Making New Stuff

Recently I've been making new stuff. I like to share what I make so here are the links.

Computer Controlled Radio Transmitter
Easy to Make AM Radio Transmitter

Bad Dog

Bad Dog!

Happy New Year

Hey everyone. Happy New Year. Just thought I'd show how other websites celebrated the New Year.

Google:

I like Google's 2007 in the fireworks.

Yahoo:

At first I didn't understand how Yahoo was trying to show the spirit of New Years. They used this little picture:

But then that picture changed into this:

And then I understood.

Nintendo:

Nintendo did this:

(I don't care what you say. I think it has the spirit of New Year)

YouTube:

So is YouTube celebrating or is Chevrolet?


JibJab:
JibJab made a new movie:



FirstGov:
The United States offical website, FirstGov.gov did nothing to celebrate the New Year. They did not even say Happy New Year.
However the IRS did give us this little bit of New Year info:

FormatCDrive:
Here's what I did. I changed the look of my blog, and oh ya, I posted the first new post since November 26.
So, HAPPY NEW YEAR!

Superman

In central Minnesota, there is this guy who always stands outside in a Superman costume. He always has an American flag and all he does is just stand there. Every once in a while he will try to make money by selling pictures with him. He used to stand outside a local Dairy Queen until he got a restraining order. I have also been told that he has been kicked out of at least seven malls in Minnesota.


Recently some people made a movie. They dressed up as Darth Vader and stood next to him. See what happens when Darth Vader steals the flag:

(oh ya, he doesn't always wear the big puffy suit that he wore in the top pictre)

It's been a while since I've seen him last, but dispite the restraining order, I can assure you that he will be back at Dairy Queen next summer.

Wii

The Nintendo Wii was released on Sunday. On Saturday, I decided to go and wait in line for it. I got in line at about 9:00 a.m. and waited 15 hours and 1 min (it released at 12:01) for it.

For those of you who don't know what a Nintendo Wii is, it is a new video game console in which the controllers have motion sensors and Bluetooth (so they're wireless).

I have to say, I'm impressed. Nintendo did well. Some features I like:

-Bluetooth controller relives the gamer from the cord
-Motion sensing makes the player feel like he/she is in the game
-Infrared allows a user to point at specific parts of the screen
-Nunchuck attachment (comes with one in package) makes the game even more realistic
-Wii Connect24 keeps the Wii always connected to the internet via WiFi. This allows you to receive "Wii-Mails" and play online games
-Backwards compatibility with the Gamecube games and accessories allowing me to play all my games on one system
-The Wii looks good
-And not last nor least, Wii Sports comes with
-And much, much more

Nintendo really did good. I am proud to say that I was the fourth person to get a Nintendo Wii in my town and that it ROCKS!

Weird Titles on Digg

digg is pretty cool. However it can get some pretty weird stories. Here are some titles of stories I found:

Faith Hill is a Sore Loser
Bananas, an Athiest's "Nightmare"
Whale-dolfin hybrid has baby wholphin
The Spammers Strike Back
Vaccum Tubes Alive and Well
Grand Theft Mario
The Democrats best Slogan: "Bush lost the war"
Cassette Tape Wallet
Popsicle Licking Twins
Dumb Parents are Robbing Kids of Fun
Microsoft's Gates Looks to Energy
Every Tool Known to Man
Windows 3.11 is Still Alive and Ready to Beat Vista at Anything!
Microsoft not Allowing Red Octane to Produce Wireless Guitar
Fainting Goats
The largest model railroad in the world!
Walmart Apologizes for Selling Nazi Tshirts
The war is over and Linux won
What is a good temper tantrum if no one is around to see it?
Get Lost!
How Alphabet Evolved
Robot mistakes human flesh for bacon.
Is this the stupidest man alive?
Arrested for a Rubber Band Ball
The Coming Internet Traffic Jam
Gates “dares anybody” to exploit Vista
Man gives away free iPods because it makes him feel good
Your face is your password
This billboard will cause some traffic!!!!
Apple and The Beatles kiss and make up
Photograph of a lightbulb burning out
8 Reasons Why Idiot Masses Love Lists
I hate Macs
Bill Gates Won't Buy an iPhone.
God as Computer Programmer
Programmers don't like to code
Software is Hard
Japan's Super Sink Can Do It All… Well, Almost

Still more yet to come...

