One Nasty Week

Man, I feel bloody awful!

Isn’t that a great way to start a post?

Unfortunately it’s true enough. I had a massive flare up of that service related problem in my gut last week (GERD and the effects thereof) and it’s taken this long not to get any better. It can quit it any time now I tell ya.

So this is just a short note to let you know that I haven’t abandoned the blog at all it’s just extremely difficult to come up with any good, quality content when I’m feeling like I have a never ending case of the stomach flu. I’ll be back when things quiet down some.

Thanks for your patience.

Open Studio Weekend. Last Event at the Old Shop.

It’s Memorial Day Weekend here in Vermont and that means it’s also the weekend of the annual Vermont Open Studio Weekend where artisans and crafters have the opportunity to show off their various genuine “Made in Vermont” arts and crafts to the tourists and put on demonstrations. Tourists and locals alike with map in hand of the locations of the studios and shops that are participating, roll around the countryside and through the villages and towns throughout the State visiting each shop or studio in turn to have a look-see at how these arts and crafts folks ply their trade and to check out their finished products. And my honey is no exception in this case since her Long Meadow Quilt Shop has been part of that very tour for the last 2 years. But this weekend marks the last time these seekers of Vermont made arts and crafts will stop at this particular shop since by next weekend we’ll have moved business to a new and better location right down the road a piece, this time with plenty of parking and a better layout as far as space is concerned. So I’m off today and tomorrow to the old quilt shop to man the counter while she’s busy doing demonstrations on her big quilting table and on the making of her stained glass items. And after we close on Sunday afternoon it’s time to get to moving so that by Wednesday we’ll have shifted business at the new location and by morning of June 1st we’ll officially open at the new place. Pictures coming.

Firefox 3 RC1 High CPU and Memory Use? Try This Fix.

In testing out Firefox 3 RC1 I realized that when loading up a page in a foreground tab when two or more tabs were present, my single core CPU maxed out and loading slowed to a crawl making the browser unresponsive until I switched the tab into the background to let it finish loading. At that point, CPU usage returned to normal. As long as the tab that was loading remained in the background, the CPU never rose above an average of 20% max not counting the occasional spike or two from flash and script content.

Other folks were having these problems also which included high initial memory use for some as well so after much troubleshooting and constructive cursing I finally found the culprit that was causing this high CPU/memory use problem and I’m passing it on.

The fix is actually pretty simple and involves changing the state of “browser.cache.memory.enable” in Firefox’s “about:config“. Just follow the simple instructions under the image below:

cache.memory.enable settings

  • Type “about:config” into the FIrefox 3 RC1 location bar and tell it you’ll be careful (you’ll see what I mean).
  • When the list of configuration options shows up, type “cache” without the quotes into the search bar as shown above. A list of all entries will appear with the word “cache” in them.
  • Change the state of the “browser.cache.memory.enable” entry to “false” by double clicking on the entry itself. Make sure the state has indeed changed to “false”.
  • Restart the browser and you’re done.

Firefox RC1 should now run right along nice and fast no matter what tab is loading in the foreground and without the high CPU use as I saw before the change and apparently the memory problem is also fixed. Performance in RC1 does not seem to be degraded at all by this change and speeds things up nicely.

If this fix helps anyone running Firefox RC1, please leave a comment and let me know as I’m really curious if this works for others as well.

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Moving Long Meadow Farms Quilt Shop

We're Moving>>>

You all will have to excuse me from publishing any in-depth type posts here for the next week or so as my honey and I are in the midst of moving her quilt shop to a better location and from now until the end of May is going to be a killer for us. We’re doing the grunt work you see which means moving 3 tons of fabric (her stock for the making of her quilts and other items), the shelves for storing of said stock, the 12 foot quilting table and long arm sewing machine (another 1/2 ton of machinery or it sure seems like it) and all finished products in the store. Oh yeah, the 8 foot counter we made also goes plus the refrigerator, the microwave and stand and the outside signs and posts we planted to mount the signs. And much, much more.

Of course that’s just getting the stuff to the new shop. Once there we have to set it all back up again.

Problem here is that neither one of us are young anymore (but we’re still darn good looking!) and the bones are already complaining…a lot! We figure that by next week we’ll be…well…dead most likely so who’s going to man the shop then? Guess we’ll just have to live through it I suppose.

It is a much better location with tons of parking as compared to her other place. Her customers have already expressed their joy on the move and the fact they’ll actually have a place to put there car without fear of being blocked in by other certain entities which will remain un-named. All in all she do much better there.

We just have to live through the moving portion of it so wish us luck if you think of it. If we do then I’ll post some pics of the move as we go. If not you can send flowers to…

Watch Me Try and Shoot My Foot

And to think I used to live there. Oh wait…that’s typical of that area—I forgot.

NEW BEDFORD – A firearms instructor for the Bristol County Sheriff’s department has been given other duties after his gun accidentally discharged while he was teaching a class on weapons safety.

Officials say the Glock handgun went off while Maj. Donald Lamar was demonstrating to deputy sheriffs how to safely holster the weapon. The bullet ripped a hole in Lamar’s pants but missed his leg and foot.

