12.May.2008 » This was first week the Bug was not able to tootle around town in the Porsche. I told him it broke, and that I sold it to a guy who could fix it.
Rad & Sons Hook-n-Ladder
He asked what kind of car I was gonna get. I wasn't sure and asked his opinion.
"You should get a fire engine," he said (while eating an ice cream cone down on Balboa Island).
Know of any cheap, used fire engines for sale? =)
On a more technical note .. ever run out of room on your hard drive? particularly your C_drive? (where Windows resides)
Crap Cleaner
This seems to be a common problem with drives that are partitioned too small, and with laptops, which traditionally come with drives much smaller than those in your desktop.
A temporary solution might be » CCleaner. I've been using it on my laptop for ~ a year now. It can eliminate ~ 500 MB with each 'cleaning' (on my system).
I use the default settings and never had a problem. (Knock on silicon.) It's free and updated frequently. (Used to be called Crap Cleaner.)
Even if you don't need the extra space, might be a good idea to run it periodically (monthly) to eliminate the 'junk' that Windows tends to accumulate. I use it before creating a back-up image, to help make my images smaller and go faster.
CCleaner's home page boasts over 140 million downloads, so chances are you've already heard of it. Think I first heard of it from John (who maintains our forum FAQ).
I'm normally leery of any program that deletes hundreds of megabytes worth of files in one fell swoop, but I've used CCleaner dozens of times without a single problem. So I feel comfortable recommending it. (It's Rad tested.)
10.May.2008 » This Tuesday (13th) Frontline features a documentary titled » Storm Over Everest, chronicling the '96 disaster that killed 8 climbers, which was retold by Jon Krakauer in his book Into This Air (one of the best books I've ever read).
Storm Over Everest
David Breashears was there that day (May 10th), filming a movie for IMAX. This week's special includes re-creations of the blizzard that moved in (12 years ago today), along with interviews with the survivors.
I love this kind of stuff. Not sure why. Perhaps it has something to do with facing your fears and the self-discovery that accompanies pushing yourself beyond yourself.
If you miss Tuesday's airing, you can watch the program online.
06.May.2008 » Sold the Rad-mobile today. I've driven that car every day for 22 years. (When I find something I like, I stick with it.) Bought it when I was living in Pennsylvania (1986) when the car was 2 years old ($32K). Previously owned by a doctor's wife.
Sold the Porsche
Last week I noticed the engine sagging slightly. Took me a few days to figure out why. A part called the motor mount bracket had broken ($450, just for the part).
My buddy, Big Al, stopped over this morning to take a look. He's an ex crew chief for race cars. Builds race cars for a living. He said the bracket would not be easy to replace.
We'd have to do what is called a partial engine-drop. He also said not to drive the car, cuz the dang engine could fall out.
So I placed an ad on Craig's List. Within the hour, phone rang. Guy named Alex asked how much I thought the car was worth. I really had no idea, given its condition (undriveable).
But I threw out a number I'd be happy with. Alex said, "If you're willing to sell for that, I'll come over right now and buy it sight unseen."
Well, he did. Him and his buddy. Car left a few hours ago on a flatbed. It all went so very fast. (Made me dizzy.) One minute Big Al was ready to fix the car for me; the next (it seems), it was gone.
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Sold the Porsche
05.May.2008 » Happy Cinco de Mayo! ("5th of May") It's like our 4th of July, for Mexicans .. tho not technically their Independence day (as many presume). Rather it's when Mexico defeated the French (under Napoleon) in 1862 (during our Civil war) ..
Happy Cinco de Mayo
.. some 41 years after Mexico's war of independence. Four thousand Mexican soldiers defeated twice as many French at the Battle of Puebla.
CdM is a big deal here in Southern California, and probably any place with a sizable Mexican population. Like St. Patrick's day, you don't have to be Mexican to celebrate. Good excuse to eat tacos and drink Mexican beer. Olé!
Been busy working on the new » Guide to Virtual Private Servers. Now I remember why I don't write more guides: they're lots of work.
But there's nothing out there like what I'm doing. So it should benefit those looking to move (upgrade) from Shared web hosting. Wish there was something like this back when my research began.
I'm putting in one place all the VPS-related info I found scattered in a million different places, and seasoning this with my personal experience (acquired during the actual move).
Didn't realize how much I'd learned until I actually tried to document it all. Currently have 6 pages. Guessing I can finish by 12.
28.April.2008 » Day 3 with no coffee. This is where I usually cave. And to be honest, if it weren't so freaking hot today, I probably would've.
Day 3 No Coffee
But drinking coffee (espresso) isn't very appealing when it's so dang hot. (Heat wave here.) Thank God for global warming.
I was working earlier on the new Guide to Virtual Private Servers, yawning, with the intellectual drive of a mad cow.
The coffee demon was jumping up-n-down on my shoulder .. reminding me how blissful I would feel after downing a triple-shot, and how much mental energy it would give me. (It would.)
But the temperate angel was perched on the other side, reminding me I'd have to tell everybody (here) what a big, fat failure I was. (Again.)
