Track Listing

1. everything
2. Snow, Moon, and Flower
3. everything (Remixed by shunichi miura for kera and the synthesizers)

1. everything

Oh, so this is what Sharaku from metronome has been up to.  Well, for something that’s from Sharaku, I was happy to see that everything was even more 8bit love from him and his partner in crime, Hiromu.  About the song itself, it’s a flurry of 8bit arpeggios that oddly work here.  Sharaku sounds pretty sad here and kind of throws a paradox in the song and to me that was a great idea.  It does become an irritating song after listening to the song repetitively, but it’s still nice overall.

2. Snow, Moon, and Flower

The B-side is quite calming when compared to “everything”.  Instead of the crazy use of 8bit and synths, they actually went for more of a natural sound for their music.  Sharuku is under auto-tune and is also filtered for the track. Back to the music, I’m liking the inclusion of strings and electric guitars to mix in with the music.  I’m already liking this tune.

3. everything (Remixed by shunichi miura for kera and the synthesizers)

To me, this rearranged version of everything took out the 8bit overload and gave it a more metronome-like version and seriously, I might like this more than the original because there’s more focus of the guitars and Sharaku’s vocals here.  To be honest, the song sounds more together and not as freaky as before.  Though I love what they did with Sharaku’s vocals in the 2nd verse, that was nice.  Good remix.

I now understand why metronome hasn’t been releasing anything recently because Sharaku is now paying more attention to FLOPPY.  The only single to represent the “Deus ex machina” era, everything showed me what theywere like as a duo and surprisingly showed that they can do 8bit as well as POLYSICS & YMCK, but can do good ballads as well.  It’s one of the bands I’ll be keeping my eye on from now on.

The Floppy is an indoor practice golf ball specifically designed for use inside.  As seen in the New York Times. It allows the freedom to practice your golf game whenever & wherever you want. The Floppy was designed to give you the feel and feedback of a regular course golf ball which is important for practice. Take a swing, and it will bounce off windows or any surface without damage.  It rolls, feels and spins like a regular golf ball, making it an incredible training aid for golfers.

So surprise the golf lover in your life with The Floppy this holiday season. With 4 golf balls per package, it tucks nicely into that stocking!

1.  Howlround

2.  Clash

3.  Bump

Stille Nacht, Heilige Nacht. Alles schlaft. Until Son 2 aged 2 started SHOUTING FOR MUMMY. I sprang out of bed to get to him before he woke Son 1 aged 5, sleeping next to him, scooped him up and put him in the Double Bed between The Man and me.  Granny is in the Big Bed upstairs, and The Man are next to the boys. I checked the time on a clock downstairs.  4am. The little beggar.  He tossed and turned and wriggled and writhed. At 0445 I gave up and got up. On the Bright Side. I copied dates from 2009 into the 2010 calendar. I cleared out the mess in my bag. I paid a bill which had been outstanding forever. I ordered school photos. I made the lunches.

Son 2 wasn’t impressed with being left at home, Son 1 was Perfect Child. A long drive in this morning because of the rain. I dropped him off and had another Hard Day At The Office.  I have muddled up Son 1’s Parents’ Evening. I thought it was today, which I could have left early for.  It isn’t. It’s next Tuesday, and already my whole day is jam-packed.  The Man will have to go without me.  Bright side: I bought a new dress from TK Maxx.  There is an Important Office Do on Thursday night.  I took it round to the Godmother for a second opinion. She approved, and provided pashmina and handbag.

When I got home, Son 2 chortled, giggled and clung.   Both boys were excited… there were two plastic bags resting on top of the water in the Fish Tank. Granny has bought four more fish.  Son 1 has carefully considered, and named them Fluffy, Floppy, Zizzy and Sulky.  Friends for Flossy and Coupon.  An instant shoal.  They seem to be getting on ok.   In Son 1’s bag there was an apologetic note from his class teacher. We can’t have the time we asked for his Parents’ Evening appointment. She’s happy to do another day and time if it would be more convenient. Oh all right then.   As you’re unable to fit us in, we’ll re-schedule.  No, no, don’t mention it, we don’t mind at all.

