<?xml version="1.0" encoding="utf-8"?>
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    <title>Jonathan Blocksom&apos;s Weblog</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/" />
    <link rel="self" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/atom.xml" />
   <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3</id>
    <link rel="service.post" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3" title="Jonathan Blocksom's Weblog" />
    <updated>2008-08-08T13:59:07Z</updated>
    
    <generator uri="http://www.sixapart.com/movabletype/">Movable Type 3.2</generator>
 
<entry>
    <title>Buy my old Apple PowerMac G5 (dual 2GHz)!</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/08/buy_my_old_apple_powermac_g5_d.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=127" title="Buy my old Apple PowerMac G5 (dual 2GHz)!" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.127</id>
    
    <published>2008-08-08T13:58:06Z</published>
    <updated>2008-08-08T13:59:07Z</updated>
    
    <summary>I&apos;m selling my trusty desktop Mac on ebay....</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://cgi.ebay.com/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&item=300248650374">I'm selling my trusty desktop Mac on ebay</a>.</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>A Good Review for Bubbles!</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/07/a_good_review_for_bubbles.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=126" title="A Good Review for Bubbles!" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.126</id>
    
    <published>2008-07-12T18:42:02Z</published>
    <updated>2008-07-12T18:49:06Z</updated>
    
    <summary>The first customer review of Bubbles is in! It&apos;s four stars (out of five), here&apos;s an excerpt: &quot;I got this to entertain my toddler, and it seems to do a great job at it. $.99 is about the right price.&quot;...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>The first customer review of Bubbles is in!  It's four stars (out of five), here's an excerpt:<br />
"I got this to entertain my toddler, and it seems to do a great job at it.  $.99 is about the right price."</p>

<p>You can read the whole <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewContentsUserReviews?id=284975733&amp;pageNumber=0&amp;sortOrdering=1&amp;type=Purple+Software">review of Bubbles on iTunes</a>.</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Bubbles, my first iPhone App</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/07/bubbles_my_first_iphone_app.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=125" title="Bubbles, my first iPhone App" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.125</id>
    
    <published>2008-07-11T11:09:09Z</published>
    <updated>2008-07-11T11:19:03Z</updated>
    
    <summary>My first program for the iPhone has been posted to the iTunes store. It&apos;s called Bubbles and it lets you pop soap bubbles. This is the link to Bubbles on iTunes. Oddly enough there are two other bubble popping programs...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>My first program for the iPhone has been posted to the iTunes store.  It's called Bubbles and it lets you pop soap bubbles.  <a href="http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewSoftware?id=284975733&mt=8">This is the link to Bubbles on iTunes</a>.</p>

<p>Oddly enough there are two other bubble popping programs available as well.  One costs $1 like mine but seems to have worse graphics, and the other costs $2 and has fancier looking bubbles.  I will have to be a ruthless business person if I hope to corner the market on handheld bubble popping software.  Beware, competitors!</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>XO-2: Gutting the XO-1</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/06/xo2_gutting_the_xo1.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=123" title="XO-2: Gutting the XO-1" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.123</id>
    
    <published>2008-06-05T15:57:10Z</published>
    <updated>2008-06-05T15:59:08Z</updated>
    
    <summary>OLPC News published my editorial on why I think announcing the XO-2 is a bad mistake for OLPC. I take full credit for the frowny face XO photoshop job as well....</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.olpcnews.com">OLPC News</a> published my editorial on why I think announcing <a href="http://www.olpcnews.com/laptops/xo2/xo2_no_thanks.html">the XO-2 is a bad mistake for OLPC</a>.  I take full credit for the frowny face XO photoshop job as well.<br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>New XO today?</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/05/new_xo_today.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=122" title="New XO today?" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.122</id>
    
    <published>2008-05-20T05:09:28Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-20T05:12:50Z</updated>
    
