C-Cube/KITT Combined Workstation

When video editing, I often need to access online data, or I just get bored and want to surf the internet while a file is rendering.  So I set up the C-Cube and KITT (my laptop) next to each other, and for good measure I threw in a CRT display from an old computer.  I now effectively have three screens, so one can have my timeline, one can have files, and KITT's screen can be monitoring facebook for me.  Its a sweet setup, and makes me feel a little bit more like an evil genius.

Active Cooling

In labs recently, I've noticed that my goggles get fogged up during experiments.  While a normal person would just buy new goggles, my brain doesn't work properly I have the spirit of an inventor.  I went to Re-PC and bought a used CPU cooler and glued it on to my goggles.  Now I get a fresh breeze in my goggles, and they don't fog at all.  Now I just need to find a way to make them look less dorky.

Autonomy

I'm currently working on a fully autonomous robot designed to defeat humans.  Not actually defeat humans, but beat a robot controlled by a human.  So far its going well, the bot can defeat humans about 10% of the time.  Its a little bit scary, though.

Strange Thought

What if someone were to make a supercomputer out of an array of Ti-83s?  That might just be the most epic thing ever.  Of course, you'd need a monumental number of calculators, just to match the processing power of a modern desktop, you'd need approximately 500 calculators.  But imagine the glory of it: a warehouse sized room filled with rows and rows of server cabinets, each with stacks and stacks of TIs, each with several wires sticking out and flowing together like pythons toward a single central control.  A man sits at the console, and with all the flourish necessary for such an occasion, types out "Hello World!"

C-Cube Revision B

The C-Cube continues its quest towards becoming the ultimate computer.  This mod added an LG LightScribe drive, adding two new functionalities; LightScribe label writing, and DVD disc-to-disc burning.  Next stop: 1 GB video card.

Farewell

Today I posted the last sermon podcast of my career.  This podcast was my baby, it was the first real world project I had.  I started with an audio recorder, a computer, $35 and the blessing of the church.  Now, I have over thirty podcasts live on the internet, spreading the message of WSUU through iTunes, FeedBurner, and other RSS readers.  Unfortunately, with my current class schedule and my commitments to the UUA, I no longer have time to run the podcast myself.  So, I'm handing off the system.  It's good, because now the members of WSUU will get their podcasts on time, but it feels strange.

Speed Test

I got sick of Vista's CPU and RAM monitor recently, and got a new one.  Its called Speed Test.

It shows a graph of CPU usage over the last few seconds, allowing you to see trends.  It also tracks each core seperately, and gives a percentage of RAM used.  Its very compact, and unlike other CPU monitors I've used it doesn't spike the CPU each time it scans.

The Life and Lies of Comcast Cable Service

We recently switched to DSL from Cable.  I am never going back.

With Comcast, we supposedly had 12 Mbps of downspeed, while in reality we often struggled to stream low quality video.  With Qwest, we have 7 Mbps always.  We managed to stream an episode of The Office and a CNN video at the same time with no hiccups.  I haven't been able to test upstream yet, but I am confident that this is better as well.

However, we don't have any phone lines near where we normally have our router, so for now we have a monster of cables in our kitchen.  Also, our wireless is down.  Stupid Dell.