Category Archives: Articles

Articles

R.I.P. my Dremel

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Well the day has finally come. After 2.75 years of faithful service, my first Dremel has bought the farm.

For a few months now the variable speed switch has been erratic, only going to the lowest speed, requiring a shove to get higher. Now the switch is totally dead, and the Dremel’s days are over.

Even though 99.99% of the time I only use it for the cutoff wheel, the Dremel has been an invaluable tool in my quest to do whatever it is I do. It has worked on every project of mine since the first 2006 Xbox 360 laptop, and finally conked out during the dual builds of the final THQ laptop and the long-suffering original hardware C64 portable.

All is not lost, however. Dremel is a Wisconsin company so I had no reservations about buying a new one. I also bought it at the local Ace Hardware store and not the Farm & Fleet… even though this support strategy didn’t work for Circuit City I’m hoping it’ll keep the local Ace open.

Articles

See me on Milwaukee TV

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Whenever you can make a title rhyme DO IT, I always say!

Anyway, a few weeks ago I helped some MATC (the M being Milwaukee not Madison in this case) students by being a guest on a TV show they were doing for class. It’s called “Level Runner” and will run on March 15th at 1:30 AM on Milwaukee channels 36/36.1. Why not check it out? (or Tivo it)

I always like doing things in/for my home state of Wisconsin, so if you have a publication in the state and want an interview do not be shy about asking!

Articles

Day 2 of the Windows 7 beta download

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Vista with Aero mode disabled

“It has been 2 days now since we started downloading the Windows 7 beta… After a fast start, the download has crawled to a grueling pace of about 30kB a second. Not sure how much longer I can take this… may have to eat oxen soon… Send… help… ARGH!!!!”

I am probably one of the bigger Vista defenders that you’re likely to come across, but I still have some interest in this Windows 7 beta. Might be fun to dual-boot on my laptop, which, though very new, runs Vista a lot worse than my not-as-new (but much better specced) PC.

I think it’s a smart and interesting tactic MS is taking… they’ve basically gussied-up Vista, slapped a new name on it, and released a free demo to build hype. But will I ever get it downloaded? Only time will tell!

My Vista pros and cons list:

PROS:

  • Search within any window. – I used to hate Windows search, and that damn XP dog didn’t help matters. Even worse, you’d have to manually select which folder to search in. Then with Vista it got a lot better – every window had a Search box, and it would search only within the context of those folders. Awesome, even with indexing off.
  • Xbox 360 stuff. – Vista allows you to hook up to your Xbox 360 quite easily, allowing you to run a 175watt gaming machine, a 400watt computer and 2 separate video displays in order to access your music and stuff. All joking aside, pretty slick.
  • Native DVD and other format writing. – I often forget on XP machines that they can’t write DVD data discs right from Explorer – another Vista feature I would miss. I also like how Vista doesn’t even pretend to suggest you “safely remove devices”, they know damn well people just yank them out.

CONS:

  • “Vista hangover” – You can go take a dump, run around the block, make breakfast, all sorts of things while you wait for Vista to load. This is even with a ton of useless services disabled. Then, even once it does boot up, it has what I like to call the “Vista Hangover” – useless and/or really slow for another minute or two. It’s like it won’t do a damn thing until it’s had 3 cups of coffee, smoked 3 cigarettes and scratched its ass for awhile. Once up it’s fine, but since I don’t believe in leaving a PC on 24/7, the slow boot is an issue.
  • “Live File System” on writeable CD/DVD’s. The default for writing discs is always the “Live” file system, which should be renames the “suck” system as it’s pretty much useless in anything but the PC you’re using to burn it (thus negating the purpose of burning a disc). Yes I know you can select “Mastered”, which I always have to do, but if “Live” doesn’t work it shouldn’t be there.
  • Wireless networking takes the long way around the barn. – If my iPod Touch has been connected to a spot before, it doesn’t even ask, it just connects, and quickly at that. Vista isn’t as easy, and you often have to manually select stuff, set it as “home, public, away, etc” and all of that BS. It’s rare I would say Apple does something better than MS, but I just did.