That's pretty spiffy. Both the animation and the product!

As a reminder to do your backups...

... my mom just lost everything on her computer.

I tried booting from Knoppix and checked out the hard drive... nothing, nadda, zip. Man...

Re-installing from the recovery disks now. This is not good, not good at all. I'll be spending this evening re-loading applications n such.

And I'll be backing up once a week from now on. Meh.

This was me yesterday:



Technically I still have geometry to work on, but that was assigned late and hence I have a month left still working on that. *sigh*

But the main portion of the work is done, all the papers are written and submitted, and I can sit back and semi-relax. w00t!

Random note: the factory-state restore process on HP computers is really well implemented, just press F10 during boot up (before it hands off to the operating system, but you knew that ;-) ) click a few self explanatory dialog boxes, and it does a non-destructive OS restore, meaning that everything is back like it was brand new... AND all your programs, files, desktop icons, favorites, etc are still there! It's really nice. Yeah. Otherwise, HP, ick! But nice to know when it invariably breaks it will be easy to fix. ;-)

This is a paper I wrote recently for one of my computer classes. Thought I'd post it up here, because what I wrote holds true throughout the digital world, not just in this case study.

The strengths and weaknesses of four major web browsers:


Microsoft Internet Explorer: Its main strength is nearly universal page support. There are so many users on IE out there that most web developers are still writing for that browser.
Its main weakness is that, because of that large market share, the majority of malware exploits are targeted at the Internet Explorer browser. These days, opening IE is like opening the door for viruses, trojans and various other malware to walk right in.
Also, Internet Explorer platform support is basically limited to the Microsoft Windows operating system at this time. There was support for Apple’s Mac OS and MacOS X in the past, but development in that area has stagnated. Though not surprising, this browser is completely closed source, no access to the code for outside developers.


Mozilla Firefox: Firefox has many great features; added security is this browser’s primary advantage over the Internet Explorer series. It also sports tabbed browsing, something else lacking in IE, a very handy feature allowing a user to view multiple pages in the same window. Possibly the biggest jump Firefox has on any of these other browsers is the fact that the software is open source, allowing anyone to view and edit the code behind the application. Firefox is also available on almost any platform, all versions of Microsoft Windows, Apple’s Mac OS X, and all flavors of *NIX.
One of Firefox’s weaknesses is that a majority of developers have not checked or built their sites for Firefox compliance. While not necessarily a problem, this can sometimes result in pages looking jumbled at best and simply indecipherable at worst.


Netscape Navigator: As of the latest major release, 8.0, Netscape has gained a significant advantage over the rest of the browsers available: it now supports both the IE/Spyglass and Gecko (Firefox, etc.) rendering engines. Typically one will default to the Gecko engine, as it generally renders pages at a significantly better speed than IE. However, if a user has a problem rendering a page in Gecko, he can switch to the IE engine with two clicks of the mouse. Also, as in Firefox Netscape includes support for tabbed browsing.
One of the weaknesses of Netscape is that, unfortunately, the browser is now owned by AOL. There are reports of various types of spyware being bundled with this browser. Also the problem of the browser being closed source, and hence not available for inspection by the community.


Opera Web Browser: Opera brings to the table excellent accessibility, great keyboard shortcut configuration, very high security, high W3C standards compliance, and a pretty quick rendering engine (‘Presto’). They are also in continual development of a pretty impressive mobile version of their browser (For PDAs, smart phones, etc.) All-in-all, this is a very sound browser package, with a surprisingly low market share, considering its features and cross-platform availability.
Unfortunately, Opera buries all this in a pay-or-be-nagged package. You can buy the full version, or be stuck with a rather annoying banner ad permanently in the browser window. Again, like Netscape, this software suffers from being closed source.



With its excellent security features, cross-platform support, high usability and excellent price point (Free!). I would have to recommend Mozilla’s Firefox web browser for this environment. The basic operation of the browser is highly intuitive and quickly picked up. As a result of the exploitation of browser flaws, it is probable that the cost of IS/IT will actually go down after the adoption Firefox (Assuming the current primary browser is Internet Explorer).
With the adoption of the Firefox web browser you will see greater productivity thanks in part to many factors, including, but not limited to the following: the Gecko rendering engine is consistently faster than the IE rendering agent, dropping the amount of time you spend waiting for that page to load; your staff and student will spend less time worrying about/cleaning up after malware infections. The Firefox browser is immune to many, many of the exploits plaguing Internet Explorer these days.

