I'm just about ready to pull the trigger on a Nikon D5000 kit. It comes with two lenses: an 18-55mm and a 55-200mm lens. Both have Vibration Reduction technology (as Nikon has this feature in its lenses, not the camera) and a camera bag.

I'm going to try to see if I can't haggle a bit and get a Class 6 memory card and an extra battery for a reduced price...we'll see how that works out.

Other than that...my stomach is turning. It usually does before I make a big purchase. But I have been saving for nearly 6 months and have been wanting one for much longer...and the deal is very, very good.

Have a great day!

*shakes fist at Linux*

Why does this happen?

Okay...here's the deal...on Kup (my NAS and trial web server... http://hbar98.gotdns.com:8080 ) I have to telnet in and change the read/write permissions for the web directory in order for things to be all safe-like. So I go in...

Kup login: ***
Password:
su
Password:

...

haha...you know what? Nevermind. It seems to work now. No clue why.

Commands I use...
chmod -rw 'www' -R
That's supposed to remove all read/write permissions from the www directory as well as all sub directories, right?? So...
chmod +rw 'www' -R
Should add read/write permissions to the www directory as well as subs...but for some strange reason Windows explorer said...for a while...that I didn't have permission to view/edit those directories. Now it does. *sobs*

For reference...after +rw command
ls -ld www
drwxrwxrwx 4 root root

...and after -rw command
ls -ld www
d--x-wx-wx 4 root root

Should I tighten that up? How can I?? It seems as if the user only has execute, but other uses have write ability??

Dear Mako-

How ya doin'? Fine? Yeah, me too. Just wanted to say how thankful I was for your help the other night. I know I was a bit excitable, but I've been able to sleep since then and cooler heads have prevailed.

I haven't been able to find anyone locally with an air compressor that doesn't also spit out oil/water/condensation, so I haven't done that yet. However, I did go to Wal-Mart and buy a cheap can of compressed air.

My CPU temps, with being on all night, are in the low 40s. Graphics temp has simmered to a (relatively) glacial temperature of mid 50s.

So, yeah...I'm sorry for getting all worked up over something I should have checked in the first place. However, I still have that strange hard drive armature pause/click sound ever so often.

Thanks for all of your help, and I'll try to keep a better check on my excitement.

Take Care!

'hbar98'

The local shop I took the car to wanted around $700 to fix the car. That is a fair price, from what I can tell, but another option presented itself... The local college where I teach has an excellent auto repair shop. Made some calls, and her car will be repaired for the price of the parts it takes to repair it.

This means that we have to work around their schedule, but we have unlimited use of another vehicle...and she's actually enjoying driving the loaner (a 98 Dodge Dakota).

The instructor has some of his best students on it. He is also going to have them look over the timing chain to see if it needs to be replaced, and he said that since they have to take the water pump off anyway he'll check it and get back with me if it needs to be replaced.

Apparently some oil made it into the coolant system...and it didn't help that GM's coolant likes to eat rubber seals... So after everything is all buttoned back up he's going to flush and replace the coolant with a mix that doesn't eat seals.

What is also really cool is the fact that one of their engines on a stick happens to be the exact same engine as she has in her car...so I'm pretty confident in what they are going to do.

More to come when I hear it!

A more frightened than injured young Seabee electrician was brought into the hospital suffering from electrical burns. Shortly afterward his instructor, a chief electrician, arrived. "Why on earth didn't you turn off the main power switch before you tried to splice the wires?" asked the chief.

"I wanted to save time, chief, and I've seen you stand on one leg, grab the wires and splice without turning off the power."
>
"My God, kid," exclaimed the chief. "Didn't you know I have a wooden leg?"

Hey all you crazy people who live in time zones that change...don't forget to set your clocks BACK one hour tonight before you go to bed.

I got a rock.

Hey all--

My wife has a '95 Saturn SC1, a bit over 100k miles. Head gasket went out. Local shop says about $750 total repair bill...is that about right, or should I work for a lower price?

