Archive for May, 2007
Dyson DC15 Vacuum
Having been using a piece of junk vacuum with poor suction and noise levels that required one to use earplugs, I decided it was time to invest in a better vacuum that could do the job. There are a lot of choices for vacuums out there like the Miele, Dyson, Hoover, Kirby, and Bissell to name a few. However, what has peaked my interest the most is the Dyson DC 15 (a.k.a. The Ball):
Despite the fact that this piece of machinery is almost entirely made of up hard plastic, it is actually quite sturdy. What I like most is that this vacuum is mobile via a single ball. At first I was skeptical of this feature as I thought it was a gimmick until I tried a demo model. I was amazed at how easy it was to make sharp turns with the flick of the wrist. Check out the Dyson video demonstration to get a better idea of what I am talking about. Of course, it is probably better if you try it out in person.
Here are a few pros and cons:
Pros
- The cyclone technology lives up to its word.
- Long power cord (37 feet).
- Semi-automatic retractable hose.
- All accessories clamp onto the unit allowing easy storage and retrieval.
- Bagless with life-time HEPA filter. The plastic canister is extremely easy to disconnect and dump debris in the trash.
- Powerful suction. I’m picking up dirt and various other things I never imagined.
- All connections of the vacuum are easy to disassemble and reassemble especially if you suck up a large object and need to unclog the vacuum to resume operation. This is impressive because when the vacuum is not in use, the connections are loose which would cause one to believe that the machine will leak air. However, this is not the case as the suction is so good that all connections seal up seamlessly.
Cons
- Slightly heavy. This does not bother me but I could see it being a problem for those not comfortable hauling heavy objects up and down stairs.
- Slightly noisy. My only complaint is that I wish it was whisper quiet. It is far cry from what I am used to though and definitely does not require ear plugs or cause others in the room discomfort. I guess I became spoiled from checking out my brother’s Miele canister vacuum. I don’t remember which model it is but, damn, it is nice if you want stealth-like abilities.
Definitely worth consideration if you are in the market for a new vacuum.
StarCraft II
Good news! Blizzard is planning to release StarCraft II!. Well, I suppose it is good news if you love Real-time Strategy (RTS) games that is. I seldom get to play anything these days but when I do it is always a Blizzard game.
In reading about the game and listening to some of IGN’s podcasts it sounds like Starcraft II is going to primarily be a graphical upgrade to the original StarCraft game with a few twists and turns. I was hoping it would be an evolution of the gaming engine used for Warcraft III (and it still might be). Instead, it sounds like they are going to keep the graphics rich and the gameplay balanced with a contuation of the original story line.
Make sure to check out gameplay and cinematic movies to get a feel of the game. It appears there are strong influences from StarWars I and War of the Worlds from what I have seen of the Protoss race.
In traditional Blizzard fashion, there is no word as to when the game will be released. It will be done when they say it is done. Gotta love a company that is dedicated to quality and they definitely have a track record to prove it.
InstallAnywhere Collaboration
Introduction
InstallAnywhere, for those unfamiliar, is one of many tools that can package software in a format that is easy to install onto a user’s machine. While playing with InstallAnywhere, especially InstallAnywhere 8.0, I discovered an interesting plug-in called: InstallAnywhere Collaboration. This plug-in allows developers and release engineers to better develop software as components that can be assembled for easier packaging as a whole.
The following is high level overview of what this plug-in is all about. This will probably be more interesting for those who have used or work with InstallAnywhere.
Getting Started
Here are a few references to help you give you more background:
- InstallAnywhere Collaboration Release Notes
- Creating a DIM Tutorial for InstallAnywhere Collaboration
- InstallAnywhere Collaboration F.A.Q.
Pros
- Allows a developer to encapsulate his/her specific code and resources as a component. This component can then be contributed to release engineering for inclusion in the building of the greater product.
- Allows a developer to unit test what he/she has created. The process consists of building the component and then running it.
- The developer does not have to care how his component will be used in the greater product thus enabling him/her to focus on what he/she knows best.
- The integration engineer does not need to worry about the intricate details of what is developed but just how it will install as part of the whole product.
Cons
- Every developer must install InstallAnywhere in order to use the plug-in. This can get costly.
- The plug-in only works with Eclipse which might be a big deal for those who do not use Eclipse.
