dpk’s weblog

808 State — my favorite tracks are either 10×10 or TheOnlyRhymeThatBites on 808:88:98, but I really enjoy all of their work. It’s so much more “up beat” than most of what I’ve listened to. Really supports the good mood I’ve been in lately.
Conjure One — Sleep on their self-titled album is a nice gentle track, but not so much that it puts me to sleep. :)
Bluescreen — When I’m home with my subwoofer, I love to turn up the volume while listening to the Undercurrents track The Abyss.

And there you have it.

<roneVPATH> log this.

I’m getting pretty tired of being asked to fill out or answer phone surveys every time I deal with a company. Isn’t it enough I spent my money with them? I have to get random phone calls and/or pop-ups and/or letters too?

Does anyone know what these are called?

I want to say “screw holes” or “standoffs”, but that doesn’t seem right. Maybe they’re screw hole standoffs! ?

My Treo 600 has been having trouble for a while, mostly dropping calls a few seconds in. Pretty frustrating. Overall it’s been a great tool, but circumstances are changing, and if it can’t even reliably accept a phone call any longer… then out it goes.

I replaced it with a Blackberry Pearl. What a difference. It stinks for an SSH client, but it doesn’t compete with my junk while it’s in my pocket.

About a month after I adopted Fat Jerk (aka Praline) and his buddy Chickory I became tired of the daily scooping of the box. It was especially bad because the cats are just so big.

A friend recommended the Litter Robot. I ordered it off of Amazon (free shipping, inexplicably) and set it up. Overall I have been very satisified with the device.

However there was one snafu: I went on vacation shortly after getting it, and when I came home the sphere section (where they actually walk in) was turned over and it was indicating an error on the lights. I figured the cats did something stupid and got it jammed, so I just reset it and it worked again.

That happened a couple more times, so I contacted the manufacturer. They said that if the cat re-enters the box 5 times in a cycle, it stops, as a safety feature.

The problem with that was that Fat Jerk likes to stick his head in the sphere and sniff around several times per cycle. Luckily, the box has a way to adjust the “cat sensor” (basically a button on the bottom that clicks when the cats step on the entry platform). Several turns clockwise set it so they actually have to put their entire bulk inside the box to get it to trip. So now when FJ steps on the platform, he doesn’t stop the cycle, and gets to watch the whole thing. Since making this adjustment I haven’t had another problem with the box.

I can definitely say the Litter Robot has saved me several hours (possibly days?) of time dealing with cat waste. I haven’t had to scoop anything since I bought it 6 months ago (or so). I’m also using a _lot_ less cat litter — probably 60-70% less. I’d recommend it to anyone with any size cat (they have a 30-day return policy if your cat doesn’t like it), although it’s supposed to work a lot better on normal sized cats (for the record mine are each 16+lbs currently).