Cost breakdown:
Labor @ 8 hours (by the book): $400
Parts/Machine Shop/Incidentals/Testing: $350

Thanks, and have a great day!

According to his Facebook page, thirdhorse passed away Oct. 11th. Has anyone else heard of this?

Thanks, and catch you all later!

Not a car post. Though I might reuse the subject if I ever do trade in the Silver Beast.

Camera Post.

I went to a local Best Buy to have some hands on time with the Nikon D90. Right next to the D90 was the D5000. The D5k has the tilt and swivel screen that is supposed to help ease the difficulty of framing awkward scenes. So I played around with the D90 for a few moments and set it back down because the battery was dead. Drats.

Played with the D5000 for a while and I must say that I was impressed by the feel, weight and grip of the camera. I asked a Blue Shirt what the differences were between the cameras but he was no help whatsoever. So I came home and started doing research.

The D5000 is like the D90's little brother. They both share the same CMOS imaging sensor, they both share similar features (both have hotshoes, GPS hookups, HDMI output...), but the D5k uses a pentaprism instead of a pentamirror, and the D5000 lacks an autofocus motor...meaning that I would have to buy the more expensive lenses that include an AF motor, or buy the less expensive lenses and manually focus.

I think I could handle no AF on all the lenses since a good part of my time is trying to focus on something that the camera doesn't want to focus on. If I want to expose using the light in the center of the picture and focus on the object on the far right, I want to be able to do it, dagnabbit (the D5000 has an 11 point AF system using the rule of thirds...but if I want to not use the rule of thirds I'd have to manually focus anyway..)!

And if I ever decided to upgrade the camera to a prosumer model, all of my lenses would work AND be able to take advantage of AF as long as the new camera had the AF motor built in.

Hrm...so many choices...it's a good thing that I have several months to dwell on this topic.

Any comments or suggestions?

If Waldo and Carmen San Diego ever had kids...they'd probably be invisible.

Korg Synthesizer + DSi = Song that will stick with you for a long time...

I'm going to use the money that I make from teaching at FCC to buy a nice DSLR camera.

What are your opinions? I'm looking at a Nikon D90 mainly because it has live view and is a very well rated camera.

What suggestions do you all have? Do any of you own the Nikon D90? Or what camera do you have??

Thanks, and have a great day!

Beautiful day for a Ren Faire wedding...

Not here apparently...

 

George inna hat!



(edited to remove the Verizon Wireless crud that posted with my pic...)

Natasha next to our giant elephant ears.

From the middle of July to September 1.

And here is the trend:

Intervals ending 2009-09-01
Last…	Gain/Loss pounds/week	Excess/Deficit calories/day	Weight Trend
			Min.	Mean	Max.
Week	−1.05	−525	209.8	210.3	211.0
Fortnight	−1.29	−643	209.8	210.9	212.3
Month	−1.27	−634	209.8	212.4	215.3
2009-07-13 – 2009-09-01
1 m 19 d	−1.29	−643	209.8	214.2	218.1

I'm slowly getting there.  I'd like to be around/under 200 in a month or so.  We'll see how close we can get.

*Wonders when Vince will offer spots again...* *innocent whistle*

I'm looking to replace my wireless router...you know, the one I resurrected using a sewing needle and some speaker wire? Yeah, it is starting to act all wonky...cutting out, being slow and just plain stupid.

Anyway, I'm looking for a Wireless N router that can use, at the same time, the 2.4ghz and 5ghz range to trans/receive data. The Linksys WRT600, the router Maxpc recommends, is getting hard to find and is getting more expensive all the time. It also needs to have (now usually standard) gigabit ports.

I'd like something that I could install DD-WRT onto...but I'd settle for stock firmware if some of the features (expandable USB storage, etc..) couldn't be emulated in DD-WRT.

Any suggestions, please?

Have a great day!