A virus in space August 27, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, space
add a comment
NASA has confirmed that a laptop on the International Space Station has a computer virus. The situation isn’t serious though.
This puzzles me. I’ve been a regular computer user for about 20 years, nearly all of it without virus protection. I’ve witnessed the birth of the World Wid Web and surfed the Internet since before surfing the Internet was cool. And I’ve had exactly one computer virus.
How does NASA, NASA!, get a computer virus on a space station laptop?
And this is the best that you c – that the-the government, the *U.S. government* can come up with? I mean, you-you’re NASA for cryin’ out loud, you put a man on the moon, you’re geniuses! You-you’re the guys that think this shit up! I’m sure you got a team of men sitting around somewhere right now just thinking shit up and somebody backing them up!
- Bruce Willis’ character in Armageddon
mp4 with Vista March 16, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, vista
1 comment so far
Here for the greater good is a suggestion for playing mp4 video files with Vista. Microsoft, apparently no longer desiring for Windows Media Player to be a defacto media player, won’t play mp4 files. If you find yourself wanting to watch an mp4 file, I recommend VLC Player.
VLC player seems popular and it works for pretty much every media format. You can find it here.
Vista impressions March 10, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, vista
2 comments
First off, thumbs up for CyberPower where I bought my new PC. They sell PCs which they build with all name-brand parts. They have several suggested configurations, all of which can be customized to the nth degree.
Now, on to Vista. Hands down, the best way to get Vista is pre-installed on a new PC. It just doesn’t work with enough hardware and software to trouble yourself with installing it on an existing machine. Vista works mostly fine on my new machine.
Right out of the box, it is blue-screening on me every time I try to resume the machine from a state of suspension (low power mode). Otherwise, I’ve had no trouble.
Well…except for some video clips which I can’t play – including one sentimental clip which I made myself on my old machine. 
Windows Media Player tells me I’m missing a “Intel/Ligos Indeo Interactive 5.0 (IV50)” codec. Thanks, Microsoft. Way to stay backward-compatible with 2-year old software.
As far as I can tell, the aforementioned codec isn’t available anywhere for Vista. I’ve tried installing the latest such codec I could find (versio 5.11). It was spec’d for XP and it did not work on Vista.
Otherwise, Vista is working like a champ. Uh..really.
Help me, Obi-Wan, you’re my only hope February 22, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, star wars
add a comment
Get your R2-D2 video projectors here.
CyberPowerPC February 16, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, mac
add a comment
Rhapsody is a deal-breaker for the Mac. I just can’t surrender to iTunes. It would take too many Benjamins to build my music library there.
Have any of you astute shanecrowe.org readers used cyberpowerpc? They let you pick out every single component in the computer and their prices are good.
I like Dell too. But Dell is too picky about which machines they’ll let me put a GeForce 8800 GT video card into.
Sign number 417 that I need a new computer February 13, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers
add a comment
There are cell phones now that will play games that my computer cannot handle.
The Nvidia APX 2500 can play Quake III. Story at Engadget.
Looks like a Dell February 10, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, itunes, mac, rhapsody
add a comment
Answer. The Mac is partially supported by Rhapsody.
Oh, the ironies here…
On the Mac, Rhapsody supports what iTunes doesn’t – free or flat-rate streaming music. But on the Mac, Rhapsody doesn’t support what iTunes does – downloading music and transferring it to a portable music player.
Ugh.
Of course Rhapsody does everything for a PC. Just not for a Mac.
I’m a Mac? February 10, 2008
Posted by Shane in Uncategorized.Tags: computers, itunes, mac, rhapsody
1 comment so far
Time for a new computer. I need to burn my digital camcorder stuff to DVD. My old computer is a bit too old and clunky for this.
I’d really like to get a Mac.
Except for one thing. Ironically, Apple’s most popular service, iTunes may stop me from getting a Mac. I much prefer the digital music model offered by Rhapsody (who just acquired my current music provider, Yahoo Unlimited). I pay them a flat rate and listen to as much music as I want.
I can’t fathom that iTunes hasn’t bought into on-demand streaming. And I just can’t picture paying $1 for every song I’ll ever hear through iTunes. I guess I’m different that way. Well, me and this guy. Obviously most of America likes iTunes.
Alas, Rhapsody is not available for the Mac. I’d knew software availability is smaller for the Mac compared to a wintel machine. But dang – snakebit on the very first thing I checked – Rhapsody.
I suppose I’ll dig deeper to see if Rhapsody has any Mac support in its future. If not – dude, I’m gettin a Dell.
