Month: June 2007

My mistake: that version of the Trend Micro software that I mentioned in my previous post didn’t fix the problem after all. Thanks to this comment in response to my first posting on this subject I learned that the specific component of the TM software package that’s causing the problem is the spam toolbar that is optionally installed in Outlook. When I tried using the debugger immediately after installing the new version the problem was not present, but that was because I hadn’t yet turned on the toolbar. I tried it again after turning the toolbar on and the same problem with the debugger log returned. read more

Giving credit where credit is due: Trend Micro wrote to me again. This time they provided me with a download link for a new version of their installer, and, lo and behold, this version seems to coexist peacefully with the Microsoft debugger.

I did try the PC Tools spam-filtering software but was quite unimpressed. It runs painfully slowly and didn’t seem to be at all effective at removing spam from my incoming message stream.

Right around the time that our marathon of home-improvement projects was finally drawing to a close, Tracie noticed that the dryer had started making a funny smell. It appeared that its thermostat had died so it was running at full heat, all the time, regardless of its temperature setting. The laundry machines were far from what you’d call new when I assumed ownership of them about 10 years ago, so there was no question that the sensible thing to do was to replace the dryer. As long as we were replacing the dryer it made sense to replace the washer as well. We really didn’t like the notion of yet another person fiddling around in our house, but on the other hand the notion of the dryer bursting into flames was even less attractive. read more

Having given up on Symantec’s “Norton” products for protecting my PCs against malware, I’ve been casting about for another vendor of security software. Tracie’s Dell laptop came pre-loaded with some anti-spam/anti-virus stuff from Trend Micro. It seems to work fairly well, so I purchased a three-seat pack of their current Internet Security 2007 package and installed it on the Paper Jade corporate computer and my other main PC. All seemed well at first, and I noticed in particular that its spam filter was quite effective. read more

I put up some new photos in the Paper Jade photo galleries recently. There are more of work done by Virginia White here and by me here. They’re not dated but I always add the newest photos to the top of the page. Most of the new ones by me came from books by Tomoko Fuse which I brought back from Japan.

Here’s a photo of my most recent origami project. It’s an icosa-dodecahedron, constructed from units folded from 60 rectangular sheets of paper. (Yes, no glue was used.) The design is from Unit Polyhedron Origami by Tomoko Fuse. It’s about 20cm across.

The paper came from this package available at Paper Jade.

In a moment of remarkable idiocy, I forgot to put money in the parking meter before I went into the dentist’s office yesterday. I don’t know what caused this mental lapse; I made sure that I had change for the meter before I left the house, and I looked right at the meters as I parked. Duh.

Sure enough, upon my return I had a ticket. This is only the second parking ticket I’ve ever gotten, and the sheer stupidity of my oversight made it almost more amusing than annoying. (The first time I got a ticket happened when I returned to Boulder after living in Monument for about 18 months and a parking lot that had previously been free had changed to permit-only during my absence. The only indication of the change was a small, almost inconspicuous sign at the entrance, and a notable availability of parking slots at midday.) read more

There’s a rather clever and amusing commercial here for Trojan condoms. I won’t spoil any of it; just watch it. Also watch the “Making the Commercial” shorts while you’re there.

The story (which is on the NYT site somewhere) goes that CBS and Fox have refused to air it, despite the fact that their programming regularly includes a good deal of explicit sexual activity. Apparently it’s okay to show their audiences all sorts of violence and promiscuity but not to try to teach them some responsibility. read more

We’re just lived through about a month and a half straight of home-maintenance hell. Somehow we were seized with insanity earlier this year and decided to schedule a complete replacement of the siding on the house for just after we got back from Japan. On one hand this was smart because it meant getting the job done before the summer rainy season. (Boulder actually does get kind of rainy in the summer, although that’s relative to itself. Relative to, say, Oregon it never gets all that rainy. Supposedly it’s sunny here an average of 300 days per year. I don’t know whether or not that includes the numerous days in which it’s sunny in the morning but cloudy and rainy in the afternoon.) On the other hand it wasn’t at all smart because it didn’t give us a chance to recover much from the trip, and it totally hosed my ability to make forward progress with Audio Damage’s projects. But now the end is in sight, and the memory of the sheer horror of it all is starting to fade. Rather than attempt to describe it, I’m going to be lazy and insert a copy of an email that Tracie sent to her brother last week. [We haven’t been able to decide whether “re-siding” is actually a word that means “replacing siding”. Apparently it isn’t, but it’s handy for brevity.] read more

I’m so bummed that this wasn’t available when we were in Japan.