All hail the Mc10:35!

Published
by
Joel
on March 5, 2010
in 930posts, Fun Stuff and Recipes
. 2 Comments

There is a secret movement sweeping San Francisco McDonalds. It’s an elusive beast akin to our own McGangBang 2.0. Unlike our aforementioned gastrointestinal delicacy, this mashup of a sandwich can only be obtained once every day. Once every day! How could this be!

Imagine for a moment, it’s mid morning and you’re standing in a McDonalds wracked with guilt. Do you appease your intestinal lusting with a piece of midday sustenance or do you pounce upon a breakfast bite to better remind yourself of what could have been had you slept in? Desperate you look at the clock, time is running out. If you wait too long your decision will be made and breakfast will have died by the wayside.  But dammit, you still yearn for the comfort a breakfast sandwich brings even as you acquiesce to the sustainability of the ubiquitous burger. And then it hits you: the Mc10:35!

This magnificent piece of culinary composition is at its core a McDouble and an Egg McMuffin. It’s creation is even simpler. Once both items are procured, you carefully extricate the egg and canadian bacon from the McMuffin and add it to the top of the McDouble. It’s bliss in a bun giving you that last little bit of morning sunshine coupled with a nice meaty kick to get you through the day rest of your day. Now, seeing as it’s 10:20, I for one am off to the Golden Arches.

[via Consumerist]

*Picture courtesy of Consumerist since I work for the Man and have no access to a camera.

Matchstick Minas Tirith

Published
by
Joel
on February 26, 2010
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 0 Comments

The White City of Gondor

We can add another item to the long list of amazing things that I wish I thought of and yet have no time to ever accomplish. Patrick Acton of Iowa has completed an incredibly detailed match stick model of Minas Tirith. His labor of love began in April of 2007 and culminated last week on the 15th of February. He used 420,000 matchsticks to create the city and another 24,000 wooden blocks for Mount Mindolluin (the mountain the city is built into). You can catch more pictures of the model over at Matchstick Marvels and I must say, they’re pretty awesome.

[via Nerdesque]

How-To Create an MS-DOS Bootable Flash Drive with Windows 7

Published
by
Charlie
on February 11, 2010
in 930posts
. 0 Comments

This will be a quick post, but I recently wasted far too much time trying to get a bootable USB drive set up so I could update my fracking BIOS (the Windows-based updater didn’t work, nor did the ISO based updater. Thanks for a quality product, Intel!).

It was incredibly hard to actually find an easy method that works, but I finally did: http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/46707-ms-dos-bootable-flash-drive-create.html

ALRIGHT ZELDA, A WORD WITH YOU.

Published
by
Joseph
on February 11, 2010
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 1 Comment

The entire DC area has been under several feet of snow for like, a month now, so in running out of things to do, I decided to start playing “The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past.”  I got the ROMs from bittorrent, and I use the Mac version of Snes9x to play.  Snes9x, for those who haven’t used it, is one hell of an SNES emulator.

I’ve picked up this game a few times over the course of my life, but never really had it in me to get into it.  I’m not sure why.  Maybe it’s because I have ADHD or I didn’t have time or I just didn’t have it in me or some weird shit, but I’ve been playing it pretty hardcore for the past week or so.  It might take an average player less time to beat this game, but I have a weird obsession with getting ABSOLUTELY ALL of the items, secrets, etc., that the game has to offer.

Anyway, it’s pretty cool, considering it came out in 1992, it’s aged really well.  I’m having a lot of fun with it, except it’s balls hard.

Seriously, it’s fucking hard, this game does not mess around.  I usually don’t feel compelled to throw my controller against a wall, but in several instances of this game, I’ve wanted to.  I might as well anyway, because my little brother borrowed (read: took without asking) it once and got soda in it, so if I let it sit for any more than like 6 hours, the buttons get sticky and I have to clean them out with a wet toothbrush; then they work fine.  Eventually, this trick will stop working, but until then, I’m going strong.

At any rate, if there is any one question this game’s programmers were asking themselves while making this game, it is this:

“How can we make this even more of a pain in the ass?”

Seriously, take this boss for instance, this boss is on the fourth or fifth major dungeon.  I don’t remember, probably because I was screaming in frustration:

Fuck this thing.

