The Steussy Ranch

Our Server

Our server was up and down over the past two days. I’ve solved the problem (for the moment) by completely rebuilding the software from the ground up.

If you see something that isn’t functioning as it should, please let me know. I’ll spend the next couple of days fine tuning the new server.

This is so cool. The first video is a professional ad video that looks cool. The second video is from CES in Las Vegas and is actually cooler, since it shows the real capabilities and plans for it.

In Costco on Sunday, I go to the eyeglasses section to order new contacts. I’d worn my trial pair for three weeks, liked them well enough to order a full set.

“I’m sorry, Mr. Steussy, but on Sundays the optometrist’s office is closed. Unless you have the written prescription in your pocket, we can’t order the contacts for you.”

Light bulb goes off. “Why, I do have my prescription in my pocket! Just a moment.” I take out my iPhone and two minutes later have an image of my contact lens prescription.

OK – there are two questions that need to be answered: How did I do that? And why did I do that?

Two years ago, I set out to run a paperless life. Every receipt or document is scanned or photographed, then filed electronically in my computers along with all my other images. My electronic environment (all computers, server, etc.) is religiously backed up, including off-site copies, so these images are virtually impossible to lose. For legal and tax purposes, the images are completely acceptable.

Why did I have that image with me? All images from every camera/scanner go to iPhoto. In iPhoto, there is a pre-set folder marked “Last 12 months”. Going to iTunes, I set my iPhone to copy that folder whenever I plug into my computer. Voila, I have a year’s worth of all images, including receipts.

Usually this comes in handy when showing a six month old photo of someone’s son or daughter to a visiting aunt. This is the first time a scanned document has proven useful.

Google has announced that it is releasing an Open Source operating system soon. True geek stuff below. (more…)

We’d been planning for awhile to swap out our standard incandescent lights for the compact florescent lights, but hadn’t gotten around to it. Low and behold, one day six weeks ago we bump into a sale at Costco. Not a sale, a give-away. 10 florescent bulbs for $2. That’s $0.20 each. We couldn’t pass it up.

We’ve replaced nearly all of the bulbs in the house. That’s not the only change since last year – all of the computers in the house are now laptops, except for the free-standing server that hosts this webpage. All of our cathode ray screens have been replaced by flat panels in the last year.

Time to check the results. It’s hard to tell, but going back to other October/November billings we’re seeing a 20% drop in energy usage. That means a 40% drop in our electric bill. Our blackmailer utility, Southern California Edison, charges a more-or-less normal national rate for a very, very small amount of electricity, then ramps it up to one of the highest charges anywhere in the world if you go beyond that minimum (see comparison chart here). The energy we saved was all being charged at $0.30 per kilowatt/hr.

In the summertime, just looking at an air conditioner requires taking out a second mortgage.

This is brilliant! So, Google Suggestions (the little lines that show up below a Google search query) give us a great deal of insight into what the rest of the world is thinking. Someone divided the queries into “Less Intelligent” (bad grammar, simple words) and “More Intelligent” (proper grammar, more complicated phrasing).

I’ve been around enough to recognize that this should be “Less Educated” and “More Educated”, or something similar. It’s certainly not intelligence being gauged here, but looking beyond that, the results are certainly interesting. Click for a full image.