ITX DIRECT GUIDE / ITX IR Information Company Data. This is a company we have been working with. It has a good Investor relations site. Here is where to get the current quote on Nasdaq Japan and enter 2725 as the stock code quote.
Their shares outstanding are in Company information
ZDNet: Reviews. Ziff and Cnet have the two best sites.
Cell Phone Reviews. A list of places that do cell phone reviews.
FrontPage® Online Support - SiteCrafters Internet Services. It's been bothering me how to put a simple password on my hosted web site. It's actually quite easy to password protect if you have IIS on a machine where you control the directory since it integrates with NT authentication. But, what if it is on a hosted site.
Here's the simple trick on how to do this with ASPs. Basically, you set a session wide variable called pwfield and have it entered and then check it on every page you want protected. I'm going to do this for some photos and other things I have on tongfamily.com...
Enter the following in a file, say "password.inc"
Change the "letmein" to the new password. Change "password.htm" to reflect the name of the form page used to enter password.
pagePassword = "letmein"
passwordForm = "password.htm"
IF Session("pwfield") <> pagePassword THEN
IF Request.Form("pwfield") = pagePassword THEN
Session("pwfield")= pagePassword
ELSE
Response.Redirect(passwordForm)
END IF
END IF
Then on every page you want to password protect, change the name to .stm so that server side includes are enabled and then insert the following line before the HTML tag.
<--#include "password.inc">
The Dream Do-it-yourself PC. Hoops asked me to put together a dream machine for him. Here are the links for the smallest, but most functional machine I can imagine. Thanks to Tom's Hardware" and C|Net for recommendations and Pricegrabber for the best place to buy things. If you're interested, this machine is about the same price as the equivalent Dell, but probably 20% faster. It's interesting to note that most of the cost is in the super great LCD monitor and the super DVD Writer. Look through the list, click to see where the lost price is and go buy it yourself :-). BTW, I would recommend just using the onboard video unless you are really doing gaming. Should be good enough for anything but 3-D gaming. Saves a bundle too.
BlackBerry Internet Edition. Connie uses a Blackberry Internet Edition by Aether. For some crazy reason, they don't point to the home site of Aether, so you have to know the detailed information is at Blackberrybyaether.com. Nor do they tell you where the user interface is at NO Comm Method debugging and also to No Comm Methods in BlackBerry SP2 Upgrade. Watch both of these problems well!
Patty Griffin is getting to be one of my favorite artists. She has a great bootleg CD set. You can also get these tracks on kazaa. She's at the Paramount in Seattle on October 19 BTW.
Google Press Center: Zeitgeist. Ok, I've been studying this search engine stuff. John Ludwig mentioned he can see how people get to his page. Here is Google's list of top queries. A fun fact list. Interesting that Windows 98 and IE6 are the main ways that things get accessed.
Google PageRank explained. I've never understood the page ranking algorithm that Google has. This does a good job of demystifying it.
StorageReview.com Headline NewsHere it is, the next set of drives to get. Wow, 3-year warranties and up to 250GB. Drool on!
The MaxLine Plus II adds a third platter to the firm’s 7200 RPM design to reach capacities up to 250 GB. The Plus also incorporates an 8-meg cache. Both will be available in ATA-133 or Serial ATA interfaces and will feature optional FDB motors.
Perhaps most importantly, Maxtor certifies these drives for “24/7” operation, claiming a 1,000,000 mean-time-to failure (significantly higher than other ATA drives) and retaining 3-year warranties on the units.
StorageReview.com - Hardware, Benchmarks, Reviews, Reference, Research, and SurveysI've been pricing a do-it-yourself kit for Hoops. Here is a good place to get an overview on storage. I use Tom's Hardware for just about everything else.
The current leader is the Western Digital Caviar WD1200JB. I have one and it is like lightening. Another round of new drives is coming though, so stay tuned.
Ideal Wine Cellar Temperature and Humidity After a great weekend at the Inn at Langley, I realized I'm storing my wine at the wrong temperature. Here's a recommendation from a wine storage company...