That is “Moldorm,” the gigantic centipede of doom.  I had to fight Moldorm between 8-10 times, and I consider myself to be an above-average gamer in terms of skill, especially for adventure games.  You see, every time Moldorm hits you, you get knocked to the edge of the platform that Moldorm conveniently hangs out on.  God forbid you be ANYWHERE near the edge of the platform, too, because if you are, you’re hosed.  If you fall off the platform, you fall to the room below, and you have to climb the stairs to go fight him again, except SOMEHOW he has all of his fucking health back.  Seriously, this guy is like Neo, except instead of bullets, he is able to recover from sword attacks.  Lots of ‘em.  In like 5 seconds.  I’m pretty sure that was in Beowulf or something.  Maybe you falling to the floor below gives Moldorm enough time to get some Neosporin, or PCP.  Who knows.

Anyway, the point here is, the game designers were like “nah, that’s not enough, let’s make this even more fucked up, we’ll put a hole in the MIDDLE OF THE FUCKING PLATFORM.  THAT WILL SHOW HIM WHO IS BOSS, THAT JERK.”  I’m glad I didn’t spend $50 on this game, I’m also glad I have save states, so when I get knocked off the platform, I press command+d and I’m right there, ready to go, for another round.  TECHNOLOGY WINS AGAIN, YOU PRICK.

Anyway, I found a picture online of someone who fits the profile of a typical Zelda game designer.

All Zelda games are pretty much the same.  First, you go get a sword, then you go do three minor quests that are all pretty easy.  It’s sort of like Nintendo playing with you.  ”This game is pretty cool, so we’ll do this to suck you in, then we’ll make up for it later in a sick bastard kind of way.”  Then you find out that THE PRINCESS has been captured by GANON, THE KING OF THIEVES, who is going to use his MAGICAL POWER to lock Zelda, princess of Hyrule, away forever.  Then you have to go get a Master Sword and do some other bullshit through like 7 quests, and then you fight Ganon and the game is over.  Somehow along the way, you end up picking up a boomerang that I still don’t know does what the fuck anything, a hookshot, a bow and arrow, some magic spells, the master sword, a mirror shield, some bottles, aaaaaand some kind of critical plot device that significantly changes the game’s environment.

Look, you can write your own Zelda game with this Zelda-o-Matic I wrote just for you:

Link, the (chosen one / hero / last of the bretheren) must collect the three (pendants / mystical orbs / jewels) to complete some (small virtually irrelevant task in the grand scheme of things).  But wait!  Zelda, the princess of Hyrule, has been captured!  Using the three (whatever), you can obtain the Legendary MASTER SWORD, which you can use to unlock the (seals / barriers / gateways) to the seven (pendants / maidens / pieces of Triforce).  In doing so, you prevent Ganon from obtaining enough power to take over Hyrule!  BUT WAIT!  Ganon already has some dark power, so you have to use the magical (wand / mirror / completely unheard of woodwind instrument) to BREAK INTO HIS LAIRS and DEFEAT THE GUARDIANS THEREIN.  Only then can you defeat Ganon by reflecting his attacks back at him, before he reverts into his true form, and then you win by shooting Ganon with magically imbued silver arrows. DONE.

Also, I don’t know if Zelda programmers have ever actually been in a dungeon, but I have, okay?  Dungeons are fucking lame.  I’ve never seen a rat in a dungeon.  I’ve also never seen moving spiked floors which shoot fire and death, but just, just throw that aside for a second, okay?  Have you ever needed a compass in a dungeon?  NO, YOU DON’T NEED A COMPASS TO NAVIGATE A DUNGEON.  A COMPASS DOES NOTHING FOR YOU IN A DUNGEON.  Also, why are there keys everywhere?  Who runs these dungeons?  Why would you hide a key inside a pot?  That’s dumb.  Finally, these dungeons don’t have prisoners, mind you, they just hide mystical pendants.  I don’t get it.  If Ganon really wanted to make Link’s life miserable, why wouldn’t he be like “HA HA, I BURIED THE PENDANTS IN COMPLETELY RANDOM LOCATIONS THROUGHOUT HYRULE, GO GET A SHOVEL AND START LOOKING, YOU DWEEB!”

I've got badass facial hair and an imposing black robe. What do you have, Link? That's right, you got nothin'.

