On the television last night I overheard an advert for a financial institution at first I assumed to be a joke, not unlike the Geico Insurance spots that mimic infomercials and Old Navy commercials. Amazingly enough, it was no joke: the Fifth Third Bank is legitimate.

Fifth Third traces its origins to the Bank of the Ohio Valley, which opened its doors in Cincinnati in 1858. In 1871, that bank was purchased by the Third National Bank. With the turn of the century came the union of the Third National Bank and the Fifth National Bank, and eventually the organization became known as "Fifth Third Bank." Since its beginning, Fifth Third has provided superior customer service and followed sound banking principles.

Given that historical information, would it not be logical for their name to be the Eighth Bank?

Do you shop at Amazon.com? I would really love it if instead of going to their website directly you use mountsutro.org/amazon. You receive the same shopping experience but I receive a small amount of money per purchase via their affiliates program. It is fun and free! Help me out financially and have fun thinking about Muppet chefs at the same time.

Bookmark this for Amazon.com shopping:
» http://www.mountsutro.org/amazon

Thank you in advance!

It is no secret I am against many implementations of Macromedia's Flash web technology. While there are so many wonderful things that can be done with Flash, I find the majority of sites that feature it do in a way against basic design principles, web standards, interoperability and, well, taste. On occasion there is a site or two that uses Flash in such a way I cannot help but like.

Today's example is the US corporate website for the Dyson Appliances company. After reading another rave review about their super-powerful, yet pricy vacuum cleaners I decided to hop on over to their site to read some technical specifications. As I write this I still have not gotten past the first page, mesmerized by the two figures with the telescoping attachments vacuuming the borders of the page's navigational elements. They even have a Flash game to demonstrate some of the telescope functions.

As I have mentioned in the past, I am one of the few odd IT people who still use older equipment at home. My primary computer is still the Gateway Solo 2500 (link to non-related, but interesting article about installing Linux on a GWS2500) I purchased in mid-1999. While it may not be able to run the latest games and such, I worry not because it does what I need it to do and does it pretty well. I always run the latest and greatest software and some how this old machine figures out a way to manage, even with Windows XP, Office 2003, Photoshop and Illustrator.

The only thing about having an older PC is the simple reality that compatibility issues are sure to come up. Back when I finally relented and upgraded from Windows 2000 to Windows XP, one of these inherent issues appeared. Turns out the Advanced Configuration and Power Interface (ACPI) chip on my motherboard is not supported by Windows XP. The result: any time a power saving feature is enabled by the operating system, a critical error occurs and my system stops cold in its steps.

So far I have lived with this issue simply by turning off the power saving features such as hard drive spin-down and LCD turn-off. They were pretty moot to be anyway, as I generally put the system to sleep or hibernate when not actively using it. I decided the other day, however, that I wanted to go to sleep to the sounds of SomaFM a favourite streaming audio site. While it would have been simple enough to just close the LCD lid and hit the sack, I decided I wanted to try to nip this issue once and for all.

I searched around online and found the consensus solution for those not wishing to reformat (a process I already meticulously conduct every six months or so and recently just completed). It was a simple enough procedure: tell Windows your computer is not an ACPI-compatible machine. After a reboot, all system hardware is re-identified and installed and ACPI services are non-existent.

Since I turned on System Restore in case the situation hit the fan, I was ready to step-back the change because I immediately did not like the fact the power button no longer launched the Windows dialogue with options to sleep/hibernate, reboot or shutdown. Instead, it either acts as a power button or a sleep toggle, as directed by the BIOS. Sleep is no longer an option, only hibernate. I decided to let it stay for a while and just see how things operate.

It is absolutely amazing how much better my system now runs without the dark ACPI overlords stalking around. I always thought my video card simply sucked, but with ACPI gone, video (streaming and otherwise) are as fluid playing as they should. The obvious lack of sudden system lock-ups is to say the least, a plus. And the one problem I had succumbed to, destined to never find a solution: DHCP and intranetworking. Lo and behold, my system automatically accepted an IP and all networking goodies from the network AND every machine on the network can see every other machine on the network.

Amazing. Absolutely, incredibly amazing. I cannot even fathom how many countless hours I have spent trying to get all the machines on my network to operate as they should. And now, I just connected a foreign system to the network (a machine I am doing work on for a client) and *poof* with no hassle what so ever, the new system is visible by everyone and transferring backup files to my server.

I just saw someone pulling a "Marty McFly" via a stationary webcam broadcast from Duval Street in Key West. If you look at the camera, you are looking from Sloppy Joe's bar toward the other side of Duval Street and the intersection at Greene Street. A van driving north on Duval (left to right) and turning left on Greene had an additional passenger: some guy on a skateboard holding on to the ladder on the back door.

For those who do not remember, at the beginning of Robert Zemeckis' 1985 time travel hit Back to the Future, Marty McFly (Michael J. Fox) gets from Emmett Brown's home to downtown Hill Valley by holding on to various vehicles whilst riding his skateboard.

From a Human Interface Device (HID) design standpoint, washers and dryers have a lot to be desired. Have you ever noticed that to start the washer you pull the dial, but to start the dryer you push it? This is on two separate machines, mind you. Front-loading dryers are just silly as well, because I always end up dropping at least one white item on the garage floor during the washer to dryer transition. I would like to see an all-in-one unit (does it exist already?) that both washes and dries clothes in one simple step. A LCD touch screen powered by an intuitive graphical user interface would control the entire process wherein you could enter your options, initiate the cycle and come back in a few hours to find freshly laundered and dried clothes.

I drove down to Key West for general entertainment and to also look at a few employment opportunities of interest. I was only going to stay for a few days but ended up going for a whole week. I had a great time spending time with my friend Nathan who lives on the island, though he ended up working through most of my visit. Fear not, however, as Key West is one of many places where I can find endless amusement for myself. I met some really nice people that I hung out with for a few nights, drank entirely way too much and found it very difficult to come back to Orlando afterward. The first day there Nathan and I went out on a snorkel sunset catamaran cruise that was just brilliant. We took pictures on the cruise, but I am still waiting for Nathan to e-mail them to me. I will be sure to post them as soon as I am in receipt.

My birthday is quickly approaching. Ugh. I do not even want to do anything for it this year, save receive a copy of The Ministry of Sound's The Annual 2005 Limited Edition 2-Disc plus DVD box set. I would enjoy that.

Thanks to my friend John I now have a decent pair of headlamps for my car. He gave me a set of 4000k Liteglow Xenon Super White bulbs after noting one of my headlights was dim. I figured it was just a matter of a faulty bulb, but it turned out that the connection itself was faulty. One of John's employees graciously installed a new wiring kit so I now have two, very nicely functioning headlights.

For the first time in several years, I am in the process of going through old boxes of stuff and actually getting rid of a lot of garbage I do not need to hang on to any more. Despite the excellent progress I have made as so far, I still have another few days of work to finish the project.