I started blogging in late 2000 when I first got broadband internet. Sometimes I wish I knew the exact date, or even had some of my old archives, but I didn’t bother taking that stuff with my when I switched to different platforms over the years.
It’s kind of amazing looking at all the different platforms out there now. When I started blogging there was basically Blogger, or you ran blogging software on your own server. I started with blogger, but it was a little limiting back then, and it didn’t even allow commenting. Now with Twitter and Facebook is seems like people are blogging less and less, and probably commenting less too. I rarely ever comment on blogs, and really couldn’t care less if I had commenting on my blog now.
Blogger has greatly improved since last time I used it, and there are many other blogging options now. If I was to start blogging right now services like Posterous, Tumblr, or Squarespace would be very tempting.
Posterous has been trying to get people to switch to them these past couple weeks. I really like Posterous, but I just use it to easily post things here. It has made it much easier for me to quickly share stuff on my blog that I otherwise wouldn’t bother to spend the time. That’s really the reason I blog anyway. I don’t consider myself the best writer, or even like writing all that much, but I love sharing cool things I find in the interwebs.
I’m not going to switch blogging services though. As tempting as it may be, I like the greater control I have running my own server.
I had a little free time this weekend, so I thought I would try to wrap my head around Final Cut Express. Video editing and photo editing are both things I want to learn to do better, but I don’t do it enough to learn. I am hoping to get a bunch of video from Hawaii and hopefully put together some good videos.
In the past iMovie was just fine for me, but the new version drives me crazy. It’s nice for quick and easy things, but it just feels much more limiting than the older version was. So it was time for me to upgrade to Final Cut Express.
When I first started playing around with Final Cut Express I was lost, but I found an incredible free tutorial online over at IzzyVideo.com. He has a free beginners guide course, and it was so good it made we want to be a subscriber to get his paid videos, but his prices are a little more then I want to spend on something I don’t do all that often.
With the help of the tutorial I feel I can use Final Cut Express as proficient has I did the old version of iMovie, but I still have a lot of learning and playing around with to do. I just need to get off my butt and make more videos so I have more to play around with.
I have been playing around with Google’s embeddable fonts for the last couple weeks. They give a site a little different look without having to worry about anybody else having the fonts installed. There is a fine line between looking different and being easy to read though. Some of the fonts seemed tough to read, and some were missing some special characters. The font selection is a little limited. I finally decided on Vollkorn, and after a few css tweaks, think it looks good. It seems to be working in all the browsers that I have tried. I even opened up IE for the first time in Windows 7 and was surprised that the fonts even worked in IE. If your browser isn’t supported it should fall back to my previous font, Helvetica.
For about three weeks or so I have been working on installing the latest version of Ubuntu, Lucid Lynx on one of my older computers. I have been playing around with Linux on and off for over 10 years, and for some reason this was the hardest install ever. Nothing against Ubuntu. Usually Ubuntu is easier that Windows to install, I just had hardware problems.
My first guess was I needed to upgrade my BIOS. I searched all around for an update, but could not fine one, so I started swapping out different parts of hardware. I pretty much swapped out everything, and could not get the install to finish. It would either lock up halfway through, or complete the install and not boot up.
Yesterday I finally found a BIOS upgrade — upgraded — and bingo, it worked. I am now typing this on my beautiful Ubuntu Lucid Lynx system.
So now I am going to post the BIOS update that worked for me. If someone else is having the same problem with an Asus K8V SE Deluxe motherboard here is the BIOS that allowed me to install Lucid Lynx with no problems.
Just unzip the file (K8VSEDX.007) and rename it K8VSEDX.ROM, then update your BIOS however you want. Either from a floppy drive, or the way I did with the Asus update software.
Thank you Google for reminding me that today is Pac-Man’s 30th birthday. Pac-Man was the game that got me into gaming and technology in general. 30 years ago I was only five, so I am not sure if I was playing it then or not, but I remember going to the local roller rink to play the arcade games, and Pac-Man was the best one. When I finally got my Atari 2600 I was in heaven being able to play Pac-Man whenever I wanted for free in my living room. I played that game for hours, and nobody could beat my high scores.
Today you can play Pac-Man right on Google. I got suckered in and played it for a half hour. It’s such an addicting game for me–maybe more so than Tetris even. If you missed playing Pac-Man on Google, you can play it here:
I have heard that some people don’t like reading on the iPad because of it’s backlit screen making their eyes sore. I have not experienced that at all. I have read on my iPad for several hours at a time and have had no eye problems. I have finished one book, and have started my second.
The thing that bugs me the most is the DRM on the different eBooks. You can buy books with the iBooks app, but you are stuck with watching them in that app. The same with the Kindle app. Both apps are very suitable for reading books on the iPad, but I much prefer the iBooks app. The iBooks app has page numbers, and tell you how many are left in the current chapter as you go. It’s much easier to track your process through a book. The problem is the iBooks store is currently very limited. Fortunately breaking the Kindle DRM was only a Google search away, making Kindle books readable in the iBooks app.
