Why do such a thing? To broadcast MP3’s to your home stereo, for one. Or for the sheer geek joy of it 😉 Anyway, check out the Aurius, which is only $50, relatively inexpensive for this kind of device. Oh, PC only, no Mac drivers for now.
Super handy login workaround
Sick and tired of heading to some website from a link only to discover you need to register in order to access the material? No more! Check out Bugmenot.com, a handy database of working logins for tons of websites. How these folks are managing to not get sued I don’t know, and this is probably illegal to use in at least some states, but damn it’s still tempting. Let your concience be your guide 😉
Handy Linux reference
It’s no secret I’m a big fan of wikis these days, in fact there are 4 of them running on this site without most of you folks knowing it. Anyway, I stumbled across a very handy one today at LinuxQuestions.org. Check it out if you’re looking for a useful reference resource for linux, or just to see how a well managed wiki can work.
Zelda, the Ocarina of Time in 2D
What if you were a huge fan of the original 2D Zelda games on the NES and SNES? What if you thought the 3d versions released on the N64, while good, betrayed the spirit of the original games? If you were an enterprising programmer, you’d get to work on a re-imagining of the games in 2D. Cool, cool retro gaming fun to be had here, though the game’s not yet fully developed there’s still enough available to get a sense of it. Check it out if you grew up developing claw hands on the original NES controller pad 😉
Awesome retro gaming news – Pentagram
I’ve talked about the exult project a couple of times here – the reverse engineering of the original Ultima 7 so that you can play it on modern machines, including Linux and OSX. It’s a fantastic project and anyone with even a passing interest in computer role playing games is well advised to check it out. Anyway, there has recently been a new project undertaken by many of the members from the original Exult group to port the Ultima 8 engine. Not only will this enable modern players to play another of the seminal RPG’s from the golden age of Origin, it will also enable (possibly anyway) folks to play the Crusader series of games. The project is still in its early stages, but there are some screenshots on the Pentagram website to wet your appetite.
Notebook – cool wiki-like tool
I’ve been researching the masters program I want to proceed with, and as part of that I’ve started documenting all kinds of resources I intend to bring to bear when I begin the program. This led me tonotebook, a cool wiki-like desktop app. In functionality it mimics some of the basics of a wiki, but since it runs on the desktop it’s extremely easy to get up and running. If you find yourself keeping notes on tons of sticky notes all over the place, you might find this a useful organizational tool. It runs on all OS’s, though for MacOSX you’ll need to have X11 installed.
On the horns of a dillema
So I’ve been house hunting in the Saratoga Springs region of upstate NY. I made contact with a retiree couple who built their dream house on a mountain lake 20 minutes outside of Saratoga Springs. 4 bedrooms, 2 story cathedral cielings, full glass southern facing, passive solar heat, a hot tub, oil heat to supplement the solar, a giant fireplace, it abuts undeveloped state land with thousands of acres of trails….it sounds like absolute heaven. $800 a month. I should jump on it right? Except there is no high speed internet access – no cable, no dsl, no nothing. I’m so completely conflicted by this. Basically my entire personal and professional life revolves around the internet. This would be a radical life change for me. Mostly the prospect of trying this is freaking me out, but there’s a small part of me that thinks it would be interesting to try out a different lifestyle. This would force me to do it. I have to decide by the end of next week – partly I’m going to base the decision on my visit to the house, I’ll meet up with the couple in Saratoga the week July 5th. If it’s half as nice as it sounds I bet I will be convinced to go for it. Then I’ll need to figure out how to handle a bunch of stuff, including this website.
Anyway, what would you do? Glorious house on the lake but in digital isolation? Or something else not nearly as nice, but with cable and internet and more convenient to town, the store, and so on.
Speak quickly and the gmail shall be yours
My brother hooked me up with a gmail account , and after using it for a while, gmail has offered me the chance to pass on accounts to my friends. So. Who wants one? Respond in the comments and it’s yours, first come, first serve. Why would you want one? First for geek cachet, a gmail account is all the rage in certain dorky circles these days. Second, if you get in early, you can secure your real name, I got david.hamilton@gmail.com for example, which will come in very handy with my impending move. It’s easy to remember. Also Google is trying a new metaphor for managing mail – instead of folders where you store email by category, it tries to build ‘threads’ out of related mail that’s most akin to some usenet reader interfaces. Apple’s mail.app also is capable of doing something similar, though so far Google’s seems a little better at correctly deriving what ‘thread’ a piece of mail belongs in. The interface is also pretty good, it’s got Google’s trademark simplicity, and it has some features that are rare in webmail clients, like address autocomplete and keyboard shortcuts. All in all, after a week or so I really like it, much better than Yahoo and more refined than speedymail.
Anyway, drop a comment and the gmail address of your dreams may be yours.
Letting the cat out of the bag
So the word is out. I accepted a position at Skidmore College on Friday, and today I submitted my resignation to Bowdoin College. I’ve been in Maine 12 years as of August 1 and this is a huge life change for me that I did not enter into easily. I’ll also be working to get my Master’s Degree in Educational Technology as part of this process, almost certainly at the University at Albany, and hopefully starting this coming March, though there’s the small possibility that I will begin this October.
Just wanted to get the word out now, there are probably more details to follow. In the immediate term, I desperately need help locating a house to rent within 15-20 minutes of Saratoga Springs. Anyone have any ideas? The realtors are not very hopeful.
I start August 13th at my new job by the way.
What the heck is going on at Dave’s Place?
Why does it look so barren? A picture is worth some words, as they say:
Something big is in the works. I can’t talk about it just yet, but I’m making a bold and unexpected move. I’ll post in detail next week. Those of you who already know, please don’t spoil the surprise in the comments!
