Feb 25 2008

Another blog to visit!

My brother has worked for CarDomain.com in various titles and positions over the last few years.  When CarDomain shuttered its retail sales operation, they moved him over to the editorial department where he was blogging for the CarDomain Blog.  In the last month or so, he was given a whole other project, the SoundDomain Blog, in which he monitors and writes about all things car audio related.  If you need a place to keep up on all things car audio, including the latest in new electronics, custom installs, tools, and car shows – check them out!
Sean has also written two pieces for Forbes’ Magazines online car site.  They are Here and Here.


Feb 04 2008

Thinking about unplugging…

Right now I have instant messenger accounts on ICQ, Yahoo!, AIM/AOL, GoogleTalk, and my work’s Car-Part Messenger.  I’ve pretty much stopped using my Yahoo accounts because I was getting spammed; I don’t really like AOL – log into yoru account in two places? get spammed by AOL’s server to let you know – with no way of turning it off. ICQ is also bad with spam, even though my account number is one of the earliest ones of anyone I know – only six digits long, as I signed up back in 1996 or 1997.  I currently use Trillian to manage the accounts.  Aside from spam and annoying messages, its kind of silly for me to have all these messengers beacause of the handful of people i talk, most of them have two or more IM accounts in my list.  Kind of redundant.

So, first I am going to stop using Yahoo and AOL.  If you have paulhcahill in your yahoo! list…it was nice knowing you.  If you have an ICQ account and have PC (541449) in your list, you may see me around a bit longer, but I will likely phase that one out too.

Google Talk is free and works very well – it saves your history online (as an option), and has NO spam.  Plus it is compatible with AOL’s IM and i get zero spam on it. It’s also compatible with my Car-Part Messaging IM account.  Get it!


Jan 23 2008

WinDirStat – More Free (great!) Software

Tag: Computers and Electronics,General,PaulPaul C. @ 4:45 pm

WinDirStat – Windows Directory Statistics

This is a program that I use on a regular basis on both my home and work PCs. Basically it goes thru your hard drive and will give you a visual picture of how files and directories are using the space

The top pane shows the file structure with a bar that gives you an idea of the percentage its using, the size it uses, how many items (if its a folder you click on), etc. I use it to see what in God’s green earth is taking up all my disk space so I can periodically clean things up. for example, maybe I downloaded a CD Image of a Linux distro DVD, or some new video game demo that I promptly forgot about after burning to a DVD. This can help you locate those. If you use this with my previously blogged CCLeaner, your PC should be zippy as usual. As a side note, I also go thru my add/remove programs and look thru programs I don’t use anymore. Typically, I’ll find some software that sounds like something I can use, install and try it, and not like it…but then don’t immediately uninstall. A Clean PC is a happy PC!


Jan 14 2008

Fun with a DVD Kiosk

Tag: Computers and Electronics,Fun,General,MoviesPaul C. @ 5:34 pm

the
So the other night I went to return a DVD to the $1 per day DVD kiosk and it was out of order. I called their 800 # and the person on the end I guess remotely rebooted the machine. I watched as XP pro booted into windows and of course…its a PC, I couldn’t just leave it alone! Clicking the photos below will bring you to the gallery with larger images. the photos were taken on my cell phone (thanks dmoney!) so they aren’t the greatest, but still not bad for a cell phone!


onscreen keyboard i pulled up before the DVD store software started to run.
The start menu pulled up by pressing ctrl+esc (windows button seemed to be disabled)
How about some pinball??
Kiosk software pushed down on the screen showing the terminal program running in the background.

Oct 02 2007

CDBurnerXP – update

Tag: Computers and Electronics,General,PaulPaul C. @ 9:28 am

As I blogged about earlier this year CDBurnerXp is a great CD/DVD authoring tool – and a free one to boot.  They have recently released version 4.0.  I haven’t tried it yet, but plan on downloading it today to give it a whirl.  linky linky:
CDBurnerXP: Downloads

-pc


Oct 01 2007

New Phone!

