The Ramblings of Ken

Well, I got sick of all of the spam that I was getting on my e-mail server I'm hosting on this domain. I just had pages and pages of spam and had to filter through all of it to get to my real e-mail. I finally decided to do something about it and I installed the latest version of Mercury Mail (4.52). I found out that it comes with Graywall, Spamhalter, and ClamAV. I thought that it sounded like it was worth a try now that they have included programs to help eliminate spam. Well, it really works! Graywall actually stops everything before Spamhalter or ClamAV can check anything. All of my legitimate e-mail seems to be getting through while the spam is rejected. Life is good once again!

(Image copyright David Harris, author of Mercury Mail and Pegasus Mail)

Back in April of 2006 I posted about World of Warcraft and how I didn't like it. I couldn't even see how someone could possibly want to play it.

Well, I have mended my ways. For two months now I have been playing it. I am officially addicted. This game rocks! Blizzard has done it. They have found something to pull you in that you'll be willing to spend $15 a month on. They are making a killing off of this game, I am sure. I am proud to say that I am helping them make a huge amount of money!

I was very outspoken about this game and how it couldn't possibly be worth $15 a month. Well, for any of you out there who feel like I used to feel... I DARE you to try the 10 day trial!

I have two characters that I play regularly. One is a Level 49 Tauren Hunter (Tigrao) and the other is a Level 46 Blood Elf Mage (Tigrai). I'm on Arygos, so say hi if you see me in the game!

(Image borrowed/stolen from worldofwarcraft.com)

Denver is now tied atop the AFC West with Sand Diego at 5-5 after a 34-20 win against the Tennessee Titans last night. Denver looked good and Jay Cutler (pictured) had an awesome night passing the ball. The Broncos look like they could be putting together a team that might contend in the AFC. Their remaining schedule is somewhat weak, as San Diego and Houston are the only teams on the schedule at the .500 mark. The remaining games are winnable games and the Broncos could end the season at 11-5, but probably 10-6. That's a respectable record!





GO BRONCOS!








(Images borrowed from nfl.com)

Male roommate needed!

The apartment we live in has the following features (taken directly from [url=http://www.maplevalleyapts.com]Maple Valley Apartments website[/url]):

* Spacious master bedroom has two closets with French doors and built in shelving and organizers (12 x 14).
* Two spare bedrooms with one closet a piece (11 x 11).
* Two full baths with shower and tub.
* Inviting Living Room (12 x 17).
* Beautiful “Knotty Alder” cabinets throughout.
* Ceramic Tile throughout bathroom and kitchen.
* Comes equipped with:

o Dishwasher
o Garbage Disposal
o Electric Stove
o Refrigerator
o Speckled Formica Countertops
o Central AC
o Washer/Dryer currently in apartment
o Swimming pool, hot tub, pool table, and gym
are at the clubhouse.

If you are looking to live in the Logan, UT area in a nice apartment with two other roommates then this is the place for you! If you chose to move in, you would have one of the spare bedrooms for yourself, but would share a bathroom with one other roommate. LDS standards are definitely preferred. Smoking in the apartments is prohibited. We would prefer to not have alcohol in our apartment as well. The rent is $210 a month plus utilities, which range between $40-$60 a month per person (not including internet access). Please click the [url=http://www.tigrao.org/contact.php]contact me[/url] link on the webpage menu on the left, if you are interested, and send me a message with any questions you might have. We will then get back to you with further information.

The apartments are located at 1693 N 400 W.

Once again, you can see all the information about Maple Valley Apartments [url=http://www.maplevalleyapts.com]here.[/url]

The Denver Broncos lost today to the Detroit Lions 44-7. Wow. This horrifying loss comes just three weeks after losing 41-3 to the San Diego Chargers at home! My team isn't looking too good this year. Hopefully they can pull things together and finish at .500 at least. Who knows, though, the AFC West is looking pretty bad this year. The Broncos find themselves only one game back from the division leader. Maybe there is hope to make the playoffs, but you have to be realistic... they won't make it past any teams like the Colts or the Patriots...

After updating sphpblog to the latest version, I was looking through all of the themes that it comes with. I have decided that I really like this theme, "GLite." Hopefully having a new look will be an inspiration to keep posting and get this site active again!

Not that it really matters anymore since I haven't really been posting here... but I have had to deal with a lot of stupid bots putting comments about "free verizon ringtones" and "free cingular ringtones" and others. I had an older version of sphpblog running on here and I'm sure it was a security hole in that. Anyway, I have now updated to the latest version of sphpblog to try and get rid of the comment spam. It looks like it should work.

Anyway, the site looks different right now. I will be working over the next several days to get it back to how it was. It shouldn't be too much work. I didn't hack up sphpblog too much.

So we just got back from taking a week long trip to San Francisco. We saw Fisherman's Wharf, took a ferry tour of San Francisco Bay, went to Alcatraz, walked through Chinatown, and explored the Palace of Fine Arts area. It was a fun trip! Pictures can be seen in the gallery for those of you who want to see.

I went and saw Transformers the Movie just over a week ago. I have to say that it was the coolest movie I've ever seen! I am going to go and see it several more times!

