gogogadgetearl . casey's thoughts

2008.09.10

  • i remember reading this somewhere, but i never thought about doing it until tonight. so, in case you hadn't heard of it by now, give it a try:

    in firefox 3, in the address bar type (removing the quotes of course) "search aaa: bbb" where "aaa" is some website (i.e. imdb) and "bbb" is some topic (i.e. george clooney). firefox 3 will immediately go to the most relevant page on the website. really friggin cool.

    i believe google chrome does this too, but i haven't tried it.        [3 comments]

2008.06.14

2008.06.01

  • back in january an american classic program hit the airwaves once again, revamped and better than before: american gladiators. the show was cheesy back then and it's cheesy now. but it's cheese done well. the gladiators are amazing. but i have a confession, and my wife knows it, i am in love with the gladiator known as "Crush"--Gina Carano. while discussing the show with some friends at work, i discovered Crush is also a MMA competitor. tonight she was on CBS' EliteXC Saturday Night Fight and was amazing. her MMA nickname is "Conviction"--a very astute title. she kicked major butt. if you haven't seen gladiators yet, tune in to NBC on Monday nights and watch Gina takedown the challengers (she hasn't lost a single event to date).        [1 comment]

2008.05.03

  • right now i'm looking at my htpc and i've got 4 minutes left on the leopard os installation. i'm sure you've all read about making a hackintosh computer, using a modern intel chip. but what you may not have heard of, is someone has even been able to get it to install on a system that uses an amd processor. i find this quite impressive. and just because i want the bragging rights to say i've at least tried it, i figured i'd download the installer and see what happens.

    only a minute left on the install.

    when apple decided to start using intel chips, everyone knew it would only be a matter of weeks before some ported it to a non-mac machine, as long as it was an intel chip. sure enough, it didn't take long. i was quite excited about the idea, as i absolutely love mac os x. it's true. i am a 100% convert (though i still do love xp pro). of course, i am not yet able to lay down the cash on a mac, so spending a few hundred bucks on a hackintosh sounded great to me.

    woohoo, install successful.

    but things happened, and rather than devote any effort or cash to such a system, i opted for an hdtv. i mean my current system is great, why pay 1500+ on a system that wouldn't get fully utilized, hooked up to a 20" screen? but then today, while browsing the newsgroups, i cam across "Leopard for AMD" and my mind was blown. how could i not at least try it? at worst, if for some reason, the installer might corrupt my xp os and i'd have to format the whole drive. big whoop. all it's used for is video playback. and with installers already floating around with all updates, including sp3, it would almost be doing me a favor.

    ok, system restarted. i chose leopard at the startup selector screen.

    i'm still not sure if this will work. i read in one guy's description, he had to modify his bios to make it play nice. but even if i can get leopard to run on my amd machine, i'm pretty confident there will be big issues. i have a wireless card for my desktop. i searched a little on google. nobody has a workaround for wireless access. of course, that would be okay, as i would only use it for video playback, just like it's being used currently within xp. also, xp can often blue screen just because my hardware doesn't always play nice. why would it be any more reliable on an os that's designed for specific hardware? no, this ragtag setup is anything but comparable to apple's chosen hardware.

    well, now it's just sitting there with some code on the screen and some system info. it's not anything i can understand. but there isn't any "kernel panic" error showing (which generally means os x is hosed).

    earlier today i found a os x tiger installer for vmware fusion. it's technically not possible to run tiger virtually on any system (whether it be tiger, leopard, or otherwise), but, once again, someone has found a way. and because i'm that kind of guy, i figured i should at least see if i could get it to work. i could. it was quite easy. but its loading screen looked very similar to the one my amd machine is now showing. it also took a few minutes to load. but this one has gone on too long. it's been like this for about 5 minutes now. i'm pretty sure it's not going to go any further.

    i was really hoping it would work. and it just might. but it will probably require some bios tweaking. yippee.        [3 comments]

