Taking A Stand!

I'm glad some of these big time web companies have the guts to stand up to the ridiculous bill proposal that is SOPA. Blatant pirating of movies and music is one thing, but when you have a set of laws that are so vague that anything could be called private property (see an example here, from WWTDD) it obviously threatens not only the Internet as we know it but free speech. In addition, the recent shut down of the MegaUpload site makes me question the necessity of the bill to begin with. Why do we need new laws so everything can be micromanaged when they already have the power to go after the big guys? Good for Wikipedia and Google and other companies for taking a stand and getting millions of people to sign a petition to prevent the bill from going through. I just hope that the Internet as we know it lives for ever. I fear that bills like SOPA will continue to come and the powers to be will slowly take away Internet freedoms until it is highly regulated. Only time will tell. For now, a small victory for us and hopefully a big win if and when the bill gets rejected.

Tilted Kilt

Tilted Kilt
Location: Downtown Indy
Price: $$
Rating: 4 Cheeseburgers


BoilerPip and I made a trip downtown this weekend to eat at the Tilted Kilt and watch some of the NFL playoffs. The Tilted Kilt is an Irish pub-themed sports bar. It has all of the essentials for a sports bar: beer, lots of TVs, good and affordable bar food with some Irish meals too, and pretty waitresses. If you mix Buffalo Wild Wings with Hooters and the Claddagh, the Tilted Kilt is what you'd get.

The Tilted Kilt is a chain of restaurants and the one in Indy just opened a few months ago. It's a fun place to go and catch a game. I'll likely hit it up again in the future, though a north side location would be great as I don't get downtown too often. If you're in Indy for a game I'd suggest checking it out for your pre-game festivities. You won't be disappointed.

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse

Ruth's Chris Steakhouse
Locations: 96th & Keystone, Downtown
Price: $$$$
Rating: 4.5 Cheeseburgers


Sarah and I went out to Ruth's Chris last night with some friends. I've been there several times before for pharmaceutical meetings but this is the first time I've been and had a full menu and it was the first time Sarah had ever been. To sum this place up quickly, it has a bit of a snooty atmosphere and is quite expensive, but it really is one of the best steaks you can get. You won't be unhappy with the quality of the food.

I got the ribeye last night, which is an odd cut of meat for me to get. I usually get the filet or the prime rib. I was afraid the filet would be too small so I decided to get the ribeye, which was described as huge. My steak was just slightly overcooked which is odd because usually these kind of places are spot on with how they cook the meat. It was still very good, I think saved at least in part by the excellent seasoning used to cook the steak. I really should have just got the filet. It's a better cut of meat and Sarah's was cooked perfectly, and it was quite large for a filet. They even had a bone-in filet on the menu, which I can't remember ever seeing that as an option before at any other restaurant.

This place is one of my top steak restaurants. You'll leave with a much lighter wallet, but you'll experience some of the best steak around. I'm still full from last night. It's a perfect place to go to celebrate something.

Ubuntu Is Ready For The Masses

When I first started using Ubuntu in September of 2010 I was using version 10.04 (Lucid Lynx). The install process was very easy and overall the operating system was quite similar to Windows and thus familiar and easy to use. Despite all of this, I still didn't think it was quite ready for every day use by people not too comfortable with computers. The reason? I still had to go to the command line too often. I had to go to the command line to install the drivers to my printer and to install most of the software I downloaded. I even had to alter some C++ code to get file sharing over my network to work correctly. Keeping in mind that most Windows users probably don't even know that something called a command line exists, I felt at the time that despite how good and how easy the OS was to use in general, it still wasn't ready for everyone.

I recently updated to version 11.04 (Natty Narwhal) and have been using it for the past few weeks. I'm proud to say that I think Ubuntu is now ready to be used by the masses, everyday working people, and not just computer geeks. This version is really polished. I haven't had to use the command line once. It comes with great free software and the software download center continues to improve making downloading additional software simple. I have software for browsing the web, checking my email and RSS feeds, listening to music, watching videos, organizing photos, and creating documents. Some of the software is fantastic (Firefox, Thuderbird, GIMP, Libre Office) and some of it is just OK. But it all works and does the job it is supposed to do. In fact, even if I were running Windows I'd still be using all of those software titles I listed in Windows because they are free and really good and all have Windows versions too.

They've changed the GUI a bit and it now looks more Mac-like, with a task bar and file menus at the top of the screen instead of the top of the window. I actually think this version of Ubuntu is more polished than the latest Mac OS. Its file system is faster and easier to use and it keeps things organized much better.

Some Linux purists might complain that this version of Ubuntu "dumbs" things down too much by taking away customization. I agree there are some options that are confusingly missing (where's the screen saver?), but I am willing to sacrifice some functionality for ease of use. There are always other Linux distributions to use if you're dissatisfied with this version.

Unless you're using Windows for a very specific purpose I can't think of a reason why you wouldn't at least try Ubuntu. You can try it on your computer without erasing Windows, it is capable of just running off a CD. It's fast, secure, and has a host of great software to handle everyday computing tasks. Best of all it's free.

Final Moxibustion Update

Add moxibustion to the list of treatments that my thumb failed. It seemed to respond somewhat to the therapy but at the rate it was going if it were going to work it would've taken many treatments. I always feel like I'm free-loading when I just show up expecting a treatment (I always called and asked before I showed up) and it was difficult to get in with my schedule quick enough before the wart started growing again and then I was back to square one.

