May 2004 Archives

Ask The Virtual Judge: A Magic: the Gathering Rules Lookup. Wow amazing, there is a virtual judge.

Alex's question was can two Myr Retrievers target each other. Answer yes, so if you sacrifice two you can get them both back.

Crystal Keep - Magic - Rules. We keep debating the rules for Magic. Here are the official rules and rulings.

iRiver iGP-100 - Convenience, Continued. Well, there are other iPod mini competitors now. This one uses a 1.5gb hard drive and is half the price of the mini.

Also plays MP3, WMF and even Ogg Vorbis (my personal favorite right now!).

Also connects as a USB hard drive to Windows, so no special software is required. Pretty ugly though and I'm sure the user interface is terrible.

I need to start trying some of these digital music players.

The Seattle Times: Fishing. A great resource for the latest on fishing in the SEattle area from the Seattle Times.

Of note is that Cedar River is opening for catch and release. That Pine Lake is opening up on the Issaquah plateau.

ABT Electronics - Product Page. Ok, we tried the Sharper Image filter, but the ozone just made Alex wheeze, so we're headed up market to a HEPA filter.

Mad by Whirlpool, this one is supposed to capture really tiny particles. We'll see.

Calvin loves golf. Time to get him some clubs. Here are some great locations noted by Google:

• U.S. Kids Golf :: Leading the world in kids golf. Pretty cool. You can get an all titanium club for juniors. Expensive, but fitted by size. Calvin is probably in the Green system. 5" and 25% lighter than adult. A starter kit is $129.
• King Sports. They have clubs as well.
• All Kids Golf Clubs.
• Play it Again Sports has used sets sometimes so check there

AnandTech: Socket 754 Roundup: Comparing Generation 2 Review of the mature 754 boards. These are going to be good buys when the 939 boards come out next week since they are about the same performance, but an older generation

Based on features, implementation, value, overclocking performance and flexibility, the Epox 8KDA3 emerges as our Gold Editors Choice as the top Socket 754 motherboard. Users who require Firewire will need to look at another board or plan to use a Firewire card, since it is not included on the Epox.

The MSI K8N Neo Platinum is a truly excellent motherboard that competes in every way with the best of the Socket 754 motherboards. Its performance is virtually identical to the Epox board, and the feature set is second to none. If Firewire is a requirement, the K8N Neo Platinum belongs at the top of your shopping list. If you want a board that makes top performance easy, then the MSI is also the top choice.

Next week will represent the launch of the new Socket 939 processors from AMD. The new Socket 939 chipsets are the same chipsets that you see here: nForce3-250 and K8T800 PRO. The move to Dual-Channel and Socket 939 will be very important to some, but it will not represent the quantum leap in performance that some are expecting. Dual-Channel, after all, did not make a huge difference in the performance of FX and A64 chips when they were the same clock speed with the same cache

Now that Anandtech is doing a monthly review of hardware, it sure is easier for me to do my guides. They are basically references to Anandtech now. Good recommendations are there. Here is my high end system recommendation. First point of course is that the ship of the Athlon 939 socket (Newcastle) slipped into June, so this is if you want a 754-socket board now (main reason is that you can't wait). The 939s are supposed to be a just a little bit faster (5%).

(See Anandtech). The Athlon 64 again wins the test if you want to game. The main thing here is that you can overclock up to 24% now (so a 2GHz 3200+ goes to 2.4GHz) if you have fast enough memory

{border:1px solid black}.
| Part | Cost | Comment |
| AMD Athlon 64 3200+ | $270 | Need a late model for better 25% overclocks |
| MSI K8N Neo | $132 | First nForce 250 Pro chipset board out |
| OCZ PC3700EB | $349 | Can use for 250 FSB, 8x multiplier for 5% higher speed |
| ATI Radeon X800 Pro | $400 | 2x faster than 9800 Pro |
| Antec True Power 430W | $68 | Most important thing you can buy really! |
| Western Digital Raptor 74GB 10K RPM | $250 | Plus Hitach KT400 for backing storage |
| Lian Li PC-V1000 | $199 | Mid-tower case, very quiet |

The first sets of drives that support dual layer are coming. Here are some with good reputations:

• BENQ DW822A.
• NEC ND-2510A
• Lite-on SOHW-832S.

Also some older drives can be firmware upgraded with the usual caveats as The firmware page :: View topic - The Double Layer Upgradability Thread explains.

Short story is the NEC ND-2500A has a 70% success rate in upgrade. The BENQ DW822A will have an official upgrade.

