So, I apparently let my home network go to crap in the last few years, which is not conducive to my current project - to setup a virtual "whole house stereo system."

See, I have this stereo in my loft with some strategically placed speakers. These speakers use my vaulted ceiling to bounce music all over the top 2 floors. Plus it's all controlled via itunes on my primary computer. I love it, love it... which is why you'll always hear music playing in our house.

The only problem with this setup is that I can't hear the music when I'm in the basement. So usually I just throw in a CD or something, but it sucks to have different things playing in different parts of the house.

So here is what I need...
1. I need a way to get music …

Man. This house is in so much need of tech upgrades, it's ridiculous.

My PC runs decently but it's now over 4 years old (9/2/2002). I started noticing the suckiness a lot lately because I am constantly running out of room on my secondary HD, which is primarily used for media (photos, videos, music, etc). I mean, I have an 80gig primary and a 120 gig secondary. When you take photos, collect music, and shoot video as much as myself, after a few years, that is not sufficient. Really what I need is like 3-4-500gb. Plus new apps are seeming to run crappier than they are probably designed for *cough*itunes 7*

I was browsing around in Best Buy the other day to find that most standard configs now come with more than what my PC is …

This is not about a program to edit ID3 tags. It's about tags in reference to folksonomy. (like flickr, del.icio.us, youtube, etc)

I've been wanting this app for quite for a while now, and I'm actually quite surprised that I haven't found one yet. If I had time I'd love to write it but I simply don't... so here it is.

There needs to be a very simple app that runs alongside iTunes. The app would allow users to add "tags" to the mp3 and then store them in the comments ID3 tag. Seriously, that is not a hard thing to do. Just append tags. I'm also surprised that this isn't a built in feature to iTunes yet. If it were, it would be the best thing ever. If they didn't want to use comments, they could even store it in the XML so …

Supposedly the Sidekick 3 comes out July 10 and I just got mine - 4 days early, suckers. And what a great time to get a new phone - when I'm home sick. So needless to say, I've been playing with it a lot in bed, hehehehe.

I really really like the SK3. The interface (both physical and soft) is much nicer. It's about 1/4 inch shorter than the sidekick 2 and a bit lighter. So overall it's much easier to hold. The really nice thing about going from a Sidekick 2 to a Sidekick 3 is that you already know how to use it. Most of the commands are exactly the same. There are just some added bells/whistles to learn - which is super easy given Danger's user-friendly OS. Plus as soon as I powered on the device with my old SIM card, it …

OK, there isn't a whole lot of good documentation about this online, so here it is.

If you change your desktop wallpaper with Windows systems (i.e. 2000 and XP) you will probably run into this problem at some point. Sometimes during startup or when you lock your computer via CTRL+ALT+DEL a previous wallpaper will be displayed even if you delete the file from your computer.

This is an Active Desktop issue. The explorer shell displays layers on top of the actual desktop (e.g. start menu, icons, and the active desktop background!). When you lock your computer, the layers are cleared, revealing images set on the actual desktop - your annoying old wallpaper!

For me, this always seems to happen when changing from a JPG to a GIF …

My home computer has been running pretty bad lately. It's obviously due to my lack of rebooting... but I have so many things open that I never want to reboot.

So out of curiosity, I downloaded an app to find out the uptime of my home PC: 28 days 7 hrs 3 mins 36 sec.

I think I'm going to reboot now, haha.

Slim Shady. I'm back. I'm back.

Since my shed is done, I put my webcam back up. Looky! I'm in my new cube! Umm, the auto refreshing popup is gone though. Maybe I will rewrite it sometime, maybe not too.

* broox punches nick and cedric in their stupid faces.

A couple weeks ago I asked yall to help me get a free iPod. Today I got a $300 20gb iPod in the mail for free, haha. This isn't supposed to happen. I mean, this is an upgrade from my 10gb which I paid $250 for. This one is twice the size, has a better battery life, and is the newest generation.

Haha, Free iPods are fun.

So, finally I got my Sidekick II. Since I haven't told the story on my site, here it is, once more. omg.

I ordered my sidekick on November 30 - which was supposedly the last day of the $250 in rebates sale at Amazon. I was super stoked, I even paid for 2-3 day shipping so I could get it faster. After it was shippped, UPS's website said, "Billing Information Received." Which means they never picked it up because Amazon lost it. After 3 days of this, I emailed Amazon and was like, "Yo wtf, where's my phone." And they were all, "You can track that at UPS." So I emailed back, "Yo, no I can't, where's my phone?" And then they were like, "That boy's an A-hole, we're not emailing him back!"

So 10 days after I ordered it (Friday) I …

I need your help. I need it bad. Please please, help me get a free iPod. I have 2 completed referrals, and need 3 more (unless Nick and Zach complete theirs, then I just need 1 more - so do it, punks). This really works, my buddy harper just got one.

Once you sign up, then your friends can sign up under you and you'll be on your way to a free ipod as well. It's a fun game.

Click this link, do what it says, and I will love you. Whatever offer you sign up for, you can always call and cancel. Help me, help you.

What a blah weekend. It had the potential to be cool, but turned out pretty weak. Friday I hung out all night, cleaned a bit, watched a movie, etc. Then Saturday I woke up and went to the Jordan Creek shopping center. It was the grand opening of the Apple store so I got a totally rad complementary Apple shirt... I heard that previous grand opening shirts were being sold for up to $200 on ebay when other apple stores opened - so I had to get one. When I opened it I found that it said "Jordan Creek" with an apple logo, which is not cool. I imagine one that said "Chicago" with an apple logo would be pretty dope, but who knows what Jordan Creek is? Oh well - we have an Apple store now.

