Free Games If You Have a nVidia or ATI Video Card

I'm not much of a gamer, but I can never turn down freebies:

Through an exclusive deal with Nvidia, Valve is offering Portal: First Slice (demo) along with Half Life 2: Death Match, Lost Coast and Peggle Extreme. All you’ve got to do is install Steam on your system.

If you don't know what kind of video card you have, there's a really good chance it has a chipset from either ATI or nVidia if it's an add-in card (meaning it's not built into the motherboard). If you don't know still, click here to install Steam, and then click on the nVidia link or the ATI link and see which one will let you install. If neither of them work, then go ahead and uninstall Steam if you don't want it.

Working Around NBCOlympics.com's Stupid Restrictions

I've always loved the Olympics, but have hated NBC's coverage. This year, they promise to have more coverage, including a ton of online coverage. I'd prefer to watch the BBC's coverage, as I've always have heard it's better, but NBC's exclusive rights to American broadcasts forces the other providers to lock us out.

Wired Wiki has a great bit on how to watch the Olympics online. One thing I've found out about NBCs online video system is that access to some videos (encore and live videos, for example) is restricted if your cable provider doesn't participate. According to the NBC site, BendBroadband doesn't participate, as I was trying to watch an encore video of the Prefontaine Classic and couldn't.

The workaround I found? Select another zip code and known big-name provider for that are. I personally selected 97403 (a Eugene zip code) and Comcast and was able to get in fine. So just get a zip code for one of Comcast's markets and use it, since Comcast appears to be participating

(Or maybe it's a local NBC-affiliate issue, I have no idea, but the local KTVZ Olympics page itself seems to work fine.)

I tried selecting DirecTV and 97701 (a Bend zip code) and the site told me that DirecTV doesn't serve this area (which it actually does), so I envision a bunch of people getting angry at the NBC site when Olympic coverage starts in earnest tomorrow.

Time Killer For The Evening

Seriously, Momentum Missile Mayhem will kill off far too much time if you play it. But enjoy it anyway.

Mugshot Of The Month

This guy's crimes were nasty, but he's one hot dude.

Microsoft Product Activation Can Kiss My Pastey-White Hiney

So last night I was at the office migrating servers between hardware. Nothing really exciting about it. One of the servers I was migrating was an older Citrix Metaframe 1.8 server. That migration was going from basically like-hardware to like-hardware. The only difference between the two machines was the larger RAID array, more RAM, and slightly different processor in the new machine. They were otherwise the same model of server, but I didn't envision major problems, should they arise.

The clone took forwever, but it got done, I booted up the server, made sure the thin terminals could connect fine, and called it a night around 11:00PM last night. This morning at the crack of dawn, got a phone call that nobody could get into Outlook, Word, or any of the other Office XP programs running on the server. The error? Product activation due to significant hardware changes. I thought to myself "OK, easy fix, will just reactivate it." I come to the office, attempted to reactivate on the terminals, and the activation window went away -- never gave me a confirmation that it was activated. When I checked the product activation on the server itself, it told me it was activated, but it was spitting out errors on the client terminals. Tried repairing Office, still gave me fits.

I was spending too much time dealing with this when I had other places to be (as I split my time between a couple offices), so I said "Screw it." A 30 second search found an Office XP activation crack (Anti-MSOPA.exe -- google it) that cracked the mso.dll file, and errors went away. We're a fully legal user of Office XP, have plenty of licenses, but I just didn't want to deal with the activation crap that was causing us wasted time and potentially lost money. It's sad I had to download hacker software to do it. While I still plan on finding out what was wrong, I didn't want to waste company productivity to do it.

The Life Of A Late-Night Sysadmin: Staring At Progress Bars

When somebody asks what I do when I'm at the office after-hours, I generally tell them "I stare a progress bars." Generally, if I'm at the office after hours, it's because I need to install patches, do system maintenance, copy a bunch of data, clone a hard drive, or something that requires it to be done when nobody else is using the server. And any geek who has done any of that type of stuff knows that it's a lot of progress bars.

