About a month ago, I had written a little piece on DisplayLink external videocard adapters. Feel free to read it here.

Well since then, I have decided to take this product to the next level. Not only did I replace the first adapter, I decided to buy another one and see how two units work in one system. I must say I am pleasantly pleased.

First, installation is a breeze! No removing your computer case or need to pay for a computer guy to come along. All you need to do is insert the cd and hit next! Once the software is installed, plug in the USB cable into your computer and the other side into the external adapter.

*NOTE: for blackberry users, it happens to be the same plug to charge your BB.

At this point, windows see the device like any other videocard and off you go. I like to push the button a little bit and wanted to see if there was any performance degrade by having two units on my system. With both units running, the software only takes 40k worth of memory! In comparison, outlook is taking 73k and firefox is taking 83k. I had just updated firefox, so that number is pretty low. Aim also takes up more resources hanging at 57k. In a nutshell, you wouldn’t even notice a performance issue.

The next thing I tried was to use a wide screen monitor and a standard box monitor. Both screens are 17 inches (along with my traditional monitor that uses a built in videocard) Since I still like to see my text, I have the monitors set at 1280×1024. The widescreen monitor is set for 1440 by 900. I have a lot of experience with multiple displays, and I can honestly say I do not notice a functionality difference between having the videocards internal or external.

The next joy I discovered, is the portability of these units. When I leave at night, I unplug both cards and this also does not affect the functionality of the computer. It barely even takes a hit at all. When the card is unplugged, any windows shift to the internal display. Once the card is plugged back in, I can move the windows back. Windows takes it like a champ and doesn’t complain at all!

The downside? The colors are slightly washed out when I view them on the external card as opposed to the internal one. Your average user will never even notice a difference. I also would avoid playing games on these units because the refresh rate on them is not as good as a powerful graphics card. It does well on playing videos and other “normal” internet stuff so do not be discouraged.

Also, the units get really HOT! I unplug them when I leave the office to make sure that they do not break. I believe this is why the first unit failed. I always left the unit plugged in and I am only use my office computer 3 out of 4 days in a week! That is a lot of wasted time for units that get so hot!

Would I recommend this to clients? YES! I have already pitched this product to a few clients in the hedge fund industry and hopefully they will bite! They wanted to upgrade all of their computers to accommodate dual display and I countered with DisplayLink! These units would work great in the financial district! If you are a huge gamer, stick with your traditional videocards that beef up in internal memory and has huge heat sinks on it to make sure it doesn’t overheat. If you are just looking to increase productivity, and do not want to replace your existing videocard, DisplayLink is for you! For 99 dollars, I say it is a well worth investment!

Gift Certificates for this unique fantasy baseball game are available for under $20.  Any fantasy baseball nut will enjoy playing this online game.  Would your friend make a great manager?  This is where he can test his skills against other fantasy managers.

http://www.simyard.com/gift/

The Gift Certificates come for $19.95 or $59.95 for a 3-month or 1-year membership.  Three months is enough time to try the site out and see if it’s right.  The year is perfect for the competitive player looking to build a franchise.  The Stadium Permit offered by these gift certificates allows you to have three teams and two stadiums.  This is required to pay players and join leagues.  This is a truly unique fantasy baseball simulator where you call the shots as the team owner.

Do you have a fantasy baseball group already that is looking for more of a challenge?  If you buy five three-month gift certificates, the sixth is free!  After playing SimYard for three months, your fantasy baseball group isn’t going to want to go back to traditional fantasy baseball.  This is perfect for the off-season!

After writing an article about how Comcast customer service was horrible, I was pleased that a rep from comcast had posted a comment and said that he would look into my issue. See full article here.

I was happily surprised and responded once I saw the news. Of course, though, Comcast falls back in their ugly ways and the follow through is lost. I sent an email to the address provided and my request has fallen through the cracks [again]. Comcast says they will provide the world and then never do. They then hide behind the fact that most users do not have the time to sit on the phone and argue with a CS rep about how crappy their service is. Of course, the CS rep understands and jots down the information and says that someone would get back to you. Do they? Nope.

