Wired 9.12: The Geek Syndrome

Wired 9.12: The Geek Syndrome

I found this article highly interesting and a bit persuasive (unlike much of Wired). Tought-provoking at the very least.

Apollo Pony

Apollo Pony

Today's RocketBoom talked about, now go see it for yourself. There is some classic stuff here, no doubt.

GateWorld - Battlestar Galactica News: First look at five Season Two episodes

GateWorld - Battlestar Galactica News: First look at five Season Two episodes

Cool, and we get them first this go 'round :)

It's Not a Bubble Until It Bursts

It's Not a Bubble Until It Bursts

I guess things are in a bubble all over. Certainly local real estate has gone mad.

iRobot SwarmBot: it’s not just about floors anymore - Engadget - www.engadget.com

iRobot SwarmBot: it’s not just about floors anymore - Engadget - www.engadget.com

TrekToday - Rick Berman: Trek XI In Two Or Three Years

TrekToday - Rick Berman: Trek XI In Two Or Three Years

Paramount is not going to give up on the cash cow just yet.

ATI Crossfire pictured

ATI Crossfire pictured

ATI Fires back (finally) to the SLI juggernaut

Little brother of AMD 4800+ unclothed

Little brother of AMD 4800+ unclothed

More on the Dual-core AMD goodness.

Western Digital S-ATA II spec leaves things to be desired

Western Digital S-ATA II spec leaves things to be desired

What is new?

What is new?

Spent today cutting down trees and moving furniture. Contractor is now ready to start on the other end of the hose finally.

Welcome to www.A4Tech.com

Welcome to www.A4Tech.com

A wireless mouse...without any batteries. A unique approach.

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Doctors seek kitchen knife ban

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Doctors seek kitchen knife ban

Puhleeeze! "No purpose except as weapons"????

Someone sic Alton Brown on them...

Scotsman.com News - Top Stories - Lazy Guide to Net Culture: Things that go bang

Lazy Guide to Net Culture: Things that go bang

Scotsman.com is reporting a light piece that is worth a look. A quote:

"What follows is my story about a shed, a warm beer and a home made jet engine. It is being presented for entertainment purposes only and no-one should attempt to emulate what I have done here. The risks should be obvious but it is worth pointing out that beer is a very dangerous substance when used without due care.

Please be careful! "

Schneier on Security

Schneier on Security

Bruce Schneier is reporting about this in his blog:

Paris Hilton Hack Started With Old-Fashioned Con

Lest anyone doubt how effective social engineering is to a hacker.

BetaNews | Microsoft Opens x64 Upgrades to Retail

BetaNews | Microsoft Opens x64 Upgrades to Retail

This is indeed good news. Far better than the 'only with a new machine or no warranty' stance they originally took. This actually seems more like they really want people to upgrade.

Rocketboom

ODTUG CONFERENCE OVERVIEW

Making final plans to attend this years ODTUG conference, not as a presenter this time.

AMD may be running in place | The Register

AMD may be running in place | The Register

A gentle reminder that technical superiority doesn't win the battle. AMD is still the little fish in this pond.

EarthLink IPv6 in the Home

EarthLink IPv6 in the Home

Interesting approach/stance by a major ISP. Perhaps they are tryiong to encourage the spread of IPV6? If so this was a great choice for ways to start that trend. If only average folk were bright enough to do this type of thing--hard enough to get them to enable WEP fer crisake.

[Sidebar: I see one unsecured WAP from my house, just setting up a new house for a friend closer to the university and there are 3 WAP nodes showing up of which precisely 1 was secured. If this is a fair representation then the percentage of basic secured systems is low.]

With the proliferation of NAT it is less of a crisis than it appeared to be some years ago, but then new tech often eliminates problems :)

CNN.com - The return of 'Doctor Who' - May 26, 2005

CNN.com - The return of 'Doctor Who' - May 26, 2005

So the return of Dr. Who is now noted by the mainstream American media. That has got to be good, right?

Marks Techno Blog

While I have been a fan of the PocketPC for a number of years I am starting to wane a bit on my enthusiasm for HP. My first one was a Journada 240 series and it was a tank. Lasted for years, only thing that finally killed it was the battery. The charger also appeared to give up the ghost about 4 months after finally replacing the battery. My son also used one (and he is rough on his). When time came to replace them I naturally went back to HP.

I ended up with an iPaq 2215 and we later replaced John's with an rx3115. Mine at least came with a 1 year warranty, his was a mere 3 months. About 7 months into using mine the little rubber strips on the side were falling off and a call to HP gets me a new set shipped out. Sadly, 4 months later they are back to falling off again.

His is even worse, a week or so out of warranty and the touch screen is acting up (alignment so far off as to fail). Fortunately we did get an extended warranty through a 3rd party and can get it repaced, but a quick google shows that problems with the HP units have proliferated with screen issues being the largest category. This probably explains the 3 month warranty.

I still prefer the wider range of flexibility the PocketPC offers, but I am going to be shopping other brands.

ACM Queue - Beyond Relational Databases - There is more to data access than SQL.

ACM Queue - Beyond Relational Databases - There is more to data access than SQL.

Speaking of Oracle earlier, this article on the ACM site is a good read.

