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Not quite sure how this happened (click to enlarge):
My sister’s PC stopped powering up last week. Upon opening it up and yanking everything, I came across the video card and its FIVE blown capacitors.
Guess it’s time to get my RMA on.
So, Friday morning I got myself las0red. I’ve worn eyeglasses and contact lenses since I was about thirteen, and my visual acuity has been stable for nigh ten years, so I went ahead with it. My ophthalmologist felt I was a good candidate, and I trust him, so there you go.
The procedure itself was pretty painless; you kinda just sit there and watch as weird things happen in your (blurry) field of vision, including things being folded out of the way and a cool laser-light show. The procedure I opted for uses a newer version of Lasik called Zyoptix, which removes 20-30% less corneal material for the same improvement in vision, and works on a larger surface area of the cornea to mitigate the risk of so-called ‘haloing’ in your night vision. There are also improved safety mechanism built into the procedure as well.
The most annoying thing with the whole thing has been dealing with the eyedrops, really, and having to wear these super lame-o sunglasses whenever I’m outside the house, day or night. Oh well. I’ve been updating via Twitter but at this point I’ve more-or-less gotten past the point where I’m putting in drops every hour.
No x-ray vision or ability to destroy mankind via laserbeam vision yet, but I’ll keep you posted.
I’ve changed the site to use the excellent Statement theme from BlogOhBlog!; I intend to make a few changes to it (well, I already have, but there’s more to come). Let me know what you think so far in the comments below.
Some changes that remain to be made include figuring out how to get all my links to show up and how to get the categories/subcategories in a nested list, as they should be; additionally, I think I’ll use a little more space for the main entries and pare down the sidebar a little. The social networks at the top right need to be tweaked a little as well.
Thanks for your patience during the, er, renovations.
I’ve been kinda off-the-radar here lately due to a whole lotta life going on. As I mentioned previously, I’m quite involved with an outdoors club at school and due to some rather, er, abrupt changeover of the executive (of which I’m a part), it’s been taking up a lot of my free time. But that’s not really a bad thing, as it’s been a blast so far participating and organizing fun activities, as well as meeting tons of cool new people.
So let’s see now… what’s new?
Well, I guess the easiest to remember is… new gear!
You might notice that at the top right of this site there’s a funny little box called "My Zune Card", which links to my profile on the Zune Social. I bought an 80GB Microsoft Zune a little while back and I love it. It’s a really neat combination of a great hardware platform (the MP3 player itself), software platform (the Zune software has become my media player of choice) and social networking. Last.fm did a good job of this last facet, but integrating it with hardware as well as a marketplace (coming soon to Canada, available now in the US) takes it to the next logical level.
Having sold my old laptop (I’ll miss you, li’l buddy), I’ve replaced it with a Lenovo Thinkpad X61. It’s a tiny little thing, 12.1" screen, and built like a little tank. I’ve always loved ThinkPads for their ruggedness and reliability. It’s a fine machine, despite some problems I was having with wireless networking. I suspect the problem is due to the Access Connections Manager software that tries to manage your networking — specifically, it seems to have a little trouble dealing with DHCP. Having given the PC a fixed IP both in my router and in a custom Access Connections location profile, the link to my home network has been rock solid. I’ve had it about a week now and will give a full review at a later date.
Also, I’ve now set up a profile at Twitter. I’m not quite sure why. I think it’s one of those services that’s meant for people that are obsessive-compulsive about changing their Facebook status updates — which, in fact, I have linked to my ‘tweets’. I’m looking into setting up a little widget that will show that on this site as well; maybe Jaiku. Their account are currently by invite only, so we’ll see how that turns out. I’m also playing around with a new theme because, as much as I like this one, it’s a little too common around the net.
I’ve got some other news and reviews as well, but I’ll leave that for another post.
Okay, silver bicycle. Whatever.
I picked up a new hardtail mountain bike on Sunday: a Gary Fisher Marlin Disc. I haven’t ridden in years, but so far it’s been a blast tearing around on. You never really realise what a pleasure it is to do something until you’ve got the right tool for the job. I can’t wait to hit some nice trails; in the meanwhile, the lockout front suspension makes road riding nice and tight.