Even when they do get back to you, they recite random gibberish of why I cannot get credited for the cable modem. You need to fax us a copy of the receipt that the tech provided to you they say. Of course, no one had informed me that this was a step when I did this. I was never told to send a copy of the receipt when the tech gave it to me. Even when I followed up with comcast of why I didn’t receive a credit. They always told me that the system does it automatically. Well, I can tell you, YOUR SYSTEM SCAMS PEOPLE OUT OF MONEY!

Oh well, I will just wait for a follow up email about how it isn’t their fault that the cable modem is lost and how they don’t know why I was billed AGAIN for it. Or why people would randomly call my house LOOKING for it. I don’t get why anyone would call me for a device that I had already “paid” for over a year afterwards.

Time will tell, but I have no faith in the Comcast system. I cannot wait for AT&T to get the uverse network in my area. I honestly don’t care if the quality is awful, at least I wouldn’t be giving money to these idiots. For everyone out there, lets all go for ANYTHING EXCEPT FOR CABLE! I’ve already steered users to DISH. Lets spread the word and hit the cable companies in their wallet!

Well, today is my birthday! I am not really doing much to celebrate this year. Tonight, I will be hanging out with my wife’s family for cake. Mmmmmmm cake. Next, I will see my family after work on saturday. Fun times will be had!

As many users who are on WordPress 2.5, the question should arise. Should I upgrade?

Well, lets break down the features that version 2.6 provides.

1. Post Revisions – This allows you to know who updated what post. This is good for those multi-author blogs (like blog.sillica.com) but I don’t really have a burning desire to use this feature. It seems like a snoozer to me.

2. Press This – Post from wherever you are on the web. I read what this feature does about 50 times but I don’t understand. Feel free to read the extract from the wordpress website and perhaps you can tell me

A few months ago on my blog we started a conversation about the posting bookmarklet in WordPress and which systems we should look to for inspiration, like Flock, FriendFeed, Facebook, Tumblr, and Delicious. From these suggestions and the Quick Post plugin by Josh Kenzer, we developed a Press This bookmark you can add to your toolbar that provides a fast and smart popup to do posts to your WordPress blog:

For example, if you click “Press This” from a Youtube page it’ll magically extract the video embed code, and if you do it from a Flickr page it’ll make it easy for you to put the image in your post. On my blog I’ve been experimenting with using different categories and the in_category() function — such as video, quote, aside, et cetera — to create a more tumblelog-like format.

Gears – turbo speed your blogging – from what I understand, it is like caching your blog so it will load faster for people. I am not a huge fan of this as I can see the page not updating correctly. I’m sure that these issues have been resolved from early caching products but I remember those times and wish not to go back to them!

Theme previews – This is the first interesting appeal but still a snoozer. One you pick the theme, why are you changing it?

Finally, here are some of the smaller features that are included.

Word Count – Finally!
Image captions – snooze
Bulk Management of plugins – oO
SSL support

And some other randomness. Check out the full website here.

http://wordpress.org/development/2008/07/wordpress-26-tyner/

As for me, the only thing I really want is the word count. Is that worth going though another major upgrade? I think I’ll hold off for a bit. Maybe 2.7 will have some more interesting features as well. I am still shell shocked from upgrading to 2.5.1. Oh well, what do I know right?

Well, it seems that you learn something new every day. A user requested to have this program Xcode installed on her computer. After a little bit of research, it appears that Xcode allows you to develop applications on the mac and iPhone. I found the location to download the application and sent it to the user.

http://developer.apple.com/technology/xcode.html – Just in case anyone was interested.

The download includes Xcode IDE, Dashcode, Instruments, interface builder, and the “rest” of the developer tools. If I knew how to develop code, this would interest me greatly! Oh well, at least I got to research something I never heard of before!

