(of which I am one)
Weather Bonk
It shows your local weather on a Google map, with points marked where weather cams exist. Rolling over a cam marker shows a thumbnail picture of the current view from the weather cam, and you can overlay the local radar right on to the map. It's freakin' cool.
Sunday, October 30, 2005
Saturday, October 29, 2005
I'm Home
Back from Vegas... and I still have to go to work, so to satiate your curiousity - no, I didn't win millions. I didn't lose too much though, so it's all good. You can read the Vegas trip reports at my poker blog.
I have very little techie speak to spew today, except that I have a secret crush on Patrick Norton (formerly of The Screen Savers) and have today discovered his video-cast: DigitalLife TV. I will be an avid watcher, for sure.
I have very little techie speak to spew today, except that I have a secret crush on Patrick Norton (formerly of The Screen Savers) and have today discovered his video-cast: DigitalLife TV. I will be an avid watcher, for sure.
Sunday, October 16, 2005
Do as I say...
... not as I do.
One of the classes I teach at the local community college is computer repair. I preach constantly about the importance of backing up data and maintaining a frequent system upkeep schedule. Today, I finally paid for not practicing what I preach.
The last time I backed up my data was July 2004. Yeah. Over a year ago.
Last Christmas (10 months ago or so), I upgraded my computer from an Athlon XP 2200 to the Athlon 64-bit 3500+. I added a gig of Corsair XMS dual channel DDR400 ram, a brand new 250GB Maxtor DiamondMax hard drive, and a new CD burner. I added extra fans, and a neon light, and did it up sweet.
Shortly thereafter, I started having hard disk problems. Turns out, my power supply couldn't handle the neon light and extra fans. I unplugged them, and the problems stopped - and I was able to retrieve my data from the drive.
That incident was the 2nd time in 3 years that I'd had some sort of system crash but was able to recover my data. You'd think I'd have seen how lucky I was and started backing up.
I've intended for years to go buy a copy of Norton Ghost. It's an awesome product - I used it years ago at a computer shop I used to work at. But, it's $70. I always backed down at the last minute and avoided buying it. Too expensive.
Another thing I've been procrastinating is buying a new power supply. I thought I had a 400 watt PS in my system, and I figured after disabling the extras in my case, that was fine for a while - until I had some spare cash for a new PS. It never made it high on my priority list.
Last night, everything came full circle. I'd unplugged my computer to work on my cousin's system (which went just fine - though included ANOTHER failed Maxtor hard drive, the 6th I've owned, encountered, or heard of in the last 4 years). I went to plug my system back in, and as I plugged the power plug into the back of the power supply, something surged. The system was turned off, but power surged through it, lighting the power LED and whirring the fans momentarily before cutting out. I thought, "That was weird."
Sure was. My hard drive never came up after that - just repeated a loud clicking noise and hung the system.
You never want to hear a hard drive click. Not like that.
I lost everything - couldn't even boot the drive as a slave on another working system. It just clicks and hangs. I have so much data that was of vital importance that I hadn't backed up.
I am an idiot.
My last resort is the old freezer trick. My dead drive is in my freezer as we speak. I'll remove it from its icy home tomorrow and try booting it one last time in its frozen state. The trick worked once for me. I don't expect to have any luck with it this time around, due to the degree to which the thing sounds to be toasted. But I am praying.
Literally.
Right now, as I type, I'm on disk 9 of who-knows-how-many of a Ghost hard drive backup. I reinstalled Windows and most of my software. And now, I Ghost.
Wish me luck....
One of the classes I teach at the local community college is computer repair. I preach constantly about the importance of backing up data and maintaining a frequent system upkeep schedule. Today, I finally paid for not practicing what I preach.
The last time I backed up my data was July 2004. Yeah. Over a year ago.
Last Christmas (10 months ago or so), I upgraded my computer from an Athlon XP 2200 to the Athlon 64-bit 3500+. I added a gig of Corsair XMS dual channel DDR400 ram, a brand new 250GB Maxtor DiamondMax hard drive, and a new CD burner. I added extra fans, and a neon light, and did it up sweet.
Shortly thereafter, I started having hard disk problems. Turns out, my power supply couldn't handle the neon light and extra fans. I unplugged them, and the problems stopped - and I was able to retrieve my data from the drive.
That incident was the 2nd time in 3 years that I'd had some sort of system crash but was able to recover my data. You'd think I'd have seen how lucky I was and started backing up.
