Hardware, Consumer Devices, Green Technology

I wanted to dump Qwest.  That's the root of it, I really don't dig their way of handling customers.  I wanted to take advantage of my really nice internet connection, and use VoIP.  The only major hurdle seemed to be the use of my credit card terminal, and the occasional fax.  After a few evenings of struggling, I achieved success.

In choosing a Linux desktop, I want something both highly stable and great looking.  I stare at these monitors for 10-14 hours a day!  Speed and ease of configuration/use are also important.  This post is about my journey from KDE4 to XFCE4, and is also a review of sorts.

"Six gallons (22.7 L) of water evaporating has the same cooling effect as a typical (3.5 ton-hour) home central air-conditioner." - Alliance for Water Efficiency

Here's how you can save a lot on your summer water bills and help the environment a little at the same time.  The system I built stores 165 gallons of water, which is enough to water our large garden pr

** Note ** I've sold this card since, but I'll repost this in case it is useful to anyone:
Just a reference in case anyone else is trying to figure out how to get dual head working (with screen stretch) on Ubuntu in particular since Ubuntu doesn’t figure it out by itself. Took me awhile to get this figured out.
The magic lines (in “Device") are this

Like any other electronics aficionados, I have a number of devices that use Li-Ion batteries. My Yaesu VX-6 being one that is very frequently discharged 10-20%, but they’re also in my laptops and cameras. Since they tend to be very expensive I did a little research on making them last, and learned a little about other battery types while I was at it. Here’s the short story, if you want the nitty gritty on each there’s plenty to sort through out there.

According to the FCC, Amateur Radio operators should calculate their RF exposure regularly to ensure station safety and be in compliance with accepted safe levels.
So I thought, why not do this with my cellular telephone?
Considering that the signal strength declines logarithmically as distance from the antenna increases, having the phone against your head must really give you a full dose of RF power.

In a nutshell, avoid this device if you can.  The following is my review from 4/6/08 in which I initially liked it, then discovered all its warts, then dropped it like a hot potato, losing a small sum in the process.  Some workarounds are included for various problems you'll encounter with it if you are stuck with one.

Product: iRiver e100 2gb portable music player (iPod[tm] alternative)

If you have a server computer with a printer attached and a client computer across the network there’s a super simple way to configure cups, create a “/etc/cups/client.conf” file and stick a line like this, with the server's IP address in it:
       ServerName 12.34.56.78