Comcast Creating Public WiFi Network

From slashdot, a Comcast customer in Texas points out that Comcast is going to turn thousands of WiFi routers into public hotspots. Wait a minute... what? I can't immediately see the evil in this one... depending on how they decide to implement this.

Having your router allow anons to connect wirelessly to it to get internet access is generally a good thing in my mind but that depends on a few things. 1, how many anons are getting onto your network and will this affect your ability to connect? 2, how many anons are going to use the connection to the point that your upstream and/or downstream bandwidth becomes saturated? There are ways of controlling or limiting these negative effects though and I would hope that Comcast is going to do this sensibly.

Some might be unhappy that this open WiFi hotspot plan seems to be coming in as an opt-out policy with Comcast but I don't see the problem here. If you are using Comcast's equipment then Comcast gets to decide how that equipment is configured, not you. There is nothing that I am aware of that would prevent anyone from purchasing their own equipment (router or modem/router combo) but the fact is that the majority of any ISP's customers simply don't have the time nor interest to learn about modems and routers. Most of my non-internet-savvy friends couldn't tell me the difference between a modem and a router if their lives depended on it. Welcome to the internet, you don't need to be an expert to be here, haven't had to be an expert for MANY years now.

Ultimately, the power over the equipment in your home is in your hands. If you don't know how to configure a router it's not even remotely difficult to learn. If you don't like that Comcast's routers are going to be allowing others to get (free?) internet access via your internet connection there will always be ways for you to change this. The easiest way being to just buy your own networking devices and take responsibility for configuring them so that they operate the way you want.

If Comcast does this intelligently then they will actually earn a few points from me. 1, any bandwidth coming from these open WiFi connections should NOT count towards any limits that Comcast has arbitrarily chosen to put in place on your connection/account. 2, since Comcast's customers have open WiFi connections for any anon to use, this makes it even less plausible that an IP address should or can be linked to an individual, a street address, or an account number, and as such any lawsuits that might depend on an IP address being linked to any of these things should vaporize.

Some might think that they should be compensated for allowing open internet access to any anon via the wireless router in their home. That's funny to me... because if you have not purchased the router and you have not configured the router, then you have done nothing worthy of gratitude or compensation. Comcast is actually the good guy for once. Scary thought.

My Boots Don't Have Straps

I wear boots in the winter. They usually don't have straps... straps on my boots is not a feature I've ever needed I guess. I prefer steel toe boots over boots with no toe protection because if I'm not wearing boots simply for the added warmth and protection from cold or water then I'm probably wearing them because regular shoes or loafers are lacking in protection or utility in other ways. Something like these boots are the style I've been wearing since I was in my teens working in a crummy fiberglass ladder factory. They give more protection than a sneaker or loafer, they aren't unreasonably expensive, and they don't have bootstraps. They don't need bootstraps... I've never had trouble putting them on without straps. So why do other people think I need bootstraps?

Dictionary.com's definition of bootstrap might help you to understand what the term means if the only bootstrap you are familiar with is the highly opinionated Bootstrap front-end framework from the Twitter developers. I hear the term "bootstrap" used too often by people that have no clue what it really means... and I see Twitter's Bootstrap used by people who should go back to table layouts if they can't handle HTML5 and CSS3 properly with or without a framework.

I had the thought recently that I should just develop my own front-end framework that reflects my own opinions and things I've learned from the experience of putting together web pages over the past 4 years, but then it dawned on me that I already have my own framework... and it's a lot more flexible and minimal than the monstrous Bootstrap framework. I don't start a page or project with empty HTML and CSS files. I will use whatever the best practices are at the time. When it comes to HTML that means at least looking at what h5bp is doing at the time and copying what we need from there without mindlessly throwing away things I've learned that might contradict what they are currently doing. I have a set of CSS rules that I start with that I've only ever referred to as a "reset" because when I first developed it that's what everyone called that sort of thing. It's a basic set of rules put in place in order to standardize or normalize the rendering of content and elements across browsers. It's a set of rules that is constantly evolving as things have changed over the years (like no longer being required to support IE6, 7, and 8 on every project my team works on) and will continue to evolve as needed. I guess I need to give it a name, so it's name will be Vstrap.

It's taken me too much time to fully understand and appreciate what Bootstrap is - I have not followed its development over the years because it has always been way more than what I need for what I do... that and I've always known (since the 1990s) how to write correct cross-browser-friendly (I got started as a hobby trying to make pages that looked good on WebTV as well as PC browsers) HTML and CSS and don't need a large framework to help me get things right. We recently brought a new developer into our team and he loved Bootstrap. I tried to ask, when I could and very politely, what's so great about this Bootstrap? Why is it better than what I've already put many months, perhaps years of development into? What problems did we have that this is now solving? Why are these things now broken when they weren't before you threw away my work and replaced it with bootstrap? I did not get any good answers from the new dev... which is why it took me so long to start to understand the beast that is Bootstrap. I've had to search and research in my own spare time essentially and I'm still far from being an expert on Twitter's Bootstrap.

This new developer, let's call him Paul, took all of the CSS improvements I had contributed to our CMS over the course of a couple of years and threw them out. Why? I never got an answer to that question from him... and he has left our team after only a few months. I've come to my own conclusion though. Paul is a proper developer, and not a designer at all. Paul is a programmer first, not a designer so much. Paul doesn't have time to eat, sleep, and breathe CSS like I've had time to do.

I'm not a very patient person when it comes to some things. If you tell me that I'm doing something wrong, but cannot tell me what exactly I'm doing wrong, then at best you're not a good communicator and at worst you do not know what you are talking about. You might be awesome at javascript, python, ruby, and who knows how many other programming languages, and I think that's great! I'm not a programmer, I can't criticize other people's programming skills, and I'm generally honest about that I think. HTML and CSS are pretty much all I'm proficient with... sometimes, depending on who else is listening, I feel like a fraud calling myself a developer because HTML and CSS aren't programming languages... but the fact is that I have developed a framework of my own. It might not be as popular as Bootstrap is (or even publicly available) but it DOES solve a lot of common problems as well as a lot of problems specific to the projects that I've worked on over the years. I don't like calling myself a designer (I'm more of a developer or editor IMO) but given the competition I've seen in my small circle I must be one.

