Here at work we began printing Star Wars calendars about a week ago. An Episode III and Darth Vador calendar. Both are really nice. I especially like the Episode III calendar with the really cool pictures from the unreleased movie.
I felt it was weird that we were printing two different covers for the Episode III calendar. The second cover was totally different and made it seem like it came from a different publisher. The inside of the calendar used the exact same art.
So I asked what the deal was. The production planner informed me that the second version will be printed on thinner paper and sold thru WalMart. The normal calendar would be printed on thicker paper and sold through all other channels.
Part of me wasn’t surprised. WalMart prides itself on selling items for less. One way to sell items cheaper is to make them cheaper.

I setup a new Dell PC for my mother-in-law and found out they still come with PS/2 mice and keyboard connections. For some reason I thought the largest PC manufacture in the world would have totally switched over to a USB standard by now.
This doesn’t bode well for the Mac mini. People really will have to buy new mice and keyboard if they plan on switching. I believe there are USB adaptors for PS/2 mice and keyboards so maybe Apple stores should keep a stock of those as well.

My mother-in-law decided recently to get her own Dell and gave back the iMac I loaned her. My wife and I decided that Megan should get the computer.
So I spent yesterday installing Mac OS X 10.3.8. I dumped a copy of They Might Be Giant’s No into iTunes. And now she is the happiest little person in the world.

She types in TextEdit. She plays Jewel Toy like a pro. If the computer had a CD burner I am sure she’ll mixing her own CD.

So after I finished The Rat mouse it seemed like time to revisit the Diecom Light Gun interface. Two years ago Joe Zbiciak shocked me by suggesting that the the interface needs to be polled once every scan line, not every frame like I had thought.
Then after I had dissembled the supporting code from the game Iron Forest. I discovered the the device was not being reset on every scan line. It turned out there wasn’t enough time time during the the horizontal refresh to cycle thru all sixteen states.
But Joe reassured me that it just meant that there was a constant drift that should be eiasly accounted for. I am in the middle of that problem right now and have should have it solved soon.

I was scanning some old baby pictures and decided to post one of my pictures here. For all you to see!

A few weeks ago Bethany asked my father for help doing her science fair project. She had heard that Lyndie (her cousin) received help last year.
My Dad bought me a model kit of the Wright Flyer. His idea was to build the kit for the project. The project would be on modern flight.

I liked the idea but the model would have been too large to fit in the allotted space during the fair. I explained to both of them that building just a wing would be more than sufficient. They ignored me and decided to build the plane anyway. That was OK with me. But I decided to build the wing just-in-case.
The wing is about five inched long and rides on the plastic shaft up and down. A fan is used to provide the wind.
My father currently doesn’t have the time to finish the Wright Flyer with Bethany so everyone is fine with the work I’ve done. It is now Bethany’s job to learn all about air foils and the Bernoulli effect.

Bethany (my oldest daughter) said something wonderful today. She was trying to convince her friend to play the board game Sorry!. with us. She said, “At first I didn’t like the game either, but it is much more fun when my Dad plays.”
I have no special attachment to the game either, but it is more fun when I play with her.

A few weeks ago my friend from work mentioned he was going to spend a whole day and watch the Lord of the Rings (extended Editions) back to back. Eleven hours and twenty minute of nonstop entertainment.
I just got back from the event. Boy, was it fun. The crowed consisted of Me, Rob, and his two daughters. My daughter was suppose to go, but chickened out at the last minute. I arrived at his house at 7:45 A.M. and didn’t leave until 8:00 P.M. Those sure are good movies!

A really cool graphics package for the CoCo 3 came out very near the end of the machine’s life.
A friend of my just won a copy of it off EBAY. He has asked my help in dumping the disks and reverse engineering the special mouse that came with the program. Since I’ll be needing as much help as I can get expect a new web page with pictures and schematics asking for help.

My brothers first child was born seven and a half weeks early. This flodded back the memories of when Magean was born 5 and a half weeks early.
I decided to not contact my brother, directly. We don’t call each other very often. My strongest memory back when Megan was born is how much I wanted to be left alone.
A few weeks after her birth our family stoped by his new business (a Quiznos franchise). It was all my wife’s doing. We talked about Sophie and his new business. During the visit I went from a diehard Subway fan to a Quiznos lover.
Just a few days ago I learned the Sophies first stool didn’t completely exit her colon and caused some damage that required surgery. She’s doing better now, but they are watching her closely.
My sister says I should call my brother, I said I would. But haven’t done it yet.