Archive: 2010

64 entries. 13,186 words.

January, 2010

  • A Holiday Gaming Backlog. 2010-01-02 3:01 PM.
    • Gaming
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Normally I play one game at a time, finish it, and then move on to the next game. When I got a PS3 Slim, though, I bought a stack of games to play, and in the last couple of months of 2009 I picked up some new releases and a lot of good deals from Steam. So I have quite a backlog of games to play right now. 588 words.
  • Reaper 3.161 Tip. 2010-01-02 9:44 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Tip: In Reaper 3.161 DAW, avoid using Mute automation on tracks; program crashes when you later try to record audio on a new track. 24 words.
  • Not showing ‘Skins in Richmond. 2010-01-03 9:15 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Not showing ‘Skins in Richmond. 22 words.
  • The end of vacation. 2010-01-04 1:03 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The end of vacation: This is what the monarchy must have felt like during the French Revolution. 17 words.
  • REAPER. 2010-01-05 11:31 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’ve started using a DAW charmingly titled REAPER, written by some of the folks behind WinAmp. It’s not flawless, but I’m quickly leaning toward dropping any further attempts to use SONAR. 733 words.
  • I am Bender. Please insert girder.. 2010-01-09 12:23 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I am Bender. 6 words.
  • Back from first night of puppy class. 2010-01-13 1:13 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Back from first night of puppy class.. holy crap Bella and I have a LOT of work to do! 19 words.
  • Random Observation about Human History. 2010-01-14 12:05 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I often read the “on this day” section of Wikipedia just out curiosity. It occurred to me one day that, according to the “on this day” records, not much happened before around 1500 A.D. 247 words.
  • Bella is learning “look”. 2010-01-15 12:00 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Puppy update - Bella is learning “look”, has a pretty good handle on “sit” and “come”, but still can’t or won’t do a “down.” 24 words.
  • Old games that require their CD. 2010-01-16 9:33 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Old games that require their CD to be in the drive to play suck.. when trying to get them to run on a netbook with no CD drive. 28 words.
  • Bella has done 5 downs today!!. 2010-01-17 10:44 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Bella has done 5 downs today!! 10 words.
  • “All the world’s a chew toy”. 2010-01-18 2:10 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    “All the world’s a chew toy” -Cyn, about Saint the collie puppy 12 words.
  • Just registered Bella’s microchip. 2010-01-19 1:40 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Just registered Bella’s microchip.. they didn’t mention it costs $17/year. 22 words.
  • Saint’s profound statement. 2010-01-19 11:01 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    [[p -Saint’s profound statement for this morning. 7 words.
  • Bella did a “down” this evening. 2010-01-20 11:32 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Bella did a “down” this evening without a lure! 9 words.
  • Once again I can’t help but notice…. 2010-01-22 11:18 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Once again I can’t help but notice… there’s really nothing to do on the Internet. 15 words.
  • This one spot in Mirror’s Edge. 2010-01-23 5:24 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This one spot in Mirror’s Edge is annoyingly hard.. repeating the same section over and over and over again is really not very fun. 24 words.
  • Mirror’s Edge: Finished. 2010-01-24 3:20 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Mirror’s Edge: Finished. 23 words.
  • Looking Back at 2009 Goals. 2010-01-24 3:42 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    A look back at how I did on my goals for 2009. 452 words.
  • Pouring rain, inches of mud. 2010-01-25 11:37 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Pouring rain, inches of mud, standing water everywhere: Still not as bad as an earthquake. 20 words.

February, 2010

  • Age of Conan Free Trial. 2010-02-03 1:14 AM.
    • Gaming
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I downloaded the Age of Conan free trial a while back and played a character through level 18 (which doesn’t take very long). This is a game I’ve always wanted to try, but never got around to it until now. 396 words.
  • Age of Conan Upgraded. 2010-02-11 2:16 AM.
    • Gaming
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I enjoyed the Age of Conan trial enough to plop down the measly $20 to upgrade to the full version (which gets you 32 days of playing time). 380 words.
  • MMO Nostalgia Trip. 2010-02-25 12:06 AM.
    • Gaming
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I loaded up the World of Warcraft Burning Crusade 10-day trial the other night and found that, to my great surprise, my WoW characters were still available after over 3 years of inactivity. 416 words.