Right now, I'm at the office performing a server migration from old hardware to slightly-less-old hardware. I have Clonezilla running on the one server that supports it (Clonezilla is having issues with it's RAID controller (which is why I've opened this thread), and I have Ghost running on another server (I prefer Clonezilla as it makes much faster clones). So here I am, staring at progress bars. An hour to go on the Ghosting machine.

Meanwhile, I can sit here. Waiting.

While I'm waiting, I tend to go through my RSS feeds, and read interesting stuff like like where to find gas that doesn't have Ethanol, the A11 football offense, the Wired FOUND archives (I miss that section of the magazine), a well-written librarian's response to a complaint about "Uncle Bobby's Wedding", and the plastic coffee on a local news show. I'll probably also kill some time playing multiplayer minesweeper, a fun little album memory game, Totem Destroyer, and Monster's Den. I also found it interesting all the cameras that were rolling during the L.A. earthquake last week, including Judge Judy, Big Brother, KNBC, KABC, City Hall and Judge Penny.

Back to check on those progress bars ...

Sprint vs. Verizon: Thoughts?

My Blackberry contract is due up for renewal here soon, and I'm considering transferring my number elsewhere. I've found myself using my phone for data use quite a bit more often than I originally thought, and wanted to get a phone that I could tether to my laptop for use on the road in a pinch (for when my employer decides they need something while I'm vacation). I also would like a Windows Mobile-based phone as software availability for the Blackberry isn't nearly as plentiful, and usually costs more money for stuff I can get for free elsewhere.

I've narrowed it down to a couple of phones from Verizon and Sprint (the HTC Titan tops that list), but wanted to hear everybody's experience with Verizon and Sprint locally. While I've heard great things about Verizon's support and their network, I do like Sprint's openness with their phones. Like with Sprint, the same phone has newer software and unlocked hardware (hardware GPS works with Sprint via an official update, while it requires an unsupported hack to get it to work on Verizon's or US Cellular's Titan. I'd rather not hack my phone if don't have to. But I've heard really lousy things about Sprint's support (but I don't think I've dealt with support often in all my years of having a phone, really -- I'd rather figure it out myself.) but their network is decent.

Any thoughts from the gallery?

(And you might notice that after yesterday's discussion, all the links now open in new windows.)

Reader Survey: Links In New Window or Not?

I made a change a few weeks ago that reader Amanda was the first to point out: I changed external links I post in blog entries from links that opened in a new window to links that opened in the same window. She was the first to notice (or at least mention it). I personally preferred opening them in a new window as I use Firefox and had it set for external links (with target="_blank" in the link code) to open in new tabs that I could browse later. I switched it recently because more and more blogs I saw seemed to post all links to open in the same window.

Lots of folks have discussed this same question, so I now's the time for all you lurkers to come out of the woodwork: Which do you prefer? Links opening in new window or links I post opening in the same browser window? Comment below.

(Oh, and BTW: Amanda shared Knol, which is now public, and thought it was hilarious the length of an article on making pancakes is stupidly long.)

KPOV To Go "Full Power", KWAX to Change Frequency

Bend community low-power radio station KPOV has been awarded a full-power FCC license. Congrats to them, as they're a great bunch of folks and it'll be great for them to get their station out there more. When they get everything all built up, they'll be broadcasting on 88.9 FM instead of their current 106.7.

Why does 88.9 sound familiar? As I've mentioned before, 88.9 is used by KWAX -- a University of Oregon-based classical music station -- as a local translator. Since KPOV was awarded this license, KWAX has to quit broadcasting on that frequency when KPOV goes live on the new channel. KWAX already broadcasts locally on 88.5 out of Redmond and 90.1 out of Sunriver, but neither of those translators came in as good as the 88.9 out of Bend (I'm a classical music guy, and like KWAX's programming).

