All Things Geek

Repartition a Hard Drive the Easy Way

2007-03-01T11:36:00.000-06:00

If there is one thing that I've tried to stay away from in my computer tweaking, it's been repartitioning a hard drive. Over the years, I've formatted, re-formatted and installed many a operating system. But I've never re-partitioned a drive. I've always tried to stay away from it for fear I'd damage a drive so bad, I'd have to make a trip down to my local Comp-USA to replace a drive I just fried.

But the other day at work, I didn't have a choice. I was given the task of running Microsoft Update on one of our Windows XP Pro systems. The problem was that the joker who had set the system up didn't understand the concept of "future growth". They had originally partitioned the 20GB drive to a primary partition of 4GB (for the OS and apps) and the other 16GB (which was actually around 15GB).

Lot's of room to grow right?

I guess this guy thought Windows updates didn't take up any space, or he was never intending to update it. It also sure didn't leave a lot of room for apps either... idiot...

So, back to the story, So here I am faced with re-partitioning a production drive. I was in luck on one account. The user primarily stored her files on the server (don't ask....) so backing up the important data was a breeze.

A couple of days before, in my random surfing, I stumbled upon a program called GParted. Well, I figured I might need something like this one day, so I downloaded and burned the image to disc.

Sure enough, a couple of days later, I needed the app. So I popped the disc in the drive, rebooted (already had the BIOS set to boot from CD-ROM drive first then the HDD) and watched as the program started up.

The program loaded quickly (especially on an old Dell 4500s) and was easy to use. At first, I was a little confused on how to move the free space from the second partition back to the primary small partition. But after a quick read through the GParted documentation section, it became very clear what to do. (The exact documentation is here)

The repartitioning itself also went fairly quickly. All in all I found it to be an easy-to use, strong and very useful program. So my thanks to the GParted dev team!

Are you a Hot Geek or Not?

2006-02-13T01:03:00.001-06:00

We've opened up a section of the site for fun called Hot Geek or Not. It's a light-hearted way for you and your fellow geeks to see how you measure up in your "hot geekyness". ;)

As an incentive for people to post their pictures and help get the word out about the site, we're giving away a free sticker to everyone who posts at least one pic to the site. Details are at the site.

We're also giving away one of our CafePress Store items away free to the hottest Girl Geek and hottest Guy Geek for the month of February. To win all you need to do is be ranked #1 in your category (Male or Female) at 11:59 PM February 28th. U.S. residents only please.

Read all the Enron e-mails you want

2006-02-13T01:03:00.000-06:00

Want to know something cool and scary at the same time?

You can read through hundreds of thousands of Enron employee and executive emails for free...

A company called Inboxer, Inc. has set up a website (enronemail.com) to demostrate their software to help companies manage their email. They refer to it as an: "Outbound Content Compliance appliance, [that] helps you protect intellectual property, maintain customer data privacy, demonstrate compliance, and manage inappropriate employee behavior."

And these days, with more and more folks using their company's internet connection for personal means, this kind of software is gonna be needed more and more.

How did they come upon the emails? According to the site, the Feds (Federal Energy Regulatory Commission) gave it to them.

They're also holding a few contests for who can dig up the most firable message, the funniest joke, and the best "Oh crap! I wish I hadn't just sent that" emails from the database.

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Fresh Ice Cream while you wait

2006-02-13T00:56:00.000-06:00

At the 2006 Demo Conference they had something very cool. MooBella has created a vending machine that will make you a customized Ice Cream scoop right in front of you. We're not talking spitting out a pre-made scoop and tossing some toppings on it. Nope. We're talking this puppy will mix together the fresh ingredients that you've selected, flash-freeze your selection and serve it right up to you in less than a minute.

Pretty freakin' cool huh? I have *got* to find one of these machines! If anyone finds one let us know what you think.

On the technical side of the machine, you can select from 96 differnet combinations of flavors and toppings, it runs on Linux, and it's smart enough to know that if it's out of a topping or flavor to not display it as an option.

There are videos of the system on both the MooBella under the "Click here to see what people are saying link" and at the 2006 Demo Conference site.

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Captain Picard Gets Funky

2006-02-06T23:27:00.000-06:00

Somebody put together this music video of Capt. Picard and the crew of the NCC-1701D getting down and funky to a techno song pieced together from what I can only guess is bits of sound clips from ST:TNG.

It appears to have been made with the help of The Sims 2, and you can tell a lot of work went into it. Whoever posted it on PutFile misspelled Picard though. Dumbass...

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You may be eating crushed beetles and not even know it

2006-01-30T23:28:00.000-06:00

Quick, check your refrigerator and look for the following ingredients: "carmine" or "cochineal". If you see those listed, you've got crushed bugs in your food.

It seems that those are the two names the FDA asks manufacturers put on their labels when including bugs in their products. But apparently they aren't required to do so.

You might also want to check the products you don't eat too. According to CNN the ingredients can be found in lots of other products:

"Carmine puts the red in ice cream, strawberry milk, fake crab and lobster, fruit cocktail cherries, port wine cheese, lumpfish eggs and liqueurs like Campari, according to the FDA. Carmine is also used in lipstick, makeup base, eye shadow, eyeliners, nail polishes and baby products, the agency said. Meanwhile, cochineal extract shows up in fruit drinks, candy, yogurt and some processed foods."

