JonathanRyan.org

If you buy Hello Kitty computer accessories, they will break. I discovered this while helping Corrin build a Hello Kitty computer. (Pictures are coming soon, I swear!)  Even though I’m writing a terrible review about how they’ll break, feel free to buy them on Amazon anyway!  I earn referral fees! :)

	Speakers: The speakers were incredibly cute, and didn’t sound terrible, but one of them didn’t work so we had to return them.Hello Kitty Speakers on Amazon
	Keyboard: The keyboard was a bit flaky for quite a while, and eventually completely failed.  Unforunately it failed outside of the return period.Hello Kitty Keyboard on Amazon
	Mouse: The mouse looks great with the decorations on the case.  However, it was poorly manufactured so a spring in the battery case doesn’t touch the battery.  If I cant pop it to where it needs to be, we’ll have to return it as well.  However, the mouse does have a decent warranty, unlike the other products.  Repairs in the first 90 days are free, and after that are $10.Hello Kitty Wireless Mouse on Amazon

So, I created this awesome wrapper around the BSD fortune-mod program that is installed on my Gentoo server at home, and it came out really nicely (and was done quickly) for being coded at 2:30am… hehe. Anyways, it allows you to produce silly random quotes like the following:

 _______________________________________________
/ Win95 is not a virus; a virus does something. 
|                                               |
 -- unknown source                             /
 -----------------------------------------------
           ^__^
           (xx)_______
            (__)       )/
             U  ||--WWW |
                ||     ||

Link: Random Quote Generator

I just signed up for Technorati, so to prove I own this blog I have to post this link: Technorati Profile

I emptied out www.wikikiwi.org since it hadn’t been touched in a long time, and now it is a pick your own adventure story that the users create.  I’m showing it to some people who are involved in a role playing forum, so hopefully they’ll help contribute some fun content.

Link

Now I need to go download it.

I was sloppy when I waxed my car, and ended up with some ugly looking white marks on my door handles.  They’re black textured plastic, so it got down in the grooves and wouldn’t wipe off.  It turns out the solution is incredibly easy - just use an eraser!  Any eraser seems to work, but I had the best luck with a very soft one.

I’ve invented an amazing device that will revolutionize transportation! It will be even better than the Segway! It was inspired by the two patents shown below:

Obviously, just cramming these two together to make the gas-powered pogo-copter isn’t enough.  Anyone can see that the pogo-copter patent wouldn’t actually work.  The inventor added a wheel to the bottom of the shaft it seems would make even an ordinary pogo stick unusable.  Also, his method for rotating the blade works on the concept that if you push hard enough on a screw it will twist itself in.  However, I have read accounts of the gas powered pogo stick actually being produced and working.

My solution to combine the two rests on a third invention, a minature gas turbine engine just created at Tohoku University.

Jumping on the stick will pump fuel into the engine and spark the flame.  The jet exhaust can then be routed into the shaft to cause it to spring back violently, so it acts much like the gas powered pogo stick above.  The turbine is used to drive the propeller blades.

I realized that there is a good chance the rider would end up spinning around very quickly while the blade barely moved, but I have a solution to that as well.  Using two blades that rotate in opposite directions would balance out the forces, so the rider stays pointed in the direction he wants to.  This approach can be seen in several tiny remote control helicopters because it eliminates the need for a tail rotor and makes them easier to learn to fly.

I can’t wait till investor’s money starts pouring in and I can build a prototype.  I would ride it to work every day.  I imagine it would sound something like:

hissss - BOOM - chchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchch - hissss - BOOM - chchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchch - hissss - BOOM - chchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchchch

I tried it this morning, and it worked great!

I recently set up a few Ubuntu servers at work, and for some reason they would ask for the Ubuntu CD instead of looking online for new packages.  The fix is easy, but there aren’t any good hits high on Google so I’m putting this out here to help other people looking to solve the same problem.

All you need to do is edit /etc/apt/sources.list and comment out the entry for the cd drive.

This file contains a list of all the repositories apt-get will check for packages.  The top entry is will look something like “deb cdrom:[Ubuntu-Server….”.  Comment it out by adding a “#” to the front of the line.