Category: Geek


Cameras…

Filed Under: consumer by topenga — Comments Off on Cameras…
December 23, 2010

Last Christmas I renewed my interest in photography. I asked for and received a Canon SX20 digital camera. It’s essentially a big ass point and shoot. An acquaintance’s husband actually sneered at it because it wasn’t a DSLR. Well, I didn’t want to have to keep up with lenses and DSLR’s a fucking expensive. I don’t have the same network of people with lenses that I can just borrow, jackass. That just pissed me off. Holy shit, different people have different needs/requirements? Stop the fucking presses! Anyway. I like my camera. I can turn it to full auto and get regular shots or I can turn it to full manual…and be dumbfounded because I don’t know shit about real photography. I get some great shots, I’ve done interesting things, I even plan on getting a hacked firmware for it. Then, suddenly, I wanted an SLR. Old school. Film. Lenses. Just after I got done bitching that I didn’t want to keep up with that crap. *sigh*

I hit up ebay and found a sweet Minolta SR-T 202. This motherfucker was built in the 70’2, back when they knew how to make shit. Heavy, built like a brick shithouse, three lenses, manual (ORIGINAL), case, remote shutter bulb, and strap. Total cost? $35. As far as I can tell, it’s in great condition, supposedly perfect for a student. I ran a roll of cheap film through it but I haven’t managed to get it developed. (lazy++) Then I decided that I wanted an instant camera. I already have a Polaroid PoGo Printer but I missed the instant cameras. So I found and bought a Fuji Instax Mini7. It’s cool! Little business card sized pictures (what is it with me a mini pictures??)!

Recently, I got as a present, some Instax instant film….for the wide format instant camera. I dunno if I mistakenly put the big film on there or Amazon screwed up the links but now I had this film that I didn’t want to return. And I had been looking at the wide format camera for a while now. Maybe it was a sign. Maybe I should have the Fuji Instax 210. Or maybe it’s the holiday season and once I start binge buying stuff, I can’t stop until the money is gone. Welp. The money ain’t gone and Precision Camera on N. Lamar (fucking awesome place) had them in stock. So now I’m the proud owner of the 210. this thing is MASSIVE. The pictures don’t do it justice. They need to put a baby next to it to show you the massive size of this thing. The Polaroid One Step was never this big. I haven’t opened it yet, but I plan on playing around with it very, very soon.

Yes. I am a consumer whore. Especially for cameras and camera equipment.

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Tablets tablets everywhere….

Filed Under: consumer by topenga — Comments Off on Tablets tablets everywhere….
September 15, 2010

The iPad is, admittedly, a neat little device. It does lotsa shit. It’s portable. And the first tablet PC. I’m sorry, what? Someone actually said that the iPad is the FIRST tablet PC. Really? Okay, then what is this?

Tc1100

That, my friends, is the HP/Compaq TC1100. MY TC1100. Yes, you see a keyboard and cry “Hey, that’s not a tablet”. Oh but it is. That keyboard comes off, turning it into a pure slate computer. True it does not have touchscreen input but instead uses a pen. Even cooler? The pen has an eraser. I can write with the pen stylus and erase my input. It’s neat! It’s great! I get questions every time I use it! It’s also slow as molasses in Christmas in Minnesota. I have a fiend who has an Acer netbook. He was amazed that his netbook was faster than my tablet. Yes. Yes it is. Why? The TC1100 was discontinued in 2005. Yes, a 5 year old tablet is gonna be a bit slower than your 6 month old netbook. Surprise, surprise.

Anyway. My little guy is showing it’s age. In fact, the picture above is my 2nd one. I managed to mangle the user serviceable memory slot on my first one and couldn’t handle the blue screening every half hour. Every time I think of selling it (oh yes, there is a very active fan base of the TC1100), I find something to stop me. First it was Windows 7. I am running Windows 7 pro 32-bit on a machine with a 1.0 GHz Pentium M with 1.5GB of memory. No aero of course, but it is functional and the pen input is greatly improved over XP Tablet Edition. After a while of that (and shit going wonky with One Note), I thought of selling it again. Then I saw that there was a Kindle app for the PC. Ooooh…. Ever since the Kindle went down in price I thought “Oh god, I don’t need a Kindle but I totally fucking want one for no real reason.” So hey, why not use my tablet buddy as a kindle? It has WiFi just like the $139 version. And I can do some real (slow) surfing on it. Granted, the battery life is only a bit over 3 hours and gets hot enough to keep my tea warm, but hey. I save $139. I just installed it today, so I dunno how well it will work just yet.

