Alienware + Superman?!

Alienware has released a special edition Area 51 painted with the Superman Logo and matching color scheme. I like their add page more than the machine. I'd probably buy one of their higher end machines first. However I'm sure this one would be fine for most (more reasonable) people. I do like the machine but I can't help looking at the top of the line Aurora m9700 then adding more to it. I haven't been able to customize a computer from Dell or Alienware for years with out pushing $3000.00 by the time I've finished.

Killed A Deer

Last night while driving to my nephews high school graduation in Napa we were on Hwy 29 North outside of Napa just before the 121 turn off when out of nowhere a baby deer buck. I had just enough time to hit the breaks before we hit him with the right front of the car. Luckily we decided to take the larger vehicle and it was a small deer so, we suffered no injuries and little visible damage to the car. However the right headlight is broken and hanging out by the wires and the corner panel is pushed back so it interferes with the passenger door. The grill is cracked and it is one of those monolithic plastic pieces bumper grill and all. So, the whole thing will have to be replaced.

We made it to the graduation and dinner in Napa later but we did have to explain to my daughter that daddy killed a deer. She seemed to take it well sofar. We used it as an example of why we tell her not to run out in the street.

Google SketchUp

In the last few weeks I came across Google SketchUp. It looks like an easy to use 3D drawing program. I have had it installed for awhile but haven't found alot of time to play with it yet. The other night I went through the tutorial and looked at the quick start page. It seems pretty simple to use yet produces great looking 3D drawings. It really is like sketching with the mouse as far as simplicity. You are quickly rewarded with nice results too. The tutorial is short and worth the few minutes to go through it.

Open Source is Good!

I have come across several very good free open source programs on SourceForge.net

Audacity - Cross-Platform Sound Editor
Lame - MP3 encoder / transcoder
TrueCrypt - disk encryption software for Windows XP/2000/2003 and Linux (for a good description of TrueCrypt listen to SecurityNow episode #41 or read the transcripts)
GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program with features similar to PhotoShop
FileZilla - Fast FTP client and server
FreeNAS - NAS (Network Attached Storage) server with a Full WEB configuration interface. Fit on a 32MB Compact Flash or USB key.
7-Zip a file archiver with high compression ratio.

... and some I've been using for a while
DBAN Deriks Boot and Nuke - Secure harddrive erasure.
OpenOffice - Cross-Platform Office Suite

Another Fun Reference

The things you can find about yourself on Google. Here is a Sacramento Magazine photo of Julie, Anna and I that was published in the magazine February 2005 Sacramento Magazine

One of my Photos is being used.

I was just playing with Google Suggest and searched on my name. I found this reference to one of my public flickr photos being used. It looks like the Creative Commons license works because they did attribute the photo to me as required by the license. ;-)

http://www.43places.com

Well, it appears I just got lucky with my initial link. On return visits I've had to click on view more Photos then click on my photo. It's the one that looks like this.

Reference to Microsoft Atlas

I just fond this reference to Micosofts implementation of AJAX integrated with ASP.NET 2.0 Looks like it makes AJAX a snap to add to your site.

The Screening Room, episode 3: Atlas



The March episode of The Screening Room explores Microsoft's forthcoming AJAX toolkit, Atlas. This month's presenter is Shanku Niyogi. Our 25-minute interview will give you a good sense of Atlas as a browser- and server-independent framework, and also as an ASP.NET extender.
...

My Favorite Podcasts & Bloggs

Recently I found a new podcast (internet distributed audio similar to radio talks shows) which I though I would share with others. I added a list of bloggs and podcasts I have read or listened to, and liked to the left sidebar. Here are a few of the ones I follow:

MathGrad.com (podcast - Math concepts as they relate to every day life)
This Week in Tech (podcast - Latest in computers and technology)
Security Now (podcast - Computer & Network Security)
Sacramento Friends Church (blog - Quaker / Meeting of Friends)
Buffalo Chips News (blog - Running Club)

Update:
FLOSS Weekly - (podcast - Open Source software)

NOD32's Antivirus

I have recently dropped Symantec Norton antivirus on my home computers in favor of ESET's NOD32 Antivirus. I had heard and read some reviews stating that it was faster and lighter weight so it didn't have the effect of slowing your computers performance like Symantec's Norton antivirus does.

After running it for a while now I can say it definitely does not impact the computers performance like Norton AV did. I have always had little annoying problems with Norton AV and I haven't see any of those with NOD32. At this point I'd recommend NOD32 over Norton AV.

Flicker Photos

I have posted lots of new photos on my flickr site http://www.flickr.com/photos/hcriswell/ over the last several weeks. Though most are viewable only if you have been invited and login. Typically I have sent invitations to family and friends.