Crazy Croatians

Sunday, November 23, 2014

Doing A Little Wiring

   I'll be getting a "new" PC in a couple days & I'm gonna be hard wiring the ethernet connection to it (as opposed to using wifi, which is a good bit slower & which is why I rather do this - a 15 to 20 mbps speed compared to 60 to 70 mbps, not much of a comparison really).
   In wiring the ethernet I'll be passing the cat5 cable thru the hallway wall & into my closet. To do this I'll be using a wall plate I got today from Home Depot. I learned after buying it that this particular item has plagued many people when installing it because of 2 things: it comes with no instructions & because the color coding doesn't match the colors of the wires within the cat5. 
   Fortunately I found some helpful data on this item that I hope will work when I wire up my system. I've collected this information and created a wiring diagram of sorts for anyone else who happens to use this item from Home Depot. (And I'll update later on if my wiring actually works).
UPDATE: Dec 2: Well, in installing the faceplate I decided to do it the easiest way possible and bypass the difficult part altogether. What I did was to snap off the cat5 connector block on the back of the CE TECH faceplate, leaving a hole for the cable to pass thru. Doing this there was no need to cut the cable, expose the wires, connect the wires to the terminal screws, etc. So the problems associated with all of that was eliminated. All I needed to do was to enlarge the square hole just a bit to allow the cat5 end connection to fit thru. The coax cable was connected as in the previous setup, I ran the cat5 cable thru the wall into my closet & into my room and over to my PC. I attached the faceplate to the wall & I was done! It may not have ended up how I originally intended, but it functions and looks fine. And the cat5 connection block is sitting in a drawer if I need it later, lol.



Thursday, November 20, 2014

Probably The Best End Credits Ever

    Sometimes at the end of a movie there is a little extra added on that we might not have expected or that is not really part of the story, but just to entertain us while we leave the theatre. Because of that you should always wait while the credits are rolling to catch a glimpse of these if there might be some. And one of the best IMO is from Ferris Bueller's Day Off. See if you agree:

Saturday, November 15, 2014

Watch Out For The Shark

   I'm a fan of TV comedies - sitcoms they're called. They are a staple of the TV genre next to mysteries, dramas, horrors, sci-fi, and others. And there have been oodles of them over the years. I've seen one unfortunate problem with a number of them, however, and that is that IMO they become ruined if they last too long.
   By ruined I mean that the shows characters get bogged down in relationships with one another so much so that it alters the very nature of what the show was to begin with. The latest one to have this happen to it is I'm sorry to say The Big Bang Theory.
   TBBT started off fine with 4 nerds going about their lives in their own unique and nerdy ways. No one was attached romantically to anyone else. Life was good. But in walks Penny, then Leslie, then Bernadette, then Amy, etc. etc. etc. Before long everyone is paired up and getting married. Did we need this for the show to succeed? Was the humor between the 4 nerds not enough? I'm not saying that they shouldn't try to get girlfriends - of course not. I'm just disappointed that the writers of the show thought they had no alternative than to go this way. Another path could have simply been for them to try but never succeed in getting girlfriends. At least not permanent ones.
   Friends was another show that disappointed me. For a while everyone was single and unhitched, just having fun and living their lives. Then suddenly they start pairing off, Chandler with Monica, Ross with Rachael, Joey with...well Phoebe and him didn't get hitched like the others although she did have kids, which is as bad. 
   Another example of this has been termed 'jumping the shark' which was coined from an episode of Happy Days where the Fonz strapped on some skis and literally jumped a shark, I guess to get people to watch because ratings had dropped. This happened in The Brady Bunch in season 5 when they introduced a new character - Cousin Oliver. And any show that does anything like this is considered to have 'jumped the shark'

Saturday, November 8, 2014

Laptop Computers Are Cool

   Laptops, the portable variety of personal computers, have been a popular alternative to the larger and unportable desktops for several years. They serve an important role in our everyday lives because there are so many places we just can't take our PCs (traveling situations for instance, such as on planes or trains).
   Yes laptops are very handy these days, however, they do have some severe problems: they are usually more expensive than the PC counterparts while not usually providing quite as much 'horsepower' so to speak. By this I primarily mean graphics capabilities. And that will likely never change unless some incredible technology is invented.
   But perhaps a workaround that is already available can be used to circumvent these limitations. What I'm talking about is somehow connecting a PC graphics card to your laptop, making it as powerful, at least graphically, as a PC. Can this be accomplished you ask. Yes it can. I've seen two examples of this already, and I'm sure that more are on the way (considering how beneficial and demanded these will be for gamers who only have a laptop computer & can't afford to buy a new system for the better games coming out).

Example one: From Alienware.com = more expensive, although probably a bit better in the long run:
http://www.theverge.com/2014/10/27/7079879/alienware-new-graphics-amplifier-laptop
example two: From a company in China called Banggood.com = cheaper, but possibly not as well made:
http://www.banggood.com/EXP-GDC-Laptop-External-PCI-E-Graphics-Card-p-934367.html

Friday, November 7, 2014

It Is Groot!

    If you've seen the movie Guardians of the Galaxy you will have caught the Baby Groot towards the end of the film. It's the surviving bit off of the former and much larger Groot who got destroyed a bit earlier and we were all very happy to see the little fella. Anyways, this has become a very popular item, there's even some on sale in such places as Amazon.com, and many have also created their own. One such example is this created by a man named Darren Carnall-an skilled artist who's made a lot of various creations. Check out the video of his Baby Groot-I think you'll agree that it's one of the cutest things you've ever seen:


http://www.darrencarnall.com/baby-dancing-groot/4586362300