On my daily romp through RSS land, I found a link to a nice little mini-itx cluster. One of these would be nice.

Anyways, it got me onto a mini-itx tip, and after 15mins I'd come up with the following;

The perfect motherboard for that little firewall all SOHOs need. Along with an article on how to set it up with Linux.

If you can always stash it in a nice little home made box.

And all this reminded me that I need to try out Gentoo Linux on my DELL laptop.

Need to do a major code clean up as well...also, need to add little things I left out during initial development. And logging. Ahhhhhh!!!

I screwed around with so much code today and ended up with changes to the menu system. So now I can add menu items via the DT interface and they display correctly on the blog.

Now I have to work on the default menus. Calendar, Authors, Contact, Archives, Feeds, etc. The question is, show they be records in the db or should they just be hard coded into the interface. Records in the db means it'll be easier for users to (de)activate them. Hardcoded means they won't be able to screw them up =)

RCToys is a great place to get some great toys [& spend a lot of money]. Take for example the new Dragan Fly - Predator.

Draganfly Innovation's scaled-down Predator looks just like the Predator B you have seen on CNN. And, like its full-size cousin, the scale Predator is flown by a radio system from the ground while it transmits real-time color video and takes high quality still photos. The scale Predator can even be equipped with a GPS flight control unit for long distance, pre-programmed reconnaissance missions (20 miles effective range). Designed with a low-drag fuselage and V-tail, the Predator is configured to extract the maximum power available from the flight battery.

I remember the Dragan Fly company because a few years ago [4 me thinks] I bought a remote controlled blimp for my sister's boyfriend as a Xmas present. It rocked!!!

Beam Online is a good resource for beam robotics. The Robosapien is almost available. And if you're thinking of building a robot, you gotta check out Solarbotics.

Looks like the Mars Rover may have found some water.

And this article seems to explain Bush's sudden interest in space, apart from trying to boost his popularity.

And just when you though cosplay was the furthest the human/manga morph could go, up jumps Open Sky. I really hope these guys can pull it off =)

Want to set up a Windows-free terminal server network environment. Maybe for a small Internet cafe or something. Then check out this article on installing K12LTSP. It's a bit thin on technicalities, but that's sometimes just what you need.

Basically K12LTSP allows you to take older machines and turn them into usable thin clients for a faster server. The applications run on the terminal server (your fastest machine) . Workstations (your older machines) are like thin clients. They don't have software or need hard drives. In other words, take an old, slow, antique machine and give it new life instead of throwing it into the trash bin. I myself have set up a 75 MHz IBM with 48 MB of ram and an older 2 MB video card and a 3com509tpo ethernet card........... and booted K12LTSP on it; and it was fast !

My 3D fix for the day. M.I.L.K.E.D.

WARNING: Do not visit M.I.L.K.E.D. if you are offended by X-rated materials.

Looks like a good collection of reading material. Not much chance of me finding any of these in a Japanese book store where I live [even with an English section], so it looks like more business for Amazon.

When I was using IE, I use to quite frequently get redirected to Microsoft's search page when I was trying to hit domains I knew existed [r0nin.org, google.com, slashdot.org, just to name a few]. I don't miss that at all.

85% of the American public are probably not even aware that their private information is a commodity, used by 10% of the population to make more money then they could ever need or use [although the power that goes along with that money they can always abuse]. If you're part of the 5% of Americans who know this, now at least you can find out what they know and what it's worth by using The Swipe Project.

I think that's the longest break from blogging since I started. Just over 3 weeks since my last post. Since then I've;

Started using Mozilla Firebird as my default browser. I've always used Mozilla on my Linux boxen, but not it's on the shit [Windows] boxes as well. I'm totally pissed with XP on my TC1000 tablet. Runs like a dog. IE kept crashing when I was connected. I don't think there's a good thing left to say about it. I'm going to ditch my AirH wireless Internet connection for a ISDN [where I live it's the only alternative], and then it's good bye XP [and any future versions of Windows] forever. I'll keep my Windows 2K install on the DELL laptop for a while, but only until I find suitable replacements for the video production software I use [shouldn't be too long].

NOTE: If you do use Windows, get Mozilla and use it instead of IE. It's soooo much better - now. There was a time when IE was admittedly the best option, but....THINGS CHANGE....so do yourself a favour.

Be careful if you're thinking of buying a new digital camera with wireless access. Warspying is on the increase.

I'm finally starting my own software company [among other things]. A little bit of research goes a long way.

In my long search for tools to 'backup' my DVDs, I think I hit the jackpot.

Meanwhile, it's still dumping here in Niseko. And although the small town is currently being over run by Australians who either:

a) Think they're Buddha's gift to snowboarding/skiing.

b) Get the Donald Trump syndrome and think they can buy all the property in the town and make Niseko 'The Best Ski Town In The World' [...please people, it already IS the best ski town in the world, and the reason for this is that is IS still all mum & pop pensions, cafes, bars, etc...please don't try and f#$k it up].

c) Get drunk every night and look for unlocked cars to steal.

d) Have absolutley no understanding of Japanese culture and totally abuse everything.

...it stilll rocks being here =)