Collins’ Onovia

The stock market has always interested me. Those crazy brokers on the floor of the NYSE, shouting and waving their hands in the air. It looks like so much fun, I want to try it out. Because the economy and stock market sucks right now, I figured it would be a great time to get into it. Of course I wont be traveling to New York to trade my stocks, I’ll be using two different online brokers.

I’ve had an orange savings account with ING Direct for a few years now. ING has their own investment website called ShareBuilder. It’s linked directly to your savings account so investing your saved money is quick and easy. The great thing about ShareBuilder is that there’s no minimum deposit required. I deposited $100 to open the account.

My first day, I spent about 4-5 hours reading articles on Investopedia.com. Articles on Investopedia are all with stock market acronyms. That helped me to quickly learn different terms. There’s quite a few good beginner resources on that website, and I’m sure I’ll be on there quite often in the coming months.

After 2 days, I felt like ShareBuilder’s website just wasn’t intuitive enough for my needs. Most of their features required a monthly membership. I’m not looking to pay membership fees right away with a broker. I just want to put around, and figure things out. Scottrade.com looked like it might be feature full, and with only $7.00 trades, seemed like the way to go.

Anyways, I’ve decided that $1,000 is all I will use to start out. I’m going to play it safe and spread my investment around esatblished companies that have been around for a while, and realy woudn’t be going anywhere soon.

Investing economy, money, nyse, online brokers, sharebuilder, stock market, stocks, trades

When I built my new computer back in April, I was psyched that I could get a 64bit OS, and have a shit ton of RAM installed on it. Immediately I ordered 4Gig, which was a huge upgrade from the 1Gig that I had in my Windows XP Pro machine. Right off the bat, I noticed that it was quite a task to hunt down 64bit drivers for my hardware.

As time went on I discovered that software like Google Desktop was not supported on a 64bit platform. Not only the fact that some software “isn’t supported”, but the task of making sure to hunt down the 64bit build of every program is a pain in the ass. Keeping track of two “Program Files” folders just makes that pain in my ass that much worse.

Some friends recommended that I drop back down to Windows XP. I think that I can admit that Vista has grown on me. I love the layout, the look, and the general feel of it. Vista has yet to give me any issues like many people have. I’m sticking with Vista, and have purchased a 32bit home premium copy. I know I’ll loose some of my RAM, but to loose the hastle that comes with a 64bit os with that is just fine.

This is my last planned reformat / partition for a long time, so I’ve also decided to go ahead and install a copy of Ubuntu right next to it. I’ve always wanted to take a real dive into a linux desktop. This should prove to be interesting!

Onovia Downgrading, reformat, ubuntu, vista, windows

My biggest gripe with laptops is that vendors seem to push them out left and right often with little or no updates. Drivers are usually branded, and require that you use only then manufacturer driver versions. This leaves games and hard core computer users either without a laptop, or with a laptop that “hardware wise” can run that newest and best game, but you need a few versions better of your video driver, which “Dell” or whoever else has decided that they would stop developing. I’ve been on the prowl for a laptop for some time now. My fears with a laptop are that I will run into that same boat, where the drivers stop being developed, and the laptop becomes outdated within 16 months.

I’ve been watching the prices at Newegg.com fall for the Asus Laptops. I’m really ready to buy one. The reviews always seem positive, and the prices always seem reasonable, which both are important to me.

So, here’s where my eye’s been: ASUS M70Vm-X1 Anyone have experience with Asus laptops?

Onovia, hardware, technology dell, drivers, fears, laptops, upgrade

September 11th is a day for reflection for America, and the presidential candidates took full advantage. Both Obama and McCain, along with their VP picks were at ground zero. While scanning through the pictures, I happened to notice something interesting. It looks to me like someone photoshopped a flag onto McCain. As far as I could find, there were no other photo’s with the flag.

Take a look at the following pictures. Do you think this flag pin was photoshopped?

Edit 9/26/08: Rhonda R Shearer at StinkyJournalism.org has pointed out that this image is not photoshoped. In fact, McCain had a pin place on him after descending the ramp. There are photo’s of this event. I apologize to McCain, and all of my readers for not taking the time to investigate this fully.

Images are copyright their respective owners, and are used under the Fair Use doctrine.

Onovia

After years of “being bad” when it comes to music, I’ve finally decided to go legit. I’ve started downloading DRM free music from Amazon. This still lets me do what I want with my music, which is great. I vowed some time ago that I would never buy another CD again. So, with that being said, yes I purged my 24gig music collection.

The music just sounds better now that it’s legal!

Music amazon, download, drm, mp3

I’m sitting here watching Fox News and they are talking about GTA4. They are again pointing the finger at Rockstar and retail stores. They want to make sure that there’s no hidden content like the “Hot Coffee” mini game mod that there was in Grand Theft Auto: San Andreas, and that the game isn’t sold to minors.

