JDuv 1002: More proof that I’m a nerd
As if you needed more. I mean come on, in my last proof of concept post I made a D&D joke! Well, here's a little more insight into my wonderful world here at Georgia Tech. Most of my time is spent in this cool building called the Technology Square Research Building, or TSRB for short. By most of my time, I mean when I'm not sleeping. Well, sometimes I sleep here--naps are teh rox. So it hit me last week exactly how much time I spend here, so I decided that it would be a good idea if I brought my computer up. As an added bonus, I get to cancel the $60 a month fee that Comcast somehow justifies charging me for a 3MB internet connection. So, I get an extra fifty bucks a month, and I get more work done because I am using my home machine. Having a dedicated OC-48 to this building was totally NOT a reason.
So, since I have some time to actually blog about where I work, I have some pictures I just took that I would like to share:
First off we have my glorious dual monitor setup. The left monitor is a 20.1" Samsung SyncMaster 204B 5ms g2g monitor. Oblivion looks pretty on it. To the right we have a Dell 20.1" Widescreen 2005 FPW positioned vertically for maximum code view.
And here we have the sexy little box that runs those monitors. It's made of mostly hand-me-down parts, but it gets the job done. Basic specs: Lian-Li windowed case, MSI mobo, 2.4gHz Northwood P4 overclocked to 3.1gHz, 1GB Corsair ddr-400 RAM, NVidia GeForce 6800GT (PCI), Toshiba DVD-RAM Burner (borrowed), Toshiba CD Burner, 4 x WDD 500GB SATA HDD, 1 x 76GB WDD Raptor HDD (OS drive), and a 500 watt PSU.
This is the little tablet PC that I borrowed form my research professor that I blogged about earlier. Great for GChat while I'm in class.
This is the resident AMD64 SuSE Linux based development server. It even has a static IP, so I can hit this baby from anywhere in the world.
Speaking of development, here are the routers I have hacked. I bricked the blue guy, so I'm waiting on a JTAG cable to come in so I can fix him. The silver router is pretty freaking sweet. It's a LinkSys WRTSL54GS running my own custom firmware.
This would be my roomate working on his 24" Dell ultrasharp via his Macbook. What a nerd.
And here's a pic of all of my babies up and running. What an awesome place to work.
Stuff I Use
This would be my monthly "use this stuff 'cuz it's free and freakin cool" post. The mac nerds who read my blog--whose count should probably be around zero or one, have been enjoying a little program called spotlight for a while now. Other than the magical F9 key, it has been one of my "OS envy" points against macs. Well now I found a decent clone of that for Windows. It's called Launchy.
Not only does it have a notoriously cute name, but it has all the functionality of spotlight. Unfortunately, Launchy is not without its quirks, but I'll talk about those later. Those of you who are curious can try the little guy out here, and trust me, once you start using it you will never be able to stop. Here's a rundown of how it works:
First off, after you install the app it enumerates all the programs in your start bar. So before hand, I suggest the more CS savvey of you organize your start menus so that they look decent:
Got it? Good. Now download and install the application by going to the links in the previous paragraph. Once it's installed it doesn't seem like anything happened, but now confidently type alt + space and start typing the name of our favorite web browser.
Bingo. Launchy knew exactly what you were after. Beautiful. Not only is it cool, but it's skinnable. It just so happens that the default skin looks sexy with my black windows XP theme, so I'm good. To add icing to the cake, if we type the first letter of an application and let it sit, we get more options!
I said earlier that Launchy enumerates all the programs in your start bar. It can also be customized to enumerate files in other folders. Pull up Launchy with an alt+space and right click on the app. There are a couple of useful things in the context menu, but the one we are after is Directories.
This screenshot is a sample of the dialog you get, but you can see what's important here. Adding directories and filters on file types is super simple, but a bit archaic. I would like to see a better interface for this in the future, possibly in my own version of this software.