But Sean, you might be thinking, why reinvent the wheel when someone else has already done it for you? Well, for starters, when someone hands over a design to me that looks like it has had very little thought or time put into it (BUT THEY USED BOOTSTRAP! SO IT'S SUPER-AWESOME BECAUSE OF THAT!) and the first 8 hours of my time working on it is spent doing NOTHING other than undoing a bunch of different rules that are getting in the way of making it actually functional and not looking like junk on a smart phone, then I'm doing something terribly wrong. Seriously wrong. This is not productive. I can make this work but it will go a whole lot faster if I don't have to undo or over-ride 20 different rules just to stop a ridiculous looking 80 pixel gap being added below some text when viewed in phone browsers because someone didn't use the Bootstrap framework properly.

The non-minified bootstrap.css file from v3.1.1 is 118 kilobytes with well over 5000 lines of CSS rules contained in it. The last version of my vstrap.css (I gotta start naming it this I guess) is 12.7 kilobytes with about 200 lines of text... and about one-third of that text is COMMENTS that I've left in the file with the thinking that if, for some reason that I should ever disappear from the team, the next person that has to deal with my code won't be completely in the dark about the whats and whys of it. Apparently if that next person is a "modern" developer they're more likely to just throw out my lightweight CSS code rather than reading the comments to understand it.

And that's another thing... Bootstrap v3.1.1. Just because when Paul came along 5 months ago Bootstrap v3.0.3 was the latest and greatest doesn't mean that's the version we're going to use for everything going forward. So when I get handed a website "design" using an outdated version of a framework that just adds more frustration. I'm using the term "design" very loosely here because what I have to deal with is basically one html file, the main page, with links to NINE other pages that haven't been designed AT ALL. The files don't even exist yet... so I spent EIGHT hours just trying to fix ONE PAGE. This is seriously not productive. I could have written the page in 2 hours or less using my own Vstrap and not had to fix the problems that I see because the solutions so far have been to overwrite rules that (in my opinion) should not be there in a bare-bones template... this is, of course, assuming that I had been given a proper design of some kind to work from... which almost never happens. I was even told that the colors can be changed to whatever I think looks good in this "design"...

If I have to spend 8 hours removing, changing, and over-riding the rules of your design or template in order to fix what's broken, then your design or template is seriously broken. That's all it comes down to. I don't want to spend any time scouring the internet for bootstrap templates that I think will match the suggested but broken design given to me either. I'm quite capable of writing my own code here and it goes a lot faster if there isn't 80 kilobytes or more of bloat in the code to begin with.

If you're going to design with Bootstrap, fine. If your Bootstrap design is broken, that's not fine. If you hand that broken design off to a dev who isn't familiar with bootstrap...

My web development process is very much an additive process, not subtractive. Why? Because that's what makes sense to me. If you want to fly from Boston to Los Angeles do you really want to take a flight that makes stops in Austin, Fargo, Cleveland, St. Louis, Salt Lake City, and Miami? Probably not. So why start with the mindset that you will have to subtract things from your framework in order to achieve a goal?

Bootstrap is not the problem here. I've had my framework evolving since I started doing web development full time in 2009. Twitter's Bootstrap wasn't a thing until 2011. It wasn't the first front-end framework and won't be the last. There's plenty of things that the Twitter devs and I have both used in our frameworks, things that we all agree are good and best practices. What differs is the scope of our frameworks... and Twitter's Bootstrap had a broader scope from the very beginning (I don't need nor want a rigid, verbosely coded, complicated grid system) than what our team's projects have needed. Twitter's Bootstrap grid system might be clever and very good, but there are simply many things in it going unused or getting in the way of fixing what I was given, and that is the definition of bloated code. There's nothing in Twitter's Bootstrap that I can't replicate in a way that makes sense to me, given time, and probably using a lot less CSS code. I'm rarely given that time though... everything needs to be done two weeks ago by the time it gets handed to me... maybe I can get it done faster if I'm not given broken HTML as the design ref.

If all you want is a responsive site, you don't always need a 916 kilobyte bootstrapped framework to start with! You start with the basics and add features and rules as needed... especially if mobile device friendliness is your main reason for wanting "responsive" web design. If you want people who have tiny screens and terrible internet connections to get the best experience as often as possible from your website then don't used bloated code filled with features and rule-sets that you are NOT using! Basic HTML is already responsive until someone designs the responsiveness OUT OF IT with bad and/or short-sighted CSS rules.

Perhaps the problem here is me... and that I'm not thinking clearly. I was asked to fix this Bootstrapped "design" and even though in the back of my mind I know that since I'm not familiar with all of Bootstraps quirks and intricacies I probably shouldn't try and mess with it unless I'm given GENEROUS time-lines to work with... I went against my own gut feelings and decided to try and work within the Bootstrap framework. Disastrous... lost 8 hours of work essentially because the navigation menu that was handed to me still isn't right on mobile.

Then again, if I'm the problem, then why am I fixing someone else's broken bootstrap design/template (not the first time either) in the first place?

USB Type-C plug

I'm going to miss the type A USB connectors when they've been phased out. They're very hackable (smaller connectors are more difficult for certain physical hacks or modifications) and fairly secure compared to the smaller connectors. I find even standard HDMI connectors to be less secure than USB type A. type A connectors just seem to put up with more abuse, tugging and other small stresses before losing their connection than smaller connectors do. Source | Screenshot

Bed Bugs...

I thought they were myth... things of fairy tales or something like that. They are very real and they want your blood.

