Just Because...

Godzilla is cool! :)

Oh Noes!!!

My best friend and I have always been talking about how to take over the world. Well...not really, but we've always had this idea about starting a business, and I think we may finally do it.

I won't go into details yet, but I will say that my buddy and I will be posting some stuff that I think you'll find interesting.

Stay Tuned!!!

All I Want For Christmas...

Is a bullet-proof, three GPU SLI, tri-SSD in RAID-0, overclocked CPU, that happens to all be submerged in thermal oil. And guess what? It can all be had for around $12K....w00t! I wants one and I wants one now!

/looks at wife and thinks "Start saving money honey...and make Daddy happy."

Hardcore Computers is following the path of Voodoo, Alienware, and Falcon Northwest...and definately taking it to the next level. I encourage you to read the article here at MaximumPC as they got to see a preview model. Just reading the tech spec's, and looking at some of the design, engineering, and component layout, this machine looks TOP NOTCH!!!

In the mean time...I'll need to find a way to divert the wife's attention, as I dunk her PC a fish tank filled with Crisco.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

I decided to come out of blogging hibernation for a special occasion...The 50th anniversary of NASA. On July 29, 1958, President Dwight D. Eisenhower signed the National Aeronautics and Space Act, establishing the National Aeronautics and Space Administration, which began operations on October 1, 1958.

On thing that I did not know until today though, is the fact that our nation's history of space flight is actually older than NASA itself. On January 31st 1958 at 10:48PM EST, the United States launched Explorer-1, which was our first orbital satellite.

I encourage all to head to NASA's website and check out some of the videos they have on-line, and of course check out all the great pictures and articles they have posted. I think most importantly the one thing that NASA does better than anything else, is show what we can do as a nation when we put our mind to it.

What's All The Hype?

OK...now everyone SING along! Money, Money, Money, Money...MONEY!!!

Americans love their cars, always have, and always will. Of course it's no news that this love affair has been strained over the past few years with the increase in the price of oil. American car culture in and of itself is very interesting. In the '40s and '50s it was the Hot Rodders, and in the '80s and '90s it was the Tuners. Now with a gallon a gasoline at $4.00, and the real possibility of it going to $6-$8 a gallon next year, a new segment of American car culture is emerging. They are the Hypermilers.

Hypermiling is not so much about getting under the hood and tweaking with the engine or suspension, it's really more about modifying driving behavior. In fact, it's really nothing new...it just the implementation of some things that we already know:

• Don't speed, in fact driving 5-10MPH slower than the posted speed limit will save gas.
• Make sure your tire pressure is correct.
• Make sure your air filter is clean.

Hypermilers do the above and more. Sitting in a traffic jam or at slow moving intersection? A hypermiler will turn off the engine, because a car not moving is just wasting gas. Going down hill? A hypermiler will coast and pick up energy from the momentum, then apply that to going either forward or up hill. It's all about driving behavior, and some of the results are very intriguing. Some hypermilers claim, while driving a hybrid, they are getting close to averaging 90MPG! Now I'll be honest here, some of the practices I'm not buying 100%. I know with modern fuel injection, the amount of fuel used to start an engine is a lot smaller than older engines that use a carburetor, but I also know that starting an engine is a stressful event. I just don't see a SAVINGS, if I have to turn around and spend that money on replacing a worn-out starter.

Now I have done a few things with my driving behavior to experience the impact first hand. For the past month I did some comparison driving. I filled up my Toyota Tacoma, marked my odometer, and drove "normally". With driving the posted speed limit (mostly on the freeway), I was averaging about 18MPG. The next fill-up, I started driving 5-10MPH slower than posted on the freeway (again the majority of my driving), and saw that my fuel economy went up to an average of 20MPG. Not bad, if I was to drive an average of 26,000 miles in a year, and at $4.00 a gallon, that's an approximate savings of $577.78!

