Jon Stewart on CrossFire

Jon Stewart on Crossfire (friday)

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2652831

Jon spins his appearance on Crossfire (monday)

http://www.ifilm.com/ifilmdetail/2653047

The Matrix DVD Box Set Reviewed

http://chud.com/dvd/495

Yes, this is just a link, but its a review of the entire box set. Talking a little bit about each of the stories (no spoiler), and what each of the DVD's that comes in the box set is about. Pretty good review, and the commentary under the screen shots is PRICELESS.

Discount GM Parts

I've been looking for a climate control for my car ever since the LED's went out in the head unit. Well the Chevrolet dealer wanted ~$600 to purchase and install this part. I found it for $187.00 at www.gmpartsdirect.com.

They also have the cross-drilled and slotted rotors from the Z-06... $40

XBOX Fitness and Exercise and Personal Trainer all in One

I was a little skeptical of this when I first heard about it. But I browsed through the web site and ended up getting it. The first 15 minutes of the program kicked my ass... but the program goes through and evaluates you on how well you can do certain exercises prior to getting you into a training program. So you put in your heart rate before doing a test, then after. Then it asks you to do as many push ups as you can and put it into the computer. After you are done it figures out at what level it should start you out at. Then sets up a schedule for your exercise. Pretty neat... but unlike a real trainer... I can leave this powered off and not have to be bothered by it. And since its the same system that has Halo 2 in it... do you really think it will win over a game? Time will tell.

Yourself!Fitness review

and some screen shots of the program.

Screenshoots

New computer system research

I am going to buy a new computer, I'm looking into a Dell or HP standard desktop system, then putting my nVidea TI-4600 videocard in it. Since the base card that comes in the system is pretty underpowered, and I just bought this one a year ago, and its mostly CPU bound.

Desktop Research

Oddly enough, the best deal I have found is a Pentium 4 2.8 GHz system at HP. Both HP and Dell allowed me to build a system. But HP's Pavilion line seemed to offer the best bang for the buck. HP system came in around $800, and the Dell around $1,300.

Key things I'm hoping to have in the system.

• P4 or AMD processor, about 6 months old
  
• 1-2Gig of RAM
  
• Ability to upgrade video card
  
• Complete system. I don't want a frankenstein system.
  
• 2 CDROM slots
  
• Network Card, USB 2.0, and optionally Firewire
  
• An Article on Hyper Threading
  

Video Card Research
Tom's Hardware Video Card shootout - Very awsome review of all the cards.

Didn't do much more research here. I would like a card that does good gaming 3D graphics, and has DVI out to power my monitor.

Monitor
I'm looking to get the Apple 23" LCD display!

23" diagonal viewable image size

1920 x 1200 optimal resolution

16.7 million colors

19.2 x 24.2 x7.3-11.1 inches

25.3 pounds

Two USB ports

Apple Display Connector

What I finally bought

FuturPowerPC - Free Shipping No TAX

ASUS P4P800 - Delux                  $134.00

Intel P4 2.6Ghz w/ Hyperthreading    $179.00

2Gig Kingston 5129MB PC3200 CL3 RAM  $284.00

Giga-byte nVidea geForce FX 5200     $ 72.00

Drive Cable                          $ 10.00

Floppy - Black                       $  9.00

Zalman CNPS7000 CU                   $ 31.95

Seasonic Super Silencer 400W         $ 94.95

DVD-ROM - Black - 16x DVD 40x CD     $ 32.95

120Gig 7200RPM 8MB Cache ATA133      $115.00

Chenbro Gaming Bomb Case  no PS      $ 59.95

Recommendations for Silent PC

HeatSink

http://www.silentpcreview.com/modules.php?op=modload&name=Sections&file=index&req=viewarticle&artid=30&page=1


Zalman 7000 cu - http://www.zalman.co.kr/english/product/cnps7000cu.htm

Case Powersupply

Update:: Fan-Less Case Power supply - Thermaltake's Silent Power Supply - ~ 120-150$ each

Seasonic Super Silencer 400W
http://www.siliconacoustics.com/seasonicsupersilencer400watt.html

SilentX 400W - http://www.ocmodshop.com/default.aspx?a=173

Big Guys

HP a450y

$861.79 P4 2.6 1Gig Ram 120gig 7200 MX440 (kb/mouse/speakers/XPHome)

HP a400y

$834.99 p4 2.6 1gig 120gig 7200 Integrated (kb/mouse/speakers/XPHome)

Dimension 4600 Series

$1,138 P4 2.6 1gig 120gig SATA, FX 5200 , CDRW (kb/mouse/speakers/XPhome)

DVD Burning Software and Media

I use a Pioneer A05, which does DVD-R, and CDR's. I really like how compatible the DVD-R's are that this burner makes. I have made several of my own DVD's using TiVo streams. 🙂

UPDATE: 11/2004 Prices are down to about 0.46$ a DVD-R from Ritek on - http://store.yahoo.com/cdrdvdrmedia/

UPDATE: 09/2003 I just bought some of this media (dvdPro 4x) (4x media), and really like it. I just burned 2 hours of TV onto a DVD in 9 minutes!.

