A Pleasant Adventure

Looking Beyond the Galaxy

2011-11-21T22:21:00.000-05:00

For those of us on Verizon Wireless that are looking to upgrade to a new smartphone, I'm sorry to say it but, from the early reviews, the Galaxy Nexus which I have been waiting for is a hardware letdown. The camera isn't great, the phone is just way too large to be comfortable and it isn't necessarily faster than phones already on the market. The primary positive aspect about it is that it comes with Ice Cream Sandwich (ICS for short), the new Google Android operating system which phone experts proclaim is a giant leap forward.

This leaves people like me with two choices.

A) Wait for another phone
B) Upgrade today (I'll cover this more below)

For option A, I don't know of any phone that is coming out that would be worth waiting for. The new Google operating system (ICS) is so good, though, that I am tempted to wait to buy a phone that is 1) smaller and 2) has better hardware features like a better camera and battery life which likely means waiting until Q1 or Q2 of 2012. Then again, my current phone is slowing dying. And it hurts to wait which brings me to the topic of upgrading today.

For option B, I recommend someone looking to upgrade check out three phones:

Motorola Droid 3: Similar to the original Droid but with better hardware and a solid keyboard. The downside is that it is somewhat sluggish at times. Here is an in-depth review.
Motorola RAZR: Too big and boxy to be comfortable in my humble opinion but fast and attractively slender. Here is BGR's take on the rebirth of the RAZR icon.
iPhone 4S: Relatively fragile (see this video as an example) but it is an arguably perfect size, has a fantastic camera, and allows you to access more apps than any other mobile platform. Be forewarned, though, that you will lose access to Google Navigation. Instead you can use MapQuest's free navigation software but I haven't had any experience with it so I can't recommend it myself.

So, that's where we are. On my side, I think I am going to wait it out. I've found ways to make my phone faster and it doesn't force close as much with the newest version of Cyanogen that I recently installed so I might stick it out.

I hope this info helps. I know you're, like me, itching to upgrade. If you have any questions or ideas I'd love to hear them. Either way, let me know what you decide to do as I'm curious what you think.

Oh, and one more thing, check out phone-size.com to compare phone sizes next to each other. Just set the "screen size" correctly and you can see the relative differences between the phones. It becomes quickly apparent how ridiculously large the Nexus really is compared to the other phones.

How To Share Google Reader Stories to Google Plus

2011-10-11T19:32:00.000-04:00

I use Google Reader to find and share great stories and news. To share articles to Google Plus I have been manually copying and pasting links to share with my friends who don't use Google Reader. With two helpful, custom links though, I can now share content right through Google Reader! Check out this helpful article to get the details if you use Google Reader and would like to leverage this feature as well.

Rooted and Loving It

2011-03-27T20:30:00.002-04:00

I just rooted my phone last week. This means that I risked permanently breaking my phone, called bricking, in order to install my own choice of operating system (rom in this case) and software. After long deliberation and research I selected Cyanogen because of it's large following of over a quarter million users, a good online support community and relatively regular release cycles. I was a bit nervous about starting the process but thanks to the encouragement of a friend and a colleague I forged ahead. The first step was to overwrite the Android partition responsible for the boot loader. This step, if I understand the process correctly, enabled me to then take control of the phone during the boot process and gain root (admin) level access to the phone (hence the term "rooting"). After that, the process was a breeze. I simply obtained and installed the version of Cyanogen made for my phone. I did, however, choose the experimental version (Cyanogen 7 RC 2) because it was recently updated this month, had a better feature list, and no big bugs according to the support forums. After that, just installing the Google Apps add on was all that was required to completely restore and then surpass the functionality I previously had on my phone. After setting up the basics I was thrilled with the result.

Much of the reason for my delight is geeky; I like all of the myriad of controls you get with a rooted phone running a custom rom. It's incredible how many features are available just with the stock Cyanogen install. One surprise was that battery life has improved considerably. I used to have to charge my phone by 3pm but now it goes from 7am to 11pm at night with moderate usage. This improvement becomes all the more impressive in light of the speed increases made possible by having a rooted device. Much of this, I believe, is due to overclocking the CPU from 550mHz to 800mHz (a ~30% improvement!). All in all, I feel like I have a new phone which helps me be content with what I have. Moving forward, there are other benefits I see from rooting your phone. It frees the user from the whim of the carriers (Verizon, AT&T, Sprint) who take Google's near perfect operating system and put on their own apps and crapware on which take up space and processing time; slowing our phones down. For example, phones like the popular HTC Incredible comes packed with about a dozen applications of questionable to negative value to the user which can't be removed and, to make it worse, are many times running in the background. Being able to root my phone is something I'm beginning to appreciate more and more. The ability to do this on the Android platform is one of the reasons I'll likely be sticking with the Android platform rather than switching to an iPhone this summer when I'm up for an upgrade. How about you? Have you rooted your phone and if so what was your experience?

Digital Distribution - A Revised Perspective

2011-01-17T17:44:00.000-05:00

     A few years ago the idea of purchasing digital version of goods seemed completely outlandish because the physical version was just as good, if not better, and to my befuddlement, could usually be purchased for a lower price. In my mind, a good example of this was and still is, to a conditional extent, movies. Buying a movie from iTunes versus buying the physical copy provides a stark contrast in cost and features. For example, the movie "Inception" can be purchased from a retailer for $9.96 while on iTunes it costs $14.99 and while Amazon has the digital copy for $9.99 it doesn't come with any of the behind the scenes features or film commentary. In my mind, this reinforces my previous perspective that buying movies digitally is generally a poor idea economically. However, I have had two experiences since my last writing on this topic that has changed my mind on buying digital goods to a certain degree. First, thanks to the prompting of my wiser, technological savvy friend Stuart I signed up for Netflix. Since signing up I have been impressed by Netflix which enables customers to receive DVDs through the mail and watch an unlimited amount of movies over the Internet for a low monthly rate starting under $10 a month. While not all movies are available for streaming over the Internet more and more are becoming available each month. The interesting part of this service is that there is no viable difference in my mind between owning a movie and being able to stream it through Netflix. I say this because watching either a movie I own or on Netflix has little to no noticeable differences. Essentially, with my subscription to Netflix I "own" every single movie Netflix offers for streaming because I can watch any movie whenever. Another way to look at the cost of Netflix is to suppose that I am amortizing Netflix's database of films on a monthly basis for under $10 which, in my opinion, offers incredible value for the cost. To drill into this still deeper, let's say I subscribe to Netflix for the next 50 years, which would come out to a total cost of $6,000 ($10 a month * 600 months). Then that cost divided by the price of an iTunes movie would allow, for the same price, someone to purchase 400 movies ($6,000 / $15 iTunes movie cost). So, what is a better deal, subscribing to Netflix or buying movies from iTunes? At the rate of one movie a week, which seems to be a conservative, reasonable rate, you can watch 2,400 movies on Netflix (600 months * 4 weeks a month) for the same cost as owning 400 movies bought at $15 through iTunes. The difference is a staggering 2,000 movies! The difference only becomes more incredible at higher viewing rates. An informal survey of my contacts reveals that a rate of 3 movies a week is equally realistic. This reveals that you could watch 9,600 movies for the same price of owning 400 movies bought through iTunes. However, at low watching rates when combined with only renting movies digitally the math evens out. For example, renting a relatively new movie on iTunes costs $3.99 for standard definition. This means that iTunes is a better deal than Netflix at a viewing rate of two movies or less a month which seems to be an outlier when it comes to viewing rates. This leaves us with the obvious conclusion that while Netflix is a superior decision for watching movies it also points to the gaps between differing digital goods and thereby comprehensively convinces me that subscribing to Netflix is an excellent economical method of watching movies (note: Netflix subscriptions includes many TV shows as well). Netflix served as a wake up call that my previous perspective may have been more limited that I realized. This prepared me for my second experience.

     For many years Valve's Steam store has offered games for sale and demos to download and try. The service is purely digital as it offers only downloads and no physical product for sale (besides shirts, etc for the pedantic among us). The issue of note with the service, however, is that the prices are typically higher than one can get in brick and mortar stores. For illustration, "Call of Duty: Black Ops" can be purchased on Steam for $59.99 or you can get physical copy for $44.99. This seems like a weakness on the part of Steam's pricing scheme but their service offers several advantages that may not be immediately visible. First, installation is made simple, just click install. Secondly, patches and updates are managed automatically and make it easy to stay up-to-date. Last, but not least, the Steam software can be installed on multiple computers and, in association with your credentials, the same software can be installed on multiple machines. I remember spending much time when I was younger trying to install the right patches on my PC at home to be able to play a network game with my brother. If we weren't on the same version of software then the game wouldn't work. This problem is solved by Steam by managing the entire process from purchase, to installation, to patch management on your behalf and the result is indisputably brilliant in its execution. However, it may still be hard to stomach the generally higher prices Steam demands especially for budget conscious buyers. When the games are competitively priced, however, that, I believe, is when the decision between virtual and physical purchases becomes nearly immaterial. Physical purchases of games sometimes come with nice instructional manuals or miscellaneous items that improve the purchase. For example, special editions of games usually come with extras that cannot be fully replicated by their digital counterparts such as art books, branded apparel and USB drives. On the other hand, digital goods and extras are now being offered by certain games that grant certain benefits to the player or special items that improve the experience. Dragon Age 2, for example offers a special sword and shield for those that pre-order the game on Steam. This cannot be purchased by any other means and is a tangible benefit for fans of the game. I believe that this furthers the blurring of the line between physical and digital copies. By extension, this means that if the sole difference between Call of Duty: Black Ops (standard version, not the special edition) from a store versus from Steam is merely price then it is logical that if they were the same price the digital copy would be preferred because of the positive externalities associated with the Steam experience. Therefore, should Steam equalize on price the digital copy would be given consumers preference.

     As a whole then, digital content has caught up to its physical counterpart. This conclusion is absolutely massive in its implication because we have then transitioned into a society where the technological means and preferences of "place" in the marketing mix is decisively geared toward digital distribution. Music, for instance, has seen this revolution already where the biggest retailer is Apple's iTunes store with second place belonging to the massive conglomerate known as Walmart. This monumental shift in consumer preference is incredible because we are experiencing the transition of a society that now values digital purchases as equal to, and in some cases superior to physical goods. This then revises my opinion that buying digital content is a bad idea. Previously I was just focused on the iTunes digital product selection and price characteristics but with healthy competition from firms like Netflix the game is changing which will benefits customers, I believe, in price, selection and convenience. Given this conclusion, I would be remiss to note that all of these benefits are enabled by the advancement of the Internet and as such it will even be more critical to carefully evaluate the implications of network neutrality now and in the future.

A New Way to Square Up

2010-09-30T19:03:00.000-04:00

You know what's cool? Something innovative on the consumer level that blows you away. For me, one of those things is Square. It is a cashless payment system that allows individuals like you and me to accept credit card transactions. Wow! That's cool because so many of the purchases in today's society are cashless. As a personal example, I rarely carry more than $20 in cash on me and all of my payments are cashless. One problem I experience is when I want to pay someone but don't have the cash to do so. With Square someone could swipe my credit card and then, well, that's all there is to it. With each transaction both parties get an emailed receipt along with a picture and location of the person who processed the transaction.

I just received my card reader today. A small, square looking card reader hooks up to my phone through the headphone jack (crazy, right?!) and allows it to read credit cards. Check out the video showing how it works which inspired me to sign up:

Then go learn more about Square here to see if it's right for you: https://squareup.com/

Chatting with Stu about Customer Service

2010-08-10T19:35:00.000-04:00

Have you ever had a customer service experience that left you with a bad taste in your mouth? I know I have. However, I would have been well served reading Stuart Renault's sage advice for working with companies that you do business with. In his recent blog post Stuart outlines his suggestions from his experiences on both sides of the customer service fence, from inside major conglomerates to dealing with huge corporations.

I appreciate that he put together these excellent, informative points in his post! For example, I think that too often I am guilty of making a complaint without an idea of what would be sufficient recompense in order to alleviate the problem. This is a fallacy according to Stu's post because this results in not feeling satisfied with whatever is proposed because you have not clearly defined or communicated your expectations. I won't spoil the points so please go check out his post and be not only a better customer but also a more satisfied consumer because you'll be more likely to get what you deserve.

Moving forward, I know that I'll certainly be following the steps he outlines.

New Home Computer - i7, GTX 460, 8GB RAM, 2TB HDDs,

2010-07-21T18:27:00.053-04:00

I built a new computer for Elea and myself (more for me to be honest!) this weekend that I am absolutely thrilled about. It has an i7 quad-core CPU, an NVIDIA GTX 460 video card, an overkill of 8GB of RAM, and two 1TB hard drives in a beast of case. Check out the raging horsepower:

Such raw processing power. These numbers make me light headed.

Now for the rationalization of building such a powerful box. This computer serves three vital functions. First, it allows me to become more familiar with the Windows 7 platform as I haven't had much experience with it so far. I skipped Vista entirely and have successfully relied on XP these past five years which is how long I've had my previous home-built computer. I anticipate this experience will help with my career. Secondly, it will help immensely with graphic intensive applications like games (SC2 anyone?) and photo and video editing. Already I have seen the benefits of going from a single core processor to a multi-core CPU and the difference is instantly evident. Thirdly, having a new computer will aid me through this next semester of grad school as it will be more reliable because it's new. My old computer served me well but was showing signs of age even after replacing the video card after it blew out, doing a minor upgrade to the RAM, and swapping out the hard drives. The DVD player stopping reading discs and the hard drive started making the infamous clicking noise. So with that, I hereby name the computer Rocinante in attribution to my old computer, Sancho and its predecessor, Quixote. May I lead it to better pastures than it's literary namesake.

Why Buying Digital Movies is a Bad Idea

2010-06-16T21:17:00.000-04:00

Digital delivery is how I want my multimedia content transferred to me. Not only is it possible but it is getting ridiculously advantageous. It is convenient distribution channel that allows for thoughtful research and careful comparison shopping as well as impulse purchases. Media like music can be purchased cheaper through Amazon or iTunes than even at retailing behemoths like Walmart or Target. Movies, too, can be purchased online. However, places like iTunes and Zune sell movies at near Walmart costs. Even with the cost saving benefits removed it can still make sense to purchase movies this way. With the proprietary encryption coded into the download, though, why would someone like me want to buy digitally? If I buy a movie on iTunes, can I play it on my Xbox 360? No. If I buy a Zune movie, can I play it on my Linux box? No. If I buy a movie from Amazon can I play it on my iPod? Again, a resounding no. However, if I buy the physical copy I can play it on all three by ripping the movie to an unencrypted format. If the costs are nearly the same what would motivate me to pursue digital delivery purchases? Until that happens it will be difficult for me to embrace movie purchases through digital delivery.

An Idea to Combat Digital Overload

2010-01-31T21:45:00.002-05:00

With the advancement of technology comes the significant productivity hindrance of keeping up with email, Twitter, RSS feeds, and social networking sites, just to name a few. To combat information overload I propose an idea where information is tied to a person’s location using geographical meta-data. In other words, this product will act as a filter to a person’s digital life in order to prioritize and filter information based on geographic context. I foresee this enhancing digital content and offering unprecedented features to offer stakeholders better ways to accomplish everyday tasks, organize activities, and meet with friends.

This project will leverage existing social networking components to deliver new efficiencies and increased interpersonal interaction. Examples include but are not limited to:

Only receive social networking updates from friends when you are in their vicinity.
Unlock your house when you get home and automatically lock it when you leave.
Being asked to pick up an item from a store based on geographic proximity. In this way, a friend could post on their public “want list” that they need a certain item from the specific store and when a friend of theirs is near the store an alert will show up for that person automatically requesting them purchase the item for their friend with the promise of reimbursement.
An update when friends are close by and suggestions for possible locations to gather.
Shows restaurant recommendations from friends or trusted sources based on location.
Ability to share a mobile phone’s screen with another mobile user to collaboratively solve problems.
Receive certain types of emails on one’s mobile device only at certain places.
Automatically turn on your car when you walk towards it.
Ability to scan groceries at home when they run out so when you are at a store that carries them you will be prompted to pick up more.
Will have the ability to take a picture and automatically send it to friends at the same location at the time the photo was taken.

Moving forward, I will endeavor to explore this idea in more detail through formal requirements gathering and analysis. I'm excited to see where it will go. Your ideas and comments are welcome.