For about 6 weeks I had a strange rash on my forearms. It itched like crazy. The only thing that would alleviate the itching was running very hot water over my arms. Yes, hot water burn baby but like I said it minimized the itching when anti-itching creams and lotion wouldn't. At first I thought it had to be something environmental since it was only appearing on my forearms which are usually exposed 24-7. I wanted to wash all of my bedsheets, blankets and pillows when I started getting the rash but the dryers in my apartment building don't work... it's been more than 2 months now since they've worked... I'm so glad I'm able to work from home sometimes. I eventually started to get the itchy bumps on my ankles and calves as well and even the back of my neck... and eventually I figured out that it wasn't a rash.

Do some web searches for bed bugs and you'll learn that they're becoming a major problem in many areas. Here in the Columbus area the Ohio Agricultural Department is trying to get an industrial pesticide approved for home use against the bed bugs. You'll read all kinds of horror stories about people dealing with not having a safe place to sleep and incompetent pest control officers that are only good at getting rid of your money - and money is a huge issue for me... I can't afford to do much of anything right now but research. I've tried a common pesticide that you can find in the garden section of most stores... to say it's 100% effective is wrong but that's okay because the company who makes it doesn't claim it kills bed bugs. The reason I tried it was because of a small group of people on a bed bug forum that claim the stuff is a godsend. Hitting the bugs with it directly will kill them but this stuff is the kind of thing that's not supposed to be used in that way... so I probably won't keep using it.

I learned about these Climb Up Interceptor traps and they sound like a great idea. $60 for 12 isn't completely outrageous but during my trip to the hardware store (I was getting painter's plastic to wrap up infested things and throw them out) I came up with something that's definitely cheaper but I'm still not sure how effective it will be.

Paint can drip catchers. They cost me about $1.50 each. Empty drip catchers are no good though and I figured if mineral oil works for killing fleas then it should work for bed bugs as well. I don't have any regular mineral oil but I do have some baby oil which is just mineral oil with fragrances added. You could have 12 traps with mineral oil for $20 or less.

The effectiveness of my traps can't be 100% proven yet. I'm not sleeping on my infested furniture right now. These little fuckers fed on me for over a month and bred like crazy! It's disgusting how many bugs I have in my furniture! Just looking at it makes me want to itch. I still put the traps in place. After 48 hours not a single bed bugs but it looks like I got some carpet beetle larvae in my DIY oil filled isolator traps under the couch legs. If I sit near my couch for about 20 min or so bed bugs will start coming after me. I have not seen one crawl down into the oil traps yet and I can't help but wonder if the fragrance in the baby oil is causing them to avoid it. I've seen them make their way down as if they're going to the floor to get to me but they always turn around and go back up the couch leg at about 3 or 4 inches above the traps. One clever bug tried something different though. This brave little bastard made his way to a piece of the fabric such that he was on a negative incline. He then let go of the fabric to fall to the floor. Unfortunately for the bug he fell right into the baby oil trap! He sank immediately and never moved again. Finally I feel like I have achieved a small victory in my battle against these bugs. I have nowhere I feel is safe to sleep in my tiny, crappy apartment. I slept in my bath tub twice... that was just unbearably uncomfortable though. For now I'm sleeping on a closet door raised up off the floor with milk crates. No, it's not very comfortable even with a sleeping bag and blankets between me and the hard wooden surface but I'm not getting eaten alive every night and that's what matters to me right now.

My plan is to eventually get plain mineral oil to try... and hope the baby oil fragrance is a turn off to bed bugs and that's the only reason I'm not getting any bugs in them yet without me trying to entice them into the traps. Once I get a new couch I may buy the real interceptors but will probably use my home made oil traps as well... right now the bugs left on my couch (I've bagged and trashed the cushions the frame is all that's left until I can get help moving it out of here) don't seem to be coming off the couch via the legs... and the scary thing is that they're smart enough to let themselves fall off of the couch to reach the floor. Do not underestimate the intelligence and determination of bed bugs. You will regret it.

business model = fail

If you are a tech company that outsources your phone support, I can't imagine why the hell you think it's good for your business. I've been working as a telephone tech support agent for 9 months now. The calls are from customers of a national high speed internet service provider. There are different levels of support for various services and products offered by the ISP. There are different support phone numbers for these different services and products and that essentially translate into if you call 555-1111 it comes into the call center on port 1. 555-2222 comes in through port 2, etc. It's all organized and logical and I would assume this is how most call centers are set up.

The problem comes when you outsource this kind of operation. The company I work for (the 3rd party) gets paid by the ISP based on call volume. The more calls they get the better the profits. Shorter call times = better profits... and happier callers in some cases. So lets say you have 20 - 30 agents on a given shift and they are trained in every product and service offered by the ISP. Let's say that someone calls in because they are having issues of some kind with Outlook Express. The call comes in on port 1 for general tier1 internet support. The agent spends 3 minutes+ verifying the caller's account information and then spend 6 minutes trying to help the poor soul who can't get his email to download in OE. At about the 9 minute mark they discover that the caller has antivirus software on the computer and it's the same brand as the free AV the ISP gives out and promptly states "well it must be your AV blocking OE so let me transfer you to the AV department... or port 7 in our system. The person answering on port 7 will have to spend 3min+ verifying the account information again, spend 5 minutes turning on and off the firewall in the AV software which makes no difference OE still won't download any of his email. Then the agent discovers that the call is using a wireless router... and transfers the caller to the wireless support number... port 9. The agent on port 9 answers, spends 3 min+ verifying the caller's information, spends 9 minutes listening to an irate customer go on about how nobody at this place knows anything and that they've been transfered over and over with nobody being able to fix his problem. There's a chance that the agent answering the port 9 call will just transfer the caller back to the AV number or the tier 1 number because a bad wireless signal is definitely not the problem. Why would this 4th transfer happen? BECAUSE THAT'S THE COMPANY'S POLICY!!! If you get a call about a problem that SHOULD be able to be taken care of at tier 1 then you are supposed to send them back to tier 1 even though they've already been there and tier 1 failed.

