Moving on, Trying to Leave a Clean House

Well, today is the six month anniversary of Greasy PC. While I'm slightly surprised that this blog has lasted this long, the real achievement to me has been to average slightly more than one post per day for the entire duration. At almost 200 posts, that might even be the most number of blog posts made of any of my friends IRL, and some of them have maintained blogs/livejournals for years and years.

In truth, in addition to wanting to document all the various tweaks and customizations I've put into my computer over the past year, I also did this blog to prove to myself that I can commit to a project wholeheartedly and consistently over a long period of time. I hadn't worked on any of my own long term projects in God knows how long, but of what I've done on this blog I truly am proud.

In the interest of full disclosure, one of the reasons now's a better time than any for me to cash out, is because a week ago, I got myself an iMac. I know.

This was a purchase I'd been gunning for for months now. As an animator working in films, I'd always made great use of my PC. However, when it became more and more necessary for me to have access to Final Cut Pro and its codecs, my need for a new machine pointed me in the iMac's direction. It was the best option for the price (I might blog about that in the future still).

Don't worry though, I still love my PC. I've got Bootcamp successfully running Windows XP on the iMac (it runs Team Fortress 2 far better than my old PC did), and I've got Synergy allowing me to control both my mac and PC with the same keyboard and mouse over the network. I even recently successfully transferred my Firefox profile from the PC to the Mac.

So where does that leave us? Well, I'm making no promises, but I may turn out a few more posts here and there about making the smooth transition from using a PC to a Mac. Also, I'm going to try my best to organize this blog to stand the test of time: making sure all posts are tagged properly, creating some static "favorite" pages, and otherwise making it even easier for stublers-on to find what they're looking for.

So don't worry, Greasy PC will be greasing it up indefinitely. In the meantime though, hope to see you around on my other endeavors; you can always check my official site, which I'm hoping to update now that I've got a little more free time. Otherwise, good luck to everyone, and see you around!

More Cheapo Hosting Drama: Ehost Email Blacklisted

Continuing in my unfortunately still-not-ended saga of dealing with cheapo web hosts, I am currently in the process of moving one of my clients for whom I maintain a website, from being hosted by eHost.net (remember them?), to finally Hostmonster (and then remember them?)*.

I'd recommended moving for her months before, but what finally prompted us to move was because it turns out eHost's mail server has been blacklisted by about half of the email servers out there for funneling out spam into peoples' unsuspecting inboxes. As such, emails sent from their mail server was being blocked by, in this case, Yahoo!. Whether this was because of eHost continuing to be the douchebags that they've been all this time, or more likely because of the hundreds of sites they host and share the mail server was ruining it for all the other hosted sites, this was unacceptable.

And I'd obviously realized that this was a problem they weren't going to fix anytime soon, if ever.
And so, I'm hoping that with this final hurrah, I never have to deal with any of these webhosts again, and I finally stop clogging up my own blog with horror stories. But let these articles stand for all time and serve as a warning to all else who consider paying for service from these guys.


* No, I did not take a commission. In fact I'm moving her site free of charge because I felt bad having turned her onto eHost to begin with.

Where's the Beef?

Well, it's been two months since I started GreasyPC. In those two months we've averaged slightly more than one post a day (my schedule is once a day, with some extras here and there if I've got the time), and our readership continues to slowly grow. As such, I wanted to just rewind and remind our new readers what GreasyPC is all about, and what sets us apart from other computer tweaking sites.

I started GreasyPC because about six months ago I started putting a lot of effort towards rejuvenating the experience my ever-aging Windows XP PC. From making it run faster, to look prettier, to just being able to do more stuff, I felt as though I'd done so much that I had to start archiving all of these changes. If anything, it would help me rebuild what I'd done in the future if something bad were to happen.

As such, what you see featured on GreasyPC are tweaks that I've personally installed on my own PC; none of the reviews were done just for the sake of reviewing them. In fact, I'll let you know if something I featured in the past ends up being uninstalled, or if what I'd just tried out didn't pass the muster, and got uninstalled immediately.

As such, you can assume that whatever program/tweak/hack/skin I've just featured on this blog is the best in its class, at the time I've found it. And if you know of any other that's even better, you let me know, and I promise to check it out, and if it is indeed better, I'll write about it.

Search Multiple Craigslist Cities with Crgslst!

I found this on a recent Lifehacker post. As my current job winds to a close, I'll have to start looking for gigs again (if you didn't know before, I make my living as a freelance animator/graphic designer in Los Angeles), and craigslist is my favorite choice for getting them. I just like not having to sign up and register to respond to job listings.

Well, since a lot of my work is done from home, I can also look for jobs in cities other than Los Angeles. In fact, I've gotten jobs from craigslist in New York as well as San Francisco. The problem is it's kind of a pain in the ass to go to each city's craigslist site and do a search for the same exact thing.