How's that for a crappy Monday surprise?

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NASA's Visible Earth: Super High-Res photos of Earth

2006-01-29T23:29:00.000-06:00

Check it. Over 200 GB of high res photos of Earth all freely available from NASA. Some of them are so huge that they're now offering them via BitTorrent.

Visit the Visible Earth site.

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Spaceport coming to New Mexico

2005-12-08T23:30:00.000-06:00

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051208/sc_nm/space_virgin_dc

Looks like all you folks in New Mexico are getting a spaceport courtesy of Billionaire Richard Branson. "Virgin Galactic" flights will cost around $200,000 a pop when they start flying in 2008...hmmm better start saving.

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Oregon State University HUGE Firefox logo

2005-10-08T22:32:00.000-06:00

http://lug.oregonstate.edu/index.php/Projects/Firefox

Students from Oregon State University painted a huge mural of the Firefox logo on their campus Quad.

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Fun with Vader

2005-09-24T10:35:00.000-06:00

Aw man this is a hoot. Somebody took a bunch of James Earl Jones audio clips and redubbed them over Darth Vader scenes. check it out:

http://media.putfile.com/vaderfun

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GeekFury now offers T-shirts via CafePress

2005-09-19T10:38:00.000-06:00

We now offer many of our designs at our own cafepress store!

Just how fast is the Millennium Falcon?

2005-08-17T10:39:00.000-06:00

A fan of the 'ol gal has closely and scientifically examined the Star Wars films, placed markers on the film and computed her average top speed. They has also done a quick comparison to the speed of the Enterprise. :)

Check out their findings

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Tinkerer gets his Toyota Prius to get 80 mpg

2005-08-15T10:39:00.000-06:00

Looks like there may be a new form of "hot rodder" in the near future. :)

A guy in California has rigged his Toyota Prius hybrid car to squeeze even more gas milage out of it.

According to the article:"It looks like a typical Toyota Prius hybrid, but in the trunk sits an 80-miles-per-gallon secret - a stack of 18 brick-sized batteries that boosts the car's high mileage with an extra electrical charge so it can burn even less fuel.

Gremban, an electrical engineer and committed environmentalist, spent several months and $3,000 tinkering with his car."

'"They're like the hot rodders of yesterday who did everything to soup up their cars. It was all about horsepower and bling-bling, lots of chrome and accessories," said Cindy Knight, a Toyota spokeswoman. "Maybe the hot rodders of tomorrow are the people who want to get in there and see what they can do about increasing fuel economy."'

"The extra batteries let Gremban drive for 20 miles with a 50-50 mix of gas and electricity. Even after the car runs out of power from the batteries and switches to the standard hybrid mode, it gets the typical Prius fuel efficiency of around 45 mpg. As long as Gremban doesn't drive too far in a day, he says, he gets 80 mpg."

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Is NASA incompetent?

2005-07-28T10:40:00.000-06:00

NASA...

Ya know, when I was a kid, I looked up to NASA. They did some pretty amazing things. From landing men on the moon to sending probes to the edges of our solar system, it was all pretty fantastic.

Then the shuttle Challenger exploded. That shook my faith in them a bit.

But they soon pulled themselves up by their bootstraps and...puttered around from the next 10 or so years. They were happy just sending the shuttle in and out of orbit. So much so, that most of the public lost interest in shuttle launches. They became an ordinary event. Boring almost.

NASA claimed that they were doing research and preparing for a space station. Which we did *finally* get, but at a snails pace.

It seems to me that during the early 90's NASA slowed down to almost a crawl. It lost it's drive, it's curiosity to explore and innovate like no one has seen before. Perhaps it's the upper management's fault, who knows?

All I know is that it seems to me that the NASA that put us on the moon and was so bold and adventurous died in the 90's and now we're left with a shell. Another bumbing governmental agency. I mean the DOT and DMV might as well be running NASA. Hell, they couldn't do much worse.

This latest bumbing of the chunch of insulation coming of the main tank and nearly missing the shuttle. They spent boatloads of our money to try to find the problem, and insure that it would never happen again. So that we would not lose another crew like we did when the Columbia was lost.

But what happens? The same damn thing. Luckily, this time the chunk missed the shuttle. So what was all that time and money spent for?

Nothing apparently.

I think it's time there was a house cleanning at NASA. Obviously, the folks who are running don't know their ass for a hole in the ground. I know there are a lot of hard working men and women at NASA, and I don't blame them. I know their hands are tied by the endless bureaucracy and group think that must be going on at the higher levels.

But this kind of crap has to stop. It's embarrassing. It's sickening, and worst of all it's not necessary.

I want the NASA of my boyhood back.

I want the NASA who knew how to do amazing, inspiring things, and do them right.

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Remote controlled Star Wars models

2005-07-26T10:40:00.000-06:00

Here's some cool stuff. R/C Star Wars models.

Yann's R/C Naboo Royal Cruiser
Visit the site

Go-RC's Millennium Falcon
Project thread 1
Project thread 2

Oldpilot's Jedi Star Fighter
Project thread

Artsloper's X-Wing in progress with working folding wings!
Project thread

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A new tool in the fight against SPAM

2005-07-25T10:42:00.000-06:00

New Scientist Magazine is reporting that a team from IBM and Cornell have developed a new anti-spam technique that may help to stop those *wonderful* "Purchase generic drugs from our #1 ranked generic drugs provider" and "have your quicker alleviations. quickly" email messages we all get every single freakin' day.

