Matthew's Musings

Long time...no post

2008-09-10T17:00:00.002-06:00

It's been a long time since I have posted on this blog. I am not sure what to blame it on other than general busyness.

I have been listening to a podcast called This Week in Photography recently and, I might add, enjoying it immensely. They are having a link contest so I decided to throw-up (alright you know what I mean) a link to their blog. Maybe I will win a Drobo!

Long Started Something

2007-02-26T16:37:00.000-06:00

istartedsomething.com

This is a great blog I found somehow. Long Zheng blogs mainly about Technology and Internet stuff. Some of his recent posts I found interesting, iPhone vs SmartPhone, Vista Wallpapers, and Bill Gates on his foundation.

Show the code

2007-02-26T16:06:00.000-06:00

Today I ran across an interesting project called Show Us the Code, www.showusthecode.com. It is a site calling on Steve Ballmer to show the code that Linux uses he claims infringed on MS patents. There's been some level of interest in this. Here are some articles about the site:

Neowin.net

Digg.com - 2000+ diggs

SlashDot.org

It'll be fun to see what comes of it, if anything. I really don't think that MS will release anything. Period. They're tighter than a drum when it comes to that stuff. Or at least except for leaks. ;)

Fat Wallet

2007-02-25T08:37:00.000-06:00

I have been a frequent user of a site called FatWallet.com recently. It is a community-driven site to get good deals on almost everything. I tend to watch here as that is where the "Hot Deals" are found.

Some recent deals I found:

96oz of Pure Genuine Maple Syrup for $25 at Amazon.com after coupon code
2x2Gb Kingston U3 USB 2.0 Jump drives for a profit of $13 after 2 rebates
Taxcut Federal+State for $6.40 profit after 9 rebates ;) (all but 2 have come through so far)
Ultra Computer Case for free after $40 rebate
IO Gear Mobil Office Kit (usb mouse, usb hub, Cat5 cable, POTS cable) for $0.00 after $32.05 in 3 rebates

Take a look and let me know what deals you find.

I am in!

2007-02-23T10:20:00.000-06:00

This week I got notified by email that I am a beta tester for MS Windows Home Server or WHS as it is called. I really can't say much more than that because they don't want me to. I haven't installed it yet but when I do I think I can post some screen shots of it in action.

Here are some links telling more about it:

PressPass Press Release

ZDnet blog

Paul Thurrott

New Website

2007-02-20T07:36:00.000-06:00

MatthewLeffler.net

A while back I decided I would like to try out the Office Live free website. The big draw was the free domain name that came with it. You have to use a credit card to get the free site so that they can make sure you only get one site per credit card. Also, you can't use the sign up form from a Vista computer or from Firefox on any OS. Only IE6/7 from XP. I am sure they will fix that soon.

The sign up process is easy. About 8 steps and you can have a honest to goodness website in 15 minutes. It is a very controlled website and if you want the code you aren't going to get there. You can't beat it for their target market, though.

Take a look at mine, here.

USPS Rant

2007-02-19T19:41:00.000-06:00

Here it comes:

<mode rant="rant">
The Post Office in our town is not my favorite shipping provider if it every was.
</mode>

<mode logical="logical">
On Friday I, with high hopes, was waiting with baited breath for my parcel as noted here. Carl, our mailman, came and went without leaving me a package. However, in the mail was a notice that there was a parcel at the post office for me. That's great but guess what today is? A federal holiday. Translation: Post Office closed! So, I will not get my book until 15 days after I ordered it!

Now the real killer is that I bought it from Caiman through ABEbooks so that I could save $4! Only $4 and all this hassle! I could have had it a week and half or more ago if I had spent the $4. I must need to reread the Law of Diminishing Returns. . .

</mode>

Maybe, I can post a recording if I ever get the book.

Abebooks/Caiman books/USPS priority mail/Oxford Book of Wedding Music: Delayed

2007-02-16T13:21:00.000-06:00

Ten days ago I ordered an organ book through Abebooks.com. I like abebooks: they are a great place to find used books at moderately good prices. Their selection is amazing! If they don't have it, well you better try the Library of Congress. Abebooks doesn't actually sell any books themselves. They just act a marketplace for a whole lot of used and new bookstores.

Anyway, so I ordered this book ten days ago and it still hasn't come. That is the bad part about getting a used book from one of these used book stores. They are as slow as all get-out! Last fall I got some photography books. I didn't have them in hand for 4 or 5 weeks! They came media mail and I guess that is why they took so long. I specified that this book come USPS priority mail. That is suppose to be 2-3 days. So even supposing that they took 2-3 days to get it out the door after they said it shipped it should have been here at latest Wednesday. Now it is Friday and it isn't here.

We did have a heap big snow and did not get any mail that day. That might account for another day, maybe, so Thursday. That was yesterday and it didn't come yesterday.

I hope it comes today. I am looking forward to playing the songs in it. It is called The Oxford Book of Wedding Music. The main song that I want is Coronation March from Crown Imperial by William Walton. It is a very exciting piece. The book has 29 other pieces most of which sound interesting. There is a complete list here. You can listen to snippets from some of the songs here.

If it comes today I will post an update to that affect. If not I will rant some more!

A flipping picture

2007-02-15T12:36:00.000-06:00

Impressed? Windows Vista's 3-D Flip. I find it useful although severely limited by my poor graphics card. It likes to have 128mb of ram; mine has 64mb. Another thing I like is that the desktop is one of the "programs" meaning that you can alt-tab to the desktop. As opposed to having to find the "Show Desktop" button which was never in a convenient place.

3-D Flip is accessed by + key sequence. You can then or + through the pages as the cycle like a Rolodex or a slide tray. Also, you can click on the image of the window you want to go to and it snaps to the foreground. If you have video playing it will keep playing in 3-D form. That is really cool!