Why Designing for Simplicity is Hard

2009-12-31T12:51:00.002-05:00

Google says designing simplicity into their products helps execute their goal of being faster which is part of their recipe for success and delivering superb performance. By creating a home page devoid of ads, widgets, or pictures, Google offers the singular ability to perform a search on its iconic homepage. With a streamlined efficiency users can search for information quickly and easily which keeps them coming back to Google again and again. This advice translates well in the IT world by seeking to change business models to leverage simplicity as a method to create an efficient organization. I was struck by this quotation in Jeff Jarvis's book, What Would Google Do? (p. 116) to be particularly compelling:

To be simple is to be direct. To be direct is to be honest. To be honest is to be human. To be human is to be in a conversation. To be in a conversation is to collaborate. To collaborate is to hand over control. And we are back to where we started, to Jarvis’s First Law: Give the people control and we will use it. Don’t and you will lose us. Simple.

For to create something simple is to understand the user’s problem so well that it can be encapsulated with as few distracters as possible. To me this is the essence of brilliance and why Google is the market leader in so many tech sectors.

iPhone vs. Motorola Droid and the Reasoning Behind my Purchase

2009-11-28T09:26:00.004-05:00

Have you wanted to get an iPhone but couldn't because you weren't willing to switch to the AT&T network? I feel your pain in wanting to get an iPhone but not being able to due to its exclusivity to AT&T. However, there is hope, while it has not been acknowledged officially, according to many, different sources it seems that Verizon has made a request to Apple to consider bring their phone onto the Verizon network sometime in Q2 or Q3 of 2010. This means that it may pay to wait it out. Apple Inc., as you probably know, is legendary in the technology industry for its secrecy. The motivation for Apple to get the iPhone onto the Verizon network is simple as it comes down to product capitalization and economics in the end. With Verizon's huge network it may be the best opportunity Apple has of increasing their market share. Growing market share is closely aligned with Apple's publically stated, overarching goal of becoming the dominant smart phone maker in the US. In addition, Apple has exhibited increasing frustration with AT&T's relatively poor network. Whenever people talk about the iPhone in critical terms it is usually because of dropped calls, poor reception, and slow data transfer rates outside of the major cities where Apple has installed support for their 3G network. With this in mind, it makes sense that the iPhone would come to Verizon's network and sooner rather than later.

Now for the Droid, after researching carefully, I decided to upgrade and make the jump from my trusty but old RAZR to the Droid on November 6th (the launch date). My reasons for doing so were as follows:

It tightly integrates and supports Google applications I already use and rely on such as Gmail, Search, Maps, Docs, Voice, Reader, Calendar, Contacts, Talk, and YouTube.
It allows for open development which enables developers to bring pretty much any application to the Android market. To me this is an abstract but crucial differentiation between the iPhone (which is closed source - hence the term jail breaking) and Google's Android operating system which is designed to be open source.
Motorola's physical design of the phone appears to be solid and well built. The screen is absolutely gorgeous at an incredible resolution of 480x854 (compared to the iPhones suddenly paltry 320x480). This means you can read even the finest text quite well without zooming in on most webpages. The phone, as you probably know, also has a pull out keyboard if you like that sort of thing. While not as nice as, say, a Blackberry Curve keyboard, it is quite usable in my experience and vastly superior to the RAZR's keyboard.
It was favorably reviewed by major, mainstream technology columnists such as Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal (who called the Droid a "smart success") and David Pogue of the New York Times (who said that Motorola did a "spectacularly great job" designing the phone). I rely on these two reviewers to give me the "real report" on a device as sometimes other sites like Boy Genius (who flat out love the Droid) and Engadget (who say the design is a gadget enthusiast's fever-dream) give favorable but occasionally unrealistic reviews of tech products just because they are new. The harshest review I found anywhere besides on Apple forums was actually from Walt Mossberg whose biggest gripe was that the physical keyboard on the Droid was, "pretty awful" because it has, "flat, cramped keys that induce too many typing errors, yet lacks auto-correction." However, just a sentence later he nearly negated this negative by praising the on screen keyboard which he found to be, "pretty fast and accurate for me, and did include auto-correction."
The GPS. I was going to buy a Garmin Nuvi but was alleviated of this need by Google's brand new, free, turn-by-turn Google Navigation system. I've been testing it every day and let me just say that this is a killer app for the Droid. It is amazingly accurate and fast. For example, today a coworker and I wanted to go to Starbucks for coffee so I just said, "navigate to Starbucks" and, boom!, turn-by-turn directions right to the nearest Starbucks with no typing or anything. It's amazing. Just to show you how seriously Google is getting into the GPS navigation market, take a look at this stock chart which shows both Garmin and Tom Toms stock prices plunging the day Google announced their new service; the biggest drops in each company's history.
The Android market. Like the iPhone the Droid allows users to download apps at their leisure to do a myriad of tasks. For example, Amazon designed a barcode scanner. It allows you to scan the barcode of any book and many other products to get a price check of what Amazon is selling it for and even allows you to buy it with 1-click purchasing. For example, I was hanging out with a group of friends last night and I was talking about a book I had with me and was enjoying reading. One friend said he tried to find the same book at Barnes and Noble but couldn't. So I fired up the Amazon app, scanned the barcode, ordered the book, and had it shipped right to him. The whole process barely took a minute.
It makes reliable, crystal clear phone calls. Not having a call dropped is very important to me. As a part time small business consultant I have to work with customers while on the go and I can't afford to have customers become frustrated due to my wireless provider dropping my phone calls. Verizon has the most consistent coverage around where I work and live and therefore was the best network for me. The last time I had a call dropped was in the spring of last year while driving through a remote valley with hills and heavy tree coverage all around. I was able to reconnect 30 seconds later.

In conclusion, I see the iPhone and Droid being roughly equivalent through surpassing and falling behind each other in equal measures. While I feel that the Droid is a solid phone I am convinced that Apple will be bringing the iPhone to Verizon's network soon which will mean that you can fulfill both of your desires of having a beautiful, high-tech device and having a reliable network. Alternatively, I would recommend reading reviews of the Droid to see if it is the right phone for you. While I love the Droid I see the iPhone remaining a market mainstay for the foreseeable future.

I hope this helps. If you have any other questions please let me know!

Ubuntu 9.10 Released!

2009-10-31T18:44:00.004-04:00

Check it out! Karmic Koala, the name of the latest version (9.10) of the revolutionary Ubuntu operating system, is out! This release also features the innovative ability to sync data with the cloud and is compatible with Amazon's EC2 web service. Try it out by downloading it here.

Upgrading eLearning

2009-09-04T22:00:00.001-04:00

While eLearning classes offer scheduling flexibility, global access and customized material, online programs still typically abide by similar student to teacher ratios as in-person classes. Part of the reason is that instructors are responsible for grading all the course work of the students in the class. In large classes TA’s can help alleviate the load but this system cannot leverage a growing student population to create economies of scale. However, research by two German scientists reveals that, in certain contexts, heuristic algorithms can essentially allow students to objectively grade their classmates with surprisingly accurate results, creating the possibility of an extraordinary advantage for the eLearning environment.

Using Web 2.0 technology the researchers were able to create a program that allows students to complete a text or math based task, grade the answers of three of their peers and then grade their own work. The construction of the grading model was enabled by the discovery that a student’s ability to identify other right answers indicated that they understood the question or objective enough to come up with the correct answer themselves. To assign a grade, the algorithm took into account how accurately students gave correct answers high marks which, in turn, assigned a grade to the student’s own work based both on other students’ feedback and their self evaluation. The research found that the grading results of the collaborative algorithm held a high degree of positive correlation to the grades assigned by an instructor.

This discovery is exciting because this may enable eLearning environments to utilize an online classroom’s unique attributes to create a more efficient grading system. This would allow the professor to focus on teaching rather then grading. However, it should be noted that the system, while offering a breakthrough in grading efficiency, is more or less binary in its current implementation and leaves out the comprehensive assessments a teacher can provide. In other words, the software simply indicates how well a student scores but cannot provide the individualized feedback loop that helps students grow. Moving forward, the researchers are implementing an experimental eLearning system at Clausthal University in Germany for further research and analysis to see how well the collaborative filtering algorithm holds up under more realistic conditions.

Source:
Loll, F., Pinkwart, N. (2009, January). Using collaborative filtering algorithms as eLearning tools. System Science, 42. doi:10.1109/HICSS.2009.1008

Project - MacBook Upgrade, Part 2 of 2

2009-08-31T20:00:00.004-04:00

This is part two to my original post about my MacBook upgrade project.

Component: Operating System
Goal: Upgrade to current version to increase OS stability and make my computer compatible with new/updated applications
Budget: $130
Actual Cost: $29
Item: Snow Leopard Mac OSX 10.6
Result: I bought a $49, 5 license version (which I split with my brother and sister who paid $10 each for the upgrade) of Snow Leopard that I installed on my MacBook. The install took only about 30 minutes. Note: The hard drive needs to be formatted in HFS+ before the install can take place. This is a separate operation, which can take place inside the live disc install but I thought I should note it because the install doesn't initially see an unformatted hard drive at all, which created a brief moment of panic.

Component: Hard Drive
Goal: Upgrade hard drive to accommodate for current and potential storage needs. Drive capacity above 250GB recommended but open to larger drives if a good deal is found.
Budget: $75
Actual Cost: $84.99, but for a 500GB drive
Item: Toshiba 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache
Result: Utilizing some of MacInstruct's directions, it was a piece of cake. Note: you need a torx T8 screwdriver to remove the EMI shield which I didn't have on hand but fortunately my buddy Paul did.

And with that, my upgrade project is complete. The total cost came to $267.62 which puts me solidly under my budget of $375 by saving $107.38.

Stop H*Commerce

2009-07-31T18:12:00.003-04:00

There is a new, educational and entertaining episodic video out by McAfee. Over six episodes you learn about the business of phishing and computer crimes and, in a documentary like way, shows how one person lost hundreds of thousands of dollars to advance fee fraud and how a good hacker helped her get free. These videos are an enjoyable way to gain knowledge about online enemies. The time you invest in watching the series could save you from massive financial and ID theft in the future. Check it out here: stophcommerce.com

And that's just a starting point. Here are some of the other places I've gone to learn more:
Recognizing Phishing Scams (microsoft.com)
Safer Online Shopping (f-secure.com)
Examples of Email Based Job Scams (bobbear.co.uk)
Home Computer Security (cert.org)
DEFCON Site Resources (defcon.org)

Project - MacBook Upgrade, Part 1 of 2

2009-06-27T14:42:00.013-04:00

I love my MacBook but it is getting slightly old so I decided that it is time to think about upgrading. The hard drive is filling up, the RAM is almost always full and the operating system is a version behind. This post lays out my objectives over the coming months to bring my MacBook up-to-date in terms of usability with an eye on judicious spending.

Component: Operating System
Analysis: I currently have Mac OS X 10.4, aka Tiger. The current version of OS X is 10.5, called Leopard. As the computer gets older the chance for disk failure becomes more pronounced. As the main hub for media and documents it is vital to keep the data backed up regularly. While the monthly backups through rsync work it would be more convenient to move to Leopard's "Time Machine" application which would include the ability to make iterative backups for modified files. Also, certain applications no longer support upgrades for my current version of OS X as they move to Leopard. There are also a notable number of improvements in Leopard that would make it a beneficial upgrade, such as Spaces, a new Finder (finally) and upgrades to iPhoto and iMovie. As the the next version of OS X will be coming out in September, called Snow Leopard, it may be beneficial to wait; otherwise I would only have the current version for about two months.
Goal: Upgrade to current version to increase OS stability and make my computer compatible with new/updated applications
When: Pending release of Snow Leopard
Budget: $130
Actual Total Cost: TBD
Item: Snow Leopard Mac OS X 10.6
Result: TBD

Component: Memory
Analysis: With two users 1GB of RAM is not really enough. The computer too often presents us with a "beach ball" while it takes time to free up RAM. This slows us down and is annoying.
Goal: Install enough RAM for everyday usage so that no slowdowns are experienced; 2GB should do it.
When: Immediately. No known dependencies.
Budget: $75
Actual Total Cost: $33.65 (cheap! why didn't I do this earlier?)
Item: 1GBx2, 200-pin SODIMM
Result: Success. Works as expected. No slowdowns since install.

Component: Hard Drive
Analysis: With copious quantities of pictures, movies and music our 120GB hard drive is filling up fast. Also, a slightly faster hard drive would be appreciated. However, we still need to keep an eye on power usage and heat generation. Tom's Hardware had a great article about choosing a notebook hard drive recently and I used that as a large part of my research to find a suitable drive. Note: I can't believe how far hard drive prices have fallen. It used to be $1/GB, now it is in the range of 17¢/GB, even for a 2.5" drive. Wow.
Goal: Upgrade hard drive to accommodate for current and potential storage needs. Drive capacity above 250GB recommended but open to larger drives if a good deal is found.
When: Purchased item but install pending release of Snow Leopard for convenience.
Budget: $75
Actual Total Cost: $84.99 (though, perhaps I should have waited until the dependency is met to see if the price would have come down even more)
Item: Toshiba 500GB 5400 RPM 8MB Cache (I admit it might be overkill, and I went over budget)
Result: TBD

Component: Backup Hard Drive
Analysis: I currently have a 500GB external hard drive I assembled from a hard drive and enclosure procured from NewEgg.com but it is currently being used as a backup for my desktop computers. As my desktops hold more information than my laptop it would be convenient to requisition the 500GB for my MacBook which will match it's future drive capacity. This will also afford me to opportunity to replace the exteral hard drive with one more suited for desktop backups, such as a 1TB* hard drive(!). I smile every time I say the word terabyte*.
Goal: Replace current drive with a 1TB* version
When: Immediate
Budget: $150
Actual Total Cost: $99.99 hard drive + $19.99 enclosure = $119.98
Items: Western Digital 1TB* 7200 RPM 32MB Cache installed in a Rosewill 3.5" Black USB 2.0 External Enclosure
Result: Success. Works so well for the price that my brother also ordered one.

That ought to do it. The current total projected cost of the MacBook upgrade project is $375. I will provide an update in September.

* /smile

New Search Engine on the Prowl

2009-05-16T11:41:00.003-04:00

Just this week a new search engine was launched into the public space. Instead of focusing on getting you to other places on the web a la Google, it takes questions and gives you answers. Pretty amazing really. You can watch the introductory screencast to learn more about the search engine and what it is capable of performing. Or, simply go to wolframalpha.com to try out a question of your own.

Keyboard in the Dishwasher, Round 3

2009-04-14T22:18:00.005-04:00

Just wanted to note that I tested washing a keyboard in the dishwasher again. This time with a Dell keyboard like this one:

The result was a success, which is even more impressive considering that it was washed after having soda accidentally spilled on it. However, certain keys were still not clean and I ended up cleaning the keyboard manually.

Therefore, having tested three times and having three successful attempts I can say that washing a keyboard in the dishwasher seems to work. However, I would recommend against doing for three primary reasons. First, it might not work (keyboards weren't made for the high heat of dishwashers). Second, it takes a week to dry making the endeavor time intensive, albeit, practically labor free. Last but not least, the result is questionable at best. On all three keyboards grimy residue was still leftover. For best results how about using isopropyl alcohol (aka rubbing alcohol) and a q-tip? Alternatively, one could just pop all the keys off and put them in a soapy concoction. Nevertheless, if you come across a dirty, smoke laden keyboard, feel free to drop it in the dishwasher, after all, it can't hurt.

RE: Keyboard in the Dishwasher, Round 2

2009-03-20T10:55:00.005-04:00

So, borne out of a stubbornness to keep testing, I took my keyboard to work and tried to plug it in on Monday. Unsurprisingly, the dead keys still didn't work. However, I kept the keyboard, hoping that maybe a few more days would magically set things right. At this point, I had basically given up all hope of a comeback but I was loathe just to throw the keyboard away because I had grown familiar with its distinctive layout and ergonomic comfort. Yesterday, out of an incapacity to admit defeat, I plugged the keyboard in again and, completely unexpectedly, it worked! All the keys are functional again.

I hadn't really expected it to work again since I hadn't let the keyboard fully dry. I was afraid that I had permanently damaged the keyboard by shorting out crucial, electronic components. Since the keyboard is working now I would surmise that there must have been moisture acting as a conduit between circuits and throwing off the output. So, let this be a lesson to you if you try to wash your keyboard in the dishwasher; give it plenty of time to dry. I'd recommend waiting at least five days to be safe.

