I’ve been wretling with a Dell portable this month that has had intermittent network access problems. I finally hit on a solution kind of randomly and the Dell support forums suggest that maybe it is the fault of the Internet Connection Wizard – Re: Inspiron 8500 – disabling Network Bridge - Inspiron - Network - Dell Community Forum – hard to believe but something clearly did establish a bridge on this machine and it has made networking unreliable. Why would I ever want to bridge networks on my laptop – sure I supposed there is a geek reason to do it, but why would a “wizard” ever leave me in this config?

Tong Family Blog: DVD Playback on your PC – rich found winDVD and PowerDVD to be the winners some months ago, a quick survey of the web doesn’t indicate much has changed. I am having trouble with stutter on a Celeron 2ghz, intel Xtreme Graphics oem chipset, 1.25Gig of ram machine. When using PowerDVD, watching Sopranos season 1. I’m wondering if this is a problem with PowerDVD and if windvd is a better performance product, or if I need to upgrade to a faster processer or gpu.

Bought a PC yesterday at PC Club - Where Computer Professionals Go-- a mini-ITX form factor box. Right across the street from a CompUSA which I also shopped at. Wow the experience between the two was so different.

At PC Club, the store is a little cr@phole of a store in a strip mall. Spartan interior with gear just laying around everywhere. Handwritten signs everywhere. The staff ignored me until I cornered one. And then they knew exactly what I was talking about and had me out the door in 10 minutes with my purchase.

The CompUSA was the standard glossy CompUSA. Tons of inventory. The staff descended on me. One guy claimed me as his and helped me find the monitor I needed. (I had been in earlier in the day and had asked for mini-ITX systems and gotten a blank look. In fact tho they had two different ones in stock). The guy pushed me hard to get an extended warranty, cutting prices on some minor items I bought, and in fact booking some of my purchase as an extended warranty on speakers – he was trying to win some in-store contest. And checkout took FOREVER because he drug me over to the business center checkout, away from the regular retail checkout, again to win some stupid instore contest. A painful experience.

Great guy. Very insightful views on the next challenges for OSes. I wonder what he is working on these days – hmm – New Longhorn Graphics Tool Called “Flashkiller”

Whispering Windows - Welcome – OK I need to get a bunch of these for next Halloween. I would LOVE to have every window in our house whispering or sending out a sound. At $1500 a pair I may have to wait for a price drop but how cool.

If I go HD I think I will need a new video/audio amp/switch – this Yamaha looks way cool – tons of inputs – Designtechnica Forums - Yamaha Debuts the RX-Z9: 9.1 Channel Home Theater Receiver

Home : Carnegie Mellon business school - MSCF – wow, how degree programs have evolved since I went to school. Who would have predicted degree programs in Computational Finance? What degree programs will exist in another 30 years?

Between Rich’s posts and the incessant promos for Comcast HD during morning drive time on KJR, I am starting to lust for HDTV. Some questions I have – when will DirecTV HD availability catch up to Comcast? When can I get HDTV Tivo? Are there such things as HDTV-encoded DVDs (I am aware this is a somewhat mangled expression of the idea) and where do I get them and what players play them?

I missed this one – Ohio News Network - All Ohio. All The Time.

BTW, if you haven’t upgraded your power drill in a while, you really have to get a quick change drill bit set like Bosch CC2130 Clic-Change 27-Piece Chuck, Drill Bit & Driver Set – I have a ryobi set personally, it has changed my life. Getting rid of the key a few years back was great, but being able to just click in new bits or drivers is so great.

PlanetGriff Home – this may be the answer

Tong Family Blog: PC Buying Guide for Fall 2004 – great job rich. Especially my thanks for decoding the Shuttle product line, which I always find so confusing on their site. It ought to be simple “Here’s a good Shuttle, here’s a better Shuttle, here’s the best Shuttle”.

Note for next year’s halloween – you can build a really simple coffin thumper by talking an old electric drill and attaching an armature to the end which will whack against your coffin wall. wire the trigger closed, attach to a dimmer, and place in a coffin or box. if i had a drill lying around today i’d try it.

Halloween – the four bar simulator looks like the most useful toy.

EKI - Product Information - recommended by a couple people. Might be underpowered tho – the specs say 250W per channel for a total of 1000W, that may not be enough for my lightning effects.