X-Geek

Extreme geekiness

There are 702 posts filed in X-Geek (this is page 42 of 71).

“Chinglish” and Internet wholesalers

I was doing some Internet searches to come up to speed on some satellite TV technology when I came upon this amusing Chinglish description for an amazing set-top box. It combines many of my interests: amusing, over-the-top Chinglish; Linux; and DVB-S satellite set-top boxes.

DreamBox DM7025 is one of the latest in the serials of wares from Dream Multimedia System. It is highly advanced and scientifically ongoing digital satellite catcher which is obtainable at exceedingly low-cost and sound monetary values from the cyberspace. The device has the fullest and greatest capabilities than some other electronic device from the very same make. Continue reading →

Answering machines

I called someone at the city today and my call got sent to what sounded like an ancient voicemail system. I was subjected to a lengthy computerized lesson on how to leave a message and it struck me as so totally irrelevant here in the year 2010.

Answering machines have been around a long time. A man named Vlademar Poulsen invented the first one in 1898. Dubbed the telegraphone, it was a manually-operated means of recording a telephone conversation. It wasn’t until 1935 that a machine that could answer itself was invented by Willy Muller. It was later still (1960) before answering machines were first sold in the U.S.
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I <3 ImageMagick


I was looking for a way to stitch together multiple scans I’ve made into a multiple-page PDF. Each page when scanned became a separate image file and I didn’t want to attach each one separately.

Fortunately, ImageMagick came to the rescue! All it took was this command:

convert -adjoin *.png report.pdf

… and my PDF was created instantly. What useful little tools ImageMagick are!

CompUSA

My inner geek was thrilled the day that TigerDirect opened a store on Capital Boulevard. It was nice having a broad range of electronics items for Internet-store prices.

However, as time went on it became a chore to shop there. There were never enough cash registers open, and the rent-a-cop they had working at the front door took his job way too seriously. More than once I had stood in line with my purchases and then gave up and put them back on the shelf. I didn’t want to spend 20 minutes at the register, waiting to pay them my money.

Fortunately, TigerDirect bought CompUSA. They’ve been slowly putting their CompUSA stamp on this store. There are now plenty of cashiers available, the rent-a-cop is gone, the store is laid out better, and the sales folks are far more willing to help you than they used to be. It’s now a joy to shop there.

I still like to head over to the local Intrex for stuff, but the CompUSA store is my preferred place to shop.

Microsoft helps Russian police quell dissent

The New York Times reports that Russia has been raiding offices of dissenters and using the pretext of searching for pirated Microsoft software. The Redmond-based company apparently fully supports these raids against environmental groups and others.

Compare Microsoft’s actions in Russia to Google’s in China. Though from a Chinese business perspective Google really screwed the pooch with its public embarrassment of the Chinese government, Google at least tried to do the right thing. Microsoft appears blind to the moral repercussions of its cooperation with an increasingly authoritarian Russian government.

More and more I am glad I use free software like Linux.

The bunker in the neighborhood

Dranesville AT&T bunker

My friend Craig forwarded me a link to a wonderful collection of information on AT&T’s old “long lines” infrastructure. It made me realize I’ve never told this story.

I’d seen this particular website before. I think a Slashdot story on AT&T putting up the old microwave towers for sale prompted me to do some Google searches, after which I spent a lot of time looking through this stuff.

I’ve found this map particularly interesting. I used to live in Northern Virginia near to the non-incorporated area known as Dranesville. You can see many of these routes converging at Dranesville. At the time I was intimately familiar with the phone phreaking technologies, possibly the only thing that Apple-cofounder Steve Wozniak and I have in common. Figuring out how the phone system worked was a fun challenge.
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High-altitude balloon launch

A group of friends is launching a helium balloon to the upper reaches of the atmosphere. Josh Shaffer of the News and Observer wrote a story on it in this morning’s paper.

I am not involved in the project (I’m at the beach now), which kills me because I’ve wanted to do this for a long time. The best I can do is what everyone else can do, which is track the balloon online. Those in Raleigh can see the launch at Horseshoe Farm Park at 8 AM Sunday.

Update 23 August: Success! See the results!

Default dns names

Once upon a time I knew how to configure BIND to send a canned reply for lookups to undefined IP addresses. Thus, a lookup of 192.168.1.16, if not assigned to a hostname, would return as “dhcp-16.example.com.”

Now I can’t remember what BIND option actually did this. Any other sysadmin geeks out there know how to do this?

Update: Found it! It’s the $GENERATE feature. Cool!