Category Archives: The Suboptimal Way

Suboptimal Management at National Semiconductor

Posted on March 20, 2009 by Eric

They’ve gone completely insane!  They’re laying off Bob Pease! “… a disaster of biblical proportions… real wrath of God type stuff…  Fire and brimstone coming down from the skies!  Rivers and seas boiling!  Forty years of darkness!  Earthquakes!  Volcanoes!  The … Continue reading →

Posted in Blog/website/news comments, Hardware, The Suboptimal Way | Leave a comment

Suboptimal fonts after Fedora 9 upgrade

Posted on September 14, 2008 by Eric

Update:  I upgraded one of my machines from Fedora 7 to Fedora 9, and it started using tiny fonts.  Tom Horsley on the Fedora list explained that now the X server is actually using the display resolution (dots per inch) … Continue reading →

Posted in Fedora, The Suboptimal Way, X11 | 5 Comments

Suboptimal iTunes video downloading

Posted on August 23, 2008 by Eric

I was just watching some of the “Get a Mac” advertisements on the Apple web site yesterday. They’re quite entertaining. Before I went to bed last night, I told iTunes to download a bunch of the iPhone development videos. After … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer satisfaction, Mac OS X, The Suboptimal Way | 3 Comments

Suboptimal iPhone “Sync” and “Back Up”

Posted on August 16, 2008 by Eric

Over the past week I purchased several iPhone applications through the App Store, including Super Monkey Ball, a Rotary Dialer, and a few others.  I also downloaded some free applications. Today I connected the iPhone to the Mac Mini for … Continue reading →

Posted in Gadgets, Mac OS X, The Suboptimal Way | 3 Comments

Suboptimal Retail Experience — Apple iPhone 3G Sales Tax Overcharge

Posted on August 10, 2008 by Eric

I went to the Apple store at Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara CA yesterday afternoon to get an iPhone 3G. My mother paid for half of it as my graduation present. Only after I got home did I discover … Continue reading →

Posted in Customer satisfaction, Gadgets, Hardware, Taxes, The Suboptimal Way | 16 Comments

Dealing with suboptimal urban wildlife

Posted on May 22, 2008 by Eric

The birds nesting in the trees near my bedroom window wake me up earlier than I’d like in the morning, and at night they keep me awake, singing past 2 AM. I’ve taken to sleeping with earplugs, but then my … Continue reading →

Posted in Gadgets, Health, The Suboptimal Way | 1 Comment

Suboptimal cap and gown

Posted on May 13, 2008 by Eric

I just bought a cap and gown, so I guess I will go to commencement after all. Herff Jones apparently must make them from some ridiculously cheap fabric, since they say not to wash or dry clean them.  I presume … Continue reading →

Posted in Film, School & Education, The Suboptimal Way | Leave a comment

Suboptimal search results — Google reports this blog “may harm your computer”

Posted on April 24, 2008 by Eric

Les brought to my attention that Google seems to think my blog hosts or links to malware, as shown here. I certainly don’t deliberately host any malware nor have any links to such, and a brief investigation doesn’t turn up … Continue reading →

Posted in Malware, The Suboptimal Way | 2 Comments

The suboptimal way to enjoy a milkshake

Posted on April 13, 2008 by Eric

On the way to a friend’s house, I went to a drive-through and ordered a burger and a shake. I still had the several-day-old remainder of a beverage in the cupholder that I needed to dispose of, but there was … Continue reading →

Posted in Comestibles, The Suboptimal Way | Leave a comment

The suboptimal way to expand a filesystem online

Posted on April 12, 2008 by Eric

I used LVM to increase the size of a logical volume containing an ext3 fileystem from 300GB to 500GB. After expanding the logical volume, it is necessary to expand the filesystem to use the added space. In theory, this can … Continue reading →

Posted in Linux, The Suboptimal Way | Leave a comment