Teacher builds computer lab... For free.

I don't normally just link to another blog/article but I couldn't pass this one up. It is a story that needs to be told and spread as much as possible...

Everyone knows that these days technology has become a huge part of education. There are tons of schools using laptops, iPads, digital whiteboards, etc. in the classroom now. Computers are an essential part of getting the younger generations ready to compete in the current and future job market. Without at least a basic set of computer skills there are many jobs that will simply be out of reach to them.

Unfortunately, there are still many schools that simply do not have the budget for a computer lab or other equipment to help their students get a head start on learning to deal with computers. Such was the case at ASCEND, a "small arts K-8 school in Alameda County School District" in California. With no budget for equipment, one teacher took it upon himself to make sure the students at his school had the basic tools they needed to jump-start their education in technology. With the help of donated computers and some Open-Source software (Ubuntu Linux) Robert Litt, a sixth-grade teacher, set up a full computer lab for his student for the grand total of $0.

To read the whole story, check out: "How One Teacher Built a Computer Lab for Free" at ifixit.org.

Donated Computers

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Open Source Operating Systems

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A Free Computer Lab!

We have a new domain!

I just wanted to take a moment and let everyone know that you can now visit us by going to http://www.thegeeksparadise.com. You can still access the site through the current address as well.

I also want to thank you all for reading. This blog is growing everyday and has gone well beyond where I ever thought it would be. That just makes me want to put even more effort into making it even better.

I really appreciate you all!

A Quad-Core Computer for $130

The other day I was checking out one of my favorite tech blogs, ! ComeAtMeBro-Daily tech news, and came across a post that I just had to share. I don't want to jack the content so I'm just going to post a pic and the link. You should definitely go check it out though. I can easily think of over 9,000 DIY projects I could do with one of these things.

Quad-Core Computer for $130!

To check out the article either click on the photos or this link to go straight to the blog.

The Geeky Boozehound - Volume 1 - Caipirinha

So I have decided to start a couple of regular posts about two of my favorite things: Booze and Wine. I'm a bit of an alcohol snob. I enjoy good wine and good liquor. I thought it would be cool to share a few of my favorite drink recipes, share what wines I've been drinking lately, and basically do my best to be a bad influence on you all.

For the first installment of The Geeky Boozehound I want to introduce you all to one of my absolute favorite drinks; the Caipirinha. Being a practitioner of Brazilian Jiu Jitsu I have become obsessed with all things Brazilian over the years. A good friend of mine from Brazil introduced me to the Brazilian national cocktail several years ago and I was instantly hooked. The Caipirinha is made with a liquor called cachaça, which is a rum distilled from sugar cane. The name "caipirinha" loosely translates to the Brazilian equivalent to the English word "hillbilly". Ironically, it is considered more of a "classy" cocktail in the States since it has begun to become more and more popular here.

Making a Caipirinha is incredibly easy. If you enjoy Mojitos, you probably already have the required bar-ware needed to make the Caipirinha. Here is how it is done:

For each drink you'll need a lime, 2 teaspoons of fine granulated sugar, and 2 ounces of  cachaça. Simply muddle the lime and sugar in an Old-Fashioned glass, add ice, pour in the cachaça, and stir. That is it. You're now ready to enjoy the national cocktail of Brazil.

Caipirinha

Bottoms up, bitches.

Samsung Galaxy SII i777 (AT&T)

Sorry I've been away for a bit folks. Between preparations for the holiday and playing with a new toy I recently picked up, I've been all out of spare time. Speaking of the holiday, I hope everyone had a great one! Now, onward to the geek stuff.