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In Praise of Alan Rickman

Filed Under: entertainment by topenga — Comments Off on In Praise of Alan Rickman
August 6, 2010

I was watching Sense and Sensibility (don’t judge!) last night. I don’t usually care for Jane Austen-y movies, but I find myself turning to it almost whenever it’s on. Why? Alan Rickman. The man is British, sultry, sex on two legs. I don’t know why I find him fascinating. Oh yes I do. It’s because he almost always plays an asshole. No really. Galaxy Quest? Dick. Dick due to circumstances but a dick nonetheless. Dogma? Metatron was an asshole. Even the Blue Caterpillar in Alice in Wonderland was a jerk! The Harry Potter movies? Dude plays a guy named Snivelus Snape, come on! This is Bobby Flay level of dicketry. That “I am hot shit in a champagne glass and you’re just in my way” air about him.

And it’s dead sexy.

Aelerelean and I were talking (okay he was trying to sleep and I was interrupting him) about why it is that Alan Rickman comes across this way. I mean, he wasn’t really and asshole in Bottle Shock. And even says so:

Jim Barrett (Bill Pullman): Why don’t I like you?
Steven Spurrier (Alan Rickman): Because you think I’m an arsehole. And I’m not, really. I’m just British and, well… you’re not.

That sums it up right there: he’s British and I’m not. But it’s not only that. There’s a certain quality to his voice, the way he delivers his lines. As Snape, you can hear “I could crush you and not even remember it 5 minutes later, I am that good and possibly that evil” in his voice. That cold, emotionless look just made him perfect for that role. Aelerelean actually came up with a couple of other actors who probably could have done it because they have that same quality when they play villains. Kevin Spacey and John Malkovich. Think about it. All three of these guys have that quality. They could exude that pure evilness. Go watch Superman Returns. Kevin Spacey *IS* Lex Luthor. He’s a genius surrounded by morons and it frustrates him. John Malkovich is more of a sleeping evil, the serial killer, the perfect “he was a quiet man, always polite when we saw him” and then kills 80 people over 30 years. This would have worked well for Professor Snape as well. I saw on imdb.com that Tim Roth backed out of the part. I cannot even imagine Tim Roth as Snape. He can do condescending (Lie To Me) but it would lack the subtlety that Rickman provides. It would have totally changed the movie.

Now, don’t get me wrong, I think Rickman was PERFECT in his role (okay, roles). In fact, the only reason why we were coming up with alternatives was because I said “is there anyone else who could have played that part? I don’t think so.”

To recap: Alan Rickman is 15 kinds of sexy, even (maybe especially?) when he’s playing jackass supreme.

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Dear SyFy

Filed Under: entertainment by topenga — Comments Off on Dear SyFy
August 2, 2010

Dear Syphilis Network,

First, yes I know it’s SyFy now. It sounds like a disease. Like Syphilis. So that is what I’m calling you.

Second. WHAT THE FUCK? No. What the fuck. First you put wrestling on my SciFi. Then it’s the horrible HORRIBLE Saturday monster marathon shit movies. Now this? Link Really? This is your new show line up? Goddamn.

BALL & CHAIN

After months of emotional tumult, Edgar and Mallory call their relationship quits. As they say their final goodbyes, the ex-lovers are nearly hit by a meteorite that, it turns out, imbues them with extraordinary powers. Unfortunately, the powers only work when they are in close proximity to each other. Though the last thing they want to do is stay together, they’ll need to try if they hope to overcome the newly arrived other-worldly forces that threaten to destroy them and anyone else who gets in the way.

ME AND LEE

In this 1/2-hour single-camera series, a down-on-his-luck 20-something undergoes back surgery, only to find that the procedure did not go well. Enter Lee Majors, who claims he has the perfect solution. He entices the young man into his ultra high-tech lab and makes him bionic. Now intrinsically bound together, Majors tries helping his new partner get his life back on track.

ORION

National Treasure meets Firefly in this swashbuckling space opera about an adventurous female relic hunter and her team as they hunt down — and sometimes steal — valuable and powerful objects to sell on the black market, all while staying one step ahead of the bounty hunters hot on their heels.

