Previous Blogs from My MySpace

Alternative Software
I've decided to give anyone who reads my blog the alternative open source programs that I use in place of the usual programs one might use. Here you go this is the list of items I use in place of the mainstream. Well some of them have become mainstream like firefox.

Alternatives to IE

Firefox: http://www.mozilla.com/products/download.html?product=firefox-3.0.7&os=win⟨=en-US
Opera: http://www.opera.com/download/get.pl?id=32022&thanks=true⊂=true
Chrome: http://www.google.com/chrome/eula.html

Alternative to iTunes

SharePod: http://www.getsharepod.com/screenshots/

Alternative Messenger. Now I use one messenger to connect to all my accounts. AOL, Google Talk, and Yahoo.

Pidgin (Formaly Gain): http://downloads.sourceforge.net/pidgin/pidgin-2.5.5.exe
Trillian: http://www.download.com/Trillian/3000-2150-10047473.html?part=dl-trillian&subj=dl&tag=button


Email. Now most people use programs that are on the web now such as Gmail, Yahoo, Hotmail, etc but if you still like your email client on your computer here is an alternative to outlook express.

ThunderBird: http://www.mozillamessaging.com/thunderbird/download/?product=thunderbird-2.0.0.21&os=win⟨=en-US
Eudora: http://www.eudora.com/download/
Pegasus: http://www.pmail.com/downloads.htm

Just for the hell of it here is yet another social network site that is up and coming.
http://www.hi5.com/

If you want tv from the internet check out....

Hulu: http://www.hulu.com
TV.com: http://www.tv.com (Still being re-worked but they are going to try to keep up with hulu)

Ok that is it for now. I'm sure I will ad to this sometime... if anyone has any ideas or suggestions on what they like to see added feel free to let me know.



7:49 PM

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

I think I might be a geek.....

Believe it or not I just might be a geek. Yes me. If you see my apartment you will realize that I am a bit of an electronic/gaming/computer nerd.

Lets start with my computer desk. First there is a shelf (well an old drawer I converted to a shelf ;) ) that has my camera dock, vonage router, dsl modem, 8 port switch, and a wireless/4port router (which is wireless n compatible). Its a mini light show of yellow and blue.

Next we have a laptop that is around 6 years old. It is running XP pro at the moment, but I'm thinking about converting it to Ubuntu Linux once I migrate the info I need off of it.

I have two USB hubs connected to each other so I don't have to unplug anything. It has all the plugs in the hubs. This way I can run everything from my laptop. There is also an external DVD/CD burner. I got this so I could burn from both a desktop and laptop. It burns dvd-r double layer also. My keyboard and mouse are wireless. (Time for new one though this one is getting rather worn) I have an extra cable out of the switch too so I can hook in my work laptop when I need to. The monitor is a 20in LCD screen.

I also have a desktop that my cousin gave me, which I put linux on. There is a dead desktop that I tried to build but for some reason it won't cycle power. Everyone I talk to says motherboard or power supply. I've replaced the motherboard but have yet to replace the power supply. Lets hope thats it because I want to convert that one to a file server.

Then comes the new computer that should be arriving anytime this week. I got another monitor with it so I can go dual screen. It is going to be a beast. It unfortunately has Vista home edition on it but I can deal with that. It should run any new games out there. It has 1.5 terrabyte main hard drive, 750 Gb secondary hard drive, 8 Gb of RAM, 1 GB of video ram, 10/100/1000 network card, blu ray/dvd burner, dvd burner with lightscribe, and is liquid cooled.

There is also a few dead parts or un-used parts in various places of my apartment. The laundry/utility room has a skeleton case of my old dell desktop, some power cords, networking cords, usb cables, etc. A room upstairs has a CRT monitor. The one closet has a few keyboards, old software, and mice. That is the tell tale sign of my geek status I would say. Parts everywhere.

Now its not just computers. I have a gaming system addiction too. I have sitting in my living room area, a xbox, gamecube, wii, and xbox 360 and yes they are all hooked up to a 40in lcd screen. In the closet is an old nintendo, sony playstation and a junked out xbox (damn that soddered joint). Also in various closets are old games for the nintendo, super nintendo, sega, xbox, playstation and sega cd. (If i
have an itch to play an old game now I use an emulator and rom on my computer.....he he he e)

Then their are the movies. A 5 disk dvd player with a simple but nice surround sound and probably over 200+ dvds. I also have a netflix account in which i stream movies to my xbox 360 account or computer and also get a disk in mail. Needless to say with all this I don't watch much of the "regular" tv programing. If i do it is often online that I watch a show.... such as heroes and chuck. Now that I have looked at hulu.com i might have another avenue to look for tv shows and movies. I have one thing to say about this... time to upgrade my internet
connection speed ;) .

Oh and I have recently purchased 3 Cat 6 (which don't exist according to aradio shack sales rep in corry) cables to replace the Cat 5e cables. At this time they don't have a great benefit over the cat 5e but they will in the future. They should handle video and audio better than cat 5e.

I'm pricing KMV switches for dual screens, why you ask. Well so I can have all computer on and just hit a button and have the switch to my dual monitors. Dah.... Pricing long cables that don't have signal loss to hook my 40in lcd up to the computer also. Once again a reason to upgrade internet speed for those streaming videos.


So I admit it.... here goes.... My name is Jon... and I'm a geek. (now is time for everyone to say HI JON)