The Computer Zone

I thought it’d be fun to share with you guys some of the reasons I started blogging. Now, I’m a fairly recent contestant in the blogosphere. I started back in August and haven’t looked back since. I’ve made a number of errors, I’d change a number of things but I must say its been a fun ride so far. Here are ten reason why I started blogging.

1. I was bored at work
   Over the summer I worked at Rogers Media and I was completely bored out of my skull. There were days where I wouldn’t have anything to do, so instead of just sitting around I decided to be more productive and do something
2. I wanted to learn something
   This may sound a little weird but I actually started blogging because I wanted to learn PHP and HTML. I though it’d be good to code my own blog.
3. I wanted to be heard
   This is probably the biggest reason why I started blogging. I had things to say and I wanted people to hear it While I’m not sure if this has happened I know a few people have heard me.
4. I wanted to make money
   While I hadn’t blogged before I was on the internet a lot and I had heard that a few people were making a lot of money doing this. Being a university student, I’m always looking for different ways to make money so I thought I’d try.
5. My friend told me to
   My friend Alex was probably the most influential person in my early blogging months. He was the one that told me about wordpress and he was also the one that said I should learn PHP and such. If it wasn’t for him I wouldn’t be blogging.
6. I’m a computer nerd
   I enjoy being on my computer. I like surfing the web, writing computer programs and playing games. Blogging was just an extension of what I already did so it was fun.
7. Proving I’m an expert
   While this may sound a little conceited my first blog was a blog about the C Programming language. I wanted to prove that I knew my stuff and it was a great indicator of how much I actually know. Even with this blog I enjoy showing that I do know a little about blogging.
8. To inflate my ego
   Comments are awesome. Every time I get a comment my face lights up and I’m happy. This may sound a little loserish but it’s true. Blogging makes me feel good because I see that people are reading my stuff and some even like it
9. To get connected
   Before I started blogging I was reading a lot of blogs and I thought that starting my own was definitely a good way to get connected in the blogosphere. I was certainly right on that point.
10. To write lists like this
    Honestly, this has been my dream To write 10 lists and share them with the world. Seriously, I just couldn’t think of a 10th reason.

Those are the reasons why I started blogging and I’d really like to hear why you started. What were the main reasons why you started blogging?

One of the constants in this world is the fact that technology will change, and it will change quickly. The average lifespan of a computer these days is between 2 to 5 years. Since technology is changing so quickly this equates to a lot of garbage from your old computers. Here are a few ideas of what you can do with your old computers instead of sending them to the garbage dump.

1. Create a Server
If you’re into web development or gaming you could turn your old computer into a server. The easiest way to do this would be to install a server OS and possibly buy a few new parts to make it run a little quicker. After this connect it to the internet and away you go. Here are a few tips on setting up your own server.

2. Play Multiplayer Games
Get a family member or friend playing along with you on your favourite multiplayer games. Make sure that your old computer can handle whatever games you’re wanting to play before getting the other person. Most web-based games should work fine on your old system.

3. Install a Different Operating System
Here’s your chance to get to know a different OS. If you’re a Windows person you could install a version of Linux on your old machine. Linux supports a wide range of older hardware. Debian Linux is well suited to slower machines, and it is also friendly and well documented enough for beginners. If you’re a Mac person you could try out Windows XP, or maybe even Windows 98 (old school).

4. Donate Your Old Computer
If you really have no use for your old machine, call your local school or school district and see if they want it. Many districts have minimum donation standards, so be sure to ask. Some PC makers have their own donation programs. Gateway buyers can request a donation form, which, when validated by a recycling center or charity group, entitles them to discounts on future purchases. This will get the computer out of your hands and will help someone out (maybe even giving you a little cash).

5. Turn it into an Aquarium
Lately people have been turning their old CRT monitors into really cool aquariums. Basically you take a perfectly fine but old Cathode Ray Tube monitor, strip it of all of its parts (except for the glass at the front), make it so it doesn’t leak and fill it with a plethora of colourful fish. The upside of this is that you get a really cool aquarium in your house, the problem is with the construction. Unless you build a box and place it inside the monitor, making it leak proof can be a very hard job.

