Category: Geeky

Letting The Numbers Speak

To help us determine ways to save energy costs and consumption, I have created spreadsheets of our utility bills and a spreadsheet for the fuel consumption of my truck.

From what I have entered thus far I have found some very surprising facts.

I believe there is something “fishy” going on at our water company, as the numbers just don’t add up.

Here’s an example:

In March, we were billed for using 1980 gallons of water, which we were charged $9.43.  A month later, we used 1990 gallons and were charged the same amount, $9.43.  Our sewer bill shows this same descrepancy as we were charged $46.00 each month.

What’s 100 gallons of water and sewage when you’re only being charged 1/2 cent per gallon for water and 2 cents per gallon of sewage?

Here’s the amazing thing.  The installation of our new heat pump has significantly reduced our electric use.  Here’s the numbers:

Billing Date     Total KWH Used     Avg. KWH/Day     Total Charges
   3/5/07                   3023                     107.96                $261.94    
   4/4/07                   1379                       44.48                $138.55

The first set of numbers are consumption prior to installation.

Our home is powered completely by electricty.  We are using more and more energy conservation methods, and when something needs replaced we always look at how much it consumes before purchasing.

Hopefully we will get that new solar attic fan I wrote about before sometime soon.  We are even discussing purchasing a tankless hot water heater, when the time comes.  Electric models require much more infastructure than gas ones, but are still just as good.

How does your household rate?  I read somewhere that the “average” US household uses 1000 KWH per month.  If we could drop the average by 1%, we would be doing the world more than we know.

What’cha Think?

 

 

It’s my new desktop.  It took a lot of time and patience to make it this way, but I enjoy it very much.  My favorite artist Van Gogh is featured here with his painting “A Night on the Rhone.”

Changing the taskbar was interesting to say the least.  I used a brazillian “theme.”  It changed EVERYTHING to spanish.  So I had to change it back without knowing anything about that language except for “si.”

To get the full effect see the full size.

Starting To Enjoy the “i” Side of “Life”

After being a Windows Media Player freak since day one, I have finally switched to the “dark side” full time.  That dark side being iTunes.

This is not a revolt against Microsoft by any means, just a change of venue so to speak.  Since the file tags for digital media have changed allowing album covers to be associated with them, I have been all about it!

The only reason we have iTunes is for my wifes’ iPod, which she hasn’t used for well over a year.  I stuck with Media Player until something changed………..like iTunes, Media Player has a “store” where you can purchase music, videos, etc.  It’s called URGE, and it’s a Viacom/MTV/VH1/CMT thing.

Everytime I open up said Media Player it takes a few minutes for it to “download the URGE catalog.”  I don’t even use it, so why do I need to download this catalog?  I have tried constantly to remove it, with no luck.

If I could only use iTunes with my mp3 player.  It has it’s own program.

The China Syndrome

Well………….not literally.

I came home from work today to discover my computer was shut-off.  I like many others, leave my computer on all the time.  Due to power saving features etc. it seems easier that way.

Ever since I built this computer I have only had one problem continuously, my power supply.  For all of you non tech people the power supply is what splits the power to everything located in your computer.

The case to this computer is very cheap, and came with a cheap power supply.  After about 6 months the original died.  This is not an easy item to purchase online, much like a car.

There is only one computer shop on my side of town, so I went there to purchase another one.  I was told they only carried one type of power supply.  So I purchased one and was on my way.  It fried the next day!  So I brought my ‘puter in and was “mad as hell!”  They happily replaced the defective unit and even installed it for me.  Well this one died and I didn’t want to buy another POS model.

So after informing my wife of the issue, we went over to the olde’ east side of town and purchased a good quality 500w power supply.  This should be enough for my 4 hard drives, dual core processor (thanks B!) and numerous cards.

Only time will tell how “good” this one is.

My next purchase will be a new case, as mine has almost bit the bullet.

Think Globally, Act Locally

After becoming a homeowner, I have acquired many things I do not need or want.  All of these items were on my property at the time of purchase.

Rather than throwing away many of these items, which are mainly in decent shape.  I decided to try to give them to other deserving homes.  These items aren’t new, or fancy.  Their just items I don’t need or want.

The only outlets that I knew of, until now were the local newspaper and a “trading post” at the local trash site.  Yesterday I discovered an amazing way to relinquish these items, and make a larger audience aware of them.  It’s called Freecycle.

It was started with the old saying that “one mans trash is another mans treasure.”  Keeping unwanted items out of our landfills is a great way to help the enviroment, which is the main scope of freecycle.

I immediately signed up, and added some posts for items I have been tirelessly trying to eliminate from my land.  When we removed the hideous pool from our backyard, it left a big pit with sand and gravel in it.  I have placed free ads about it, and let my neighbors have all they want.  It hasn’t even put a dent in the sheer amount of material there.

2 hours after I posted this entry, I had over 20 responses asking about it, and when they could get it.  Hopefully we can get our yard back in some order now.

Check it out, if you have workable items you need to get rid of, you never know who might want them!

 www.freecycle.org

Terabytes & Heat Pumps

Our household and my business recieved some nice upgrades this week.

Our new heat pump was installed Wednesday, and took all day.  It was amazing to watch the guys rip the old POS out.  What was even more amazing is the technology that goes into this piece of HVAC equipment.

