…on the accordion:
That dude’s got some fast fingers.
Month: May 2008
Looking For A New Web Host/Dedicated Server Provider
LayeredTech, a dedicated server hosting company that I’ve used for years and have a couple servers with, has decided to raise their rates. Last year, it was a simple $8/month increase, which I was fine with as they promised remote reboot cards for their server. A year later, I still don’t have a remote reboot card for either of my servers, and they’ve decided to raise my rates $28/month for each server, no matter how many you have (and there are folks with dozens of servers with them). Needless to say, the natives are restless, and I tend to be one of them. They recently bought another Web hosting company and secured $11 million worth of funding, but apparently they don’t seem to find a problem with raising the rates for all their clients, cutting into the meager profits I had on these servers (as they’re mostly for hosting sites like this one along with some small companies around Bend).
Needless to say, I’m shopping around now. If anybody has any recommendations, I’d be glad to hear them (I have some emails into some reputable companies around the country). I’d also consider a partial advertising trade for a link on this site as well. Comment below or email utterlyboring [at] gmail [dot] com. I’d also consider co-location if the deal was right and the network didn’t suck (but I’d prefer just renting the server as that way I can yell at somebody if the hardware goes bad).
Photoshop to get GPU and Physics Acceleration
So, what can you do with general-purpose GPU (GPGPU) acceleration in Photoshop? We saw the presenter playing with a 2 GB, 442 megapixel image like it was a 5 megapixel image on an 8-core Skulltrail system. Changes made through image zoom and through a new rotate canvas tool were applied almost instantly. Another impressive feature was the import of a 3D model into Photoshop, adding text and paint on a 3D surface and having that surface directly rendered with the 3D models’ reflection map.
The Best Reason Yet To Buy An iPhone
Free access to Playboy and Penthouse magazine (as well as a bunch of other less-adult magazines).
You can also get your browser to pretend it’s an iPhone to access the site.
Too bad AT&T doesn’t have local numbers or an office around here (nor do I have the money to blow) as having an iPhone would be pretty sweet (as my Blackberry contract is up for expiration soon).
Go White Boy, Go!
The man’s got skills…
Thanks Cheryl for the link.
I’m All For Bettering The Treatment of Tibet…
…but I seriously doubt the way China has treated Tibet is what caused the earthquake, as Sharon Stone would have you believe:
Iron Chef Japan Is Back On TV
I like Iron Chef America, but the original Iron Chef Japan is entertaining in its own way. It’s back on TV, but it’s on the Fine Living channel, which, unfortunately, we don’t get on basic cable here. But thanks to the magic of the interwebs, you can watch them online.
How Long Did Phil Conners’ Day Really Last?
Man, I’ve had these links sitting here for a long time….
Remember Groundhog Day, that movie with Bill Murray? How long did Phil’s day actually last in that movie? JWZ estimated 4 years, but the screenwriter says about ten years (mentioning a plot device that was deleted that would’ve cleared things up a bit).
Two Worst Days In The World
1) The day before you take some extra days off.
2) The day you return from those days.
The day before I put in overtime trying to fix a server bug. The day I get back I’ve spent most of the day fixing stuff the people have broken while I’ve been gone. Finally getting caught up a bit and will hopefully share some links I’ve collected later tonight (just finished adding a bunch of blogs to Bend Blogs).
My birthday was fine, had a nice lazy four days off, but I’ve decided that I need to quit taking days off work. As the singular decision maker and tech guy, people have become so reliant on me (for better or for worse) that sometimes even stupidly easy stuff baffles them. Stuff I have throughly documented and things that I’ve answered the questions to a ton of times are apparently stupidly complicated if I’m not here to answer them or at least bounce ideas off of.
30
I have a cousin. We both were born this day 30 years ago. He, his wife, son, and parents all came over to my parents house this weekend and we had a little party to celebrate. My aunt brought a picture of both of us from when we were about four months old, and we took another picture of both of us, 30 years later.
I had planned this elaborate blog post with both the pictures, comparing past and present, blah, blah, but I just didn’t have time to scan the old picture, nor get a copy of the new one (still waiting on my cousin’s wife to send me that). So what’s the point?
So just imagine some heartfelt mumbo-jumbo here with me talking about the past and present, what it’s like to officially be an old man, etc… . Or something. If/when I get those pictures, I’ll post them, as they’re fairly entertaining.
Anyway, today I’m 30, as is my cousin. Happy Birthday, Mike! I’m personally taking today and the next three days off. I don’t really have any plans, other than to be lazy and not be at work. Maybe I’ll catch up on my Nintendo DS games that I still haven’t finished. Or maybe I’ll find something else to do. I don’t know. We’ll just see how the weekend goes.
One perk about having a birthday is that all the various forums around the web send you automated “Happy Birthday” messages if you’re registered there. I didn’t know I was registered in many of these forums, and will probably just kill my registration at some of them.
I do know that I won’t be checking email as frequently as I usually do, so if you’re trying to get ahold of me, replies will be a bit slower than usual.