So I e-mailed the folks at KWAX, and asked them what their plan was for the Bend translator. Their response:

We have one more application to get through the FCC and will then have permission to build the identical facility we have now, but on 98.9. You should notice no difference in the quality or coverage of the translator after the frequency change. We hope to have it completed by the end of the summer, well in advance of the new station beginning operation.

Worried You're Going To Go Over Your BendBroadband Bandwidth Usage?

July is the first month that BendBroadband is capping your Internet bandwidth at 100gb/month and will be billing for overages (read up on the whole mess that ensued after the announcement here). Since I don't think the usage-based bills have been sent out quite yet, there hasn't been any reaction quite yet (don't think there will be much of one since they did raise their cap). But if you're concerned about going over, and want to make sure you don't, a local programmer has created a monitoring PHP script that will e-mail you your usage numbers whenever the script runs. You can read up on bbbUM here.

I really have an urge to make this a public service where people can submit their user/pass, it'd be encrypted and can then email them their usage on a daily basis, but I really don't have that kind of free time on my hands.

The Penguin Gets Its Revenge

Remember the popular time-killer Smack the Penguin? This time, the penguins fight back.

My best was 3956 (which really probably isn't that good). How'd you do?

For All The New Features in Vista...

...there were also quite a few things that were taken out. Most of it wasn't need anyway, but it's still interesting to see what Microsoft deems important and not.

The Ultimate iPhone 3G Test

Will it blend?

In The Story That Just Won't Die...

...Bend "Pregnant Man" Debuts his baby in People Magazine. And apparently the family earned a cool $300,000 from People for exclusive picture rights (because "you don't go on the cover of People magazine for free honey!")

I'm sure (I guess, I hope) they'll make good parents (despite their love for the spotlight), I just feel bad for the daughter and the therapy sessions she will probably need as she gets older.

More Random Links

A bunch of links that have been sitting here for a while (hmm...sounds like yesterday)...

• Best remix ever? Radiohead's "Nude" performed by a ZX Spectrum, dot matrix printer, scanner, and hard disk array.
• What's beyond the edge of the album art?
• How to hide MP3s in Flickr images.
• The Ebb and Flow of Movies: Box Office Receipts (great interactive journalism).
• Seth Godin asks "Why bother having a resume?"
• Creative barcodes (only in Japan).
• Lies I've told my three year old recently (one of the most entertaining MetaFilter threads I've ever read).
• Viagra, Cialis, Levitra: Customer Service Deathmatch.

Random Links

Been getting behind on my link sharing, so here are a few older links of all sorts:

• Find items at a variety of stores with free shipping (including Amazon and eBay).
• Newbie time-travelers always kill Hitler their first trip (they obviously didn't follow these time-traveler tips).
• In case you need help convincing the wife, here are 10 reasons to have sex tonight.
• How to guarantee that a woman never breaks up with you.
• Facinating interview with Keith Richards (is he still alive?)
• Safely send NSFW links to your buddies.
• Screw deciding on college, these parents decided to fight over which gang their four-year-old should join.
• This is exactly how I feel about techno music.
• So this is how big media is going to make money in the future: T-Shirts with headlines on them.
• Probably the best thing you could buy for your car.
• For the crazy money-blowers out there, the $500 Ethernet cable (read the if you want a great laugh).
• The Big Picture is probably my favorite new blog (interview with its creator).
• Is that number you're calling a home number or a cell phone number? Look up the phone company for the number here (thanks Dave!).
• If you want to be really anal-retentive (or are a magazine designer), here are ten typographic mistakes everybody makes.
• What newspapers still don't understand about the Web.

Another Great Firewall Candidate

While I've always loved and used Smoothwall for years, I've been having trouble getting it to recognize a Compaq DL320 that I had sitting here in the office. I intentionally bought the IDE version of the server (which I got on eBay cheap) because I figured it would be more compatible than the SCSI version. I was try to find something that fits nicely in the rack-server setup I'm building. But Smoothwall, no matter what I did, could not recognize the IDE controller. So I decided to give Endian -- an IPCop fork which was originally a Smoothwall fork -- a try. Endian is basically a version of IPCop with all the cool modifications and add-ons already built in. And lo-and-behold, it just worked -- and I didn't have to monkey with it other than setting up my firewall rules. And I now have a speedy little firewall that takes up far less space than before (1U versus a tower).

