Chris Easton

I still don’t get Twitter

Chris Easton — Fri, 22 Jan 2010 17:06:02 +0000

Why not just have a blog of quick thoughts? Then you’re not limited to 140 characters and you can say what you really want. Hell, we have these things called Hyperlinks so you can link to other people’s posts directly, instead of throwing an @Person. Does Twitter even make sense?

Google and China, possibly no more?

Chris Easton — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 01:28:34 +0000

According to this post on the Google blog, Google has decided to stop censoring search results on their Google China site (http://www.google.cn/). They are going to go to the Chinese government and basically say they are going to pull out of China or they will run the non-filtered search engine. This is quite a brave move for a U.S.-based company and I wish more companies would shrug off China because of their Human Rights and Censorship stance.

Even more interesting is the fact that this decision came because Google detected an attack against their systems that originated in China. And it looks like the China-based attack went after Anti-Censorship Activists in both China and those outside of China who are against Chinese censorship. I applaud Google for doing the right thing and confronting the Chinese government for its censorship laws. I only hope this gives some REAL change to China and isn’t just dust in the wind.

On a side note, I’m trying hard to completely stop buying Chinese-made goods. My actions are likely just dust in the wind, but at least I feel better that I’m not supporting the crazy that is going on in China (basically slave-labour, human rights violations, Tibet, censorship, etc.)

Final nail in Citibank’s Coffin

Chris Easton — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 01:59:42 +0000

I got dinged with a $6.50 “account maintenance fee” on my savings account with Citibank. This is the final nail in the coffin for me with them. I’ll be switching banks within 7 days. Either a credit union or Schwab’s Interest-Checking account (I need to be able to write checks or I’d stick with ING forever).

*UPDATE*: I’ve opened an account with Consumers Credit Union [Visit Site] for 4.09%, no mininums, some conditions to get that percentage.

Dell is now okay

Chris Easton — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 00:48:30 +0000

My Dell laptop is now fixed. The might even give me a free battery they will have to ship out to me separately. But still, the other laptops my family has have lasted much longer, I will probably never buy a Dell again.

Also, droid.

Dell M1330 Problems (again)

Chris Easton — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 08:09:04 +0000

My Dell M1330 laptop I bought around last May (in 2008) broke again. The first problem it had was the Video Card was toasted. I found this out when the laptop booted with vertical white lines sometime in early October or late September. After Googling for hours, I came across the problem others were having with the Nvidia card and some possible solutions. I opened a ticket with Dell and they had an extended warranty for the Nvidia card found in my notebook. They happily fixed the problem and sent me my laptop back last month. A couple of weeks following the return, and maybe 5 or 6 uses, the laptop stopped charging and nearly drained the battery because I didn’t notice the laptop was “unplugged” since it was plugged in. I was able to plug it in and bend it slightly up to get the battery to charge a little, but shortly after that, it would not charge anymore. So I’ve been stuck with a brick for 2 weeks. After chatting shortly with a Dell Rep and finding out the motherboard needs to be replace, which won’t be covered, and searching for a new laptop but not being able to spend the money on a new one. I decide to contact Dell again about this problem to plead my case. Finally talking with a nice support representative, they offered me a $179 “special warranty” that would send a tech out to fix the laptop and cover it for another year. This offer would not be put into writing to be thought over, and could not appear again if I called back. Okay, thats not very cool, you kind of have me stuck though, what am I to do? Try again… After telling the problem over and over again, which is basically the motherboard needs to be replaced again, they were able to accept it back for a motherboard replacement. Luckily the logic that: The motherboard was replaced for the Nvidia-card problem, the motherboard’s DC plug was broken and the motherboard needs to be replaced, they are linked and it should be covered. So they’ll (hopefully) be sending me another box and fix the problem and the laptop will be happy for another couple of years. I promise to take it for walks.