So I had been using an iPhone 3GS since my iPhone 4 crapped out on me a while back. Ok, so I dropped it in the river but let us not talk about that... *twitch*

I had been shopping around for a while trying to decide what to get when I was eligible for an upgrade. I had been bouncing back and forth between the One X and waiting for the Galaxy SIII. I played with a live demo of the One X in a couple of stores and it was pretty bad ass. Then one of the reps recommended I check out the Galaxy SII that they currently had on sale. After messing around with it for a bit I realized that it was, for the most part, all the phone I really needed. It had recently had Ice Cream Sandwich (Android 4.0) released for it which was a bonus. It runs a dual-core processor, has plenty of onboard memory and storage, an outstanding camera, etc. So I decided I would give it a shot. I always have 30 days to return it if it sucks, right? So here it is, the Samsung Galaxy SII (i777):



Samsung Galaxy SII

It is just a bit smaller than the One X and the HTC Vivid which was another phone that was in the running to be my next purchase. After a few days of playing with it I really have zero complaints. It is incredibly thin, very light, and the battery life is excellent. Plus if I ever get tired of Ice Cream Sandwich I can always throw CyanogenMod or another custom ROM on there.

If any of you are looking for a new phone, I would highly recommend the Samsung Galaxy SII. It is available on most carriers and since the Galaxy SIII is coming out soon you should be able to find it for a really good price.

Now, can anyone recommend some good Android apps for me? I've been using an iPhone for the past year or so. Haven't had much chance to check out the Android stuff lately.

High Tech Camping

So if you've really read this blog at all you'll know that I'm big into survival, camping, and the outdoors in general. The other day I was reading a tech article on PCMag.com and noticed an article in the sidebar called Equipment for High Tech Camping. So, considering my love for both the techy and the primitive, I obviously had to check it out. I was expecting the usual solar chargers, GPS units, etc. and those were indeed included. However, there were some really neat, useful products that I hadn't seen before.


TentLEDs

The TentLEDs are such a no-brainer that I am really shocked that someone hasn't mass-marketed them before. I know I personally trip over the tie ropes on my tent at least once a trip. When you're stumbling around in the dark half asleep, you're going to eventually catch your foot on one of them if you're not careful. The TentLEDs would definitely make it less likely to happen.



Brunton's Flip-n-Drip Coffee Maker

I'm a big fan of what we call "Cowboy Coffee". I have a campfire coffee pot and we normally drink boiled coffee when we're camping or hunting. That may change now that I've found this little guy. It just looks so damn convenient. You just pour water it in the lower chamber and throw that in the fire. While it is heating up you put coffee in the middle chamber and screw it all back together. Once the water is hot just put the whole thing together, flip it over and let it drip. Pretty flippin' sweet.



The Cave by Heimplanet

There is no way to describe this other than awesome. Ok, maybe convenient works too. It is a tent that uses "air beams" instead of tent poles. You just unroll the whole thing, hook up a hand pump, and in no time you have your tent aired up and ready to go. I can see where there would be times when it wouldn't be "enough" of a tent. Long trips, high winds, etc. But for your day to day trips, this seems like it would be pretty cool. Easy to pack as well. You just pop the air valves and roll the whole thing up and stuff it in the bag. Pretty damn nifty.


Have you guys come across any cool high tech camping gear lately?


Summer Colds Suck

Sorry I've been away for the past few days. I've been dealing with a killer summer cold. I hardly ever get sick, maybe twice a year, but when I do it always seems to knock me on my ass. When it comes to medicine I tend to take an old school approach. As far back as I can remember my grandmother had a recipe for what she called "the syrup". Any time one of us got sick she would mix it up and make us sip on it all day. It is probably the reason I became a borderline alcoholic at such a young age. I figured I would share the recipe with you all. It is pretty simple. No real measurements, just throw all the following into a coffee mug, heat it up, and drink.

Whiskey (I prefer Makers Mark or Jack Daniels but you can use anything. Rum works in a pinch as well)
Honey (Preferably locally grown)
Lemon (Lots of lemon)

Just mixed all this up, throw it into the microwave for about 45 seconds, and sip away. It really does help. You can also grate up some ginger root and add to it. I do this but most people don't like the taste of raw ginger.



Whiskey, Honey, and Lemon

Hopefully this will help any of you suffering from a summer cold like I am at the moment.