Keyboard in the Dishwasher, Round 2

2009-03-16T19:10:00.001-04:00

As I was leaving work this past Friday, I looked at my keyboard and noticed how dirty it was. So I took it home and put it in the dishwasher (again skipping the heat/dry cycle). This cleaned the keyboard wonderfully, as you can see from the before and after pictures posted below.

Before Overview:

Before Detail:

After Overview:

After Detail:

From Keyboard Cleaning

So, the keyboard was washed Friday evening, taken out of the dishwasher Saturday morning and left to dry until today, Monday evening. The keyboard looked completely dry yesterday so I ventured to try it out. I hooked it up to my computer and typed a test line and this is what came out: "The quck brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." Uh oh. The "i" wasn't working. After more experimentation I found that neither was the comma, Scroll Lock, or the delete button on the number pad. Curiously enough, however, all the other keys are in working order. Hmm, so with one test successful and one not, that leaves us with an unacceptable 50% keyboard casualty rate.

So what was different this time? Besides using a keyboard I hadn't found in a dumpster, I noted two alterations of the test methodology that may have had an impact on the final result. First, this time I left the keyboard in the dishwasher over night whereas I pulled the other one out as soon as the wash cycle was finished. And second, I optimistically tried to use the computer after only 2.5 days of drying. Last time I let the keyboard dry for 5 days.

In conclusion, I'd be willing to try again the experiment again, with a longer drying period, on another keyboard, but certainly not one I need. As the old saying goes, once bitten, twice shy. As you've read this, is there anything that stands out to you as a factor I could have missed or a variable I should have better controlled? Anyone else have a story to share about cleaning keyboards in the dishwasher?

Cleaning a Keyboard in the Dishwasher Experiment

2009-02-15T13:14:00.011-05:00

A friend of mine recently gave me an old ergonomic keyboard. I was excited about this because I wanted to take it to work as a more comfortable replacement for a standard keyboard. It was dirty so I cleaned it with a cloth and ever so light use of Windex. It turned out fairly well but there are still some minor dirt stains. It looks a lot better so the end result was not bad. It took me a lot of time to clean it though so I started looking for a faster way. Online searches for "cleaning keyboard" brought up one interesting method, putting the keyboard in the dishwasher, which I thought was interesting, but I wasn't willing to try it with any of my current keyboards because, one, they are already clean because I take good care of them and, two, I don't want to risk losing a keyboard because the ones I have are quite nice. Coincidentally, as I was taking out the trash one day, I found a keyboard in the dumpster (in plain sight, on the top, within easy reach for those of you wondering). It was an older, standard, Dell keyboard that smelled like smoke. In other words, a perfect candidate; it was caked with grime and expendable. The first test was to see if it worked. I hooked it up to a computer and typed out "The quick brown fox jumped over the lazy dogs." a couple times and tested the number and symbol keys. Everything worked, even the special buttons like "Sleep". But, wow, was it dirty:

Perhaps not the worst I've ever seen, but so bad I wouldn't use it.

Then I put it in the dishwasher, top rack, with the end cycle dryer heat off because I heard that was optimal:

Afterward, I took it out, dripping wet, and set it to dry:

Note the whitish colored spots on the cord to the left of the image. After drying, they disappeared. Ideas on what that was?

Already it looked a lot cleaner:

I waited about a week, having turned the keyboard on a different edge every day. After letting it dry, it looked even better and the smoke smell was totally gone:

From Keyboard Cleaning

I plugged it into a computer and the lights flashed. I did the same test with all the keys, including the "Sleep" button and it worked!

So the experiment was successful, washing keyboards in the dishwasher gets the keyboard pretty clean, but not completely. I don't know if you can see from the pictures, but there is still some grime left on some of the sides of the keys and underneath, so it still required a gentle, personal touch to get it to 100% clean, but the dishwasher did most of the work.

The question I'm left with, however, is would I put my own keyboards through the dishwasher? I am leaning towards no. The difference is like taking your car to an automated car wash versus washing and drying it by hand and I like the result of the latter. If you have tried or are thinking about cleaning your keyboard in the dishwasher or have any other thoughts to share, please comment below, I'd love to hear from you.

RE: Downgrading Bandwidth

2009-01-27T22:00:00.002-05:00

I don't know if I can take it anymore. It takes four hours to rent an iTunes movie. An average movie is 1.4GB so that means, using the standard d/t = s formula, (1.4GB * 1024MB * 1024KB) / (4hours * 60minutes * 60seconds) = 101.94 kbps. And folks, that's not good enough, at least not when it took us only 45 minutes to download a movie before the downgrade. Using the same formula, you can easily see that (1.4GB * 1024MB * 1024KB) / (20minutes * 60seconds) = 543.71kbps. That means our current download speed is (543.71old / 101.94current) 5.33 slower than what it used to be.

Hmm, while I'm stewing it might do me good to remember that I came from a dial-up connection where downloading a 1.4GB movie would have taken, at a full 48kbps, 2.83 DAYS. So, yes, I should be grateful, grateful that I can afford the extra $14 (with fees) a month for a faster plan, which I will be upgrading to tomorrow.

Downgrading Bandwidth

2009-01-19T16:40:00.002-05:00

This past two weeks have been sad; our Internet bandwidth has been throttled. On January 4th of last year, we signed up for a Comcast (they have a monopoly on our apartment building so we couldn't even consider Verizon) special introductory package of Internet and basic cable TV. An interesting factoid is that we don't even have a TV, but the Intenet a la carte would have been about $38 a month, but with the special, Internet only cost $20 a month and the TV added only $5. In this way, it made sense for us to save money by getting services we couldn't use, and never did. During this period, our _advertised_ download speed, according to a Comcast rep I spoke to on the phone was 6Mbps with an upload velocity of 768kbps. We never _actually_ reached these speeds however. We averaged about 1.2Mbps down and about 721kbps up (at least the upload speed was accurate). Needless to say, this was a great move up from a dial-up connection.

The past 366 days (leap year) lead us, once again, to January 4th. So, our special was up and we had to choose between bandwidth and money. When I called Comcast, we had three options:

Package A) $4.95 cable and $33 for 6Mbps down, 768kbps up six month special
Package B) $60 for 6Mbps down, 768kbps up Internet
Package C) $24.95 for 768kbps down, 384kbps up Internet

We chose option "C". While it doesn't feel right to downgrade Internet service, it has been ok - I'm still alive. The actual effects have been noticeable but arguably negligible; Apple movie trailers and HD YouTube videos are slow to load and downloading had been impacted significantly. Hopefully I don't lose my geek card because of this.

So, we're going to see how things work out for a while. The good news is that we can always change our minds.

Mac Maintenance Manual

2008-12-06T08:04:00.004-05:00

I stumbled across a Mac maintenance manual on the New York Times this morning as I was reading a post by tech columnist David Pogue. This piqued my interest because while I'm quite experienced in Microsoft Windows maintenance I haven't heard much about maintaining a Mac. Part of the reason is that Mac doesn't have as much of a problem with viruses, spyware and its ilk at the moment. In addition Mac uses the superior HFS+ file system (how it organizes the hard drive space) versus Windows NTFS which needs to be regularly defragmented (an analogy might be that Mac always keeps its room tidy and neat while Windows is a slob and has to painfully clean up its room by performing a time consuming defrag process). So without further ado, here are two things you can do to keep your Mac in tiptop shape.

First, there is a process that your Mac automatically runs on a daily, weekly and monthly basis. Good news, right? Well, yeah, but the process runs between 3:15 and 5:30 in the morning (local time) which would be convenient except it won't run, as you could expect, when the computer is sleeping or turned off. That means it's up to you to run it manually. According to Apple's support site you can either run the process the easy way or the advanced way but they only document the advanced way which, to me, means it's the easy way. The steps are outlined in the link above but I've broken them down to be arguably more beginner friendly here:

1. Open the Terminal. To do this, go to the dock at the bottom of your screen and click "Finder", which looks like two people smiling. Then in the toolbar at the top of the screen click "Go" and from the dropdown select "Applications". Now you should see all the applications installed on your computer. Scroll to the bottom of the list and double click the folder entitled "Utilities". Finally, at the bottom of this list, you will find the "Terminal". Double click to open. You'll know you did it right if the second line of the new window says, "Welcome to Darwin!".

2. Copy and paste or type the following into the new window: sudo sh /etc/daily

3. Press Return/Enter and type the administrator password as prompted (tip: when typing your password, no asterisks will appear so don't worry).

4. Wait for the process to finish, in my tests in was under a minute. You should see "Rotating log files: system.log" as the second to last line when it's done followed by your computer name and the user name followed by a dollar sign. You can now quit the application by clicking "Terminal" in the menu bar at the top of the screen and from the drop down selecting "Quit Terminal".

All done! And optionally, you can run the steps above but substituting the word "weekly" and "monthly" for the word "daily" in step two. These run the tasks that are scheduled for those intervals.

Next, Apple recommends you download and run an application called Maintenance 3.8. This application performs a number of maintenance tasks for you, such as:
- Repair Permissions
- Verify Preferences
- Update Prebindings
- Periodic Clean-up
- Clean Cache
- Update Locate, Whatis, LaunchServices Databases
- Rebuild Spotlight Index

While these actions probably won't have much of a noticeable impact you can feel secure knowing your computer is getting the nourishment it needs to be healthy and it may just prevent a problem later on. I figure that it can't hurt to run it every month or so as a form of computing insurance. As Ben Franklin said, a stitch in time saves nine. So, just download it, open it up, copy it to your hard drive and run the application called "Maintenance 3.8 Non-Automator". When the application opens you'll be prompted to select what actions you want to take (basically the list above). To select them all, click the first one on the list and then hold in the Shift button on your keyboard and click the last one. Now all actions should be selected, if not try again. Now just hit ok. You'll be prompted to close all your applications and choose whether you want your computer to restart or shutdown at the end of the maintenance. Give it a while because it may take a long time. There is no progress bar that I saw so you'll just have to be patient but trust that it is working until your computer restarts or shuts down.

So that's about it, all thanks indirectly to David Pogue. Speaking of which, if you're interested in buying a camera, camcorder, smartphone or TV this holiday season, make sure to check out his informative and amusing "Pogue-o-Matic" (bandwidth heavy) in which he advises you on features and options based on your input. I found a nice TV this way, even thought I'm not planning on purchasing one anytime soon. ^_^

A Happy Thanksgiving Tip

2008-11-27T09:52:00.004-05:00

Happy Thanksgiving. There is much to be thankful for and in the spirit of sharing here is a computer tip I'm appreciating right now.

Do you have a Mac and wish you could open up all new pages in the Safari web browser in tabs? Well, now you can, open up the Terminal application (in Utilities) and run the following command line:

defaults write com.apple.Safari TargetedClicksCreateTabs -bool true

Of course, I didn't come up with that on my own. Many thanks to TUAW, The Unofficial Apple Weblog.

Ubuntu 8.10 Released

2008-10-30T22:26:00.002-04:00

The latest version of Ubuntu, the free, fast, powerful, shiny, easy to use version of Linux, has just been released. Check out all the cool new features here. I'm happily upgrading to it now on my desktop.

Truly, there are few other things in life that are quite as satisfying as a good operating system upgrade. ^_^

An Erasing Solution

2008-10-25T11:00:00.007-04:00

A few months ago I had three computers and needed to sync up all the documents, music, movies and other files between the three since each was used for different purposes. After successfully migrating all the data onto a central, backed up source through a Unix utility called rsync, I am now free of the computer I've had since college and down to a Macbook and a three year old desktop I built. This whole operation left me with three extra hard drives, an 80GB Seagate and two Maxtor's with 120 and 250 GB, respectively. Since I copied all the data I wanted from them I now wanted to erase the drives in preparation of perhaps using them again or even giving them away to friends who could use them. However, I first wanted to erase all the data on each hard disk drive (hdd) in a way that would make it irretrievable since they used to contain legal and private information.

As you may know, deleting files on your computer does not actually remove them completely. Even formatting the hard drive does not guarantee that the data will be destroyed. The reason for this is because hard drives are like books in that they have an index that references the content contained within. Deleting something from your computer only removes the link in the index. Hard drives do this for the same reason books have indexes, speed of access. Therefore, it is possible for someone to retrieve deleted information fairly easily. I've actually been able to restore a file that I accidentally deleted by using a technical recovery program.

I did some research into programs that would securely erase data on a hard drive and found a few worth noting. As it turned out though, I need not have searched too far, as it was already installed on my Linux desktop in the form of a utility called shred. This application featured a number of things I liked such as the open source licensing, clear documentation and cost (free). To use shred I just hooked up each of the drives to my computer, and after some prep work, ran the following line of code:

shred -vfz -n 3 /dev/sda

And that was it. The above command line (starting with shred) takes the hard drive (designated as /dev/sda) and forces (f) an erasure of all the data using randomly generated input to scramble the magnetic binary bits, or ones and zeros, on the hard drive platters three times (-n 3) with a final overwrite of all zeros (z) while displaying the status along the way (-v). The process for each disk took overnight.

So, while I would highly recommend this method to anyone who wants to securely erase their information while keeping the drive usable I would caution against throwing it away or even selling your computer with the hard drive still in it even if erased in this way. Why take the chance at all? The ramifications could be steep, such as losing your identity or credit card as well as massive amounts of personal information. Instead, if you plan to sell you computer, why not take the hard drive out and replace it with a new one? As for the old hard drive you want to throw away, I would recommend that you not only erase it but also physically destroy it. Don't just take my word for it though. Consider what computer security consultant Ed Skoudis has to say on page 195 of his book, Counter Hack: Reloaded,

Yes, you could scrub them using a data wiping tool that overwrites all sectors with zeros and ones several times, or even employ a degausser that zaps them with a magnetic pulse. However, there is still a chance that some data will survive the wiping or degaussing process. The best way to be sure all data is unrecoverable by your adversaries is to crunch up the drives, physically destroying the media.

All this advice is well and good, but people have to actually apply these principles for it to be effective. One innovative example came from a gentlemen I was advising on how to destroy data on an old, work hard drive, who, after I explained the technical erasure process and the intricacies of hard drive construction and operation, asked me if putting a 357 magnum through the hard drive would work just as well. I readily agreed, so long as the drive's platters were destroyed. "Now that," he said with a smile, "is one thing I can do."

Backup and Sync with Dropbox

2008-09-25T18:52:00.006-04:00

A new, cross platform, online sync/backup service is available in a product called Dropbox. I've been trying it out for a while now and found it to be delightfully efficient in handling all types of data. Additionally, it works on Windows, Mac _and_ Linux. Yea! I recommend you check it out and see if it could fulfill a need for you. Case in point, dear reader, do you backup your data, or at least your important documents? I have seen people cry about losing their data. It is said there are two types of people in this world, those who backup their data fastidiously, and those who will. Anyway, I have found Dropbox to be responsive, convenient and reasonably secure. It has many other useful features too. Want to learn more? Check out getdropbox.com/tour.

SanDisk Delight and Disarray

2008-08-31T19:10:00.007-04:00

Yesterday Elea and I were grocery shopping at the Super Walmart in Frederick, MD where we found a special on SanDisk Cruzer Micro flash drives. A 1GB unit was about $12 and a 2GB was only about $15. I was blown away by the price and decided to get a 2GB drive. Buying on such a whim is highly unusual for me and annuls the principle and practice of the old colloquialism that "a woman will pay $1 for a $2 item she doesn't need while a man will pay $2 for a $1 item he does need". As Elea and I were checking out, the cashier, who had an Xbox 360 lanyard around his neck, upon noticing the 2GB drive, mentioned that there was a 4GB version (listed for ~$40 on SanDisk's site) for not much more. This seemed like a great deal and I ran back to exchange the item for the larger version. Sure enough, a little bit away from the sale stand, there was a rack of 4GB drive with a rollback price of $21. Similar sized Lexar drives were going for $42. I was about to take off when someone came up and asked me about the differences between the different sizes and how much music could each hold (I said the 4GB was the same size at a 4GB iPod which advertises a song capacity of 1,000 songs). After chatting I caught up with Elea and checked out.