I've intended for years to go buy a copy of Norton Ghost. It's an awesome product - I used it years ago at a computer shop I used to work at. But, it's $70. I always backed down at the last minute and avoided buying it. Too expensive.
Another thing I've been procrastinating is buying a new power supply. I thought I had a 400 watt PS in my system, and I figured after disabling the extras in my case, that was fine for a while - until I had some spare cash for a new PS. It never made it high on my priority list.
Last night, everything came full circle. I'd unplugged my computer to work on my cousin's system (which went just fine - though included ANOTHER failed Maxtor hard drive, the 6th I've owned, encountered, or heard of in the last 4 years). I went to plug my system back in, and as I plugged the power plug into the back of the power supply, something surged. The system was turned off, but power surged through it, lighting the power LED and whirring the fans momentarily before cutting out. I thought, "That was weird."
Sure was. My hard drive never came up after that - just repeated a loud clicking noise and hung the system.
You never want to hear a hard drive click. Not like that.
I lost everything - couldn't even boot the drive as a slave on another working system. It just clicks and hangs. I have so much data that was of vital importance that I hadn't backed up.
I am an idiot.
My last resort is the old freezer trick. My dead drive is in my freezer as we speak. I'll remove it from its icy home tomorrow and try booting it one last time in its frozen state. The trick worked once for me. I don't expect to have any luck with it this time around, due to the degree to which the thing sounds to be toasted. But I am praying.
Literally.
Right now, as I type, I'm on disk 9 of who-knows-how-many of a Ghost hard drive backup. I reinstalled Windows and most of my software. And now, I Ghost.
Wish me luck....
Friday, October 14, 2005
Podcast Obsession
I finally got an iPod a few months ago - the 20GB white one, 4th generation. Since then, I've discovered podcasts. I find them to be a great way to pass the time driving to work or to the poker room. Here are my current faves:
TWiT - This Week in Tech - Oh, how I love Patrick Norton. I've been crushing on him since the days of the TechTV show "The Screen Savers." Kevin Rose is cool too, and I consider Leo LaPorte to be a fantastic tech news broadcaster and author. This weekly podcast routinely gives me a couple hours worth of interesting links and tidbits to surf through after listening.
The Web 2.0 Show - I was turned on to this podcast after its mention on TWIT, and for any web developer looking to stay on the cutting edge of web interactivity and interface design, this show is a great resource of news and links. If you don't know what "Web 2.0" is, check out this article by Tim O'Reilly.
Digg Nation - Kevin Rose's podcast, elaborating on the top news articles of the week from digg.com. If you aren't already using Digg as your source of tech news, try it out. It's like slashdot, gone web 2.0. I love it. Nothing against slashdot - I still read over there too - but the Digg interface is much more slick and interactive, and the scope of news coverage seems to be a bit more broad without being irrelevant. I dig Digg.
Command N - You can't listen to this one, since it's a video podcast, but still worthy of mention. Amber Mac, of "Call for Help" Toronto fame, hosts this video podcast on tech news - mostly web related. She calls herself a "web strategist," and I thought that was just the coolest title ever. I might have to become one of those some day.
Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio - A weekly poker podcast, often featuring fellow poker bloggers of much higher fame than I. Not only am I a computer geek, but I'm also a poker geek.
That's what I'm into right now... in fact, it's time to update the iPod so I can go make the hour-long trek to the casino.
TWiT - This Week in Tech - Oh, how I love Patrick Norton. I've been crushing on him since the days of the TechTV show "The Screen Savers." Kevin Rose is cool too, and I consider Leo LaPorte to be a fantastic tech news broadcaster and author. This weekly podcast routinely gives me a couple hours worth of interesting links and tidbits to surf through after listening.
The Web 2.0 Show - I was turned on to this podcast after its mention on TWIT, and for any web developer looking to stay on the cutting edge of web interactivity and interface design, this show is a great resource of news and links. If you don't know what "Web 2.0" is, check out this article by Tim O'Reilly.
Digg Nation - Kevin Rose's podcast, elaborating on the top news articles of the week from digg.com. If you aren't already using Digg as your source of tech news, try it out. It's like slashdot, gone web 2.0. I love it. Nothing against slashdot - I still read over there too - but the Digg interface is much more slick and interactive, and the scope of news coverage seems to be a bit more broad without being irrelevant. I dig Digg.