Crgslst aims to solve that problem by offering searches in multiple cities with little hassle. This of course doesn't just apply to job postings, but any other thing craigslist has to offer. I don't personally need to search other cities for stuff for sale, but you might, so all the better reason to check them out.

Slow computer? Block Flash in Firefox and Browse faster with Flashblock

Flashblock is a popular Firefox extension written by Lorenzo Colitti and Philip Chee that, you guessed it, blocks all Flash elements from loading in Firefox.

Flash's speed and now near universal compatibility with computers and browsers make it a godsend for dynamic, animation and effects heavy websites. Unfortunately, it can also swallow RAM and CPU like a blue whale swimming in krill.

I use this a lot on my woefully underpowered laptop* and it works just like you'd expect it to. You can create a whitelist of sites that you allow to load Flash.

However, I have to admit that I otherwise keep this extension disabled (but installed) in my main computer, unless I specifically need to block Flash files, which is, as an animator and web designer, not very often. I wish Flashblock also had a blacklist option, that only blocked Flash from certain sites.

*My laptop was bought in late 2003 on eBay. I got it used for 200 dollars. It's a Compaq Armada with a 400mhz Pentium III, 256 megabytes of RAM (32 mb VRAM shared), and 9 gigs of hard drive space. It has just one USB 1.1 port. Its screen hinge is broken so it flops backwards all to easily. But it still runs Windows XP, and I must say it's faster than many peoples' main computers, since I keep it so clean. I only use it for screenwriting, reading books in bed, and internet stuff when I'm travelling. Its battery is only now starting to get annoyingly short-lived, but it won't be until that runs out or my screen falls off that I will replace it, with another 200 dollar used iteration.

My Portfolio Site Soft-Launches (again!)

For 8 months, my portfolio website, Greasy Pig Studios, was nothing more than a splash page that was essentially a blown-up version of my business card (which I got printed at a heavy discount on Vista Print). It declared "NEW WEBSITE COMING SOON" but nothing came.

Until today. I'd had enough, and decided to add a little substance to the site, even if the content still wasn't the latest from the GPS factory.

With help from Newgrounds for the preloader, and this Wildform Tutorial for a Flash Video Controller (I couldn't get the draggable play-head to work right, but that was a luxury, not a necessity), I was able to customize a player for my reel to present on the front page. It's still a simple site, but now it just might be enough to attract potential clients to my offered services.

So please come and visit the kinda-new Greasy Pig Studios (and check out the reel too, why not).

My Samsung 18x DVD Burner from 3btech is Here

As you might recall, my trusty AOpen 16x DVD Burner finally bit the dust after languishing for over a year. For a replacement, I went for a Samsung SH-S182D 18x Double Layer DVD Burner from 3btech, the cheapest burner I could find online for 29.99 shipped.

I ordered it on January 20th, and received it on the 25th via UPS ground that I was able to track online. The package was a cardboard box that was filled with styrofoam peanuts and the drive wrapped in an anti-static bag. Along with the CD audio cable (unnecessary), that was all that came in the package. There wasn't even an IDE cable (unless I wasn't paying attention) or any software. In fact, there seemed to be evidence that the drive wasn't new, and had at the very least been installed as a test in a previous computer...

Anyway, installation was a snap, if you know how to install IDE drives at all. I just opened the computer case, unscrewed the drive that was in there, and unplugged the power cable and IDE cable. And then I put in the new drive just as I did.

Here are some photos I took of the project. Unfortunately, I was the only one around so I couldn't take too many photos while working. It's all pretty uninteresting anyway.



Installed, I booted up with no problems. The only odd thing was the drive was identified as TSSTCorp SH-S182D. The part number was correct, but it was not labeled as Samsung. I looked it up online, though, and it seemed to line up with other peoples' accounts. It is labeled as Samsung in the case itself.

The best parts were that normal drive functions performed flawlessly, and burned a 16x single layer DVD just fine. I don't have dual layer media, so I couldn't test those. Playing DVD's using VLC media player worked just fine. The drive didn't come with any software, but luckily the Nero Smartstart software that came with my previous drive still worked fine.

And most of all, the drive now opens without the use of a paperclip!

Overall, so far so good. 3btech was good about notifying me of my order's status, and the drive works perfectly so far. I was a little disappointed by the lack of usually included stuff in the package, like software, and an IDE cable, but I assume that's what I get for the price (plus I didn't need them anyway). But for more novice users that would need these materials, I would highly recommend spending a little more.

I'm more concerned by the fact that it doesn't seem that the drive is new. 3btech offers a 90 day warranty, and I'd be very surprised to have this drive fail in that little time. Still, if it fails in 91 days, I'd be pretty pissed.

My Partner and I

Before moving along, I wanted to create a more distinct profile of both myself and my computer, so as to better inform you reader about where I'm coming from, what types of enhancements I'll probably be looking at more than others, and how far I can go.