From the article:
"A team from IBM and Cornell University in New York state, US, developed the anti-spam technique, which they call "SMTP Path Analysis". It involves examining information embedded in email messages about the route it has taken across the internet. This allows it to make a good guess as to whether or not a new message is electronic junk mail."

"The SMTP Path Analysis algorithm "learns" by examining the string of internet protocol (IP) addresses included in both spam and legitimate email headers. When a new message arrives, it is then able to judge, with relative accuracy, whether it is legitimate or, in fact, unwanted spam."

Sounds good to me.

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What the hell is this outside of Beijing?

2005-07-25T10:41:00.000-06:00

Okay, so I'm puttering around with Google's new 3D globe software trying to find the new Disneyland in Hong Kong, and I notice some weird blue splotches on the map just outside of Beijing.

Click for larger version

So I zoom in for a closer look:

Click for larger version

Did I mention how cool Google's new 3D globe software is?

And this is what I discovered:

Click for larger version

Now I'm puzzled by this, what could all these blue patches be? Anyone know?

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Become a "Certified" Geek

2005-07-16T10:43:00.000-06:00

According to The Japan Times, a Japanese publisher, Biblos, is offering a geek exam that if passed, would certify you as an official Geek, or "Otaku". They've set up a website for the exam: http://www.otaken.jp/

From the Article:
"The computer-scored test, which will be in a multiple-choice format, will be conducted by mail so anyone can apply, even from overseas. But the applicants must be able to get the question and answer forms and comprehend the "postgraduate"-level questions, which will be written in Japanese.

The article also goes into a bit of the culture of the Japanese geek. Click those mechanical pencils boys and girls, let's get ready to test our geek knowledge!

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We were slashdotted to death

2005-07-04T10:43:00.000-06:00

On July 4th you may have noticed that the site was down for a little while. Well, it appears the guys at Slashdot.org that it would be cool to link to our Star Wars Lego file *WITHOUT* our permission.

Needless to say, it pushed our bandwidth over the limit and I'm pissed. We had to buy more bandwidth this month (which means no more video, at least this month). The thing that pisses me off the most, is that we only got a mirror link. They didn't ask us, they just linked directly to the file, so the leechers went directly to the file, and NEVER saw the rest of the site. They missed the blog, the radio station and the forums.

They know about the slashdot effect, and yet they didn't care. This is why I don't visit Slashdot.

I'd like more people to visit the site, especially in a slashdot manner, just not leechers. I'd like folks to visit in Slashdot numbers, and come enjoy the site and the forum and stick around. Not just fly in like vultures, take what they want and leave.

Man I'm pissed. The one time we get numbers like that, and they sneak in the back door. :(

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Assembling a LEGO Star Destroyer in under 5 minutes!

2005-06-28T10:44:00.000-06:00

Watch a couple assemble a LEGO Star Destroyer in under 5 minutes!

Watch this:

turn into this:

in less than five minutes...through the miracle of time-lapsed webcam shots. :)

It took Michi and Edda ten hours to build the Lego Star Wars Star Destroyer, and they took shots of their progress with their webcam every five seconds. They then assembled the shots into a AVI video, compressed it with DivX and shared it with the world. It's a heck of a model and a heck of a build. Check it out.

Edda's post with the video on her blog

Mirror link removed due to Slashdot linking to us as a mirror without our permission and bringing down the site. Sorry. (7/4/05)

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Starbucks Logo: From naughty to nice in four easy steps.

2005-06-21T10:45:00.000-06:00

Deadprogrammer.com has an interesting look at the origins ot the Starbucks logo and how it started out as a whorish Melusine. :)

It's an interesting read and I have one question to the original owners of Starbucks. Why a Melusine?

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Full CSS Property Compatibility Chart

2005-06-16T10:46:00.000-06:00

The chart on this page is a handy reference for those of us who can't keep our browser/CSS compatibilities straight. ;-)

The chart is also interactive allowing you to click on the CSS property to find out more details about that property and sample code. Clicking on a browser on the page gives ya a compatibility listing for that browser only.

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Need cheap printer supplies? Call the LaserMonks.

2005-06-14T10:46:00.000-06:00

I don't know why I haven't heard of these fellas before, and by fellas I mean monks. That's right, monks. Selling printer toner and ink...cheap. I'm running low on ink and I think I might give these guys a try next time.

Here's some of their backstory from Lasermonks.com:

"All I wanted was a little bit of black dust for one of our monastery printers. In my search for a toner cartridge, I was suddenly struck with how incredibly expensive this black dust and a few squirts of ink were. "There must be a better way," I said to myself.

And so began my foray into the world of imaging supplies. What I discovered was a revelation. Simply stated, the mark-up on ink supplies is sinfully high, reaching in some instances into the 1,000-2,000 % levels. I also discovered that there were many companies that manufactured either new compatible cartridges or remanufactured cartridges at a fraction of the cost of the big name brands. My thoughts starting racing. Imagine the money we could save schools, churches, and other organizations if we could negotiate some deals with the manufacturers directly and cut out the middlemen.

LaserMonks.com was born.

Our monastery is part of the 900-year-old Cistercian Order; our particular Abbey was founded over 75 years ago in the United States. Every monastery has a monk in charge of all the temporal needs and activities of the community. Among my duties as Steward of Temporal Affairs are developing and managing ways to support our life and charities.

