I cannot possibly describe how awesome this is: The Quest For Every Beard Type. I love my beard, you should too!
Electronics Geek + Gamer = Hacks
April 23rd, 2008
I love hacking electronics, or at least thinking about it. I’ve had this particular thought before, but I never realized the beauty of it in action until now. Go to about 1:30 and watch from there if you’re impatient. The video is lengthy but shows just what a little Microchip PIC and some tinkering can pull off. Can you say “Machine Pistol?”
Via Hack a Day.
4 ways to improve your cable internet access
April 1st, 2008
Does your cable modem suck? Do you randomly get booted from World of Warcraft, suffer from being knif…err “LAG!!!” in games like counter strike or team fortress 2? It could be your ISP sucks, or it could be your cable modem. But how do you know? Don’t call the company, use your modem’s built-in diagnostic webserver — http://192.168.100.1 — to troubleshoot a few things. This works on ALL DOCSIS compliant cable modems – it’s part of the standard as far as I know. Armed with the knowledge contained in this diagnostic website, you can tackle the big 4 suspects in flaky cable internet access: Signal, Splitters, Cabling and Connectors.
Words cannot describe just how much destruction a simple water heater can cause if its safety features are disabled/bypassed. You must watch this video, it is worth every bit of your time. Seriously – this got a huge laugh out of me, and out of everyone in the office who I showed it to. Much thanks to Mike (Vendy) for showing it to me in the first place. Without further adieu…
Morally Inferior, Politically Superior
March 12th, 2008
News has been rattling around the web about the governor of New York, Eliot Spitzer being “linked to a prostitution ring.” And that’s putting it lightly – the executive summary version of his offense reads like the note your principal sent home with you when you got caught smoking in the boys bathroom.
I suppose it’s not too often that I’m going to link something as banal as a screen saver. But this screen saver is special. You see, I’ve got a predisposition to this particular style of graph, data visualization, or whatever technical or mathematical moniker you want to give it. And it’s cool enough to support dual monitors and draw two instances. Rock on!
I give you The Polar Clock
But what’s this? You want to hear about the preexisting fetish? Perhaps you expect to see llamas stacked in outlandish geometric fashion, each one wielding an exquisitely decorated placard bearing similar data to the above clock? You’ll have to keep reading to find out.
The Portal: A Day in the Life of a Turret is something that you should watch if you’ve ever played Portal. Or even if you haven’t, you just to imagine what life would be like for turrets assigned to kill everyone, but only if they were sarcastic and hated each other. It’s brilliant!
The Alternate Truth
February 15th, 2008
Deep breath, roll with it. Alegro! Nota Bene: the following is fiction, hence the title!
Here I sit in ABS vent, pulse quickened, heart racing, stomach singing a song of discontent. I was disconnected, but now I’m back down on terra firma. Shaking, skin aflush. Sweaty, and my face leaving no doubt as to my state of mind; eyes half-open, lower lip still quivering and a bloody nose to boot. I think about how I must be so incredibly subverted from my original purpose, and stress induced nosebleeds — why is this happening to me?
Breath out, slowly. Don’t hold it in. More after the break.
Read the rest of this entry »
As you’ll remember from First post on this subject a while back, the DMV liked to jerk me around. And there was much hilarity in my analysis of the conundrum set forth before me. Let me now present Part II — there’s no conclusion yet.
The day after my first run-in with the harpies at the DMV, I estimated that the situation would be fairly easy to resolve now that I knew that all they really wanted in life was a copy of my wretched PA automobile title. To that end, I phoned PSECU again and delivered a lengthy discourse to the customer service representative on what was going on. Because they’re PSECU, they’re helpful – the CSR informed me that the easiest course of action would be if Clerk of Courts office faxed a request in for a copy of my PA title. I informed the CSR that “there’s no way those grumpy old women would actually comply with that request”, and I am 100% confident that still holds true. These are people there for a paycheck, nothing more – truly the bottom of the state service barrel — Like worse than DOT workers, except without the shovels and watching 1 of their coworkers do their job while 3 others stand around mining their noses for gold.
As most of you know, I’m a fairly new resident of Cincinnati. I came from State College, PA and Penn State a few months ago. Of course, the State of Ohio has to have their fingers in my business (as if Ohio State wasn’t pain enough) in the form of registration required for my four-wheeled child, the 4Runner. No worry, I figure – I’ve got proof of insurance, a passport and a birth certificate in my war chest for this particular sortie. Boy was I wrong.