6. Create a media center
Turn your old computer into a media center. Large hard drives are becoming cheaper and cheaper. If you want to upgrade to a new computer but don’t want to leave your old computer in the dust you could just slap in a few large hard drives and turn it into a repository for all of your media. Using Windows XP Media Center you can hook up your TV to your old computer and watch all of the movies you’ve “bought legally” and all of the music files that you’ve downloaded bought.

7. Create a Render Farm
If you’re into editing videos or graphics this will mean more than to your everyday user. A render farm is basically a cluster of computers that are used for the purposes of rendering graphics and/or video. If you had 5 old computers you could network them together and render your videos roughly 5x faster than before. While the cost of electricity, the excess heat caused from having this many computers, and the extra room needed might make you wary of having this many computers, the benefits can be greatly than the costs. Frantic Films provides a great suite of software for your render farm.

8. Take it apart
If you really want to know how a computer works you could take it apart. I’ve taken apart five or six old computers and it really helps you understand how a computer works. Did you ever wonder how a CPU is connected to a motherboard? Are you not sure how to remove a hard drive? Do you want to practice inserting and removing RAM modules? An older computer is an excellent practice PC for maintenance and upgrades.

9. Make an office mascot
This one might seem silly/stupid to some people but I’m being totally serious. During those long days of compiling your code why not make an office mascot out of your old computer. You could dress it up, attach things to it, maybe even attach it to an RC car and have it zoom around. Get create and I’m sure you’ll have your co-workers laughing at you in no time (maybe they’ll help create it).

10. Drop it from a high building
This is my personal favourite but shouldn’t be done without adult supervision. Now of course if you are an adult go right ahead! Dropping your old computer from a high building can have extremely satisfying results. While this might not be the most environmentally friendly alternative it can provide extremely exciting results as it slams into the earth and smashes into a million pieces. To prep the crash area make sure there is no one standing there. Then drop away and watch it fall to its inevitable grave.

Continuing on with my Halloween theme, here’s a list of ten reasons why Halloween is the best holiday of the year.

1. You’re allowed to scare little children and you won’t get any dirty looks for it.
2. You don’t have to see your relatives.
3. It’s perfectly alright to indulge your fantasies of dressing up in costumes.
4. People give you free candy.
5. You can destroy pumpkins, egg peoples houses, and do other mischievous things and it’s all apart of the spirit of the holiday.
6. It’s the only time you can go to school in a costume (unless its for a project).
7. You can use the excuse “I ate too much candy” for why you’re sick and it won’t seem weird.
8. You don’t have to pretend that you like the gift your Aunt gave you.
9. You can allow your true inner geek out with a geeky costume and you won’t get beat up for it
10. Halloween just sounds better than any other holiday.

This has been the second post about Halloween. It’s all apart of an experiment on capturing seasonal search traffic. So far, the experiment has gone really well, I’ll have a wrap-up post on it in a few days.

If you have any other reasons why Halloween is the best holiday (or reasons why its not) feel free to comment below.

Have you got a costume for Halloween yet? With it being only four days away many people are scrambling around for a costume to wear, but as the days get fewer the number of good costumes available shrinks. Here are a few geeky ideas for Halloween costumes:

1. You and your family could dress up as the entire iPod family.
2. Get rid of all of the ghosts in the neighbourhood in your dog up as Darth Vader or as Yoda.
3. Why not be the favourite geek toy, a Rubik’s Cube.
4. For all those programmers out there you could be the most used character: the semicolon.
5. To make sure people aren’t drinking at the Halloween party you could be a Breathalyzer.
6. For all those Home Star Runner fans you could be Strongbad.
7. If you’re a fan of digg you could be a digg counter.
8. With the craze of the Transformers, you could dress up as your favourite Transformer.
9. Why not be a graphing calculator.
10. Last but not least, you could dress up as a nerd.

Whatever you dress up as this Halloween, have a great time and be safe.

