Month: February 2003

Spare Color Palm?

Ashley BischoffLeave a comment

As I use Plucker more and more (Plucker screenshots), I’m realizing that web browsing would be much more pleasant in color ;). Granted, I can get 4 shades of gray on my Palm Vx, but one of those shades is “white” and one shade is “black” (leaving really only two shades of gray).

So, if you happen to have a color Palm that’s just lying around, I’d be happy to take if off your hands for a few bucks (I’m not really even considering a new model at the moment, since even the m130 is still about $200).

[Dow update: -159.87 to 7858.24]

Auto-Forwarding Tool for IMAP?

Ashley Bischoff2 Comments

I’m looking for a utility to scan an IMAP account and auto-forward any messages from person A to a another account. Of course, if Mozilla supported auto-forward, I wouldn’t have to seek this functionality elsewhere ;).

As a halfway measure, I think I could set a filter in Mozilla to copy messages from person A to an intermediary IMAP mailbox, but that doesn’t do me much good since the destination account is POP3.

Even if there were some utility that could foward e-mail from an IMAP account but could only forward the entire account, then I might still be able to make use of that in concert with Mozilla copying messages to that intermediary IMAP account.

And, yeah, I suppose this would be easy with Linux. Stop snickering ;).

Building a New PC for My Mom

Ashley Bischoff8 Comments

I’m in the process of building a new box for my mom, as it’s both cheaper and more future-proof for her than buying a preconfigured PC. I’ve ordered the parts so far and they should arrive soon:

  • Processor: AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (review). Pricing on chips tends to follow a J-curve as processor speeds increase — I found that the 2100+ is is at the base of the curve, just before the sharp incline.

  • Motherboard: Asus A7N8X Deluxe (review). This board won AnandTech’s Editor’s Choice Silver Award for best high-end motherboard for the Athlon XP platform:

    “With features like USB 2.0, FireWire, Serial ATA RAID and dual LAN (and all for a very reasonable price), we feel the ASUS A7N8X Deluxe is worthy of this award.” […]

    I almost went with the Epox 8RDA+ (as it won AnandTech’s Editor’s Choice Gold Award for best value motherboard), but I just could get past its poor board layout (to install more RAM, you have to remove the video card, bleh).

  • Memory: 512 MB PC2700 from Crucial. This was an easy decision. Crucial’s RAM has consistent reliability, and they guarantee compatability if you go through their RAM Wizard. The free FedEx 2-day shipping didn’t hurt, either ;).

  • Hard Drive: Western Digital Special Edition 80 GB WD800JB (review). This drive is currently atop the Leaderboard at StorageReview.com in the 7200 RPM ATA category. And, with their 8 MB cache, these drives really perform.

  • Video Card: Leadtek GeForce 4 MX4200. Sure, it’s a crippled GeForce4 (as are all MX*.* video cards), but I doubt my mom will be playing 3D games anyhow. And, at $50, the price was right.

  • CDR drive: Plextor Plexwriter 48/24/48A - 48x read & write, 24x CDRW (review). Yeah, it’s IDE, but Plextor’s Burn-Proof technology should nix any buffer-underruns. This drive also won the Adrenaline Vault Seal of Excellence earlier this month.

  • Floppy: This is just an 1.44 MB OEM Panasonic drive. Move along, nothing to see here ;). And, yes, I condidered just not buying a floppy drive, but those things can come in handy especially during emergencies.

  • Case: Antec SOHO Performance II (review). This fared well in a recent comparison of 15 cases at Tom’s Hardware. With rounded edges, front-mounted USB & Firewire ports, and quick-release drive bays, this case should last through a few upgrades. Sure, it doesn’t include a motherboard tray, but I can live with that.

    The 1080’s quality of construction is excellent, with rounded edges and heavy duty rivets that secure the case. You will find no twist or flex within the 1080, as it is build like a tank. The door of the case can be locked, and even though it is made of plastic, it secures well when locked. […]

  • OS: Windows XP Pro OEM. My Mom’s not quite ready for Linux (or perhaps that’s the other way around?), so I’ll be installing Windows on her box. I could have gone with Win2k, but WinXP was the same price and it includes extra goodies such as built-in CDR support. And, were it $3 more, this would have been the single most expensive component in the system (the Asus motherboard edges it out at $146). Not to worry — she’ll be getting some open source goodness from OpenOffice.org :).

I enjoy selecting components and assembling PCs, so I look forward to putting her box together. More than that, the exercise of selecting her components allowed me to get up to speed on today’s latest components — which should come in handy for when I build my next PC (which I plan to do perhaps in the spring, assuming my employment situation has improved).

Mozilla Validation Tool: Checky

Ashley Bischoff4 Comments

Looking over the Top 50 Projects list at Mozdev.org (sorted by number of hits), I came across Checky. Checky adds a menu item to Mozilla for validating pages:

Checky adds a submenu to Mozilla’s context menu that allows you to run whatever page you’re on through one of (currently) 18 different online validaton and analysis services. Checky-Agent can be activated from the Checky menu or by simply pressing the F10 key. So, for example, you could run your page against the W3C’s markup and CSS validators, the Web Design Group’s HTML Validator, and Watchfire's Bobby with a single keystroke and diesplay the results in a new browser window or tab.

I hadn’t heard about Checky before, but it could be quite handy for developing pages. As I strive for valid XHTML for client work (and otherwise), I’m sure I’ll be able to make use of it.

Recipe: Peanut Butter Balls

Ashley Bischoff1 Comment

I was watching Sweet Dreams on Food Network this afternoon, and they featured a recipe for Peanut Butter Balls (printer-friendly version). I’ll get to the Peanut Butter Balls in a sec, but first a bit on Sweet Dreams.

As it’s described on the site, “hosted by Gale Gand, Sweet Dreams brings you delectable desserts on a daily basis”. Though they’re not particularly good for me, I do enjoy desserts from time to time (and, if I’m going to do something, such as bake, I may as well do it well).

Sweet Dreams is well-intentioned and the recipes produce fabulous desserts (they look delicious on tv, at any rate). And, that’s the rub — the show is geared towards people who already have a knack for baking but just aren’t up to speed on desserts in particular. So, for newbie cooks such as myself, some of the recipes are just useless in their complexity.

But, that's not always the case — and that's where these Peanut Butter Balls come in. They look hella-easy to make (I was about to use the phrase “easy to bake”, but there's not even baking involved) and I think that even I could make these. Anyhow, the recipe:

  • 18 ounces peanut butter
  • 1 (16-ounce) box confectioners’ sugar
  • 1 1/3 cups graham cracker crumbs
  • 3/4 cup (1 1/2 sticks) unsalted butter, softened
  • 12 ounces milk chocolate, melted

In a large bowl, combine peanut butter, confectioners’ sugar, graham cracker crumbs, and butter. Mash together until combined. Form the mixture into balls. Transfer to the refrigerator until hardened, about 30 minutes. Dip the peanut butter balls into the melted chocolate and set inside mini paper cupcake forms. Let the chocolate set before serving.

  • Yield: 32 balls
  • Prep Time: 1 hour
  • Cook Time: 3 minutes

The recipe also includes a sub-recipe for homemade peanut butter, but that seems like it might be more trouble than it’s worth :-/. I think I'll just stick with natural peanut butter for that role.