Tag: Tech News

I’m on my second Roomba. The Discovery SE fell down the stairs, had to be repaired. Was noisy, needed daily cleaning. The Costco 535 is a year old. We had not used it since June. The side brush no longer spins. I took it off, cleaned the hair out from underneath. Worked a little better,… Continue reading I give up on Roomba

Good for the masses! I guess EA’s long anticipated Spore has such an awful DRM that it has earned a 1 star Amazon rating in over 1226 reviews. [Read the reviews](http://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B000FKBCX4) I’m really happy to see this. I’m happy to pay for my games. I hate supporting DRM in games.

[Dr. Horrible’s Sing-A-Long Blog](http://www.drhorrible.com) is Joss Whedon’s (Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Firefly) gift to the world. Neil Patrick Harris plays Dr. Horrible, a fumbling mad scientist trying to get into the Evil League of Evil. Nathan Fillion (Firefly) plays the good doctor’s nemesis, Captain Hammer. Oh and it’s a musical. Excellent. Free for a while… Continue reading Dr. Horrible’s Sing-a-long blog

Ok this is just beautiful. Denon has the audacity to try and sell a $500 ethernet cable, labeled as a high quality audio link cable. Amazon reviewers push back with great hilarity. [Read the Reviews at the bottom (19 pages)](http://www.amazon.com/Denon-AKDL1-Dedicated-Link-Cable/dp/B000I1X6PM/ref=pd_bbs_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1214240143&sr=8-1)

LOL poor EA, they can never get it right. Have been trying to log in to my Spore account for 3 days to share my creatures. Nothing works. So hey, send me my password, EA: [FAIL!](http://www.geeksrus.com/skitch/spore_login_fail-20080619-105945.png)

For the new digs, we retired our 16 year old Kenmore washing machine, which was a true stalwart with only one repair needed, but the writing was on the wall for the top loading machine. We picked up a [LG front loading machine](http://us.lge.com/laundry/?hpt&l=laundry#allergiene_cycle ) which uses one third of the water of a top loader… Continue reading LG Allergiene Washing Machine

Be wary of FreeCreditReport.com. If you don’t read the print on the left, you’ll miss that if you don’t call within 7 days, your “free” credit report turns into a monthly subscription. So in other words, you get what you pay for, and the credit agencies are the ones tricking you. Great country we live… Continue reading FreeCreditReport.com trick

Cool, another reason to rent Apple TV movies. [Read about Netflix decision](http://www.news.com/8301-10784_3-9924836-7.html?part=rss&subj=news&tag=2547-1_3-0-5)

I picked up [Digital Video Esstentials](http://www.amazon.com/Digital-Video-Essentials-Basics-Blu-ray/dp/B000V6LST0/ref=pd_bbs_sr_1?ie=UTF8&s=dvd&qid=1208837770&sr=8-1) from Amazon to calibrate my DLP TV set. The information was good, if not too much. The instructions on how to use the video patterns was poor – They fire too much information at the user without specific steps. However, once I watched the same segment several times, I… Continue reading Digital Video Essentials for BluRay

I forgot the foil wrapped cucumber.

If you write software, you should be using [Fogbugz](http://www.fogbugz.com) Not only is the software/service great, when I told them I was going to buy a copy for my personal use, they said “Just switch to the free 2 user account” Whoa. This site, developed by the infamous “Joel on Software,” allows you to track cases… Continue reading FogBugz

“Can’t start server : Bind on unix socket: Permission denied” “Can’t connect to local MySQL server through socket ‘/tmp/mysql.sock’” Wow I found a lot of stuff on the net about this, but only two things helped because I was not using PHP: * Check permissions on /tmp Mine were user:user with user read only! Changed… Continue reading Having problems with Leopard 10.5.1 and mySQL?

Pretty well, I’d say. Honestly, the best thing about running a roomba every T-Th-Sun is that it forces us to keep the floor clean, which not only allows the roomba to run, but makes it easier to vac with the Electrolux. So, after a week of cleaning, the roomba was picking up very little top… Continue reading Roomba 550 – How does it work?

I have added a review of my new Roomba 550 to the Roomba Review Wiki at: [Roomba 550 Review](http://www.roombareview.com/wiki/Steve%27s_Costco_Roomba_550_review)

Here is a reply I got from WD about my [Open Letter](http://www.geeksrus.com/2007/12/11/an-open-letter-to-western-digital/). The formatting is correct (blue and black text) as it came via HTML email, so I guess that means this was some sort of form reply and they are getting a lot of email about this topic. Update: Yes, my brother received the… Continue reading A reply from Western Digital re: an Open Letter

To: investor@wdc.com, PressRelations@wdc.com Subject: re: Anywhere Access I saw a [note at MacWorld](http://www.macworld.co.uk/digitallifestyle/news/index.cfm?RSS&NewsID=19917) about the Anywhere Access software that you supply for Windows, which prevents sharing of some 30 file types, such as video files. I own every piece of content on my computer. I follow copyright laws. I educate others to not steal content.… Continue reading An Open Letter to Western Digital

[FaxItNice](http://www.faxitnice.com/referral?partner=sriggins) has cheap, per use faxing. Either $5 for 10 sends, or $20 for 111 (18 cents each). Never expires. Can send via email too if you needed to (say from an iPhone, can fax a cover email) Steve

Update: FedEx delivered at 1pm on Friday. The delivery guy said all he was doing was delivering those little boxes, over 1200 in their station alone! They still should have had a better answer on the phone other than “we got overwhelmed” ———- Leopard delivers by 10:30am, according to Fed Ex. 11:45am, I call FedEx.… Continue reading FedEx – Never hear the absolutely has to be there slogan anymore, do we?

[Play Halo 3 on 50′ high def screens and help fight diabetes](http://www.greghughes.net/rant/HeyPortlandHalo3ThisThursdayOnA50footMovieScreenComeKickMyLameAss.aspx) I love the Portland area.