I went back to the dermatologist who originally surgically removed the wart (which obviously came back). He is going to inject it with bleomycin. Bleomycin is a chemotherapeutic drug used against multiple cancers. I'm a little nervous, not because the medicine has multiple side effects, but because I think getting injections in the distal aspect of the thumb will be very uncomfortable. I just hope it works. This medicine is pretty potent so if I fail this treatment I don't know what options are left besides amputation. Right now the medicine is on back order and is supposed to be coming in sometime during January which is when I'll get the injections.

Two Day Shipping

I absolutely loathe shopping. If I know exactly what I want and where to get it I don't mind it too much. However, if I'm not sure what I want or if there is a possibility that I might have to go to multiple stores then I'd rather go to the dentist than spend my afternoon store hopping. With that being said, I bought almost all of Sarah's Christmas gifts on-line this year.

I'm a big fan of on-line shopping. I buy almost everything on the Internet, with the exception of some clothes. Keep in mind that I live within 15 minutes of a couple of malls and plenty of shops. I just hate fighting the crowds and traffic so bad that I still shop on-line mostly. I usually shop at Amazon. Obviously it's a well known store and they have almost anything you can think of. Sarah and I are Amazon Prime members, which means we get two day shipping on all orders, among other things.

I ordered Sarah's gifts on December 14, a full 10 days before Christmas. I got the two day shipping on all of the items except one that was being sold through a third party store on Amazon's site. That item got 3-5 day shipping. My Amazon orders trickled in one at a time, all past the two day shipping guarantee, the last one coming in on December 23rd. I was pretty nervous about them not coming in before Christmas, I'm not going to lie. The item from the third party store still hasn't come in, despite the fact that it was supposed to come in between December 16th and 19th. I could've got all of these items in local stores but again I try to avoid doing this at all costs. The lesson here is that in the future I'm either going to have to order on-line earlier or suck it up and go to the stores. What kind of irritates me is that none of the items I ordered were out of order or on back order. They all said ready to ship. My opinion is that if there is a possibility that these items won't ship in the time frame listed on the site, they should say somewhere that there is a possibility that the items will ship late. But that wasn't posted anywhere.

Despite the shipping mess-up, overall I had a really good Christmas (Sarah wasn't too upset.). It was nice to get down to Loogootee and see family. We're back in Indy now enjoying a day of R&R before we start back into the grind tomorrow. I hope everyone out there had a nice Christmas as well.

Sick...As...A Dog

All of these kids I've been seeing the past month carry some nasty germs, and I was afraid that it was only a matter of time before I too got ill. I was a little sick over the Thanksgiving week with some sinus congestion and cough. That went away within 4 or 5 days and I thought I dodged the major bullett. However, starting this week I've felt pretty bad all week. On Tuesday I went to bed at 9:30. On Wednesday I went to bed at 4:30. I've been sleeping a lot lately. I just have this nagging cough, chills, muscle aches, and fatigue. I don't feel like doing anything but rest. I haven't missed any work but it's pretty difficult to work when feeling like this and honestly I probably should've missed, especially on Friday. I can't remember the last time I have been this sick for this long. It has been a really long time. I think I might get my flu shot next year. I always pass on it because I never got sick in the past.

I'm still using my 2005 Dell XPS desktop for my main computer and it was becoming a mess. It had three operating systems on it, including a corrupted version of XP that was worthless. My Ubuntu kept giving me warnings about being low on hard drive space so I thought it was time to upgrade my system and clean things up a bit. Doing this was one of my goals for the weekend and I got the project done despite being sick.

I did a clean install with Ubuntu 11.10 (Oneiric Ocelot). They've made a lot of changes to the GUI on this new version compared to the old one. The big thing is that they've added a Mac style task bar that sits on the left of the screen instead of the bottom. Also, following in Apple's path, they've placed all of the "file" and "edit" buttons for programs on the very top task bar within the OS itself, separate from the window the program is actually running in. Those of you who have used Apple computers will know what I'm talking about, otherwise this might be a bit confusing. Suffice it to say there are enough new changes that were made that it feels almost like using a new computer for free! Also an important thing to note was the ease of install. Ubuntu continues to make this distribution of Linux more and more user friendly. I got my printer to install with no problem at all this time. I haven't had time to mess with the network settings but have my fingers crossed that sharing folders won't be too difficult.





The feature I'm really excited about is the VirtualBox program. This time, instead of having a dual boot system where I have to restart the computer every time I want to get into Windows (yes, I still have to use Windows occasionally), I am using a program which simulates a different computer to run Windows within Ubuntu, which means no more restarts. Thus far I have had no difficulties (Excluding the phone call I had to make to Microsoft because apparently when you try to install an "upgrade" version of Windows on a computer that doesn't already have Windows, the product key doesn't work. This is so stupid and typical of Microsoft. Luckily they fixed the issue but I was prepared to go off over the phone if they told me I had to buy a different version.) with the program and it seems to be running fine, so I'm really excited about this integration.

I also got an electronic car starter for my car from my parents this weekend for Christmas. I'm pretty excited about this too. It's so James Bond like. It will be nice to have on those snowy and icy mornings.