Digg

Wow! I never knew digg was so powerful. I had heard about digg shutting down sites due to bandwith, but I never realized how many people it took to do that. Last night my blog got on the homepage of digg. By this time today it has over 950 diggs and 30,000 unique visitors. Now I know why webpages with little bandwith get shut down within minutes of debutting on the homepage of digg.

So if you liked the post about geek/nerd tests then

Internet Explorer 7

Today I was reading digg. There was a post that obviously promoted IE7. It gave Add-Ons for it. 2 posts down was a post that obviously demoted IE7. It gave the bug list for it. I then realized that these were posted by the same person. They were even on the same site. Weird.

Click to enlarge

Commodore File Copying

Still have an old Commodore 64/128? Check this out.

Your Nerdiness/Geekiness

A few days ago, my dad sent me a link to a website with a bunch of tests to see how nerdy you are. I took some tests and here's what I got:



I love money more than 39% of people










I even took this test twice on two different computers to make sure it was right. Wow!

What are your scores?

http://www.geektests.com

Nothing to talk about

I was talking with Mike today. We were talking about blogs. We had a little conversation that went something like this.

Mike: Hey Brandon, I went on your blog today and read your instructable on your Gameboy.
Brandon: Really?
Mike: Ya, I posted a bunch of comments on your blog again.
Brandon: Why do you keep doing that?
Mike: I dunno.
Brandon: Well sometimes they are kindda funny. You should write your own blog.
Mike: Ya, but I never have anything to write about.
Brandon: Neither do I, but I still manage to write one.
Mike: You should post this conversation on your blog.
Brandon: Yeah, maybe I will

The truth is, I really don't have anything to talk about. I pretty much sit down at my computer, reading digg or intructables until an idea for my blog comes around. Then I post it. Today I came home from work, put on a costume for Trick or Treaters, went on intructables.com and remembered the conversation we had. How do you come up with your ideas?

Oh, by the way...


Boo!
Happy Halloween

Solar Gameboy for You

Today I desided to let the public make solar Gameboys. I made my first Instructable about how to make solar gameboys.

Read more

Pros and Cons of Operating Systems

Yesterday I purchased an eMac. A few days ago I bought a Dell laptop. Because I now have a copy of all three major operating systems, I decided to do a story to celebrate. Since I do have all 3 OS's my story will compare the three.

First up, Microsoft Windows.
Pros
- Easy to change settings
- Easy navigation
- Most programs made for it

Cons
- Comes with so much stuff that you can't use it all
- Windows Messenger starts up automatically (like I want it)
- Costs a lot of money

Next up, Apple Macintosh
Pros
- Easy to find common programs (bottom of screen)
- Comes with Safari (as opposed to Internet Explorer)
- Fast


Cons
- One mouse button and no mouse wheel
- Not as many options in the "System Preferences"
- Bottom bar* sometimes gets in the way

Last, but not least, Linux Ubuntu
Pros
- An extremely easy to use desktop and system bar
- Comes with Firefox or Konqueror (not IE)
- Most likely the most secure

Cons
-Hard to install new software
- Not much commerical support
- Requires you to have a knowledge of how it works

For those of you who have got yourselves in the middle of an OS war, you can look here for suggestions. I am impartial to any system now because I have them all. So before you say that Macs suck, that Windows should die, or the Linux penguin (FYI his name is Tux) is annoying, get a copy of that operating system and find out for yourself.

*Someone commented and corrected me, The bottom bar is called a dock.

Spammers

I hate spam. No, not S.P.A.M. (the junk in the can) I hate spam. You know the junk that people send to you in order to get you to try something or visit their site. It seems like now half of my comments show up as spam.

This is what I do:
Step 1 - Recieve dumb comment
Step 2 - Read about how dumb their cause is
Step 3 - Click the little trash can
Step 4 - Click "Delete Comment" (No, I don't ever delete forever)
Step 5 - Check to make sure it is gone


This was both a tutorial on how to delete comments and a rant against spammers.

So if your a spammer, don't comment. (Not like you would have read this anyway)

Web Server

Yay! I have finally got my web server public. Charter was restricting me from hosting a website from my house, but I found a way around it {to all who understand: Charter was blocking port 80, I set my server to listen on port 81}. You can find my new site at http://brandonlee.no-ip.org. I have a test page up right now, but with in the next few days I should have a solid web page with whatever I want on there.

Oh well, I should go to bed now. See you all later.

