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  • New Yelp Review – Subway in Union Square, Somerville

    I just stopped there for lunch and remembered that it was time I wrote a review.  Here:  http://www.yelp.com/biz/subway-somerville-2#hrid:25Fq9Lihd6vuay0Ttt_Idw

  • NerdStuff

    * first off * I am working on a way to get my Nerd posts off the main page of my blog and make them visible only with a Category view.  I’ll toy around with the PHP code later on.  In the meantime, I’m just going to blog my geeky little heart out about very non interesting things right here on the main page.  Suck it.

    Our office printer, an HP 2430n, started curling pages recently.  This went on for a month, and the only thing I could do was to replace to toner to see if it had any effect.  It didn’t, of course.  I called HP and the printer was out of warranty.  They gave me a few tips, like to set the fuser temp to low (whch you can do from the printer’s control panel), but it didn’t really fix the problem, and with the temperature so low, the toner didn’t bond to the paper all too well and came off on my fingers when I rubbed the paper.  The prognosis was that the printer needed a new fuser.

    The cost of a new fuser was about $230, which wasn’t horrible.  The labor to have our service comapny visit and do the work, though, was more than I wanted to spend for what seemed a simple job.  So, I downloaded the service manual for the printer and figured I could do it myself.  I ordered the fuser from CDW (they had it!  It wasn’t the easiest thing to find at a normal office supply or computer place), and after a long backorder delay, it arrived yesterday.

    Four screws, a couple plastic tabs, and three wires later and the thing was replace.  Piece of cake!  After powering the printer back up, I went into the control panel and reset the fuser temp. level to ‘normal’ and it’s printing properly again with no page curling. 

    The printer is only about two years old, and as an HP I was a little miffed that the fuser needed replacing so quickly, but at least we didn’t have to buy a whole new printer or spend $ on a repair guy to come out.  Problem solved.

    Here are pics of the fuser unit and the printer itself.  Good times.

  • Software Love: Synergy

    Synergy is an Open Source utility that allows you to share your keyboard and mouse between multiple computers.  It’s  like a KVM (keyboard-video-mouse) swtich, but without the V, and without the hardware.  It’s free, and it works great!  I liked having multiple monitors and multiple systems on my desk, but I always hated the multiple keyboards and mice.  Now I have my desktop LCD monitor and my laptop sitting next to each other and both are controlled by my Microsoft Media Keyboard 3000 (I’m not a MS fan but this works really well and was only $30) and my Logitech V220 wireless mouse.

    To get running, you’ll need to first download Synergy (http://synergy2.sourceforge.net) and install on each of the machines that you are going to use it on.  Installation is easy.  After that, just set up one machine as the ’server’ and the other as the ‘client’.  My keyboard and mouse are plugged into my desktop PC, so that’s my ’server’ and then I set up the laptop to communicate with the server.  It’s really pretty easy.

    The initial setup took a few minutes to figure out, but the keyboard and mouse are plugged into the desktop, and Synergy is running on both machines.  All I have to do is scroll off to the right of my desktop screen and I’m on the laptop.  I was expecting some keyboard and mouse lag on the laptop due to Synergy running over the LAN, but it works GREAT.  No lag or issues at all so far.

    The software also works on Macs and Linux based machines, so you can control a PC and a Mac that you have sitting next to each other if you want to.  Very useful.

    Thanks to TechRepublic for posting a video blog entry about it!  I never thought this type of thing existed but it’s exactly what I wanted.

    My new work desk setup, complete with the two systems (well, technically 8 with the virtual machines running…):

  • New Yelp Review – PizzaWings in Brighton

    Ordered delivery last night.  Was not pleased.  They got my order correct, but deemed me too stupid to realize that they were substutiting ‘boneless wings’ for actual chicken wings.  When I called they told me that the substitution was due to the fact that they had ran out of chicken wings.  At PizzaWings.  I was none too pleased.  What was great was how they offered to fix the situation: by saying ‘I’m sorry’ twice and doing absolutely nothing else.  This annoys me, as I paid money for something I did not get.

    http://www.yelp.com/biz/pizzawings-allston#hrid:famda3-IsBBB1WrFCsE-Dw

    And don’t even THINK of telling me that ‘boneless wings’ are even close to a substutite to actual chicken wings.  Oh well.  It wasn’t the end of the world, and it was the end of a very worky weekend, which will be blogged about in another post soon.

  • 101 Classic Computer Ads – Boing Boing Gadgets

    101 Classic Computer Ads – Boing Boing Gadgets

    Yep, I’m a nerd.

  • WordPress 2.6 upgrade notes

    I’ve successfully completed the upgrade to WordPress 2.6.  It was very easy, and the instructions provided worked just fine for my site.  I use GoDaddy to host the site, and use CoreFTP to manage the uploads.

    The only issue of note is that I was no longer able to login as ‘admin’ after the upgrade.  I Googled the issue and it ends up all I had to do was clear my Firefox cache.