SHERWOOD

In this “Robin Hood” story for the 23rd century, a young man of privilege teams up with a misfit spaceship crew to right the wrongs of his family.

LEGENDARY

A 1/2-hour single-camera series in which Kevin Sorbo plays an exaggerated version of himself… a former syndicated television series star. When a fan approaches Sorbo to enlist his skills in combating the underworld mythological creatures that threaten to destroy Los Angeles, an unlikely partnership is formed. Together, they use their intimate knowledge of the myths of Hercules to defeat a myriad of beasts.

HUMAN RELATIONS

The Office meets Men in Black in this project featuring an office Temp who slowly discovers that his off-kilter and odd-ball bosses at the strange hi-tech “ad agency” where he works are really aliens working on a plan to destroy the Earth.

ZEROS

In this 1/2-hour single-camera satire, when the zombie population of Marshall City overcomes the 30-foot barrier separating the infected people from the rest of the city, the Zombie Extermination and Removal Operations company (the Zeros) are called in to keep the peace. When they can get out of their own way long enough to focus on a case, they are pretty effective with very unorthodox methods.

Jesus. Christ.  Fucking hell, you guys suck at this. What happened? Eureka, Brilliant! Warehouse 13, Awesome! Stargate SG-1, SGA, SGU, Cool! BSG the first two season, perfect. Then…Ball and Chain? Me and Lee? Seriously? You have a plethora of programming to choose from. Just…just  air Eureka, Warehouse 13, all the Stargate shows, and Star Trek: TNG over and over. Because it seems that your new show ideas well has run dry.

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First World Problems That Are Still Annoying As Fuck

Filed Under: consumer by topenga — Comments Off on First World Problems That Are Still Annoying As Fuck
June 14, 2010

@aelerelean and I were watching Life last night(the “fuck you Oprah” version, Attenborough for lyfe yo!). And I notice at the top of the screen there’s a shadow. It’s not the disc, it’s not the picture, it’s my tv. See, I bought a DLP years ago because LCD’s were expensive as fuck. This particular tv had a manufacturing defect with the light engine. I managed to skate by 4 years with having the issue when *BLAM*, there it is, out of the blue. *sigh* I call Toshiba who tells me that I have to get it serviced locally and they give me the name of who to call. Fine. (guess who forgot to call this morning. dammit).

Later on in the night, i noticed that it was hot as hell in the living room. Did I leave the oven on? Nope. It was 10pm and my livingroom sat at 80 degrees. Oh HELL no. try to run the AC fan. nothing. I push random buttons on the thermostat and only get clicks. OH GOD NO. I look impotently at the furnace/blower. It’s cold. Cold, cold air is drifting from the intake, the whole system is cold to the touch. All breakers outside are fine, none tripped. Welp. There’s the extent of my HVAC knowledge! Time to call somebody (it is now 10:30 and 83 degrees inside, 81 on my porch). I call Strand Brothers because they installed my AC less than 6 years ago and they maintain it as well. Sweaty and grumpy (humidity hitting 70%), I call, because fucking hell, I just had the damn thing serviced a month ago! They send some poor guy out. Turns out that my compressor was running fine but the blower wouldn’t. this made the coils freeze. He fiddles around and gets me mah air conditioning! W00t! Sorta. It’ll run, but the fan won’t shut off. Why? The control board is busted. And he doesn’t have one (hey, you can’t stock every single type of control board), but they’ll call me Monday to get it all sorted. In the meantime, I can has the cold airs with the fan on constantly. I don’t care. I’m going to bed. Then, as he’s leaving, he says “Oh, since you don’t know how long the compressor’s been on, you probably should run the fan by itself for about an hour or two to let all the ice melt.” It was almost midnight. *cry* I stayed up, letting the fan blow 85 degree air all over the house so that the coils could thaw.

I then grabbed my work laptop and messed around for a bit. Well, tried to. I couldn’t get a connection. Why?

My internet connection was down.

Fuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuck!

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AT&T, goddammit

Filed Under: consumer by topenga — Comments Off on AT&T, goddammit
June 14, 2010

I moved into this house in 2003. I hadn’t gotten DSL installed yet so I had dialup. Shitty, static-y dialup at a whopping 28.8k. The phone line was crap. Static all the time. I called AT&T over and over. They would come out, do some voodoo and it would clear up for all of three days. I eventually gave up.

Then the DSL started being shitty. I called again (over and over), they had shitty customer support and I gave up.

