Archived News starting from 12-02-2007 and earlier
BlogLast time the Steelers had a game on television, I discovered
football freak Lisa and made a
video to document her bizarre behavior. Tonight's game also wound up being televised locally, and this time I had an early christmas present in the form of a
Greg Lloyd jersey ready for her to wear. Even though I don't understand yelling at the TV, I'm glad I was able to
amplify her insanity.
Preparing to relax and enjoy my Saturday night, I booted up my
workstation and noticed the BIOS version on my
ASUS A8N Premium motherboard was 1009. A quick check revealed 1303 was the latest, which I promptly downloaded, and discovered dynamic BIOS updating was yet another thing my newly reloaded 64-bit Vista did not support. After installing my floppy drive from 1998 to complete the bootable BIOS update, I was disappointed to see my NVIDIA RAID firmware remained a lowly version 4.84. A quick Google search revealed ASUS is not as diligent as most motherboard manufacturers with their BIOS updates, and typically don't bother to update integrated device firmware. Fortunately the same search produced a link to the
Award BIOS Editor which just by downloading makes you feel like you're sticking it to "the man". After loading a
BIOS update I found on MSI that users reported also updated their RAID firmware, I was able to extract the RAID update and replace the old 4.84 block with the new 5.60 in the "official" 1303 BIOS for my A8N in the editor. Unsure if my hack update would work, do nothing at all, or completely brick my motherboard, I was surprised to have it work perfectly. The old NVIDIA RAID 4.84 configuration screen now calls itself NVIDIA MediaShield 5.60 with a
moderate performance gain.
Tired of waiting in line behind people who refuse to get off the phone? Don't want anyone to call your wife (or Canadian fiance) while you're making out with her? Have $220 to blow? Then you need a
cell phone jammer. Once I meet the third requirement, I plan to obtain one and fulfill the first two frequently. I know you're wondering, so yes this is also on my Christmas wish list.
My quest for a terabyte
completed over a year ago, I got to wondering what I could do for an encore. What I came up with will shock and amaze you:
two terabytes! With the expiration of my
Windows Home Server RC1 it was time to move on to the
120 Day Trial. Why not the full $120 version? Because I'm a cheap bastard and am extending my "free" options until my southern resource is able to hook me up with a discount. The trial does not support the reinstall option (since it's a trial) so since I had to do a full install I figured it was a good time to consolidate all my spare hard drives. The resulting double terabyte is something even Lisa can enjoy since the
six drives are now helping to warm the basement.
Todays Woot was a
Leakfrog, of which I promptly
bought 6 (3 orders of 2 frogs). What could I possibly be doing with 6 leakfrogs? If you're on my christmas list you might find out. Why would anyone buy leakfrogs for christmas presents? Because it's the gift that says "I care enough about you to help ensure your home or apartment does not get damaged by an out of control water leak." I think everyone should enjoy the same piece of mind I have from the two in my utility room, ever watchful of my water heater and AC condenser. Ready to wake me from a sound sleep in the interest of containing the damage, even if that requires them to float on top of the water.
A trip to Cleveland for Jairds birthday yielded over 130
gamer points on
my Xbox 360 I brought along. I was able to secretly harness the tireless energy of a man known to wreck a car over 50 times on the same track
for pure amusement. After powering through 100 points in "
DiRT" (to wreck the truck on the track 5 times) he moved on to Guitar Hero II for another 30 points. In case you're wondering what gamer points do for you, they are similar to the
vista experience score. Totally useless, but something you just have to have alot of. Eventually he got wise to my plan, but it was too late, my points were granted! Now I've secretly got Lisa working up my points on
Cloning Clyde and
Carcassonne, although now not so secretly.
As the only male on the planet who is
not interested in professional sports, it's ironic I work at a primarily sports-oriented company, and married a
raving mad Pittsburgh Steelers fan. Given these facts, it's not surprising I was coerced into attending a Steelers game with said wife this weekend. The official Steelers experience® was kicked off with an 8am tailgate party including various brands of beer, burgers, dogs, a cornhole game, and crab legs. After 4 hours of working up an alcoholic daze it was game time, which meant
braving the cattle call and security checks while verbally bashing anyone brave enough (dumb enough?) to wear a Browns uniform, or any clothing close to those colors. While Lisa and her brother got horse
yelling at the Browns, and falling into spectators below, I spent my time watching the
Red Zone ketchup bottles
pour virtual ketchup. When the Steelers won, everyone went nuts of course, then slowly filed out of the stadium. I was expecting at least a few celebratory flaming cars but I guess that's exclusively a Detroit thing. I also discovered the ketchup bottles were actually only half-bottles on my way out, I was fooled. Overall it was an enlightening experience, and nice to see Lisa isn't the only person who goes completely insane watching a football game. A light rain cancelled the after-game tailgate party but 8 hours of football was more than enough for me.
A discussion at work prompted memories of early
BBS days, starting with the early 300 baud modems (you could read this text faster than 300 baud could send it). This was before the internet ruined everything and made everyone impatient for instant gratification. Once computers started talking faster than us we got competitive as a society and felt the need to speed up as well. We can only hope that one day a
coronal mass ejection sufficient to wipe out all electronics on earth will allow me to relax in my backyard at a slower pace while zombies steal my bottled water. Enough of me sounding like old man
Leinnintiger, on to the
article I was presented with immediately by Google the second "300 baud" was uttered from my coworkers mouth, and prompted me to publish this rant one minute later.
A few months ago, my work made a
few commercials featuring a
ridiculously large camera. That line of advertisements ran its course and the camera prop made its way back to our office. It's surprisingly light, being constructed of styrofoam, and the shutter button is actually spring loaded and can be pressed down. The only useful thing it does beyond that is make a great prop in some
fabulous shots of John and I.
Late invites for todays
LAN party resulted in a lower-than-usual turnout, but still managed to provide ample entertainment. Beginning with Battlefield 2142, we eventually moved on to the new
Unreal III beta demo, which had the same classic guns, but a controllable robot and naturally much better graphics. Moving to FarCry afterwards made the once mighty game appear very outdated. Once we were down to 4 people we switch to Xbox for quad split-screen multiplayer Halo III followed by extensive amounts of Sega Rally Evo, Forza2, and Guitar Hero II and III. Timelapse video
here.
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