A Quick Tour
Putting on my developer hat and looking at the Eclipse workspace, here is my newly created InstallAnywhere project:
If one opens the Example.dim file (last file listed in the screen shot above), it will launch the InstallAnywhere DIM perspective in the Eclipse workspace. This is where you can configure and add files to the DIM project. In this case, I only have Java class files and some graphical images as shown here:
Finally, putting on the release engineer hat, I can reference the developer’s Example.dim file via InstallAnywhere as shown here:
Virtual Clone Drive
Introduction
A while back, LifeHacker posted an article about ISO disk mounting software. This software allows one to load a CD/DVD disk image as a virtual mounted drive. This saves you not only the time it takes to burn a disk image to disk but also the resource as you no longer have to waste a physical CD/DVD disk to test your creation.
The following embellishes the original article posted by LifeHacker. NOTE: The software only works on 32-bit Windows.
Getting Started
Start by downloading and installing the Virtual Clone Drive software. Once installed you will see a new virtual drive listed within Windows Explorer, for example:
Configuration
Configuring the software is straightforward where you can disable or increase the number of virtual drives, automount the last image, and change language settings:
Usage
There are a couple ways in which to load and test a disk image using Virtual Clone Drive. The first is to double click on the disk image file and it will be automatically mounted in the first available Virtual Clone Drive in Windows Explorer. By the way, if you have any auto run settings (usually defined in the autorun.inf file) those will execute as they normally would. The second option, for loading a disk image, is to right click on the file and select “Mount Files with Virtual CloneDrive” as shown here:
Once you have mounted a disk image, you can easily unmount it by click on the drive and selecting “unmount” from the menu as shown here:
Tips and Tricks
By default, the software uses a lamb icon for all virtual drives. If you do not like this icon, you might think about creating your own ICO file by simple replacing the VirtualCloneDrive.ico found in the root directory of where you installed the Virtual Clone Drive software. I wrote a post about creating bookmark icons a while back which has steps on creating an icon file that would be applicable for this situation as well.
You can also mount disk images via the command line by using the VCDMount.exe. Simply pass the full path of your disk image file to the VCDMount.exe as a command line argument as shown here:
"D:\virtual-clone-drive\VCDMount.exe" "F:\misc\archive.iso"
Lastly, if you wanted to automate the entire process of burning disk images and mounting them, you might think about combining my post on Nero disk image automation with the command line tip above.
Cozumel - San Gervasio 1
Having only one day left after attending the wedding (our flight home was scheduled for 4pm), we wanted to make the most of it and rented another scooter for the day. This time we headed for San Gervasio — location of the largest Mayan ruins on the island.
To give you an idea of the route traveled, here is a marked up map:
The weather was muggier than previous days due to the heavy rains the previous evening but we still had a great time:
Luckily, on the way back into town, we were able to catch Brett, Ann, and company leaving the Rock’n Java Caribbean Cafe (highly recommend eating there). We were worried that we wouldn’t be able to catch up with everyone the day after the wedding but things worked out nicely. We said our goodbye’s and headed back to our condo to finish packing.
Congratulations Brett and Ann!
Nine Inch Nails: Year Zero
Track List
- HYPERPOWER!
- The Beginning of the End
- Survivalism
- The Good Soldier
- Vessel
- Me, I’m Not
- Capital G
- My Violent Heart
- The Warning
- God Given
- Meet Your Master
- The Greater Good
- The Great Destroyer
- Another Version Of The Truth
- In This Twilight
- Zero-Sum
Genre
Industrial
Description
Nine Inch Nails’ latest album, Year Zero, does not disappoint. It is much more raw than their last couple of albums and a welcome change in my opinion. It is also a politically charged album with a bunch of references to our current president and the war in Iraq. I particularly love the beginning of the album with the energetic “HYPERPOWER!” and “The Beginning of the End”. The rest of the album is just as good as the start with a few misses here and there. “Capital G” and “God Given” are great songs to check out. Finally, the ending of the album is perfect with the much slower “In This Twilight” and “Zero-Sum” songs.
“Survivalism” Music Video
Well, it is more audio than it is video but it’ll give you a taste.
“In This Twilight” Music Video
This song is one of my personal favorites. The music video is not an official Nine Inch Nails music video but the images (some taken from War of the Worlds) is quite powerful and rather fitting for this song:
Cozumel - Scooter Travels 3
The following is a short video taken on the scooter and is the last of our scooter travels for the day. I should warn that this video is not of the best quality, for one because my camera captures video at roughly 15 frames per second and secondly because the video has been coverted to flash. Oh, and if you get queasy when watching choppy video then this video might not be for you. Enjoy:
- Cozumel Scooter Adventure (2 minutes, 48 seconds).
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