Pauls Rants & Revelations

Now this is just plain disturbing. If I really was considering doing the do, this would be the clincher for me.

-Cheers

As it often happens, technology has once again fizzed out under the uses I put it to. My cellphone battery is about to die completely. It will barley hold a charge for most of a day before I have to put it on the charger, whether I user it or not.

Fortunately, there is a place I can get a fresh one that will put the life back into my primary means of communication with the world.

It was actually by a happy mistake that I came across Allbatts.com. I was looking on Craigs list for a laptop for my son when I found a decently priced Dell one that had a bum battery. A post I found for dell laptop batteries came up with the link so I clicked it (because curiosity has yet to kill this cat).

I forgot about the laptop battery I was looking for and search for my aging phone, expecting nothing to be found. But they had it. For about $20 I can (and will) replace my cellphone to get a few more years use out of it. Hazzah for small victories.

This could also help out my sister in law who is now forced to use one of those weird external power supplies to keep her phone working. Too bad Christmas already came but there is at least her birthday. At the very least I’ll tell her about the site.

In short, if you are looking for a batter, any battery, take a look at AllBatts. I would be surprised if they don’t carry what you are looking for. If you do find and use it, leave a comment. Happy tales are always welcome.

-Cheers

It would be just my luck that these things happen.

As I said previously, my wife bought me the Valve Orange Box for christmas. I thought this was the best thing. I immediately started downloading (as she just gave me the money for it cause it wasn’t in stores here) and even though it was going to take a good few hours (I was downloading everything that game with it, about 15 gigs worth) I was in high spirits.

I check back a few hours later and most of the downloads are hanging around 97%. Then I notice that there is no activity on the network. The wireless works but my game system is on an ethernet cable. I check the cable and everything and no go. I check the LAN settings and still nothing. I restart and it starts back up again, then freezes at 99%. I restart and manage to grab the rest of it just when the connection dies again.

So I’m frustrated but at least I have the game. I play a little but its not as great since an internet connection is required to record and display all of you achievements. I finished Portal and Episode 2 but have yet to play TF2 until the connection works.

After days of messing with setting I say “fuck it” and go get a network card. I throw it in and everything is up again and my achievements and recorded and I can play TF2. I only started it to make sure its working but I had a lot of work to do so I did that for the next couple of days. I put my game system to standby and get to working.

Today dawns and I am just getting over a cold that has been going around the family for a week. My kids want to watch a movie so I though to let them watch on the game machine since it has surround sound. I hit that power button and … wait for it… nothing happens.

I push it again and still nothing. I push it again frantically and no go. I rip off the hood and check connections and still nothing.

Now, I am officially pissed. I tried tracing the problem but there is nothing I can find wrong. The power unit seems good, connections are on, the buttons work, it just will not start up. It may be the power supply but I have a feeling that its more than that. Its probably reached the end of its usable life as a whole. Its a 3 year old system and while still respectable by todays standards, it is a bit dated.

I suppose in retrospect I should be grateful for all the use its given me. Except for the last 3 months or so its performed well while coding, modeling, rendering and all other tasks. But I fear that since my top-o-the-line Macbook Pro came into the household, my old system just couldn’t keep up with my now lifted computing expectations.

Still, I’m miffed that it wouldn’t even allow me to get the 300 gigs of data off of it before it keeled over. I can put the hard disks in an external enclosure but I really need to get a working PC in order to play on Steam ever again. I really just need a new power supply and motherboard (and chip since AMD discontinued the 939 socket); the rest of the kit is still good.

Perhaps I’ll start collection around my wifes office. I would do it at mine but I work at home, and everyone knows that I’m not the most charitable sort.

-Cheers

Its a fair question, really, and more than a few folks have thought about it. So much so that someone created the site to answer just such a question.

Here, for your amusement, is my score:

22

If you want to find out yours, click the link in my score. 22 isn’t bad I guess, even though they are just kindergardeners.

-Cheers

I went downstairs to see what happening with the family and my kids were playing in their room. My son was wearing a little feather band thing that they made in school for Thanksgiving.

I thought it was nifty so I said “You’d make a cool Indian, dude.” He then, in all seriousness, says “It’s Native American, Dad”, and continues playing with his legos.

