Free stuff is good stuff...

Since I haven't posted in a while and really can't think of a good one, I thought it would be a great time for a 'what free software I use' blog. So, here we go.

• OpenOffice - Honestly, I don't use it that much but I'm starting to use it more. Since the ACM does not have an Office license, I use it primarily there. Wish they would add 'track changes'.
  
• Firefox - Really, who does not use this wonderful browser now. Its designed to be minimalistic then rely on the public to build extensions.
• FileZilla - While Firefox has a decent ftp extension for it, I have had some issues pop up with it. FileZilla, on the other hand, has been great and supports secure FTP.
• Thunderbird - I don't use this as much as I used to. I use it to read my school mail but now I have it forwarded to my gmail account.
• GMail - I love this! Great interface, built in Google Chat, and lots of space too.
  
• Foobar2000 - Since I stopped acknowledging the existence of Winamp after 2.9 I have passively looked for a good music player. With a memory footprint of <14mb>
• Media Player Classic - I do not like Windows Media Player and I still believe that it 'phones home' with what your watching and listening to, I try to boycott it. Thus, MPC is my player of choice. It works with most all of the same shortcuts from old Media Player 6.4 built into windows with some new additions.
  
• Xvid - Great compression Codec which is free. The presentation I recorded of Horst was compressed using Xvid and the quality is quite good. But you must pardon the quality of the video camera.
• No-IP - I run an FTP here at home just in case I need to grab a file from home withouth the time to drive home to do so. Thus, No-IP allows me to run a program that will check with their server and update the DNS information. Just ask me in person what my free Domain name is LOL.
• Logmein.com - I use this free version so I can control my PC from anywhere I can use a web browser. This comes in handy when mom has a problem on her PC and needs some help.

Thats a good list so far. So, what free software do you use?

Brian

An Open letter to the RIAA...

Hey guys, I know you have issues with people doing anything with music, its quite obvious that you want to be right beside every person on earth when and where they listen to anything remotely considered 'music'. But, come on guys, sending cease and desist letters to people who post videos on YouTube containing music is obsurd.

Every video I have seen on there was about the content, not as a way to 'stick it to the man' by getting around having to have 'appropriately licensed music'. My previous post contained an embedded link to a YouTube video from Dexter Freebish. The CD from whence the song came is no longer in print and is quite hard to get ahold of now. I love the song ever since I heard it on the radio up in the 'ham.

However, I digress again. You are trying to continually narrow the amount of 'fair use' we as Americans have with something we own. You continually draw more and more crosshairs in your direction. Bands are starting to release music freely on the internet, bypassing you. I personally try to only buy CD's in such a way that hopefully more of the proceeds go to the actual artist rather than YOU.

This is a foolish thing to do and I believe you will be punished by the people who your Association really needs to keep it going. We, the consumers, will get fed up with this crap. Hopefully, it will be sooner rather than later, and put an end to this. I can only hope it happens before it get too bad.

This article from digg spawned my blog entry.

~Kisea

Lan Party has new date / Dexter Freebish

The Lan party has a new date, Friday July 7th. We are going to grill out starting around 5pm and then games will ensue. Please bring chips, drinks or something.

I have been pushing and one of the webmasters finally made an RSS feed for the ACM webpage. See, we are working hard to bring the site to up to date.

We purchased a new machine for the ACM last week, a Dell Dimension 3100. It had a 2 day sale going with $400 instant rebate so we now have a nice machine with 17" LCD monitor, 3.0GHz P4 with hyperthreading, 1GB of ram, and 160GB SATA hdd. Our plans are to raise funds for 2 more computers over the next 2 or 3 semesters and have the office full of new computers with LCD monitors. We currently have a rack mount 24 port 10/100 switch which is quite loud in the office which we are replacing with a netgear 10/100/1000 switch 8 port from a gift card graciously donated to the ACM by Shanon C.

Both of the previous advisors have stepped down, one is going to U of Mobile and the other stepped down for some other reason. So we elected Mr. Whitston as our advisor. The department sent a memo out to the faculty stating that 'Whitston and Johnson' were going to be the mentors for the ACM however, we have not come to an agreement over this within the ACM. There have been other candidates nominated within the ACM which we would like to explore first.

Anyway, Doug and I went to the Blues Traveler concert at the Soul Kitchen downtown last week and it was awesome. The band played for about 2.5hrs. They even did covers of Lowrider, Devil went down to Georgia among others. John Popper has some wicked mad skills on the harmonica and is definitely worth seeing live.

