Dave Page

BJ’s Brewhouse

For dinner, needed something light. Found BJ’s Brewery website, I had seen it in the Marriott list, and considered it. It is a chain, so I was not real hopeful. Tonite, it was raining, don’t want to go far. They have “PIRANHA® PALE ALE CHILI”. Sold.

So I drive the 0.1 mile, and go in. The [...]

Sunday in Northern CA – Dinner

After I pointed out and he passed a bunch of places to eat on the way back from Point Reyes, Art said he had a place in mind, good Chinese. Fine. He is Filipino, and knows Chinese.

So we head down the 101 to Millbrae, and exit into an ethnic wonderland. Chinese shops, produce vendors, [...]

CR-V Mileage

Our 2009 CR-V with AWD has gotten 31 mpg on the trip to work, but much less on the way home. I suspect the trip to work is downhill.

There are two Trip displays, A and B, with independent average mpg displays. Trip A is the one I reset to check short trips. Trip B I [...]

BLAST! the Movie at Fermilab

This is a documentary about scientists sending a telescope into space to look 6-10 billion years into the past. On a balloon. From Sweden and Antarctica. Actually, seeing the Antarctica stuff is worth it, the rest is better. Lou and I screened the movie as part of the Fermilab lecture series with Mark giving some [...]

ESET vs Kaspersky

Our AVG subscription was expiring and I was having 2nd thoughts about renewing – it was periodically crashing Bette’s underpowered computer. Ralph at work recommended Kaspersky Internet Security, and I got a trial of that and ESET Nod32 Security to try out. Both were well reviewed. ESET has a more techie interface, and a [...]

Expressly Leslie for Lunch

First I had the Foule platter. Good and a lot of food for 8 bucks. “warm fava beans richly seasoned with garlic, lemon and cumin. ” It comes with a hard-boiled egg boiled in tea which gives it a brown color clear down to the yolk, and a bright pink pickled something. With hummus and pita. [...]

Photo Mechanic

So I am trying to archive the check scans. TIF files named “donation-2010-DEP01-01.TIF” to identify the year, deposit batch number (01) and the scan number within the batch.

I first just entered the keywords using Thumbs Plus 7. Pain. TP8 is not much better – cannot keep the image open while I add the keywords. [...]

Lifesource Phone Spam

At work, I would get calls:

Voice Message 8884274836

At home, three times a night. Never leaving a messsage.

I Googled the phone number finally and found who: Lifesource blood services.

I logged in (easy) and turned off all my notifications. We’ll see if it works.

Installing Windows XP into a Virtual Box VM

I need to do some testing, so let’s try installing Windows XP Pro into a Virtual Box VM to avoid trashing my production system. Which is pretty trashed anyway, and has a big frosty pre-ordered (cheap) Windows 7 waiting when I finally get around to researching a driver for my now non-supported HP LaserJet 3150 [...]

It’s Hard to Be Legal – Sheet Music Edition

So I wanted to buy the sheet music for “Lust” by Tori Amos. I love the piano music and wanted to learn it – to play, not to sing.

I started with Google, found several music sites, and prepared to pay. Seems to be about $4.50. Ok, I can deal with that.

Started with I had purchased [...]