November 25th, 2006

So it appears the PlayStation 3 might be worth taking a look at after all. Apparently I missed the fact that you can install Linux on it and are allowed to do so by Sony. Then of course once you have Linux installed on it you could run Windows XP via an emulator. I could really care less about running emulated windows on it but I’d like to dig up some benchmarks of the Linux PowerPC version. Anyone have any good links?
Posted in Tech, Gaming | No Comments »
November 7th, 2006

Well I just picked up a Dell E1505. With a coupon I found from googling “dell coupon code” the grand total came out to less than $850. This is not a CHEAP laptop but for what you get it is right at the sweet spot in my opinion. Here are some basic specs:
- Core 2 Duo T7200 2.0GHz / 4MB L2
- 1GB Dual Channel DDR2 @ 533
- ATI Radeon X1400 256MB (128MB Dedicated / 128 Shared)
- 15.4 inch UltraSharp™ Wide Screen WXGA+ Display with TrueLife
- 60GB 5400 RPM HD
So far the laptop has been faster than any other desktop I own - or more likely faster than any two or three of the desktops I own. The gaming is smooth, the screen beautiful and multitasking is highly efficient. It can run World of Warcraft windowed while surfing with Firefox, chatting on TeamSpeak, and torrenting @ 2-3 MB/s without any hiccups.
Anyhow if anyone is looking for a gaming / multitasking laptop in the $700-$1000 range I would have to say this is one of the best deals available right now. I visited just about every name brand manufacturer website before I ordered this and Dell came out to have the best options for the least amount of money.
Also.. this is the first computer / laptop I have ever bought outright from a name brand manufacturer. Just about every PC I’ve owned so far has been home built and the laptops were hand-me-downs from friends / eBay.
Posted in Tech | 1 Comment »
September 18th, 2006
Wow! That’s about all I could think when I saw how easy Hamachi was to use. I setup a VPN from my house to several other friends in a matter of minutes. In addition to its ease of use all communication is encrypted using AES-256-SHA1. Services like FTP and VNC which are not entirely secure by default can now be completely encrypted by simply using the hosts Hamachi IP address. Not so often does something come along for me to take the time out to post about on here but this sure is one of them! Check it out at www.hamachi.cc
Posted in Tech, Gaming | No Comments »
July 19th, 2006
Seeing how I haven’t posted in a while I thought I’d throw something useful together and post it up here.
Here is a list of some of the better free and/or open source software I have come across. Feel free to submit programs you think are great to add to the list.
Posted in General, Tech, Web | No Comments »
April 27th, 2006

Ballenger Motorsports has had a FedEx shipping account for a long time. FedEx service was set up completely in a single 5 minute session with an excellent level of tracking visibility and billing.
Ballenger Motorsports has had a USPS shipping account for a short time. USPS service was set up completely in a single 5 minute session with a mediocre level of tracking visibility and billing.
Ballenger Motorsports has had a UPS shipping account for months. UPS service has, to this day, not been set up to an acceptable level of service in any way. The process has worked something like this so far:
1) Establish account, enter information username password. Account checks my business DNB # and apparently my credit is good. So far so good.
2) Hmm…. I can’t use billing, adiminstration, or quantum view services, I wonder how I set these up. After a brief search and a call, I apparently need to have an account representative do this. I have to wonder why? Why can’t I just set this up as with UPS competitors instantly? Apparently my account reprenstative works 9-5, m-f which is not helping me on a saturday afternoon. Isn’t there someone who can just set this up or some automated system? Apparently not.
3) 1 week later, my account representative finally decides to contact me. I ask to have billing and quantum view setup and to have admin acccess.
4) 2 weeks later, my account representative finally actually sets this up for me. The username and password do not allow me complete access (or so i think). I get my billing pin information in the mail. I finally get emails for my developers key and xml access key (which appear with no key, I actually have to view the source of the message to find the key).
5) I am unable to setup the same username and password for all services. I try lots of combinations and finally get my basic ups.com and billing center to have the same access information. I am unable to get Quantum View working properly at all. I contact my account representative with my problems and ask for a simple setup… really, just please make this all work with my single username and password. Apparently she isn’t able to do very much and I truly fail to understand why these representatives exist as the extent of the support and help I get is a phone number for someone else. Why do I need a person to set this up when an automated system should have done this initially?
6) I contact support and meet a condescending individual who proceeds to tell me that asking for a single simple login to do everything is ludicrous and outside of the “UPS universe of possibility”. It is at this moment that I wish I had a record button on my business phone. I am also subject to a very forceful explanation of what “case sensitive” means. When my issued password fails to work, I am told that I am unable to type. I go through the forgotten password process (despite having the seemingly proper one) which is supposed to email me. After hours, no email. The support individual tells me that it was sent instantly and something is wrong with my computer. Thanks man… it’s not like I can’t test it’s function; I send myself several emails from different accounts successfully while I’m being told my computer is broken.
7) I gather the pieces together and this is what I have figured out so far. First you need to establish a UPS account. Then establish a ups billing account. Then get an account rep to establish a Quantum View admin account (This will only take 6-8 weeks apparently). Once this is done, login with the initial accounts to ups.com and delete your original account. Go to your billing account and alter it to your desired username and password. Login with your Quantum view manage account and establish a new ups.com account with the desired username and password. Create admin access for this account. Now delete your undesireable account name and password.
This system is inherintly flawed, annoying, time consuming and stupid. No one at UPS can do much about it and no one seems to care. I just got bounced from point to point wherein there was supposedly always a problem with some other system. I am frustrated, I have lost time and money because of this ludicrous bloated wad of crap that they call UPS and I STILL don’t have this setup properly.
UPS is the only shipping company with which I have received damaged packages (due to mishandling). UPS also randomly decides to improperly change the size and weight of some of my inbound & outbound packages such that their shipping cost more than doubles. As an example, I purchased a package from Uline that weighed 37 lbs and was 36×31x8 in size. UPS adjusted the pricing for this shipment for a 56×30x8 package which moved it to an oversize class 3 package which changed the calculated shipping weight & cost to 90 lbs and an oversize charge of an additional $40. When I call them to correct this problem, they seem to change without question but really, why should I have to call for an adjustment that they should have never made in the first place?
I would love to stop shipping UPS altogether. Nothing about their system is good but I recognize that some customers will desire this service and I will either offer UPS.com service as an option if requested or leave it as a normal option and put specific text recommending against ups.com. Interestingly, I can see my inbound packages through my bills but with no other method. How is this company in business?
Posted in Web, Business | No Comments »
April 4th, 2006
In honor of the game tetris I decided to throw together a quick tetris close. Go to the new Jextris section to download it and post your high score/level.
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April 2nd, 2006
Apparently Hexic HD, the game my wife is addicted to off and on and that is preloaded on every XBOX 360, is apparently written by the same guy who originally wrote the code for tetris. Apparently this guy is great at making simple games that people play like crack addicts!
Posted in Tech, Gaming | No Comments »
March 30th, 2006
See my geeks links page for a new way to track UPS packages with google maps. There used to be a way to do this with GreaseMonkey but UPS killed it. Now this site does it without having to download greasemonkey. Very cool!
Update 11/25/2006 - IOFAST has been offering this service for quite some now. It is the only one I have seen that is written using Google Maps API v2. Still needs a little work to be solid in IE but Firefox renders it 100% accurately.
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March 29th, 2006
I wrote up a quick CRC16 routine tonight for VB. Check it out in the source code section. Also I made a list of common of phone star (*) codes a few days ago that is also available from the main menu.
Posted in General, Tech | No Comments »