chewykolchuk

Archive for the ‘ teh internets ’ Category

My girlfriend’s computer got a virus. She thinks it was from a popular VOIP client that rhymes with “ripe”. I gotta say that that sucks. So she spent an hour or so trying to uninstall the program, but she’s getting weird error messages and it’s just frustrating her, so she said “screw this” and shut the computer off for now.

Okay.  So now I’m online doing research and trying to find out what the virus is and how to combat it so that she can get back online and all that.  (perfect timing, I suppose, as she just bought an iPhone last night)  In my search, I’ve been finding all the standard BS sites that are just trying to sell something, but then I came across the winner!

Here’s the full article, but the gist is this:  Dude states that there’s a new virus out there and it’s the worst he’s ever seen! (OMIGOD, whatever will we all do?!)  He then goes on to say that normal viruses gain personal info from your computer so that the hacker/naughty people can exploit it for their own nefarious purposes.  Yes, yes, we all get that.  BUT WAIT!  He then goes on to say that this new virus actually replicates the DNA of known illnesses such as the flu and ebola and it transmits them over the web!!!

NO SHIT!

My favorite is where he says that he was talking to his sick girlfriend (she’s in the US and he’s in Ireland) and after talking to her online, he then contracts the flu as well!  (that sound you’re hearing is the theme to The Twilight Zone)

It actually gets better than that, especially after one reads the comments, but I’ll let you read it for yourself.  Where?  HERE!

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“get together your shit, and move your ass to a proper toilet”

- Fishbone

Now that I’ve decided to get my shit together vis a vis this very neglected blog, I’m trying to make sure that everything that is important will look completely awesome and all that shit.  The thing that sucks is that the feature that enabled one to click on my pics and have them enlarge with a cool animation…that seems to be broke.

DAMMIT, JIM!

So now I’m all pissed.  Gonna have to go into all the code and figure out what the hell is going wrong and why can’t the particular plugin work right n shit.

More later…

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How many times can I say that I’m changing the look of this site, and then do exactly that, only to abandon the site altogether to rot like the raccoon carcasses I see on the side of the road during my morning rides?

Apparently a lot.

However, I’m gonna get back on that horse and start ‘er up again.  I’ve been learning a lot about how the web works in the last year.  That sounds weird, but working in web development has shown me when to do what, and why.  Also, the advent of Twitter and Facebook have had an impact on how we as a society view the web and how we affect and interact with it.

I’ve come to realize that Facebook has alleviated my need to tell the world the weird things that happen to me on a daily basis.  The screwy thing about that is that the short nature of Facebook posts doesn’t allow for a long-winded and descriptive dingdong like me to really get into it.  I know you can post Notes, but if I’m going to waste a lot of energy telling bored people a bunch of useless information, I’m going to do it right here.  And of course, that goes double for Twitter.

The main thing I’ve noticed, and what makes me realize that I need to blog on my own site, is that since I’ve gotten a smartphone, I pretty much only surf Facebook and Twitter when I’m on the throne.  That means that not only am I just surfing in a very superficial way, I’m also not using the full capability of those sites, since I rarely visit them on a computer.

Okay, there you have it.  Look for more posts soon enough.

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In this day and age, if you possess any level of celebrity, then you are going to be a target. And the worse the scenario, the bigger the target you are. How many Michael Jackson jokes did you hear last year? I rest my case.

So imagine my pleasure when I saw this out there.

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Hey there dear reader. I’ve recently gone through some changes in my life. To get right to it, I’ve started using Mozilla’s Thunderbird email client, and now it’s a lot easier to manage multiple email accts through the one interface. I realize that that’s soooo 2005, but I’m slowly catching on.

The point here, though, is that I’m going to be no longer checking my Yahoo email address, and if you read this and would like to pre-empt the email I’ll be shortly sending out, feel free to text me or send an email and I’ll update you as to how to address any future emails to me.

Thank you for your readership.

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So here I am, on the throne
Quietly crapping, all alone
And as I type on my website (they’re all the rage)
My girlfriend is commenting on my Facebook page

I posted something, and she went to see
And posted her comment right back to me
If she’d spoken to me, that’d been just fine
But in this day and age, it’s all online

And so I wondered, “what’s the appropriate play?”
How to respond in just the right way?
The answer came quick, cuz I’m no chump
I wrote me a poem while taking a dump

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Hey folks, guess what? I won something! That’s right, you heard right, Chewy Kolchuk done won something for hisself, all by hisself! As it turns out, I had entered a caption into a contest being held by a Roanoke, VA newspaper back during the 1st week in December. It was to be a caption for a picture of a guy kissing a picture of Sarah Palin, whose image was on a bus. In situations like this where I want to retain some privacy, I log in using a junkmail acct, and that’s exactly what I’d done this time. Ready for the punchline?