Systemax (2) Intel Xeon 5310 1.6GHz (Quad Core) / 2GB FB DDR2 / 2TB (8×250GB) SATA II / ZERO Channel SAS/SATA RAID Controller / 8x Slim DVD / Slim Floppy / NO O/S 2U Rackmount Server Review

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Systemax (2) Intel Xeon 5310 1.6GHz (Quad Core) / 2GB FB DDR2 / 2TB (8×250GB) SATA II / ZERO Channel SAS/SATA RAID Controller / 8x Slim DVD / Slim Floppy / NO O/S 2U Rackmount Server Feature

Systemax (2) Intel Xeon 5310 1.6GHz (Quad Core) / 2GB FB DDR2 / 2TB (8×250GB) SATA II / ZERO Channel SAS/SATA RAID Controller / 8x Slim DVD / Slim Floppy / NO O/S 2U Rackmount Server Overview

2TB Dual XEON RAID Server! Powerful Systemax 2U NAS Server! The Systemax 2U NAS Storage Server addresses the sudden shortage of disk space that seems to pop up at your busiest time of year. Most likely, you don’t want to add another server, or crack open one of the existing ones, or maybe you just want a good clean separate box with limited access and minimal fuss. Sometimes adding a new device is just plain easier. That is where this storage server box from Systemax is ideal. The problem with NAS, traditionally, has been a steep price-tag, much like an external drive. Not anymore, look at the all the features you get with the purchase of this fully integrated device. It is populated with Dual (2) Intel Xeon 5110 Dual Core Processors, 2GB DDR2 Memory, (8) 250GB SATA 3G Hard Drives, 2GB FB-DIMM DDR2 Memory, slim DVD drive, dual integrated GB LAN adapters all tucked into a 2U rackmount chassis. It can be used to store any data that appears in the form of files, such as email boxes, Web content, remote system backups, and so on.

Systemax (2) Intel Xeon 5310 1.6GHz (Quad Core) / 2GB FB DDR2 / 2TB (8×250GB) SATA II / ZERO Channel SAS/SATA RAID Controller / 8x Slim DVD / Slim Floppy / NO O/S 2U Rackmount Server Specifications

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I guess for the first post on this blog, I should write about the very thing that inspired the whole thing. The floppy disk.

As I was rooting around my hard drive trying desperately to find something I knew was probably long gone, my lousy mouse-eye coordination caused me to click on the “3 1/2 Floppy (A:)” drive. Of course, it didn’t work, there was no floppy in the drive. In fact, there hadn’t been one in there for… How long exactly? More than a couple of years, that’s for sure! Actually, the fact that my computer still has a floppy drive says a lot about its age!

I looked around my little office (otherwise known as the Spare Room) and wondered if there was a single floppy disk left in any of the boxes or on any of the shelves. It took me a while, but I found one. It was a boot disk, probably one of the only uses I could think of for a floppy disk nowadays, in fact, and only then to be used on antique computers that still have a drive. Like mine.

Yet less than 10 years ago, while I was still at university and didn’t have a computer of my own, I could have – and did – fit all the important files I had on a single 1.44MB, 3 1/2″ floppy disk. Of course, I made several backups, because floppy disks were such fragile things. If you coughed on them, or the wind was in the wrong direction, or there was an r in the month, chances are they would splutter and die. I must have wasted hours if not days of my life trying to raise floppies from the dead. Windows even had a special function for repairing what could be repaired, that’s how reliable they were.

The 3.5 inch disks were, however, quite a bit more solid than their ancestors, the 8 and the 5 1/4 inch disks, as they were only floppy on the inside, the (relatively) hard, square outer casing protecting the incredibly flimsy disk itself. (More about the anatomy of a floppy disk over here››) I can hardly count the number of deceased floppies that were mercilessly pulled apart, dismembered and played with by me and my fellow geeks during the long dark evenings of studenthood. When we weren’t out partying and being sociable, that is.

8, 5.25 and 3.5 floppy disks - Wikipedia

Oh the things that could go wrong with a floppy disk! Not only was there the flimsiness of the inner disk, which was extremely susceptible to dust, scratching, heat, humidity and the colour of your underwear, but there was the whole sliding-trapdoor mechanism which actually operated with a spring. A SPRING! Moving parts! Inside a computer! Yes, children, this actually happened! And yes, we did have running water at the time and almost all the dinosaurs were gone by then!

The simplicity of today’s USB sticks and memory cards is almost dull compared to the excitement of using a floppy disk; there is hardly any sense of anticipation any more when you shove one of those multi-gigabyte drives into its slot.  There is virtually no chance that it will not work, let alone break, get stuck in your drive, twist up and set fire to the whole computer.

See? Bo-ring.

