So long McAfee [mcafeepopmail, revertmcafee], I'm done with your constant "Upgrade Now!" nag windows, bloated processes, and slow performance. I just bought NOD32 from eset.
I did a lot of research on Anti-Virus software, and was surprised to see NOD32 appear at the top of many comparisons. I had never heard of NOD32 or eset until I did my research, but with all of the positive reviews, I decided to install their 30-day trial.
NOD32 is excellent. It only uses about 25MB of RAM, yet handles a full suite of background scanning, including file system, network traffic, MS Office documents, and email. The right-click on-demand file scanner works almost instantaneously, and the virus signature files are not only updated automatically daily, they are frequently updated two or three times a day.
Some reviews mentioned that NOD32 has a clumsy user interface, though I found it to be clean and simple to use. But best of all, NOD32 has a very low impact on system performance, unlike McAfee or the other behemoth, Norton. What a relief to find a good Anti-Virus app.
Note: Like another one of my favorite apps, Servant Salamander, NOD32 appears to be developed in Eastern Europe. Is this the new home of fast, solid Windows software?
If you're an audiophile ![[WikiPedia]](http://www.mikeyp.com/css/external.gif)
, then you know of Linn, the Scottish maker of superb hi-fi equipment and loudspeakers. They also have a record label called Linn Records that produces high-quality classical and jazz recordings.
Linn Records just announced that they are offering online downloadable purchases of their recordings. And they're doing it right: You can choose from three different downloadable formats, and there is no DRM , which means you can play the music anywhere you'd like, no restrictions whatsoever. They even provide downloadable test files that enable you to calibrate playback on your PC or media player.
Even better, Linn is using the downloadable format to offer music in a 24-bit / 96KHz format. This format has been typically restricted to SACD and DVD-Audio format disks, so Linn's new downloads give everyone a chance to hear this better-than-CD-quality audio.
This is an exciting development for online downloads, and I hope Linn is successful with this. I'm going to buy some Martin Taylor music right now.
In an interesting aside, according to Tim Anderson's blog, Apple is refusing to allow Linn to offer music in Apple's Lossless encoding format (ALAC).
A cool video is out that shows off the custom Wii controls in the game I'm working on.
Check it out here: http://media.wii.ign.com/media/842/842201/vids_1.html
Update: Wow, it is now in the Top 20 on YouTube .
I've seen this all over the net these days, but I thought I was too far out on the fringes of the blogosphere to get tagged. Well whaddya know, Anthony just tagged me with the "5 things you don't know about me" meme .
Basically, the way this works is that someone "tags" you to blog about 5 things people may not know about you. Then you tag 5 other people to do the same thing.
So… here are 5 things you might not know about me:
, with the 16KB (that's KB, not MB) memory expansion pack. The first program I wrote for it was an Astrosmash clone. In BASIC, of course.. Actually, two kinds . But it's been years since I practiced, so please don't try to beat me up. I'll just run away. Quickly.So there ya go. And now to tag other people!
Let's tag StickyC, Robin, Brian, Ronbo, and Cantoni. Can't wait to see what ya'll write.
I've been using OpenWiki extensively for the past four years, so I decided to contribute some (short and simple) source code back to the project. I'm not sure if anyone cares, but I found my code to be pretty handy. It is a simplified markup for table formatting, which can get pretty darned cumbersome when using large tables with the default markup.
The code is on the OpenWiki web site here.
Using my handy new Kill-A-Watt power usage meter, today I found that my main linux server at home (spock [spockpowerusage, spockserverspecs]) consumes an average of 90 watts. That's a machine that is on 24/7. And the SGI monitor attached to it consumes 6 watts when it is off.
The server I have in the garage monitoring two motion cameras uses 57 watts when idle, and about 68 when recording motion capture [motion, motionrpm] images. This includes the power used by the two Lorex cameras [lorexnightvision, lorexcamera] and a Linksys WiFi Bridge.
I was thinking of retiring these boxes and building low-power machines. The main server handles X10 control (via serial port), Bluetooth routing (via USB), USB print serving, DNS, DHCP, very lightweight PHP web serving, media serving (mt-daapd and UPnP), and general file serving via Samba. I don't think I need a very powerful box to handle all of that. Same with the motion capture system.
The Mini-Box 15 watt machines look interesting, as well as the KuroBox.
That all said, 150-170 watts is about like running two or three light bulbs all of the time. I need to calculate just what kind of impact that has on my power bill.