The manufacturers were elated with the possibilities. They immediately said we should market not only to schools, churches, and other non-profits, but especially to businesses. "Look, you're monks. You have an image and long tradition of being trustworthy and providing top quality products. You're offering a great product at a great price. Once people hear about you, it's an easy decision. Why would anyone pay more money, when they can have quality products for less, from monks who use the income to help others?"

Pretty cool idea if ya ask me. :) Their prices (plus shipping) seem to be what you'd have to pay if you went to your local faceless, souless Wally-World. But this way the cash goes to something more "productive". :)

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How build your own Gauss Rifle, or Magnetic Linear Accelerator

2005-06-12T10:53:00.001-06:00

Ah nothing like building your own magnetic linear accelerator. :)

According to the article it's easy to build:

"This very simple toy uses a magnetic chain reaction to launch a steel marble at a target at high speed. The toy is very simple to build, going together in minutes, and is very simple to understand and explain, and yet fascinating to watch and to use...

When the gauss rifle fires, it will happen too fast to see. The ball on the right will shoot away from the gun, and hit the target with considerable force. Our one foot long version is designed so the speed is not enough to hurt someone, and you can use your hand or foot as a target.

Sounds pretty darn cool to me. Now where did I put that wooden ruler...

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Coke's new Vault drink

2005-06-12T10:53:00.000-06:00

So I stopped off to get some gas today and noticed a new drink at the quickie-mart: Coca-Cola's Vault. According to Coke's website, it's being tested in certain markets.

The label says: "Drinks like a soda, kicks like an energy drink™" and it has a sharp citrus flavor to it. It definitely "kicks".

Well, I took my first swig, and I wasn't too impressed. Then again, I took a swig when I was chewing gum. So I tried it a bit later without the gum and it tasted real familar...BAM! it hit me. This stuff tasted like my old beloved drink for late nighters: Surge.

Could my old favorite be back? Only this time, it's back with a different name... Pick up a bottle and see for yourself. I'm curious as to who else out there thinks Vault tastes like Surge.

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Cooling...to the next level

2005-06-08T10:54:00.000-06:00

Like most computer geeks I likes me a cool rig...but this is a little crazy:

It seems this guy had a "few" fans sitting around the shop and decided to build a new case. :)

There's 70 fans in this bad boy, and get this, they all work. It's not just for looks baby. It's functional too. :thumbsup:

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Leeroy Jenkin's has a site now

2005-06-07T10:56:00.000-06:00

All you'd ever want to know about Leeroy Jenkins. :) The site includes a Leeroy Jenkins soundboard and other stuff.

It's not by the original Leeroy...well, I don't think it is, but it still fun to poke around.

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NASA plans to launch another Mars probe in 2007

2005-06-03T10:57:00.000-06:00

Looks like NASA is getting ready to launch another Mars probe.

"NASA is moving ahead with plans to put a long-armed lander on Mars' icy north pole to search for clues for water and possible signs of life, the space agency said Thursday.

The $386 million Phoenix Mars is scheduled to touch down in the Martian arctic in May 2008. The stationary probe will use its robotic arm to dig into the icy terrain and scoop up soil samples to analyze. In 2002, the Mars Odyssey orbiter spotted evidence of ice-rich soil near the arctic surface."

Read article on Yahoo News

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Hmmm and you thought our Government was clumsy

2005-06-01T10:58:00.001-06:00

You remember a few years back when the US Government lost a whole bunch of laptops filled with Top Secret information? Well it looks like in the UK, they just give the laptops away. Check out this article from The Register about a guy in the UK who found/was given a laptop with 70 Still Top Secret files stored on the HD.

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10 Bad Project Warning Signs

2005-06-01T10:58:00.000-06:00

Things to watch out for when freelancing and scoping jobs.

Blog Post

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New Trek movie rumored to be in the works

2005-05-31T11:00:00.000-06:00

There's rumors floating about the net about the timeframe for the next Trek. This article from TrekToday covers Bermen's comments about the movie and the cancellation of Enterprise.

"Star Trek franchise head Rick Berman recently made the first mention of a possible timeframe for the next Trek feature film, saying fans shouldn't expect a movie in the very near future.

"I think that if this film is made it certainly won't get finished in the next year," Berman told Ian Spelling, for the British Star Trek Magazine (via the Sci-Fi Pulse). And although Berman didn't specify exactly when a new Trek movie could arrive in theatres, he did hint at what timeframe he would personally like to be aiming for. "If it gets done in two years or three years I think that timeframe for a new, fresh feature with a whole different outlook would be fine."

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Argggh, what be ye's Piratical name?

2005-05-31T10:59:00.000-06:00

Get your own pirate name from fidius.org.

Argh me be liking this here little quiz. Arrrgh!

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The History of the THX "Sound"

2005-05-27T11:00:00.000-06:00

Every wonder where the "THX Sound" came from? This article reveals who was responsible for it and how he made it.

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Funny ads for Firefox

2005-05-24T11:01:00.000-06:00

These are three funny ads for the awesome Firefox browser.

Visit Funnyfox.org

Get Firefox now

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Last Entry from a Death Star Stormtroopers' Private Blog

2005-05-23T11:30:00.000-06:00

It's the last entries from a Stormtrooper's blog while stationed on the Deathstar. It talks about all the practical jokes they're gonna pull the next day (April 1st) Pretty funny stuff.