Remember, the 3rd party gets paid by call volume mainly, quality of service is a factor but I bet it's second or third in priority. Each time that call goes to a different port it registers as a different call. The company makes more money if they have incompetent agents who can't fix anything but will AT LEAST follow the company policy to the letter when it comes to not troubleshooting a port 2 problem if it came through port 9 even though the same person answers the calls for all ports and knows how to offer support on all ports.

What you end up with in this scenario is a 3rd party support company who probably makes a nice profit all the while pissing off a good percentage of the ISP's customers' phone calls from being transferred to hell and back. It's a shitty business model that I really can't stand being a part of... but in this economy it's a steady paycheck.

BTW... if you happen to call and get me, I don't care what port your call came through if you were transferred to me by someone else. I know your OE problem isn't a wireless problem because you'd also have problems with web pages loading if that were the case. I'm pretty sure the problem isn't going to be caused by the AV software we offer because in 9 months I've not seen a single case of that happening. I will have your OE problem solved in under 20 minutes assuming you can follow my instructions and put your anger aside while I'm trying to help you. I've never used OE in a personal or business environment but I am a very competent troubleshooter. OE is a program that gives you error numbers. Even if you didn't know that the training you go through where I work for tier 1 support explains this to you and tells you where to look the numbers up. But I digress... I will fix your OE problem even though your call came through the AV or wi-fi port and hopefully make you a happy customer... and then I will get yelled at by my superiors for not following company policy.

While I'm on company policy... my company would rather I ask you how your day has been and potentially carry on a 5 to 10 minute conversation about something completely unrelated to why you are calling than actually fix your problem quickly. Did I mention that we have to keep our call times under a certain amount of time? We do... so even if I was better at making bullshit small talk the way the company wants me to do I would probably still be opposed to doing it because it would make my average call time longer. I'm sometimes surprised I haven't been fired... but if you knew the turnover rate of this company I think you'd understand that it's hard to get fired without trying really hard.

There are some good things I can say about the company. The training material they provide is top notch IMO but it goes wasted if not used properly by the person you pay to train the noobs. Honestly some people go through router support training never being shown how to configure a router. They're told where to find the information maybe and that's it. What good is 7 8 hour training days when the trainer says "Here's where to find the information, you want to go home early or take calls?"

I was trying to focus on positive things... it's hard to keep that focus. Another great quality about the company I work for is their break policy. It might not be perfect but it's as good or better than the policies at any other company I've ever worked for and complies with the labor laws that I'm aware of.

Those 2 things are about the only positives about working where I work though and the 1st one doesn't apply to me because I already knew 80% or more of the stuff I've been trained on. Outlook Express application specifics is the only thing I knew little to nothing about - I already understood pop and smtp servers, ports and security settings in general though.

I've been putting off this rant for months because I'm just not the type who blogs about stuff very often. I have people I can vent my complaints to directly rather than in this form that feels less cathartic. The longer I work for this company the less I want to work there. I knew during my new hire training that I wouldn't want to work there though because the person who trained me was working out their 2 week's notice and when she explained her reasons for leaving I knew I wouldn't want to work for this company either. My new hire training class started with 12 people. 3 of us were left at the end of the 2 week training (3 missed too many hours due to illness allegedly) and 3 months after I was hired I was the only person left from that training class. They can treat very competent and well meaning employees like shit and they certainly treat their customers like shit. If you have no conscience then you should consider a career in telephone tech support. You'll go far.

Oh yeah... and that OE problem... the fastest fix is usually to delete all of the accounts set up in OE (you're only using one of them anyway) and recreate the email account using the correct settings. A 5 minute process assuming the caller is computer retarded but can at least follow my instructions.

Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007

Zeitgeist - The Movie, 2007
If only they would have seen it coming... maybe they could have done something.
"It can't happen here." It's been happening since before I was born and imagine it foolish to think there's anything that can be done to stop it. I don't know that I'll live to see how this all actually happens but it's been entertaining so far. I do try to enjoy the ride because I guess I'm afraid of being killed like so many before me. Every now and then I slip and people look at me funny but so far I've managed to get by without incident. I fear...

Investigations: How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porn - Consumerist

Investigations: How To Make Your Computer Catch People Stealing Your Porn - Consumerist

stolen elections

Google video - watch the first 12 minutes at least... especially if you or anyone you know is in the military. Not news to me.

O&O Defrag 10

O&O Software - Product Information

I've been a fan of O&O's defrag for a few years because it reorganizes files according to a set of rules as it defrags. With version 10 we can finally have our defrag jobs run whenever Windows goes into screensaver mode! As if that weren't cool enough by itself, they also include a screensaver as part of the install package. Here's a crappy digital camera shot of my screen with the O&O screensaver in action. On the left side of the screen file names with their full path scroll up as they are defragged & taken care of. The image map of your defragmentation in process spins and rotates in a 3D space on the right. It almost looks like something out of CSI Miami or some Sci-Fi show. As cool as it is I will stick to the Power Dimmer screensaver just because I like being able to see my desktop at all times. You certainly don't need to be running O&O's screensaver in order to have their software defrag while your PC is running a screensaver!

Yahoo Mail, Firefox and Vista

Let's say you have a new computer and are using the combination of Yahoo webmail, Firefox and your OS is Vista and you want to be able to click email links on webpages in firefox and have a compose yahoo email page open in a new tab with the proper info from the mailto link you clicked. You'd think this was a pretty straightforward and easy thing to set up. I just spent 3 hours looking for a way to get it to work.

