The Earth Is Square

Well, in my case at 11:50pm last night.. local knowldge.  While coming home from an unexpededly long road trip, I came up to a part of I-80 that was (had been since 5pm) closed because of an accident.  Most the drivers, not being locals just pulled up to a stop and went to sleep while waiting for hours for the road to open, because they did not know how to get around it.  Luckily for me, I spoted an exit that I knew exacly where the road would take me.. and that was to a second road that would take me home.

The nav I had with me, could not find any routes around the closed road, so that was a 140$ paperweight at that moment.  But with knowing the roads, I only had to add 30 minutes to the drive instead of hours.  Granted, if I was in an area I did not know.. I probably would be one of those people sitting along side the road waiting the night out.

Well.. last night after installing VMWare Workstation on my notebook and doing a reboot.. I had a strange crash, had another crash after I tried restarting.. and now when I turn on I can hear the CD drive.. I can hear the HDs spinning... but I have a blank, black screen staring back at me..

After a year and 3/4's, it seems my computer has crumpled under the pressure.  So, all that remains now is doing a HD-ectomy and dumping all the data onto my other data drives and then seeing if maybe, just maybe there is some life left in the old girl.  But I have a feeling she is down for the count.

So, anyone have a spare computer to donate?  Maybe a powerbook pro? ;)   Luckily, I don't have any conferences or presentations looming.. and I have my desktop I can work on (I just hate sitting at my desk.. I prefer my patio).

Well, I almost forgot what happens around here the second weekend of July..  But it is that time again for the Toyo Tires Summer 4-Wheel Jamboree Nationals (Monster Trucks and other trucks that get 10 gallons to the mile).  If you really want to know what this is all about, check this PDF then.

Hard to beleive that in the 21 years it has been going on, I have not once been there to see it.  And not going again this year.. in fact I am going to avoiod the west end of Bloomsburg all weekend.

I have a new computer setup that I already have WorldWind and GISExplorer on, so went today to download and install Google Earth for it.  But since it is currently off network I went to download and will just copy the install file over via a thumb drive..

Errr, NOT happening.  Where is the downloadable file?  What is this "Google Updater" they think I should have instead?  When I want to download an application.. I want to download the bloody application!  (You can see how long it has been since I installed a new Google Earth )  So, complaining asside, I re-run the network and take a computer offline to bring the one I want to use online and install.

Next "Bad Google" comes up.. it never asked me WHERE I want to install Google Earth!  It wants me to install an app on the OS partition.. argh!

I know their "motto" is "Don't Be Evil" .. but I think it should be "Don't Be Smart" instead.. this is some dumb thinking from Google.  Trust me.. I know better than Google on how I want to download and install my software.

Boy, Godaddy sure is lightning fast at taking a domain off-line if a payment doesn't go through.  But it is fixed now.

Came home from a Home Depot trip to see the first house fire in town in well over 50 years..

The house went up, literally, like it was made of match sticks.  House to the right only has some minor heat damage to the siding.. the house to the left, though, had a lot of the siding melted off even though it was farther away.

I took several video clips, they are on youtube.

But this makes for a lively time in a town where very little exciting goes on.