April, 2010

  • NoSQL is Coming. 2010-04-03 12:11 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    There has been an explosion of talk about “NoSQL” lately (ie. I’ve seen a few posts about it), and since it is every blogger’s obligation to follow the crowd and re-write what everyone else is saying, I shall now present my thoughts on NoSQL. 752 words.
  • UV’s Guide to MMORPGs. 2010-04-19 12:45 AM.
    • Gaming
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This is a brief summary of my opinion of the pros and cons of each fantasy MMORPG I’ve played or re-played in the last few months. Keep in mind that I haven’t played every character class or experienced any end-game content in any of these games. Also, I am somewhat biased toward melee classes, solo adventuring and PvE (player vs. environment) gameplay. 769 words.
  • Mission: Earth Accomplished. 2010-04-19 12:45 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I recently finished a series of 10 pulp sci-fi books (allegedly) by L. Ron Hubbard called Mission: Earth. The books were terrible beyond belief (worse even than Dan Brown – at least Brown novels have an interesting story idea), and I wouldn’t recommend them to anyone. Wikipedia has it right: “It is frequently cited within science fiction circles as one of the worst science fiction novels ever written.” 259 words.
  • What To Do With An iPad?. 2010-04-19 12:46 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I saw an iPad the other day. It’s very slick and stylish, but I don’t quite know what I’d do with it (other than show it to people and say, “I have an iPad”). 523 words.
  • The Fight Against Monsanto. 2010-04-19 12:47 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The other day my wife casually mentioned that she was going to use a Monsanto product. Nooooo! I said. 583 words.
  • Choosing an Incredible Verizon Smartphone. 2010-04-26 12:01 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So I saw that Verizon Wireless is having a ridiculous promotion on the Palm Pre Plus ($49 with a second phone free) and the Pixi Plus ($29) right now, with a 2-year contract. Which reminded me that my contract ended last year and I’m long overdue for a new phone. 360 words.

May, 2010

  • HTC Incredible Road Test. 2010-05-13 1:49 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    If you’ve seen my Twitter feed lately, you probably know I got an HTC Incredible (aka. Droid Incredible). It’s my first smart phone so I have nothing to compare it to. 378 words.

June, 2010

  • Woo I’m posting something. 2010-06-07 4:46 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Woo I'm posting something with the Android Buzz widget. 30 words.
  • Pine Tree. 2010-06-12 2:21 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    One of the remaining pine trees in our back yard, after the last round of tree-cutting. 25 words.
  • Mother Robin Feeding Her Hatchlings. 2010-06-13 2:06 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    A mother robin feeding a worm to her hatchlings in the nest over our back stairs, but only after the cameraman goes away. 23 words.
  • Gloves and a Feeder. 2010-06-14 1:16 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    A couple more macro focus pictures, taken after we cut down a bunch of trees in the back yard. 30 words.
  • Hypothetical speaking. 2010-06-15 6:41 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Hypothetical speaking, if I were nearing the end of Lost season 5, where would one find Lost season 6 to watch? 21 words.
  • Posting something on Buzz. 2010-06-18 3:23 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Posting something on Buzz from the desktop, as opposed to a phone, to see what the <activity:service> title will be. 20 words.
  • Google Buzz importing complete. 2010-06-18 7:58 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Google Buzz importing complete. 14 words.
  • The Google Buzz mobile site has been dead. 2010-06-22 9:58 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    The Google Buzz mobile site has been dead to me for several days now. 28 words.
  • MySQL Community Edition. 2010-06-22 10:47 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Hrm MySQL Community Edition appears to be conspicuously missing from the MySQL product offerings under the new Oracle regime. 19 words.
  • Found MySQL Community Edition. 2010-06-22 11:08 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Found MySQL Community Edition. 39 words.
  • Why do my Android apps ask for access. 2010-06-26 12:51 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Why do my Android apps ask for access to Storage and Phone Calls when I never specified that in my AndroidManifest.xml? 21 words.
  • Yay Buzz mobile site is working again. 2010-06-27 12:12 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Yay Buzz mobile site is working again after signing out and back in. 13 words.

July, 2010

  • Future versions of CSS (and OSes). 2010-07-06 4:13 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Future versions of CSS (and OSes) should have the ability to set the color of underlines differently than the color of the text. 23 words.
  • Political Blogging Blues. 2010-07-08 12:54 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Semi-recent posts by F.T. Rea and Vivian Paige about political blogging got me thinking about my own lack of interest in politics lately. I don’t consider myself a “political blogger” in the accepted sense, but I certainly fall into the category of people that are less interested in politics this year. 833 words.
  • Thoughts on Diaspora and Distributed Social Networks. 2010-07-09 2:16 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    […]Like many people, I read about Diaspora a while back and thought it was a great idea. It’s one of the few open-source projects I could see myself contributing to. Unfortunately, it’s not “open” in the sense that the technical architecture is open to discussion - it will only become open after they define the architecture, good, bad or indifferent*. 690 words.
  • Velocity Micro’s Cruz tablet An Android. 2010-07-13 4:30 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Velocity Micro's Cruz tablet - An Android tablet from Chesterfield County of all places?? 14 words.