Wine should be held at a temperature which assures its proper rate of maturity. It is generally agreed that around 55¡F is the optimum temperature for wine storage. Lower temperatures slow development, higher temperatures age the wine prematurely.
Proper humidity is also important to the storage of wine. Too high a humidity will encourage molds to develop and damage labels, too low a humidity can cause corks to dry out. If that happens, the wine will inevitably spoil. A relative humidity of 60% to 70% is considered to be ideal for wine storage
Philips CEO: LCD prices falling - Tech News - CNET.com Philips Electronics' CEO Gerard Kleisterlee on Tuesday acknowledged that prices for liquid-crystal display screens were falling. "Apparently prices are going down. They are getting competitive again. I think we are reaching a point where undersupply is behind us," Kleisterlee told Reuters at the sidelines of the "Students in Free Enterprise" conference in Amsterdam.
Blogicon description of what happens to your mind when you keep trying to attach "blog" to everything.
You knew it had to happen, now there are special terms for those who blog :-)
Blogroots | Home At this site you will find reviews of blogging tools and services and the latest news and happenings in the world of weblogging.
Bloglet: About RSS Bloglet's RSS support is a radical departure from the way subscribers sign up for Bloglet. Before, a site owner had to sign up for Bloglet before anyone could subscribe to the site. Now, subscribers can subscribe to any site with an RSS feed, even if it isn't a member of Bloglet. All you techies can think of it as an RSS-to-email converter.
BlogAmp BlogAmp is a free Winamp plugin that allows the user to keep in his personal web page a list with the last songs played in his Winamp. This list is update by FTP in real time.
Thanks John Ludwig for another cool tool!
DVDplusRW.org - The ultimate unofficial DVD RW resource siteHere are some notes on why you can't see DVD+RW on certain players...
Any DVD player should be able to play back a DVD+RW disc, after identifying it. However, some DVD players falsly assume that, after identifying a disc as not being a dual layered DVD-ROM (which is the case for example when a DVD+RW disc is loaded), that there must be a single, fully reflective layer on the disc. These players then start looking for this fully reflective layer, which is not present, and then claim that there is a disc error, or that no disc is loaded in the drive.
These players are physically capable of reading the lower reflective layer of a DVD+RW disc (which after all is equal to the layer on a dual layered DVD-ROM disc), but will not start looking for it because they assume a fully reflective layer must be there.
Thankfully, a work-around has been made available to fool these non-standard behaving players to read DVD+RW discs. Instead of writing a DVD+RW identification bitsetting to the disc, a DVD-ROM bitsetting is being written. When such a disc is loaded into these players, they start looking for either one of the two possible reflectivity parameters of a disc, and will then successfully read the disc after recognizing the lower reflectivity layer.
The DVD+RW Command-line Bitset Utility can be used by any DVD+RW that is equiped with at least version 1.37 of the firmware. It can only be used in Windows NT, 2000 or XP, but not in Windows 95, 98 or Me.
You can also change the default value of the DVD+RW drive for as long as your Windows session is active. When you change the setting of the drive, the DVD+RW drive will write to blank DVD+RW discs in this mode, no matter the software, until manually changed by this utility, or the computer is rebooted. However, if the DVD+RW disc had been originally formatted or written to in a different mode, this original mode will be retained for the disc, until it is reformatted again.
To change the setting of the DVD+RW drive to the DVD-ROM standard , enter:
dvdplusrwbitset -dvd-rom-spec -unit d:
To change the setting of the DVD+RW drive back to the default value , enter:
dvdplusrwbitset -dvd+rw-spec -unit d:
Here are some notes of buying a road bike.
Depends on what you want to spend. Turns out the most important thing is to get a good fit on a bike. That means go to a good dealer (Gregg's Bellevue Cycle or Montlake Cycle in Bellevue are two of the best in the non-exotic range). You can get a good sense of what folks think by checking out www.roadbikereview.com. A quick sort by number of reviews and then by ratings, tells you what's in the mainstream.
