News

It just started snow/raining and by that I mean there is what looks to be hail outside but upon closer inspection its actually marble sized snowballs I snapped some pictures and will post them.

I have started on open source project based around a simple bit of jQuery code that I wrote to solve a problem. Mega Divider will take an html list and insert list items with a special class and/or character between each item. It really will work on any set of elements that you want to put things between. For now I am going to link to the bitbucket project. I will eventually get a page setup on this site with documentation, examples and downloads.

I ordered one of these on Sunday night to do all my DSLR audio recording with as canon still has not fixed there firmware for Manual Gain Control. In the end this gives me more flexibility any way as it could be mounted to a boom or where ever and I don't have to worry about cords. I ordered it from B&H Photo and it had free shipping which so far I am a bit disappointed in as they use the cheap method of UPS-MI. For those of you who have not heard of this, UPS handles getting the package close to you (in my case 35 miles away) and then introduces it to the USPS system. As you can imagine tracking is a bit spotty and the speed seems to be at least a day slower than normal. 

Last night we had some major storms move threw with reports of hail as well as isolated tornado warning. Currently the system is moving to the east and looks like the entire east cost is going to get hit hard. Batten down those hatches and stay indoors.

I have ran into an issue when using two pairs (TX/RX) to try and remotely trigger the shutter on my 7d while also using wireless flashes. The shutter pair on channel 1100 and the flash pair on 0010. The issue is that the flash is firing before the shutter is open. It will also continually try to fire the flash if you hold the remote shutter button down.

I have determined that this is only an issue when using the flash pairs transmitter on the 7d’s hot shoe. If hook up the flash transmitter to the flash sync jack the problem goes away. Also if the unused pins on the transmitter are blocked from contacting the pads on the 7d hot shoe the unit will work correctly.

This post was also featured on http://www.lightingrumours.com

The site is now back up and running on the new server os. Back to good old ubuntu as fedora is garbage.

Wow is the only thing to say. Even after seeing this movie two times it is still amazing. If you want to read just a bit more read the Avatar Review.

I just wanted to wish every one who visits the site a happy holiday and I hope you got every thing you wanted.

Read the new review of the RF Wireless Handheld Keyboard and Touchpad.

I have updated the Replug Review with some new info about issues resulting from leaving it in the cold.

There is a good chance of the site being down tomorrow as I move the server over to modern hardware. Out with the Pentium 2's and in with the Athlon X2.

So I was bord and used jquery to replace all <p> tags with <p><blink> that way all text in a <p> tag blinks at you.

Blink Bookmarklet

Just finished replacing my mixer motor in my van. Now I wont have to freeze this winter driving back and forth to work. For any one with a Windstar mini-van that is having this issue with the heater making a clicking noise or banging noise check out the link. Only took about an hour and I found the part at advanced auto for $50 with tax. One tip I would suggest is to remove just the radio and the bezel around it and you can get at all three screws to replace the motor.

Looks like a tech blog linked over to the site in there 15 DIY Guns That Will Blow Your Mind artical. I really need to find some thing good to follow up the nerf sniper riffle with.

Turns out my super mario wallpaper has been featured in a collection of "Baddass Super Mario desktop wallpapers". Glad people are enjoying the desktop artwork.

I have been in touch with some one who has kindly offered to send me some computer hardware to do a review on. The only hint I am going to give is that it would be great for HTPC's.

After having used linux from work for several months and being able to do most every thing with it. I am considering switching over to linux as my primary os at home. I already have one linux box running this website and doing some network routing. With my desktop though I need to be able to do more than that box ever does.

I think I am going to go with Ubuntu 9.10 and Compiz as the window decorations as that's what I have at work. The only down side to Compiz is that a lot of the features are buggy and I seam to always lose my desktop icons when using it. I also need to find a way to work with my cameras raw format files. The canon software works great I just need to figure out if it will run in wine or if I would have to use a virtual machine for it.

I will still keep my windows install to run games and such with. Soon though with virtual box supporting 3d acceleration I may just be able to fire up a virtual machine and run the games I have in that.

I am also planing on combining my web server/router and my file server into one. The new setup is going to end up having five drives. Four of which will be in a software raid 5 for security. The other will be dedicated to the os.

I have found a few things very frustrating when dealing with mac machines. Issue one came up Friday and that issue is the fact that there are four different display adaptors for the various macs (laptops and imacs). What is even better is the fact that they are not labeled in any way shape or form. If your going to use some thing non-standard please for the love of god label it so people can find the correct adaptor.

Issue two is the fact that you can not just create empty files in finder. Being a programmer, I do this all the time with my linux box and love to be able to do so. There are other small issues like managing the open windows and stuff like that but we wont get into it. I just wanted to let every one know these issues were out there and yes they are annoying.

I just found an article on md5 and sha1 description. The article says it failed on some but I ran those failed ones threw the tool and it decoded them fine. This is a very good example of why md5 and sha1 should not be used to has passwords. sha256 using the hash function in php seems like a very good option as I can not find any information on decoding it.

Just got a generic 9v adapter for my Boss Metal Zone guitar pedal. Had to make a quick little adapter because the pedal has a positive sleeve on the power  plug. The 9v adapter is a positive center pin so a quick adapter to reverse the polarity was in order. Lucky for me I had the spare parts laying around.

I have started working on a new electronics project. This one is going to be complicated and I hope I can figure it out. I am going to be trying to make a couple sensor modules that include wireless transceiver. Each one will report its findings back to a central location that is equipped with another transceiver. The central location will display that data to the user.

Think of a security system made with microcontrollers and you will have the basic idea. I am going to try and keep the cost of each sensor module to about $20 or under. The system that the sensors will report to will be very cheap, some thing like $10.

fter at least three hours of fighting with the nvidia card I bought (8400) I have found out how to get the RCA out working on it. I was using a cheap little S-Video to RCA adapter but that was the problem. I tried a dongle I had gotten from an older video card. The kind that breaks it out to the YPrPb connection. Now the thing nvidia never tells you is that if you plug a normal RCA into the Blue channel of the dongle then the card will go ahead and output RCA there. Well I hope I can save some one else some time with there media center setup.

I am a little late posting this to the news section but the cowon o2 review is live for every one to read.

I need to get some reviews up so every one has some thing new to check out. I have an PMP review coming up here soon so look for that some time this week.

1. don't re-size my browser window EVER!
2. don't have stupid flash videos of people walking around
3. do not try and redesign the user interface. It has been this way for a long time for a reason
4. do not open pop up ads
5. do not break your content up. I would much rather read a whole lot of it on one page than click next 100 times
6. pictures count as much as text content, maybe more so
7. live chat should not be started by one of your sales people
8. teach me some thing
9. do not just post content from other sites. Link to it an explain why YOU think its cool
10. stop supporting IE6