So I made it another day. (Barely.) And the previous entry here gave enough pause to help keep me from falling off the wagon. Getting by day-3 is a major accomplishment for me.
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Day 3 - No Coffee: Withdrawal Symptoms
26.April.2008 » Coffee. I am so addicted. If you've been Radified any length of time, you know I've tried quitting before (numerous times), succeeding only in achieving a splitting headache.
Quitting Coffee (Revisited)
It's not so much the flavor I like, as the buzz. The amperage. The drive.
I have no qualms with drinking coffee per se. Rather it's the 'addicted' part that bothers me. Drinking coffee cuz we want to is fine. But drinking it because we have to is .. uh, hard to justify.
Actually, I drink espresso (less volume in my stomach). Usually a triple. This time will be different. (Yeah, I know I've said that before, too.) But I really have a good feeling about it.
"Why should this time be any different?" you ask. Cuz now I have a secret weapon. =)
Normally these detox endeavors begin with a 30-day goal, which is quickly revised down to "a week," and end up lasting a few days. (If that.)
Some advise a gradual weaning .. to help minimize headaches. "Weaning is for wimps," I tell them (usually squinting thru a blinding headache).
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Quitting Coffee: Revisited
23.April.2008 » Have a special treat for you today. Took my digital camera along for a stroll thru Castaways Park (here in Newport Beach), where I snapped a few photos.
Castaways Park + Newport Beach Harbor
Been meaning to do this for a while now. (Share this.)
Castaways is a great place to go and think. The park sits up on a bluff (25 acres), overlooking Newport Harbor, and the upper Back Bay. A nice breeze usually blows up there (off the Pacific).
I go there often .. to help clear my head. Photos taken Sunday (20th), shortly before sunset.
Oops, almost forgot the linkage. Here ya go » Castaways Park, Newport Beach. And here's a larger, higher-quality version (100-KB) » Newport Harbor
Given the stratospheric cost of real estate in Newport Beach, if you tried to value this 25-acre plot, you'd no-doubt arrive at an a$tronomic figure.
Today's entry has been blog-i-fied for easy linkage .. see here » Castaways Park + Newport Beach Harbor
21.April.2008 » Woohoo! I worked some Apache mojo today to "alias" the file-name of this home page (index2.html) to » index.rad.
Rad Apache Mojo
That's so cool! Thanks to Nigel (Ghost Developer from New Zealand) for holding my hand. Here's the code I used to work this magic (added to .htaccess file):
RewriteEngine on
RewriteRule ^index.rad index2.html
Thus far, this technique has only been applied to the home page (starting with a baby-step). But in the future, I'd like to expand its use .. to 'radify' other key pages.
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Rad Apache Mojo via Mod_Rewrite Engine
20.April.2008 » It has been a week since the home page was redesigned .. with a new table-less layout. Have you gotten used to it yet? Like it? (I'm diggin' it.) Been making slight tweaks here and there...
Rad Web Design
.. such as adding left-padding to the graphics in this center section, to keep text from butting up against images. (See the De Cecco pasta-lady below.)
This padding also adds a slight indent (6 pixels) to the yellow tri-blade radiation symbols which begin each post.
Speaking of design .. I got a call from somebody saying they wanted to hire me to redesign their web site. (Cool.) My nuclear training instilled in me the notion that I need to know everything about everything before doing anything professionally.
Which might be true in the nuclear world, but friends say that ain't how the real world works, and that I already know more than enough to do web design professionally.
And I must admit, after reading (studying) those excellent books (» Head First XHTML/CSS, » CSS Mastery & » Dreamweaver: The Missing Manual), I *do* feel comfortable wielding web design mojo.
So if you know somebody who needs web work, I'm available. (And cheap.) I don't know PHP yet, but that's coming. Rad Web Design .. has a nice ring, no?
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Rad Web Design Studio
19.April.2008 » Have a special treat for you today .. my world-famous Puttanesca recipe. Puttanesca is a dirty word, so you must be 18 to read.
Nuclear Grade Puttanesca
I've sent this recipe countless times via email. Finally decided to copy-n-paste it into a webpage .. to share with the world. See here » Rad's Nuclear Grade Puttanesca (I'm eating a bowl right now.)
17.April.2008 » I was laying on the bed last night, snuggling the Bug, watching Pooh's Heffalump Halloween movie (his current favorite title), when ..
I Like You, Dada
.. out of the blue, he turns around, looks me in the eye and says (with a big smile and a sparkle in his eyes), "I *like* you, dada.
Totally unexpected. Caught me completely off-guard. I felt disabled for 5 or 6 seconds .. like a fish flopping on the deck. Couldn't even talk.
The inflection in his voice conveyed a genuine enthusiasm. His words went deep, penetrating.
He'd already ate dinner and had his bath. So we were just chillin' .. winding down, spending time being close. (Good snuggler, he is.)
I still don't entirely understand my reaction. Maybe my defenses were down (being late in the day), and that's why his comment had such an unusual effect.
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » "I Like You, Dada"
16.April.2008 » We exceeded the memory limit on our new VPS today (for the first time). Our current memory limit is 384-MB (256-regular + 128-upgrade).
