Looking at the settings in Google Calendar it looks like it’s not possible to sync more than 1 calendar, but there’s a way.  Even for us Google Apps users who are constantly made to feel like second-rate users.  Basically you have to go through the mobile site (m.google.com) to choose multiple calendars.  Here’s where I found the details on how to do that, with screenshots.

First I gave you Office Games, now comes the latest in meaningless, time-wasting fun; Twitter Games.  Ok so it’s just 1 game, but so was the Office Games post and no one called me out on that.  Probably because no one reads this blog.

Step 1: Grab a friend or 12

Step 2: Everyone create a new twitter account just for this game so it will be easier to track the points (and won’t annoy your real friends on twitter).

Step 3: Each person is allowed 1 tweet per hour using all 140 characters and any buzzwords they want, with the following exceptions:

- No profanity

- No commercial/brand names (i.e. companies, song/movie titles, websites, store names, etc.)

- No celebrity names

Step 4: Each time a twitter-bot retweets one of the players tweets, they score points like this:

1-5 retweets = 1 point each

6-10 retweets = 2 points each

11+ retweets = 3 points each

Step 5: After 24 hours (or 8 hours if playing at work) the person with the most points wins!

– Photo Attribution: http://www.flickr.com/photos/scobleizer/2250735263/ || CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

This is another one that’s mainly for my own reference so I don’ t have to Google it every time.  Here’s the instructions for setting up OpenSSH to act as an SSH Server on a linux box, including changing the default port from 22 to something else.

Do this stuff in a terminal window:

sudo su

apt-get install openssh-server

vi /etc/ssh/sshd_config

Find the line that says “Port 22″ which should be near the top and change it to whatever port you want to use (443, 80, etc).

Save and exit.

/etc/init.d/ssh restart

That’s it.  This is just a short version for my own personal needs, taken from HERE.

This is basically just for my own reference the next time I want to dual boot linux.  Here’s the default partitions I use for the linux portion of the drive:

/Boot  -  100 MB

/  – 5 GB

/usr  -  5 GB

/opt  -  2 GB

/var  -  2 GB

/home  -  The remainder

swap – 2 GB

Yesterday I  got my latest NES bill and as we’ve all become accustomed to, it jumped astronomically for no apparent reason.  The days were warmer, the fuel costs went down, the rates went down and I was home far less often, yet my bill jumped to the highest it’s ever been.  Naturally I decided to ask NES what the hell was up, although not expecting any kind of real answer since their customer service is about on par with Comcast.  They did not disappoint, offering bullshit galore.  I understand it’s a government-sponsored monopoly so I’m not going to get good value or customer service, but couldn’t they at least be creative with their lies so I’m entertained while they’re screwing me over?

My Initial Email To NES:

—–Original Message—–
From: ************************
Sent: Monday, January 25, 2010 5:26 PM
To: Customer Service
Subject: Billing Question

I can’t wait to hear an explanation for the huge increase in my bill this month.  Temperatures were warmer, fuel prices down, rates down.. yet my bill is way up.  And your excuse this time?

First Response From NES:

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 8:44 AM, Customer Service <custserv@nespower.com> wrote:
Mr. *********,

After reviewing your account, it does show that the usage has increased.  Part of this increase may be due to the unusually cold weather we had this billing period.  You stated in your email that the weather has been warmer, however, during this billing cycle there were 11 days where the high temperature did not climb above 32 degrees and there were 24 days where the low temperature was well below freezing.  If you will notice the degree days on this bill compared to previous months, you will see that they have increased considerably. Typically, the higher the degrees days, the colder the temperature.  In case you’re not familiar with what a degree day is, I will try and explain.  A Degree day is simply the difference between the outside average temperature for the day and 65.  The base temperature is 65 because little or no heating or air conditioning is required when it is 65 degrees outside.  The lower or higher the average daily temperatures are for the month, the higher the number of degree days, and most likely, the bill also. For example: if the high temperature for today was 55, and the low was 35, the average temperature would be 45 degrees.  The degree day base of 65 minus 45 = 20 degree days for today.  These daily totals are added together as a cumulative total for each billing cycle.

Have you checked the meter reading to be sure that it was read accurately?  If you would like I could send a reread card in the mail for you to read the meter.  What you would do is just mark the dials on the card just the way they look on your meter, date and sign the card and just put in back in the mail.  The card is postage paid and will go directly to our billing department for review.  If the meter reading shows the original reading to be correct, a letter will be sent to you advising you of this.  If the meter reading shows that our reading was incorrect a corrected bill will be mailed to you.