Wireless headphones can be a wonderful way to help clear up the clutter inherent in most desktop PC systems. However, after plugging a wall wart in, and the headphone jack into the computer, the number of wires used has actually doubled. After [Parker] found an old set of JVC 900 Mhz wireless headphones (and a generic 900MHz transmitter), he cracked open the case to see what he could do with them. Realizing that the transmitter used a 12V DC source, he powered it with an unused floppy connector (which provides +12V, +5V, and two ground lines). He also wired the audio-in line directly onto his sound card headers rather than feeding out a headphone jack to the back. He then wrapped the whole thing in plastic to prevent unwanted shorting and placed it back in his PC, leaving him with a very functional wireless system. Detailed photos after the break.

En Kernel.org hicieron algo que puede dejar a tus Live CD de Linux en el olvido, ya que desde ahora puedes iniciar un sistema operativo Linux desde Internet sin necesidad de descargar un CD completo.

Como podrás ver en boot.kernel.org (BKO), el concepto es bastante simple:  descarga un pequeño archivo de inicio, quémalo en un CD, USB o diskette, inicia con él y automáticamente el resto del sistema será descargado desde internet.

La idea no es tan nueva ni tirada de las mechas. Desde hace años que un sistema operativo Linux se puede iniciar desde una red, pero tal uso sólo era práctico en redes locales, y ésto requería configurar un servidor propio que alojara los archivos necesarios para que se inicie el sistema. Ahora con este nuevo mecanismo, los muchachos de BKO son quienes se encargan de dejar el sistema disponible, y el usuario sólo necesita quemar su archivo de inicio.

El archivo de inicio es de sólo 200KB para USB y Floppy, y unos 500KB en su versión CD.  Lo recomendable es usar la opción USB ya que eso permitirá grabar información en el mismo disco.

¿Para qué puede servir? Ademas de ser algo en sí mismo entretenido para cualquier geek, el hecho de que se pueda seleccionar qué distribución de Linux se va a iniciar permite probarlas sin tener que descargar un disco completo.  Entre las distribuciones de Linux disponibles en BKO también podemos encontrar algunas orientadas a rescatar sistemas, algo que incluso puede servir a los usuarios de Windows en caso de que su sistema no quiera iniciar, o se encuentren con un sistema de archivos NTFS corrupto (Been there, done that).

En este momento se pueden encontrar las mencionadas herramientas de rescate y las distribuciones Debian, Ubuntu 9.04, Damn Small Linux, Knoppix 5.0.1 y Fedora 11.

Y no, no esperes que tu sistema se inicie en sólo 5 segundos como ya lo está haciendo Ubuntu con discos SSD. El tiempo será tan bueno como tu conexión a Internet, y el soporte de hardware como siempre depende de cada distribución.

Via:FayerWayer

mkfs -V -t msdos /dev/fd0
mount /dev/fd0 /media/floppy
cd /media/floppy
mkdir boot
mkdir boot/grub
cp -pa /boot/grub/* /media/floppy/boot/grub
umount /media/floppy
/sbin/grub --batch --device-map=/dev/null <<EOF
device (fd0) /dev/fd0
root (fd0)
setup (fd0)
quit
EOF

Lifted from Linux-SXS and GNU Hurd FAQ.

Per prima cosa bisogna scaricare plop boot manager da qui. Poi basta estrarre plpbt.img nella home o nella scrivania, dove volete, e poi bè non penserete che basti copiare il contenuto direttamente nel floppy!

In questo caso basta dare il comando

dd if=plpbt.img of=/dev/fd0

Esta es la propuesta de Brando de este mes, mas alla de lo discutible de hacer una comparación al respecto hay que admitir que la madre es una modelo con todas las letras desde hace más de 10 años y que la hija, aprovechando de donde viene, se empieza a posicionar como uno de las “nuevas deseadas” de la Argentina.
Es el mundo de la farandula amigos, y la verdad que no hay reglas mientras se facture y se venda y esto es lo que estas chicas saben hacer… Despues de todo, Brando tiene razón. A cual elegis???….

Araceli Gonzalez, la madre mas deseada

Flopy Torrente, siguiendo el camino de mamá

I got this error on a Dell Inspiron 531. To resolve, I went into the BIOS and disabled the Floopy Drive. Just changed the setting to ‘disabled’ save and exit BIOS. On re-start, the error did not show again. Also found in this article in Dell’s Tech forum.