I was surprised by the balance that was achieved between modernizing the movie and yet holding true to the original Transformers cartoon series. The movie is also full of action where we see classic battles between the Autobots and the Decepicons! The coolest thing about it, though, is that they got the original guy to do the voice for Optimus Prime!

This movie is worth seeing over and over and over again!

(Image taken and modified from the Transformers movie site, which I'm sure is somehow copyrighted by Hasbro, Inc)

I just got my new Bluetooth headphones in the mail yesterday! I have got to post about them!

These things are better than I thought! First of all, the call quality on my cell phone is outstanding! With my old Plantronics bluetooth earpiece, people would complain that it was too noisy. It really picked up and amplified the ambient noises. So far with my Jabra BT620 stereo headphones, no one has complained of the same noises at all, like the water running at the sink, the toilet flushing (no, I would NEVER take my phone in the bathroom), the wind blowing, etc. I am very pleased with this!

But, the reason that I really got the headphones was for the ability to wirelessly stream music! These are so cool! I can control my phone's music player and listen to my tunes while my phone sits in my pocket, on the desk, or wherever. I can even pair it with my computer and play my games with the headphones on, or control Windows Media Player and Winamp with the play/stop/pause and previous/next track buttons. This is one of my best purchases this year! I highly recommend the Jabra BT620s to anyone who is interested in going wireless with their music!

(Image taken from tigerdirect.com)

Let's hope that they go all the way!

So, I haven't posted about my new phone yet!

I bought an LG VX8600 from my roommate. I decided when this phone came out that I was going to buy it. I just didn't want to buy it at full retail price. I've used it now for almost two weeks and I love it!!!

The phone is so thin. I can't even tell that it is in my pocket! It supports all of the Bluetooth profiles that I want, except for OBEX. I does Dial-Up Networking, Serial Port, Object Push, Stereo Audio, and Headset profiles.

The music capabilities of this phone are awesome! I use it as my main music player when I'm on the go. I think that my next car stereo will even have A2DP support so that I can just use my phone to listen to music in my car. We'll see about that, though.

I've hacked this phone up to the level that I had on my last phone. I have Mobile Web going through my own proxy server. I've changed the MMS server setting as well, so that I can send free picture messages. What else... I have free MP3 ringtones and VZ Navigator as well! See my post a few down from here to read about VZ Navigator.

I'm quite pleased with my new phone and I would highly recommend the VX 8600!

(Image taken from [url=http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,1895,2087006,00.asp]PC Magazine's review of the LG VX8600[/url])

If you ever wonder why this site is Tigrao.org now you know. Tigrao (Tigger as we know him in English) is just the coolest in the world. He's awesome! 'Nuff said.

Have you tried Google's Voice Local Search yet? I tried it out for the first time today and it rocks!

Description (straight from Google's site):

[blockquote]Google Voice Local Search is Google’s experimental service to make local-business search accessible over the phone.

To try this service, just dial 1-800-GOOG-411 (1-800-466-4411) from any phone.

Using this service, you can:

* search for a local business by name or category.
You can say "Giovanni's Pizzeria" or just "pizza".

* get connected to the business, free of charge.

* get the details by SMS if you’re using a mobile phone.
Just say "text message".

And it's free. Google doesn’t charge you a thing for the call or for connecting you to the business. Regular phone charges may apply, based on your telephone service provider.

Note: Google Voice Local Search is still in its experimental stage. It may not be available at all times and may not work for all users. We’re fine-tuning the service to get better at recognizing your requests. It’s currently only available in English, in the US, for US business listings.[/blockquote]

Use it! Google Voice Local Search (I call it Google 411) is the coolest thing since the telephone was invented!

(Image taken from labs.google.com)

For those of you on Verizon Wireless that have not tried VZ Navigator, what are you waiting for?

VZ Navigator is a full-feature GPS navigation system for your Verizon Wireless cell phone. I've been trying it out and I love it! It features full gps navigation, route planning, voice prompt directions, address input, and location search.

I was way excited to find out that my phone supports it! I'll be using VZ Navigator for a long time to come. (There is a hack that enables you to only pay for it once, so you don't have to continue to pay the monthly subscription fee, but we will leave it at that.)

For more information on VZ Navigator read about it on Verizon's Website

(Image taken from verizonwireless.com)

Well, I have moved out of my parent's house. No, this is not the first time. I have lived away from my parent's house before, but I moved back after my engagement fell through. I thought that I needed some time to recover emotionally and financially. Well, I suppose I feel like I've had that recovery time and I moved away.

It feels good. I'm glad to have my own place where I can arrange things how I want them and do everything the way that I want. I now feel like my personality can more fully develop and I can be my own person.

I'm not saying I don't love my parents. I love them very much and they have done so much for me in my life. I wouldn't be anything without them. However, there comes a time when everyone needs to move away to have a chance to grow as their own person.

Summary: I'm glad to be in a place of my own! It's great!

My new computer is finally put together! It's been a sad month without a computer, but it is all worth it now!

The new box in all its glory

This machine just rocks!!! I can play Company of Heroes on the maximum settings with 4x anti-aliasing and 4x antrioscopic filtering! I am very pleased with my purchase!










