During the course of the day I encounter lots of challenges, some of which take minutes to solve and others that take much longer. My goal for this section is to keep track of these challenges and their solutions. I will turn the longer ones into articles, while the shorter ones will stay as blog entries. You can expect topics to range from very specific programming challenges to broader topics like life.
Below is a list of the recent blog entries. You can also browse the blog by using the tags on the right side, or if you know what you are looking for then you can use the search box at the top right.
Oh man! There is more to this than I thought. Checkout DigiMatrix, this is a small barebone system by ASUS, very nice! Additionally MSI has it’s MEGA PC series. Basically these systems only need a processor, RAM and hard drive, everything else is there (including an S-Video out). Some of these barebones actually have Wi-Fi and FM built-in! Here is a link to newegg with the price for the DigiMatrix.
Now I am wondering if I should just get something like this :-/
Here is another very interesting project called LinuxBIOS. Basically this aims at replacing the BIOS on the motherbaord giving you control over what happens when the computer is booted from a cold start. Looks very interesting, this might be something that I will checkout once I have everything else solid for the DVR/PVR project.
Some people are wondering what I have been up to. Well, basically I have found a few new interests and still working on the details on how much time I want to spend on each. These new interest include an almost-daily workout, much more involving motorcycle rides, becoming more of a do-it-yourself person, and an uber active social life compared to the past few years. For instance a few weeks ago I changed the spark plugs and oil on my motorcycle for the first time! Also, last weekend I went to Home Depot to get stuff for building a cabinet for the stereo system and the DVD player, which I ended up giving up on because of the initial investment and it was not very practical since I do not have a garage (for cutting the wood, etc.).
Additionally this week I learned about shifting gears on the motorcycle without using the clutch. This is still a very new concept to me and I still trying to figure out if cluthless shifting is good or bad for the motorcycle. From the research the I have done so far I haven’t been able to find any one answers; there are people that are all for clutchless shifting claiming that this is one of the characteristics of real motorcycle riders, and then there are people that say "NO, THERE IS NOTHING WORST YOU CAN DO TO YOUR BIKE!!!!"
Hahaha… here is an example of what keeps me busy. I almost left this post and went to do some more research on clutchless shifting! 🙂 So other than that I have been spending a lot of time in the gym, I am up to the point where I can spend almost two hours without realizing. Which also means that probably the only thing that I will be doing when I get home is sleep! 🙂
Oh and then there is also the DVR/PVR (Digital Video Recorder/Personal Video Recorder) project that I have been doing research on. Currently I am trying to decide whether I should invest money in a good video card with an S-Video port or if I should just get a fairly small sized mini-ITX motherboard that has an in-built process (933MHz, I think) and a TV-Out port. The price difference is about $80 but I know in the near future I will have to upgrade the motherboard/processor because the 533MHz overclocked processor with 512MB RAM just isn’t going to cut it for a DVR/PVR.
I am starting to dislike T-Mobile. They have the best plans (even if you are out of their local coverage area) but I am starting to see a lot of problems with what they say and what they actually do. First of all they started charging for international text messaging which used to be free, without any obvious notice. I say that because even though they did send a paper saying that "they charge $0.15 for international text message" with the bill when they started charging but that paper was just like all the other advertisements that they include in their bills and not an obvious notice.
Other than that they usually can’t keep track of exceptions. Exceptions like the $200 cancellation fee for the second line, which I just saw on this months bill. I was told that they wouldn’t charge any cancellation fees because I had moved out of their coverage area and one of the operators had already told me that they wouldn’t. Even after talking to them and going through their cancellation department, letting every operator that came in the way know about that fact, they still charged me the $200. Now I am going to have to take 20 minutes tomorrow and take care of this. This is just annoying! Hopefully they will take the $200 off otherwise I will be really, really angry! 🙁
To add to the list of bad things about T-Mobile: a friend of mine just moved from Chicago (IL) to Madison (WI) and had T-Mobile. Just to make sure that all her free minutes would still work she talked to the T-Mobile customer service representatives; in fact she told me that she asked two reps and they both said that everything would still be the same. During that time I was actually looking for another plan and she was bragging that her T-Mobile was still working. So I called T-Mobile and asked them and the rep told me that the free minutes would still work!
Guess what happened when the bill for the month came? They had counted each and every minute that was supposed to be free. I am not saying that they shouldn’t have charged, all I am saying that they should have at least give out the correct information. Luckily I hadn’t cancelled my current account and signed another contract by then. So you better watch out because T-Mobile isn’t always telling you what they will end up doing!
Well, my new job has started (not really :-/) and I am liking it so far. I am saying "not really" because I probably won’t be doing the actual work for at least another two months since I have to go through the training first. The last two weeks I learned about Caché (a "very different" programming language) and Chronicles (again a "different" DBMS developed by my company, Epic; Note: not my as in I own it but as in I work there :D).
One thing I missed the most in Pakistan was sleep. Because of all the happenings and the jet lag I usually got only a few hours of sleep during the week that I was on ground. Add to that only around eight hours of sleep during the thrity-eight hour travel time. So now I back and have started catching up but the missed sleep and the jet lag is making things a little tougher than expected.
I just got back from my very short ten-day visit to Pakistan. Three of these ten days were spent travelling to and from Pakistan leaving me with exactly seven days to enjoy. Usually I go there in December because of the extra time off due to the Christmas holidays but this trip was an exception because my brother was getting married. More on this later…
Finally the time is here and I am off to Pakistan. The only part that I am not really looking forward to is the almost 19 hour flight each way. Oh well, let’s see how it all goes… 🙂
Here is a picture of the John Honcock Center from my car.
Last weekend I went to the Chicago Auto Show and enjoyed almost all of it. Here is a picture of a kick-*** Mercedes-Benz S66 AMG! Enjoy! 😀 Click on the picture for a larger version.