Ryan Patton's Thoughts...

I need my FTP!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 29 Apr 2010 20:54:00 +0000

Tragic. They're taking away my FTP access to my blog through blogger. I'm not sure if I want to make the domain changes they're demanding, so this could be "all she wrote" for Ryan Patton's Thoughts.

On the plus side, I won't have to think as often...

Keep smiling!

-Ryan

I Was Promised Donuts!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 18:49:00 +0000

This sign was used as part of some San Franciscan's protest to a "protest rally" by people belonging to Westboro "Baptist Church" (which is truly a misnomer). When the people protesting the protesters were finished, a local cop wanted the "I was promised donuts" sign for her Sergent's car. Nice touch, I must say.

For the full album: http://www.flickr.com/photos/rubin110/ / CC BY-NC-SA 2.0

Security Theater, Anyone?

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Fri, 26 Mar 2010 19:19:00 +0000

So who else has been tempted to say something when the TSA goon takes the water bottle from the 90 year old woman?

Xkcd.com:

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Term Limits for Congresspeople

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 04:18:00 +0000

Clearly, the time has come to impose term limits on all the folks in D.C. When did serving the people become a career move?

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Oscar Winners

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Mon, 08 Mar 2010 15:09:00 +0000

I'm rather glad some new faces won the big Oscars last night - even if the 'new faces' are the ex-wife of the guy that directed the sinking ship I still want 3+ hours of my life back for watching, the first person to win a best Oscar and worst Razzie in the same weekend, and 'the Dude'.

Air Tran

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Sat, 06 Mar 2010 02:05:00 +0000

I must admit, I was quite excited to hear the news that Huntsville's found a new "low-fare" carrier. Air Tran will serve Baltimore and Orlando from Huntsville starting this May. Let's just hope this has a ripple effect on fares from Huntsville, the most expensive city to fly out of in the country. Oh, and that we can keep them, which seems to be the part of this equation we can't quite figure out.

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von Braun

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Fri, 26 Feb 2010 23:50:00 +0000

Photo: von Braun (center) explains the Saturn Launch System to President Kennedy (right) (nasa.gov)

As a resident of Huntsville, Alabama, I thought I'd share these interesting comments of former Huntsville resident (and German/American rocket scientist and pioneer) Wernher von Braun, who (along with his team) invented the Saturn V rocket that took man to the moon. During WWII his team designed rockets for a much different purpose, though, including the V2 that brought terror to London throughout the war.

Nearing the end of the war he knew Germany was to lose, and was faced with a decision of who to surrender his team and technology to -- the Americans advancing from the West, or the Soviets from the East. His comments about that decision in an interview:

"We knew that we had created a new means of warfare, and the question as to what nation, to what victorious nation we were willing to entrust this brainchild of ours was a moral decision more than anything else. We wanted to see the world spared another conflict such as Germany had just been through, and we felt that only by surrendering such a weapon to people who are guided by the Bible could such an assurance to the world be best secured." (W. von Braun, Biography television series, 1961-64.)

Don't touch that!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Mon, 15 Feb 2010 17:36:00 +0000

Well, now I know why we buy too much. Apparently if you touch it, you have to buy it...

Worst. Invention. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 20:53:00 +0000

Really, who comes up with this stuff? More importantly who approves this stuff???

Twitter-equipped bathroom scale tells the world how much you weigh

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Netbooks: or "How we can reinvent the PC to sell you another one"

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 14:36:00 +0000

Well, I fell for it. I bought a netbook earlier this year. Did I need it? Does anyone ever really need this product? The safe bet is on "no" for both questions.

But it's still pretty cool. I ended up buying the Acer Aspire One model, and I've been pretty impressed with it, and actually found myself using it more than any other computer at home. A couple things to get out of the way:
1. The keyboard takes some time to get used to. If you've got fat fingers like me, you won't like it as much as a full size keyboard. The Acer has an 89% keyboard.
2. The battery life -- not great. The Acer has a three cell battery that's good for about two hours, on a good day.
3. The brand. These are low cost machines, so don't make brand out to be a bigger item than it needs to be. Acer doesn't make these, they farm out to some company you've never heard of. I'm sure other manufacturers are similar.
4. Windows XP: just say no. I bought mine loaded with windows so I could easily load AutoCAD '09 and the ms office suite. Just say no. If you want a fully fledged laptop, buy it. Besides being slower, and having a shorter battery life, a lot of the Windows netbooks (including mine) have had issues with fan noise. There's a workaround, but just avoid the trouble to start with and get it with Linux.

On the plus side, the screen -- while small -- is very crisp and easy to read. The computer runs fairly quickly, despite only having 1 Gig of RAM. It has a built in webcam, which works well for Skype or Windows/MSN Messenger. Unlike some Dell laptops I've used, the Acer won't give you third degree burns from using it on your lap for a few minutes. It does what it's designed to do very well, and for a very reasonable price. Just don't plan on playing any of your latest game releases on it.

All in all, if you're looking for something cheap to surf the internet on, use skype, occasionally do some light word processing on, a netbook might be for you. Mine ran $239, and I've seen them for under $200 if you look a little harder. Tigerdirect seems to have them on sale regularly. I would recommend that if you're looking to buy one, you run by Best Buy or your local big box electronics place to actually look at and use a netbook before purchasing. They are most certainly smaller than a laptop, and if you're expecting a laptop with a 15.4" screen, you will be disappointed!

