Just scored a PC133 512MB stick for my mini-ITX project for just $101 from Sonaggi. That’s about $30 less than anywhere else.
Category: computers suck
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bad cables / wasted power
Don’t be tempted to use the enormous heatsink assembly on an Athlon XP to support the power loom from the PSU. I did it last night, in an attempt to free up the airflow (and noise) from the CPU. Mistake. It flexed the mobo enough to unseat the CPU, causing wacky power-up errors (with no diagnostics, since there was no CPU to be seen).
I’m getting kind of sick of wasted energy in computers. That’s partly why I’m building a fanless mini-ITX system. It’ll have all the power I need, while being small, quiet and unobtrusive.
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PHPFileExchange
One of my WindShare colleagues was extolling the virtues of xdrive. It looks pretty neat, but I already spend money on hosting, so don’t want to duplicate the effort. I wonder if PHPFileExchange — a free, server-based file repository system — will work from here.
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gap delete bummer
Annoying bug in the iRiver 1.65U firmware for the H120; if you have Gap Delete enabled and play a short track with a few seconds of silence at the end, you lose a short section of the audio. It really ruins Ivor Cutler’s 1974 album Dandruff, where Vein Girl and The Painful League get the ends snipped off. Without Gap Delete, they play fine.
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clipping
Dang, but did my Of Montreal recording from last night come out clipped. I blame it on:
- naïve user
- no level meters on the iRiver H120
- no ability to change the recording level in mid record with the iRiver H120
- my oldish Sony ECM-909’s odd habits
What I really need is a Reactive Sounds Boost Box; pricey, but nice. I wonder if Church Audio can do me anything cheaper?
But anyway, for now, here’s The Lollipop People‘s Fort Jesus [MP3].
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sad-boy old-skool 8-bit ring tone
My phone now rings the Uridium theme, thanks to smashTheTONES.
I really should’ve gone for the quacking bit at the end of Pink Floyd’s Bike. Or something by Neutral Milk Hotel. Or Of Montreal. Man, my GPRS charges are gonna be huge this month.
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needed another box
I wrote earlier that an iPod Mini failed to just work, straight out of the box. Thanks to Chris Slothouber‘s suggestion, it now works fine with an additional firewire cable.
It’s still very annoying to have to fork out $$ (and a lot of $$, too) for an extra cable that should have been in the box.
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failing to work just out of the box
Bloody iPod Mini. Catherine’s 10.1.15 eMac sees it, but iTunes says “No iPod Connected”, despite the obvious. It just sits there, flashing “Do Not Disconnect” from the USB port. iTunes 4.7.1 says it has iPod Mini support. So go on, do what you’re supposed to!
I’ve spent more time futzing with this crappy thing than any hardware on my Linux boxes. It’s just an MP3 player, it should just work.
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CBC.ca = teh b0rken
The RSS subject says: Province says yes to four new power projects.
The page subject says: CBC Toronto – I may quit Liberals: Ontario MP.
But the article says: Freezing rain halts buses. Last Updated Feb 14 2005 08:32 AM EST.
Whhaaaaaaaaaaaaa??
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atomic clock error
We have a Sharper Image Atomic Big Digit Clock with In/Outdoor Temperature. It picked up the standard time to daylight savings time shift perfectly yesterday morning.
This morning, though, I seemed to be running 10 minutes late. The clock was saying 06:56, when I was convinced it earlier than that. I check my watch; 06:46. Cooker clock, thermostat timer, microwave, NTP-synch’ed Linux laptop; all 06:46.
On resetting the clock, and letting it faff about for a few minutes while it listened to the NIST radio signal from Boulder, it got the time right. I guess there must’ve been a duff signal came through in the night. That’s what you get for blindly trusting technology.
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beware of the tabs ‘cos I’m sure they’re going to get you yeh
Firefox‘s tabbed browsing really irks me sometimes. I was most of the way through composing a pithy (no, I don’t have a lisp) entry, when I try to close an unwanted tab with the [X] icon. Kaboom! My entry’s gone. Seems I closed the wrong tab.
With great power comes great confusability, I suppose.
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Pilot-DB Open Source Database Program for PalmOS
I’ve been playing with Pilot-DB Open Source Database Program for PalmOS, in advance of using it with a real project.It’s a very capable flat-file database. As long as you’re not expecting SQL complexity, it does what it says on the tin.
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this is more like it
This is more like it; stay at a Holiday Inn Express, and there’s free wireless provided by InnFlux.
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leaving st louis
So I’m standing in the ice-vending area of the Embassy Suites at St Louis airport. Why? ‘Cos their $10/day PASSYM wireless doesn’t work in our room, that’s why.
So begins the long road trip home; safe trip to all our friends …
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S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System
Eric Meyer’s S5: A Simple Standards-Based Slide Show System is extremely cool. I’ve chosen it for my presentation on Thursday night, because it’s very simple yet quite pretty.
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Aargh, couriers! %^$%&$!!!
What took two hours out of my life, involved my getting lost in a snow drift in the middle of nowhere, and is ultimately only the size of a postage stamp? This:
When I registered my Cybershot, I got a $20 coupon for the SonyStyle store. The coupon was about to expire, and I noticed that I could get a spare Memory Stick for less than any of the stores. So I paid on the website, and expected the thing to turn up.
Wednesday evening I came home to a Purolator delivery note. Catherine was in the house when they tried to deliver, but the courier didn’t make enough effort to actually check. When I called them to reschedule, I was dealt with someone who knew exactly how much of a mess of my day they could make by being wilfully stupid and obtuse, and used this knowledge to its fullest.
So in the end, I trogged out to the depot. This is hardly in a central location; Silver Star Boulevard is remote. It didn’t help that the street sign was missing if you were heading north from Finch Avenue East, as I was. So I ended up half-stuck in a snowdrift just south of McNicoll, plaintively calling Catherine from my mobile for directions. Sidewalks run out just north of Finch on Midland, you see. Also, Purolator’s customer service line shuts down before their depots do, so you’re stuck if you call between 8–9pm.
When I finally got to the depot, there was a huge line. It took about 20 minutes to finally get my package. This was a pretty sizeable box; it could easily have held a good-sized telephone directory. In it was about ten of those air pillow packaging things, and my tiny Memory Stick. It was, of course, ensconsed in one of those ridiculous PVC blister packs that weigh at least 5× the product inside.
I’m regretting that I scarfed a Harvey’s indigestiburger at Union station before setting out. Silver Star Boulevard’s one saving attribute is that it’s right in the Agincourt Chinese Restaurant Zone. I’m sure I could have had all the food I’d have wanted for about 2/3 the price of the processed muck I had.
Next time I’ll check before ordering if a company plans to use Purolator. If they do — see ya later! It’s not worth wasting 2½ hours of my life on again.
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Well, that was painless …
I’ve updated to WordPress 1.5. Dig the slowness.
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linksys, bittorrent, and ports
Just so I don’t have to answer this again. If you use a Linksys router, and appear to be firewalled when you use BitTorrent, do this:
Go to Status / Local Network / DHCP client table. See what your local IP address is. It’s likely to be between 192.168.1.100 and 192.168.1.150.
Go to Applications & Gaming / Port Range Forwarding, and enter:
Application: bittorrent
Start: 6881
End: 6999
Protocol: TCP
IP Address: (your local IP address that you found earlier)
Enable: Yesand save changes. Your ports will be open!