I would reject the other browsers for various reasons, primarily: they are all closed source, that means you have no idea what that company is running on your computer, any one of these could be reporting all your data back to the developer. (Not saying it’s happening, just saying it’s plausible.)

Opera would be an excellent choice; unfortunately I find that ad in the free version to be too much of a nag to deal with on my day-to-day browsing habits. I also assume your group would not like to purchase a license for every user on campus.

Internet Explorer is completely out of the question, it’s a security problem sitting on every Windows machine waiting to go off. Security issues, coupled with complete lack of cross-platform support put this browser out of play.

Netscape seems to be a very sound browser, the dual rendering engines in the latest version are a brilliant innovation. I cannot, however, recommend this browser. Mainly for complete lack of cross-platform support, you can’t have all of your faculty and staff trained on a Windows-only browser, what happens when you bring in an Apple box, or some *NIX machines?

Firefox solidly out-performs all competition in this assessment; it is fast, secure and easy to use. Add support for a wide range of operating systems and you have the ideal candidate. That ideal candidate, in this case, is Mozilla Firefox.



List of Features for Improved Browser:

If a firm were to try to develop such a package, I would recommend building on the existing Firefox code. Additions include, but are not limited to:

-- Attempt to add an IE-type rendering agent, for help with buggy pages. I am not sure of the feasibility of this, due to the closed-source nature of that rendering engine. It would, however, be a nice addition.

-- Added web-standards compliance

-- Add more media support, certain media files do not play at all, or only display correctly when they feel like it.

-- Flash support in the Mac OS X version of Firefox could use improvement.

-- Add an HTML editor to the software package. (Such as is included in the Mozilla Suite)

The primary issue with adding these features, however, is that they quite often result in code bloat. You have to trade off build size for features, it’s inevitable.
I think most of these features are feasible, and would not take TOO much effort to put together.

Temporary new look while I iron out some page formatting issues with the other one. Pardon the goofy links on the right, etc.

By apparently popular demand, I'm keeping this look, at least for now. I've imported all my links on the right side and added my comment code.

I can think of nothing else to say, and I have a lot of papers to write. I'll get back to you all later.

Interesting stuff...

EDIT: What in the world is up with this? Seems to be a whole lot of extra space here for some reason.

I sold my car today.
If you see a guy around here in an 89 Ford Taurus GL, just point, laugh and yell "SUCKER!" at him.
I told him about the AC compressor going out, he seemed to not care. I guess he'll care when he's cruising down the highway and the belt blows out and renders the car useless.
His funeral. Heh.

In other news, I got a phone call just now offering me a job with a computer repair company here in town. I'm going in to meet with him tomorrow, and I'll know for sure if I have the position. Won't be mountains of money, but I get the impression it will be more than I'm getting now. Always good. ;-)

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US spy plane crashes in SW Asia

BBC NEWS | South Asia | US spy plane crashes in SW Asia

The BBC is reporting that a US U2 spyplane has crashed in "Southwest Asia" - a well-known military euphemism for the Middle East.
At this time the pilot has been confirmed dead, but the location of the crash has not been revealed due to "host nation sensitivities."

I'm looking everywhere for more on this, let you know what I can find out.

UPDATE: Apparently this plane was flying "in support of Operation Enduring Freedom" in Afghanistan. So where was the crash? India? Pakistan? I'm betting Iran.

UPDATE2: Nothing much new to report in the last few hours, the US military has not released any more details on the pilot's name(pending next-of-kin notification) or the location of the crash(host nation sensitivity). The only thing I have to add is that the plane was apparently en route back to it's base, the Al Dhafra Air Base in the United Arab Emirates.

Deer Park Alpha 1

I'm running the Alpha version of what will become Firefox 1.1, currently codenamed "Deer Park" (Here at Josiah International we ask the nagging questions, such as: will Firefox 1.2 be codenamed 'Aquafina'? Inquiring minds want to know!)
It seems to work pretty well, fixes a few sites, breaks a few more. Has some very interesting new features, check out the list here.

I also like what they've done with the preferences window, seems a little more user friendly. (After all, that's what it's all about these days, right?)