Anandtech. An interesting piece about how the combination of the Athlon 64, plus locked PCI/AGP motherboards like the nForce 250 Pro really perform when using a new variant of memory called enhanced bandwidth done by OCZ. The new recommendation is the OCZ 3700EB available at SVC for $183/512MB, Athlon 3200+, K8T800 PRO with nForce3-250 chipset is the current recommendation. Will be interesting to see how next months new dual channel socket 939 chips perform.

Apparently many of the problems with Athlon 64 are due to incompatibilities with Hynix memory (a big Korean OEM manufacturer). With Intel, they were able to jump the RAM voltage to 2.85V from the standard 2.5V and with the new OCZ3700EB (DDR466), they got timings to go to 3-2-3-6. A big performance boost from DDR400 in doing this. From 322 fps on Quake 3 to 415 fps. This is running on a way hot Dual RAID 10,000 RPM drives, ATI 9800 Pro, Pentium 2.4 GHZ process on ASUS P4C800 motherboard

With the Athlon, you can raise performance by leaving the processor overclocking at 2.1GHz (from 2GHz) standard, but jamming the ram to higher speeds. So with a 8×250MHz, you get much great performance than the stock 10×200MHz.

With AMD, 3700EB is an outstanding performer over a very wide range on both the Intel and AMD platforms. It certainly belongs on your short list if you are looking for Intel DDR memory. Frankly, for Athlon 64, we would be hard-pressed to choose any other memory over 3700EB or 3500EB for the nForce3-250/K8T800 PRO or other boards that support working PCI/AGP locks on Athlon 64. 3700EB is simply astounding on Athlon 64.

When Dual-Channel arrives with Socket 939 next month, we should see a 2% to 5% increase in these already outstanding performance results. We will then see if OCZ 3700EB is the same brilliant performer in Athlon 64 Dual-Channel that we have seen on the Single-Channel Socket 754.

Amazing that Connie spends her time trolling these for good medical jokes. Good for boring lecturs I guess. This is one of my favorites:

What fits your busy schedule better, exercising one hour a day or being dead 24 hours a day?

http://www.glasbergen.com/images/fit00.gif

OK, My laptop died, time to get another. Here are some reviews that led me to the Sony VAIO TF3AP2. Its 3 pounds, has a CD-RW/DVD and runs on batteries for five hours. Tiny, its just what I need on the road. I'll have to get a big desktop at home, but I still need to do slides on the road. There are a bunch of choices, but they come down to two for me. Note that one of these is a so called whitebook.

Ultraportables

These are machines that you can buy online and then customize to your hearts content:

• Sony VAIO TR3AP2. This is a 1GB machine that is only 3 pounds. Includes DVD, 1GB, 40GB disk and 10 inch widescreen 3-5 hour battery life. $2500 or so from newegg.com. Best thing are that it is super small. Biggest negative is that it uses the older Banias 130nm 1GHz Pentium M so it isn't fast. Its about $2500. The screen is kinda tiny which is the biggest drawback.
• ASUS M5N. An alternative is the M5N which has a 12" LCD screen but weights just 1.55kg (3.5 lb). JCNS also carries this as well. There is also an S5N that doesn't have an on-board optical drive. Main drawback is the screen is only 1024×768 as most 12" screens are. Digit-Life seemed to like it OK. You can also get them from Top Micro, but they don't have the latest Intel chips yet.

There are also quite a few ultraportables that don't have a DVD drive. For me, this kind of defeats the purpose on those long airplane rides. If you don't need a DVD drive, the IBM X31 seems to be the big winner in the reviews I've read.

Desktop Replacement

If you don't quite want ultraportable, there are the 5 pound ones. I actually got the M3N, but think the M6N is probably the later and better deal, although both a big to go on an airplane and are more desktop replacements

• M6Ne. There is a whole family, but it weights 5.6 pounds, so about the same as the M3N. Best model right now looks like the M6Ne which has a 1400×1050 screen. Main issue of course is that on an airplane, it won't really open in economy class, but it is a great desktop replacement particularly at Proportable.com where you can give is a 1.8GHz Dothan (Pentium M 745). And the 7200 rpm 60GB Hitachi is a screamer. Tom's Hardware also liked this big boy as a desktop replacement. Its huge with a gigantic 15" screen, so it won't fit on an airplane.
• ASUS M3Np. Available from proportable.com, this is a white box ASUS M3N and it isn't exactly an ultraportable. Has 2GHz 755, 14" TFT, 1GB, 60GB drive, internal CD-RW/DVD-RW drive, 802.11bg and is a about 2.2kg (5lb)l. It's about $2500, with the main drawback that it will have lower battery life than the Sony. you can also get this from JNCS in a build it yourself format. Kind of like a shuttle where they do the assembly. The big advantage of JNCS is that they have the M3Np which has the 1400×1050 screen rather than the lower resolution 1024×768 that protable.com has. BTW, the DVD writer isn't really worth it, only writes at 1x (so a 45 minute movie takes 45 minutes!).