When I got home I plugged the drive in and was taken aback that it was partitioned (split) into two sections. One was the normal blank space (save the expected software bundles – which I erased) but the other side was in an ISO 9660, or DVD format that I could access but not delete, repartition or edit in any way. After reading the manual, which one usually doesn't have to do when buying such a standard component, I learned it was part of SanDisk's U3 system which is a fancy little program designed to work on Windows computers that allows a user to open applications and customize their interface within a separate space. Cool, I guess, but I didn't want it because I couldn't see myself using it and I actually don't even have Windows because my two main computers are a Linux desktop and an OSX loaded MacBook. So, I decided to take it off, which turned out to be harder than expected.

First, I tried to repartition the space with my Mac. No luck; I couldn't delete the space, resize it or annex it with the other partition. So, I turned to the SanDisk website which, after a brief search revealed that there was a way to uninstall it, if you were very, very sure you actually, really wanted to. The uninstall page said that it was easy and you just had to run a program they would provide. So, the next page took me to a survey of why I wanted to delete the U3 partition, of which I checked the box stating, verbatim, “I use Mac OS or Linux". At the next page I was again prompted to see if I wanted to uninstall it. The page essentially asked, “Are you quite certain you truly want to go through with the irreversible process of removing U3 for sure?” It then tried to make the point that the system only uses 6MB of space, which was a blatant lie because the partition takes up a whole 96MB of space (potentially two CDs worth of songs or about 3,000 Word documents). After acknowledging that yes, I saw no need for U3 I was taken to the final page where they offered the uninstall program. Wow, at last, I thought. Alas, it was not to be, as the download was a “.exe”.

A “.exe” extension, for those that might be wondering, indicates that the application only works on Microsoft Windows, and that's right after I said I have Linux and Mac. Unbelievable. I do like SanDisk as I have had good experiences with them in the past and their products are reviewed favorably in the press, but this left a bitter taste, and apparently a lot of other people have voiced similar feelings. At least the price was right; guess I'm a bargain hunter after all.

BlackArmor? More Like Black Box

2008-07-31T23:55:00.002-04:00

While I was reading the Wall Street Journal a couple days ago I stumbled upon a full, back page ad for a relatively new "secure", portable hard drive from Seagate called BlackArmor. But, first off, allow me to make a disclaimer: I don't actually understand that much about encryption technology, but it is something I can get excited about (for example, I read every page of the NIST's 116 page long (warning: PDF) AES Report [csrc.nist.gov]) twice, and enjoy learning about it. For some reason it is fascinating to me, but I'm a newb, so please keep that in mind. Anyway, what caught my eye was that Seagate alleged that this was the world's first external hard drive with complete disk encryption. I started wondering what type of encryption they used, but, as one may have expected, the ad was short on technical details. This surprised me though because the main, advertised selling point of this drive was the encryption, so why didn't they at least post in small print the specifications. So, I followed the link provided in the ad to the page linked above which also didn't reveal anything, so I clicked "Learn More" and clicked on subsequent "Specifications" tab. This only listed the physical details about the drive, such as storage capacity, disk rotation speed, dimensions and the like. On this page, however, I did note that the drive only worked with Windows XP or Vista. This disappointed me mainly because I use a combination of Mac and Linux operating systems at home. I further learned that a special program had to be installed on the computer that would act as the go-between for the drive and the computer it was attached to. I had hoped, perhaps naively, that no installation would be necessary and thus be based off an other method that would allow for greater system portability. Oh well, but I was still interested in learning about the encryption algorithm and implementation itself because otherwise how could one know the strength of the "cable" that was holding your data. I then downloaded the (warning: PDF) datasheet [maxtor.dom] and a little more information was revealed but this too proved to be a disappointment. It only mentioned that it was, "Hardware-based full-disc encryption technology". Ok... So, what? The page did give a hint though, stating that that the encryption was "government grade" with a little asterisk next to it which lead to a footnote noting it uses, "Government-grade AES encryption certified by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST)." Now, while a step in the right direction, this was not super helpful. AES, as you may know, stands for "Advanced Encryption Standard" which replaced DES on November 26, 2001, so it's the newest standard available which is what I expected. However, this didn't make mention of the block cipher size or key bit length. At a minimum, I guessed it was going to be 128 bit block cipher. After searching the support documents and searching the user manual on the Seagate's support site without finding anything my curiosity was piqued even more.

So, I when to their support contact page and called their pre-sales support team at 1.800.SEAGATE. I got a pleasant fellow named Matt who seemed happy to answer any question I had. So, I asked if he could tell more about the the encryption the drive used, such as number of encryption rounds, block cipher or key length. He said no problem and that he could look that up immediately. Fifteen minutes later, after being mostly on hold, nothing else was revealed except that he could confirm that the encryption was 128 bit, he didn't say this but I took that to mean the block cipher, which is about the minimum available. I was quietly hoping it was more than that, like 256, but, then again, that would most likely decrease the read/write performance of the drive notably because of the extra encrypt/decrypt computations required by the host's CPU. Still, I was curious. So, today, I tried again; this time by tech support chat. This worked out a little better as I again got a courteous tech but who was able to point me in the direction of newly created FAQs, here and here. This solidified my confirmation about the 128 bit block cipher but mentioned nothing else in particular; it did give a good 101 overview of the different types of full disk encryption (FDE) available and how they work from a users perspective. As an aside, I also questioned whether the BlackArmor drive will ever work with Linux or Mac OSX and he said that it does not currently work with anything besides Windows and he wasn't sure if development was being done to expand their OS portability (my hunch is a strong no). I then asked if there were any portable FDE drives that worked with OSX and he said there was one, the FreeAgent Pro, but it's just an external hard drive sans any method of encryption (granted, I could do it myself, but that's not the point as I've already built my own external hard drives - I'm looking for a consumer level, ready solution). Still, it was a good discussion and the tech was helpful, so kudos to Seagate for that, but I still don't know much about the algorithm behind their promises for security. My thinking is that if the technical info is contained in a black box, how am I supposed to know that the data is actually secure? Interestingly, the phone rep I spoke with before actually mentioned something about how the FBI wasn't happy about their BlackArmor product offering and wanted to try working with Seagate to establish some back door entry method. Wow. So, yeah, talk about a black box. For this reason, I think that it is justifiable to know the technical details behind any product whose primary function is data security. But, hey, that's just me. Ok, moving on...

I wanted to post my whole IM conversation with Seagate here but it was too long to post comfortably in outright text format. I thought of various ways of condensing it but none seemed to fit the bill (wouldn't it be nice to have the ability to collapse and expand a portions of text in blogspot? Wait, maybe it has already been done?). So, I got this crazy idea to post a picture of the BlackArmor drive and embed the conversation as a plain text document with 128 bit AES encryption, in cipher block chaining mode pseudo seeded by the password to further protect access. Yeah, pretty nuts. Why go to all this work? Because I care about you. Or something like that. Anyway, it's late and I'm tired so here is the picture, and the password is contained within the alt text. Have fun and good luck.

Firefox 3 Released into the Wild!

2008-06-17T00:01:00.002-04:00

Firefox 3 is being released today at 13:00 EST. Play a part in helping get Firefox into the Guinness World Record book by downloading Firefox 3 today to make it the most software downloaded in 24 hours!

For more up-to-date release information you can follow mozillafirefox on Twitter.

And, as a parting note, here is a video of Walt Mossberg of the Wall Street Journal proclaiming that Firefox is the best web browser available. Text version available here.

A Shredder Story

2008-05-24T07:09:00.006-04:00

After months of manually cutting up credit card offers, balance transfer checks, and the ilk, my wife and I bought a Staples Mailmate shredder last month. Unfortunately, last week it broke mid shred while doing some light shredding. I then reread the manual as I had when we first got it, because, like most products, I read the manual throughly when I first get a new device; some call me crazy. Then I followed all the troubleshooting steps contained within the documentation. No luck, so after two days and numerous attempts to fix it, I called the product support number at Staples to see if they could help. They were not helpful.

I rated my interchange with Staples tech support so low that I wrote a rant about my experience and how much I disliked it but I removed it from this post because it probably wouldn't be helpful to anyone. If you're curious, let's just say that the best part of their service was when they had me on hold for twenty minutes with irritating music and a recorded voice repeatedly trying tell me how important the call was to them. Anyway, moving on, we wanted to replace our shredder which had left us with an ever growing pile of paper to shred.

Skipping Staples this time around (remember the definition of insanity?), Elea and I and searched online at NewEgg, Amazon and eBay. The reviews on Amazon were exceedingly helpful, insightful and informative so we spent most of our time there. Confirming our suspicions, our old shredder received very poor ratings by the Amazon community. In deciding our price range and needs, Elea and I reasoned that we would be needing a shredder for a long time since it takes care of things so much more securely than scissors. Also, since we had to catch up on shredding we wanted to spend the extra money and get a reliable one similar to ones used by small businesses. Interestingly, we found one that was in our price range, with great tech support stories, had good safety features, and generally seemed to fit our requirements in the Fellowes PS-77-C. We got the shredder a week later and let me just point out for those of you that may be unfamiliar with the brand, that the Fellowes logo has a bulldog on it which aptly indicates the ferocity at which this shredder can go through paper. It is a beast and, surprisingly, much more quiet than our previous shredder. Whereas our old shredder would choke on a few pages, this one seemed actually bored with whatever we fed it. We had so much fun shredding stuff that we were still reaching for more things to shred by the time we had gone through everything in our "to-shred" pile. I guess the lesson I learned, to borrow the colloquialism, is that what you pay for is what you get.

Favorite Command Lines

2008-05-04T22:10:00.005-04:00

Here are seven of my favorites commands (I kind of just wanted to document them for myself actually):

1. To see what programs are accessing the network: netstat -tupl
2. To read the manual about anything: man (item of interest, e.g. vi, top, cp, woman)
3. To return to the previous directory: cd -
4. To download a webpage with the ability to download all connecting pages: wget (URL)
5. To create multiple directories(credit): mkdir -p tmp/a/b/c
6. To find something in a text document: grep -lR (directory/file name)
7. And, finally to learn what commands have recently been used (credit): history|awk '{a[$2]++} END{for(i in a){printf "%5dt%sn",a[i],i}}'|sort -rn|head

So, what are a few of your favorite commands? How about the crucial SIGINT, Ctrl+C?

Warning: the last link may or may not be humorous, based on whether or not you are one of the 10 types of people in the world that understand computer talk.

Ubuntu 8.04 Released

2008-04-24T20:33:00.007-04:00

Great news, the new version of Ubuntu Linux was released! It is a long term support (LTS) version, affectionately entitled "Hardy Heron", so technical support is guaranteed for at least three years on your desktop. It is the newest, most featured and stable version to date and I'm excited about it because of the new media applications, notably improved audio and enhanced user interface. Ubuntu times their release schedule around new versions of Gnome (the default display manager - i.e. how you get to stuff and what you see upon logging in) so it is always kind of a thrill to install a new version to see how things have improved.

Since I am already running Ubuntu's previous version (7.10, called "Gutsy Gibbon") I can just upgrade through the built-in update manager but, for tonight at least, the servers that host the new version are slammed with traffic and are having trouble keeping up and understandably so. This distribution of Linux is wildly popular and this release has been highlighted on the front page of just about every top tech site I know. So, things are kind of slow right now. People on various tech forums are reporting that download speeds are only around 20kbit/s which is pretty slow (only seven times faster than dial up downloads, approximately). Thankfully, a type of download, called torrents, are _much_ faster and come in two types for this release of Ubuntu, i386 and amd64. If you are not sure which one to pick or want to download directly from Ubuntu check out the download page.

To read the entire release PR post on Ubuntu's website click here.

Cheers and happy installing!

My Linux Desktop

2008-03-25T19:23:00.016-04:00

This weekend I was playing around with my computer and installed the KDE and Xfce desktop as well as the Fluxbox window manager. It was fun and I was impressed with what I saw. KDE had many features and Xfce was blazing fast but in the end I settled back on a modified Gnome desktop with a Compiz window manager and Emerald as the window decorator.
After all that work, I thought I would post a screenshot of the end result of all my experimentation. I pulled inspiration from Xfce and KDE and got a little wistful with some special effects.

Here is what you see:
Ubuntu 7.10 Linux
Gnome Desktop Manager
Compiz Fusion Window Manager
Emerald Window Decorator
Avant Window Navigator (bottom)
Conky System Monitor (right)
Gkrellm Process Monitor (left)

Here is another screenshot showing off the desktop cube effect (note the windows in the background, I can spin the cube around and get to any screen instantly - better than Aero in my humble opinion):

And did I mention that everything you see is free? That's part of the power of open source.

Upgrading from Vista to XP

2008-02-28T20:21:00.005-05:00

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ), on Thursdays, has a column from the venerable technology writer Walt Mossberg which I like to read. I find myself usually in agreement with his prognosis about hardware, software and the like. He does a great job at _not_ getting bogged down with technical details and stays at a delightful high level for most of this writing or blogging, which is probably why he gets to write to such a wide audience. One of his sections in the WSJ is entitled "Mossberg's Mailbox" which is like a "Dear Ann" article but for people with questions about computers. Today, he answered the following question:

Q: I've recently purchased a laptop with Vista Home Premium as the operating system. Is there a way to remove the Vista operating system and use Windows XP?
A: Yes, such an operating system "downgrade" is possible, but it isn't for the faint-hearted or the average, nontechnical user.

True, but I disagree with the term "downgrade", I'm sure he meant "upgrade", hence his quotation marks around the word; XP is the best Windows system released to date. Faced with a choice between Vista and XP, I would go with XP for it's speed and proven compatibility with devices. Vista, it seems, is going somewhat the same way as Windows ME (never heard of it? Good.), a version many ignored because it was, more than anything, an expensive visuals-only update. That's right folks, you don't have to upgrade. Just skip it, you can do that.
However, Walt does have concerns about upgrading to XP from an OEM (manufactuer) installed Vista OS. He warns that the process involves the following steps in that you have to:
1. Back up your data
2. Wipe out your hard disk.
3. Install Windows XP
4. Install hardware drivers
Concerning the drivers, Walt mentions that getting them "can be difficult, or even impossible, as a Vista machine may contain new hardware components for which XP drivers are hard to find or may not even exist." Ouch. I agree this can be difficult. Once, I was working on someone's HP laptop and it took me forever to find the right sound drivers on HP's website.

As a parting comment, Walt decidedly says, "If you aren't a techie, and you desperately want to downgrade to XP, I strongly suggest hiring an expert to take on the task. But the best solution for XP fans is to buy a machine with XP preinstalled in the first place." Yes, but I disagree, it's better to get a Mac, and I think that even Walt would agree with me on that. ^_^

Full article here. Walt's site is available here: AllThingsD.com (which I highly recommend for it's insightful writing and unique topics).

Kingston Tech Support Rocks

2008-01-31T19:59:00.001-05:00

I sent the following email to Kingston Tech Support with a pressing question:

Date: 01/29/2008 07:01 PM
From: me
To: Kingston Tech Support

Hello,
My motherboard has four memory slots. I have KHX3200ULK2/1G (2-2-2-5-1 at +2.7V) installed and want to know if I can add KHX3200AK2/1G (2-3-2-6-1 at +2.6V) to the two remaining slots without any problems since the timing and voltage is different. Will there be memory performance degradation? Do you have any recommendations to get my system up to 2GB of RAM?

Many thanks

And they replied with the following response:

Date: Jan 30, 2008 4:07 PM
From: Kingston Tech Support
To: me

Hello,

This will probably not work due to a limitation of this motherboard. It can only take up to two double sided DDR400 modules. All of the 512MB HyperX modules are double sided. In order to add more memory to this computer, you either have to downclock the memory to 333Mhz or replace the two 512MB modules with two 1GB modules. But if it was not for this limitation, they would probably work together. But you would have to set all the memory to the slower 2-3-2-6 timings for the KHX3200A parts.

If you have any other questions or concerns, please feel free to reply to this e-mail with full email history. Thank you for using Kingston on-line technical support.

Regards,

Kingston Technology
Technical Support

Now that's what I call service. They provided immediate assistance, directly answered my problem, provided an alternative solution showing they understood my hardware needs and offered to help with any other questions I might have.
End result? Two brand new sticks of Kingston RAM are now on their way from NewEgg.com. ^_^

Thanks Kingston!

Dancing to Digital / Why Buy CD's?