The massive GeForce 8800 GTX video card


I know you all want to know the specs, so here you go:

CPU: AMD Athlon 64 X2 5200+ Dual Core Processor 2.6 Ghz
RAM: 2x 1 GB Corsair XMS2 PC-6400 DDR2 memory modules
VIDEO: EVGA GeForce 8800 GTX with 768 MB DDR3 video memory
MAINBOARD: Foxconn C51XEM2AA- 8EKRS2H AM2 nForce 590 SLI motherboard
COOLING: Zalman CNPS9500 LED 92mm Cooling Fan
HARD DISKS: 2x WD1600 160 GB 16 MB cache hard disks in RAID 0
OS: Windows Vista Business x64

Windows Vista x64 runs awesome on this box! Windows Aero and Flip 3D never looked better! Microsoft seems to have done an amazingly good job on Vista overall. I am quite impressed with the capabilities of this operating system, especially when running on brand new hardware. I am very pleased with my new build! Now I'm going to spank everybody at the LAN parties! Muwahahahahah!

The oversized Zalman CNPS9500
keeps the CPU nice and cool

(Athlon 64 X2 logo taken from amd.com)

My main computer died. I am an idiot. I tried hacking some updated RAID drivers into my BIOS. I killed it. My computer is dead. I don't know what the deal is, but I sent for an updated BIOS and that didn't work. I sent for another one from ASUS themselves to see if that will work. I hope that it solves the problem.

Anyway, my music site is finally back up. I decided to pull my storage drive out and put it in my server computer. So, now the site will stay up. Sorry, for those of you that have been missing it.

Wow!!!

That is all I can say...Wow!!! I went and saw [url=http://www.threedaysgrace.com]Three Days Grace[/url] in concert last night. They rocked!!! It was the best concert that I have ever been to! The group before them really sucked bad, but I guess you can't know the sweet without experiencing the bitter...

If you don't know the group Three Days Grace, I suggest you check out their [url=http://www.myspace.com/threedaysgrace]myspace page[/url] and get to know their music! You are missing out!!!

(And yes, I stole this image from their myspace page, is that okay guys?)

I've had Windows Vista Business 32-bit installed on my computer at work for a little over a week now. At first I hated it. It would always bring up a prompt telling you that "Windows needs your permission to continue." It turns out that Vista runs every user in a non-administrator mode and when it needs to elevate your privileges to Administrator, it lets you know what is going on. I suppose this is a good thing. Spyware and Viruses can't be installed anymore, at least not yet.

I'll quickly go over the things that I like the best about Vista:





Flip-3D

Flip-3D is a new alternative to using Alt+Tab to switch between Windows. To use it you press Win+Tab instead of Alt+Tab. It stacks up all your Windows in a cool 3D interface. You can then click on a window, use the scroll wheel on the mouse, or continue pressing Win+Tab until the window that you want comes up.








The Aero Interface

The new default theme on Windows Vista is the Aero Glass interface. Aero adds cool animations when maximizing, minimizing and switching between windows. It also gives you a nice preview of each window when you place your mouse over the taskbar button for it. Aero just makes me feel all warm and fuzzy inside :)





The Start Menu

The new Start Menu for Windows Vista is way cool! It no longer stretches your program folders across the screen. Instead it keeps them in place so you don't have to continue to move your mouse to the right to find a program. The new search feature at the bottom of the start menu is way awesome too! It will launch all of your programs straight from the search box! For example, if you want to start paint (as shown in the picture), simply type "paint" in the box and press enter. It rocks!




Installation and Repair Process

In Windows XP if you wanted to install the operating system on hardware that wasn't supported out of the box (i.e. RAID systems), you had to create a floppy disk with the drivers on it and then make sure to hit F6 right at the start of the Windows installation process. In Windows Vista, simply throw your drivers on a USB flash disk or CD-R and click on the Load Drivers button. It is that simple! The repair process also adds new and easy ways to fix your operating system, should something go wrong. You can use System Restore to go back to a restore point, use the automatic repair feature, or bring up a command prompt and do it all yourself. You can also load network and hard disk drivers on the fly. It is way cool!

Well, I have Windows Vista Business x64 installed on my computer at home now. So far, I am very impressed! I am tempted to delete my XP x64 partition and go Vista all the way! Good job so far, Microsoft!

(Windows Vista, Aero, and many more names used on this page are copyrighted by Microsoft. Also, the images used on this page are the property of Microsoft, yeah, even the screenshots that I made of my programs I'm sure belong to them somehow.)

My friend, K, donated a new server computer to me! It is a Pentium 4, 2.6 Ghz, with 512 MB of RAM and an 80 GB hard disk. I installed Windows Server 2003 on it along with Apache, PHP, and MySQL. I then managed to migrate all of the databases over to the new server and got the sites back up and running. All web and e-mail services are now running so smooth! Thanks for your generous donation, K!

I've uploaded all of the pictures from the New Year's Eve Party! You can see them [url=http://www.tigrao.org/gallery/main.php?g2_itemId=3043]in the photo gallery[/url].

Happy New Year, everyone!