geek

WTG CambridgeSide Galleria!

Posted on by grahams

Last time I checked the CambridgeSide Galleria was charging for Wi-Fi access, but here I am at the mall, waiting for Corinna to finish shopping, using their wireless for free in the food court. I love free internet. =)

Going to see MirrorMask with the film club in an hour or so, which hopefully won’t suck.

Since I had time to kill here at the mall I decided to do a little preliminary shopping for a replacement for my Sidekick II. My contract with T-mo doesn’t end until May, so this is truly premature, but I had nothing better to do here, so wtf. The problem seems to be that nobody offers unlimited data service as cheaply as T-Mobile. Right now I pay $60/month for voice and data. And to be honest, I could probably drop down to $40/month (I only bumped it up because I was using the phone quite a bit while I was laid up with my leg.

I am addicted to having good data service on my phone, and so I’d like to score a Treo. AFAIK, the only (non T-Mobile) providers offering the Treo are Verizon and Cingular. Cingular’s cheapest voice plan is $40/month with another $40/month for the unlimited data plan. Verizon’s cheapest plan seems to $40/month for voice and $50/month for unlimited data. This sucks… Update: I forgot to mention that I get some pretty decent discounts from Cingular through work… I think I get 30% off on the phone and 10% off on the plan, but I don’t know if that applies to data as well.

Do you think that with the upcoming Zorro sequel we will have to endure more Bryan Adams?

Can’t Stop the Signal, Unless you’re T-Mobile

Posted on by grahams

My stupid Sidekick II died this weekend… The radio bit it, so while it functions as a PDA, it’s completely unconnected… Occasionally banging the shit out of it causes it to function again for a little while, but it’s pretty much a goner. I called T-Mobile to have the situation handled, and after 45 minutes on the phone they told me I needed a new phone, but since my warranty expired 5 days before I called I was going to have to pay $100 for the exchange. I tried to fight, but the douchebag on the other end wasn’t hearing any of it. I plan on writing a letter to their Customer Pacification department, but regardless of whether or not they refund the $100 I plan on leaving both T-Mobile and the Sidekick II at the end of my current contract (which I believe ends this summer). I’ve dumped over $600 into T-Mobile and Danger on phones since 2003 and they can’t be bothered to help me out? Fuck them.

Fortunately, they do have a “loaner phone” program, so I was able to have some kind of working phone for the next two weeks… Oh, yeah, did I forget to mention that the SK2 is out of stock? Isn’t that awesome?

I saw Serenity this Sunday with the film club. I picked it based on popular demand, but was pleasantly surprised with both the film and (mostly) with who showed up for the club. My concern going in was that it would either A) not be my thing, like “Buffy” (the tv show), or 2) Only make sense to people who had watched “Firefly” (which I hadn’t). Not only were both these fears unfounded, but I really thought this was one of the best Science Fiction films I’ve seen in a while, and certainly one of the better films I’ve seen this year (which, given this year, isn’t saying much). What surprised me was how accessible Whedon made the film to newbies.

Finally, I’m blackholing my old gti.net email address… As far as I can tell, nobody has used it in years, and I can’t even log into their servers to disable the .forward, so I had to /dev/null it on the CSH side of things. If, for some strange reason, you are still using that address, don’t. I can’t believe that account is still active. Back when I worked at Sears in 1995ish, a rep came into the office center and offered me a free shell account with them if I mentioned their name if people asked for an ISP recommendation. I’m sure this violated Sears policy, now that I think about it, but nobody wanted Prodigy anyway. I told the rep that I actually already had a shell account with them, and asked if he would bump me up to a free PPP account. He agreed, and I’ve had the account ever since. Over the years, I kept thinking they would turn it off, but they never did, I must have fallen between the cracks, or they just kept it alive to thank me for the business I sent their way.

