Monthly Archives: April 2018

Website News

The SmugMug Migration continues

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The migration of my photos and videos from Flickr to SmugMug is still in progress, and probably will be for several more days.  It’s currently at over 13,000 photos and videos and increasing every minute.  I’m still not sure of how many photos and videos I actually have on Flickr though.  It’s either over 90,000 or just over 48,000, but that’s quite the difference.  I guess I’ll know once the migration completes and I check to see if everything is there as far as I can tell.

Meanwhile, I continue to battle repeated attacks on my website.  I have cleaned it up recently, got rid of all of the old obsolete no-longer-supported plugins that I had on it, and installed some decent protection that will hopefully keep our the riff raff.  So far it’s been a bit of a struggle.  I’ve found that I had several infected files on my site as well as several additional files that contained malware which were uploaded by the attacker(s) and just sitting on my site.  I also had over 3,000 bogus user accounts that had accumulated over the years–one or two of which were even Administrator accounts!  Wow, the vulnerabilities!  BAD webmaster, Jim, BAD boy!  So please accept my apologies if you happened to get redirected to a site that might have said you PC was infected, displayed pornography, or did some other bad attempt at phishing.  I really had no idea it was so bad.  It’s all better now though, and I’m trying to check it daily to make sure it stays that way.

Family News

Socks Scare #2

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We had quite the scare last night.  Socks and I took a one-mile walk around the neighborhood yesterday evening, and after we were back awhile, he was laying in his bed as Sandy and I watched TV.  He suddenly started whimpering and shuddering.  When I jumped up to check him he was urinating uncontrollably, shaking fast, and his eyes were darting back and forth–not as if he was looking around, but as if he couldn’t control it–a very steady left-and-right movement. At this point he was no longer crying, but still seemed to be in distress.

With his blanket soaked in urine, Sandy grabbed a pad and I lifted him gently.  He didn’t seem aware that I was hold him at all, he just continued the same shuddering stiffness and the same eye movements.  Sandy replaced the blanket with the pad, then I laid him back down in his bed.  About a minute later he emptied his bowels and we got more worried.  I cleaned up the mess and he continued breathing heavily.  We thought he might be dying at this point.  He’s over 15 years old, which is pretty old for dogs, so we decided we wouldn’t take extreme measures, and let nature take its course.  In the moment, this was a really difficult decision, but we weighed all the options and decided together that this was what we’d do.

We explained to Kevin what we thought was happening, and he comforted Socks a bit.  We kept vigil over him for awhile and waited.  After a little while his eyes went back to their normal appearance and his breathing slowed back down.  After maybe an hour longer, he put his head up and looked at us.  A few minutes later he climbed out of bed with a bit of a struggle and started walking around.  He was pretty weak at first, but minute by minute he seemed to improve until he was climbing onto furniture again to sit next to me.  He drank some water, we gave him a small treat, and he even went outside for a few minutes.

At this point we’re pretty sure he had a seizure.  Most of the symptoms were there, from what we’ve read.  I’m just not sure if a one-mile walk is too much for him these days, or if it would have happened if if we didn’t take that walk, or maybe he hasn’t gotten the proper amount of exercise through the Winter and needs more frequent walks to get back into shape (kinda like my situation).  I know, I know, we should get him to a vet.

Photography, Website News

SmugMug

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Apparently SmugMug recently purchased Flickr.  This is just one of those normal things that happen with tech companies, but since I use Flickr extensively for backing up all of my photos and videos, this concerns me probably much more than others who don’t use the service.  SmugMug support assures everyone (and has reassured me directly through several direct support e-mails) that Flickr isn’t going anywhere for the foreseeable future.  Both SmugMug and Flickr will remain intact, and the acquisition will only strengthen both platforms moving forward.  I guess this is much like when Google acquired Waze.  Google Navigation and Waze Navigation both remain intact, but they are improving by sharing information and data.

