Peak Progress: Category Hardware

Power Cycle

Tim — Thu, 22 Jun 2006 18:45:00 -0500

My server was rebooted almost 6 hours ago. If you tried to hit this web page between then and about 10 minutes ago you were greeted with an error message. Apparently some system administrator forgot to make sure that the system started all of the required services when the system boots. Of course that sysadmin would be me… I apologize for any inconvenience.

Play Oggs on Apples - Xiph QuickTime Components

Tim — Mon, 27 Feb 2006 02:16:59 -0600

Do you have an Apple? Do you have .ogg files? Go download the Xiph QuickTime Components now. I’ll wait. That is monumental. It has been out for a few months, and I am disappointed that I was late to the party. There was a QuickTime component for playing ogg files that worked with QuickTime 6, but a few things changed in QuickTime 7 that left ogg users out in the cold. That really hurt since I was a new Apple convert with over 5000 songs legitimately ripped from my CD collection in ogg format. There were workarounds, but I really wanted iTunes to work with my audio files. I was starting to contemplate re-ripping all of my albums to MP3 just to have all of my audio always available again, but that’s a whole lot of time that I wasn’t looking forward to spending.

You may be asking yourself why I chose to rip my discs to ogg format in the first place. It is a completely open and free format that produces better sounding audio than MP3. I most often listen to music with high quality headphones or speakers, so the artifacts audible in poorly encoded MP3 files stuck out and made me look for a better, more free, way of encoding my music. Basically because I’m an audiophile open source computer nerd. :-) For more information you can check out the Ogg Vorbis FAQ.

Immediacy Counts

Tim — Fri, 21 Oct 2005 02:16:00 -0500

Two topics, both of which concern the time between paying for and receiving goods.

Back on the 10th of October I ordered a lot of picture prints from Apple. I really dig the ease of ordering from iPhoto, and the prints usually show up in the mail within a week. It’s been ten days and I’m still waiting. Sure, that’s probably well within the stated range for acceptable delivery, but I’m very impatient after I’ve paid for something.

As I’m stewing over my delayed pictures and looking at some new pictures that I need to print I stumble across Yahoo’s photo service. They have teamed up with Target to create a print and pickup service. Prints submitted at night will be ready the next day, and I always have a reason to go to Target anyway. I still wasn’t hooked on the idea, but then I found the Firefox plugin that allows me to drag and drop photos into my purchase queue. Hooked. I lose mailbox convenience, but I skip shipping charges and long waits. My only request would be for Yahoo to integrate the printing service with Flickr since Yahoo now owns them.

On to my next tale of immediacy. My favorite monitor broke after a power outage a few weeks ago. I convinced myself that I didn’t need two monitors, but things didn’t feel quite right. I thought about buying the 24” monster widescreen monitor on sale from Dell. Kate even thought I should get it, and that’s yet another reason why she is incredible. I broke down on Monday night and shelled out sale price for the 20.1” widescreen model. I can research a purchase for weeks, but once I spend the money I’m in anticipation until my toys arrive. I resigned myself to the fact that the monitor wouldn’t arrive until next Tuesday only to have it arrive today—that’s awesome considering that I only paid $2.60 in shipping.

Seriously, this new monitor, the 2005FPW, is incredible. Very crisp and very big. My remaining 19” CRT looks dull and muddy in comparison. I want another. :-)

One Dead Monitor

Tim — Wed, 28 Sep 2005 05:04:00 -0500

Westar energy ruined my morning. They did something in the neighborhood that caused the power to flicker twice, and my favorite monitor decided it was done working.

I suppose it had done more than its duty of displaying my desktop over the years. I purchased it in 1999, after all. It’s just very unfortunate that it had to go without warning as now I’m stuck with only one 19” monitor attached to my workstation. A word to the wise, if you’ve ever learned to use and love two monitors at once, you’ll find yourself very cramped when one of them dies unexpectedly.

If you’re a programmer and you haven’t tried using multiple monitors, you’re missing out. Editor on one screen, browser on the other. Terminals everywhere. I easily find ways of using all of the screen real estate, and I even wonder what three monitors might be like.

On the bright side, I’ve been lusting over a 23” widescreen monitor for some time now…. lusting, but not quite willing to purchase. :-) Does anyone have any experience with the 23/24” offerings from Apple, HP, or Dell?

And one more thing: just because Westar ruined my morning doesn’t mean it wasn’t a great day. Kate stopped by to do laundry while I was at work, and although she was gone when I arrived, I was greeted with a card, candy, and a cookbook by Jamie Oliver. She’s the best. No doubt.