CNN.com - 'Dr. Beach' names Florida beach No. 1 - May 25, 2005

CNN.com - 'Dr. Beach' names Florida beach No. 1 - May 25, 2005

Those of us who live around here give this a resounding "duh!".

If you haven't been, it is worth the side trip.

IBM retains narrow lead over Oracle in database sales | The Register

IBM retains narrow lead over Oracle in database sales | The Register

This on a front near and dear to my heart :)

I still have to take everything (good or bad) from Gartner with a grain of salt.

Switched On: Aping Donkey Kong: The bizarre 180 of XBox 360 - Engadget - www.engadget.com.

Switched On: Aping Donkey Kong: The bizarre 180 of XBox 360

While some of this commentary hits the mark, I think that touting the lack of high definition TV to watch the new consoles on is probably off the mark. HiDef is starting to move (finally) into the consumer space more and more with the advent of (relatively) low-cost big-screen TV and more services that make use of it (Dish Network, DirectTV as well as many cable companies now offer HiDef packages reasonably). All of this will drive HiDef forward over the next couple of years. One thing that has hurt was the proliferation of (non)standards however 1080i looks like it will be the prevailing wind...

CellAntenna boosts indoor reception - Engadget - www.engadget.com.

CellAntenna boosts indoor reception

I'd get one of these (my house reception is crap, at best) but then again, my driveway reception is pretty much crap too...

Stargate SG-1: The Alliance

Stargate SG-1: The Alliance

As a long-time (off-again-on-again) viewer of SG-1, I'd like for this not to suck. I'll let you know once I get my hands on it.

AMD Athlon 64-X2s available on 7th of June

AMD Athlon 64-X2s available on 7th of June

At long last... I have really been wanting one of these.

Das Keyboard - UberGeeks Only

Das Keyboard - UberGeeks Only

Talk about charging more for less...

[H]ard|OCP - Xbox 360 GPU Features

[H]ard|OCP - Xbox 360 GPU Features

For the XBox fanatics here is a lot of good detail on the new ATI graphics solution for the upcoming XBox 360. There are some interesting points here that have not been brought up in other reviews and this is more to the nitty-gritty on the hardware details.

Tom's Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: Case Modding: Enlightening Lighting - Introduction

Tom's Hardware Guide PCs & HowTo: Case Modding: Enlightening Lighting - Introduction

If you have ever had a thought about doing any case modding, this article at Toms Hardware Guide gives you a good overview at what is involved and can be done. I'll do a more in-depth entry soon on the one I recently did as a part of John's Althon 64 upgrade.

Mouse round-up: Logitech, Microsoft and Razer mice compared @ TechSpot

Mouse round-up: Logitech, Microsoft and Razer mice compared @ TechSpot

This is a good round-up on Mice if you are looking for something along these lines :)

I recently went through this looking for the perfect gaming mouse for my son who ultimately settled on the Razer. I can vouch for the fact that it is uber-sensitive (from the odd time I sit down to touch his machine). It seems to work for him and if you need that sort of resolution be it for games or for CAD, this is an excellent choice.

eHomeUpgrade | PLIX EMC 3200HD Media Center Edition PC

eHomeUpgrade | PLIX EMC 3200HD Media Center Edition PC

While still a bit (OK, a lot) pricey, this is starting to show some of the commoditization (word?) of the Media Center Edition. Granted, you could get a lot of the way there with similar hardware and MythTV, but the average end-user isn't going to care.

AGEIA Physics Processing Unit demoed

AGEIA Physics Processing Unit demoed

This has the potential to crank up games to the next level. If any of the console vendors jump on something like this, prepared to be (literally) blown away. Even having it for PC based games will be huge--assuming content arrives.

More details available here:

AGEIA PhysX Physics Processing Unit Preivew

Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk

Index of /pub/mozilla.org/firefox/nightly/latest-trunk

At home I am normally on the latest trunk build of FireFox as my primary browser. I noticed today that it started installing itself as a different version entirely (Deer Park Alpha 1). Mind you, it may have started this a week or so back and I just missed it :) I was too busy over the past 5 days or so to do an update.

Mirror.co.uk - News - Showbiz News - EXCLUSIVE: WHO'S NEXT FOR DR WHO?

Mirror.co.uk - News - Showbiz News - EXCLUSIVE: WHO'S NEXT FOR DR WHO?

As a long-time fan of the series (and completely sold on the new one) I found this little tid-bit interesting.

Mirror.co.uk - News - Showbiz News - LIGHT-SABRE DUEL PUTS TWO IN HOSPITAL

Mirror.co.uk - News - Showbiz News - LIGHT-SABRE DUEL PUTS TWO IN HOSPITAL

This is along the lines of 'stupidity should be painful...'

Saitek joysticls, keyboards, joypads a joy

Saitek joysticls, keyboards, joypads a joy

Saitek is known for their innovative tech. My son John is using their Gamers keyboard and loves it. Then again, he is a teenager into FPS games...

These additions to their gamer tech line look very sweet.

Some general good news sources that I like to peruse.

The Register: Sci/Tech News for the World

The Inquirer, News, Reviews, facts & friction

Wired News

engadget - cool new tech

Cool Tech Zone

Woo Hoo!

Finally joined the 21st Century technorati.
I'll be posting rants/comments/reviews of a mostly technical nature, stay tuned.