Treehugging Techie's Trick · 2007-03-07
I recently bought an ammeter on sale from Sears for $25 and started wandering around my apartment measuring the amount of power my electronics used.
Apparently, the “power” button on my LCD monitor only serves to turn the little LED on the front on and off: whether it’s in stand-by or “off”, it consumes about 2.5W. On, it consumes a whopping 32.5W, more than my laptop while in regular use.
For a while, I was tempted to get something like the Kill-a-watt just to see how much power I was using, but I found a cheap extension cord, sliced to separate the +, -, and ground combined with a clamp ammeter does the trick for the same price with a more versatile device to boot.
Other interesting appliances were the TV (7W “off”, 90W on), the microwave (1.5W off, lots and lots on), and the Roomba while charging (4W). Unlike my old Nokia charger that remained warm while plugged in, even without a phone, my Motorola charger doesn’t seem to consume power while the phone isn’t plugged in.
Putting RAM in an iBook · 2006-09-05
No matter what the picture says about just sticking the RAM into the slot at a 30 degree angle, then putting in place, it’s wrong. You have to shove it in at the 30 degree angle until it clicks, then push down. When you’re done, you shouldn’t be able to see the copper pins anymore.
The documentation is kind of confusing, but a 1GHz iBook will take both PC2100 and PC2700 speed RAM.
It took me my roommate showing me how to do this before I got my iBook to recognize the GB of RAM I bought for it. I think it’s fair to repeat his question, “you got a degree in electrical engineering for what?”
My Slowly Dying Computer · 2006-08-28
My desktop computer is slowly dying.
Fortunately, I have a laptop, so can get most things (e-mail, web, office stuff) done.
Unfortunately, my desktop has four times as much RAM as my laptop and about three times the clockspeed, so I do all of my development on there. My desktop is also about twice as old as my laptop and the motherboard is slowly dying. It’s been going for a while, but the rate that it’s collapsing is increasing.
The side effect of all of this is that I can’t get any Minilith development done because there isn’t a single Java IDE that will run acceptable in the paltry 256MB of RAM that my laptop has. Beyond that, it’s taking me time to back everything up off of my desktop and onto other computers or removable media.
Once I order an external HDD and some extra RAM for my laptop, and rescue my project off of my other computer, I’ll try to get rolling with it again just in time to start taking classes. On that note, if anyone is interested in helping me develop Minilith, get an account on Sourceforge . Then send me an e-mail (umdhub at gmail dot com) with your name on Sourceforge and I’ll add you onto the project. We’re working in Java, but even if you just want to learn the language, we can get you started with writing test constructs and build you up from there.
Dodged Another Speeding Ticket · 2006-08-22
I managed to dodge another 20 mph over the limit ticket today.
There were four state troopers on the docket, but only one had shown. Unluckily, that trooper was mine. Immediately after we finished the cases involving local police though, the trooper got something on his pager, told the DA something, and walked out of the courtroom.
It turns out that there was an accident somewhere that required all four of the troopers scheduled for court that day. The DA asked the court for a postponement of the trial, but the judge feeling sorry for all the people who got dragged out to the eastern short proposed a compromise: anyone who plead guilty would receive probation before judgement, no fine, no points, and court fees only. Otherwise, the person’s trial would be postponed. Naturally, all sixty people in the courtroom, including me, took the PBJ option.
The judge had a sense of humor and liked asking people what they learned from their case. Most of the time, he was serious, but sometimes things got funny. One case went something like this:
Judge: “Jane Q. Public, driving in excess of speed limit…. Wait a minute…. (mumbles something).... 57 in a 50. How do you plead?
Defendent: “Guilty sir”.
“How’d you manage to get a ticket for that? Pass a cop or something?”
“Exactly sir.”
“Well, it looks like you’ll be getting the last laugh. Probation before judgement, no points, fine suspended, court fees suspended. Now, what does this teach us?”
“To slow down sir.”
“No, it teaches us to not pass cops.”
A case involving failure to control speed to avoid an accident went like this:
Judge: “You rear-ended someone at a stoplight? Doesn’t anyone know what a red-light is any more?”
Defendent: “Sir, the light was green, and had been green for a while. The other car just unexpectedly stopped at a green light.”
“Oh. Well then. What does this teach us?”
“To be more careful sir.”
“No, it doesn’t. It teaches us that there are a lot of idiots on the road and unfortunately, we have to live with them and try to avoid hitting them.”
$3/year .info domains · 2006-08-14
My domain registrar, joker.com, is offering .info domains for $3/year for the first year for a limited time. For those people living on campus, you have free, fast web hosting on every campus LAN connection. Even if you don’t live there, but have a WAM account, you can URL forward to a website hosted on WAM, so there’s no excuse to have a real name with your website
C’mon, myspace.com/some_name_here sucked, and the domain is cheaper than a latte from Starbucks or the Perk.
Note: I have no relationship with Joker, except as a customer, but I’ve used them for a half dozen domains and rather like them. They are not the cheapest registrar out there, but they are one of the less scummy ones.