I will leave you with this video of Dexter Freebish, very good band I happened upon several years ago while still living in Cullman. This was, as far as I know, their one and only music video. Their latest album is pretty awesome, I really want to catch them in concert sometime so, guys if you happen upon the blog....PLEASE COME SOMEWHERE CLOSE TO MOBILE, AL sometime. Check out their official page here.




Kisea

Lan Party...

Tentative date for an ACM Lan is June 23rd....

HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!!

To whom you may ask...well the hard drive of course. It turns 50 this September. It started out as a huge chunk for 5MB now its a small casing for up to 750GB. Oh how the times change...

Link to story

~kisea

AWESOME...

This is just great...check out chewbacca



Sweet...

~Kisea

Pirate Party of America?

Maybe that is a bit over the top, but there does need to be some changes made around here. I believe that BJD says it right about being a 'Sociarepublitaridemofascicrat'. Voting should be about the people and the job not because they are A or B. My High school science teacher had it right when he put this bumper sticker on his car: "Send Washington a message, Vote 'em all out".

I am in favor of term limits, if its good enough for the prez, then its good enough for the rest of them in Washington. If its good enough for them in Washington, then its good enough for them in Montgomery. Finally, if its good enough for them in Montgomery, then its good enough for .

Software patents...should Amazon 'own' the 'one-click checkout'? Should Microsoft 'own' the rights to the double-click. I think there exists a middle ground which is fair to all parties involved. But the politicials have pockets which are being lined by 'big business' and special interest groups. Giving a quick example using local politics, "big" Luther Strange is running against George Wallace Jr. for Lt. Governor. He was a lobbyist. Should we elect him or George Wallace Jr. (which I know nothing about unfortunately)? I don't know but I instantly dislike Luther because of his lobbying background.

Hey everyone...take a few pages from Kinky's book. If I lived in Texas I would vote for him! Too bad Alabama doesn't have anyone like him running for office, but then again he would be ran out of the state on a log before people in Montgomery would allow him on the ballot. You go Kinky!!! Rock on! (link to Kinky's website)

As for Doug's remarks on Hulk Hogan for prez, that would rock! I could see this happening, "You Mr. Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, if you want to enrich uranium you will have to beat me in the ring my brother! You and me at will duke it out in the UN, my brother Vince will supply the ring. What'cha gonna do, Mahmoud, when the US and the Hulkster goes nuclear on YOU!!!!" *proceeds to rip off his suit* He couldn't say no because he will have nutsoids from all over looking to him like, "dude, you gotta do it or you have no gonads. This is the fat American's calling us out from our caves, you must respond for us."

Enough with this fantasy, its time to sleep...

~B

To Jeremy...

I just want to say one thing: Jeremy Ovid Blair's seemingly egalitarian ideas lead only to results that are both nit-picky and unfair. Perhaps before going on, I should describe Jeremy to you. Jeremy is selfish, cantankerous, and picayunish. Furthermore, he yearns to defy the rules of logic. Please don't ask me to see to it that all patriotic endeavors are directed down blind alleys, where they end in frustration and discouragement. I simply can't do that. Some people think that his ebullitions are based on some deep-rooted personality disorder. Others believe that Jeremy manipulates public opinion through raw emotion, sexual desire, "family values", comedy, music, entertainment, false religion, social engineering, journalistic propaganda, and junk science. The truth lies somewhere inbetween, namely, that Jeremy is trying to deface a social fabric that was already deteriorating. His mission? To spew forth ignorance and prejudice.

In purely political terms, you'd have to be the town fool to contend that Jeremy's ideologies are a breath of fresh air amid our modern culture's toxic cloud of chaos. I don't think anyone questions that. But did you know that he has always favored providing a privileged and protected status for odious ratbags? Jeremy's detractors are correct in their observation that most law-abiding citizens disapprove of Jeremy's methods. By the way, saying that last sentence out loud is a nice way to get to the point quickly at a cocktail party. Okay, there's no reason for me to be imperious, so I'll leave you with this concept: Jeremy Ovid Blair should feel ashamed of himself.

~Kisea

Apparently '69 was a good year...

I was checking my email and I ran across what seemed to be spam that was delivered to my inbox. I looked at it so I could see about opting out and this was at the bottom of the email.

This email address was subscribed to this mailing list on Wednesday December 31st, 1969. This subscription occurred when an individual either volunteered this email address on our web site, or this email address was volunteered on one of our partner's web sites to receive periodic golf offers.

Awesome huh? Not only was I not even born yet, but they were WAY ahead of the technology curve....for a golf club no less!!!

Kisea

Sorry...

Sorry for not posting much lately but I just haven't felt up to it. But here is a quick link to a good video.



Peace