Gone

For the next 5 days I may not be able to post. I am going on a trip to Kentucky (I live in Central Minnesota) in a car. I may be able to find a computer there, but then again, maybe not.

Any way here's a funny pic to get you all through the week:

My friends and I have made another blog with eachother. Click here to check it out.

My First Flash Movie

I have made my first movie using Macromedia Flash 8 Professional. Click the button to see what it does.

Cool huh?

Search Engine Hits

Every once in a while it's fun to see where all your visitors come from. It's also fun to see what they searched on you in order to find you. This is what I have come up with.

I have had a few posts on Digg. No post has ever made it to the front page, but I still get the majority of my visitors from Digg.
Possible Nintendo Wii Release Date - 14 Diggs
Fastest/Slowest Search Engines - 4 Diggs
When to Reserve the Wii and PS3 - 1 Digg (My Digg)
This is weird. Before I got on Digg I always had less than 100 hits. Since Digg, I have had about 300 more Diggs (total of 400). Now last time I did math 14+4+1≠300.

Another fun thing to do is see how people search for you. All of the people who have found me used either Google or Digg searches. Here is what some people searched.
Wii
formatcdrive - it's in Turkish.
Spying Lens - OK then
PS3

It's also weird to see how many users use the random blog button. In blogger you can click a button that lets you jump to a random blog. Before Digg, however, I would not get any hits off of the random blog. Now I get a lot (30% of my hits give or take).

I like it when people visit my blog. I also like it when people comment on my blog. It lets me know that there really are people out there reading this. Thank you to all who really do read this.

Wii Reservations

I was at my local Game Stop today reserving Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. According to my receipt I am one of 1160 people to reserve it for the Wii at my store. But that's not the news. While I was reserving it I asked the clerk (Tyler) when the Wii and PS3 would be able to reserve. The conversation went something like this:

Me-"So do you know when we can reserve the Wii and Playstation?"
Tyler-"We won't be taking any reservations for the Playstation 3. I am sure that we will allow reservations on the Nintendo Wii, because Nintendo knows how to make them fast. Call in within the next two weeks and we should have more information."
Me-"O.K. Thanks."

So call your local Game Stops during the next two weeks and hopefully they will have a reservation date.

Update:

My Computers

My parents are always complaining that I have too many computers and that "we don't need any more computers in the house." Well I thought that was ridiculous. I decided that I would show everyone else my computers and just see if they felt the same way about my computers as my parents.

------------- Let's start with my room -------------

This is my HP Pavilion. I was given it when I helped someone fix their new computer. I use this computer for everything. It has Ubuntu 6.10 Beta (Linux) on it. It rocks.
This is my Compaq Deskpro. I am fixing it up so I can give it to my brother. It has Ubuntu 5.10 (Linux) on it. (Note the Ubuntu disks on top)

This is my Acer TravelMate. It's my awesome laptop. It has Windows 98SE on it.

The tower hiding in the back is my IBM server. I like to use this for easy file transfer on my network and for learning how to use a server. It now has Ubuntu 5.10 Server (Linux) on it and has 2 processors in it to make it go faster.

This is my Commodore 64 (old school). I don't use this much any more. To make this do any thing you have to program it yourself. I like to keep this just to say I have one (sometimes I go back and make a BASIC program).

This is my Compaq Presario. It was given to me by my neighbor. It is not working at the moment. It has Windows 2000 on it.

------------- Now for the kitchen -------------

This is my parents Dell Dimension. It lives in our kitchen (our high traffic room). You can tell by the amount of stuff both on it and around it, that we use this computer a lot (there is more stuff to the left of the picture). This computer has Windows XP on it

------------- Last the Basement -------------

This my bother, my sister, and my eMachines. It is the fastest computer in the house, so it gets used for gaming the most. I also use it to program my little robot (sitting on the ground to the left of it). It has Windows XP on it.

Now with all of these computers we obviously need a way to network all of them. So here's what we have for networking.

This is the D-Link Wireless-G Router that controls the network for the whole house.

This is the Linksys hub that controls the network to my room.

This is the Chase IOLAN+ Communication Server that shares devices on my network.

This is the KVM switch that allows me to use only 1 keyboard, 1 mouse and 1 monitor on 4 computers.

As you can see, I have six computers and my family has two more. I personally think that they are just jealous because of my awesome computer setup. What do you think?

Update: I now have two more computers. A Dell Latitude with Win2000 Pro and an eMac running OSX