I tried going with SmugMug for awhile many years ago, but it wasn’t anywhere near what it is today.  So I started trying it out again this week, and I’m in the process of migrating all of my Flickr photos and videos at this time.  I found a nice site that automates this process, and it’s running right now.  Here’s some interesting number I don’t quite understand yet:  Flickr says I have 48,888 photos and videos on their site.  That’s TOTAL – both public and private, and 31.517 of those are public.  That sounds about right I guess, those totals have been increasing slowly over the years at a normal rate.  Every photo I take auto-uploads to Flickr as my backup (as well as to Google Photos), both of which are free (Flickr has a 1TB limit, Google Photos has unlimited storage as long as I have a Google Pixel phone).  The tool I’m using to migrate Flickr to SmugMug (PicBackMan) says I have a total of 94,511 photos and videos!  That’s nearly DOUBLE my grand total that Flickr says I have, so it’ll be interesting to see what SmugMug shows when it’s finally done migrating.  A couple initial things I’ve found with SmugMug that I really like is with GIFs and just the simple motion in every photo I take with my Google Pixel phone… Flickr never showed this and doesn’t support GIFs, but SmugMug recognizes both GIFs and the motion in all of my photos and displays it!  I might eventually switch to SmugMug, depending on how this trial goes.

If you’d like to check it out as my SmugMug site evolves, you’ll find it at https://jimsphotoworld.smugmug.com/.  My cover photo is even animated.  There might not be many photos there yet, as the first album it’s migrating is my “Auto-Uploads”, which is private.  But all the others are right behind it, so they’ll be coming in soon enough.

X-Box (Microsoft)

X-Box One S 2TB Special Edition For Sale

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I am selling an awesome X-Box One S – 2TB Gears of War Special Edition with an extra matching controller for $200.  This system is currently selling on Amazon for $300 and up, used (and that’s even without the extra controller).  It has only been lightly used and is in excellent condition.  If you’re interested, be the first to e-mail forsale@jimtrottier.com.  If you’re not in the Kenosha, WI area and it has to be shipped, you’ll also need to cover the cost of shipping & insurance.

Internet

Clever Wifi Names

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Yeah, you’ve heard them all before… “FBI Surveillance Van”, etc., etc… I just thought this list contained some pretty funny names, so I’m posting it here for easy reference:

1. Hide Yo Kids, Hide Yo Wi-Fi
2. It Hurts When IP
3. The Triwizard Internet
4. Silence Of The LAN
5. Wifi Art Thou Romeo
6. Dunder MiffLAN
7. For Porn Use Only
8. Bill Wi, The Science Fi
9. Everyday I’m Buffering
10. Slow Internet Slow Fap
11. A Song Of Ice And Firewall
12. Luke, I Am Your Wifi
13. Girls Gone Wireless
14. Hilary Clinternet
15. Friendly Neighborhood Spider-LAN
16. Don’t You Wish Your Wifi Was Hot Like Me
17. New England Clam Router
18. One Does Not Simply Log Into Mordor
19. Dora The Internet Explorer
20. 99 Problems But WiFi Ain’t One
21. No Wi-Fi For You
22. Wi Believe I Can Fi
23. Covet Not Thy Neighbor’s WiFi
24. Titanic Syncing
25. Mom, Click Here For Internet
26. It’s a Small World Wide Web
27. Virus Distribution Center
28. John Wilkes Bluetooth
29. Wifi For Blowjobs
30. The Wireless-G Spot
31. House LANister
32. It’s The Wifi Network Morty
33. WIFIght The Inevitable?
34. Watching Porn Constantly
35. Unprotected CeX
36. Benjamin FrankLAN
37. Slytherin Common Room Wifi
38. IS THIS THE KRUSTY KRAB
39. My Neighbors Suck
40. You Load Nothing, Jon Snow
41. No Pants No Problems
42. Winternet Is Coming
43. Connect And Die
44. Avengers – Wifi Wars
45. Area 51
46. Guardians Of The Gateway
47. Watch Porn At 4G Speed
48. We Can Hear You Having Sex
49. Not Free So Get Stuffed
50. Ermahgerd, Wi-Fi!
51. Not In Range
52. Don’t Watch Porn On My Wifi
53. WI-FIght The Inevitable?
54. Occam’s Router
55. Not The Droids You’re Looking For
56. I Have Wifi And You Don’t
57. The Creep Next Door
58. I’m Under Your Bed
59. Loading…
60. Enter The Dragon’s Network
61. Tell My Wifi Love Her
62. Access Denied
63. Drop It Like It’s Hotspot
64. DHARMA Initiative – Station 4
65. LANDown Under
66. Your Wifi Is Sleeping With My Wifi
67. Babe Cave
68. Keep It On The Download
69. Look Ma No Wires
70. Help, I’m Trapped In A Router!
71. Life In The Fast LAN
72. 404 Wi-Fi Unavailable
73. Free Wifi For One Night Stand
74. Click Here For Viruses
75. LANdo Calrissian
76. Penny Get Your Own Wifi
77. Your Wifi Is Sleeping Over
78. Martin Router King
79. The LAN Before Time
80. We Are Watching You
81. Ye Olde Internet
82. Your Dog Shits In My Yard
83. A LANnister Always Surfs The Net
84. 2 Girls, 1 Router
85. Abraham Linksys
86. Troy And Abed In The Modem
87. Wu-Tang LAN
88. Router, I Hardly Know Her
89. Only For Zombies
90. I’ve Seen You Naked
91. Suck On My Secure Connection
92. Here’s The Password Clue Read Again
93. Very Slow Internet
94. I Pronounce You Man And WiFi
95. LAN Of Milk And Honey
96. Stiffler’s Mom
97. Skynet Global Defense Network
98. Yell “Doggy” To Know Password
99. Quit Using My Wi-Fi
100. My Own Damn Internet
101. Pretty Fly for a Wi-Fi
102. Network Name? Why Not Zoidberg?
103. Thrust Master
104. Not A Meth Lab
105. Routers Of Rohan
106. Bob’s Unsecured House of Wifi
107. Nacho WiFi
108. Hack If You Can
109. Stealing Wifi Is A Crime
110. How Is The Signal There?
111. Josh BroLAN
112. Ex-Wifi
113. Lord Of The Pings
114. Go Away You Muggle

