señor taco’s travels

So, I have worked with alpha-based computers for several years and I even
had a few for a while, but in preparing to move I decided I didn’t want
those any longer, but I did want an alpha. Well, this last week I put a
posting on craigslist.org saying I wanted an alpha. This weekend I
was able to pick one up really cheap. Man I love the Bay Area. I can
probably find any hardware I’d want out here.

The alpha is a Personal Workstation 600a:

• 21164A EV56 600MHz Alpha cpu
• 128MB RAM (with 2 open slots so I can expand it later)
• 2x 4GB SCSI hdd
• SCSI CD-ROM
• SCSI 4mm Tape Drive (DDS-3 DDS-2)

This machine will be named Bob, after Silent Bob in the Jersey Trilogy.

Don’t ask me why, but I have a fascination with skulls. This fascination has
bled over into pirates and their symbolism. I did a little searching today
and came up with just a few links on pirate flags (and one link from
Simian Design that is just pirate images in general). Enjoy:

• History of the Pirate Flag
• Pirate Flags (this site has other stuff too)
• Pirate Image Archive

Oh yes, a big thanks still goes out to CB and Athena who got me a great t-shirt at Teach’s Hole which i happily wore today because I was on a big
pirate kick. YAR!

Yesterday was new music Tuesday. My best friend Matt mentioned
that the new Bouncing Souls album was out. I had no idea so I went by and
bought it after work. I like it a lot. These guys are always solid and Anchors Aweigh doesn’t disappoint. Songs like “Simple Man” and “I’m From There” are just instant sing-alongs.

While at the store I also picked up the new Thrice album, The Artist in the Ambulance. I liked the previous two Thrice releases because they were a kind of punk/metal mix. Great all around. This new one will probably take a little longer to get used to, but I liked it the couple of times I spun it already.

I nearly forgot, yesterday when I mentioned getting the Rancid, I should have also mentioned that I picked up the Libertines album Up the Bracket. I got this on a recommendation from my friend dode and generally I trust his tastes, but when I first listened to that album I couldn’t stand it. I did however give it a few more spins and it really grew on me. It’s not my normal fare, but I like it all the same. Anyone that compares these guys to the Stroke(off)s is just plain mistaken, they are so much better.

Last week I went down to San Jose and picked up an UltraSparc 5. The specs
are:

• 333 MHz UltraSparc IIi with 2MB cache
• 512MB Ram (50ns stuff I think)
• 8.4GB IDE HDD (I’ll add another one later, this is fine for now)
• ATI video on-board (runs X-Windows at 1280×1024 16-bit with no problems)

That’s pretty much it. I’ve got OpenBSD-current running on it (3.4-beta
as of this writing). Ports work fine except I already found a problem
with my audio/p5-CDDB_get port, it fails the ioctl on big endian machines.

In keeping with my naming convention of characters from Kevin Smith movies (with one exception, but I just loved the name smudge too much not to use it) I’ve named this one Steve-Dave after the owner of Comic Toast in Mall Rats (mostly because it starts with an “s” just like sparc64).

I got the new Rancid last week. I would usually have posted on this right away, but I just didn’t feel like it. This album is fantastic. Indestructible is definitely a return to sounds from a few albums ago (like And Out Come the Wolves or Life Won’t Wait). Every song is solid and the lyrics are pure of heart.

Once again Rancid doesn’t let their fans down and has a high-quality release for young and old.

I took the day off work yesterday to hang out with my parents and sister. They had been in town since Saturday and flew back home today. It was good to see them (I also spent Saturday and Sunday with them).

Yesterday (Wednesday) we drove down to Monterey and visited the aquarium. I actually thought it was going to be a little bit bigger than it was, but it was still really cool.

I got some pictures, I might post some later.

I took my car in to the body shop yesterday to get the doors fixed after the break in.

The body shop: nice, courteous, professional, timely.

The car rental company: slow (it took about an hour to get a car), under-staffed, and they didn’t come to pick me up in a reasonable time, the body shop guys took me over to the rental place.

Then, oh then, I got one of the most craptacular cars ever, the Toyota Echo. Not only does it feel flimsy driving (I mean, it’s grounded okay, but it bounces around a bit too easy. I’m thinking I need some sand-bags in the trunk or something), but the seats are uncomfortable and the controls are all in harder to reach locations.

I so can’t wait to get my far superior VW Passat back. At least I won’t be phantom clutching in that.

So, this afternoon was a bit better. I took a super short lunch so i could go to the insurance adjuster later. I just walked over to the taco truck and got a burrito (very yummy btw). While there the guy taking orders had on an older Dayglo Abortions t-shrit on. That made me laugh. I complemented him on his t-shirt and he seemed shocked to see someone that knew who they were.

After lunch was the insurance adjuster. He was a very nice guy and very helpful. I finally saw how much damage there was. They dented the door pillar and scratched the crap out of it. The car will be in the shop for two days getting fixed. I’ll have an econo rental car for the duration. Life goes on.

Just a follow up to the previously mentioned possibility of BitTorrent notes. Such things are now available online thanks to the wonderful Chris Palmer.

So, yesterday I decided I would listen to the propaganda and take BART (that’s Bay Area Rapid Transit) into work and save driving across the bridge and finding parking. I got a pointer from a fellow Wild Brainer that there was a super easy place to park a short distance from the Rockridge BART station. So, I got up earlier yesterday and found the parking just fine and then rode down in to the city.

All was going well (I mean, I even did fine with the wonderful area of 16th St. and Mission) and the ride back that evening was fine. Let me just say, reading on the commute is great.

The good feelings ended when I got to my car and found the front passenger window smashed out. Apparently the dick that did it was looking to see if I had left the faceplate to my radio in the car (which I hadn’t). Whomever it was went through the glove box and center console (leaving the quarters there), removed my map book from the seat pocket it was in, and got nothing. There were also scratches on the door beams where it looks like the retard (and I say that in the nicest way possible, I mean, there was nothing in my car and that was plainly visible through the windows) tried to pry the door open.

When I called the Oakland Police they proved themselves to be useless by stating it would be a three hour wait for an officer to file a report.

Needless to say I had a fun morning getting my window replaced (and if you are in San Francisco and need that kind of service I highly recommend Safelite at 655 4th St., 415-431-4117. They were fast, professional, and courteous.). I goto the insurance adjustor this afternoon to see about getting the other damage repaired.

I won’t be listening to any more propaganda about BART for a while, at least not until they provide more secure parking at the stations (or maybe I decide to ride a bike to the station, but oh, the hills).