Zachery Maloney Online

I just purchased a used IBM Model M keyboard dated 1.29.90, all I can say is- why couldn’t I find one sooner?  I have found several, but none in my price range.  I was scouring the local thrift shop looking for old, used, and abused tech (and the occasional bargain) looking for good deals when under a stack of used keyboard what do I find?  A gargantuan 6 pound monster of a keyboard!  I flipped it over, and sure enough “Model 1391401″  One of the originals, and not one of the cheap “Manufactured for IBM by Lexmark” models.  (I find the build quality of the Lexmark models inferior to that of the IBM manufactured Model M keyboards)  The sweetest part of this:  My new 18 year old keyboard- only $10.  I came home with a the world’s most reliable keyboard, with the best tactile response of any keyboard I have ever owned.  Its uncommon that you find a keyboard that you like, let alone an 18 year old keyboard that feels great and feedback-wise, feels like it was just manufactured yesterday.  I was tempted to buy one of the Unicomp models (after all, I spent $50 on a mouse… If you are wondering, it’s the Microsoft Wireless Laser Mouse available here.)  I saved $59 waiting and purchasing an “authentic”  Model M keyboard.  (I hold the same opinion for the Unicomps that I do for the Lexmarks.)  This keyboard has the longest cord I have ever seen.  My extra wide desk with my rig sitting next to it used to pull my keyboard cabling taut, but my model M has a cord that has a length of thick cabling and and area of “telephone” style curled cabling in the center… I can extend my keyboard drawer all the way out!  I’m getting tired so I’m going to sign off- Zachery Maloney NOTE:  For more Model M keyboards try Clicky Keyboards: http://www.clickykeyboards.com/index.cfm

The iPhone SDK is on the horizon with tens of dozens of stories on Digg, and even a prerelease version of the iPhone SDK available to engadget,  It still sucks.

Still, NO FLASH SUPPORT, although with a proper SDK, that may change as Adobe gets in gear.  The app store in my opinion, is going to be a flop.  Why not just jailbreak the iPhone like you were doing before, and use all of the homegrown software like before.  Guaranteed someone will have a torrent for the SDK as soon as possible, and NOT distribute it through the app store.  Here’s an Idea: Take MacPorts and convert it for the iPhone’s special flavor of OS X, and Use it to install GNASH or Flash!  I don’t feel like doing this myself, as I have no iPhone (because I hate the iPhone, such a primitive phone for the money.  I’ll take a nice Treo anyday :-p)  There are an infinite number of reasons why the iPhone (at least revision 1) sucks, these are just the reasons I chose.  I’m not against stuff like Jailbreaking and free software, I’m just playing devil’s advocate for Apple.  I would buy one IF I could install Linux (uClinux or something similar) onto the phone, but a rant for another time

A new web comic featuring the iPhone is up!

Go to yigg.de, a digg clone based on pligg.  Their slogan should be We strive to be diggerent whoops- diFFerent…   Type it into google and hit the “translate button because it is all in Dutch though…   It’s a wonder they are not in court by now!

It was The Optical Blue vs the Wireless Laser 5000.  Wireless Laser won.  With it’s 1000 DPI sensor, white laser, wireless, and side scrolling technologies this mouse was worth the extra $15.  The  Wireless laser mouse has a scroll wheel with side scroll capability, two side buttons, HiDef laser, very heavy weight :-p, soft gliding pads, and a 6 foot range.  The mouse is Black and gray with silver accents on the buttons and such.  It has a textured bottom piece and a smooth gray top shell that is very glossy.  A smooth scrollwheel accents the top.  The  scroll wheel is nice as it doesn’t give that  “Clicky feel”, instead giving a nice fluid spin motion.  Side scroll works be pressing the wheel to the left or right in it’s little caddy.  The mouse takes two AA batteries (included) .  Microsoft states battery life is six months.  The mouse has a 5 year warranty.

I just had a brilliant idea, while sitting at school doing nothing.  I was thinking about TWiT and the cost of Skype (which should be free.)  I use Folding@home, and have modeled this after that.  F@H uses spare processor cycles and ‘net time, so I figured, why couldn’t a client that would be open in the background constantly, do the same?  SkypeOut is used rarely (I don’t use it) So a PC2PC phone would fit perfectly for most users.  It would have to be licensed under the GNU-GPL OR the CreativeCommons non-commercial usage license, be cross-platform, support any Mic/speaker combo that the OS supports and be easy to use.  Instead of having big servers to handle all the traffic, why can’t we do it like the GNUTELLA network does and use the desktop client as a distribution peer so that Bandwidth for the service is free and effectively making the project cost free!

Sometimes reading reading Digg and Slashdot makes you think.  I wonder, what is the point of a google bomb, besides to show that you and your little buddies have nothing other to do than screw with Google PageRank.  It’s set that way for a reason, because it’s the most clicked, most likely because it’s the most resourceful.  Why do a bunch of morons who think they are hackers because they have nothing better to do because they have no lives and no girlfriends (maybe the reason they have no lives?) think it’s cool to go around changing the pagerank?  Are they just that stupid?  And that stupid “Googlewhack? (see http://www.googlewhack.com/ for more info) You really have to have no lives to think of random sets of words to input that try to amount to nothing but a single listing in the PageRank.  Have you no lives, SuperNerds?  The thing that you people don’t realize, NOBODY CARES!!!!  Who gives a crap if some moron has nothing better to do than screw up google!  They think they must shout it from the rooftops and rape unwilling listeners ears for information that they care not to here! :: END RANT.

I recently had the chance to check out a new nightly build of SongBird, an open source media player/web browser. You are probably saying Wha? A web browser? I thought you said it was a media player! I don’t mean the same kind of web browser as the embedded browser in Windows Media Player (who uses that?) I mean a full blown real web browser. Your homepage is a search engine that is used to find music, any music, and present it in a list form. The software allows you to download the music and play it right in the player. It has a real address bar, unlike WMP, and like iTunes, with an extension, can do coverflow and iPod syching. You can add different “feathers” that change the apearence t0 your choice such as an iTunes clone, and a special custom version just for Ubuntu.

The default skin is a beautiful subdued black that reminds you of pastels for some odd reason. You can visit any site with SongBird, and listen to your tunes at the same time. 2x the power, 1/2 the memory usage. SongBird is based on Gecko, Mozilla’s top notch rendering engine. All in all, this is the greatest experience I have had with a “mashup” style software, and is completely ingenious. Kudos to the SongBird team. Click on the button to go to th Songbird website.

I have recently added a feature called the “web comic” It is a black and white comic done in the GIMP that i will put up whenever I feel like it.  The First one is up, the topic is AntiVirus.  I know it says zacherymaloney.blogspot.com instead of zacherymaloney.wordpress.com, but remember, I transfered it from my old blogger account after I found out how vastly superior WordPress is.  I will leave an announcement about a new Web Comic being up whenever I post a new one.

I don’t know where I got this image, just Google it
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