It's currently only available through Mozilla's FTP server. If you don't what that is or how to get to it, you shouldn't be running this build. It's developers only at this point.

I'll post more as I know more.

To market, to market...

... to post an over-due update.

It has become a habit of mine to only post an update when I have update-worthy material. (Update-worthy in my eyes, no comments from the gallery on this one!)
Considering that my life in the last week or so has basically consisted of schoolwork, computer fixing, schoolwork, fixing more computers and doing more schoolwork. The finer points of my English papers would probably bore the majority of you to tears, and discussion of corrupted hard drives would probably lend you no great humor either... So, I have abstained from posting.

I received some(read: much) negative feedback on my previous post. Words to the effect of "Macs suck", etc.
I'm sorry, I just absolutely will not stand for such things to be said about such an incredible combination of hardware and software engineering. I have said before, and I still maintain, my Powerbook G4(Aluminum, Firewire 800, 1.25GHZ PowerPC, 1GB of RAM) is one of the nicest computers I've ever used.
However, for those of you who still persist in your savage thinking, please read the following articles:

Return of the Mac

"All the best hackers* I know are gradually switching to Macs. My friend Robert said his whole research group at MIT recently bought themselves Powerbooks. These guys are not the graphic designers and grandmas who were buying Macs at Apple's low point in the mid 1990s. They're about as hardcore OS hackers* as you can get.

The reason, of course, is OS X. Powerbooks are beautifully designed and run FreeBSD. What more do you need to know?"

Lessons from the Future -- What Are the Alpha Geeks Telling us Right Now?

This article covers more of the finer points of the justifications in the hacker* community for this switch.

--
* Please note that for the purposes of this post, we have considered the following information:

The media likes to use the word "hacker" to describe someone who illegally breaks into computers, security systems, phone company databases, and child-proof containers, when they should, by definition, be using the term "cracker" which is someone who uses their skills with computers for illegal and immoral purposes.

Now, with the constant use of the term "hacker" by the media and those not directly involved with computers, it has become the term in standard use by popular culture to describe geeks who are very naughty with computers. Some people are very annoyed and displeased by this.

In plain English: "hacker" doesn't mean illegal, it means more like guru. A software hacker, in my book, is someone who can sit down at a keyboard and throw together fixes for whatever problem they face, on the fly.

"Never ask what sort of computer a guy drives. If he's a Mac user, he'll tell you. If not, why embarrass him?" -- Tom Clancy

Haha.

Like a bunch of untrained monkeys...

EDIT: I realized a few minutes ago that this was not exactly one of my most coherent posts... so, for clarity's sake:
The problem I was having is that my DVD-RW drive was not being recognized as DVD-RW, only CD-RW.(Oh, and try to guess what OS this was.. I guarantee you I would not have had this problem in *NIX!)
I had tried the obvious things, update firmware, uninstall/reinstall the drive, and none of it helped... so I hopped online with one of their 'support' staff. As you will see below.

At any rate, I DID get it working, but no thanks to Sony. After I gave up on them, I went ahead and reinstalled the drive again, and it has been returned to full working order. /EDIT


I'm currently in a "live chat" session with Sony support. 'Live chat' in quotes because I'm beginning to doubt there is a live person on the other end.

Oh.. now he's saying something, wonder what nuggets of brilliance will spew forth.

Oh, this happens alot, he's suggested something I've already done.

Strange.. it won't let me copy and paste text from the chat window. I was going to put it here for your enjoyment. :-P

I'll edit if and when they get this fixed.

OK, I fixed the problem, but not with Sony's help.
I had to uninstall and re-install the drive in Windows, again, and now it seems to work fine.