    <summary>OLPC is expected to announce a new version of their laptop today. I&apos;m disappointed that they&apos;ll be doing this as I think they need to focus on software, not hardware. I&apos;ve written a little editorial about that over at OLPC...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.olpcnews.com/laptops/xo2/olpc_unveiling_next_generation_xo.html">OLPC is expected to announce a new version of their laptop today</a>.  I'm disappointed that they'll be doing this as I think they need to focus on software, not hardware.  I've written a little editorial about that over at OLPC News, we'll see if they run it.</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>My Android Developer Challenge Entry</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/05/my_android_developer_challenge.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=118" title="My Android Developer Challenge Entry" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.118</id>
    
    <published>2008-05-07T05:00:54Z</published>
    <updated>2008-05-07T05:11:31Z</updated>
    
    <summary>Here&apos;s a little demo of the program I submitted to the Android Developer Challenge....</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>Here's a little demo of the program I submitted to the Android Developer Challenge.</p>

<p><object width="425" height="350"> <param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/bad0Mzq-HGo"> </param> <embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/bad0Mzq-HGo" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" width="425" height="350"> </embed> </object></p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Jim Riggs Concert</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/03/jim_riggs_concert.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=103" title="Jim Riggs Concert" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.103</id>
    
    <published>2008-03-10T05:59:02Z</published>
    <updated>2008-03-10T06:08:29Z</updated>
    
    <summary>Today I went to a concert by Jim Riggs, the organist at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA. He was performing at a local private residence, the owner has a pretty spectacular Wurlitzer. He played a bunch of duets he&apos;s...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>Today I went to a concert by Jim Riggs, the organist at the Paramount Theatre in Oakland, CA.  He was performing at a local private residence, the owner has a pretty spectacular Wurlitzer.  He played a bunch of duets he's arranged for the organ and player piano, which was pretty neat.  Here's a video of him doing something similar, although listening to this with speakers or headphones just can't compare to hearing it in person.</p>

<p><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/z3PBmPORUog"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/z3PBmPORUog" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object></p>

<p>Another great part of the concert was watching the 1927 silent film <a href="http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0154503/">Fluttering Hearts</a> with Jim Riggs' live music accompanying it.  The movie was fairly amusing and the live music really added to it.</p>

<p>One way I know it was a great concert is that I just wanted to go play music when I came home.  I've found that hearing great live music always encourages people to want to go make some themselves in a way that recordings never can.<br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Strange Tech Support</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/03/strange_tech_support.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=102" title="Strange Tech Support" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.102</id>
    
    <published>2008-03-09T03:59:05Z</published>
    <updated>2008-03-09T03:59:08Z</updated>
    
    <summary>We received a tech support message from our online support request form yesterday with the following text (edited for privacy): ---- realname: Linda ****** email: *****@yahoo.com subject: E-Mail body: I need to send a news letter 8 pages out to...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>We received a tech support message from our online support request form yesterday with the following text (edited for privacy):</p>

<pre>
----
realname: Linda ******
email: *****@yahoo.com
subject: E-Mail
body: I need to send a news letter 8 pages out to folks 
on our list for a rabbit show. How do I do this?
----
</pre>

<p>This of course had nothing to do with our <a href="http://www.gollygee.com/products/blocks/">children's 3D modeling software</a>.  And our software has nothing to do with rabbits, in fact until this post that word never even appeared on our web site.  I wasn't sure what to do and I was really curious about where this lady came from.</p>

<p>So I did some digging and found that she found our site by searching for <a href="http://search.yahoo.com/search;_ylt=A0geu8IOX9NHtoABdetXNyoA?p=sending+email+tech+support&amp;y=Search&amp;fr=yfp-t-501&amp;ei=UTF-8">"sending email tech support" on yahoo.com</a>.  We're currently the eighth result, don't ask me how.  I can't say why she chose us over the other top 7, maybe she just liked our name.</p>

