Technology

Just In Case You're Upgrading

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Tue, 31 Oct 2006 23:40:00 GMT

If you get in on the Microsoft Virtual PC 2007 beta, here's a tip. Make sure you open all your virtual machines and shut them down before you upgrade. The saved state from 2004 is not compatible with the 2007 beta, and you won't be able to bring up any virtual machines from a 2004 saved state.

Whew!

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Tue, 20 Jun 2006 20:44:00 GMT

Well, my hosting provider says my blog was causing processor spikes on their server and that I needed to fix it. Well, that's what they told me after I contacted them to see why my site was down (with no warning or notification). Seems odd, since I've been using the same blog engine for over a year with them, and nothing about it has changed since I first uploaded it

So, I had been wanting to convert over to Subtext anyway, what better opportunity than this? So I installed it, did an import of my old blog, and with quite a bit of tinkering, was able to get my site pretty much back to the way it was.

If anyone notices anything funky that's not working, let me know, there's a Contact link up at the top...that is working now that I've fixed it.

It's Out!

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Wed, 30 Nov 2005 10:08:00 GMT

The Quake 4 demo is available for download (PC only). Get it while it's hot!

Taking A Profit

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Tue, 22 Nov 2005 19:58:00 GMT

Damn, I wish I had an Xbox 360 today. Not because I really want to fire up some new games (which I wouldn't mind) but because a $400 system is going for about $1500 on eBay. Ah, supply and demand, it's a beautiful thing.

Dancing Queen

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 21:04:00 GMT

Um, I guess it's good that NASA has invented some sort of skin for robots that will help them avoid bumping into humans, I suppose that could come in handy.

However, the method in which they decided to unveil this new invention...well...

You just have to see it for yourself. I can't believe no one at NASA thought to themselves, "Hey, you know what? That kind of looks like a dancing space penis."

Got A Blackberry?

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Fri, 28 Oct 2005 18:15:00 GMT

Then you probably spent at least $200 on it. But it's nice to be able to get your email on the go. Or at least for now, anyway.

Research In Motion Ltd. lost a Supreme Court bid to block proceedings that might result in a nationwide shutdown of its BlackBerry e-mail service.
Lawyers for RIM had argued its business would be harmed irreparably if the court did not delay the return of the case to the lower court where the company was found guilty in 2003 of violating patents held by NTP Inc.

I thought about buying one, but it just didn't have all the features I wanted. Thank goodness I didn't. If the email service shuts down, there's gonna be a lot of pissed off people calling their wireless providers.

UPDATE: This probably won't help RIM much, either.

Feature Request

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Mon, 12 Sep 2005 19:24:00 GMT

Since moving to a new city, I've been using Mapquest quite a bit to plot out how to get where I'm going, and it usually does a pretty good job. They even have an option to click on to "Avoid Highways" which has been really handy, since the geniuses here decided to shut down two major bridges that both cross the same river. Seems they both needed rennovating. At the same time.

Now, that is a very useful feature, but one more option would be nice. Something you could click on to "Avoid Areas Where I Might Get Shot" would be very nice. So, MapQuest guys, if you could go ahead and start working on that, I'd really appreciate it.

The Joys Of High Definition

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Thu, 01 Sep 2005 20:46:00 GMT

I finally got around to getting some high definition programming for my unnecessarily large television. As Dax might say, Just Damn! I'm finding that I'll watch stuff I probably wouldn't if it wasn't in hi def, just because the picture looks so damned good.

I'm a big fan of IMAX movies, and I can now watch many of them in hi def. I watched a show about dolphins earlier tonight, narrated by Pierce Brosnan. The color and clarity are just amazing.

However, I'm not quite sure I'll stick with Time Warner cable, which I currently have. The reason it's taken me so long to get hi def programming is that I've been a Dish Network customer for many years. And a happy one. However, I didn't want to shell out $700 bucks for a new hi def receiver with a PVR built in. Especially when new customers could get the same thing for about $250 plus a few bucks a month. And Dish didn't really have enough hi def channels to justify that expense anyway.

But now that they're purchased Voom, there's a whole slate of new hi def channels soon to come online over at Dish. However, those channels are broadcast with MPEG4 video, and all the current Dish receivers are only capable of MPEG3 decoding. However, the 962 receiver is rumored for release sometime next year. At that time, I'll be considered a new customer again, and can get the cheap deal on a new receiver, and they should have at least thirty hi def channels then. I can't wait for that.

You Know Your Sales Are Hurting When...

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Tue, 23 Aug 2005 12:23:00 GMT

You resort to giving away your Blackberry phones with the purchase of a pizza, a side dish, and some soda.

Advertising Pet Peeve

aubrey@evilwhiteguy.com — Wed, 03 Aug 2005 19:10:00 GMT

Everyone's got a website these days. It's bad business if you don't, just like they tell you on the register.com commercials. "We lost the client because we didn't have a website." And as words are generally easier to remember than phone numbers, ads on radio usually throw in a website address at the end of the ad. But if you're going to throw out a website, for the Pete of sake, get the terminology straight.

Lots of these commercials end with something like "Call us at 555-1234 or click on whateverourwebsiteis.com." How the hell can I click on it, unless I'm on some page that has a link for it? Man that pisses me off.