My wife and I look at each other and laugh at what had just come out of the mouth of our 5 year old. We thought it was quite funny.

But on second thought, should I be worried that he, at only 5 years old, is toting the PC banner around?

Either way, its still funny for a kid, especially our kid, to say.

-Cheers

I got a hold of some rather interesting products from a company called Vat19. At first I was a little curious about them as it was a somewhat off assortment of items.

Included in the package was a pencil, some make-your-own snow, and a DVD. Upon closer inspection these were not the typical incarnations of these ususally normal items.

Firstly, the Smencils Gourmet Scented Pencil smells. But not bad, mind. It smells like watermelons. My son was really interesting in this one because it smelled so much like candy so he got to play with this one. The second item, the Insta Snow Fake Snow Powder, was also intersting as I messed it up at first (only used half) but after adjusting to the correct amount of water, it was quite fun to play with and wold make a good decoration.

The last item, the Ambient Fire Video Fireplace DVD, was a looping variet of fireplace videos. Just pop it in your DVD player and you get a constant crakling fire (campfire, hearth fire, gas, etc) for your enjoyment. This would be good for those who do not have a fire place and want that classic Christmas feel in their homes.

Vat19.com also has some other interesting items, such as Electronics Charging Station (which I haven’t checked out yet) which would make great holiday gifts and would make the recipients take pause as these things, as the site says, are curiously awesome little things.

-Cheers

Just came across this via Digg video and thought to share some whitty hilarity with you.

Click to play video

If you can’t see the video click this link : Italians Vs Europeans

-Cheers

This is just too cool not to share with as many people as I can. Im a fan of the Steampunk style and a fan of Star Wars, so when I came across this I just has to rave about it.

StarDestroyer.Net BBS :: Steampunk Lightsaber

I originally found it via a Digg article here.  The article was a collection of various steampunk style object including, but not limited too, R2D2, a computer monitor, and laptop. Check out Digg for more but if you just want the article then by all means click here.

Now if only I could convince my wife to let me make one for myself. She just got her office back after my last project so I should probably hold off on it or a bit.

-Cheers

I know as much as the next guy that, eventually, there will be a zombie attack. Its really just a matter of time.

Of course, we all keep saying that but have you looked around recently? There have been more and more stories about zombies and zombie related happenings in the news latley.

Did you hear about the zombie figures they found on 3000 year old Egyptian hieroglyphs?

How about the guy who created the first (in my opinion) marketable zombie survival kit?

Have you seen Resident Evil 3?

The onslaught is coming. You, me, we’re all going to be fighting for our lives in a desperate struggle to get away from the undead masses and reach… where ever the characters reach at the end of the games and movies and comics.

Grab your shotguns, machetes, sticks of dynamite, and get ready. Cause they may be behind you right now.

-Cheers

November is National Alzheimer’s Awareness month. If you have not heard of it, then please, pay attention. If you have, then pay attention anyway.

Alzheimer’s is a disease that primarily affects a persons brain. Basically, blood stops flowing to certain areas of the brain that control memory. The effects of the disease are quite unpleasent mostly for the person’s loved ones who can only watch. The effects on the person is, well, no one really knows. The affliced appears dotty and out of it and will often mistake people for someone else.

My maternal grandmother had it when I was growing up. She was always quite happy to see me because I resembled my grandfather a bit so she always mistook me for him. But it was painful to visit her as she was constantly forgetting things and never really there.

At that time there really wasn’t much that could be done but in recent years more accurate testing and diagnosis has been developer. In addition, a few new drugs are available now that can lessen the effects of the disease. But what I want to talk about is what you, yes, you, should do right now.

Go and locate a testing facility around your area that does screening for Alzheimer’s. Any of the links on the page will take you there. Also, read up on the successful aging tips provided by the Alzheimers Foundation of America which will help you our probably more than you know.

Also remember that just becuase we are racing for a cure, that doesn’t mean we should brush aside those who have it right now. To make a difference, or to give an early holiday gift, consider donating to the AFA to help take care of those who are suffering with this disease now.

OK. I’m done. Now go and get a screening.

-Cheers