There are basically two big choices to be made. I haven't studied bikes under $1,000 list much, so I'm not much of an expert below this, but I could research it if you want:
Price range.
1. $1000 or so. That is really the minimum for a bike that you'll have great fun with and which you won't want to replace. Best bikes here are probably the various Cannondales. They are all pretty much the same in that range, so just figure out a price point and get a nice aluminum frame. Aluminum is strong, but has the reputation of being harsh.
2. $2000 or so. This is the deluxe version. You'll never have to get another one again, given that road bike technology is pretty stable these days. Best bikes here are probably at www.Litespeed.com or www.Trekbikes.com. With in this category, the frame material diverges.
2a. Carbon Fiber. This is the geek's dream and very space age so naturally I have one :-). The standard one here is the Trek 5200. Trek essentially owns most of the major brand names in bikes, they pretty much have the market. You can think of them like Honda. The 5200 is the bike that Lance Armstrong and his team uses stock to win the Tour de France, so they are very popular. Now is a good time to buy as the models are changing. There are a couple of choices here, but the basic model is about $2,400 at Gregg's (in Bellevue, pretty much the largest and in many ways the best place to buy). The reputation of carbon fiber is light, but feels a little dull. I'm happy to bring my bike along and you can try it, it is essentially the Trek 5200 but I had fun on ebay and shopping around the world building it.
2b. Titanium. This is responsive, super durable and say just a tad heavier than carbon fiber, but it is more responsive. Feels the most like traditional steel and will last a lifetime. The high volume quality company here is Litespeed. They make a range, but the Classic, is well, Classic. The "drool" bike is the Vortex, but that is more like $4K, so probably out of your range.
Other minor details.
If you are really going to enjoy road biking, getting a good pair of biking shorts is really essential. Nothing helped me more to do 3-5 hours in the saddle than getting a pair of Castelli VTP2K shorts. You can get a set on ebay for about $120. It sounds expensive, but baby it is worth it.
Depends on what you want to spend. Turns out the most important thing is to get a good fit on a bike. That means go to a good dealer (Gregg's Bellevue Cycle or Montlake Cycle in Bellevue are two of the best in the non-exotic range). You can get a good sense of what folks think by checking out www.roadbikereview.com. A quick sort by number of reviews and then by ratings, tells you what's in the mainstream.
There are basically two big choices to be made. I haven't studied bikes under $1,000 list much, so I'm not much of an expert below this, but I could research it if you want:
Price range.
1. $1000 or so. That is really the minimum for a bike that you'll have great fun with and which you won't want to replace. Best bikes here are probably the various Cannondales. They are all pretty much the same in that range, so just figure out a price point and get a nice aluminum frame. Aluminum is strong, but has the reputation of being harsh.
2. $2000 or so. This is the deluxe version. You'll never have to get another one again, given that road bike technology is pretty stable these days. Best bikes here are probably at www.Litespeed.com or www.Trekbikes.com. With in this category, the frame material diverges.
2a. Carbon Fiber. This is the geek's dream and very space age so naturally I have one :-). The standard one here is the Trek 5200. Trek essentially owns most of the major brand names in bikes, they pretty much have the market. You can think of them like Honda. The 5200 is the bike that Lance Armstrong and his team uses stock to win the Tour de France, so they are very popular. Now is a good time to buy as the models are changing. There are a couple of choices here, but the basic model is about $2,400 at Gregg's (in Bellevue, pretty much the largest and in many ways the best place to buy). The reputation of carbon fiber is light, but feels a little dull. I'm happy to bring my bike along and you can try it, it is essentially the Trek 5200 but I had fun on ebay and shopping around the world building it.
2b. Titanium. This is responsive, super durable and say just a tad heavier than carbon fiber, but it is more responsive. Feels the most like traditional steel and will last a lifetime. The high volume quality company here is Litespeed. They make a range, but the Classic, is well, Classic. The "drool" bike is the Vortex, but that is more like $4K, so probably out of your range.
Other minor details.