Visit the site

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Laser Could Rival Energy From Sun's Center

2005-05-23T11:29:00.001-06:00

From Yahoo News:

"LIVERMORE, Calif. - Ed Moses talks of the "grand challenge" that has consumed him for the past five years, comparing it to trying to hit the strike zone with a baseball from 350 miles away or tossing a dime into a parking meter from 40 miles. "That's the precision we have to have," says Moses, the director of a high-energy physics adventure to produce the world's most powerful laser — one that scientists hope will create in a laboratory the energy found at the center of the sun.

In a building the size of a football stadium, engineers have assembled the framework for a network of 192 laser beams, each traveling 1,000 feet to converge simultaneously on a target the size of a pencil eraser.

The trip will take one-thousandth of a second during which the light's energy is amplified many billions of times to create a brief laser pulse 1,000 times the electric generating power of the United States.

The goal is to create unimaginable heat — 180 million degrees Farenheit — and intense pressure from all directions on a BB-size hydrogen fuel pellet, compressing it to one-thirtieth of its size."

Read the Article

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LEEEEEEERRRRROOOOOYYYYYY JENKINS!

2005-05-23T11:29:00.000-06:00

For all you World of Warcraft (WOW) fans, you have got to watch this video. LMAO!

Video (16Megs WMV) - Right click & choose "save as"

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How to hack your TiVo

2005-05-18T11:31:00.000-06:00

I've heard of folks doing this before, here's a pretty detailed article on how to do it.

Link to Article

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Geek Tattoos

2005-05-17T11:31:00.000-06:00

Wow talk about dedication! Some of these folks *really* believe in their OS. I kinda feel sorry for the guy with "Amiga" tattooed on the back of his head. :) Some of the other tats are pretty cool.

View the Gallery

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How LEGOs® are Made

2005-05-16T11:32:00.000-06:00

This is a pretty cool Flash presentation of how LEGOs are made. Included are mini video clips and very cool pixel animations.

Visit the site

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Your Brandname Recordable DVD May Be a Counterfeit

2005-05-13T11:33:00.000-06:00

CNews has an article on being careful when you buy recordable DVDs. You may be paying for a Memorex DVDr, but you may not be getting a Memorex disc.

"magine a DVD of the latest Star Wars movie shows up at a flea market - new in a full retail package. The movie hasn't even been on the big screen for more than a week. Your "spidey sense" tells you immediately that there is something wrong with this picture. It's a fake, a counterfeit- guaranteed. Now if you walked into a local store and you saw a retail box of Maxell Blank Recordable CDs or DVDs, it would never cross your mind that these too may not be the real thing."

Read the article here

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Discovery Channel's "100 Greatest Americans" list

2005-05-12T11:34:00.000-06:00

Visit the Discovery Channel & vote

Okay, I don't know if you heard about this or not, but the Discovery Channel is running this "contest" to see who their viewers consider the 100 greatest Americans. They've made a list of 100 Americans and are asking the visitors to their site to rank them. I was looking over the list and found a bunch of folks, that for the life of me, I can't figure out why the hell they're on there. I mean they're Americans, and they may have had some popularity, but they're not "great", they haven't made any great contributions to our country, the world, society or the human race. So why are they on "the list"?

Here's the list with they one's I personally fell don't belong marked in bold:
Ali, Muhammad
Angelou, Maya
Anthony, Susan B.
Armstrong, Lance
Armstrong, Neil
Ball, Lucille
Bell, Alexander Graham
Bush, Barbara - What did she do? She's married to one former president and gave birth to another President. Big Whoop!

Bush, George H. W.
Bush, George W.
Bush, Laura - Okay I don't even get the Laura Bush thing here, kinda like the Barb thing. And don't ya think it's a little too early to making the call on the "Georges"?

Carnegie, Andrew
Carson, Johnny
Carter, Jimmy
Carver, George Washington
Charles, Ray
Chavez, Cesar
Clinton, Bill - Again I think it's still too early to make this call. Time will tell.

Clinton, Hillary ???? You GOT to be kidding me...
Cosby, Bill
Cruise, Tom - He's just a freakin' actor. That's it. Nothing nore, nothing less. He's not trying to cure world hunger is he?

DeGeneres, Ellen - Okay, she's funny. But one of our greatest Americans?

Disney, Walt
Douglass, Frederick
Earhart, Amelia
Eastwood, Clint - I like Clint, but he's just an actor.
Edison, Thomas Alva
Edwards, John - This isn't the "I talk to dead people" Edwards. This is the one who ran for VP last election. I still don't know why he's on the list.

Einstein, Albert
Eisenhower, Dwight
Favre, Brett - Can someone help me out here? Does he do a lot for charities or is he just there as one of the sports tokens?

Ford, Henry
Franklin, Benjamin
Gates, Bill
Gibson, Mel - "Bird on a wire". I like Mel, but come on...

Giuliani, Rudolf
Glenn, John
Graham, Billy
Hamilton, Alexander
Hanks, Tom - I like Tom, and he might be a cherished American, but one of the greatest?