Bottoms up, bitches!

Random Lulz

Just in case any of you are having a bad day, here are some random lulz to make it better.



Brazilian boy comes back to life at funeral, immediately dies again.

This is by no means a tech related topic, but it is too weird not to comment on. Apparently, a 2-year-old boy from Brazil came back to life an hour before his funeral was suppose to take place. According to the articles I've read this morning the boy sat up and asked his father for a drink of water and then just laid back down again; dead. The story is blowing up all over the internet. It does seem completely unbelievable. Even more unbelievable, if it really did happen, is the fact that they still buried him later that day.

Here is one of the articles: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2155245/Dead-Brazilian-boy-wakes-funeral-asks-WATER-lying-lifeless.html?ito=feeds-newsxml

What do you think? Real or hoax?

Backorder Blues - An Update

So I spoke with my sales rep and told him I couldn't wait for the board to get back into stock. We looked at several other equivalent options and I ended up getting a board that was just a bit more expensive, though not quite as awesome as the one I originally ordered, for the same price. My RAM is going to be throttled down a bit but for what this computer is going to be used for it shouldn't really matter. The board is on its way and should be here Friday.

As soon as it gets here I'm dropping it in and getting everything set up. I'm hoping it gets here early enough that I can have it all installed and ready to go by the time I leave for the weekend. Here is a shot of the case awaiting its new board.

I'm not gonna lie, if dude slips up just once, this computer is going to be mine. I have already contemplated re-routing all the monitor, keyboard, and mouse cables between my computer and his. He probably wouldn't even notice the difference since my system is fairly badass as well. And since we share an office and his desk is only like 8 feet from mine, it could easily be done.

I'll keep you updated.

Co-worker's computer crashes, epic frustration ensues.

So I got to work Tuesday looking forward to a short week due to the long holiday weekend. My optimism was short lived though. Shortly after arriving at the office I was informed that one of our design computers had shat itself over the weekend. When I tried to boot it up I was greeted with this:

Reboot and Select proper Boot device

Now, first let me explain why I am the one who was informed of this problem. While I am merely the lowly graphic designer here, I spent over 10 years as an IT Manager/Computer Tech/Network Administrator for various companies.

Tech Support

I mistakenly included this information on my resume. So now I get to take care of all of the little computer issues that come up around here.

I get to work around 8am every morning. The guy who the troubled computer belongs to gets here around 7am. So I ask him what happened. He said he had shut down his computer Friday afternoon and when he got there Tuesday morning and tried to boot it up, the Boot device message came up. It was a little something like this:

Right. Ok, so I go through the various troubleshooting steps. Popped into the Bios to see what was up. The drive was being detected. Kinda. It was showing the wrong capacity and the name of the drive was "@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@@". Pretty awesome, huh?

I went through a few trial and error routines and was getting the same result each time. So, not wanting to spend more time on it than necessary I just chalked it up to a dead hard drive and decided to order another one. If I was wrong? I've got an extra hard drive. No harm, no foul. So I order a Solid State Drive, a 2.5"-3.5" adapter, and new cables. Yesterday morning it finally came in so I popped in the new drive, got everything connected, tossed in the Windows XP CD, fired it up and got everything installed and it was running like a champ.

So I get to work this morning and am told to go check out the same computer again. I get upstairs and see this:

...

Ok, so it turns out it wasn't the drive. After more intensive tests I chalked it up to a dying motherboard. Yes, this is the generic tech diagnosis when we have no fucking clue what is wrong. But you know what? Fuck that computer. I hated it anyway. It was too old and too slow. Besides, I have my suspicions that there were more serious and threatening issues here anyway.

Anyway. So today I ordered a new barebones system to put together as a replacement.

It has an Intel i7-2600K processor, 16GB RAM, 120GB SSD hard drive, etc. etc. Compared to what it is replacing it is a fucking beast. When I told dude he was FINALLY getting a new computer, he reacted just as I thought he would.