 
The difference is amazing, as we can’t even tell when it turns on.  The best part is that we are now saving a boatload on our home heating and cooling costs, thus saving the environment a little.
 

We will be receiving $650 in rebates, divided between a tax credit next year, and a rebate from our electric company.

I also purchased another hard drive to expand my capabilities for video transfers.  This brings me close to having a terabyte of storage space.  (For those of you who don’t know what a terabyte is, it’s 1,000 gigabytes, or 1,000,000 megabytes or 1,024,000,000 bytes.)  I am now at 900 gigabytes, divided into 4 hard drives.

This new hard drive is a SATA (Serial ATA), which I have had no experience with.  So far it seems to be much better, as the data transfer rates are almost double from the standard IDE connection.  This makes editing video, rendering video and burning DVD’s that much faster.

My only problem with the SATA connection is more of a windows problem.  When a “hot swappable” device is attached to a windows PC, an icon is automatically placed in your “tray.”  I am very anal about my computer and this icon bothers me because I don’t need it, or want it!

I have done some searching on this subject, and found some clues, but nothing that has erased this icon from my desktop thus far.

Now That’s An Upgrade

Thank you Tampax, for providing me with that line 🙂

Anyway, we finally converted to a LCD monitor.  Not just any though, as we went all out with a 19″ widescreen.

 

It’s a Sceptre DVI model, with a 8ms response time (I guess that’s good?)

I am downright amazed at the difference in size and quality.  Working with many video applications, screen size is everything, and this gives me that and then some.  The window loaded on the screen is the maximum size we had on our 17″ CRT monitor, big difference.

I also upgraded our speakers as our old ones were attached to the monitor and had no stands.  I decided to go with Logitech on this one even though I had my doubts.  I’ve never had much luck with their products.  I must say I’m sold on this one though.  The model X-230 2.1 speakers are excellent!  They have the best rating on newegg, and the best part was the price, a mere $35.

These speakers are so good, I personally think they rival my truck’s stereo, which cost a grand!

We also upgraded our internet connectivity.  After 7 months on dialup we switched back to DSL.  It’s like a drug, once you have it, you can’t stand not having it.  This time it’s with a different provider Smithville Telephone/Bluemarble, I was one of their first DSL customers back in 2000.  It’s twice the speed of our old DSL at 1.5Mb/s, but double the price.

The only weird thing is that since we used my wife’s IU credentials, we have to actually “connect” to the DSL.  I had never used this type of connection before, but it’s a VPN (Virtual Private Network.)  When I picked up the equipment and signed the paperwork nobody informed me of this.  I actually had to call tech support about why we weren’t connecting.  That’s when I found out and fixed it quickly.

2007, A Growing Year?

I am hoping to continue LML Video Services‘ growth this year.  The major problem is trying to figure out how.

I took the first step by making it an actual business, and start a business checking account.  I also have a UPS account now.  I am trying to account for all financial items as well, as I used to use money from the business for what seemed right at the time.  I am looking into using Quickbooks, but it’s somewhat expensive.

One problem is visibility.  I don’t have a whole lot.  When I have some free time, I hope to write a nice email to one of the reporters in the local newspaper.  I try to do business locally when I can, but I do work with online clientele as well.  If any one out there knows how to raise your visibility with little or no money, please let me know!

I know this business will not bloom overnight, but it would be nice to actually make enough to live off of in 10 years or so.  I think this is the best option for me as I have never had a good experience working for someone else.

I have been a self taught wiz when it comes to technology related items since I was a teenager.  I actually had some excellent programming skillz until Windoze 2k came out, that changed everything.

As my wife sometimes thinks, I’m married to the computer, I just have an on going affair with her.

I do love u babe (do-do, do-do) 🙂

Down, But Not Out

Another chapter in my ongoing computer problems.  I was actually writing a post regarding this when I received the infamous “blue screen of death!”

I discovered what actually killed my power supply.  Somehow (still a mystery to me) my power settings were disabled and deleted from my computer.  This created a painful situation for it.  Imagine if you had to run non stop 24/7 for months at a time, how would you feel?

In the end, I had to completely delete and reformat my C drive.  This is a problem for the majority, but I actually used to do this for fun.  Plus having 3 hard drives makes this task very easy, as I just move everything to the other drives, and back them up onto DVD just to make sure I don’t lose anything.  I am almost up and running again, as I am still working on my big job.

I am working on building a new PC, it will just take time.  I want this to be a pure “business” machine, which means I must use business funds.

Power Restored…For Now Anyway

I swapped my “new” POS power supply for another today.

After speaking with the tech, he informed me of what could have caused this little disaster.  He informed me that the 12v section of the power supply went bad.  He then went on to tell me that when the L2 cache of the processor goes bad, it tends to short out the 12v supply.  He also told me that it generally takes a week.  (This is one of the few situations where I don’t know a whole lot BTW.)

He recommended to run some benchmark software for 24 hours.  When I first started running it, my CPU became hot, 95° C.  So I adjusted some BIOS settings and re-ran the app.  Now the temp is holding steady, in the mid 50’s range.

I hope this has solved my problem, but there is no real way to diagnose it (from what I know).

If it becomes the worse case scenario, my processor (an AMD Athlon X2 3800+, Toledo Core) is still under warrantee.  I also have my “old” processor sitting around as a backup.

This situation has proven to me that I need, not want, a backup computer.  I cannot run my business without it.  That is my next step.