In case your not sure how to read the meter I have included a link to our web page where you will find instructions on how to read your meter.

http://www.nespower.com/meter.aspx

I hope this helps.  Please let me know if you have any further questions.

Thank you,

Customer Relations
Nashville Electric Service

My 2nd Email To NES:

On Tue, Jan 26, 2010 at 10:49 AM, Thomas <**********************> wrote:

While I appreciate you taking the time to respond, I don’t at all appreciate that your excuses are entirely fabricated.  First of all, a “Degree Day” is a made up stat that explains absolutely nothing.  Even if it did, setting a base temp of 65 makes no sense.  If my thermostat is set at 65 then your assertion that “little or no air conditioning is required when it is 65 degrees outside” would be correct.  However, everyone has different temperature preferences and the base temp used for that calculation would likewise differ based on individual preferences.  I can make up some imaginary stat like Degree Days and claim that’s why I’m right, but I’d rather just use actual facts.

Secondly, your temperature stats are flat out wrong.  If you had looked at the temps for my current billing cycle (12/22/2009 – 1/23/2010) then you would already know that.  Check out this page: http://www.accuweather.com/us/tn/hermitage/37076/forecast-climo.asp?partner=accuweather&traveler=0&zipchg=1&metric=0&mnyr=12/1/2009.  If you look at the data on that page for my current billing cycle, you’ll see that there were 9 days where the high temperature was 32 or below (1 day was 32 exactly).  As for the number of days where the low temperature was “well below freezing” that would depend on how you define “well below”, but there were only 24 days where it was below freezing at all.  So if “well below” means at least 5 degrees below, now you’re down to 18 days.  At least 10 degrees, takes you to 13 days.  Any way you look at it your excuses are just plain wrong.

I live in an apartment so I have no clue where my meter is, but checking it right now would likely do no good anyways.  I have no proof of what it was last month and based on the first part of this email I obviously don’t trust anyone at NES to provide accurate info.  Plus I’ve used additional KWH since the last reading so looking at it now would just be a waste of time.  As for having it read again, what you failed to mention is that you actually charge me for that.  It might seem a little less like bait-and-switch if you at least admitted that up front.  Also, the link you sent in the last email brings up a page that says:

Why would you send a link to a customer without verifying first that it works?  That just seems like terrible, horrible, no good, very bad customer service to me, but sadly that’s what NES customers have come to expect.  Well, that and outrageously high bills.

UPDATED (01.29.2010): 3 days later I still have no response from NES.  I understand that it takes longer to respond with actual facts than to just make up bullshit, but surely 3 days is more than enough time!

To Be Continued (again)…

This weekend I went to my parent’s house for a family gathering. As it often does, the topic of conversation turned to politics. Being the only person in the family that’s even remotely close to having common sense being liberal (and old enough to have voted in more than 1 election), it’s always simultaneously fun and frustrating.  The outcome rarely changes, because like most Republicans they can’t do anything other than repeat the most recent talking points that they’ve seen on Faux News or heard on Hate-Mongering Talk Radio (aka Phil Valentine).

I did have one brief exchange with my mother that I think sums things up nicely.  She is not usually involved in the discussions because she doesn’t follow politics much at all.  But at one point she said (slightly jokingly, but somewhat serious): “I raised you to be a Republican, what happened“.  Without skipping a beat I replied “I learned how to think for myself.  That’s how most people become Democrats!“.

I just wanted to say a quick word of thanks to Fox News for delivering the hard hitting stories that no one else has the balls to report.  Which type of story you ask?  The breaking news that metal detectors cannot detect non-metallic powder (like the explosives used in the apparent terrorist attack on Christmas Day).  I’ll give you a moment to recover from that shocking revelation.

Of course, as their graphic indicates, this means that metal detectors are in fact completely useless.  I mean, if they can’t detect every single threat possible at the airport, why even bother using them?  Sure they aren’t “technically” capable of detecting anything that’s not metal (and they do prevent would-be hijackers from sneaking on guns, knives, etc), but that’s beside the point right?  If you don’t believe that 1 magical security measure should protect us from everything, then the terrorists have already won.

