General » foyleman

wtf cable part ii – update: 03-10-09

Feb 282009

My cable speeds are showing serious signs of degridation… again. I’ve had the cable technician here twice in about 2 months and each time they replace something and tell me it’s fixed. It appears fixed and then this happens.. my upload speed practically comes to a halt.

I’m concerned about doing tomorrow’s MODSonair show with such slow speeds. Sadly I couldn’t get another technician here until after the show airs.

UPDATE: 03-10-09

Still, things are not working well here at the foyle-stead. My upload speed is just not what it should be with number ranging from 180kbps to 450kbps to 4mbps (which is is where it should stay.. not just visit).

The last cable guy that came over to “fix” the problem told me there were just too many people and there were trucks in the neighborhood fixing it. I see no trucks and it ain’t fixed.

I wish Verizon would get Fios on this street already. :/

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how about a book without the face

General 2 Responses »

Feb 012009

I enjoy how I can connect with friends on Facebook. Yeah, it cool that old friends from school can find you and you can reconnect to see what’s going on. However, all those requests to “Send a Fish”, “Beer Request”, “Blue Cove”, “Pillow Fight”, blah blah blah… it’s quite annoying.

So I’m thinking to myself… wouldn’t it be cool to have the same thing as facebook, without all that nonesense. Then take it a step further and allow people the option to download and install this new version of facebook on their own server so they can expand it further than the free version. It’s kind of a cross between facebook and wordpress. The big difference is that when you post on a friends page or visa versa, that act is posted on your site as well… like facebook. So you start developing this personal community of friends where people can see who you know and how you all connect.

Like it or no?

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wtf cable

General 2 Responses »

Jan 252009

I found a problem with my internet connection today. I was uploading a video and the connection was horrendous. I thought perhaps something was wrong with my computer, router or something here in the office. However, testing the connection directly to the cable modem from multiple computers proved that was not the case. My download speed was averaging about 26Mb per second (awesome) but the upload speed was closer to 170kb per second (puke).

I contacted the cable internet provider and they were quickly able to tell me my connection was being limited. The next step is to send a technician out to my house to investigate the source of the problem.

We’ll see what comes of all this.
Perhaps this is why the modsonair show was so laggy this morning? Sorry

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windows 7 ain’t bad [updated 01-21]

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Jan 162009

I have a laptop specifically for work. It’s larger and not fun to carry around, but when I have to work away from the comfort of my desktop, it’s much more convenient.

Since the laptop is only a couple years old, I was forced to purchase it with Windows Vista pre-installed. I thought it would be a good way to get used to the new era of operating systems and, well, I was curious to test it out. Ugh… it wasn’t a great experience. My programs worked, but getting around the OS wasn’t at all pleasant.

Windows 7 Beta is available for free from Microsoft now and it’s peeked my curiousity again. Tie that in with a slow-running Vista laptop and I figure we have a fit. That fit is me, Windows 7 and a freshly formatted laptop.

I’ve been working with Windows 7 for about 7 hours now and I like what I see. It’s pretty easy to use and nothing is getting in my way, namely those easy to remove windows that far too often ask you if you’re sure you want to do something you wanted to do in Vista.

Although still early in my experiences with this new OS, I would recommend it to anyone looking for a fresh start with something new. I’ve got everything running with little to no intervention including hardware and software including my games.

Update 01-21:

I attempted to install the OS at on my office machine (at my other office). I had to format a new drive anyway, so I gave it a go. The disk started up on start-up, showed me a pretty loading screen and that it. Nothing else. All I saw was the loading screen and it froze. I tried to install it twice with the same results.

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uhm

General 1 Response »

Nov 252008

Really, sometimes you have something to say and no time to say it. Other times you have nothing to say but you have all the time in the world to tell everyone about it.

That explains the chirping crickets here on foyleman.com. Mostly, I have no time… which is a good thing. However, when I do find the time to post here, I just don’t have anything worth saying.

Right now I happen to be waiting for some video to compile so I can spare a couple minutes to write about, uhm….

Thanksgiving is coming up. For the past few years (7 years I guess) I’ve been hosting family Thanksgiving at my house. I like hosting the show, preparing the food, and all that. Going to Thanksgiving used to be boring.. not anymore.

This year is extra special. My house is built for 2 people really. It’s not that big. So 2 people and 2 dogs with a couple of things here and there makes it feels small. Add in a cousin in-law on the couch, brother and sister in-law in my office and… did I mention that I have a small house?

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Google 2001

General 2 Responses »

Oct 022008

Ah, memory lane. Take a trip back to the year 2001 with Google’s anniversary search page. Google made available search results for January of 2001 in honor of their 10th birthday. I know it’s not currently 2011, but a 7 1/2 year journey back for a 10th anniversary isn’t too bad.

I tried looking myself up and found some interesting entries. Some of particular note (using google’s cached links):

I was working for sofcenter.com posting news and managing their site. I also had a sub-site within sofcenter dedicated to mapping tutorials for Soldier of Fortune. Yup, this is where I began my obsession with helping others in mapping for games.
I hosted my own forums on ezboard to help others with mapping. In my personal profile, I mentioned that I was working on a gaming community hub under the domain foyleman.com.
I produced a couple of SoF maps, one of which was for a mapper’s guild that I started. The guild would have mapping contests that would promote out-of-box thinking. One such contest was to create a map using 100 brushes or less.

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hot tub = new patio

General 3 Responses »

Aug 232008

Haven’t seen me around in a couple weeks? Well that’s because I’ve got another summer project. Seems this happens every year.

This year’s project is centered around a hot tub. I found one on craigs list at a great price. I went and saw the tub and said I would take it. The guy told be he was having a maintenance guy look it over one last time before I took it. I can’t complain about that since it’s still under warrantee… while he still owns the tub.

But wait. Where am I going to put this hot tub when I get it home? I need a patio. hehe.

Last winter I put in a porch, but it wasn’t designed for a large item like a hot tub. So this is a great opportunity to continue the brick walk I started last spring, wrap it around to the back of the house, and put in a sunken patio.

Yea, these things often turn out to be more work than expected, but they also turn out looking good.

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CopyforNotes 2.0

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Aug 052008

FireFox addon CopyforNotes version 1.9 2.0 is available. No changes except that it works with all 3.X versions of FireFox and will now automatically update when new versions are released. Grab it HERE.

I’m doing more extension research. I have some ideas that I would like to see out in the form of a completely new extension.

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Battlefield backwards

General 1 Response »

Jul 192008

Backwards? Well, sort of. A friend of mine suggested in jest that we play some Battlefield 2. A few days later and I couldn’t stop thinking about going back to that version and giving it another go. So I did.

Today I picked up a copy of Battlefield 2 with all the exansion packs. The price is just $30. It did take 40 minutes to install. hehe.

I got the game installed and started playing. Two hours later, it was time for dinner and I wanted to keep going. It’s not that the game has great graphics or something I haven’t seen before. It just plays well and… I think I’m addicted to Battlefield. Hey, are there support groups for that?

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Eee wins

General 2 Responses »

Jul 192008

After all that, I went with the Eee PC. I said I was considering waiting for the Gigabyte model, until I realized the predicted release date of “this month” was speculative and not even related to US release. lol

I’m glad I went with the Asus brand. I am really digging this little bugger. And let me tell you… it is SMALL (is it an oxymoron to write small in all caps?). It’s handling my light work load perfectly and it’s so easy to carry around. The battery life is better than expected.

So now I wait for the next gadget to catch my eye.

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