Continuing the series “The 10 List” I thought I would post about two of the things I enjoy in life: Gadgets and Camping. Now a lot of people say that the two don’t go together, they say things like “You go camping to enjoy nature and you can’t do that with technology” but I would have to disagree. Camping is way more fun when you have awesome gadgets. Here is a list of 10 gadgets that I feel are essential for any camping trip

1. Reactor Solar Computer Backpack
The first gadget in the list is the Reactor Solar Computer Backpack. This backpack features a set of solar panels that, sun permitting, charge an internal battery so that you can keep all of your devices charged. Inside you’ll be able to fit your Mp3 player, Laptop, and other gadgets in padded sleeves. There are a number of useful adapters including: USB adapter, AC adapter, 4 rechargeable batteries, solar panel, power box and 4 cell phone adapters.

Pros:
• Lots of different adapters to charge all of your equipment.
• Lightweight product with a lot of room to fit everythig you need.
• Inexpensive when it comes to Solar Paneled backpacks

Cons:
• Laptop sleeve only fits laptops with a 15.4″ screen or smaller.
• Not the most stylish product you’ll see, but hey! you’re camping.

2. Eureka! N!ergy 1310
The Eureka N!ergy 1310 tent is a large 10 person tent that can provide a great living place for you and your family (and maybe another family as well!). This tent includes the E! Power system which basically lets you enjoy your favorite small appliances and accessories while you camp. N!ergy tents are prewired, so there are no extra steps during set-up. The wiring system is safe and unobtrusive, and each outlet is illuminated, allowing it to double as a nightlight. At $289.90 and 34lbs. this tent is a great deal.

Pros:
• You can power up all of your devices by plugging them into the included outlets.
• The tent is fairly cheap (for a 10person tent) and not that heavy. You wouldn’t want to go hiking with this though.

Cons:
• Most of the accessories (the power pack, fan, light, etc…) have to be bought separately.
• It’s a lot of tent to have if you only have a small family.

3. Wenger Swiss Army Knife
When you go into the woods you need a knife that can do a lot of different things. From cutting your nails to cutting through wood to cutting a cigar this Swiss Army knife can do everything. At £499.95 it should also do your taxes. This gadget definitely isn’t for the frugal people, but you get what you pay for. It’s packed with over 85 fully functional implements (but is said to have over 100, they just can’t find the other 15). Here’s list of things that this knife has: seven blades, three types of pliers and seemingly countless screwdrivers, saws and wrenches. There’s even a battery operated torch and a laser pointer with a 300ft range. It repairs golf divots and has a doodah that magnifies mineral crystals. It also has a tyre-tread gauge, signal whistle and cigar-cutter.

Pros:
• Whatever you need this thing has it.

Cons:
• It’s very expensive.
• It’s very large, measuring almost 9 inches in width.

4. First Alert Eternal Flashlight Deluxe
I included this gadget in for all the Science geeks out there. This flashlight uses a strong permanent magnet that can freely slide up and down a tube, passing through a coil of wire as it does. Shaking the flashlight will charge a capacitor or a rechargeable battery that supplies a current to a light source, typically a light-emitting diode or, more rarely, an incandescent light bulb. Now for those that don’t understand that (I don’t really), basically you shake the flashlight for a 30 seconds and then you have light for up to 10 minutes.

Pros:
• No batteries needed.
• Super-Bright LED light
• At $5.95 its cheap.

Cons:
• It does take manual labor to produce a light.

5. The Ring Thing
When people think of camping trip one alcoholic beverage comes to mind, beer. Now a lot of people think beer tastes better in bottles so unless you want to shop around for twist off bottle caps you really need to carry a bottle opener. What’s more fashionable than a bottle opener ring! With the Ring Thing you can have the best of two worlds: fashion and beer.

Pros:
• Fashionable.
• You can finally open your beer w/out a large opener.
• At $7.99 its cheap.

Cons:
• Some people may not like the look of it.

