BEHOLD!!! My arduino can solve the Tower of Hanoi! This is pretty much my first ever programming attempt so of course most of it is copy-pasta from here. Code after the jump. Read more »
Arduino and Tower of Hanoi
Posted in Computing, Hacking with tags arduino, Hacking, programming on 2009/10/17 by Alex50 Banned Books I Should Read
Posted in News on 2009/09/29 by AlexOriginally written by Britney Wilkins and copied here as a backup.
I have read some of these and they are quite simply some of the better pieces of literature out there. Can’t wait to read the rest! And now with the article.
As long as there have been books, there have been people opposed to what is said in some of those books. Authors who challenge the accepted norms in their literature are often the target of angry people who do not understand or appreciate their literature. The following books are excellent examples of great literature that has become banned or challenged in an attempt to shield the public from what some see as inappropriate.
Oil the noisy MacBook fans!
Posted in News on 2009/08/16 by AlexWhen I first got my Mac way back in September of last year it was very quiet. So I played some games and got the thing real hot. After several months of this abuse the fans slowly became louder and louder until I couldn’t sleep anymore. Literally! So I brought the 17 inch slab of aluminum back to West-Edmonton mall and had the Apple store install new fans. All was quiet again… For a few months.
Now being a perfectionist I refuse to put up with any defect. This fan issue came back with a vengeance! I was pissed. Now the 90 day warranty is waaay long gone and I didn’t trust Apple to fix the fans even if I paid for it. No, I think they would probably charge the $100 for new fans that have the exact same defect – not being perfectly engineered for continuous flawless operation. Nothing is engineered properly these days.
So I took matters into my own hands. I dismantled the laptop, then the fans. First note, no dust. I blew them out recently so I know it’s not dust collecting unevenly causing harmonic imbalance in two fans. Upon inspection of the shafts and bearings, I noticed that they were too dry. So a big drop of full synthetic 5W-30 motor oil in each axle was delivered and then I closed the fans back up. I spun them with compressed air and noticed that I couldn’t hear or feel them spinning at 10 thousand RPM. Marvelous!
If your MacBook Pro sounds like a lawnmower, use a set of jewelers screw drivers to take the thing apart and oil the fans. It will sound like you broke the fans because you won’t hear anything. Not even acceptable levels of humming or whirring at 5000 RPM. Totally quiet, but the rush of air is proof that they are in fact spinning.
Hacking Securom with UNIX
Posted in Computing, Hacking, Linux, News, Security with tags awesome, Hacking, OSX, Security, UNIX on 2009/07/18 by AlexI found myself in a situation: Securom error 1000. Or, “we don’t like you because you don’t fit our corporate model of the ideal consumer.”
Disclaimer: This is a lesson in overcoming corrupt read-only media.
I wanted to install a piece of software that didn’t like my particular set of software installed. More specifically, I was having trouble installing Oblivion GOTY because the Securom protection doesn’t like that I run Windows virtually within OSX with Parallels. Or maybe it’s the disc emulator software installation. However the case, this post is how I circumvented that difficulty using UNIX WIZARDRY and a patched setup file. Users win every time.
Television!
Posted in Computing, News, Style, sweet with tags 42lg70, awesome, fun, tv on 2009/01/09 by AlexI purchased a television with my girlfriend! The wonderous 42LG70!
Pics on my Flickr page.
MacBook! Again!
Posted in Computing, News, Security, rant with tags Apple, Fanboi, MacBook Pro, Mactard, Praise on 2008/11/25 by AlexWell it arrived, and I didn’t have to pay any duty! So I looked into how Apple did this… Turns out they ship to their warehouse in Ontario, repackage and ship again to the consumer. Clever…
Anyways, really, I am never using a Windows machine again if I have the choice. For work, we have no choice. But I can’t see any reason anybody would actually use Windows machines in their spare time. They are great for learning all the shitty things about personal computing, which is good if you’re in the business of fixing peoples shitty Windows computers. Microsoft really has created a million jobs in that respect. They even enabled countless other businesses, like antivirus and malware protection.
To those that say Macs can’t game, well I’ve been playing Call of Duty 2 and 4, Battlefield 2142, The Sims 2 and some others on my Mac, in OSX. I also installed Vista on my Mac. Vista runs awesome on a Mac. Why can’t Dell or HP make a machine that can run Vista?
Even the graphics are amazing. The screen is sweet, the colors rock. Looking at my Dells is embarrassing now.
MS Office 2008 is available for Mac if you’re too stoned to use Pages – which is by the way, fucking fabulous. I’ve never seen a more professional or easy to use word processing program.
Price. People say Macs are expensive. I went to Dell and priced out a system with the same numbers. Also, since it’s Windows you need all the Antivirus and security software you can find. Don’t forget a disaster recovery program. And what do you find? A Dell is more expensive than a MacBook pro. And it includes Windows. The only way I use Windows is if I’m getting paid to do it.
I’ll post pictures soon.
DRM Sucks
Posted in Computing, News, Security, rant with tags drm, stupid on 2008/11/24 by AlexOkay, as a nerd I read countless articles on just about any topic, including DRM.
I don’t understand DRM. Who does it benefit? What is the return on investment? As a business leader, you’d think the corporate big-wig types would think about this little detail when spending billions trying to implement it. Read more »
Vanilla
Posted in food, rant, sweet with tags boring, food, hisotry, speech, vanilla on 2008/11/10 by AlexThis is a little speech I wrote for Toastmasters. It’s about the totally awesome and unboring flavour of Vanilla.
Read more »
MacBook!
Posted in News on 2008/10/30 by AlexThere comes a time in life when you must trade in the toys of your youth for toys of adulthood. I have been using dinky PCs and laptops built for Windows for way too long. I must accept that I am a grown up and it’s time for a serious computer.
I purchased a MacBook Pro. Yes, the new unibody kind. It should be here next week. However, it is shipping from China via UPS. I didn’t get any choice in the shipper, I didn’t know it was going to be UPS. Had I known that, I would have bought a Dell.
UPS holds your package hostage demanding a ransom they call a “brokerage fee”. You don’t find out about it until your package has arrived. Usually the brokerage fee is a significant percentage of the original purchase price.