So, yeah, that has pretty much been my week.

3D View in Firefox = Mind. Blown.

I normally run Opera browser for my day to day internet use. No real reason, it is just what I am accustomed to. Over the years I have bounced around from IE to Firefox to Chrome to Opera and back and forth and back and forth. Today I decided to try out Firefox again because I hadn't used it in a while.

I was trying to tweak a few things on a site I am working on so I right clicked and selected "Inspect Element". While I was inspecting teh elements I saw a little button in the bottom right corner that said "3D View". So I clicked it. Mind = Blown.

Here is a screen shot of a site in 3D View. Pretty freakin' sweet.




Pinterest in 3D

Fantasy Football Season is almost here!

I am a complete Fantasy Football addict. I am not ashamed of this in any way. I wish my life were like a season of The League. Sadly, my friends suck and aren't into Fantasy Football. And they're just not as cool as the folks on The League so it wouldn't work out either way.



Yahoo! Sports - Fantasy Football



I normally play over at Yahoo and just join random open leagues but this year I am also going to try to get a league together at work. A few of the guys here are into football and have expressed interest in joining a league so we'll see how it goes. If nothing else it will give us all something to do once the Fantasy Fishing league is over.

Bassmaster Fantasy Fishing

Yes, there is a Fantasy Fishing league. Seriously. I couldn't make that shit up. Several of the guys, along with myself, have a Fantasy Fishing league here at the office. It provides endless hours of smack-talking and we even do a little plaque/trophy for the winner. Yeah, we get bored.

Anyway, June 1st is when sign-ups are open for Yahoo Fantasy Football. I'm so effin' ready. If anyone is interested in joining a league, holler.

I have a confession to make... I am addicted to Pinterest.

So a few weeks ago I noticed that my girlfriend was obsessively perusing some website that I'd never seen before. My first thought was "Ooooh... Pretty colors..." Yeah, I have ADHD. Anyway, I ask what she is looking at and she tells me about this awesome site she's been checking out called Pinterest.

Of course, I had heard the word but I didn't really have any idea what the site was all about.

Kind of like Google+. All my friends were using it but I had resisted the demons and never checked it out. Once I did, I was extremely disappointed. Google+ sucks. Period. No debate.

But Pinterest... Oh, Pinterest... You crafty vixen. You... You had me the first time I saw a DIY pin about re-purposing wine bottles. Or it may have been the homemade Kimchi recipe...

Either way, I'm hooked. I'm an addict. I admit it and I am not ashamed (much) of it!

Graphic Design-Related Humor

Being a graphic designer can be an awesome job. It can also be incredibly stressful, thankless, mind-numbing, migraine-inducing... Well, you get the picture.

Sometimes we just have to do things to amuse ourselves.

Coffee Coffee Coffee COFFEE!

So what kind of geek would I be without a severe addiction to caffeine? I've spent a lot of time experimenting with different methods of brewing coffee to find that elusive, mythical being known as "the perfect cup". While I have yet to discover it, I have found something that is damn close. I'm sure many of you have heard of a new-ish product called the Aeropress. I'm pretty sure there is a cheesy infomercial floating around out there somewhere. All gimmicks aside though, the thing works.

Here is how this little beauty works: You insert the circular filter into the base and screw the water cylinder on. Then you place it over your favorite mug and dump in two scoops of coffee. Pour in the desired amount of boiling or very hot water, give it a stir, then push the plunger down. The theory is that the air pressure used to push the water through the coffee gives you a bit of an espresso experience. While the result is nothing very close to an espresso, you do get a very flavorful coffee "concentrate". Lots of people will then add more hot water for your standard "Americano" or just drink it straight for a really nice "kick".

I go back and forth with it, depending on my mood. The point is, the thing is versatile. I even use it to filter my cold brew coffee instead of waiting for it to drip through a filter. Just pop in a filter, pour your cold brew in and push it through. Really cuts down on the filtering time.

For anyone that is a serious coffee addict, I highly recommend this product.