<p>I haven't responded to the email yet, in the past with random requests like this I've sometimes responded but I just don't know what to say.  Though if anybody's interested in going to a rabbit show, I can probably hook you up with about 8 pages of information.<br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>NodeBox is Great</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/03/nodebox_is_great.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=98" title="NodeBox is Great" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.98</id>
    
    <published>2008-03-05T04:22:14Z</published>
    <updated>2008-03-05T04:26:10Z</updated>
    
    <summary>I just discovered NodeBox, a really neat graphics programming tool for the Mac. It&apos;s based on Python and lets you easily write programs to generate 2D graphics. You can create PDFs or animate them and create QuickTime movies. Tools like...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>I just discovered <a href="http://nodebox.net/code/index.php/Home">NodeBox</a>, a really neat graphics programming tool for the Mac.  It's based on Python and lets you easily write programs to generate 2D graphics.  You can create PDFs or animate them and create QuickTime movies.</p>
<p>
Tools like this are a great way to get kids interested in programming.  The immediate feedback and visual rewards really let kids get into the programming aspect of it, incrementally increasing their program complexity to make more and more elaborate visuals.  I could see tons of uses for this tool in math and science curriculums as well; for example, you could simulate an experiment, measure a real experiment, and then render the two results on top of each other.
</p>
<p>
Here's a screenshot of a program I was playing with, follow the link below to see it in action.
</p>
<img src="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/images/NodeBox.png" border="0" height="407" width="1040" alt="NodeBox.png" align="right" />

]]>
        <![CDATA[Here's the program I wrote:

<pre>
# NodeBox script to draw letters of a message in a sinusoid

import math

message = "NodeBox is neat"
period = 20

def setup():
    global frame
    frame = 0

def draw():
    global frame, message
    for i in range(len(message)):
        x = 100 + 20*i
        y = 150.0 + (i+1)*6.0*math.sin((i+frame)*3.14159/10)
        text(message[i], x, y)
    frame += 1

speed(10)
</pre>

It renders the message one letter at a time, using a ramping sin wave for the vertical position. Here's the movie of it in action:

        <OBJECT classid='clsid:02BF25D5-8C17-4B23-BC80-D3488ABDDC6B' width="528"
        height="223" codebase='http://www.apple.com/qtactivex/qtplugin.cab'>
        <param name='src' value="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/images/NodeBox-neat.mov">
        <param name='autoplay' value="true">
        <param name='controller' value="true">
        <param name='loop' value="true">
        <EMBED src="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/images/NodeBox-neat.mov" width="528" height="223" autoplay="true" 
        controller="true" loop="true" pluginspage='http://www.apple.com/quicktime/download/'>
        </EMBED>
        </OBJECT>
]]>
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>BBS Memories</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/02/bbs_memories.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=88" title="BBS Memories" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.88</id>
    
    <published>2008-02-14T04:20:04Z</published>
    <updated>2008-02-20T03:21:10Z</updated>
    
    <summary>In the summer between my eighth and ninth grades I was one of the most frequent posters to a local BBS. After my morning paper route I would call up on the 300 baud modem connected to our Atari 800...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>In the summer between my eighth and ninth grades I was one of the most frequent posters to a local <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bulletin_board_system">BBS</a>.  After my morning paper route I would call up on the 300 baud modem connected to our Atari 800 hooked up to the TV set and read and type away.  Then I'd watch <a href="http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Robotech">Robotech</a> and fall asleep on the couch.</p>

<p>I'm reminded of all this thanks to the song below.  I'm glad the BBS archives are probably lost to the ages.</p>

<p><object width="425" height="355"><param name="movie" value="http://www.youtube.com/v/avxpn_MsPYs&rel=1"></param><param name="wmode" value="transparent"></param><embed src="http://www.youtube.com/v/avxpn_MsPYs&rel=1" type="application/x-shockwave-flash" wmode="transparent" width="425" height="355"></embed></object><br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Theme Work for Activity Guide Web Pages</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/02/theme_work_for_activity_guide.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=85" title="Theme Work for Activity Guide Web Pages" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.85</id>
    
