The Dodge Family Blog » geek

The Exploding DVD

Mike — Sun, 07 Feb 2010 02:48:25 +0000

So a few weeks ago, Johanna’s brother Brian asked me to build him a computer. I had the whole thing put together, and it was running perfectly. My own media center was having problems with a netflix DVD that day, so I thought I would see if this brand-spankin’-new wicked-awesome computer could play it any better. Bad idea.

As luck would have it, the DVD drive in this new computer was too much for this DVD to handle, and as soon as it got up to speed, BLAM! There’s this loud noise and the kids immediately started denying any wrongdoing (I hadn’t even accused them of anything…I wonder if I should be?)

Well, I guess the DVD was the problem, not my media center drive. So I took out the drive from Brian’s computer, put my own in it so he would have a working drive when he took the computer home that evening, and set to work dismantling the drive to rescue it if I could.

Here is some footage of what I found.

The Great Website Migration of 2009

Mike — Sat, 18 Jul 2009 08:00:29 +0000

I have been spending a lot of time this weekend migrating several websites and all related email from my in-house server to a dedicated web host…and I think I am done. Who would have thought that it would take 2 days to move 3+ gigs of email and web data around. Anywho, the website should run a WHOLE lot faster now that it isn’t being served up over a residential internet connection.

A Good Day for a Geek

Mike — Sun, 12 Oct 2008 03:47:28 +0000

First I get ‘caught up’ on this blog by making my first post in a while, then while preparing to upload the pictures that were part of that post, I find out that someone out there has FINALLY made it possible for me to use Google Picasa (a VERY user-friendly photo manager) with my own online photo gallery!

I can hear some of you saying “Why don’t you just use facebook or picasaweb and host your photos on their servers? Well, because doing so often times means they can use those photos for their own purposes…so they are no longer mine. If you don’t believe me, take the time to read some of their legal agreements when you sign up for their services, it’s in there!

So anyway, now that I can get the pictures from my computer to the website with minimal fuss, I got the camera and uploaded a whole bunch of photos, many of which I am sure parents/inlaws/siblings would love to see! Enjoy!

Firefox 3 Download Day!

Mike — Tue, 17 Jun 2008 13:47:21 +0000

First of all, I need to thank y’all for humoring me by reading this 100% totally geek blog post here. Nothing about the kids, nothing about how wonderful married life is treating me…just spreading the word about my favorite web browser reaching version 3.0 today. Yes, it’s Firefox 3.0!

Today the fellaz at mozilla.org are trying to set a world record for the number of downloads in 24 hours. So show your support for me, my job as a web developer, and a browser that is secure, extensible, and most importantly, standards compliant, and download Firefox 3 today!

Mike said it all

johanna — Sun, 02 Mar 2008 19:16:28 +0000

Well, all I can say is don’t let a computer geek take his computer on the honeymoon! j/k it has actually helped us get directions to various places. Mike really did say it all, we are having a great time being married although I don’t think we could take too much of Vegas, it is all very overpowering to the senses. I am looking forward to all the great food we are going to eat tomarow, can you tell I am hungry, it is fast Sunday, anyway I will let you all go do something else, have a great day we are!