Archive for January, 2007

Fanboi.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/31/2007
in Blatant Recollections and Geeky
. 13 Comments

I just installed Windows Vista, and I have never seen spreadsheets calculate so fast! (Pun on Mac commercials)

I couldn’t even wait two days for my paycheck. I went out the day it came out and made the purchase. And I didn’t just get the Home Premium version (that’s for grandma and grandpa), I got the ULTIMATE. Think of FATALITY from Mortal Kombat every time I say ‘ultimate.’ Yes Mac fans, all 5% of you, I am excited! It’s been 5 years in the making - you got to be excited if your last OS was made of duck tape, rocks, and sticks. And I know, you’ve got all these features and Microsoft couldn’t think of their own. That’s all for you Sterno, and your Mac Book. ;)
Hey, I am just happy that I have an OS that matches the speed and hardware (not to forget the blood, sweat, and tears) that I put into this system.

  • 3.4 Ghz Hyperthreaded CPU
  • 2 GB Ram
  • X800 All-In-Wonder Graphics Card

Everything in XP was fast, but it lacked pizazz. Of course you could bedazzle your copy of XP but it wasn’t the same. I’ve been playing with Vista on my laptop for about a month. Today was the first day I got it installed on my workstation. I like it.

I wish I could tell you that the upgrade went like hot butter on bread, but I had a few snags.

I first decided to upgrade over my current installation of XP. It took a long, and I mean long, time to cycle through all the applications and hardware to make sure that they were compatible with Vista. It found one program that wasn’t compatible, Nero DVD burning software, and after I un-installed the application I had to start all over again. Yet more waiting.

It took a long time to do the upgrade. I was able to fall asleep to American Idol last night and come back to it just finishing the install. Just as I thought it was about done, it started rebooting and getting nowhere. I tried to debug the problem, but it was just easier to rollback to XP and start over.

Instead of going through the whole process again of checking compatibility and watching it fail, I decided to do a clean upgrade. A clean upgrade means that it will wipe out the hard drive before installing. It also means any programs that I had installed would need to be reinstalled. I backed up all of my photos, music, and video on to a secondary hard drive before starting this process.
I started the install this time at lunch so I don’t know exactly how long it took to do its thang. When I came home Vista was ready to setup the time and date and get things started. I didn’t have anymore errors and everything has worked just the way it was supposed too. I did go to a few of the manufacturers’ website to download updated drivers. The only driver that I don’t have now is the one for my TV tuner.

First impressions:

  1. Windows open and move much smoother.
  2. The sidebar and gadgets are awesome. (Note: you can drag them off the sidebar) My favorite is the weather gadget.
  3. Album art has been loaded in the MyMusic folder. It’s like looking through your jewel cases when trying to find an album.
  4. You have to approve each program to install. (Part of Window’s security to prevent programs running without permission)
  5. I have never been a fan of Window’s media player, but I like this version.

Who should not upgrade?

  • If your first thought is to call Shoo. Then not you.
  • The fan in your computer has been turned into an air purifier. Nope, not you.
  • You paid the Geek Squad to install Microsoft Word. Umm, have them do the upgrade.
  • It runs your business. Nope - I’d wait a while.
  • Popups make it difficult to find the Start button. Noda

Who should?

  • Geeks like me.
  • You bought a new computer last month.
  • Your buying a new computer. (All new retail computers come with Vista now)

I’ve read a lot of blogs, articles, and watched a lot podcasts about Vista. I think I have about the same consensus as everyone else. Vista is nice. It is fast. It is sharp. Windows veterans will enjoy it, but if you’ve got an okay PC for just checking email, commenting on Sj-r.com, or downloading photos it may not be for you.

I’ll put some snapshots up later.

Classic Gotshoo: Podcast 3

Published
by
shoo
on 1/29/2007
in Mrs. Shoo, Video and podcast
. 3 Comments

I am trying out a new flashed based video service called Vimeo. YouTube is huge, time to find something that not everyone knows about. Vimeo seems to be different in that you get a RSS feed to your videos, the gui for the video player is super clean, and quality seems to be much better.

The downfall was that I could not upload a MP4 (quicktime) file, so I had to re-encoded the files to 512k 640×480 WMV (windows). I think you might be able to get away with using mpeg.



Gotshoo Podcast 3 on Vimeo

Any thoughts?