Finally, when I upgraded to U-verse, it all went to hell and I called. Support had gotten MILES better. They sent a tech, he replaced the gateway, connection goes down that night. Fuck. I call again, they send a tech who claims “someone ran a new line for you already.” he’s an idiot who was looking at the cat6 WE laid a year ago. He replaces the jack. connection goes down again a day later. They send ANOTHER tech. He runs a brand new line from the box to the jack, no breaks. He also used the second pair of wires to run the phone because the OTHER tech that was sent with him saw that my main phone line was spliced at least 4 times with different types of line each time. Which is why my main line is now dead and the secondary line now works. Whatever. All is well for a few weeks when, guess what? Connection goes down AGAIN. I call and get another 2nd tier tech.

Now, each time I’ve called, I would tell them what happened, how long it’s been down and that–this is important–whenever I pick up the phone to call tech support, I can hear my DSL connecting and the connection come back and the static disappear. Yes. When the connection is down, my phone gets horrible static. WHen I make a call, the connection returns and the line clears up. They all ignored me. This tech? Listened. Said flat out “that’s not a coincidence.” Dispatched a tech then made sure the tech stayed on the phone with him so that he could monitor the line reads. Turns out that the last guy who ran the new line crimped the cable hard AND the grounding strap wasn’t…grounding. So. It’s all fixed. I’ve been static free and connection up for a month.

And it only took 7 years.

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So Many Choices

Filed Under: entertainment by topenga — Comments Off on So Many Choices
February 9, 2010

SURVEY

I called AT&T to “unbundle” my Dish Network account from my phone (oh lord, she still uses a landline???). Pro tip: don’t call anywhere close to 5pm. They will bounce your ass around until the “right” office is closed. No shit. AT&T, fix this.

Anyway, when I finally got the right people (the actual phone company people, oddly enough),the tech started to push U-Verse TV. she wasn’t horribly pushy, but she seemed really keen to get me to sign up. The reason why I don’t have U-verse TV now is that I was concerned about the whole home DVR. See, that’s awesome. DVR show sharing between rooms? Hells to the yeah! But that’s all it did. If you were in a room without the DVR, you had no standard dvr features. Need to pee? Can’t pause live tv. Cat jumped on your face and you missed a classic Walter Bishop line? No rewind for you my friend. That right there stopped me dead. I explained this to the girl and she said that an update was coming soon. Like by the end of March. Every receiver would be a proper dvr. Oh lordy, lordy, why did she have to say that. I am happy with Dish. I have grown to love my DVRs and external harddrives. But…but U-verse. It’s new. It’s shiny. I must haves it. So, I hacked up a quick and dirty survey over at survey monkey (thanks, Prof. Ngu!). Would you guys please take a few moments to answer it? I have NO ties to any of the companies, I don’t ask for any real identifying information, and sure I can get this info on forums, but this is my big chance to make a survey! (i get a little too excited about stuff on the ‘net)

So, if you have some time, take my survey. For the love of God, be as honest as you dare. You will not be hurting my feelings if you claim that Dish Network raped your dog and pissed on your roses.

SURVEY

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iTunes: A Cry For Help

Filed Under: consumer, entertainment by topenga — Comments Off on iTunes: A Cry For Help
October 13, 2009

I clung desperately to my minidisc player. I loved it. It worked. It was fine. Even as mp3’s appeared and replicated all over the place, I held fast to my MDs. I broke down, finally, and got a proper mp3 player. No extra software. I plug it in, drag my folders over, perfect. It plays what I tell it to, is even smart enough to keep stepping through folders if I don’t tell it not to. It’s. WONDERFUL. So why am I now bitching about iTunes? I got given an iPhone. Nothing spiffy, just the 2G. I never wanted an iPhone, or even an iPod for that matter. I would hear things about iTunes doing this, deleting that, etc and just wanted no part of it. So I never paid any attention to it. But, hey, you get gifted a piece of perfectly functional, not ancient tech, you don’t turn that down.