Command N - You can't listen to this one, since it's a video podcast, but still worthy of mention. Amber Mac, of "Call for Help" Toronto fame, hosts this video podcast on tech news - mostly web related. She calls herself a "web strategist," and I thought that was just the coolest title ever. I might have to become one of those some day.
Card Club on Lord Admiral Radio - A weekly poker podcast, often featuring fellow poker bloggers of much higher fame than I. Not only am I a computer geek, but I'm also a poker geek.
That's what I'm into right now... in fact, it's time to update the iPod so I can go make the hour-long trek to the casino.
Bad Blog Mommy
I've neglected this here blog, and I've been feeling guilty about it. GeekGoesMeow became little more than a dumping ground for links I found while at work or away from home, and wanted to be sure to read later.
I'd rather it be more than that - namely, what it was originally intended to be: my geek musings.
So - while I likely won't post here as frequently as I do to my poker blog, I will try to make things a little more interesting. Thanks for reading!
I'd rather it be more than that - namely, what it was originally intended to be: my geek musings.
So - while I likely won't post here as frequently as I do to my poker blog, I will try to make things a little more interesting. Thanks for reading!
Tuesday, May 31, 2005
AMD Unveils Dual-Core Chips for Desktops
AMD Unveils Dual-Core Chips for Desktops - Yahoo! News: "Advanced Micro Devices Inc. is launching its first PC microprocessors with two computing engines on a single chip Tuesday, further expanding its product line with a technology that's expected to be a major driver of PC performance for years to come.
ADVERTISEMENT
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The four chips to be announced Tuesday at the Computex trade show in Taiwan are targeted at high-end personal computers used for advanced tasks such as creating or editing digital media. In April, AMD introduced dual-core chips for servers and workstations. [more]"
ADVERTISEMENT
click here
The four chips to be announced Tuesday at the Computex trade show in Taiwan are targeted at high-end personal computers used for advanced tasks such as creating or editing digital media. In April, AMD introduced dual-core chips for servers and workstations. [more]"
11 steps to a better brain
New Scientist 11 steps to a better brain - Features: "It doesn't matter how brainy you are or how much education you've had - you can still improve and expand your mind. Boosting your mental faculties doesn't have to mean studying hard or becoming a reclusive book worm. There are lots of tricks, techniques and habits, as well as changes to your lifestyle, diet and behaviour that can help you flex your grey matter and get the best out of your brain cells. And here are 11 of them. [more]"
Saturday, May 28, 2005
Nostalgia
I resurrected my old case mod/overclocking web pages I did up years ago... ahh, the memories...
http://lev10s.phpwebhosting.com/oc/casemod.html
http://lev10s.phpwebhosting.com/oc/casemod.html
Thursday, May 19, 2005
Web Designer's Reference
Slashdot | Web Designer's Reference: "It seems as if everyone and his brother is writing books supporting standards-compliant Web design with XHTML and CSS. I have read and reviewed a half dozen this year alone. People are obviously trying to tell us something - plain HTML has to go! Web Designers' Reference: An Integrated Approach to Web Design with XHTML and CSS, by Craig Grannell, is the latest of these pronouncements.' Read on for the rest of Suda's review. [more]"
Tuesday, May 17, 2005
German Spam, Nasty
My work email addy got hit bad with this spam - and annoyingly it wasn't caught by our spam blockers. Bah!
Bradenton Herald | 05/17/2005 | New spam clogging computer emails: "A flood of German-language spam, with links to a far-right German political party, is clogging e-mail in-boxes, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today.
A virus known as Sober.p, which attacked computers earlier this month, created the new spam, or unsolicited e-mails. The virus turned affected machines into the tech equivalent of a carrier that unwittingly spreads a disease. However, the spam itself is not a virus and doesn't infect machines, the newspaper reported.
Thousands of computers disseminated the spam Monday and over the weekend, even though the owners of most of those computers had no idea their machines had been hijacked.
It has not been determined who is responsible for the virus.
The e-mails coincide with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Though the contents vary, most of the e-mails contain war-related political messages, such as 'Dresden 1945,' referring to the Allied bombing of the German city.
Most of the spam included links to German Web sites, including the site for the far-right National Democratic Party, the Sun-Sentinel said.
The site could not be accessed late Monday.
Protection against computer virus attacks is acquired by employing anti-virus software that is up to date."