Todo list for weekend – Saturday

Chris Easton — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 04:02:36 +0000

I’ve decided to post up my todo list for the weekend, to help motivate me to get it done:

~~Mow and Edge Lawn~~
~~Pull out more crabgrass weeds where needed~~
~~Reset linoleum floor~~ — Damn thing unset again, have to pull a baseboard now to fix it. Swiftlock flooring seems to have this problem, also problem with edges meeting and odd gaps forming on some boards.
~~Cut&nail baseboards for behind fridge area~~
~~Cut&nail quarter-molding around oven (two sets)~~
Patch holes in drywall around sliding-glass-door
Trim side door (remove old and install new)
~~Baseboards behind Dishwasher area~~
Baseboards around eating area
Quarter-molding around cabinets + dishwasher area
Cut door for bathroom
Seal hole in subfloor in bathroom with something
~~Remove shelves from wall in garage~~
Wash Car
Setup Gazeebo thing in backyard patio
Lubricate the joints in the garage door so I don’t have to keep fighting it to get it to go down at night/morning

That list is pretty long, but I think its doable. I need to do some things beforehand though:

Stain/Seal quarter-round molding
Order windows for Innocence’s Room and Bathroom (Going with Jeld-Wen vinyl, they don’t look like crappy other vinyls and have held up well as demos in the Home Depot
Get up early and start at 8am

Big projects left to do:

Window, paint, carpet, redo door in Innocence’s room
Change oil and lubricate chain on motorcycle
Bathroom remodel (down to studs!)
Floors for house, what to do…
Do something nice with front walkway and xeriscaping (no water pipes!)
Get rid of some of the trees in the backyard, plant shade trees, start gardening fruits, veggies, and herbs.

Learn Chinese

Replace windows in rest of house
Replace side door and side garage door

System Monitoring Tools

Chris Easton — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 06:51:47 +0000

I came home from work and my computer is making a whirring sound. I think it might be dust in one of the fans that is causing the sound as it usually is. I then remember what happened with my Dell Laptop, the video card fried after the fan was on all the time. After researching that issue it turned out to be a faulty video card from nVidia and it will be replaced. But I remembered a name of some software people were using to monitor their systems during the debacle. I finally decide it was a good time to try it out and I’m really glad I did because I found another tool to add to my computer-arsenal. The tool is called Speedfan and you can get it Here.

Basically it monitors fans and temperatures and allows you some access to Hard drive SMART statistics. The SMART stats tell you the health of your drives and can indicate a failure pending or generally how your drives are doing. You can do an in-depth analysis and get some pretty interesting stuff. Here’s one for my drive: HD Report Card — Good to know I might be needing one soon!

Ubuntu and Flash

Chris Easton — Tue, 29 Sep 2009 01:26:50 +0000

I’ve finally gotten Flash working on my Ubuntu 8.04 installation of my laptop. The main issue is using x64 to take full advantage of my processor and ram. The guide I used is from the ubuntu forums and consists of a very simple script.

Link: http://ubuntuforums.org/showthread.php?t=772490

Cash for Clunkers

Chris Easton — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 01:32:37 +0000

I’m looking to turn in Beatrix, my 1991 Chevrolet S-10 Blazer, during the Cash for Clunkers event for a fuel efficient Volkswagen TDI Jetta Sportswagen. The only problem is the psychological attachment thats developed between me and my car for the past 7 years I’ve been driving her. I wonder if my Health Insurance covers the counseling I’m going to need or if Obama’s healthcare plan will… In all seriousness though I’d really really like to keep the body of my car. I know they are supposed to kill the engine and transmission as part of the program, but I’d like to keep everything else (they can keep the engine and tranny) to try and tinker in a year or two and give her new life with a fully electric powertrain. I’ll ask the dealer if I can buy the frame, body, etc. after they destroy it for $500. But, anyone think that will work? (I already know I’m crazy, so I won’t ask that…)

Well thats a good idea

Chris Easton — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 02:45:31 +0000

This is a neat idea that has an implementation and is used on the net: http://recaptcha.net/

To prevent bots from spamming websites most website owners have this thing called a “captcha”. This requires a human to read a graphic and product two words. This is somewhat hard for machines and easy for humans (in most cases). This site actually picks up on the words from digitizing books that the machines can’t read and asks the humans to decipher them. So by using sites with this Captcha we’re helping digitize books and also prevent spammers. And as a byproduct helping spammers help people digitize books.