Making the switch to Google Reader.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/31/08 at 04:01:41 pm

Up until today I really didn’t put a lot of thought into my RSS reader because well, I didn’t have one. Everyone has a reader right? At least everyone should, for the past year or so I’ve been putting all of my feeds into a dedicated tab on my Google homepage. While this method worked just fine it was far from convenient and very cumbersome when I actually wanted to read the articles.

I’ve played around with Google Reader before but I never really got into using it. I was just poking around today and I found that Google has made a widget for the Google Homepage that collects and displays all of your unread entries just like as if it were a single feed. I knew at that moment that I was completely sold.

I’ve only tried a couple other RSS readers but Google has to be one of the easiest to navigate. The tagging/folders feature is nice, it works a lot like the labels in Gmail and it allows for my growing collection of subscriptions to be easily organized. The ability to share feeds with your GTalk friends is also very cool. Another feature I stumbled across is the ability to use the reader in conjunction with Google Gears to create an offline RSS reader which could be nice for people that travel or are ‘disconnected’ from the outside world long enough to miss updates.

I’ve spent the better half of the day customizing and moving everything over, now I just have to get used to reading all of my favorite blogs through the minimal Google interface.

DIY: 155 Dollar PC

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/30/08 at 11:01:57 am

Paul Stamatiou recently did an entry on how to build a basic PC for close to $200 bucks (without a case). Although his tips were good, some of the hardware used could have been cheaper. Obviously you could get a used box from your local PC wholesaler for next to nothing but if you wanted brand new components to piece together yourself for a small File Server/NAS, Firewall or a simple web surfing/word processing terminal for the kids how cheap could you go?

I wanted to give it a shot, so here’s my Do-It-Yourself PC for just under 155 measly dollars –

I picked out all of the components from the ever popular NewEgg.com so if you really wanted you could easily purchase this setup and build the computer. Unlike Paul’s rig mine has a case included in the original price but no optical drive and only 512MB of ram. Still, this little machine could easily do the tasks I mentioned running Windows XP, Server 2003, or your favorite Linux distribution.

Small form factor motherboards are cheaper than ever but for some reason the cases are ridiculously expensive. For a case I went with an Athenatech A100SC MicroATX with a 200W SFX Power Supply, $42 seems a little steep for a generic case but it has decent user reviews.

The motherboard + CPU I found is a PC CHIPS M789CG with a VIA C3 Samual 2000+ (800MHz) low voltage CPU. Very basic, very low power consumption which again is ideal for a small file server. This motherboard also has the typical integrated video, ethernet, and sound, for 50 bucks you get what you pay for.

Next up is memory. There are plenty of name brands that offer low priced ‘value’ RAM and if you dig around the internet enough you can find a good deal. For this project I went with a 512MB stick of PQI Power Series DDR 400 (PC 3200) memory which again is sufficient for basic tasks but you could always spring for more.

If your building NAS or media center box you’re going to want a bigger hard drive, but if you’re going cheap then this 40GB (7200RPM) Western Digital Caviar Hard Drive will fit the bill at just 38.99.

The only thing this little PC doesn’t have is an optical drive which you might need for installing an operating system and device drivers, after that I think most people could manage without. I have no doubt that you could find better hardware on sale somewhere, I was disappointed to see that most of the stuff on Paul’s List is no longer available and the entry is just a few days old.

This is really just a proof of concept that you can build yourself a PC for next to nothing. If anything, putting it all together could keep you busy for a few hours and if you run into cheap faulty components the RMA process will give you even more time to enjoy the DIY computer goodness.

MacBook Air is a dud, Yahoo!’s stock in the mud.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/26/08 at 08:01:12 pm

Friday’s WebbAlert covers highlights from some of the big MacBook Air reviews, Digg kid’s whining about revised popularity algorithms, and Yahoo!’s buy-out possibilities -

How to get a great deal on business cards.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/24/08 at 09:01:12 am

I ordered some new business cards yesterday. My current cards have some outdated contact information on them and I handed one out just the other day, I realized how much of a pain and unprofessional it is to scribble out a phone number and write in a new one in front of the person I’m giving it to. It sort of defeats the purpose and convenience of having a printed card to give out only to draw numbers all over it like it’s a cocktail napkin.

I normally order cards through VistaPrint.com because they always have these great offers for free business cards. They aren’t actually free, if you want to remove the VistaPrint advertising and use a higher quality cardstock they do cost a few bucks. But if you stick to one of the premade templates you can get a box of cards for a heck of a deal. 250 cards for $17.14 shipped, not bad at all.