I went ahead and typed up my chat with this guy... wow. Enjoy. (I put my comments in, squished between sets of '--')

Problem: DVD+/-RW drive; not being recognized as DVD+/-RW, only CD-RW

(( Analyst Chad_ is here to assist you.)) -- Chad? Ok. Analyst? You shall soon see, this guy isn't fit to analyize his own bellybutton. --
-- Cue the automated response... --
Chad_> Welcome to Sony online Support. I will be glad to assist you.
Chad_> Hi Josiah. -- And probably an automated greeting --
Josiah G> Hello Chad -- See, I START nice --
-- Three minutes passes --
Josiah G> are you going to offer to help me? -- The patience is worn on from the outset... --
Chad_> Sure, I will assist you. -- Oh, well it would have been nice of you to offer, you ARE there as a service representative. --
Chad_> What is the Operating System installed in the computer? -- Starting here I suspected he was not a native English speaker, something that confirms itsef later --
Josiah G> Windows XP Home
-- Another few minutes of nothing passes --
Josiah G> basically i just need you to point me to the appropriate drivers, I checked esupport.sony.com without any luck
Josiah G> this is the Pioneer DVD-RW DVR-108 drive...
Josiah G> it worked before to burn DVDs, then I had to run the system recovery disks, since then it has only been recognized as a CD-RW
-- Once again, a nice long gap --
Chad_> Are you able to read CDs?
Josiah G> yes, I can read and write CDs, and I can read DVDs, I cannot burn DVDs
-- ANOTHER long pause --
Josiah G> any ideas?
-- You guessed it, a tea break, or something of the sort --
Chad_> Josiah, there is an update posted on our Support Site for this device, I suggest that you download and install this update in the computer and check if it works. -- And I suggest that you go and boil yourself in oil, money says neither of us gets what we want. --
Chad_> I will forward a link for your reference.
Josiah G> I already tried the firmware update -- I'm ahead of you bud, as usual --
Josiah G> guess again
Chad_> Could you please tell me the software that you are using to burn the DVD?
Josiah G> I was trying to use Sonic Record Now, but third party software is irrelevant, the drive is not being recognized as a DVD-RW by the OS
Chad_> Just to confirm, did you install the firmware in the computer?
Josiah G> yes, ran the update off your website, it says it was already as 1.10 -- I think I answered this already.... --
Chad_> I will forward a link where you can view the required information on this issue. -- Yeah right it will --
Chad_> http://iq.sony.com/srvs/autoresponse.asp?id=382453
Chad_> Please click on the link. -- How do I know your stupid company won't give me a virus anyways. *Eyeroll* --
Chad_ Are you able to view the page? -- Howsabout.. no? --
Josiah G> the chat interface does not allow me to manipulate the text in the textbox, I cannot click on that link, nor can I copy and paste it -- Stupid web interface --
Josiah G> I can manually type it into my web browser, if that would bring you some evil twisted pleasure.
-- Does just that --
-- A few seconds pass, I read the page... --
Josiah G> ok, I've already tried all of the steps on that page, any more suggestions?
Josiah G> well.. minus having it serviced, obviously
Chad_> Josiah, since you have followed all the recommended steps mentioned on the page and still the issue persists, I suggest that you contact our Sony Service Center for urther assistance.
Chad_> I will forward a link from where you can locate the Sony Service Center. -- If there was ever any doubt he was a non-English natve, these two sentences sealed them away... how awkward! --
Chad_> http://www.sel.sony.com/service/plsql/rma.inquiry
Chad_> Please click on the link.
Chad_> Are you able to view the page?
Josiah G> yes, thank you, I'll look into this -- Which isn't what I wanted to say.. that was more like "No thanks, ya moron, I can't have this machine sent to Sony, it's critical to my network infrastucture." But whatever. --
Chad_> You are welcome.
Chad_> Please contact them for further assistance.


What else did I expect. Heh.

The dark alliance forms!

Beware the coming evil empire!

First, Apple announces a deal with Intel to have Intel manufacture their processors.

Next, Apple and Nokia announce a partnership to create a new mini-browser for mobile devices.

And now, Intel and Nokia announce an agreement to collaborate to create the first mobile WiMax devices.

Intel chipsets, in Nokia's namebrand hardware, running Apple software. Can they hurt Microsoft? If so, all I can say is: more power to you all!

And it falls apart...

The world comes tumbling down around
Pieces of your life, hitting the ground
Losing your flesh, pound by pound
You're not going to make it another round

Random things are good things...

