Wordpress Is Winning Me Over

I think Wordpress is winning me over

It is quite simply, a far easier and far more intuitive tool than Blogger

There are some things over there that Blogger could do that would tempt me into staying put, but I doubt they are very likely.

As it stands I will probably continue to write on both for the time being, but I can't see that lasting very long, unless I get really inspired and end up having one or the other dedicated to a specific topic.

I Have Too Much Time On My Hands

I keep starting things that I can't finish, or that there is no point in starting.

I am currently testing out Wordpress.com, to see if their blogging tools are easier to use than those provided here with blogger (a.k.a. the evil google). Check out my test blog - http://fuckmedead.wordpress.com

Why? Because I have time on my hands, no readers here, and I'm bored.

I'm also thinking about buying a domain name and getting a free webhost to see how that might go. It is cheap enough these days to buy a domain name that almost everyone can afford one. Even a dole bludger like myself.

Aside from that I still have my projects on the go. Still researching the best/easiest to setup OS for a file/print/media server. Awaiting delivery of a wireless bridge (can you believe there was not one in any shop I visited) to hook my new Xbox/Media Centre into the network.

I have a couple of personal (read: not worth telling people about) projects on the go, so I have plenty to do, but still way too much time on my hands.

Lifehacker Will Be The Death Of Me

I have only recently discovered the tech tips and tricks/productivity blog lifehacker, but its already killing me. There is such a huge variety of small projects, tech tips, freeware downloads, and general advice for getting things done (they love David Allen's productivity framework "Getting Thins Done"), that it is just going to kill me. In the last hour I have gone from organising my harddrive to organising my filing cabinet, to eliminating cord clutter to building a linux based media server (which is actually one thing I really want to do).

There is just so much to read and do and download on that website it boggles my mind sometimes.

I don't even really understand my attraction to it. I am a lazy, disorganised slob, who tends not to care too much about clutter and mess, so it is almost as though I am reading it just for the sake of having something to read.

Project Update 2

Okay, so a further update on my projects.

I have successfully softmodded my Xbox, and am now running XBMC on it. It would be fantastic if I had a wireless bridge, so that I could hook it up to the network and internet. Once I get that sorted it will be a killer machine.

Onto the server and I haven't made any progress at all except to say that I have finalised my specs for it.

I have an old system that I will be using as the basis.

AMD Athlon 1.4 GHz CPU
Asus Motherboard
Onboard sound and graphics (pity I can't get rid of the sound)
500Gb IDE HDD (7200 RPM)
256Mb SDRAM
Cheap NIC (10/100 Ethernet - looking to possibly upgrade to Gigabit)
Standard PSU - if I can work out how to underclock the CPU then I can hopefully install a smaller PSU.

Now I just have to work out what OS to use (I am thinking a dedicated Linux server OS, but I'm not sure of compatability issues with XP), and how to install everything.

Project Updates

So if you have been reading this, youwould know all about my projects to build my own version of the Xbox Mini, and a print/file server (but I want it to be sweet!).

A couple of updates on these.

Xbox Mini - This has been completely changed as of about 10 minutes after I wrote about the project on here. Turns out that if I only softmod my Xbox (not installing a modchip) then I won't be able to put it all in a custom box, and change certain aspects of the hardware. At this stage I am not comfortable enough with the idea of, and workload pertaining to, installing a modchip, so I am just gonna stick with the stock box once I manage to get a softmod on the thing. So as of right now, the only modifications I will be making is a new default dashboard (menu screen that the Xbox boots to), and installation of XBMC.

Print/File server - I haven't really done any work on this, because I can't seem to find any decent tutorials on how to do it well. I could just install Windows XP, and play around with it, but thats not what I want to do. I want to have a custom OS running on it (which means Linux), and have it be a dedicated server that cannot function as anything else basically. As I said, I wanna shove as many HDD's in there as possible to maximise storage capacity.

If anyone has any ideas on new projects for me, feel free to drop me an email at the link to the right, or leave a comment.

New Projects

I have two new computer bsaed projects I plan to build.

Basically what I am going to do is softmod my Xbox to run XBMC (Xbox Media Centre) and build a new case for it (with a bigger HDD, a slimline DVD, and infrared reciever for a universal remote/wireless controller) based around the two things that have inspired this in me:

The Xbox Mini
and
The AppleTV (I'm not gonna give a link - just google it if you don't know what it looks like)

I also want to give it wireless networking capabilities and install and LCD in the front to show time elapsed/time remaining on media file.

Thats really about it as far as the Xbox goes. My other project is kind of lame to follow that with. I am going to build a file/print server PC. I can't seem to find a whole lot of good information out there on this, all the E-Hows and stuff are just ridiculously uninformative, and I can't seem to find a good forum dealing with this topic.

Ideally what I want to do with this is to use an old system I got given (I think its a Pentium III system), rip all the unnecessary bits and pieces out of it (sound card, graphics card floppy drive and the like), and jam as many huge HDD's as I can in there so that I can stream media to my new media centre, and any other computers I choose, as well as acting as a print server (currently I have shared a local printer on the desktop to print from anywhere). I will probably also want to underclock the processor, and if possible, install a smaller PSU to reduce power consumption.

Some other ideas I have for this project are to include a torrent downloader to download files into their respective places on the file server, and set one HDD aside for automated system backups of all networked systems in the house.

I guess that one is actually starting to look like a pretty intense project in itself too.

My First Attempt At Stencil Art

I have lately become fascinated with stencil art. It seems simple enough, but in reality it can be quite a difficult thing to master. Because at this point I lack the skills to make a stencil from scratch, I stole an image off of Bones And Skulls and used it for a stencil. Here it is. My first effort at stencil art.