Archive for November, 2009
Designed For Microsoft Windows 95
Intellegent design.
I am wiping the drive on a old office computer for my wife. Its so old I am going to donate to Goodwill. Usually I fix it up and ship it off to a friend in need. This computer is so old I am not going to do that. Its an old HP Pavilion 8260 designed for Windows 95. Windows 95!
Here are the specs on this speed demon.
* 32MB RAM
* 266MHZ Pentium II
* 4.0 GB Drive (formats to 3.831GB)
* Windows 95
This computer has suited my wife at her work since she got the job MANY years ago. It was a computer they had around the office as the primary desktop for quite some time. I upgraded it from 95 -> 98SE 5 years ago or so. I had to put a new CDROM in it 3 years ago. Beyond that its run like a champ.
She used it to network with another computer and it ran Open Office fine albiet a bit slowly. The wife finally wanted to replace it after about 7-10 years of use after she got a printer that didn’t have a Windows 98 driver. I futzed with it to get the XP driver working but she decided as I was installing the XP printer driver to get a new computer.
We replaced it with a Acer Nettop that cost $200.
The acer nettop specs:
* 1.6GHz Intel Atom 230 Processor dual core
* 1024 MB DDR2 RAM
* 160 GB 5400RPM SATA Hard Drive
* Windows XP
She had no spyware or malware on the machine. Well, then again it was never hooked up to the internet. Which is the best way to keep a Windows 98 machine safe.
How am I wiping the machine? With an old Windows 98 boot floppy of course. I have one around for posterity sake. Though, I think it might be safer to wipe it using a Linux rescue CD.
Coulda, Shoulda And The Love Of Finger Pointy!
Osama Bin Laden
“As President Obama vows to “finish the job” in Afghanistan by sending more troops, the Senate Foreign Relations Committee has completed a detailed look back at a crucial failure early in the battle against Al Qaeda: the escape of Osama bin Laden from American forces in the Afghan mountains of Tora Bora in December 2001.”
“The committee report, prepared at the request of Senator John Kerry of Massachusetts, the committee’s Democratic chairman, concludes unequivocally that in mid-December 2001, Mr. bin Laden and his deputy, Ayman al-Zawahri, were at the cave complex, where Mr. bin Laden had operated previously during the fight against Soviet forces.
The new report suggests that a larger troop commitment to Afghanistan might have resulted in the demise not only of Mr. bin Laden and his deputy but also of Mullah Muhammad Omar, the leader of the Afghan Taliban. Mullah Omar, who also fled to Pakistan in 2001, has overseen the resurgence of the Taliban. ”
“The Senate report was prepared by the Foreign Relations Committee’s Democratic staff, whose chief investigator, Douglas Frantz, is a former journalist who has reported extensively on the hunt for Mr. bin Laden.”
This coming up to President Obama making his strategy known in Afghanistan Tuesday. My guess is that some people will hate it because we are not exiting now. Some people will hate it because its not a 1 to 1 pairing of General McCrystal’s requests. Some people will hate it because they hate Obama. Some people will be OK with it. In the end we will still be fighting two wars.
Viva la change.
Darth Cathedral
Posted by jdodson in movies, offhandstrangity on November 30, 2009
You have become all powerful as the Pope has forseen!
“In the 1980s, while the west towers were under construction, Washington National Cathedral held a decorative sculpture competition for children. Word of the competition was spread nationwide through National Geographic World Magazine. The third-place winner was Christopher Rader, with his drawing of that fearful villain, Darth Vader.”
Wow. Not only is the Washington area made much cooler because of my play of Fallout 3, but now its even more so. I need to put this on my list of places to go if ever I return to DC as a tourist.
Question For the Ages
Question for the ages.
Question for the ages: What good is a 4 day weekend if you spend it doing work? *sigh*
Happy Thanksgiving!
Happy Thanksgiving
I wish you well this holiday season, including today!
Welcome To jdodson.org v 3.5
Posted by jdodson in informative, offhandstrangity on November 25, 2009
This is one of the things I found searching for images and "new format"
As you may have noticed, this website has undergone a site content change. I quickly decided a few days ago to do a few things differently.
1. I am going to put some kind of media in each post. I used to be big into lots of text and almost no pictures or video. That is going to change. I already love the new focus as the blog seems more alive with interesting stuff. If you don’t care about what I write, hopefully ive picked a good picture or video to go with the concept.
2. I am going to break each post into a bite sized nugget. First with some kind of quotation or a source. This is to give a seminal understanding of what is being presented to be followed up by a brief response. It may be a long one, if it is I plan on breaking it up with more media.
The reason for this change is because I grew tired of reading my blog. The material was good but it was not that much fun to slag through post after post of only text. In a internet world of rich media, this blog looked like a newspaper. That is to say, extremely borish.
I will still post some long winded diatribes if thats what keeps you interested, but look forward to my new posts on movies, music, politics and video games. I know I enjoy going back and looking over them.
The UK Iraq Inquiry
Unsure what I think about this really. I believe in transparency and its not wrong asking questions and digging deep. Unless you are scared at what you might find. If the Iraq war was on the level these inquires should be fine, unless they are rigged one way or the other. Unsure things like this can be impartial with people being so fervent either way.
Shrek Forever.
You know little Timmy, weve milked this thing so much! I bet if we "end" it we will release 50 direct to DVD movies as well as a kids TV show!
“Shrek Forever After will be the last Shrek sequel and will conclude the story, hence the film’s title — which isn’t just a play on the number 4. Of course, this isn’t including spinoff films like Puss in Boots). And who are they kidding? Dreamworks will probably eventually make another Shrek film — the franchise is too popular not to.”
I won’t cut much here, I disliked Shrek 2 & 3(I didn’t pay to watch them thank goodness). I thought Shrek was OK and not the cynemagic blocktasmic amazetry that people thought it was. It was a spoof movie with a sub generic storyline and really tired jokes. It had a nice edge to it but it won’t make it to my top 50 list.
Two New Live NiN Track
Is this any good? Hmmm.
“Two songs, “Hurt” and “The Fragile,” from Trent’s 2006 performance at the Bridge School Benefit, have been released on iTunes as part of The Bridge School Collection Vol 4. In iTunes the tracks can be purchased individually or as part of the full album. All proceeds go to Neil Young’s Bridge School, a unique organization that uses creative approaches to educating children with severe speech and physical impairments.”
Dunno, AAC is not really my thing.
Play Your Video Games From Anywhere
Posted by jdodson in video games on November 24, 2009
So I had this problem when I was in Greece. I wanted to play Doctor Mario 64 in Greece because the country was boring. The first part of the trip was boring in England too so if I had the ability to say, stream the game directly to a laptop I wouldn’t have been bored. *cough*
</sarcasm>
OK so yeah not really. But if you were in a similar situation the spawn is for you.
You can play Tetris in the bathroom!
“The Spawn HD-720 from Spawn Labs is designed to fulfill that promise of futuristic mobility by taking console video games and (in technical terms) squishing them inside your computer. ”
This is where the console stuff goes.
“Video looked crisp, though not quite as good as if it was actually being displayed directly on your screen, and solid, with no stuttering and only two extremely brief graphical hiccups in 15 minutes of play. We’re told that playing over the net, rather than a LAN, shouldn’t cause video chugging or stutters since the quality of the video is adjusted depending on connection strength.“