The history of American car culture has alway been behavior driven. Hot Rodders wanted to go faster than the other guy, so they started doing simple things like flipping the air-filter lid on their car. More air equals more horsepower equals beating the other guy. That movement grew to an entire industry that designs and manufactures performance car parts for one purpose...MORE HORSEPOWER! We could be witnessing the emergence of a new segment of the performance car market. With the plummet of the SUV and truck market, the Big 3 have reacted by stopping/reducing production at those specific plants, and are looking at ways to retool them to produce more fuel efficient cars and hybrids. But it's the after-market/specialty sector where all the magic happens. Just as Hot Rodders wanted to go fast, the after-market sector provided performance parts, which in turn lead the Big 3 to manufacture the muscle cars in the '60s and '70s, so will Hypermilers influence the future of the automotive industry.

They Shoot...They Score!!!

Dateline June 6th, 2008 Monroe, MI. The wife goes to the local Waldenbooks and picks me up the new 4th Edition of Dungeons and Dragons. Geek-Zilla comes home from work and is pleased with his better half. Let the geekarific goodness begin.

Over the past few months Wizards of the Coast has been releasing preview information about the latest edition, and I have been salivating to get my hands on the books. About a month ago the wife and I also played a 4th Edition demo game, which all in all was a pleasant experience. Now that I have my hands on the books, and have had a chance to read and digest the rules, I have one question. Why wasn't this done YEARS ago???

WotC not only knocked the ball out of the park, they knocked the skin off the thing (ala The Natural). This rule-set is the best edition...EVAH! The rules are simple, elegant, and most importantly, they are FUN! I was pretty pleased with the 3rd Edition of D&D. The d20 mechanic was a great improvement over THAC0, and the introduction of feats really allowed some neat character customizations. But 3E was still burdened with a complex combat system, and a boat load of difficult (and sometimes conflicting) rules. The fact is 3E was a rules-lawyer dream and the casual player's nightmare. Needless to say...I skipped the 3.5 edition.

4E basically threw it all out and started from scratch. Gone is the Vancian magic system (where spells are memorized), and in is a system of At-Will, Encounter, Daily, and Utility powers. In fact all characters have a power pool to select powers from, so everyone has neat tricks to use. Gone is the Cleric being the party heal-bot, and in its place all classes can perform a limited self-healing ability called Second Wind. Clerics and the new Warlord class enhance the party by buffing party members and using abilities that allow others to spend Healing Surges. Gone is the brutal task of spending an insane amount of time creating encounters, and in is a system of easily creating level appropriate challenges for the party. BTW....Minions RAWK!!!

So without further ado, BEHOLD! I present to you my first 4th Edition D&D character:

Phaedrus
1st Level Human Warlord

STR:16
CON:13
DEX:13
INT:14
WIS:11
CHA:13

HP:25 Bloodied:12 Healing Surge/Day:8 Healing Per Surge:6
AC:17 FORT:15 REF:14 WILL:13
Size:Medium Speed:5 Vision:Normal
Alignment:Unaligned Deity:Kord Languages:Common, Goblin

Skills:Athletics, Endurance, Heal, History, Intimidate
Feats:Tactical Assault, Weapon Focus(Heavy Blade)
Class Features:Combat Leader, Tactical Presence, Inspiring Word

At-Will Exploits:Commander's Strike, Viper's Strike, Wolf Pack Tactics
Encounter Exploit:Warlord's Favor
Daily Exploit:Lead the Attack

Armor:Chainmail, Light Shield
Equipment: Longsword, Throwing Hammer, Javelin, Dagger, Adventurer's Kit.
Wealth: 13g

Basic Attacks:
Longsword-To Hit:+6 Damage:1D8+4(+5 Two Handed)
Throwing Hammer-To Hit:+5 Damage:1D6+3 5/10
Javelin-To Hit:+5 Damage:1D6+3 10/20
Dagger-To Hit:+6(+4 Thrown) Damage:1D4+3(1D4+1 Thrown) 5/10

/rolls for initiative

w00t for Wubi

I'm a Linux slappy. Yep, I admit it, give me Open Source, give me free as in speech and as in beer. I am intoxicated by what is going on in the Open Source/GNU/Linux community. I think some of the most innovative development is in this community. With that being said, I fully realize that we live in a Windows world, and there are somethings that Microsoft has produced that are second to none (i.e: Outlook, Exchange, Office).