I had no idea, cuz I’d been drinking when I entered the contest. So tonight as I was cleaning up my junkmail inbox, I came across an email from the guy who had set up the contest, and he was needing my address so he could mail my prize to me.

Well, howdy doo!  Details here.

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3 people have responded to the change in my site’s look.  2 of the 3 didn’t like it.  Well, excuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuse ME!!!

However, a 66% disapproval rating kinda confirmed it for me.  Time to change it up.  WordPress has had some neat additions and widgets and abilities come along in the recent months, and so I’m still playing with some of that.  There will be a link to my Twitter page, which I’m learning to use, and there will be a link to my Flickr page, which I’m trying to be more active with.  And then there are the “featured” posts, much like with the last theme I was using where there will be more images and general flashiness.  Not too much, mind you, just enough to get you, the reader, all twitterpated.

Stay tuned…work in progress.

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Here I am, surfing the iPhone app store. I recently switched to AT&T so that I could start getting used to the iPhone, cuz Dave wants to write apps for it. So every day I try to think of what might make for a good app and then I search the app store at iTunes.

Recently I was looking for bicycle-related apps since I’m a bike dude, so I was searching terms like “cycling”, “bicycling”, “bikes”, “bicycles”, and when I typed in “cycle”, I found a bunch of apps concerning the ‘menstrual cycle’. WHOA!!! I mean, I guess that just makes sense, cuz that’s kind of a big deal for a number of reasons, all pertaining to one BIG thing that most young people want to avoid, so okay…there’s a bunch of apps for it. But you know…I got curious. So I downloaded one of them.

I feel like I just read my girlfriend’s diary or something! I opened some sort of Pandora’s box and it can never be closed again! This app is CRAZY!!! Okay, sure, you can type in the start and finish dates of your last period, as well as how long in between cycles it usually is, and then as time passes, it will become more predictive for you as to when your friend will next show up. That would seem to be standard fare. But delve a little further and it starts to make one (if male, like myself) feel a little crunchy, like I furnished a false password and am now in some place that I shouldn’t be. AND I’m about to be found out at any moment!

When you open the app, it asks you to furnish when you had your last period, and when you choose any specific date, there’s an option to choose whether you had intercourse or if your period started on that date. I chose intercourse. It then asked me if it was protected or unprotected! WHAT!!! Who are the dirty whores downloading this app?

Well, me, for one. But I digress.

When I went back into the setup portion (always start with a new program by setting up your preferences, it helps one understand just what the program in question is capable of) to adjust parameters, it asked me to input my Luteal Phase. Off to Google I went and found out what that shit meant. Then I was asked if I wanted my Fertile Days to be displayed. Uh, no.

So that was interesting to say the least. However, I was still doing research for the brilliant app that I have in mind and so I went back to the app store. I typed in more search terms and saw many apps that made differing levels of sense in my mind, from the idiotic-but-I-suppose-that-matters-to-some kind of apps to the (like the above-mentioned app) holy-crap-I-had-no-idea-because-I-don’t-live-there kind of apps. At one point though, and I suppose it just makes sense, I did stumble upon a couple of apps that were based on the sex-offender registry idea. Holy shit! If I know ONE thing, it’s Never Look Up Sex Offenders Online. Why? Because you’ll find out where they are! And they are in your neighborhood! Now…I don’t have children, so I don’t worry as much about this as some, but I don’t wanna know that shit! I’d like to think that the nice person walking their Akita at night in our neighborhood simply has that dog because it’s a beautiful animal, and not because they are fiercely loyal to ONE person and will fight to the death for them…and that maybe this person is a sex offender and they need that kind of protection. No thanks, I’d like to think otherwise as the dog (who is as big as a fucking horse) looks me right in the eye and silently challenges me every time I walk by. I’m stupid enough too, to fall for that shit…and I stare right back and the owner has to physically pull him along, cuz this dog ALWAYS wants a piece of me. Funny thing is…I KNOW that dog would rip me a new one too, but I can’t stop letting him know that I’m still higher on the food chain, or totem pole or pecking order. Whatever…try to light a lighter, pal. Try to hitch-hike. Not so easy with paws is it? Fuck you, I’m going to the bar!

Anyway, I learned something new today at the ol’ app store. There is always something out there for you, no matter what your taste.

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Here’s another test. Getting images into posts from iPhone.

This post is a hybrid.  I posted the photo successfully from the phone, but now I’m editing it from the computer.  I like to have the images be centered, so if you see a photo image that is aligned to the left, then assume it’s from the phone as well.

I went out to make coffee and this little kitty was staring at me from outside the window.  Meowing real loud.  Hi, kitty.  I’m in here and you’re out there, but you know that.  Bye bye…

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