It'll Never Fly » hardware http://wqoq.com Clever... not good, but clever. Thu, 20 Oct 2011 19:50:06 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3-beta1-18972 Linklog for Apr 25 to May 02 http://wqoq.com/2008/05/02/linklog-for-apr-25-to-may-02/ http://wqoq.com/2008/05/02/linklog-for-apr-25-to-may-02/#comments Fri, 02 May 2008 06:59:53 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2008/05/02/linklog-for-apr-25-to-may-02/

Stuff I found funny, interesting, just plain disturbing, or for my own personal benefit.

STEREO AUDIO SWITCH – A B Audio Switch Box

Stereo Audio Switch Products: Easily switch between two sources and one output; or one source and two outputs.

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Tivoli Audio, LLC – Model Three® Clock Radio in Metallic Taupe/Cherry

The Tivoli Audio® Model Three® AM/FM clock radio improves your mood from the moment you open your eyes.

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Gin, Television, and Social Surplus – Here Comes Everybody

Fascinating article by Clay Shirky about society, free-time, human nature, and television.

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Atmospheric Optics

Very cool site detailing the science behind atmospheric optical formations such as rainbows, sundogs, halos, etc…, with photographed examples.

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Ned Batchelder: CSS Homer, animated

Román Cortés painstakingly created Homer Simpson using only coloured text and CSS. Even more amazing is that it even displays correctly in IE6!

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G. W. Bush in CSS

Román Cortés gives the same CSS treatment to George W. Bush.

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View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

]]> http://wqoq.com/2008/05/02/linklog-for-apr-25-to-may-02/feed/ 0 Linklog for Apr 26 http://wqoq.com/2008/04/27/linklog-for-apr-26/ http://wqoq.com/2008/04/27/linklog-for-apr-26/#comments Sun, 27 Apr 2008 07:04:45 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2008/04/27/linklog-for-apr-26/

Stuff I found funny, interesting, just plain disturbing, or for my own personal benefit.

STEREO AUDIO SWITCH – A B Audio Switch Box

Stereo Audio Switch Products: Easily switch between two sources and one output; or one source and two outputs.

Tags: , ,

Tivoli Audio, LLC – Model Three® Clock Radio in Metallic Taupe/Cherry

The Tivoli Audio® Model Three® AM/FM clock radio improves your mood from the moment you open your eyes.

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View all my bookmarks on Ma.gnolia

]]> http://wqoq.com/2008/04/27/linklog-for-apr-26/feed/ 0 links for 2007-08-27 http://wqoq.com/2007/08/27/links-for-2007-08-27/ http://wqoq.com/2007/08/27/links-for-2007-08-27/#comments Mon, 27 Aug 2007 12:17:25 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/08/27/links-for-2007-08-27/
  • Fixes the problems with the new Apple keyboards and the Dashboard and Exposé keys.
  • App for geotagging your photos.
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/08/27/links-for-2007-08-27/feed/ 0     Passing of the DVD torch http://wqoq.com/2007/07/28/passing-of-the-dvd-torch/ http://wqoq.com/2007/07/28/passing-of-the-dvd-torch/#comments Sun, 29 Jul 2007 05:32:13 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/07/28/passing-of-the-dvd-torch/ It was a sad day in Maguire history today. I finally put my Daeowoo 9000N DVD player out to pasture, and by that I mean “took it to the dump.” Had a lot of great memories with that DVD player. I applied a firmware to it that would let me play any region DVD that I wanted (so I could play my DVDs from other parts of the world of content that would never see the light of day here), and also disabled the macrovision (which never really mattered, as I only ever had it hooked up to my TV anyway) and UOPs (which let me skip those ads that some DVDs normally force you to watch. Bad DVDs, bad, naughty naughty…).

    But I think I just wore out the poor thing. Mom and I both bought the exact same player, at the exact same time, at the exact same place, and hers still works great, but has never been used to the extent that mine has. Plus hers is situated in a basement which is a cooler environment all year round, while mine is above ground in a cramped bedroom that is always several degrees warmer than anywhere else.

    The symptoms it first exhibited were longer load times, stuttered playback, and all round a generally noisier box than normal. At first I was able to workaround it by sometimes tilting the box slightly in one direction or another, but then I had to move it out of my cabinet altogether (thinking it might not be getting proper airflow and overheating), to me finally having to remove the outer case. Then lastly, a couple of days ago I went to go play a move after having not used the player for a few days, and it just wouldn’t play. It would keep spinning up and spinning up, desperately trying to read the disc, making all kinds of racket in the process, always worrying me that it was scratching my discs.

    Finally, I got fed up and starting scouring the Web for a decent player from a reputable company that I could buy in town at a decent price and make region free. The one I ended up getting was a Philips DVP5960 from *ewwww* The Source. I don’t know what it is about RadioShack/TheSource and easily hackable DVD players, but that’s also where I bought my Daewoo oh so many years ago.

    So far it does everything I could want it to do. The upscaling only works through HDMI, which I have on my TV, but don’t have a cable for (but that wasn’t really a driving factor for me anyway). It also has a USB port (apparently only USB 1) for playing video files of an external drive, but I don’t know if I’ll ever even use that.

    ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/07/28/passing-of-the-dvd-torch/feed/ 0     Useless computer accessory update #2 http://wqoq.com/2007/07/27/useless-computer-accessory-update-2/ http://wqoq.com/2007/07/27/useless-computer-accessory-update-2/#comments Sat, 28 Jul 2007 05:46:50 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/07/27/useless-computer-accessory-update-2/ As I mentioned last time, the fan on my ATI X800 XT is wearing out, causing all kinds of lovely “derka derka” noises in my otherwise quiet G5. Thank the gods for my MacBook, which has allowed me to keep the times I power up the G5 to a minimum until I can get a suitable replacement fan. As I also mentioned, I ordered a Zalman replacement fan, a VF900-Cu to be exact, which came a few days after my initial post. I went through the whole rigmarole of pulling out the X800 card, swearing upon dropping the screw in the case, disassembling the old fan, cleaning the old goop off, attaching the fancy new thermal heatsinks, applying the new grease, and attaching the new fan, only to find that the handy dandy thumb screws Zalman provides on the underside of the card to tighten everything together, stick out like sore thumbs (pun intended… this is where you laugh), and because of Apple’s custom engineering and intent to waste no space, there’s no room to fit the card back in the only provided AGP slot *and* have those thumb screws on there keeping everything in place (and have the proper power provided, because Apple engineered those out of sight, too), so now I’m back to my jalopy fan (now catch your breath and marvel at how long that sentence was).

    So I packed the Zalman back up, and because I’m the wuss I am, have made no attempt to return it back. Who knows? Maybe it’ll come in handy in the years to come. And that’s where things have been for the last few weeks. I’ve just been living off my MacBook, without any of my iTunes being available nor being able to play any video games.

    That is, until about an hour ago. After searching high and low, looking for someplace that’ll ship an Arctic Cooling ATI Silencer 5 to Canada (or within Canada), finding mostly shitty mom and pop online stores that couldn’t ship themselves out of a paper bag, made even harder by the fact that it seems to be discontinued, I ended turning to eBay. To some of you that might have seemed to be an obvious next step, but I have a strange dislike for eBay, thinking of it more as an exhausting all my other options, snakes on a plane, last resort kind of thing.

    Perhaps not unsurprisingly, in spite of all the countless fake eBay spam messages I’ve received over the years, my account was still alive and well, patiently awaiting the one day when I would once again return to buy Battle Beasts, Lego®, and D&D™ action figures. To put things in perspective, my current profile rating is a 12, collected during a flurry of activity between April 25th and July 17th, 1999. Yes, 1999. This is pre-Y2K stuff here, people.

    But, alas, this evening’s visit was unfortunately not to purchase any assortment of molded plastic chunks of tomfoolery, but to find a replacement fan for my graphics card. And find one I did… in the UK.

    We’ll see what happens *this* time.

    Oh, and the Kensington mouse is working well. Haven’t really had a whole lot of time to use it, though, seeing as it’s to be used with my G5.

    ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/07/27/useless-computer-accessory-update-2/feed/ 0     links for 2007-02-17 http://wqoq.com/2007/02/17/links-for-2007-02-17/ http://wqoq.com/2007/02/17/links-for-2007-02-17/#comments Sat, 17 Feb 2007 12:17:50 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/02/17/links-for-2007-02-17/
  • Time-estimation-based buying guide for Apple hardware.
  • Another time-estimation=based buying guide for Apple hardware.
  • Neat artwork by Don Davis commissioned by NASA.
  • How the last book of Harry Potter should end.
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/02/17/links-for-2007-02-17/feed/ 0     links for 2007-02-12 http://wqoq.com/2007/02/12/links-for-2007-02-12/ http://wqoq.com/2007/02/12/links-for-2007-02-12/#comments Mon, 12 Feb 2007 12:17:38 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/02/12/links-for-2007-02-12/
  • Retro toys from our childhood. I’m sure you’ll find something you forgot you had as a kid.
  • Calibrating the MacBook battery. Will come in handy when I get a replacement (I assume).
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/02/12/links-for-2007-02-12/feed/ 0     links for 2007-02-08 http://wqoq.com/2007/02/08/links-for-2007-02-08/ http://wqoq.com/2007/02/08/links-for-2007-02-08/#comments Thu, 08 Feb 2007 12:18:12 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/02/08/links-for-2007-02-08/
  • Popular firmware updates for various wifi routers, in particular the Linksys WRT54G.
  • Another Linksys firmware provider
  • John Gruber’s analysis of the Steve Jobs letter and its responses.
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/02/08/links-for-2007-02-08/feed/ 0     links for 2007-02-02 http://wqoq.com/2007/02/02/links-for-2007-02-02/ http://wqoq.com/2007/02/02/links-for-2007-02-02/#comments Fri, 02 Feb 2007 12:18:12 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/02/02/links-for-2007-02-02/
  • Dalek webcam.
  • Looks like a neat little book.
  • Looks worth checking out when it’s released.
    (tags: movies tosee)
  • If you happen to like the built-in Audiobooks classification in iTunes. Personally, I’m more interested in going in the other direction, but still a handy tip.
  • A tool to do the task mentioned in the other tip. Looks like a neat thing to try out.
  • Calculistic… to the math!
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/02/02/links-for-2007-02-02/feed/ 0     links for 2007-02-01 http://wqoq.com/2007/02/01/links-for-2007-02-01/ http://wqoq.com/2007/02/01/links-for-2007-02-01/#comments Thu, 01 Feb 2007 12:17:31 +0000 Bob http://wqoq.com/2007/02/01/links-for-2007-02-01/
  • A TARDIS-shaped USB hub. Cool.
  • I wish I had known this sooner. I wouldn’t have done anything differently, I just wish I’d known.
  • In honour on National Gorilla Suit Day. A Regina institution. The Hilly Billy Vac Shack.
    • ]]>     http://wqoq.com/2007/02/01/links-for-2007-02-01/feed/ 0