Technology

New Linux Desktop

I just built a new desktop over last month to this one and here is what I have.
MSI P45NE02 Motherboard
Core 2 Quad Q8400 2.66 GHz Processor
4GB (2 x 2GB) DDR2 800 Mhz RAM
MSI GeForce 210 512MB GPU
350 PSU
Ubuntu 9.10 64bit

Mobo & CPU: $150
RAM: $70
GPU: $25 After Rebate
PSU: Reused one I got for $25 two years ago
Case: Reused an old PII case I like.
HD: Reused 80GB Maxtor PATA drive I got for $40 a while back
DVD-RW Drive : Reused PATA drive I got 4 years ago.

Next month I will purchase a SATA HD for $50 or less.

But the total that came out of pocket for this build is: $245
I like to see what I can build on the low end when I build machines.

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Theme styling for your favorite web sites!

Have you ever wanted to apply your own custom themes to sites such as Google or Facebook? Well there are several options for you to do so. In this post I am going to cover the use of the Stylish Add-on for Mozilla Firefox.

1. If you don’t have Firefox [Get it at this link!]

2. Get the Stylish Add-On. Click Add to Firefox and install. A restart of Firefox will be required for the Add-on to complete the installation.

3. Go to userstyles.org. There you can search for and select styles to install with Stylish. You can also use most of these scripts with Greasemonkey, IE7 or Opera but Stylish offers the ability to modify these styles if you like.

4. When you have found a user style that you like simply select the install with stylish button and press the install button on the widow that appears.

Here is an example of what the author page for Facebook – Dark Static page looks like using Stylish:

Some of the Lady’s may prefer Facebook – Dark Shiny Purple:

There are styles for numerious pages out there so find ones that you like. If you are adventures you can even make themes of your own

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Amazon Number Two in Sales but Number One in Service

I recently read an article that Amazon has increased in It’s MP3 music sales to now make it the number online music retailer. It now stands in a place to be an actual challenger to the online music sales giant iTunes.

After recently having to deal with iTunes after my wife recieved a gift card, I thought that I would make a purchase from Amazon MP3 to compare the two.

My experience with iTunes left me less than happy as I had to use someone’s Windows computer to complete the purchase. In addition I was stuck getting the media in a lower quality AAC format. Sure I was able burn it to CD and rip it to my home computers hard drive but is that really necessary?

Shoot I’ve received better quality free garage band music from dowload.com music.


My experience with Amazon was a bit different. I searched and found some songs that I wanted to purchase. After selecting to purchase them I was initially bothered by the fact that I needed to install a download program to receive them. I thought, “great now another program that I’m going to need to try to install using Wine.” I was pleasantly surprised that Amazon supports Windows, Mac and four Linux distributions (Ubuntu, Debian, Fedora and openSuse).  It was a quick and easy .deb install and I was ready to rock-and-roll. The client seemed to work in a similar manner as a bit torrent client and the music was easily downloaded and purchased. Best of all it was in a high quality MP3 format. I would have preferred .ogg but MP3 will do in a pinch.

In the future I think I will do all my music purchases through Amazon. It was quicker, easier and they provided me with the product and services that I wanted.

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How The Bells Stole America’s Digital Future

..If the Regional Bell Operating Companies (RBOCs) had delivered on the promises they made in the early 1990s, almost half of America’s households and the vast majority of the nation’s schools would already be wired with high-speed fiber optic networks.

.. The Bells told regulators they would wire more than 44 million households by the year 2000. Then, in many instances, they used those promises to convince regulators to replace traditional rate-of-return regulation with alternative regulatory schemes.

..The new regulatory plans gave the Bells more profits, ultimately making them some of the most profitable companies in the nation. Bell profit margins are more than double that of other regulated utilities and the major long distance phone companies and literally 167% above the profit margins of some of America’s best-known companies.

..Consumers have already paid over $45 billion in extra telephone charges, and continue to pay over $8 billion annually.

How The Bells Stole America’s Digital Future

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