Archived News starting from 03-02-2008 and earlier
BlogAwhile back, the Detroit Free Press stopped by my work to interview Michigan companies. While they were here, the original Morlock decided to unload an entire round of nerf darts in my general direction. The photographer
caught him on camera and included it in the
article. A perfect avatar photo. Now that he's famous, I also plan to up his rent accordingly.
If the Civil Defense LAN is any indication of Michigans state of preparedness, we'll owe our lives to Canada and Ohio. Jaird and
Ron were the
only two brave enough show up and assist me in protecting our oil assets in
Frontlines: Fuel Of War. We spent the great majority of the LAN playing this new game, and even with only 3 people playing it was different enough from other FPS to keep us going well into the night. Once we discovered all the weapon load outs and specialties, we switched to Starcraft before enjoying our celebratory dinner at Rams Horn. Surprisingly, the least attended LAN ever wound up being sufficiently entertaining. Gnome Cam is
here, video is pending.
With my
desktop weather app showing its age, I decided to create a new
Vista weather gadget. It sits in your sidebar displaying current temp, wind, and 8 hour forecast. Click it and see max wind, high/low temp, and rain/humidity details. To make it stand out among the 20+ other weather gadgets, I used my
weather station feed to ensure it is the least useful to anyone outside the Detroit area. Now on to an equally useful GnomeCam gadget!
After 5 months of
groovy cam, I decided it was time to return the
Gnome Cam to modern day optical technology. I chose the
HAWK-147IRCB since it had better resolution than my old BT-176WC, but primarily because the hawk on the logo has long talons. So far, my selection criteria has proven to be dead on, as the Gnome Cam now captures a larger area more clearly than ever before. If you look carefully, you can even see as far as the Morlock cave and his smokestacks. His attempts to steal my time machine just got alot more difficult.
˙ǝɯıʇ ǝʇsɐʍ oʇ ʎɐʍ ɹǝʌǝlɔ ɐ ɥɔns ɥʇıʍ dn ƃuıɯoɔ ɹoɟ ‘sɹǝʇıɹʍ ʇooʍ ‘noʎ oʇ ɟɟo sı ʇɐɥ ʎɯ ˙uǝʇʇıɹʍ ǝʌ,noʎ ʇɐɥʍ puɐʇsɹǝpun oʇ uʍop ǝpısdn sɹoʇıuoɯ ɹıǝɥʇ uɹnʇ ǝldoǝd ǝʞɐɯ oʇ ʎɐʍ ʍǝu ƃuıʇıɔxǝ uɐ ɯɹoɟ ʇɐɥʇ sɹǝʇɔɐɹɐɥɔ ııɔsɐ pǝpuǝʇxǝ puɐ sɹǝʇʇǝl ɟo uoıʇɐuıqɯoɔ ɐ ʇnq ‘ƃuılʎʇs ssɔ ɹo ‘ǝƃɐɯı uɐ ʇou s,ʇı ˙
ʎɐpoʇ ʇooʍ uo punoɟ ı ʇxǝʇ ɹoɹɹıɯ uʍop
ǝpısdn ǝɥʇ ʇno ʞɔǝɥɔ
When
Nvidia acquired PhysX, I was convinced it was to integrate a stronger physics processor into their video cards. Most modern games already use the GPU to some extent for physics, so this was just completing the gap. Today it was not only confirmed this was the goal, but that all 8000 series Nvidia video cards
will provide PhysX support once a new software download is released. It's like getting a
$100 physics card for free (ok, it won't be dedicated but it's still free). I'm holding my breath for the day I can play
Warmonger with full physics effects.
A commercial on TV brought me to
this site which apparently gives creepy blondes $560 for gold, or by the look on her face for some other service, but that's beside the point. The important thing on this website is the "Patriot Act Compliant" symbol below her. Since the patriot act is a law, you're automatically compliant or you're operating illegally, so while it's technically a logo that says "we don't break the law" it's obviously much more assuring and brings out the urge to trade gold in all of us. By this line of reasoning, I'm also putting a "Patriot Act Compliant" symbol on this site, and I encourage everyone else to as well. Let's help make the web a safer place for abiding by the law and trading gold.
Faced with a stuck
anemometer yet again, my
weather station has been convinced we're enjoying windless days in hurricane-like winds. My usual approach of squirting it with hot water from my super soaker only worked for a few minutes before the single-digit temperatures froze it up solid again. Shooting it with my airsoft gun and taping together broom handles to reach it probably provided ample entertainment for my neighbors, but had no effect on freeing it. Fortunately I was able to witness the actual problem during my shenanigans and discovered my furnace exhaust blows directly into it, providing more than enough moisture to freeze it up solid on cold days. Realizing I'm not yet obsessed enough to climb onto a snowy roof to relocate it, I'm admitting defeat until spring. I've already informed
NOAA and
AccuWeather about the problem, both of which I'm sure were becoming increasingly concerned.
Faced with a stable and reliable Media Center 2005 machine, I had no choice but to completely wipe it out in favor of an untested and unnecessary upgrade. Microsoft profitably decided to require new extender hardware for Vista Media Center, rendering my original
Xbox Extender useless, so a
$100 Xbox 360 finally brought me into the year 2007. Risking a roid rage from Lisa, I began reloading with 64-bit Vista only to discover 32-bit video decoders won't cooperate with 64-bit applications. With the
only 64-bit DiVX decoder available rated unreliable at best, I eventually admitted defeat and reloaded with the 32-bit version. Having lost the sex appeal of 64-bit, I could tell Lisa was less impressed with the 32-bit solution, but it was sufficient to provide her with "American Idol" and prevent a full fledged roid rage. The upgrade also put us on par with the flatlanders in the media center operating system category, which we had been lagging behind on for several months. Lisa and Melanies heated arguments regarding vertical vs. horizontal scrolling user interface design are finally a thing of the past.
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