After visiting the Apple store, I had a …

Oh man, I hate tech and my want/need for it all the time. OQO is releasing their "PDA" this year. It is so dope. Slightly bigger than I'd want it to be, but I could definitely live with it for all that it does. Although, I might have to carry a man-bag... or fanny pack. Good thing the 80s are back, ha, stupid 80s.

specs

video

But anyway, it is so incredibly sweet. Cost and size are the only issue I have. It will be about $2G and is about 5"x3.5"x1". So it's about as thick as my phone and as tall as my phone, but 3 inches wider. I don't know though... so dope. The fact that it functions as a desktop when on the dock (with full keyboard and monitor) is such a good concept. I wonder if it sync's like a normal PDA... or even if …

Man, even though I hate to say it, Apple customer service is insanely awesome. I called them a couple weeks ago to see if it was still covered under warranty, and it was (with about 8 days to go). There were a few complications because I didn't have my receipt and part of their system said I was out of warranty, while the other said I was still in warranty. Anyway, they were awesome and got everything straightened out and were able to service my iPod. Every time I called Apple Care their was less than a 5 minute wait and the people were really cool... sorta like Microsoft.

So yeah, they overnighted me packaging to send the iPod back to them in. The package even had tape in it so I could tape the box back up, ha. I overnighted it …

As most of you know (due to my mood and constant whining) I lost my 120gig Hard Drive 2 weeks ago (pictures, videos, professional work, etc). We tried everything that we could think of to get the data back. Minnis helped me a lot through the whole process. I'd pretty much lost all hope, nothing we tried would recover my files. Well yesterday we started this program called Clone Maxx to try to copy all data from one HD to another HD. It ran extremely slow, over night for 11 hours and 35 minutes.

Well, when I got to work this morning I went straight to the PC, and the monitor said, "PC Inspector Clone Maxx Complete." (This is about the time that my pants almost got soiled). So I mounted a hard drive with win2k on it, put my new …

So I had this hard drive crash... here are the earlier details.

First of all, Minnis rules. He's been trying a bunch of things with my HD today that I haven't thought of. After being unsuccessful with Knoppix and the linux box, we dropped it into a win2k machine and ran powermax, which is some diagnostic software that maxtor put out. Anyway, they gave me a diagnostic code (de67a279) and told me to visit their site. So I visit it, check out the warranty services, enter my serial number and find that my drive is under warranty until 8/11/04, w00000000t.

So they are sending me a free 120 gig HD. We also ran a chkdsk and saw a pretty good list of files on the drive... So at least something is getting read from the disk. I still …

Apple put out this insanely awesome mp3 player called an "iPod." I bought this brilliant device last June. It is so handy because you can put hours and hours of music on it and take it anywhere. I took it skating, I took it to work, I plugged it into my stereo at home, etc.

It also rules when you start to come to the conclusion that this dope device is the reason for a sh*tload of data loss. For example, that HD of mine that crashed last week... I'm pretty sure that's due to my ipod. Also, when I backed all that stuff up on my ipod... I can't get it back off. It either locks up my computer, locks up the ipod, or a combination of both. The only way out of this is to hold down the power button on my PC. SWEET! so maybe it's my …

Lately I've been really heavy into organizing and backing up all my pictures and video. I recently bought a fireproof safe to keep miniDV tapes and picture CDs in. I also have copies of most picture CDs at work. Last week I even went and had all of my old advantix film rolls converted to CDs (22 rolls - $120). Then, over the course of an evening I organized them all into folders in chronological order on my PC (just like all my other pics are organized). The next step was to buy a scanner this week and scan the rest of my pictures. Then I'd make a couple backups of everything and store them in different locations.

You always hear of people "losing all their memories in a fire" ... I don't want this to happen. So everything is …

This weekend was pretty laid back, booo. Friday night, Jason, Jodi, Nathan, Andy and I went to the Funny Bone. The comedian was pretty good... he offended a lot of people, which is awesome... "racism is gay" haha.

Saturday, kari came over for the Cornell 150th Anniversary Gala at the Des Moines Country Club. It wasn't a rockin party or anything but they didn't ask alumni for money once! ...I was surprised by that. Lots of good food, drinks, and a nice video. There were less than 10 people there that went to school with me (everyone else was old), but it was still decent.

My clie broke while trying to get a wi-fi signal there, which is sad. I can't figure out this error at all: DataMgr.c, Line:9524, Index out of range. I only …

w00t, I got my duo today.. It boots and everything works perfect. The next step is finding a mac that I can use to apple talk to it. otherwise, I could setup a linux box and figure out how to use apple talk through that. Harper found me a good site to help me with that, here. It will definitely come in handy.

On another note, this is really really funny.

Last night on ebay i won an auction for the dopest laptop ever. Seriously, when it came out, it was $3,750, and I got it for $70.44, including shipping.

Here are the specs:
PowerBook Duo 280c
Codename: Yeager
CPU: Motorola MC68LC040
CPU Speed: 33 MHz
Bus Speed: 33 MHz
Data Path: 32 bit
ROM: 1 MB
RAM Type: unique
Minimum RAM Speed: 70 ns
Onboard RAM: 4 MB
RAM Slots: 1
Maximum RAM: 40 MB
Level 1 Cache: 8 kB
Screen: 8.4" active matrix
Maximum Resolution: 8 bit 640x480/16 bit 640x400
Slots: modem, Dock (152-pin PDS)
Hard Disk: 240 MB
Serial: 1
Audio Out: mono 8 bit
Audio In: mono 8 bit
Speaker(s): mono
Microphone: mono
Gestalt ID: 103
Power: 25 Watts
Weight: 4.8 lbs.
Dimensions: 1.5" H x 10.9" W x 8.5" D
Minimum OS: …