Rand() Blog

I’ve created a little utility app that will allow you to leech your favorite 4chan boards with a couple of clicks.  You can find it here.

If you use wordpress like myself, then finding that perfect theme can be tough.  I spent quite a while searching, now the theme I currently have I like a lot.  However there are lots out there, over at smashingapps.com they have compiled a nice list of 21 themes that are free and look very professional.

Source : smashingaps.com

Now this I find quite amusing, it appears there is now a search engine for finding the nearest public restroom.  Guess if you’re out in unfamiliar territory and you really have to go this is a handy tool, guess it should become a bookmark on my phone.  I can imagine as a parent this is handy for those trips where the kids need to really really go.

Update : Apparently its currently only for New York City, but they plan to expand to other major cities.

Source : Lifehacker.com

As many folks know, you buy a laptop or any computer nowadays from companies like Dell or HP it comes with all manner of bloat.  Examples include demos of software, trial software all manner of junk that most consider annoying and uninstall.  When in this situation, first thing I do is format the sucker clean and start a new, that way I know its going to be clean.

It seems now that at least one of the companies (Mcafee) responsible for the bloat is at least putting out a tool that in theory removes it.  I’ve not given it a try and hopefully it does what it says it does.  There are also 3rd party apps that promise to do the same.  I’m expecting a new laptop in the next week or so, so maybe I’ll get the chance to give them a shot.

Source : gHacks.net

I’m a big fan of the consumerist.com, a great site for those who like to rant and rave about any sort of business and how they treat their customers, for the most part its all bad, there are exceptions and those are posted too, mostly under the above and beyond category.  It is truly amazing some of the extremes companies go to, either by sticking to their rules sometimes painfully when its obvious they are the ones being ridiculous.

A good example is a person who wanted to get off their cruise early and had to return home.  The cruise line actually wouldn’t let him get off, they actually physically held him in custody for an hour.  Now correct me if I’m wrong, if I paid money to go on a cruise, and had to leave, am I in my right to do, according to the story its not like they were in the middle of ocean, they were in port.

Now I can understand if you were on an airplane and decided to get off midflight that could cause issues, but seriously, getting of a cruise early while docked in a port, hardly grounds for detention.

Now talk about abusrd.

Source : Consumerist.com

So I came across this funny site a few days ago, its a parody of characters mostly from superhero’s and their respective villians but drawn in the ever familiar Simpsons style.  Take a look, I love the new joker, very well drawn art and in my opinion just as good as the animators for the Simpsons.

Springfield Punx

After reading a couple of my favorite RSS feeds I’ve decided to throw together a compilation of Online Backup sites. The criteria are they are free to use (at least have a free option), easy to setup and work under Windows (sorry Mac and Linux fanboys).

This list is in no specific order, try them out and let me know what you think.

• IDrive (2gb free storage, encrypted using 256 bit AES) courtesy of The How-to Geek
• XDrive (5gb Free, however is closing down sometime in the future)
• ADrive (50gb free storage)
• Mozy (2gb free storage)
• Microsoft Skydrive Live (5gb free storage)

I’ve personally used Mozy and Microsoft Skydrive and both have their benefits, I liked Mozy and its automated backup, I set it up to back up all my important development stuff.

Some of these also have time limits, if you don’t use the service after a certain time period, you can kiss your files bye bye, this is of course to save their space and get you to purchase the premium services which generally have no time limits.

As no doubt by now you’ve seen lots of talk about using Windows 2008 server as a workstation.  The theory is that its basically Vista minus some of the bloat.  There has been benchmarks, and validation that using Windows 2008 over Vista results in about a 15% performance increase depending on what you are doing.

I’ve decide to give it a try both on my work machine and my home machine.  I’ve been running now for about 3 weeks on both machines and so far I’ve been fairly impressed.  Now saying that ask me again in six months, thats how long it took for my Vista install to grind to a halt and take forever to even boot up.

So far though I’ve been happy, my home machine which I do all sorts has been running fine, and the added bonus of having DX10 so that I can play LOTRO in its full DX10 glory.  I’ve not had problems with drivers or software for the most part, the only grip so far is Windows Live Writer refuses to install.  I am running the 64bit version both home and work, since I saw no need to hinder my cpu to 32 bit only when its capable of more.

I’m sure I’ll run into more issues as I delve deeper and push harder with my installs, but so far so good, I’ve been running and doing most of what I need.  One note, I learnt the hard way with Vista, that Visual Studio 2003 does not place nice at all, so I cheated and used Virtual PC and created an XP install for just VS 2003.  Last time I put VS 2003 on Vista, it pratically killed it and I ended up with a nasty mess.

I’ll keep you posted on what I find if anything.

For those who want to give it a shot, visit this site setup to document the process of converting Windows Server 2008 into a workstation.

Linked below is a group of images that demonstrate the incorrect procedure for wiring, whether it be your brand new server rack, or the electrical wiring in your new condo.  Some of the pictures will shock and amaze you, shock being the key, since I have no doubt you get anywhere near some of these horrors you would get a shock.

Dark Roasted Blend

So I’m a big fan of the whole concept of a Media Center PC.  I currently have an old Mac Mini working as my Media PC, Frontrow cuts it for me currently, but I also crave some of the goodness of other software that is out there.  Now I’ve followed XBMC somewhat when it first came on the scene, I was happy when there was a Mac Port only to have my hopes dashed when it was a Intel Mac version only.

The new XBMC Atlantis has versions currently available for Windows, Mac and Linux, granted once again Intel only, but I’m really tempted to give it a try using my Windows box and see what it has to offer.  Right now its very alpha, and unstanble, I’ve heard of folks not getting too far with it, but your mileage may differ.  Guess it all boils down to the hardware.

Check it out.