I used to use Yahoo mail. Yahoo used to have a little app that would install and make it so all your clicked mailto links would open their webmail instead of Outlook Express or Windows Mail (vista). Apparently Yahoo doesn't support or distribute that tiny application anymore. They want you to install their Yahoo Instant Messenger in order to be able to click a mailto link and send mail with them... in firefox. Things like this make me glad I switched to gmail way back when.

I went down the path of trying to get Yahoo's old webmail application that I used to do and it was a dead end. If you search you will find a .cab file and can install this thing without problems under XP (right-click->install the .dll file) but it doesn't work so easily in Vista and I didn't want to figure out how to make it work in Vista. It should NOT be this freakin hard so I kept searching.

I eventually found a WebmailCompose add-on for firefox that works with all kinds of webmail providers and mailto links but the extension is gathering dust and won't install in FF 2.0.4. Download v0.6.5 and save it somewhere because who knows if it will still be around for long. The original author's website that most download links point to was a vast wasteland of 404s.

Next you need to get Mr. Tech's local install add-on for FF. Install this first, restart FF, then open the WebmailCompose .xpi file you saved... open it with Firefox of course. You should get a pop-up window from the Local Install add-on. Check off the box that says something about maximizing version compatibility or whatever and it installs just fine in FF 2.0.4. It looks like all of the WebmailCompose add-on's options are present but some of them went beyond the bounds of the options window in Vista. It still works though as far as I can tell.

Credit goes to this link Posted: Oct Thu 12th 2006 6:36pm by Mr. E but I thought I would make a post backing it up just in case that page disappears someday too.

Cable Modem Blower

So after years of dealing with a Linksys BEFCMU10 cable modem (with firmware version 1.0.6 (befcmu10v2_106.bin) of course) that likes to stop working properly when downloading alot of stuff I figured I'd finally try something to fix it since I don't have alot of other things to do lately. I stuck a fan into the thing that blows down onto the main processor chip. Gallery of the mod of course... it's not pretty since I just wanted to be done with it quick (I don't like being disconnected for very long) and I cracked the case trying to use utility scissors to cut it instead of my Dremel. Lesson learned hopefully... ALWAYS use the Dremel.

It took more than a day but the modem eventually stopped sending any data just like always. The thing isn't very warm to the touch anymore though so it's still an improvement over the stock design. The white thing taped to the modem is a de-cottoned cotton swab and has been there for almost as long as I've had the modem. It goes into a hole and makes contact with the reset switch so I can hit tthe switch without turning around the modem or standing on my head to find the hole with a paperclip or pen.

Smart Case Fans...

Now that the 70 degree F + weather is here I'm becoming more frustrated with these Smart Fans. The 80mm fans are great. Stick a temperature probe under the CPU heatsink and the 80mm fans ramp up their speed as the temperature at the probe increases exactly as you'd expect. The only problem is that I have a 120mm fan on my CPU heatsink and I can hook it up to the same probe that works great on the 80mm and it does NOTHING! I've finally had to resort to using the fan speed control knobs that come with the fans. I have 2 knobs, one for the 120mm front intake and one for the 120mm CPU fan - all of my fans in Ziggo5 are the Thermaltake Smart Fans with Blue LEDs.

Each Smart Fan comes with an optional speed control knob which is mounted to a PCI slot cover from Thermaltake. Not bad, but I don't have 2 slots at the back of my machine I want to sacrifice to this unholy compromise. The knobs are silver so they won't be going on the front of my machine. So I grabbed a blank Lian-Li slot cover, made my marks and started drilling holes. The slot covers must be made out of steel (as opposed to aluminum like the rest of the chassis) because they put up a good fight when I was drilling into them. Most knobs you might find on a device are mounted through a hole in a surface and then there's a nut that goes onto the knob shaft. Not so with these knobs. The Thermaltake slot covers have a rectangular cut made on either side of where the knob goes and then the metal was bent inward to make a sort of U shaped knob holder. The knob's square body fits perfectly into the U shape and there are 2 tiny latches involved as well. Right... all this means is that I was not going to be able to mount the knobs on a blank slot cover the way I'd hoped, but I made it work. I now have the 2 knobs mounted on a single PCI slot cover with plenty of room to add 5 or 6 knobs in I ever had the desire - which I'm sure I never will.

Once I had the knobs mounted (with some super glue help) I put the slot cover in place and hooked up one control to the 120mm CPU fan and booted into the BIOS to check things out. Just because I can, I left the temperature probe attached to the fan also. The first thing I noticed was that with the knob on it's lowest setting the fan was running 100+ RPM faster than it had without the knob. It used to hover around 1350 RPM and was at 1480 according to the BIOS. Interesting.

Next, of course, I booted into windows and started the dual Prime95 tests to heat things up. I had run this test before I started to get somewhat accurate results - rather than comparing to my old test results that were taken when the ambient temperature was a good 20 degrees F cooler.
Start test: (before the knobs, with temp probes)
CPU = 62, MB = 44
CPUfan = 1371, 80mm = 3590, 120mm = 1360
5 minutes into test:
CPU = 68, MB = 46
CPUfan = 1360, 80mm = 4821, 120mm = 1360
8 minutes into test:
CPU = 70/71, MB = 49
CPUfan = 1350, 80mm = 5113, 120mm = 1339
I stopped the test at this point to start working on the fans. Both 120mm fans were plugged into motherboard headers for power. I decided to change that and plug them into 4pin molex connectors from the PSU using adapters which also allow you to run the 3rd wire to the motherboard header to monitor speed. This adapter comes with the fans.
I had set the knobs so that both 120mm fans were around 1500 RPM.
Start 2nd test: (CPUfan has knob and temp probe at CPU heatsink now)
CPU = 45, MB = 35
CPUfan = 1534, 80mm = 1654, 120mm = 1430
1 minute in:
CPU = 54, MB = 35
CPUfan = 1721!!!!! 80mm = 1776, 120mm = 1406
6 minutes in:
CPU = 54, MB = 37
CPUfan = 1785, 80mm = 2136, 120mm = 1430

This is interesting. I'm now seeing the 120mm CPUfan increase it's RPM with the temperature I think! All I had to do was hook up the knob AND the temp probe. It could be an anomaly... but I don't care. What I do care about is that my 80mm rear intake fan shouldn't be overworking itself anymore. I ended up setting the 120mm fans to appx 1700 RPM. Since one is an intake on the front I think that will help slow down the 80mm intake at the rear (with temp probe at CPU heatsink and no knob) and bring in more air. The front intake 120mm has a temp probe under the heatsink of my ATI x1950xt and I don't expect to see any changes from that position. The leads of the probes aren't long enough to reach the front fan from the CPU heatsink so that's why I have that one there. Some day I might take some temp readings on the hard drive and see if the probe for the front intake would be better off there.

