Our Federal returns have been accepted and are being processed, the State takes 5-7 days to “accept” the electronic return. State an Fed combined we’ll get just enough back to cover Amy’s fall tuition and books. I used Turbo Tax for the web. I highly recommend it. It was easy and fast.
Nikon Coolscan III LS-30
Now I’m ready. I just won a 35mm Nikon transparency scanner on ebay. This Coolscan LS-30 originally sold for $750 to $900 from 1999-2002. I paid a whopping $57.96 plus shipping. I may even dedicate an old PC to it. I happen to have a 19″ Viewsonic monitor that’s not being used. I could build a retro, late 90’s digital image processing station.
This unit’s got modern power though. It scans at up to 2700 dpi (25MB file) from a 35mm negative and uses Nikon Coolscan software – the best in the business. It doesn’t have high end things like multi-sample averaging and can’t output files with more than 8 bits per channel. To get features like those you’ve gotta spend some bucks. This is an old-school pro-tool that has fallen into my price range by technological attrition.
what…WEATHERBUG!?
I apologize for my lack of updates lately. I’ve been slammed at work and at home. More work, more birthdays (my dads this time) and then more work again. Today Amy loaded AOL Instant Messenger on my primary PC at home so that she could chat with Katie. Innocent enough. But then to my shock, horror and embarrassment I found Weatherbug on my Start Menu tonight. I’m not sure what saved me from the stroke. Devinne intervention?
Ad-Aware to the rescue – save me now. Sure ‘nuf, 13 data miners were found, quarantined and deleted. Whoa. I still feel violated. The machine seems healthy. Amy didn’t know any better. And like most people she doesn’t understand my concern. So for those who can’t see the “big deal” – Weatherbug is spyware. It loads cookies (files) on your PC to track where you go o the Internet. And AOL is happy to load it for you with Instant Messenger unless you specifically say no. To explain how robust and efficient it is I’ll let the fact that it made 76 connections to 13 sites for traffic reporting in the 9 hours it was on my PC stand as testament. And now I’ve done my “end user support” duties for the evening.
In my world AOL stands for All Outta Luck. Stay away from it at all costs. If you must use IM software, please use Yahoo Messenger. Your PC will thank you. Just for the record, I let Amy keep AOL IM installed. I cleaned off the rest of the garbage it came with.
How Dell made North Carolina beg for business | The Register
How Dell made North Carolina beg for business | The Register
Here’s an article showcasing our state representative’s fiscal discipline. I’m so proud to be from North Cakalacky, the only state where elected officials can’t pronounce the names of towns that end in “oro”. I guess Dell had to receive some incentive to build a plant in a place like “Greensbur”. It’s not exactly the technology center of the universe.
VisionMan 10 “Servers”
Yes, here come some cheapo, generic VisionMan 10 servers for Dillon Supply’s rack. $1600 for the pair with 1GB of RAM each and a Western Digital 250GB Hard Drive.
The BIOS could see the 250GB drive and it’s full capacity (of course Windoze 2K Server setup could not) but the RealTek PXE boot manager hated it. So I bypassed it and still kept getting the ‘ol “Hard Disk Fail: Drive Not Found” error when trying to boot straight to the drive.
In frustration I popped the 80GB drive in that came with the stupid thing back in. Formated it NTFS, loaded 2000 Server, SQL Server Enterprise, alot of of dependencies, hotfixes and anti-virus. Bang – server running. Now it’s time to add the 250GB drive which Windoze will see now that SP4 installed…. but noooooooo…
The freakin’ server’s only got enough power couplings coming off the 200W power supply for one hard drive! So why did they build the chasis for two??? And to make matters worse, the way the drives fit in the drive bay doesn’t allow for the IDE cable to reach both drives. I gotta find a cable with more distance between the female inputs. Splitting power and abnormal cable requirements – that’s what goin’ cheap gets you. Quite a pain for a couple of test servers.
Rotary Cell Phone
Spark Fun Electronics – Rotary Cell Phone
Found on slashdot: This article explains how to turn an old rotary phone into a wireless cell if you are someone who knows all the acronyms. I’m building one of these for my desk at work as soon as I have time (which means maybe next year). How retro-cool is this? I can’t explain.
I haven’t had the chance to work on a PCB in a couple of years. Haven’t really had a reason to until now. And I’ve never touched a cell chip before… success is eminent.
At work all night.
Tonight I am stuck at Dillon Supply – blog at the ready. We got hit by a morning snow shower that lasted until 3 p.m. The two inches of accumulation wasn’ t really the problem but the freezing roads caused five and six hour traffic delays. Obviously I didn’t want Amy coming to try to get me in the Mustang so I waited… and waited… and waited… FOR WHAT? I ain’t going anywhere.
So a little while ago I’m roaming the halls in the dark and what do ya know, Larry Thomas the Raleigh branch manager is still here. Said he’s here for the duration. Next thing I know Ed Todd, the Accounts Receivables manager, shows up in the bathroom to brush his teeth. Said he made it two blocks in one hour so he turned around.
It doesn’t suck here. I have a 3MB Internet connection to myself, a vending machine and a toothbrush. Roll on…
But I’m missin’ my buddy Connor tonight. I love him more than I can squeez him. Amy too. A picture of Connor playing in the snow was on wral.com today in the January 19th snow photos.
How to get a free Mac Mini – for real.
Here’s how to really get a Mini Mac for absolutely nothing. Follow these instructions exactly and you will get zero spam and no charges on any credit card. It’s done by referring friends.
1. Go to the link below fill out some info (use a spam trap email account like hotmail etc. if it makes you more comfortable).
2. Next click “No” to all of the optional offers presented (unless you’re interested in the garbage).
3. Then when you come to the place where you must select one “required” offer choose the eFax.com offer which is free for 30 days. It is one of those deals where you have to cancel in 30 days or you’re charged.
If you cancel the eFax account within the 30 day trial period and you get 10 people to do the exact same thing I’ve detailed here you will get a Mini Mac for free. The $600 80GB one.
smash’s world 6.7b: taking-apart the mac mini (how-to disassembly video)
Here’s a reminder to myself: check out this video on how to take apart a Mac Mini to perform upgrades.
WRAL.com – News – Head Of Local Company Building Iraqi Government Remains Optimistic
WRAL.com – News – Head Of Local Company Building Iraqi Government Remains Optimistic
This is an interesting headline. We’re now using taxpayers dollars to pay private American corporations to “build” foreign governments. So I guess the people of Iraq are not in charge of their future as the Bush administration claims. North Carolina’s own Research Triangle Institute is.
Note: Just over two years ago I was offered a Sys. Admin position at RTI. I turned it down for the position I held at Glaxo.