Nothing like an impromptu game of Ultimate Frisbee with a bunch of people you don't know.
For those of you who don't know (yes, all three of you) Ultimate = basically Frisbee football.. divide up into teams, set endzones... one side throws off, wherever it lands/is caught by the other time, the game starts... the idea is to reach the opposite endzone. You achieve this goal by tossing/throwing/hurling with all your might the Frisbee back and forth between your team-mates, when you catch the Frisbee, you stand still, and throw it to another team-mate, and in so doing, hopefully, move down the field.
Defense, basically, tries to knock down the Frisbee, if the Frisbee hits the ground, it changes sides. And the other team takes off in the other direction, it's fast paced.... and loads of fun. Give it a shot sometime. ;-)

Well... this is just peachy...

Leslie informs me that my site was blocked on Hallie's computer.

Boo hoo. That makes me very sad. I haven't seen Hallie in a long time. I hope she comes this summer, that'd be awesome!

So... what is this blogging thing anyways?

In recent assignments for my college classes I've had to discuss blogging with my classmates. Apparently the knowledge of blogging is not as widespread as I had previously thought. So, to try to answer some of the most basic questions:

What is a blog?
I like to use Robert Scoble's definition of a blog: "To me it is just a Web page in reverse chronological order. If you try to get into it more than that, you get into arguments." - Taken from Scoble's keynote address at the Blog Business Summit, January 24th, 2005.

So, who can write a blog?
The answer is anyone and everyone.. this is proven by simply looking around the blogosphere, literally everyone and his grandmother has a blog. It's unbelievable.

What goes into a blog?
You can put anything you want on a blog, it's completely up to you, the blogger. There are blogs about gadgets, blogs about hacks, blogs about technology news, even a blog about the lives of three greyhound dogs. You get the idea, use your imagination, look around.

Sounds great! Where can I get MY little corner on the internet?
Free Blogging services abound on the internet these days. I have to add my obligatory recommendation to Blogger.com, because it IS my current host. If you have friends who blog, don't do what I did and go off on some random un-related service. Try to get a blog on the same service as them, it makes it much more easy for you to interact with them. If you're curious about what's out there, Google is your friend.


Ok, I just got home from work and threw this together.. leave me comments pointing out all the questions I forgot to answer, and all the grammar and punctuation issues.

The best of:

This is my second 'Best of' post, scroll down for the first, posted just a little while ago. There's no REAL reason for re-posting this one.. I just like it.. I was going through some mental turmoil on whether or not to even continue blogging, etc.
Good stuff, if I do say so myself.


Originally posted: December 23rd, 2004.

I Demand Change... of myself!

I've been thinking pretty hard about something, namely: this blog seems to be more and more of a link-blog type site than an actual blog.

I really need to list more of my own content.. I think the main reasons I don't do this are:
A) My dad has some serious limits on what I can and can't say about myself. (I can't tell you my name, how old I am, what city I live in, etc.)[NB- I'm not complaining, I'm in no mood to be tracked down by someone off the internet. (Don't laugh, it happens.)]
B) I feel stupid talking about myself all the time, it really gets old.
C) I might talk about my job more, but me talking about all the different issues with a 12" iBook that is being used day-in and day-out by middle or high schooler, would probably bore most of you to near .
So, I'm at an interesting crossroads, I really enjoy blogging, and excepting that they shut down the internet, I have no plans of giving it up.

(That just gave me some really wierd question/mental image that I feel like putting out there... what's the stone-age equivalent of an RSS or Atom feed?)
Which leads me to another question, am I the only one who thinks that Atom feeds work better with the integrated aggregator in Thunderbird than RSS 1.0 or 2.0 feeds do?? I dunno, it just seems like Atom feeds always work on the first shot, where I can have all kinds of interesting issues with an RSS feed. Maybe I'm hallucinating, I'll try to remember to note it any time I have an issue with a feed from now on.

Wow, without even thinking about it, I've managed to fulfill my goal, to wit: blog more, without relying excessively on external content. I kind of just have to shut off my brain and let my fingers do the work.
I need to have posts like this, mainly to reinforce the title of my blog. A couple of three sentence posts a day are hardly "Ramblings".

Pizza's ready, so I'm out for now. Maybe I'll check back in. I think I'm going to try some Mountain Dew Haiku at dinner.

The best of:

Thought I'd go back to some of my old blogs and re-post some of my more important posts.. so.. without further ado:


Originally posted Sunday, October 3rd, 2004.

What I did this weekend, or: How to void your warranty.