My PC configuration (in a nutshell):

• AMD Athlon 64 3000+ 2.0ghz (single core, circa 2004)
• Some compatible motherboard I can't be bothered to remember right now.
• 2 gb of DDR SDRAM
• ATI All-in-Wonder Radeon 9600 128mb RAM, AGP 8x (circa 2004 as well)
• ATI Rage 128 32mb RAM (to power 3rd display)
• SoundBlaster Live! Value sound card (circa... 2001??)
• LiteOn DVD+-RW 8x burner (won't eject sans paperclip, otherwise works perfect)
• Generic 5.1 speaker system (that isn't running true 5.1, re: sound card)
• primary display 24in widescreen LCD from Acer, 1920x1200
• secondary display 17in LCD from NEC, 1280x1024
• tertiary display, 15in Wacom Cintiq LCD drawing tablet(bought used for 700 bucks cash!), aka the gift that keeps on giving.
• Labtec wireless keyboard and mouse.

As you can see, this is a very middle of the road hardware configuration (with the exception of the 3 displays, one of which is a high-end though aging LCD drawing tablet). The last time I invested in earnest on my PC was before college in 2002, when I built my very first rig. Since then I've just swapped aging components out with newer (but not bleeding edge) ones, and it's managed to chug along nicely.

I've contemplated other major upgrades recently, but since doing so would require replacing everything but the hard drives, monitors, sound and optical drive, I'm going to table that for at least a while longer. I'm more seriously considering getting an iMac for video editing and productivity as well as a dedicated next-gen console for gaming. I've been on a PC for so long that it's bittersweet if/when I leave it. I know I certainly wouldn't have as much fun customizing such a setup as I do now, but perhaps I'm getting too old anyway (maybe I should just start learning to fix up my car).

Anyway, back to it. The following are the more important current software running on my machine. Some of these are very recent additions and I hope to go back in the future to recount how I came upon using them.

• Windows XP Service Pack 2 (really awaiting SP3)
• Firefox 2.x (come on 3.0 and no memory leaks!) and Thunderbird with Lightning
• Winamp 5.3
• OpenOffice 2.2
• Most Adobe Products (AfterEffects, Premiere, Photoshop)
• Flash 8
• Miranda IM for instant messaging
• uTorrent
• Autohotkey (my savior!)

As for myself, I am 24 minus 4 weeks, living in Los Angeles as a freelance animator/motion/graphics designer. I used to be a hardcore gamer when I was younger, and most recently purchased Valve's Orange Box (and will continue to be a Valve fanboy for the foreseeable future). In fact, I bought my ATI radeon in order to play Half Life 2, and it came with a coupon for a free version of said game. Nowadays I prefer to play older games that I know will run rock solid on my computer (Warcraft 3?), but I must ackowledge that most of my computer knowledge I learned along the way has been related to gaming, until just now, when apparently I'm just tweaking my computer for its own sake.

Given how my PC's certainly no spring chicken (and probably hasn't been for a good while), doing these tweaks probably add a bit more life to the machine (I don't have a name for it, as dear as it is to me, unfortunately, and it's probably inappropriate to name it during its middle age).

Anyway, now you know where I'm coming from, so we can move forward together.

Welcome to Greasy PC - Sliding Through the Future

I have to admit, this blog came to me three months late. Some extra free time in October of 2007 as well as newfound inspiration from blogs like LifeHacker (to which I've since come to pledge undying allegiance), brought me to start, plainly, improving all aspects of my life simply but purposefully.

At the time, this was all-inclusive, involving a daily routine of exercises, increased nutrition awareness, tidyness, and most of all, optimizing my computer and computer-related activities. I'd justified the final bit by claiming that putting so much work into organizing my PC would pay off in my work (as an animator/designer) by taking as much of the minutiae of extra clicks, long startups, etc. out of the equation as possible, giving me, if not more time to work on my various projects, at least more sanity and levity with which to tackle them with more enthusiasm. I did, after all, have a mean streak of getting distracted easily from work by anything that wasn't. At any given moment, that would be the internet, video games, TV, or even cleaning my room. You know what I mean.

In retrospect it turned out my passion for streamlining my computing experience was just yet another form of distraction, one that's probably become further fueled by all of the extra time I might've gained like those snakes eating their tails.

That being said, I've come so far from just three months ago to now, as far as what I can now accomplish with my computer, that I find myself compelled to make some sort of public record of it. This blog will stand as both a thank you to all of the blogs from which I got the ideas of what to do with my computer at all, as well as paying it forward (blech) for the people who might be curious about seeing how far they can take their computer pratically as well.

I'll do my best to start back from October to the present as fast as possible, and then keep a current record of any other enhancements and tweaks I've implemented. Different from other blogs that feature such tweaks, I hope to be able to come back weeks afterward to talk about whether I've decided to keep said feature, whether I've found something new, or it turned out I didn't have a real need for it after all.

Please stick around!

Arvin

p.s. - I was able to stick to the exercise and nutrition routine for over two months straight. Basically up until I went back to my hometown for winter break. I'm still trying to decide what of that routine to reinstate in the new year.