There are 3 types that I have found, Matrix, LEDA, Ritek, and Princo. You seemed to know the most about what each of the medias was good for, it seems like the Leda's look alot like the ones I bought. But you can't base it on that alone.

Leda - $81/100 - http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=1295&cata=&s_cata=


- $78/100 - http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=1580&cata=&s_cata=


Ritek - $120/100 - http://www.shop4tech.com/user.htm?go=view_item&id=84&cata=&s_cata=


Matrix - $89/100 - http://www.shop4tech.com/item1600.html


Sky - $64/100 - http://www.yesbuy.net/2xdv47gb10.html


Princo - $70/100 - http://www.yesbuy.net/prin1xdvwoca.html

Search Shop4Tech.com for words "dvd-r 4.7GB"

Also, here is additional links: http://www.supermediastore.com/dvdr-4x.html Check out the Ritek G04 certified as White top or Silver.

Or perhaps this link http://store.yahoo.com/cdrdvdrmedia/ I just bought from this link Media http://store.yahoo.com/cdrdvdrmedia/nedv1dv4forg.html

Comments from a friend on software packages

DVDXCopy Xpress 3.02 -> is very good

DVDClone 1.2.84 with AnyDVD 1.6.33 -> both works together to bypass the copy protection -> I like this software a lot

Nero 6 - For Data and Backing up home made movies

Virtual Bartender

http://www.virtualbartender.beer.com/beer_usa.htm

Try some of these commands:

kiss, bath, beer, strip, surf, sing, giggle, rub, dance, jump, aerobic, ass

More available if you email me, or goto...

SOAP::Lite client talking to a IIS .NET Web Service

After about 4 hours of messing with different ways to get SOAP::Lite to work with a Microsoft IIS .NET Web Service, we finally found the following sample that made everything work. All attempt to try and do this in one line of code failed. This method also works with the current release of SOAP::Lite and doesn't require the beta version. Every other way we used to call the WebService resulted in us getting a blank variable passed into the WebService, rather than the value we were hoping for. You can get get SOAP::Lite from CPAN. This has been a great way for us to integrate our Unix/Linux tools with new systems we are developing on Windows.

#!/usr/bin/perl
use SOAP::Lite;
my $soap = SOAP::Lite
->uri('http://tempuri.org')
->on_action(sub{sprintf '%s%s', @_ })
->proxy('https://www.example.com/whatever/script.asmx');
my $method = SOAP::Data->name('MethodNameHere')
->attr({xmlns => 'http://tempuri.org/'});
my @params = (
              SOAP::Data->name(PARAMA => "123456789"),
              SOAP::Data->name(PARAMB => "SOMEVALUEHERE"),
              SOAP::Data->name(PARAMC => $DateString),
              SOAP::Data->name(PARAMD => "ABC")
            );
print $soap->call($method => @params) -> result;

The code we actually used

#!/local/mnt/perl/bin/perl -w 
# -- SOAP::Lite -- guide.soaplite.com --  
use SOAP::Lite; 
my $soap =  SOAP::Lite
    -> uri('http://tempuri.org/')
    -> proxy('http://natestconf01.natest.qualcomm.com/wsVacation/wsVacation.asmx')
    -> on_action(sub{sprintf '%s%s', @_ }); 
my $method = SOAP::Data->name('IsOnVacation')->attr({xmlns => 'http://tempuri.org/'}); 
my @params = (
        SOAP::Data->name(strUsername => "testuser40")
        ); 
print $soap->call($method => @params) -> result;

Web Site that I got the solution from

This wasn't on the SOAP::Lite web site, or Microsofts Interoperability Docs.

GUComics – Half Nekkid MMORPG Games…

Hmmm I think I need to get out more. I kinda understand why they allow these characters in WOW and EverQuest II... Sigh...

http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041110
http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041111
http://www.gucomics.com/archives/view.php?cdate=20041112

Ode to Coffee

From the darkness I rise...

My mind still in its grasp...

How to free myself...

Soon I will sip from the sweet nectar...

and for ever be enraptured with its goodness...

oh sweet coffee....