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April 26, 2005

Revenge of The *Bleeeeep*

Remember when I was ranting on how G4 killed The Screen Savers? Well...Leo Laporte, Patrick Norton, Kevin Rose, Robert Herron, and (hopefully) Yoshi will be hitting the airwaves again....sorta. They have a new internet show done via VoIP originally named Revenge of The Screen Savers, currently changed to Revenge of The *Bleep* due to legal reasons and are now looking for a new name. One listener suggested Revenge of These Green Saviors....but sounds like that name will fly like a lead balloon covered in fat people. Anyway, it's a weekly show that is usually posted every Monday morning. If you miss The Screen Savers or just want a small taste to see what it was like....just download the podcast every week.

::NOTICE::
These download via BitTorrent. If you need one, pick up a BitTorrent client here. Don't worry, it's free! After you download it, please keep your client open to share the file with other people. If you want more info about BitTorrent here is the Wikipedia entry and here is the official site.

PodCast Download Links:

MP3 64KBPS
MP3 32KBPS
Bookmarkable ACC (for iPods)
Ogg Vorbis

Switch To Mac?

I've been waiting for something about Microsoft's new OS codenamed "Longhorn." Looking at posts from Chris Pirillo and Kevin Rose, it seems that the new interface blows. I'm beginning to set aside money for an upgrade in 2007 (hopefully). Rumors are that the "demo interface" is just a temporary just to show off what Longhorn can "do." The Mac Mini is looking more and more appelling....so I guess I'll wait and see the Beta/Release Candidate demos before I decide. Any thoughts?

April 24, 2005

And Done....

Man....my research paper is finally done. Now I just have to work on another one...fun as always. Finals start this week. JUST GET THIS SEMESTER FINISHED ALREADY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Anyway, I got a scholarship Friday and my programming teacher got the best teacher award or something like that. So...congrats to Dr. Griffus. All for now.

April 21, 2005

Microsoft Conceded?

According to ZDNet, Microsoft has announced support for instances of Red Hat Linux on their Virtual Server 2005 software due out at the end of this year. Is this a victory for Linux users or is this just part of Microsoft's diabolical plan?

April 7, 2005

Can You Be Arrested For Using $2 Bills??

Apparently this guy did. (Registration required)

The gist:

Mike Bolesta buys a stereo for his son's car @ Best Buy and paid for the installation. Best Buy calls him back to tell him that it won't fit, but a different stereo that costs less will fit better. So he goes back to pay for the new one and the Best Buy guy tells him to take the receipt around front to pick up the difference. He goes up there and get's his refund and asks about installation cost. They tell him no cost because of the mix up. Next day Best Buy calls and tells him that if he doesn't pay the installation fee that they will call the police. Remember, the day before the cashier told him that there would be no fee for installation. So to avoid further trouble, he goes down to pay the charge. Instead of paying for it with a check card or something 'reasonable' he pays the charge of $114 in $2 bills! This is protest to Best Buy, but they didn't exactly take it too well. Apparently, many people my age don't even know that a $2 bill even exists. So the girl behind the counter tells him that she 'doesn't have to take them if I don't want to'. He tells him that he's been trying to pay for the bill for the past two days and if they don't want to accept it he would leave and that if they didn't want the bills that they could sue him. So she takes the bills like it's a favor to him and she marked every bill to see if they were counterfeit. Other people in the store started ask if they were real, and Bolesta, the guy who paid with the $2 bills, tells them that they are legal tender. Everything was going fine until the employee noticed the ink started to smear. They call the police and Bolesta tells them that he gets the $2 bills from his bank, SunTrust. The police end up arresting him telling Bolesta that they must do this until they get 'everything straightened out'. He eventually ends up going to the local jail where he is locked up in leg irons and chained to a pole while the police call the Secret Service to investigate the bills. The Secret Service confirms that the $2 bills are legit and a representative of the Secret Service said that sometimes ink does smear on legal tender bills. So, Mike Bolesta is released from prison. I bet he isn't going to Best Buy anymore.

My view:

Hey, I think we should start using $2 bills all the time! They are so under used...how come we shouldn't honor the memory of Thomas Jefferson...the Father of the Declaration. I may do an experiement...I'm gonna start using $2 bills and the Sacagawea dollar coins to pay for stuff...unless it's over....lets say....$10? Who's with me?

April 5, 2005

Should We All Adopt Dvorak?

No, I'm not talking about the composer Antonin Dvorak, or the tech reporter/opinion writer John C. Dvorak. I'm talking about the keyboard layout. I would say that 99.9999999999999999999999999999% of computer users use QWERTY keyboards while about 2 or 3 people use the Dvorak layout. Lets go back in time...back to the invention of the typewriter...someone by the name of Christopher Sholes. Not only did he invent the typewriter, but he created the QWERTY layout, but this was mainly by accident. The first type writer had slugs that hit the platen to make the letters. Sholes was having trouble getting much speed out of this typewriter because it was prone to jamming. So, he decided to move the keys to make most common letter combinations around so it would be harder to type fast which would slow down the typist. Dr. August Dvorak, the man who invented the Dvorak layout, found all this stuff out while studying office efficiency. He concluded that the QWERTY layout was the most inefficient way to type.

Now...the main difference between the Dvorak and QWERTY layout.

The main difference between the two layouts is that all vowels and common consonants are on the home row (middle row). Dr. Dvorak estimated that a QWERTY typest moved around his keyboard 16 miles a day compared with 1 mile on the Dvorak layout, and that the average WPM (words per minute) on QWERTY was about 40 WPM and 60 WPM on the Dvorak layout. The only bad thing is that since most of us have cut our teeth on QWERTY, it would be hard to retrain ourselves to type on Dvorak. Maybe we should teach the newer typists how to type on Dvorak keyboards....

Cited:

QWERTY & Dvorak Keyboard-Microsoft vs. Apple: http://www.jmusheneaux.com/6000ba.htm

April 2, 2005

Geekville at 3

3 years ago today, Geekville came online. Too bad Techlive on TechTV didn't survive that long (it also started the same day as Geekville went live). Of course, today's celebration is darkened by the passing of Pope John Paul II. He was a very moral man and a great leader.


Happy Birthday.