Category: Geekdom

Geekdom Link Dump

Some geek/techy links for everybody.

Enjoy!

Playing To The Suckers Out There

I went to my local computer parts warehouse to pick up a small little switch. I usually buy the little five-port Netgear switches (as they’re bulletproof), but they didn’t have any, so I bought a cheap Zonet five port switch. I didn’t notice until I got the thing to the office, but it has an odd bit of promotional text on it in a bright green circle on the box: “Windows Vista Compatible.”

Last I checked, network switches aren’t operating-system dependant. The software to manage them sometimes is, but the hardware isn’t. So why didn’t they just put “Linux, MacOS, BeOS, Unix, Windows, FreeBSD and DOS Compatible” or something just to cover all bases? They obviously put this on there to play to the folks who don’t know that and think that they need a “Vista Compatible” network switch.

Want Microsoft Office 2007 Ultimate For Less Than $60?

Befriend a college student, who can buy it for $59.95.

Anybody want to buy me a copy? I’m still enrolled in college classes, but not on a full time basis, so I’m not eligible.

Uses For Old Computer

Have an old computer sitting around and want to know what to do with it? Here are 12 good uses for old computers including firewalls, thin clients, web servers, media servers, and more.

Why Does That 500GB Hard Drive Only Have 465GBs of Usable Space?

Here comes the science. This was one of the easiest to follow descriptions of the math behind this and how it’s only going to get worse as larger drives come about.

Finally, Something To Do During Malware Scans

I’m frequently staring at progress bars when trying to clean up spyware from somebody’s computer. But now, at least when I’m using SpyBot S&D, I’ll have something to do.

My New Toy

Long story short, a co-worker convinced management that he needed something fancy to keep himself organized. He then gave his two weeks notice after about two weeks of using it, so I’ve inherited his toy: A Blackberry 8703e. Since we’d already paid for the thing, and nobody else really knew what to do with it, I took over the account. I now look just like all the real estate agents in my office with their fancy phones (nearly none of who know how to use them).

Now I’ve never had a phone (or device, for that matter) that’s this fancy. I’ve found some good sites for help and tips on this thing (as I haven’t the slightest idea how to do anything with it, as we don’t have the user manual). I do plan on installing an SSH client, and already have Google Maps installed, and will install Google Apps for mobile (as I use that for the two companies I work for). I’m going to go through the stuff here and see what they have

there.

My one gripe so far? Upon quick glance, I can’t seem to find a mobile blogging app that will work on the blackberry. Found several that work on the Windows Mobile platform, but nothing for Blackberry. I use MovableType, and while Blogger and WordPress have built-in functionality for e-mail to post, I wasn’t really wanting to do that as anything I post via that method will have the generic “Sent via US Cellular Blackberry” footer (unless there’s a way to get rid of that).

Anybody have any useful hints, tips, tricks, good software suggestions, etc… for a geek like me, I’d love to hear it. I have an unlimited data plan, though it’s on US Cellular’s really slow data network (slower than dialup), so Google Maps is really neat looking, but boy does it take forever to load data. Mobile KTVZ is really handy, however (don’t try looking at the Bulletin’s site on these things — looks horrible).

And of course, fun little games to kill the lunch hours are always good suggestions, too.

Microsoft Forces Shutdown Of Autopatcher

If you haven’t used Autopatcher, you’ve really missed out on a great way to keep multiple computer up-to-date (especially if you’re like me and work on brand-new computers on a regular basis that need patching). Like right now, I’m setting up a new Windows XP machine for the office, and was trying to get Autopatcher installed as my copy is a few months old. But I couldn’t, as Microsoft has sent a cease-and-desist notice to the Autopatcher folks, so you’ll no longer find downloads or updates to the pack on their site.

Truly a sad day, indeed. Google cache still has the download page, but many of the links don’t work as they go to NeoWin’s forums, where the project originally lived. You can find it here, and torrents here, but probably not for long.

I’m sure this is a ploy by Microsoft to convince people to start using their clunky services more or to try to move people in the corporate world to their Update Services systems. Thanks, Microsoft, but if I’m going to get an automated patch solution, I’ll use Net-Chk Protect.

Geekdom Link Dump

Another round of geek links for you all.

Update:: Fixed the Surf as Google link

You know, some things just don’t need to be sexual…

…but if you’re even wondering what your public IP address is, and have the urge to have a sexy voice moan it in all its glory, here’s your site.

If you could do without the moaning, go here,