OK, Sunday my brother managed to pour a cup of coffee on his laptop. (While it was running no less!) So, "Captain Disassemble" to the rescue, sort of. I charge in the room when he starts yelling "CRAP CRAP CRAP" and dive for the power button, good news, I kill it before it kills itself. More good news, he was smart enough to immediately turn the thing upside down when he got coffee on it, way to only semi-panic! After cleaning what we could get at with the computer in one piece, I realize I'm going to have to take out the keyboard, remove all the keys, clean it, and then put it back in the machine. Fun

I get the keyboard off, and lo and behold, a puddle of coffee on every surface underneath it, oh boy, not good. We started taking apart the computer, trying to get everything clear of the sticky sweet battery acid my bro likes to consume by the gallon. Needless to say, we kept busy with the paper towels for a while, getting everything dry and un-sticky. It turns out that Dell designed this computer with the idea that if you spilled liquid on it, you would have to take apart EVERY thing to get it dry... argh. So, I COMPLETELY took the computer down, we were down to a MOBO (Mother board for the uninitiated) with just a heatsink, fan, processor, and I think the video card was still on there. Anyway, clean it up, dry it off, put it back together, boot it up.

Keyboard doesn't work, sorta, it works in that you can hit keys, and it does stuff, it doesn't work in that I am 99% sure that what that keyboard currently does was not what Dell had in mind when they built the computer. (I can only say this with such certainty because I have seen the computer working before.. otherwise I probably wouldn't give Dell such good odds.) Also, at this stage, the touchpad likes to think that the right mouse button is constantly being depressed.

Because of the state the keyboard was in, I couldn't even get to a boot menu for diagnostics, so, homemade diagnostics to the rescue. I get out my other brother's 1100 and put his keyboard in the thirsty one, (Amid his loud protests I might add. "OK OK, if I mess it up, I'll buy you a new one, jeez") abracadabra, wave the magic wand, and wow! it works!

(Oh, FYI, these keyboards appear to be hot-swappable, who'd a thunk it?)

So, his keyboard assembly is shot. (It's still up in the air on whether it was the liquid, or if we damaged the cable disassembling the computer...)

So, I know it is a faulty keyboard, I play around with the computer a while, and have fun with a touchpad that thinks it is always right-clicking. Though this problem eventually seems to go away, I think it probably was sticking, or was too wet, or both.

Anyway, enough of this, I call Dell tech support to report a malfunctioning keyboard. "OK, now, take out the battery..." "No, I've already done that, I just need you to ship me a replacement keyboard assembly." (For those who don't know, the tech was trying to get me to do a power drain, to reset the thing, that seems to be their panacea, but knowing that, I tried before calling.)

So, the tech gives me a case ID, and has me sent to returns/repairs, the guy gets all set to ship me a new keyboard assembly, and then asks if I have any more issues with the computer, "Well, the touchpad buttons are a little strange sometimes." "Hmm... I better have you ship that back to us, so we can do a full diagnostics and repair." Cool! Please do! I can't believe they didn't ask me if I had spilled something on it... it would seem to me that would be the first thing they would suspect, especially when both the keyboard and touchpad are shot.

Now, about that incredibly obvious coffee smell... so I take down the computer again.. cleaning everything very thoroughly. (A little bit of water only.. wonderful difference though!)

This is when I find he only thing I didn't get to last time... the touchpad assembly, oops. That thing was built to hold liquids, I am now convinced, I pulled that thing open and about a half a cup of coffee came out on the table, wow.

So, clean the whole thing very thoroughly, and get it back together, all but the keyboard assembly, I take off every single key, and clean the whole thing about three times, then reassemble it.

Finally, the computer is back in one semi coffee scented piece.

Dell instructed me to send back the computer sans hard drive, optical drive, battery and charging unit, all of that goes in a box, and a gutted Inspiron 1100 sits on my brother's desk waiting for the DHL truck tomorrow.

This is going to really mess up his school schedule... oh well, lesson learned about coffee and computer I suppose.

As I alluded (is that the right word here?) to in my title, this almost definitely voided my warranty, I haven't read the Dell warranty recently, nor did I say anything to the tech about my extensive take down of the computer. But I am almost certain Dell would not be happy with what I did. Oh well, get over it guys.

I wish I had taken shots of the take down in progress, but I only got pics of it after we had finished, anyway, here it is spread around on our dining room table.
(Click the pictures for larger images.)



