idl3mind.net

Ramblings of a techy Southern gent

Click for CARA!

Posted Wednesday, May 27th, 2009
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From my friend Jenn:

CARA is still ranked 8th nationally in the shelter challenge worth up to $20,000. Help me get the word out by tweeting about it?

* To vote, go to animalrescuesite.com.
* Click the purple button that reads “Click Here to Give — it’s FREE!”
* Click on Vote Here
* Type cara in the shelter name field and choose MS for the state
* Click on Search then click on Vote
* Confirm vote by typing in the name of the animal pictured

It literally takes less than 10 seconds to do this, so please help out CARA. You can vote once a day.

UPDATE: CARA is now ranked 6th in shelter challenge!!

Dave Mustaine has issued the following studio update at TheLIVELine.com:

"I’m at the studio right now, Vic’s Garage, and we are done! We’re just right now finishing the last couple of notes on the new record, and Andy’s getting ready to pack his bags and head up to Los Angeles tomorrow to get ready to fly back home on Thursday. Man, this has been a long, grueling, enduring process but it’s been so worth it, and I’m so excited. I’m more excited about this record then I’ve been in any record since back in the 1980’s. I would say, probably since, well definitely since "Rust In Peace" there’s nothing that’s excited me this much – maybe "Countdown", but this is just absolutely insane."

Listen to Dave’s entire audio message at TheLIVELine.com or call Dave on his Live Line number at (866) 597-6342.

Your very own PHP progress bar

Posted Tuesday, May 19th, 2009

www.drsoft.com has a brief post on how to create a simple progress bar with just a little PHP and CSS.

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Windows Live Writer

Posted Tuesday, May 12th, 2009

After reading a VMware blog post a few days ago that mentioned Windows Live Writer, I thought I’d see what it was about. First of all, generally, I do not use M$ Live products. No Windows Live Messenger, etc. I do have a Windows Live ID, but it’s purely for use with XBOX LIVE.

My initial impressions are that I like it.

It hooks into Windows Live Spaces of course, SharePoint, Blogger, WordPress, TypePad, and more. The setup was very easy. First, I downloaded the app here: http://windowslivewriter.spaces.live.com/. Then, I unselected all the options in the install wizard except for Writer. After that, the wizard asked for my blog URL, blog username and blog password. You can have multiple blog accounts, too. During a new blog setup, it asks to post a test blog post to download your theme so that when you edit a new post, you cans see how it will look in your blog before you publish. Examples below:

Categories; click for larger version Set post date; click for larger version
Post properties; click for larger version Image Options; click for larger version
Source Edit; click for larger version  

Back To The Future Flux Capacitor Replica

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Boss DS-1

I hope my soldering skills are up to snuff. I’ve done some soldering while adding lights to my motorcycle and doing some car radio installations in my personal vehicles, but I’ve never soldered on a printer circuit board before. It should be an interesting little project.

Every guitarist at some point has at least tried Boss’s DS-1 distortion pedal. Most People are immediately disappointed. This over hyped pedal sounds really thin with no punch. Sales people at guitar center will say something like its a “great beginner distortion pedal”. Its been my experience that most of the people that work at guitar center are useless. So, always research and get information from multiple sources.

Continue reading ‘I think I’ll give this distortion pedal mod a whirl′

Nickelback Fail

Posted Tuesday, April 28th, 2009

I’ve always voiced my dislike for Nickelback. Here’s more proof that I’m not the only one.

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I bought an IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch on Newegg.com last week to connect my Playstation 3, Xbox360 and TiVo Series3 HD to my television. My 2005 TV has only one HDMI port.

I’ve been walking around to the back of the TV for over a year plugging and unplugging my three HDMI devices. I’ve been doing this because I’ve read review after review about a variety of HDMI switches that are not able to send a 1080 signal (whether 1080p or 1080i) to the TV from the Playstation 3.

After reading this Macworld review, I decided to give it a shot. With Newegg.com’s 30-return policy, I figured I had nothing to lose. I attached the HDMI switch to my devices. I’ve been fooling around w/ the switch for a while now, and I have to say I’m very pleased with it.

IOGEAR GHDMIAS4 4 Port Automatic HDMI Switch product page

Saturday Night Safety Dance

Posted Sunday, April 19th, 2009

SIRIUS 1st Wave (channel 22) has a great Saturday night show called Saturday Night Safety Dance. It runs Saturdays 9 pm – 3 am CT. It’s a great show if you like 80s dance mixes.

http://www.sirius.com/1stwave

Be careful PayPal users

Posted Saturday, April 18th, 2009

I’ve gotten some phishing messages addressed to “undisclosed-recipients” from <no-reply@pay-pal.com> this morning. The URL to ‘reactivate your account’ points to http://www.alambretshirts.com. PayPal’s domain is paypal.com; not pay-pal.com.

Just beware if you read this. Save yourself some headache by not falling prey to this scam.

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