Despite it's AZN'ness, you can see some of the problems with the application in the second screenshot above. First off, the pop up list could stand to have some pixel padding on the top, left, and bottom. Secondly, the paths to the applications are cut off, and the lookup mechanism could stand to be a little smarter. Thirdly, there are some weird input hangs that I have come across whenever the application loses focus. If I alt+space and begin typing, then I click somewhere else and come back to Launchy, it doesn't always like the delete key. And lastly, I would like for it to dissappear after some sort of timeout period. There appears to be a checkbox in the options to allow for that, but the functionality seems to be broken.
I like Launchy. It has a really small memory footprint (around 7k), and it's ridiculously useful. A lot of times I wish to run a program but I might not know where it is, or it could be buried somewhere deep within my startbar, and I'm the kind of guy who likes a clean desktop, so I don't really use shortcuts that often. Launchy fills a void in my Windows experience by providing a customized lookup mechanism for useful files and programs that I cannot live without. Give it a try!
Breakin’ da Law!
Okay, so I'm going to break my only "stuff I never blog about" rule. Since I am your lovable content dictator, I can do that.
Begin Rant
According to the sources that I have read, the Democrats just won both the House by a decent margin and the Senate by two seats. I'm okay with that, even though I swing more to the right than your average moderate. My only requirement--and it is one that keeps me from moving to Japan, is that the Democrats will actually do something with this victory other than strutting around like a barnyard Rooster. The tendency of the normal American political machine is to make grandious promises and then stick it to the people when asked to follow up. So, as long as the Dems don't tax me to death to fund useless and exploited programs then I will be fine with their control of the House and Senate. Let's see them actually clean up this mess in Iraq and get that country back on it's feet. Let's see them reign in the insane amount of spending that the GOP's been doing and deal with illegal immigration. And, I would say let's see them improve the world view of America, but I can't remember the last time I actually cared what the world thought about me and my country.
Alright guys, you said you have a new direction for America. The people believed you. Now put your money where your lame ass slogan is >=).
End Rant
Growl.
Lot's of stress pouring down today. I am not ready to present my research tomorrow at the Pixi meeting, but it looks like I have no choice in the matter. So I will most likely be spending all night tonight getting things polished and decently presentable. On top of that, I have tons of projects due next week, so I have been trying to get ahead. Right now I feel completely overwhelmed.
My overall perspective hasn't really changed. I know that when it's all over I'll still be alive and breathing. I know that impressing a professor and my colleagues doesn't really matter in the end game. Nevertheless, it's something I have worked very hard for in the past 4 months, but to be honest I don't really know why I'm working so hard anymore. It doesn't seem to be getting me anywhere except stressed and further from where I need to be spiritually.
MoDNaR
I ran sound for The Kennedys this weekend. Basically, it's my best friend, his half-brother, and his half-brother's wife singing southern gospel. I'm not a huge fan of the music, but it's all part of the body, so I tolerate it. The gig was hilarious because it was three different bands in a car dealership's garage. Amazingly the sound wasn't too bad, even if I was competing with two inferior sound systems =P. I'm not bragging, but it's kind of hard to beat two Yamaha dual 15" stacks and three Yamaha 15" floor wedges powered with dual Crown1000's, a QSC1100, and a generic brand crossover.
What's more interesting is that we met someone who is married to one of the member's of Third Day's sister. Apparently someone inside the dealership had hyped either BTB or The Kennedy's (I'm not sure which yet), quite a bit so the guy decided to come and listen. We cranked up a little bit of our CD for him, and the rest is history:
Him: "Are you guys signed yet?"
Us: "Ummmmmmm. No?"
Him: "Why not?"
Us: "Err, we don't know."
Him: "Have you let anyone listen to this [CD]?"
Us: "Well, we sent it to a couple of people, but not really."
Him: "That's probably why [you're not signed]. I'm going to give this to Tai when I see him at our family get together, and he'll probably give it to Mac. You should expect a call from me soon, because I'm going to hook you guys up."
He then offered us four backstage passes to the Third Day concert in Columbia. Sadly, we had to turn him down due to school and other life obligations.
Nice.