Of course, it’s going to rain all week, so I won’t get to practice my bunny hops for a little bit — if only because I’ll wipe hard.
Well, my trusty ol’ laptop is up for sale. It’s a Fujitsu Lifebook S6231. Here is a link to a review of a similar model, with some key differences:
I’ve still got all the boxes, software and documentation, too. The laptop is in great shape save for one or two minor scuffs on the lid, and some worn-off paint on the touchpad’s scroll button — I really baby my electronics gear.
It’s a great laptop for someone who travels, as it’s small and light — you can strip it down to just over 3.5 lbs if you forsake the second battery and the DVD drive. Fully kitted out I doubt it’s more than 5 lbs.
Note that it’s a 13.3" screen — this is smaller than most (about the same as a Macbook). It’s an excellent screen, too, usable even in direct sunlight provided you crank up the brightness.
I’ll give it to you like new, with a fresh install of XP. If you like, I’ll also install free anti-virus software so that you’re good to go.
I bought it for $1700 new and spent another $250 on the RAM and hard drive upgrades as well as the extra battery; my asking price for the whole mess is $600, plus applicable shipping.
Full specs:
- 1.6GHz Intel Pentium-M 725 processor (Dothan core, 2MB L2 cache, 400MHz FSB)
- 2GB DDR333 SDRAM (2 x 1GB)
- Intel 855GME integrated graphics
- 13.3" XGA TFT CrystalView display, 1024 x 768
- 80GB Seagate Momentus 7200RPM hard drive
- Combination CD-RW/DVD-ROM modular drive
- Sigmatel AC97 6-channel sound
- Built-in 56k v.90 modem
- Built-in 10/100 Base-Tx Ethernet
- Built-in Intel PRO/Wireless 2200BG 802.11b/g wireless LAN
- Type I or Type II PCMCIA slot
- Main battery - 10.8V 4400mAh lithium ion
- Modular battery - 10.8V 3800mAh lithium ion
- Ports: 3 x USB, 1 x mini-Firewire, 1 x mini-SVideo (with adapter), 1 x VGA (supports 1280 x 1024), Memory Stick/Secure Digital card reader, 1 x headphone, 1 x microphone
- AC adapter
- Microsoft Windows XP Home (will be a fresh install and fully patched)
- Dimensions: 11.5" wide x 9.3" deep x 1.28" high
- Weight: about 3.63 lbs with weight-saver, 4.08 lbs with optical drive
Post in the comments section below if you’re interested or need more information.
Well, not exactly.
His actual infraction, worth a whopping $628, was the “improper use of city structures.” As anyone who’s been to Émilie Gamelin Park knows, pretty much everyone and anyone sits on the concrete ledges in question.
Jones, an economics and history student in his last year as an undergraduate, was studying at the Bibliothèque nationale when he decided to take a break and catch a few rays at the park.
He saw police approach people who were drinking alcohol nearby, took out his small digital camera and shot some photos.
“I saw this as an opportunity to observe how police deal with underprivileged people,” Jones recounted.
Then a police officer came by and asked if he had been taking pictures.
“Once I realized she was attempting to get me to give her my camera, I became confused and told her I would not give it to her,” Jones said.
“I had not committed any crime and had been sitting peacefully, just like many others around me.”
The officer’s two partners joined her, and Jones slipped the camera into his pocket. The police then told him it was illegal to sit in a city park when not on a bench and he would have to leave.
They said sitting on the ledge qualified as improper use of city structures, he recounted.
From: Canada.com
It’s an utterly ridiculous application of a bylaw aimed at preventing transients from loitering in public places; it’s fairly obvious that Jones was only accosted by police for having taken photos of the officers in action.
For shame.
I’ve been trying to get the ASUS website to load for the last 15 minutes. You’d think that one of the world’s largest manufacturers of computer parts would have their site running on something more recent than a TRS-80 with a 14.4kbps uplink to the Intardwebnets.
All this for a stupid BIOS update.
Concordia Outdoors took a trip out to Saranac Lake, New York for a little bit of hikin’. The weather held out admirably aside from a light sprinkling while we were on the peak. I brought my zoom lenses and managed to get a couple of decent shots.
As always, click to open a larger version in a new window.