Another issue here is that I’m sure Link suffers from “the Mario problem,” or just Nice Guy Syndrome.  Link is going to go rescue some broad on the advice of some old coot, which he does, and what does he get for it?  Some pieces of heart?  A better shield?  A fucking boomerang?  Are you serious?  Does he ever get to go out with Zelda?  I mean, every time I start a Zelda game, she is living in some castle, while Link lives in some shed or shack or tree or some other Anacostia bullshit.  Then she gets captured, and Link fights through Hell and back to save her, while Zelda is like “Thanks for saving me, Link, you’re such a great guy, but I’d hate to ruin our friendship with messy physical complications, so here is a magical shield.”  Not even a date?  Nothing?  Link’s not out there for Link, Link is out there for Zelda, okay?  He doesn’t get shit.  I want to play a Zelda game where Link and Zelda ride on a horse into the sunset together.  But I’m a hopeless romantic sap who suffers greatly from Nice Guy Syndrome, so what the fuck.

They have television over the air now?, Part 3

Published
by
Sam
on January 6, 2010
in 930posts
. 1 Comment

In my two previous posts about antennas, I explained what I did to research and install an over-the-air TV antenna. Now that I’ve gotten everything installed, I’ll share with you my results.

The Channels

These are all the stations (including subchannels) that I pull in with my new installation.

If you take all the major stations and add their subchannels, that’s 30 channels!  Granted, there are three 24 hour weather channels, two children’s channels, a bible channel, and ten foreign news channels, but the ratio of channels I watch to channels I don’t watch is about the same as it would be on cable TV.

Quality and Reception

All the of the major channels (NBC, FOX, ABC, CBS, MyTV, PBS, CW, ION) are in HD. There is a mix of 720p and 1080i, but it all looks the same on my 32-inch 720p TV, and I have to say it looks pretty amazing.

The MHz channels and all other subchannels are broadcast in 480p, which while not as good as HD, does not look terrible.

Since this is all digital, it’s pretty much all or nothing. There is no graceful signal degradation like there was with analog signals. That does present a problem with a few channels.

WDCW is the worst offender, since the tower is located about two miles farther away and two degrees off from all the others. Occasionally I can’t get a signal from that station at all.

The other two that have issues are WJLA and WUSA, and problems usually happen when there is a heavy overcast. These stations are the only ones that broadcast on VHF, so my guess is that my antenna is less effective at pulling in that band.

Future Improvements

The first thing I plan on trying is a pre-amplifier, which should eliminate the problems we’re having with the stations I mentioned. Also, we sometimes get little tears or warps in the picture, which I assume is the result of interference. Hopefully a pre-amp will also take care of this problem.

As an alternative, I could always go with a bigger antenna. The longer the boom, the farther away I should be able to pull in signals. While I am totally in favor of this idea, I think my wife would rather stick with something smaller.

Conclusion

So far, my broadcast TV experiment has been going great. We are able to watch most of our favorite shows as they air. (Interestingly enough, sometimes we prefer to just watch them on Hulu). I get to watch some of the sports I’d been missing out on. Most of what we miss gets filled in with Hulu and Netflix streaming.

Most important of all, Wheel of Fortune and Jeopardy! keep my wife busy long enough for me to get other things done.

My next project in the home theater department will probably be putting together a PC with XBMC or Boxee, mainly to be able to watch Hulu. Sounds like another blog post!

Signing off…

Update: I almost forgot about this but I wanted to thank Joe for helping me install my antenna. He took an entire Sunday out of his time to help me out. Thanks Joe. You’re a true pal.

Google DNS

Published
by
Edwin
on January 4, 2010
in 930posts, The more you know... and Tips and Tutorials
. 0 Comments

A few weeks ago, Google announced that they are making available public DNS servers. They claim that it “provides many benefits, including improved security, fast performance, and more valid results.” And for some people, that might be true. They also claim that they are adhering to DNS standards, unlike many ISP and OpenDNS implementations, by not redirecting you to some crappy ad-filled search page when you fat-finger a URL. And as for privacy concerns:

With Google Public DNS, we collect IP address (only temporarily) and ISP and location information (in permanent logs) for the purpose of making our service faster, better and more secure. Specifically, we use this data to conduct debugging, to analyze abuse phenomena and to improve our prefetching feature. After 24 hours, we erase any IP information.

Google goes on to say that they are not tying any information to your Google account, or sharing it with anyone else. They don’t say they aren’t going to use it, though, but any data they retain won’t be personally identifiable. That eases most of my concerns. And it’s far better than most other DNS providers offer. I would not trust my ISP not to sell my information, and OpenDNS openly admits they are selling that information, but claim that it cannot be traced back to individuals.

So far, Google is coming out on top in privacy concerns and adherence to standards. But what about performance? Enter NAMEBENCH.