Living in Nashville there are a few things that are unavoidable (idiot drivers, 440 always being closed, etc.), but the biggest is country music.  Don’t get my wrong, my first CD was Garth Brooks and there are a (very) few country songs I still like.  The problem is aside from a few bright spots, the vast majority of country music has become so trite and ignorant that it barely resembles music at all anymore.  So in an effort to spare you the agony of having to listen to what passes for “Country Music” these days, here’s a list of the only types of songs currently being written.

[1] “I’m dirt-poor and ignorant, but doggoneit I’m happy” – These songs attempt to cheer-up the segment of country music fans who are dirt-poor and ignorant (roughly 97.3% of the total listener base).  The phrase “I ain’t got much” is used repeatedly.  Also you can expect plenty of “…all I really need is…” followed by things like “pick-up truck, wife, kids, huntin’ dog, more kids, beer, rifle, God, the US of A, roof over my head, George Strait/Jones/Dickel”.  There’s always a trailer.. always.

[2] “Hey I’m a country boy and here’s why” – In case you somehow don’t know what a redneck is, these songs will give you a plethora of examples.  There are so many songs in this category that most of them are literally copied verbatim from a previous one, using phrases like “I love my truck and I got my beer in one hand my gun in the other and my woman with a baby on her hip and God bless whatever war we’re currently in”.  They basically paint the most craptastic, uneducated scenario possible and then try to make you believe that’s what it means to be “country”.  I always thought it was a person who wanted a slower paced life away from the city, but apparently I was wrong.

[3] “This is a country song, but I’m using ebonics from rap music to seem cool” – These days even the most rural, redneck kids seem to be listening to nothing but (c)Rap music and pretending to be gangsters.  I’m sorry, but doing a drive-by on a John Deere is hilarious, I don’t care what anyone says!  So in an attempt to get those listeners back, some country singers (usually the ones with the most ridiculous hick accents) write crazy ass songs that use the typical country buzzwords (gun, tractor, farm, beer, truck) and throw in at least 1 ebonics word/phrase (badonkadonk, “how I roll”, “Holler back”).  What’s sad is all 3 of those are real songs.. I’m not making that shit up!

[4] “I’m a God fearing, red-blooded, white, hillbilly American” – Note that the correct pronunciation of the word American only uses 1 syllable.  No one knows how this is possible, but rednecks do it all the time.  Anyways, these songs describe the same worn out ideals of country living (trucks, family, babies, state fair, more babies, hot dogs, beer) and then discuss how those things make them proud to be an American.  Lately they’ve created a sub-category that actually describes the attrocities of war (blowing up people, disrespecting other cultures, overthrowing governments, etc.) and lists those as something they’re proud of.  This sub-category wins the “Are they seriously that ignorant?” award, hands down.

[5] “Hey baby I love you as much as my truck” – Country love songs are pretty simple to disect.  Address it to the woman you love, compare her to something completely inappropriate for the feeling you’re trying to convey (your truck, beer, tractor, the Dallas Cowboys, etc) and then end it with an even more inappropriate sexual suggestion.  BAM!  Hit love song that will be played at many a redneck wedding!

[6] “Wooooooohoooooo, I’m drunk!” – Yeah we get it, country singers are all alcoholics and do crazy shit when they’re drunk.  You break stuff, get in fights, wake up on someone’s lawn, etc.  And when you get up the next day you’re going to do it all over again.  Cool.. stay the hell away from me.

[7] “That’s not *#$@&% country music!” – It started with Shania Twain’s assault on men.  It died down a little after that, but Taylor Swift has picked up the mainstream-pop-crap torch and started running again.  Shania was attractive, but sang crap songs bashing men.  Taylor is not attractive and sings teeny-bopper songs, but doesn’t bash men.  Either way we lose.

[8] “Holy crap, this is an actual song with meaningful lyrics sung by someone with actual talent” – Only about 0.01% of country music falls into this category.  Finding these songs is NOT worth wading through the other 7 types of trash listed above.  Trust me, I’m a doctor.

Tired of getting weird quotes/fortunes from ‘The Cow’ when you open a terminal window or ssh into Linux Mint 7?   Do this:

sudo vi /etc/bash.bashrc

Go to the last line in the file which should be:

/usr/bin/mint-fortune

Either delete it or just comment it out if you think you might want to turn the cow back on later.  Save and restart your terminal session to start being cow-free.