Category: geek stuff

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Wii-tastic

I saw this link at a Wii “fanboy” site and just had to mention it… Apparently, the Wii has sold 5 million units world wide since its release last November (so, approximately 3 months). That calculates out to one console sold every 2 seconds!!! In the other console’s lifetimes, the Xbox 360 has sold 9.3 million (in 1 year and 3 months…) and the PS3 has sold 1.9 million (in 3 months). That also represents a net profit for Nintendo of ~$400m (assuming that it costs ~$158 to make a Wii, then sell it for $250, while the retailer gets $12.50/unit) while Microsoft and Sony are losing money in making their systems.

So yeah, the crazy thing is that the Wii is still so hard to find, as I mentioned in an earlier post…

For the record, I’m getting pretty good at Wii Sports, and I’ve got Super Mario Bros. (NES) and Mario Kart 64 (N64) downloaded to the machine…about ready to buy another Wii game to make use of the controller(s), though… Any suggestions?

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So three months later…

…I finally scored a Wii… I got up at 5:30 am Sunday morning, headed out to a Target north of Saint Louis in Jennings, MO, and read a book for a few hours until the store opened at 8:00. Only one other car showed up early (around 6:30 am), and otherwise, other people showed up within 15 min of the store opening. Anyway, I “easily” got one…that Target was only alotted 8 units, while the Florissant one was given 14 (and the people who couldn’t get one at Florissant had to come to Jennings…). So I grabbed an extra controller while I was there and headed home… They were sold out by 8:08 am… One per minute…

Sadly, however, this week is rapidly getting crazy and I have no clue when I’ll really get to spend “quality time” with the Wii… We got to play for a good 2 hrs yesterday, but I won’t get to play much tonight ’cause I have a brief presentation tomorrow (that I’m not prepared for…), and I have an exam next Monday…but since Mardi Gras is this weekend in Soulard, I’m not going to get much studying done over the weekend, so I’ll have to get it all done this week…

Anyway, I’m glad I finally got my new toy… Pity I suck horribly at Wii Golf and Wii Tennis… 😛

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Chekov for Majority Whip!

From tonight’s episode of “The Daily Show”:

“This President has listened to some people, the so-called “Vulcans” in the White House, the ideologues. But you know, unlike the Vulcans of Star Trek who made decisions based on logic and fact, these guys make it based on ideology. These aren’t Vulcans; there are Klingons in the White House…But unlike the real Klingons of Star Trek, these Klingons have never fought a battle of their own. Don’t let faux Klingons send real Americans to war!”

— Rep. David Wu, (D) – Oregon

You know, I very much enjoy Star Trek analogies, but seriously…this is the floor of the House of Representatives. Even I wouldn’t try that…and to come from a Democrat, no less…not helping us keep the majority, yo…

For the record, Jon Stewart then followed up the blurb by interviewing Leonard Nimoy (“Spock”) and George Takei (“Sulu”) about it, and it was quite hilarious…

You can watch the video here!

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Well, that was interesting…

So, the few of you who check this blog occasionally may have noticed that it wasn’t there for a few days… Here’s the story:

I had Xgl/Compiz installed on my Linux box. When it’s running, it gives Unreal Tournament 2k4 graphics problems, so I decided to remove it. While removing it, I ran into various issues such that I figured it’d just be easier to reinstall Linux, instead of fight with the removal of the program… So, I back up the WordPress database(s) to my laptop, move over the pertinent files to a different hard drive on my desktop, and begin the format. No big deal. Done it many times before.

I walk out to the living room and look at my laptop. It has lovely colored bars running up and down the screen. This isn’t normal, of course… It actually happened earlier in the day, again while I wasn’t looking at it and not really doing anything…but earlier, it restarted and worked fine…this time, not so much… I don’t know if the screen saver somehow triggered the problem (unlikely…) or what, but it went nuts…

Anyway, I tried turning it off and on…no help…  It wouldn’t even show the BIOS screen, let alone get to Windows… I tried plugging it in to my desktop’s monitor to see if it’s just the laptop LCD. No dice. Soooooooooooo…that didn’t sound good…and to make matters worse, some of my music library wasn’t backed up to my Linux box (the music from iTunes) and the most recent WordPress databases for the website(s) were on it as well. Not cool.

So, I pull the hard drive out of the laptop, only to find that it doesn’t have a standard IDE connection…thus, I can’t just open ‘er up on the Linux box and pull files off. Thankfully, there are adaptors that exist to convert a 2.5″ laptop hard drive to a 3.5″ desktop hard drive. I ordered one from Newegg, got it working, and pulled the files off. (Note: that also rules out the hard drive as being a problem for the laptop).

Soooooooooooooooooooooo, to make a long story short(er), the laptop has some issues but I’ve got all the data off of it and my desktop works just fine. Thankfully, the laptop still has a year left on its warranty (w00t!), so I’m going to take it by a repair place tomorrow and will hopefully have it back by Christmas. If it isn’t the LCD screen and isn’t the hard drive, then I’m afraid the problem lies somewhere on the motherboard…and that could take awhile to fix…who knows…

At least it’s under warranty…  If you’re in the market for a laptop that’s worth anywhere near $1000, please get a warranty!!!  It’s worth it!!

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Coolest ever!!!

