhone app that actually works with me self-hosted blog that will be easier!

]]> http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/105/feed 0 MaxQData is here… http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/46 http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/posts/46#comments Thu, 26 Jun 2008 03:21:23 +0000 Paul http://www.paulgarvin.net/blog/?p=46 and the website is down so I can’t download the software and get it setup.
Fail Picture
Actually I’m getting a DNS error so it could be Comcast as well. I choose to go with the HiDef model (10Hz vs. 5) mostly on the more is better premise. I also picked up an HP hx2490 PDA off eBay to use with it. It’s a Windows Mobile 5 device and comes with some internal persistent memory as well as a CF slot. It will be nice to use the PDA for a calendar and tasks with all the wedding stuff that has to be taken care of. If only I could get the Google Calendar Sync to work. This line seems to be ringing more and more true:

Out of order? Fuck! Even in the future nothing works. - Spaceballs

P.S. – Thanks Uncle Sam for buying me some cool Data Aq stuff, even though the economic stimulus ain’t gonna do squat.

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