Here are some other reviews I looked at:

• Notebookreview. A great site BTW, this article is about the new Dothan powered notebooks coming out. Best standard laptop is the Acer TravelMate 8000 at 6.6lb. Best ultrathin is the ASUS M5N or M3NP.
• TechTV. They like the Fujitsu LifeBook P5000. Has an optical drive and widescreen format so you can watch DVDs. Battery life was pretty good too. It's pretty slow at 143 MobileMark, but has a 4:22 hr MobileMark 2002 battery life. Runs on a Pentium M 1.0 GHz
• CNet. Their top picks are the IBM ThinkPad X31, but it doesn't have an optical drive. They like the Sony VAIO TR2A which rob shurtleff loves. They didn't review the newer TR3AP2 which Bruce Ryan loves. They also likes the Panasonic ToughBook CF-W2 which does have an optical drive, 6 hour battery life,

Decoder Ring

"Intel processor comparison:http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=320039. There is much confusion about the various types of processors Intel now sells. An amazing hash of names and architectures. Here's the decoder ring that also comes from the Intel Annual Report

• Centrino. This is not a processor at all. It means that you have a Pentium M with their glue logic for chips and things, so it basically means more Intel chips than otherwise.
• Pentium M. These are optimized for low power adn have a completely different architecture than desktop chips (Northwood and Prescott). They have lower clock speeds, but higher performance at a given clock speed because they don't have the huge pipeline, so a 1.7GHz Pentium M could be faster than a 3GHz Pentium 4. The other variants are the voltages, so you have 1.3GHz-1.7GHz Pentium M, then low-voltage Pentium M in 1.1 and 1.2 GHz and finally ultra low voltage 900 MHz and 1GHz.
• Pentium M (Dothan). These are the new 90nm chips. About 10% faster for the same battery life. They've only announced the standard voltage ones at 2GHz (755), 1.8 (753) and 1.7 (735).
• Mobile Pentium 4. These are the high burn rate version of the desktop Pentium 4. Mainly used for desktop replacement systems where heat and power consumption don't matter.
• mobile Celeron. Intel's low-end desktop line tuned for mobile uses

Well, the last thing we need for our big trip in the outdoors are great binoculars to look at all the wildlife. Some great resources about this, but its been a little confusing because there doesn't seem to be a definitive source and there are lots of brands. The main conclusion is that an midrange 8×32 is the best in terms of overall usefulness and an 8×20 makes a great compact binocular to take anywhere. The top brands seem to be Leica, Nikon, Zeiss and Bruntun, Swift and Swarovski. Here were the best of the bunch:

1. Nikon Premier LX 8×20 ($350). Also called the Venturer LX. It was top rated in Outdoor 2003 and 2004 Buyers Guide and got a rave from Better View Desired (probably the best of the online sites).
2. Nikon Venturer LX 8×32 ($700). This seems to be the choice of many folks for a mid-size binocular in terms of quality and optics.

Here are the sources used in order of usefulness.

• Outside Best of 2004. A great review of binoculars. They liked the Leupold Wind River Katmai $400 list as the best value. The Nikon Premier LX 8×20 ($290) also scored well, but didn't get a check mark for some reason. NOw all of these are roof prism, nitrogen filled (so no fogging) and multicoated so no flare. Pretty amazing. The cutting edge is which are phase coatest in the prism.
• Outside Best of 2003 (registration required and doesn't have the full review anymore). From last year, there is another list of great binoculars. Top ones to look at include Pentax UCF X 8×25 ($99) cheap and decent, only issue is that it isn't waterproof. Here again, the Nikon Venturer 8×20 LX was a winner
• Better View Desired. Similar opinion which is that the Bausch & Lomb Custom 7×26 is the best compact for the money, althought they love the Zeiss Victory 8×20 and the Nikon Venturer LX 8×20. If you want the very best mid-sized, its the Nikon Venturer 8×32 LX 8×32 ($700).
• Birdingwatching.com. A good overall survey. They have reviews where they end up liking the b&l custom like the others as well as the Nikon Venturer LX 8×42 fullsized. They also very much like the Swarovski SLC 8×30 ($865!)

