My untapped talent as a bank robber!

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/28/08 at 10:08:58 am


$2,935,640

This highly scientific set of questions will tell you something you’ve been wanting to know your entire life - How much money could you grab in a bank robbery?

By answering questions ranging from your physical ability to past experience in the art of stealing stuff, you too can find out how much your making off with in your next bank robbery. Linkbait? Maybe, but it’s the fun kind of linkbait that we always fall for.

How much cash can you grab? Take the test to find out.

Symantec Corp. - Roseville, MN

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/25/08 at 05:08:46 am

I’m starting to get a nice little collection of photos from the various corporate campuses I’ve come across. Last year I posted some photos of the Seagate offices in Shakopee, Minnesota. In 2006 I got some shots of the Intel fabrication facility in Rio Rancho, New Mexico. Today I have some pictures of the Symantec campus in Roseville, Minnesota.


The Roseville location for Symantec hosts part of their newly acquired Backup and Recovery Division (the larger building in the pictures) and their corporate training facility. The Backup and Recovery solutions provided by Symantec used to belong to Veritas Software Corp. until they we’re bought out by Symantec in 2005. Since this place is right off the freeway going into Minneapolis (only a couple minutes from the 35W bridge collapse site) I drive by it all the time. I have a couple professional contacts at this office, I think it would be interesting to get a tour someday as we use their backup products at the office all the time.

Giving “Free Refills” a New Meaning

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/23/08 at 09:08:48 am

Jerry Seinfeld + Microsoft = Apple Killer?

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/21/08 at 02:08:11 pm

Microsoft Corp. certainly isn’t amused by all of the Vista slamming Apple has up its sleeve, in response the Redmond giant is launching its own advertising campaign… With a $300 million dollar budget.

The star pitchmen of the new Windows Vista commercials? Who better then comedian Jerry Seinfeld and Bill Gates himself. The newly hired ad agency has the details about the new commercials closely guarded however what we do know is the new advertisement efforts are expected to use some variation of the slogan “Windows, Not Walls,” — according to several people familiar with the matter. The same people say the point behind the new advertisements is to stress breaking down barriers that prevent people and ideas from connecting.

Seinfeld may not be the only celebrity involved in the new Windows Vista campaign, The Wall Street Journal stated that Seinfeld is simply “one of the key celebrity pitchmen” that will make an appearance alongside Bill Gates to discuss Vista’s merits. According to some sources, the company has also considered Will Ferrell and Chris Rock among a multitude of other personalities, although there’s no confirmation as to whether they had also been hired as part of the new campaign.

$300 million might be insignificant for a company like Microsoft, but it’s the company’s largest single investment into advertising to date. Now the big question for Microsoft is “Will $300 million be enough to save Vista’s dying reputation?”

Netflix Outages and Google Phones on WebbAlert

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/18/08 at 03:08:47 pm

Blogging from my Moleskine

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/18/08 at 05:08:58 am

Apparently the Moleskine notebooks have been around since the beginning of time. According to Moleskine “The Legendary Notebook” has been the medium of choice for famous artists like Van Gogh, Picasso, Hemingway, but it seems like the notebooks have only just recently exploded in popularity - especially with the elitist geek community which serves as somewhat of an oxymoron since the concept of a notebook is so low tech. Be that as it may I still know a few people who swear by their Moleskine.

I don’t want to include myself into the elitist crowd but I wanted to find out why these little books are so great. So this weekend I purchased a Moleskine of my own at Barnes & Noble. What’s interesting about this entry in particular is the fact that I am really writing this in the notebook. If I were to lose the book and the person that found it starts reading its contents they will find the first ramblings to be about the very notebook they are reading. I know that if I stumbled across this my mind would be blown at this point.

Anyways, I do see the appeal of owning a good notebook, there’s just something about creating content on paper instead of a big bright computer screen. Ironically, with a blog entry such as this one the worst part is typing it all in and editing it. The only thing this Moleskine notebook is lacking is a ‘submit’ button. Since I’ve had this blog I’ve worked a couple jobs where I didn’t have access to a computer or the internet, so I’ve actually done quite a few entries from a notebook to be submitted when I had time. It’s fun because you can essentially blog from anywhere, and any good blogger knows that the best entries are the unplanned spur-of-the-moment ones.

I think it will be handy to make the Moleskine notebook a part of my daily toolset; I’ll always have a place to jot down ideas, shopping lists, and notes. I just have to remember to not use a gel pen as this one is making a mess.

Hardware Review: Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/17/08 at 10:08:46 am

Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW

I use a 22” monitor at work every day and I feel that it’s the perfect size for light multi-tasking and general use before having to cross over into a dual screen setup. I had dual monitors at home for the longest time, up until just recently I had a really nice 19” Samsung 940BW and a standard 17” Dell E176FP as a secondary. The problem with having dual monitors is even if they are compact LCDs they can still take up a considerable amount of desk space. In my case, I don’t use my desktop PC at home enough to warrant the space used by two monitors when I could just as easily get by with one larger screen. So this month I decided to ditch the two smaller monitors for one Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW.


The 2232BW has arguably high-end specs for gaming and multimedia with it’s with 2 ms response, 3000:1 dynamic contrast ratio, 1680×1050 native resolution, and HDCP support. The monitor also sports a nice glossy black casing and anti-glare screen. The 2232BW features Samsung’s exclusive MagicBright3 technology that automatically adjusts the monitor’s brightness according to the content it’s displaying making for a smoother viewing experience, otherwise the monitor has an impressive maximum brightness of 300 cdm2.

It’s hard to find flaws with this award winning monitor but there are some things that could use improvement. The first little issue I noticed is the odd construction of the stand and how it’s attached to the monitor. The plastic stand doesn’t actually ‘attach’ to anything, instead you have to force this round plastic knob into a rubber cup. While the stand looks nice when it’s put together I think it could have been thought out better as the whole forcing process could potentially damage the screen. Another problem deals with the screen itself, while the colors are amazing if you are a professional designer looking for an affordable screen with decent calibration this isn’t the monitor for you. The 2232BW has a tendency to wash out light colors with its brightness, which is strange because I use a much cheaper LCD at work and its calibration is far more accurate out of the box.

With that in mind, from an overall performance standpoint the Samsung SyncMaster 2232BW is an exceptional product. The screen lives up to Samsung quality and for under $300 you get an excellent monitor for a good price.

Lifehacker: Top 10 DIY Videos

Posted by Markus Langenfeld - 08/14/08 at 10:08:28 am

Lifehacker has compiled a list of their top 10 ‘How To’ videos. Get ready to fill up your upcoming weekend, these clips will teach you how to do everything from sucking less at Photoshop to opening a beer bottle with a phone bill.

Like most geeks I find lock picking to be fascinating, so this video on creating a bump key was my personal favorite:

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