Film to Video Transfers...

It's not pretty and really cramped. After working for 10 years for my last boss he decided to throw in the towel and retire. I can't say that I blame him one bit... so I've been unemployed for almost a month as a result. Funny thing is that I still have customers. I don't think I'd ever be able to pay the bills doing this stuff but I do have the equipment and know-how... my whole setup is custom built and ever evolving using pieces and parts from all kinds of machines over the years. Living in a crappy, tiny 1br apartment in a building with a locked entrance and a 6x6x12 mailbox simply doesn't allow for me to pursue working on my own as much as I'd like. I always did this stuff because I enjoy it and feel like I can produce more than acceptable results for a certain price... not just because I was paid to do it. I wasn't paid enough to live anywhere but in a tiny, crappy apartment after all. I don't even have a van to live in down by the river so I'm not sure if my situation is much better than Matt Foley's.

Thumbnails from DVDs

Why is this kind of software not more common? Been looking for years and never finding anything perfect. Image Grabber II works at least. I have my own DVDs with my own footage and I just want something to go through the DVD video and pull thumbnails so I can make decent covers for them. This software work pretty damn good but you have to open each .vob file and grab thumbs individually. You'll have fun renaming them if you want to keep them in order after going through multiple .vob files.

1st successful overclock

CPU-Z Validator Database not quite perfect - testing apps failing and finding errors... much work to do :/

MetkuMods - Because you love your hardware!

Lapping of a processor I just came across this tutorial for sanding down the heat spreader for a processor! I suppose it would have been prudent to look one up before I did my own ;) I just used the surface of my drafting table for a flat surface to tape the sand paper to and I didn't protect my processor at all like this guide shows! I didn't use much water and I did use the plastic shell protector that the processor came with... I'm not completely retarded but just wanted to get it over with I guess.

Fans and Asus' AI N.O.S.

These Thermaltake smart fans are driving me nuts. I have 3 temperature sensors mounted to the heatsink base (only using 2 of them though) just as Thermaltake instructs but the only fan that seems to change speed is the 80mm fan. Both 120mm fans idle along at about 1400 RPM no matter what. The front intake 120 has it's sensor under a heatsink on my video card... meaning that I can actually open the case and get at that sensor while it's all running. So I did the unthinkable. I grabbed a lighter and held it under the sensor. It took at least 30 seconds before the 120mm fan started to speed up. Not good... to further prove this point I grabbed the good old meat thermometer and held my lighter under it at the same distance for the same amount of time. I'm guessing the 120mm fans don't start to speed up until the sensor sees a temperature of 120 - 140 F which is 48 - 60c and is not exactly the 20C to 55C low to high speed range Thermaltake claims IMO. I'm not seeing any abnormal temperatures I guess so maybe I should just let it be. I tried to get it as hot as possible (image lost) but you can see in that screenshot that the temps are fine and I never saw any higher while I was letting the AI N.O.S. overclock the CPU and throttling the system. You can also see the 80mm (chassis2) is at 2057 RPM - well above it's idle of 1400 RPM. I'm kind of glad that the rear intake is 80mm and blowing towards the CPU cooler. If it were a 120mm fan it wouldn't be speeding up at all.

Speaking of the AI N.O.S. overclocking - it works quite well but UT99 hated it! I would get stuck in maps and have to move all around to free myself. I wonder if overclocking manually/permanent will be different.

Some more temperature readings (PC idling, not at load) from the meat thermometer:
Front 120mm intake: ~70f / 21c
Rear 80mm intake: ~75f / 24c- right below the PSU exhaust but isolated
PSU exhaust: ~85 / 29c
VGA exhaust: ~90f / 32c - below the rear intake and not isolated
top blowhole: ~85f / 29c - fan disabled, just a vent, don't want negative case pressure so one 80mm fan exhaust via the PSU is fine. I might even block the hole off.
With the front intake measuring about 5 degrees cooler I'd rather that fan would speed up instead of the rear intake I think. Even so the sensors' wires aren't long enough to attach the front fan to the CPU heatsink. Putting it on a video card heatsink is the best I can do without an extension cable.

Overall I'm VERY happy with the cooling situation now (I've come a long way from the initial 140f PSU exhaust about 2 weeks ago) but I'm left wanting a little more if I can get it :) I'm nearly positive that the loudest fan in my system is now the fans in the Ultra Xfinity 600 watt PSU. They aren't very loud but I can hear something that sounds like an electric motor whine and it seems to be in the PSU area.

Ready for my closeup, Mr. Sean...

Finally a picture of Ziggo5. It's really hard to capture the blue LED fans accurately and this shot is a combination of 2 images; one shot with the flash and one without.
I have a few gallery pages.

WOW!

I have my new CPU cooler installed... the Enzotech Ultra-x.
Here are the numbers that I can't believe! They are all 'under load', running 2 instances of Prime95 for at least 20 minutes.
65c/53c = CF800 from ZEROtherm.
40c/33c = ULTRA-X from Enzotech.