• Consumer Search. A good meta review site that covers Consumer Reports, Outside Magazine and the NJ Audubon Society of all things. They like the Bausch & Lomb Custom 7×26 ($225), Nikon Venturer LX 8×32 ($700) for midsized
• Optics4Birding Review Sites. A good list of sites reviewing on the Internet.
• Desperately Seeking Binos. A good overview of what to look for. The basic notes are spend as much as you can afford. Get roof prism. This is an older review from 1999, but the conclusions are Bausch and Lomb Custom 7×26 $276 was great a compact
• Homestead. They have some great prices and also are super friendly with good advice. While he likes the Leupold Wind River Katmai 8×32, thinks the Alden Apex 492 is probably better for a slightly higher price. Apparently, it uses BAK4 glass which is better and it is phase coated (so they are brighter. Alden just started making binoculars in 1997

Gas BBQ Grills Product Reviews and Reports by Consumer Search - ConsumerSearch.com. Just found this site ConsumerSearch which aggregates reviews from others. A good idea. Nice thing is that it reviews reviewers and it seems pretty accurate.

Here's the scoop on gas grills with full reviews.

Weber Genesis Silver B. $450. It's the one that keeps winning the Cook's Illustrated reviews. If this looks too cheesy, the Jenn-Air JA460P looks more hefty and solid.

It is kind of cool to see a meta-review site.

Well, I also hate shopping for dress shoes, but fortunately, I always am the same size. Here's a great way to do it:

• Shoebuy. Top rated by BizRate, these guys have a big selection. The prices are just typical list prices you'd find at Nordstroms though there is no shipping charge.
• !! Best ShoeBuy Coupons !!. This turbo charges the deal. They have a whole series of coupons that are tracked by Best-online-coupons.com. Saved me nearly 30%!

Sneakerland. If you're lazy like me, then you hate going shopping. Sneakerland is a great place to buy any athletic shoes. They typically have free shipping and also 10-15% discounts are common once you use them, they'll send email with coupons in them.

Reliable so far for me. Got my running shoes (Asic Gels) and now ordered walking shoes too. The only thing you have to be careful about is that some shoes run smaller (Asic Gels are usually require a 1/2 size larger when ordering).

Seattle Safeco Field Advice. Some great advice about enjoying Safeco Field and the Mariners (even if they are terrible). Good points:

• In the outfield, there are three sections - the left and right field lower seats are reserved and are also $24. The left field bleachers are $13 and the center field bleachers are $7. Obviously seating preferences are different for every fan, but after seeing two games at Safeco, I would not recommend the lower outfield reserved seats - it's probably better to get the center field bleacher seats and spend the $17 you've saved on a beer and a hot dog while enjoying the game in the Bullpen Pub (a small restaurant located just beside the visitors bullpen - there are about 12 stools that face the field from behind the left field fence)
• If you want to see batting practice, get there 3 hours before game time and enter via the center field gate. You can also stand in the Bullpen BBQ and watch the game from straight away center field. For those of you hoping to get a baseball, stand in the right field stands during battin practice - there will be a few balls hit out, but make sure you have your glove.
• Two hours before game time, the entire park opens -now is the time to move to the dugouts to get some pictures and autographs.
• Parking is terrible, so if you live in the city, try to park in the International District on the east side of the stadium and walk, that way you'll avoid all the traffic trying to get on the I-5 and 99.
• Another interesting place to stand is called Lookout Landing, which can be found on the Upper Concourse above the Left Field gate. The Landing affords complete views of the stadium as well as great views of downtown and the Puget Sound.

NPR Program Stream. Been listening to the Senate hearings on Iraq live. Have to say these audio streaming applications really work much better. NPR has their entire program on the web now.

C-Span. I had not realized it, but all three C-Span channels are now available online. Pretty terrific program guide too.

mozdev.org - plugindoc: OSX. It is confusing how to get the plug-ins working right on OSX. A good writeup here.