Most of the templates are pretty bland but if you dig (they do have a lot to choose from) you can find a few decent ones. The one I choose (which you can see above) doesn’t make a lot of sense if you think about it, I just thought the building in the colors like that looked cool… It was 17 bucks.

I don’t know how much ISA consulting I’ll be doing while working 50 hours a week in my day job, but hey it sounded cool.

Movie Review: Cloverfield

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/22/08 at 10:01:19 pm

Director Matt Reeves calls Cloverfield a “realistic portrayal of an absolutely outlandish idea” which sums up the movie pretty well. It’s been a while since I’ve seen a movie that’s completely done in a ‘Blair Witch’ kind of filmography and even longer since I’ve seen extreme viral marketing and hype that is also similar to The Blair Witch Project. Either I don’t watch enough movies and Blair Witch is the only thing I can compare this too, or there really isn’t a movie like this too often making it very special, either way, it does live up to the hype.

This is going to be a somewhat short review as I don’t want to give the whole movie away although there isn’t a lot to give away because most everything is left unexplained. If you couldn’t tell by now it’s a monster movie but it isn’t quite another Godzilla. When I mentioned “Blair Witch Filmography” I meant that the entire movie looks like it was shot on a camcorder which it essentially was, they used Sony F23 high-definition camcorders to shoot most of the film. The style works well, it’s clear that the creators wanted to make it feel like this was a ‘found’ unedited tape of what happened from one person’s perspective and you really do get to experience everything as if you’re right there with them fighting for survival.


The entire movie is based around following five young New Yorkers who throw their friend a going-away party the night a giant creature attacks Manhattan which is precisely where they reside, meaning right away you’re caught in the middle of everything. Cloverfield is far from boring, in fact there are parts that move almost too quick and it’s hard to gather what’s going on. I think that this was done on purpose where they have little details buried in complete chaos, you’d almost have to see the movie more than once to catch everything.

They story behind Cloverfield is very simple, there isn’t one. The movie wastes no time at all explaining what and why everything is happening, it just is. Next thing you know there are soldiers, tanks, air strikes, lower Manhattan is converted into an instant battlefield.

That’s it, I’m going to leave it at that. My only complaint is that the movie seems really short and some people that I spoke with didn’t like the ending. It was definitely unexpected but personally… I thought it was perfect.

Side Note - The extreme secrecy of the plot is almost more interesting than the movie itself. The entire casting process for Cloverfield was carried out with such tight measures to prevent plot leaking that no scripts were sent out to the candidates. Instead of auditioning the actors with scenes from the film, scripts from J. J. Abrams’s previous productions were used, such as television series Alias and Lost. Some scenes were also written specifically for the audition process with no intentions for use in the actual film. If you want to learn more about the filming of Cloverfield or have an urge to completely ruin the plot for yourself take a look at the Wikipedia Article, it’s pretty interesting.

Cloverfield is an intense ride worth seeing again and again, if you get a chance to see it in the theaters I highly recommend it. It’s definitely my top movie for 2008 so far and I have a feeling it will be high on my list for a while.

My new ride.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/21/08 at 12:01:18 pm

These all-terrain Snowcats are fairly common here in Minnesota, but this one was for sale outside of Gander Mountian this weekend. Sort of gives ‘winter beater’ a new meaning.

Sync Google Calendar with Outlook Automatically.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/19/08 at 02:01:04 pm

Here’s a little productivity tip I found for people like myself that want complete calendar synchronization between Outlook, Google Calendar, and a Windows Mobile Smartphone. I’ve come to rely on my smartphone to remind me of my everyday business, expenses, meetings, events etc. but at the same time I wanted the ability to access the same information in my Outlook at work and online with Google Calendar. Now when I have an appointment coming up my cell phone, iPod, Outlook software, and Google Calendar will all alert me to it, simultaneously!

By following this somewhat easy to follow guide and using this piece of open source software you too can enjoy schedule synchronization bliss with Google Calendar.

New look, same great taste.

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 01/18/08 at 10:01:33 pm

It’s time for a little change, a fresh header and a couple color changes can really spruce up a now ageing design. I’m actually proud of myself that I managed to last this long without having the ‘itch’. I really want to keep this general layout until at least May 1st Reboot, hopefully this will tide me over.

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