Best Bittorrent Client
Posted 9:22 AM

Yet another blog entry about the best way to download TORRENT files. If you're someone who likes to download torrents all day long, has an extensive library of pirated DVD's and MP3's, ignore me. Otherwise, download XBT. It's a fast, lightweight, up-to-date client that won't suck up RAM or handles just to download a file. It's also a clean app, no spyware, like so many are these days. XBT integrates seamlessly with Firefox and IE. I installed it today because I wanted to download OpenOffice. Is it me or does it seem that all the best apps are now free, work great and do everything anyone would ever need to do?

Labels: software

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Goodbye Telcos, Hello Laundry
Posted 12:25 PM

I just installed and configured a BroadVoice phone line. It was terribly easy, and I got a dial tone a minute after plugging everything in. And it doesn't interfere with my wireless network or anything odd like that. So now I pay $20/month for unlimited calls to the US and 21 other countries. It's the only company I know that lets me make unbilled calls to Germany, which is useful for me. I used to give Verizon $55/month for a similar service, but why pay double and not have international? I know I'm late to the game, but I ususally am.

My next big thing will be a vented extra-large washer/dryer combo by Splendide for my house. RV'ers have used them for a long time. Sadly, lazy conglomerate monopolists don't manufacuture 220 volt versions anywhere in the world, despite strong demand. (A better example of the failure of free markets might be the mattress industry). Anyhow, the old task of transferring clothes from the washer to the dryer has had it's day in the sun long enough. I mean, 2010 is only 4 years away. It's not asking that much.

Labels: voip

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Google Costumes
Posted 7:43 AM

The new site I'm working on is Moon Costumes. It's a halloween costumes website with a pretty large selection.

New Linux Logo?

The hard part was converting the CD's full of images i got from the manufacturer.

I used ImageMagick to convert broken images from jpeg to png and back again, and it's apparently lossless and fixes errors in the jpeg that prevent them from being seen in IE. Also used jpegtran to make the images smaller.

It uses Google Checkout as the payment system and SMX as the UI-building language, and PERL as the backend/business-logic language. Postgres for the DB.

So far Google Checkout has proven to be exceedingly complicated and very short on basic features common to most payment systems. Here's some PERL code that was very hard to come by and works great.

Labels: costumes, google

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OMG!
Posted 5:39 PM

I'm a late adopter. (Very late) But, I can't believe how much better Firefox is than IE. I deeply and sincerely regret not switching sooner.

Labels: browser

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