It's been a while since I've bought much fishing gear, but with Grace growing up and actual success catching fish, I need two more rods. A good time to update the fishing guide. Resources like TackleTour. They remain a great guide to fishing gear particularly their editors choice:

• Quantum Energy 20PTi. Kind of expensive, but pretty amazing reel. $129 SRP. It's a souped up version of the Catalyst listed below. Deluxe for Dad. They tested it with a St. Croix Legend Elite (ES66MF) rod and 8 lb test line, so it is for the bigger fish. Not an ultralight rig. The very best of the midrange combos. It would also work well with the AiRRUS Comatrix listed below. Won the best of 2004.
• Quantum Catalyst 10PTi as a great high end reel. Perfect for Dad :-) $90 SRP. This is an ultralight reel. A good combination with the St. Croix Premier Traveler (PS60L4) and 2lb. Maxima Perfexi
• Quantum Catalyst 20PTi. This is a the medium reel. $90 SRP. Good combination with St. Croix legend Elite (ES66MF) and 6-8lb Trilene. Won the best of 2003.
• Qkuma Metaloid. This is the reel from two years ago that I drooled over. $80 SRP

In terms of rods, things are a little less clear mainly because most of these are specialty rods that Cabelas doesn't carry:

• St. Croix Elite. Amazingly expensive at $300 a pop, but defines the high-end.
• St. Croix Premier Traveler. $120. Very light rod and it breaks into 4 pieces for backpacking. Perfect for Dad :-)
• AiRRUS Co-MATRiX 457. $90. A good match to the Hypercast for instance.
• Fenwick HMG. Another classic rod. $100.
• Quarrow OTS664F. A great rod. I had trouble finding it last time. $110 SRP
• Kencor SP4HV. Only 4 feet long and fiberglas, its basically great for kids and is indestructible and easy to manuveur. $99. Good for kids

For the kids, I got the an inexpensive set of ultralight rod and reel. Smaller rods and reel means more fun when you catch the little guys.

• Quantum Catalyst 10PTi. They have a great combo price for this of $129 with a decent rod. Not a bad price. You can also get it with the Fenwick for $180 in total.
• Daiwa Laguna LA500. This is an ultralight reel, so great for kids. $50 at Cabelas. Works great with a 6 foot Fenwick ($100) and 2-4 pound partiuclary with 1/12oz lures.
• Quantum Hypercast Ultra. This is an open face reel that doesn't require you to touch the line. Great for kids! $40.
• Daiwa Spinmatic X. This was the reel set that I originally got Alex and Calvin. Not great but at $30 what the heck. The Spinmatic SM-Z500T is supposed to be better with 5 bearings at $40.

Final thing is the line itself. Things are much more complex when it was all monofilament. Here are some choices:

• P-line Fluroclear. A best of boths play by a co-polymer line. It is as easy to cast as monofilament, but as invisible as flurocarbon lines. It isn't as brittle as pure flurocarbon
• Sufix DNA. This is another very good co-polymer line. P-line rates a little better though.
• Maxima Perfexion. This is a 2 lb monofilament line. Not as fancy, but only costs $2/280 ft spool vs. $9/300ft for copolymers.

Where to buy it:

• Cabelas has a big selection. Prices are list, but at least you know you'll get it.
• Thorn Brothers. A little shop in Minnesota with a big presence on line. Got the St. Clair Premier Traveler from them.

More examples of, if it can be made, it will be made:

• Camera added to USB Flash drive | The Register . Has a tiny battery in it so you can take pictures. And in this business there is not one, but two of these from JetFlash and Philips
• MP3 Wristwatch. Another example is an MP3 wristwatch.

Time once again for a review of blog editing tools. I've been looking for the perfect offline tool and Messyworkbench provided a good overview to which I'll add:

1. I've been using Zempt for a while and like it. Unfortunately, its not been maintained for a while and sometimes doesn't work. Fails to post. The best feature I think is that it has a Zempt This! button for IE. I can't tell you how convenient this is. Other nice thing is that it can handle multiple logons to different sites. Very nice for folks like me with both personal and public sites.
2. w.bloggar is probably the first one that I used. Like Zempt it appears to crash with some perl errors every so often. It doesn't have a push button, but is much richer in terms of HTML editing. Since I use Textile 2 for markup though, that's not really a big deal.
3. SharpMT. This is probably my favorite for right now. Best features are that you can edit multiple entries offline (he calls them blog links). This makes editing really fast. The other editors force a server round trip everytime you change an entry. Also has a plug in architecture, but that isn't used much. This BTW is a .NET client application and I can see why people like the many UI widgets .NET has. Having multiple panes for editing is very nice for attention-deficit people like me. The spell checker is nice too!
4. MT Post This! Ironically, this is still the one I prefer the most because it autodiscovers trackback links. Something I use a bunch of. The other ones, you've got to manually get stuff out of them. It also lets you highlight a selection and stuffs it into the entry.

