Category: Geek

My favorite search engine in the late 90s was HotBot. I even had an @HotBot.com email address until they got taken over by Lycos and all the emails got shut down. So every now and then I check HotBot.com to see if anything has changed and I try the search engine to see if they updated it and the answer was always no. So to my surprise I checked HotBot.com over the weekend and it turns out they finally updated. HotBot now uses Google and AskJeeves for its searches but whats cool about HotBot is you can customize your own start page.. visually. You can have it basically looking anyway you want or you can use some preset themes they have provided for you. You even have a lot of options on how you want to results to be displayed on the page. Its a pretty cool update and I’m going to start using HotBot a lot more often now. [Link]

Never in my life have I ever wanted to try Linux as much as i want to know. Symphony OS is a Desktop computer operating system based on Debian GNU/Linux and Knoppix GNU/Linux. Rather than using the KDE or Gnome Desktop environments as most Linux distributions do, the Symphony OS team created the revolutionary Mezzo Desktop environment. Symphony provides what is consider to be the easiest to use Linux experience there is. [Link]

I finally decided it was time to upgrade my aging PowerMac. My Mac at home currently is a Digital Audio Graphite PowerMac with a G4 733mhz processor, 1GB of RAM, 260GB of Hard Disk space, Geforce2 MX and a 8x CD writer. Its a pretty ancient machine but its stable and it has a nice personality. I was stuck between what new Mac to get, I though about getting the soulless PowerMac G5, I have one at work, a Dual 2GHZ G5 and it reminds me of hospitals… it basically lacks character and gives a very sterile feel. Also I would rather wait and get the intel versions that will come out next year. I thought about getting the sleek 20inch iMac but they are very limited when it comes to upgrading. I thought about the 12inch PowerBooks but I dislike them a lot. I have played around and used both my brothers and Nat’s powerbooks and they seem fragile and look PC-ish. The 15inch and 17inch Powerbooks I believe are too big to carry around often and I really also didn’t want my primary Mac to be a laptop.

So, in the end I decided to stick with my current PowerMac except upgrade the hell out of it. I just ordered a Dual G4 1.6ghz chip upgrade from GigaDesigns. I will be upgrading the crappy 8x CD writer to a Pioneer 8x DVD writer (finally will be able to read DVDs on my mac!). I will upgrade the VGA card to an ATI with dual monitor support so I can hookup my extra Sony 17inch monitor to my 21inch Sony monitor I am currently using. I will also get another 160GB hard drive (this brings the total of 4 internal IDE drives, 2 running at ATA66 and 2 at ATA133) since with my recent movie downloads I started running of space. To top things off I will also order a beautiful 12inch Snow White iBook. I had a G3 700mhz iBook a few years ago but it died a tragic death.

This way I will have a total of two Macs. The PowerMac will serve as my primary computer where I will do all my design work on. The iBook will be my secondary computer where I will do all my web browsing on, most probably from the living room. Will take before and after pictures of my PowerMac and posted them here when I am done.

Is MSN blocked at your office? Still want to be able to get on and chat with friends? This is a solution. Use e-messenger.net to chat via your web browser, but it most probably would be blocked by your company so access e-messenger using a proxy service like Anonymizer, Proxify or installing your own proxy service on your server for free using PHProxy. Go to the url https://mob.e-messenger.net/mobile/ which is a similified version of e-messenger and log in. You should now be able to chat with your friends from your office.

I still have my original diskette of Netscape Navigator 1.0b. I run it every now and then just for the fun of it on one of the PCs around the house. It loads up really quickly but thats about the only advantage. It renders websites terribly and thats if it is able to open them. But, its nice nostalgia and brings back memories of the good old days when the web was a much quieter place. If you are into old browsers there is a site I used to frequent that has an archive of all the web browsers including some rare ones. Was I the only one who never got what Netomat was supposed to be? [Link]

I saw this computer case today at the ASUS dealer and it sooo wanted me to get a PC. It looks really cool and aerodynamic plus it comes in 3 funky colors.

