- Blog
- Profile
- Homepage
-
Boot Fitting
Sturtevant’s Sports Skiing Snowboarding Winter Sports . I just love Sturtevants. What a ski store should really be. Boy those guys just love skiing and with this horrible northwest winter, the 50% off sale is just incredible. But the thing that is most remarkable is the boot fitting. I’ve used two folks. “Jim Mates”:http://www.laterskater.com/Resources/links.htm#SkateFit at…
-
Tandems
Upon further research, here are the choices for “fast” tandems that would be fun to ride. These aren’t the workhorse, ride across America, but great for a fast century or the STP. Precision Tandems seems to have the best site that pulls it all together along with pricing. Some options: “Burley Rivazza Race”:http://www.burley.com/products/tandems/default.aspx?p=Rivazza&i=4. This is…
-
Stop torturing the Nav system
We love the 2005 Acura Navigation System with Voice Recognition that’s in our MDX, but Dad just loves driving around with the voice recognition on while taking a totally different route. Calvin’s reaction to all of this, “Hey DAD, please stop *torturing* the navigation system.” Never thought I’d get to torture a computer ;_)
-
Brain Melting Math Problems
Another great Calvinism when he saw the latest brain stretcher I gave Alex. A simple what is 2^32-1. Calvin just looks at me and shouts, “What a brain-melting math problem?” Enough said.
-
Co-Motion Robusta
It’s bike season again and the kids are tall enough to ride a tandem with me. For total drool factor, here’s a $7,000 (!!!) tandem that everyone can lust after…it id Dura Ace, but more important just 29 pounds for a tandem. That’s amazing. Co-Motion’s “Robusta” Tandem. If you’re looking at Co-Motion aluminum tandems, you’re…
-
Wierdo Parts
In evitably with any “homebrew” project like this Pentium 4 system in a shoebox, you need some strange parts. For the Mocha 620, here are some: * LOGIC Supply Slimline CD to IDE adapter. This slimline CD to desktop IDE adapter is used for converting a laptop CD-ROM or DVD drive with a 50-pin connector…
-
NEC 6500A connecotr
NEC ND-6500A 8x4x8x DVD+R/RW 8x4x8x DVD-R/RW 24x16x24x CD-R/RW DL Dual-Layer Slim IDE Optical Burner Drive for Laptops and Notebooks (Black, OEM) The NEC ND-6500A DVD Burner is compatible with most Notebooks and Laptops. The first thing you will want to ensure is whether your current drive’s front bezel has a straight rectangular shape to it…
-
Travia C-156
!
-
CPU Decoder Ring
CPU decoder ring – The Tech Report Today, AMD and Intel have abandoned clock speed entirely on some chips in favor of three-digit model number systems that are more or less arbitrary. It’s gotten to the point where you need a secret decoder ring just to understand what you’re getting in a modern CPU. Well,…
-
SLI Roundup
AnandTech: nForce4 SLI Roundup: Painful and Rewarding. _Well the results are in, basically, if you are happy with 8xAGP (and there is no difference in real performance right now between that and PCI Express), then use a “nForce 3”:http://www.anandtech.com/mb/showdoc.aspx?i=2128&p=19 boards like the MSI K8N Neo2, so get one of the two board below if you…
-
StumbleUpon
StumbleUpon Reviews StumbleUpon is backed by a community of members who explore and review sites they like. These reviews help everyone discover the best sites and meet like-minded people. Ming and I were recently talking about how personalization is the key next theme for the web. Here’s an example of a “community” browser, you wander…
-
CoolerMaster Hyper 48 KHC-L91
X-bit labs – Articles – High-End CPU Coolers Roundup: The Battle for Silence and Efficiency (page 16). _I normally recommend the Thermal Right XP-120 which has a massive 5 inch fan, but they got good results with a smaller cheaper (e.g., less than $50) Cooler Master model._ The best cooler among the models we tested…
-
Pentium 600 and 800
[VR-Zone Hardware] – Pentium Announcements The Pentium 4 600 series, and the Pentium 4 3.73EE was announced today. Along with their support for EM64T, Intel’s 64-bit extensions, these new CPU’s also include SpeedStep power saving technology, upgraded security features through Executable Disabled Bit, 2MB of L2 cache. The 660 runs at 3.6GHz, 640 at 3.4GHz…
-
Aopen Cube Mini
AOpen prepares Cube Mini Pentium M based SFF PC On the heels of launching the EY855-II XC Cube, its first Intel Pentium M-based small-form-factor (SFF) PC, AOpen is now preparing for the March launch of its smallest XC Cube SFF PC to date, the MZ 855, according to sources at the company. The Intel 855GME-based…
-
Sumicom choices
Ok “King Young”:http://kingyoung.com.tw makes some super small form factors machines that both “Logic Supply”:http://logicsupply.com and “Cappucinopc”:http://cappucinopc.com resell. Here are the choices: * S615. This is a fanless 6x10x3″ case that has a downclocked Celeron running at 1.33Ghz, so it should be as fast as an Eden, but is slightly bigger than mini-ITX. $495 from Logic…
-
Smartdeck
Griffin Technology. These guys at Griffin are just amazing. This is a iPod to cassette interface that is smart. Just $25 and available in 2Q05, if you fast forware, the ipod fast forwards. If you skip, then the cassette senses it and skips too. Very cool. I need this because our Volvo and MDX FM…