    <published>2008-02-09T05:18:53Z</published>
    <updated>2008-02-09T05:18:56Z</updated>
    
    <summary>I&apos;ve updated the theme for the GollyGee Blocks Activity Guide web pages. It&apos;s not done yet but it&apos;s better than the theme we&apos;ve been using. The theme is an adaption of the &quot;Franchise&quot; theme from Sandvox Web Designs. It cost...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>I've updated the theme for the <a href="http://blocks.gollygee.com/activityguide/contents.html">GollyGee Blocks Activity Guide</a> web pages.  It's not done yet but it's better than the theme we've been using.  The theme is an adaption of the <a href="http://www.sandvoxwebdesigns.com/design_store/swd_-_franchise_2.html">"Franchise"</a> theme from <a href="http://www.sandvoxwebdesigns.com/">Sandvox Web Designs</a>.  It cost $12.99.  Sandvox comes with some great themes but none of them were really quite right for us, when I saw this I knew right away it would be easy to repurpose for our needs.</p>

<p>Someday maybe we'll be able to pay a web designer to come up with this stuff, but for now I think it was $13 well spent.<br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Spiffy Screenshots Update</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/02/spiffy_screenshots_update.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=84" title="Spiffy Screenshots Update" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.84</id>
    
    <published>2008-02-09T04:11:53Z</published>
    <updated>2008-02-09T04:23:58Z</updated>
    
    <summary>I&apos;ve updated the GollyGee Blocks Screenshots page. I haven&apos;t actually updated the screenshots (which actually are a bit out of date, there&apos;s a few more buttons along the side now), but I did make them easier to look at --...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>I've updated the GollyGee Blocks Screenshots page.  I haven't actually updated the screenshots (which actually are a bit out of date, there's a few more buttons along the side now), but I did make them easier to look at -- when you click on the thumbnails, they open up without changing the web page.</p>

<p>Here's an example:<br><br />
<a href="/weblogs/jblocksom/images/amory.jpg" rel="lightbox" title="Amory at the pool"><img src="/weblogs/jblocksom/images/amory-thumbnail.jpg"></a></p>

<p>I'm using a script called <a href="http://www.huddletogether.com/projects/lightbox/">Lightbox JS</a> to do this, but I got the idea when I saw <a href="http://www.cabel.name/2008/02/fancyzoom-10.html">Cabel's FancyZoom</a>.  FancyZoom is pretty cool, but it looks a little clunky on Windows with IE6.  About 25% of our web site visitors are using IE6, so I decided to go with Lightbox even though it's not quite as fancy.</p>

<p>Hopefully this will be the first of many updates to our website over the coming months.</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Comments enabled, thanks to reCAPTCHA</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/01/test_post_for_recaptcha.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=75" title="Comments enabled, thanks to reCAPTCHA" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.75</id>
    
    <published>2008-01-29T04:02:32Z</published>
    <updated>2008-01-29T04:20:36Z</updated>
    
    <summary> I&apos;ve added a thing called reCAPTCHA to the comments on this weblog. I&apos;ve generally left the comments closed because spammers tend to post a lot of junk which is a pain to sort through. reCAPTCHA is one of those...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://recaptcha.net"><img src="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/images/recaptcha.gif" border="0" height="125" width="187" alt="recaptcha.gif" align="right" /></a><br />
I've added a thing called reCAPTCHA to the comments on this weblog.  I've generally left the comments closed because spammers tend to post a lot of junk which is a pain to sort through.  reCAPTCHA is one of those systems where you have to type in a distorted word, something that's hard for computers to do.</p>

<p>But the really neat thing about reCAPTCHA is that half the words it presents is from a scanned book.  It uses the correct answers people enter to put together the full text of books that the Internet Archive is trying to digitize.  So every time you leave a comment now you're helping archive a book.</p>

