BrokenMonitor.NET

Vista vs. Mac OS X

So, this post could go on for a really long time, but I’ll keep it short. Here are two reasons why I currently like Windows Vista over Mac OS X*:

• Vista ALREADY supports restoring previously deleted/modified files (Volume Shadow Copy spin-off)
• Vista supports kick-ass built-in imaging (OS X needs 3rd party apps….still)

I said I’d keep it short, so I will. Why? Because I’m Syspreping my Vista Business image so that I can capture it via ImageX. What’s so great about having an ImageX file? Well, since the image will be a flat file (and not a sector-by-sector image), you can edit the Bejeezus out of it!! You can move it around!! You can have multiple instances/configuration of different flavors of Vista all in one image file!! Need to apply a new Vista patch? Just use Microsoft System Image Manager (SIM) and apply the patch. No need to boot the image. No need to re-image. And you don’t have to pay over $70 to have the battery replaced. Oh wait, that’s the iPhone. Man, I am just laying the hate on Apple today!!

*This is not meant to imply that I choose Vista over ALL other operating systems. Just Mac OS X.

Betting on UFC fights is fun…

Especially when you’re the one that knows at least a tad bit about the fighters and their styles… and the people you’re betting against are girls who are just rooting for the cutest fighter.

Transformers is not the suck

I was pleasantly surprised to find that Michael Bay did not ruin my childhood by making Transformers a steaming pile. The Autobots and Decepticons animations and models look freakin’ sweet… although it is hard to tell the difference between them in some fights. True, like any movie, there are some parts where the attempted humor feels kind of tacked on, but none the less, most of the humor plays well. Oh yah, and the “teen drama” tie in was a bit annoying; I would have much rather seen more robot violence.

But at least it wasn’t “Pearl Harbor” with robots…

Now that I say that, there was one part that kinda made it feel that way. Oh well. Let us see how the next 2 Transformers movies are…

Protect Your Children (and don’t shake your babies)

So, I get really annoyed when parents are super protective of their children. Why? Because it doesn’t matter how much you watch them or how close you are to them, BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. Here’s where you get some personal examples:

• Kail and dad on trampoline
• Kail running circles
• Kail on ground…dad on trampoline

• Kail and dad standing by 10-inch deep baby pool
• Kail face first in water
• Dad pull Kail from water
• Kail says, “All done.”

So, let your kids get hurt. Please. Maybe I don’t get excited about things. Is it because I don’t care that my children get hurt? Heck, no. I don’t want them to get hurt. But when they do, I realize that BAD THINGS WILL HAPPEN. So be a good parent and let your kids run (and trip). Jump (and fall). Swim (and choke on water). They catch on sooner or later. Trust me.

TWiT

While I may not have high-speed Internet access at my home, I have began to use iTunes heavily at work. Do I listen to scads of illegally downloaded songs? Nope. But I do live in the Radio and Podcasts areas. Aside from the numerous radio stations one can choose from, I have found that the ‘This Week in Tech’ Podcast has been my favorite thus far. Coming in a close second behind listening to Car Talk on NPR, I wait each week for the next episode of TWiT. I would encourage everyone to check out this weeks epidsode: “iPhone hysteria, Microsoft’s big ass table, and Sicko leaks…”

123 <> CR2

Again and again and again. Time for a new battery for the ol’ Canon SureShot Z90w. What do I do when this happens? Well, since I live in a town and every town has, at minimun 1 Wal-Mart: I go to Wal-Mart and begin searching for a new battery. As I approach the electronics section, I make rude comments out loud such as, “Man, Kail. Do you think anyone sells film anymore?” As I look up and down each aisle, we finally arrive at a small half-height peg board collection of about 3 different types of 35mm film. Ahhh, yes. Here we go. A pack of 8 rolls of 400 speed 35mm Fuji film. But where are the batteries for my old analog jalopy?

Do I hate digital cameras? No. Do I have one? No. Why not? Because I don’t see the need for one. Can I preview the picture before I decide to take it again or have it developed? No. Can I un-do the picture if I don’t like it? No. Can I zoom in or zoom out, focus, flash, date stamp, turn on and turn off? YES. So, the only difference between my 35mm and a digital is the fact that I cannot take back a crappy picture. Which brings up another good point. If you don’t use a digital camera you won’t take meaningless photos. Think about it. What kind of crap do you take with a digital camera? Mostly useless stuff that you either leave on your camera or put on your computer and never have printed. Call me old fashioned (hey, I heard that) but there is something about taking a photo, having it developed and being able to hold it physically and then place it in an album.

Can you print digital pictures? Well, you can in your own house if you want to spend a forturne on consumables or you can be super lazy and upload them to you favorite retailer’s website (Wal-Mart (Hell), Meijer (notice that is Meijer and not Meijers), etc.) and then pick them up when you are done. I CAN tell the difference between a professionally developed 35mm picture versus a digital one. I don’t care if it is 13.9 mega-pixels. It’s just not the same. Analog wins in my heart.