Hefner, Hugh
Hepburn, Katherine
Hope, Bob
Hughes, Howard
Jackson, Michael
Jefferson, Thomas
Jobs, Steve
Johnson, Lyndon B.
Jordan, Michael
Keller, Helen
Kennedy, John F.
Kennedy, Robert F.
Kennedy Onassis, Jacqueline
King Jr., Dr. Martin Luther
Limbaugh, Rush - Controversial yes, greatest, debatable.

Lincoln, Abraham
Lindberg, Charles
Lucas, George
Madonna - See Rush Limbaugh.

Malcolm X
McGraw, Dr. Phil - Um, nope. Sorry.

Monroe, Marilyn
Moore, Michael - See Rush Limbaugh

Murphy, Audie
Nixon, Richard
Obama, Barack
Owens, Jesse
Parks, Rosa
Patton, George
Powell, Colin
Presley, Elvis
Reagan, Ronald
Reeve, Christopher
Rice, Condoleezza - Hmmm I'm begining to think the Republican Party put this list together... ;-)

Robinson, Jackie
Roosevelt, Eleanor
Roosevelt, Franklin D
Roosevelt, Theodore
Ruth, Babe
Sagan, Carl
Salk, Jonas
Schwarzenegger, Arnold - Ummm, WTF?

Sinatra, Frank
Smith, Joseph
Spielberg, Steven
Stewart, Jimmy
Stewart, Martha - Nuthin says "Greatest American" like a conviction & prison time...

Tesla, Nikola
Tillman, Pat
Truman, Harry
Trump, Donald
Tubman, Harriet
Twain, Mark
Walton, Sam
Washington, George
Wayne, John
Winfrey, Oprah
Woods, Tiger
Wright, Orville & Wilbur
Yeager, Chuck

So you can see there are some folks that I can't for the life of me figure out why they're on the list. Maybe the DC should have made it the 50 greatest Americans and cut out some of the fluff?

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Free graph paper online in PDF format

2005-05-12T11:33:00.000-06:00

This kick so much ass. Man I could have used this a long time ago!

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Yahoo to introduce a iTunes & Napster like music service

2005-05-11T11:34:00.000-06:00

Read the Article here

It looks like Yahoo is introducing their own digital music store. And it looks like they are taking a little from Apple and a little from Napster.

"For a fee of $4.99 USD per month paid annually, or $6.99 USD monthly, customers can stream or download an unlimited number of songs and transfer them to portable devices supporting Microsoft's Janus digital rights management technology...As with any such music service, songs will become unplayable if the subscription lapses. Alternatively, users can purchase individuals songs they wish to keep indefinitely for 79 cents, or 99 cents for customers who forego the monthly fee."

Hmmm.... I think I'll be keeping an eye on this.

Yahoo Music Engine Website

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Solar Death Ray

2005-05-10T11:35:00.000-06:00

lol This is too cool. I think I'd like to build one of these bad boys.

"The Solar Death Ray is made of 112 mirrors mounted on a platform 4 feet
wide and 6 feet tall. Each mirror is a square roughly 3.5 inches on edge. All
these mirrors focus the sun to a single spot 5 feet, 6 inches from the mirror
platform. A wooden fork extends from the mirror base to the area near the
focus and serves as a mounting point for Solar Death Ray targets. The
mirror platform is mounted to the support frame on a pivot that allows the
platform to be angled. The whole system is mounted on a set of wheels."

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I'm a Nerd Video (Stormtrooper version)

2005-05-09T11:35:00.000-06:00

Herbert Midgley (website) is a nerd and proud of it! He recently did another version of his "I'm a Nerd" song and this time wearing his own Stormtrooper armor, which looks awesome by the way!

Check it out:

Herbert's Blog
Mirror of "I'm a Nerd" Video (Stormtrooper Version)

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Lockheed Martin unveils its proposed space shuttle replacement

2005-05-05T11:36:00.000-06:00

Worms may hold the answer for lost human limbs

2005-05-03T11:38:00.000-06:00

Very interesting research:

"This study introduces the possibility of carrying out systematic gene function studies in an organism that traditionally has not been accessible to genetics," said Sánchez Alvarado. "The importance of this advance lies in the biological attributes displayed by planarians -- that is, abundant adult stem cells responsible for the extensive and robust regeneration of amputated parts, as well as the continuous renewal of differentiated tissues (tissue homeostasis)."

It's too soon to tell whether research into planarian worms might one day let doctors regrow amputated limbs or diseased organs in people. Nevertheless, since many of the genes found in flatworms are also present in humans, scientists believe they may provide insights into how to use adult stem cells to replace diseased or damaged human tissue."

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E-mail & chat acronyms

2005-05-03T11:37:00.000-06:00

Probably the biggest list of online acronyms I've ever seen.

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GeekFury Forum

2005-04-29T11:40:00.001-06:00

We've opened up our own forum for all discussion geek.

GeekFury Forums

Please stop by, join up and have some fun! :)

America We Stand As One... OMG! WTF?

2005-04-29T11:40:00.000-06:00

I'm speechless. Holy crap.

This is what everyone has been talking about, quite possibly the cheesiest music video ever created.

America We Stand As One Website

The Video's original page

Link to an article on the video. Freakin' hilarious!

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Boba Fett joins the blog community

2005-04-28T11:41:00.000-06:00

Damn, everyone and his brother is blogging now-a-days

"My name is Boba Fett, I'm a bounty hunter. This blog my means to express myself in a manner that doesn't involve putting holes in sentient beings for credits... I hope you enjoy it. Oh and by the way, I'm not as dead as many in the galaxy would like to believe."

