Tag Archives: Gadgets and Nerdery

I need to tell you these things.

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I put that title on here, and my fingers freeze on the keyboard for thirty seconds.

I won these, and they are a sweet pair of headphones. They even block out the crazy Theio’s regular cackle and shouting. This makes me very happy.

I’m hoping that someone buys this, just like I hope they buy whatever else I’ve been putting up on eBay for the last couple of months. I mean, my Amazon.com Marketplace sales just never seem to stop, and eBay, for the most part, has followed suit.

The old Compaq laptop from Nate and Cheryl is next. Definitely for parts. Motherboard is very, very unhappy. Then there’s ‘s RAM and parting and selling Tom‘s desktop units. I am clearly going to have to purchase a postal scale.

Also on the list of purchases is more RAM for my iBook, a USB/mini-USB cable for getting images, movies, and such off of my phone, and hopefully a PS/2. I’m going to try to get these things used locally first (except for the cable), and then hit up teh intarweb.

It still makes more sense for me to buy used. Why would I encourage more new things to be made, when there are perfectly good used things out there that don’t need more resources to be expended in making them? Oh, I’ve got to remember to put up my copy of Asheron’s Call for sale.

Tonight is the season premiere of Stargate: SG1 and Stargate: Atlantis on the SciFi channel. and I are heading out to LiquidWeb and taking wholesale advantage of the mini theater in their lounge. Have I mentioned how much I’m loving my new job?

I’m tired, and it’s the kind of tired that makes me feel like my days have been really full lately. I’ve been learning SO much, and I still have to read a DNS/BIND book for work.

I have some thoughts that I need to get out about the Steven comic, but that will probably wait until tomorrow. For now, check this out.

Thinking about operating systems

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The other day, got me thinking about switching window managers from Gnome to FluxBox on my work machine. Considering, mind you. Mulling it over. Swishing it around, so to speak.

This got me thinking about other things. Things like LiteStep from back in the day. I couldn’t remember the name of it when I was thinking about it, but this article about ReactOS, linked to by SlashDot, had a reference to it in one of the comments.

Good article, by the way.

Now, on the original topic of window managers, I decided to check out KDE. I was all like, “Wait, that’s what Knoppix uses!” I’ve used it on my own machines, after being introduced to it at a Penguicon.

I got to wondering, what if the K in Knoppix stood for KDE? I mean, it’s pronounced as if the K wasn’t even there, right? Kind of like the G in Gnome (if you’ve ever played AD&D, that is). So, I wonder if there’s a Gnoppix! Well, there is. Not only that, but Gnoppix is based on… wait for it… Ubuntu.

What cracks me up is that Gnoppix, Knoppix, and Ubuntu are all derivatives of Debian.

Well, it cracks ME up.

UPDATE: Looks like that article on ReactOS got slashdotted. Whoops.

Nerdery – Ubuntu on my iBook

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It’s done, and whoo boy does it fly.

Ubuntu 6.06 AKA Dapper Drake (how appropriate) is now installed on Magnus. I’m posting this after installing a nifty little LJ program called Drivel, and it seems just as sweet as Semagic or XJournal. Also, Ubuntu’s application installer is crazily user friendly. It even adds shortcuts in the menu system.

Besides keeping up on the dishes, I’ve also figured out how to make pizza sauce. Definitely having pizza tonight. :)

And now, without further ado, my horoscope:

TAURUS (April 20-May 20): A few people look at the world through rose-colored glasses. Many, on the other hand, peer out through crap-colored glasses. Both are unable to see the world as it really is, but instead allow their perceptions to be filtered through a distorted lens. Your assignment, Taurus, is to take off the colored glasses–whatever hue they may be–so that you can gaze at your surroundings with fresh, lucid, fixation-free eyes.

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Wil Wheaton’s blog linked to a really good article that addresses who really (p)0wns your computer. The local media shouldn’t just be scaring the standard users about the “Evil Hackers,” but perhaps also the Evil Corporations.

Article is here.

Whew. That’s a relief.

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Electrical charge once again graces my iBook’s battery. Cue the huge sigh of relief.

I have caught up on all laptop-related things that were behind, AFAIK.

Anybody know someone that might want to purchase some old V:TES/Jyhad cards? I found an old card box full of them. I’m not really interested in playing any more, and would rather sell them. If worse comes to worse, I’ll organize and price them, and see what collectors/players want them. As it stands, I have no idea what’s in there, except that some are actual Jyhad cards.

On an unrelated note, does anybody know where I could find some inexpensive PC133 SDRAM, preferably in the 512 MB variety, which would technically fall under the SO-DIMM qualification. Unfortunately, 512 megs is the highest capacity ever made for PC133 RAM. I wonder if anybody ever made any higher-end RAM (in 1 GB size) that could scale back to PC133.

Any ideas?

Superglue as proof of deity.

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I’d also like to note that I’d be nowhere near as productive as I’ve been if not for superglue.

I’d broken my good headphones, and my backup pair suck. Luckily, the break had been clean enough that the broken edges mated evenly, and superglue (teflon, people!) bonded them together perfectly.

I spent a week with those crap headphones. IPM is so much better when one can -hear- the bass.