    All set.  Now, time to play with some of the new features!  Any suggestions?

  • Product Love – Logitech V220 Wireless Mouse

    I have a wierd quirk where, as a computer person for a living, I don’t often treat myself with good new computery toys.  I’ve been putting off buying a quality wireless mouse for a while.  I did buy a cheap one at MicroCenter last year, but it worked really horribly and didn’t last very long.

    A co-worker of mine has one of these Logitech V220’s and it seemed to work really well, and today it was on sale at Staples for only $20, so I picked one up (in blue), and it’s working great.  My laptop detected it just fine and it’s very egronmonc and works great.

    For the price, I think it’s a great deal and will hopefully last a while.  Staples has it on sale right now, and it can be found at Amazon for less than $30.  Worth the $$ for a good feeling, portable, quality wireless mouse.

    LINK: http://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/notebook_products/mice/devices/3295&cl=us,enhttp://www.logitech.com/index.cfm/notebook_products/mice/devices/3295&cl=us,en

  • New toys, and habits…

    Well, my doctor has finally beat it into my head enough that I need to get healthier.  I turned 31 years old on Friday and would like to make it another 31 without any major health problems.  That involves losing a little weight (or just converting the fat to muscle), eating a little better, quitting smoking, and most importantly, startng to exercise regularly.

    G got the same message from the doctor, so we figured we would change some of our health habits together.  It’s easier to do this when you have a partner that’s willing to go the distance with you.  We weighed a ton of options and decided the best thing to do was to bit the bullet and join a gym.

    You ask me “B, is that the best thing to do financially?” and I answer “yes.”  I know it costs money, but I’ve done a lot of research and have found the right balance of being able to have a place where we can go despite bad weather and a place we can afford.  There is a Bally’s near the apartment in Brighton, and if we pre-pay for the year ($404), then after four months both take advantage of our health insurance companies’ gym reimbursement ($150), it works out to just about $21 per month.  This membership is without obligation, and the contract is only for a year.  In order to be even more cautious and avoid a lot of the potential that we have for getting scammed (Google Bally’s reputation…), I’m going to try to pay for the membership in cash so they don’t even have our checking account or credit card numbers.

    The gym is wicked close to the apartment, offers free parking, and is never busy.  It’s a very basic facility, with no classes or pool or anything fancy, but it’s perfect to hit the treadmill after work and play on the other machines for an hour.  It’s already started to make a difference with us, and we’re only a week and a half into the two week trial period.  Long term, I think it’ll be a great investment.

    And of course, no gym membership can be complete without buying at least some new toy to accompany it.  I have been buying used iPods for many years, and my last one, a trust big old 3rd generation 30gb iPod was donated to me by G when she received an upgraded new iPod Classic last March.  I FINALLY bit the bullet, for better or worse financially, and forked over the $150 for a new 4gb iPod Nano.  I added the iPod Radio Remote (so I can watch the television stations at the gym) and a fancy new orange case for it to keep it protected.  All in all, I spent about $240, which normally I’d balk at doing, but it was my birthday week (an excuse you’ll see a lot in this entry) and I really deserved my first fancy new iPod.

    I had gone to MicroCenter and bought one of those cheap MP3 players with the built in radio and everything, but the thing worked for crap and died every time it was moved even a little bit.  I returned it to Microcenter in two days and got my $30 back.  Lesson learned.

    The Nano is working out great at the gym, and I can fit more than enough music for a complete workout, and I also have a reliable iPod to use in the car now.  The old one was nice, but the battery was flaky and it didn’t always turn on.

  • Quick Movie Review – and update

    Okay, so I haven’t posted in a while and I’ll start doing that soon now that I’ve decided that my LJ site shouldn’t be my primary blog.

    So anyway, went to see The Strangers last night at the Cleveland Circle Cinema.  Not a good movie, but scared the crap out of me.  If you really enjoy the tense, about to have a heart attack feeling for an hour and a half straight, check it out.  It has less of a storyline as The Descent, and a lot less gore, but that’s the type of SURPRISE scare that I can compare it to.

  • Bready Goodness!

    I’ve been trying to bake a simple bread on and off for months.  I’m new to baking, and I have a broken oven.  (Long story, and I’m sure the subject of another post, but more or less the temperature needs to be manually controlled.)

    That said, I FINALLY found a simple enough, well explained recipe for basic bread that actually worked.  I managed to not kill the yeast yet somehow come up with a bread that costs very little but tastes great.  I’ll try another loaf tonight and take pics.  I brought it into work today and a couple co-workers complimented me, and not just in a ‘well, you tried’ kind of way.

    Here’s a link to the recipe: http://www.thesimpledollar.com/2007/11/04/homemade-bread-cheap-delicious-healthy-and-easier-than-you-think/.  I actually really like this blog and will add it to my blogroll.  Rock.