I despise DRM. I believe I should have the right to consume the media I buy in whatever way I prefer. I never bought DRMed music, and if it wasn’t so easy to break, I wouldn’t buy DRMed eBooks. Maybe someday eBooks will be DRM free and readable on any reader, but until then, I will just have to remove it.
I am really loving my iPad. I am actually posting this from my iPad. The iPad is my first experience with an ebook reader. I really like the reading experience. It’s probably more of an ebook thing than it is an iPad thing, but I find it much more comfortable reading ebooks over paper books. I have always found it uncomfortable holding books open and having to adjust your grip depending on where in the book you are at.
The iPad may be a little on the heavy side, but it works great sitting in your lap. It’s always in the same position and just a tap to turn the page. I am sure the experience is the same with a Kindle, or any other ebook reader. I don’t ever want to go back to paper books. Too bad I have a pretty big stack of books to get through before I am totally digital.
So I said I was going to wait on getting an iPad. Well…I waited 48 hours, and that was only because Best Buy was closed on Easter. Seeing all the cool reviews made it too hard to resist. I have been wanting an ebook reader since the Kindle came out, but the Kindle is only a one-trick-pony. With the iPad I get an ebook reader plus much more.
It’s a great bedroom and couch computer. I can surf the web, read my RSS feeds, play games, or even watch streaming Netflix movies. It’s much easier to use than my laptops in those situations.
I haven’t spend a lot of time reading on it yet. I will be taking it to work tonight and see how my eyes handle reading on it. I am pretty sure it wont be a problem. The screen is beautiful and my eye don’t ever really get sore reading anything else.
Some people are saying their iPad is taking the place of their laptops. I don’t see that for me. It might get me off my computer a little more, but it’s not replacing my laptop at all.
I am really getting tempted to get an iPad, but I still think I am going to fight the urge and wait for version 2. Today Xeni Jardin over at Boing Boing, showed off The Elements app. It is based on the book The Elements, by Theodore Gray. I got the book for Christmas, and it’s gorgeous. The iPad app looks even better and brings it to life. You can even look up more info on Wolfram Alpha.
This really could be a great device for books and magazines. I can’t wait to see all the great content to come out for this device. We will see if I can fight the urge, but you know version 2 will be cheaper and better.
I really love my Roku. I am getting a lot more out of my Netflix account now. The downside is the Netflix streaming content is a little thin. There are not many movies that I wold want to see on it, but is does have a good selection of documentaries and TV shows, especially Discovery Channel content. I love documentaries and they were the vast majority of DVDs I was getting anyway.
For some strange reason I never caught Everest: Beyond the Limit on The Discovery Channel. If you haven’t seen it, do. That show is amazing. It’s crazy what people put themselves through just to climb a mountain. I watched the first season in two days, and am now into the second season. The Roku is a great way to watch TV shows. No more waiting a week for the next episode. After they hype what’s coming next week, you can just click and watch it.
I’m not big on New Year’s Resolutions. I think if you want to change something, just do it because you want to do it and whenever you want to do it. Who cares what the calendar says.
This year my goal is to change all my online passwords to something different, and impossible to guess. My current passwords are probably better than most people’s, but they aren’t perfect. I have three levels of passwords. I have really strong ones for banking stuff, somewhat strong one for other online stuff, and a crappy one for sites I don’t care about.
The problem with hard to guess passwords for every site is remembering them. You pretty much need a password manager. I have looked at a few in the past, but they weren’t good enough for me. I use many computers with many different browsers on a daily basis, and from time to time am on a family member’s computer. I needed a way to access my passwords anywhere, and I don’t want to have to bring a thumb drive with me everywhere I go (even though I pretty much do).
My solution? LastPass.com. LastPass stores your passwords in the cloud. They have extensions for pretty much every browser. You just have to sign up for an account, and install the extension. From there whenever you enter a password it saves it to your LastPass vault. Next time you go to the site it will auto fill your password. You just have to log into LastPass from the extension, and you can have all your passwords auto fill. I have it set to log off of LastPass when I close my browser to keep it more secure.
The cool part is if you are on someone else’s computer you just have to log into LastPass.com to get your passwords. You can even export your passwords. Just incase something happens to LastPass, I exported my passwords to a csv file and then uploaded then to Google Docs, and my Dropbox account.
LastPass is free unless you want mobile access. If you want to use it on your phone it’s only $1 a month. I’m not using it on my BlackBerry yet, but might soon. Who knew managing your passwords could be so much fun.