Make the Switch. Some great posts on how to mechanically switch from Movable Type to Wordpress. Some great tips from early adopters. Much is familiar since Geekfishing.net actually startes as a b2/cafelog site.

Main question I have is how to convert over to MovableType like links. Main issue is that there is a problem with sites that use postids (which mines do) so you have to keep both sets of sites up for a while. Not a big deal and there is mucha bout how to do this.

Main thing I wonder is how

AppleInsider | Source describes rumored video capabilities of future iPod. Logical extension and pretty cool idea for Apple. Next iPod will have a screen and video output

AnandTech: Weekly Buyer's Guide: Entry Level System - May 2004. A great resource, Anandtech is bascially doing weekly guides to hardware. Every month they cover Entry level (week 1), Mid-range (week 2), high-end (week 3) and overclocked (week 4).

This month, the recommendations are:

• CPU: AMD Athlon XP 2000+ retail or AMD Mobile Athlon XP 2500+. $57 or $97 shipped.
  The Mobile Barton is great because it can overclock and the multiplier is unlocked so you don't have to drive up the FSB speed insanely.
• Motherboard: ASUS A7N8X-X (nForce2 400). $69 shipped.
• Memory: 2 X 256MB OCZ PC3200 EL (Enhanced Latency) CAS2.0 module. Price: $65 per module shipped. ACtually get two if you can.
• Video: 64MB Sapphire Radeon 9200SE. $39. This is true if you don't get a Shuttle box (the SN41G2).
• Case: CaseEdge TS1 Mid Tower
  Price: $40 shipped. You can get from PCclub.com and it includes a 300W power supply
• Disk: Western Digital WD800JB (80GB) 7200RPM (8MB cache). Price: $69 shipped
• Optical: Lite-On 52×32×52×16 Combo CD-RW/DVD-ROM drive. Price: $49 shipped
• Or get the Shuttle SN41G2 as an alternative to both the motherboard and the case and video card.

eDimensional, the reseller of i-glasses had this to say about getting drivers to work:

1. Go to nVidia cleaner and get the nvidia cleaner. This file will clean the drivers from your system. We have heard from other users that this program works well to get rid of any old drivers that are still on the computer.
2. Once they are completely removed, go to
   3D Stereo 56.72 to download the 5672 stereo drivers from nvidia. Then go to Forceware 56.72 to get the 5672 drivers for your video card.
3. Install the video card, sometimes called Display drivers or Forceware drivers first. Once they are installed and you restarted, install the stereo drivers.

OK, to really figure out what is wrong with an installation, here is what you have to do:

1. Guru3D.com Forums - How to properly uninstall detonators/catalysts. This is apparently a must. These drivers really leave junk everywhere. Read the guide above first
2. Driver Cleaner. This is a shareware program that cleans up junk on your machine. Download it.
3. NVidia. Download the drivers that you want from nVidia's site or whereever.
4. Uninstall the driver from the control panel. Pretty straightforward, but that's not enough.
5. Reboot the machine and push F8 and go into safe mode Windows
6. Run Drive Cleaner mention above to clean out INF files that tell Windows how to install things
7. For nVidia cards, Windows Update will automatically install a new driver for you, so you have to disable the network (!!!?) since Windows is behind on drivers. Right clicking on "My Network Places." Once there, spot your internet connection, If its a LAN connection, disable it temporarily. Simply right click on it and click on "disable."
8. Reboot to regular Windows and when it asks about finding a driver, then run the nVidia setup and reboot again and you should be up and running

Stereoscopic 3D Virtual Reality Homepage - Complete Market Surveys of 3D-Glasses VR-Helmets 3D-Software. Well, I tried these eDimensional glasses. Plugged it in, but with the latest nVidia drivers, I get an instant blue screen when I start Windows XP and then get blown into some strange video mode where the screen is blank or blinking.

Sounds like some sort of conflict with the latest drivers. Maybe this bulletin board will help. Sending email to nVidia and eDimensional has been fruitless, but note I tried this and it get the drivers to install correctly. Apparently the 3D stereo drivers were locked in and couldn't be removed. Go figure.

Anyway, did all this and it still doesn't work. I don't think the glasses are flickering, but now I also notice that this won't work LCD monitors. Should have noted this earlier. Sigh!

Firefox Help: Extensions. I'm really liking Mozilla Firefox. The extension architecture is amazing. You get all the great features.

The biggest problem is that extensions are buggy and it is hard to figure out how to reset the application. Even an uninstall won't help. Nor will cleaning out the registry.

