Supergeekblog

• A Star Trek Loss
  Posted on Thursday, December 18th, 2008 in Websites – Comments: (0)
  Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away this morning according to Roddenberry.com.  Head on over and see the announcement there.It is a sad day for trekkers everywhere.  Condolences to her family, friends, and fans.  There is a place to leave notes and thoughts in their forums.
• GPS Homing Device Leads You Back To Where You Started
  Posted on Wednesday, December 17th, 2008 in SGB Gadgets – Comments: (0)
  Via Gear Live – This just plain looks neat and very simple.This is the simplest portable GPS locating device available, ideal for finding your car after shopping, returning to a favorite spot on the beach, or returning to camp. Simply push a button to mark your current location and the device points the way back.That is all there really is to it.

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Majel Barrett Roddenberry passed away this morning according to Roddenberry.com.  Head on over and see the announcement there.

It is a sad day for trekkers everywhere.  Condolences to her family, friends, and fans.  There is a place to leave notes and thoughts in their forums.

Technorati Tags: Star Trek, Roddenberry, Majel Roddenberry

Via Gear Live – This just plain looks neat and very simple.

This is the simplest portable GPS locating device available, ideal for finding your car after shopping, returning to a favorite spot on the beach, or returning to camp. Simply push a button to mark your current location and the device points the way back.

That is all there really is to it.  I can certainly see applications for this either in bigger cities or those folks to tend to loose their car.  Though at $79.95, it is a bit spendy unless you really think you need it.  Then it could be priceless.  (Think cost of wandering around the parking garage in terms of $$ per hour )

Technorati Tags: GPS, Gear Live

• BSG Wedding
  Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 in Websites – Comments: (2)
  With Battlestar Galatica’s return almost here… (*shakes fist at SciFi Network! Also grumbles about reality tv shows on the *scifi* network*) I loved this post this morning.Via Galatica Sitrep:BSG (now CSI) writer Bradley Thompson went and got hitched the other night, and he did so in grand style. The officiator was none other than Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, in a ceremony that concluded with a rousing “SO SAY WE ALL!
• Reasons not to buy or upgrade your PC right now
  Posted on Wednesday, December 10th, 2008 in Utilities – Comments: (0)
  Julie over at Gear Diary has a great post this morning on the reasons why upgrading your computer right now might not be the best idea.  Head on over and check it out.Overall – she is right.  The deals right now, might not be what you really need and there are a lot of things one can do to increase performance on a PC or Laptop.
• Spy Coins Can Be Used to Store Tiny Memory Cards
  Posted on Friday, December 12th, 2008 in SGB Gadgets – Comments: (0)
  Via TechEBlog:These tiny coins that look like quarters can be used to hold the small microSD cards.  They can be picked up from ThinkGeek.While it sounds like a neat idea… I can tell you this.  IF I had one, I am pretty sure my microSD card would have a much greater chance of getting lost.  It just would.
• Stop, Drop, and Blog – HP Contest
  Posted on Thursday, December 11th, 2008 in Social Media – Comments: (2)
  First, let me say, if you haven’t heard about the HP Magic Giveaway contest yet… go look at it! HP is having 50 different bloggers around the world give away $6,000 worth of computer equipment. It is a pretty cool (and fun) contest. I have entered a few of the contests, though haven’t won yet. (We can all hope right?)Really the best part of this contest for me has been discovering some new blogs.

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Via TechEBlog:

These tiny coins that look like quarters can be used to hold the small microSD cards.  They can be picked up from ThinkGeek.

While it sounds like a neat idea… I can tell you this.  IF I had one, I am pretty sure my microSD card would have a much greater chance of getting lost.  It just would.

Technorati Tags: Coins, Spy Gear, Gadgets, ThinkGeek

First, let me say, if you haven’t heard about the HP Magic Giveaway contest yet… go look at it! HP is having 50 different bloggers around the world give away $6,000 worth of computer equipment. It is a pretty cool (and fun) contest. I have entered a few of the contests, though haven’t won yet. (We can all hope right?)

Really the best part of this contest for me has been discovering some new blogs. This has been probably my favorite discovery so far. As you will see by the name, and looking through the site, they are a “fire family.” The husband (called FireDad on the site) is a 26 year old career firefighter. The wife (aka FireMom) is a 27 year old freelance writer and mother of 2. So seeing similar ages, interests, blogging, and loving all things department related, perked my interest to the site right away.

They are starting their contest today: Stop, Drop, and Blog. Here is the post for the HP contest. (Each site has their own rules, so make sure to read the contest rules before commenting.)

Disclamer: this post counts as an additional entry to the contest… but I also thought it would be fun to share how winning (if chance likes me) would impact my family, friends, and readers.

First, I would replace our aging family laptop, but more importantly I would give one to my wife so she can finally have her own computer. (Neither is in the Christmas budget this year.)

Secondly, I would see if anything would be of use to my (fire) dept. – I am guessing the photosmart the guys would have a lot of fun with and actually use productively. (Well sometimes.)

Last, I would share online as well by having a contest of my own on supergeekblog.com – not only would it be a blast, bring a lot of new readers, but someone I don’t even know would have a better holiday season as well.