August, 2010

  • A Disturbing Civil War Parallel. 2010-08-03 11:03 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    We were watching Ken Burns’ Civil War documentary the other day, and I commented that I used to think it was impossible to imagine a civil war in America, but lately it seems more and more plausible. 138 words.
  • August Music Update. 2010-08-17 2:10 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Some of you reading this may be surprised to learn that, in the previous millennium, I wrote and recorded a whole bunch of music. Some others of you already knew that and might be wondering if I’m ever planning to do that again. 495 words.
  • Mastering Loud Songs is Hard. 2010-08-20 12:40 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So I’m working on mixing these two new songs. However, despite the explosion of free or cheap resources available to today’s amateur home recording musician, I’m finding the “mastering” process more challenging than ever for one single reason: Loudness. 347 words.
  • Sorry About The Double Postings. 2010-08-21 10:38 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    By the way, I have no idea why the site is getting double posts from Delicious.com all of a sudden. 25 words.
  • Vote For My Next Song. 2010-08-22 8:53 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m finishing up two new songs. Now which song should I work on next? Vote now! 18 words.
  • Two Partied Out (1.26). 2010-08-23 10:41 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    This was originally intended to be part of a concept album about a staunch partisan’s son breaking family tradition and running as an independent. 28 words.
  • Shallow and Uneducated (1.11). 2010-08-23 10:43 PM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Social commentary about young whippersnappers (and their parents) destroying the country with their absent-mindedness. 19 words.

September, 2010

  • Froyo Arrives on the HTC Incredible. 2010-09-04 10:03 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Verizon pushed Froyo (Android 2.2) to my Droid Incredible this past week. In a nutshell, the changes are unremarkable. 180 words.
  • The Importance Of The Robots NoIndex Meta Tag, Or: What’s The Opposite of SEO?. 2010-09-16 11:59 PM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I’m not much into SEO (search engine optimization). It’s a booming industry for some, but I still have this crazily naive idea that good content will just naturally rise to the top of search results. That said, there are a some basic SEO guidelines that I try to follow on my site. 480 words.
  • A Diaspora Code Review. 2010-09-20 12:20 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I was curious to see the Diaspora code base when it was released on September 15. Ever since I heard about Diaspora, I – like many other developers before me – have been pondering how I might architect a distributed social network myself, so I was curious to see how they had solved certain problems I was running into. The short answer is: They didn’t. 926 words.

October, 2010

  • Happy Knights of Columbus Day. 2010-10-11 12:55 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    In today’s political climate of trying to repeal the 14th Amendment – a clearly anti-immigrant sentiment – the irony of a federal holiday brought about to celebrate immigration is impossible to ignore. 154 words.
  • The 2010 “Race” in the Virginia 7th District. 2010-10-12 1:51 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    It’s that time of year again. The time when we in the Virginia 7th District pretend Eric Cantor has some competition for his seat in the U.S. House of Representatives. 142 words.
  • The 2010 Macbook Air. 2010-10-22 1:49 AM.
    • Technology
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    So I’m looking over the new Macbook Air announced the other day. It’s a beautiful piece of hardware, but at 11" and 13" and only a 1.6 GHz Core 2 Duo it seems like more of a “couch” netbook than a productivity laptop. 150 words.
  • Daemon by Daniel Suarez. 2010-10-23 1:06 AM.
    • Blog
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I just finished Daniel Suarez’s much talked-about Daemon. (Talked about among the digerati, at least.) It’s not a literary masterpiece, but it’s a great story and a thought-provoking idea, and I think it will resonate particularly well among the tech-savvy and younger generations. (There is talk of an upcoming movie, which would be pretty awesome.) 344 words.
  • Star Wars Archetypes. 2010-10-26 2:04 AM.
    • Writing
    • everettrenshaw.com

    It’s odd that so many web sites discussing literary archetypes use the characters from the movie Star Wars as their examples. Aren’t there ANY other movies that have classic archetypes? Or is Star Wars such a cultural touchstone that literally everyone on the planet recognizes it? 46 words.
  • Read George Washington’s Farewell Address. 2010-10-28 10:45 PM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    All those voting in the mid-term election next week (that’s everyone, right?) should take some time and read George Washington’s Farewell Address. Wikipedia also has a synopsis of the Address if your literacy skills are inadequate. 218 words.

November, 2010

  • The 2010 Mid-Term Election Prediction Post. 2010-11-02 1:20 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    I don’t normally do election predictions, but in this case I feel pretty safe in predicting: Republicans will win more than Democrats tomorrow. 212 words.

December, 2010

  • WikiLeaks Not To Blame For Government Ineptitude. 2010-12-07 2:44 AM.
    • Commentary
    • thomaskrehbiel.com

    Julian Assange seems like a dork, but I support the concept of the WikiLeaks web site. “Whistle blowers” can be an important check of government power, and certainly the people (in democracies, at least) have a right to know what their government is doing on their behalf. (How else can we make informed voting decisions?) In any case, WikiLeaks isn’t the problem: Inept handling of secret government documents is. 303 words.