<p><a href="http://recaptcha.net/learnmore.html">You can read more about reCAPTCHA and how it works</a>.  I was inspired to do this after reading the <a href="http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/01/comments_back_o.html">O'Reilly Radar post about reCAPTCHA</a>.  They mention that reCAPTCHA is used by over 20,000 web sites and is "the equivalent of over 2,000 people working 8 hours per day, 5 days per week."<br />
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    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>Always Buy the Complete Toilet Repair Kit</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/01/for_future_reference.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=72" title="Always Buy the Complete Toilet Repair Kit" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.72</id>
    
    <published>2008-01-22T03:43:36Z</published>
    <updated>2008-01-22T03:48:35Z</updated>
    
    <summary> When planning to repair a toilet, purchase a complete repair kit, and not just the part you think is broken. Otherwise you will just break the part you didn&apos;t buy. So two trips to Home Depot later, the main...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p><a href="http://www.acehardware.com/sm-fluidmaster-and-reg-complete-toilet-tank-repair-kit-400ak--pi-1275839.html"><img src="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/images/toilet_complete_kit.jpg" border="0" height="220" width="220" alt="toilet_complete_kit.jpg" align="left" /></a><br />
When planning to repair a toilet, purchase a <a href="http://www.acehardware.com/sm-fluidmaster-and-reg-complete-toilet-tank-repair-kit-400ak--pi-1275839.html">complete repair kit</a>, and not just the part you think is broken.  Otherwise you will just break the part you didn't buy.</p>

<p>So two trips to Home Depot later, the main level toilet works and even fills up quickly again.  I believe the slow filling problem was caused by a rubber washer in the supply line; the <a href="http://www.fluidmaster.com/pdfs/400ak_instructions.pdf">directions</a> explicitly state not to use a rubber washer if it's a plastic line, which it was.  I guess the plumber we paid to fix it a few years ago didn't read the directions.</p>

<p>All this home improvement I've been doing must be going to my head, because today I bought a table saw.<br />
</p>]]>
        
    </content>
</entry>
<entry>
    <title>I&apos;m on an OLPC Panel Discussion</title>
    <link rel="alternate" type="text/html" href="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/2008/01/im_on_an_olpc_panel_discussion.html" />
    <link rel="service.edit" type="application/atom+xml" href="http://www.gollygee.com/mt/mt-atom.cgi/weblog/blog_id=3/entry_id=65" title="I'm on an OLPC Panel Discussion" />
    <id>tag:www.gollygee.com,2008:/weblogs/jblocksom//3.65</id>
    
    <published>2008-01-07T03:05:49Z</published>
    <updated>2008-01-10T02:55:44Z</updated>
    
    <summary>I&apos;ll be participating in the panel &quot;Opportunities &amp; Challenges of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project&quot; coming up on Tuesday, January 16 at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC. The page lists me as one of &quot;four...</summary>
    <author>
        <name>Jonathan Blocksom</name>
        
    </author>
    
    <content type="html" xml:lang="en" xml:base="http://www.gollygee.com/weblogs/jblocksom/">
        <![CDATA[<p>I'll be participating in the panel <a href="http://intlrel.meetup.com/76/calendar/6697963/">"Opportunities & Challenges of the One Laptop Per Child (OLPC) Project"</a> coming up on Tuesday, January 16 at the Center for Global Development in Washington DC.</p>

<p>The page lists me as one of "four OLPC experts"; I'm a little uncomfortable with that label.  I have had an XO to develop with since last Spring but I haven't been working with it full time or anything.  So although I do think I have a valuable perspective as an educational software developer, I don't want anybody to get the idea that I'm walking around telling people that I'm an expert on the XO.</p>

<p>That being said, if anybody needs some XO software development I'd be happy to submit a bid!<br />
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    </content>
</entry>

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