thesauri sapientiae et quisquiliae
General Posts
Happy New Year!
01132 days
by captivus
in General Posts
I certainly hope that 2009 will find me more actively updating the blog here!
Where Are “The Friendly Skies”?
11670 days
by captivus
in General Posts
I thought I’d share a recent experience I had flying United. While I suffer delays almost every week, early last month I ran through a remarkable series of delays — remarkable even for United. So bad were both the delays and the customer service I received, I was moved to write a letter to the Chairman of the Board at United. The letter details the nightmare and can be found here.
Addon Domains at HostGator
01672 days
by captivus
in General Posts
This site is, as I’ve mentioned previously, hosted on a Linux server I rent from HostGator. I ran into a bit of trouble when using “addon domains” with their service which I have meant to document for some time now.
I read the knowledgebase article at HostGator Support on setting up addon domains which warns at the top of the article:
“Before you can add an addon domain you must change the name servers for the domain name to the ones provided for your hosting account. You cannot create an addon domain if your DNS for the site you are trying to add hasn’t propagated yet.”
I was exact in following these instructions and waited 3 days for the DNS changes I had made at GoDaddy (where I purchased and manage the domains) to propagate. Ultimately, they did not.
The solution to the problem was to setup the addon domain at HostGator, via the cPanel, immediately after making the DNS changes to the domain. I’m not sure if this is an issue unique to GoDaddy domains — I imagine it is not. It seems that the documentation provided by HostGator is inaccurate in this regard.
Repairing Scratched DVDs and CDs
01672 days
by captivus
in General Posts
This is a fairly useless piece of trivia, but it saved a recent movie rental experience for me so I figured I’d share it.
I typically wash scratched or otherwise unreadable DVDs or CDs in warm, soapy water and then dry them with a soft, non-abrasive cloth. Discs which are not readable after this washing can be repaired in another manner. Scratched — even significantly scratched — DVDs and CDs can be “repaired” by rubbing conditioner into the surface of the data-side of the disc. I met success in this endeavor by pouring conditioner liberally onto the surface of the DVD — I used a blob roughly the size of a quarter — and then rubbing it all over the surface until most of it disappeared. There was some residual conditioner left on the disc so I wiped it off with a tissue, being careful to not leave tissue particles behind.
The DVD was really in bad shape when I got it — the movie hardly played at all — but I managed to play through the entire movie with only a few skips after the conditioner-fix.
I’m certainly open to hearing other methods of fixing scratches on optical discs!
Flight of the Conchords
11884 days
by captivus
in General Posts
This duo from New Zealand is one of the funniest comedic acts I have seen in some time. A full 30-minute appearance on HBO’s One Night Stand can now be found here at CG.com!
[flv]http://files.shift8.net/uploads/videos/Flight_Of_The_Conchords-HBO_One_Night_Stand.flv[/flv]
It would certainly be worth the time spent searching YouTube and Google Video (why the two sites still exist exclusive of each other, in light of the recent purchase by Google, remains to be explained) for other videos of the hilarious, self-proclaimed inventors of rap music.
It’s business time!
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