This site voted one of the top 5% of sites by Thompson Web Source
This is the first ever website I put online.
HI. 6.9.07 Just got back from
Argentina, Peru, Uruguay and Chile. 10.15.07. Being gored by an angry bull was
not the highlight for me - fortunately his horns drove into my backpack as I
turned around in a split second to face the charge. Just returned from several
exciting weeks in Alaska, gold mining, trekking and sightseeing! Heading out for
2 months for Dec and Jan - returning in Feb 08 from UAE, Oman, Yemen and
Thailand.
QUOTE1:
"99.9% of the time computers do NOT work correctly" ~ David Thompson (I
stand by this quote 100% of the time)
This means workstations, servers, laptops, desktops, software,
operating systems, modems, ports, network cards, switches, routers, video
cards, hubs, USB - Serial, - PS2 mice, keyboards, monitors, speakers, any type
of RAM, mouse controllers, monitor controllers, cables & connectivity among many many
many other computer related components & services.
Hey, I
should know, I pretty much live on computers. For
this very reason, I have now built 3 high end backup workstations (almost
mirrors of each other) - when one of them goes bad or has problems as they
inevitably do every month or so, its a seamless swap out - and my productivity
is absolutely UNALTERED.
I can name at least 25 things wrong with every single computer I own or any
typical server. Here's an interesting service to provide and market. DSL. 90% of
people don't qualify for it. Of those who do, they have the wrong phone company
for us to offer service. Of those who end up signing up - 75% of the new orders
do not work on the install date for various reasons.
I am also finding that its absolutely necessary to have more than 1 monitor as a
backup. Problems ranging from the screen going upside down all the time, to the
entire screen shrinking into the middle of the monitor are quite troublesome and
detrimental to productivity. Just last week, on a recent computer I built,
whenever you opened a folder the folder would then immediately disappear
replaced by 2 or 3 cursors. Yeaaaaa babeeeee. COMPUTERS SUCK. *****Update - the
flat screen monitors I have been using for the past several years work
perfectly.
What really fries the ass are RAID or Mirrored hard drives. Companies that make
these products advertise their great backup capabilities, HA These drives are
absolutely one of the most frustrating things with computers. THEY DO
*******NOT***** WORK. What crappy designs.
OH, and ON BOARD *ANYTHING* is a waste of your money. These components will FRY
on you. Access Database is one of the worst databases every created.
Ha and I love how DVD Drives cost like $100 bucks and I'm already on my 3rd one
(the first two ended up with me driving large nails through the guts of these
drives)....and the one I have now on one of my computers works very sporadically
- sometimes it says it needs new software updates, you go to the update page and
there are NO updates available. Lovely. It hardly plays shit and you never know
when it will actually play a VCD or DVD - one day it will play a DVD and it will
be stymied by the EXACT same DVD the next day. Put in a DVD and try to burn
under 4 gigs. I LOVE how the program says you are trying to burn too much and
you have to use 7 disks. HA WTF is that about, 4 gigs will fit fine on a normal
DVD.
QUOTE2:
"It
is considered stupid to enter the freeway at 30mph when the freeway traffic is
moving at 65mph" ~ David Thompson
QUOTE3:
For ages, a deadly conflict has been waged between a few brave men and women of
thought and genius upon the one side, and the great ignorant religious mass on
the other. This is the war between Science and Faith. The few have appealed to
reason, to honor, to law, to freedom, to the known, and to happiness here in
this world. The many have appealed to prejudice, to fear, to miracle, to
slavery, to the unknown, and to misery hereafter. The few have said "Think". The
many have said "Believe!". -- Robert Ingersoll
MORE KEWL NEWS
I write travel articles every month, mostly on cities in California. Currently
there are MANY articles
as well as a multitude of travel links, photos, message boards, classifieds
and essays by fellow travelers. You can check out
"Dave's Travel Corner"
at www.davestravelcorner.com
I also put together this site Santa
Rosa High School Foundation and am a lifetime member and on the Board of
Directors. Santa Rosa High ROCKS.
Some people say Turn Off
your TV for a week, I say throw it out the window. I've never had to do
that, having never owned one.
I write poetry - when I'm not busy with other commitments. Sometimes it consumes
me - most of the time I consume it. You can read some of my 'decent' poems
(appropriate for most audiences) HERE
The hard core stuff has never been put online.
There
is no other singer like him - He's not well known in the USA but he is well
known in the UK. This is my favorite singer & song writer - Visit: www.don-williams.com
Hope you had a chance to check him out at the State Theatre in Modesto
recently - thats 2x in the past two years we've gone to see him!! One night we
drove to & from SR town in blinding rain. Unfortunately 2006 was his farewell
tour. Goodbye Don. There is no other violinist like her in the world - wow what incredible music!
Visit Hilary Hahn's website www.hilaryhahn.com
Mozart, nice syrupy sweet music, but Beethoven blows him out of the water. There is no
comparison.