Namebench is a recently released tool that benchmarks the response time of hundreds of public DNS servers and shows you the best on for your situation. Just open the file and click “Start Benchmark” and after a short wait, it spits out a handy webpage with the results and recommendations. Very easy.

Results may vary.

As for the results…..I ran the test 5 times, and got 4 different results. After another 10 attempts, a clear winner had emerged.

Most people probably aren’t going to notice a difference in speed or stability, but then again, this blog isn’t for “most people.”

How-To: Delicious, Easy Pancakes on the Cheap!

Published
by
Charlie
on January 3, 2010
in 930posts
. 0 Comments

With the crappy economy taking its toll on many aspects of every day life these days, there’s one thing that it doesn’t have to affect: your ability to make delicious, fluffy pancakes on the cheap!

Here’s how:

  1. Go to your local market and procure a box of “JIFFY” buttermilk biscuit mix. The average price for a box of this versatile goodness is typically $0.50-$0.65 — an incredible deal!
  2. Follow the instructions for making pancake/waffle batter on the back of your box of “JIFFY,” except:
  3. Instead of using 1 cup of water or milk as the directions suggest, use 1 cup of half-and-half.
  4. Mix everything together in a bowl with a whisk, but don’t over-mix. As soon as everything is blended together, STOP mixing! (Credit goes to Alton Brown for this tip).
  5. Cook in a pan on medium-low heat with a little olive oil.

That’s it! For the price of one egg, 2 tbsp. butter, a $0.65 box of batter mix, and a cup of half-and-half, you can make pancakes that actually taste substantially better than your run-of-the-mill Bisquick hotcakes. One box of “JIFFY” will yield enough pancakes for two people, on average.

Yours for the low-low price of $0.65!

Recipe: Charlie’s Black-Eyed Peas

Published
by
Charlie
on January 2, 2010
in Recipes and The more you know...
. 0 Comments

While it won’t do you readers any good at this point, some of you may know that eating black-eyed peas on New Year’s Day is said to give you good luck for the remainder of the year. Here’s my freshly-developed and delicious recipe for a New Year’s delicacy:

Charlie’s Black-Eyed Peas

Ingredients:

  • 1 Can black eyed peas
  • 4 Strips bacon
  • 1 Clove garlic
  • 1 Stalk celery
  • 1/2 Green bell pepper
  • 100% pure maple syrup
  • Crushed red pepper (dried)
  • Black pepper

Directions:

  1. Cook bacon strips in cast iron (preferred) pan using low heat until moderately crispy. While keeping an eye on the bacon, continue to Step 2. Set bacon and resulting grease aside. Do not discard grease!
  2. Gather garlic clove, celery stalk, and bell pepper. Finely chop all three ingredients.
  3. Empty black eyed peas into a medium saucepan. Add chopped garlic, celery, and bell pepper. Break each strip of bacon into 3-4 pieces. Add bacon to saucepan.
  4. Add a few teaspoons of bacon grease from the frying pan to the saucepan with the black eyed peas.
  5. Add maple syrup to saucepan to taste. I would recommend a few tablespoons — but don’t over do it.
  6. Add a few shakes of black pepper and crushed red pepper to taste.
  7. Stir well and simmer on low heat for about 30 minutes, stirring every 5-10 minutes.
  8. Enjoy!

Merry Christmas, Sector-Style!

Published
by
Joseph
on December 25, 2009
in 930posts and Fun Stuff
. 1 Comment

On the twelfth day of Christmas, at Sector 930, I got:

12 PLOWS-A-PLOWING

IMG_0997

11 SCREENS-A-GLOWING

wideview

10 HUNTERS LEAPING

view_320200_1_1227888149

9 TORRENTS SEEDING

dmca_cox-large

8 JAGERS BOMBING

Jagermeister

7 CALLSIGNS HAMMING

BewareOfHamRadio

6 LOVERS, EXCEPT JOE

51Q0ZXDX7AL._SL500_AA240_

5 FLAWLESS GEMS

diablo-2-items

4 SMARTRIP CARDS

3651367315_85b41405cf

3 MAC TVs

52362080

2 GODDAMN CATS

Screen shot 2009-12-25 at 9.34.24 PM

AND A POST HERE ON 930!

Screen shot 2009-12-25 at 9.37.17 PM

How to Give Your Cellular Provider the Gift You’ve Always Wanted!