More on the Superboard II

Posted on by grahams

My dad read my earlier journal entry on the computers I’ve used and provided more info on his Superboard II:

By the way, our first computer was an Ohio Scientific Superboard II, as far as I know there was never a “III”. It had 24K of ROM and 4k of static RAM, later expanded to a whopping 7k. Data storage was on cassette tapes. It had a 6510 8 bit processor (Update: Think he actually meant 6502) clocking over at a cool 1mhz. It had a keyboard built in and output NTSC B&W video. It had built in 8k Microsoft BASIC in ROM, as I recall I remember seeing Bill Gates name in the code when I did a hex dump of the ROM. It also had a bug in the string garbage collector that would crash the computer after basic was used for a while – thanks Bill.

Update: My dad also found this page with some more Superboard info as well as links to software and an emulator!

Take us back to DEFCON 5

Posted on by grahams

Sometime soon after I got back from CSH Welcome Back I noticed that there was a minor scratch on the screen of my beloved Powerbook, dead center no less. At first I just thought it was a hair or something, so I busted out the Windex and gave it a good bath to no avail. I started looking online and some people recommended the Janvil Plastic Scratch Removal System for removing scratches from LCDs. Nobody with a Powerbook specifically, so I was a little worried that the screen would melt or something, but I ordered the kit anyway with a little trepidation.

I got the kit last week, but didn’t build up the nerve to actually try it until tonight. It seems to work like a champ… I mean, when the screen is off (or under really heavy glare), you can clearly see the “polished” spot, so I mean, it has some effect on the screen, but for my usage it is way, way, WAY less distracting than the dead-center scratch. And as far as heavy-glare usage…. let’s face reality, the Powerbook screen isn’t all that useful under those conditions as it is… :)

My Computers

Posted on by grahams

Someone today asked me about some of my early computer experiences, and so I ended up making this list of all my computers.

  1. Ohio Scientific Superboard II (or III?) – This was actually Dad’s computer, and while I vaguely remember using it on a cardboard card table in the basement of our house, I really don’t remember much. I seem to remember dad saying it was a Superboard III, but I can’t find any references to that model online (other than my own). We had the base model without any fancy stuff like cases… (Update: Dad wrote me giving me some more details about this machine)
  2. Commodore 64 – My grandparents bought this for me for an early birthday, probably at the prodding of my father… :) We originally got it floppy-less and used only cartridges and hand-input BASIC programs, but we eventually got a 1541 floppy drive to do real work with. I believe at first we used a small television as a monitor, but at some point we got a Commodore monitor (can’t remember the model, it wasn’t a 1084S).
  3. Generic 386/33DX – After the C=64 died, dad bought a PC, which I used for quite awhile until I could afford the Amiga. I cut my teeth on DOS and Windows 3.0-3.11 on this machine for the first time (I had never really touched a PC before this).
  4. Commodore Amiga 500 – I saved for a long time to buy this computer, and used it for years without a hard disk before I saved and plunked down $400 for a external SCSI controller with a 120MB disk. This computer was my trusty sidekick for years, even though my parents would take it away for about half the time (get midterm progress report, confiscate computer; get report card, return computer). I subjected it to the “pepsi syndrome” on several occasions and it eventually gave up after this trauma. actually brought it back from the dead once by replacing motherboard traces with wire, but this was just delaying the inevitable..
  5. Generic 486 DX4/100 – While I had the Amiga, my dad replaced his PC with a faster one. I would trade back and forth from the Amiga to the PC, mostly using the Amiga…
  6. Generic Pentium 166MHz (Summer of 1995) – This was when I really got to know how to use a PC. After my fallen Amiga I was quite reluctant to replace it with a PC, but the flailing of Commodore really forced my hand. It was on this computer that I had my first experience installing Linux (first Slackware, then 1 month to setup PPP, then hard disk crash, then retreat to Red Hat Linux 3).
  7. Generic Dual Pentium II 350MHz (Late 1997) – When I started getting excited about BeOS, I decided to go Dual Processor.. DP worked great in BeOS, but in Windows it was just a pain in the ass.. More drivers than you can believe have DP problems, and I am amazed to this day that I ever bought a second DP machine. I just wanted to say I had dual procs.. :) I believe this machine is now at CSH and is called neverforget
  8. Generic Dual Pentium III 1GHz (Late 2001) – Pretty soon after I moved to Boston my computer, now 4 years old, started showing it’s age. This machine worked like a champ, save the onboard sound who’s drivers didn’t like dual procs.
  9. Apple Powermac G4 733MHz (Late 2003) – When Rovia folded, I got this machine… I was always anti-Apple, but I’m never one to look a free computer horse in the mouth. I fell in love with OSX on this machine, and it became my primary workstation until I moved in here with . This is now living at CSH.
  10. Generic Pentium 4 3GHz (Summer 2004) – When Doom III came out I needed a new computer, so I bought this one. I finally gave up on Dual Proc machines, and was actually remarkably lazy and ordered all the same parts that had picked out for his machine. It treats me well and will probably live on until it can no longer keep up with the videogames of the day.
  11. Apple Powerbook G4 1.67GHz (March 2005) – I had wanted a notebook, particularly a Powerbook, for some time, and when I finally paid off my college/stupid/unemployed credit cards I treated myself. This is my primary workstation these days, and I sometimes bring it to bed with me and hug it until I fall asleep. Don’t tell Corinna. =)