So here I am with an Apple product, a very popular Apple product, and very little idea of how to make it do what I want it to do. What am I trying to get it to do? Play my music in a normal, straightforward way. That’s all I ask. But no, I can’t. I can sort my music by all sorts of ways, but each one lacks…something. For instance, I have tracks that don’t have ID3 tags. Sorry, it happens. It’s nice that iTunes still shows me these “lower class” tracks, but if I try to transfer it to the podphone, I can’t find it. Because it wants to be helpful and categorize it somewhere, but it can’t because there’s no tag. Easy enough fix: tag it. Fine. Here’s  more exasperating issue. On my machine, my music is organized into folders in which each folder is an album. Make sense? Okay. I want to transfer an Eminem album (don’t judge me). I sort my library by artist, select the album I want, then drop it to the podphone. Perfect? No. Because sorting by artist doesn’t pick up the three or so tracks from the album where it’s “Eminem feat. Obie Trice”. Oh no. That track is 37 tracks down. Okay, group by album. HAHAHAHAHAHA. Compilation albums fuck that right up (assuming because the tagging is weird). I’ll see the same track 3 or more times in a row all pointing to the same album because a tag got fucked up somewhere. Grrr. Why can’t I have my folders? Why is that so hard to understand. I don’t want iTunes to “manage” my media. I use it because that’s the only free thing I found that will sync the podphone. The Winamp plug-in fails miserably for me. I just want to know why there isn’t some extra little option, like an advanced button, that will just let me drag and drop shit the way I want it. “Just make a playlist! Folders are so 90’s!” I’ve already made my “playlist.” It’s the goddamn folder. JUST PLAY ALL THE TRACKS IN THE FOLDER AND GO TO THE NEXT FOLDER IF I DON’T STOP YOU. How hard is that???

I guess I don’t quite have the hang of this piece of software that 80 year old grandparents who can’t work a simple remote control have absolutely no problem using.

Do any of you have any good free iTunes alternatives that will work well with a damn iPhone?

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Shallow, inconsequential first world problems

Filed Under: consumer, entertainment by topenga — Comments Off on Shallow, inconsequential first world problems
September 28, 2009

I got home Friday evening to find @aelerelean napping on the couch, the TV off, the fan and A/C running. But lo, what was that other noise I hear? The sound of computer fans spinning like they were trying to get airborne. The hell? I looked around. It wasn’t the ceiling fan, @aelerelean didn’t have the box fan on, the PS3 wasn’t on (I can’t hear it anyway). So what the hell was it? That’s when I turned to the shelves below the TV. There were some lights missing. Namely, the Dish receiver. No lights, but the fan spinning for all it’s worth. Fuck. Just a week prior the receiver failed to see satellites and I was sent a refurb. This one just stopped booting. So, on the phone I get to Dish. I was pissed (because, hey, I had this thing a week).

“Thank you for calling Dish Network AT&T[don’t ask] how may I help you?”
“The receiver I got last week now doesn’t work.” I was nice. I was calm. I wanted my TV. Dollhouse premier starts in 45 minutes.
“Well, all right, what are you seeing?”
“Nothing. It’s black. The fans are on, and the green light randomly shines.”
“Oh, um, wow. Let’s get that fixed.” I’m sure she was expecting “I got’s an error thingy” or “Mah power dun went off and now I cain’t gets mah judge judy!” She verified some information and “sent a signal.” As soon as she did, THE GODDAMN THING WORKED!
“Holy crap! I guess I just needed to call you! I have a picture!” For all of 2 minutes. Then it died again.
“Okay, this is a harddrive issue. I will overnight you a new one. And for your trouble since you just had an issue a week ago, i will issue a $50 statement credit.” W00t! Remember, kids, being nice and calm gets you stuff.  I took down the RMA number and we completed the call.

What I learned/kinda already knew:

  1. Overnight is only overnight if it is before Friday. Quite possibly before Thursday noon. I knew this. Overnight Friday 6:45pm gets you sometime Monday. Even if it is FedEx.
  2. Dish Network support does not suck. At all. I don’t know if it has anything to do with me still being linked to AT&T or not. All signs point to no. Dish is Dish is Dish. My account number probably says “hey, AT&T customer. Say this greeting.” Nothing more.
  3. I am lost if I can’t have the TV on in the living room. Really. It’s stupid. I have a perfectly good tv and receiver in the bedroom. But I don’t want to be in the bedroom. I want to be in the living room. Stupid, I know.
  4. PS3 Media Server is 15 kinds of awesome.

So yes, woe is me, I can’t watch TV in the living room. I had to hook up the antenna to watch the Steelers get their goddamn asses kicked (what the fuck, guys? Really? What the fuck??). Whatever will I do? *eyeroll*

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