Cabbage pancake.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/29/2007
in General and Wacky Internet
. 1 Comment

My best friend from the good ol’ days of Queensway Rd. is in Japan. He and his girlfriend have started a blog to document their adventures.

http://kawaii-supreme.blogspot.com/

Photo stream: http://s177.photobucket.com/albums/w231/kawaiisupreme/

Working on the weekend.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/28/2007
in Flickr, General, House and Old Man Stuff
. 10 Comments

IMG_0448

This is what English teachers do on the weekend. Grade.

GTG has been grading pretty much all weekend. I think she told me that she had 66 essays plus note cards to look over and make comments on. I did steal her away from her red pen Saturday tonight for dinner and a movie. We had a horrible dining experience, but the movie was excellent.

I wont go in to detail about our dining experience, but the movie was great. We saw Pan’s Labyrinth - thanks to Sterno, thanks for the recommendation. It was like The Chronicals of Narnia, but with a dark undertone. The trailer gives the perspective that you’re seeing a different movie. Go check it out. BTW, it is a Spanish movie with English subtitles. And you thought you’d never use those 4 years of Spanish classes!
Computer geeks, cough-me-cough, find other things to do besides grade like update Spfldbloggers.com. New posts on the site are now posted in a note card style. There is a title, the date of when the blog post was published is highlighted, and there is a brief snippet of the text from the post. I think everyone will like it.

IMG_0479I did a little more work on the basement this weekend. I moved the light switch from the bottom of the stairs to the top. You don’t know how much of a convenience that is. Didn’t take any pictures of the process except of the switch that I replaced. I think I’ve got this wiring thing down. I did all the work myself except Roommate Steve’s assistance to run the wires through the wall. And no one was electrocuted.
Next weekend’s project is going to be installing an oven overhead microwave. Do I smell a podcast? Fun. Fun.

Springfield WiFi Map

Published
by
shoo
on 1/26/2007
in General and Springfield
. 0 Comments

Remember when I said I was working on some cool stuff? It’s here. I put together a map of local WiFi hotspots in Springfield using Google Maps. It is currently hosted on Spfldbloggers.com - http://spfldbloggers.com/springfield-wifi/. Russ from Springfield Rewind emailed me the other day and asked why don’t we have a list of WiFi locations?

I’ve got a good portion of the map started, but Russ is working on some user controls so that new wifi spots can be added from a web url. I think he has more information to be included later on like cost, speed, reliability.

It should be a useful addition to Spfldbloggers. Most of the other wifi directories are hard to navigate and cluttered with advertisements. Let me know what you think.

wifi.jpg

Geek life.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/25/2007
in General
. 0 Comments

Day (actually night) 2 of server upgrades. It is about 11:15pm. I’ve managed to scare the cleaning lady two nights in a row although she says I didn’t scare her. I’ve been upgrading the server’s OS so that we can take advantage of the 6GB RAM installed. Before we were only able to use 3.25GB. All I hear right now is the hum of servers and the AC unit. The sound is rhythmic and could very easily put me to sleep. I am blogging this because, well, the blogging is keeping me awake as the last of the updates install.

Creative juices.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/23/2007
in Buddy, Deep Thoughts and General
. 6 Comments

Man, the creative juices were flowing tonight. I snapped some photos downtown which turned out pretty good for my first real night photos. Then I cranked out some code and new cool web 2.0 stuff that I can’t really show you right now. It is better to be surprised, right? Trust me it’s cool. I promise to show by the weekend.

Buddy is tuckered out in the chair right next to me. I think it is time to go to bed.

IMG_0444

Youre gonna get a cold.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/23/2007
in General
. 1 Comment

IMG_0405

Took a few shots downtown tonight.

All that is Molson and Lee.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/22/2007
in General
. 2 Comments

Veronica from Mechanicsburg calls Molson and Lee to discuss “Young people stealing somethin’ from someone else.”

http://molsonandlee.com/sounds/veronica.mp3

Live weather blogging.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/20/2007
in General
. 1 Comment

weather.jpg

It looks like we are going to get hit with a storm of green. I think that’s snow. I am up late tonight doing computer things. GTG is also on her way home from Southern Illinois from another speech tournament. I’ve tried texting her, but haven’t heard anything back.

The screen shot is from 10:53 pm.

11:35 - The blue area is covering Springfield. GTG made it home.