I was hoping for a 10 degree improvement! I've got 25 degrees cooler on the CPU!!! The temps under load are LOWER THAN IT IDLED with the CF800!
I did make an alteration or two though.
1st, I sanded down the top of the processor using paper with a grit of around 600 or 800 to give it a smoother finish and better contact with the heatsink.
2nd, I took the stock fan off of the ULTRA-X and replaced it with a Thermaltake Blue LED Smart Case Fan. That was purely for aesthetics but let's see the specs:
EU = 1200 - 2500 RPM
TT = 1300 - 2800 RPM
EU = 24.5 - 38.5 db
TT = 17.0 - 46.5 db
EU = 35.8 - 62.67 CFM
TT = 38.6 - 93.7 CFM

According to the Asus pc probe software the TT fan is spinning at 2700 rpm, we're under full load for 25 minutes now, cpu is at 40c still, and I can certainly hear this fan! I'm definitely going to see if I can't slow it down some. The fan in the CF800 was practically silent in comparison (27 db) but it's max flow is 42.8 CFM according to their site. I'm going to play with the Asus Q-fan settings to see if I can't quite things down some :)

This Enzotech cooler is freakin awesome!

*Edit*

Okay okay... I'm such a noob. These TT fans all came with jumpers on the pins to make them run at full speed! I had to take the jumpers off (no small feat with everything installed) and now they're running slower and just about silent. The rear intake 80mm and front intake 120mm are both running at 730 - 740 RPM - that's below the specs on the box (1300 RPM for both) and the Asus software alarm goes off at 800 RPM! Arrrrgggg!

Right... so you'd think the same is happening with the 120mm TT fan I have on the heat sink. Nope! I took it's jumper off and it stayed at 2700 RPM no matter what the Q-Fan settings were. So I attached the thermal probe to this fan and stuck it into the northbridge's heatsink. I've yet to see that fan go above 1400 RPM. 30 minutes of full load and the temps are 52/43 and still climbing. So on top of the power cables being too short on these fans (about 6 inches) it looks like I'll have to rewire them in order for the BIOS to be able to control their speeds. It's either rewire them or mount fan speed control knobs which is NOT what I want to do. I WANT the BIOS to be able to control the speed based on temperature! I suppose I could wire them all up with their temperature sensors...

One last thing... I ordered a UV LED ring puk... I recieved a RED LED ring puk. I will let them know about this but I kinda like the look the way I have it so I'm not going to send it back. I might order another UV LED ring puk and tell them to check 10 times before shipping the next time. It's 2 a.m. now and I've been working on this crap since about 4 p.m. I cut a hole in my case to route wires from the PSU also and that required taking it all apart to just the aluminum rails. It's been a fun day and I do have pics :)

A little Bling for Z5

I got my shipment from Performance-PCs today... most of it at least. There was a slight problem but after just one email to them it was completely taken care of in less than 2 hours. So now I have my Enzotech cooler, Lian-Li drive covers, blue case fans (the power cables are only about 6 inches long on the thermaltake fans - a little short IMO), red UV round IDE cables, some aluminum fan filters and a UV LED Ring-Puk... and everything's wires have been expertly sleeved in red UV reactive materials. Their website has the phrase 'Sleeve it and they will come' in the title bar. I think that if you order just one sleevable item from this website you'll understand that phrase. You can always buy the sleeving materials and DIY but it's likely that it will never look as good or well done as it does from Performance-PCs. I'll take pictures eventually. I get a silly grin on my face when I sit and look at the sleeving job on my stuff. It's just so cool :)

I'm not sure when I'm going to tackle the cooler install. I want to sand down the processor's top when I do that to make sure it's as flat as it can be and hopefully I'll get some pretty interesting temperatures. I think I'd like to see a 10 degree drop but I'm not sure that's possible. Z5's proc is currently idling around 45c.

Cold front!

The last time I ran Prim95 x2 for a stress test I had 65c processor/53c motherboard with the CPU fan at 2343 RPM. Those numbers were reached after running the test for over an hour.
Today I have new numbers! 61c processor and 49c motherboard CPU fan @ 2100 RPM.
What did I do? A new processor? A new CPU cooler?? Drill more holes in my case???
None of the above. I got a new power supply.

Yesterday I tried to play FEAR. The game would run for about 4 minutes and then the whole machine would shut off. I also tried UT99 and that ran for 15 to 20 minutes before the machine shut down. I had an old 300 watt PSU... it only had a 20 pin mobo connector (not 24 pin), a 4 pin aux motherboard connector (not 8 pin), no SATA nor any 6 pin video card connectors. I figured there was a risk that this PSU wouldn't even work and I guess I was right. Playing the games demanded more of the video card than doing anything else for the past few weeks and that's what pushed the PSU beyond it's limit... or so my theory goes.

So I've got a new PSU installed now. No modular connectors and no LED fans (although I might change that later) and I don't even like the placement of the fans because the PSU's intake fan sucks air away from the blowhole fan of my case. Poor airflow theory I think.

At any rate I've got a 4 degree drop in temps and I figure that's just because the new PSU isn't being taxed to and beyond it's limit. The exhaust is still pretty warm and makes for a nice heater but there is a difference.

Enzotech CPU cooler

I originally wanted to get this Enzotech Ultra-X CPU cooler for my Pentium D but it was out of stock everywhere. Today (after my previous post) I got an email notification telling me it was in stock at one of the sites that lets you do email notifications on out of stock items... I went ahead and checked the other sites that carried it and sure enough it looks like they've all got it in stock now. After having an issue with jab-tech's site I ordered from Performance-PCs.com because they have other items I'm interested in as well. I'm hoping that the extra charges I paid them will actually get my stuff here before the weekend... unlike some OTHER web sites I won't mention.

Ziggo 5, computer or space heater?