The case is called the Vento 3600 and its available on Amazon for only $149. At the dealer in Kuwait it costs KD100! And I thought only Mac dealers in Kuwait were expensive… [Link]

Asus Dealer Kuwait: 2477101 or 2477102

Here is a breif overview including how hackable Zipit is. [Link]
Here is how you can add a backlight to it. [Link]

And here is the link to Zipit on Amazon for $99. [Link]

After Team Da Hui won the first round against me and Fadibou, this week they will be facing a new team made up of me, nibaq and a newcomer from all the way in Finland, Keltanen.

Team France (get it?)
Nibaq
Keltanen
Mark

Team Da Hui
Ozy
Ripping Fabric

Date: July 14th, 2005
Time: 6:00PM (+3GMT)
Prize: Winners will receive 2 Shani drinks
Setup: 2 TV’s, 2 Xboxs, 2 player split screen per team
Rules: 50 kills, two rounds, two levels, a third round if necessary, no time limit. Random starting weapons. One level chosen by Team France, one level chosen by Team Da Hui. If there is a third round, Nat will randomly choose it.

This is fucking amazing, didn’t think there was a OS 9 version yet alone an OS X version. This file will install Duke Nukem for you, if you have the original PC CD it will install the full version, if you don’t have the CD it will install the shareware version. Have fun. [Link]

Update: Also check out [this screenshot]. Some guys were working on a Duke3D Half-Life 2 mod before they were shut down. The project was looking pretty cool.

Screen shots of toilets from various video games. [Link]

Team eXtinct
Fadibou
Mark

Team Da Hui
Ozy
Ripping Fabric

Date: July 7th, 2005
Time: 6:00PM (+3GMT)
Prize: Winners will receive Halo tshirts
Setup: 2 TV’s, 2 Xboxs, 2 player split screen per team
Rules: 50 kills, two rounds, two levels, a third round if necessary, no time limit. Random starting weapons. One level chosen by Team eXtint, one level chosen by Team Da Hui. If there is a third round, Nat will randomly choose it.

I was searching for a CD Writer for my mac online when I found this device. You know how you have tons of CD’s lying around on your shelves and around your computer? I have like tons stacked up on my shelf and I have no clue whats inside them or if I need them. With this device, the Disc Stakka, it will know whats on my CD’s and it will archive them for me. Next time I need to find the CD that has this word document I did 2 years ago, I just use the Imation software on my mac to find the file and then the Disc Stakka will spit out the CD for me. Very cool and practical, I just sent it to the IT manager in our office to order us a couple. When you have hundreds of CDs its a real pain trying to flip through them all trying to find what you want. This will make our lives a lot easier and will save us a lot of time. I found it on Amazon for $129.

Today I was able to check out a TANDBERG video conferencing setup. Its such a cool system, we had 2 huge ass plasmas built into the wall and a videocamera built in between them. The system video conferences at various connection speeds but we were using 384kb/sec. The TANDBERG system is also a very secure system I was told (the US defence department uses it!), so its perfect for talking business no matter how confidential the matter might be. The guy who was showing me the video conferencing system used a Marantz RC9500 remote control (drool!!) to control the whole thing including rotating the camera and zooming in and out. With a click of a button we connected to an office in Oslo which was closed but we were able to pan the camera around over there and check out the office. While checking out the Oslo office he also connected to a roof top cam on their companies head office in Japan and then connected to the conference room located in the same building we were in. So in total we were connected to 3 places on the same screen, very cool. The guy also told me that you could connect a laptop to the system and do a power point presentation or play Quake and they could all watch you. I don’t know how much a system like this costs, I should have asked him but I know I can’t afford the Marantz remote yet alone the two plasma screens and the TANDBERG system.. sucks!!

My agency just installed iInventory on my mac. According to the software’s website this is what it allows Big Brother to do:

* Compare installed software against licenses
* Spot hardware and software changes
* Check unauthorized software or files like .MP3

Now I just need to find out what port its using so I could block it. I am sure if I google it I can find it..

I got 5 out of 10 right [Link]