-
e-Otonashi
Here’s another fanless case that can use the Via Epia system. As I said before, if you can, wait for the upcoming new motherboard, the SP if you can. Should start arrving in early April. Scythe’s e-Otonashi fanless EPIA-M cooling case :: SilentPCReview.com. This is a a do it yourself kit that uses a heatpipe.…
-
Epia SP
OK here’s a technical solution to needing more horsepower to do MPEG4 decoding with VIA. First they have a super small form factor EPIA N coming in April. This will be a super small system, but with an updated memory interface. They are also doing a mini-ITX version too using a board called the EPIA…
-
PC Recommendations
Kind of a fun month for PC recommendations because for once the underlying hardware is quiet. No big announcements of processors, video cards or motherboards, so instead of high, medium and low, let’s focus on some “odd” machines that might be fun to have. Think of them as alternative PCs. Sort of like taking a…
-
Benq DW-1620
X-bit labs – Articles – BenQ DW1620A DVD±RW/R Drive Review: Joker in the Pack or a New Winner?. I just happen to have one of these drives. It does pretty well, but you have to get the B7T9 firmware update to solve lots of the bad DVD burning problems. Naturally, you can’t just go to…
-
Samsung 193P
For some reason, it was just about impossible to find the manuals and drivers for the Samsung 193P in their “download”:http://www.samsung.com/download/Model_Select.aspx?type=Monitor&typecode=2&subtype=LCD&subtypecode=202&model=193P&filetype=UM&language= area. Here is their manual and also their Magictune software. You need this since the machine has no hardware controls at all. Everything is done in software. Their “Magictune”:http://www.samsung.com/Products/Monitors/magictune/ is on a throwaway CD…
-
Mini ITX performance
I’m just about to buy a mini ITX machine to do DVD playback and other small games and things for Grace. An interesting test to see how a small form factor machine does. mini-itx.com – nehemiah m10000 review. The benchmark shows that with 256MB of PC2100 RAM and Windows XP, it does DVD playback just…
-
Simulations
All this playing of Combat Flight Simulator reminded me how much I loved Harpoon and F-15 Strike Eagle before the kids arrived. Here’s an update to what’s going on. The short news is that there isn’t as much action now, but there are still some interesting new titles that are “modern jet”:http://www.gamespot.com/finder/findgames.html?catid=130, “helicopter”:http://www.gamespot.com/finder/findgames.html?catid=127 and “submarine”:http://www.gamespot.com/finder/findgames.html?catid=125…
-
Kid Games
Connie asked, where are all the educational games. Seems like there aren’t anymore to buy. So, off to look at PC Gamer to find some. Here are some others have ben playing based on their ESRB rating at “gamespot”:http://www.gamespot.com/reviews.html?type=byesrb&platform=pc&order=asc&time=oneyear as well as their top 100 “kids games”:http://www.gamespot.com/misc/top100_kids.html?tag=gs_lnav_topkids: * “Simcity 4”:http://www.gamingexcellence.com/pc/games/132/review.shtml. This is the simulation that…
-
Minh Thai Solution
Solving the Rubik’s Cube These instructions can be used to solve a 3x3x3 Rubik’s Cube and also a 2x2x2 Rubik’s mini cube starting from any combination of colors on a mixed up cube. They are from Minh Thai who held the record in late 1981 of 26 second. The method is # 1. Solve the…
-
Alex’s latest obsession is the Rubik’s Cube. Here are some hints for you, Alex: Rubik’s Cube – how to solve the Cube or cheat. There are many sites around the Web that can give you detailed steps for solving Rubik’s cube, and many are very good. However, if you want a quick run down of…
-
Notebook instead
After looking at a Mac Mini, these mini ITX systems, I wonder a little bit why folks don’t just get a notebook instead. Essentially most of the technology limits get solved by low power notebook technology anyway and you get a free screen you can use on the road too. Dell has the Inspiron 1150…
-
VIA Motherboards explained
“VIA Epic Motherboards”:http://www.mini-itx.com/store/default.asp?c=2. A good explanation of the many VIA motherboards that folks use for PC-based versions. A little complicated but essentially, * PD boards are older in either 600MHz or 1GHz both fanless for embedded applications * Older M boards that are 600MHz fanless or 1GHz with a fan but are optimized for multimedia…
-
Mac Mini customization
They are so cheap to experiment with that everyone is hacking away at the Mac Mini: * HOW-TO: Turn your Mac mini into a media center – Engadget – www.engadget.com. A good source for how to actually get it all connected. Points out that one problem is that storage isn’t much, but if you are…
-
Mini ITX
These systems are the closest that you can get with a PC form factor to an iPod mini. Some resources include: mini-itx.com – news. A great site showing both mini-ITX and the upcoming nano-ITX from VIA. “Hush Technologies”:http://www.hushtechnologies.com/start.html. I bookmarked before, but these guys make nice looking mini-ITX. “Logic Supply”:http://www.logicsupply.com/default.php. A do-it-yourself resource for making…