March 2007

You are currently browsing the monthly archive for March 2007.

Leo Laporte got me on Twitter

3/22/2007 in Blogging, Geek Stuff, Neat Stuff, TechTV by Elliot Lee | No comments

What’s Twitter, you ask? It’s a blog where you answer just one question, in 140 characters or less: “What are you doing?” People think it’s surprising that this is interesting and addicting. I don’t agree with them; it’s always been a fascination to see what other people are up to, and what’s better is that you can often join up with them or help them out. It’s a way of communication, a way to broadcast any short thoughts that happen to be in your mind at the moment. And it’s fast, easy, and free.

So who’s Leo Laporte?

Read the rest of this entry »

7 Police Cars and a Helicopter in Walnut

3/18/2007 in Family, Questions by Elliot Lee | 2 comments

Yesterday, we ran out towards Vons to pick up some French Bread… but we ran into seven police cars all around one area of that shopping center, with the police officers parked, and out of their cars, with their guns drawn. One was hiding behind a tree, while others were behind their cars. Also, there was a helicopter circling overhead… and it was there for the entire time we were walking. I didn’t have a real camera with me, but I snapped a few pics with my cell phone.

image002.jpg
The helicopter circling above our heads. Shot with a Nokia mobile phone.

Read the rest of this entry »

xkcd webcomic

3/18/2007 in Jokes, Sidenotes by Elliot Lee | No comments

I just found a webcomic called xkcd, and some of their strips are really funny. Here’s one I liked.

The Story of GeniusMaestro.com, a Dilbert Forum

3/17/2007 in Entertainment, Geek Stuff, Jokes by Elliot Lee | 2 comments

On April 12, 2003, I read this comic in my Daily Dilbert email. This was back in the days when I still used gengar56 as my handle, instead of present-day intelliot. This was also back in the golden age of GizmoBytes. My, how things have changed :)

geniusmaestro540.gif

Being the geek I am, I went and tried the domain name spelled correctly. Quite a few interesting things happened after that, so I felt I should log it here while it still exists. Otherwise, it’ll pass into the depths of time, never to be seen again.

Read the rest of this entry »

Is Global Warming Fake?

3/17/2007 in Blogging, Questions by Elliot Lee | 181 comments

Not everyone agrees with Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth. I’m currently watching a video on The Great Global Warming Swindle, and it’s certainly convincing. After all, climatologists need us to believe global warming is real in order to keep getting funding for research. Otherwise, it’s not a problem, and we can go on with our economic growth.

Here are some of my notes from watching the video. I haven’t verified whether this is all true, or to what extent it’s true, but this is from the video. But it’s really fascinating, so I’ll write about it. And this would be an intriguing topic to research in the future. Of course, the global warming scam, if it is one, is what makes it interesting.

Temperature is leading CO2 by about 800 years. CO2 is following temperature changes. How can it be that a higher temperature causes more CO2?

CO2 is a gas produced by all living things. We’re all made of carbon dioxide. Humans aren’t the main source. Volcanoes, animals and bacteria, dying vegetation, and the oceans produce a lot more. The ocean has a memory of temperature changes. Here’s the video… you can play/listen to it while you look over my own notes below.

Read the rest of this entry »

Which Wireless Network Are You On?

3/16/2007 in Computer Tips, Geek Stuff, Questions by Elliot Lee | No comments

You don’t really know which wireless network you’re connected to.

Wireless security is a very difficult thing. I was reminded of just how difficult it can be by an article I read in the Los Angeles Times today. I can name my network whatever I want. I can call it “Linksys”, “D-Link”, “USC Wireless”– even though my router isn’t any of those brands. All of my Internet traffic goes through my wireless router, and if I wanted to, I could easily log it at the router level. That means URLs and timestamps for sure, and for unsecure pages, maybe the content and submitted data, too. Let’s take a look at just why security is so difficult and what kinds of attacks “hackers” can pull.

Read the rest of this entry »

I want Windows Vista

3/15/2007 in Computer Tips by Elliot Lee | 1 comment

I read the Windows Secrets newsletter, and the past several issues have been about activation issues in Windows Vista. First, you can install the Windows Vista Upgrade on itself, so you don’t necessarily need to have a previous copy of Windows. (But who in the world doesn’t already have a Windows computer?) Now, you can keep using Windows Vista for as long as you want without activating it by using a simple command to keep extending the deadline out 30 days.

Read the rest of this entry »

Larry is another name for Lawrence (NT)

3/15/2007 in Sidenotes by Elliot Lee | No comments

Wow, I just realized that Larry => Lawrence.

Audio Cleaning with Audacity and The Levelator

3/15/2007 in Computer Tips, Geek Stuff, Neat Stuff by Elliot Lee | 2 comments

I was working on some very old video from a VHS tape when I discovered that the video and audio parts should be cleaned up separately. I was already using VirtualDub for the video part, so what about the audio? There are two great applications which both need to be used: Audacity and The Levelator.

My favorite audio editor is Audacity, and it’s excellent for recording and editing audio. Best of all, it’s free and open source, and it has an excellent Windows version. It’s exactly what I need. My only gripe is that it has its own audio format, so anytime you import audio, it takes the time to “import” it; and when you export, you actually need to choose your export format, whether WAV, MP3, or OGG, and do export processing– which can take some time.

Read the rest of this entry »

Add Filmstrip View to a Folder

3/12/2007 in Computer Tips, Geek Stuff by Elliot Lee | 4 comments

In Windows XP, there’s a Filmstrip view which I find to be very handy for viewing lots of photos or images at once. However, it isn’t always available. Sometimes, the option just doesn’t appear. This is because Windows, by default, will only allow certain folders designated as being for pictures to use this mode. Here’s how to enable it for any folder.

Read the rest of this entry »

« Older entries § Newer entries »