2007-12-30T16:56:00.000-05:00

I love music. I bought a lot of CD's in my teen years at stores and through a mail retailer. Knowing that CD's were frequently the recipient of scratches, I would diligently back them up on my computer. This served the double purpose of safekeeping and practical since my best "stereo" was my 5.1 surround sound system on my computer. I learned today though that it is apparently against the law as alledged in a recent lawsuit filed by the RIAA. Wait, what? People today have an increasing need to have digital copies of their music in order to play it in their iPod, stereo or car. Why would the RIAA make it illegal to rip CD's? Maybe it is just semantics.

Unfortunately that doesn't seem to be the case, at least in a lawsuit (PDF) being brought against a consumer who made "unauthorized" copies of CD's on his computer. On page fifteen of the report (section "C" lines 1-12) we see that the RIAA says that the, "Defendant admitted that he converted these sound recordings from their original format to the .mp3 format for his and his wife’s use." The referenced "originals" were legally purchased CD's, which the RIAA calls unauthorized and therefore, illegal, based on their interpretation of "Fair Use". If you are interested in learning more about what exactly constitues fair use, please check out Stanford University's overview on the topic of copyright laws and fair use. At this point I would like to note that the RIAA isn't pursuing litigation simply because the defendant ripped CD's but because the defendant placed music files in a share directory for a program to automatically make available with other people for free. I can understand that, but why call ripped copies unauthorized and by extension make it illegal for you and me to copy music to an iPod? Even the President of the United States rips music.

When I first heard that the RIAA called ripping CD’s illegal I thought it was a misstatement. Apparently not, according to an article published over a year ago by the Electronic Frontier Foundation.
This is confusing because the RIAA's own site notes the following in FAQ number eleven:

Record companies have never objected to someone making a copy of a CD for their own personal use. We want fans to enjoy the music they bought legally.

I am a little perplexed. Certainly the RIAA realizes that CD's are fast becoming an outdated distribution channel. Why call ripped music from personal CD's "unauthorized? We live in a wonderful age where songs can be purchased individually online for less than a dollar and whole albums can be downloaded legally for about $10.

Moving forward, I see more and more people moving to digital formats. Music professionals are an example of this. Take the award winning DJ Paul van Dyk, for instance, whose entire music collection is on his computers. I've been using iTunes since 2003 and see no reason to buy CDs (exceptions may include buying as a gift or when an online version isn't availble) when I can get the same thing in an already iPod friendly format at half the cost. Dollars speak and that's not just semantics.

Attack of Cell Phone Text Spam, And a Defense Strategy

2007-11-29T21:20:00.000-05:00

I received my first cell phone spam text message today. I don't have a text plan so it cost me 15¢. I was not happy with this. The message read:

-----Start-----
From: Sallie@baier-allen.com

(TTS) Find the perfect
Christmas Gift visit :
(www . webtbing .net)

Thu, Nov 29, 1:46 pm
-----Stop-----

I researched text spam and quickly found it was illegal according to the US CAN-SPAM act and doubly illegal since I registered my phone number on the Federal Do-Not-Call list.

In brief the rules are, according to the FCC's CAN-SPAM webpage:

The FCC’s CAN-SPAM Rules
The FCC’s ban on sending unwanted e-mail messages to wireless devices applies to all “commercial messages.” The CAN-SPAM Act defines commercial messages as those for which the primary purpose is to advertise or promote a commercial product or service. The FCC’s ban does not cover “transactional or relationship” messages, or notices to facilitate a transaction you have already agreed to. These messages would include statements about an existing account or warranty information about a product you’ve purchased. The FCC’s ban also does not cover non-commercial messages, such as messages about candidates for public office.

The FCC’s ban covers messages sent to cell phones and pagers, if the message uses an Internet address that includes an Internet domain name (usually the part of the address after the individual or electronic mailbox name and the “@” symbol). The FCC’s ban does not cover “short messages,” typically sent from one mobile phone to another, that do not use an Internet address. Also, the FCC’s ban does not cover e-mail messages that you have forwarded from your computer to your wireless device (but the FTC’s rules may restrict such messages).

I wanted this to stop so I then,
1. So I then reported the instance to the FCC through their complaint form (1088G).

2. Looked up the WHOIS information for the from address, baier-allen.com, which linked to another private site, curiouscat.org (both were owned by the same person), and the advertising site, webtbing.net which is a corporate site known for spamming (info from McAfee). This lead me to send an email to Sallie@baier-allen.com and CC the domain name owner of both sites requesting that they stop sending me messages.

3. I then researched text spam in general and found out that Verizon can block all messages sent from e-mail which account for approximately 90% of text spam. I also found that text spam is getting more prevalent and that Verizon is actually going after spammers and winning lawsuits and judgments against them.

4. Called Verizon tech support (got a guy named Deon) and they walked me through setting up the block in #3 by going to vtext.com, logging in and then going to "Preferences" > "Text Blocking" and then selecting the block option for email originated text messages.

5. While on the phone with Verizon, I asked if there was anything else I could do and Deon suggested that Verizon recommends also sending a reply text message with the message of "Unsubscribe". So I did that too.

Hopefully I don't get any other text message spam any time soon.

Winning with Wine

2007-10-27T10:08:00.000-04:00

Now that I have Ubuntu 7.10 up and running smoothly I've been using a program called "Wine" that runs a binary compatibility layer for MS Windows programs to utilize on install and for the applications to use as a platform thereafter since Linux is based on a different operating system.

sudo umount cdrom
mount -t iso9660 -o unhide /dev/cdrom /cdrom
wine .exe

So far this has worked well for the following applications:
Office 2000
Valve's Steam
WCIII

During the install process for HL2 I had to switch discs but I could not eject it because the device was busy. Uh oh. So I tried unmounting it by going into the command line. No luck until I read the "man umount" guide and executed:

sudo umount -vfl /cdrom

Then, after manually removing the disc (via paperclip) and inserting disc 2:

mount /dev/cdrom

Little did I know I could have used the supported line,

wine eject d:

Which would have ejected the disc a lot nicer. Oh well.

As an aside, after a couple wrong turns in the beginning I wanted to clean up the menu. To remove menu directories of programs uninstalled and/or no longer needed:

rm -f $HOME/.config/menus/applications-merged/wine*
rm -rf $HOME/.local/share/applications/wine
rm -f $HOME/.local/share/desktop-directories/wine*
rm -f $HOME/.local/share/icons/????_*.xpm

Imagine that, Windows apps on Linux, now that's convenience!

Upgrading to Ubuntu 7.10

2007-10-19T20:54:00.001-04:00

A new version of Ubuntu came out yesterday and I decided to back up what I had on my Linux box and start afresh. Good times, I hoped, especially since Elea was away for a ladies meeting at church.
I got started as soon as I got home. Installed Ubuntu 7.10 Desktop edition off the install/live CD. Used guided partitioning using the entire hard drive (SATA 250GB 16MB cache WD). Turned on external hard drive (500GB WD) and transferred documents, pictures, music, and configuration files off the NTFS formatted USB drive and copied them to my respective home folders.
While the copying was going, I added the terminal as a launcher to the panel and opened it up (bash) and edited the colors to be a UNIX themed varient (green on black). Then I setup a root account for editing files through the terminal, as shown:

sudo passwd root

This successfully initialized a root password for my box. I setup an account for my dear wife Elea for her to use and customize as she desires; though I would imagine this gift of a user account will be received similarly to her giving me flowers, not interested.
Anyway, I disabled unneeded services like Bluetooth and explored the new search system (which, imho, is very fast).

Now I just need to get the nvidia-glx-new drivers to work and the networking as I'm now having problems again.

So... I checked out the motherboard hardware with:

sudo lshw -C bus

Hmm, ok. Had to get NDISwrapper (following: https://help.ubuntu.com/community/WifiDocs/Driver/Ndiswrapper) at http://packages.ubuntu.com/gutsy/misc/ and run:

sudo dpkg -i ndiswrapper-common_*.deb
sudo dpkg -i ndiswrapper-utils*.deb
sudo dpkg -i --force-depends ndisgtk_*.deb
sudo depmod -a
sudo modprobe ndiswrapper
sudo ndiswrapper -m
sudo gedit /etc/modprobe.d/blacklist
add "blacklist rt2500usb" to the above file
sudo ndiswrapper -i rt2500usb.inf (installs the windows driver)
ndiswrapper -l (to ensure it was enabled)

Then I got the Wicd application and installed it (after completely removing Gnome's Network-Manager) by:

sudo dpkg -i wicd_1.3.1-all.deb

After rebooting I configured the Wicd to use the ndiswrapper driver and eureka, it worked.

Compiz Fusion Working Wonderfully

2007-10-09T21:18:00.000-04:00

It's working. By following this install script I removed all of the old Compiz files and replaced them (and very happily so I might add). The image above demonstrates the capability of the "scale" effect which is much like Apple's Exposé. Very cool. ^_^

Affected Desktop, Flash to Command Line

2007-10-03T19:52:00.000-04:00

I tried enabling super cool desktop effects via Compiz (formerly Beryl) tonight in my Ubuntu 7.04 computer but it failed. Therefore, after searching the Ubuntu Forums specifically, I then had to run the command line,

sudo dpkg-reconfigure xserver-xorg

because the system failed to start the X server saying there was something wrong with the Nvidia kernel module. It asked me to check if I have an Nvidia card (which I do) and if there was a supported GPU in the computer (which there is). After I reconfigured the hardware the X server was back up and running again. I explained to my dear wife that the problem was, in a sense like having a car with a driver, then, somehow, a bad driver got in the drivers seat of the car and started driving recklessly. I then needed to go into the car, which had crashed, and pull out the maniac driver and put a new driver in which was more qualified to drive our car (computer) and then tow it back onto the street. Crazy I know.

In the end I had to go back to nvidia-glx-new instead of nvidia-glx. Which sounds really strange since I can run the newer drivers but not the "safe" one. Desktop effects made nvidia-glx mandatory for it's activation, which ultimately failed anyway. I'm going to do some more in-depth research to find out what I can do. Perhaps more on that later.

The moral of the story is, don't forget your root(s); the command line can and will save you.

Mane Street Issues

2007-09-20T11:12:00.000-04:00

Back from a wonderful honeymoon holiday in Savannah, Georgia and Charleston, South Carolina, Elea and I are starting to enjoy our place in Sykesville. Yesterday we visited Main Street in search for hair salons for Elea and much to her delighted surprise and my shock we found that there are no less than five (5!) hair salons within a half mile of each other on Main (or should I say "Mane") street. Unbelievable. Elea is so happy though and that is good. The prices are prohibitively high for my tastes though. I used to get hair cuts for free from my dear mother (hi mom!) or $15 ($10 cut with a $5 tip) from a kindly older Chinese couple in Owings Mills.
A hair cut just being one example, I have so much to learn about women and much to look forward to learning. ^_^

Have a Caffeinated Day

2007-07-07T22:44:00.000-04:00

The title above is the tagline of the Starry Night Coffeehouse in Westminster, MD, a favorite of Elea and mine. We stop in occasionally for a latte or chai tea. While I enjoy coffee I regulate it to mainly Mondays and Fridays. This, I believe, will keep me relatively sensitive to the effect of caffeine. So far, it seems to be working. When I have a latte or a bold cup of coffee at work I can tell it certainly has a distinct effect on me. It seems to make me more alert and copasetic in general. I do wonder, however, what impact caffeine has on our daily lives as Americans. Coffee isn't the only focus either. According to a study published by the "Journal of Food Science" (JoFS) (abstract available here), soda offers a significant source of caffeine as well. Surprisingly, diet varieties typically have 15% more caffeine than the regular type. Another article, on Food USA, provided commentary on the nature of partaking such drinks regularly and gave some warnings:

Government bodies have specified the maximum levels allowed in sodas: in the US, the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) sets the limit at 0.02 percent, or 72mg/12oz...
...The American Dietetic Association... advises people not to consume more than 300mg of caffeine per day.

Caffeine, it seems, is an added property of soda manufacturers to assist in the instigation of dependency in order to promote repeat retail procurement. Certain sodas have more than others. IGA Cola has 4.5mg per 12oz can while "Vault Zero" soda had the most caffeine of any drink in the JoFS report with approximately 74mg per 12oz can; apparently 2mg over the max. It is scary to think that we are being subtly enticed to buy things over and over because of, one, how it makes us feel when we have it (alert, awake, alive) and two, how we respond when we don't get it (potentially depressed, dreary and deadbeat). Perhaps we should simply give up caffeine. I'll have to think about it.
In the meantime, I'm looking forward to visiting Starry Night again. Their lattes are fantastic.

Unbelievable - iPhone

2007-06-18T23:28:00.001-04:00

For those of you that have seen Apple's forthcoming iPhone you may have been impressed by its smooth design, fluid interface and technology implementation. However, it had a major downside in its battery life. It was only about 3-4 hours. This meant that during the day iPhone owners would be plugging in frequently to get a recharge for their battery devouring device. That is inconvenient at best and very frustrating to dangerous at worst. Imagine talking for only 3 hours then missing calls for the rest of the day because the battery couldn't keep up. Not good. I was thinking about getting the iPhone at one point. Besides cost, the battery life issue was the _one_ thing holding me back from getting an iPhone, or at least waiting for one, when I decided to get a phone so I could talk to Elea.
However, the tide has changed significantly. Apple just released an update to their phone and the battery life has been doubled to 8 hours! Imagine having the world's best iPod, mobile Internet via a full featured browser and the best phone available. It comes out June 29th; I can't wait. I'm really looking forward to someone at work getting one. I just have to remember what the Bible says about coveting.
I'll be reading Romans 13:9 for the next few days.

Engaged to be Married

2007-05-14T20:12:00.000-04:00

On April 17 I got engaged to be married to the love of my life. ^_^

Now We Know Now

2007-03-22T22:49:00.000-04:00

After years of saying, mostly to myself while I waited for web pages to load, "The only acceptable speed is instantaneous..." I finally have a glimpse of what it's like to have something instantly. It's called Memjet technology and it is the ability to print something, fast. Really fast. Think sixty pages per minute for standard sized paper (A4) or one foot a second on a fifty-one ince wide printer. So, by the time I get a house and need a printer I'll be able to pick up one of these for about $200. Incredible. Here's the proof, check out this video.

A Rebel Without a Connection

2007-03-07T23:16:00.000-05:00

The government in my little town needs to read this treatise on wireless broadband development. A fast Internet connection should be as automatic as clean water; I'll gladly pay for it but it has be available. Come on people.

Skype Serving Supper

2007-02-21T21:01:00.000-05:00

I'm sitting in a Westminster coffee house finishing my chai tea, when I thought, "Well, I have $25 to spend for dinner. Where do I go?" The answer, nowhere. At first, for I decide to call Olive Garden and order take out. Can't do that via the web though. And I don't have a cell phone. Wait, what about this thing called Skype? Hey, that let's me make phone calls from my computer for "free" (after buying either Skype credits or a year membership for 25 euro). This program lets me call anywhere in the US and Canada for next to nothing. Wow, that's cool. So I call Olive Garden and order a garden salad and a seafood alfredo, thanks to my company generously picking up the bill because I worked late tonight. How cool.
Oh, gotta go. Dinner will be ready in five minutes.

Real Random Soccer

2007-02-19T12:30:00.000-05:00

Have you ever watched a short video clip online over and over of something absolutely incredible and wondered if you would ever get tired of it? I have, because my friends and I are in it. Over the past four weeks my friends, family and I have been playing in our usual Friday night coed "B" soccer league and let me assure you, it has been a ton of fun. The games have been a blast (haha, dumb joke) and this year we are proud to have on our team another team member, only he doesn't play soccer. This super member is our new "Press Guy" extraordinaire. He films the our games and takes pictures. Not only that though, but totally unexpected, he also set us up with a website of our very own! On it he has the most recent team standing, schedule, pictures and most coveted of all, his signature, "Shot of the Game" video. This super guy is JT and we are so pleased he takes time on Friday nights to come out and watch, film and encourage. Maybe this is why we are four and zero going into our fifth game.
Here is the link to the "Real Random" team website. Come out sometime and cheer us on! We have the most devoted, enthusiastic fans of any team in the league so you won't be alone. Oh, and watch the video clips. They're incredible and a preview of what you might see at our next game.

