For an older rig I have (see build 2), the mother board’s built in LAN chip is unreliable, sometimes causing the Ethernet adapter to not show up at all when Windows starts.  I wanted to try using an older PCI Ethernet card I had – Linksys’ LNE100tx.  The problem is Linksys never wrote drivers for this card for Windows 7.  Scavenging through the internet, I managed to find this post about the topic:

http://homecommunity.cisco.com/t5/Wired-Adapters/LNE100TX-Vista-64-bit-driver-get-it-here/m-p/263032

One of the posters “Crimson Behelit” modified some Infineon an983b drivers (which apparently can serve as an equivalent set of drivers to the LNE100tx card).  Unfortunately, the link  Crimson Behelit posted has since gone dead.  The user “rook_” in that same thread posted the drivers here:

http://www.filefront.com/15094629/lne100tx-64bit.zip/

I TAKE NO RESPONSIBILITY WHATSOEVER FOR THE USE OF THESE DRIVERS.  USE AT YOUR OWN RISK.

In case rook_’s link goes dead, I have also hosted the drivers here:

http://nshorter.com/Blog/Files/lne100tx-64bit.zip

I wanted to make a quick blog post about an article I came across for getting “quick launch” for Windows 7 :

http://www.sevenforums.com/tutorials/888-quick-launch-enable-disable.html

Unlike previous windows versions, Windows 7 does not come with a “quick launch” menu by default.  Instead, you have to create a tool bar menu to emulate it.  The above links you to a forum post that helps you create a quick launch for windows 7.

Why they did away with one of my favorite features in windows is absolutely beyond me.  Like hell I want to use your start menu…

This past April (2010), I finished building my newest computer (click the ‘1‘ for a link to the components list) [1].  A great deal has changed since building my previous rig [2].  No longer exists the debate of dual core vs. quad core [3].  You’ll be hard pressed to find a quad core and will now see Intel and AMD have started releasing hex core processors.  Furthermore, instead of going the SLI route, this time my rig is equipped with ATI’s flagship Radeon 5970, capable of running eyefinity (spanning a video game across up to 3 displays), weighing in at a whopping 4.3 BILLION transistors:

Read the rest of this entry »

I needed a place to store some photo’s I’ve touched up; therefore I’ve started a photo blog.  I’m pretty new to photography and am only beginning to scratch the surface at touching up photos with photoshop and various other programs.  I’m also am still getting used to tweaking the various settings on my camera.  The pictures posted thus far come from various vacations taken to Disney, Savannah Georgia, the Bahamas and Puerto Rico.  Enjoy!

Founded in 1999, OverClocked ReMix is an organization dedicated to the appreciation, preservation, and interpretation of video game music. Its primary focus is www.ocremix.org, a website featuring hundreds of free fan arrangements, information on game music and composers, resources for aspiring artists, and a thriving community of video game music fans.

Basically, they host free video game song remixes.  What follows is a list of some of my favorite remixes.

Read the rest of this entry »

There are several freely available programs I use for Overclocking my computer.  These utilities are great for verifying your computer’s overclock (such as the ram and processor speed) as well as your computer’s stability.

Read the rest of this entry »

I have recently started using quite a bit of open source software and I wanted to take the time to dedicate an entire post towards it.  Often times, open source solutions are often better than their pay based/commercial alternatives.

One thing that I absolutely *HATE* in either freeware or pay-based software is attempts to subtly corrupt your browser or computer.  This is typically done by having default installation options include sending you spam, manipulating your browser to add unwanted tool bars, changing your home page, or using your computer resources.  These options by default should be turned off, not on.

Currently, a list of programs (both freeware and open-source) I am using is listed as follows…

Read the rest of this entry »

Greetings!

I come with excellent news today!  This Friday, October 30, from noon to 1pm, I will be giving a talk at the Florida Institute of Technology (FIT) about my dissertation research, specifically my work with unsupervised building detection from Irregular LiDAR data.  Dr. Georgios Anagnostopulos, one of the professors who served on my Dissertation Defense Committee, asked me to give a talk at FIT.

The talk will be in Room 118.  FIT has a campus map hosted <here>.

Read the rest of this entry »

I recently went to Disney with my girlfriend Amanda.  In Epcot, they have a minature train set setup I think near Germany.  I took this picture from the ground level view of the miniatures on that set (you can see a Godzilla like tourist roaming in the background). If you click the below picture, you’ll be able to see a 1920×1200 resolution version.

I recently implemented a triple redundant backup system to back up over 500 gigs of data.  After some reflection, I realized if I ever lost the data stored on my machine, I would be quite livid.  I ended up buying 2x Western Digital Caviar Black WD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drives – OEMWD1001FALS 1TB 7200 RPM 32MB Cache SATA 3.0Gb/s 3.5″ Internal Hard Drives – OEM and 1x Western Digital Element 1TB 3.5″ Black External Hard Drive – Retail.  The two Caviar’s are mirroring one another via Raid 1 while the external drive is backing up the entire raid about once a week.  My motivation for implementing triple redundancy is as follows.  Raiding the drives was because I wanted to have a live, real time backup in case one of the 1TB internal drives dies.  The problem with having an internal drive is if a power surge or lightning strike fries your computer, you lose both hard drives.  Given the fact that I have my entire dissertation, all of my research, thousands of pictures, and all sorts of other awesome data on these drives, losing both drives simultaneously would be unacceptable.  So, I stepped up my backup game and upped the ante to triple redundancy.  The pros of having the external drive are to overcome lightning strikes, power surges, or the computer being hacked and all the data deleted, etc.  The external drive is only connected once a week for a period of about 8 hours for the backup, and then it is disconnected the rest of the week.

Question:  So how do we sync the data onto an external drive?  Answer:  <Cobian!>

Read the rest of this entry »

Ok, so one of the primary objectives of this blog is to report particular, awesome internet tidbits to the rest of the community. After my hiatus, it is time to resume this blog’s function in that role.

I’m really excited to report that Mike and Jerry (aka Gabe and Tycho with PA), Scot Kurtz (@ PVP) and Wil Wheaton have again recorded another Podcast with noneother than Chris Perkins serving as their DM (dungeon master)!
I really enjoy these podcasts, Chris does an amazing job bringing his characters and encounters to life while tolerating the other four’s crazy antics.  Even if you don’t understand the mechanics of Dungeons and Dragons (which I didn’t for the longest time), the podcast is still a blast.

So far, the <first> and <second>  episodes have already been released.

Read the rest of this entry »