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Navigate Google without a mouse

2005-04-22T11:42:00.002-06:00

Straight from the Google Labs: How to navigate Google without a mouse.

"Google Keyboard Shortcuts allows you to explore search results quickly and easily without taking your hands off of the keyboard to use the mouse."

Be aware though:
Requirements
-----------------
Internet Explorer 5+, Netscape 6, or Mozilla
Javascript enabled
Cookies enabled (optional)
For Macintosh, Netscape 6 or Mozilla is recommended. Google Keyboard Shortcuts does not fully work on Mac Internet Explorer.

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What is Bluetooth?

2005-04-22T11:42:00.001-06:00

This article from USAToday.com explains Bluetooth for those who don't know what it is, or does.

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What is Bluetooth?

2005-04-22T11:42:00.000-06:00

This article from USAToday.com explains Bluetooth for those who don't know what it is, or does.

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Organic Light-Emitting Diodes

2005-04-20T11:43:00.000-06:00

Here's something I stumbled upon this morning. Everyone's heard of LED (Light Emitting Diodes), but maybe not the organic versions. Here is a little background on this cool technology:

From The Wikipedia:
"An organic light-emitting diode (OLED) is a thin-film light-emitting diode (or light-emitting device) (LED) in which the emissive layer is an organic compound. These devices promise to be much cheaper to fabricate than inorganic LEDs. When the emissive layer is polymeric, varying amounts of OLEDs can be deposited in arrays on a screen using simple "printing" methods to create a graphical colour display, for use as television screens, computer displays, portable system screens, and in advertising and information board applications. OLED panels may also be used as lighting devices. OLEDs are available as distributed sources while the inorganic LEDs are point sources of light. Prior to standardization, OLED technology was also referred to as OEL or Organic Electro-Luminescence.

One of the great benefits of an OLED display over the traditional LCD displays found in computer displays is that OLED displays don't require a backlight to function. This means that they draw far less power and they can be used with small portable devices which have mostly been using monochrome low-resolution displays to conserve power. This will also mean that they will be able to last for long periods of time with the same amount of battery charge."

Read more about OLEDs:
Wikipedia
PCWorld article
Yahoo News article
www.oled-display.net

Holographic memory becomes a reality

2005-04-18T11:44:00.001-06:00

Excerpts from the article:

"InPhase Technologies and Maxell will demonstrate the device, named Tapestry, at the National Association of Broadcasters Convention in Las Vegas later today.

The prototype is a 300GB drive that can store over 35 hours of broadcast-quality high-definition video on a single removable 12cm disk... It is also the child of the Tapestry family, with the company planning a range of holographic drives with capacities up to 1.6TB.

Holographic storage disks are particularly well suited to applications like broadcasting and video editing because of the fact that data is read and recorded in parallel, a million bits at a time. The prototype has a data transfer rate of 27Mbit/s.

This polytopic recording technique enables more holograms to be stored in the same volume of material by overlapping not only pages, but also books of data. This dramatically increases the storage density to around 200 gigabits per square inch, significantly higher than any other optical format."

Futurama Bender case mod

2005-04-18T11:44:00.000-06:00

Although the site isn't in english, the pics are worth a thousand words. Follow along as some of your fellow geeks build a Bender case for their system.

Triumph the Comic Insult Dog and Star Wars Nerds

2005-04-18T11:43:00.000-06:00

Okay some of you may have seen this, since it was originally done when EPII came out. But it's still freakin' hilarious. And since EPIII is just around the corner...

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How optimized is your site?

2005-04-15T11:59:00.000-06:00

This handy website will help you get real stats on how well your site is optimized. Very handy.

Japanese develop new 3D display

2005-04-12T11:45:00.000-06:00

credit: University of Tokyo, Japan

From the article:
"The display uses so-called integral photography to generate its 3D images. A computer divides up the image into pixels that are either printed on photographic film or shown on a flat screen display. When passed through an array of lenses the result is a 3D image with a depth of 5.7 m or more in front of the display and 3.5 m or more behind the display."

Seiko's new e-paper display watch

2005-04-11T11:45:00.000-06:00

Seiko has developed a watch using the new "electronic paper" as a display device. Very cool. I've been watching the development of "electronic paper" for a number of years now. It's very cool to see it start to find it's way into products.

A fully functional Mech

2005-04-08T11:46:00.000-06:00

Remember that mech I mentioned a few days ago? Well, I found one that not only walks, but has two, count them, *TWO* fully functional guns. (It doesn't shoot bullets, instead what appears to be tennis balls) The site has video of the mech walking and using it's "guns".

Note that it's "walking" isn't traditional walking but more like as foot sliding, but it does move and does "walk". Still very cool stuff!

Dude...look at all the cool colors....woah!

2005-04-07T11:48:00.000-06:00

//// COLOURlovers:: a place to view, rate and review some lovely colours & palettes. the idea is to create a place of color inspiration where a designer of any sort can see new and lovely colours... find out what colors are hot, what work well in other uses... and simply make some love with colour.

Swim like a dolphin

2005-04-06T11:51:00.000-06:00

I've seen this sub/watercraft before on the Discovery Channel and it is very cool. I'm not much for boats and such, let alone subs, but this one I would love to get a ride in! Very cool stuff!

