I love free stuff...

Saturday, April 26, 2008

Did I mention that I love free stuff? To me something of an inferior quality can be prefereable if it is free. I have fallen madly in love with open-source software. Open-source/freeware stuff. I have a free office program (word processor, spreadsheet, etc.), a free HTML editor, a free FTP program, a free web browser, a free dock for my desktop, a free Photoshop (not legally free), and many MANY more programs.
I found out one night that there is a free version for anything. It may not be exactly the same, but it'll get the job done. Try using a free operating system. Yes, a whole operating system (like XP or Vista)! Linux is free and will always be free. Ubuntu is one version of Linux that comes pre-packaged like XP. They'll even send you a free CD. How cool is that? Compiz-fusion is a graphical program for Linux that enhances the windows and other effects. Go to YouTube and search for "compiz fusion" and you'll see graphics that will blow your mind. If you think Vista (or Leopard) looks good, think again.
Did I mention that it is all free? Every time you use something that is open-source or freeware, you're practically kicking Bill Gates in the balls. I'm down with that, are you?

Knowledge is power

Sunday, January 20, 2008

Note: The following takes place on Prairiland's trip to the 2008 Texas Beta Convention.

"Knowledge is power." After the bus warmed up, the passengers could open their frozen lips to complain about the music selection. I think after we passed through Greenville many of the passengers (some more outspoken than others) politely requested to change the radio station to something the passengers would like a little more. Well... our driver didn't really like that idea. She told us that she was the bus driver and she would listen to whatever she wanted. Those were dangerous words. The gears in my head were beginning to turn. After those dangerous words Jeremiah asked if we could just turn the radio off. The driver's response? She turned it up. Not significantly, but subtle enough to make me mad. So, after a short while a lightbulb lit in my mind. No, correction: the lightbulb freakin exploded in my mind. This plan ranks pretty high on the coolest stuff I've ever done. Ok, if you're reading this and are thinking about buying a new phone, I highly recommend that you purchase the LG Musiq. Sure it cost me about $200, but this bus ride made it completely worth every penny. This phone has a ton of neat features like a built-in mp3 player. The coolest feature is something called an FM transmitter. Yeah, you know it. It has a built in FM transmitter. So, if you don't know what a FM transmitter does, I'll tell you. The FM transmitter pretends to be its own little radio station. It projects a FM radio wave at whatever frequency you tell it to. So why is this information relevant? Have you ever been on a roadtrip and your favorite radio station becomes fuzzy? Then you drive a little farther and you start to hear two stations at once? Well, that's what I was thinking. I asked some of the other passengers around me what radio station we were listening to. Well, one of the people who absolutely LOVED this station was the primary cause for the downfall of this station. Kyle Blanton said, "Oh yea, I think it's 95.5. I listen to this all the time!" Life is funny isn't it? I tuned my FM transmitter to 95.5 and INSTANTLY the signal got fuzzy. Partial success, but a failure because I wasn't close enough to the antenna. I could tell that the driver noticed though. She looked like she was having a heart attack or something. I could've stopped there, but what did I do? I summoned the attention of my good friend Nathanael Bush (who was sitting closer to the radio) and I passed him the phone. It got more fuzzy! After a few seconds of this, the oblivious driver changed the radio station. No worries, Nathanael told me the frequency of this one and we jammed it again. She kept changing the radio station and we kept changing the transmitter's frequency. By this time I'd gotten the attention of Jeremiah and JMF. They were really interested in the capabilites of this phone and my ability to play whatever I wanted. So, JMF walks up to my seat and has a special request, so I make it so. We tune it to the right radio station and he puts the phone in his pocket. Ok, let's slow down. Too much info at once. During our brief intermission, I'd like to note that we'd already jammed all the radio stations on the list so the oblivious driver eventually was content to listen to a "fuzzy" radio station. Perfect for our plans. So, where did I leave you? Oh yes, JMF put the transmitter in his pocket and walked to the front of the bus. To buy time, he started asking people, "Have you seen my speech? Where's my speech, have you seen it?" When he got close enough to the front of the bus the transmitter finally worked. Now playing over the radio was... aww, should I tell you? Ok, ok... over the radio was now playing "Pop Lock and Drop It". By the expression on our bus driver's face you'd have guessed that someone parked a bus up her @$&. Rap? POISION! She got so mad that she pulled the bus over until someone stopped messing with her radio. He he... she wasn't so oblivious now. So we eventually got the thing turned off.