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Plasma Balls
Alex and Calvin are working on understanding those strange plasma balls you see in science experiments. Here are some links: PLASMA BALLS. You can buy one. “History”:http://www.eng.utah.edu/~kier/history.html. History of the plasma ball. It’s actually a kind of Tesla Coil. Didn’t know that. So on to this fellow Nikola Tesla. Amongst other things, Marconi (I though…
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The file comparisons
Since I’ve been overclocking, I’ve seen two cases where the file systems have gotten corrupted, so caveat emptor. Seems pretty serious on NTFS since it scrambles everything. For instance on one machine, I lost a big part of the file tables. On another, it corrupted the Windows installation. In order to get back to sanity,…
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Shuttle ST61G4
Shuttle ST61G4. This could very well be the perfect Intel-based small form factor machine. Has a very fast ATI Radeon integrated graphics chipset (about half the speed of their top of the line card, which costs more than the entire Shuttle box!) Also has silencing technology to be quiet as well as a 6-in-1 card…
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Video Cards
Tom’s Hardware Guide Graphics Cards: VGA Charts Part III – . _Tom’s Hardware latest reviews now takes price into account, basically you can buy a $400 card (!!!) and it is 50% faster than a $150 card, so the sweetspot in the market is nVidia and ATI’s mid range card_ We see that the Radeon…
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ACL Website
Diary of an ACL Reconstruction. Had to happen, here is an entire site just devoted to getting your ACL back! “ACL links”:http://janet.braystudio.com/acl/links.htm. Her list of ACL related sites is great too. I like “Knee1”:http://knee1.com
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Woo Hoo! John Ludwig using a SATA 10rpm drive
a little ludwig goes a long way: 10,000 RPM WD drive. Now that’s a fast drive. Smaller than what I normally use, but amazingly fast. Great tips on getting this right. I’ve only done standard EIDE so knowing the SATA trick is good.
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XP Defragmenting
The Windows XP defragger – is it good enough for the enterprise?. I’ve been running the XP defragmenter quite a bit on the video machine. Man, is it slow. Also doesn’t seem to speed things up much. So I’m off to try some commercial defragmenters. Here’s a quick review: * “O&O Software”:http://oo-software.com. This is another…
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Torn ACL on an MRI
Well, got the MRI’s of my knee and it looks like blobs of grey and black, but thanks to websites here’s a view of what it should look like and what it looks like torn. Yuck, lots of blood too. ACL MRI Pictures Normal and Torn Jennie thinks I’ve got a torn Meniscus too. Here’s…
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Network Boot Disks
AppDeploy.com > The Network Boot Disk Creation Home Page. A place to figure out how to boot up from the network. I tried using Bart’s, but he’s exceeded his network bandwidth for the month đ “Tech Republic”:http://techrepublic.com.com/5100-6268-1054824.html. Ther e is an old Netowrk Client Administrator utility on the old Windows NT Server 4.0 CD is…
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Unlocking an Athlon XP
With Pentiums, the only way to overclock is to increase the bus speed of everything. But, the Athlon, with the right hardware and know how, you can leave the buses at their normal speeds and just increase the clock on the processor. here’s how: * “XP-TMC Adaptor Socket”:http://www.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030703/index.html. This is a piece of hardware that…
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Year End CPU Buying Guide
A couple of more sources for the latest on processors. I’m thinking about spending $1,000 to upgrade two machines I have that are currently Pentium III 450Mhz and 550MHz if you can believe that (state of the art four years ago with 256MB at 133MHz and 8GB hard disk on one and 500GB on the…
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Bill Mao's New Computer
OK, my third system this year based on the Shuttle. Bill wants to edit videos mainly and also use this machine to access the Internet. That sort of thing. He was looking at the Sony system which costs $1900. That machine has a Pentium 3.2GHz, 1GB memory and a 200GB hard disk plus a DVD…
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Skiing and Knees
I guess it had to happen. Helping Grace out, one ski got caught under herr and the other went the other way. Nice new skis with the bindings set way to tight. Rip and the next thing you know, on your back down a sled with a torn something. Here are all the sites I’ve…
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Athlon 64 3400+
X-bit labs – Hardware news – AMD Athlon 64 3400 to Come in December?. This chip didn’t quite make it in December, but it is the 2.2GHz version of the Athlon 64. So the line looks like: | Name | Speed | Memory Controllers | L2 Cache | Price | Comment | | Athlon 64…
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Dealtime is now Shopping.com
Dealtime.com is now shopping.com remade. Here are some parts that aren’t listed on pricegrabber yet: * Athlon 64 AMD Processors – Find, Compare, and Buy at Shopping.com. The Athlon 64 family. They have both the 3200+ and folks are taking orders for the 3400+. Not in stock and no details yet. * “Shuttle SN85G4”:http://www.shopping.com/xGS-sn85g4~FD-0~DL-0~SK-0~FI-0~S-1~CLT-SAM01. The…
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Reseller RAtings
ResellerRatings.com – Compare product prices, read customer reviews of stores.. Haven’t used these guys and can’t tell if these are legit, but a nice website that has reseller ratings. Will have to investigate
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Video Capture Cards
Connie’s Dad wants to capture analog video directly. Here are some direction on how: * Ars Technica: Guide to Video Capturing – Page 1 – (03/2003). This guide uses the Happauge WinTV PCI Card. $95 typically and widely available does take up an extra slot though. * “ATI All in Wonder 9600 Pro”:http://www.viperlair.com/reviews/video_graph/ati/aiw/9600pro/index.shtml. This is…
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PC Buying Guide: December 2003
A quick update on buying recommendations as I’m off to buy yet another machine for Connie’s Dad. The recommendations are particularly hard since between the Pentium IV and Athlon 64, things aren’t super clear: h4. High-end System ($1500 target) | Component | Price | Comment | | Shuttle SN85G4 | “$330”:http://www.zipzoomfly.com/jsp/ProductDetail.jsp?ProductCode=150965 | SK83G2 need to…
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Best iPod Clone
Gear: Rio Karma Review. Well they had to come, here’s an overview of various iPod competitors. Amazing variety from Dell, iRiver, Rio, etc.
