DJs on Sirius

I’m not sure why Sirius needs DJs to annoy us. The song title and artist is already displayed on the screen, we certainly don’t need to hear someone spout it off. Some of the DJs are tolerable, but one in particular, Madison, is extremely annoying. I sent Sirius some email about it and haven’t heard back (now that is surprising, isn’t it). My wife got very fed up with this DJ and also contacted Sirius. However, her message to Sirius was just too funny:You suck! If I wanted to hear a DJ talk, I’d listen to my local radio station. Shut up and play music!! I really don’t care what you did with your cousbin over the weekend. PLAY MORE MUSIC!!! LESS TALK!!!

Fake sale?

Yesterday I went to purchase a new office chair. I was looking at the Herman Miller Aeron chair, but the salesman at The Healthy Back store pointed me to another chair (same price) that was more adjustable and had a more comfortable seat. Since it was their special “pop the balloon” sale, I got to pop a balloon to see what discount I got. I got 15% off which amounted to $130 or so off…not bad. However, when I went home and happened to check their website, I found that the chair I just bought was even cheaper than I paid. They matched the price and refunded the difference. However, the 15% off turned out to be a joke, at least for what I bought.

dspam

dspam is a great product for catching spam, but as I’ve complained about in the past, setting it up is a nightmare. I went to install the latest version today and wanted to install it “correctly” and have the web user interface operate how it was designed. I spent awhile futzing around, but ended up using my hacked up CGI to get the web interface working. Uggh.

Sound isolation

As part of our rearrangement of our TV room, my server has become part of our entertainment center. Unfortunately the server melt down caused me to switch to a server that is significantly louder. So, I went on a mission of deadening the sound. First task was to get acoustic foam. Guitar Center had some (what a weird store to visit). I cut the foam and placed it in my cabinet. It didn’t do much because there is a big hole in the back of the cabinet for ventilation. So, I had to devise a ventilation system. I bought some 3″ PVC pipes from Home Depot and attached them to the server such that they act as intake and exhaust from the server. This would allow me to completely encase the server in the foam and stick the pipes out the back of the cabinet. So far so good; I put everything together this morning and it was still noisy. I picked up a quieter fan from Fry’s (I hate that place, but where do I find a case fan). While the server isn’t 100% quiet (I looked at water cooling systems, but water in my computer scares me), it’s acceptable especially with music or the TV on.