It turns out the real configuration information is kept in a set of hidden folders, so it is like Outlook in that is squirrels stuff away in c:\documents and settings\_user name_\application data\phoenix\

The tricky thing is that it stores them in the Phoenix directory (an old code name doubtless of Firefox), so you can't find it by searching.

To get a new day, you have to uninstall Firefox and then delete this directory.

Well, Alaska is coming up as I pointed out earlier, need a great lense for taking those nature shots. Also, the kids are in enough sports now that a good high quality lense would really let me capture some great moments. Here are ones to consider. Thanks to David Ruether - SUBJECTIVE Lens Evaluations (Mostly Nikkors) for this information. Its confusing because there are so many subtlely different models out there:

• 80-200mm f2.8 ED. Manual focus. larger and heavier than the AF versions
• 80-200mm f2.8 ED AF. Rating 5. 3 lenses tested. Performance under about 8' at 200mm declines and becomes poor at minimum focus at wide stops (both conditions together) - otherwise this lens is wonderful even wide open; performs very well on TC14C stopped down slightly (and almost as well on TC14B, not well on TC200/1, fairly well on a modified TC20E); the length and mass help me hand hold this lens down to 1/60 at 200mm - something impossible for me with the 200mm non-zoom or the f4 zooms; a heavy lens with no tripod socket; late AF-D version adds tripod mount and has separate very well placed zoom and focus rings - manual focus is easier with this version (much to my surprise...)
• 80-200mm f2.8 AF S. (untried). Built-in SilentWave linear-motor AF

So there are least four variants out there, manual focus, AF, AF-D and AF-S.

Bjorn Rorslet. also loves the many versions of the AF-ED 80-200mm f2.8 and the later AFS 80-200mm f/2.8 ED-IF and thinks the 70-200 is a work of art pretty much.

So the main issue is pricing. You can get a used 80-200 older model for about $500 on ebay, $800 for a new 80-200 and $1350 for a new 70-200

Leupold Wind River Katmai Binoculars. We'll be headed out to Alaska pretty soon this summer so time to get some equipment to really enjoy it.

We had a cheap set of compact binoculars but lost them. Also have a nice image stabilized set for boating. In looking at Outside Magazine, they rated these Katmai's as super good.

Weight a pound, but a super high quality. Here are some places to buy them:

*

Marketing Playbook. Well, folks have been saying heck, why don't you write down all the stuff you've learned. Well, thanks to John Zagula, a few hard earned lessons on marketing are now going into print this fall.

Check out the Marketing Playbook if you are interested in figuring out this crazy thing called marketing. No, it doesn't have to be some sort of Mystery Meat.

We spent nearly 20 years figuring this stuff out. How to have a simple and easy-to-understand system for marketing. One that is battle-proven and time-tested. One that works for a huge company like Microsoft and the garage startup. Anyway, our thoughts are going up on the web and you'll see it in print this fall.

XML Syndication Supporters Mulling W3C Move. I've never gotten to understand the deep issues in this debate. XML is so easy to read (check the RSS 1.0, 2.0 and Atom feeds on this Blogs as an example), but maybe time to start thinking about it.

Some folks like Steve Gillmore have argued that RSS and BitTorrent are two very important new technolgies. I get the latter, but not necessarily the former. That's because RSS lets you read a blog in essence without needing to open a web page. It is just the text and other stuff. Of course, you have to poll for it still, but its in a format that isn't a markup language, it is just the pure data.

If you layer it on top of the Bit Torrent idea. That is, there is a tracker node that folks who want a file (e.g., a feed) send a message to. The tracker responds with a list of all other people doing the download and then you can share blocks between them so it is amazingly fast and distributed.

_Don't you love those packages that don't stick a how to install somewhere up front. Here's what I've been able to glean:

1. Textpattern Support Forum / I am lost Help!!!. Download textpattern_g118a, unzip it (I'm assuming you're on Windows.) Set up a MySQL database w/ your host (mine had cPanel which let me set it up). Open up your textpattern directory two levels down. You should see a file called Textpattern, one called Images, and some other files. Use an FTP program (everyone recommends Smart FTP, I think, I use Ace, both are free) to open the folder on your site marked www. Now upload the Textpattern and Images folder and the other files to this (root) directory. Close FTP, open your browser, go to your address blah.com_or_whatever/textpattern/setup.php. Now my memory gets fuzzy, especially the order of things. I had to input the name of my database, for me it was something like hass_ , my name and password for getting into that database, the URL of my host where it said something like MySQL server, and a name and password and email for using textpattern. It took a few tries to get it all right, textpattern told me if something was wrong and let me try again. I had to copy the contents of a form box and replace my config.php file contents with it. If you do everything right it says. If that went well, it asks you to delete the setup.php file from your SERVER (not from your PC) in the folder marked Textpattern. Then you can start to figure out Textpattern, it takes time. Good luck.
2. TextPattern Tutorial. The product is a little strange, so you have to go through this tutorial to use it.

