Happy Easter Everyone!

(And now onwards with the posting)

I have been having a buttload of fun with technology lately, both at work and at home; I’m a happy boy. I’ve been able to play with tech I didn’t have access to at home and the new experiences, problems, solutions and good people I’ve met there keep me from sitting in a rut wondering when the danish I’m staring at will evolve, grow legs and skitter off the table…

As readers here already know, thanks to their high attention spans (according to a recent CNN poll) and the fear of my righteous wrath, I have a KVM switch (a device that allows me to share a monitor, keyboard and mouse amongst 4 computers). KVM switches are wonderful beasties (thanks pal!); they make owning more than one computer and using them at the same time easy and effortless. Of course with an additional piece of hardware there is usually potential additional quirks, weird problems and incompatabilities.

My $6 multimedia keyboard (EZ 9910MP) fell prey to one of these incompatabilities. For some reason the developers made it without paying attention to the well-known simple, basic specs of a PS/2 keyboard and it wouldn’t work plugged into the KVM. So either I found another keyboard I liked (after I went on a religious quest to finally find that keyboard) that would work with it, a hit and miss blind endeavor or I get geeky-creative in the mean time and maybe quest later for a compatible keyboard I liked. So what to do?

Hint: always go with geeky-creative solutions. It turns geeks into chick magnets.

The reason I like multimedia keyboards is for volume control, that’s the most used feature for me and the one I can’t live without. Yet here I was with one multimedia keyboard I can’t use and a bunch of regular keyboards. What to do? Answer: Hack the planet!

I grabbed a regular keyboard that worked with the KVM that had a feel I liked and re-mapped the Windows Keys to Volume Down/Up and the Windows Menu key to MUTE using a cool little program called Sharpkeys and viola, I now have a multimedia keyboard that works with the KVM! Taaa-daaa!. BTW any key in Windows can be remapped with a registry hack but the reason I used Sharpkeys is that this small utility can keep track of all keyboard modifications, reset them at will and you don’t have to look up the scan keycodes to make it all work. Remember kids, you can be geeky but you don’t have to always make more work for yourself to keep being a geek. Lazy geeks are cool. Endlessly laborious geeks aren’t. Be cool; be a lazy geek.

CSS Photo Zoom Thanks!

Also, I thought I’d pass a nod at this point to a wonderful gentleman, Scott Kimler who unknowingly breathed fresh techy joy into my blog by developing the Photo Zoom code I started using on my site. It’s a real terrific, easy to use addition that makes pictures leap off the page yet let articles retain their layout. The code I used can be located following the Kimler Caption no.2 link , as Scott recommends; it’s the best choice. A pure HTML/CSS solution that will be sure to spice up any website you add it to. Why now with a little code insert you can amaze your friends, impress women, beat up the school bully and reach for the stars!

Disclaimer: If you’re not satisfied, we’ll give you your money back. Warning: Batteries not included. Do not take CSS Photo Zoom code if you’re pregnant, allergic to mouse-droppings, have asthma or are prone to night terrors or seizures. If you suffer from ADDHD, wet the bed or have had any kind of training to be a mime, this code will certainly kill you faster than a Supreme Court intervention.

Happy Easter Everyone!

Welcome to the World Wide Web, Mr. Patrick! Click here for Patrick Norton’s website.

Day #3 at work: I was testing out a printer problem for a user and kept running to the printer to see if the problem was resolved. I had opened up Word and typed “This is a test,” hit Print and went to the printer. Nothing happened. It didn’t work. So I hit print again and ran to the printer. Nope. Nada. After the fourth trip back and forth to the printer, I re-edited the document and went on another futile quest. No test printout. So I get back to the IT dept and my coworkers are laughing. (Not a strange thing for them to do, they’re quite merry.)

Right next to my desk is my test printout. What the… how did the print get here when it should be over there at the printer? One of the girls dropped it by. Huh? I didn’t pass anyone. Confusion. And how did they know where it goes? The albatross brought it I was told as they giggle at my befuddled visage. Of course the reason nothing printed was because I kept going to the wrong printer. So someone seemed to have read it where it spit out and realized who printed it and they brought it to me.

The print read: “This is a test of the emergency printing system. Had this been an actual emergency you would have been notified by a large flatulent albatross…”

Games up! On Day #3 everyone knew who had printed that. I’m freaking doomed.

Oh yeah, in case you missed it I have a job. I work at the same place Darci does (she got me the interview - THANKS again) as a PC Technician in their IT dept. I get to work with some great people and they all keep assuring me I get paid too, so it’s all good. M-F, day shift + weekends off = happy Vin. *sigh*

Excuse me I have to go to sleep now, have a good week everyone!!! ZzzZZZzzzz…

Since I keep talking about the beauty, the joy, the wonder that is my testrig/ backup computer I thought I’d show you all what I’m talking about. So here it is, in all it’s wonderous, bare, nekkid glory. Enjoy. (Mouse over for larger pic)

If you’re wondering what the big deal is about my testrig is, imagine this little scenario. Pretty much all your life working with computers you had only one. Never two. So, see this only computer of yours was special. It got all you time, all your love, all your attention. You were careful what you did to it, what you put on it and how you tweaked it with gentle caressing hands of concern. You cared about it. Deeply.

Now enter a backup computer. A testrig. Something not as good, not as smart, not as cool. Worried about doing something to your loved computer? Do it to the testrig first. Beat it, drop it, bang it, load spyware on it just for the heck of it. Don’t run an antivirus program, see how long it takes until it won’t boot anymore because of all the spyware. Toss it in the closet, the fridge, leave it out in the rain. Don’t touch it even if it cries alone in a dark corner of the room for your attention. Ignore it just like you ignore those public indecency laws.