So yesterday we put some of our gift cards together and got a blu-ray player. It only costs us $50 after gift cards. Not too bad. Now we can finally watch movies in HD. To me even DVDs look better in the blu-ray player than in the old DVD player. The blu-ray player must upscale our DVDs better than our old DVD player did.
We are also using this time to upgrade our receiver too. It’s sad to retire our old receiver and DVD player that we spent over $600 on, but it would be nice to have HDMI on the receiver.
Sadly the receiver selection at Best Buy is pretty limited, so I had to order it from Amazon. I probably would have ordered one even if Best Buy had it in stock. It was $100 cheaper than it was at BestBuy.com. I wish we didn’t have to pay sales tax at Amazon like most of the country, but oh well, still a pretty good deal.
So I started the ’00s with VHS and ended them with blu-ray. That’s a pretty big transition. I wonder what the next 10 years will bring?
Anybody that knows me knows that I love to learn, especially if it’s fun. I am ok at geography, but could be better. I just spent an hour playing this game. I got up to level 6. I was pretty good at getting the right country, but pretty much sucked at knowing where the city was in each country.
Being the computer tech guy in the family I always end up with everybody’s old hardware. I usually scrap out old PCs. I save parts that I could use and scrap the rest. This week I salvaged up enough parts to build a computer to run my emulators.
Emulators are software programs that mimics a game console. You can find them for all but the latest game consoles. The Emulator Zone is full of info on all the latest emulators. I just run ones for the consoles that I had as a kid. I had an Atari 2600, Nintendo, Super Nintendo, Sega Master System, and Sega Genesis. It’s so fun playing games from my childhood.
The emulators are easy to find and totally legal. The ROMs, which are the games, are another thing. They are still under copyright, so may not be 100% legal to download. You have to look a little harder to find them online, but they are out there. Most of the games I play I paid for back in the day, so I don’t see anything wrong with it.
The old consoles were pretty primitive. Any PC can run the emulator software. What I wanted to do was build a computer that can be totally controlled by a game controller. There are many frontend software programs that let you select what console and game you want to play and then launch them. The frontend is what makes the system more user friendly, and they require a little more PC power depending on what frontend you select and what the frontend is capable of doing.
I chose to use Maximus Arcade for my frontend. It had the options that I wanted, looked nice, and was easy to configure. It costs $25 and was the only money that I spent on this project. Once I got it all set up, I set Maximus Arcade as the Windows shell, which totally hides Windows.
Many people build similar systems to run arcade games and build MAME cabinets to put them into. I don’t have the talent or the time to build a MAME cabinets, but it would be cool. I wasn’t much of an arcade gammer as a kid though. I was more of a console gammer. I might buy USB versions of the old controllers at retrousb.com to complete my system, and get more of a retro feel. For now I am just using a computer gamepad. Now I think it’s time for some Super Mario Brothers.
So if you have been following me on Twitter you would know that I just created a Hackintosh. What’s a Hackintosh? It’s a regular PC that is running Apple’s OS X. I love OS X, but wish Apple made a desktop PC that is powerful enough, without a monitor, and affordable. The Mac Mini is a little underpowered, the iMac has a monitor built in, and the Mac Pro is way to spendy. For years I have been wanting a headless Mac that is priced between the Mini and the Pro. My Mac Mini was in desperate need of an upgrade, so I built my own.
There are many ways to do it, but many of them are unreliable and break when Apple puts out an update. The way I did it, and think it’s the best, is to purchase an EFi-X dongle. It’s a little device the plugs into the internal USB header on your motherboard. You set your BIOS to boot from it, and bingo, OS X thinks it’s running on a Mac. All the updates work just like it’s a real Mac. The EVi-X dongle actually works as a really good boot manager too. I could add Windows and Linux drives to my system, and the EFi-X dongle will act like a boot manager. The only place you can currently get an EFi-X dongle as is ExpressHD.com.
To run OS X though, you are limited to certain hardware. Thankfully it’s all pretty good hardware, and they have nice a compatibility list. There is just a handful of Gigabyte motherboards, nVidia Geforce video cards, and you have to use SATA hard & DVD drives, and USB mouse and Keyboard, and you are set.
For my system I used:
Motherboard: Gigabyte EP45-UD39
CPU: Intel Core2 Duo E7500
Video Card: PNY GeForce 9800GT
RAM: 4GB
Hard Drive: 1TB Western Digital Blue
DVD Burner: Cheap Lite-On SATA burner
Case: Antec Three Hundred
I love the Antec case that I put everything it. It has a nice clean look just like a real Mac would have.
I am not sure on the legality of this, but if you purchase a full copy of Apple’s OS X, I don’t see anything wrong with it, but I am no lawyer. If you plan on doing this though, I would recommending getting the EFi-X dongle while you still can. On episode 97 of Tekzilla, Colleen from TWiT goes through the process step by step. It’s really a simple process.