Vista Launch

2007-01-30T21:38:00.000-05:00

Well, Vista did launch today after millions of dollars in marketing over the past several months. Should be very interesting to watch how it develops. The industry will also be developing as it starts taking advantage of multiple processing cores.
And an FYI for the discerning: Vista for half price

Free as a Radio Signal

2007-01-30T21:10:00.000-05:00

I was just at the Westminster library and now I'm at Panera Bread eating a delightful bowl of broccoli cheese soup. All because of my MacBook. Both the library and Panera have free wireless Internet. I have been able to enjoy so many other places since I got this little black book. I can now check email while drinking a cup of chai tea, talk to my brother(s) while eating a bowl of soup or relax while downloading the newest sermon from my church in podcast form at the book store. Mobile computing is truly a beautiful thing.

Stamford, CT

2007-01-08T21:49:00.000-05:00

Just a quick post, I am staying in Stamford, CT this week on a business trip. Things are going well, though the weather is dreary and, hey, the food is good.
Not much going on this evening but I thought I'd share a quote with you I found on the footer of /., it said, "Simplicity does not precede complexity, but follows it."
Good stuff to remember. Having it easy is usually the result of hard work in so many areas of life.
Over and out.

Black and Sleek

2007-01-03T21:11:00.000-05:00

In celebration of paying off my college loans, something I've been hitting hard for nearly the past two years, I got what has been on my wish list for about six years in one form or another, a black MacBook!
Actually, I'm writing this post on it.
On a wireless connection.
In the cold.
Listening to Yo-Yo Ma.

Happy New Year

2007-01-01T23:20:00.000-05:00

Welcome to 2k7.

Tomorrow's Travels

2006-12-12T21:20:00.001-05:00

NB: The above picture is hyperlinked.

Choices Don't Make People Happy

2006-11-27T22:32:00.000-05:00

Joel Spolsky of "Joel on Software" fame wrote last week about Windows Vista (the new, upcoming version of the Windoz OS) and its new shutdown user interface. He ripped into it's 15 different ways to say, "b'bye" to your PC and then suggested a solution, paring it down to essentially one (or two). I found it to be a provocative article that make me think a bit about the UI of the shutdown menu and what exactly is required of a PC. The only point I would strongly disagree with him is with taking out the "Reboot" option; when I work remotely I enjoy being able to restart a PC if I need to because I can't always be onsite to do it physically but that's just me. Read the whole article here. In the end the article makes the point that people don't need options, they need solutions which is what I think Vista is missing. It seems to me that it is lacking focus, vision and overall direction. The translucent effects are nice though, almost like some Linux UI's.

/. - 100 Gbps Via Ethernet

2006-11-14T23:50:00.000-05:00

Doc Ruby from /. writes, "As reported at GigaOM, 'Infinera has bonded 10 parallel 10 Gb/s channels into one logical flow while maintaining packet ordering at the receiver,' bridging 100-Gbps ethernet over 10 10-Gbps optical WAN links. Infinera's press release is here. Further from GigaOM: 'The experimental system was set up between Tampa, Florida and Houston, Texas, and back again. A 100 GbE signal was spliced into ten 10 Gb/s streams using an Infinera-proposed specification for 100GbE across multiple links. The splicing of the signal is based on a packet-reordering algorithm developed at [UC] Santa Cruz. This algorithm preserves packet order even as individual flows are striped across multiple wavelengths.' We're all going to want our share of these 100Gbps networks. The current network retailers, mainly cable and DSL dealers, still haven't brought even 10Mbps to most homes, though they're now bringing fiber to the premises to some rich/lucky customers. Are they laying fiber that will bring them to Tbps, or will that stuff clog the way to getting these speeds ourselves?"

Tracking Traffic via Your Mobile Phone

2006-11-05T23:02:00.000-05:00

Just a few days after I proclaimed the glories of a forthcoming mobile phone on this site I saw this article via the AP Wire (which I spotted via /.'s link). Apparently, commercial companies are attempting to use GPS to locate mobile phones in a given area which will not only let them know of your location within 330' but also calculate the speed at which you are traveling (ds/dt=v). This data is valuable to people who can make use of knowing information regarding traffic flows and patterns. Supposedly, for a monthly fee, you and I could gain access to this service so that we can plan a way around jams and take the hopefully available appropriate alternate route.
So, besides a potential for an invasion of privacy (or maybe you can opt out?), the idea seems pretty useful; not something that I would need at the moment, but useful nonetheless.

Discipleship Group - Paper Two

2006-11-04T01:09:00.000-05:00

Discipleship Group
04 November 2006

Devotion Plan
When: When I wake up (typically at 7am) and just before I go to sleep around 11pm.
Where: Next to the lamp by my bed
How: Read the respective chapter by Charles Spurgeon in his book, Morning and Evening, praying after and before I read. Also read the scripture the pastor will teach from on the coming Sunday if known.

Why the Authoritativeness of Scripture Matters to Me
The completeness of the Word should give the believer great joy and hope in who he trusts because he can fully rely on perfect, God inspired scripture to guide and direct his life. The Bible, because it is inerrant and God-breathed, means to me that I may confidently live by its commandments for it is absolutely true. I know it is inerrant in its results because God cannot lie according to scripture itself, something known as being self-attesting. This may seem like a circular argument, and it is to a degree, but since no other evidence like history, internal consistency and fulfilled prophesies can “prove” it scientifically then it must be the Word of God because the Bible itself attests that it is so. Secondly, I am personally convinced that the Bible is the Word of God because of the Spirit’s work in me as I read it. This makes sense to me because if the Bible is really the Word of God then it cannot be reckoned with on a human, factual level because of the fallibility of our human nature.

Therefore, since God’s Word is the highest standard of truth I am enabled to embed all its contents in my heart as completely true. Anything that is found to contradict the scripture must, by extension, be false or it may be that my understanding of scripture is wrong and I am at fault. Without this belief in the inerrancy of the Word of God I call God himself a liar and can then pick and choose what I believe is true. This then calls the entire Bible into question, which is then relegated to a subservient role in accordance to my whims and desires. If such is the case, I could then not trust God to be who he says he is and then the entire Gospel and the good news therein would be foolish to believe (I mean, why else would I gladly tithe ten percent?).

The authoritativeness of Scripture is established by God in his written work, the Bible and is useful for every part of a Christian’s life as he trains in righteousness. No other book should hold my attention more as no other book has ever or will ever tell the true tale of a Savior’s love for me and the penalty he had to pay upon a cross with a crown of thorns on his head for my sins to circumvent the oncoming wrath of a Holy and triune God. The Bible, if read correctly, should invoke both tears of repentance and great joy as it liberates us from eternal damnation and provides, by the grace of God, entrance into Heaven. It is truly God’s greatest gift to his people.

A Phone I’d Perchance to Purchase

2006-10-30T22:38:00.000-05:00

I have finally found it, the mobile phone I actually want to use. It's called the Motofone and should be available by the end of the year. I want it because:
1) It's cheap (described as a sticker on a circuit board)
2) It's simple (UI designed so that you don't even have to be literate)
3) It's functional (two antennas for better quality)
4) It's reliable (long battery life and skintight implementation)
5) It is _just_ a mobile phone (cell phone photos look horrible anyway)

The phone is built for third world countries and to lower the cost for people to get a cell phone (like me!). I want my technology to be specialized and just do one thing but do it very, very well and I think the Motofone will accomplish just that. If all goes well I may join the wireless world too. Just think, my first cell phone. Hmm. Well, either that or a Blackberry for business.

Read a review about it here, or go directly to Motorola's site here.

Written in a Moment

2006-10-26T23:45:00.000-04:00

Worthy of patience
Is the one of great value
Said the pining heart

The warrior stood
Amidst the clamorous throng
Looking to the East

The cold sun rising
Setting ablaze moonlit skies
Slowly warming stone

Fedora Core 6 Released!

2006-10-24T23:59:00.000-04:00

From /.: "Fedora Core 6 has been released. For more information, see the release notes or the Fedora homepage. Slashdot interviewed the Fedora Project Leader back in August."

Firefox 2.0 Released!

2006-10-24T23:55:00.000-04:00

The Firefox 2.0 web browser has officially been released on Mozilla.com. Get it here: http://www.mozilla.com/en-US/firefox/all.html

Cheers!

Outside Weather

2006-10-18T00:02:00.000-04:00

Rain drops falling hard,
I wonder why they are here,
To soak a parade?

Enter the Beta

2006-10-08T23:10:00.000-04:00

FYI: I switched this blog to beta mode which is, as all betas, a work in progress. Please alert me of errors as they are probably client side.

Happy Kid

2006-10-08T22:37:00.000-04:00

I was just making my usual reading rounds of blogs when I came to one of my church's blogs entitled "Girl Talk" and found the following post along with the associated very, very amusing YouTube video: http://girltalk.blogs.com/girltalk/2006/10/friday_funnies_1.html.

Just to give some background color commentary, Tali (mom, in this case) used to be my co-caregroup leader alongside with Jordan, so, yes, I do know cute baby Tyler. He gets a ten out of ten for cuteness, and, no, not just because his name is Tyler too. :D

Micro Sprint Triathlon

2006-10-02T22:00:00.000-04:00

I finished a micro triathlon after work today. It took me 28:51 to ride four miles on a stationary bike, row for 1500 meters and then run 1.24 miles. Not so bad, but previously I made a time of 27:57 and I wanted to beat a co-worker who scored 26:48. Argh!
Next time.

To Reflect Upon a Film

2006-09-24T22:51:00.000-04:00

The last movie I watched was... hmm. Something dumb. Not sure really. However, I can be quite certain of the last really good film I saw that wowed me, invaded my dreams and in general revolutionized how I view the movie entertainment medium. The film was "Spirited Away" and was lent to me by a friend. The movie, which did receive rave reviews from various cinema critics, was not only astounding in and of itself for its creativity, fresh imaginative workings and intriguing plot development but proved to be a catalyst for me to ponder on the power of the moving picture.
The take away from the film was that I questioned why I watched movies in the first place; easy, fun. Was it a good use of time? Questionably. Did it, even in some way, make me a better person? Ninety-nine percent of the time, decidedly not. So, I asked myself, why watch movies?
So, for the aforementioned 99%, I've decided not to, and you know what, I don't even miss it. For the 1% I make exceptions for though, I take the time to make the film an event, to make it memorable, to examine its morals and question the events that took place. Too many times I felt that I have just "enjoyed" the film and taken nothing away from it or worse yet, viewed sin on screen and thought nothing of it. After all, I probably thought, its not for real. No, but you're viewing it for real and voting with your dollars to see it, either in the theater or on DVD. For me, nevertheless, this doesn't mean that every movie has to be "Pollyanna". Instead, I just try to know what I'm getting into before the movie even starts. For example, I've taken to researching each film I see a little bit. It's easy. I look it up on ScreenIt.com along with Plugged In, a Focus on the Family ministry, to check for content and then see what the NY Times and NY Post thought of it (if applicable). Love them or hate them, I love the NY Times and the NY Post movie reviews. Though they may be from a very worldly, secular worldview, they, sans spiritual content, do a fantastic job, in my very humble opinion, of rating movies. Then, from this point, I allow myself to enjoy the movie (no more worrying about content since I already know) and take mental notes throughout. After the movie is over (including credits!) I then attempt to review each part and ask questions about it. It's easy. For instance here are some questions I think are good:

1) What was your initial or immediate reaction to the film? Why do you think you reacted that way? What was it in the film that prompted that reaction?
2) What is the message(s) of the film, or view of life and the world that is presented in the story as it unfolds? What is the underlying worldview?
3) What is attractive here? To whom? How is it made attractive?
4) Where do you agree? Where do you disagree? Why?
5) In what ways were the techniques of film-making (casting, direction, script, music, sets, action, cinematography, lighting, editing, etc.) used to get the film’s message(s) across, or to make the message plausible or compelling? In what ways were in ineffective or misused?
6) Most stories actually are improvisations on a few basic motifs or story-lines common to literature. What other films come to mind as you reflect on this movie? What novels or short stories? What Scriptures?
7) With whom did you identify in the film? Why? With whom were we meant to identify? Discuss each main character in the film and their significance to the story.

- mostly taken straight from Ransom Fellowship, a Christian web site.

In this way, I feel that I can be more discerning in what I watch and take in. As an aside, the topic of cultural discernment actually came up today in church. Anyway, mostly, what I'm trying to do is be able to reflect on what I see and try to learn from it. So aptly, I think, was this once put by Edmund Burke who said, "Reading without reflecting is like eating without digesting."
Ouch. I don't know about you, but for me, I've eaten far too much and digested far too little. For me, it's time for a change. After all, our time is short and one day we'll all be "Spirited Away".

A Bit of Byte in a Bevy of Battle

2006-09-18T21:06:00.000-04:00

It dropped from a crisp 178 to a massive 1092. Wait, does that sound right? It is if you're online trying to coordinate fire in a realistic military simulation game of America's Army: Online or AA:O for short. Last night I logged into my account, which is six years and nine months old, for the first time since 2004 and played a game of laser tag (no kidding) with MILES gear on the old faithful map, MOUT McKenna. Then, out of nowhere my latency (how fast your connection is to the server with high numbers meaning bad things) skyrockets to over a second. So I say to myself, "WTH?! I might as well be AFK ATM FTW IRL b/c INC KIA, OM!1!!" Seriously.
Apparently, someone in our family, hence on our network, had just checked email and BLAM! the ping times waxed larger and larger. This is not good. Remember, this is a game where reflexes count and a mouse click 1/1000ths of a second faster may be the deciding factor in a battle. At this point latency is around a second which is like going around a sharp corner in a car at high speed while blinking your eyes for a full second at a time. Dangerous stuff. Fortunately the team I was on was cohesive and won the match a few seconds later and so I promptly disconnected from the server for fear of becoming a liability and being taken advantage of, after all, a player with high latency is pounced on like crazed, starving foxes attacking a plump, blind, white rabbit sweetly bathing in a shallow puddle outside their den.
Besides the occasional hiccup, AA:O is not only enjoyable but sometimes educational. For example, you can't just log in and play as a new player. Oh no, this is an army game developed and published by the U.S. Army (no joke) and you must qualify by passing boot camp while drill instructors offer "words of suggestion and encouragement". And if you want to shoot a rifle with a scope (only one per team of eight by the way) you will have to pass a sharp shooting test first. Furthermore, if you even want to think about playing on some of the larger, special forces maps here's a list of what you'll have to accomplish, just to give you an idea, not to mention having a certain "approval/skill rating" called "Honor" points:
Basic Training
~Marksmanship Training
~U.S. Weapons Familiarization
~Obstacle Course
~Shooting Range

Advanced Marksmanship
~M-24 Sniper System
~M-82 Sniper System

Airborne School
~Live Jump
~250 Tower

Medic Training
~Airway Management
~Treatment of Shock
~Field Training
~Controlling Bleeding

Special Forces Training
~Escape and Evasion
~Aircraft Vehicle and Weapon Identification

Advanced Training
~Common Remotely Operated Weapon Station HMMWV Gunnery Training
~Javelin Training
~CROWS High-Mobility Multipurpose Wheeled Vehicle Driver Training

The training, I imagine, is pretty close to the real thing (with the great handicap of being virtual that is) and some information, like the medical training, is not only spot on but is potentially useful in the real world. Here is what the class description reads:

In Combat Medic training, players sit through lectures in a classroom setting where they learn how to assess a medical situation, control bleeding, and treat shock. Players are then tested on the medical information. The information given is directly from an actual Army medical center and is medically accurate.
Those individuals who successfully complete medical training will be able to assume the role of a Combat Medic. This role is very important to overall team success and mission accomplishment. As a Combat Medic, players can earn extra points and contribute to their team's success by administering medical aid to injured team members.

Now, there's a reason to get a faster Internet connection, saving people's lives onine. Hooah!

Sites I Like

2006-09-11T23:25:00.000-04:00

A post on a favorite tech news site of mine linked to a list with short descriptions of well known blogs, of which I enjoy three particularly. Here they are with their excerpts:
Slashdot: AMD, SCO patent MP3 over TCP/IP, sue ATI, EA. Microsoft probably responsible somehow.
Engadget: Samsung releases new cell phone/mp3 player/camera/web browser/GPS/game player/wireless hub. Now in gray!
Joystiq: Will Wright to design first-person Warcraft shooter for the Wii. Jack Thompson responds with aneurysm.
-reference: http://slashdot.org/articles/06/09/10/0646249.shtml

P.S. If you laughed your way through the descriptions you have a problem and we need to talk. Seriously.
P.S.S. IRL, SW or OG?

Thunderstorms

2006-09-11T22:39:00.000-04:00

Went outside and stood.
The cold, windy weather chilled.
I then felt peace again.