2008.03.30

  • a month or so back i read a review in rolling stone about this comic book, called "Y: The Last Man." it said the series was wrapping up but that it had a fairly large following and will be made into a movie, possibly starring shia labeouf. it's about a plague that kills all the men of the world simultaneously...except for one guy, Yorick ("Y" therefore has a double meaning, both as in the chromosome and the lead character's name, clever, eh?). intrigued by the plot summary, i kept an eye out for it. a couple weeks ago i found a trade paperback (a collection of issues) of the first 5 issues at barnes and noble. i read through it in a couple of hours and was hooked.  i passed it along to a friend who also got hooked. he found the remaining 55 issues online. over the course of the series, yorick yearns for finding his "true love" (who's on the other side of the world, on a research project), but realizes he has a responsibility to all humankind to figure out why he survived and that cloning is no longer a moral issue but necessary to keep the human species in existence. there's also some neo-amazonian women hellbent on destroying anything reminiscent of males all together, so when they get word of a male actually still alive, they set out to find him and kill him, led by his sister. to keep them at bay, and other unfriendly people aware of his existence, yorick, his body guard, and the biologist studying him and his pet monkey are always on the move, traveling across the country, eventually making it to europe.

    surprisingly, the author keeps it relatively clean (definitely r-rated: quite a bit of blood and vulgarity, and some nudity) and doesn't make it pornographic or anywhere close.

    i just finished up the series a few minutes ago. i must say, it left me wanting more. i was sad to see it end. however, it has renewed an interest in comic books that had been lost since i was 12 or so.        [4 comments]

2008.03.08

  • i did it. i finally did it. i nagged jo into submission. today i bought an HDTV. after much reviewing and price comparisons, i ordered Samsung's 50" LED DLP 1080p tv. it's a little oversized for our current living room, but we've been thinking about buying a house recently--so maybe we'll be sure to get one that has a larger living room area.

    for those interested, i got the tv from Vanns.com for $1300 w/a 5 year warranty for $200 and the "official" Samsung stand for $150. all in all, a pretty decent deal i believe. now i've just got to wait for it to arrive.        [2 comments]

2008.02.29

  • recently, i've been looking into getting an HDTV. a few days back i came across an used 48" 1080i tv for an extremely reasonable price ($200). the only factor holding me back was that it only had a s-video (480p max resolution) and component input. my computer's video card outputs are dvi. i did some looking on ebay for a dvi to component cable/converter plug. everything i found said the card has to support the conversion, otherwise the cable or plug wouldn't work. i sent a message to my video card maker's (XFX) tech support. the next day i got a message back. "Casey, I've put a dvi to component cable in the mail for you. Thanks, Kevin (XFX Support Team)"

    how awesome is that? that's what customer service is meant to be. no "You need to send us money to cover S&H" or "You can buy a cable from one of our resellers" etc. just a flatout, no questions asked "Here ya go. Check your mail in a couple days" reply.

    with that simple message, XFX has won me as a returning customer when it's time to upgrade.        [3 comments]

2008.02.13

2007.10.01

2007.09.27

  • so last night i went into my computer room. the screensaver was going, as usual. i move the mouse. my main monitor changes from the screensaver to the desktop to a white screen ... to a black screen. i initially **hoped** the computer had just locked up, or the video card had stopped responding. but, alas, my secondary monitor, one i just got from a friend literally 2 weeks ago, was still showing the extended desktop and i could move my cursor there and open things up.

    i shut the monitor off. i leave it off for a couple of minutes. i then turn it back on. i can kind of see the manufacturer's splash screen, then a very shadowed image of my desktop, then it's practically black again.

    thinking that there might be an off-chance that the power or monitor cables went bad, I did some searching on my tiny 15" 1024x768 max resolution secondary monitor and quickly confirmed my sad suspicions that it has got to be the bulb blew.

    this morning i found my warranty documentation on the manufacturer's site. 3 years coverage (from order date) on backlights. i ordered my monitor on Sept. 8, 2004.

    i wish i hadn't found that documentation.        [0 comments]

