So last weekend I was at my parent's house and was on my dad's iMac and noticed I couldn't watch a YouTube video on one of the sites I visit. Annoyed, I installed it only to find out a week later my dad got the Quicktime logo with a question mark behind it on any site where flash was embedded.

After a few google searches, I finally found something off Adobe that came in handy. Sure enough it was some strange permissioning issue and I wasn't the only one effected. Reinstalling it didn't help. I had to run the Disk Utility application in the "Application\Utilities" directory. On the "First Aid" tab, run the "Repair Disk Permissions" button. After that, reinstall Flash.

Bada-bing, it was fixed and one parent is quieted until another computer breaks in the parental Rutkas household.

So I bought a car. Yup, hell finally froze over since I need it for where I'm moving to. More about that in a bit once more gets straightened out. Most know what is happening but I'm going to hold off a bit longer.

About my new car, it is a 2008 Acura TSX automatic with Navigation and it had voice recognition. I opted for black interior and dark grey paint. I was really amazed at how easy the purchase was. They had 2x2 grid, Automatic / Manual, with/without Navigation. Yup, that easy.

Now the BMW 3 series, Lexus IS, Audi TT, ... list goes and on for what else I was checking out, each one had a laundry list of items that I really didn't want but had to buy anyways cause they wanted to jack the price up thousands of dollars.

And what is with not being able to buy coupes lately? While I do like my TSX, I'd perfer a coupe. If there was a 3 series coupe, I'd already have purchased it.

Also, why it is if I say, give me a deal, you give me $200 off a hugely expensive car, I counter, you then say all I can do is that? WTF, like hell you can't. We both know added heaters to a car's seats doesn't cost $2,000. Also, why does an iPod jack into a car cost more than an iPod?

I need to find a way to hack my TSX. Evil thoughts of amazingness are filling my head. Plus some how I have to get my car to play Doom. It has to be done.

The damn trackpad is too big. I tend to use my right hand to use the trackpad and keep my left hand prepped for typing. When using a desktop, this is a bit more optimal since you have a mouse. This has carried over to my laptop usage and to be honest, I don't know where your other hand would go, I'll leave that up to your imagination though.

But back to the issue with the trackpad. With part of my palm on it and me not noticing, the pad just doesn't work. After typing, then needing to use a mouse (to play a flash game), it is actually really annoying.

I can't believe I'm going to say this, but I need smaller hands, not the small girly hands, just slightly smaller. Maybe I can use the force...

That monster trucks were invented in a town near St. Louis, the first being Big Foot. Also Budweiser is brewed there AND it held the 1904 Olympics (the first in the United States). AND it has a giant arch.

... but the bigger question is, what has it done for us lately? It has won some interesting awards.

So passwords and me have a love / hate relationship. Today I had to help reset a virtual machine's default administrator password since every attempt at what should have been a working password ... was a wrong password. Attempting to use domain credentials failed also. The person that made this password does them with non-readable characters, upper, lower, punctuation, numbers, and a random mouse movement (ok, last one I made up), but without this password, the VM was doodoo and I'd have to spend the next 4 to 8 hours rebuilding it.

My attempt at using a boot disk and use that to reset the password actually failed for some reason, this was semi disappointing actually, maybe I just screwed it up.

What didn't fail however was using SQL to inject a command line argument. How does one do this evil voodoo trick? First, you need to know the SA (aka God) password. This was easy since we for internal dev boxes they are all the same and this SQL instance was set up like a dev box. From a remote computer, you log in through Query Analyzer and type:

exec master..xp_cmdshell 'net user user_name new_password'

MSDN has a quick info on how to do a reset the password through the command prompt. Database Journal tells how to use xp_cmdshell to do non-evil stuff (unlike me).

I think I'm going to get a few of these since I know I run multiple power strips due to wallwarts. You can get the Power Stripe Savers over at ThinkGeek.

So I hurt myself being myself (aka stupid) on the 3rd of July. I ruptured my left ear drum (again) and decided in the morning I should hit up the emergency room since, you know, I had less than 50% hearing out of it.

On the way, I saw a GameSpot and realized I'd be sitting there for well over 3 hours and got myself a Nintendo DS Lite. This little sucker is the most addictive device ever. On the train to work, I do my normal Engadget / CNN / Email on my cellphone then switch over to Tetris or Advance Wars. And the battery lasts forever on this thing too.

Yet another gadget I have to carry with myself.

So I've been working with the guys over at Jason Robotics Connection to help whip me up some awesome new relay boards and I have to say from what I've seen, I'm blown away. Optically isolated, master / slaves setup for boards.

Hopefully by the time I'm settled down in St. Louis, I'll have the bartender back up and working again. Nothing like a system that can do N! possible drink combinations to help make new friends.

I need to get with Ian and power through some stuff. His new icons are awesome. He also just had a baby girl.

Nope, it wasn't an iPhone, it was better. The fanboy now becomes an employee. I start August 6th and will be out of St. Louis.

I just released the source code and database for Drunktender over at Peace Love Code.

SQL Server 2005 Express and the phidget API library are required to run / compile.

If you're like me, you just assume your SATA 3.0 Gb/ s drive should be that fast right out of the gate.

HOWEVER, this is wrong. My coworker TJ pointed this out to me.

See the jumper? Yeah, you need to remove that. Since I got my drive OEM, I didn't know this since it didn't come with any paper work.

The reason why they do this is for people that don't have a SATA 3.0 Gb/s motherboard. I figure a lot less people notice the lack of speed than a hard computer error on bootup.

When my RMA'ed RAM comes back, I'll verify this, plug in my 2nd DVD drive, and go all the way to an even faster computer.

So I was playing with my laptop today getting ready to launch the bartender code publically and had it plugged in over night.

About 10 minutes into it, I get prompted that it is low on batteries which irked me to say the least since I knew I just unplugged it. Go back to my room and plug it back in, hour later, no juice.

I'm a retard, the AC adapter wasn't plugged in.

With that said, the bartender source code should be released today or tomorrow. I'll be creating a part list shortly too.

The dance floor has offically been removed. 7 circuit boards have been salvaged.

god i hate moving.

So I have to move out on July 31st from my apartment of 3 years. This directly means I need to move my dancefloor out.

It is sad that it took 10 months to build yet I managed to pull 2 boards, prep 2 more, move my TV back down all in the matter of a few hours by myself.

With that said, I'm thinking I may just end up selling what I have. Full load, polycarbonate, wood if needed, and the boards. If you're interested, shoot me a bid at clint@rutkas.com.

Internet Sharing.

Don't have an internet connection but are on either edge or 3G ... BAM, bluetooth or USB connect your cell to your computer and go to your windows DIR on the phone. The application is called "Internet Sharing".

I've mentioned it before but finally had to use it today. The speed was suprisingly quick on the 3G network. I'm talking, you wouldn't be able to even notice the difference really between that and being on DSL.

That is why Windows Mobile beats the iPhone.