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Social networks
a little ludwig goes a long way: Kevin’s comments on LinkedIn et al. Well, these social network things seem like the next hot thing, so I guess I have to start signing up for them. Talked with David Sze over at Greylock and he sure knows them all. So here I go, linkedin, friendster, etc.
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Terabyte in Your Pocket
a little ludwig goes a long way: Carrying around gigabytes. John’s right, there is going to be essentially unlimited storage sitting in your pocket. What would you do with it. Personally, I think the strongest point of these devices is that they are completely passive, so you don’t have to plug a screen in. If…
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Small Form Factor Overview
a little ludwig goes a long way: Small Form Factor Comparisons. I’m on my fourth small form factor PC buy right now. They are certainly the way to go. Small and inexpensive. Will be nice when the big boy decide to build them. This is a good guide, but I still think “Tom’s Hardware”:http://tomshardware.com does…
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Why Platforms succeed
Freedom to Tinker: Painters Buy White Canvases for a Reason. Great points by Ed Felton and hat tip to “John”:http://www.theludwigs.com about why the Internet succeeds as a platform. A great metaphor. Make it a very “stupid” network but make it flexible.
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File Sharing Applications
Hat tip to John, he’s been trolling for personal file sharing applications. Either just for photos or more generally. Here’s a short list of things to try: * a little ludwig goes a long way: Foldershare. This is a personal file sharing system done by the folks who did the Audiogalaxy PTP system. Has a…
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Snow Reports in the Pacific Northwest
It’s been an awesome ski season so far. Amazing how much snow there’s been. Here are the main resorts I look at and go to. Makes it easy to check conditions: * “Ski Washington”:http://skiwashington.com/conditions.php. A great site with an overview of latest snowfalls. A great powder report email that they send too. Subscribe for sure!…
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Dance and Theater in San Francisco
Well, tried to get tickets for Broadway in San Francisco. Arrgh. It is amazing that a site like Ticketmaster can be continously busy. Shows what monopolies are like I think. Does anyone know a way to actually access ticketmaster.com, seems busy day and night. In any case, tickets for Lion King are hard to come…
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Entourage and Exchange: It works sort of
Using Exchange Server with Entourage. I’ve been trying to get a Macintosh to work with our servers. Man, the Macintosh sure has gotten a lot more complicated since the good old days of the Mac Plus. Spent a day trying to get Exchange and Entourage, the new Mac client to cooperate. It sure is mysterious.…
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ebags: more bags
eBags – luggage, handbags, backpacks, bags and travel accessories. Ordered from them two years ago, but haven’t been there since. A nice job on the website particularly in selecting bags. The cool new things are the geek “bags”:http://www.ebags.com/travel_accessories/e_device_pouches/category_search/index.cfm?N=20010810 for holding electronic gadgets and also the “backpacks”:http://www.ebags.com/business_cases/laptop_cases/wheeled_cases/category_search/index.cfm?N=2006694 for laptops that are also wheelies. I use just…
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Fun things in San Francisco
Nothing beats something that is experiential. Now how do you find what’s playing in San Francisco if you live in Seattle. The internet is how: First of all how to figure out what a good broadway show is: * “Playbill”:http://playbill.com, “Broadway.com”:http://broadway.com, and “Internet Theater Database”:http://theaterdb.com. These are the big sites. Playbill is mainly a listing…
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Useful Scanning Tips
Scanning Basics 101 – All about digital images. Some great contrarian tips here. For instance he mentions that if you want to scan a print, 300 dpi is really enough.