So winning would have a positive, lasting, impact on myself and others. I encourage everyone to head on over and check out the Stop, Drop, and Blog site. It is a blast

Cross Post from Olorinpc.com

Technorati Tags: HP Magic, Supergeekblog, Contest, Jake Barnard, Olorinpc

Julie over at Gear Diary has a great post this morning on the reasons why upgrading your computer right now might not be the best idea.  Head on over and check it out.

Overall – she is right.  The deals right now, might not be what you really need and there are a lot of things one can do to increase performance on a PC or Laptop.  Scanning for malware, spyware, etc can increase performance right away.  (I couldn’t tell you guys how many times people have had me look at their PCs and just running Spybot fixed the majority of their issues.)

So if like a lot of people, you are toning down the Christmas list, Julie makes some really good points as to why a new computer might not need to be the top thing on your list.  (That being said… there is certainly a point when a PC is *not* worth fixing or upgrading.  Recently took a look at a Win98 machine and the only recommendation was to keep an eye out for a new one.)

Technorati Tags: Windows, Holiday Shopping, Troubleshooting, Upgrades

With Battlestar Galatica’s return almost here… (*shakes fist at SciFi Network! Also grumbles about reality tv shows on the *scifi* network*) I loved this post this morning.

Via Galatica Sitrep:

BSG (now CSI) writer Bradley Thompson went and got hitched the other night, and he did so in grand style. The officiator was none other than Admiral Adama himself, Edward James Olmos, in a ceremony that concluded with a rousing “SO SAY WE ALL!” It was a great party and a blast to see so many members of the BSG cast and crew again. Reminding me that BSG will be back for the final episodes starting in January!

Now when I got married, having my Uncle perform the ceremony was awesome.  I gotta say though, having “SO SAY WE ALL!” conclude your wedding… does rank up there in the whole awesomeness/geekness zone.

Also – webisodes that lead up to the last half of season 4 (Season 4.5) start this Friday at 11am CST.

Technorati Tags: Galatica, scifi

• ‘Greasemonkey’ Malware Targets Firefox
  Posted on Thursday, December 4th, 2008 in Security – Comments: (0)
  Well it seems to be the week of virus alerts.  This one from Slashdot popped up and caught my attention pretty quick.”Researchers have discovered a new type of malware that collects passwords for banking sites but targets only Firefox. The malware, dubbed ‘Trojan.PWS.ChromeInject.A,’ sits in Firefox’s add-ons folder, registering itself as ‘Greasemonkey,’ the well-known collection of scripts that add functionality to Web pages rendered by Firefox.
• Alternate Currency
  Posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 in Websites – Comments: (0)
  Today’s XKCD just gave me a chuckle. (Mostly because the first thing I pull up in the morning after immediate emails… would be my daily fix of comics to get me started.) Hopefully this helps brighten your economic outlook a little bit.
• Twittertastic
  Posted on Monday, December 1st, 2008 in Social Media – Comments: (0)
  This morning, I read a post by ThatEdeGuy on his twitter reflections.  Now around a month ago we had been discussing Twitter and how we didn’t really see the point, but let’s give it a shot.  I personally had tested Plurk before, but found it clunky and just didn’t keep up with it.  So like Ede, I anticipate having issues with keeping updated with it.
• Welcome new visitors!
  Posted on Wednesday, December 3rd, 2008 in Social Media – Comments: (0)
  Greetings new visitors! I have noticed a significant amount of traffic (for existing readers, think factor 10) coming in due to the “YouTube virus? Actns/Swif.T” post.  A lot of people are wondering what to do about it.  The best advice we can give is to update your AntiVirus as often as possible and don’t click on “install this” items if you do happen to be redirected to a different site.
• YouTube virus? Actns/Swif.T
  Posted on Tuesday, December 2nd, 2008 in Security – Comments: (13)
  From CrunchGear moments ago, reports of a new virus are coming out just this morning.  The virus seems to imbed a URL redirect to a phishing site.The site apparently installs Antivirus 2009, which is malware. We’ll pull our most recent YouTube embeds, but be careful because this one appears to have just broken out today. If you find yourself being automatically redirected or experience other weird pop-ups, especially for something called Antivirus 2009, don’t click on anything.

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For those a little more daring: Vista SP2 has now hit the net.

Yesterday Microsoft released Windows Server 2008 and Windows Vista Service Pack 2 Beta to the public. If you have been waiting for a second service pack for Windows Vista, give the new beta a shot!

You can download Service Pack 2 for Windows Vista and Server 2008 here. Note that this is the beta version and the final version of the service pack is not expected to be released until April 2009. However, if you enjoy testing new service packs or want to test it out before deploying it to your network next year, try out the beta.

Aseem over at Help Desk Geek has a great write up on this. He has included a list of updates/changes that come in SP2.  Like he mentioned above, it is important to remember this is *BETA* software.  It can potentially really screw up your machine.  (Vista Sp1 beta I really didn’t have any problems with.  WinXP SP1 I remember quite a few issues with.)  It all depends on your setup, the tweaks you make, and the various applications and drivers if it is going to play nice.

If Aseem sounds familiar, that is because his wordpress plugin “Best Posts Summary” has been reviewed here before.  A big fan of the plugin, so kudos to him!

Technorati Tags: Windows, Microsoft, Vista, Vista Service Pack