1- Keyboard assembly.

2- Metal piece, was under keyboard, over the fan/heatsink assembly.

3- Hard Drive

4- Memory chips

5- Optical Drive

6- Wireless PCMCIA card. (Don't ask me why this is in the pic...)

7- Main body that was left in one piece, see close up for description of components.

8- Battery.

9- Covers from underside of computer, left is modem compartment, right is memory.

10- LCD + top of rest of case, I wish I had taken a picture with this assembly open, this is the LCD closed on the top half of the rest of the case that is not on no. 7, including the touchpad.

Note that in this pic you can also see some of our candlesticks, our drinks, and some of my tools, and some parts to a board game my brother was simultaneously playing with.

Also note that the plastic container near the center of the pic is where we kept screws and the like we had removed, the pieces of paper are to remind us were stuff came from!

Closeup of main assembly:



1- Speakers, not sure why I labeled these...

2- Optical drive bay.

3- Hard drive bay, note that under this is the PCMCIA slot

4- Video card, I took this metal piece off, but it went back on before the photos apparently.

5- Heatsink/fan assembly

6- Battery bay.

There are other things I could've labeled here, the various ports on the sides and back, apologies if I didn't label something you were wondering about!

Looks like the internet is back up here...

Thankfully service seems to be back up to par.

Lots of school stuff to do, be back later.

When in doubt, re-invent the wheel...

Ok.. so there is this "Programming Challenge" assignment at the end of each chapter in the Visual Basic .NET book I'm currently studying.
At the end of this chapter they ask you to create a program that grabs a 5 digit number from a Textbox and drop each digit in a different Label, like so:


So, they recommended I use a Mod function and all this goofy math to do this... well, this seemed like an awful lot of brain work, so I came up with a better idea:

' Send txtInput.Text to a variable...
Dim strInput As String 'Create the neccessary variable..
strInput = txtInput.Text ' Sends text from txtInput to the variable..

' Send the characters in the string to their respective labels..
lblDigit1.Text = Mid(strInput, 1, 1) ' Sends first digit to lblDigit1
lblDigit2.Text = Mid(strInput, 2, 2) ' Sends second digit to lblDigit2
lblDigit3.Text = Mid(strInput, 3, 3) ' Sends third digit to lblDigit3
lblDigit4.Text = Mid(strInput, 4, 4) ' Sends fourth digit to lblDigit4
lblDigit5.Text = Mid(strInput, 5, 5) ' Sends fifth digit to lblDigit5


I just used a Mid to grab the digit by it's place in the string. WAY easier, way faster and much more clean looking, as far as code goes.

And best of all: "I can do it better, so there!"

Well, I just had to call Sprint, serious internet issues, they're having backbone issues in our provider area, and it's bad. Slower than dial-up. Grr.

Line continuation characters? To use or not to use... that is the question

In my book for the Visual Basic class I'm in right now it tells me that I need to use a line continuation character (_) in the middle of each line... to keep my lines of code shorter.

So, for instance(and this won't work TOO well... since this will line wrap... but...)

Private Sub txtCartons_TextChanged(ByVal sender As System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) Handles txtCartons.TextChanged

Becomes:

Private Sub txtCartons_TextChanged(ByVal sender As _
System.Object, ByVal e As System.EventArgs) _
Handles txtCartons.TextChanged


If you were looking at this in Visual Studio .NET 2003 the first line would run right along in its merry way.. off the right hand side of the screen.
The book argues that you should put the under-score(s) in there to increase readability... I can understand that with some really long handwritten code, but when it comes to some dinky lil event handler code, I don't even need to review/edit it anyways...
My main argument against doing this: I'm too lazy.
Going back through all my code and adding the underscore(s) in the right places is kind of a pain.

Well, gotta run... we're powering down the network, lightning storm here. I'll be back later.

Well... it's official...

Apple is switching to Intel processors.

I haven't checked yet, but I'm betting hell is pretty cold right now.

The world has been turned upside down.

Wow. I mean... wow.

This also puts me in a very interesting place... I've sworn never to buy another Intel chip, in guise as an Apple product or not.

Apple, I don't mind saying this: I think this is the worst decision you have EVER made. I'm sorry Steve, but this is just idiotic, I mean plain old idiotic.
Do you not realize that the x86 platform is one of the hottest running out there? And the amount of power it sucks... wow.