If you are really going to enjoy road biking, getting a good pair of biking shorts is really essential. Nothing helped me more to do 3-5 hours in the saddle than getting a pair of Castelli VTP2K shorts. You can get a set on ebay for about $120. It sounds expensive, but baby it is worth it.
DVD Player compatibility. This is the site that talk all about DVD compatibility with DVD+RW drives. I used Ulead's studio to create my first DVD. It was a little complicated, but got it to work, but my Toshiba 6200 won't read it. A quick query with google got me to this site and it talk about needing to fix the bit setting on the drive so that it knows it is a 2-layer DVD that only has one layer. Typical programming goof.
Anyway, this leads, to downloading mydvdbitset.exe which has to have the latest firmware for my Sony drive.
DVD Firmware has the latest firmware information plus a querying tool to see what I have. Turns out there is a problem with Sony not having different firmware so that these bitset utilities don't work.
ASPI Drivers. That leads to having to load the ASPI drivers which Microsoft no longer includes in Windows because of licensing issues with Adaptec.
So, you need to load the ASPI driver, so you can check the firmware date, so you can load the firmware, so you can use the compatibility tool. Sigh. What a mess.
BlogSkins.com
Just what I need dynamic templates...Yoohoo!
So you've got a blog of your own. Congratulations. And you're oh so proud of your witty and insightful posts. But you've got one problem -- you suck at design. In fact, you suck so much that people skip right over your site because the bad color scheme combination and small font sizes hurt their eyes. That's where BlogSkins.com comes in. Take the designs from some of the best people around the blogging community, and instantly and easily apply them to your own Blogger-powered site.
Remove the Spyware, Banner Ads and Bitrate limit from Kazaa
How To Remove the Banner Adds & Spyware from Kazaa
What is Spyware ?
What You Will Need
Kazaa
Ad-Aware
cd_clint.dll
Install Kazaa.
Install Ad-Aware then use it to scan your computer for spyware. Remove all the spyware found including the spyware that Kazaa put on your system.
Open Up C:program files\Kazaa (or where kazaa was installed to)
Unzip cd_clint.zip and copy cd_clint.dll into the Kazaa program folder.
Open Up the C:Windows\system
Folder and Copy cd_clint.dll into that folder also.
(Windows NT, 2000 or XP users: if you experience problems, try also placing the fake spyware into the system32 folder that is located in the windows folder)
Use Ad-Aware to scan you computer for spyware again. When it finds the fake spyware (cd_clint.dll) add it to your ignore list so Ad-Aware doesnt delete the fake spyware. This is very important becuase kazaa needs to see the fake spyware to work.
Open up kazaa. If there are no adds it means that the spyware has been successfully removed.
How To Remove the Bitrate limit from Kazaa
Open the start menu and click run.
Type in regedit then click OK.
When the window opens up click edit then find.
Type in limitbitrate
When the search finishes double click on limitbitrate
Under value data change 1 to 0.
Click OK then close the rigistry editor.
You are finished. You can now download high quality mp3's from kazaa
US Flag Wallpaper Another great American flag
DefenseLINK - Official Web Site of the U.S. Department of Defense. Straight from the horses moth if you will. This is the official public relations site of the DoD. Some cool photos and other reports here.
tools Bloggar - a cool little program that sits in your system tray so you don't have to go all the way to the taco stand to post. It does a whole lot more and is also available in French, Portugese, and Spanish for all you foreign guacamoles. Check out the screen shot.
I'm still on the prowl for more blogging tools. This has three of the most useful, the right click, the button on the IE toolbar and then a windows program that you can do locally.
w.bloggar is a cool utility that has a nice HTML editing environment in a windows client. So you aren't using the web based tools of www.bloggar.com
broadband » Forums » P2P Chat » Kazaa registry hack question...... >In HKEY_CURRENT_USER\Software\Kazaa there is only one option you can change ... LimitBitrate. Setting this to 1 will limit the bitrate to 128 kbps, like Kazaa. Setting to 0 will set the bitrate back to normal. (320 kbps limit).
