Molding Chips, Surprising Cybernetics and New Drugs for Nerds

Posted on June 20, 2002 by Pace Arko
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Happy Fishbowls, Snow Crystals and Fame

Posted on June 14, 2002 by Pace Arko
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Transformers, Web Design and ASCII Art

Posted on June 13, 2002 by Pace Arko

Web building:

Unclassifiable:

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A revised list of things that I am interested in

Posted on June 13, 2002 by Pace Arko
  • Cartooning. I know I am too old to start a career in cartooning.
  • Creating an compelling RPG background. Again, perhaps as 40 year-old single man, this might be highly suspect but there it is. I have the spare time–sort of.
  • Building a bigger music collection in this post-MP3 era. Hopefully I won’t get arrested for this.
  • Doing more amateur science. I sure as heck don’t want to go back to University but I can’t just this science monkey off my back.
  • Getting a bike to increase my mobility.

You know what I hate about Radio Shack? The fact that they always ask you for your name and address even if you are making a cash purchase. I always give them a fake name and address.

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Cosmology, Lego and Haptics

Posted on June 4, 2002 by Pace Arko
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Stupid Computer Tricks: Multi-booting NT, 9x and Linux

Posted on June 4, 2002 by Pace Arko

Again in the endeavor to make this site useful to Web developers, I present the following experiences in making an Intel/AMD multi-boot different OSes and file systems.

I plan to revise this article extensively as time goes on and I learn more.

Anyway to explain what my goal is: I want to have machine that can boot either Windows 9x (95, 98 or ME) in FAT32, NT (NT 4, 2000, XP) in NTFS or Linux in ext3. This is so I can run things in one enviroment or another without compromising anything, so I can develop web stuff on Apache, sendmail, IIS, SQL Server 2000 and so on, so I test browsers and services in a variety of environments and mean it.

So through some Web research and trial and error, I’ve arrived at a laborious way to make my machines multi-boot with different file systems:

  1. Before doing anything, back up all your data!
  2. Then wipe the file table of your hard drive clean. If you don’t know how to do this, you shouldn’t waste your time with this article.
  3. Next, follow Adam’s dual booting instructions very closely and very carefully. I don’t yet fully understand all the ins and outs of this method but it works so I ain’t messing with it. Perhaps when I figure out the whys and wherefores I will propose shortcuts.
  4. After reaching the end of the previous step, you should have a machine that dual boots 9x in FAT32 and NT in NTFS. Ideally your drive should should several partitions left over for storage and for the linux installation that’s to come.
  5. Upgrade the 9x system to the most recent version you have probably 98 or ME. Do this now because it might be difficult to do later other systems are crystallized.
  6. Upgrade the NT system to the latest version you have for the same reasons. It will probably a pain to fix your boot loader after upgrading your Win2k system partition to XP. Do it now before installing Linux.
  7. Once you’ve got everything upgraded and stable on your 9x and NT partitions, then install the latest version of Linux (Preferably with ext3 as a file system and GRUB as a bootloader.). I used Red Hat 7.2, but I am a green horn. Maybe I’ll graduate to Slackware or compile my own later.
  8. I still haven’t figured out how to assign a swap partition for Linux using this process. I am still experimenting. I’ll send postcards when I get there.
Posted in Computer Support | Comments Off on Stupid Computer Tricks: Multi-booting NT, 9x and Linux

Radio by photolith, forensics, Web comics as unintentional biography

Posted on May 29, 2002 by Pace Arko

May was a very busy month for me so, most of the entries this month consisted of links with little commentary. (Actually now that I think of it most of my journal consists of this type of entry.) And this is one is the same:

Posted in Science and Engineering, The Future, The Internet | Comments Off on Radio by photolith, forensics, Web comics as unintentional biography

Nanotech–a cakewalk for piracy? And stupid CSS tricks!

Posted on May 24, 2002 by Pace Arko

Accessibility:

Security:

  • No, you are not being clever when using the names of old lovers, with a few easily guessed numbers thrown in, for passwords. Now that everything of importance depends on it, choose better passwords people!
  • And no, tech fixes like smart cards and biometrics won’t eliminate the need for strong passwords either.
  • Considering the existance of multiple copies of your e-mail on multiple servers across the Internet, it’s getting harder to truly delete things from existance. Make strong passwords people!

Content Piracy:

  • When people can thwart anti-copying technology with a simple felt-tip marker, a perfect world with no content piracy doesn’t seem likely to come into being anytime soon.
  • Besides sometimes piracy builds audience which means more money gained at legitimate outlets.
  • I don’t condone piracy but it’s going to get worse. Today, the diamond cartels laser etch diamonds to substantiate authenticity because synthetic diamonds are so good now that they can easily pass most tests. Tomorrow, when nano gets in full swing, it will become possible to make atomically precise copies of the Mona Lisa from tubs of vegetable oil.
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Can advertising work in these modern times?

Posted on May 14, 2002 by Pace Arko

So I just read the PBS is in a decline now that cable has stolen away some it’s audience with high quality, yet ad supported content–A&E, AMC, the History Channel, etc. Also I’ve read a good summary about how some cable content providers are preventing DVRs from skipping ads. So despite all this new technology, the really revolutionary idea, ad-free subscription content, may never actually work.

So much for the Internet liberating us. Sigh. Can’t anyone make this business model work?

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Accessibility technology

Posted on May 12, 2002 by Pace Arko
Posted in The Internet, Webmastering | Comments Off on Accessibility technology