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Andrew Pitonyak

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Blog

Moving some things to drupal. I decided to start with a blog (see blog.pitonyak.org). I need to thank my budy Mike for handling this for me.... Thanks Mike!

I'm defacing daddy's website already...

Since daddy's been busy taking care of me and mommy, I decided to create a website for myself. You can check it out over here at rebecca.pitonyak.org! Awww, ain't I cute!

I wonder how daddy is going to handle two little girls?

My Northridge Chipset fan failed

The Northridge chipset fan failed in my ASUS A8N5X motherboard. Although I could have replaced the fan under warranty, or simply ordered a new fan from http://estore.asus.com/shop/, I opted instead to purchase an Extreme Spirit II Northbridge Cooler from ,ThermalTake. Although decent instructions are included with the cooler, it is not all that clear how to remove the existing fan from the motherboard, so I took some pictures of the process, complete with comments.

SmugMug

I still have a website for Catherine, but the download speed is slow. I opened a SmugMug account http://pitonyak.smugmug.com because they have faster download speed. SmugMug also has excellent printing facilities. I do not earn money if you order prints, it is whatever SmugMug charges. If you think that SmugMug is cool, however, you can use my email address (andrew@pitonyak.org) or my special referal code (Rl0h94ubYv13o) to save yourself $5 and I earn $10. I have most of the pictures as raw format files so I can send full size originals or perform more image cleanup if required.

My bike finally works

I finally found a bike shop that is able to properly fix bikes, Devore Bicycles. To understand my elation, I must tell you about my past problems. I purchased a bicycle in Germany. The bike shop said that I could bring it back for a free checkup after the purchase. I tried to do this twice, but their repair department was closed for roughly three months.
When I returned to the US, I brought my bike with me. I paid Cycletech, a local shop, to assemble the bike and service it. Afterwards, I was not happy with the brakes or the shifting, but I used the bike for a season. I took the bike back for a tune-up and requested that they fix the brakes and the shifting. Unfortunately, there was no improvement. They were not even able to obtain the proper screws for my gear adjustments, so I had two rather long screws sticking out the top of the shift assembly. I purchased some repair books and did some minor adjustements myself. Things were improved, but I was still not happy because the brakes were always uneven.
After another year or so, I packed up my bike, and my wife's new bike, and took them to Devore Bicycles. Theyse guys are amazing. This is what they noticed when they looked at my bikes:

Broken pieces in my brakes causing my brakes to close unevenly. I mentioned this to the previous shop but they had said that it was fine. Finally, my brakes closed evenly.
Noticed the large adjustment screws from the previous shop and replaced them with the proper screws.
Noticed that my brakes were wired backwards from normal usage (front to back and back to front) and fixed the problem.
Properly adjusted the shifters.
Noticed that the front tire on my wife's bike was on backwards (it was obvious when they pointed it out).

The thing that impressed me the most was that they noticed most of these problems the instant that they saw the bikes before I told them what I thought was wrong. The moral of the story is that if you desire a new bike that has been properly assembled, or if you want your bike to be properly repaired the first time, take it to Devore Bicycles in Columbus Ohio.

I had a baby

My daughter must be a geek, she created her own website; I don't know anything about it myself (I think that MIKE helped her).

OpenOffice Macro Page Now Available

I decided that it was time to create a web page just for Macro Programming in OpenOffice. If you have any ideas or feedback, be sure to let me know.
OpenOffice Macro Page Here

Although you can download my primary macro document from here, there is so much more available on the OpenOffice web page, that you should check it out. My OpenOffice.org Macro document (updated September 19, 2009 11:45:13 AM EDT) contains many examples. This document is updated very frequently. Be certain to obtain the latest version. If you find any errors, please inform me.

Periodically, I receive requests for my document in forms other than as an OpenOffice.org document. A PDF version is now available from my macro page.

Wedding pictures

I finally decided to make the wedding photos available online (see http://www.pitonyak.org/photos/index.php). You can no longer click on the link, you must enter the link in your browser and go there.

My initial Wedding page is still available.

Meyermann Family Reunion

I finally met my new extended family and my wife allowed me to run rampant with the camera. (see http://www.pitonyak.org/FamilyReunion_2003_07_02/). I broke this link as well!

Who Am I?

I managed to move to Columbus, Ohio from Michigan with no idea that there was a football rivalry between The Ohio State University and the University of Michigan. I guess you could say that I do not follow sports much.

I am a research scientist / software engineer for Battelle Memorial Institute. My resume is available if you really want to see it.