Health & Fitness, Website News

More Posts!

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Ok, now I feel like I’m just cheating… I added some connections to my site for RunKeeper, the program I use when I walk.  Each walk I post on RunKeeper will now add a blog entry with my walk details to my site.  I’ll probably stop posting them to Facebook soon, and just keep them here, where they’re easier for me to see.  Yes, they’re all also available in the RunKeeper app, which is easy as well, but my site needed more activity, and Facebook sure doesn’t.  I figure I’m “cheating” a little, with “fake posts”, but it’s something.  The part I like the most though, is the “RunKeeper Records” box I added to the right sidebar.  It shows all my stats for the current week and month in a nutshell.  Now I just have to make sure I add REAL posts, like this one, regularly, so my site’s front page doesn’t just end up being dozens of RunKeeper entries and nothing else.  Yeah, good luck with that, Jim.

Audiobooks, Entertainment

Ready Player Once Again – All References in the novel

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And the obsession continues!  I saw the movie twice already, and it’s much better the second time around.  I caught much more that I missed the first time, and I could even watch it again. And again.  But I’ll wait for the 4K release and save some money.  As my previous post explained, the movie is totally different than the book, and I found this list on the web recently and just HAD to add it to my website for quick reference.  I even added a few references that were missing from it.  I think it’s pretty complete at this point:

Ready Player One – All References In The Novel

Games referenced

  • Adventure including Warren Robinett‘s Easter egg.
  • Akalabeth
  • Action comics
  • Mad Better or Verse
  • Asteroids
  • Astrosmash
  • Battlezone
  • Bedlam
  • Berzerk
  • BurgerTime
  • Centipede
  • Combat
  • Contra
  • Defender
  • Dig Dug
  • Donkey Kong
  • The Empire Strikes Back
  • E.T.
  • Golden Axe
  • Heavy Barrel
  • Ikari Warriors
  • Joust
  • Kaboom!
  • Knack 2
  • Madness and the Minotaur
  • Ms. Pac-Man
  • Pac-Man
  • Pitfall
  • Pyramid
  • Q*bert
  • Quake
  • Raaka-tu
  • Smash TV
  • Super Smash Brothers
  • Space Invaders
  • Starmaster
  • Star Raiders
  • Star Wars
  • Street Fighter
  • Swordquest, including the prizes for Earthworld, Fireworld, Waterworld, and Airworld
  • Robotron: 2084
  • Time Pilot
  • Tron: Deadly Discs
  • World of Warcraft
  • Yars’ Revenge
  • Zaxxon
  • Zork I II III

Games played

Computers and game consoles referenced

References on book cover

  • The yellow key is an element of Adventure
  • The “c” is similar to Pac-Man

Movies referenced in the simulation

Music referenced

Anime and tokusatsu referenced

TV Show references

Literature references