1:03 - For the last hour I’ve been watching Myth Busters. There is a small layer of snow. Nothing to write home about.

Dogs.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/20/2007
in Buddy, Cheesy Pictures and Flickr
. 6 Comments

IMG_0299

Okay, so I got tired taking pictures of Buddy, so I started taking pictures of my neighbors’ dog. Someone please give me a different direction to this photography hobby! I won’t lie - I took even more Buddy shots. I wonder if there is a market for animal photography? I am like the Dog-Photog-Whisper.

The trick to photographing dogs seems to be treats. Lots and lots of treats.

Snow is in the forecast. Maybe I could get some landscape shots… with a dog or two. Okay, I’ll stop for now.

Open letter to Taco Bell.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/19/2007
in Blatant Recollections and General
. 3 Comments

Dear Taco Bell,

How do I say this? “Me encanta tu.” I responded to my Taco Bell craving today by driving half way across town for your greasy but delicious delicacies. I though I’d indulge my craving with the usual 3 taco supreme combo. Soft, not hard. But I went crazy and went with 2 beef supreme chalupas with one beef hard shell taco and topped it off with a nice cold Mountain Dew.

It is probably a good thing that the closest Taco Bell is a 15+ minute drive. It must have been over 6 months since the last time I was there. And it will probably be another 6 before I will return.

Keep up the greasy beefy Mexicana-tina delights. I will be back again one day to yet again cross the border.

Sincerely Your Taco Eating Friend,

Shoo.

Puppy dog face.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/17/2007
in Buddy, Cheesy Pictures, Flickr and General
. 2 Comments

IMG_0241

Buddy and I had a 10 minute photo shoot tonight. Out of a 150 shots, 2 were good. Both posted on Flickr.

Ya, I know. There have been a lot of dog pictures lately. Sorry.. I know. I just can’t get GTG to pose like this. She won’t stop moving. These are really for my Mom who thinks the world of her ‘gran-dog.’ Dad checks out the blog and then lets her know when I’ve posted more puppy pictures. I know she has seen them when I get a phone call and her first question is “How’s the puppy?” Not even a “How’s the girlfriend, the house, the career, your GPS thingy….?”

Doesn’t bother me too much, because it only means I have a dog sitter whenever I need one.

The dog has been pretty good lately. Nothing of value has been destroyed. The carpets have remained dry. He even wonders to the back door when he needs to go potty. You don’t know how much of a relief that is.

So Mom, if you are reading this, your gran-dog is doing just fine. He’d like an afternoon of your time sometime to play.

Gah, how bad is this blog getting? The dog is sending messages to my Mom. We’ll end it there.

Work.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/16/2007
in Flickr
. 7 Comments

Work.

Click the pic to see the notes I made.

Weekend relief.

Published
by
shoo
on 1/14/2007
in Blatant Recollections
. 3 Comments

I feel recharged after a full but fun weekend. A little injured but ready to go and conquer the world with a limp.

I’ve got a limp because after a night out with the boys and a walk down an icy sidewalk I wiped out and sprained my ankle. My foot literally popped out of the socket. I may of pulled the sympathy card and told everyone and their mom this weekend, OR at least that’s what GTG tells me. She has been getting in her cheap shots. I told her it’s not funny to make fun of the handicap.

Kind of reminded me of the Office episode when Michael Scott, the manager, burnt his foot on an electric griddle because he likes to wake up to the smell of bacon in the morning. He preps the griddle the before going to bed. When the alarm goes off he wakes up turns on the griddle then goes back to sleep to wake up to the smell of the bacon. He woke up and stepped on the griddle. He used the injury as a crutch for the rest of the episode. Yup- kind of like me this weekend. Except without the bacon.

I finished wiring the other half the basement this weekend. I still need to clean up the mess and hang the lights. (Note: The 8 dollar florescent work shop lights at Lowes; not worth it. Ace has them for $10 and they’re much better.)

IMG_0053

The photo is part of the mess that I still need to clean up. The wood pile is the leftovers of a previous particle board tile ceiling.

Tonight GTG, Buddy, and I went over to GTG’s parent’s house for stuffed pork chops. I don’t know why this week’s food them has been pork chops but they were good. Dinner was kind of the cherry on the top of the sundae for the weekend. I am full, well rested, and ready for work.

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