Source: Boston Herald

Guess they should have stuck with the old .38 police special, huh? Or maybe the instructor should have remembered to unload his frickin’ weapon before the class began, you think?

That is absolutely inexcusable. It’s just sheer blind luck that someone didn’t get seriously injured or killed. I’ve been trained and certified on several different types of fire arms over my lifetime so I know what I’m talking about when I say the man should be relieved from duty on a permanent basis. Does that sound cold and heartless? Just ask his pants what they think.

I’m sure that training session was a particularly effective one though.

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Pat Who for President?

Pat Paulson for PresidentOkay Folks I’ve finally made my decision. My Presidential candidate of choice is . Yessir, I had a flashback to my younger years when good ol’ Pat ran for President and cried when he didn’t win and Mister, that’s honesty in politics if I ever saw it.

Now it’s not that the present day candidates still aren’t holding my attention, indeed they are, but I’ve become just a little tired of people asking me whether I’m going to vote Democrat or Republican when the fact is I’m going to vote as I see fit. To me, party affiliations are completely irrelevant and often times foolish which isn’t meant to reflect on anyone else, I’m just contrary that way. Of course once I state how I’m going to vote the usual response is; “Oh, so you’re voting Independent?” and my answer is; “No, I am not voting Independent. Independent is also considered a political party and I’m not affiliated with any political party” or something to that effect.

Perhaps you may feel that this is un-American or not working with the system but I see it as an absolutely American way of thinking or at least an old way of thinking especially for a cranky old(er) Vermonter like me.

So for now, until things are sorted out between Hillary and Obama and we finally know who is going to run against who as Presidential nominees, I’ll keep my Pat Paulson button close at hand and even when the final elections do come around, I’ll still remember that dead pan face hung out in front of the cameras for all the nation to see as Pat Paulson made his pitch for the Oval Office. Even as foolish as that might sound–it’s at least guaranteed to keep me honest.

Just a Bit of Down Time

My host decided they needed to upgrade the server kernel on my box today so there was about an hour of downtime earlier this evening. I don’t necessarily mind these upgrades that they do once in awhile, glad they’re on top of things and all that but I do have a bit of a problem that they don’t notify anyone ahead of time. I suppose you have to pay extra for that.

So things are back to sub-normal around here and I’m already to write up a couple more posts but unfortunately it’s bedtime for this bonzo so it will just have to wait until morning. Sorry to disappoint all of you like this but sometimes a man has to do what a man has to do especially when it comes to sleeping. Seems I need all the recharging I can get these days. :P

Not Smart Enough to Vote for Obama?

Hillary Clinton won W. Virginia in what of the New York Times calls an electoral shellacking. Well, good for her, it’s about time. However, Barack Obama’s advisors are waving her win aside blatantly hinting at the fact the state is filled with white, uneducated(?!!?) people.

To wit:

Mr. Obama’s advisers downplayed the West Virginia loss, describing the state as demographically unfriendly territory — the primary electorate was 95 percent white; 70 percent did not attend college — and pointing to national polls showing him in a strong position.

After Lopsided Loss, Obama Woos Blue-Collar Voters – New York Times

Ah…so what they’re essentially saying here is that if you ain’t college edu-mah-cated you ain’t smart enuff to vote for Obama ‘cuz you’re too dumb to see that he’s the one who should be President? Well, listen up Mr. Obama’s advisors, I have a light to shine upon this subject.

After fifty years of life, serving in the US Naval Submarine Force during the Cold War and working and dealing with people from all over this world and from all walks of life, the simple fact is that college educated doesn’t mean squat when it comes to a person’s intelligence or whether said person is informed/educated or not. 

I would hate to think that Obama’s loss in W. Virginia was strictly due to prejudice and although that might have been a minor factor I believe that a lot of folks, not just the those in W. Virginia, are finally starting to see Barack Obama for what he really is; A slick talking, consummate phoney. Of course this is strictly my non-college-educated opinion here. Obviously I’m too ignorant, inexperienced and naive to realize what having this man as President would do for this country. On the other hand I might see exactly what having this man as President would do for this country hence my aversion to the idea of him of winning the Presidential election.

And now I hear tell that ol’ Barack is wearing American flag pins and mentioning God here and there in his speeches to assure the people of his values. Yeah, right. Maybe he should of thought of that at the beginning of the campaign instead of waiting until now where the gesture seems transparent, flimsy and insulting of one’s intelligence.

But all the above is just my subjective opinion, now let me step outside myself and tell you what I objectively think will happen.

I believe that unless the man really pulls a massive boneheaded maneuver in the coming months of the campaign that alienates not only the public at large but the delegates and super delegates as well, Barack Obama is going to win the Democratic nomination. I even believe that Obama has more than a fair chance against John McCain for a couple-three reasons.

The American people are clamoring for change not only because they want it, but because they need it as well and McCain only offers the general public a big heaping helping of the "same old-same old". That plus the fact that he seems to spend quite a bit of his public time lately apologizing for things he said in the past which isn’t exactly what you might call impressive. Neither is his age for that matter and age seems to be playing a big part in this election in certain areas. So yes, looking at things objectively I think that Barack Obama will not only win the Democratic nomination, he’ll also stand an good chance of becoming the next President of these United States.

But then again, what do I know? I’m white and never attended college.