Published
by
Charlie
on December 24, 2009
in 930posts, Projects and Tips and Tutorials
. 0 Comments

Howdy loyal 930 readers! Merry Christmas and Seasons Greetings to all! Charlie here, the undercover redneck, about to tell you how to give your cellular provider the gift you’ve always wanted: free unlimited SMS text messaging! I’m talking 100% free (as in beer).

“That’s impossible!” you’re must be saying. “Not in this country!”

Folks, behold the power of Google! Some may argue that Google is becoming the new Microsoft, or worse, an even more powerful entity with access to unfathomable terabytes of the world’s personal information. But who cares, with a corporate motto like “don’t be evil,” how can you not trust them? Especially when they offer free text messaging!

Enough banter already — here’s what you need to get free unlimited SMS text messaging:

  • A Google Voice account: http://www.google.com/voice/
  • A Google Voice phone number (generally included with a Google Voice account)
  • A smartphone, preferably one capable of running the Google Voice app (currently BlackBerry and Android only)
    • Note: Any smartphone that has a decent mobile web browser will work via the Google Voice web interface
    • Another note: A BlackBerry with a push email account is best suited for this setup. I’ll explain why later.

As you can see, the requirements are pretty basic. (It is assumed that if you’re nerdy enough to be reading this website, you’re going to have a smartphone and more than likely every type of Google account known to exist).

Now, if you’ve got a BlackBerry, this is how you can set it all up with minimal compromise:

  1. Log into your Google Voice account. Set up a new forwarding phone with your cell phone’s number. (Settings > Phones)
  2. Enable SMS to E-Mail forwarding. (Settings > Voicemail & SMS > “Forward messages to my email”)

    3. At this point, SMS messages sent to your Google Voice number will now be automatically forwarded to your email. If you have a BlackBerry with an email account that supports push email, you even receive text messages instantly — just like a real text message. The problem is that your BlackBerry will not differentiate between SMS messages you get via email forwarding and all the other emails you get on a daily basis. I don’t know about you, but I don’t instantly check my BlackBerry every time I get a routine email. This obviously creates a problem when you’re attempting to use a mode of communication where messages are expected to be delivered and read almost instantly. Step 3 addresses this issue.

  3. Log into BlackBerry’s email configuration (older BlackBerries do this via the BIS web interface, newer BlackBerries have an app that works right from the phone) and set up a new email filter in whichever email account Google Voice is forwarding your SMS messages to.
  4. When Google forwards an SMS message to your email, the subject line contains “[SMS]” followed by the sender’s name (if their name and number is entered into your contacts). Edit your new filter to catch any message with “[SMS]” in the subject. Then select “Forward messages to the device” and “Level 1 notification.” The key here is to set up a rule that grabs all email messages coming from Google Voice and forwards them to your BlackBerry as a “Level 1″ message. This allows you to differentiate your text messages and voicemail notifications coming from Google Voice from all the other emails that flood your inbox throughout the day.
  5. Edit your BlackBerry profile settings to choose a distinct sound/alert/ringtone for Level 1 messages. Select something that you want to hear every time you get a new text message or voicemail notification.
  6. Distribute your new Google Voice number to all your friends and family. Explain that they can keep calling you on your old number, or they can call you on your new Google Voice number (assuming you set up your cell as a forwarding phone), but if they want to text you, they’ll have to use your new Google number. This may confuse some non-technical types, so just tell them you got a new cell number and give them your Google Voice number if they’re confused.
  7. Start receiving text messages free of charge! Reply in kind by simply replying to the SMS forwarding email, or launching your Google Voice app or the Google Voice web interface and replying.
  8. Call up your cellular provider and tell them to shove their text messages where the sun don’t shine. If you don’t specifically tell them to block all incoming text messages, they’ll just cancel whatever texting plan you currently have (if you have one) and charge you per individual incoming/outgoing message.

I’ve been doing this for several months now, and it works without a hitch! Text messaging at the rates charged by commercial carriers is outrageously expensive. 160-character messages use almost no bandwidth — costing cellular providers next to nothing to route them — yet if you do the math, you are paying upwards of $1,300 per megabyte for the privilege of communicating in such a way that actually frees up carrier capacity by keeping you off the phone. After all, a few bytes of data uses a lot less bandwidth and a lot less spectrum than a voice channel used during a cellular telephone call would.

So, give yourself the gift you’ve always wanted — and help show the cellular providers in this country that we are no longer willing to spend $1,300 per megabyte for the privilege of sending text messages.