All-in-all some very snazzy eye candy in the latest offering's from Redmond!

Is there a typo on Googe?

2007-02-14T18:42:00.000-06:00

Google.com*

Is that a typo? Or is the strawberry stem meant to be a L? Googe.com - "this domain is parked courtesy of GoDaddy.com." Ha!

*That link will only show the Valentines day image until midnight of Valentines.

Irving Berlin's Piano

2007-02-14T13:19:00.000-06:00

This is Irving Berlin's piano from the Smithsonian Museum of American History. The Museum of American History is temporarily closed while it is undergoing renovations so the Piano is at the National Air and Space Museum across the National Mall.

Irving Berlin wrote "God Bless America," "Puttin' on the Ritz," and "White Christmas" in case your aren't up on your composers ;). Supposedly he could only write compositions in F-Sharp Major (hard!) and D-Sharp minor (really hard!!). His assistant would then transpose the score to something that other people would be able to use. Yet another of those brilliant Russian Musicians. . .

Kill-a-watt, no seriously!

2007-02-14T12:49:00.000-06:00

My family and I have this thing about electricity: we hate to use any more than possible. So when we found out that our local electric company had this thing called a watt-meter to find out how much energy appliances, computers, or anything that plugs in uses. Our electric now thinks we are crazy; once we tried the watt-meter we were hooked. We have borrowed it from them three or four times. It is great.

Enter Kill-A-Watt: A few weeks ago I was browsing a site and found a good deal for a Kill-A-Watt meter. "Great", I thought, "now we can meter things whenever we want." I was able to pick it up for $20 bucks shipped. I don't know why we didn't get one before then as little as it was. At any rate, we have been metering lots of things lately. My laptop uses very little to charge; my desktop monitor, a 19 in. CRT, uses a lot; and our new Bosch 500 series washing machine uses very little for a washing machine.

It is also great for testing electrical outlets: you can see the voltage, the amps, the watts, the Hz, the VA, and, of course, cumulative watt-usage. We put in some new outlets in our dining room and it was very handy to be able to tell if the breaker was off or if the outlet was working by simply plugging this little box into the outlet.

Another very detailed review is here. Here is the product page on the P3 Kill-A-Watt.

SAT scores tomorrow!

2007-02-14T12:07:00.000-06:00

Tomorrow I find out the scores from my SAT test of the last month. I hope I do really well. I am hoping for 720 on math and 640 on critical reading; writing I don't care about as much ;). Those first two would give me a combined of 1360 which would be pretty good. College Board is sending my scores to four schools per my request and I can send to more later.

How do you like the neat screen shot? It was made very easily with Microsoft Vista's sniping tool, a built-in screen shot program. It is very handy and can save directly to jpg, gif, and png. Vista does have some nice features even though I crash about once a day. . .buggy drivers, me thinks!

Heap Big Snow!

2007-02-14T11:41:00.000-06:00

We got a solid dose of snow here over the last 36 hours. About 6 inches fell, but it is not 6 in. hardly anywhere: 0.5 here, 24-36 there. We had three vehicles stuck in the snow within sight of our house. Two trucks and one SUV! So much for the mobility and power of a 4wd truck! Two of them didn't get out until this morning when the road commissioner came by with the grader and a snowplow. It is now suppose to get cold, high of 12 today and low of -1 tonight. I am glad we don't have the 10~ ft of upper NY!

The sun is shining now and it is very pretty!

Free Music Guide

2007-02-14T11:21:00.000-06:00

Napster

Lately, I have been listening to loads of free music at fairly good quality. All courtesy of Napster, which has yet to get any money out of me. It is a program where you can listen to any full track up to 3 times. After that you can only listen to 30 secs of it. So far I haven't run out of things to listen to in Napster's vast collection. There are ads in abundance on the album pages and sometimes between tracks on the play window. It uses a Flash stream for the audio so you have to have Adobe Flash* (you can get it here if you don't have it). You can sign up for this here.

*Adobe Flash. . .something just sounds wrong about that. I don't know how long it will take for me to not think Macromedia Flash ;).

GYC 2006 Media

2007-02-13T11:12:00.000-06:00

Hopevideo.com

For anyone that missed GYC2006 or wants to hear the main programs again take a look at HopeVideo.com media w/ GYC 2006. They always seem slow to get all the programs up but on the other hand they are all free so that is a big thumbs-up in their favor ;). Supposedly they are going to get some of the seminars up too. We'll have to see. . .

MS Home Server Beta testing signup

2007-02-13T10:45:00.000-06:00

Blogs.technet.com

I signed up on the odd chance that I can test it. I would put it on the upstairs computer or if I have the new desktop done by then on it. You are suppose too have 300Gb of space on the computer. I will have to keep my eyes peeled for more hard drive deals at that rate. . .

BNSF is still alive!

2006-08-16T16:07:00.000-06:00

I took these pictures in Nebraska where at any given point along the line 120 trains may pass per day. They do pass that often, I can vouch. I wanted to get some pictures of one so we waited by the tracks until one passed. We only had to wait about 10 minutes.

The Power Tool Geek: Makita LXT Lithium Ion Cordless Tools

2006-08-16T15:13:00.000-06:00

The Power Tool Geek: Makita LXT Lithium Ion Cordless Tools

This is an interesting post I found, entire blog is interesting actually. I am looking into getting a new cordless drill and Makita is one of the ones I have narrowed my decision down to.

First Post

2006-08-16T14:28:00.000-06:00

This is my first post to my blog. If you find this you are doing well because I haven't told anyone it is here. Send me a comment if something tweaks your fancy and I will do my best to read them. I don't know all the things I will post about but some likely picks would be music, programming, and religion.

Stay tuned!

Matthew