Lola woke up, ready to try again. She really wanted to invite somebody over. She wanted somebody to see her beautiful new house. She did all the necessary cleaning and bathing and feeding Floppy. She then called Hank and invited him over. He said that he couldn’t because he was at work. This didn’t dampen Lola’s spirits. She knew that she could invite over Jared. And why not? So she called. He denied. It made sense to her since they never really had any interactions.

Feeling like she needed to meet more people, she went down to the Old Pier. There she met Marty Keaton. He was polite but not her type. As Lola was starting to think that she should go home, Jared showed up with none other than her boss. She found it weird but let it go.

Jared and Lola hit it off almost instantly. They were getting to know each other pretty well and then Lola invited him over to her place. He agreed, much to her surprise and delight.

When they arrived, she decided to pour on the romance. It wasn’t a good idea. She asked him to spend the night but he said no. Then they became friends after a bit more friendly interaction. She was feeling like they were getting along quite well when she decided that she would try again with the romance. It was going well until she invited him to stay again. Once again, he denied and their relationship took a hit. Then, feeling like she might lose him if she didn’t try, she tried her first kiss. He denied and thought she was creepy. This caused their relationship to fall out of the friend range. It was disappointing but Lola wouldn’t give up. She looked at the time and decided to let Jared leave and would try again the next day.

Nothing would stop her. Ever.

I apologize in advance for the lack of images. I’ll try to get some but I can’t promise anything.

Lola Richards is finally an adult. All alone in the world (her parents died when she was just a  baby), she had nowhere to go. Her foster parents, they were great people and provided her with sixteen thousand dollars to buy a new house with.. but she wasn’t allowed to stay with them. Since they were forcing her to move (in the nicest way possible of course), she decided to go to Sunset Valley, a gorgeous little town.

 Then, it happened. She found the perfect house. 58 Water Lily Lane. It wasn’t anything special but it had two bedrooms and that was more than she was hoping for. The house had a little kitchen and dining room. There was also a rather nice section of that large room set aside for a couch and a very comfortable chair.  Lola worked her way to the guest bedroom and discovered that it was a cute little room and if she ever had a baby (as was her biggest dream), that would be a nice room for her (she was planning on having a girl first). She walked into the bathroom and noticed that there was no shower, just a bathtub.

“Darn,” she thought. “Once I start working, I’m going to need to replace that. I hate taking baths.”

She then walked into the room that would be her bedroom. She was greeted with a rather nice queen sized bed and a dresser (a plus she had hoped for but not expected). It would need work, of course, but it would look really great when she was done.

Meandering throughout the home and the outdoors, she noticed that the paper came. She picked it up and decided that the best thing to do was to get a job. She really wanted to meet a guy. More than anything! Maybe a coworker?

Being that her lifetime dream was to become a five-star chef, Lola took a job at the Deep-Fried Diner. “Sounds healthy,” she thought sarcastically.

Enough was enough. She was already tired of being alone. Lola picked up her things and set off for the park. She noticed lots of kids running everywhere. Her family-oriented trait was telling her to go pick them up and befriend them. But, her mind told her something different. She was on a quest. Lola was trying to find love. At the park, she met two really nice guys. Adam Andreasen and Hank Goddard. She talked to them and introduced herself but decided that neither of them were for her.

While waiting for more people men to get to the park, she decided to go fishing. Not long after, she caught a minnow. No big deal, but suddenly she had a wish to buy a fishbowl and put this unnamed fish in it.

When she purchased the fishbowl, Floppy (the new name for the minnow) was placed inside of it.

It was a long day for Lola and she was ready for bed, but not before donating one hundred of her three hundred dollars.

Now that I am a dad I get drawn to different types of topics that never really interested me.

So I came across this one and it made me sad because it’s so true.

Being a geek myself I enjoyed reading about the “good old” days and i made it my mission to at least teach my child about all the great gadgets from the past.

here are my top 10 that i hope our children will remember because we tell them about it.

1. Inserting a VHS tape into a VCR to watch a movie or to record something
2. Sending that film away to be processed
3. The scream of a modem connecting
4. 5- and 3-inch floppies
   
5. Screens being just green (or orange) on black
6. Phone books and Yellow Pages
7. Waiting several minutes (or even hours!) to download something
8. Putting film in your camera: 35mm may have some life still, but what about APS or disk?
9. LEGO just being square blocks of various sizes, with the odd wheel, window or door
10. Finding out information from an encyclopedia – times before Google and Bing

There are plenty more here