2007.09.22

  • so a buddy of mine just put together a media center machine. he's had the tv for a couple years now, but just within the last month did he start taking full advantage of its 1080 awesomeness. comparing my 20" trinitron and soft-modded xbox to his setup in all of its glory has found me wanting. for the last couple of days i've been checking out all the sites, comparing prices, reading editor and consumer reviews. this is what i've come up with. granted, actually buying it is many months away (perhaps even a year or more), which means by the time i get the money together to get it, it'll be out-of-date. but, if i were to recommend a media center setup for right now to anyone, this is what it would be:

    case 

    motherboard 

    processor 

    video card

    tv screen 

    of course, you'd have to also get some ram (nothing over 4 gigs for a 32-bit OS) and a power supply (400watts minimum), and some sata drives to store all those high-def videos, encoded in MKV, 'cause you ain't gonna need a HD-DVD or Blu-Ray player. for under 3 grand (under 500 if you've already got the tv, ram, PS and hard drives) you can have a stinkin' sweet setup.
    ...one day, media center, one day...        [6 comments]
  • this just got popular on digg. i think it's a smart move by the pc companies. eventually vista, we'll switch to you -- but not just yet.        [0 comments]

2007.09.18

  • perhaps you've heard of this site. perhaps not. it's mint.com. i signed up for it's beta use months ago. a few weeks back, i finally got an invite. i had to agree to not mention it to anyone (i.e. blog about it or send out the "Create an Account" url). as of today, they've gone public. so, now, please feel free to get yourself an account and manage your budget to your hearts content.

    okay, it doesn't actually make your budget, but if you have multiple bank accounts, credit cards, student loans (that one is in the works), you can put 'em all on mint and have one place to login to and check your accounts. it really streamlines everything financial for you. they also have "ways to save" recommendations, and the services are growing. i'm really excited about the potential the site has.        [5 comments]

2007.07.23

  • i submitted something to lifehacker and they actually posted it. it's something i found a few months back but remembered it just last week. the lh turn-around isn't bad at all. i submitted it on thursday and they added it today. now i've got warm fuzzies.        [2 comments]

2007.07.12

  • what can happen in 30 minutes?

    an asian boy can beat the first super mario brothers game 6 times over.
    you can donate blood.
    you can watch the reunion episode of you can't do that on television on youtube.
    you can rock out to weezer's first album (mostly, excluding the last track).
    you can dance with the devil in the pale moonlight.
    . . . or, like me, you can miss the chance of getting a 1968 mustang in decent condition for $4,000. that's it, all it took was missing a phone call 30 minutes before going to lunch and my dreams of owning a sweet piece of history were dashed against the wall. and so now, what can i do for 4 hours (my remaining workday after lunch)? look on collector car trader.com at what i missed, but hope to have eventually.        [0 comments]

2007.06.29

  • for the last couple of months, i've had a joost account. it's been great. there's quite a few old shows on there, like who's the boss and gi joe. joost also had a "transformers" channel. but it was of the early to mid 90s japanese inception. it was alright, but it certainly wasn't the style we all cherished as kids. the channel description for the last month or so said "generation 1 coming soon." well, this morning, i woke up to see that glorious promise come to fruition. just in time for the movie's release.        [0 comments]

2007.06.26

  • i love lifehacker. i can never remember to look at digg, engadget, gizmodo, fark, or any of the other rss subscriptions i have--but lifehacker i can always find not just something interesting, but something actually useful there. they peruse the whole interwebs so i don't have to, and find anything and everything (from budgeting to dieting to tech guru stuff) that makes life a little bit easier in today's modern world. tonight's highlight: unlocking a car door (manual or electronic) with a tennis ball.        [6 comments]

2007.05.24

  • i found this crazy little game on digg last night. it's a flash "choose your own adventure" game. beware the manticore and the 8-bit nudity. note: multiple tries on the same thing can have different results.        [1 comment]

2007.05.16

  • I said it once before for Papa John II, I'll say it for Jerry:

    "Welcome Home, My Good and Faithful Servant"        [1 comment]

2007.05.12

  • with vista came UAC -- the User Account Control. i'm sure you know what it is. i'm sure you've seen the apple commercial. "you are coming to a sad realization . . . allow or deny." it's suppose to be all about security. well, for me, it's really all about being annoying. sure you could simply disable it, but then there really is no extra security. so a compromise has been created. tweak uac gives much of the security benefits, while turning off all of those annoying "allow or deny" pop-ups. after you run that, you just have to turn off the tray icon.        [0 comments]

[next entries] »