Removing Spyware from Kazaa_Quick note, I'm not sure that this works anymore with the latest Kazaa client_
Install Kazaa.
Install Lavasoft's Ad-Aware then use it to scan your computer for spyware. Remove all the spyware found including the spyware that Kazaa put on your system.
Open Up C:program files\Kazaa (or where kazaa was installed to)
Unzip cd_clint.zip and copy cd_clint.dll into the Kazaa program folder.
Open Up the C:Windows\system
Folder and Copy cd_clint.dll into that folder also.
(Windows NT, 2000 or XP users: if you experience problems, try also placing the fake spyware into the system32 folder that is located in the windows folder)
Use Ad-Aware to scan you computer for spyware again. When it finds the fake spyware (cd_clint.dll) add it to your ignore list so Ad-Aware doesnt delete the fake spyware. This is very important becuase kazaa needs to see the fake spyware to work.
Open up kazaa. If there are no adds it means that the spyware has been successfully removed.
How To Remove the Bitrate limit from Kazaa
What is The Bitrate Limit ?
Open the start menu and click run.
Type in regedit then click OK.
When the window opens up click edit then find.
Type in limitbitrate
When the search finishes double click on limitbitrate
Under value data change 1 to 0.
Click OK then close the rigistry editor.
You are finished. You can now download high quality mp3's from kazaa
US Flags. Another set of great flag clipart and photos. I use the first one now on my home machine
Video Editing Software for Apple and PCs. OK, so I've gotten a digital video camera, the Canon handheld and now a great Shuttle SS-51G computer with builtin in firewire ports. Now all that is left is the digital editing software. This is a top hit in google.com for finding reviews about that kind of stuff.
Content Advisor. I use this rating system stuff to turn things off for the kids. Works OK except that most sites aren't rated.
Cnet Video Editing Reviews and PC Magazine Video Editing Review
This is the last link in the chain for me. I've gotten the Canon Camcorder called the Optura MC-1 which is a great handheld. Also now have a monopod for it to keep it steady and just got the Shuttle SS-51G to do the video editing. Now I just need the software. The Sony drive I got called the DRU-120 comes with some software. By the way, there is an update to this drive so the price just dropped to $320 less a $50 rebate. Wow, that's a great price, so I'm out $60, how depressing. But, here are some reviews of editing software. I'm trying the Ulead Studio and the drive comes with NeoDVD. Apparently, you need both a video editor and something to author the DVD menus as well. Right now I'm just short of a firewire cable, so more on this later.
Chess Software
One of my many jobs next year is to run the back end of the UCDS Chess tournament. Here are some notes on programs to do that. We currently use a very ancient DOS program to do it. Here are some more modern versions. I've tried the first and the last and they are much nicer to use.
| Title | OS | License | Comments |
| Swiss Perfect | Windows 95/98 | Shareware | Swiss Perfect is a Windows application for conducting board games. It copes with FIDE and USCF Swiss and Standard and Rutsch (carousel) Round-Robin pairing systems. It can handle up to 1000 players and 60 rounds. A good fully configurable program for your tournament needs. |
| Swiss Perfect 2.4 for DOS | DOS | Free | An old DOS version of Swiss Perfect. |
| Windows TD | Windows | Shareware | Chess Tournament Pairing Program for Swiss System and Round Robin Tournaments |
The Sonic Memorial ProjectShortly after September 11, NPR's Lost & Found Sound brought together independent radio producers, new media producers, artists, historians, and listeners from across the country to collect and preserve 'sound memories' of the World Trade Center, its neighborhood, and the events of 9/11.
We set up the Sonic Memorial Phone Line at 877-894-8500 for you to leave your stories, recordings, and audio artifacts, both personal and historic. Hundreds of you called with testimonies and remembrances, music, and small fragments of sound.
Also see NPR 9-11-02 REflections for more really great coverage of the anniversary of 9/11
Your stories have been woven into radio broadcasts on NPR. And now, they are a part of a living archive and a new kind of listening experience called 'The Sonic Browser.'
America Attacked 9 1 1A powerful site with pictures of 9/11 so we never forget. Wow.