Memory Limit Exceeded on Our New VPS
I noticed the forums set the record today for most guests ever online at one time. So maybe that has something to do with it. See » here. [More info here.]
11.April.2008 » Notice anything different? The old/previous design was based on pre-XHTML standards mark-up .. which I had *converted* to XHTML-valid (using Dreamweaver). But the guts still contained a table-based layout (kludge).
New Table-less Layout
The layout of this page however, is not based on tables (rather » on CSS). My new CSS page (if you're interested) is aqui » radified_xhtml2.css.
Been meaning to start over from scratch and layout this page based on CSS .. ever since I started upgrading my web design skills. Now that the site is busy enough to require a VPS, I figure we probably oughta have a homepage laid-out with CSS. (Modern.)
So I finally just put my head down and went for it. Spur-of-the-moment decision. More involved than I expected. A million little details required attention .. in order to massage current content (you see here now) into the new layout. And once I start a project like this, I don't like to stop until it's done. (Worked 'til 1AM.)
This CSS-based layout will let me tweak the design more easily as my CSS skills (continue to) develop.
I chose that bluish-green color (sidebars) cuz I was searching for a link-color that doesn't distract from reading this normal gray text (which you're reading now).
The old light-blue links I was using before were so bright they jumped out .. which I found distracting, since I tend to use copious linkage. (Design should complement content .. not overpower it, right?) But sometimes we don't notice things, until we're looking for them. My design-aim was/is to present a content-focused website.
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » New Table-less Layout for Rad Homepage (Based on CSS Mojo)
08.April.2008 » Finally have a couple of pages to show you .. regarding the new » Guide to Virtual Private Servers. Been a long time since I cranked out a new Rad guide. Feels good. Tho tired now.
New Rad Guide to Virtual Private Servers
It's still a work-in-progress (WIP), but I have a good start on it. The research has already been done (which is the time-consuming part). And the site has already been moved/upgraded, so I have first-hand experience (which we prize) to accompany the research. All that remains » documentation.
I like the idea of this guide. Has a certain coolness, no? Much easier for me to put my head down and plow thru a guide when it has cool-factor.
VPS is all about speed, power & control. (Nearly synonymous with Porsche.) Oozes cool .. (in a geeky-kinda way). Guessing I can have it done in 10 pages. But I keep thinking of more things I should include. So maybe 10 won't be enough?
Planning to include everything *I* would've liked to know .. back when I began my research. It will be a cool guide. Ultra-practical. (Radified.)
Speaking of cool .. if you use Firefox (and who doesn't these days?), and you like things dark .. check out this theme, called » NASA Night Launch. Browsing the forums with a NASA-theme'd Firefox is .. heaven (at night). =)
If you don't hear from me for a few days, I'll be working on the VPS guide. (Update - Just added a 3rd page.)
Today's entry has been blog-i-fied for easy linkage .. see here » Began New Rad Guide to Virtual Private Servers (VPS)
06.April.2008 » Updated the "About" page (complete rewrite), which is a synopsis of the site's origins, and how we got where we are. That page, to a degree, tells the Rad story and therefore defines the site. So I'd like to get it right.
Updated the 'About' Page
Also started working on a new Rad Guide .. to Virtual Private Servers (Upgrading from Shared Web Hosting) .. since this is something I happen to know a bit about, and it's impossible to find every thing I learned in a single document. Anybody who find themselves in a similar situation would embrace such a guide as both helpful and insightful.
I want to start writing while the info is still fresh in mind. Created a new subdomain » vps.radified.com, since I find subdomains an elegant way to organize. (Nothing posted yet, but I started on it today.)
01.April.2008 » Logged into my Paypal account today, planning to move fund$ (from my checking account) .. in preparation for paying this month's web hosting fee (with our new provider) .. when I noticed...
.. there was already plenty of cash in the account. (Woohoo!) How did it get in there?
You might've noticed the small Make a Donation button .. found in the left side-bar (have to scroll down). As you know, I don't solicit donations. But if readers feel inspired, there it is.
Timely Donations
Several generous readers donated amounts ranging from $50 to $100 (less a small percentage Paypal keeps for their trouble). Boy, was I stoked!
Funny how donations always seem to arrive when they're needed most.
As a side note, I find it interesting that most donations (by far) come from » Texans. Why is that? Are they more generous than most? .. or drawn more strongly to the site? I have lived in many states, but Texas isn't one of them. So I can't say for sure.
Priorities & Sacrifice
Speaking of money .. all my life, cash was never a problem. I mean (not to brag), I was earning close to $100K fifteen years ago .. (back when 100K was still 100K). I paid ca$h for a Porsche (the Rad-mobile) .. back in the '80's. Even at age 11, I was delivering newspapers 7 days a week. So I've always had plenty of spending-cash .. for long as I can recall.
But ever since I started going to court a few years ago .. well, that wiped me out. And you can't work nuclear just any ol' place. Reactors aren't found on every street corner, or in every town. (Or even in every state.)
Today's entry continues in Ye Olde Rad Blog .. see here » Generous Paypal Donations + Rad Finances & Learning Frugality
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