Norman Mattoon Thomas

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Tue, 19 May 2009 16:32:00 +0000

Norman Mattoon Thomas (November 20, 1884 – December 19, 1968) was a leading American socialist, pacifist, and six-time presidential candidate for the Socialist Party of America.

The Socialist Party candidate for President of the US, Norman Thomas, said this in a 1944 speech:

"The American people will never knowingly adopt socialism. But, under the name of "liberalism," they will adopt every fragment of the socialist program, until one day America will be a socialist nation, without knowing how it happened."

He went on to say: "I no longer need to run as a Presidential Candidate for the Socialist Party. The Democrat Party has adopted our platform."

We're all humans, after all...

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Mon, 28 Jul 2008 15:29:00 +0000

The one thing that unites all human beings, regardless of age, gender, religion, economic status or ethnic background, is that, deep down inside, we ALL believe that we are above average drivers...

-Unknown

I read this today and thought...you know, that's true, I am an above average driver.

Oil Prices

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 16 Jul 2008 16:07:00 +0000

So, I know you were wondering...

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Sat, 19 Jan 2008 16:37:00 +0000

+++=?

...what happens when you throw Justin Timberlake, The Cookie Monster, and some death metal into a blender. Enjoy: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OVLAZtAcUBk&feature=related

That Time of Year Again

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 02 Jan 2008 20:06:00 +0000

Yes, ladies and gentlemen, it's that time of year again. With Christmas behind us, and the New Year underway (happy new year, by the way), it must be time to try to figure out why we don't have a playoff in place for Division IA (FBS) NCAA football yet. With Georgia's strong showing against a previously undefeated Hawaii, and USC breezing past the Illini, does anyone think a game between an Ohio State that lost to the aforementioned Illinois team, and a two-loss (8-5 Kentucky and Arkansas) Tiger team will really determine anything resembling a national championship (let alone define a BCS champion)? If Oklahoma has a strong showing tonight, you can add them to the list of deserving candidates, and further muddle the picture.

Let the celebrations begin. The confusion is just getting started--bring us a playoff!

What do you think?

Photo credit: R. Phelps http://www.flickr.com/photos/kentuckylongrifle/1591645543/
http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/deed.en

Weekend?

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Fri, 19 Jan 2007 22:04:00 +0000

Weekend?
Originally uploaded by rpatton.

My desk is getting messy ... is the weekend almost here yet?

Two for two!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Tue, 26 Sep 2006 22:15:00 +0000

Today I brought my record to 2 for 2 on FAA checkrides by passing the instrument airplane checkride. Woohoo! Now instead of punching holes in the sky, I can punch holes in the clouds!

New House!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 31 Aug 2006 01:07:00 +0000

We bought a house! Amanda and I closed on a small house outside Huntsville, Alabama yesterday. It's already been a blast playing with utility companies...this weekend comes the real fun stuff...moving.

We're really excited!

It's a new car!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 15:56:00 +0000

Driving back from Arkansas, the transmission on my car decided to take a permanent vacation. The timing could have been better, but it could have been worse, too. I almost made it home. The bad news came a few days later, when the estimates came back for repairing my car at much more than it was worth.

Thus, we decided to look for a new car. With rising fuel prices, we decided to look ay "hybrid" cars. That's about as far as the research into hybrid cars went. The way they're priced, I'll probably add a sail to my car before buying a hybrid.

We ended up settling on a 2006 Ford Explorer. I like it!

Greetings!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 25 May 2006 15:50:00 +0000

Hello from Dublin, Ireland! More to come later...I promise.

*UPDATE: It was fun!*

My new heroes...

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Fri, 10 Mar 2006 14:37:00 +0000

Who said heckling wasn't an artform? The ultimate prank for the heckler: click here.

Apparently, the "victim" took it pretty well, and thought it was quite funny...though he shot like 3/13 from the field (including 2/10 from outside the arc), and the 79% free throw shooter missed both free throws when the chant began...so it obviously worked!

Sandy

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 15:41:00 +0000

Even when she won't stop trying to bite your toes, whining when you put her to sleep (or leave her in the morning), doing her "business" on the floor, you can't help but smile at her -- she's just too cute.

As you've probably guessed by now, Amanda and I got a little puppy. Sandy, the 3lb Shih Tzu that thinks she's big enough to leap to or from any height. The photo above is after wearing her out for a few hours. Quite a few hours. She's worth a few hours of lost sleep though...

Happy Australia Day!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 26 Jan 2006 14:58:00 +0000

Today, January 26, is Australia Day. So go ahead, grab your mates, and drink a (Swan Draught / Emu / VB / Foster's / Toohey's), relax, and celebrate. Oh, and eat a Tim Tam for me.

If you're wondering, Australia Day marks the anniversary of the date Capt. Arthur Phillip raised the British flag at Sydney Cove, proclaiming British soverignty -- 26 January 1788. So now you know...

I passed!

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Thu, 22 Dec 2005 22:51:00 +0000

Well, I passed. I thought it was one of my worst flights ever, but somehow I passed the FAA Private Pilot Practical Test today.

*sigh*

It is certainly a good feeling having that over...

Merry Christmas everyone!

Flying Solo

noreply@blogger.com (Ryan) — Wed, 09 Nov 2005 04:57:00 +0000

Flying Solo
Originally uploaded by rpatton.

A fun picture I took during a long straight in approach to HSV. It was a solo flight last month. I'm hoping for good weather so I can get my solo cross-country done!