Bradenton Herald | 05/17/2005 | New spam clogging computer emails: "A flood of German-language spam, with links to a far-right German political party, is clogging e-mail in-boxes, the South Florida Sun-Sentinel reported today.
A virus known as Sober.p, which attacked computers earlier this month, created the new spam, or unsolicited e-mails. The virus turned affected machines into the tech equivalent of a carrier that unwittingly spreads a disease. However, the spam itself is not a virus and doesn't infect machines, the newspaper reported.
Thousands of computers disseminated the spam Monday and over the weekend, even though the owners of most of those computers had no idea their machines had been hijacked.
It has not been determined who is responsible for the virus.
The e-mails coincide with the 60th anniversary of the end of World War II. Though the contents vary, most of the e-mails contain war-related political messages, such as 'Dresden 1945,' referring to the Allied bombing of the German city.
Most of the spam included links to German Web sites, including the site for the far-right National Democratic Party, the Sun-Sentinel said.
The site could not be accessed late Monday.
Protection against computer virus attacks is acquired by employing anti-virus software that is up to date."
Saturday, May 14, 2005
WGN Weather Weblog: Lightning stikes the Sears Tower
Freakin' cool!
WGN Weather Weblog: Lightning stikes the Sears Tower: "Christopher Gazdic, a Columbia College student, captured these images of a Sears Tower lightning strike on video this past Wednesday morning, May 11 from his dormitory room. His video of the lightning strike is available at: http://www.fyrestudios.com/lightning/index.html"
WGN Weather Weblog: Lightning stikes the Sears Tower: "Christopher Gazdic, a Columbia College student, captured these images of a Sears Tower lightning strike on video this past Wednesday morning, May 11 from his dormitory room. His video of the lightning strike is available at: http://www.fyrestudios.com/lightning/index.html"
Friday, May 13, 2005
Exploding iPod?
[H]ard|OCP - Exploding iPod: "If you read this exploding iPod story it seems more like of a series of unfortunate events lead up to the iPod going *pop* than an actual real “issue” but you just can’t pass up an exploding iPod story.
Don't put your iPod through the washing machine. And if for some reason you do, don't try to fix it with a screwdriver. That's the advice of fire investigators probing a small explosion that burned a hole in the bed of a Melbourne teenager who tried to perform emergency surgery on his ailing mp3 player."
IBM: \'Firefox is in da house\'
IBM: \'Firefox is in da house\' - silicon.com: "IBM is encouraging its employees to use Firefox, aiding the open source web browser's quest to chip away at Microsoft's Internet Explorer.
Firefox is already used by about 10 per cent of IBM's staff, or about 30,000 people. Starting today, IBM workers can download the browser from internal servers and get support from the company's helpdesk staff. [more]"
Firefox is already used by about 10 per cent of IBM's staff, or about 30,000 people. Starting today, IBM workers can download the browser from internal servers and get support from the company's helpdesk staff. [more]"
Thursday, May 12, 2005
Internet Explorer has become the hare OR IE loses more market share
Is Firefox perfect? Nope. Is it a better browser than IE? Absolutely!!!
(IMHO)
M-Dollar: Internet Explorer has become the hare OR IE loses more market share: "Internet Explorer's market share has slipped below 90% for the first time in a very long time. According to independent tracking by WebSideStory Internet Explorer has dropped from 95% to 89% in just under a year, and Firefox has gone from 3% to 6.8% since last October. [more]"
(IMHO)
M-Dollar: Internet Explorer has become the hare OR IE loses more market share: "Internet Explorer's market share has slipped below 90% for the first time in a very long time. According to independent tracking by WebSideStory Internet Explorer has dropped from 95% to 89% in just under a year, and Firefox has gone from 3% to 6.8% since last October. [more]"
Firefox Updated to 1.0.4
Mozilla has released a software update for Firefox, mainly to fix some JavaScript security vulnerabilities that had been found but not known to be exploited.
Go get you some!
Go get you some!
Friday, May 06, 2005
AMD dual-core Opterons to go Socket 939?
AMD dual-core 1xx Opterons 'to go Socket 939' | The Register: "AMD's upcoming dual-core Opteron 1xx chips for one-way servers and workstations will use the chip maker's Socket 939 interconnect rather than the more usual Socket 940 system.
So claim Taiwanese motherboard vendors sources cited by DigiTimes.