Tag: Computers and Electronics,Friends,General,PaulPaul C. @ 10:06 am

I’ve got a new phone :)  Thanks to long time friend, DMoney, I’ve got a Sprint PCS (HTC) 6700 Windows Mobile phone. :) 

This phone is so sweet.  I need to get a memory card for it so I can really use it…and maybe sign up for the SprintPCS mobile internet, but its nice to finally have a phone that I can “geek out with”.  I got PocketPutty for an ssh client, its got some decent games, pocket MS office, 802.11b wireless, and I can get Opera for a web browser (it comes with IE but its only version 4.0 which is majorly deprecated).  The keyboard slides out and is very easy to type on, and the screen is pretty much big enough to easily use.   The 1.3 megapixel camera is pretty easy to use as well.  I may try to upgrade it to the Windows Mobile 6.0, but not anytime soon.

Once again- thanks Daniel!

-pc


Jul 26 2007

Changes….and a bit of a weekly recap.

Getting restless with the website. Its been online in this format since at least December 2005. Those that know me well, know that I get restless after 2 or 3 years of the same old same old 🙂 Maybe that explains my car “habit” (time for a change about now isn’t it?). I guess it goes back to my military childhood of moving every two to three years.
Anyway, I’m thinking its about time for a theme change on the old blog. Of course I haven’t mentioned it to Emily yet 🙂 This all came about after doing some work on Heather and Ashley‘s blogs. I think I am still using an older version of the blog software, so it would have to be upgraded to the 2.x version to work with many new formats and layouts. So keep your eyes peeled, there may be some new changes afoot.
On an unrelated note, my Dad is doing really well. His recent trip to the oncologist brought back some very positive feedback on his treatment. At 42% reduction in the tumor size and a significant reduction in the [stuff] they measure for cancer in the blood. As Mom says, he is a poster boy for his current treatment plan 🙂 Their website is listed on the links to the right of the website.
Emily and I will be going to New York for the first weekend in August. We’ll be visiting her dad and stepmom and spending some time at Diana’s cabin. Maybe I can finally watch a movie in the home theater room that I designed and installed? (and never got to have fun with!)
My brother is taking the Motorcycle Safety Course up in Seattle this weekend. I think everyone should take this class.  Heck, even if you don’t plan on getting your two wheel note on your ID, I encourage anyone to take it. Could save the lives of many of us on two wheels. Plus you will learn the thrill of riding a motorcycle. Its truly a freeing feeling.
Guess I should go to bed now as work draws near.

-pc


Jul 22 2007

Say Cheese!!

Yesterday, Emily and I went to Best Buy and bought a new gadget. Four our anniversary (Aug 9th, so just a little early), we bought a Nikon D40x Digital SLR camera. I have friends who have the D50, D80, D40 and D200 and love them. I went with Nikon instead of my favorite brand, Olympus, because the lense options and after market support for the Nikon seemed to be stronger. Guess I need to start brushing up on those skills I learned during my two photography courses back at Murray State! This is the camera:

Nikon D40x

Emily has started playing with it and taking photos of the cat, dog, and some other things. The image quality is flat out amazing. The detail it pics up in Macro, zoom, and normal range is pretty amazing.
Now what extras should I buy? I think we are going to get a lense hood/shade and a filter. I found an article on Digital -Photography-School.com that lists the 10 most popular lenses for Nikon DSLR cameras, so I can use that as a reference.

Click here to see some pictures we’ve taken so far.


Jul 17 2007

More free software – IrfanView!

IrfanView  (link here!)

This is a very popular image editing software.  Its great for people like me who take hundreds of photos and then need to resize them in a large batch to put on the web.  Also has some other nifty features like converting, printing, slide shows, etc.  Give it a whirl!


Jul 17 2007

SunRocket is Toast

Tag: Computers and Electronics,General,Grrr,Paul,The HousePaul C. @ 12:26 pm

GigaOM SunRocket is Toast, MEMO «

Crap.  Yes, Sun Rocket, the nice alternative to VOIP (Voice over IP or Internet Phone) service Vonage, is going out of business – and without ANY notice to its customers.  I’ve got two SunRocket accounts and we pay for the service annually, at $200 each.  One account just renewed a month ago yesterday for another year!  I already transfererd our 859-XXX-1286 number to Vonage and it apparently is already working on their service.  We won’t have their “gizmo” device to make the phone ring for another couple of days though.  If you need to get a hold of us, just call our cell phones.


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