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Blackberry 7230: Off to Germany…
I’ve been recommending the Blackberry 7230 to a host of folks. Here’s the latest and some FAQs: _Hello Rich, Finally I see someone who has a Blackberry 7230. I have been seriously considering one. I live in Upstate NY but I travel every year to Germany for a month. While there I would like to…
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80GB isn't enough
a little ludwig goes a long way: Installing XIII right now…. You’re right that 80GB no longer is big enough. I’m maxed out right now just with video files on a 120GB machine and my home server has 2x120GB and I’m creaking at not enough space. I just deleted all my games I don’t use…
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Compliments from Ludwig
a little ludwig goes a long way: Tong is on fire.. Hey John, just trying to emulate you buddy!
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2 Years Later: The USE Alien Seatpost
Alien Clamp Fitting Instructions. Well its been two years since I installed this. The reviews are right. It is super light (just 140 grams), but incredibly hard to adjust. When I sit my fat butt on the seat, it literally locks into place. When I disassemble pieces go flying. The most depressing thing is that…
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Campagnolo Record Bottom Bracket: Use Phil Wood instead
_Hat tip to the folks at roadbikerider.com for this one_ Uncle Al’s Rant: Campy Record Bottom Bracket Dear Uncle Al: Uh oh! I’ve read how much you don’t like the Campy Record bottom bracket. I have 5,000 miles on my 2003 Record Carbon crankset so would be interested to know specifically what’s wrong with it.…
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Nero Plug-ins
NeroPlugins.cd-rw.org. Wow an incredible list of plug-ins for Nero that support an amazing number of codecs. Everything for AAC converts to Mpeg4 to using Ogg Vorbis with Nero.
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Ogg Vorbis instead of MPEG 3
Doom9.net – Ogg Vorbis Guide. One thing that is pretty neat is if you use Ogg Vorbis, a much more efficient encoding, rather than MP3 for Xvid movies. Here’s the guide from Doom9. So, the state of the “art” open source movie uses the open source xvid codec and then the ogg vorbis encoder/decoder. I…
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DVD to DVD Conversion
Doom9.net – The Definitive DVD Backup Resource. OK, a new guide that tells you how to backup a DVD to a DVD recordable. Good stuff. complicated as usual, but great for geeks.
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Ripping DVD Soundtrack to MP3
Audio-Only DVD Ripping Guide – How to Convert DVD Video to MP3 or Audio CD Format. A very useful guide that explains how to take the AC3 soundtrack and get it into MP3 format. This is tricky because AC3 is at 48kHz whereas CDs are at 44.1kHz and are in different formats. The key programs…
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What is Hyperthreading?
Ars Technica: Introduction to Multithreading, Superthreading and Hyperthreading and “Tom’s Hardware”:http://www6.tomshardware.com/cpu/20021227/. _Well, the Intel site was confusing on the topic of what is this hyperthreading thing, so a quick google search found an article that someone with a 30 year old computer science degree like me can understand_ The basic idea is that today’s modern…
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First Shuttle SN85g4's coming
I’ve been looking for this so sweet barebones system and the first ones are coming up for sale. Here are some folks who are starting to carry. They are not yet at the big guys like newegg.com: * Directron. Never heard of these guys, but doing preorders for $349. * “Top Micro”:http://store.topmic.com/shuttlesn85g4.html. They have them…
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More on the Shuttle ST61G and SB75G2
X-bit labs – Hardware news – New Shuttle XPCs ST61G and SB75G2 – Targeting Gamers and Enterprises?. _Another hat tip to Xbitlabs_ The XPC ST61G barebone ? first SFF PC powered by the RADEON 9100 IGP core-logic with integrated graphic core supporting DirectX 8.1 capabilities unveiled this Summer ? is probably targeted for gamers and…
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Shuttle to ship 600K systems in 2004
X-bit labs – Hardware news – Shuttle Projects Further Growth of XPC Shipments in 2004. _Amazing how big a business these XPCs are getting to be_ Shuttle said in an interview to DigiTimes web-site that its XPC shipments this year will be between 550 and 600 thousands of units, 50 to 100 thousands more than…
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CPU Utilities
CPUID. This is a great utility set for tweaking your PC and knowing how it is performing. For instance PC Wizard tells you what machine you actually have and how it is performing. Like Sisoft Sandra, but just for the CPU. There is also CPU-Z which tells you exactly what processor you have running. Great…