Now you understand the beauty that is the testrig. It doesn’t matter what you do to it, what you install on it or if you even power it on; as long as it doesn’t suddenly become your main computer…

My Favorite Uncle in the Whole Wide World called today and let me know that in the past few weeks they had three winter storms with 9 days of snow that left over 19″ of White Powdery Death in my old home state, New York. A lot of family and friends right now are pretty miserable because of all the cold weather and being constantly burried the white stuff. They’re cold, they’re wet, they’re miserable and it’d suck real bad for me if I couldn’t do anything about it; but I can, dammit!

I’m here to help my friends and family in this, their time of need in my own…

(Ok, do I really need to finish this sentence? Let’s just do it.)

Helpful Links:

Avalanche Awareness & Avalanche Survival & Rescue
Avalance Awareness
Survival Tips: How to Survive an Avalanche
Avalanche Survival - How to Survive an Avalanche
Winter Survival Skills

And last but certainly not least, here’s the most helful link of them all:

Current Weather Conditions in Las Vegas

Now if you’re like me and live in Las Vegas, there are a few questions that you might have. I’ll try to answer them as best as I can:

1. What is snow?
Frozen precipitation in the form of white or translucent ice crystals in complex branched hexagonal form. It most often falls from stratiform clouds, but can fall as snow showers from cumuliform ones. It usually appears clustered into snowflakes. -taken from an online dictionary
2. What does it look like?
It looks like snow, duh. According to Snowcrystals.com, no two snowflakes are exactly alike. Evidently even higher up, cloning is banned… (site has pics of snowflakes for the curious or still befuddled)

3. Is snow cold or hot?
There is some debate about this in intellectual circles. To almost everyone I have ever talked to, or anything I’ve read, snowflakes are initially cold, although my upstairs neighbor says otherwise from time to time…

4. Why do people who don’t like snow live in a place that snows?
Why do people who hate tornadoes live in Tornado Alley? (psst… God hates mobil homes that’s why he sends tornadoes to clean them up when there’s too many) Seriously, it’s not that they hate snow, it’s that they hate it when their urine freezes as they’re relieving themselves on a tree, lamp post or hot dog cart…

Well, hope that all helped, I have to go outside now and get the mail without a coat, shirt, pants or socks. Not that that’s saying much because that’s how I get the mail everyday, even in New York. See, I’ve got nothing to hide, people. Why hello there, neighbor!

(Whoa, my ears are buzzing like mad, I think there are a few people looking for me right now… exit stage left. A-cha-cha-cha!)

My father obsessed with Bejeweled 2 Deluxe so much his eyes glow with gemstones!

I think I should have titled this entry “Everything and The Kitchen Sink”; so much has been happening lately that I just haven’t been able to sit still long enough to write about it. Let’s see just what have I been up to? Hmmm…

Well, I’ve been happily going through some more of the computer equipment I was given (see earlier posts or not) and getting some of the systems put together, ready for sale. I have to go through all the odd boards to see what processors they can take since I mentioned them to a good friend and he/she (gender witheld for protection purposes) instructed me to tell he/she what I have in case he/she has chips “just lying around.” Eeep! One day I’m calling and mentioning pumpkin pie. I so love pumpkin pie! *grin*

My dad and I have gotten into this little thing I call Bejeweled Madness. See, I first introduced him to the Popcap’s first Bejeweled aka electronic crack and for the first time ever I was bested by the old geezer! Bested? Nay, humiliated. It seems that he’s like Rainman with that stupid game; the best I could do on it was like 50,000 he got up to like 1,400,000 on it! In the history of the computer he’s never gotten more than me in any game, NEVER EVER NEVER EVER! He not only beats me at the freaking thing, he crushed me. Spanked me like I’m a naughty, naughty schoolgirl… err… uhm… well, not like that; he annihilated me. It wouldn’t be so bad if he could stop pointing and laughing at my pathetic score or could spell annihilate. So for ages I plotted my revenge. For ages I planned, pleaded and begged the dark spirits for a way to get even with my progenitor. And finally along came Popcap with their latest incarnation of pure evil, Bejeweled 2. Finally REVENGE WILL BE MINE! Laugh at my pathetic score no more pappa, for now I will be laughing at your sad sad little boy score. HAHAHA! HAHAHAHA! BWAHAHAHAHA!

(pause)

He’s up to 2 million seven hundred forty-thousand five hundred twenty-one points. *sigh* Great. Just freaking great… we’re now full-tilt running and screaming into Bejeweled Madness. Actually I’m having a whole lot of fun with him this time around (future post coming) *tee hee*

I’ve also been doing a massive amount of work on this ole blog o’mine; happily taking a veritable coding wheed-whacker to the sucker. I’ve added some cool new functionality to the code, made a few behind the scenes additions/functions to the admin panels and delved into some cutting-edge, ultra-nifty CSS/PHP code and techniques. Notice anything different yet? Hehehe, that’s what I love about making modifications; the real pleasure is making tons of changes yet keeping the blog looking the same at first glance. Run your little mouse over things and you’ll see the fun I’ve had and the cool changes that are there waiting for you to enjoy! And hey for one of the niftiest things I’ve ever seen, why don’t you drag your mouse over the picture at the top of this post for starters. *Hehehe* Enjoy the new features, look and feel (I sure had a blast with all the changes)! It was hard work and it’s not obvious, which I LOVE! Happy discoveries!