shawnp0wers Over at Linux Journal, we’re doing new “Linux in a Minute” videos. Ideally, they’ll give you a tiny tidbit of helpful information in about a minute. We started last week, but we’re going full force this week. Click through to enjoy!
(PS: Please leave any comments over on the Linux Journal site)
I understand that I live in a northern climate, and cold weather is part of the deal. Really, I do. I just wish the forecast people would give realistic estimates. See if you can tell what’s wrong with this little forecast widget’s forecast:
I realize I am the exact demographic that should play video games like crazy. When the Blizzard company’s board meets — they probably use pictures of me when they discuss ways to better market their product to computer geeks. I should be every game-producing company’s ideal target.
As it turns out, I’m just not a big gamer. Bear in mind it’s not because I don’t WANT to enjoy gaming. I just can’t seem to get into it. The closest I get is the occasional First Person Shooter game that I can play for 10 minutes and quit.
I don’t think it’s a bad thing that I can’t get into computer games. In fact, it’s probably very good. It just seems like I SHOULD be into it, ya know? How about you? Do you game?
(BTW — I do actually enjoy vintage gaming. Arcade games, NES, and even some SNES games. It’s just the new complex games that lose my interest quickly. Is that strange?)
Remember the waterbeds that used to have a big wooden frame, and a rubber bladder on the inside? The kind that was quite impossible to “make” because it constantly moved, which wrinkled the sheets? The kind that was either so hot it made you sweat, or so cold you (sometimes literally) got hypothermia?
Does anyone still use those things?
I know for a while “softside” waterbeds were all the rage. They were just like a mattress, but instead of springs, there were tubes of water in the middle. I know they also had waveless, semi-wave, full-wave, and who-know-what-else wave options on waterbeds.
Does anyone still use those things?
From what I remember (not much, admittedly) waterbeds were not terribly comfortable, and were not good for your back. Yet, due to the exotic nature of sleeping on water, they were extremely popular for a long time. So I wonder…
Does anyone still use those things?
A friend of mine suggested I try hosting with www.nearlyfreespeech.net — because instead of a set monthly rate, they charge you based on usage. Low traffic sites (like mine) would cost very little to maintain. About that time, I was starting a private website, so I gave it a go. As it turns out, I’m quite happy.
Don’t get me wrong, about the same time I signed up, Nearly Free Speech had some MAJOR routing and DNS issues. My site was offline or horribly slow for over a week. Then, they had a major MySQL crash, and my site was offline for another half a day. Since that time, several months ago, it’s been great. I’m OK with a company having problems as long as they fix it, and communicate the problem with their clients. NFS did both.
Plus, they’re DIRT CHEAP!!! I started the account with about $10 in the “bank”, and only today did I feel a need to add more money. Not because it was low, but because I am adding another website to the account and I want to make sure it’s “spike proof”. See, if a website gets Dugg or Slashdotted, their servers happily scale for you — but you pay for the bandwidth such a spike generates. It seems very fair to me.
So if you’ve been looking for a really inexpensive way to reliably host a website, especially if it doesn’t get much traffic or store much data — Nearly Free Speech might be a good choice. I’m happy with it. When my hosting package is done here at GoDaddy, I’ll be switching this site over too.
Look, you have a new 16×9 high definition television. I get it. So do I. There is something in us that WANTS to have every single, beautiful pixel filled with entertainment awesomeness. But here’s the deal — your 4×3 footage was never meant to be displayed like that. It’s just wrong. Picard did not have a head that fat.
I’ve had this discussion in real life, and people say they are annoyed by the black bars on the side of the television if they watch it in the native aspect ratio. These are (ironically) the same people that bought “fullscreen” DVDs because they didn’t like the black bars on the top and bottom of their old 4×3 televisions. Fullscreen DVDs are wrong. Stretched 4×3 video is even wronger. Just don’t do it, you make big screen TV people everywhere look bad.
Now go rent Star Trek the Next Generation, and watch it like it’s supposed to look. You won’t be sorry. 🙂
UPDATE: OMG, I see THIS on Engadget today. Can you imagine the insanity?!?!?!
This is the first in a series of short HOW-TO videos we’ll be doing over at Linux Journal. What do you think? (Sorry for the click through, but I’m looking for feedback over there)
I’ve mentioned my little “office area” in our bedroom before. The more I use the desk, however, the more I’m annoyed by its height. The entire desk is about 6 inches too tall. The keyboard is a bit too high, the monitor is a bit too high, and that makes the webcam too high — it just goes on and on.
I got a chair that has a bit higher adjustment, but even still it’s not quite high enough. I’m actually considering creating a raised floor for the corner of my room. It’s driving me nuts.
Are there standards for desk heights? Why would mine be so darn tall?
Grumble grumble grumble.