Creating a bootable Windows XP CD with Nero Burning ROM. OK, here are the Nero specific instructions for creating a bootable Windows XP CD. Haven't quite gotten it to work yet, but I need to go to sleep now :-)
Bart's way to create bootable CD-Roms This will show you how to create a bootable Windows XP (final build 2600!) Home Edition or Professional CD-Rom. Optionally you can add security hotfixes and other stuff to your CD. The boot catalog and NT bootstrap loader are hidden, just like the original bootable Windows XP CD-Rom.
These are handy notes overall on how to build bootable CD-ROMs. You can't just do it with Nero or something like unless you have a direct CD-ROM image.
One year later, a nation pauses
Wow, what a beautiful poem. Recited at the New York 9/11 Memorial...
“I give you this one thought to keep,
“I am with you still, I do not sleep.
“I am a thousand winds that blow.
“I am the diamond glint on the snow.
“I am as sunlight on ripened grain.
“I am the gentle autumn rain when you awaken in morning hush.
“I am the swift uplifting rush of quiet birds in circled flight.
“I am the soft stars that shine at night.
“Do not think of me as gone.
“I am with you still in each new dawn.”
September 11th Weblog and Rich's Thoughts September 11th will always be a day where something changed, but nothing did. In Seattle, it was a brilliantly sunny and beautiful day (as today was) yet the world felt different.
I went on a 50 mile bike ride after watching the second tower go down, I saw America, it's people, it's land, beautiful Mt. Rainier, incredible lakes, bluer than blue skis.
At the end, I ended up at our startup. It was where I wanted to be. To talk with people, to be a part of a great community.
September 11, like December 7, 1941 was an attack on waht America is and what we believe in. As the son of an immigrant, who arrived in the US, with $20 in 1959, it was a land of hope and prosperity and 40 years later, in a single generation, his entire family has prospered.
I'm living the American Dream. It's a cliche I know, but it's true. It's a spirit that is unique and wonderful. I'm just glad that in the peashooter of life, I got to live it. God bless America.
Federation of American Scientists - America's War on Terrorism - Strategy and Weaponry. A technical guide (a la Tom Clancy) to all the hardware the folks report about in the papers.
Federation of American Scientists. The final site I use all the time that covers military issues, arms control, etc.
GlobalSecurity.org. MOre interesting sites for those interested in the news. This one has lots of footage and satellite photos of places like the Tuwaitha Nuclear Center in Iraq. And information on Special Weapons, etc.
The Intelligence Network : i n t e l l i g e n c e : t o d a y ' s n e w s . Pretty cool site for watching the latest news. With the anniversary of September 11th coming, I can't help but watch and scan this site as well as CNN and MSNBC and particularly the broadband Broadband MSNBC
Zagat and Citysearch. I was in the market for great Thai food. Interesting to see that citysearch is by far ahead in google. But I prefer Zagat's myself.
OpenOffice.org. They got the writeup as one of the best open source Office suites. Thought I'd give it a try. I'm also in the process of giving b2 a try as the best blogger. Wish me luck on both!
Testing the adminisizer toolbar
What's up with the new direct editing. Seems to be a quick way to add things...
BlogComp: Blog Tool Feature Comparison Table. Wow, there are an amazing number of Blog tools out there. Here is a short comparison courtesy of a google search. I use blogger.com, but it looks like I'll have to give b2/cafelog a try
How to use server-side includes with Blogger
Took a while to find this, but this page gives details about using server side includes to make blogs look nice on my site. It's pretty deep, but kind of fun to figure out. The hard thing is getting archives to work correctly.
The term 'includes' covers a simple web server technology that allows you to include, or insert, a second file into an existing file and is popular for many reasons. It allows you to make consistent header, footer, or entire web page templates that run from a single location, making updates and changes to that template very easy. Taking most of your HTML out of your Blogger template also allows you to separate your content (in Blogger) from your presentation (in your template file). Includes are easy to implement, but do present minor challenges for blogs, including archiving and permanent links.