Wave after wave of blimps, balloons and dirigibles are fly towards you. Set up your guns and shoot them down as fast as you can. Take the chance to up grade you firepower. You let them slip pass and the city could be in flames.
The sign of a useful tool is being able to use daily with out even thinking about it. At least until is does something you didn’t expect. My KVM is one of those tools I make use of with out realizing it. It wasn’t until some one moved it to vacuum under my desk and didn’t reconnect it. So during the reconnect and reboot I found my self pondering how the KVM is the one device I know I have gotten my moneys worth out of.
For those of you who don’t know what a KVM is, it stands for Keyboard, Video, Mouse. It is a box that let you connect two or more computer to the same Keyboard, Video, and Mouse. The common question I get when I tell some about KVMs is “wouldn’t it be easier to just have a Keyboard, Video, Mouse for each one?” Yes, as long as they are on different desks. But when they are being used on the same desk a KVM really does make things easier.
When you are a geek and a DIY nut Computers tend to collect about you. And when you have more then one computer you quickly find that specialized computers are really useful. One for “normal” use, one to test software with, another as a back up server, and another for the mp3 collection. And of course they all have to be in the same spot other wise you running all over the house or office.
I have had two computers using the same monitor with different keyboards and mice. Buy changing the input on the monitor I could change what computer I was looking at. And depending on the background I knew what color keyboard to use. It worked well enough, but it was very common to find I was typing on the wrong keyboard or moving the wrong mouse. But the biggest problem was the amount of desk top space that was used up by an extra keyboard.
With a few taps of the scroll lock button you can cycle between each computer, or in two keystrokes switch direct to the computer I need. The process becomes fluid the more times you use it. After a while using the KVM isn’t like switching between computers, it more like looking at a different window on the same computer. I can switch from my main computer over to the test computer where I install lots of programs to test and don’t have to worry about corrupting the system registry. After I get a screen shot or two I can then Run the back up software to re-image the test pc. Then switch to the media pc to change play lists. And maybe buy a few new mp3s. Then back to my main computer to finish something I’m writing. The KVM lets me do a lot of stuff at the same time with out having to worry about one program crashing everything.
Free software to make 3D images and animation. Ever wanted to make a 3d animation, or lay out a 3d map for a game. Well here a good place to start. Anim8or Avi8tor: Build a charter then add the animation.
Amabilis Amabilis: 3d modeling and texture program.
uvmapper UVmapper: Used to make skins for your 3d creations.
The goal is to match the rhythm you see. Press E for your left drum marked in blue, I for your right drum marked in red and space for both drums marked in green. That’s all there is to rock out as a mini drum Pro.
A little known company name ACS makes a useful adapter for any one who wants the shock proof reliability of a solid state hard drive. The Compaq Flash to IDE Adapter is cheap quick way to get solid state storage. When I found the CF to IDE adapter I couldn’t help my self. The idea of using a CF chip as a hard drive was too temping.
The top two reasons are speed and energy efficiency. Compaq flash uses a lot less energy then regular hard drive. Using any where from 90% to 96% less power then the common ide hard drives. With no moving parts there is less seek time. Depending on the specs of the flash chip being used the speed can be higher then 45mb per second.
The draw back to using any flash device in place of a regular hard drive is a shortened life span. Each block of storage has a physical limit to how often data can be written and erased. For use in Mp3 players, digital cameras, and PDA this really isn’t a problem because the data written to those devices often stay there for a long time. If you are using a Compaq flash for your swap file the chip will fail.
Having used ACS’s CF-IDE adapter as a hard drive I have to say that my disappointment was with the CF chip I used. Any improvement to speed is very dependent on the CF chip. The ACS adapter did just what it was suppose to do. The adapter let me use a CF as a mounted IDE drive, not as a removable drive.
Weather I was using it to boot Linux or using it for virtual memory on a window computer any speed improvement was not noticeable. Testing didn’t seem logical since I could not find a 4 gig hard drive to compare to the 4 gig CF chip I was using. When I tried my test software failed the CF chip claiming read arm malfunction.
I keep the adapter handy; I will use it again when larger and faster chips come down in price. I figure I’m more likely to use it for projects where vibration and impact shock are going to ruin norm hard drives. Or a small physical size is really needed. Definitely not something that has a lot of uses, but ASC’s CF-IDE adapter is an option worth knowing about.
Galactic Colonization, send your ship out to a lifeless planet to terraform it into a new colony. But watch out of other looking to colonize the same galaxy. If they beat you to a planet you have to over power them to claim it. If you don’t that will over take your colonies. Just a hint, if you wait a moment to let your enemy soften a planet before you claim it.
Anim8or
