OMG!!! I wouldn't have wanted to be this guy after the show...?

I actually saw this when it first aired & had forgotten about it. I just stumbled across it again & the reactions of the guest & host Chris Pirillo (Tech TV/Call For Help)- are priceless...




Watch TechTV Blooper

...more great music from the Astralwerks label

Tech, music, music, tech....I'm into both lately. Actually, music & tech criss-cross as I convert CD's to MP3's & LP's to CD/MP3.

I've been a big fan of the Astralwerks record label for years now, & have gotten hooked on a lot of their artists. All unique- all fresh. They also offer a few retro artists, which rounds out their offerings very nicely.

I found Beth Orton's music after reading a review in the NY Times. From there, I began to "test drive" some of their other artists & found a lot to like & to keep me coming back. I don't want to be 80 & listening to the same old stuff I listened to earlier in my life. I still like all of my previous music, but tastes change over time.

At this point, I'm pretty much into new-jazz/chill/folk-rock. There are quite a few artists that defy a genre tag- most Astralwerk music falls into this catagory- & these are the ones I'm drawn to. Beth Orton, Turin Brakes, Gemma Hayes, Kings of Convenience, Sia, AIR (no, not the 1980's "Air Supply" ~ :^P). All good, all different from anything you'll hear on the top 40 stations.

Here's one from the group AIR called "Cherry Blossom Girl"...

Time to chill...

New Music I like- Sia video- "Breathe Me"

...if you happen to be a fan of the series "Six Feet Under", this is the video to Sia's song from the finale.

Sia also sings on the Zero 7 CD, Simple Things- which is a must-have chill CD to have in your collection...

Unfortunately this program that I'm experimenting with, which creates pop-up windows for videos, only works properly using Internet Explorer (ugh, I know!- :^P




Watch "Breathe Me"

Linspire Test-drive on the back burner (for now)...

Well, I never quite got the dial-up portion of Linspire to work. After a bit more digging, I see I'm not the only one with this issue. I have a netzero account but failed to get that to connect- which is a common problem in the Linspire forums.

It's hard to tell whether this is a fault of LS or my winmodem, at this point. I suppose I'll have to get my hands on a serial modem & give that a whirl at a later date.

I'm mainly dropping out of LS, on this test PC, as it's just not "beefy" enough to run the OS properly. At 600mhz & 256mb of PC100 RAM, I'm way below specs & waaaaay below performance. I'm also a little miffed at the excessively slow boot up time to the desktop.

I initially blamed the hardware specs for this, but after a Google of it, I find that it just boots very slow- for everyone. Really odd, too? I would think that an OS of this type & with the fine group it has working on it, it would be better in this regard.

The forums are fabulous with quick replies to my queries. Kudos for a wonderful & supportive user community.

Test Driving Linspire 5-0

...or attempting to, at any rate...

It took forever to install (which is not how I read it should go- from all of the glowing reviews) & now appears as if some settings aren't "sticking" & it has to redetect hardware on every startup. Sigh...Guess it wouldn't hurt to do a wipe & try again? Maybe it just doesn't like my machine?

Silverware Box PC Mod, Pt.3

Final result: how the finished PC looks on your desk. The box is rosewood & measures 15" x 11" x 3½". 

Silverware Box PC Mod, Pt.2

A close up view of the component layout & power/reset switches in place. The hard drive is velcroed to allow for a changeout whenever you desire a different OS... 

Silverware Box PC Mod

Building this "simple" mod turned out to be much harder than I had anticipated. The first hurdle was getting used to my new Dremel tool...Once that part was worked out, I then had to create the power & reset switches. I ended up utilizing a set of momentary on/off button switches from RadioShack. These were connected to the mainboard pins using bell wire superglued to open-ended jumpers. I soldered & then heatshrinked, the other end of the wire to the switches themselves.

The mainboard is the Epia 5000- a low power/low heat mini-itx board of roughly 7" square. It runs at 533mhz, 512 PC133 SDRAM, with onboard video, audio, LAN, & USB. Currently, the OS is BeatrIX Linux- which is fairly zippy considering the specs of the hardware. It's easily a nice email/surfing/MP3 player & even plays DVD's very well.

The power supply provides the outgoing air with one 80mm fan mounted underneath for intake. I installed an inline fan control to throttle the fan speed down for noise reduction purposes. I have a filter, over the fan, to help with dust intake.

I have no optical drive installed as I use a USB external for that~ I'm also hooked to a home LAN. I suppose you could replace the full-sized hard drive with a notebook drive & ditch the big drive in favor of an optical. However, I was trying to create a "stealth" PC that would be as quiet as it could be- & the racket from an optical, during seek times, would have defeated that purpose.

Comments?

Montreal Metro ride

Fun times on the Montreal metro subway. Growing up in "the woods" means my kids don't get to do a lot of this sort of thing- they were thrilled!

If you're interested in visiting Montreal & having easy access to everything, consider staying at the Gouverneur Hotel on St. Catherine St. You won't regret it~ it's Superb!

First time out

Here it goes- my very first attempt at a blog.

I have to say that the hardest part was choosing a name. I even Googled for help in naming my blog, but didn't find much on this topic.

I intend to blog about everything in my life- but it so happens that "tech" is a big part of it ~ so I went for that.

I'd love feedback, from others, on how to create & upkeep an interesting blog?

Let me know,

Tracy ;^)