How are you going to maintain the blazing speeds we've seen on your current Powerbooks, etc. AND the small form factor?
My Powerbook G4, 1.25GHZ PowerPC is just as fast or FASTER than my Vaio 3.0GHZ Pentium 4, but it's half the size. Do you know why it's half the size? Because you have to put a turbojet inside a P4 machine to keep it cool.
Ignorant fools.

Again, this is the probably the worst thing you guys have ever done, I'm astounded, I really am.
Steve Jobs, I have a bad feeling you're going to live to regret this.

EDIT: Before I get too much verbal laceration from somebody.. I've just noted that according to at least one source Intel chips run cooler than PPC chips... eh? I'll have to look this up... I'll get back to you all

EDIT: OK, so now I have Apple talking out of both sides of its mouth... here: http://www.apple.com/powermac/performance/ We have Apple touting it's G5 processors, quote: "The PowerPC G5 out-shoots the Pentium 4 in a battery of tests. But it’s in the rough-and-tumble of real-world performance that the G5 really shines — shredding the PC’s reputation in the process."
Might wanna revise that soon, Steve... dissing your new product with an existing product? Tsk tsk.

Their favorite talking point is that "Intel runs way cooler"... I don't know where they got that... every Intel I've ever used ran hotter than any other chip I've used.. PPCs, AMDs... they're just better.
WHY??? WHY??? I'm sure Advanced Micro Devices would have dealt with Apple, why did you do this Jobs, WHY?
I think you've lost a customer, congratulations.

EDIT: Now.. for answers a couple of the nagging questions...
Q: Will I be able to install Mac OS X on my garden-variety Dell, HP, etc?
A: No, according to everything I've seen so far it will only run on specially modified Pentium chips. I took this cue from the fact that the Intel development kit($999) ships with OS X 10.4.1 AND a Pentium 4 3.6GHZ CPU.. why ship a non-required CPU? There's something special about it.

Q: Ok... so... now that we have Intels in Apple boxes, will I be able to install Windows on my Apple computer(s)?
A: This will more than likely NOT be supported out of the box, though obviously there's going to be a pretty serious effort to get both this and the above item(OS X on any P4) working.

Qs/As taken from stuff I've seen while browsing around like crazy this afternoon... hopefully this info is pretty decent guesswork. :-) I'll edit with any updates.

Updates all 'round, on the house...

OK, got my hard drive backed up. Good.

The USB thumb drive seems to have survived the wash with no ill effects, data and everything still intact. Good. Props to PNY, the manufacturer.

The Fedora Core 3 box is giving me some issues.. though it's not FC3's fault, it's the stupid proprietary video card that Compaq put in this tower. Grr. I shall prevail! *Gets out mallet*
No, seriously, probably just need to tweak my xorg.conf and I'll be set.

Just another day...

Here I sit installing Fedora Core 3 on one of my computers. (The Windows XP Pro desktop, second to the left in this picture, for those who care.)
I decided to go ahead and rid the world of one Windows machine. Heh.

EDIT: Right after I clicked "Publish Post" there my mom brought me my USB thumb drive... fresh from the washing machine/dryer. HAHAHA. I guess we'll get to see how well this little guy holds up. There was no critical data on it, so I'm indifferent I guess.
I'm off to backup my hard drive! Whooo!

Me popping the top on one of my precious Mountain Dews... and the strap to my cousin's purse, lol.
My fingers look deformed.

(Click for bigger pic) Just shot this pic of my desk... pardon the mess... but those are all my computers at the moment... right to left: Sony Vaio laptop, Apple Powerbook G4, Windows XP Professional Edition desktop, Windows Server 2003 Desktop. 

Don't mess with this bad boy... 

This is today's random picture... not sure exactly who took it, but props go to Jonathan's camera... 

...and one more just for good measure, from the last flood, water was actually running over this bridge... niiiccceee 

Well I'm headed off to bed, but I thought I'd leave you with this random picture from a year ago when this was my computer. :-P 

Real high on the useful-meter here...

Well, I can think of absolutely nothing relevant, or even something irrelevant, to post... so... for your viewing pleasure:




I love my guitars, I'll bet you do too!