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Another Game…
Another potential game are to have a name on your back and then you have to go find the other person who matches. Kind of a mixer and there is a prize you get if you find your opposite: * Famous Couples. An entire web site. * “Famous Movie Couples”:http://www.imdb.com/Couples/. All the folks who are…
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Xvid Settings (Con't)
Sectie B & D: Hoe MP3, DivX maken. Well, I tried some new Xvid settings and now the second pass won’t work. Here are some more recommendations. I’ll give these a try. This is true since Xvid defaults are single pass, so you have to understand something about what to set. This is also probably…
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Famous People and What They Drink…
We’re having a Holiday Party and I like to invent fun games. Here’s one, match the famous person with what they drink. So, you have folks who have the name of a famous person and match it to what their favorite libation is. Here are some websites to pick from: * Absintheusa.com. Absinthe was drunk…
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Consumer VOIP
VoIP NEWS ONLINE. Been looking at VOIP for consumers. Here’s an entrie site dedicated to it. Note that Vonage just raised an additional $35M from NEA to bring their total to $60M plus. Have about 70K subscribers, but seem to be a early leaders. Also have Skype who are doing the classic, its just free…
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Codec Comparisons
Doom9.net – The Definitive DVD Backup Resource – Codec Comparison May 2003. The latest motion Codec comparison that I could find. Pretty interesting results. Basically says that DivX 5.05 is fast and has OK quality while Xvid is slower with better quality. I ran Xvid against Raiders of the Lost Ark and in two passes,…
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Spyware and DivX 5
How to deal with spyware/adware. Yuck spyware, here’s a good source of information about it. Specific data on DivX: When you finish installing DivX, it will immediatly start a program called ?gain trickler,? which slowly downloads GAIN onto your hard drive. It will also put the trickler on your start list, so that it executes…
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Washington Wine Lists
Wine Press Northwest magazine online. A good web site focused just on Pacific Northwest wines.
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Xvid Settings
Nic’s XviD Binaries & Paraphernalia đ. Because DivX now doesn’t let you remove GAIN for the free ad version (how sad), I’ve switched over to using XviD. This is an open source MPEG4 codec. Since it is open source, the settings are very strange and hard to understand. Check out the source page here that…
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Codec Comparisons
Radified – Audio Codec Comparison. The latest on codec comparisons between Lame, Ogg Vorbis and others
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IntraVnews
intraVnews | Features. Here’s a free for personal use Outlook RSS reader. The other one I tried required a subscription.
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Newsfeed Readers
Rss Readers. There must be a thousand of these. Here’s a Wiki that compiles them. Way too many to try in a lifetime đ
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Real Time Bus Location
Busview Applet Launch. An amazingly cool thing. They’ve put position hardware into Seattle buses, so you can actually see using this Java applet in real time where your bus is. Cool!
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Playing Monopoly and Scabble
The kids have been playing lots of our old favorite board games lately. Here are some places to look for tips and tricks: h4. Monopoly This is a game that really teaches you how to add and subtract. Here are some strategy guides: * Monopoly.com – Downloads. This has a strategy guide online that is…
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Photo Scanner
I’ve been taking quite a few 35mm photographs laterly and have about a years worth that I need to scan. The Nikon 4000 is the one I really want, but it is way too expensive. The Minolta DiMAGE Scan Elite 5400 is a new one that is about $800, so I thought I’d look at…
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bBlog
BBlog – php blog software. Bob over at “Bob’s Planet”:http://bobsplanet.com mentioned this is a full PHP based blog. I may have to give it a try.
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Identity Theft
Federal Trade Commission – Your National Resource for ID Theft. Jennie had a credit card used by some Nigerians buying dolls. This is a big deal. Fortunately, Google shows that the FTC has a pretty good site for what you need to do. It isn’t just a matter of cancelling the card anymore since folks…