Bocce Ball

2006-09-04T21:29:00.000-04:00

Remember those "old guys" that ran up the score against us (21-9 them) in Bocce ball a couple weeks ago? Well, for they came up to our house today and we had a rematch. My brothers and I won! The final score was 15-9 us.
It is now the best two out of three and we're already trying to setup a date and time. Any predictions?

Paintball in Pictures

2006-08-28T22:52:00.000-04:00

Looks like the photographer came through! Pictures from the day were posted online at PaintballWholesalers.com. Here are two of my favorites:

In this picture you have two kids, my dad and I looking ahead for enemy movement as we hold a strategic location at the top of the hill on the woodsball field.

Here you see (L-R) Gavin, Austin, Dad and myself as we work to lay suppressing fire down on the OpFor while our teammates move into flanking positions. We were successful.

To see the entire original gallery go here. I have also updated my Spec Ops homepage with a couple images.

Paintball v2

2006-08-27T22:13:00.000-04:00

Two of my brothers, Gavin and Austin, my father and I played paintball this weekend over at Paintball Adventures Park in Taneytown. We teamed up with a coworker of mine, his brother and a random guy we all befriended. It was an exhilarating day. Teamwork makes the game 10x more enjoyable.
Speaking of which, next on the list of people my brothers and I want to invite the next time we play:
~ Classifed - SF-312 Required
~ Tim C., Todd S., Scott H. (the "old guys" who killed my brothers and I in Bocce ball one Sunday after church)

If I missed anyone you know would be interested or if you want to join in on the exciting team woodsball action some Saturday in September post a comment and let me know. We would love to have you join us! In the meantime, if you're interested in paintball check out SpecOpsPaintball.com for some cool gear and in depth tactical articles. They also have something called the "Brigade" which is kind of like MySpace/Facebook for paintballers for completely free with a neat feature called Game Locator. Sign up and reference me with recruiter ID 91970. To see my profile go here. You can even list the days you play, track stats and post comments. For example, one of my two favorite broadsword buddies, Ian F., mentioned in his game tracking post, in part, "Our friend Tyler and his brothers made the best frog jumping squad I've seen yet. Clearing the hill in the woods field at a speed I've never seen, saving us from the speed ball rushers on the bottom left as they came up from behind them."
Great times. Oh, and a photographer was on site snapping shots on different fields and some people from our group may be in them so there may be pictures coming soon!

Brief Recap of the LG Experience

2006-08-22T00:07:00.000-04:00

Lake George
Group photo of the Cunningham's and the Fogarty's:

Me on a boulder:

I made my five year old sister a deal: I would carry her up to Inspiration Point _and_ back down the mountain if she carried my CamelBak water backpack. Hmm. For some reason I think she got the better end of the deal, haha:

And while I did not touch a computer for solid week my little sister got to listen to her CD player on occasion (so cute, just had to post it):

Great trip all in all.

Lake George

2006-08-04T23:13:00.000-04:00

Ok, quick post. I worked many hours today. Almost 60% of the 24 hour day in fact. In other news, I am now officially on vacation for the week. My family and a family from church and I are all going up to Lake George in New York. We are taking our sail boat and our uncles canoe. Our friends are bringing their hand-made battery powered boat. Good times arrr ahead, matey. I even bought a $3 sailors cap at Sunny Surplus today! Oorah! We leave before 05:00 tomorrow (almost today) and I still haven't packed, shiver me timbers!
I have been told there are no computers up there though. Ah!

Paintballing Newbie

2006-07-29T21:26:00.000-04:00

Today I went Paintballing with some co-workers and friends at Paintball Adventures Park (FYI: link may be down) over in Taneytown, MD from 10:30 to 17:00. I don't have my own marker so I rented an Impulse. See a picture of me holding my new found friend here. Going today marked the first time I have ever been Paintballing in a commercial park (aka with refs). A few years ago I played a couple times with friends in spacious backyards and woods but it has been so long that I forgot what it felt like to be hit. Now, I no longer have to wonder what it feels like to have three plus people lighting you up all at the same time for a couple seconds. Yup. Good times. I got out two other times by getting hit in the right side of my goggle and then the left side, respectively. Tip number one: Keep your head down. I did get to tag out other people though which was fun. Once, I saw that a guy was behind a bunker and I sprinted up while I had my buddies covering fire on the OpFor. Then, with marker raised, I charged around the corner and yelled, "Surrender!" since he was so close and you're not supposed to shoot less than ten feet away. I received little resistance as he agreed that he was out. Mission accomplished, target down. Tip number two: Coordinated covering fire makes it possible to get to advantageous locations.
So, all in all, it was a pretty fantastic day.

Swing Dance and Such Foolishness

2006-07-23T23:21:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday I went Swing dancing again. And that's really all I have to say about that, besides the fact that it was a good time. Oh, and my family came along as well (sans Austin, who is working at a camp for the summer) which was fun. We went down with another family we met at church which made the trip even better because the more people you know the better it gets. Swing dancing is a social event after all and it helps when you can network with people to get to know established friends better and make new acquaintances.
Anyway, I was just catching up on my daily reading when I stumbled upon an article which proclaimed the physical benefits of such exercise. Worth a read if you're interested in that sort of thing I suppose. I found it encouraging at least. Dancing isn't really my "thing" so to speak and I have a little bit of a love/hate relationship with it. Honestly, going dancing wouldn't really be that bad if it wasn't for the whole moving your feet while holding a pretty girl thing. Oh, and leading, that's hard too.
But it was enjoyable nevertheless. Almost as fun as seeing this shirt. Fortunately I was off the dance floor at the time because I completely burst out laughing after I saw the closing of the HTML tag on the back of the guys shirt.

Rebuild One of Two Complete

2006-07-15T21:54:00.000-04:00

After purchasing an 80GB, 7200 rpm, 8MB cache Western Digital hard drive I loaded it into our family computer today and completely rebuilt the entire system from scratch. The old hard drive, which still works ok, is going into stasis for a little bit while people verify that all the files were carried over to the new system alright. After that, I may try to wipe it out, recover the 50% or so of the hard drive that Partition Magic doesn't even recognize anymore and see what I can do with it though you can be assured that I won't store any non-replicated data on it because of some hard drive pre-failure signs that prompted me to start this project in the first place.
For my next project I will be rebuilding Sancho (my personal computer housed in a server grade case) with an as yet to be determined version of Linux. Alternatively, I may stick with one of my seven Linux builds that I currently have in VMWare.
Actually, I think Gentoo would be nice but I'll have to see. Choices. That's one of the great things about Linux.

Simple Life Lessons

2006-07-09T19:53:00.000-04:00

Besides being sick this weekend (which forced me to cancel plans to attend a friend's housewarming party Saturday evening and skip church this morning) the weekend went well with some lessons learned. For example, lesson one is to not run around a soccer pitch for fifty minutes when you start to feel bad, a la Friday night's indoor game. I thrive on competition so it is really hard for me to slow down when I probably should especially when it comes to sports. The second lesson I learned this weekend, which some may have already known, is that it is easier to keep a neat room straight than to clean up a disorganized one, which I did Saturday morning and afternoon while sick because we had company coming over after church the next day. It was worth it, nevertheless.
Moving on to happier thoughts, since I have been following the World Cup for the past few weeks I have been delighted to see soccer/football take the world's center stage for a while. I really enjoy watching soccer and I am easily pulled into that which is the World Cup. I also like to pick favorite teams early and cheer them on as they, hopefully, move through the tournament. Sadly, as was my luck in Philly during the lacrosse championships, every team I hoped to win, lost. The teams I really wanted to do well? USA, eliminated in the first round, Spain, taken out in the second round, and England which lost to Portugal in the third round (there are a total of five rounds in the World Cup). For a quick overview of how each team did after the first round go here. Oh, and I wanted France to win today (they lost too) because of the classy play and leadership of their captain, Zidane, who, incidentally, was given a red card in the one-hundred-eleventh minute of play. Hmm, maybe I should start cheering for the other teams...
Regardless, to show my football pride I wanted to buy an England World Cup team jersey which looks really first-class this year. So, Saturday I did research on which online retailer to buy from and was left with two choices. The first store, Soccer.com, had a great customizable option and authentic lettering of either a player's name or you could have them print your name on the back. This would have cost more, however, then the alternative I found at Nikys-Sports.com which had a long sleeve plain version for sale at lower price for the base product than the former. At first I was going to go with a customized jersey from Soccer.com but then thought it would be more prudent to save some extra money. I figured that even though I was definitely splurging by buying a uniform in the first place, it would be a case of opulence and greed for me, I felt, to spend an extra thirty-three dollars to get what really wouldn't mean a lot to me. My objective was to show support for the English team because I like their history and players and that was accomplished by getting the less expensive version and my joy in the product would not be significantly increased by the additional expenditure. Also, I figured that a jersey without numbers or a name of someone I really didn't know would look classier and have an overall cleaner appearance. Sweet. I can't wait until it arrives. Oh, and another reason I didn't go with Soccer.com? It had Gerrard listed as number eight when clearly that number belongs to FIFA World Player of the Year runner up Frank Lampard. /doh!

I Dugg Digg

2006-07-05T20:09:00.000-04:00

Digg.com is awesome and I've been spending a lot of time there lately so instead of actually doing some insightful writing about posts I figure I would point interested readers to my selection of stories from Digg that I Dugg (basically, tech news/material that I enjoyed reading): http://digg.com/users/tfogarty/dugg
Cheers!

A Cutting Gift

2006-07-04T20:57:00.000-04:00

The following short letter I received this past Friday from the missionary for whom I donated computer equipment, time and software to:

Tyler,
I just needed to say thank you for _all_ your help with our computers. I'm learning more each day. I may even get it sometime.
God bless,
Steve

Along with the letter was a box which contained my very own, brand new Leatherman, a multi functional knife/pliers combo; very cool. It was a thoughtful gift too, because as I was using his Leatherman (which he has had for many, many years) to open boxes of electronics I mentioned that it was a really handy tool and that I should probably get one too. So, I say again, very cool. Thank you very much, Mr. Steve. Arguably, it is one of the best gifts I have received in recent memory even if just due to the fact that he picked up on my off handed comment. As my mother has always said, it is the thought that counts.

iPod Return Redux

2006-06-29T00:31:00.000-04:00

Today I finished my graduates degree in iPod protective covering removal with a concentration in tech support communication. Yes, that's right folks, my precious, little, beautiful, new (as of June 1st) iPod broke down and died laughing. You see, it started freezing on the commute to work, etc. I'd reset it by holding down the middle button and "menu" and then it would be fine for about ten minutes then crash again and with varying uptimes (plus or minus 10 minutes) in between.
So, long story short, I took my iPod back to the Apple store in Towson, MD and the tech rep says, "Oh, you have version 1.1. You should update to 1.1.1 because that might fix the problems." "Ok," I said, "Can you give that to me on a disc because I have dial up at home." He said, "No problem, be right back." and left with my iPod in hand to go to the back of the store. About five minutes passed and I was wondering if he had to burn a disc or something for me but then he came back out with a weird look on his face and exclaimed, "I'm sure there's a technical term for it, but you're iPod is crazy and insane!" I merely raised my right eyebrow as he continued, "I've never seen anything like this before. It just froze on a black and white screen with an Apple logo I haven't ever seen." Hmm. My iPods' seem to contract strange strains of illnesses.
So, I got a new (refurbished) iPod. I just can't believe that I'm now on my third (3rd, count 'em and weep) iPod nano.
Oh, and one other quotable, referring to the iPod that was crazy and insane, the tech rep said, "This has got to be the best looking returned iPod I have ever seen. It's absolutely pristine." Haha, nice.

A Swinging Good Time

2006-06-25T22:16:00.000-04:00

I went Swing dancing again this Saturday with a group of highly elite and dedicated friends from church. And of course I took the hour long lesson, which went well and I learned many new things and refined previously acquired skills. Then I got to move from the QA environment over to production (i.e., practice to the real thing) from 21:00-23:30. Oh, and somewhere in there was a birthday party.
Good times.
*Thanks to Jess for the pictures.

Install Number Two of Two

2006-06-21T21:52:00.000-04:00

Re: Saturday
This past Saturday I got up early (06:00) to install the last computer for Steve, the missionary. The install went well and he is getting a nice printer in on the 26th which should be something for him to really look forward to because it should be one that has great quality; perfect for publishing his monthly newsletters which go out to approximately 1000 people. His wife was so happy that I could get CDs to automatically play in a media player so she doesn't actually have to touch anything but the CD drive itself. So, after a bunch of little tweaks like that all was well and I left for a TaeKwon Do class from 09:30-11:00.
And then I got to see the US tie Italy when the were a man down the entire second half. The ref really needed to be impeached or something because he was pretty bad in my opinion. Actually FIFA said that too because he was banned from ref'ing any games in the 2002 World Cup because of "erratic calls". /doh!

Random Though7s

2006-06-18T22:25:00.000-04:00

"Truth be told, Linux and most UNIXes are actually far simpler than Microsoft Windows. Windows just tries to cover up its monstrous complexity under the veneer of a GUI. However, once you learn the guts of Windows, you'll see that it really is more complicated than Linux or UNIX, with so many more options and quirks. If you think that Windows is easier than Linux, you probably don't know Linux that well. What's more, if you think that, it's quite possible that you don't know Windows that well either" (Skoudis 94).

"...whenever you discard or recycle old, worn-out, or broken computers, make sure you yank out the hard drives. These drives are likely loaded with sensitive information, and should be physically destroyed. Yes, you could scrub them using a data wiping tool that overwrites all sectors with zeros and ones several times, or even employ a degausser that zaps them with a magnetic pulse. However, there is still a chance that some of the data with survive the wiping or degaussing process. The best way to be sure all data is unrecoverable by your adversaries is to crunch up the drives, physically destroying the media" (Skoudis 195).

Skoudis, Ed. Counter Hack: Reloaded. New York: Prentice Hall, 2005.

One Year Anniversary

2006-06-14T23:17:00.000-04:00

Today my co-worker Chris and I celebrated our one year anniversary of working at Legg Mason. Looking back, I've learned so much and grown so much as a person that I am grateful for where I am now, doing the work I have the opportunity to do, with a fantastic group of people. It's been a lot of fun and overtime and while there are, as always, ups and downs to the job its been mostly on an upward trend, for which I am very glad and give thanks to God for his kindness. Every day is truly a gift, or as I phrased it to one particularly inquisitive colleague in Cincinnati, "Every day above ground is a great day."
Cheers and heres to another year!

Do Not Pass Go

2006-06-12T23:28:00.000-04:00

This past Friday I went Swing dancing at Glen Echo Park, MD. Ah, check that. I took an hour class then practiced with people for an hour or so after that but I don't know if I was good enough to call it actually, technically Swing dancing. Regardless, it was very enjoyable and offered an engaging way to hone my social skills and graces or to develop the lack thereof. /wink
Seriously, though, I met several new friends which was made an even easier task because a dozen or so people from my church were there. The event was so much fun that I plan to go again sometime. One short, sorta funny story is that I met and danced with one particularly lovely girl, whose name I had trouble pronouncing at the time (so embarrassing!), who mentioned that she works for a small business owner as their bookkeeper and designs MSAccess queries to extract data to reports. Well, I thought that was just so cool that I started blabbering about an Access database I had managed for a college with over 10,000 accounts and servers I worked on, etc. I don’t think it impressed her all that much. Note to self: Nod, smile, and let the lady do the talking. It was bad (fortunately I kept that part of the conversation short), but, hey, at least I didn't regress into some kind of leet speak.
Speaking of which, here's a really neat translator that can take ordinary works and turn them into true 1337 speak. For example, the phrase, "If it uses TCP/IP, then it can be hacked" translates to, "1Ph 17 U$3$ 7(P/1P, 7|-|3|\| 17 (4|\| b3 |-|4><0r3D". Pretty incredible, eh? Now you can get more creative with passwords! Oh, and if you're not sure what the heck leet speak is then you may want to start out with a visit to a 1337 Wikipedia page to brush up on your knowledge and skillz.
Oh, that also reminds me, right before I went dancing, I checked out Wikipedia's definition and help guide to Swing dancing so I would be extra prepared. However, they seem to have left out the part about talking to girls about servers. Odd that. Guess I'll just have to add that section into my personal notes.