Well, I do not think I have ever gone into my hatred for comcast, so now seems like a great time to start! Lets start with the background a bit and then go into present day. Over a year ago, I had signed up for the triple play package. I never needed the phone part, but it cut the cost of my cable bill by about 15 dollars a month. Who doesn’t want to save money right?

Well, over the next couple months with it, comcast would continually put filters on my line because I used too much bandwidth. Now, when they did this, they would cut services to the phone and internet. Again, I didn’t care about the phone, but I definitely cared about the internet! I allowed this to happen about 3 times and then I terminated the service and went to dsl. Two months later after the termination, I got charged for the cable modem. A month after that, I returned the cable modem to a tech that was dispatched to look at my cable signal and was never compensated for this.

Now, lets go to present day! Over a year after canceling the service, I just got a bill in the mail charging me for the cable modem AGAIN! Can you believe this? Besides the fact that their service is crappy, they have the nerve to charge me for the cable modem that I had already paid for! I had inquired why I would get charged again, and the customer service reps are just no assistance. I am currently going to plee to charge me the new price and credit me for the old price. Hopefully, this will work. Regardless, if you can get by without using these cable companies, I would recommend it! Cable companies need more competition in order to keep the quality of service high!

Strategies for completing each level as well as the level codes can be yours here in this walkthrough.  You can play Ragdoll Cannon 1.5 on Kongregate here:

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Johnny_K/ragdoll-cannon-1-5

Level 1 “Hello everybody!” – Shoot at the left side of the right matchstick, just past the matchhead.

Level 2 “Let’s play!” (key: two) – Shoot at the opening between the hat and the top left corner of the face.  The top of the face will fall.  Keep shooting.  Use a second or third shot to knock the first ragdoll over the edge.

Level 3 “Little slide” (key: three) – Shoot at the word “Little” in the title “Little Slide”.

Level 4 “Balls. Wink.” (key: nein) – Aim at the word “Balls” in the title to knock the cover off.  Then aim at the key “nein” to shoot the ragdolls into the goal.

Level 5 “How 2″ (key: nau) – Aim at the ceiling just shy of the top right corner.  The ragdoll should have lots of speed.

Level 6 “Trust no one” (key: vodka) – Where is the goal?  I just won this without knowing how…

Level 7 “10 t + here = …” (key: pogo) – Shoot quickly and aim right at the break in the wall.

Level 8 “10 t 2″ (key: kongregate) – Shoot as hard as you can while missing the corner of the ledge to knock the 10 t ball off.

Get through all the levels in the new puzzle platformer, Shift 3.  The levels aren’t so hard if you have a good plan and a bit of help.  If you want to play the game, you can here at addictinggames:

http://www.addictinggames.com/shift3.html

Room 1 – Greetings, Subject.  Move to the door and press up.

Room 2 – Space to Jump.  Jump over the two pits and go to the door.

Room 3 – Grab the key.  Jump over the pits and up to the key.  You have to be on the top ledge on the right to jump onto the platform with the key.

Room 4 – Sometimes the only thing left to try is shift.  Press the shift key to change to the upside-down mirror world.  Then climb over the hill and jump down the other side.  Then shift back and jump onto the platform.  The fake door will explode, and the real door visible.  Do it all again.

Room 5 – Run to the right and jump on the arrow.  The world will shift and you will fall.  Immediately shift and run left to grab the PDA.  Shift again and go through the door.

Room 6 – Run to the left and shift.  Run to the right and go in the door.

Room 7 – Shift, then run to the right.  Fall and shift again.  Run to the left, fall, and get the key.  Run to the right and jump into the arrow to change gravity.  Then shift.  Run to the right and fall to the bottom.  Run to the left and hit the arrow to change gravity.  Run to the left and jump to get the lightbulb.  Shift again.  Jump and hit the arrow again.  Run right and drop and head left to the arrow to change gravity again.  Immediately shift to get the other key.  Shift in the same spot you got the key, then drop down and go in the door.

Room 6 again – Fall onto the key piece and run to the left.  Jump over the pit and enter the door.