Twenty years from now I can look at my bookshelf and grab one of the several albums we have and leaf through old pictures full of memories. When does this occur? Usually when the family is sitting down together and getting to know one another. Oh, crap. I really am old fashioned. And I also bought a pack of 2 CR2 batteries when they are supposed to be 123. Everytime. If you act fast, you can also snag a SpiderMan 3 pillow for $6 from Satan himself (Sam Walton).

9.75″ Long Weiners

As I sit here and eat my 2 foot long weiners, I decided to see if I was a victim of false advertising. I, in fact, was as the weiners are only about 9.75 inches and not 12. Bastards.

Chinese Pools, Dang Tootin’ Blue Moons

So, it’s time to finish the story of my Intex vinyl ‘Chinese’ pool. Is it made in China? I have no idea, but true to affluent American tradition, I’ll associate China with the manufacturing of really cheap stuff that only lasts a short time (e.g. everything you can exchange tickets for at Chuck E. Cheese).

The installation went smooth. I moved our swing set next to the other swing set and poured some sand in the holes that were left behind by the old set. The pool went up in about 1.5 hours (slightly over the ‘ready for water in 45 minutes’ on the box) and took 1 night to fill using a garden hose and city water. What appeared to be level ground was actually 4 inches higher on one side than the other once the 4,500 gallons had been applied. Is this safe? Not sure, but I decided that if I’m going to kill my children at least they will be having fun when it happens.

So, for $299 and all that was included (pool, sweeper, pump, skimmer, screeny thingy, ladder and cover) I would say it was money well spent. Entertaining a family of 5 is hard to achieve let alone for that amout of cash.

My back yard all flows nicely now. You can play in the cattle feed corn underneath the wodden swing set and get all dusty and then sit inside of the plastic green turtle and get sand all over you. This can be removed by swinging on the metal swing set followed by a quick jump on the trampoline with the grand finale of the Chinese pool. Viola!! Total family happiness (for a couple of hours).

Speaking of hours, I am now on the ’schools out’ schedule at work. What does this mean? Well, I’m not trimming my goatee nor will I be wearing any pants. Unfortunately, I do have to wear shorts, sneakers and a t-shirt. On the hour topic, I now have 1 hour for my lunch. Does it take 1 hour to eat my lunch? Nope. It takes about 10-15 minutes. So what do I do with the rest of my time? Play cards. Read the 70-291 book. Wish I had high-speed Internet access at home. Who am I fooling. I work for the rest of the time like I did for my 30 minute lunch. Is that my fault? Dang tootin’ it is. That’s the way I am and will always be. It’s aimless ramblings like this one that make me feel really uncomfortable…..I don’t know if I can handle this ‘weblog’ thing (known to insiders as ‘blog’ or ‘bloggin’ similary to ‘wiki’ or ‘wikiing’ not to be confused with ‘wicca’).

May had a blue moon. What is a blue moon? That is your Google task of the day. Figure it out and leave me a comment with your answer. The first correct response receives 2 boxes of Thin Mint Girl Scout cookies that my daughter never delivered to some lady that lives across town that I had to pay for anyways.

CentOS = (PayForUpdates - 1) + RedHat

While we are on the topic of Linux flavors, I would like to mention CentOS (Community ENTerprise OS). Out of all of the flavors I have experienced (Mandrake, Ubuntu, Caldera, etc.), CentOS is by far, in my opinion, (see blog strapline) the best to use for production. Why do I say this? Well, CentOS takes every RadHat patch, strips the licensed portion out and then provides the patch under the Gnu license. What does this mean? You get a version of Linux which can be called “RedHat Linux Enterprise Minus the Cost of Paying for Updates,” which is probably why they went with a shorter name of CentOS. So, you get an almost exact replica of RedHat but no fees to pay as you do with RedHat.

HOWEVER, when it comes down to support b/w CentOS and Ubuntu, I’ve heard many praises for Ubuntu. Don’t know how to install a wireless network driver using interface config and ndiswrapper? Well, you can probably either find out how on Google, or just ask the huge amount of people that contribute solutions for Ubuntu. I have yet to ask questions of the CentOS people, however, all I am using it for is a host OS for VMWare Server.

P.S.
Always install all packages when installing any distro of Linux. Unless you like spending days (and I’m really serious about it taking days) resolving package dependency issues.

Belkin + Linux != easy

I’ve tinkered with different distros of Linux several times over the years… The one thing that kept me away was the availability of gaming support… You know, the important thing you use a computer for. I’ve got an extra laptop laying around, so I decided to give Ubuntu 7.04 a try. Now, this is an older laptop mind you, without an internal wireless card.

Hardware support in Linux has made leaps and bounds over the years, so I figured setting up a wireless card would be easy to add. Granted, a Belkin card is probably not the best choice to go with, but it was cheap, and I assumed it would work. Worst case scenario would be that I return the card.

After 3 hours, learning ndiswrapper, finding net8185.inf, and learning about ifconfig and iwconfig, it works…

Yay.

Hey Belkin, write easier to implement Linux drivers please… I don’t want to use ndiswrapper to utilize a Windows driver.

Thankfully there are tons of open source utilities to do almost everything I want… except game (which isn’t really possible on this crappy laptop). OpenOffice, GAIM, GIMP, etc.

If I actually end up using this more, I might have to consider looking at Dell’s new Ubuntu offerings.