My first exposure to Linux was the Knoppix Live CD. For those of you who are not familiar with the concept of a Live CD, it is an image of an OS that is loaded into your computer's RAM and runs off the CD/DVD drive as opposed to running off your HDD. It's a great way to checkout an alternative OS, without messing with your current installed version of Windows (or Mac OS X). Think of it as going to the car-dealer and test driving a car. The thing is you really are limited to what you can do with a Live CD. Whatever you write, copy, save, file is lost when you exit the Live CD. The solution to this is Dual Booting. Dual Booting is the process of loading multiple OSs on your HDD, and when you power on you PC, you select which OS to load up. Using my earlier car example: This is like the dealer letting you take the car home for a few days to really get a better impression of what is like to own it.

I have been Dual Booting on my PC for a few years now. I've had various flavors of Linux loaded from SuSE 9.1, to Mepis, to Gentoo, and to my current distro of choice Ubuntu. Just to let you know, when I choose a distro, my number 1 deciding factor is the community and documentation for that distro...which right now I think Ubuntu is hands above the others. Now going the Dual Boot route is not for the faint of heart, it requires some reading and planning.

The biggest hurdle is HDD partitioning. The very first time I tried loading Linux, I accidentally deleted my Windows partition and everything it contained, but live and learn. What I decided to do to prevent this in the future (since I was regularly loading, configuring, deleting, re-loading), was to load Linux on a second physical HDD. Yes, I know, I could use a program like Partition Magic or QtParted to resize my main drive, but once bitten twice shy.

For the past few months I have been without my beloved Linux HDD. The HDD on my wife's PC was starting to fail, and needless to say, some sacrifices had to be made to keep her happy. Hell hath no furry as a woman unable to play WoW! I've got a bunch of stuff on my Windows HDD, and just really didn't want sort through all that crap to free up some room, and resize my drive. But wait! Look...up in the sky! It's a bird! It's a plane! No....It's Wubi!!!!

I know...you are probably saying, "WTF is a Wubi?" Wubi is a program that allows you to install a Linux image into your Windows OS without the hassle of resizing you HDD and partitioning the new logical drive. The latest version of Ubuntu 8.04LTS comes with this program, and it's all that and a bag-o-chips. Once you download and make a bootable image of this distro, you can run it right from Windows.Just select "Install Inside Windows", and then fill out the following requested information. You will need a minimum of 4GB of HDD space, and it recommends using 8GB of space.
After you hit the "Install" button, you will see the typical Windows installer screen.
Once this is done you will need to reboot your PC, and after going through POST and loading your BIOS, you will be presented with the standard Windows Boot Loader screen. This is a nice feature, because for someone who is new to Linux the GRUB or LILO boot loader can be a little intimidating. The next step is selecting Ubuntu in the boot loader screen, and the first time you do this can be a bit confusing. I've done numerous installs of Linux, so I was a little better prepared for what happened next. On my PC I typically have to first load Linux in a graphical fail-safe mode, which is probably due to my video card using Nvidia drivers. After selecting Ubuntu from the Windows Boot Loader Menu, press "ESC" when prompted. The next menu will give you the option to finish the installation using the graphics fail-safe mode.

After it finishes loading the OS, you'll have to reboot one more time. Now you just select the Ubuntu option in the Windows Boot Loader Menu. Ubuntu will load up, and you will be presented with the log-in screen. Once logged in, you can finish up by doing a quick update and in my case the loading of my video card drivers (which is insanely easy to do). One more reboot and voila!!!!
One of the really slick things about Wubi, is you can remove your Linux distro from Windows by using the Add/Remove Programs option. This option for exposing people to Linux distros like Ubuntu is going to be a real windfall for the Open Source/GNU/Linux community.

All hail Wubi!!!