Dual-core Opteron 165, 170 and 175 processors are expected to ship in Q3 after being formally introduced later this quarter. They will use Socket 939 to give server and workstation vendors access to cheaper motherboards and less expensive unbuffered memory modules in place of the ECC DIMMs used in Socket 940 mobos.
In essence, this is all about bring down the cost of dual-core one-way Opteron servers and workstations - if it's going to happen. AMD has said nothing so far about the dual-core 1xx Opterons to suggest that it has anything other than Socket 940 in mind. With Socket 939, the only feature that will differentiate the 1xx series from the upcoming dual-core Athlon 64 X2 is its three HyperTransport links to the Athlon 64's single link."
So claim Taiwanese motherboard vendors sources cited by DigiTimes.
Dual-core Opteron 165, 170 and 175 processors are expected to ship in Q3 after being formally introduced later this quarter. They will use Socket 939 to give server and workstation vendors access to cheaper motherboards and less expensive unbuffered memory modules in place of the ECC DIMMs used in Socket 940 mobos.
In essence, this is all about bring down the cost of dual-core one-way Opteron servers and workstations - if it's going to happen. AMD has said nothing so far about the dual-core 1xx Opterons to suggest that it has anything other than Socket 940 in mind. With Socket 939, the only feature that will differentiate the 1xx series from the upcoming dual-core Athlon 64 X2 is its three HyperTransport links to the Athlon 64's single link."
Gates on Google
Slashdot | Gates on Google: "' A long and interesting article in Fortune on the battle between Gates and Google. 'Forced to watch Google's stock soar the way Microsoft's used to, and Brin and Page enjoy their roles as tech's new rock stars, Gates brings to the fight a ferocity that nobody has seen since the Netscape war a decade ago. Their popularity gets under his skin. 'There's companies that are just so cool that you just can't even deal with it,' he says sarcastically, suggesting that Google is nothing more than the latest fad, adding, 'At least they know to wear black.'...Trying to build a Google killer, however, has turned out to be truly humbling for Microsoft.''"
Firefox and Thunderbird Garage
I'd love to pick up this book - particularly for the Thunderbird part. I've been experimenting with Gmail-like archiving and searching instead of organizing my email in hierarchy. I wonder if you can create custom labels in Thunderbird... hmmm... maybe I need to buy this book!
Slashdot | Firefox and Thunderbird Garage: "'Firefox and Thunderbird Garage, written by Chris Hofmann, Director of Engineering at the Mozilla Foundation; Marcia Knous, Mozilla Foundation Project Manager; and John Hedtke, president of JVH Communications (and an accomplished technical writer) is published by Prentice Hall PTR. This is the most recent addition to their Garage Series of books, which aims to bring the newest topics in technology to print in an engaging and readable manner. Firefox and Thunderbird Garage does not disappoint: the authors have covered all the bases on these two popular apps with a combined writing style that keeps the subject matter alive and interesting.' Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review."
Slashdot | Firefox and Thunderbird Garage: "'Firefox and Thunderbird Garage, written by Chris Hofmann, Director of Engineering at the Mozilla Foundation; Marcia Knous, Mozilla Foundation Project Manager; and John Hedtke, president of JVH Communications (and an accomplished technical writer) is published by Prentice Hall PTR. This is the most recent addition to their Garage Series of books, which aims to bring the newest topics in technology to print in an engaging and readable manner. Firefox and Thunderbird Garage does not disappoint: the authors have covered all the bases on these two popular apps with a combined writing style that keeps the subject matter alive and interesting.' Read on for the rest of Norbury-Glaser's review."
Tuesday, May 03, 2005
Firefox Tweak Guide
I'm tweaking as we speak!!
TweakGuides.com: "Whether you're a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience."
TweakGuides.com: "Whether you're a first-time user or a veteran, this Firefox Tweak Guide brings together all the major tips, tricks and tweaks for Firefox. From the basic to the advanced, the following 11 pages of information are sure to enhance your Firefox experience."
Sunday, May 01, 2005
Build Your Own DVR
Slashdot | Build Your Own DVR: "'If you have an old computer that had been laying around for a while and are ready to spend a bit on hardware to make into a Digital Video Recorder, this article from Make magazine contains a step-by-step guide on building one. The author spent $150 on TV card and $70 on BeyondTV PVR software.' (And with a Linux-friendly capture card, MythTV would save the builder $70.)"
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