Posted by Daniel
on May 16, 2008
As a sports fan and a non-cable tv subscriber I’m left with fewer options for keeping up with sports. ESPN has done a good job with their site and using video but they don’t cover just what I want and I get annoyed wading through baseball stuff that I don’t care about. So, being a computer geek I’ve figured out a better setup for myself and I thought I would share it with you.
My setup starts with Miro which is a free internet tv/video player. It lets you subscribe to video rss feeds and it will download the videos as they come out. The sports leagues I am into(NBA, Euroleague and MLS) have YouTube channels(NBA, Euroleague and MLS) so I subscribed to the feeds for them(NBA, Euroleague and MLS) and presto, I get video highlights of just the stuff I want to see. Enjoy
Posted by Daniel
on March 10, 2008
Over at Organic Jesus awhile ago(site is now dormant) Brandon Rhodes did a series talking about The Age of Less(here, here, here and here). The basic idea is that shifting forces in the global economy and us hitting peak oil will bring to an end our current age of prosperity. No more will we be able to purchase all kinds of cheap stuff. It will be an Age of Less. His focus is on christians and the church(which is a worthwhile focus), but the principle applies throughout our country. Our current way of life is not sustainable.
World crude oil production has been slowly falling and unless it turns around 2005 will go down in history as the peak year. Besides oil, issues with the US dollar, the sub-prime housing crisis and the subsequent slowing US economy have kicked off the age for many in the US already. Welcome to the Age of Less.
Posted by Daniel
on December 01, 2007
With the hollywood writers striking and most TV shows about to cut their seasons short(or end prematurely, sorry Scrubs) you are probably needing some more entertainment options. Luckily for us groups of creative people want to fill that gap. Technology has gotten to the point where you can create quality content and distribute it on the web for pennies to the dollar of what it used to cost to create a TV show. A certain smart person has already mused about how this(combined with strikes) could put a hurting on the studios. Although some of the bigger networks are getting into the mix themselves. So, when you are tired of watching re-runs and want to check out some new entertainment options, check out these webshows:
If you know of other good ones leave a comment and let everyone know.
Update: Found a high quality show called Life From The Inside. Check it out.
Posted by Daniel
on October 23, 2007
I’ve been working on getting the Richmond Sports Blog up and running for a little while now. If you are interested in local Richmond sports I suggest that you check it out. It’s just getting started and will continue to improve, but no need to keep it secret any longer.
Posted by Daniel
on October 01, 2007
This is the greatest hard drive recovery story ever. 
Enjoy.
The administrative head at one of my clients had their hard drive crash last week. This person is the hub of everything they do, so it was important to recover everything. Luckily for me I had their profile syncing with the server and almost everything they had was saved. I overlooked that their Outlook’s data was not getting backup up(since corrected) and they didn’t have their email/contacts/calendar that were pretty important to the company… so I had to try to get it off the failed drive.
When the drive was powered on it would make a couple of loud clicks and then make a little buzz and would not respond at all. Seemed to be it setting off a SMART error and stopping. My brain took over from here and my logic went as follows:
- I know that when drives power up they spin all the way up to full speed and do a little diagnostic
- Most drives when they fail can be read at a slower speed
- If a hard drive is moving around then it won’t spin to it’s full speed
What did that lead me to do? There I was holding the drive in my right hand rocking it back and forth while I powered it on and it make some weird noises but it never got up to it’s full spinning speed… and it never set off the error. It showed up on the system and I was able to see the data. So while I kept up movement of the drive with my right hand I was able to use my left hand to browse on it and copy the files off. Once the copy finished I stopped the rocking motion and then the drive tried to get up to speed and failed again. Crazy and awesome!
