Archived News starting from 01-31-2006 and earlier
BlogI recently bought an *original* xbox off eBay (they're about $100 now) to act as a
media center extender. I'm not cool enough or rich enough to get a 360 so this is the next best thing. Since the xbox is just a specialized PC I decided to get myself a mod chip to open up possibilities such as making it a web server or ftp box via linux. The mod chip replaces the system BIOS with a more friendly and flashable one. Unfortunately after 3 hours of trying to align the chip properly I declared my attempt with the
spiderchip version a failure. It looks like later model xbox machines might have better luck with this chip, but the chip I got was either fried or I'm unable to perform basic electronic modifications. Oh well, it still makes a great media center extender. Now I can finally watch Knight Rider in my bedroom, where it was intended to be enjoyed.
With Morlocks #1 and #2 located in the Beta house, I decided to populate the now empty Alpha house basement with one as well. Enter Morlock #3, a fellow C#.net developer from my work. This brings my empire to a total of 3 renters and one car storage fee. Unfortunately I'm not as big of a jerk as a good slumlord should be, so the total income from my empire is less than you'd think. To compensate, I call them Morlocks and laugh to myself. Why all the renters? I'll do anything for money, and that's a fact.
Yes, the rumors are true, Alpha (my primary house) is
up for sale. I know this brings with it alot of questions so I'm holding a news conference in my head for your benefit.
Q: Oh my god! Where are you going! Who'll laugh at all my jokes?!?
A: Relax, I'm not going anywhere for a good 2 years unless a mentally deranged millionaire is willing to pay my outrageous asking price. Since Michael Jackson is bankrupt, this isn't looking likely.
Q: Well why'd you put it on the market now?
A: My Beta house has been on sale for 1.5 years now with no luck (thanks to
lower than average demand). I figure it might take me that long to sell my current one as well (at a decent profit) so I figured I'd start offering to the nutcases who might buy. More opportunity for one to find me. Plus if someone is insane enough to buy it for this price, I'll bank the profit and live in an apartment until I figure out what I want to do.
Q: So you might be moving, but probably not?
A: If I sell my house at this price I'll have a profit of $50,000. If someone offered you $50,000 on the street to move out of your house would you accept? Also, what is the likelyhood that someone would make this offer? Next question please.
Q: I have tech!
A: While not really a question, I'll respond by saying you will be a formidable opponent at the
next event.
Q: Myrn!
A: Also not a question, but yes, Myrn!
Q: What about the
Morlocks?
A: Beta (current Morlock house) will most likely never sell at anything close to a reasonable price, and very likely not before they move on to bigger and better things (Te-has). Look for another conference regarding just the Morlocks in the near future.
Q: Who's even reading this anyways?
A: Not many, but I'm burned out on my 10hrs/day project at work and needed a break.
Q: Seriously, pink 5 inch heels? Girltalk? WTF?
A: The shoes were purchased for me as a dare, the girltalk game was a joke aimed at some coworkers. I have not detected a change in my desire to be female (aside from the obvious benefits) but I'll keep you updated on that front as well. How did this get so off topic?
Q: Pants!
A: Yes.
While checking my
referrer logs I noticed a
popular referral link that was not
referral spam. PCWORLD did an
article on December 24th ranking the 50 greatest gadgets of the last 50 years and Snappy ranked #39. Originally sold for $400 you can now find them for under $10 on eBay and in my opinion they are still the best bang for the buck for video capturing. I've used mine to power my
GnomeCam for over 4 years now. Naturally my obsession with Snappy turned into a
popular support page that now
ranks first on Google. The editor most likely included my site in their review because of the ranking, but I prefer to believe it's the in-depth analysis and hard-hitting support options available on such a sophisticated web page. Now go
buy yourself a Snappy!
Every year I make a trip to Cobo hall for the
NAIAS and once in awhile I'm impressed with the show. Sadly this year
was not one of those years. Every company had great concept cars and alot of new models being introduced but none that reached out and touched me. I did notice more turbo / supercharged models coming out to help with fuel economy and maintain performance so maybe the open wounds of the 1980's and unreliable forced induction systems are finally healing. An addict of forced induction it was nice to see more factory options appearing. The SuperChief is misleading, at first appearing to be a huge gas hog but then revealing itself to run on various fuels (including gas, ethanol, and hydrogen) making the truck itself a gas hog but the the engine powering it very eco friendly. Now they just need to drop it into a passenger car for an eco-friendly hot rod. Despite the lack of excitement, we did manage to have a great time trying to get kicked out, hiding in trunks and jumping over guardrails. Unfortunately we were not around for the
naked woman that posed on the Dodge Challenger. Yeah you thought that linked to the photo didn't you. Well if you find it link it in my comments.
After
two LAN parties in a
row of first person shooter games,
Duane and Dan decided to organize some
real FPS games out at the ranch of Dan. A bunch of coworkers and I purchased
Airsoft rifles and some face protection and we were ready to shoot each others eyes out. For our first time ever it went quite well, and was definately a good excuse to drink beer.
Today was the
Jan Lan, a now yearly event for fellow computer gamers to gather in celebration of first person shooter computer games. This year was again highlighted by Unreal Tournament 2004 and FarCry but the eyeball killing action of Quake III was not as intense. This year was also a record in terms of people attending, with 7 on 7 at once (14 active players) for a total of 17 counting the early and late shifts. The larger number of people made game setup more difficult (which cut into game time) but the additional people resulted in a higher percentage of antics. A few people also brought airsoft guns for physical first person shooting when we got bored with virtual. An excellent LAN, looking forward to the one next weekend at
Ron'sMore and more new hires at the place I work are sporting a "faux-hawk," a term given to me by a co-worker. He explained it to me after my look of confusion but instead of explaining it here I'll just
link to a definition. I thought it was a joke at first but after a google search I learned it passes as a legitimate name for a hairsyle. Ever since bell-bottoms (faux bottoms?) exploded on my college campus without warning in the late 90's I've felt out of touch with trends, so I'm sure this style has been around for awhile and I'm only now catching a whiff of it. Unfortunately I can't strive to keep up with this trend (thus falling from the elite social status I once held) due to my lack of hair down the center of my scalp. All I can do is hope for the reverse fauxhawk© to catch on soon. Yeah, that's a © you see which means I have marketing rights to this one so BACKOFF
Lastnights
new years party was a blast. A shooting range, foozball, air hockey, nintendo, fireworks and liquor kept everyone entertained. No vomiting of any kind this year and I still wound up with more liquor than when we started. A full 24 hours after the party the last partygoer left at 8:00pm tonight with a virus-free computer. Thanks to everyone that came, hope you all had fun.
Heading to lunch today, I passed an uncommon sight. A cop apparently hit someone then jumped the curb and landed in deep snow. The front end was pretty tore up despite the cop cattle guard. We lauged as we drove by and three of the four people in the car snapped a camera phone shot.
Duanehad the best one, so here it is for your enjoyment:
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