Star Wars fans lining up already...but at the wrong theater

2005-04-06T11:49:00.001-06:00

It seems some die-hard Star Wars fans are already lining up at the Grauman's Chinese Theater in Hollywood...only there's one problem, 20th Century Fox isn't going to be showing the new Star Wars movie there. They're instead planning on showing it down the street at the ArcLight Theater.

Search Google and Yahoo at the same time

2005-04-06T11:49:00.000-06:00

Moondust - The Ultimate Abrasive

2005-04-05T11:51:00.001-06:00

Something that never occered to me:

"Lunar dust is extremely abrasive -- and unavoidable -- as astronauts quickly learned during the Apollo missions of the 1960s and '70s. Within hours, the dust covered the astronauts' spacesuits and equipment, scratching lenses and corroding seals...Under prolonged exposure, the explorers would be at risk for everything from mechanical failures in spacesuits and airlocks to lung disease, said researchers last week at a NASA workshop focused on the issue."

retroCRUSH

2005-04-05T11:51:00.000-06:00

Aw man this site is great. It's like heaven, especially if you're in your late twenties to mid thirties. Pop culture Gen-X style baby!

Build Your Own Mech

2005-04-04T11:52:00.000-06:00

Carlos Owen is in the process of building his own mech. That's right a mech.... It stands 18 feet tall and the arms are functional, his next step is getting this bad boy to walk. I'm rootin' for ya Carlos!

Ummmm yeah...It's a soundboard

2005-03-31T12:53:00.000-06:00

Yeah...Peter, ummm... I've found an Office Space Soundboard...yeah....

MC Hawking is back biach!

2005-03-30T12:54:00.000-06:00

Ever wondered what it would sound like if the world's most brilliant mind, Stephen Hawking, picked up gangsta rap? Well now you can!

I'd heard these tracks a few years ago on the net, but they're now for sale in a "greatest hit's" CD. The site also has some of the other songs available for free download along with a couple of flash "videos". Pretty funny stuff, check it out, yo.

US Army HumVee Case Mod

2005-03-27T12:55:00.000-06:00

I've seen a lot of case mods, and this one is pretty cool. He put a *lot* of planning and hard work into it and luckily took lots of photos to show us his progress on the project. Check out the site for a *very detailed* look at how this mod came together.

Cool new icons for Mozilla & Firefox

2005-03-24T12:55:00.000-06:00

Don't like icons that ship with Mozilla or Firefox? This site has some really cool new ones you can use to replace the default icons.

IWorkWithFools.com

2005-03-22T12:56:00.000-06:00

Ever feel like you're surrounded by nothin but morons at work? There are lots of other folks that feel the same way. Here's a place to blow off some steam and reveal your own personal hell to the world.

Art in your latte

2005-03-18T12:59:00.000-06:00

Art from latte. Pretty cool.

Samsung developing LCD monitors for the color blind

2005-03-17T13:00:00.000-06:00

Quoted from article:

"Samsung Electronics announced Wednesday it is developing liquid crystal display (LCD) monitors that support color correction technology for people with dyschromatopsia or color blindness and will launch them in the first half of the year. People with dyschromatopsia have difficulty telling differences in color and need stronger stimuli than the normally sighted."

I think this is great! I don't know why nobody thought of this before.

Yoga for your cat

2005-03-16T13:01:00.000-06:00

Yoga for your cat? Well not really but it is pretty funny.

"Our goal is to present a practical, step by step guide for humans & their cats to activate their fullest potential, allowing man, woman, & feline to dwell in the ecstasy of physical, mental, & spiritual health."

100 Monkeys...

2005-03-15T13:05:00.000-06:00

You know the old saying: "an infinite number of monkeys at an infinite number of typewriters could, in an infinite amount of time, type all the works of Shakespeare"? Well, it seems the folks at 100monkeys.org are truing to prove that theory...only instead on monkeys, they're using computers...

From their "About us" page:
"Inspired by the SETI@home project (the Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence), the idea behind 100 Monkeys is to harness the unused processing power of personal computers around the world. Actually, we're really harnessing a whole lot of your idle time. What we are hoping for is that you are so bored at work that you will continuously keep our monkeys typing away. Eventually, we hope to muster up a Shakespearean sonnet.

As the old quote goes (who said it, anyway?), "If you left a hundred monkeys in front of a hundred typewriters for a hundred years eventually you'd manage to get a Shakespearean sonnet." Okay, so we at 100 Monkeys paraphrased a bit.

Even if you are not an English major, we believe that you will be able to recognize strings of words hidden between the mad typing of our monkeys. We simply do not have the budget to sustain a team large enough to filter through the massive amount of data our monkeys generate daily. That is where you come in.
Your task is simple. Return to 100 Monkeys as often as possible and keep our monkeys hard at work. Certainly, you have nothing better to do with your time.

To participate in 100 Monkeys you do not need to download any software. 100 Monkeys has spent hours field testing its software so that even a low-end system with a single user can participate.

So, please spread the word about the 100 Monkey project. The more involved the Internet community is, the sooner we'll have our sonnet!"

The Japanese and their wacky and scary robots

2005-03-12T13:06:00.000-06:00

I'm not sure whether to be scared of this or awed by it. It seems the Japanese in their never-ending quest to perfect the robot have created a very life-like android that serves as a receptionist. It's kinda creepy and fascinating at the same time...