PC Load Letter

Posted on by grahams

Took care of lots of administrivia this weekend, cleaning the apartment a bit, helping , and doing computer maintenance… I realized the reason I hadn’t been backing up my Powerbook as often as I should was just the amount of time it took to burn several DVDs… I had a 60g IDE drive lying around as well as an IDE to USB2 cable, so I decided that this is now my new backup mechanism. I am actually not very confident in the drive, however, so at some point soon I will probably replace it with a newer drive. Before I did the backup I decided it wouldn’t hurt to scan my system for virii using ClamXav, since I had never actually done that… Amusingly enough, it actually did find a few viruses, but two of them were infecting my VirtualPC “disk file”, and the others were email messages that it identified as phishing attacks, but they were all spam sitting in my “deleted” folder.

Last night I checked out “The Baxter” with the Sunday Night Film Club.. It was written and directed by Michael Showalter (of “The State”, “Stella”, and “Wet Hot American Summer” fame), and while the trailer had me on the fence, the film was really funny and entertaining. It seems to me that for years we’ve had very loud comedies like “Old School”, “Austin Powers”, etc… But this year, with “The 40 Year-Old Virgin” and “The Baxter”, I was reminded that you don’t need to be beat over the head with blunt, abrasive jokes constantly for 90 minutes…

Retreat

Posted on by grahams

Land of the Dead was great, although as predicted the Sunday Night Film Club turnout was small (but I don’t really care). As is common in zombie flicks, the (living) characters had retreated to a fortified position, as have I. As the weather has gotten unbearably hot I have retreated to our air-conditioned bedroom. And my love for my Powerbook grows.

I have used command-line mailers for as long as I’ve had internet email. Originally, elm on my Unix UUCP account on Dan’s Domain (hoser@gen.ds.nj.us) through pine then mutt at CSH, I have been a loyal command-line user (although I did have a minor dalliance with Mail-It! while using BeOS). I played around with graphical mailers while convalescing, but had all kinds of trouble dealing with my 500+ mailboxes over IMAP, so I threw in the towel. I finally decided to move my mail archive off of CSH’s servers and onto my laptop, and have been using OSX’s Mail.app as my mailer for a few weeks now. So far, so good, and searching my mail with Spotlight is very, very nice. I tried Thunderbird back with my failed IMAP experiment, and while I fully support the Mozilla project, I think I’ll wait for it to get a bit of polish before I revisit it. Anyway, I had started to feel that the only reason I was sticking with CLI email was geek pride, and that I was just being stubborn. Seeing all the niceties you kids and your GUI mailers have had for god-knows how long now I think I was correct in that assessment.

Tivo

Posted on by grahams

I am borrowing a Tivo for the weekend from Matt Girard, who doesn’t have cable yet. I definately want one now, and I have determined that it won’t be that bad in conjunction with my ghetto cable. Basically, I won’t be able to “tivo” any of the movie channels, but pretty much everything else is fair game. Perhaps I will pick one up in a few weeks, but we will see.