A recent informal poll conducted by myself, and for myself, shows that between
93.9 and 95.7% of that new country music is absolute CRAP Country Music died in the late 1980's. There was one station that did deserve to be called a Country Music AM radio station in No Cal and that
was The
Ranch 93.9 out of Modesto, California. Unfortunately they are no longer
in business. 92.5 KKAL out of San Luis Obispo California used to merit long
drives but they are no longer in business. Tough markets for this old music.
More pics here ... or
here too Tsunami year - my brother John was caught in the Tsunami and barely
escaped with his life - his website here:
www.sonomacountylaw.com/tsunami Syy and I toured the terrible
destruction 10 days after the 2004 Tsunami occurred.
Check out my awesome internet provider's home page at: www.pon.net
I used to write for the UpBeat
Times, until I lost contact with the publisher - this is a regional newspaper with a focus on the positive and the good things
in this life.
Yo. Enjoy surfing the waters of the web. When surfs UP Cali coast can be a
dangerous place. Check out this boxing fan site for the currently undefeated
Olympic Gold Medalist Andre Ward. I run this site:
www.andre-ward.com
Need some information about wine tasting Napa Valley? I've personally visited
over 350 Napa wineries -
www.thenapawineproject.com . Um, yea we know all the unsecured wireless
networks in the Valley. You know your in wine country when you find wireless
networks called "Pinot House", "CabKing", "Sangiovese" etc. Too many social
networking sites to keep track of eh? I have a profile on
www.couchsurfing.com
and www.facebook.com
ANCIENT NEWS
Hello all visitors to Dave's Web Page.
I graduated from California
Polytechnic State University in San Luis Obispo. I majored in Biology, and I minored
in International Relations. 
Way back in the Spring of 97 I rode my new mountain bike
down to Santa Barbara and back in one day (210 miles). I left at 2:30 in the
morning and was in Santa Barbara at my favorite smoothie
place by 10:30 am. Hey, Jamba Juice, that sounds like a great ad campaign -
some guy got up at 2:30am, rode his mtn bike over 100 miles to get his favorite
smoothie at Jamba Juice. Thanks for opening a branch in my hometown.
My brother graduated from UC Davis.....a long time ago. 
His major was Political Science. For several quarters he was a Resident Manager
at Castillian off campus dorms.
Both my brother and sister attended Santa Clara University. 
Elizabeth graduated in June 03 from her Masters program at Oregon
State University. John graduated from Santa Clara Law School and took the BAR exam in
August 01. After passing the BAR he spent 3 months traveling throughout SE Asia
- upon his return, he worked for the DA's office in Stanislaus
County. Now he is sailing, freelancing it, and who knows what the next year will
bring for him. Email: jmt@pon.net Eliz
is back at SCU - this time as a Professor.
MANY YEARS ago I went to Nepal, Thailand, and Korea.
The majority of that time was spent in Nepal. While there, I hiked in the
Himalayas, in the shadow of Mt. Everest. During the trek portion of our trip I became very sick and
had to be carried at midnight in
0 degree F weather, from 16,300 feet to about 15,000 feet. The next morning
I still couldn't walk so I was carried by a lady with a backpack.
She would carry her pack and place it further down the trail. Then she would
come back for me, carry me on her back, and walk past the pack. She would set
me down and then go back for the pack. She repeated this process over and
over again for about 3 hours. Due to food poisoning and the altitude I
became so weak that I could not walk. I was throwing up every half an hour
or so. Frozen vomit doesn't look too good in the morning!
I have led 4 successful summit expeditions of
Mount Shasta -
5th one got us to 13,200 feet on MHill in a fierce windy whiteout blinding snow storm.
We ALWAYS stop at The Olive
Pit in Corning for delicious Olive burgers!! 5th climb was one of our
most exciting yet. We all summited! See ya
on The Mountain in 08! Sumitting Rainier in windy conditions was an interesting
experience in 06' as was ice climbing at 16,500 feet in Peru this year.
I was the President and a founding member of the Cal Poly Solar Car Club.
We used 3500 pounds of HD foam, glued together with two-part epoxy to make the
molds for our solar car. The foam was CNC'd by Burt Rutan's Scaled Composites in
the windy town of Mojave
before we actually laid up the Carbon Fiber skins. Burt Rutan is one of the
leading visionaries of our time. This is an amazing individual and a very
dynamic speaker.
While cruising the web I have found some amazing sites that you may find of
interest... Check out my list of great sites.
I also have a few pictures on the web.
If you want to search for things on the Web, look no farther. Just type
in some keywords below.
It sure is a small 
world after all. Click here for the famous theme parks...
I always have enjoyed reading comic strips. Calvin and Hobbes has been a
long favorite of mine. Pearls Before Swine is a close substitute. At least there are still some
C&H's strips available on
the web.
I almost forgot. Make sure you visit my brother's awesome home page. 
I hope you have enjoyed reading this and the accompanying pages. If you have
any comments or suggestions, feel free to drop me a note. You can 
me.
© August 2008 D. Thompson Publishing