The other night about a week ago it was extremely warm in my tiny apartment. This was when I was doing preliminary testing of Z5 running it at full throttle and trying to get the case cooling into order. The temperature outside was 55f and the temperature inside was 90f. The only thing I can think to blame is the hot air being constantly blasted out the top and back of Z5. After a few days of tweaking I figure I'm not going to get it to run any cooler but what I can do is improve the airflow in my apartment maybe. What I'm thinking about is a 5 inch by 5 inch square channel that will run along the wall and direct warm computer exhaust air right out a window that already has a fan in it. I've already mocked up a 5x5 channel that's about 6 feet long but with no bottom (like an upside-down U shape) and hung that on the wall using double stick tape. Using foam core and double stick tape should definitely work but the upside-down U channel seems to leak alot of heat so having a sealed channel will be necessary. The last thing I want or need is for it to get up over 100 degrees inside when it's 80 degrees outside! I can't wait to see my next electric bill...

Do more with Dual Core

Vegas Video 6, 11 min video consisting of 59 still images with fades and a few page curl transitions.
Ziggo 5 render time = 10:35 - Pentium D 805 2.6 GHz Dual Core
OptimusPrime render time = 55:10 - Pentium 4 2.4 GHz
Ziggo 2 render time = usually about the same as OptimusPrime - Athlon XP 1800+ 1.5 GHz
:)

Ziggo5: Cooling the beast

I've got an all aluminum Lian-Li case. All aluminum = better thermal dissipation than steel, lighter than steel, easier to cut/mod than steel and more expensive than steel. It's worth it.
The processor is a Pentium D 805 - one of the hottest running dual core 64 bit Pentiums around but it's also a nice overclocker's chip.
The motherboard is an Asus P5b Deluxe with heatpipes instead of fans to cool it's components. Is it crazy logic to think that several noisy fans inside cool less efficiently than heatpipes because the small fans disrupt good airflow and blow warm air onto components? I don't think so.
The case has 1 120mm front intake, 1 80mm rear intake and one 80mm exhaust fan at the top of the case - blowhole style. The PSU also has 2 fans to exhaust... now think about that rear 80mm intake. It's right below the PSU exhaust. What are the chances it will suck in warm air from the PSU exhaust? Very small if you have the PSU fan duct from Lian-Li that directs the PSU exhaust to the left. I would rather have this exhaust direct the hot air up due to where the case is sitting in my workspace and I may look into making that a reality in the future. The case sits at my right as I type this and the hot air gets blown in my general direction.
The CPU cooler is an Apack Zerotherm CF800. It cools about as good as the stock Intel solution but my OEM processor doesn't come with the Intel cooler. The CF800 cost me about $30 at Newegg.
For reference, 35c = 95f, 40c = 104f, 45c = 113f, 50c = 122f, 55c = 131f, 60c = 140f, 65 = 149, 70 = 158, 75 = 167, and 80c = 176f.
Before I even think about attempting to overclock I'm going to make sure my cooling is good. The results of my first test were scary as hell! To test I'm running 2 instances of Prime95 to push both cores to 100%.
1:09 - Start Prime95 x 2
1:11 - proc core temp = 70c
1:13 - proc core temp = 71c
1:15 - pct = 72c... that's 159f BTW
1:24 - pct = 73c, motherboard temp = 51
1:36 - stop Prime95 x 2
1:37 - pct = 57c mbt = 51c
Went into the BIOS, turned off Asus' Q-fan control of the CPU fan then started test 2.
1:43 - start - pct = 65 mbt = 50c
1:44 - 70/50
1:45 - 71/50
1:46 - 73/50
2:02 - 73/53 - stopped test.
BIOS, disable all Q-fan control so all case fans running full throttle, start test 3.
2:08 - start - 62/51
2:09 - 66/51
2:10 - 69/50
2:11 - 70/50
2:16 - 72/51 - stopped test.
Something's either really wrong or I'm confused about what to expect. Did some thinking, took side panel off and just looked around. The exhaust out of the PSU was 140f and the top panel was arund 120f this whole time - I used a meat thermometer to measure exhaust temps. I felt the area of the back panel just below the PSU exhaust and it was very warm. Felt the back panel near the bottom and it was cool... this confirms a thought I've been having off and on about putting a 120mm fan intake in the bottom of the case! Still, I must be missing something so I put the side back on and power up into the BIOS. At some point, at a loss, I grabbed a tissue and held it up to the rear intake to see just how much air it was moving... it was then that I had a small rush of joy quickly overtaken by frustration. That rear fan that should have been an intake was exhausting air! Wow... it was something obvious! I didn't mount/install this fan but that's just an excuse... and changing it requires a bit of work due to the duct attached to the inside of the fan to direct the INCOMING air onto the processor. I felt so damned stupid.
8:00 - took a long break, a nap and then put the case back together to start the tests again.
8:10 - cold boot cpt = 49c mbt = 35c
8:11 - 45/37 - little to no load - CPU fan speed = 1298... first time I've seen it under 2200 RPM ever!
8:14 - 45/38 - little to no load - CPU fan = 1298
8:15 - start test - 59/39 - CPU fan = 1360
8:16 - 61/41 - 2057
8:19 - 63/45 - 2109
8:20 - 63/46 - 2163
8:25 - 64/50 - 2220
MUCH BETTER! I'm no longer seeing a core temp increase of 10 degrees + from normal/average operating temperature.
Now things are performing more in line with what my original expectations were of this Pentium D 805... now I can consider overclocking a small bit. I still haven't stopped that last test.
9:30 - 65c/53c - 2343 RPM

The PSU exhaust still sucks... errr blows. Gotta do something about that before summertime for sure. It's a cheap old 300 watt PSU I had lying around - I'm not in love with it much even before this experience... but at least it hasn't failed yet under these temps.

BTW... Friday morning I got another email from Newegg. It had the UPS tracking numbers for my shipment... that I had recieved on Wednesday. Never. Paying. 2.99. Again.