the blogger code. Fun idea, take a survey and summarize how nerdy you are with a code. Mine is

B8 d++ t+ k++ s u f+ i o+ x e+ l+ c--

FWIW, reminds me that I once taught Connie LISP, so know when she says

(geekp)

I can answer

t

And she thinks it is hilarious. Now you know why I love her. The kids thing it is just wierd :-)

Joi Ito's Resource. Joi Ito has a great list of applications that allow you to take SMS and push it via an email interface onto a blog.

wapblogger - a WAP interface to Blogger, LiveJournal and other smart weblog-style tools. Hey in the course of installing all these new blogging tools, I was reminded of WAP blogger. Just type in this WAP address: http://wap.ubique.ch/wapblogger/ and you are off.

Bitwaste SMS Blogging. There is also a nice script from Bitwaste.com to do the same for a phone. Its quite dedicated. Looks at the from location to prevent spam which you need in this day and age. Also requires perl and some libraties, but cool to see. Of course it requires a dedicated email address that you hook in with /etc/aliases, so those of us without shell access to Linus are hosed.

Here is some deeper drill downs base on comments on Movable Type RIP | Metafilter. Folks realy like WordPress (only manages a single blog though), ExpressionEngine, b2evolution, textpattern. NEed to check them out. Others are Pivot, but the top votes are WordPress and ExpressionEngine, so here are notes about each and I'll put up trial sites on each on tongfamily.com to check them out.

• WordPress › Development Blog. OK, here is WordPress. The good news is that it is really the update version of b2/cafelog. I actually went from blogger to b2/cafelog before finally landing on MovableType two years ago. Now it looks like this is a good chance to try some others and this is at the top of the list. They do a huge new release middle of next week.
• ExpressionEngine is $149 so it is really a commercial package and out of consideration. HAs some great features though. I love hierarchical categories in particular.
• TextPerfect. By the same guy who did Textile (which I just love).

Ars Technica: Sony unveils music player to unseat the iPod's dominance. Well I've been thinking about getting an iPod Mini, fortunately more choices are arriving. The new Sony VAIO Pocket VGF-AP1 (boy, they love those long names) sounds pretty cool.

Main issue I'm sure is that it uses a strange format called ATRAC3 that I just don't understand. Why do that. Has 20GB though and abig color screen.

Democracy triumphs over conventional wisdom in India? | Metafilter. Amazing to me, but sometimes good does win over xenophobia. The fact that the BJP lost in India to the Congress is an amazing thing.

Well, my trusty Compaq N600c is now dead (it doesn't recognize batteries) and my old Toshiba 3440 gave up the ghost long ago. I thought for a while I didn't need a laptop, but what to do on business trips, so in the market for new ones:

• Two Hot VAIO Laptops States-Bound: X505 and A Series. A series is 1.85 pounds but has no CD/DVD drive. I need one of those for movies on the plane and most importantly for restoring after a crash.

Teal Sunglasses: Movable Type 3.0. Smart words from chuqui. More about what's happened with MT. Main points are you have to be careful about the loyalty in your customer base.

While you can say its no big deal to leave the first blogging community behind, from my own experience, you have to be super careful, the early movers are the recommenders.

The fact recommenders are moving to other products is not a good thing.

Well, all good things have to come to an end. MoveableType will now cost are essentially $150-$900 for the personal weblogs that I manage right now (this site, Geekfishing.net and the related sites).

The real issue here is whether they should charge or not, but they are making a classic "averaging" mistake. That is, getting $50/personal user would be a home run based on getting 100K users, but the price is way, way, too low for an enterprise where the department version should be about $500 and the enterprise in the $5,000 range. Most of the cost justification based on support. That would have been fairly typical. Ironically that averages to $200/customer, but that's not the way you charge. Oh well.

Fortunately, there remain quite a few free services out there like LiveJournal and Blogger. With the improvements in Blogger, we'll look that way for a migration strategy. Good thing MovableType is popular enough that there are easy ways to suck things out of it.

Personally, I would have moved to a more generous strategy on the free version, added a charge for technical support but at all costs kept the momentum up. The point longer term is to get 1M blogs on MovableType IMHO.