Slashdot ran a blurb about an article in Science magazine titled “Viral Fossil Brought Back to Life.” So yeah, I just had to read it…

So, in the blurb (very easy to read…don’t be put off by science-i-ness…), the researchers in France essentially took DNA common to humans that they knew to be viral in origin. For those that don’t know, some viruses act by “implanting” themselves in our genome so they can get their proteins produced by our own cells. So, it stands to reason that over the years, we’ve picked up a few fragments in our own genome from a variety of viruses.

Well, this group found a viral section of our genome, “repaired” it by comparing the same sequence amongst many people to compare them and see which parts are most common, and then generated the genome. How cool is that!??! Not only are there ancient viruses in our DNA, but we can re-activate them!!!

For anyone that still had doubts on evolution…I trust they are dashed aside… 😛

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I, Borg…

So, I was sitting in class this morning and we were learning about the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous system(s). Overall, these are part of the autonomic nervous system, which includes the parts of the body that are not under our control, including the heart and the lungs. Generally, the circuitry is relatively simple in concept, yet does include some more complicated features. As in, depending on the system, the sympathetic side of the system will be excitatory (as in, turn “on”) while the parasympathetic will be inhibitory (as in, turn “off”).

My word choice of “circuitry” was on purpose, of course, and that brings me to the point of the posting… I find it rather interesting how I developed interests in two radically different things that are completely related in function: computers and the brain. I’ve been interested in all things “tech” for many a year now, building new computers, installing alternative operating systems, etc…and now I’ve begun a graduate school journey largely focusing on the central nervous system and its function within the body. Just as computers talk in “1s” and “0s” (i.e. binary), the nervous system works very similarly where connections are either made or not made, allowing for basic functions like movement and memory.

I guess I just don’t know whether my interest in these seemingly disparate subjects came from. Was I first fascinated by computer circuits or neuronal circuits? Or, was my interest in some facet inherent to both? Or, on a larger scale, is this how all our interests and hobbies come together? Do people get interested in one subject and then learn about a related one…or do they get interested in some concept that ends up leading to the two different subject areas?

…or maybe this is just a stupid question… Regardless, these are thoughts I had in class and figured I’d share them… 😛

P.S. The subject heading is, of course, a Star Trek reference, where the “Borg” are a synthetic race of cyborgs representing the perfect marriage of organic life and machine. The more I learn about the nervous system, the more you realize that Man and Machine are more similar than we would otherwise realize…

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…because Andy S. decreed it…

…here is the conversation we just had… He wanted to make it his away message tonight, but it wouldn’t fit…so this is for my man, Andy S.:

(23:03:08) milkman620: Damn, Walt had the Ninja Turtles sewer playset…
(23:03:14) milkman620: Did you see the new Ninja Turtles movie trailer?
(23:03:22) ASchmelzle13: lol no
(23:03:30) ASchmelzle13: but the original is on my netflix list right now
(23:03:33) ASchmelzle13: and thats serious
(23:03:33) milkman620: Dude, it rules…
(23:03:37) milkman620: Hahahaha…I own it…
(23:03:37) ASchmelzle13: haha
(23:03:41) milkman620: …and TMNT II…
(23:03:44) ASchmelzle13: nerd.
(23:03:46) ASchmelzle13: im jealous
(23:03:46) milkman620: …I refuse to get III, though…
(23:03:51) ASchmelzle13: haha
(23:04:04) milkman620: Seriously, when you get a chance, go by Quicktime to see the new movie trailer…
(23:04:13) ASchmelzle13: god we are cool
(23:04:16) milkman620: It’s all computer generated, and written by the guys who wrote the original comic…
(23:04:19) ASchmelzle13: but i will
(23:04:28) ASchmelzle13: and im putting this conversation in my away message

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Mmmm, toys…

Well, I’m about ready to purchase that new computer system in the next few weeks… I already got a new LCD monitor for a whopping $105, after rebate, so I’m well on my way… But for now, here’s the system I have speced out:

I was hoping I didn’t need a video card, as many nForce motherboards have one integrated (and for my Linux purposes, I don’t need anything crazy with regards to gaming), but this board apparently doesn’t have one, so I’m adding on a card… Total, the cost comes up to around $700 once you figure in shipping, etc…

Not too bad, you think? I’d actually like some video card suggestions… Not that I really want to play games much, but I’d kinda like to try getting UT2004 running under Linux, since a). there are Linux versions available, and b). I can run it in 64-bit mode. I’d like to stick with nVidia because their Linux drivers are much, much better than ATi’s…but I’m thinking that I could get a decent GeForce card of the previous generation (6 series) for the same price as a budget GeForce of the current one (7 series). So yeah, that’s just one on Newegg right now, but lemme know if you know of something better…

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Hell freezes over…

1). Dell has officially decided to start using AMD chips in their desktop line of PCs beginning as early as next month. Honestly, I’ve had three major reasons for hating Dell over the past few years: reliance on only Windows, reliance on only Intel, and the fact that their systems suck because of both. So yeah, hopefully by adding AMD, they’ll improve the quality of their systems and give AMD a boost in the process.

2). Due to the new planet-naming structure, if Pluto is to remain a planet, then other “celestial bodies” needed to be re-designated as planets, including an asteroid (Ceres) and even Pluto’s moon, Charon. Well, apparently, if Charon is to be added, then that means that our own moon would count as a planet, as well.

Anyway, we’re off to Columbia a little later today…just figured I’d post a bit…