Room 8 – Enter door 1.

Room 9 – Shift, fall down to the left, get on the ledge, and shift again.  Jump to the left and get the key.  Fall to the right down to the bottom, walk to the bottom left, and shift.  Walk left to the arrow and change gravity.  Walk back to the left and jump up onto the second ledge and shift.  Jump down onto the platform above the arrow and shift onto the arrow to change gravity.  Drop down to the right and stand on the small ledge and shift.  Fall onto the arrow and enter the door.

Room 10 – Jump onto the highest ledge and shift.  Use the reverse gravity arrow to change gravity, then stand to the left of the arrow and shift.  Drop all the way down to the right.  Jump over the spikes.  Stand on the key area and shift.  Get the key and shift back.  Jump all the way to the left and land on the change gravity arrow.  Run down and grab the other key.  Shift again, run to the right down into the tunnel and shift.  Drop back to the door and enter.

Room 9 again – Shift, fall to your right, and go to the right up on the ledge, and shift again.  Fall to the bottom, go to the arrow on the far right and change gravity.  Drop down to the door and enter.

Room 8 again – enter door 2.

This walkthrough is in-progress.  It will be completed in the next 24-48 hours.  In the meantime, the game saves where you are so keep trying and check back for the full walkthrough!

This multiplayer side-scrolling racing game is lots of fun, and it’s all about being fast.  Level-specific instructions to get the best time are found within.  To begin, be sure you play this game on Kongregate, since you get the hat which earns you bonus experience.

http://www.kongregate.com/games/Jiggmin/platform-racing-2

Newbieland 2 (Rank 0)
Spend 46 on Jumping to just have enough jump to make it up the jump at the end.  Set Acceleration around 25 to give you as much Speed as possible.  If you miss the item, don’t stop for it.  It takes too long to slow down.  When you do the super jump, don’t wait until you turn yellow and flash.  As soon as you see the white glow, you have enough jump to make it over.  Run over the forwards arrows, and jump at the last minute before running over the backwards ones.  You should land once in the middle of them and jump immediately so you don’t slow down too much.  As you approach the up arrow wall, jump at the last moment before you hit the wall to start you with some vertical motion.

There are two horizontal bars made out of up arrows.  Keep pushing right arrow until you hit your head on one.  Then push left arrow to start moving around the bar.  Just before you fall upwards off the bar, stop pushing left arrow.  You have a tiny bit of momentum to push you off the bar.  When you start to fall upwards above the bar, quickly push right arrow to get on it.  Do this for both bars.  As you move right on the top bar, you will be bounced in the air by the arrows.  Do not jump.  You want to clear the tower and land as early as possible.

You will land on a long string of right arrows.  Land as early as possible so that you can have more time to pick up speed on the arrows.  The end of the strip are bars which will stop your momentum.  Ideally, your will time your jump to soar over all of them.  Until you get used to the timing, though, let yourself slam into the bar.  Jump up and immediately start pushing right to get as much distance as you can.  Hop on one of the bars and jump again to bring yourself into the corridor.

Remember that letting go of the right arrow key will kill your momentum completely.  It’s not immediate, but it’s quick.  Release the right arrow key when you’re under the breakable bricks.  Let yourself stop then jump to break a brick.  Jump again to head up.  Use the same technique to stop under the goal and hit it.

On Kongregate, a time of 1:30 or under on this level earns you a 5-point badge.

Mario Bros remix (Rank 1)
The first and second parts of this map are all about learning the map and timing the jumps.  It also depends a lot on the other players.  For the third part of the map, though, you should take the shortcut.  As soon as the ceiling changes from white to red and the blocks are breakable, stop on the question blocks and do a superjump.  Break a hole in the ceiling and jump up there.  Then, you’ll have a clear run to the end.  As soon as the ceiling ends, jump as far as you can.  You will land on a platform near the end.  Jump immediately onto the roof again.  Follow that to the pit and down to the end.