Let me say that most kids under 17 don’t have money trees. The money comes from the parents. If a parent gives their kid $50 to go buy a video game, they need to be more aware of what they are buying. It’s so damn annoying to hear that yet another parent is suing because their already fucked up kid happened to play a violent game and then shoots people up. I’ve played violent video games my entire life, along with all my friends. And here we all are, many years later. None of us are violent killers, drug addicts, or car thieves.

My whole point here is that there is no one to blame but the parent and child. Anyone that carries out the actions in a fictional game needs to imitate Mario, and smash their head into a brick.

Onovia, rants games, Mario, video

Over the past few weeks, I’ve been working at setting up a video verification system in the central station for the alarm company I work for. The technology driving this system is amazing. This is the best (if not only) 100% wireless video alarm verification system on the market. The Videofied concept is that it will cut back (if not eliminate) false alarm dispatches from an alarm company, and provide video alarm response where never possible before.

The best part about this solution is that it’s a “Stick and Go” system. It can be preprogrammed and shipped from the monitoring company, installed in the site, and monitoring can begin. The Videofied system can support up to 24 devices, and works as a “hub and spoke” type configuration. The main control panel being the hub, and the devices being the spokes.

Videofied right now is focusing on copper theft. This is a crime that is exploding. Don Horne of Electricity Today, stated that copper theft increased 1,150 percent from 2005 to 2006. Those are some scary numbers.

Conventional CCTV systems are a horrible solution for copper theft because by the time someone sees the video, the copper is gone and the damage has been done. Electrical substations, cellphone towers, and rooftop air conditioners are among the hardest hit targets. These are also the hardest sites to alarm due to the fact that there may not be a conventional phone line or power source. With Videofied, there is no “hardest” part to the equation.

If you’re company is concerned about copper theft, but can’t afford to install a $30,000 CCTV video system that no one will watch anyways, Videofied is for you! Just send me an email

with your contact information and I or someone my company will return your call and answer any questions you might have!

hardware, technology alarm, CCTV, cellphone, copper, crime, technology, theft, verification, video, Videofied

Ever since January 17th, 2007 I have been dealing with random computer shut offs. I’ve replaced several components in my pc trying to diagnose the problem. To this day, it still shuts off 1-2 times a day. Quite annoying for a gamer and a coder. So, I just ordered the following parts to build my new computer. It’s only a small upgrade, but it will do for now o.O

The case
I looked high and low for a “cool” looking case. I also wanted it to live up to it’s look. I decided to go with the Antec Nine Hundred gamer case. Important features for this case are the top control panel, large bay room, and excellent cooling reviews.

The Power Supply
I’ve long been told that this is the single most important piece of hardware in a PC. You don’t want the PSU malfunctioning or dying out on you, so I went with the CORSAIR CMPSU-750TX 750W power supply. A little pricey, but worth it.

The Motherboard
The ASUS P5N-D Motherboard caught my eye early on. It’s a great motherboard with good reviews. Loads of features, and supports all of the latest hardware.

The Video Card
This is the part that I’ve skimped out on with my last two computer builds. Each time, I kicked myself in the ass because of it. This time I went with the EVGA 512-P3-N862-AR GeForce 9600GT. While this GPU is not top of the line, it’s certainly not the bottom.

The Processor
The Intel Core 2 Quad Q9300 Yorkfield 2.5GHz Quad-Core Processor caught my eye right away. This thing must pack quite the punch. And at just under $300 for the retail box, how could you go wrong?!

The Memory
Because I’m going to make the leap of faith to Vista64, I knew right from the start that memory was going to play a huge factor in how my computer performed. So, I went with the OCZ SLI-Ready Edition 4GB (2 x 2GB) 240-Pin DDR2 SDRAM DDR2 800 (PC2 6400) Dual Channel kit. 4 Gig of quality memory should do the trick!

The Hard Drive(s)
Ah… now to the slowest piece of computer hardware known to mankind. The hard drive is the bottleneck in any PC. Initially I’m going with a single drive setup. The Western Digital Caviar SE16 WD3200AAKS 320GB 7200 RPM SATA 3.0Gb/s will be my initial drive, while the Western Digital Raptor WD360ADFD 36GB 10,000 RPM SATA will be installed soon as only my boot drive.

The Other Stuff
APC SurgeArrest
ASUS 20X DVD±R DVD Burner with LightScribe
ASUS Xonar DX 7.1 Channels PCI Express Interface Sound Card (Note: I realize that the motherboard has an onboard sound chip, but the fact that I’ve always had two sound cards and the amazing reviews for the Xonar really made me get this)
Microsoft Windows Vista 64-Bit Home Premium
ZALMAN CNPS9700 LED 110mm 2 Ball CPU Cooler
OCZ OCZTFRZTC Freeze Extreme Thermal Conductivity Compound

I’m excited for all these parts to get here so I can fire this thing up! I’ll take pictures once everything is in place.

hardware, technology computer, gamer, hardware, upgrade