6. LG LPA-735
Whether your on the road or already settled into your campsite a portable DVD player can always come in handy. LG did a great job with the LPA-735 including multi Format Playability: DVD-Video, DivX, XviD, DVD-RW/-R, DVD+RW/+R, CD-Audio, CD-R/RW, SVCD, VCD, MP3, WMA, JPEG. With an advertised 3.5 hour playback you can watch approximately two movies before you need a charge. LG also included two headphone jacks for when the kids want to watch it in the back of the car. At a price of $128.44 it’s fairly inexpensive.

Pros:
• Fairly inexpensive at $128.44.
• Plays DVDs, DivX, XviD, DVD-+RW’s and more.
• Lightweight at only 742g

Cons:
• The white colour may get a little dirty being outside.
• Could impede only family time and roasting marshmallows on a campfire.

7. Mosquito Free
There’s nothing more annoying than mosquitoes. When you’re enjoying a nice fire (or your portable DVD player) you don’t want to worry about those pesky bugs that like to bite you. Mosquito Free uses a combination of CO2, heat, and moisture to lure mosquitoes in. When the mosquitoes are drawn to the unit, a fan pulls them into a catch chamber where they are collected and dehydrated. This machine will let you enjoy the nights without annoying bug bites.

Pros:
• No more mosquitoes!
• You don’t need to buy bug spray (you won’t smell).

Cons:
• It would be annoying to carry around.
• $119.99 seems a little expensive considering you can get bug spray for under $5.

8. USB Camping Lamp with FM Radio
When you’re sitting around in the dark you’re going to need some light. What’s better than having a light that plugs into a USB port? Well a light and a FM radio that plugs into a USB port. This light can be powered by either a USB port of 3x AA batteries. The FM frequency range is 88 ~ 108MHz and it includes 1 headphone jack. You don’t have a USB port you say? Well scroll down to number 9 and use to one included there.

Pros:
• You get a light and a radio in one.
• USB or battery powered.
• It’s only $12!!!.

Cons:
• If you’re camping you probably won’t be able to find a FM station.
• The device looks a little cheap (and it is for only $12).

9. MEDION UMPC The Medion UMPC gives you a small lightweight ultra mobile personal computer. It includes Windows Vista™ Home Premium, VIA C7-M™ 770 ULV processor (1.0 GHz, 400 MHz FSB), 30 GB hard disc, and 768 MB DDRII RAM memory. This pc will be able to power your Lamp / Radio featured in #8 as well as let you play a game of chess. At $999.00 it’s not that expensive either.

Pros:
• It’s one small computer.
• Only $999.

Cons:
• You’re not going to be able to play the latest games.
• It’s definitely not the fastest computer out there.

10. GSP 1600 Satellite Phone
If you’re doing any back-country camping your cellphone might not work. Whether you need to keep in touch with the office or just want a phone in case something happens you’ll need a satellite phone and the GSP 1600 is just that. With a long battery life ( 3.75 hours talk time, 19 hours standby time) and great features like: Battery Meter, Signal Strength Indicator,and Voice Mail Notification this phone has it all. Unfortunately at $549.00 (not including a plan) its very expensive. You’ll only need this if you’re out in the woods constantly for the rest of your life

Pros:
• You can talk almost anywhere in the world.
• The phone is rugged and has a lot of features.

Cons:
• It’s expensive, $549 for the phone and at least $100/month for coverage.

You’re a geek if:

1. You understand the following joke: “There are only 10 types of people in the world: Those who understand binary and those who don’t
2. You reformat your computer as a Saturday night activity.
3. You have ever mistakenly given out your IP address instead of your phone number.
4. You have competitions with your friends on who can calculate PI to the highest precision.
5. You meet all of your girlfriends / boyfriends at LAN parties.
6. You can quote anything in binary.
7. A level 70 Night Elf in Tier 6 Raid Gear gets you excited.
8. Your computer setup costs more than your car (assuming you have a car).
9. You can write a program to output “Hello World!” faster than you can write it on paper.
10. You’re more fluent in any programming language than English (or your native Language).

If any of these apply to you then you might be a geek I know I am.