Exchanged

2006-06-01T22:43:00.000-04:00

This weekend my friend Zach found out I had a tattoo on the deltoid of my right arm (of two lacrosse sticks). He said he was shocked at me for having marked up my body in such a way. Odd, I thought, to judge someone on the outside like that. Isn't it what's in the heart that matters?
Fortunately, looking to the inside core is exactly what the Apple store did when I took my broken screen iPod in for a visit this evening. One look and the rep confidently said, "Heat." I said, "You mean my iPod got sunburned?" "Sort of." she laughed. Except the sun's rays don't actually have to hit the screen she explained. It turned out the problem was that my iPod was only the second she's ever seen (and she's the manager) that actually, truly had this completely legitimate problem where it would become too hot and break on the inside. I was glad it wasn't something I did by misuse or carelessness to say the least. I mean, I really like the little device very much and don’t want harm to come unnecessarily to it. She then offered to replace my iPod for only $29.95 because it was past the 180 days (bought it the week it came out - 2006.09.07) of no holds barred warranty. I must have looked really sad just then about hearing that my iPod wasn’t coming back from the dead because she said, "But you know what, I'm not going to charge you that this time." Hey, cool, “Many thanks!” I exclaimed as my cloudy mood vanished into the brightly lit, beautifully laid out store. :)
After doing some paperwork she certainly did bring me out a brand new 4GB black iPod nano to replace the one I had which was very nice of her because it was really her call whether to replace mine or not in the first place. In this way, I am grateful that God and Apple reps look to the inside soul rather than the outside.
Oh, and by the way, after my evening shower, my tattoo rubbed off. Looks like they only last a couple days.

The Dog Days of Spring

2006-05-31T21:31:00.000-04:00

Tomorrow I go back to work for which I am grateful. Though, please do not get me wrong in that I have very much enjoyed having Friday through today off from work. It has been a very relaxing time filled with excitement, a couple movies (Firefly series!) and a couple books. A friend and I are in the midst of a book swap and I just finished one of the ones lent to me which enables me to plunge into the next one. I enjoy reading and the material is wonderful non-fiction.
In other news, my iPod took a major hit this weekend in that the little nano's screen no longer works. I'm not 100% sure how it happened but now nearly the whole screen is black even when it's off and when it's on the light is only around the edges and the parts that light up don't display correctly, just random colors and such. When I found this out it was after a day of wearing it in it's Apple approved harness on my arm. Maybe the heat got to it or maybe I bumped into something; I don't know. It was Sunday night when I was still in Philly. I was surprised that I didn't panic or cry actually. I just looked at it. Examined it. Faced the facts that the screen wasn't going to work and tested the music capabilities which still worked. I'm going to see what Apple can do for me but I'm not emotional about it in the least and I thought I would be at least a tiny bit, but I'm not. Does that make me cold hearted?

Philly Cheese Wit

2006-05-27T22:46:00.000-04:00

Today is the second day of my vacation in Philly, PA. The day went very well and was a lot of fun as we (Dave, his wife Sky, Mr. Terry and Ms. Susan, Zach and I) watch two excellent lacrosse games at the Lincoln field where the Eagles (NFL) play. Sadly, UMass beat Maryland and Syracuse lost to Virginia. Oh well. Tomorrow also promises to be exciting as DII and III have their championship games but Monday appears to be ready to take the proverbial cake with UMass taking on the unbeaten Virginia. The quality of the games has been excellent and it is fun to watch plays develop with speed and precision that my middle school career couldn't even dream of.
In other news I had my first authentic Philly Cheese steak today at a very small, very local place called Dalessandro's. Very good heart attack inducing material overall. :)
Oh, and someone please remind me to bring a bootable Linux disc next time I travel because I don't particularly like Windoz as it is but I like it so much less when it's a public computer, though I am grateful for the opportunity to get my Internet fix in this way, at least.
That's all for now. Have a fantastic day to all!

Create New User

2006-05-14T22:23:00.000-04:00

This past Saturday I installed one computer for Steve H., the missionary to whom I am donating two computers at his office location (the other one will be installed at his home 10-20 around the end of the month). The actual setup just took about half an hour. The total time spent working with computers at the facility rang in at a little over seven hours. I probably should have figure on this but when Steve said his computer was old I really wasn't expecting it to be _ancient_. Wow, I mean it was so antiquated that I wanted to drop it off to the museum for a computer history exhibit. To make a long seven hour story short, he has done a lot of work with text documents over the years and they weren't compatible with MSOffice 2k3. Or Corel. Neither Word 97. Nor Works 6.0. Or any office extension known to mankind, in this case, a.k.a., Microsoft. Seriously, I've actually never seen files so fossilized.
Moving on, to make Steve's new computer useful to him he needs to have those documents, or a majority of them, readable on his new PC. The only functional workflow that I discovered was to use the old computer to "upgrade" the documents to a '95 Word Document on the old text editor which, through upgrades to the old system, was able to save files in such a format. These files could then be extracted via a floppy and copied over to the new computer so they could be read by Office 2k3 in their "legacy" format. And that's right people, a floppy, because no other media was available to do the job since that's all it had available. I really wish my USB drive would have worked since hundreds of four to ten kilobyte files add up.
By the end of the day I had the "critical" documents converted and provided enough training to get him started on the path to the 21st century, for which he was greatly appreciative. One down, one to go.

Serving and Improving

2006-05-10T22:30:00.000-04:00

Today has been fantastic. That is, a really good day for improving computers, which makes good days great in general. Today I got in contact with my church's IT ministry team and there is an opportunity to work there pro gratis. Not just AV stuff mind you, but really cool stuff like commercial hardware installation, network upgrades and software suites. And maybe, just maybe, do tech support for people like, oh, Josh Harris! Haha, just kidding. He has a Mac so if it’s in trouble it has got to be serious enough to ship off to a Mac store for major reconstructive surgery. After all, I’m a medic not a neurosurgeon. Macs are marvelous machines with many wonderful attributes, not the least of which is the stability and speed derived from their solid UNIX base.
Sadly, not all computers are UNIX based which brings me two brand new Dell Dimension 510’s I purchased for a Christian missionary; one of which is my pleasure to donate to him at my cost. Now about the computers, they came with Windoz XP Media Center installed. I bought each for $827.10 and they come with a 19” flat panel monitor included in the price, which really isn’t all that bad with all the hardware like a PCI-Express X16 ATI Radeon X300, which, according to CDW.com is alone worth $180.
Moving on to the software, though, I decided to do a test run tonight of one of the PC’s to make sure all is well and test out how the setup goes so there won’t be any surprises come this Saturday when I install them. So I did and did I mention that I love the smell of new electronics? It’s like my catnip.
Uh, anyway, after a brief system setup I was happy to find myself in what my dad calls, “Icon Land”, also known as the “Desktop” of the computer’s GUI. My sense of inexplicable happiness rapidly subsided nevertheless when I found out something was terribly amiss. Without _any_ entries in the “Applications” tab the computer had 58 processes running in the background. A quick “regedit” later and after a reboot it was down to 38, a much more respectable number. My computer, for example, currently has 39 running processes but sans the five GUI apps brings the grand total down to 34. In an ideal world I could get it down to 28 but that would mean forgoing apps like Symantec antivirus, two NVidia graphics modules, iPod services as well as VMware backend support for virtual computers.
Anyway, back to the new Dell, right now the largest app in terms of memory utilization is McShield.exe taking up 22.1MB followed by svchost.exe at 18.7MB. Interestingly, explorer.exe is in a distant fifth place with only 13.6MB. Hmm… Anyway, there are currently 43GB of free space out of a 51.1GB total. Wow, Windoz and company really take up a lot of space. Thankfully, however, my fear that Dell had installed a MySearch spyware component was assuaged when I found out that wasn’t exactly like so many tech savvy Dell end user’s had warned. Instead I only found ten apps offering ads to get an Internet connection and _two_ known resource hogging, CPU time taking, traitors on the machine under “Add or Remove Programs” including one top ten most wanted app called “WebCyberCoach 3.2”. I promptly gave them a trial, without witnesses or a chance to defend themselves, and executed them posthaste. One reboot later (and I intensely dislike having to reboot when I know that action should be, and is in other systems, totally unnecessary) and the computer was in such a satisfactory condition that I felt it was good enough to put it back into it’s packaging for it’s final move this weekend.
I'm ready and excited. Heck, I might not be able to get to sleep tonight thinking about how cool it will be to A) serve a missionary in such a practical way and B) to play with brand new computers. If these two computers could talk they'd probably call me "daddy" because I was the first person they saw, you know, just like baby birds.
Then again, I just might be crazy.

Dark and Lights and Lessons in Life

2006-05-03T21:29:00.000-04:00

I learned a very important lesson this weekend: do not mix dark and light colored clothes together in the washer. Hmm, "like duh" you may be thinking and "like duh" I am thinking now but it wasn't until I actually bought some new, white undershirts for work that I realized just how dingy the old ones look. Wow. Big difference.
So now I am doing laundry, just darks, on a Wednesday evening. Sadly I don't have enough light colored clothes to make a second batch so I'm waiting until AutoSys can force start the next batch job... er...
Anyway, I tried some new food tonight with a co-worker (since we both had to be in the office until 8pm), called Kim Chi which is a Korean dish consisting mainly of prepared cabbage and really spicy seasoning/sauce. It was so hot I was going for the General Tso's chicken (also very spicy) to "cool down" my taste buds. The verdict? After my lips stop feeling numb and tingling I'm going to encourage all my friends to eat some to see their reactions; I'll stick with the raw fish for now. I love raw fish - it doesn't make your forehead sweat when you eat it.

Saturday by the Numbers

2006-05-01T23:50:00.000-04:00

8:30 - Woke up
9:30 - Left for Westminster
9:55 - Arrived at BJ's and filled up on gas for the car
10:00 - Drove over to the new New Windsor State Bank
10:01 - Greeted Bruce and started juggling with the crew
12:00 - Sunburn city/kept juggling for the bank's grand opening and helped the club earn $200
13:00 - Bruce and I went to BJ's to look for a 175 gram Frisbee. No luck on the disc, but we looked at video games and computers for a good while.
13:35 - Said adios to Bruce
13:42 - Entered Kohls department store
16:15 - Exited Kohls with eleven items of clothing after trying on about twenty some items. More on this later
16:25 - Entered Target
16:50 - Exited Target with 175 gram, UPA approved Ultimate disc, field cones and athletic tape, knee pads (later two for soccer)
17:00 - Entered North China restaurant to eat sushi. Had two sake's (salmon) and six yellowtail rolls along with a Kim Chi salad. Thinking about making eating sushi a regular Saturday event. Got to find people to go with next time because eating alone is rather boring
17:30 - Exited restaurant and went to the Giant food store next door
18:00 - Left Giant with my newest water bottle
18:40 - Arrived home and did stuff
19:30 - Ate pizza and watched the first part of Cinderella Man
19:45 - Realized there was too much language in movie and stopped watching
20:00 - Went to Sheetz to get slushies. They were out so we got a large energy drink to split for the next morning on the car ride to church as well as a lime tea to drink that night. It was good
21:00 - After talking with brothers and chatting in general we decided to watch Star Trek 10
23:00 - Finished movie. I'd give it a grade of B-. Started reading blogs
00:45 - Went to sleep

Research Complete

2006-04-23T21:26:00.000-04:00

First off, many thanks for all those that made suggestions. It was clear that Gavin was speechless, Leads, by far, made the most suggestions (special thanks), Mom had the nicest offer (to go shopping for me), Dan made two, um, interesting recommendations (thanks man) and last but certainly not least Zach offered some classy advice.
Here are the results:
Gavin:
Uh, nada. He seems to need just as much help as I do. Sorry bro.

Leads:

Good choices!

Mom:
Let's see if we can try to find the following at Kohls:

So let's go get 'em tiger!

Dan:
You don't shop at rue21 often do you? Because that's mostly a girls store. And I don't think it would serve anyone if I dressed like one. *nervous laugh*
BUT, here are some cool, urban shirts worth considering from EphraimClothing.com (huge bonus points and kudos for them having a Christian base and theme!):

Zach:
Congratulatory consent! Classy clothes create contemporarily centered categories certainly calling consideration.

Lastly, here are some that I've found to be tasteful:

And thus the clothes shopper spoke, "Here ye, I will be adventuring into the wild that is Kohls and the Hanover Mall. Volunteers needed." Then again, if you look and act like this then maybe you'd be better off not going. But, seriously, if you want to go shopping let me know. You probably need more summer clothes too. And, in the fashion department, I've been told I could use all the help I can get.
Coming up next weekend, acquisitions!

And let us all be thankful that Bermuda shorts didn't crop up. /wink

P.S. Good morning Bethany.

Dress the Blogger!

2006-04-19T10:06:00.000-04:00

Dear readers,
I need to go shopping soon for summer clothes. Usually I take my fashion wise cousin with me, and it's a good thing too, because if I didn't have her to guide me I might end up looking like this. However, she's going to the US Naval Academy relatively soon for her first semester so I don't know if she'll be able to go with me this time around. Therefore, anyone want to try their hand at shopping for me? Alternatively, you can go here too and shop by the appropriate catalog. Or, if Eddie Bauer and LL Bean are too limiting please feel free to branch out and suggest sites/places. I promise to be open to _just_ about anything!

Minimum System Requirements/Project Scope:

Three pairs of shorts (I like the cargo variety)
Two pairs of casual pants
Four shirts (long or short sleeve)
One belt
Accessories (I am very badly lacking in this category)
Anything else! /smile

If enough people (this means you, mom) send in their suggestions I'll compile the results and post pictures from the stores before I buy so you can vote on what I finally end up wearing! haha, then again, this might be a very bad idea. My social life is in your hands, do with it what you will. How exciting! But if _this_ Tyler ends up looking like that Tyler someone is going to pay, big time.

Drinking the Sam Adams of the Web

2006-04-17T22:15:00.000-04:00

I'm in a geeky mood today. Don't blame me though, well, at least not totally. For example, this morning on my way into work I saw a car next to me with a Firefox web browser stick on his car. Very cool! Identical to the one on my car, actually. But then, as I got closer, I saw another sticker saying, "I am not a GEEK!" and then in a small point font, "I'm a level 12 Paladin". haha! What a funny man! I found it very amusing, at first, then I thought about it a little bit and realized it could just be a burn against Pallies. Hmm. Moving on, work went well today and stuff was straightened up and lessons learned. Not much techy stuff at work, besides working with computer all day and helping people with theirs that is. One person from NYC called and wanted a problem fixed in a third party app. Turns out there was no problem, just the way he's been viewing it. He swears it's never been like that before and he says he uses this certain report everyday. And, before you jump to conclusions, I believe him fully on all counts. It's just the data probably has never come in this certain way before. Anyway, in other news, since we really aren’t supposed to be surfing the web while at work because everything is monitored, when I got home I did as I always do and went web crazy as I checked up on ten blogs with new content. Oh, wait, how did I know they had new content? Because I'm using Firefox Live Bookmarks of course! This means I merely have to click on command button in my bookmarks toolbar to see a list of the most recent posts! /cheer! So, instead of having to actually load sites I only have to check to see if a new title appears at the top of the list. If so, then I click on the link that takes me to that specific page where I'm ready to comment. It's so sweet. I've been using it for a couple weeks now and just today I spread the joy to a friend. We were chatting via IM and he returned the favor by sending me links to Triple booting Mac OS X, Windows and Linux via Boot Camp which is so totally awesome. Now if I only had a PowerBook G4... In other tech news, Ubuntu 6.06 got a fantastic review over at MadPenguin today. Hopefully Kubuntu can follow suite as well with such great features and upgrades. Not all my surfing was serious though, as I checked out CuteOverload.com for priceless pictures of penguins in sweaters and a hedgehog programming on a laptop. So cute!
Er, I mean, I meant to post about a site that previews some of the phat "new" features in everyone's future favorite OS. I present you with, Re-Introducing the Real Windows Vista (Updated x3)! tada! Check out the videos and you'll find it so much more funny than seeing short penguins in bright orange sweaters, I promise! And then I still had some time to burn so I ventured over to a well done site dedicated to the sad, yet exciting, somber, yet amusing story behind Gordon Freeman and his Half Life adventures and the events pertaining to them.
Finally, like a good web dessert I treated myself to reading up on the design and creators behind what someone called, the top 10 best designed blogs on the Internet, at the moment at least.
Happy reading. Cheers! b/c you're drinking the Sam Adams of the web.