I still love Smoothwall's community as it's full of tons of useful folks and great modifications, but if I ever need to install a firewall system on Compaq server hardware again, it'll be on a Endian box.

So How Did Bend Officials Do With Their 4th of July Enforcement?

You Don't Watch Rambo For Romantic Moments

You watch it to see raw carnage:

I Don't Remember Seeing This Game On My NES

Anybody else remember Super Chuck Norris Bros.? I sure don't...

I'm Back...

After driving for many hours, we're home. What did I miss (other than the earthquake)? Anything fun?

(I don't plan on reading my email or RSS feeds any time soon, as there is just too much crap to go through -- so I'm taking the lazyweb approach.)

(Updated with correct link for earthquake story.)

I'm 24 Hours Into My Vacation...

...and I've already been called by the office a few times. Why do I bother?

Anyway, I'm in Salem as we speak. We're planning on heading over to Newport tomorrow for the next couple nights. We originally planning on driving from Bend straight to Newport tomorrow, and then we realized that the Sisters Quilt Show was going on tomorrow. We realized it would be worth paying the extra money than to try to avoid that mess tomorrow (and yes, we do know the back roads around Sisters, it's still worth the money).

I'll be back in town on Monday, and will be taking Tuesday off as well, as I have a bunch of vacation time just sitting there going unused (though I always do regret going back to the office after days off as I just get more and more behind). I probably won't have email/phone over on the coast as my cell phone doesn't work where we stay in Newport (tragic, isn't it?), so if it's an emergency, tough crap -- it'll have to wait until Monday night.

Yet Another Reason To Use OpenDNS -- Patch Your DNS Servers Now

There's a really ugly DNS security issue that's affected pretty much everybody, you need to make sure you've patched everything you can. While nobody really knows what the problem is, considering that the domain name system is the Internet's backbone and if it gets broken, it's a bad thing.

Thankfully, OpenDNS isn't susceptible to the attack, so you can use them safely (and encourage your ISPs to patch their DNS servers, too, or at least forward all DNS requests to somebody like OpenDNS until they can patch their BIND implementation). I've used OpenDNS for quite a while and have set it up at the office, and it's worked great.

Redneck Bluetooth

A co-worker of mine has a dad who's a bit less-than-savvy when it comes to tech. He only had a cell phone recently. Somebody should tell him that they do make wireless headsets for those phones:

Yes, that is a rubber band holding the phone to his head.

Every Help Desk Guy Has Had Days Like This (Including Me)

While I would never play Halo on the clock, I've dealt with this kind of obnoxious tech support hell far more than necessary (warning, NSFW language):

Original source and higher res version is here. Thanks Marshall for the link.

For All The Geeks Stuck In IT Hell...

...this game's for you.

Tyson Homosexual Is the Nation's Fastest Sprinter

Or, why automatic auto-replacing is a bad thing.

By auto-replacing the word "Gay" with "Homosexual" in some headlines and stories from the Olympic trials, you can end up with some even more hilarious stories, as one site found out.

Addicting Game For The Night

This one will kill off your Monday: Boomshine. I got to level 12, but had to quit before I went nuts trying to get enough of a chain reaction.

UK Courts at Work

In the legal opinion of the decade, a UK court has made it official: Pringles are not potato chips.

Link via bojack.

Be Safe Today

I've mentioned before how much I love the Fourth of July.</sarcasm>, but no matter your thoughts on it (I'd enjoy it if I didn't fear my house would burn down), just be safe today. Hopefully they'll actually enforce the illegal fireworks ban like they promise.

But if you are looking for something to do today (before they burn up the Butte), Jon has you covered.