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…

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.

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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!>

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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.

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If you have two windows based computers where you want to control both systems with the same keyboard, I would highly recommend the Input Director freeware over Synergy.  Input director has a whole slew of advantages over synergy:

1.  The mouse seamlessly slides from desktop to another without the use of hotkeys.
2.  Special mouse/keyboard functions for my logitech mouse such as the document flip not only work on the host but the client as well.
3.  Input director doesn’t cause the mouse input to flip out when a Direct X application is open (unlike synergy).
4.  Support for both computers (master and slave) having multiple monitors.

The only disadvantage about Input Director is that it works for only windows based OS’s (unlike synergy which works for multiple OS’s – ie Linux, Mac, etc.).  If you are controlling multiple computers which are all running windows OS’s, I recommend Input Director over Synergy.  Also, Input director had an update this past September whereas Synergy hasn’t been updated in years…I have tested both and got both working but I can only vouch for Synergy’s functionality on two windows machines.

Here are some other pages comparing Input Director and Synergy:  [1] and [2].

I use Vista.  Despite the tons of negative press it gets, it’s actually a pretty good OS if you can spare the resources to handle the little bit of overhead it has over XP (which is less than what some people gargantuanly blow out of proportion).  One feature Vista has is the ability to run ‘Gadgets’ (much like apple’s widgets) off to the side.  The widgets I have used are as follows:

Windows Uptime – shows, at a glance, how many hours your computer has been running since its last restart.

CPU Usage – shows at a glance, how much of your ram is being used and how hard your processors are at work.

Weather Underground – Let me preface this with I hate weather apps that claim to be just simply weather apps and are actually spyware that maliciously infect your computer with all sorts of virtual STDs.     This particular Vista gadget does exactly what its description details – it tells you the local weather, nothing more.

Top Processes – I find this gadget helpful because I code.  Instead of having to hit CTRL+ALT+DELETE, I can see form a glance, what applications are eating up the most processing power.

Twitter Explorer – Let’s you tweet and re-tweet from your sidebar.  The app has a nice black skin option to it.  The only thing I don’t like about it is it’s a little big for my needs.  All I want is simply a small screen to post tweets to.

Sphere Timer – This gadget will allow you to set several alarms and will count up and down, displaying the time in second increments.  It is great for a desktop timer/stop watch.

In addition to the above Vista gadgets, I also wanted to share about a Pidgin plugin I found.  I use pidgin as an IM client to talk to my friends on MSN, AIM, MeeboMe (with this plugin), and now Facebook.  You can actually install this application and facebook messages will show up as instant messages through pidgin.  Pidgin is a free, open source IM client – one in which I highly recommend.     The only drawback to pidgin is it is rather difficult to skin.

OnLive was recently announced at the Games Developer Conference this year.  PA made a comic here and both PA and CAD commented on the service (here and here), but I found this review from CNET (here) to be the most informative on wtf exactly OnLive is:

The system is designed to allow players to stream on-demand games at the highest quality onto any Intel-based Mac or PC running XP or Vista, regardless of how powerful the computer.

An intended benefit of this infrastructure, Perlman and McGarvey explained, is that users will be able to play streamed games via OnLive with no lag, so long as their Internet connections meet minimum thresholds. For standard-definition play, that would mean a minimum 1.5 Mbps connection, and for high-def, 5 Mbps.

If what they are boasting is true, this is a huge change in the video gaming industry…Basically, your shitty computer can have awesome graphics streamed to it provided you have a good internet connection…

In other news, the latest PA D&D podcast is up (episode 6).  This series is really awesome, I am thoroughly enjoying both listening to their actual D&D game as well as the jokes they share during the podcast.

On Jeff Lew‘s Killer Bean Forever website, he recently announced the following:

For the United States and Canada, I will be handling DVD distribution myself with a Killer Special Edition DVD release in June 2009.

This is indeed awesome news!

In other related internet goodies news, Penny Arcade has recently recorded two new podcasts [1] & [2].  Also, in case you have not been following, several new Dungeons and Dragons Penny Arcade Podcasts were released:  First Episode, Second Episode, Third Episode and Fourth Episode. The link to the fifth episode should go live this Wednesday (new one comes out every Wednesday).

You can find a listing of all of the D&D Podcasts here.

Jerry Holkins and Mike Krahulik (aka Gabe and Tycho with Penny Arcade), Scott Kurtz (pvponline) and Wil Wheaton all star in a recently released Dungeons and Dragons Pod Cast.  The dungeon master you’ll hear in the pod cast, who’s done a superb job DM-ing in that game so far, is Chris Perkins.  This is actually the second series of podcasts that Jerry, Mike and Scott have done, Wil was not in the first.

In other news, Ronald Jenkees recently released a new sound byte of a piece he’s been working on.  He is currently working on a second album to be released later this year.

Monty Oum made a news post at the end of January where he eludes to a self imposed deadline of May for next *few* epsides of the Dead Fantasy Series (see eps. 1 & 2).

The makers of playauditorium have released a final version of the game back in early February for $10.99.  This blog post makes reference to a full soundtrack of the game to be released soon.

And finally me – I’m wicked busy trying to finish my PhD Dissertation and to hopefully graduate this semester.  I know I have neglected to post, but I promise this blog is not dead by any means and more posts will come with greater frequency soon enough after I get by this hefty amount of research work which burdens my immediate future at the moment!